Story Points Revisited
I like to say that I may have invented story points, and if I did, I’m sorry now. Let’s explore my current thinking on story points. At least one of us is interested in what I think.
The Joy of Hack
Latest posts
Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Source Code Now Available
Adobe has released the source code for Photoshop 1.0
Software can be done
I agree. I have written quite a few major applications (some on the iOS App Store) that are complete. They’re done. That’s it.
The Worst Programmer I Know
What do you do when a programmer never picks up any JIRA Tickets?
Camping at Mountain Park
It s time for our first Family Camping Trip. We will be camping at Mountain Park Campground, which is located on the Cache la Poudre River, 32 miles northwest of Fort Collins. Alhamdulillah, we have the group site reserved, so we will have plenty of space for campers and their vehicles, inshaAllah.
Halal Restaurants Near Denver
Every so often a Muslim friend contacts me saying they re coming to visit Denver and would like to know which Halal restaurants they can visit. I decide to post the list of restaurants here, so I can share it easily and update it periodically.
TMUX
There are times when I have to log into Linux systems that don t have window managers. I have a single terminal window in which to work. With the help of tmux , I can have multiple virtual windows in my single window. Each window can be split into panes. I can also save sessions so that I can bring the environment back after I disconnect from the system and reconnect several days (or weeks or…
Keyboard Maestro Snippet Video
I m gonna have to blog about how I did this (later). I m giving a live-coding talk on Tuesday. I was gonna use Snippety but it lacks a minor feature and I didn’t wanna bug the author Marin Todorov this week of all weeks. So I hacked up a pretty workable facsimile using KeyboardMaestro .
Cat
I have became that person who takes tons of pictures of his cat.
Panorama Point
(AijazCC)
Flask, Celery and Docker
I ve been working on an app that requires users to upload data to a server, where the data is used to create machine learning models. The process to create a model takes a lot of time (as much as 3 minutes). I don t want to have an HTTP request open for 3 minutes while the model is being created. I would rather the server accept the request, send back a response immediately, and queue the task for…
QuranReflect
After exactly two long months of development, and just in time for Ramadan, I m pleased to announce the public release of my latest app, QuranReflect
Finding gaps in time intervals in SQL
I have a table in a relational database (PostgreSQL) that contains time intervals. In this post I ll show you how to find gaps in those intervals.
Opportunity
Sometimes the train called Opportunity slows down just enough to let you hop on—if you want—before speeding away. I hopped on.
Goodbye, Twitter (Updated)
After more than nine years on Twitter, I finally deactivated my account. I refuse to contribute to the success of any platform that promotes the hatred of the villainous Donald Trump. I hope Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey never has to face the persecution that the vile Trump is trying to inflict on people like me. However, if anyone deserves it for enabling hatred, it is him. You can find me here, and on…
CocoaConf: How I Prepared, & What I Learned
Last week I attended CocoaConf Chicago for the 6th year in a row. In this post I would like to share with you how I prepared as a speaker , and what I learned as an attendee .
What Happens to your Passwords when you Die
This is a guest article I wrote for the newsletter of a friend of mine who s an Estate Planner. Almost every digital or monetary asset you own is protected by a password. Some service providers, like investment brokers require multiple pieces of information, like your social security number, account number, date of birth, etc. These are all things that a provider assumes only you know. Once these…
Running External Commands in LLDB via Python
Many iOS apps today are clients of some sort. They request data from a remote server. Typically this data is served over HTTP (with SSL ) and formatted as JSON . At FastModel Sports our iOS app is constantly requesting large amounts of JSON data. While debugging the app I inevitably have to compare what I m displaying in my views to what the server sent me. This meant saving the server response…
Rotation and Adaptive Layouts
Another in a series of posts documenting my process of updating an aging app. For this rewrite of Qur an Memorizer I m using Auto Layout. This is the first time I ve used Auto Layout for this app. You know when the Apple Engineers said Auto Layout makes things easy? They weren t kidding. Even though Qur an Memorizer has some unique behaviors for autorotation, I was able to implement this in a few…
Code Coverage Without Pod Files
Another in a series of posts documenting my process of updating an aging app. I noticed that the code coverage reports from XCode 8 recently started showing me coverage for .m files that were in the CocoaPods that I m using. In this post I document how I fixed that.
Updating an Aging App
It s been more than three years, but I m finally updating my most popular app, Qur an Memorizer . This is the first in a series of blog posts tagged with QMUpgrade , where I ll write about the issues I faced updating an aging app.
Examining JSON Data With jq
Earlier tonight I spoke at NSCoder Chicago about how to use jq to examine JSON data. This post contains links and information that I would like to share with the attendees.
A Very Chicago Picture
How many Chicago motifs can you find here?
Epoch Zero
Mark Frimston found out something very interesting about the local time in the UK at UNIX epoch 0. Took me by surprise.
Michigan Avenue, Chicago
If you walk too fast, you might miss them. Two gardens flank the Art Institute of Chicago, on Michigan Avenue. Now, we all know Michigan Avenue as a busy, bustling street, but these gardens are great places to stop. And think. Or just clear your head before merging back into the fast pace of the sidewalk. This is the South Garden, looking back out towards Michigan Ave.
