mactalk

Aug 26, 2011

One More Thing…

What’s the word for that moment when you realise that the work you do is appreciated by many, many people all across Australia?

Yeah, that.

This weekend was nothing short of amazing, all thanks to a little site called MacTalk.

Back in 2007, I joined a little site called MacTalk. Fast forward a couple of years, a few thousand posts, and many internet arguments later, and I come across a little post by then-overseer and hater of pants, decryption, asking for volunteer writers for some news posts. I put my hand up.

The rest is turtles all the way down.

This weekend was basically the culmination of all that; a dinner with most of the people who have contributed to MacTalk in some way, those who have silently decimated the not-so-silent spam, those who have kept things ticking over behind the scenes, and those who have written articles, reviewed products, or gotten on their perennial soapbox and given a few thousand listeners an earful about how non-developers shouldn’t be using beta releases on the podcast, past and present.

There were a few people missing, but by and large, most of the big players where there and a fantastic time was had by all. Putting faces to online personas is always good fun, even if it can be a little daunting at first. Once you get over that initial awkwardness of “hey, do I follow you on Twitter? What’s your name on the forums?”, then it’s apples, ladies and gentlemen, apples — which is lucky, because that’s pretty much what MacTalk is about (Apple, Inc).

At some point during the night, there was a thing where had to go around the table and tell everyone about ourselves — our Twitter or MacTalk usernames, what we did, and so on.

Some people were known simply by name or by reputation, others had to describe their role in MacTalk a little more. When it came around to me, I simply said “I’m Benny, and I write the news”.

Cue thunderous applause.

In all seriousness, I was kind of taken aback. Stunned, that people recognised me, just from what I had done. Little did I realise how far my daily news posts reached. Little did I know that people actually recognised —nay, applauded — my work.

This isn’t just me being naive, it’s a genuine realisation of the culmination of hours of early morning (and some not-so-early) news posts over last two years. It’s me realising that podcast topics which were formed off the words I had written, it’s about me realising that “whoa, people actually read this stuff — and they like it!” Me realising that the words I type into one of those new-fangled computers actually has some sort of impact.

One comment (from Chrome, I believe): “everyone sets their clock from Greenwich Mean Time, but Greenwich set their time from [me]“.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being appreciated and recognised for your work, which, I guess, was really the whole point of that night; everyone in that room had contributed in some way, shape, or form to MacTalk over the past few years.

This morning I considered writing a piece on Steve Jobs (you know, seeing as he stepped down as CEO) as a sort of editorial on MacTalk (like all the cool kids are doing), but as I thought about what I would write about, I couldn’t think of anything. Seriously, not a thing — not because there wasn’t anything to say, but because anything I wrote about would be so, so, insubstantial compared to the big picture.

And yet it’s times like the above, when I was applauded for simply saying my name and what I do, that make it all worth it.

Thanks guys :)

May 6, 2009

Angry Aussie Video – EPIC LULZ AHEAD

Sounds like a typical Croyden person

via Angry Aussie Video.

Be aware that there’s A LOT of swearing. Like, A LOT OF SWEARING.

It’s funny as hell, though – especially if you’ve worked in Retail, or in any customer-service related capacity.

Thanks to Mactalk Forums for the link – if you’re a member, hit up this link for more retail horror stories (link requires membership).

Feb 17, 2009

Just Mobile Gum Pro Review – MacTalk Forums

With it’s large battery capacity, and ability to charge more than just your dock-connecting devices, the Gum Pro from Just Mobile is a winner in my book.

via Just Mobile Gum Pro Review – MacTalk Forums.

A review, by yours truly.

Feb 9, 2009

motionally.com | inexpensive HD motion graphics | WELCOME

Motionally.com provides inexpensive royalty-free HD motion graphics templates you can use immediately within Final Cut Pro.

We produce finished templates — mostly lower thirds Master templates — that you can use directly in Final Cut Pro without further tweaking. HD 1080p, 1080i, 720p and SD resolutions at PAL or NTSC frame rates, 16:9 or 4:3 title safe — no problem.

via motionally.com | inexpensive HD motion graphics | WELCOME.

Iain Anderson, from motionally.com did me a huge favour: he enabled the emoji keyboard on my iPhone for me.

The emoji saga as I’ll call it, happened when I saw the thread on MacTalk forums saying that a particular iPhone app (since removed from the App Store) enabled the Emoji keyboard for you – even if you weren’t with a supported Japanese carrier.

I then contacted Iain, who was willing to make a small ad-hoc app that ran the “Emoji-enabling” code when opened. All I had to do was send him my iPhone’s UDID (easy with apps like iStat for iPhone), and he did the rest.

Sure, there are now free apps on the app store that will enable the Emoji keyboard for you – just search “emoji” on the app store. I think there’s a $1.19 typing program that does it (as well as a free one).

To actually enable the emoji keyboard, though: Launch the app, hit the home button, go to Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> International Keyboards –> Japanese and then change “Emoji” from OFF, to ON. It’s that simple.

So, there you have it. Emoji will now be enabled, and you’ll be able to send cute animations to all your iPhone-friends. For the full FAQ, hit up the Mactalk link here.

Thanks once again, Iain. Your iPhone-registered developerness was much appreaciated in this instance! :P

Cheers.

Jan 9, 2009

Caption Time: Steve Balmer at CES

Steve Ballmer at CES

Caption Time: Steve Balmer at CES – MacTalk Forums.

