tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65956571866160251162024-02-20T07:10:21.853-08:00ShaunsTechnoWaffleAll things technological with probably a large helping of iOS related posts.ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-9680463631435752942018-08-08T10:03:00.001-07:002018-08-08T10:03:11.556-07:00Topps v Quidd - Collectable Trading Cards<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I was a kid I collected Star Wars cards and football stickers. Now, forty years later I have started again. and instead of walking around with huge piles of "swapsies" and trading with my mates, it is all on my phone and i can trade with anyone in the world, at any time. The two main apps are from Topps and Quidd. Topps have been doing this for decades and were what I collected as a child. Quidd are the new kids on the block.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to go into detail on what each of the apps does. Instead I will just compare and contrast their features.<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Cards</h2>
While both apps break the cards down into separate sets, Topps displays them all in one long scrolling list, with an index down the side to jump to particular sets. You can filter it and order it in different ways. There is a faction thing which I never really understood.<br />
With Quidd each fandom has a section and within that section you have sets of cards. So you only really see a dozen or so on screen at a time. <br />
They both do animated cards and holographic cards and most have backs to them. One neat feature of the Quidd cards is that you can use them in your phones messenger app. Once activated you can drag them into conversations. <br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Trading</h2>
This is one of the most important features and both apps approach it from different angles. Both apps have a scrolling notice board of users messages/trades. In Topps it is purely messages saying what you wish to trade. Clicking on it starts a trade with that user in which you can trade any cards. With Quidd, it is one card that a particular user wants to trade. Clicking on it starts a trade with that user for that card. Topps trading is a list of steps, what do you want to get, what do you want to trade away, are you sure, and the trade is done. With Quidd there is one screen with your cards and their cards on it. You add the cards to get and give in any order and click accept. Another neat feature of Quidd is that you can see the trades being built. You could add a card to get and then see the other person take it away. <br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Users</h2>
Both apps let you build a friends list of other users. Topps has a half hearted attempt at chat between users. You can comment on a trade or @them in the message window, but it doesn't really work. In Quidd, you can chat in real time in and outside of a trade.<br />
The downside with Quidd is that they seem to be pushing it more as a social media platform than a trading platform. There lots of options for making pretty pictures with your cards and stickers and sharing them with other users. To get to the trading screen you have to click around a bit.<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Shop</h2>
Both apps have a shop. This is where you get new cards. Both give you so many credits a day which you can in turn spend on packs of cards. Different packs cost different prices. Most have the option of paying in cold hard cash for them as well. That is where they make their money. Topps caused an outcry when they introduced crystals, which were their way of making people pay for things. All the really nice cards can only be brought for crystals. <br />
One thing that Topps is missing is some sort of exchange. Lots of people want to trade from one Topps app to another. You have to do that off-line and hope you are not being scammed.<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Content</h2>
The Topps star wars app just does star wars. It does update for each new film that comes out and completing a whole set usually gets you an award card. These are extra desirable. Quidd does fandoms. The main one is Marvel followed by Rick & Morty. It has some HBO shows and a lot of cartoons. It does cards, stickers, little 3d toys and gifs. Its sets are graded easy to difficult. The harder the set, the rarer or more expensive the cards are. It has to be said, that if Quidd has two dozen fandoms, only about six are really active. <br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h2>
Quidd is certainly the smarter and newer app. It does a lot of things that Topps could only dream about. the thing with both is that to get the decent cards you have to pay money. The cards may be rare but if the Topps/Quidd server goes down, they become non existent. <br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Postscript</h2>
So, which of these features would I build into NeoCards? Probably the cards and messages screen from Topps. More often than not, you want cards from a particular set, not a particular card. Be good to have the option of both though. It would also be nice to scroll through all your cards with the option of grouping them by set. The main trade screen is a good idea, though Quidd does need a bit of streamlining. <br />
We would do cards, stickers, gifs (and animated cards). Obviously the cards would be usable as stickers in other apps. One neat feature would be to trade your virtual card in for a physical card. Here the virtual one gets destroyed and you get small/medium/large printed one to replace it.<br />
