In which a semi-automated system for the versioning of iPhone applications is detailed. Said system ensures that the reader’s apps are always correctly versioned, and his users’ iTunes applications are never confused by an update of his beta builds.

Versioning your iPhone applications properly ensures that your app updates go smoothly, and also that when you make a beta build testers never get into the frustrating state where iTunes refuses to accept it because of versioning conflicts, leaving them to have to delete the older version, and its settings and documents along with it.

The system presented here is largely ...

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who've been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can.”^[1]

I shy away from discussing politics online. I’m aware how hard it can be to convey nuance, and I’m also naturally one of those infuriating people who can see good intentions an both sides ...

In which a category allowing the creation of UIImages from Unicode characters, suitable for use as Tab Bar icons, is created, but a state of mild displeasure at the implementation of said category is engendered.

Adding a ‘test’ tab to my in-development iPhone app, I had a dilemma. My troublesome aesthetic sense was telling me that, despite being seen by no-one but me, it needed a good looking icon. My sense of efficiency, though, was telling me “No! Don’t ...

Em’s sewing machine has been in a state of disrepair since it arrived here in her suitcase from California. Today, we finally got around to taking it apart to see what was wrong (after searching in vain for a repair manual online - it seems that sewing machine manufacturers have not yet entered the Internet age). Turned out to be a simple problem (one of the belts had slipped off, no doubt during baggage “handling”).

While it was apart, it was so fascinating to watch it in operation that we had to take this video....

The FSF has published their “5 reasons to avoid iPhone 3G”.  They have some valid points, but I’d be much more likely to respect them if the things like this they produced were not laden in hyperbole.  The article is full of it, but one piece of ‘information’ in particular struck me:

It's also a tracking device, and like other proprietary GPS-enabled phones, can transmit your location without your knowledge

First, GPS is passive.  The phone receives GPS signals from the satellites, it doesn’t transmit them to the satellites.  ‘They’ can’t track you just because you have a GPS ...