Clips

There was a question this week about code reuse in QC, and now I fell compelled to talk about that and modularity. The original question was "Now that I've created all these javascript patches, what do I do if I want to reuse them?" The answer is to make a clip, by saving a composition with just the patch(es) you wish to reuse and publish the important ports. You can save them in ~/Library/Application Support/Apple/Developer Tools/Quartz Composer/Clips and they will be available to you in the Clip Library. When you drag those clips to your workspace, they become macros which are fully editable if you double click on them.

*Insert convenient segue here* Speaking of macros, it's a good idea to organize your compositions inside macros in order to make them more readable. More importantly, name them too. It's a lot easier to figure out why your composition isn't drawing anything when you put all your background elements in one macro and realize that it's drawing above your animation :)

1 year anniversary

A lot can change in a year. I've graduated college, ended my internship at Qualcomm, lost my grandma, started a job at Apple, moved to California, survived WWDC and the relative lull following, made all new friends and kept in contact with the old ones; and during that entire time, I've been dating Jessie. We haven't even had a fight, despite being in different states longer during our relationship than together. It takes a special girl to make all that worth while, and I'm so happy to have found her.

Width Macro

I'm going to start posting some of my responses to QC questions from the mailing list. History and justification below, but first let's get started!


Q: How do I ensure a Billboard patch does not get clipped with the aspect ratio changes?

Answer: Compute the width of the billboard as if the height were always 2. We know that the Aspect Ratio is given by (imageX/imageY) so multiply that by the (Rendering Destination Y) and you get (Rendering Destination X). This isn't perfect, it will now be TOO wide if the rendering destination is tall and skinny. So make sure the width is never more than 2 by clamping the value using the Range patch. The end result is:





I've been having trouble figuring out what to do with my blog. Originally, it was to post my photoshop work or websites but I don't have time for that any more. Most of what I do at work is confidential so I can't post that. I can't write about what I do outside of work because I live a boring life and it wouldn't attract many readers ;) So this seems like a good alternative. Keep in mind that I am doing this entirely on my own time so this has no offical capacity what-so-ever. I just find mailing list threads very difficult to traverse and would like to have a place to refer people to my well thought out answers.

CU game!

Anyone in the SF bay area want to watch the CU game this weekend? I'm going with some of my Colorado friends and 2 of the CU guys are busy (romantic weekend together or something) so I need more support! We are going to Old Pro's in Palo Alto. Hopefully CU gets their game on for this, the most important game of the season.

Nice guys

A while ago I wrote about Green Day's song, Nice Guys Finish Last, and the statement is true. But just consider this ladies: By the time a nice guy has finished, you've finished 10 or 12 times if he's any good at what he does. Think about that next time you listen to the song, it totally fits.

Company

I had 3 visitors this week, and it was fun having Jessie, Tab and Janet in town. I can't say it was a little cramped in my apartment. Now it's just me, and I'm watching King Kong. I much prefer the original, although if I can separate myself from the way the story should be this one is okay too. Where the first on had a tag line "'Twas beatufy that slew the beast" this one should be, "It was chivalry that slew the heart of the bitch" Because this one has been updated to portray a modern, independent woman who falls in love with Kong. Good flick overall, it's just too bad the film borrows on so many of the good points of the original without following the best aspects of it. Let's see if they can end it right :)

Anyway, other stuff about this week. I took the day off on Wednesday and went camping Tuessday night at Half Moon bay. That was a lot of fun, although I prefer a more planned trip. (i.e. spontaneity is fine as long as I can trust that everyone going understands camping well enough to bring what they need) We also got to go up to the City last weekend and it's the first time I didn't feel like such a tourist while there. This weekend we went to San Jose for a Jazz festival and that was fun as well.

Tomorrow's back to live as usual, so I'm going to watch the rest of this movie and head to bed. Good night all!

wwdc

So... WWDC came and went and it was fabulous. Given the 100 hour weeks leading up to it, then grueling days of questions and commuting to San Francisco I'm excited for a bit of a break. Last night was an excellent way to end the week, with the campus bash featuring BT. I got to meet some cool developers and some apple folk as well, since nobody in my team or my closest Apple friends didn't come to the bash for some reason. (hello? free beer?) Our team was given today off, so I'm using it to experiment with some of the technologies Apple released this week. I think that Leopard will be a success, if only because the developer level features are so easy to use that we're going to get some awesome applications. Well, that's all for now, back to programming (but not work)

Sympathy busy

This weekend I went to Santa Rosa to see some people who were in town for a wedding. I didn't know the bride or groom but it was fun seeing all those people who are friends of theirs :)

Other than that, it's just been work. I refuse to tell this internet audience how much I've been working, because everytime I tell someone they become sympathy busy. This is a term I just made up addressing a reaction I get from this hypothetical situation: "Hi how are you doing?" "I'm doing great! I've just been lying out by the pool all day and taking these summer classes. How are you doing?" "I am also doing well, except I've been working x hours a week" "Oh man I totally know what you're talking about. Last weekend I had a paper due in my online class and it took me 30 hours to finish!!! And then I had to go see my friends in the Camen Islands and I had to spend ALL day at the beach and when I got back my boss totally expected me to work 16 hours IN ONE WEEK!!!..." etc.

We all do it of course. When I want to connect with someone who has had a rough day I'll tell them my troubles. But I hate when people play the competition game. Go ahead and tell me how you spent 4 hours counting to 1 million or that you slept till noon for the 3rd time this week. I value you as a person even if you can't relate to my workload.

light-gineer

Well it's Friday night, 10:30 and I'm at home. Am I a geek? Not for that reason alone, because I just now walked in the door from work. And I got there at 9:30 this morning. And every day this week has been 12+ hours. And I'm working this weekend too :) Don't feel bad for me, I'm bragging. Although I do have a lot of energy and nobody to hang out with so that kinda sucks. I'm half tempted to walk down to the bar and see who I can meet, but in this town I'm not so sure I want to know (hint, it rhymes with gineer. (What is light-gineer? (for the SNL fans out there)))

Movie review

Pirates of the Caribbean was crap. That's my review.

It's not the rehashed jokes, I wouldn't have minded that since they were thoroughly enjoyable the first time. Or the CG being a little over done, that is expected from a movie based on a ride where fire is created by shining a light on a sheet with a fan behind it. Even the obligatory whoring out the end with an unsolved mystery to get people to see the third movie would be okay, as long as they gave me a full movie worth the price of admission. Instead, they had one movie idea and decided to make two movies out of it.

I'm not against sequels, I think Spiderman, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Toy Story got it right, just to name a few off my bookshelf here. Pirates however, took the Matrix approach -- sacrifice the second movie for a decent third (well, I certainly hope the third is better ;). Lord of the rings arguably falls prey to this too, being one nine-hour movie. But each one has a proper story, a villain who rises to power and then falls, and a resolution.

Watch this episode of Ask A Ninja for a good review of the movie.

Car washes

Californians love car washes. Not just getting their car cleaned, but super expensive, wait in line forever until four guys scrub it down car washes. They love it so much that I've been stuck behind the line they create out into the regular traffic twice in the last 3 days. It's not even like Colorado where it's dry and dusty in the summer or slushy and magnesium chloride-y in the winter. This does, however create a noticeable difference between people like me me and people who give a crap about their cars, so maybe it's a social thing.

Today's music is Jale (pronounced jalay? jail? halay? English is fun!) If you're looking for some good down tempo electro-guitar girl rock, check them out.