Jolly’s teclog

iPhone 3G blueprint wallpaper

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:33:15 +0200

I got quite a few requests on twitter (@jollyjinx) for the wallpaper I posted. Here they come:

The orginal pdf can be found on: http://devimages.apple.com/ipod/dimensions/iPhone-3G-dimensions.pdf

You can generate them by using the pdf as background and just use Exposé. CMD-Shift-3 does a screenshot then. This only works good on the secondary screen (won’t have menu and dock then).

The files I generated:

Light dark: iPhone.2560.png and iPhone.1920.png

Really dark: iPhone.2560.dark.png and iPhone.1920.dark.png

@_gert sent me this real blue one:

iPhone.2560x1600.blueprint.jpg
iPhone.2560x1979.blueprint.jpg

Blocks and Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) @Macoun ’09

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:35:43 +0200

I held a presentation about Blocks and Grand Central Dispatch at Macoun 2009

For all you people that want to have the demo code and the presentation - here you go. The slides are in english.

Have fun with it - Jolly

Demo Monkey file: GCD.macoun09.demoMonkey
Keynote file: GCD.macoun09.key

Keynote PDF:

And here are the links (also at the end of the pdf):

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars/10
http://cocoasamurai.blogspot.com/2009/09/guide-to-blocks-grand-central-dispatch.html
http://cocoasamurai.blogspot.com/2009/09/making-nsoperation-look-like-gcd.html
http://developer.apple.com/mac/articles/cocoa/introblocksgcd.html
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/releasenotes/MacOSX/WhatsNewInOSX/Articles/MacOSX10_6.html
http://devwhy.blogspot.com/2009/08/grand-central-dispatch.html
http://eschatologist.net/blog/?p=232
http://libdispatch.macosforge.org/
http://parmanoir.com/8_ways_to_use_Blocks_in_Snow_Leopard
http://th30z.netsons.org/2009/09/grand-central-dispatch-first-look/
http://thirdcog.eu/pwcblocks/
http://www.mcubedsw.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/xcode_3.2_teh_awesome_edition/
http://www.mikeash.com/?page=pyblog/friday-qa-2009-08-28-intro-to-grand-central-dispatch-part-i-basics-and-dispatch-queues.html
http://www.mikeash.com/?page=pyblog/friday-qa-2009-09-11-intro-to-grand-central-dispatch-part-iii-dispatch-sources.html
http://www.mikeash.com/?page=pyblog/gcd-is-not-blocks-blocks-are-not-gcd.html
http://www.subfurther.com/blog/?p=699

Creating a firmware update CD on a Mac

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:15:00 +0200

I’ve updated a couple of SSD’s (OCZ Vertex and Supertalent Ultradrives with Indilinx controllers) now. I thought I share my results.

Problem for us Mac users is, that the update comes in form of a DOS flasher. To run the flasher you need a bootable CD.
At first I used a BartPE boot DVD to update then the flashing program from a USB stick. That no longer seems to work - I suspect something in the flash tools changed.

I’ve found a way now that works well and quick enough.

1. Download the firmware update files from your vendor (SuperTalent , OCZ,...).
2. Download a FreeDOS floppy image or take the one I stripped of everything not needed: FDSTD.288.dmg.zip
3. Mount the FreeDOS image by double clicking it and copy the files from 1. to it. Eject the image.
4. I was not able to use hdiutil to create a bootable CD, so I use mkisofs.zip as follows:  Open Terminal and presuming you have everything on your Desktop:
cd ~/Desktop
mkfile 2k bootcatalog
./mkisofs -r -b FDSTD.288.dmg -c bootcatalog -o FirmwareUpdate.iso FDSTD.288.dmg
1. Now burn the FirmwareUpdate.iso with DiskUtility and you are done.

Caveats when you have a old firmware
On some machines booting with Indilinx drives does not work. I disconnect the drives and then boot from the CD. When the machine is at the DOS prompt I insert the SSD. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS as it might destroy your computer, your SSD or both. It worked for me a couple ( <10 ) times in the past and I do NOT RECOMMEND that.

If you know how to create a bootable CD with hdiutil let me know as I would like to get rid of mkisofs.

Have fun with it - Jolly

iTunes store sales statistic scripts (update)

Tue, 4 Aug 2009 09:59:05 +0200

Seems that Apple changed their iTunes connect webpage layout. The scanning of the page no longer worked, so I updated the scripts here. I’ll put them on GitHub once I’ve some spare time.

