July 12, 2008
New iPhone
I’ve lived with out my iPhone for almost 3 months because it got stolen, but yesterday I waited in line for 6 hours at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego to get my new 16GB Black iPhone 3G. Was it worth?
…hell yes it was.
July 9, 2008
Coming Home/Leaving the Navy
Well I haven’t posted to my tumblr in some time and that’s for reasons I couldn’t talk about before but now I can. I’m in the Navy and had left for deployment to the gulf at the beginning of May but couldn’t say anything for security reasons. I just got back to the states on Saturday because I’m am finally getting out of the Navy.
What that means is that I’m finally going to be dedicated full-time to my web work and a new company that I have partnered with my brother to start. When the time comes I’ll post the details but my expectations are to have fun and spend as much time with my fiance and family as possible.
April 29, 2008
Jeremiah Wright (via azspot) (via marco)
Patriotism is one of those characteristics that seem peculiarly American, like bipartisan respect for POTUS. Here in the UK, being patriotic is like being able to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time: mildly diverting, but it won’t win you any job interviews.
The other thing that puzzles me, especially these days, is the way that “patriotism” is conflated with miltary service. Why do invaders of foreign lands have a special claim to patriotism? Surely, given the nightmare of Iraq for all concerned and its undermining of prospects for US “security”, the patriots are those who oppose the war?
(via johnbrissenden)
The quote above about Dick Cheney is about people who abuse those of us who have served our country in the military. It does not claim that to be a great president, that he or she must have served in the military. It claims that to be a great president, they must have the utmost respect for the people that dedicate their lives to the preservation of the freedoms of this country. That ability to respect servicemen and women nearly always comes with the prerequisite of actually serving in the military.
People claim to know what the military is, without ever having served. While the only way to understand the military is to be part of it. The rules that govern people in the military are different then in the civilian world, and always are they held up to the highest standards. The members of the military are not “invaders of foreign lands”, the United States is. Not the US government, the entire United States. The military is the arm that the United States uses for action. Since when do we blame the arm for the actions of the mind?
You decided. You’re to blame. It doesn’t matter if you voted for the other guy or not, you peacefully and quietly sign off on this action. Do not for one second blame the military for your decisions, that is what is unpatriotic.
My two brothers and I all serve in the military, my older brother and myself in the Navy and younger brother in the Coast Guard. My mother hangs a small banner from a window that depicts 3 simple white stars, each to indicate the military serves of her sons. We have dedicated our youth and my mother her 3 sons, to defend the freedoms others enjoy. I say others because until you spend 6 months on a ship or in a foreign country with the risk of death being a daily reality, you cannot even comprehend the sacrifices my brothers and I, and most importantly my mother make. Do not trivialize my family’s service to our country. Do not trivialize the service of other military members. Do not trivialize the service of the military.
"I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?"
Reblogged from jhn brssndn.
April 27, 2008
Facebooking
I used to be a big fan of facebook, I’ve written a couple applications and have been inspired by some of their work. But now I only visit if I’ve done my work, read all my books, Tumblr, CNN, my entire google reader and watched an entire season of one my favorite TV show. Facebook has become sad. It’s lost it’s value to me. Unspoken drama-infused social rules now govern it and there is no escape.
There are facebook personalities that now dominate the feed. In the feed are the “activist” personalities that join groups like “Save Darfur!!!!!!” that only join to broadcast it in the feed. There are the “socialites” aka mini-paris who seem to only post 3 things; pictures of their “hot” but actually butt-ugly friends, pictures of them drinking or a notification that they made a new friend. Finally the “failures”, which seems to be the largest demographic of Facebook, these people broadcast things like “I took 2 naps in one day and went out, that was tough”. The sad thing is they are completely serious.
Facebook is no longer a place to share with friends but a place to broadcast your social prowess/ ineptitude. I don’t know if I’ve become jaded or am just being a dick but facebook makes me think, “What the hell else do you do with your life?”. Volunteer? Starting a business? Work? Family?
Facebook exemplifies the lazy and intellectually challenged members of my age group and gives them a medium to broadcast their meaningless lives. I can’t help but feel sorry for them.
