Beautiful stellar phenomenon for you, from 120 million light-years away, the distorted galaxy NGC 2276.
Hubble recently took photos of this galaxy, warped by the gravity of a nearby neighbor.
https://www.space.com/lopsided-spiral-galaxy-hubble-telescope-photo
Today, go to your nearest
Alexa device, and say
"Alexa, play Taps".
What so special about 1/19/2038? On that day, Epoch time will crash a lot of 32 bit machines.
Similar to Y2K bug, a lot of code was written using Number of Seconds since 1970 (Epoch time). In 2038, 32 bit Ints will overflow.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-is-ready-for-the-end-of-time/
Wiki info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
The Verge list the interesting things we have learned from Epic vs Apple court battle.
I honestly have no idea how this case will be decided, but either way, things will change.
Saturday Tech Humor
“Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen” - Edward V Berard
Let's end this week, by review 10 extremely interesting Github repositories.
Github is for more just code, it has become to place to store terrific content resources!
https://towardsdatascience.com/top-10-github-repos-to-bookmark-right-now-b0bc62436ffc
Ahmed Bouzid of Witlingo explains how Voicebots are not just Chatbots with Text to Voice.
He gives great examples of why Voice interfaces need to be more complex that Text ones.
https://opusresearch.net/wordpress/2021/05/12/voicebots-vs-chatbots/
Roy Kronenfeld does a nice job of explaining Swift DispatchSemaphores.
I especially like his animated examples (with code provided).
https://medium.com/@roykronenfeld/semaphores-in-swift-e296ea80f860
Norway levels class action fine against Tesla that could cost $1.6 Billion.
A 2019 software update slowed charging speed, and limited range. Not sure fine is appropriate.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451101/tesla-fine-norway-throttle-battery-charging-speed
Apple Alumni Jean-Louis Gassée gives us his evaluation of Apple’s reports.
He also explains why the stock may have dropped, as well as compares to Window’s stock performance.
https://mondaynote.com/apple-q2-numbers-with-a-twist-or-two-9fbdb730e074
The VOID may be gone, but VR adventures tied to movies will continue.
Next month, a Zombie VR arena event will be in DC.
Personal note: Anyone want to join me?
https://armyofthedeadvr.com/washington/
Here is a a legitimate use for Deepfake, dubbing English films for foreign languages.
Deepfake, modifying video so fake audio is inserted, is usually associated with negative use.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/18/22430340/deepfake-dubs-dubbing-film-tv-flawless-startup
Tim Cook was the last defense Witness in the legal battle between Apple & Fortnite.
His testimony is worth reading.
Continuing the Space theme, did you know England designed a space suit, decades before Nasa?
I love Retro Science, so many things wrong and so many things right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYgiV4Iz7I0&t=306s
At heart, I am a space geek, so these videos released by Nasa of touching down on an Asteroid appeals to me.
In 2018, a Nasa probe approached Bennu, and later scooped up material from it. Soon it will return.
https://nerdist.com/article/nasa-probe-asteroid-bennu-landing/
Youtube video about the OSIRIS-REx probe: https://youtu.be/nx1r3HPGC_c
An interesting psychological study relating to VR and sense of time.
Times moves faster in VR environment, probably due to lack of outside distractions.
https://futurism.com/virtual-reality-time-perception
President Biden signed executive order for labels on software that give consumers a better idea of built-in security features.
Compared to a Security-Focused 'Energy Star' Labels.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/biden-calls-for-government-wide-2fa-energy-star-type-labels-for-software
Saturday Tech Humor
Managing Software Developers is hard. They like to solve problems. If there are no problems available to them, they will create their own problems!
Microsoft Teams Rooms may be the future of remote collaboration.
Considering the mixing of video from different source with background images, I would call this a form of AR.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/21/22447048/microsoft-teams-future-meetings-features
YouTube video on future of meetings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljh7xlj0WjQ
Youtube video on Meeting Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVrh4rfHAsY
This month’s DC iOS Meetup discussion involved using MVVM with SwiftUI.
Mohammad Azam has an impressive amount of work on Udemy and other iOS training.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7InaBpdm8o
Who is James Dempsey? He is the Apple engineer who would finish his WWDC talk, with a song emphasizing his point.
He explained memory allocation, and then gave us the lullaby “Hold Me, Use Me, Release Me”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDiKwxtmuCE
Here is Jame’s hit song “Model View Controller”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVTjNbec47U
What is better than WWDC? WWDC with Nerdy music!
Come celebrate 20 years of “James Dempsey and the Breakpoints”, a WWDC tradition.
Sign up: https://vi.to/hubs/live-near-wwdc
Apple Music will start using Dolby Atmos, a lossless Codec.
Audiophiles will love this, not sure most people can tell the difference, but I suspect software developers will also start shipping game music this way.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/17/22440090/apple-music-lossless-audio-dolby-atmos-support-audio
Apple PR: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/
This falls into Silly Science, but it is an important Science: animal behavior & cognition.
Cats prefer to sit in boxes, even If they are nothing more than lines on the floor.
https://www.popsci.com/science/why-cats-sit-in-boxes/
TechRadar interviewed Niantic’s Kjell Bronder about Lightship, the AR development platform.
The company that gave us Pokemon Go, released an “Augmented Reality Developer Kit (ARDK) gets you swiftly on the way to creating engaging AR experiences that inspire movement, exploration and connection at a global scale.”
https://www.techradar.com/news/pokemon-go-creators-are-raising-the-bar-for-ar-again
Link to Dev site for Lightship: https://niantic.dev
Bruno Rocha gives an excellent tour of thread safety in Swift.
If there is one area which I find Objective-C superior to Swift, it is the built in support for atomic (thread safe) operations.
https://swiftrocks.com/thread-safety-in-swift
A very exact article on how to use Combine, Apple framework for writing asynchronous code, with HealthKit.
Combine has been slow to be adopted, but may have the most important impact on Apple code design.
https://isalima.xyz/create-publishers-for-healthkit/
According to their Press Release, Apple has prevents a ton of suspicious charges.
This includes millions of stolen credit card numbers and rejecting 100,000’s unethical/illegal apps.
Contrary to popular opinion, Unix is User Friendly. It’s just very particular about who its friends are.
Some thing are eternal, and others just seem that way. Microsoft has update their windows icons.
In my opinion, the icons became a bit more realist, and for lack of better word, richer in appearance.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/tech/microsoft-windows-icons/index.html
HTC held their VIVECON 2021 this week, and have posted the videos from it.
The Keynote Event announced several new tech, including a new stand alone (untethered) VR headset.
Personal Note: I am not sure any Vive device will be able to overtake the Quest success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dhN3V-FJ6E
More information about ViveCon: https://www.vive.com/us/vivecon2021/
I mentioned CaseIterable protocol while back, but this article goes into more depth of it use.
Thanks to Zafar Ivaev for a short but nice write up.
https://medium.com/cleansoftware/what-is-the-caseiterable-protocol-in-swift-e7a1bbebef5a
A small 38 pound experiment on the Perseverance probe may be the most important success of the mission!
Being able to convert Mar’s CO2 atmosphere into oxygen means a base can produce their own breathable air and liquid O2 fuel.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/11/opinions/game-changing-innovation-mars-opinion-mack/index.html
A good selection of WWDC Videos are available on Youtube, not just recent ones, but also reminders of the Past.
It is worth reviewing the old developers videos, to see how things have changed, and maybe worthwhile items we have missed along the way.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOYNV2EifmBprMdSESVEu9g/videos
Sharps eyes spotted something interesting on recently leaked documents, the return of non-USB-C ports.
These could be a non-used prototype, or even right out fake, but it could be Apple response to customer feedback.
https://medium.com/macoclock/apple-is-finally-bringing-back-ports-e10b62cf2b03
Paul Hudson writes an excellent article on what Apple has to do to improved their developer Documentation.
Dev Docs is not a simple fix, but an ongoing process that needs to be maintained. Apple fails at this.
https://www.hackingwithswift.com/articles/231/reimagining-apples-documentation
Vive Pro 2 & Vive Focus 3 released by HTC.
With 5K resolution, 120 FOV, faster Refresh rate & superior audio, these product are intended for more than casual users of VR!
https://skarredghost.com/2021/05/11/htc-vive-pro-2-vive-focus-3-price/
This one amused and amazed me. Rendering a version of the “1984” commerical on an Apple //e.
