stephan.com
scattered thoughts

MobileGates has just published two more of my iPhone apps (links go directly to iTunes)
mach zehnder modulator
Simon Says Fart
Simon Says Party

Each is 99¢, and each is a memory sequence game like Simon, but with real sounds instead of abstract beeps. Multiplayer mode has you do a task, like a punishment, when you lose. The tasks provided are family-friendly (e.g. “quack like a duck,”) but you are free to add your own tasks and remove the existing ones to make it… well, less family-friendly. I suppose that depends on your family, though, doesn’t it?

Graphic design once again by Crash Reed.

There will most likely be a free ‘lite’ version of each of these coming shortly, limited to 10 notes or so in the sequence.

Please purchase and enjoy these apps. маси

My employer, MobileGates, has just published my first three iPhone apps on the application store. (links go directly to iTunes)

FartMobile
BurpMobile
SnoreMobile

If you require farts or other such noises on your iPhone, you will find these apps exceptional samples of their genre.

Each is a sound machine for the referenced body noise. Each includes a timer, a motion sensitive alarm, a recorder, and and piano. Each is, as of this writing, 99¢. Graphic design is by Crash Reed, a young artist who recently joined our team.

Please buy and enjoy these apps, and watch for more coming soon!


p.s. Do I actually have any subscribers? I’ve been considering stepping up my blogging activities if there’s anyone out there enjoying my writing…

I started what I call a “microproject” at the end of January. It’s a twitter stream called AppDuJour.

AppDuJour brings you a single short review of a great iPhone app each day via Twitter. I looked around for something like it, but no one else seemed to be doing it. There are lots of streams that give announcements of EVERY new app, but that’s just too much traffic for a text message subscription. Other people link to a full review on a web site, and then you have to read it and click again (if you can even find the right link) to get to the app store. What a pain! The reviews are meant to be self contained and entertaining, like a haiku. I’m pretty proud of them so far.
AppDuJour promises no clutter, only good apps, and a direct link to the application store. Reviews that are not entirely positive will be very rare, and only if the app is popular or interesting enough to merit inclusion. Only one tweet a day, with rare announcements and sponsored links - only on Sunday, at least at first. No @ replies cluttering up the stream, no public discussion. It’s easy to get lots of followers - but it’s hard to get them to actually pay attention, and by keeping it minimal, I hope to do that.

The link goes through my affiliate code, so I get 5% of the app price. At least I’m supposed to, I’m still not clear on whether that’s working, and it doesn’t appear I’ll break even any time soon - I’m buying the apps out of my pocket, though developers who wish to be reviewed are encouraged to send me app codes via email or DM (I’m @StephanCom). To be considered, apps should be of very high quality and of general interest to a wide audience - though that could include something specialized that others might want to play with.
There is also a sister stream FreeAppDuJour. I’m being a bit strict about what gets included on that, simply because there are so many free apps. I’m avoiding apps that are free because they are linked to an online service, such as Evernote or Brightkite. I may bend on this - it’s getting hard to find apps - but it seems like those don’t count because they’re “supposed” to be free. The same goes for apps that are free because they are the ‘lite’ version of a paid app, though if the free app has enough functionality to serve as more than just a promotion, I’ll consider it.

Developers are further encouraged to contact me with sponsorship opportunities.

Please follow AppDuJour, and please buy the apps!

[update] I’m merging @FreeAppDuJour with @AppDuJour effective February 9. It just got too hard to find enough free apps, and annoying when free apps become paid before I tweet them. Plus, I’m paying for apps out of my pocket - throwing in some free ones makes it a little easier. This week is all-free apps, afterwards, eh, maybe 1-2 free ones a week? Not sure yet.

Check out my photoset on Flickr to see how I made roast duckling and a lovely duck gravy.

I’ve been working on this site for a month, & I think it’s ready to go live. There’s still features to add, and there’s surely massive flaming errors yet to come…

http://classimy.com/

It’s a classified ads site between Craig’s List and eBay, focused on face to face sales for cash, with a streamlined interface and (soon) integration with your digital world. I’m pretty proud of it, and think it may find its audience.

There’s no listings yet - and that’s where I need your help. If you’ve got stuff to sell, or you know someone who does, please come list it on the site.

Please help me out if you can - test the site, try to break it, and if you find a bug or just have a suggestion, use the “bug report” link at the top and I’ll find out about it.

Thank you all so much for your help!!!

I wanted to give my Ruby on Rails app a simple jQuery driven custom boolean field, styled as a lock for security purposes. You know, click on the lock and it opens, click on it again and it closes. Just like the lock there to the right - go ahead, click on it :).

I especially wanted to use it like the other Form Builder tags within a form_for block, just the same as I would use a checkbox, like this:

    form_for(current_user, :builder => IconFormBuilder) do |f|
      f.privacy_field :share_this
    end

It turns out this isn’t a difficult thing to do, but I couldn’t find any blog posts that show just how easy it is, so I struggled for a while. Hopefully, I’ll save you the trouble. Most of the posts I found weren’t trying to do anything this simple.

