Category: technology | { Steven Haddox's Blog }

Y U NO Love Glyphish Icons?!

2012-03-17T09:28:00-04:00

Once upon a time, I came across a tweet that recommended supporting a KickStarter project called Glyphish. His goal seemed more than reasonable, a mere $500 in backing requested, and he'd create over a hundred beautiful and unique iPhone application icons for use in your own apps!

What started as an amazing project has only grown into something even more epic. Joseph has been supporting Glyphish relentessly since his first project in mid-2009. Now Glyphish has an overwhelming 400 icons for the same low initial price of only $25.00! The great thing is, Joseph created the larger set of icons as another KickStarter project, even though he could have easily have marketed himself by then. I love when fellow developers and designers stick to their roots.

I know this might read a little bit like an ad, but it's probably because I have always been infatuated with these icons. I've been trying to get off my butt to make an iPhone application ever since iPhones were first jailbroken just so I could have an excuse to use Glyphish icons. I've been a completely lazy developer and haven't gotten around to completing my goals, but I've still never regretted supporting this project from the beginning. The amount of effort that goes into these icons is visible from the time you first see them, and Joseph has never disappointed in adding even more icons with the same level of quality for about three years now. Now that I'm finally getting around to playing with creating some basic iOS applications, I'm glad I have these in my library to use anywhere I see fit!

If you don't want to be stuck creating your own icons, struggling to convert open source icons, or paying a fortune for icons to use in your applictions (be it a web application, iOS application, or probably even Android/Blackberry/Windows app) you should pick up a set from Glyphish. This is just a no brainer for me as I honestly think I would've paid over $100 per set with the quality and uniqueness that Glyphish provides. As testament to that you can look at the list of companies who use Glyphish icons in their own applications:

Apple
Google
Twitter
Foursquare
37signals
Facebook
WordPress

Thanks Joseph for being a designer with a keen eye and well below-reasonable prices. Keep up the amazing work!

One Last Thing!

The original set that I loved so much, is available for free these days. You'll see it right in the left-hand column as "Glyphish Free" for your use! That's right, you can even try out Joseph's amazing work without having to pay. I can assure you, that once you do, you'll be wishing you could give hime more than he's asking for as he's earned every penny!

Be sure to visit Glyphish's Site to pick up these amazing icons ASAP!

Flash Happy: Simple flash updates for your Rails application

2008-08-24T00:00:00-04:00

So I've been learning Ruby on Rails the past few months but I've mostly been working on projects that already have the major underpinnings created. I've had the opportunity to work on a side project on and off and I've finally gotten one of my major hurdles accomplished and am pretty happy with how I did it. I'm open to code refinement, but I thought I'd share it since I couldn't find much in the way of tutorials regarding flash.now with Rails via Google.

Essentially what I did was implement a way to update the regular flash and the flash.now values at the same time. I also made it very easy to implement a flash message on every page of my site. This flash message will display via a regular HTML request or via an AJAX request if it is invoked. I started by minimizing the code and creating a partial that I can use to render my Flash messages. The catch to this is that anytime you want to update your flash message you'll have to remember to pass the flash variable to it as a local variable.

``` ruby Flash Partial (/app/views/layouts/_flash.html.erb) <%- unless flash.blank? -%> <%= flash_message_helper(flash) %> <%- end -%> ```

``` ruby Flash Helper (/app/helpers/application_helper.rb) def flash_message_helper(flash) html = '' flash.each do |type, message|

html << "<div class=\"flash #{type}\">#{message}</div>"

end return html end ```

Flash JavaScript (/public/javascript/application.js)

function showFlashMessage() {
  $('flash_wrapper').hide();
  $('flash_wrapper').appear({</p>

<pre><code>to: 0.9,
queue: 'end',
afterFinish: function(ev) {
  setTimeout("$('flash_wrapper').fade()", 4500);
}
</code></pre>

<p>  });
}

``` ruby Controller Method Code (/app/controllers/controller_name.rb) def method_name respond_to do |format|

format.js {
  render :update do |page|
    flash_message('notice', 'Page was successfully updated.')
    page.replace_html 'show', :partial => 'show'
    page.replace_html 'flash_wrapper', :partial => 'layouts/flash', :locals => {:flash => flash}
  end
}

end end ```

You'll notice in the controller I invoke a custom method (flash_message) to create my flash message. This is where we create the flash[] and flash.now[] values simultaneously.

