aantthony.github.com

Thank You Steve

2011-10-09T00:00:00-07:00

Steve was a visionary, a genius, an inspirer, a teacher, and a hero.

Here are some videos that show just some of his genius:

2011 Jun » WWDC 2011 Keynote (Lion, iOS5, iCloud)
2011 Mar » Apple Special Event (iPad 2)
2010 Oct » Apple Special Event (Back to the Mac)
2010 Sep » Apple Special Event (iPod)
2010 Jul » Press Conference (Antennagate)
2010 Jun » WWDC 2010 Keynote (iPhone 4)
2010 Jun » At D8 With Walt Mossberg
2010 Apr » iPhone OS 4 Event
2010 Jan » Apple Special Event (iPad)
2009 Sep » Apple Special Event (iPod)
2007 May » At D5 with Walt Mossberg
2007 May » At D5 with Walt Mossberg and Bill Gates
2007 Jan » Macworld 2007 (iPhone)
2005 ??? » At D3 with Walt Mossberg (iPod Phone)
2004 ??? » At D2 with Walt Mossberg
2005 Jun » Stanford Commencement Speech
2003 ??? » At D1 with Walt Mossberg (Before the tablet)
2001 ??? » Apple Store Retail
2001 ??? » Apple Music Event 2001 (iPod)
1999 ??? » Seybold Expo '99 Keynote
1998 ??? » WWDC 1998 Keynote
1998 ??? » Macworld New York 1998
1997 ??? » Macworld Boston 1997
1997 ??? » The Apple Brand
1996 ??? » Steve Jobs and John Lasseter interview
1995 Apr » The Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program oral history
1993 ??? » The Apple Logo
???? ??? » Early TV Appearance
???? ??? » Computers are like a bicycle for our minds
1984 ??? » Macintosh Introduction
1982 ??? » Academy of Achievement Summit in New Orleans
1980 ??? » Vintage Steve Jobs footage on Apple

.

Stack trace in JavaScript

2011-08-06T00:00:00-07:00

In your editor, replace


(function ([a-zA-Z ]+)\w*\([^\)]*\)\w*{)

with


$1 console.log('  trace: $2');

Great Apps for the Mac

2011-05-28T00:00:00-07:00

Here are some great apps for the Mac.

1. Twitter

Free on the Mac App Store

2. Sparrow

A pretty good email client. It lets you access Gmail in a fast native client, while not having to store all your emails on your computer.

3. TextMate

Looks great, works flawlessly and has a simple interface.

6. Pages

7. Colloquy

Free! Open-Source

Looks good, functions well.

8. iA Writer

5 Useful javascript tricks

2011-01-26T00:00:00-08:00

Javascript is a great language. I've written a short list of five useful javascript features and techniques that are a must-know.

1. Closures

Prevent setting global variables by putting all your code in a function. Like this:

(function(){
	//Everything goes in here
	//This x variable is not accessible to the outside world.
	var x="Hello World";
}());

Usings closures promotes good code structure, protects private variables, and ensures that your code won't interfere with any other scripts running on the page.

2. JSON

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a way to describe objects.

var me={
	"name":"John Smith",
	"location":[-40.000,150.000],
	"description":"",
	"interests":{
		"movies":[],
		"music":["All music"]
	}
};
alert(me.name);//or alert(me["name"]);
alert("JSON representation: "+JSON.stringify(me));
alert(JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(me)))==JSON.stringify(me))

3. Prototyping

Have you ever used the new Keyword()? Well when you do, the object returned from the function (provided the function doesn't "return" an object manually), has its prototype set.

function Message(title,body,imagesrc){
	this.title=title;
	this.body=body;
	if(imagesrc){
		this.imagesrc=imagesrc;
	}
}
//If a message doesn't have an imagesrc, it will inherit it from its prototype chain.
Message.prototype.imagesrc="default.png";
Message.prototype.alert=function(){
	alert(this.title+"\n"+this.body);
	return this;
}
var msg=new Message("Title","Body");
msg.alert().alert();

You can also add methods to objects such as Array, Function, and Object. For example:

Array.prototype.sum=function(){
	return this.reduce(function(x,y){return x+y;})
};
alert([1,2,3].sum());//1+2+3=6

4. jQuery

jQuery is great! I suggest you read more about it in jQuery Fundementals (A great guide), or on the jQuery website.

5. Console

I find using the consoles in Safari, Chrome and Firefox really speed up development. Using console.log() is often easier than messing around with alert().

Post your favourite javascript "tricks" in the comments.

