Zaerl: September 2010 Archives

September 29, 2010

Star Wars in 3D

Star Wars films converted to 3D: 2012 release date for Episode I

Please George, stop this madness.

September 23, 2010

Facebook is down

Billions of tons of food rotting. It's a tragedy.

September 20, 2010

Castle Wolfenstein Source Code Released

Grab the source from id FTP server

id is the last true software house (and it seems that they use a Mac OS X judging from the .DS_Store.)

September 18, 2010

Kinect Sales Will Blow Away iPad

Gamasutra: Microsoft's Tsunoda - Kinect Sales Will 'Blow Away' iPad

Saying the Kinect sales will outsell iPad is like saying that apples will outsell orange trees.

Everytime I switch on my MacBook my DVD drive spins for a couple of seconds. Today I realized that I've used that peripheral only one time in the last 2/3 years; when I installed Snow Leopard.

I buy music, movies, games and software online. I don't burn DVDs cause I have two external USB hard drives that I use for backup.

Do we need a DVD drive?

September 17, 2010

Consumer Reports and the iPhone 4

Consumer Reports app "not recommended"

It seems that the Consumer Report app [iTunes] is a piece of crap. Aah the irony. The funny thing is that the first point of the App Store Review Guidelines [you must be an official developer to see this link] is:

Apps that crash will be rejected

Two-quadrillionth digit of Pi

Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit

Its value truncated to the 39 decimal place is sufficient to compute the circumference of the visible universe to a precision comparable to the size of a hydrogen atom.

π ≈ 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197

I'm happy with this. I don't like irrational numbers.

Nokia Is the McDonald's of Phones

Brian Barrett speaks about Nokia

I don't think that Nokia can be compared to McDonald's. At least McDonald's does introduce new burgers and salads every now and then.

September 15, 2010

Unreal Dev Kit Adding iOS Support

UDK can now produce iOS applications

The UDK is the only reason why Apple has relaxed the iOS restrictions (Epic Citadel [iTunes] is amazing.)

See also: Apple changes the App Store License

September 14, 2010

Amazon Kindle Ad Taunts Apple iPad

The new 30 seconds spot

Nice commercial but comparing a Kindle with an iPad is like comparing a bookshelf with a computer.

Steve Jobs Stopped at Japan Airport Over Ninja Stars

Steve Jobs stopped at Japan Airport

Cause a ninja CEO is too dangerous, even for himself. Will Japan miss Steve?

September 13, 2010

Happy Programmers' Day

it's 0x100th 0x7da. Put on your party hat if you're russian.

September 11, 2010

GNU/Emacs Backup File

My hobby: append a ~ to the end of an URL (a real URL, not a fancy mod_rewrite) and see what I get.

Always (setq make-backup-files nil) when you work in a production server.

September 9, 2010

The Most Interesting App Store Rejection Reasons

Let's see what are the most interesting App Store rejection reasons:

Functionality

Apps that download code in any way or form: no custom App Store
Apps that install or launch other executable code: again, no containers
Apps that are not very useful or do not provide any lasting entertainment value: no crap games
Apps that are primarily marketing materials or advertisements: do not create an app that is the clone of your website only cause it's cool to be on the iPhone
Developers "spamming" the App Store with many versions of similar apps: please no more Angry Bird Cheats Guide

Metadata

Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform: we don't mind if your app has been ported to Android
Apps with app icons and screenshots that do not adhere to the 4+ age rating: no boobs
Developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods: we know that ★★★★★ stars reviews that are longer than a phrase are fake

iAds

Apps that are designed predominantly for the display of ads: no more iAd-powered flashlight

Media content

Audio streaming content over a cellular network may not use more than 5MB over 5 minutes: we don't want AT&T nextwork to explode

Scraping and aggregation

Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection of links, may be rejected: no more RSS readers please

And obviously no porn. You know why? Cause the entire idea of a "porn app" is stupid. Have you ever seen a porn app on Windows? You can't live without porn? So open Safari, there are a million websites you can look at.

Apple Changes the App Store License

Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines

Apple relaxed the restrictions of section 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement.

3.3.1 Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.

Now you can use whatever language you want, even ActionScript. Happy flash developers?

3.3.2 An Application may not download or install executable code. Interpreted code may only be used in an Application if all scripts, code and interpreters are packaged in the Application and not downloaded. The only exception to the foregoing is scripts and code downloaded and run by Apple's built-in WebKit framework.

Ok. Now we can use interpreted code (e.g. Lua and others.) The only restriction is that the code must be bundled with the application and not downloaded.

3.3.9 You and Your Applications may not collect user or device data without prior user consent, and then only to provide a service or function that is directly relevant to the use of the Application, or to serve advertising. You may not use analytics software in Your Application to collect and send device data to a third party.

Welcome back AdMob. Bring back your annoying ad banners.

Apple Ping

Why Ping is only for music? What about apps? (App reviews actually appear in the reviews page so why not integrate completely?)

Android is Open?

MG Siegler on openness of the Android OS

The Android OS is like Windows on notebook. What would happen in the world if Windows was GPL? Freedom but drinks not included? This is what happens:

WinDell
AsusWindows
AcerWin
HPW
WindowX (the POSIX variant, but incomplete)
Debian GNU/Windows (libre)

and so on.

Game Center

It will be a slow start, very slow.

VLC on the iPad

VLC on the iPad

Applidium has submitted the iPad port of VLC. Will Apple approve? 90% yes (at least I hope.)

Round Rects Are Everywhere!

Steve Jobs on Round Rects

What has been seen cannot be un-seen

Yes, round rectangles are everywhere, even in Wingdi.h. I love folklore stories of Good Old Days when there were Real Programmers.

September 2010 Archives