This article at Aldenta shows how to use metaprogramming to insert your new form method into the existing form tags. The only practical use I can see for all that trouble is to save you the trouble of adding :builder to your form_for tag… and I don’t really mind using :builder to be specific with my intent.

Several sources, including Advanced Rails Recipes and an article at OnRails, show how to wrap all of the existing form elements in the builder, again using metaprogramming. Nice, but not what I was looking for.

Both of these articles hint at the solution, but no one had cut it down to the essence. I finally came up with this. Make a file called “icon_form_builder.rb” in app/helpers. Name it whatever you want - just so the class name and the file name match. I always get so confused figuring out where to put new things in Rails, but this seems like the right spot.

class IconFormBuilder < ActionView::Helpers::FormBuilder
  def lock_icon(value)
    if value
      "function_icon_set/lock_open_48.png"
    else
      "function_icon_set/lock_48.png"
    end
  end

  def privacy_field(method, options={})
    retString = hidden_field(method, options)
    retString += @template.image_tag(
      lock_icon(@object[method]),
      :onclick => ("h=$('##{object_name}_#{method}');"+
      "if(h.val()=='t'){h.val('f');$(this).attr({src:'/images/#{lock_icon(false)}'})}"+
      "else {h.val('t');$(this).attr({src:'/images/#{lock_icon(true)}'})}"))
    return retString
  end
end

lock_icon is just a convenience to DRY up the selection of an image (my working version is drier all round). The javascript just uses jQuery to toggle the image and the hidden field. I’m using a lovely free icon set by Function Design & Development Studio.

Note that we’re defining a new field tag - but you can just as easily redefine an existing one. Just change “privacy_field” to, say, “check_box” and all of the checkboxes on your page will be redefined as locks! I didn’t want to do that here, but it’s that easy.

There a bit more to know for getting fancy - but this should get you started!

I need to start this off by saying that I did, in fact, vote against Proposition 8. A great many of my friends are gay, I support them with all of my heart, and fully understand why this means so much to them. But I feel like I didn’t really stick to my moral compass by voting against it.

I consider myself a libertarian, somewhat of a radical one in theory, though real world practice doesn’t fit in with those ideals. From that point of view, I have to ask “What the hell does government have to do with marriage in the first place?”

The question, to me, shouldn’t be “why can’t gay people get married?” but rather, “why does the government have anything at all to do with marriage?” Marriage is ultimately a religious institution.

I can certainly see the value to the public of the government being in the business of registering and managing romantic partnerships - though the ultimate utility is in providing a registry for potential reproduction, a shortcut way to establish heredity or the plausible explanation of same (e.g. secret adoptions, illegitimate children, etc, which are far more common than one is led to believe), which just isn’t possible for a gay couple (yet!). It isn’t possible for an infertile couple either, but to a casual observer, they have plausible deniability for a child, whether adopted or fathered by some party other than the husband of the pair.

But marriage? Why does it have to be called marriage? How is that the government’s business? I’m against gay marriage, because I don’t see what the government has to do with marriage, and why in heavens name should we give them MORE power? It’s bad enough that the State has its nose in heterosexual partnerships; do gay people want to invite government into their bedroom?

Let’s take another tack: historical precedent. There are very few examples of legitimized same-sex unions in the history of any culture on earth. There are some examples in China, Japan, ancient Rome & Greece, etc., but they are the exception rather than the rule.

On the other hand, polygamous relationships have been common to nearly EVERY culture at one time or another - and are still quite common in some parts of the world. Please note that plural marriages still provide that official stamp of heredity, whether actual or spurious.

Given that cultural context, why has same-sex marriage become a political hot-button, while plural marriage has been given the short shrift? Until a few weeks ago in this state, I could marry a man or a woman, but only one partner.

(just curious - does anyone know what happens when someone from a polygamous country emigrates to the US with their spouses? Do they have to pick one?)

The argument has been made that Proposition 8 is a form of discrimination, with television ads comparing it to the Holocaust, or at least the internment of the Japanese. I reply, somewhat tongue in cheek, “That’s ridiculous: a lesbian has the same right to marry a man as a straight woman!” But it’s true, Prop 8 doesn’t propose different rights for different people at all! Prop 8 forbids a straight man from marrying another straight man just as much as it prevents a gay couple from marrying!

Gay marriage opens the system up to further abuse in contexts such as taxes and immigration - not that straight marriage doesn’t sometimes already abuse the system, but this is yet another avenue. If these “marriage benefits” are so valuable, I’m certain we’ll see straight men and women engaging in gay marriages for the financial benefits, without the fear of their parter becoming attached and trying to make the union “real.”

I have a very dear friend who is an illegal alien in this country, who I’ve blogged about before in “regarding immigration“. If same sex marriage conferred the same citizenship benefits as conventional marriage (it doesn’t, I checked), I would marry “Juan” in a minute to get him a green card. That’s abuse.