New website

2011-01-17T00:00:00-08:00

This website is entirely static. It's hosted as a git repository and generated using this awesome program called jekyll. I'm still migrating some of the old stuff here, but I probably won't keep everything. I don't know what to do with the ~500 scribbles yet.

Below are some images of what the site used to look like.

Untangle (Game)

2011-01-11T00:00:00-08:00

Play game!

This is a chromeexperiment

Position the blue dots such that no lines overlap.
How quickly can you solve it? :)

Javascript Fourier Transform

2011-01-11T00:00:00-08:00

Open it.

Notes:

Draw the graphs with your mouse. Hold command, shift, or alt, to draw the complex part.
The differentiate and integrate buttons don't work - I think this is because it's a discrete FT.

Fireworks!

2011-01-11T00:00:00-08:00

Run experiment!

This is a chromeexperiment

Cloth Simulation in JavaScript

2011-01-11T00:00:00-08:00

Open the cloth simulator.

There are two modes.

2D - all points are always on a plane, but they appear to be in 3d space, but the are really just moving closer to one another
3D - There are two canvases - one for each eye. You have to go crosseyed.

The following function is called 44 times each frame:

function physics(){
    var aspect=1;
    if(shad==4){
        aspect=1/1.9;
    }else if(shad==3){
        aspect=1/2.0;
    }
    var k=0.005;
    var g=0.001/N*10;
    var rt2=Math.sqrt(2);
    var h=20;
    if(m){vt[z]=[mx,my];}
    var wind=0.001*Math.abs(Math.sin(wind_t/32)+Math.sin(wind_t/200)+Math.sin(wind_t/400)+
    Math.sin(wind_t/350));
    wind_t++;
    if(shad==4){
        for(var y=0;y<N;y++){
            vt[y*N][0]=vt[0][0];
            vt[y*N][1]=vt[0][1]+y*aspect*h;
        }
    }
    var theta=(wind_t/914);
    for(var y=0;y<N;y++){
        for(var x=0;x<N;x++){
            if((y==0 && x==0) || (x==N-1 && shad!=4 && y==0) ||
            (x==0 && shad==4) || (m&&x+y*N==z)){
            }else{
                var v=vt[x+y*N];
                var Fx=0;
                var Fy=0;
                var Fz=0;
                if(shad==4){
                    Fx+=wind*Math.abs(Math.cos(theta));
                    Fy-=0.8*Math.abs(wind*Math.sin(theta));
                }
                if(x<(N-1)){
                    var r=vt[x+1+y*N];
                    var d=(r[0]-v[0])*(r[0]-v[0])+(r[1]-v[1])*(r[1]-v[1]);
                    d=sqrt(d);
                    // F = -k *x 
                    Fx+=k*(r[0]-v[0])*(1-h/d);
                    Fy+=k*(r[1]-v[1])*(1-h/d);
                }
                if(x>0){
                    var r=vt[x-1+y*N];
                    var d=(r[0]-v[0])*(r[0]-v[0])+(r[1]-v[1])*(r[1]-v[1]);
                    d=sqrt(d);
                    // F = -k *x
                    Fx+=k*(r[0]-v[0])*(1-h/d);
                    Fy+=k*(r[1]-v[1])*(1-h/d);
                }
                if(y<N-1){
                    var r=vt[x+(y+1)*N];
                    var d=(r[0]-v[0])*(r[0]-v[0])+(r[1]-v[1])*(r[1]-v[1]);
                    d=sqrt(d);
                    // F = -k *x 
                    Fx+=k*(r[0]-v[0])*(1-aspect*h/d);
                    Fy+=k*(r[1]-v[1])*(1-aspect*h/d);
                }
                if(y>0){
                    var r=vt[x+(y-1)*N];
                    var d=(r[0]-v[0])*(r[0]-v[0])+(r[1]-v[1])*(r[1]-v[1]);
                    d=sqrt(d);
                    // F = -k *x 
                    Fx+=k*(r[0]-v[0])*(1-aspect*h/d);
                    Fy+=k*(r[1]-v[1])*(1-aspect*h/d);
                }
                vel[x+y*N][0]+=Fx;
                vel[x+y*N][1]+=Fy;
                vel[x+y*N][0]*=0.99;
                vel[x+y*N][1]*=0.99;
                vt[x+y*N][0]+=vel[x+y*N][0];
                vt[x+y*N][1]+=vel[x+y*N][1];
                vel[x+y*N][1]+=g;
            }
        }
    }
    if(m){vt[z]=[mx,my];}
}