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Symbiosis 2009

Some vid from Symbiosis. Finally got Mie hooping :) Shake it girl

Symbiosis 2009

Test Driving iPhone Development with XCode 3.1

I'm about to start spending a lot of time developing for the iPhone, so I wanted to figure out how to test drive it. Some google searching turned up a lot of information, but most of it was published some time ago and contained outdated details. Most importantly, there is no longer any need to install the OCUnit framework as it now ships with XCode.

I decided to publish a quick run through of what worked for me on XCode 3.1.2. I'll test drive development of a static library here, and then use that tested static library in a new iPhone app. Before you get going on this I suggest you are already capable of building an iPhone app, as I won't spend a lot of time on the details of that. There seems to be a way to write unit test for UI code as well, but I have not got that far yet.

Get Google Toolbox for Mac (GTM)

cd ~/code
svn checkout http://google-toolbox-for-mac.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ google-toolbox-for-mac

Create the iPhone static library project and set it up for unit testing

My Beating Heart

A year and a half ago I posted about My Beating Heart, a heart shaped stuffed pillow with a computer controlled actuator that buzzes in a manner mimicking the gnarly rhythms of the human heart in a state of meditation. At the time I had not bought one, but I ordered one soon after. My uninitiated review was a bit snarky, so I'd like to set the record straight now: My Beating Heart is one of the best products I've ever purchased. It's saved me time and again over the last year, and last night it did it one more time.

Since Tesla was born, my most precious resource is sleep, a restless night is a curse. When you turn on My Beating Heart, it starts thump thumping and shuts off in 20 minutes. I have never once, in many dozens of times using it to get to sleep, made it awake 20 minutes. It's guaranteed peaceful repose. It is slumbering certainty. I think it may be the best sleep aid ever invented.

A month ago it stopped working. I put in a new battery and it still wouldn't work. I seriously panicked a bit, thinking I would have to send it back and beg them to fix it ASAP. It turned out the new battery wasn't so new though. Whew. I would have bought another one if I had to.

I should note, my friend Ginevera is a fan too.