I'm a Developer at Master of Malt, a University of Brighton graduate, a 1st Kyu in Kyokushinkai Karate, a video gamer and technology enthusiast. Read more about me over here.
A couple posts ago I mentioned that this blog was getting a lot of referrers from folks trying to find out how to do some stuff I mentioned in my final year project and that I might write a couple blog posts explaining what I learned. I am in no way an expert on the subject, but with any luck what I contribute will at least point people in the right direction.
Rather than write a lengthy post however, I decided to produce a video using the newly released Final Cut Pro X. A lot of professional video editors are complaining that the software has lost a lot of features and has changes they disagree with, and I'm sure they are right, but as a casual video editor who was relegated to using iMovie (which didn't do enough) because I didn't understand the complexities of Final Cut Express, I love the power and freedom the new editing software has given me. The new price also did a lot to sell me on the purchase.
So here it is, my first stab at a video tutorial; a guide to creating a simple iPhone application that displays a UITableViewController using Core Data as the data source. This is my first attempt, so I'm sure there are improvements to be made. If folk like it, maybe I will do more. Or perhaps I will make a video on something completely different. Who knows.
In other news, I watched the complete first season of Game of Thrones, which was absolutely incredible. Its certainly up there with one of my favourite TV shows, and even got me back into reading books, as I can't wait an entire year for the next season to arrive. I would recommend the book(s) and the show to anyone who isn't squeamish about a little blood and unnecessary nudity and sex.
On Monday and Tuesday I had two exams, both three hours in length, involving questions about .NET architecture (three tiers, web services and AJAX) and database theory (transaction processing, object-relational databases, business intelligence and data warehousing). The best part of the whole thing was having to hand write the answers (on this antiquated technology called paper) which has the delightful result of making the exams much more difficult to do for someone (like the kind of person that would take a computing course…) who types all day. It also makes life much more difficult for the examiner, as my hand writing is teeeeerrible. I felt the .NET exam went pretty well, but I left the database one feeling my attempt at answering questions about business intelligence and data warehousing didn't go down so well, so we will have to wait and see what sort of final grade I get.
These exams mark the completion of my university degree. After twelve years in compulsory education, two years at college and four years at university I'm officially out of the education system. A real boy you might say. It's kinda scary to think I won't have to do pointless coursework, listen to lectures about subjects I really don't give a shit about or take exams ever again. At the same time its very awesome the freedom that provides. I'm now completely free to work on the projects I want, as long as I have some sort of income at the same time. I do have to pay of that student loan at some point…
Happening at the same time as my exams was WWDC and E3. Apples announcements at WWDC were interesting, with the improvements in Lion and iOS 5 being very much desired, even if most of the later were lifted from Android, Windows Phone 7, third party apps and jailbreaks. Whatever the source of these ideas, as an iOS user I don't really have any complaints. Companies should always be matching features at the same time as innovating, and much of the feature set of iOS 5 seems designed to remove a lot of the arguments (beyond the whole open debate) Android fan boys have. For me personally, wireless sync, better notifications and tabbed browsing are the primary features I'm excited for. Its also nice to see them finally allow you to set the thing up on the device, as requiring a computer to activate an iPad kinda destroys the whole "post pc" spiel they are trying to sell you.
The iCloud stuff is also interesting, as if nothing else it makes MobileMe free. It also adds universal syncing between your devices, so if I download a song, app or book on one device, it syncs to the others. The same is true for documents made in iWork and photos taken with an iPhone camera, which will automatically sync with iPhoto on my mac. The iTunes portion of it is what everyone is making the biggest deal out of, and they certainly have an interesting offering (for $25 any song in your library will be upgraded to a high quality iTunes version and they will upload anything they don't have), particularly because they are basically providing an amnesty for any pirated music as long as you pay the yearly fee. What sucks is no streaming option, and the fact it wont be coming to the UK any time soon. That makes all three cloud music solutions (Google, Amazon and Apple) US only for now…
Of the E3 presentations, Nintendo was certainly the most interesting. They have Kid Icarus, Luigi's Mansion 2, Star Fox 64, Mario Kart and Super Mario coming to 3DS, which alongside the soon to be released Zelda remake almost makes me want to get a 3DS. Unfortunately the machine is kinda bulky and the battery lasts four hours, so I think I will hold out for a revision, as I was pretty badly burnt by the DS Lite (which came out a couple months after I purchased a DS Phat).
The Wii U announcement obviously gained the most attention and aside from its horrific name the concept is interesting. I played Zelda Four Swords and Crystal Chronicles on GameCube using GBA's and the experience was actually pretty fun, so I can see how the new controller could be used. Its just a shame Nintendo once again opted for a cheap single touch capacitive screen. I think the Wii U will have a pretty successful launch, and will use the fact its in line with current hardware specs to its advantage to get 3rd party support, but I can see problems one or two years in when Sony and Microsoft's next machines are released and leave the Wii U behind. You have to give Nintendo credit though, for once again trying to innovate while Microsoft and Sony are still demoing their wiimote ripoffs. Motion control is so last year dude.
