Have turned off commenting for old posts

There's a few posts that seem to get all my spam, and they're quite old. Plus I don't think it's fair to anyone involved, them or me, that someone can leave a comment on an old post years after it's no longer relevant for whatever reason.

I've set the limit to 90 days, which seems like approximately three times the usual limit. That should be plenty.

Apple's developer documentation website is horrible

Isn't anyone at Apple even mildly embarrassed about how poor the ADC search results are?

Like everyone other Mac developer (at least, those not using a seed... no comment otherwise), I've been bit by the Mac OS X 10.5.7 bug that causes Xcode to crash almost every time the documentation viewer is used.

Now I'm a reasonable guy. I get that a Mac OS X update has to be thoroughly tested. I wouldn't want it otherwise. So let me get this off my chest right away: it isn't the bug itself that bothers me.

Xcode 3.1.3 shipped after Mac OS X 10.5.7. So it should have been pretty easy to add code to Xcode see if the developer has executed a defaults write com.apple.xcode dontevershowthefuckingdocviewer 1 and then never show the documentation viewer, so I wouldn't lose unsaved work every time I forgot and tried to open it.1

And in the future, the documentation links should be handled via an URL type that can be handled by another application.

And, oh yeah:

Why is the documentation viewer embedded in the IDE?

Splitting the documentation viewer into a separate application would make a lot of sense. Browsers crash! If it wasn't this, it would be something else that crashed the documentation viewer. This was predictable. This was, dare I say, expected.

But what really, really makes me angry is the developer site. The content is generally pretty good, but the search engine is horrible:

  • Fix your summary so it's actually useful.

    Apple's summary:

    appleGoogle's summary:

    google

    There's just no comparison.2

  • I don't need to see every single empty redirect. Showing the same effective document multiple times is just random clutter.
  • There are better ways to represent the format of documentation in search results than just including it in the URL.
  • Add up those last two items, and you realize: I don't need PDFs in the search results. PDF should just be linked to from the documentation itself.

I'll update this when I have more points. The bile has receded enough for me to code again.

  1. Maybe use a different identifier for it. [↩]
  2. Google, you rock. [↩]

Palm doesn't need iTunes to sync music to the Pre

Palm's USB trick to get iTunes to load the Pre was a clever, if unethical1, hack.

Today, iTunes 8.2.1 broke that. But despite the ridiculous accusations of lock in, Palm doesn't need the Pre to sync music to the iTunes.

iTunes saves its entire music index as an XML file in iTunes Music Library.xml. It's XML. Palm can open it, read it, and get whatever they want.

New music is unencumbered by DRM. There's an exception, music bought before DRM was removed, but Palm wasn't able to play that before.

And, of course, the USB bus is available to any Mac or Windows application programmer.

So, then, nothing stops Palm from shipping a Pre Music Sync program. All it would have to do:

  • Read the XML file.
  • Grab the music using standard file I/O.
  • Send the music to the Pre over USB.

If Palm is less dumb than a sack of hammers, they expected Apple might fix how they validate the iPhone to exclude the Pre's tricks.

If Palm is less dumb than a sack of hammers, they would already have a Pre Music Sync program almost ready for deployment.2

In fact, this should have been their solution all along. Why wasn't it? Well, assuming Palm isn't a bunch of idiots3, Palm probably didn't have their music sync program ready. Ship the hack or slip the date? And somewhere along the line, some marketing type probably decided that impersonating an iPod was a good idea. They wanted a bullet point that it worked without installing software. Well, now Palm is going to have to write software and get users to install it.

They just did an entire OS. I think they can handle Pre Music Sync. And if they can't, I'm sure Markspace can handle it with The Missing Sync.

  1. Yes, I mean unethical. Of course it's unethical to promote a feature you have no control over that could disappear in instant. And especially when it probably will. [↩]
  2. But Palm being Palm, you should probably expect a Pre Music Sync program some time in October or November. [↩]
  3. And, again, this is Palm. [↩]

NSURL synchronous requests

Can't verify this yet, but something I want to investigate later:

Chris Parker (who "works for a fruit company in Cupertino") via Twitter:

Hey iPhone devs: sending synchronous requests via NSURL on the main thread is a good way to have SpringBoard kill you. Don't do that.

Cut the crap

One thing I'm surprised at every few months is how few good WordPress themes there are without sidebars, or at least with fully customizable content within the sidebar.

To me, sidebars with lots of internal links are a sign of pretentiousness and inflated ego. And that's pretty much it.

I'm going to use my own blog as an example. Let's pretend it was written by a guy named Steve (this isn't imagination) who is not me (and this part is):

If I was visiting Steve's blog for the first time, I'm probably there because someone linked me to a specific article on it. Or maybe I found something with a Google search. If I like what I see, maybe I'll read a couple extra articles. Maybe I'll click the subscribe link. Maybe I'll post some venom-filled, ignorant accusations in the comments.1

But being able to view all the posts Steve made in February 2005? Utterly without value. I just don't care. I'm never going to click that link and say to myself "Gosh, I wonder what this Steve guy posted on February 26, 2005?" Not gonna happen. I may search for a specific topic such as Palm, if I think Steve may have written on the topic and I'm interested in what Steve had to say. That's what the search tool is for, after all.

See all that crap beside your blog? Just cut it out. We don't care.

I'll admit my current appearance doesn't do this. View this post as an apology for the cluttered sidebar of the current theme. I'll work on it. I wasn't interested in putting effort into the theme I had, and the Kubrick theme is just too "whoops, I didn't set up my blog yet" in appearance. This was just my pick for "what looks the least like ass?" on short notice.

  1. Okay, I won't do that. [↩]

iPhone Stencil Kit

Every iPhone developer should probably own one of these. Nice. (via mzarra)

iPhone OS 3.0 Adoption Rate

Tapbots on iPhone OS 3 adoptions among their active users:

We’re currently running at an overall 75% upgrade rate which is pretty insane considering the number of devices and the fact that its only been 5 days.

Early iPhone 3G S OpenGL test results

Early iPhone 3G S OpenGL Test Results from Daniel Pasco over at Black Pixel:

the iPhone 3G S ran about twice as fast as the 2g Touch in every test

The iPod touch 2G was the previous speed champion of the iPhone OS X hardware.

Merlin Mann on Creative Work

The Sound of Young America podcast episode by Merlin Mann on Creative Work. A few tidbits:

"Before you get [to awesome] you're going to have to start a lot of things, and I must tell you you're going to suck at it for a really, really long time. An unbelievably long time."

"Getting something is what enables my brain to know it's starting to write."

"You have to write your way out of thinking block, because you can never think your way out of a writing block."

"Tolerance means that you're going to have to forgive yourself when it doesn't work out on the very first day."

Awesome stuff.

Trust, hostility, and the human side of Apple

Trust, hostility, and the human side of Apple:

It was a giant middle finger to iPhone developers. And that’s the closing impression that Apple gave us for WWDC. Clearly, they had absolutely no interest in fielding even a single question from the topic that we have the most questions about.

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