Most sets should come with a pay option from the start. The main new feature would be an exchange. If you have a really rare card then why not sell it. It is going to happen, so you might as well cater for it. <br />
Finally as the cards live on a blockchain somewhere, they exist even if the site goes down. <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
</ul>
</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-37015812888863698242017-11-26T06:59:00.002-08:002017-11-26T07:20:02.548-08:00Issues Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I suppose first stage of a rewrite is to see how much you actually want to rewrite. There has been a website doing various things for about eight years now. Those things include<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>RSS stuff</li>
<li>WebcomiX app stuff</li>
<li>My web comic</li>
<li>Corporate web site ;)</li>
<li>Personal web site</li>
</ul>
<div>
It also evolved from one project to a solution with about three or four and involved a lot of logging. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
From now on all analytic logging will be done with Google Analytics. The site is just going to log any errors and stuff like that. App logging will also be done by Google. That cuts down on a lot of code. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The rewrite isn't just going to be porting code over either. Where I have to add some services to do it properly, I will. Whats that, a bit of SQL? Replace that with some EF.</div>
</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-41505856029882599222017-11-20T10:21:00.000-08:002017-11-26T07:00:59.921-08:00Issues Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Rewrites</h3>
The first problem I found was that everything is just SSSSOOOO different. MVC 4 to 5 was patching a few using statements and recompiling. .NetCore is completely different. You can import the code but you will have to rewrite it before you get it working properly. I think I am going to have to go one area at a time. There were a few bits where I should have added some services. There is the new DI use in Constructors. If I get one area working then hopefully the others should be quicker.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Libraries</h3>
Of course libraries have changed. I us syndicationFeed quite a lot and that has only just been added. Caching has changed as well.</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-71332693187169303372017-11-20T09:35:00.002-08:002017-11-26T07:00:47.223-08:00Porting MVC5 to ASP.Net Core <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I have this web site. It has some information in the front and some functionality in the back. Every now and again I have to upgrade it. One thing I have learnt is that you don't "upgrade" a M$ website. Even going form MVC 4 to 5, it was easier to start a new project and just copy everything into it. Going from MVC5 to .Net core is an even bigger jump. In these posts I will flag any issues I had and any tips I found for getting round them.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-74380630681327314652016-06-07T03:09:00.004-07:002016-07-10T05:10:44.324-07:00Converting Venture to C#<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As I am between jobs, I thought I would set myself a project to work on. Simplest one I fancied doing was converting my old iOS adventure game library to C#. The theory being, write it once in .Net Core 1.0 and then use Xamarin forms to port it to Win10, Android and iOS. <br />
<br />
So, I have got the basics working. First task was reading the XML config for the game into some sort of data structure. This was done by creating classes for each "element" and then using <span style="color: #274e13;">XmlType </span>and <span style="background-color: white; color: #274e13;">XmlAttribute </span>to map it onto the XML. Then you can use<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">XmlSerializer deserializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(GameDetails));</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Stream s = GetResourceStream(xmlFileName);</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">using (TextReader textReader = new StreamReader(s))</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">{</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> gd = (GameDetails)deserializer.Deserialize(textReader);</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">}</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
to read the xml file into a complete data structure. Much easier than the iOS way. Only slight hitch with Core 1.0 is that you have to pass a Stream to the XmlSerializer and not simply the file name. Also, Core makes it harder to access files as it is multi platform and they all treat files differently.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Next I added NCalc which is a library for evaluating expressions. So it can take the string "2+2" and return 4 as the answer.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then i set up some unit tests and used those to get the engine working. One test to check the XML loaded correctly and another to check the Conditions and Expressions evaluated correctly. More to test the PageText and Buttons were evaluated correctly.</div>
