Jim › Comments

'ASIHTTPRequest is an easy to use wrapper around the CFNetwork API that makes some of the more tedious aspects of communicating with web servers easier. It is written in Objective-C and works in both Mac OS X and iPhone applications.' - Jim

'If you listen to Jordan Breen and I talk about what makes Fedor who he is (accolades, foibles and all) from MMA Nation this past Saturday, we discussed that one of the hallmarks of Fedor's remarkable career is his perseverance. It's not that Fedor has some otherworldly ability to never be hit, never be stumbled, never be challenged. In fact, it's quite the opposite. He is often challenged or hurt or put in very compromising positions. He can be cut, rocked, controlled, damaged, scored on. In a very real sense, Fedor is profoundly human and Brett Rogers is hardly the first opponent to discover this. But that humanity is precisely what gives Fedor his utter remarkability. In a fragile human world and in a game as punishing and unforgiving as MMA, Fedor both succumbs to the frailties of his mortal flesh while always rising above them. Fedor is not perfect; he is just exceptional at never letting his imperfections get the best of him.' - Jim

'A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant. When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number, and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that, they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. Tatto Media is the company at the very end of the line on most mobile scams, and they flow it up through Offerpal, SuperRewards and others to the game developers.' - Jim

Rather nifty. Gonna wait for the Mac build, though. - Jim

'“I remember, every season, multiple occasions where I’d hit someone so hard that my eyes went cross-eyed, and they wouldn’t come uncrossed for a full series of plays. You are just out there, trying to hit the guy in the middle, because there are three of them. You don’t remember much. There are the cases where you hit a guy and you’d get into a collision where everything goes off. You’re dazed. And there are the others where you are involved in a big, long drive. You start on your own five-yard line, and drive all the way down the field—fifteen, eighteen plays in a row sometimes. Every play: collision, collision, collision. By the time you get to the other end of the field, you’re seeing spots. You feel like you are going to black out. Literally, these white explosions—boom, boom, boom—lights getting dimmer and brighter, dimmer and brighter.' - Jim

'One obvious question here is why do we add the first argument at index 2. The first argument should be index 0, right? Here's the answer: Indices 0 and 1 indicate the hidden arguments self and _cmd, respectively...' - Jim

'Because bar none, Korea has been the most successful America-led nation building attempt in history. For the last 100 years, America has invaded, occupied and established governments in a number of different countries, including Germany, Japan, the Philippines, Iraq, etc.' - Jim

Most of Karo Parisyan's UFC fights. If you've wondered what the big deal was with this guy, you should see some of his fights before his mental illness troubles. - Jim

I heard about The New Republic getting centrist, but I didn't see it myself: '"It may take years, or even decades, for Democrats to relearn the lessons we thought, naively, they had learned for good under Clinton. But one day, Joe Lieberman's warnings in this campaign will look prophetic. And the principles he has espoused will once again guide the Democratic Party. It will be the work of this magazine, to whatever small degree possible, to hasten that day," ' - Jim

Rather elegant, especially the interpolation touch. I'm not sure I'll be writing anything that won't finish doing everything it needs to before each update. Then again, you never know. - Jim

Apparently, Avalon Hill made computer games! With great cover art. I like this one especially: http://is.gd/4H5EV - Jim

The mental conditioning of football players, fighting dogs, and child prostitutes. - Jim

Oh, man - the government helping poor people get access to phones?! Welfare recipients no less? The world is ending! Poor people shouldn't have phones! They should be getting jobs by pounding the pavement and doing phone interviews via bootstrap. - Jim

All of the labyrinths in Zelda can be fit into one big rectangle. Probably coincidence, but neat-looking, anyway. - Jim

'The process of U.S. disentanglement from Iraq has been gradual, generating no big headlines, no "Obama brings 22,000 troops out of Iraq, cuts war spending by $30 billion." But, in fact, troop levels are down to about 120,000 from 142,000 early this year, and spending on the war has fallen, from $180 billion in 2008 to $150 billion this year.' - Jim

