The Daily Grind

Not A Fan

I'm not a massive Microsoft fan these days, so it's not hard to read these frankly funny reviews of the Microsoft Surface "tablet" (not the table)...

• No, MS does not have Google and Apple beaten, but this article was probably written by the MS Marketing dept anyway:
  http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/five-reasons-why-windows-8-has-apple-and-google-beaten-1107414
• Painfully frank (and therefore, funny) experience on the Surface RT launch at a MS Store:
  http://www.marco.org/2012/10/26/an-alternate-universe
• Is it a bug? Is it a feature? It's both! With Windows 8:
  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/25/reg_kb_surviving_windows/
• RT Still a headache:
  http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/operating-systems/windows-8-launch-disappoints-windows-rt-still-a-headache-1107573

And the follow up being the absolute pounding of Windows/Metro...

• No, Metro doesn't work for desktop users, but it is the default:
  http://www.extremetech.com/computing/138847-the-metro-desktop-interaction-in-windows-8-is-an-absolute-train-wreck
• 90% of the desktop market should warrant more than this:
  http://www.extremetech.com/computing/139175-microsoft-sells-four-million-windows-8-copies-in-four-days-but-it-shouldve-sold-a-lot-more
• Breaking down desktop:
  http://www.extremetech.com/computing/138816-windows-8-the-desktop-review
• Breaking down tablet:
  http://www.extremetech.com/computing/138688-windows-8-the-tablet-review

Data Points for Indie Devs

Being a mobile game developer (well, part time, at least) is a pretty daunting challenge. It helps to get a real world view and here is a great one, with lots of useful links and plenty of facts about independent developer stats:

• http://thegamebakers.com/money-and-the-app-store-a-few-figures-that-might-help-an-indie-developer.html

So, This Is A Good Point

Reading much on the Apple vs Samsung legal battle and the issue of patents, I've come to realise that the patent system, generally, is viewed as broken only in software circles - every other industry appears happy with it, whether they think there's improvements to be made in the details, or not.

Here's a couple of articles I think are worth reading:

• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/24/apple_patent_victory/
• http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2012/08/26/devils-advocates-play-up-sympathy-for-samsung-after-apple-trial/

However, here's an article which lays out what I was trying to put into words myself:

• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/03/opinions4u_patents_are_broken_mailbag/

Specifically:

the iPhone and iPad iOS user interface no longer looks nor feels particularly modern despite all the cash Apple has spent defending it. But Apple's defence of its operating system in the courts has forced other people to innovate. This is a cause for celebration.

Building an iOS App in Corona Labs SDK

Corona SDK - now Corona Labs SDK - is a great tool for building games for iOS and Android. What about building more traditional and standard looking apps? Well, Corona provides a number of widgets which look and behave just like regular iOS controls. Putting these together shows that a few items are missing, but can be built. Corona SDK's Sample Code directory contains a WidgetDemo, to show off the functions provided by the API's Widgets. Here's my list of posts for improving those features:

• Sliding multi-level menu
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/08/ios-style-submenu-navigation-using-tableview
• Search box
  http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/15/ios-style-search-box
• Easy to use wrapper for the tab bar widget
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/07/encapsulated-ios-style-tab-bar
• Fading visual scroll bar
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/06/ios-style-fading-scrollbar
• Swipe to reveal delete buttons on menu rows
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/05/21/swipe-delete-tableview
• Scroll to top when tapping the status bar
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/07/ios-style-scroll-top
• Character index
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/06/ios-style-alpha-strip
• Creating display groups quickly and easily
  https://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2012/06/08/easy-display-group-generation

You Know That Feeling

Polygon Triangulation

Massive thanks to the super hero Nicholas Wellcome for this awesome piece of javascript. It allows you to draw a polygon in a clockwise order and then it breaks it into separate polygons - effectively allowing concave to multiple convex polygon conversion. And the best bit? He's provided his nicely commented source code!

• http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Stu/nwellcom/ams345/triangulate.html
• Homepage:
  http://nicholaswellcome.com/

Happening In Europe Right Now

The Firing Line

Found It

The Attitude Is The Problem

Angry Birds in 30 Mins or Less

As posted here on Ansca Mobile's blog:

• http://blog.anscamobile.com/2012/01/from-zero-to-angry-birds-in-30-minutes/

Here is how to code an Angry Birds style game basis in less than 30 minutes using the awesome Corona SDK...

Part Two

Interesting And Social API In Corona SDK

Here is a list of blog posts documenting how to use the most interesting and useful parts of the Corona SDK API by Ansca Mobile...

Many of these can be found on this root page: http://blog.anscamobile.com/category/tutorials/

Firstly, the social API's:

• Facebook Single Sign On
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2012/01/implementing-facebook-single-sign-on/
• Native email and SMS
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2012/01/composing-email-and-sms-in-corona/
• App URL schemes
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/12/using-app-url-schemes-in-ios/
• Push notifications
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/12/push-notifications-for-ios-in-corona-sdk/
• Local notifications
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/09/local-notifications-now-in-daily-builds/
• Uploading photos to facebook
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/12/uploading-photos-to-facebook-in-corona/
• Kindle Fire apps
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/11/building-and-publishing-kindle-fire-apps/

And second, the deeper API's:

• Storyboard API
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/11/introducing-the-storyboard-api/
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/11/common-storyboard-api-questions/
• JSON
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/08/tutorial-exploring-json-usage-in-corona/
• Custom fonts
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/07/custom-fonts-corona/
• Web popups
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/08/getting-creative-with-web-popups/
• XML files
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/07/how-to-use-xml-files-in-corona/
• Content scaling and Dynamic image resolution
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/11/content-scaling-made-easy/
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/01/dynamic-image-resolution-made-easy/
• Closures
  http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/02/using-closures-in-lua-to-avoid-global-variables-for-callbacks/

Project Management

The Never Ending...