Daniel Shusta

Windows Genuine Advantage

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:11:33 -0400

In an attempt to prevent piracy and thus losing money, let’s punish every computer user in the entire world by refusing security updates to non-Genuine Windows users and thus allowing zombie computers to take root.

Fixing the stupid bug that took way too long to figure out especially considering how stupid it was

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:43:00 -0400

Apparently this is correct:

[tableView deselectRowAtIndexPath:indexPath animated:YES];

And this is not:

[[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath] setSelected:NO animated:YES];

The former will deselect your selected row for real. The latter will “deselect” the row, only to have the row still be selected when you scroll it back into view.

I might have kinda sorta spent hours on this bug.

(Isn’t this what KVO is for? The tableview could be notified when one of the cells changes its selected value and calls deselectRowAtBlahBlah on its own?)

"Two persons – one white and the other black – are playing a game of poker. The game has been in..."

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:38:07 -0400

“Two persons – one white and the other black – are playing a game of poker. The game has been in progress for some 300 years. One player – the white one – has been cheating during much of this time, but now announces: ‘from this day forward, there will be a new game with new players and no more cheating.’ Hopeful but suspicious, the black player responds, ‘that’s great. I’ve been waiting to hear you say that for 300 years. Let me ask you, what are you going to do with all those poker chips that you have stacked up on your side of the table all these years?’ ‘Well,’ said the white player, somewhat bewildered by the question, ‘they are going to stay right here, of course.’ ‘That’s unfair,’ snaps the black player. ‘The new white player will benefit from your past cheating. Where’s the equality in that?’ ‘But you can’t realistically expect me to redistribute the poker chips along racial lines when we are trying to move away from considerations of race and when the future offers no guarantees to anyone,’ insists the white player. ‘And surely,’ he continues, ‘redistributing the poker chips would punish individuals for something they did not do. Punish me, not the innocents!’ Emotionally exhausted, the black player answers, ‘but the innocents will reap a racial windfall.’”

- Roy L. Brooks (via azspot)

I know the iTunes development team creams their pants at the...

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:51:00 -0400

I know the iTunes development team creams their pants at the mere idea of modal dialogs, but that doesn’t make this any less utterly superfluous. The answer is always “View Updates”.

A Gawker post is entitled "Apple's Worst Security Breach" and goes on to describe a security flaw which they admit is entirely AT&T's fault and responsibility and which AT&T has already fixed, reminding me I wouldn't miss Gawker Media at all if Apple and California's DOJ sues them into the ground.

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:34:00 -0400

It’s been that kind of day.

"Defenders of modern copyright law will argue Congress has struck “the right balance” between..."

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 14:46:55 -0400

“Defenders of modern copyright law will argue Congress has struck “the right balance” between copyright holders’ interests and the public good. They’ll suggest the current law is an appropriate compromise among interest groups. But by claiming the law strikes “the right balance,” what they’re really saying is that the Glee kids deserve to be on the losing side of a lawsuit. Does that sound like the right balance to you?”

- Copyright: The Elephant in the Middle of the Glee Club

Oh darn, Guitar Hero is coming to iPhone. Maybe now Tapulous...

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:29:41 -0400

Oh darn, Guitar Hero is coming to iPhone. Maybe now Tapulous will make something other than 13 almost identical versions of Tap Tap Revenge.

explodingdog: Hey, man, can you hook me up?

Wed, 26 May 2010 10:48:09 -0400

explodingdog:

Hey, man, can you hook me up?

Fuck yeah pictures for sad children

Tue, 25 May 2010 08:57:40 -0400

Fuck yeah pictures for sad children

Um, yes

Tue, 25 May 2010 01:27:13 -0400

Um, yes

Blame my sudden interest in Tap Tap Revenge 3 on this school project

Mon, 24 May 2010 21:22:00 -0400

As I read reviews on Tap Tap Revenge 3, I find myself considering a more in-depth study of difference in ratings between iPhone games and more traditional console video games. Seriously, Tap Tap Revenge 3 is getting 9.5/10s across the board.