'Weight cutting is just a part of the sport and as with all sports known to mankind, people will try to push the envelope to get any edge possible. No matter what rules you put in, people will try to push it. The governing body for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, for example, uses a system where you weigh-in right before your matches. I’m seeing more and more people with sauna suits on before their matches and while the intent of the rule is to level the playing field, again, people will try to find that edge.' I still think weighing in right before you fight helps. The sauna suit can't do that much for you, and you still waste much less time and energy on cutting weight. - Jim

This is surprisingly good. They kind of even do the breakdown! - Jim

'What's Muscle March? It's beyond description, just watch this and be amazed. Namco Bandai are publishing it, much like the Japanese version, and while there's no official confirmation of it coming to the States, it almost certainly will.' I saw this in the arcade. It's a great idea! - Jim

'"Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger crying out for mommy and daddy." —Bat-Mite breaks the fourth wall in "Legends of the Dark Mite!," addressing an in-show fan who questions the tone of the show during an in-show comic-con.' Also, this show has Lawrence as Batman and Paul Reubens as Bat Mite! - Jim

A blacksmith's diary from around 1869, in blog form. Surprisingly little political content (I'd think there'd be one or two mentions of the Civil War). Still pretty fun to read. - Jim

Whoa. This might be the most interesting Fresh Air interview ever. Terri Gross is not quite prepared for Tracy Morgan's yelling and crying. He's defensive, and like he says, surprisingly Tyson-like. - Jim

'Of the 176 players eligible with enough events played, only 56 of those have an ROI of $20,000 or more. Shockingly, of the 176 eligibly, only 90 of those actually have an ROI of over $10,000. That means there are 86 people out there who have played 30 or more events and are overall losers to the investment. A lot of the players between $10,000 and $20,000 are alos likely losers. What does that tell you? You better be playing satellites if you want to be able to afford the tour. Either that, or grind it out in the cash games.' - Jim

So far, Boston pizza has been uniformly terrible. Maybe one of these places will salvage its pizza standing, though. - Jim

So, this guy basically makes money by suing anyone that tries to release a game with "edge" in its name. Now he's trying to take down an independently developed iPhone game and also butting heads with EA. - Jim

'Unfortunately no. I would be a starving artist if I did that. I'm actually a web developer by day.' - Jim

Nothing new, but good to read. This is something I don't always remember: 'Remain frugal. Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.' - Jim

'I attribute the downfall of Journler to its success. As the number of users grew so too did the problems. In response to feature requests the program’s code became exceedingly complex. Bloat crept in.' There's something to be said for keeping an application's focus very narrow if you're the only guy working on it. - Jim

I don't have much good to say about Konkhra, but this is awesome: 'The name "Konkhra" stems from how drummer Clausen heard Tom Angelripper, of German thrash metal band Sodom fame, pronounce the word "conqueror" on the double live album Mortal Way of Live[2].' - Jim

'Fruit smoothies, canned sardines, and almonds make up about 90 percent of my intake. And so I’m packing most of my food, I’m taking most of my food on the road. I will eat at places, because I do have favorite places, but Chicago’s going to be especially dangerous. I used to live in Chicago in the late ’80s, and it’s my favorite town in America. I could spend days just walking restaurant to restaurant. Although I’m a little bit out of danger, because they closed Gold Coast Dogs on Hubbard Street a while ago, so I’m not as vulnerable as I might have been.' Huh. You know, Gold Coast Dogs is OK, but not great. I've lost just a bit of trust in him. - Jim

'Certain computer simulations that Latham and his team ran identified, for instance, a reduction in rainfall in South America as a result of one of his suggested implementation proposals. A different implementation scheme might avoid that particular problem, but could cause problems in other areas. Latham seemed reasonably optimistic that with further funding for computer modelling**, such problems could be reduced...' As someone that has occasionally said things like that, I have to say you should *never* put too much faith in such statement. - Jim