It is no longer cool to be out of college and getting drunk/high Wednesday - Sunday and then posting pictures on Facebook to show how “rad” you are or what an “awesome” night it was. It’s not cool to spend 7 years in college getting a degree in Liberal Studies. It’s not cool to be 26 and have the most important thing your life be Friday night. I’m sorry folks but Facebook has lost it.
April 25, 2008
Software Engineering followup
In relation to my previous post about software engineering being a bitch sometimes, I would also like to say that one pain in the ass bug set off a chain reaction. After that one bug, I became the destroyer of bugs, fixing one after another in a seemingly endless stream. Major and minor problems have been resolved and extensive progress has been made in my application and am back on track for the release date.
Software engineering can be funny like that.
April 24, 2008
Software Engineering is a Bitch! (...sometimes)
Today I upgrade my iPhone SDK to Beta 4 which came with minor changes that didn’t cause me any headaches I couldn’t fix in a few minutes. However after compiling and testing my application after every update I came a across an error where I couldn’t edit a UITextView (kind of like a Textarea in html).
I check all my code, no errors; debug functions with assert statements and NSLog…nothing. I compare my code to other projects…nothing. I tried to move on and come back to this bug but I couldn’t do it, it was like a buzzing sound in my ears bugging the hell out of me.
At 8:10 PM, after spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to flush out this bug I finally fix it. I was accidently returning nil (NULL in other languages) a couple functions down the tree and that messed everything up. The reason I initially ruled this out as a cause was that I was still able to edit the UITextField (like the text inputs for HTML) and the function ruled both editing features.
Some days I love that I have chosen this as a career, other days are like this.
April 19, 2008
iPhone was stolen
My iPhone got stolen last night and I have had no luck finding it or the culprit.
My iPhone is 1 of 2 things that someone could steal from me that would really push me over the edge in terms of anger,the other being my laptop. I can get by with anything else missing but getting my iPhone stolen has been a horrible experience. It really makes me want to set up remote wipe when the new iPhone OS comes out, I just hope I’m able too.
If I get my iPhone back by some miracle then that’s great and I really won’t care about who took it, just that I got it back. However, if I find out who took it before I got it back, all bets are off. I know revenge is a terrible thing but imagine your most important possession being stolen and lost forever, that’s how I feel.
April 17, 2008
Apple Called Me
I just got a call from a guy that works for Apple asking if I was going to be attending WWDC ‘08. The number was blocked and he said he worked in promotions, after I told him I will be unable to attend because of the Navy, he thanked me for my time and wished me luck on my deployment.
I’ve been to WWDC 2 times and never has Apple called me. Am I the only one that got this call?
April 8, 2008
Naming a Business
My brother and I are exploring the possibility of a business venture together and we need a name for the business. I figure I would turn to the internet to see what names some of you may have lying around for me to use or build upon.April 3, 2008
Receipts is the #1 most popular web application for the iPhone as of yesterday according to Apple.com.
April 1, 2008
Receipts is a hit!
My third iPhone web app called Receipts has made Apple’s featured web app on their main web app page. Plus it is my second of 3 applications to become a staff pick by Apple. Now, if I can only do that with my SDK iPhone software, maybe I can actually make a couple bucks. Check out the screenshot or take a look for yourself.March 30, 2008
Albert Einstein (via esquareda)
"Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds."
Reblogged from esquareda.
March 29, 2008
I just spent the last 18 days underway and it we had some adventures. My ship test launched a missile, which may not sound that exciting but people got entire careers without ever seeing a missile launch. We had some really bad seas with the waves coming over the front the ship (and my ship isn’t small) and when this happened during a refueling, it nearly swept several sailors overboard. More or less is was just same thing everyday, nothing special or out of the ordinary. The only other highlight I took from these 18 days was that it’s the longest I have ever gone without seeing the sky. How depressing is that?
One upside to being underway was that I wasn’t distracted from learning the iPhone SDK and I’ve made some great progress on a pretty cool application. When it’s closer to being finished I’ll post some screen shots and maybe a video. I read through Jim Collins book, Good to Great which was one of the best business books I’ve ever read. I also started on Jim Collins other book, Built to Last, which is also shaping up to be just as good.
All in all it wasn’t a horrible underway, just tedious.
March 6, 2008
