ramblr

Ain’t it lovely? Took long enough.

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:55:00 -0400

Ain’t it lovely? Took long enough.

NSCoding

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:05:11 -0500

Interface Builder 3.0 is a beautiful thing, but I had trouble creating a plugin that allowed me to drag and drop a simple object into a NIB. With views, it’s trivial, but I couldn’t figure out why my object wasn’t draggable, even though it appeared in my plugin.

The answer is the NSCoding protocol. Because objects have to be archived to and unarchived from the NIB, you have to implement NSCoding, even if the methods do nothing.

Hope this helps.

"During their operations they seem to focus entirely on the process, but very little on the quality..."

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:59:00 -0500

“During their operations they seem to focus entirely on the process, but very little on the quality of the code.”

- Zed Shaw. This describes 20% of the companies I’ve worked for or with. The rest don’t focus on either one.

Fuck MySpace

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 20:16:41 -0400

Gregory: Fuck MySpace. I can't wait until I can abandon that abomination.
Todd: lol
Gregory: In fact, I'm posting that to my tumble log.

"Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are the most active."

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:00:26 -0400

“Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are the most active.”

- Leonard da Vinci

Now I'll be able to "Get Things Done"!

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:34:23 -0400

Now I'll be able to "Get Things Done"!:

OmniFocus is a new application — no beta as of this writing — that allows one to focus on Getting Things Done®. I can’t wait. :)

My nephew Jacob relishes a fry.

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:23:01 -0400

My nephew Jacob relishes a fry.

Monad Epiphany

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:54:21 -0400

I’ve just had an epiphany about Haskell monad transformers. Consider the following nested monad transformers:

type ErrorStateIO = ErrorT String (StateT Int IO) Int

I’d always thought that IO was the innermost monad, and some people erroneously describe this as the “IO monad wrapped in the StateT monad transformer which is in turn wrapped in the ErrorT monad transformer.”

It’s actually the reverse. IO is the outermost monad, and this makes sense because in an implementation with ErrorStateIO as the return type, one has to use use “lift” to talk to the next outermost layer. This can be demonstrated by the following code.

evalStateT (runErrorT (foo 2)) 2

That’s how we call these nested monads. Note that evalStateT is again outermost of the monad transformers. (IO is implicitly outermost as a part of StateT.) The return type of evalStateT is IO (Either String Int).

I’m new to Haskell and never realized this. But it makes enormous sense. I’m getting better than ever at using monads and monad transformers, but I don’t fully understand their internals. I’m hoping for another epiphany.

Haskell is so parsimonious and elegant, it feels like poetry, not programming.

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:46:53 -0400

Haskell is so parsimonious and elegant, it feels like poetry, not programming.

"I’m the monolith and you’re the fuckin’ monkey."

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:23:49 -0400

“I’m the monolith and you’re the fuckin’ monkey.”

- Todd Sternisha

Cholesterol

Thu, 31 May 2007 17:46:46 -0400

Used an FDA-approved home testing kit to check my cholesterol, and it’s 165 mg/dL! I never expected it to be that good, considering I’m 38 and have a family history of heart disease. My dad fights his cholesterol.

In ‘99 I got it checked professionally and it was the same.

Ice Water In Hell

Wed, 30 May 2007 17:00:00 -0400

Walt Mossberg: “How many copies of iTunes are out there?”

Jobs: “Lots. Several times more than the number of iPods.”

Walt notes that that makes it one of the most ubiquitous pieces of software out there — and it’s predominantly on Windows machines.

“That makes Apple one of the biggest developers of Windows software around,” Walt observes.

Jobs: “That’s right. … It’s like offering a glass of ice water to people in hell.” (emphasis added)

— All Things Digital

Thanks to Todd Sternisha for pointing out this juicy quote.

Flickr!

Mon, 28 May 2007 17:31:09 -0400

Flickr!:

Finally got a Flickr account. Went out on a limb and got Pro. (I’ve always hated limitations.)

This is what a web app should be.

Gavin

Mon, 28 May 2007 15:59:51 -0400

Gavin

Haskell

Sat, 26 May 2007 05:36:20 -0400

I’ve decided today that Haskell is my favorite programming language, and further that the functional paradigm is superior to the object-oriented one.

In fact, I think object-orientation is a bit of a mistake. (Just a few years ago I couldn’t even imagine making this statement.) There’s nothing wrong with the idea of structured types per se. The problem is with method dispatch and the semantic “attachment” of methods to objects.

If you’re going to have objects, it should work like Dylan.

"Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent."

Fri, 25 May 2007 00:05:50 -0400

“Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all..."

Thu, 24 May 2007 18:46:13 -0400

“The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that — however bloody — can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.”

- Lysander Spooner

"Vices are not crimes."

Thu, 24 May 2007 18:42:49 -0400

“Vices are not crimes.”

- Lysander Spooner

Todd: Jesus, I should introduce her to Ed when she comes out.

Wed, 23 May 2007 19:02:10 -0400

Todd: Jesus, I should introduce her to Ed when she comes out.
Me: Even more oblivious?
Todd: Every conversation requires me to take a detour while I catch Ed up on the last 20 years of progress in science and the arts. It's like talking to Rip Van Winkle.
Me: hahahhahahahahahahahahaha

"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."

Wed, 23 May 2007 13:22:14 -0400

“Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”

- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.