360iDev: Introduction to 2d Game Programming Using cocos2d

I was extremely pleased with the number of people that showed up to my 360iDev talk on cocos2d.  You can download the slides below.  I’m not a big fan of packing slides full of text and I’m not sure how useful they’ll be without the commentary, but I’ll let you judge for yourself.  If there’s enough interest, I’m more than happy to record a screencast version of the talk.  Just say the word and I’ll add it to my todo list.

Download pdf: Introduction to 2d Game Programming Using cocos2d

WWDC: A First-Timer's Thoughts

WWDC 2009 ended about two weeks ago and I thought I’d take a moment to share some of my thoughts with you.  If you’ve been to WWDC, I doubt you’ll find much here that you haven’t personally experienced.  It’s okay to leave.  You won’t hurt my feelers ;-).  If you’ve never been to WWDC and happen upon this post as we head into WWDC 2010 or beyond, then read on and learn from my first trip.

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Judge Scrabby Finally Approved and Released

Scrabble fiends rejoice!  It took about three weeks longer than it really should have (details here), but Judge Scrabby, my Scrabble word challenger, is finally in the App Store.

For those of you wondering how I managed to get such an “objectionable” application through the review process, it turned out to be quite simple.  Drum roll please … My super awesome technique boils down to doing absolutely nothing to Judge Scrabby.  That’s right, nada, zilch, zero.  I simply resubmitted the binary that had been previously rejected.  I must have had this app store reviewer the first time through ;-).

Now go play some Scrabble.  You know you want to.

Ridiculous App Store Rejection

I recently submitted Judge Scrabby, a companion application to Scrabby (an anagram and Scrabble word finder), to Apple’s App Store.  The application is very simple and, in my humble opinion, does one thing extremely well.  Judge Scrabby simply tells you whether or not a challenged set of words are valid according to Scrabble game rules.

Here’s the main screen where a user can get a quick refresher on how to perform a challenge and where they can enter the words being challenged:

Judge Scrabby main screen.

I figured in about seven days time I’d hear back from Apple with my approval and I’d be off on my merry way.  But alas, life with Apple and the App Store is far from easy sometimes.

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Quick Jump From Finder to Terminal

fterminal_web_image2Every now and then I find myself in the Finder and really wishing that I was at the Terminal’s command prompt within that Finder directory.  Here’s a short screencast discussing the “open .” command to easily take you from Terminal to Finder and an AppleScript that makes jumping from the Finder’s current directory to the Terminal a breeze.  Enjoy!

Download fTerminal AppleScript.