</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-2236664824511419962015-05-16T09:39:00.002-07:002015-05-16T09:40:05.712-07:00Upgrading from MVC4 to MVC5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So Googles login in feature broke in the standard MVC4 web app form M$. The only option seemed to be to upgrade a few things. In the end I made a new web app project in VS2013 and copied everything into that. A couple of gotchas though.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Google Connect now requires HTTPS to work. This meant getting a IP address for my web site and getting it signed. HTTP seems to redirect to HTTPS without any hassle.</li>
<li>MVC5 now uses Bootstrap for all its responsive/CSS formatting. This means you should probably recode your HTML a bit. It looks much nicer than the old one though.</li>
<li>It appears to use new tables for storing its user admin data in. </li>
</ul>
<div>
It took about a day of copying code and pages over from one solution to the other. Not bad really.</div>
</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-13921473642907679702015-02-18T05:35:00.001-08:002015-02-18T07:21:37.936-08:00Mac App Store - an epic fail?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
While the iOS app store is a great success, the app store for the Mac looks like a bit of a failure. If you look at the free/paid charts and see what the most popular apps are you will see what I mean. <br />
<br />
Lets start with the free one. The top 10 apps are<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>OSX Yosemite</li>
<li>M$ Remote Desktop</li>
<li>Xcode</li>
<li>Unarchiver</li>
<li>Memory Clean</li>
<li>Slack</li>
<li>Bit Defender</li>
<li>Instragram</li>
<li>RAR Extractor</li>
<li>M$ One Note</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
That is an OS update, two M$ business tools, two zip utilities, Developer tools, a dubious memory cleaner and anti virus. To begin with it implies most Mac users are business users who do most of their work in a M$ environment. Zip utilities should really be standard with OSs these days, rather than an add on. Then there is Xcode. Does this mean that more people out there are developing new apps (for iOS probably) tun are downloading free apps on the Mac?<br />
<br />
Then there are the paid apps. I won't list them but in at #5 is Final Cut Pro, at £230 and at #8 is Logic Pro X at £150. How low are sales if a £200 professional video editing app is the fifth most popular app? we are talking niche market here. Why would you even launch an app at £0.79 and how many would you need to sell to get to #180 in the paid list?<br />
<br />
You can only hope those charts are summarised some how and not actually indicative of weekly or monthly sales figures. </div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-76724521727382027932014-05-26T13:07:00.001-07:002015-02-18T07:21:22.046-08:00Bitcoin Shizzle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, for the last few months I have been looking into Bitcoin (and various crypto currency matters). I missed out on the first great peak and don't want to miss out again. Of all the CCs out there, there are a few main ones.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Bitcoin. This is the daddy of them all and is the one most people have heard of. </li>
<li>Litecoin. People say that Litecoin is going to be the next big coin. Or the also ran depending on how you look at it.</li>
<li>Dogecoin. This is the charismatic upstart. It goes for high profile stunts and is still very low value. </li>
<li>Darkcoin. This is the moody one in the corner wearing a trench coat. It is all about privacy and so, is probably going to be popular amongst the "Silk Road" crowd.</li>
</ul>
<div>
To this end I have had a go at mining and buying various coins. Solo mining is a no go as the chances of finding a block are minuscule. You can mine with a pool (like Slush') and that will give you some return, however it may not be much. The rate of mining is described in the # of Hashes you do in a second. If you are mining MHs then forget it. It has got to be at least a couple of GHs though people talk bout THs and PHs these days. To run with the mining analogy, you will be the chap by the river panning for gold with something about the size of a jam jar while the big tractor things surround you.<br />
<br />
Buying coins feels a bit dodgy as you do it via arrangements set up through websites. These involve the seller sticking the coins in a safe place, you transferring the money to their bank account and then you getting the coins. This is probably the main thing stopping BTC taking off.</div>
<br />
<br /></div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-44534579924325074732013-11-27T06:33:00.000-08:002013-11-27T06:33:20.023-08:00Domain transfer gotcha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I decided to move www.thirdprize.org from GoDaddy to NetCetera when my original hosting expired. GoDaddy doen not support MVC4 and I fancied learning it. They had it locked so the original attempt to transfer the domain failed. I unlocked it, did the paperwork and tried again. This time it seemed to work and my URL started to point at my newly created, newly hosted web site. I used it quite happily for about a month, even rewriting my apps to use it to retrieve data.<br />
<br />
So you can imagine my suprise when on the day of the original expiration, my URL started to point to a GoDaddy holding page. It seems the original transfer did not go through and I had to initiate it all over again. This meant my website and my apps were out of order for a good day or so. <br />