``` ruby Application.rb Code (/app/controllers/application.rb): def flash_message(type, message) flash.discard(type.to_sym) if request.xhr?

flash.now[type.to_sym] = message

else

flash[type.to_sym] = message
flash.keep(type.to_sym)

end
end ```

And lastly you need to place the partial in your page templates:

``` ruby

<%= render :partial => 'layouts/flash', :locals => { :flash => flash } %>

```

Having Fallen Off the Face of the Earth...

2008-08-14T00:00:00-04:00

I thought that it might be time to give an update. I have been very busy over with the agile evangelists at Integrum Technologies and have been loving every minute of all the things I've managed to absorb in the past few months. My conversion to Rails has been drastically better than my past experience of learning other languages. Within weeks I felt confident enough to start my own side projects and dive head-first into things that I used to wait months to fully understand how to do with previous conversions.

I have come to gain a very solid appreciation of AJAX, as long as it is done unobtrusively. I've also come to love the purpose and structure that a good MVC framework can provide. I've come to swear by TextMate. I can't imagine managing a web project again without it. I've found that pair programming provides amazing benefits that can never be guessed at until you've tried it yourself. I've found that my errors and refactoring due to pair programming have been exponentially improved and that my development style in general has become more efficent, more detailed, and more well-thought than in the past (in much less time). I've also found that agile methodology as a method of software development just makes sense (for me at least). Software (especially web based applications or sites) are constantly changing in their requirements, goals, needs, and acceptence criteria. Agile methodology ties in perfectly with this dynamic lifestyle of software growth.

As to the other things that I've been up to, well I've started at least three side-projects that I work on at nights in my free time and on weekends. I've always been a big "to-do" list person and I've started using Things on the iPhone over the past month or so and the change in my productivity has been drastic. It helps me to prioritize everything that needs to happen, when it needs to happen, and it especially helps me to space out the things that need to happen so that my entire evening, weekend, and life are not consumed by mundane or necessary to-dos. I have yet to learn the details of GTD (Getting Things Done), but I plan on it full-heartedly once life slows down a little more. In the meantime, 2 minutes over at Things' for iPhone website has made it a pretty easy to use system that works for me in the status quo.

I've also been busy setting up a new server over with the folks at SliceHost so that I can get a simple development server for my applications, and clients on the side. So far the experience has bee amazing and I really like the service and GUI features for the price.

As to life in general, well if the above hasn't made it clear, I don't really have one. I go to work, come home and do the household chores and spend as much time as I can with Paisley, then tackle something related to a personal project or client each night. I've gotten pretty good at sleeping less again lately and my 8 hours has cut back to 6 or so in order to let me get more done each day. Through all of this insanity of business Katie has been the most supportive wife anyone could ever ask for!

I did have a chance to get a book read recently. Breaking Dawn came out as the last book for the Twilight series and I finished that up yesterday. It was a much needed break away from the constant thumbing through of manuals, APIs, and tutorials. I've also watched a few movies lately when the opportunity permits. The best movie I've seen in a long time (like everyone else it seems) is The Dark Knight. It's a shame we won't have Heath Ledger around as I've always like him as an actor. Even in Brokeback Mountain.

As to what is upcoming, Paisley turns one in a little over a month! I can't believe how fast she has grown! It seems like only a few weeks ago to me that we were bringing her home for the first time. She already has four teeth now and is pulling herself along the edge of furniture to walk. She reads to herself all the time and her favorite show (we're fairly certain) is the Upside Down show. She is always sleeping through the night (and always has) and the only time she's even slightly fussy seems to be when she is teething or has been stuck in her carseat for errands all day.

As to my wishlist of things to do. I'm dying to go snowboarding of course, but unfortunately I'm not sure that I'll get to do much of that for a while. Between work, projects, household tasks, and paperwork I'm not sure if I'll be able to make time to get onto a slope for a while to come. I'm also not sure if the finances will provide for more than one or two trips this season (if I'm lucky). There's still so much to find funding for and just no funding to go towards it (logo design, website design, business paperwork, hardware upgrades, server expansion, etc, etc). Such is life though and hopefully, in time, things will get easier in that department.

That's about all the time I can spare during this lunchbreak though so I suppose I'll have to tie it up for now. Thanks for checking in and I'll try to post more frequently as I know I've slacked a lot as of late.

Why I Stood in Line for an iPhone 3G Today

2008-07-11T00:00:00-04:00

I just posted the following as a comment on a blog as to why I already purchased the iPhone 3G. I thought it might be appropriate to share on my blog as well. Enjoy.

