Getting our money's worth.

A couple years ago, we bought a new logo design for GetRight (from glyfx.com; highly recommended.)

It was a much improved version of the basic idea I'd done years before with the arrows around a globe. My versions tended to look good as long as computers did 16 colors :)




We needed a new logo for the FTP On The Go program since the one we'd done was pretty simple and not too fancy. Peter adapted the GetRight logo, adding the burst effect and removing some arrows. It turned out awesome!

Clone wars

I watched the newer Clone Wars movie. If you expect it to be the first extended episode of a TV series for kids, you'll be happy. I'm sure my 10 year old nephew loved it.

But come on: The enemy characters in any number of video games I've played showed far better tactics than the stupid droid army (in this and the other movies). Marching in nice easy-to-hit rows into enemy fire was what lost the British the US revolutionary war.

Q

Just saw the new James Bond movie. Good, but is Q gone?

It used to be, Q would manage to provide just the gadget needed. You could count on the fact that if Bond had a laser watch, something would need to be cut; or if a mini underwater air tank, he'd be trapped underwater before the end of the film.

Now, it's mainly product placement for the newest Sony gadgets. Must be nice owning a movie studio.

Though Technology is to blame a bit; they had to get pretty crazy to have a gadget that wasn't available at Wal-Mart. Invisible cars and silly things like that.

Fading Default.png when iPhone app starts

More iPhone code. I wanted to have the startup logo (Default.png) graphic fade into the first screen after the program starts. This is a much nicer transition than just letting the view switch instantly.


1) Add the new image view to the class.

UIImageView *splashView;

And add this selector:
- (void)startupAnimationDone:(NSString *)animationID finished:(NSNumber *)finished context:(void *)context;


2) at the very bottom of "applicationDidFinishLaunching" add:

splashView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,0, 320, 480)];
splashView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Default.png"];
[window addSubview:splashView];
[window bringSubviewToFront:splashView];
[UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil];
[UIView setAnimationDuration:0.5];
[UIView setAnimationTransition:UIViewAnimationTransitionNone forView:window cache:YES];
[UIView setAnimationDelegate:self];
[UIView setAnimationDidStopSelector:@selector(startupAnimationDone:finished:context:)];
splashView.alpha = 0.0;
[UIView commitAnimations];


3) Add this selector to cleanup the image and save memory.

- (void)startupAnimationDone:(NSString *)animationID finished:(NSNumber *)finished context:(void *)context {
[splashView removeFromSuperview];
[splashView release];
}


4) Awesome bonus bit. Add this below the splashView.alpha = 0.0 line. It adds that extra bit of coolness to the transition.

splashView.frame = CGRectMake(-60, -60, 440, 600);

Signatures

Getting support emails for a dozen years, I've noticed that while most people have just a simple name or name and quote for their email signature, occasionally there's somebody with a LOT more.

Their name, every possible way to contact them, every website they're associated with, even awards. There's probably some deep psychological meaning you could get from it. But I'm too busy to figure what that is.

-Michael