Monthly Archives: June 2009

Shiny Red Buttons (4)

Posted on June 30, 2009 by MXH

Today, we package the gloss gradient and rounded rect code we developed on Monday and Friday into a UIButton category, and take a quick look at adding labels to these buttons; the latter discussion is much simpler than I had … Continue reading →

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Shiny Red Buttons (3)

Posted on June 29, 2009 by MXH

Today, we’ll actually get around to the business of drawing some shiny pictures. We’ll be using Matt Gallagher’s gloss gradients code as a base, with some minor adjustments to allow for porting to the iPhone, and for personal taste. We’ll … Continue reading →

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Grab Bag

Posted on June 28, 2009 by MXH

Here are three quick, vaguely iPhone-related items: Datacase looks like a pretty neat app. plistlib is a useful way to manage plists from within Python. It’s a Bad Idea to manage plists with over 100K items from Xcode. (Actually, this … Continue reading →

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Shiny Red Buttons (2.5)

Posted on June 27, 2009 by MXH

As promised, here are some test cases that exercise the rounded rect code presented yesterday. (If you want to study the results, click on the image to the left for a full-size screenshot.) Although only intended for testing, this code … Continue reading →

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Shiny Red Buttons (2)

Posted on June 26, 2009 by MXH

Today, we’ll see how to use Quartz 2D to generate rounded rectangles, either as outlines, or as clipped regions. We’ll begin with some background on Quartz technicalities, and then see some simple path generation code.

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Shiny Red Buttons (1)

Posted on June 25, 2009 by MXH

One of the most striking elements of “modern” user interfaces is that half the buttons are so shiny that it’s a wonder magpies don’t break into your house and make off with your PC. This is all very pretty, but … Continue reading →

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The Past

Posted on June 23, 2009 by MXH

While reading through a 1938 copy of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, I came across this paragraph: Shortly after the close of the war, I learned an invaluable lesson one night in London. I was manager … Continue reading →

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Greta Garbo

Posted on June 22, 2009 by MXH

Garbo is an iconic name, of course, but one can lose sight of what a good actress, and compelling screen presence, she really was. If you haven’t seen any of her movies, I’d encourage you to buy/rent/add to your queue … Continue reading →

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BBQ

Posted on June 21, 2009 by MXH

One of the side-effects of BBQing some meat is a great deal of strongly aromatic smoke. If you’re manning (or just near) the grill, this tends to soak into you; as a result, you trail a cloud of BBQ scent … Continue reading →

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Math

Posted on June 20, 2009 by MXH

Saw this article on Slashdot today, and found it interesting. It’s a longish cri de coeur about the state of mathematical education, and about the widespread misunderstanding of what math is. (Short version: Math is primarily an art form, like … Continue reading →

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