A couple of the popular ones:

1. Developers.
2. Developers.
3. Developers.

1 never gonna give you up
2 Never gonna let you down
3 Never gonna run around and desert you
rpt
1 Never gonna make you cry
2 Never gonna say goodbye
3 Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

1. I
2. Love
3. This Company

1. I like big butts and I can not lie
2. You other brothers can’t deny
3. That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist, and a round thing in your face, you get sprung

And my personal favourite:
Steve Ballmer discovers he has hands.

Jan 2, 2009

iPhone 3G unlock – yellowsn0w is out!

As reported in the Dev Team IRC channel, Vodafone works. 3 works. (now just need Telstra + Optus/Virgin to be tested) :-)

via iPhone 3G unlock – yellowsn0w is out! – MacTalk Forums.

See original source here.

AFAIK – all Australian telcos who support the iPhone work. This includes Telstra, Optus/Virgin, Vodafone, and 3.

I’m still deciding… Do I really need my iPhone AS A PHONE when I go overseas?

It can function perfectly otherwise… Just needs Wi-Fi for data (which is admittedly scarce where I am going), but otherwise, it’s a small iPod.

Dec 15, 2008

VCE Results 08 – MacTalk Forums

Magic pixies divided by pie multiplied by the square root of democracy.

To all those fretting over their marks today I offer a little bit of advice: Your marks will matter for six months. Perhaps 18 if you defer. They’re not the end of the world and they won’t hold you back from doing whatever it is you want to do (although good marks might make things a little easier or less time consuming).

If you got shit marks, don’t worry about it. You can still do whatever you want and be whatever you want. Sometimes there’s unrealistic pressure placed on the kiddies by their parents that this is it and they have to get top marks or else their life will be ruined forever and that’s just not the case.

Good luck everyone.

via VCE Results 08 – MacTalk Forums.

Heh – in reponse to my question: “How is the TER calculated?”.

Note that you’ll need to be a member of MacTalk Forums to be able to view the thread.

I know the title says VCE results, but the TER is the same for both, so there.

Nov 14, 2008

Musings of the known universe…

From Venom71 on Mactalk, comes the question:

Within the entire Universe, large or small, where may I find a true circle?

Perplexing indeed.

A couple of posts later, thebookfreak58 says:

Erm. You can find a true circle by take a cross sectional slice of a cone (along the horizontal axis)

In face, many conic surfaces can be derived from a cone and its respective cross-sections

So, dear reader, within the entire universe, large or small, where may I find a true circle?

If we take this question to mean: where can I find something that has neither start nor end, then the answer is in your nearest copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s the answer that Professor McGonagall gives as an answer to the Ravenclaw portrait.

Ha, I’m such a nerd…

Anyway, here’s what banjo has to say:

#1. A circle is a special case of an ellipse where the eccentricity is zero — the foci exist in the same location and the equation can be collapsed in this case to explain a circle. An ellipse is not a special case of a circle because it cannot be arrived at using the simplified mathematical formula of a circle ( r^2 = x^2 + y^2 ) and there are infinite ways of expanding that equation, only one of which can explain ellipses.

#2. Statistically, you can’t. Take for example a perfect sphere. To form it would need to occur in an infinite-sized universe, with a finite amount of universal matter, an infinite distance from the rest of all other matter … and only if you overlook the fact that anything that is made of other things (e.g. a metal sphere made of atoms) will have an irregular surface (like a bunch of marbles approximating the look of a soccer-ball). To have a perfectly circular orbit, you would need one perfect (symmetrically balanced) sphere orbiting another perfect sphere at exactly the right angle, speed, rotation, and altitude with no other gravitational, magnetic, electric, or physical forces acting on it.

And, of course, a circle is only a 2-dimensional concept in a 10- or 11-dimension universe.

P.S. I could be wrong, but this is what I remember from high-school maths and physics (and a little Wikipedia research).

Followed by the answer, by Venom71:

1. A circle must be a special case of an ellipse for precisely the reasons you outlined, and not the other way around. Even if one were to use the conic method to derive a circle and an ellipse: then for each point on the vertical axis of the cone there must only be one circle but an approximate infinite number of ellipses – which empirically supports the notion that a circle is just a special case of an ellipse. (I say approximately infinite when one gets down to the Planck length as the distance between two points on the vertical axis)

2. Where would I find a circle? No circles exist, they are only mathematical constructs.

3. Where would I find an ellipse? No ellipses exist either, again they are only mathematical constructs. (The fall of shot from a gun, and a planet’s orbit do not exist of themselves)

4. Could a real and true circle and ellipse exist? No.

a) As you say, any representation of a circle or an ellipse constructed of particles must be irregular. It also cannot be perfect because of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle as a perfect circle or ellipse requires that each particle’s exact position and velocity must both be known.

b) General Theory of Relativity may also preclude perfect circle’s and ellipses existing because they could only exist in a matterless and energyless environment. (ie: Gravity and frame dragging would impact the shape of any circle or ellipse but also any measurement device. A measurement device or even devices must be located discretely and thus would have their own “gravity well” and also be in a different “frame” to any position of the circle or ellipse they were intended to measure).

Wait – I’m not a nerd. I don’t know that stuff!!

Speaking about ridiculous maths problems:

http://random.irb.hr/signup.php

http://www.freshbytes.com.au/images/skitch/captchamaths-20081114-142332.jpg

Comments below.