joreteg.comthe tumblog of Henrik Joreteg RSS

Dec
17th
2009
Thu
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A Webapp for Building iPhone Apps

Normally having a custom iPhone or Android app is something that is out of reach for smaller organizations. Also, as you may have heard the Apple’s app approval process is quite a headache. Several of my friends and co-workers have written iPhone apps and the truth is, that it’s a very real possibility that your app won’t be accepted and all your work will have been wasted.

When I saw David Kaneda’s amazing jQTouch project, it made me realize that you could actually build “navtive-feeling” applications using nothing but HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. So I started playing with it.

But the beauty of the web, is that it’s dynamic. That’s when I had a bit of an epiphany: I realized that it’s possible to build tools that will let people build their own custom iPhone app and completely circumvent the App Store. Check out this little demo that I built. It’s still needs a bunch of styling and other work but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

I’d recommend watching the HD version just to see things more clearly.

A Webapp for Building an iPhone Apps from Henrik Joreteg on Vimeo.

Let me know what you think.


Dec
1st
2009
Tue
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We have results when we have them…we don’t set a date and then say we have to release this feature by a certain date and then suddenly the team has to pull several all-nighters and the quality of the feature is compromised. We don’t like to work that way. It’s too important to get things right.
— Guido van Rossum, inventor of Python

Nov
23rd
2009
Mon
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Must have changes for when forced to work in XP

This post is different than most of my posts in that there’s nothing cool or sexy about it. It’s about comfort while dealing with having to work with an old windows system.

I have been living in Mac land for so long, that I didn’t even realize that some of these changes were possible. I just chalked it up to Microsoft’s way of punishing the people that use their systems.

God bless lifehacker for their write-up of this, you can fix some of the annoyances of windows to reduce eye strain and avoid staring at ugly pixelated text.

First: Turn on Clear Type: Go to Display -> Appearance -> Effects and make sure you check the “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts” and set it to “ClearType”

screenshot of clear-type setting in XP

Second: Crank up the refresh rate on your monitor: Go to Display -> Settings -> Advanced, then look for a setting for the screen refresh rate. Mine looked as follows, it was set on 60hz i put it on 75, which was the highest it would go. These two changes will reduce eye strain… highly recommended if you spend a lot of time staring at an XP system.


Nov
21st
2009
Sat
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Impressed with MacRabbit’s Espresso editor

I’m going to purchase a license for either Espresso or TextMate and so I’m going to use each for their full trial period, then decide. Right now I’m using Espresso, I’ve been pretty happy with it so far.

It’s always the little things that impress me. Case in point:

Notice the last two open files, they’re both named “urls.py”. This follows naming conventions in Django. But can cause problems in most editors where all you see is the name. Espresso was smart enough to recognize what was happening and tack on the name of the folder so I can see which file I’m working on. So sweet! Nice work!


Nov
20th
2009
Fri
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How to Run Google Chrome OS in Virtual Box on Mac

If any of you fellow mac users want to try running Chrome OS in a VirtualBox you can follow the really straightforward instructions here: http://gsiegman.com/2009/nov/20/google-chrome-os-running-virtualbox/

I had it up and running in minutes. Not much to look at yet, but fun if you’re into general nerdery.

Thanks @gsiegman you rock!


Nov
18th
2009
Wed
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