Blog
ActionScript 3 Training
Last modified on 2008-08-03 14:59:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Late last year I wrote a new curriculum for developing Flash Applications using ActionScript 3. The class has been a huge success and continues to fill classrooms with students eager to learn what’s new in AS3.
The class teaches how to program in AS3 and gets into the nitty gritty with new features like e4x (oh e4x how I love the). Students also get to build Asteroids from scratch and learn about moving instances across the stage, dynamically instantiating them, and even building Flash applications with OOP (if you’re down with OOP..yeah you know me).
If you haven’t checked it out take a look at the outline. It runs every month and I’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Oh yeah here is a sample of the Asteroids game:
Once your done you can build on the foundation to build other games or add new features (like a start screen or lives).
Great Objective-C Resources
Last modified on 2008-08-03 00:50:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
If you do not have experience programming in C, Objective-C can be a hard language to learn.
Something about it and its very unique syntax (and memory management - remember alloc and dealloc) takes a while to fully, grasp.
As you may know I’m busy writing a new class for Fig Leaf on Objective-C development for the iPhone. The class is currently scheduled (as a a beta) in late September.
During my busy days and nights writing I have searched the web for the best Objective-C material I can find. The community (at least before the iPhone) was very tiny so getting resources can be tough.
To help I’ve included a list of my recommendations. These books, blogs, web sites, and videos have been an important tool and can be an huge asset to all of you as well. Hope this helps!
Books
- Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - This is the only book even worth your time…
Blogs, Web Sites, and Tutorials
- Apple’s Developer Connection - Great Objective-C and iPhone Primer (FREE subscription for web access)
- Theococoa - Great tutorials
- Cocoa Dev Central
App Store Sales Amaze, Dazzle
Last modified on 2008-08-03 00:50:16 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
Last week Apple released tracking information to developers for applications listed on the iTunes AppStore.
Early signs have been extremely positive with one developer reporting an average of $1700 a day in sales over the last 3 days. The Crossword Puzzle app in question managed to become an Apple Staff Pick and sells for only $5.99.
Even Apple upstart Tapulous announced that their new FREE application Tap Tap Revenge will reach one million downloads by this weekend, giving them a 20% penetration rate into the Apple touch screen device market (iPhone and iPod Touch).
More amazing is Pangea’s Engimo which is rumored to have pulled in $1.2 million in the opening weekend of the iPhone 3G alone. The application, featured at WWDC has garnered impressive reviews and sales for $9.99 from the AppStore. That figure suggest sales of around 121,000 over 3 days or 40,000 downloads a day (Apple sold 400,000 iPhones in the United States during the opening weekend and reportedly than 1 million worldwide).
As you may know Apple announced over 10 million downloads (paid and free) from the AppStore in just the first weekend. While a 30% fee for listing is still a hefty chunk to fork over to Apple, the AppStore’s visibility to all IPhone and iPod Touch owners does indeed appear to be huge for small developers looking to reach this market.
Appleinsider is quick to announce that these trends are not universal. Just like any sales venue a select few applications have quickly risen to the top showing impressive numbers of downloads and sales. However, less popular apps are reporting that downloads have been small or nil.
My assumption is that quality apps that fill a true void have potential in the market, but many users do not feel the need for 8 different iPhone flash lights, even if their free.
All that said, it is time for all of us to pick up Xcode, take Fig Leaf’s upcoming iPhone class, and get some new and compeling products to the AppStore.
I’ll keep you posted as my own development projects get closer to completion!
Lost in Translation
Last modified on 2008-08-02 22:28:11 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Several years ago a student turned me on to Engrish. This site is devoted to translations gone way way bad. While Engrish is great, this morning I heard the best case of bad translation on the radio show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me that I’ve ever heard:
Apparently, a Beijing restaurant looking to appeal to a broader audience during the Olympics decided to translate the restaurant’s name into English using some online tool. They plopped the name into a popular site, translated the name, purchased a huge sign with the new English translation and placed it above the restaurant. Can you guess the name?
