Zac's Weblog » advice http://www.zacwhite.com/blog Fri, 22 Apr 2011 06:01:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 To CD or not to CD? http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2006/05/08/to-cd-or-not-to-cd/ http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2006/05/08/to-cd-or-not-to-cd/#comments Mon, 08 May 2006 06:11:08 +0000 Zac White http://zacwhite.com/blog/2006/05/08/to-cd-or-not-to-cd/ I recently asked myself whether or not to use CoreData in Audipad. The program has to keep track of when a character is typed with respect to the currently playing/recording audio file. This sounds like it might be a good job for CoreData. However, I decided a few days ago it might be a little like swatting a hammer with a fly (strike that. reverse it.). CoreData also doesn’t care about order, so I would have to put indexes on everything and manually manage those. This didn’t sound like fun. Instead, I went with an NSArray and I am not regretting it. This article at MacDevCenter has put my mind at ease.

When to use Core Data?

You can see my implimentation here. Basically it takes about 12 lines to record the data and about 11 to “play” it back. You can see a movie of it working here. Because of Ridiculous Fish’s great article on reverse engineering Apple’s NSArray implementation, I also think that this will scale quite well. Audipad is coming along!

]]> http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2006/05/08/to-cd-or-not-to-cd/feed/ 0 The Art of Text Arguing http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2006/03/13/the-art-of-text-arguing/ http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2006/03/13/the-art-of-text-arguing/#comments Tue, 14 Mar 2006 04:50:16 +0000 Zac White http://zacwhite.com/blog/?p=40 Every once and a while you have to spill your thoughts onto a pixelated screen and when you do so, you are bound to get a contrary opinion. This has happened to me a lot in the recent past (mostly because I’m an argumentative twit). Let me share with you a few tips in order to make arguing through a textual medium a little easier.

1. Type fast. You almost always have to get something out before someone else or you sound like a dumbass. Sometimes you put something out there that needs obvious clarification and it is just fodder for your foes.
2. Ask questions about their position. Often you can easily expose their obvious house of cards by just poking at it a little. Who needs to build castles when everyone else has cardboard boxes?
3. Smilies can soften the blow. Just take this interesting phrase: “Your idea is the stupidest piece of crap ever.” vs. “Your idea is the stupidest piece of crap ever ) ”. How is this possible? I actually am incapable of being offended by any phrase that has a ) after it. WTF? A smiley could make Hitler almost seem nice.
4. You can’t win!! Ha, I forgot to tell you. You can’t win. And if you say you can, you are wrong. Care to argue that?

]]> http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2006/03/13/the-art-of-text-arguing/feed/ 0 Usability is paramount http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2005/11/22/usability-is-paramount/ http://www.zacwhite.com/blog/2005/11/22/usability-is-paramount/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2005 20:49:24 +0000 Zac White http://zacwhite.com/blog/?p=33

I have a belief that most developers would agree with. A good application is nothing without a good interface and good icons. You might have every feature imaginable, but if you can’t get to them…what is the point? Icons make an interface so much easier to understand and so much more pleasing to the eye. That is why I do everything in my power to make my applications look nice. I made my own icon for SearchMagic and it kinda sucks. Before I ever dream of releasing it big time, I would get a professional icon made. This guy (I would type out his name, but I believe wordpress has a character limit for entries) has made some really awesome icons. He just announced a new icon set that would beautify any application. Check out the preview.

Link

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