Speaking of Sony, aside from some impressive looking PS3 games (Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, inFamous 2, Dust 514 and Starhawk), multi platform titles (BioShock Infinite) and some terrible move games (NBA on the Move and Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest), their big announcement was the PlayStation Vita, another God awful product name. The Vita looked nice and all and the price point was right for once, but I feel Sony is really making a mistake here. Everything they showed for the PSV was a big, epic, cinematic, console experience on a handheld platform. They sold this exact concept when the PSP was released six years ago and guess what, no one (outside of the Japanese who love monster hunter) play their PSP. Why? Because you can't play epic console experiences on the bus. The end result of this is you play these portable games at home, on a tiny screen, with shitty controls, when your TV and console is sitting right next to you. Some of these games even let you transfer the experience between the console and handheld, which kinda proves my entire point.
Speaking of transferring, perhaps my favourite part of E3 was this video from Konami (starts 35 minutes 10 seconds in)…
The PSP was released before the iPhone and Android devices took over the handheld market. These days if you want a quick, portable game you buy one for a very low price on your smart phone. Nintendo may still have some chance because they make unique games that will never come to smart phones and because they actually make games suited for portable play. Sony however, is trying to sell you a portable PS3, and no one wants that…
As for Microsoft, their presentation was probably the most disappointing. Beyond another dashboard update, Gears of War 3, Halos and some multi platform franchise like Call of Duty and Tomb Raider, all they showed was Kinect bullshit. This demo of Ubisoft playing a Tom Clancy game where you shoot by doing jazz hands describes how I feel about the whole thing (starts 1 minutes 30 seconds in).
And while we're on the subject of Ubisoft, their press conference is probably the winner of the most bizarre award. The guys at Giant Bomb probably explain it best (starts 8 minutes 35 seconds in).
So yeah, a week of highs and lows to say the least.
Poster Day for the project seemed to go well, especially when you bribe your examiners with whisky samples. A few guys from a local company also attended the session and seemed fairly impressed with my work. They offered me the chance to attend an interview day they were holding, which could have led to a job, however I decided not to submit my CV because apparently they build all their websites in perl…
Quite why you would do that, I'm not exactly sure. They said it gets them "deep down" into the hardware, increasing performance, but I don't really believe them. It appears to me that their first developer knew perl and everyone else was forced to continue using it. The same argument could be made for writing everything in machine code, which I have little desire to do either.
In my last post I showed an early version of the flash game we had to build as a group. The game is now finished, however because its a two player game requiring a server, I can't put it online like I did my first one. Instead I have produced this overly dramatic video demonstrating it.
We worked as a team to create the game. My major contributions to the project were the tank controls, timers and turn switching, the start and end sequences and conceptual designs. Other team members produced the assets (graphics and sound, which are far superior to my previous effort), collision detection, random rock layout and the server side work. We had planned to have other weapon types, but ran out of time. I'm really happy with how it came out though, and its surprisingly fun to play.
With that handed in I have officially completed all the coursework for my degree. All that is left is a couple hand written exams next month. Exciting stuff!
In the meantime I've been getting back into the swing of completing video games. I completed Portal 2 twice (with and without commentary) just after my project. The game is without question a must play, and if you didn't play the original you should play both of them immediately. The writing and humour is some of the best video games has to offer, and the puzzles are perfectly play tested. Valve added so many new unique twists to the original concept that I often sound myself banging my head against a puzzle I couldn't solve, and then remembering that I had a portal gun…
I also went back and completed Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Back at the start of the year I played and completed the first two games back to back after getting a PS3 at Christmas, however I stopped playing Brotherhood only a few hours into it after getting some fatigue. While improved, Brotherhood is very much a second act of AC2, so its perhaps not wise to play them consecutively. I did really enjoy the entire game though (I don't think the mechanics of scaling rooftops and assassinating will ever get old), and the ending is as unpredictable as the first two. If your new to the series as I was, and want to catch up, I recommend reading the wikipedia article and watching some YouTube videos for the first game, before skipping it and playing the sequel. While you need to know the story to play AC2, the gameplay in AC1 is incredibly repetitive and frustrating and one of those rare occasions where the sequel is 100% better.
With Brotherhood out the way I'm now enjoying L.A. Noire, Rockstar's mix of Grand Theft Auto and Phoenix Wright. So far I'm enjoying it immensely.
Today marks the beginning of the last week of work on my final year project. I've been spending a lot of time recently writing in elaborate detail about very boring things. Documenting everything isn't terribly fun…
I've done nearly 30 pages for my product report. Tomorrow I will add testing and planning to it and it should be mostly done. Then I need to create a short user manual. And then I need to write the 5000 - 7000 word report to the examiners in which I have to explain my project to people who don't know what the Internet is…
While "working on project without really doing any work" I managed to produce the following video. I thought it might help anyone who bothers to look at the disc submitted with my project as its very unlikely they will actually be able to run my code. It will probably also be useful for my portfolio and poster day…
In other news, Portal 2 arrived today. Its awesome.
iphone development, ;)
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