Entries Tagged 'Life' ↓

Wow! Where has the last year gone?! It seems like no time since I first posted about going to WWDC 2009.

I never got a chance to say just how much I enjoyed it last year. It was a great opportunity to learn a ton of stuff about Mac and iPhone development first hand from Apple engineers. The talks were excellent and well delivered, there was a real buzz around the place and the other developers were extremely friendly and helpful. And of course it was an opportunity to spend some time in one of my favourite cities.

It has also been a very interesting and busy year for me since then with Mobilizd. I have completed a number of iPhone projects and have some great iPhone and iPad projects in the works at the moment. I have also met and worked with lots of really cool and interesting people.

I am delighted to be going back again this year, even though it has been a bit of a nightmare getting everything sorted out at such short notice (WTF was that about Steve!?). In particular, I am looking forward to seeing the new iPhone 4G launch at Steve Jobs’ Keynote (hopefully), learning more about iPad app design & development, new SDK features such as Game Center and meeting up with lots of cool developers and of course the WWDC Bash in Yerba Buena Gardens!

So as part of my time honoured WWDC tradition, here is a picture I took in SF last year:

The Balclutha, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park

Wow! Where has the time gone. I can’t believe I am flying out to San Francisco later this week. This is my last picture of San Francisco, so enjoy the twisty bends of Lombard Street on Russian Hill.

Not long to go now! Continuing on from last week’s post. Here are the Painted Ladies, famous Victorian Houses on Haight St, San Francisco.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference takes place from 8-12 June in San Francisco. I am heading over as part of a 30 strong InvestNI delegation for my first Apple conference since converting from the Dark Side last year. Its going to be pretty intense with tons of information on iPhone and Mac application development! So with the miserable, wet and cold May we are experiencing at the moment, I thought I’d cheer myself up with a nice picture of the Golden Gate Bridge:

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San Francisco is probably my favourite city. This will be my 3rd trip there (last time was my honeymoon in 2006) and I can’t wait to see it again! I’ll post some more pictures over the next few weeks…

With the season coming to a close, we are starting to hear a lot of excuses coming out of underachieving clubs and players. The biggest cop-out on the go starts with the phrase “If only” or “What if” . In the last week I have heard pundits, fans and footballers say:

• What if Gerrard and Torres had played more games together…
• If only Guus Hiddink had managed Chelsea from the start of the season…
• If only Man Utd hadn’t scored so early against Arsenal…

Every team loses players to injury, suffers loss of form, bad luck, dodgy refereeing decisions etc. What makes one team the Champions is that they dealt with the problems they faced better than every other team. Using squads to reduce impact of injury, bouncing back from bad results, good team spirit, not stopping until the final whistle etc.

This isn’t confined to football though. We are all guilty of wallowing in self-pity from time to time (myself included). Instead of looking for excuses, maybe we should spend the time looking at the underlying causes and trying to figure out a way of preventing them from happening in the future. Otherwise, we will be trotting out the same old What Ifs this time next year too.

OK I am a little late but it’s the thought that counts, right??

I am ashamed to admit that I have been neglecting the blog lately. I guess I haven’t really had very much to say of late. Nothing has changed there I hear you say! Even so,  I thought I’d give a quick round-up of the year to date…

Development

The new year has been a busy period. We have just finished the development phase of our next major release, my first since joining last year. Its been a step learning curve but we have managed OK. The next release will be a lot more involved so I am looking forward to getting going with that. It should see us through the rest of the year.

I have also lined up a few interesting side projects to keep myself off the streets at night. They are mix of web and iPhone apps using Ruby on Rails, the iPhone SDK and OpenGL ES. I am also hoping to take a look at Android development at some stage. It’s a very interesting time for independent developers. Every day seems to bring a new platform or app store announcement lately (Nokia’s Ovi Store, Palm’s App Catalog and as well as others by MS, O2 and Orange!). I guess with the amazing success of the iPhone’s App Store, it was inevitable that the other smart-phone makers would follow suit. It will be interesting to see how things shape up once the dust settles. I’m also hoping to climb out of my cave and go meet some other developers.

