Folks familiar with C and with object oriented programming in general will soon figure things out: the tutorial is written at about the right level.

Nota bene: the first version of the tutorial has a few bugs, as I had to find. At the very end, you need to declare "string" (the "model") as a member of MyViewController:

NSString *string;

I also initialized the string in the init method:

self->string = NULL;

I also ended up using self->string rather than self.string.

Not sure about these things (I'm new to Cocoa), but it worked for me.

The next challenge is to get the sample application to work on a real iPhone. In general, a simple

scp -r ./build/Debug-iphonesimulator/helloworld.app \
root@10.0.0.2:/Applications/

should do the job (having jailbroken and installed an SSH daemon on the phone). Too bad that XCode with the latest SDK will build applications against the new 2.0 (beta) Phone OS. Switching the architecture to "iPhone OS" (rather than the iPhone Simulator) will produce ARM binaries (and complain about a missing certificate, which we'll ignore for now). But running this on a 1.1.4 iPhone? No good.

So, I've been having fun. I've been laughing about myself, with, about and at others. On my 30th birthday, I made one big life change. I bought 24 pairs of black socks. So I don't have to find vaguely matching pairs any longer.

I'm glad that was the only change needed.

My brand-new Airport Express doesn't like to act as a client in an WEP encrypted network. The usual tricks (entering the 40-bit hex key with a $ prefix) don't work: it says it's got an "internet problem" and misses an assigned IP address. If you give it a fixed IP, it gives you a green "thumbs up", but it still won't work.

Interestingly, it did work fine with the original firmware (7.3.0), until I violated the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" rule and eagerly installed the latest 7.3.1 upgrade. Arrrghhh!

The Airport Express does work in client mode when WPA or no encryption at all is used.

Take that on top of oodles of problems with OS X 10.5 and my new Macbook Pro: external displays get screwed up, the internal screen sometimes goes black or loses its color calibration. Is this the end of "it just works" for Apple?

As every year, the Ceilidh was held in a ball room with funky lighting. That's quite the challenge for photographers, even when you have decent equipment. Most of the pictures were taken with a 50mm f1.8 Canon lens, at 800-1250 ISO, and slightly under-exposed. At f1.8 it's quite a challenge to focus on moving targets, and 1/125sec shutter speed is often not fast enough. As usual, the large Metz flash did its job quite well in the few frames when I used it (bought in the days of film photography, it's clearly overkill when used with a digital camera). In other shots I used Canon's 70-300 IS 4.0-5.6, which never fails to underwhelm me.

I was thankful for the white spotlights, which the technician left on by my request. I ended up staying in the same place for minutes at a time, shooting dancers as they came around to a spotlight. Last year, things were rather red and turned the night into a black-and-white orgy.

Here, I'm leaving 103 pictures in the set, despite technical imperfection, because I know that people will still enjoy seeing themselves and their friends.

• To get distracted less. In late 2007, I have canceled my RSS subscriptions for a number of news outlets (less is more!). Following the news all day yields no benefits - the news junkie isn't better informed at the end of the day. I've gotten rid of all those Apple rumor sites much earlier.

• To listen better. Starting with a research notebook and regular note-taking in talks and meetings, I keep attention levels where they should be. It's already begun to work for me.

On a personal note. I have no concrete idea where I'm going to be six months from now. Options are being discussed, further suggestions are welcome (will have PhD from Edinburgh. Want university position or an opportunity in a research/dev lab.)

The future is a black hole. It's bright!]]> http://www.davids-world.com/archives/2008/01/the_future_my_b.html http://www.davids-world.com/archives/2008/01/the_future_my_b.html Just for fun Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:11:32 +0000 Christmas can be so relaxed when you're getting rid of the presents. I didn't spend time shopping for any, and I didn't get much (too heavy to carry). I did give people something though: "time". Time to cook dinners for my family (for a change!). Time to look over my sister's CV and make it look great. Time to pick out my favorite records, to my brother has something to listen to with his new iPod.

Many years ago I quit the Christian club in search for better spirits. That doesn't mean you can't spend quality time with your family over Christmas. Perhaps it's the opposite - if we all try a bit less hard to make everything just perfect for the greatest feast the year, then we'll have a lot more fun in the process.

Take it easy!

With this Gliding Grand Prix, the competition is moving towards an event that is internationally visible, with pretty pictures and fascinating live coverage. Having installed video cameras and tracking devices in the gliders, a (rather hypothetical) TV audience can follow every move. The event is broadcast live on AirsportsLive, with a free low-quality version and better, more costly videos. Unfortunately I couldn't make the videos work on my standard Mac computers. I guess this Grand Prix is more a test case for the media coverage of a gliding event, and the website simply needs (a lot more) work.

Thankfully, US pilot Tim McAllister gives a first-hand account of the race on his blog. He managed to beat World Champion Sebastian Kawa (Poland) on one day (happens!). Watch that space!

The last step has been necessary because Gizmo stopped working from home - it can't get through the chain of wireless routers and ADSL modems that we're using, despite various firewall-tweaking attempts. The symptom: I can't hear the people I'm calling, but they can hear me.

However, I managed to get a free Voice-over-IP SIPphone software called XMeeting to work nicely with Sipphone.com, the same guys that make Gizmo Project. Gizmo (and Sipphone) allow you to call normal phones as well at low rates, so if you've topped up your Gizmo account, you can use any SIP Phone. XMeeting, other than Gizmo, is free as in beer and free as in freedom - it is developed by volunteers. And for me, it actually works better than Gizmo. Ekiga is an alternative for Windows and GNU/Linux users.

Here's how to configure XMeeting. First, you need your account number at Sipphone.com. You can find out by logging in to my.sipphone.com or by looking at your profile page in Gizmo ("SIP number"):

Under "Locations", I have set the STUN server to stun.sipgate.net, which has worked well for me (alternatively, stun01.sipphone.com works, too). Note that this STUN server thingy helps the server to talk to you. Depending on your network, you might be able to get better voice quality without this. I set the Network -> UDP Port Range to 5004-5005, but I reckon that doesn't matter much given that I've got a NAT and Leopard's firewall in between.

I have enabled ISP, "use this proxy": proxy01.sipphone.com, with the 1747... user ID and the password):

Calling out then works if you enter your number like this: +4479103.....@proxy01.sipphone.com (for a UK based mobile phone).

This will work with other SIP phones as well, also on Windows and even on PDAs (and mobile phones). Don't forget that Sipphone.com will charge you for connection attempts as well - so take care when messing around.

I was soaring some hills and a bit of mountain wave near Portmoak in Scotland, just north of Edinburgh. The lake in the pictures is Loch Leven.