<br />
As of time of writing, either the apps are working or the web site is working. Not both at the same time.<br />
<br />
So, moral of the story? Always make sure your transfere went through successfully, even if it looks like it has.</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-52338892310166513152013-11-10T13:13:00.001-08:002013-11-10T13:13:08.947-08:00WebcomiX to be rewrittenAfter a year or so on the market, it is about time WebcomiX got a rewrite. Rather than the clunky collection of UiViewControllers it currently is, it is going to become a sleek new UiNavigationController based beast. Tabs at the bottom for navigation and the usual table views for listing and accessing comics.<div><br></div><div>So far an afternoons work has produced a Storyboard based prototype that links all the screens together and shows how it will look and behave. Using a navigation controller based setup means the title and toolbars are built in. This means I just have to look after the previous/next buttons. There will also be a tab dedicated to promoting this and my other apps.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVv5cUxYaj_ynAHq4uUTSKfeYXFKLCWNnziOLwoe4-ETGX0bwjIqQKmCw4ji6RDtloon_05dID4svklOrxeak38uCpO7YGGAsoYz9eIHVR2DumAR1sL6lFmgSj0ObdL_qYoRzjCe5uYtxd/s640/blogger-image--1381308982.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVv5cUxYaj_ynAHq4uUTSKfeYXFKLCWNnziOLwoe4-ETGX0bwjIqQKmCw4ji6RDtloon_05dID4svklOrxeak38uCpO7YGGAsoYz9eIHVR2DumAR1sL6lFmgSj0ObdL_qYoRzjCe5uYtxd/s640/blogger-image--1381308982.jpg"></a></div>ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-65823063077642056802011-11-22T04:05:00.001-08:002011-11-24T07:45:38.891-08:00Modern Warfare 3 - Noob Solo Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the things that put me off getting MW3 was the so called short campaign. I have had it for a couple of weeks now and I have to say that for the beginner (this is my first MW game) the reputed 5 hour campaign is way off. I have clocked in 8+ hours and I'm not even half way yet. If you are UberLeet and only ever play with the pistol (as any other weapon would make it too easy) then you probably could zip through it in less time. I want to enjoy the ride and take in the atmosphere. <br />
<br />
For the solo player there is also the Spec-Ops games. These are a bit like GOWs Horde mode where you have to see how many waves of baddies you can withstand. There are also some general challenge games where you have to complete timed courses, etc. I haven't played these much yet but they look like they add a few hours to the game.<br />
<br />
Say 15/20 hours for your first run through and half that for a second/harder level and you are probably getting your monies worth from it. Add Spec-Ops and you are probably talking £1 per hour of entertainment.<br />
<br />
So as a non multiplayer player, I would give the game 8/10. The plot is just a bit too far fetched to be believable and your companions don't really have a personality between them, but the game play is great. <br />
<br />
Update:<br />
I will keep it at 8/10 but I have since realised that completing the single player campaign once counts as 50% of the campaign % score. I am guessing you have to do it twice (or even three times to get all the achievements) to get 100%.</div>ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-5097114379887115212011-09-26T08:18:00.000-07:002011-09-26T08:18:55.853-07:00iOS App Submission Tips<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, I have four app in the app store based on two code bases. Here are some tips that you may find useful and that I wish I had known.<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Wait until your app is REALLY finished before submitting it. It only really gets one shot at the front page of the "new apps" part of the appstore. The people who see it there are going to be your initial user base. If its only half finished then people will download it, try it and uninstall it. No questions asked.</li>
<li>Make sure it is in the right category. I released a music news app and foolishly marked it as "news" first and "music" second. Who looks in the news category?If i had marked it the other way round, i would have got a lot more hits. </li>
<li>It usually takes a week to get a new app approved. The app store gets the most action at the weekend, so submit your app on a Thursday or Friday. Then nine times out of ten it will be live on the Saturday and you will get maximum exposure.</li>
<li>You have two apps, same code base but slightly different content. Say, one is a "lite" app. If you submit two apps, one an update to an existing one and the other a new app based on the same code, the update will be done before the new app. I think it is about 4 days for an update and a week for a new one. This makes me think updates are not as rigorously checked or that there is less paperwork for the reviewer to fill in. I am just saying ...</li>
<li>"Lite" apps. They are there to give someone a taster of the real app and nothing else. If I am not doing many updates then I have no problem with renaming the lite app and resubmitting it as a new app. That way it gets maximum visibility. Some existing users will not get the update, but who cares as they probably are not going to buy the app.</li>
</ol>
</div>
ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-1892193906130556402011-02-14T04:01:00.000-08:002011-02-14T04:01:02.029-08:00iPhone Fragmentation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">iPhone users laugh at Android because of its <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/218966/android_fragmentation_will_get_more_complicated.html">market fragmentation</a>, but it is pretty fragmented itself. if you are an iPhone dev then you have to worry about which iOS model you will be running your app on.<br />
<br />
<b>iPhone 1 to 3G</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Small screen.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Dead slow.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Rubbish camera.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Not compatible with a lot of the latest iOS features</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">.</span><br />
<br />
<b>iPhone 3G/4</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Bigger screen.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Fast.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Decent camera.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">All latest iOS features.</span><br />
<br />
iPad 1<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Biggest screen.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">Fast.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">No camera.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;">All latest iOS features.</span></div><div><br />
</div><br />
So to write a universal app you need to include <b>3!!</b> versions of any artwork you require and at least three (maybe 5) different sized icons for the home pages. You can't guarantee what features the device will have or what speed it will eventually run at. Add to that iPone5/iPad2 and you have even muddier water.</div>ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-5277723323213138332011-01-06T03:58:00.000-08:002011-01-06T04:08:10.665-08:00The Lava Lamp Shaped UniverseTwo of the great scientific questions of the age are what was before the "big bang" and what goes on inside a black hole. It has always struck me as blindingly obvious that the "big bang" and block holes are both opposite ends of the same tunnel. Whatever gets sucked into a black hole will eventually get spewed out into a new universe somewhere in a parallel dimension. I believe <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Smolin">Lee Smolin</a> has done some research on this.<br />
<br />
How does this work? Well, imagine of you would a huge <a href="http://www.glow.co.uk/lava-lamps.html?gclid=CKqk_brDpaYCFdERfAodok8dVA">lava lamp</a>. As time goes by it changes shape, bits bubble off and bits join up again but there is always the same amount of "stuff". The way i see it there is an unbreakable skin round the universe that can increase or decrease in size. when a bubble occurs it doesn't break off from the main body but instead goes off into another dimension in the same space. Then matter gets sucked out of the old universe and into the new one, a bit like sand running from one compartment in an egg timer to another.<br />
<br />
So how does this relate to our universe? Well imagine there was another universe U1. U1 at some point in its life gets a black hole in it. This is some sort of hole between dimensions. matter starts leaking out from U1 and that forms our universe U2. As it is in a different dimension it is an entity unto itself. The bang in the "big bang" is the force of the matter flowing into our universe. As more and more flow in, our universe expands and U1 shrinks. This carries on until U2 starts to develop black holes. Now we are leaking matter into any number of other universes Un. Eventually once there are enough black holes, the amount of matter leaving U2 will be greater than the amount coming in. This is why the universe seems to be contracting. It is literally getting smaller. <br />
<br />
This makes much more sense than all the matter sucked into a black hole being reduced to an infinitely small point or all the matter in the universe coming from one either. it doe however make more questions that need answering. If you have more than one black hole then what happens when they meet? If the rest of the universe has been consumed then does one consume the other or can one suck the matter back out the other? If the second black hole is consumed, would this have any effect on its child universes? Who knows? Is any of this measurable? Probably not.ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-87012301526302563282010-11-26T03:21:00.000-08:002010-11-26T03:21:15.170-08:00Is iTunes Racist?Yes, it is to a certain extent. How? Well you see, it tends to classify everything that comes out of the US, England, Australia and some parts of Europe as "Pop", "Alternative", "Electronica" or whatever. The musical output from the REST of the world get labelled "World Music" which, in all honesty, is a bit ignorant. It may come as a surprise to some, but the rest of the world can do our sorts of music as well as we can. Labelling everything as "World Music" is like labelling Bob Dylan and Daft Punk as the same genre. It is just not the case.ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-54367078394244062612010-10-20T12:48:00.000-07:002010-10-20T12:49:55.289-07:00Capturing iPhone or iPad screen shots.I searched for a long time for how to take an iPhone 4 sized screen shot using an old 3G iPhone or Xcode. There are lots of very old stories floating around the internet from before the iPhone simulator had this facility. You dont need extra software or stitching ordinary screen captures together. No, you can capture screens from the iPhone simulator using <i><b>control-command-C</b></i>.<br />
