FernyB

Again LA Ruby will be have a meetup, it will be hosted at the The Americana at Brand in Glendale, CA. Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, 7:00 PM.

722 Americana Way
The Marc Building – Grand Room
Glendale, CA 91210

More information can be found at http://ruby.meetup.com and join the yahoo group.

So I was taking a look at some of my old projects and I decided that I would like to continue with some of them well at least one of them. Which is my Skateboarding Spots site. I have my great ideas for it, its just that I don’t always have time and when I do have time it always wants me to do something else. So, in all seriousness I’m going to rewrite skatr.us in ruby with the Merb framework.

Lately I’ve been writing Objective-C/Cocoa code, and lately I’ve learned how-to capture video from an iSight on a Macbook. It’s actually easy. Here is the code. and I’ve also attached the example application I was writing so you can take a look at it.

[Download Source]
[Download Application]

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
#import <QTKit/QTKit.h>

@interface MyRecorderController : NSObject {
  IBOutlet QTCaptureView * mCaptureView;
  QTCaptureSession       * mCaptureSession;
  QTCaptureDeviceInput   * mCaptureDeviceInput;
}

- (IBAction)startRecording: (id)sender;
- (IBAction)stopRecording: (id)sender;

@end

@implementation MyRecorderController

- (IBAction)startRecording: (id)sender
{
  // Create a new Capture Session
  mCaptureSession = [[QTCaptureSession alloc] init]; 

  //Connect inputs and outputs to the session
  BOOL success = NO;
  NSError *error;

  // Find a video device
  QTCaptureDevice *device = [QTCaptureDevice defaultInputDeviceWithMediaType:QTMediaTypeVideo];
  if(device) {
    success = [device open:&error];
    if(!success) {
      // Handle Error!
    }
    // Add the video device to the session as device input
    mCaptureDeviceInput = [[QTCaptureDeviceInput alloc] initWithDevice:device];
    success = [mCaptureSession addInput:mCaptureDeviceInput error:&error];
    if(!success) {
      // Handle error
    }

    // Associate the capture view in the UI with the session
    [mCaptureView setCaptureSession:mCaptureSession];

    // Start the capture session runing
    [mCaptureSession startRunning];

  } // End if device
}

- (IBAction)stopRecording: (id)sender
{
  if([mCaptureSession isRunning]) {
     [mCaptureSession stopRunning];
     [mCaptureSession release];
     [mCaptureDeviceInput release];
  }
}

@end

If you would like the higher quality screencast download it (h.264)

Lately I’ve been messing around with CakePHP and it’s actually pretty good. It’s similar to Rails but obviously not in Ruby. Unlike some people, I don’t discriminate based on code or anything else really. I’m happy with anything I like. Well I figure I would start a series of screencasts for CakePHP since I’m messing around with it.

Oh yeah, I’ve been reading, apparently, and I know, It’s not very well explained, just a heads up.

As some may know, I used to work at citywaboo.com over in Burbank, CA where I used to do full-time PHP Development, anyways I was at youtube searching for videos and I found this video of the office being flooded, it was crazy!

The the last two weeks, I’ve been writing an application with RubyCocoa. I do whatever I can for the day considering I have a day job. Here is my first UI mock.

I don’t write Cocoa / Objective-C all day long. I do write a lot more Ruby than PHP now, It’s better at times I wish PHP could do that. I’ll write Ruby over PHP even though I may know more about PHP than Ruby at this moment in time. Lately I’ve been writing RubyCocoa, which is just using Ruby and the Cocoa Framework, same API but you can use Ruby idioms. I’ve also wondered why I was even writing in Ruby and not just on pure Objective-C? Well, I’ve started to do just that.

I’ve started to write Objective-C a lot especially this past week, I’ve been reading lots of documentation, sometimes I get a headache because I need to look up which method I need to call next. I first started to learn Cocoa about almost two years ago but I was never really serious about until now. I’m starting to like the syntax, some people will argue that. What I really like about it is it’s named arguments and that Objects can be extended as-well, just like what Rails does with Ruby.

So with all that being said, I continue to learn the Cocoa Framework with Objective-C and currently reading over Aaron Hillegass’ book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX.

Apple announced today that it has decided to drop the controversial iPhone developer non-disclosure agreement because it ‘created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success.”

via Techcrunch

So the day as come and gone. LA Ruby was a hit. This time it was over at Los Angeles Times building in Downtown Los Angeles CA. It was great to see many new people. It continues to grow. More good things are coming along the way. I met some guys from a startup called Vokle.com and they are using Merb instead of Rails. The idea behind it sounds cool. So I’ve posted a their video and the music for it awesome.

So after dicussing with myself. I figure why re-invent the wheel. So here is a screencast of RubyCocoa.

For while now, I’ve been learning Objective-C, and while I’m writing in Ruby more often I figure I would also learn RubyCocoa. I figure I’m going to create a few screencasts on getting started with RubyCocoa and anything I learn with it. If you don’t know what RubyCocoa is, it is described as:

“…a bridge between the Ruby and the Objective-C languages, allowing you to manipulate Objective-C objects from Ruby, and vice-versa. It lets you write full-stack Cocoa applications in Ruby…”

It’s that time again!

7:00 PM, 3rd Thursday of the Month. Ruby Meetup in Downtown Los Angeles CA.
Be sure to join us!

Los Angeles Times Media Group
145 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Once inside the lobby, let the guard at the reception desk know you
are here for the LARuby Meeting and you will be directed to the Times
Community Room located just to right of the lobby.

[Google Map]

[Yahoo Group]

The stuff I see in downtown los angeles and a post to test image posting

So as a owner of an iPhone, I decided to give wordpress iPhone app a try.. and so far it’s good.. I think it needs a way to upload images, that would be killer..

Yesterday was the release of Pwnage Tool 2.0. Immediately I downloaded the tool although I was having trouble actually trying to download it, I guess their server was being hit.. anyways, I was using wget to download it. Well after I manage to download it, of course I unlocked my iPhone first generation with firmware 2.0. What does this mean? It means, I can have my iPhone be more like a computer, now I can connect to it via ssh, and use T-Mobile if I wanted to.. Official third-party apps continue to work. It’s better than ever.

If you need to unlocked firmware for your own phone download it here..

How to use the custom firmware? simply just plug your iphone holding the power button and the home button for about 10 seconds and iTunes says you are in recovery mode. That is a good sign. After you need to option click on recover button to browse for the unlocked firmware. Then just sit back and let iTunes do whatever it does.. Enjoy.