The Dangling Pointer

Sh*t my brain says and forgets about

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Rediscovering CouchDB

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On November 10, 2015

In Uncategorized

I’m currently writing the materials for my presentation on Core Data & Synchronization of data for RWDevCon 2016. One of the requirements for the demonstration app is a web service that provides a REST API to sync with. One of the requirements of the talk is that I cannot rely upon an Internet connection. Every person going through the tutorial needs to be able to bring up a local web service to following along with while coding the iOS app on their machine.

I started looking into a lot of wrappers for web apps, including Electron. The issue is I have a limited amount of time to come up with a solution that is super simple for conference attendees to install and bring up. I haven’t developed a web app for a couple years – and I feel so rusty. I do not have a trusty fallback programming language outside of Swift and Objective-C. I really feel stupid sometimes not knowing Ruby, Python or any other language as well as I feel like I should.

I ended up digging for two full nights and got super frustrated. There is just so much to learn about a new language, their web frameworks, persistence layers, and on and on. I still need to find time to write the iOS demo application – so I ended up time-boxing the search. Suddenly I had a moment of clarity. I remembered CouchDB – a document store/database that has a JSON REST API built in!

I first learned about the Apache CouchDB project from a presentation given by Jens Alfke at SecondConf in Chicago, 2011.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/37867869

Attendees will get a single ZIP file with the CouchDB binary. I’ll then have a small script they can execute to seed the data into the store. Super super simple. So far I’m in love with CouchDB again. 🙂

Sparkly Code Princess mug

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On November 9, 2015

In Uncategorized

Because I’ve had quite a few people ask…

Get it on Zazzle.com

Preventing Apple Watch Screenshots

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On November 8, 2015

In Uncategorized

I posted earlier last week about how I figured out how the heck I was taking so many Apple Watch screenshots. Turns out there are multiple scenarios causing it to happen. I was thinking about turning the watch face around to move the buttons onto the other side. Something was holding me back until my friend Ellen said she turned her watch too.

Swapping the watch bands was super simple. Then I went into the Apple Watch Settings app and told it the digital crown was on the left. Boom. No more accidental screenshots.

Picture of my left wrist with the Apple Watch controls placed on the left side rather than the right

Keeping Myself Organized Using Trello

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On November 7, 2015

In Uncategorized

My system for helping keep my brain focused during the workday is a system of lists in a note-taking program like Evernote or Simplenote. Every time I encounter an e-mail, talk to a coworker about something, or get assigned a pull request to review I turn that into a checkbox item. If I don’t get to an item in a day, those empty checkbox items get moved to the next day (or week). The system isn’t without faults but it seems to work. The only issue with the checkboxes is they don’t portray status of longer-running tasks.

This next week I’m going to try something different with how I keep myself organized. For simple TODOs, I’ll still use checkbox items. For longer running tasks with different states to jump through I’m going to try using a personal Trello board. We use Trello at Automattic for some projects as well as at RayWenderlich.com for project tracking. I’ve done simple Kanban boards before but I think Trello might be what I’m missing. Their mobile app is pretty good as well which helps with things I think of while on the go.

I’ll report back after I get some time in with it!

Standing Desk Back Pain

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On November 6, 2015

In Uncategorized

I’ve been using a standing desk for over 2 1/2 years. About nine months ago I started mixing in walking on a treadmill to my daily life. I noticed something over the course of this summer – standing at my desk brought back a ton of lower back pain. I thought I had licked the back pain early on with yoga stretches to improve my hip flexor muscles. Turns out, I forgot how to stand.

How are you supposed to stand? There are a TON of great posts out there about the right posture. I usually refer to this one when someone new starts standing. The thing I forgot is something so slight that you won’t notice until you’ve been standing for a while:

BEND YOUR KNEES SLIGHTLY

Seriously? Yup. We/I have a tendency to stand straight up (when I’m not dancing at my standing desk) and pull the knees back, locking them. While this is “easier” to stand it ends up putting a ton of strain on your knees and changes your posture, stressing your back. I thought I was having sciatic nerve problems but it turns out it was in fact sacroiliac joint pain from locking my knees.

Dancing at my desk, walking on the treadmill and balancing on a single foot didn’t seem to aggravate the back. Turns out my knees naturally don’t lock back in those situations. Use your leg muscles to stand by letting the legs bend just slightly. You’ll notice a huge improvement in a short time. I noticed in minutes there was a difference.

Natural Language Search with Core Data

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On November 5, 2015

In Uncategorized

Here’s a super interesting write up on how to implement a natural language search using Core Data in a Mac or iOS app. Black Pixel needed to find a way to bring a more natural way for users of the Inspirato app to search for the right vacation. Pretty cool stuff here and something I was very excited to read about with my previous experience with search technologies.

Developing Inspirato’s Search Tool

Apple Photos littered with Apple Watch screenshots

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On November 4, 2015

In Uncategorized

I’ve noticed that ever since I got my Apple Watch that my photo stream has been filled with seemingly random screenshots of my watch face. It’s easy to take a screenshot – simple hit the digital crown and the side button at the same time. So why the heck am I always causing these screenshots?

2015-11-04_12-16-53

Today I finally discovered the root of the issue. When I’m on a video call at my standing desk I typically put my hands in my pockets to force myself to focus on the people talking. I get seriously distracted if I don’t do this. Turns out that’s the exact reason for all of the photos.

IMG_7237

The edge of my pocket is hitting both buttons at the same time. Derrrrp!

Easy Mac to Mac Screen Sharing

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On November 3, 2015

In Uncategorized

Screen sharing over iMessage is not a terribly well-known feature of Mac OS X – but it’s incredibly awesome and easy to use. The only requirements are the person needs a relatively new Mac OS X install (Yosemite or higher) and iMessage enabled on their Mac.

  1. In Messages, find your existing conversation (or create a new one with the user).
  2. Click the Details button up top and click it.
    2015-11-02_19-09-28
    2015-11-02_18-50-29
  3. Find the little icon that looks like two squares with an offset between them and click it.
    2015-11-02_18-53-03
  4. Select Ask to Share Screen.
  5. The other person should get a notice and they can accept it.
    2015-11-02_18-54-08
  6. Once you’re sharing you are in view-only mode – you have to click the icon in the upper left to request control of their desktop.

Pretty simple! I’ve had some issues in the past with the notifications never coming through for screen sharing but it seems to be resolved with Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan).

View Apple’s Support Documentation on screen sharing in Yosemite

CBS to launch Star Trek series in 2017 for a fee

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On November 2, 2015

In Uncategorized

CBS announced today that a totally new Star Trek series is being planned for launch in 2017.

The most interesting part of the news release is that you’ll have to buy CBS’ streaming service for $5.99/month to gain access to it. It’s a bold move for CBS to go to a subscription-only model for a traditionally broadcast-only TV network. I think they would be better off spending the time partnering with one of the streaming providers out there like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. I can’t see spending a separate charge for potentially a single show every week.

The best part is the news release barely talks about the show. It almost seems like they’re more fixated on the delivery of the show than the show itself (who’s starring in it, the premise, etc). 🙁

Quite possibly the worst candy ever

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On November 1, 2015

In Uncategorized

Candy Pumpkins. Barf.

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