Gaming

It was a quiet Christmas in terms of gaming. I have been playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on the PS3 when I find time. Its a 3rd person action-adventure game, similar to the Lara Croft series with a Gears of War style cover system. Its fun to play and the graphics are excellent, considering its over a year old. Overall, its fantastic value for money on the budget Platinum series.  I will definitely be picking up a copy of Uncharted 2 when it is released later this year. Also, the much anticipated Killzone 2 is due for release on the PS3 very soon. Unfortunately the Wii didn’t even get switched on over Christmas due to the dearth of quality titles. I am toying with the idea of trading it in for a DS or more PS3 games.

Football

Since I last posted, Stevie G was arrested, Rafa Benitez cracked, Arsenal have disappeared and Chelsea sacked their manager of 6 months. Meanwhile, Man Utd have went on a record breaking run of 14 clean sheets (and counting) and have stormed their way to a 5 point lead at the top of the English Premier League. They are currently English, European and World Champions, own the world’s best footballer (at least for now) and have an unprecedented quintuple in their sights. It’s a pretty good time to be a Red! I could be smug about it but I really don’t expect them to do a clean sweep. Barcelona are looking really strong at the moment and must be favourites alongside Utd for the Champions League. Also, it only takes one bit of bad luck (As Utd saw against Portsmouth in the FA Cup last year) and you can be knocked out. Everyone thinks the Carling Cup is a foregone conclusion, but I expect Spurs to be really up for it against some of the younger members of Utd’s squad. It should make for an exciting run in.

Just coming to the end of my first day in the Cambridge office. Totally gobsmacked by the views of Boston. It is great meeting the people I have been working with in person. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming.

Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been great. I was caught in a heavy thunderstorm last night. The rain hammered down for three hours with no let up. I found shelter in a nearby Abercrombie and Fitch store which became a living hell after an hour. Ended up having a Clam Chowder Bread Bowl then onto a great little bar where a pint of Bud was $1.50 so it wasn’t all bad.

I will be going to my first baseball game tomorrow night to see World Champions Boston Redsox take on the Texas Rangers. Its a hard job but somebody has got to do it

I recently bought a book (Exposure Photo Workshop) in a local Waterstones shop at the reasonable price of £15.99. In the back of my mind I knew I was probably paying more than I would online at Amazon or Play.com. Having just checked, Amazon.co.uk have a massive 35% discount on the book. Ouch!

I thoroughly enjoy rummaging around bookshops when I am in town. I much prefer sitting down and leafing through a book than using dodgy Look Inside features or the Comment minefield. The problem is, when I see a book I am interested in a little voice whispers in my ear “Its probably cheaper on Amazon”. So I usually set the book back planning to look it up online, which I usually forget to to anyway. Is the “in store” experience and convenience worth the extra markup? How many times do you buy a book online only to realise its not quite what you were expecting? It is definitely worth more but maybe not 35% more! I think bookstores should take a leaf from the likes of Tesco and declare the difference in price compared to the major etailers. At least that way, I could make an informed decision on the spot, and unless there is a massive markup, I’d probably buy it there and then.

The sad thing for me is how good IT books are a dying breed in bookstores, being replaced with smaller collections of terrible “Dummys Guide to …” and crud like “How to use Excel” and “Ebay hacks”. No doubt this is due to Internet savvy IT pros buying their books online or increasingly reading ebooks. I guess we have only ourselves to blame.

Well I have decided that I should start to do my bit to save the planet. Yes thats right, I have decided to start using public transport once more, Northern Irish Rail (NIR) to be exact. OK, maybe it has more to do with the fact that I am now working in Belfast City centre and can no longer avail of free car parking. The fact that it now costs more than £60 to fill my car’s tank is a pretty persuasive argument too. And then theres those cursed motorway roadworks (Grrr!) to contend with.

So how do I feel about my loss of freedom? Brilliant! No longer do I have to trudge up and down the motorway, stuck in traffic jam hell, listening to the same old crap on the radio, bored old of my skull and going slightly insane every day.

This morning I was able to relax on the train, reading my latest Digital Photography magazine while listening to my iPod. There was no traffic, no hassle and best of all – NO STRESS! I also find that living to the train timetable gives you something to get up for in the morning. I have to leave the house at 07:30 or I miss my train whereas my car was always just sitting in my driveway, waiting for me to turn up, whenever that may be.

Now, I have used public transport long enough to know that its far from perfect. I know there will be days when the train is late, breaks down, I don’t get a seat or get stuck beside some smelly teenagers listening to crap music too loudly. But I don’t care. The car is dead. Long live public transport!