Projections

Posted on May 14, 2010 by MXH

Today I’d like to present a little Python script that extrapolates Webalizer reports. Webalizer is a “fast, free web server log file analysis program” that my webhost uses to produce HTML traffic reports. These reports include month-by-month totals for the last 12 months. Unfortunately, the numbers for the current (partial) month aren’t directly comparable to those for previous months. This script grabs the summary report and does a linear extrapolation on the most recent month. It’s a bit silly, but I like the apples-to-apples comparison.

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The Bag

Posted on May 13, 2010 by MXH

There’s quite a bit of economic turmoil these days. It’s not clear what’s going on. Neil Cavuto says that “the world has no money and right now the emperor has no clothes”. I don’t think things are quite that bad, but I would like to give you my take on The Mysterious Future.

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Batting 500

Posted on May 11, 2010 by MXH

This is my 500th post. I hope you’re enjoying them.

I’m pleased to tell you that Demine was approved by AAPL today. If you wanted to stop by the app store and say something nice, I certainly wouldn’t try to talk you out of it.

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Six Word Stories: Cheated

Posted on May 11, 2010 by MXH

“You’ve cheated me!”

“Yes … I know.”

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Splash Screens

Posted on May 10, 2010 by MXH

I just noticed that I’d neglected to include a “startup screen” in the Demine application. The creation of these sorts of screens is pretty straight-forward, and I illustrate it below.

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Understood

Posted on May 9, 2010 by MXH

Paraphrased from a movie:

Girl (asking about other girl): “Is she pretty?”
Guy: “Beauty is overrated.”

Sometimes the only thing more problematic than being misunderstood is being understood all too well.

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Six Word Stories: Medal

Posted on May 8, 2010 by MXH

The new “Titanium Medal” proved unpopular.

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Back Buttons

Posted on May 7, 2010 by MXH

Today, a quick note about “back” buttons. The chevron-shaped button that appears by default in the left-hand position of a nav. bar can be a little problematic. In particular, the system-provided button doesn’t cross-fade properly with other buttons, and it can be tricky to change its text programmatically. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be any way to (simply) generate your own chevron-shaped buttons. To address these issues, I created a UIButton category, presented below. This category allows you to create your own chevron-shaped buttons.

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Bookmaking

Posted on May 6, 2010 by MXH

It’s Paul Williams vs. Kermit Cintron at 154 this Saturday. I see this as an easy win for Williams, and for once the line agrees with me; he’s a -650 favorite.

Checking the line got me to wondering about what the bookmaker’s take might be. I’m not a sports bettor by habit, so this will probably seem naive to you if you are, but I think it’s an interesting exercise nonetheless.

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Six Word Stories: Signing

Posted on May 4, 2010 by MXH

Bob’s app signing drew no customers.

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