If you have an application in the appstore the following scripts might be of interest to you:

Downloading every day from the iTunes store (e.g. via crontab )
itunes.provisioning.download.perl
Logs in to the iTunes store looks up the Weekly and Daily files that it has not downloaded yet and does that.

itunescredentials.pm
Supplies the provisioning.download script with login and password from the keychain. You don’t need that when you change the provisioning.download script to contain the login and password in plaintext - I’m more paranoid, which is why I have them stored in the keychain.

applereport.perl
This script works on the weekly or daily files and creates Tables for all the programs you sell/offer. You can directly pipe that to Tables ( or Numbers ) to create nice graphs like this:

So in a shell you would type:

TIN> mkdir itunesdownloads
TIN> perl itunes.provisioning.download.perl itunesdownloads
action url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/0.4
action url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/2.9
action url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/2.9
subaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/3.9
datetypeaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/3.9
Missing dates: 06/28/2009 Weekly.2009.06.28.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/21/2009 Weekly.2009.06.21.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/14/2009 Weekly.2009.06.14.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/07/2009 Weekly.2009.06.07.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/31/2009 Weekly.2009.05.31.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/24/2009 Weekly.2009.05.24.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/17/2009 Weekly.2009.05.17.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/10/2009 Weekly.2009.05.10.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/03/2009 Weekly.2009.05.03.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/26/2009 Weekly.2009.04.26.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/19/2009 Weekly.2009.04.19.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/12/2009 Weekly.2009.04.12.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/05/2009 Weekly.2009.04.05.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.31.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.24.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.21.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.14.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.28.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.05.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.12.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.10.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.07.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.03.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.19.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.17.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.26.txt.gz
subaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/17.9
datetypeaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/17.9
Missing dates: 06/30/2009 Daily.2009.06.30.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/29/2009 Daily.2009.06.29.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/28/2009 Daily.2009.06.28.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/27/2009 Daily.2009.06.27.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/26/2009 Daily.2009.06.26.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/25/2009 Daily.2009.06.25.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/24/2009 Daily.2009.06.24.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.26.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.27.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.28.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.30.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.25.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.24.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.29.txt.gz
TIN> perl applereport.perl itunesdownloads/Daily.* |open -f -a Tables

Have fun with it - Jolly

iTunes store sales statistic scripts

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:17:03 +0200

If you have an application in the appstore the following scripts might be of interest to you:

Downloading every day from the iTunes store (e.g. via crontab )
itunes.provisioning.download.perl
Logs in to the iTunes store looks up the Weekly and Daily files that it has not downloaded yet and does that.

itunescredentials.pm
Supplies the provisioning.download script with login and password from the keychain. You don’t need that when you change the provisioning.download script to contain the login and password in plaintext - I’m more paranoid, which is why I have them stored in the keychain.

applereport.perl
This script works on the weekly or daily files and creates Tables for all the programs you sell/offer. You can directly pipe that to Tables ( or Numbers ) to create nice graphs like this:

So in a shell you would type:

TIN> mkdir itunesdownloads
TIN> perl itunes.provisioning.download.perl itunesdownloads
action url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/0.4
action url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/2.9
action url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/2.9
subaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/3.9
datetypeaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/3.9
Missing dates: 06/28/2009 Weekly.2009.06.28.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/21/2009 Weekly.2009.06.21.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/14/2009 Weekly.2009.06.14.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/07/2009 Weekly.2009.06.07.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/31/2009 Weekly.2009.05.31.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/24/2009 Weekly.2009.05.24.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/17/2009 Weekly.2009.05.17.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/10/2009 Weekly.2009.05.10.txt.gz
Missing dates: 05/03/2009 Weekly.2009.05.03.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/26/2009 Weekly.2009.04.26.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/19/2009 Weekly.2009.04.19.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/12/2009 Weekly.2009.04.12.txt.gz
Missing dates: 04/05/2009 Weekly.2009.04.05.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.31.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.24.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.21.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.14.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.28.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.05.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.12.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.10.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.06.07.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.03.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.19.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.05.17.txt.gz
downloading file: Weekly.2009.04.26.txt.gz
subaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/17.9
datetypeaction url: /cgi-bin/WebObjects/Piano.woa/3/wo/emFestTest8ter2geTher/17.9
Missing dates: 06/30/2009 Daily.2009.06.30.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/29/2009 Daily.2009.06.29.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/28/2009 Daily.2009.06.28.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/27/2009 Daily.2009.06.27.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/26/2009 Daily.2009.06.26.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/25/2009 Daily.2009.06.25.txt.gz
Missing dates: 06/24/2009 Daily.2009.06.24.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.26.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.27.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.28.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.30.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.25.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.24.txt.gz
downloading file: Daily.2009.06.29.txt.gz
TIN> perl applereport.perl itunesdownloads/Daily.* |open -f -a Tables

Have fun with it - Jolly