The problem isn’t that gay people can’t marry one another - the problem is that the government gives any favors at all to married couples.

The solution as I see it is a far more radical one than legalizing gay marriage… I think the political institution of marriage should be dissolved entirely. If there is some legitimate need for partner benefits, the government can continue to officiate unions of any number of consenting partners, un pain, un vin, et une bourse. Better yet, just let people execute the legal aspects of marriage as a business contract. That’s what it is anyway - a business contract with boilerplate text that is embedded in our legal and social code. There can be a standard marriage contract - available wherever business forms are sold, like leases, wills and divorces, as a book or software - and those that want to go beyond that can hire a lawyer to write it up any way they want. This is already in practice for some polyamorous families. I expect it doesn’t work any better or worse than traditional marriage.

Let the church be the arbiter of “marriage” in whatever form makes sense to the participants, whether it’s a man and a woman, two men, or three women, four men, and a mountain goat. Let’s keep the government out of our bedrooms and personal business.

I’ll continue to support and vote for gay marriage - I realize that the secular institution of marriage isn’t going anywhere soon. Gay marriage is the most practical way of providing equality and a level playing field.

But it’s not the best way, or the right way.

Here’s a short clip of me playing Harry Meade, Jr. in the 1981 film Take This Job and Shove It. This was shot in 1980 in Dubuque, Iowa, so I’d be 12 years old.

My father is played by David Keith, who later went on to hang himself in An Officer and a Gentleman, and my mom was Penelope Milford, who got hit by a car in Endless Love. My sister is credited as Mary Pat Hennager, who I remember was a local Dubuque resident.

I still get royalties from this - around $25 per decade - so please go buy the movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_This_Job_and_Shove_It_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083163/

In the interest of saving money, breaking the cycle of eating fast food twice a day, and cleaning the detritus from my pantry, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to trim my grocery budget to ZERO and commit to eating whatever I had in the house until it runs out. I had bought a bunch of 50% off stuff from an Albertson’s closing down a month or two ago, and my cupboards had been overflowing since then anyway. I’m just buying staples, which for me is milk and Coca-Cola.

Two weeks later, I’m just barely beginning to get to the good stuff. Bear in mind I’m quite clueless about cooking, though I’ve been watching Alton Brown a lot and dreaming. I came up with this from only stuff I’ve had around for a while.

* 1 package of Farmhouse Long Grain & Wild Rice. No idea when I got it. Prepared according to directions.

* 2 italian sausages - first bought in a six pack in February for making pizza and frozen since then - started thawing them yesterday with no clue what I was going to do with it. Googled what to do with them, decided to cut off the casings and fry them up in:

* olive oil from one of the 3 or 4 unfinished bottles floating around. Just a little bit - my first chance to try this awesome cast iron pan - part of a whole set I bought from a thrift store for $50 a while back. While that was cooking, I got the idea to try something I had heard of, but wasn’t sure what it was: deglazing. Huh, says you can use water, but wine is best. I drank all that… except

* A mini bottle of Delicato White Zinfandel - 187 ml, a four pack of crappy wine my ex-gf bought and drank only one of. Perfect!!! I spent like 5-10 minutes pouring that in and scraping while the rice finished cooking, and even added a little teeny bit of:

* flour - left over from my bread machine experiments. Ooh, this is working, I’ve got a sort of tasty little sauce going on here! WTF! WWAD? (What Would Alton Do)

* Kosher salt. I have no idea if this did anything useful, but I put some in. Alton puts it in everything. OK, one more item, something to pretend I’m being semi-healthy. Aha!

* A can of peas, drained. Again, no clue where I got this or how long it had been on the shelf. It might’ve come back from Burning Man. I threw the rice back into the deglazed pan, threw back in the sausage (which I had drained), and put in the peas. I heated the whole mixture up in a pan, and am eating it from a bowl, and it’s pretty yummy.

Did I do this "right"? I have no clue, but it’s edible and totally from what I already had in the house. I’m pretty proud of myself!

Honest, it’s been two weeks, I’ve only eaten outside food maybe three times, and I’ve still got 2 packages of tuna, 2 salmon steak, 1 crab, some sea scallops, 2 more sausages, chicken wings, frozen burgers, bread machine mix, frozen potatoes, soups, rice, noodles, etc. Amazing the amount of stuff I’ve accumulated.

So I’m thinking I can go another two weeks of zero food budget, which is going to save me an insane amount compared to what I usually spend on restaurants, frozen meals and the like. Seems healthier.

I’ve even got at least one or two more servings of this stuff!

Not sure if anyone is still reading here, but I thought I’d mention that my (grand)father passed away a couple of hours ago.

It’s not a terrible shock - he’s been declining for, years, really. For a long time he’s been asking “why won’t jesus take me?” and wanting to die. The past few weeks were getting really difficult.

I’ll probably be in Chicago within the next week.