<br />
Simple as that!<br />
<br />
Now open Preview, select "New from clipboard" and save the result as a PNG.ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-11345682723360572992010-06-02T08:41:00.000-07:002010-06-02T08:55:46.530-07:00Things I Hate About iTunes ...In no particular order<div><ol><li>No undelete option. You spend 2 hours hand crafting a play list and hit delete by mistake. Boom, its gone.</li><li>It will fetch some artwork for albums you rip but not all of them. Even really obvious ones. </li><li>If you rip a 2CD set then it will invariably try to name each CD differently. Why?</li><li>The interface in general. Start playing a track, rename a whole bunch of other and a dialog box pops up while the renaming takes place. Can you stop the track? Nope.</li><li>Genres. Some have "&" in them and some have a "/". There is Electronic, Electronica and Electronica/Dance. I think you will find that Alternative is quite separate and different to Punk. </li><li>Oh look, Apple has released a new bit of hardware. Time for another huge iTunes download with a couple of features that aren't applicable to you.</li><li>Why is Bob Dylan next to Bob Marley in my collection? One is D and one is M.</li><li>Why it gives strange errors (Error 50, I'm looking at you) when Apple make iTunes, the iPod and even the computer it's all running on.</li></ol></div>ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-4581754117866718952010-05-17T01:15:00.001-07:002011-11-22T04:20:19.617-08:00Epic Pet Wars Hints, Cheats and Tips<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been playing <a href="http://www.epicpetwars.com/">Epic Pet Wars</a> a while now on the iPhone and on the web site and here are a few tips to getting the most out of your pet.<br />
<div>
<ol>
<li><b>Start with a strong pet.</b> The original selection of pets were quite weak compared to the recent additions. It always pays to download any free pets that come up as they usually come with respect points as well. Certainly in the first few dozen levels having a strong pet makes all the difference. </li>
<li><b>You should never have to lose a battle. </b> The simple rule for battles is ONLY fight pets that are weaker and less well defended than you are. Make sure their weapons and armour are several levels below yours. If they don't have any accessories then even better. If they have no equipment at all then you should kill them in one strike. This is easier on the website as you can refresh the battle screen if they all look too hard. I have fought 500 other pets and only lost 4 times.</li>
<li><b>Equip only the suitable equipment. </b> Weapons and armour are a matter of taste. I go for the ones with +HP, +Attack and +Defence. never go for any that reduce anything.</li>
<li><b>Bosses. </b> Only fight these when you have to and make sure you are well equipped with spells and potions when you do. You can easily defeat the early ones just by having the best equipment. Some of the more advanced ones require spells. Here you have two options. First one is HP. You can get spells that reduce H and Max HP at the same time. These are useful as they hurt the enemy but they can't heal themselves as their Max HP is diminished as well. The other approach is attack and Defence. Here you either reduce theirs and/or increase yours until it becomes a one sided battle. </li>
<li><b>Mysterystein.</b> I finally managed to defeat this boss. If you chuck all the strong spells at him then he just reduces tour Max HP until you are dead. It seems the way to get him is to chuck the weakest spell (B.S.O.D.) at him. this doesn't hurt him but a) stops him casting the nasty spells and b) bumps up your stats quite nicely. You want to use at least 50 on him by which point you can start attacking normally. </li>
<li><b>Friends. </b> <a href="http://www.googolexikon.de/epicpetwars/possegrow.php">This</a> is a good site for building up your Possee. you need at least 400 by the time you reach level 100+ so add a few a day. And remember, friends are cumulative so they are shared by all your pets and are never lost. </li>
<li><b>Have a few pets.</b> Some of the latter levels are a bit tedious if you just log on once a day, train and log off again. Having a couple of pets keeps it interesting. It is also good to have one long term pet and another one or two practice ones.</li>
</ol>
<div>
I hope you found that useful, and don't forget to add <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #33cc00;"><b><i>AEGZRL</i></b></span>. </div>
</div>
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bwjruyE6yw8/S_EFE39b4mI/AAAAAAAAAFk/OV4TCaFqJzs/s1600/ebay+014.png"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472160603531108962" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bwjruyE6yw8/S_EFE39b4mI/AAAAAAAAAFk/OV4TCaFqJzs/s400/ebay+014.png" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 267px;" /></a></div>ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6595657186616025116.post-91721462610813601522010-05-05T03:10:00.000-07:002010-05-05T03:11:58.500-07:00GreetingsThis is where I will post any thoughts I have concerning culture, technology and the IT world in general.ShaunPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05701570469957663980noreply@blogger.com0