For the last five years, http://kristopherjohnson.blogspot.com/ has been the home of my blog, Undefined Value. Blogspot is a great free platform for bloggers to get their feet wet, but I've decided I want to have a "real blog" on a website I control, so Undefined Value now …
Menubar Countdown 1.0 for Mac OS X Released
Lately, I've been experimenting with the Pomodoro Technique for time management. The basic idea is that you work in focused 25-minute bursts, with short breaks between bursts. You are supposed to use a kitchen timer to avoid getting distracted by looking at the clock.
Of course, as a computer guy …
All Work and No Play...
I've been really hating my job for the last twelve months or so. I've wondered why. After all, I'm getting paid well to work on software. This is my dream job, isn't it? Why can't I enjoy it? And if I can't enjoy it, why can't I just be happy …
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Saving a View as a Photo in an iPhone App
For an iPhone app that I'm working on, I want to be able to save the screen image to the Photos album. My first attempt at this was complicated: I created a color space, a bitmap context, a CGImage, and finally a UIImage, copying and pasting most of the code …
iPhone Development Fun
I am so thankful for the existence of the iPhone. Twenty years ago, if you'd told me I'd be holding a pocket-sized computer that had a high-resolution touchscreen, a wireless always-on connection to the Internet, and a library of Hollywood movies, I wouldn't have believed it. The fact that it …
New 15-inch MacBook Pro
A few days ago, I bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro. For those of you keeping score, that brings the number of Macintoshes in our household to five. We also have two iPhones and several iPods. I wish the local Apple Store had some sort of customer loyalty program.
I bought …
Interacting with Customers
Today I was delighted to discover that Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky discussed my recorded question on Episode 34 of the Stack Overflow podcast. I now think there should be a Stack Overflow badge for people who have appeared on the podcast, either as questioners or as guests.
Here is …
Australian Toilets
A surprising large number of people have asked me whether the toilets really do flush in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere, due to the Coriolis Effect. Well, the toilets I've seen in Australia don't swirl at all; there is a short but powerful swoosh of water that lasts …
Expatriate
I've never been much of a traveler or a tourist. I don't get the thrill that others do from sightseeing or being away from home. But having said that, I've gotta say I'm a little disappointed with how not-foreign Adelaide, Australia is. I was hoping for a little adventure here …