If you guessed “Translate Server Error” then you my friend are right!
Event: Adobe User Group on Flex and BlazeDS
Last modified on 2008-08-01 13:59:41 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’m speaking on BlazeDS integration with Flex 3 at our next Use Adobe user group meeting in Washington DC. This event will be a little different than previous UG meetings, since its hands-on for the first 16 or so people to arrive and an afternoon only session.
In this session I will discuss:
- Installing and configuring BlazeDS
- BlazeDS versus LiveCycle Data Services
- Making RemoteObject calls to BlazeDS
- Making Messaging calls to BlazeDS
- Community Support, JavaDocs, and some other advanced tidbits…
For a full description of the presentation or to RSVP visit the Use Adobe web site.
The Quest for Infinite Knowledge
Last modified on 2008-08-01 13:47:44 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Did you know that the largest number of children born to one women was 69?
Did you know that Hannibal Lector never blinks once throughout Silence of the Lambs?
If so, you and I share the same quest. The quest for knowledge neglected by so many and important to so few. To help me in my quest I found a very special site, unkno. One random tidbit of information after every refresh, and it is loaded with tons of unnecessary knowledge.
Check it out at Unnecessary Knowledge. Oh and by the way, More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in a plane crash.
Chocolate and Bacon…
Last modified on 2008-07-31 15:43:50 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Yes, I said it. Chocolate and Bacon together as one, just like it should be.
Anyone who has sat in my classroom knows that I have a “small” obsession with bacon. Something about its smoky and salty flavor just makes it the best piece of meat any man (or women) can have.
The idea of such a scrumptious and delectable thing as Bacon combined with chocolate just blew my mind. Then I saw it:
If you find your self in disbelief visit the makers of the fine treat Vosges. There you will find many other exciting chocolate treats and this amazing description of my new favorite snack, Mo’s Bacon Bar:
Breathe…engage your five senses, close your eyes and inhale deeply. Be in the present moment, notice the color of the chocolate, the glossy shine. Rub your thumb over the chocolate bar to release the aromas of smoked applewood bacon flirting with deep milk chocolate. Snap off just a tiny piece and place it in your mouth, let the lust of salt and sweet coat your tongue.
Until today this candy was just a dream until student John Brassil decided that Bacon Chocolate and I could no-longer bare to be apart. Lucky for me his hotel was only blocks from Biagio in Washington DC, a fine reseller of exotic chocolate.
Needless to say last week me, bacon, and chocolate all came together and this happy picture was taken by John:
Two bars made it to my desk that day. One I shared with that lucky class of ActionScript 3 students. The other bar…
If you find that you to love bacon the following links may help you on your quest in savoring that salty treat:
WordPress for the iPhone
Last modified on 2008-07-30 23:06:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I must admit, the idea of being able to blog from my iPhone definitely skewed my decision when picking WordPress as my blog software. I had this idea of me live blogging from remote locations armed with nothing but my iPhone 3G…
As many of you know WordPress has officially released a native iPhone client. Using the application you can blog, upload pictures, and even preview blog posts on Mobile Safari. I recently set up my blog using the software and found the application to be only OK.
The idea feels more solid than the actual software, but we can hope that updates in the near future fix many of the things it lacks. So all that said, here’s my review:
The Good
Installation and set up was super easy. I enabled desktop support in the WordPress admin, gave it my blog’s URL and a valid username/password. From there it pulled in all the data about my blog and just worked.
I managed to make a few posts from my iPhone and they show up with absolutely no problem. From the phone I can easily incorporate pictures I’ve taken from my iPhone (or synced). The category feature works as expected.
The Bad
If I connect to my blog it dosen’t auto-sync to display my most recent posts. I find my self refreshing to view the most recent posts every time I launch the application, something that should surly happen on default. Some data seems to never refresh. My category list refuses to display any categories I’ve added in the last few days.
