James Andrews

Last night I was browsing twitter when one of my tweeps mentioned an article about iPhone and Flash. The article basically stated that before the release of the iPhone there were discussions of using flash on the iPhone for application development. That talks went south and since then there was no turning back. Now whether there is any truth to that I don’t know. What made the article interesting was the mention of an SDK called Corona by a company called Ansca Mobile. Essentially it’s a scripting language similar to actionscript/javascript that allows you to build iPhone apps as if you were building a Flash application.

I’ve wanted to write Cocoa apps for a while, but with work, and life I haven’t been able to get enough time to wrap my head around Cocoa and bindings and all the fun that goes with it. I know Javascript very well. Since I am a web developer so I thought I would give Corona a shot.

Corona cost $99 but there’s a 30 day trial version. I downloaded the trial version, and started reading through the docs (ok skimming through the docs) and sample applications. I found the APIDocs to be poor. No real explanation on how to capture events, which on the iPhone is important. Touch events are everything when it comes to the phone. Also, the company seems to be indecisive about some of the touch event naming, like “drag”. They thought it didn’t make sense, but I easily knew what they were talking about. Though I probably would have called it “swipe”. The sample code however was full of useful snippets, and from that I was able to build a 45 line application. That’s right in 45 lines I had the application I have been wanting to write for 5 months. Now I haven’t been able to test it on an iPhone or within Apple’s iPhone simulator. I have tested it in Corona’s iPhone simulator, in order to test it elsewhere I need to pay the $99, so for all I know it could totally break. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that it will work fine on the iPhone, and could revolutionize iPhone development for those who want to quickly get something out without the time consumption of learning Cocoa Touch, or paying an iPhone developer up to $150/hr

I am looking forward to them having a version that supports the iPad, I am sure they are working diligently on it.

Currently I am on my way to Japan. I decided this time around to take Air Canada. I have flown with them 4 times to Japan, so this is trip #5 with them. I am absolutely loving the experience. First my flight from Boston to Toronto was excellent. The economy class seat had an excellent amount of leg room. In between my chair and the chair next to me was a power outlet for my laptop. Since I only had slept 4 hours last night I slept. I was comfortable and was able to sleep well. I wasn’t woken for drink service, which was appreciated. YAY.

Now I am on my second flight from Toronto to Narita. It’s a 13hr flight. I have my window seat, not as much leg room as the previous flight, but about what I am use too. Ready for the long flight ahead.

I am assuming that I am on a new plane. The seats don’t look old. On each of the backs of the seats are private entertainment centers (on both planes). With a really good selection of movies, tv and music to keep you entertained. To the left of the 7-8″ LCD display is a USB port. I haven’t tried it yet, but I bet it’s for charging your USB devices. Either that or for the game console with they seem to have not available on the flight. On this plane there is an additional feature on the right of the display. That would be a 110/60Hz outlet. ROCK ON! I have my computer plugged in. If you don’t like Air Canada’s entertainment selection, you can watch my own.

I feel spoiled, and I am loving it. 13hrs of being able to watch my media, program and generally do what I want other than surf the net. Which I am sure is on their list of things to do since other airlines (ie Airtran) already have working high speed wifi on their flights

Now that I’ve praised Air Canada, I have a few comments that I hope they address. The seat in front of me falls back too far. My laptop is 50% on the tray and 50% off the tray. With it protruding into my stomach. If the tray came out a little further that would make me a little happier. The other thing. I’m hungry, yet there are no snacks for sale on the plane. I have to wait for the next scheduled “snack”. The waitress said she could give me some of the little snacks they gave out at the beginning of the flight, but well they sucked, and I am not that hungry.

If only the man in the isle wasn’t asleep so I could go into my luggage and get my bag of snicker doodles.

I was on Facebook today when one of the ads on the right sidebar was an advertisement for theplunge.com, a website dedicated to helping grooms, and groom’s men survive the wedding, and wedding planning process unscathed (well as unscathed as you’re going to get). The site was of particular interest to me because I am engaged and getting married in September, but unlike most grooms, I am actually planning the ENTIRE wedding (she lives in Japan, wedding #1 is here in the US, my family, my friends, my responsibility), and wanted to see what kind of advice, they’d give.

First off the site is fracking hysterical! I spent the entire afternoon reading article after article in tears of laughter. While the articles are sport full of comic relief, they have a lot of really useful information. Topics range from “Ring Buying” and “Popping the Question” to “How to stay just enough out of the brides way” and “How the groom’s men should behave at the bachelor party”.

My favorite articles so far How Every Groomsman Must Behave at a Bachelor Party and How Wedding-porn is brainwashing your fiancee.

First bullet from “How Every Groomsman Must Behave at a Bachelor Party“:

1. Keep him hydrated.

I don’t care if he’s running around buck naked with his Blackberry clamped between his teeth, screaming out lines from Jedi like, “The Death Star is fully operational! The Death Star is fully operational!” Even if he’s still demanding more shots of whiskey, make him drink water. In fact, Project Hydration should begin well before he turns into a naked Admiral Ackbar. Every other time you buy him drinks, also slip him a glass of water to chug.

Good stuff, though personally if he were a naked Admiral Ackbar he’d be running around yelling “It’s a TRAP!!!”.

Besides all the great articles they also have some real useful spreadsheets for planning the bachelor party budget (for the best man of course), and the wedding guest list. Which makes life easier for the bride or the groom.

Anyway, if you are a guy and getting married, or your guy friend is getting married, or you just want a really good laugh, you should check out theplunge.com.