I'll try to keep this short and simple, but don't be surprised if you get a short novel. I am a little offended that the beginning of this post [original blog linked above] begins with such bias as to say that if Steve Jobs branded a sandwich with the Apple logo a line would form to buy it. Give most Apple "fanboys" a little more credit than that.

I personally have an Apple logo tattoo (for the letter A in my wife's name as she converted me to Apple). I also have a Burton tattoo on my foot. Why are both of my tattoos commercial companies? They represent two of my biggest passions in life (snowboarding and computers/technology/internet). They are also the best companies in the world for customer service as far as I am concerned. They simply cannot be beat at keeping their customers happy.

With this bias established, allow me to begin why I personally already got the iPhone 3G (when 12 or so other people in my office didn't even though they all have original iPhones).

I woke up at 2:30 this morning and made it to the Apple store in San Tan Villages by 3:40ish so I could ensure a good spot in line. There are a few reasons for this. First, I knew I wanted a white iPhone (the 16GB model only, which is fine as I wanted a 16GB model to begin with). I nearly maxed out my last iPhone in a matter of months with hundreds of educational podcasts, and thousands of photos. I also got up and stood in line so early so that I could ensure I wouldn't be waiting in line for 5+ hours in the scorching sun when I could be working instead. I'm glad I did.

I made it through the doors at 8:03, and was being given my white iPhone by 8:10. It took 30+ minutes for activation with AT&T to go through (server issues in the store). It also took another 45 minutes to try and activate the software. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. I spent 4.5 hours waiting for the store to open in a nice drizzle and occasional downpour. I personally occupied one Apple representative for an hour and fifteen minutes. I never even got my phone activated due to server issues. It happened partially at 10:30 this morning and fully around noon. I'm very technologically savvy (as a web developer / application programmer) and had no concern with activating the software in iTunes myself later. Most customers aren't comfortable with that. I can't imagine how long the 70-100th customers in line had to wait (or may still be waiting) in order to get and activate their iPhones. That's why I stood in line. I could care less about it being cool.

As to why I'm buying the iPhone 3G. I love my original iPhone. With a passion. I swear up and down by it despite the few features it was missing. In comparison to my Blackberry Pearl it was like the invention of the steam engine. Nothing has been the same ever since. I spend a good amount of time surfing the web, checking e-mail, reading news / twitter posts, etc. all on a non-wireless connection. I did the same thing on my blackberry and paid for internet on it as well. I always will. It's just a core part of my life as it is my livelihood and one of my biggest hobbies. 3G just makes sense for me. It doesn't for my wife. She browses occasionally. Although she loves her iPhone, she's content with it now. I have longed for 3G since before the iPhone was announced. Now I'm content (mostly).

Another huge factor for me with 3G is that I used to pay for data-card access via my laptop with Sprint. In a few weeks I can hack my iPhone (if the need arises) and have tethered internet to my laptop. All as part of my data plan I'm already paying for with AT&T. I've only had to do this once in the past year, and hopefully not again anytime soon. But if I do, I have the capability and much better speeds now. And that saves me $60 / month alone with faster data speeds.

I also love the headphone jack finally being flush and working with normal headsets. Little things we take for granted until they are missing. And the GPS element was what put the icing on the cake. Not anything I need as I have a GPS already, but it makes the cost much easier to justify.

All-in-all, the iPhone 3G has all the features I need at a price point I can't refuse. The iPhone 2.0 software update will take away 95% of my hacked iPhone needs. The only things I'm missing currently are Terminal (for remote web server administration), IRC (for remote chat collaboration), and tethering. All of which I will still be able to get through hacking in a short time-frame if essentially needed. Hopefully a few of those will be solved through the App Store as most of my other needs already have been.

Hope this helps to clarify why there are lines outside of the Apple store for major product releases. It's not about being cool unless you're a teenager. Some of us actually need / want these things badly enough because of how well they improve our performance and how convenient they make our typical mundane tasks.

-Steven Haddox

Singing, er standing, in the rain

2008-07-11T00:00:00-04:00

I'm at the Apple store in Gilbert, AZ standing for more than an hour now. It just barely started pouring and doesn't show any sign of letting up.

So, while I forgot my chair, at least I remembered Katie's umbrella and my Burton hoodie. Although it is really humid so I may lose the hoodie asap ;)

And a cricket just crawled up my chest. WOOT for lines

However, I hope to have a white iPhone 3G to show for it as I'm 9th in line.

So much for working this morning while I wait :(