Monkinetic Weblog

It's been a while since I've had myself a good fiction binge - as an avid reader, I've often blown anywhere from 2 to 30 hours straight on a good book... right now it's Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

A new Cocoa book, Cocoa Programming, is shipping. Not sure what the deal is with the anemone on the cover though. Authors Scott Anguish, Erik Buck, and Don Yacktman are serious long-time Cocoa hackers, and the aspiring Cocoa jedi would be foolish to ignore their tome.

manual-php-manual tags: "" title: ""

Although I got the web application book for PHP, I'm starting with the online PHP Manual. It's probably the best step-by-step guide to a new language I've ever seen.

This is also confirming my long-held belief that languages are easy. APIs are hard. PHP is basically a tame perl. Nooooo problem. I bet it's going to take me a while though to get into the flow with the PHP APIs for things like database manipulation, networking, etc. That's where the book I picked up will help.

Jodi and I made a run to the Phoenix Central Library today. I came home with Web Application Development with PHP 4.0, and Cryptonomicon.

Although I got the web application book for PHP, I'm starting with the online PHP Manual. It's probably the best step-by-step guide to a new language I've ever seen.

Miscellaneous h4xx0r note: PHP has a mutli-level break which I had not seen before in a language. Used normally, break will exit the current loop (while, for, etc). Using the optional integer argument:

break n will break you out of as many nested loops as specified. For example:

 10 /* Using the optional argument. */
 11 $i = 0;
 12 while ( ++$i ) {
 13     switch ( $i ) {
 14     case 5:
 15         echo "At 5
";
 16         break 1;  /* Exit only the switch. */
 17     case 10:
 18         echo "At 10; quitting
\n";
 19         break 2;  /* Exit the switch and the while. */
 20     default:
 21         break;
 22     }
 23 } 

Found here.

I'm in the process of updating my fink to a version that works with Mac OS X 10.2.

diJEST: a journal of extranpreneurial strategry and technology headlines (link)

[via diJEST: a journal of extrapreneurial strategy and technology] Reporting a project's status upward shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. The technique is to boil everything down to a well structured, bullet-heavy, one-pager you can forward weekly or monthly.

Another great software development article...

[via Disobey Nonsense Network] Wonderful Alan Cooper article: 14 Principles of Polite Apps. Read the article for explanations of: 1. Polite Software Is Interested in Me 2. Polite Software Is Deferential to Me 3. Polite Software Is Forthcoming 4. Polite Software Has Common Sense 5. Polite Software Anticipates My Needs 6. Polite Software Is Responsive 7. Polite Software Is Taciturn About Its Personal Problems 8. Polite Software Is Well-Informed 9. Polite Software Is Perceptive 10. Polite Software Is Self-Confident 11. Polite Software Stays Focused 12. Polite Software Is Fudgable 13. Polite Software Gives Instant Gratification 14. Polite Software Is Trustworthy (link)

[via bbum&[#39](http://monkinetic.blog/tag/39);s rants, code & references] A new version of Accessorizer came out today. It is a very useful little app that, given a variable declaration, generates the various random Obj-C idioms that developers have to create over and over and over again when building Cocoa/ObjC apps. (link)

[via bbum&[#39](http://monkinetic.blog/tag/39);s rants, code & references] A new version of Accessorizer came out today. It is a very useful little app that, given a variable declaration, generates the various random Obj-C idioms that developers have to create over and over and over again when building Cocoa/ObjC apps. (link)

Unsanity creates really cool Mac OS X interface hacks - haxies.

This means, being a shareware developer, we have to release things at a steady pace to get noticed by general public (link)

Something poetic on hockey, of all sports...

[via Michael McCracken - Weblog] There's ma in hockey too... It just comes in shorter bursts. (am I missing a point here?) The ma in hockey comes while a pass is on its way, in the lull after a play, or the two seconds of nothing between a goal and the ensuing celebration when noone really knows whether it went in. You can see it in the center's faces before the puck drops on a faceoff. Most distinctly, you can see it right before a pass gets in place for a one-time shot. The puck's on its way to the shooter. (In my mind, it's Alexei Kovalev, but you can use whoever. OK, no Eric Lindros.) He's got his stick raised, everyone's looking toward him, but noone can move yet. The pass froze the defensemen, and the goalie can't see the puck. In that moment, nothing is happening, but everything's about to. It's ma, only shorter. (link)

[via bbum's rants, code & references] A new version of Accessorizer came out today. It is a very useful little app that, given a variable declaration, generates the various random Obj-C idioms that developers have to create over and over and over again when building Cocoa/ObjC apps. (link)

-useful-objc-dev-tool

[via bbum's rants, code & references] A new version of Accessorizer came out today. It is a very useful little app that, given a variable declaration, generates the various random Obj-C idioms that developers have to create over and over and over again when building Cocoa/ObjC apps. (link)

of some tweaked features in Sid.

As several people have already noted, Google has made some major changes in their most recent update. The weblogging community was hit hard... (link)

[via Aaron Swartz: The Weblog] As you can see, copyright lengths go up as soon as Mickey gets a little too close to freedom. (link)

Feeling lost? Wondering, "What do I do next?" This site is for you. (link)