Coding
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Ill-fated Mars Global Surveyor has human error to blame
While we've no idea how much the Mars Global Surveyor actually cost to construct, launch, and manage whilst hovering around in space, it's entirely likely that a single human error wiped out even more than was initially lost by the Alaska Department of Revenue earlier this year. Sad to say, galaxy geeks everywhere now have a scapegoat to direct their wrath at, as a review board of the mishap found that "a single command (root@mars-surveyor: rm -rf /) that oriented the spacecraft's main communications antenna was sent to the wrong address," subsequently leading to a cataclysmic series of events that finally dismantled its communication system. Interestingly, the command caused the befuddled craft to think that one of its solar panels was "stuck," which eventually led to an autonomous decision to enter "safe mode," followed by a complete shutdown of the unit's onboard batteries. Intelligently, the LA Times report neglected to mention any specific culprit, and hey, living with the guilt of destroying the machine that showed us so much of the Red Planet is probably punishment enough.[Via Slashdot]
GPS-enabled wind chimes sound off while geo-tracking
If you think the Dandellas were outlandish uses of GPS technology, here's one that comes mighty close to one-upping even those. The GPS-enabled wind chimes have DIY written all over them, and while the chimes themselves where purchased (after a failed attempt at creating his own, notably), basically everything else that makes the system tick was homegrown. Utilizing Mologogo, servos, circuit boards, and a good bit of coding, the GPS chimes emit their music whenever the tracked individual's cellphone moves in a user-selected path, essentially acting as an alert that someone's headed to their domicile. Of course, the actual options here are a tad limited (albeit very intriguing), but the foundation of the project could indeed be used for a much broader geo-tracking scenario. Regardless, we know there are folks out there eager to give this a whirl, and thankfully for you, everything you need to know (including the oh-so-critical code) is just a Read link away.[Via MAKE]
Daring DIY'er devises homegrown heart monitoring device
While there's already a plethora of safe, proven methods to monitor your heart rate, there's just no satisfaction in buying an off the shelf BioShirt when you know you possess the skills (and spare time) to craft a system of your own. Interested in making his own mark in biomedical engineering, a crafty individual set out to build his own electrocardiograph for nothing more than fun, but rather than keeping his homegrown work all to himself, he busted out a set of instructions in order for us less inventive souls to replicate the process. Aside from creating an ECG board, reading results with LABView, and having the nerve to actually strap leads to your body and hope that you don't electrocute yourself, there's still a good bit of coding and behind the scenes work necessary to pull this off. So if you never got around to going to medical school, but you know you've got the DIY skills to operate a heart monitoring system in your home office, be sure to hit the read link and read that blurb about "destroying your nervous system" real carefully.[Via MAKE]
Learn Cocoa, Part II
When we posted about Part I of Scott Stevenson's Learn Cocoa tutorial, some people complained that there wasn't actually any coding involved. Well Part II at least introduces what Scott calls "Thinking in Code" and begins to dig a little deeper into what is required to actually use Xcode to write a Cocoa application. Obviously, Scott is moving very slowly, as yet again he requires no previous experience, but his lavishly illustrated guide is a pleasure to behold. He holds out the promise of more such guides in the future, provided some donations are forthcoming. Given how well he's done so far, I hope that comes to pass. Check it out at Cocoa Dev Central.
Nintendo DS doubles as wireless MIDI keyboard / controller
Joining the nearly endless amount of Nintendo DS hacks already in the wild is TobW's DS Sampling Keyboard, which "uses the DS's microphone and touchscreen" to interface with a software-based sampling keyboard. A close contender to join our Music Thing series, this wonderous hack takes advantage of the wee machine's excellent X / Y-axis controls as well as its built-in WiFi to beam the MIDI commands wirelessly. The program has been tested with Wifi, GBAMP, and M3, so "it should work on pretty much anything," and provides a much less expensive alternative to those dedicated offerings. While musical gizmos are always more effective when seen heard rather than just heard about, be sure to click on for a front row seat to the YouTube demonstration.[Via MusicThing]
Ruby + AppleScript = RubyOSA
Our friends at Download Squad have discovered a melding of two scripting worlds: AppleScript and Ruby. RubyOSA is the darling scriptenstein of these two languages, and while I don't know a lick of either, I'm willing to bet this could be a popular amongst the code ninjas in the audience. Ruby is a popular language (the 13th most popular, by their numbers), and it's the foundation of the Ruby on Rails framework which has given us such handy web 2.0 apps as Backpack, Odeo, Strongspace and many more.This is about the line, however, that I reach where I would need to start pretending I know more about any of these languages, so I'll let you check out RubyOSA for yourself to see if it gets your coding gears turning.