Letterpress Symmetry
This is the first in a series of posts where I share the final screen of Letterpress games. When I was showing my daughter this game, she mentioned that she liked it when games ended in pleasing patterns. So then I started to try to win (or lose) games with a symmetric pattern, if possible. Most of the patterns are symmetric about an axis (reflection). Some display rotational symmetry. Where…
Moving to Pelican
Several times in the past few months I have tried to add a post to this blog. But I couldn t because of some obscure Ruby error whenever I tried to generate the blog using Octopress. There was so much friction in the simple act of adding a new post, that I finally decided enough was enough and moved the blog to Pelican.
My Tiny Challenge
Well, it s happened. I decided to join @jaimeejaimee and @bradheintz in another 30 days challenge . This month s challenge isn t about writing. It s about playing the long game and changing my body. A little background, first:
Shapeshifting DIY Robots
Last night, right before going to bed, I decided to play The Room 3 . It s a beautiful game with elaborate puzzles. I was completely lost in the world of intricate models and mind-bending transformations. Later that night I had the most awesome dream:
30 Days Later
Well, that was fun. For the first time ever I wrote a blog post every day for a month. Here s what I learned:
Don’t Give Up
Mastering something can take time. In my case, it took me about 18 months to get to the point where I could do a set of 10 Lever Pull-ups.
Learn These Things Before You Need To Know Them
A few weeks ago, when my older two boys were getting ready to go off to college I was reminded of something I read online: Buy a toilet plunger before you need a toilet plunger. In today s post I would like to list four things that you should know how to do, before you have to do them.
Examining a Picture
A few minutes ago I zoomed in on a photograph that I had taken in April. I saw details that fundamentally changed my understanding of what s going on in the picture. It s funny how often that happens.
You Can Learn A Lot If You Listen
My family visited the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia last year. One night, while we were out, everyone was tired and hungry. They found a comfortable spot and decided to sit down for a while. They asked my older sons and I to go pick up some food from any local restaurant and bring it back, so we could all eat together.
Tools I Use in Class
I d like to share with you the various tools that I ve found work well for my iOS class . I ll show you what I use for video, displaying keyboard shortcuts, slides, and class notes.
Who’s Your Child?
If you re a parent, you ve either been through this, or will soon: At some point you stop being known by the neighbors by your own name, and start being identified by your kids names. You become Adam s Dad or Sarah s Mom.
Backing Up your iPhone to an External Drive
Some of you may not have room on your hard drive to back up your iPhone. This short post shows you how I backed up my iPhone to an external drive (on a Mac).
Tipu Sultan and James Joyce
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have been posting different pictures of doors that I saw in Dublin. When researching one of the buildings I was surprised to learn of the connection between a house that James Joyce visited (and wrote about) and Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore.
The Most Relevant Story
As I child I read a lot of European stories like those from the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. As I ve grown older I ve come to realize that if there were one story I would want to make sure I share with my children it would be The Emperor s New Clothes.
All This For One Shot
Fourteen days in India. Traveling with a tripod. Used it for only one shot. Totally worth it.
Optionals In Swift
I d like to share with you the way I teach optionals in Swift. I m pretty sure I m not the first person who thought of this method, but since I haven t seen anyone else write this up, I ve taken it upon myself to do so.
Who Wrote This?
Is it ever a bad idea to sign your name on good code that you write?
Giving Back
Different people have different gifts. Some excel at their profession, others are talented at various arts, while yet others are blessed with strength or wealth. Once you know what your gift is, it s time to consider using it to help others.
The Library
One of the most beautiful places I visited during my recent trip to Dublin, Ireland was the Trinity College Library. The long, two-storey high grand hall with stacks on each side was breathtaking. The smell of old books filled the air.
A Change of Scenery
I had been taking the same path to work for the past ten years. Sure, there were minor variations - I could turn this way a block earlier, go that way a block later - but essentially the walk was the same. I started recognizing the people I d see on the street (and secretly naming them in my head), the doors on buildings, and even the various imperfections on walls and on sidewalks. I am an…
Lessons Learned While Hiking
Today s post is a quick story. In 2009 I took my kids hiking in Wisconsin. It was the first time the kids had gone on a long hike. I assured my wife that we d be fine and we left after their regular Saturday activities. It was a character builder for all of us.
The Best Time to Die
The only certainty in life is that it has an end. I ve been trained to think of death as a sad, morbid topic. But lately I ve come to realize that embracing the inevitable can have a markedly positive effect on my life.
Open Workouts
This is one of my favorite things about the Workout App on the Apple Watch: the ability to start a workout without having any specific goal in mind. I love that I can just start and see where the workout takes me. There s no pressure reach a certain time or calorie count. I can just play it by ear. See you tomorrow. This is the 13th of my 30 days posts.
Level Up In Photography
Remember what I said a few days ago about fitness? Just show up ? Today is such a day with this blog for me. I m tired, I have a headache and I would rather not write. But I ve shown up, with the idea that a small, helpful blog post is better than nothing. So, here goes. I m gonna talk about taking better pictures.
No Regrets
This has been eating at me for the last 28 years. I d like to start talking about it today. It s what I call the American mantra of I have no regrets. In this post I ll lay out my initial thoughts so that I can, over time, flesh them out and come up with a well-written essay.