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I use Xcode 3.1.1 at work and it does not work well with Perforce, which is sad because I really love Perforce.

So, I have been using an application that a co-worker told me about called DTerm to help me check out files held in Perforce. This program is a great utility in that it allows me to invoke a command from anywhere in the Mac OS or in any program. If I have a file selected in a Xcode project and then I bring up DTerm, I can type “p4 edit” then hit Cmd+Shift+V to enter the name of the file I have highlighted. Hooray!

However, you can’t do this with project files. Xcode won’t let you select the project file so that you can check out the file, which is actually a folder in disguise. Boooo!

For each of my projects, I have a folder for the platform I am targeting. So for the Mac, I have a folder named “mac” which has my project file, objects and output binaries. A lot of times I check out the entire directory using P4V since I need to overwrite the libraries that are in there.

Today, I discovered how you can check a directories contents in one fell swoop: “p4 edit …”. Oh. My. God! This is great! This is awesome! You don’t know how much time I just saved by doing that!

If you get anything out of this entry is that “p4 edit …” is awesome. Now don’t abuse that power or you’re liable of getting into trouble.

Happy coding!

I work on large projects that are sometimes too unweildy to debug. The compile times are too long, the apps can take a while to load and when you’re looking to test something quickly, you don’t want to have to sit at your desk and wait for the IDE to finish what it’s doing.

So, to speed things up, I usually write tiny applications that I use for testing. Although they litter my file system, they are much faster to use and much easier to debug than an entire solution.

They are nice… until they break. I have a 64-bit mini application that I’ve been using to test my code with and it’s been working fine, until I went to use it yesterday. Now, so many things have changed on my computer that I can’t say that there is a single thing I can pinpoint to show why this application is not working.

So, instead of trying to figure out what’s wrong, I build a new project, which is great and all, but now, the IDE doens’t compile or launch a 64-bit version of my test app.

So what is going on here? I don’t know, but I will post the solution once I have it figured out.

Oh, if you’re wondering what IDE I’m referring to, it’s Xcode 3.1.

When you need to dump symbols from a dylib on Mac OS or a DLL on Windows, you can use the following commands to do so:

Mac OS

nm -m mySpecialLibrary.dylib

Windows

dumpbin /exports mySpecialLibrary.dll

Now sometimes, you have have a lot of symbols in one library, or you may want to find one particular symbol. On the Mac, that’s pretty simple to do. Just use the grep command to find the symbol you are looking for:

nm -m mySpecialLibrary.dylib | grep someSpecialFunction

On the PC, you can dump your symbols to a file so that you can use a text editor like Notepad++ to search for symbols:

dumpbin /exports mySpecialLibrary.dll > c:\MyProjectFolder\mySpecialLibrarySymbols.txt

I’m actually using my PC for this one program. This one program I am writting about is Google’s Chrome Web browser. This program is fast! Very fast! So fast that I am actually using my PC over my Mac to search the web. I’m sad by that fact, but luckily, Google is coming out with a version for the Mac as well!

So if you haven’t gotten it yet, get it! Get it now!

Google Chrome Download  

One of the problems I have in my house is that I have multiple cameras of different brands. Although all of my computers are Macs, my wife uses iPhoto and I use Nikon’s ViewNX application to manage photos.

She shoots Canon JPEG images and I shoot Nikon RAW images. Sometimes my wife uses the Nikon camera and produces excellent shots in either JPEG or NEF.

The problem we have is that our images are in multiple places, making it hard to share these images. Sometimes she would like to use an image on our website, or share an image in an email. Again, very slow and hard to do over a wireless network with multiple computers.

Some geeks would say, “Just use ZenPhoto or build a website in PHP to do that!”. Of course, I would reply, “I’m too lazy to do that and I don’t want to spend my time doing that when I could be coding in Cocoa!”

So, I looked and found that Nikon already had an answer… and a good one! It’s a website named “my Picturetown” which allows anyone to upload up to 2 GB of images for free. It’s very easy to share images with friends and family and its certainly a lot easier than other programs that I have used.

I would highly recommend that you check it out:

Nikon my Picturetown

Lately I have been posting very few words. I’ve been reading more than I have been writting becuase there are so many good sites out there, that I have not had the time to write anything worth writting about.

Well, here is a website sent me that illustrated some really creative ways to use images in video:

Using videos to enhance videos

For many people suffering injuries that can cripple you and take years of physical therapy, only to be at 70% of what the injured site used to be, invasive surgery is an option that is not pleasant.

Reading this article about what is being done to repair sports injuries has given me some hope that pain relief is right around the corner:

Fixing broken parts

This has go to be the funniest IT story I’ve ever seen. If you don’t know what IT is, then you don’t deserve to watch this:

http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com

This past 4th of July weekend was okay. Friday I couldn’t do much since I have a 18 month old son and when you have one, you can’t really go out and party like you did… pre-child. Anyway, my wife and I watched “Dodgeball” on Friday;

“If you can dodge a WRENCH, then you can dodge a dodgeball!”

Classic! Pure classic! If you haven’t seen it, then there is something wrong with you… Anyway, on Saturday I went skeet and trap shooting for the first time Lots of fun until I noticed that I was developing a black and blue mark on my pec. I guess I didn’t hold the shotgun close enough to me…

Sunday, my wife thought it would be a good idea to take my son over to Eisenhower park to play in the children’s playground. Good idea I thought… until we got there.

The park played out more like a block party in Washington Heights rather than a State park where it would be quiet and serene. My son didn’t care, and we were there… so why not make the best of it?

Well, we were in the kids play area and my son was crawling up and down the stairs. Another kid, around 8 years old, was standing inside the playpen. He was standing in front of a clear plastic semi-sphere window and then proceeded to take out his penis and pee!

“Hey! What are you doing?! You can’t pee there!” I said.

The kid just looked at me with a straight face and kept peeing. The pee ran inside the clear globe and down like a mini waterfall of urine.

“Hey, honey!” I said to my wife, “That kid is peeing in there!”

“Oh my god… Oooooh kay. Time to go”, wife said.

With that, we picked up my son, who didn’t understand why we were leaving so quickly, and left.

That kid just went back to his two brothers and acted like nothing had happened.

That thought. The idea that some kid just peed into a playpen without any remorse tells me that something is really wrong with him. That just killed it for me.

What is wrong with this kid?