Pbur’s Adventures

• Modernizr
  Javascript framework for creating cross browser CSS and stuff.
  (tags: HTML Javascript Browsers)

Apologies for the lack of posts. Work and life have been keeping me busy. One of the things that kept me busy was going to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. I’ve written up a little bit about it over on my Cocoa blog, CocoaDevNation.

• Stop Leopard changing your hostname
  (tags: Leopard Hostname)

• Safari 4’s Messy Trail - The Thrica Network
  (tags: Safari)

• Track Yourself With a Custom Log File
  (tags: log)

• Avoid Sore Fingers While SSHing Around
  (tags: SSH Tip Trick)

• 100 Free Useful Mac Applications (Part I)
  (tags: free apps osx mac software)
• imageNamed is evil at Under The Bridge
  (tags: cocoa iphone tips uiimage)
• Notes on Cocos2d iPhone Development @ Irrational Exuberance
  (tags: iphone tutorial game opengl)

• openAL sound on the iPhone
  (tags: iphone openal tutorial)

• CS193P - Cocoa Programming
  (tags: programming cocoa iPhone stanford course)

Now that my work’s busy season is finally winding down, I can post some of the things that we’ve been up to.

Emily continues to grow and grow and grow. Maggie’s got the update post for you to check out.

Brenden’s also been growing and learning so much. Since my last post, he’s now able to tell us all the numbers from 1 to 9 as well as the letters of the alphabet. That’s been fun as he’s learning the alphabet from the ABC book from Dr. Seuss. We read it nightly and he loves it. We’re determined to make sure our kids are readers.

We joined the Dallas Zoo as members for this year to check that out. We’ve already been about 4 times. Brenden loves the place! Here are a few pics from our visits (Emily mostly sleeps during these outings).

As for me, I’ve been trying to keep working on my iPhone application. I sent out a first beta and based on the feedback I received, decided to start over on the UI and overall user experience. I’ve also started a separate blog for my Cocoa coding endeavors called CocoaDevNation. Look for more technical stuff to end up over there.

• On the Renaming of Xcode Projects
  (tags: programming Xcode)

• face's ratos at master - GitHub - iPhone stack trace tool
  Take an iPhone Stack trace from Xcode and gives back property symbol names
  (tags: iPhone)

• Michael Tsai - Blog - 10 Papers Every Programmer Should Read (At Least Twice)
  (tags: programming)

• Beta testing on iPhone 2.0
  (tags: iPhone tutorial beta distribution adhoc)

• iphone sdk mobile provisioning (0xe800003a, 0xe8000001, …) | THE NEW 24100.NET
  (tags: iPhone development)

• How to clean your mighty mouse WITHOUT TAKING IT APART
  (tags: howto mightymouse mouse clean)

• Integrity | The easy and fun automated continuous integration server
  (tags: programming development tools testing)

After going to the Train Show last Saturday, Brenden and I went back there Sunday for some additional looking around. Brenden really, really likes playing with Thmoas the Train Engine toys here at home and when we walked in, we went by the vendor who had some large Thomas the Train Engine model train sets in HO scale. They were pricey even at 30% off.

While looking them over, the gentleman running the booth came over and introduced himself and asked what I was looking for. I wondered aloud if there were smaller sets for Thomas to get started with? He said he had one that was $70 and had Thomas, Clarabell, and Annie and a circle track. To sweeten the deal, he threw in 2 straight pieces of track so we could make an oval. I added a Troublesome Truck and the Sodor Mail Car as well. Still stayed under $100 which is pretty good in my experience looking at model train sets. If I haven’t mentioned it before, I have always wanted a model train set growing up. Of course I bought the train for myself Brenden.

After bringing it home, I eventually got it setup to show Brenden and taught him that this wasn’t a “touching” train, but one we were to watch. He actually has grasped that pretty well. Today he even requested I bring out the set and play again. He really likes to watch and see if he can see Sir Topham Hatt in Thomas. He also checks Clarabell and Annie to see if there’s “hot chocolate” being served. He got that from watching The Polar Express a lot.

I plan to continue to add track and additional cars and engines. Hopefully one day Brenden and I can build an awesome layout together. ( Emily can join us too! )

Setting up the cars to go.	Brenden watching the train go around.

• iPhone Unit Testing | Sen:te
  (tags: programming cocoa development iPhone ocunit testing)

Brenden has been very into trains of late, almost exclusively playing on his Thomas play table with all his Thomas trains. As a reward for him being a much better sleeper this week ( which is another post in itself ), I was going to find a model railroad place to take him to. As luck would have it, I saw this tweet on Twitter this morning. It turns out this weekend is the Dallas Area Train Show!

We left Emily with grandma and took Brenden to the show. He ( and I ) had a blast! I’ve always wanted to have a model train set and going to this show certain rekindled that interest. Brenden wanted to look at all the exhibits and we had to tear him away from most. He really didn’t understand why he couldn’t play with the trains, so that complicated things at times.

There was also a ton of Thomas stuff and we ended up getting him a Toby car on a very good deal and he’s been happy adding it to his other trains.

I’m hoping to maybe get a small set started sometime this year. The biggest problem right now will be finding space for it unless I want to keep putting it up and tearing it down when I want to play.

Some photos to entertain: