Summer is about over, but your Pastis drinking doesn’t need to be. Here are some alternative Pastes-Related drinks to try before the leaves turn. La Soleil (The sunshine) – with a dash of Lemon syrup La Mazout (Fuel) – with, not even joking, coca-cola (normally asked for by Belgians) – be careful though, in Germany, …
I am an enthusiastic fan of a cocktail called Perroquet. Perroquet is a traditional French drink, which is very popular throughout France. Perroquet is a Pastis-based drink with peppermint syrup and water. I purchased a glacial mint French syrup instead as I find it a little less sweet than peppermint. It’s very refreshing, wonderful when …
I’ve seen something happen many times during my longish tenure as a software developer being amidst to some others who are new to it. They seem to have a complete lack of wanting to understand something before tearing into it. When someone comes to mobile development, and all they have under their belt is some …
It’s been a while since Apple added Swift fading support to AVAudioPlayer. I can’t remember when exactly, but I think it might have been since iOS 10.0. I have not used it in quite some time and recently had the need. The API is pretty straight forward, but I wasn’t actually getting the fading to …
It used to be that the main screen in homes sat in a corner of a living or room in wooden appliance. The television. After time passed and technology grew at a larger scale, some homes would have perhaps two or three – in thinned down versions without things like vacuum tubes. Then eventually came …
I have yet found a satisfactory way to apply a fixed background image to a page for mobile. For some performance reason, as I understand it, a fixed image for mobile is a dancing unicorn. Which has so far eluded me. I’d like to implement it to match the desktop, but I’m not going to …
I’ve owned this domain since 2001-03-09. I’ve had all sorts of stuff hosted and served from it. A lot of that junk is still mildewing on this platter located somewhere out there. If I want the domain ericd dot com, it would cost me a cool $6,195.00. No thanks 🙂 Anyway, I’ve had to FTP in …
My AirPods Series 2 arrived today. Engraved on the front of the case… “Five Ohhh…” I got them as part of my turning fifty years-old. I already have a pair of the series 1, but the upgrades seemed quite interesting. I have piles of better sounding options at my disposal, but in terms of convenience …
I am fascinated by great scents. I don’t know why, it’s probably not that common amongst developers, but I am always on the trek to find a signature scent. When we travelled to Nassau, I went into a boutique and immediately tried out this scent. I was amazed at the strength, the quality, and the …
There are times when you have Class objects that you need to communicate back to some part of your application. With delegation, it’s a 1-to-1 relationship. Generally where the object(s) are instantiated is where you’d like to gain insight upon an event or events. Notifications can handle 1-to-n types of relationships. That’s not what we’re …
Before we departed for our Atlantis vacation, I spent far too much time watching YouTube reviews and reading packing lists. I wanted to know what to expect. The most prevalent thing I noticed people talked about was the price of food. That, the fact that 15% tip is worked into everything already, and that there …
I recently had a project request to allow a user to experience different rotary encoders and how they might react with digital LEDs. In short, getting encoders wired to a board to directly control the UI in an iOS application. This saved me from having to alter soldered LED counts and allowed logic and animation …
I have been quite busy with any number of interesting things. I recently found and purchased a most excellent medieval hat at King Richard’s Faire in Carver, Massachusettes. I wore it while there, and since I love it so much, I’ve been wearing it at home and in the car. Think Thomas Moore. The hat …
Your mileage may vary with this post, but in my case, I was chasing my tail for some time while finally coming to a solution. At work, I generally author all kinds of prototypes. Sometimes I use Xcode and author iOS applications with interesting levels of interaction and communication. In these cases, I often need …
I purchased the iPhone X when it first came out and I’ve been loving it. I had a screen protector applied at the store as well as a silicone case. I’ve since dropped the phone many times – even on a stone tiled bathroom floor. No issues at all, which amazed me. Yes, I have …
What do these three things have in common? They are awesome. And they go together seamlessly. I have recently taken up a quick project where I need to communicate with a collection of addressable LED bulbs in a custom lighting system. Pretty easy coding, but I wanted it to be able to run in a …
In my wristwatch rotation is a newly acquired 1949 Doxa (Swiss Made of course) with a sub seconds complication. Think about that. The watch is a mechanical wind that is 69 years old. It keeps incredible time for such an old piece that hasn’t been serviced since I don’t know when. The accuracy is probably …
I’ve been developing an application that produces a JSON string for use online. Pretty simple, but I want to make sure the JSON is valid (since a user can edit the JSON by hand if they want to before using the JSON string). How can you quickly validate your JSON? let jsonString = composedString if …