No support for custom fields or other advanced options for a post. My theme makes heavy use of custom fields, so some posts won’t display properly in my theme until I log into the WordPress admin and add them. Many of my advanced options are not critical, but it would be nice to see some of those features added tot he application.
Another issues is the editor. In its current iteration it does not support an HTML editor view or color coding for syntax. Its tough enough writing a lengthy article on the iPhone so every bit helps. I imagine an HTML editor would be tough to implement, but syntax coloring HTML tags would go a long long way. The Apple keyboard can also be cumbersome when writing HTML. Hunting for the <,>, and / keys can be quite painful..and especially if you make heavy use of HTML in your posts.
Last issue is the media selector. While I can upload media to the blog, thats it. The software doesn’t allow me to make any changes to the image. Some very basic options for at least resizing he image would be very helpful
Conclusion
WordPress for the iPhone its good, not great. I think the next few versions could make this a great application that I can not live with out. Right now it feel more like a novelty item, but a decent solution if I find my self in a blogging emergency.
The Hundred Dollar Burger
Last modified on 2008-07-30 22:42:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
Last year I got bit by the flying bug.
At first I thought it was just an idea and would never happen but after months of research online I drove to my neighborhood airport and took a introductory flight in a small Cessna 172. Ever since then I’ve been hooked.
I still have a long way to go before I graduate from student pilot to private pilot extraordinaire but I still highly recommend at least taking the intro flight. Their is absolutely nothing like cruising over homes and buildings at 20,000ft in the air.
I’m aiming to finish up classes around my birthday, November 8th, and maybe just maybe I can rent a plane and fly out to some remote city for my first $100 burger!
In the meantime I’ll keep you up to date on my flights, lessons, and my new very very expensive hobby.
My First WWDC
Last modified on 2008-07-30 13:07:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
I’ve been all Mac every since my old business partner Sean and I bought a few Mac’s for the office. I knew I would like the clean aluminum exterior of the my then brand new PowerBook but I had no idea how much my life would change.
Now I’m a Macaholic. Even now I stand surrounded by no less than 3 Apple laptops (17″ PowerBook, 15″ MacBook Pro, and my baby the MacBook AIR). Knowing that I’m sure you can just imagine my expression as I sat staring at Steve Jobs during my first WWDC keynote. Now, of course, I sat in overflow room #958 but it still looked damn good on that HD projector.
The conference as a whole was amazing and also cramped. The first date was a lesson in standing in line as the more than 5,000 attendees moved from line to line with little or no idea of what was at the end. Luckily this was just the first day (After Steve Jobs and the iPhone 3G left the building security and the waiting seemed to ease up).
In terms of lessons learned…skip the sessions and hang out in the labs. The labs are not what they seem. You will quickly find out that the labs are just a bunch of Apple’s top developers hanging out sipping on Odwalla’s while answering whatever you have to throw at them. Hell, I got to sit down with the guys who built most of the apps on the iPhone. I even talked to the lead who wrote Mail and AddressBook!
Of course my time at WWDC was fun, but it was still work…. So soon you can expect to hear the rumblings of our new iPhone class…as soon as I finish writing it….but soon!
Welcome to My Blog
Last modified on 2008-07-30 12:59:21 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
It has been a long long time since I last published anything to jasonmperry.com and today felt like a good day to start. As you can see the web site is still a work in progress, but never the less I hope to fill it with new and exciting stories of travel, consulting, training, ActionScript and my new love Objective-C.
For those curious about the site’s inner workings I decided to use WordPress. I tried out several other Blog apps including the Apache foundation’s Roller. In the end Wordpress had the best overall package as well as a ton of developer support. I also love that I can post blog entries from my iPhone!
Working with WordPress will be a new adventure, especially as a Java/C# developer (time for a good PHP book), but different and new has never been something to scare me away.
I hope you enjoy the new blog and I look forward to any comments you have to share.