You know what else got 9.5s? Halo. Metroid Prime. Super Mario 64. Bioshock. These are works of art, the pinnacle of gameplay mechanics and storytelling and pacing. They’re technically impressive as well. It was clear when they were released that these games stood a reasonable chance of being fun and playable for years if not decades. That’s what a 9.5 means.

TTR3 is Guitar Hero crammed into an iPhone app with some social networking thrown in because that’s what all the cool kids are doing.

Macworld seems confused about how many reviews Tap Tap Revenge 3...

Mon, 24 May 2010 12:25:11 -0400

Macworld seems confused about how many reviews Tap Tap Revenge 3 has, or what the ratings are.

On Tap Tap Revenge 3

Mon, 24 May 2010 00:43:31 -0400

I get the sense that Tapulous didn’t trust the game to stand on its own. The App Store is competitive. The games section of the App Store is hugely competitive. Every game in the App Store faces a constantly onslaught of incoming new and fresh games every day, even established games like Tap Tap Revenge. And so they added more.

They added Tap Tap Revenge 3 the App. The App has stuff like seemingly-useless in-game currency and avatar customization. It doesn’t feel like these features were added because the developers honestly wanted them. It feels like they were added because it would give users something else to do with TTR3. And when TTR3 becomes split between the Game and the App, it becomes unclear what the focus should be anymore. Everyone loses the motivation to polish the details.

And so, trying so desperately to be relevant becomes its downfall. Tap Tap Revenge 3’s gameplay, shunted aside to make way for the banner features, is left neglected, alone, and ultimately buried.

comicallyvintage: Sound advice. I am twelve.

Wed, 05 May 2010 11:22:26 -0400

comicallyvintage:

Sound advice.

I am twelve.

"Dan: A wild Antitrust Lawsuit appears! Dan: Apple uses OH GOD OPEN ALL THE FUCKING APIS Dan:..."

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:08:17 -0400

“Dan: A wild Antitrust Lawsuit appears! Dan: Apple uses OH GOD OPEN ALL THE FUCKING APIS Dan: It’s super effective!”

- kapowaz

Wow, this seems like an important and scary decision. It even...

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:38:57 -0400

Wow, this seems like an important and scary decision. It even throws up an “Are you sure?” after either choice. So which of these should I choose?

Wrong. I have no calendars on this iPod touch. This dialog shouldn’t come up at all.

gamefreaksnz: The Difference between Nerd, Dork, and Geek...

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 14:28:47 -0400

gamefreaksnz:

The Difference between Nerd, Dork, and Geek Explained

[Great White Snark] via [Sed Contra]

katefeetie: I LEFT MY HEAD AND MY HEART ON THE DANCE...

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:59:01 -0400

katefeetie:

I LEFT MY HEAD AND MY HEART ON THE DANCE FLOOOOOR.

I made this. I do not have the ability to feel shame.

I am becoming a Lady Gaga fan. Stop me, somebody, anybody.

gamefreaksnz: Cooking GaGa by ~capitannathan on deviantART

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:45:49 -0400

gamefreaksnz:

Cooking GaGa by ~capitannathan on deviantART

"At the on-board shuttle group, about one-third of the process of writing software happens before..."

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:22:00 -0400

“At the on-board shuttle group, about one-third of the process of writing software happens before anyone writes a line of code. NASA and the Lockheed Martin group agree in the most minute detail about everything the new code is supposed to do — and they commit that understanding to paper, with the kind of specificity and precision usually found in blueprints. Nothing in the specs is changed without agreement and understanding from both sides. And no coder changes a single line of code without specs carefully outlining the change. Take the upgrade of the software to permit the shuttle to navigate with Global Positioning Satellites, a change that involves just 1.5% of the program, or 6,366 lines of code. The specs for that one change run 2,500 pages, a volume thicker than a phone book. The specs for the current program fill 30 volumes and run 40,000 pages.”

- Nasa’s software development process produces unbelievably inhumanly virtually-perfect software.

I would say my greatest failing when writing code is not doing just this — I usually have a vague idea of what I want to do and then figure out the details as I encounter them. It must make collaborating with me a pain in the ass.