Kris Kennaway’s wrote the player and encoded video, proving Apple // is still forever.
https://bytecellar.com/2021/05/09/full-motion-double-high-res-video-playback-on-the-apple-iie/
Video of Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tHenz0oU-4
Best article I have seen yet on what the future of Apple’s AirTag will bring us.
Ethan C. Wright provides great tech description of the device as well as possible uses.
https://medium.com/macoclock/10-things-im-planning-to-use-apple-s-new-airtags-on-10ae24888e75
This is a beautiful bit of code. Beautiful in what it creates, and beautiful in how it works.
Jimmy M Andersson animates an activity indicator using Gradients, Bezier Curves & CALayers.
The family & I have decided to purchase a Tesla! So I wonder what programming languages Tesla uses?
Lucky for me, Manpreet Singh wrote this article explaining exactly that.
https://preettheman.medium.com/these-are-the-programming-languages-tesla-uses-c658aab1a77c
Swift programmer posted the following when the project was over.
[“hip”, “hip”]
When asked why, he said “Hip, hip, array!!!”
Here is a great resource to find (and promote) open source swift, the Swift Package Index.
There is so much good code out there, it is sometimes hard to find the perfect fit for you.
Leak of possible mini Desktop PC.
It is my imagination, or does this look a lot like a PC version of Mac mini?
https://www.pcmag.com/news/intels-nuc-11-essential-desktop-pc-leaks
Yaw2, a Motion Simulator and Smart Chair Kickstarter, is over $1.2 million dollars.
The tech of this device (comes without the seat) is interesting, and the fact it surpassed it’s goals so fast is interesting.
https://www.roadtovr.com/yaw2-vr-motion-chair-kickstarter/
Kickstarter site: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/346206518/yaw2-motion-simulator-and-smart-chair
AirTags have not started shipping in bulk, and someone has already discovered hidden information.
Someone forgot to turn off the “developer” feature of Apple’s Find My app.
Audrey Tam of RayWenderlich team provides explanation of SwiftUI property wrappers.
Swift Property wrappers wrap a value or object, with easy to use syntax.
https://www.raywenderlich.com/21522453-swiftui-property-wrappers
PC Mag’s Eric Griffith explains Ultra-Wideband tech that is used for Apple’s new AIrTags.
This was a competing standard to WiFi, but as Eric explains, it has it uses.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-is-ultra-wideband-uwb
Ignore the US courts, the big case against Apple may be in the EU Courts.
This case is only for music, but the basic complaint is complaint is Apple has “dominant position in the market”.
Personal Note: I may have misspoken. I would not classify the European Commission has a court. They are more an arbitrary organization that states their conclusions, before any court case. Sort of Guilty until you are proven Innocent. While there is an argument regarding Apple cut in Apps/Music on the devices, that is not the commission’s complaint. They dislike the fact one company is so successful. Never mind that other product have similar cut. Those companies are not being prosecuted because they have smaller market share. I approve of Government watch dogs enforcing ethical behavior in corporations, I do not approve of penalizing companies for being successful.
I know my wife will like this one, she would love having a foldable iPhone.
Based on info obtained from the supply chain, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts product in 2023.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-apple-to-ship-20m-foldable-8-inch-iphones-in-2023
Federico Zanetello of the Five Stars website explores what Swift 5.4 has done to the Swift Package manager.
Judging by this article, I would be keeping an eye on this new Swift/iOS blog.
https://www.fivestars.blog/articles/spm-5-4/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FiveStarsBlog
I am sad to see my old company passed around like a bad Fruitcake no one wants.
After being rebranded as Oath, the AOL/Yahoo components reported loss of $5 billion for Verizon, so they have sold it.
https://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-sells-aol-yahoo-to-apollo-global-management-5-billion-2021-5
Swift 5.4 was released this week, so here is Paul Hudson article on what it contains.
I especially like the Improved implicit member syntax & having multiple variadic parameters.
https://www.hackingwithswift.com/articles/228/whats-new-in-swift-5-4
Nikkel Asia reports that product of the new generation Apple M2 chip has started.
Based on timeline, we may expect to see new laptops using this chip by end of year.
A good article explaining what this means: https://medium.com/pcmag-access/report-apple-starts-m2-chip-mass-production-6c09b546a9c1
Saturday Tech Humor
Q: What is the Objected Oriented way to get wealthy?
A: Inheritance
