Big Nerd Ranch: Day 2

broderic on May 24, 2006

Another day. Another byte in the program. We’ve so far gone through another 5 chapters of Aaron’s book. Will we get to the finish in time? There are another 20 or so chapters left and I haven’t gotten to the last few during the time I tried his book. If we don’t, I think I will be somewhat disappointed.

My fellow classmates are an interesting bunch. They are a geekiness that I did not know existed. They are a more worldly geek. They know lots of differing programming paradigms, because they come from various industries and worked on many different projects throughout there work. But it is a beautiful sight to see all these Macs pounding out code.

My TiBook is the grandfather in the place. Besides the ancient cube running as a server and a few of the Big Nerd Ranch’s iMacs, everyone has a more recent Apple computer. Several Mac Book Pros are in the crowd. There rest are AlBooks. I even think that some of the iMacs are recent. Needless to say my compile time is definitely slower than the rest.

I did work on my project. It’s not going so well. I have read some of his code, but I am still stuck on the design of a GUI program. My first attempt at it I hated. This time I am starting from the data structures up. GUI and desktop applications are a strange beast. You seem to be constrained by the layouut and functionality inherent in your GUI. It is what it is and it drives how the program can work.

One of the reasons for a programming vacation was to learn more about GUI and desktop application design. I feel that I have not yet reached that point. I had broached that subject with Aaron and he did bring it up in class (“start with the windows”), but it all seems wrong. I am trained as a software engineer. I don’t think I can get the hang of this very well. Let’s see about today.

We’ve been introduced to CoreData. It’s rather neat. We first built up an application without CoreData. It used some bindings and NSArrayControllers but it took some time to code. The CoreData version started off with a model. Using ER notation we modeled the data of our application. Then we dragged and dropped our entity onto a window and voila, our application was done. Compile and link and it had the same functionality as our previous version.

We hiked in the woods again, but this time the humidity was down so it was not so bad. Again, I must complain about how out of shape I am. I feel this activity in my legs. Food was good today. Steak for dinner.

I am almost done reading “Spin.” I should’ve brought another book. I had one at home but feared that I wouldn’t get through this one. How wrong I was.

Sleep.

Big Nerd Ranch: Day 1

broderic on May 23, 2006

Up early for a vacation: 7:00 AM. I am so ready to do some programming. Breakfast was adequate. It’s sausage, eggs, bacon, grits and a biscuit. Is grits a southern thing. It’s not bad. It’s edible.

Then it’s off to start the programming. For those playing along, we did the first five chapters of Aaron’s Cocoa Programming book. I’ve already did it, but the code is on my mini at home, so I miss all my programming tricks to do. I like Cocoa. Anyway the class so far has been an introduction to Cocoa. It’s just what you can do with the tools and the framework. I have some experience.

I also asked Aaron about my application. He tells me it may be over my head. Whatever. How hard is programming? Not really hard. You just have to know how things are put together.

We also get food and lodging. The food so far is okay. Everything tastes good. The deserts though are awesome. I thought that I would lose some weight while I was here, but I am eating a lot and drinking plenty of soda. The accomodations are cool. It’s at Banning Mills, a restored paper mill. I keep thinking that there are ghosts around here. It gets dark in the room, and some noises creep me out. I wonder if the ghosts will ever come around.

We also went for a hike. I am out of shape as I felt it going up a hill. This summer’s bike riding will be brutal. Hopefully, when I get back, I’ll be training and lose these extra pounds.

“Spin” has been a fun read. I am almost half way through it.

Sleep.

Big Nerd Ranch: Day 0

broderic on May 22, 2006

Arrived in Atlanta around 3:00 pm. Watched the luggage carousel revolve for 20 minutes before my bag finally fell off the conveyor. Met the nerds around 5 minutes later. It’s just a bunch of guys, programmers and fellow Apple enthusiasts. After a ride in a rickety bus, we make it to the Historical Banning Mill. We mill about the place, eat dinner at 6:30, shoot some pool and go to back to our rooms around early. I end up reading my book, Robert Wilson’s “Spin.”

Sleep. Then onto several days of pure Cocoa pleasure.

Mac Nerdery

broderic on May 21, 2006

I am now in Atlanta participating in a big nerd fest. I am learning some Cocoa. And this is the type of vaction you have when you’re a geek.

Poseidon

broderic on May 20, 2006

Poseidon

This film had no heart. It should’ve cranked up the camp factor, but tried to play it straight. Plus, it was confusing as to who was the Gene Hackman character, Josh Lucas or Kurt Russell. And both of them played their roles as if they were Ernest Borgnine. When you wish for Shelley Winters to save the day, you know you’ve reached rock bottom.

May this Titanic wreck of a movie sink to the depths from which it came.

2 of 5 stars

Brick

broderic on May 20, 2006

Brick

This film felt like a Cohen brothers flick. When the car drives by the protagonist, I kept waiting for old guy to point at the character and give him a thumbs up a la Blood Simple. And the movie was straight up similar in plot to The Big Lebowski. In fact, I think that The Big Lebowski did a better detective story than Brick.

Overall, this film was trying to hard. You can see where it was being clever. The dialogue was hard to understand, not for the lingo, but because the mix was muddled. I never did get what he said in the end.

3 of 5 stars

Adventure from my Netflix queue: Lagaan

broderic on May 16, 2006

If you happen to peek at my Netflix queue, you’ll see a majority of foreign films. And when you think foreign films, you think of French cinema, chinese action flicks, and somber swedish films. But not too often do you think of Indian films. I can’t imagine why considering that Bollywood is the largest producer of movies in the world.

So, it is rather strange that I have yet to watch any movie from that country until now. I just finished watching Lagaan and was thoroughly pleased with the movie. It was a eye opener. And it was very enjoyable.

When I had opened the Netflix package and saw that it was a 4 hour epic. I was disheartened. When the film opened with what appears to be a love story plot, I was dreading the next three hours. I was wrong. And I am glad that I spent the previous two days to sit and watch the whole thing.

The story is convoluted. There was the love story. There was the plight of the downtrodden people plot. There was the forbidden love angle. There was the uprising of the people. There was the musical numbers. And there was cricket. Yes, cricket!

It was a mashup of many movies, yet it comes together to tell an amusing tale. There was the “Bad News Bears” theme where the ragtag team must come together and win. “Seven Samurai” echoed throughout the choosing of the team. I can’t believe that the sports theme can be found in many countries. Brilliant.

Also, it is true about Bollywood with the singing. The movie doesn’t get to a song until 25 minutes elapsed. I didn’t think the musical numbers would appear and then, the whole village began to sing. It was funny and wonderful at the same time.

4 of 5 stars