BBEdit 8.5 released with new UI, code folding, clippings - 160 total improvements
Bare Bones Software really knows how to deliver a .5 release, as the have just announced v8.5 of BBEdit, their powerful and professional HTML and code editor. Amongst the total 160 new and updated features is a revamped UI for both the app and its now-searchable preferences, 'code folding' for collapsing sections of a document for greater legibility, a revamped Clippings feature for re-using snippets of text and code, new languages, auto-save and much, much more.At $199, this editor definitely isn't for the faint of heart, and it's definitely why 'professional' is included in the product's description. However, for owners of previous versions, Bare Bones has quite possibly the most agreeable upgrade terms we've ever seen for an application: owners of any BBEdit v8.0 and above can upgrade for a mere $30, though if you purchased v8.2 after 1/1/06, it's free. For owners of v7.1.4 and earlier, the upgrade is only $40. a 30 day demo of this Universal Binary app is, of course, available from Bare Bones Software.[via Mac DevCenter]
Another homebrewing competition
Do you know how to code? If so, it seems like there's so many opportunities out there for you to make some moolah, and win some prizes (such as this, and this). DCEmu is hosting a contest where programmers develop an original piece of homebrew, whether it be games, demos or applications. Prizes include the incredibly flexible GP2X system, gift certificates, and cash. You have until December 31st to submit an entry, so you have a lot of time to work on your original designs.
How to ask development questions 101
If you are a budding developer, there are a few different ways to seek help from your peers. Whether you send an email off to your hero developer or jump into a chat room, it's not just what you ask, but how you ask the question that can make all the difference. Mike Ash, a programmer for Rogue Amoeba (purveyors of Airfoil, Audio Hijack and Nicecast), has written a 10-point article of sorts offering advice on how to ask your coding questions so you can get the right answers. While I am in no way a code ninja of any sorts, I can see that many of Mike's points center on bringing clarity to the questions you ask so those taking time to help you understand the question, instead of having to spend most of their time trying to glean the proper question out of you.Mike's Getting Answers should be an insightful read for any developers who are (or perhaps: should be) seeking help on how to get help with their projects.[via Daring Fireball]
OSx86 Project announces forum reorganization and upcoming name change, hints at new features
I just received an email from the OSx86 Project announcing a few recent and upcoming changes they have and will be making to the site. Last week they reorganized the forums to make the browsing and searching process easier, but in the upcoming weeks (by the end of the month, they promise), a host of new features will debut on the site, including blogging, a picture sharing gallery and a marketplace, along with a new name: Insanely Mac. It should be interesting to see (what I believe is) the first major upgrade to the already 39K+ member forum.
BuildFactory - automation for developers
I'm no developer, but I can call a good dev tool when I see one. BuildFactory from Bleep Software sounds like 'Automator for developers', with features like automated builds, building refreshed sources from Subversion, using your own external editor for errors and warnings, and building multiple projects with one click. A healthy dose of other features are offered in this handy tool, so why not check them out for yourself or watch some tutorials to see BuildFactory in action. The author has even posted a poll on the main product page to find out what features developers would most like to see added. At least you can't say BuildFactory's dev doesn't care about feedback.A demo of BuildFactory is available, while single licenses sell for $35, with a 5-pack for $150.
A browser just for Gmail
In a dual gesture of both kicking Mail.app to the curb and flexing the power of Xcode, Michael McCracken has built his own streamlined browser just for using Gmail. Quirky browser behaviors and avoiding the distractions that come from multiple browser windows and bookmark bars prompted this 10-line coding experiment.The resulting WebMail.app is exactly what Michael set out to create: a very slim Gmail viewer (you don't even get an address bar) based on WebKit. It works well, though there are quirks when having to do anything browser-related with it. Clicking a link in a message, for example, creates a new window in WebMail.app, not your default browser. Minor quirks aside, if you're in the same boat as Michael and you want a browser window just for using Gmail so you can retain things like your labels and alternate-email address abilities, this might be right up your alley.Personally, I'm very tempted to use this since I too have joined the ranks of kicking Mail.app to the curb (running it only on occasion to download and archive my email). However, some of the Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail that I've been using in Firefox have become indispensable to how I work with Gmail; being able to move between labels, trash messages and even label messages all with a couple strokes of the keyboard rivals even desktop email app functionality. It would be great to see someone run with WebMail.app (Michael bundles the source in his download) and add some javascript ninja coding to combine the beauty of WebKit with the functionality of those Gmail script abilities to create one rockin' Gmail app.*sigh* A Gmail-using blogger can dream, can't he?[via Hawk Wings]
The life of a lapsed game developer
Lost Garden has an interesting post up which is useful reading for anyone thinking about a career in game development. As an ex-game developer, driven out by a cancelled project, bad project management and pay cuts, Danc has a list of reasons why lapsed game developers won't be going back to their jobs once they taste the forbidden fruit of a mainstream development job.With an estimated 50,000 lapsed game developers out there -- people who've seen what real working conditions are like and prefer to stay away from the games industry -- it's an almost frightening outpouring of talent. On the other hand, many gamers and programmers are climbing over one another to get that vital entry-level job in the industry, to break in with fancy demos and showy code. Whether some developers care that they're losing people, when there are so many ready to replace them, is debatable -- but a high turnover and an unstable team can have their effects on products, which affects us as consumers too
WWDC Student Scholarship Program now open
TUAW reader Nolan B noticed that ADC (Apple Developer Connection) student members can now apply for a scholarship to WWDC 2006, Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference, being held August 7-11 this year in San Francisco. Scholarship winners receive a free ticket which includes total access to all technical sessions and special events - a $1595 USD value in all.Applications are due April 28th, so you'd better get crackin'. Check out the scholarship rules and WWDC FAQ sections for more information, and then wait patiently until June to find out if you'll be attending WWDC on Apple's dime.
