NSString *resolvedSource = oneResolved ? oneSource : otherSource;
if ([self projectSourceIsPortrait:resolvedSource]) {
    if (oneResolved) {
        oneTile.landscape.source = otherSource;
    } else {
        oneTile.portrait.source = otherSource;
    }
} else {
    if (oneResolved) {
        oneTile.portrait.source = otherSource;
    } else {
        oneTile.landscape.source = otherSource;
    }
}

can with proper use of binary operations turn into 8 lines (down from 14):

NSString *resolvedSource = oneResolved ? oneSource : otherSource;
BOOL setPortrait = oneResolved;
setPortrait ^= [self projectSourceIsPortrait:resolvedSource];
if (setPortrait) {
    oneTile.portrait.source = otherSource;
} else {
    oneTile.landscape.source = otherSource;
}

You can of course make the setPortrait bool a one-liner too, as in

BOOL setPortrait = oneResolved ^ [self projectSourceIsPortrait:resolvedSource];

dropping you down to 7 lines of code. The XOR operator is more useful than it’s being given credit for.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”><plist version=”1.0″><dict> <key>Label</key> <string>syslog_relay</string> <key>ProtocolVersion</key> <string>2</string> <key>Request</key> <string>Goodbye</string></dict></plist>

Despite the annoyance of memory issues, I couldn’t help giggle at that one. “Goodbye”! Haha! I’ve never been kicked out in as extravagant a fashion as this.

Last year when I went to the U.S., I had the unexpected fortune of encountering a customs officer who actually treated me like a living object. I even told her so.

“This is my first time being treated like a person, you know. Going through these customs control thingies.”, says I.
“Oh… I’m sorry?”, says she, with a guilty grin.

Most of my trips to the states, I’ve over-thought this situation quite a bit. I’ve reasoned erroneously that these guys probably have a lot of tired and annoyed people going through, so I should at least make an effort and smile. That smile has put me inside rooms with mexicans and other dirty peoples (note the sarcasm, by the way) for 3-4 hours at a time. That smile, to me a way to say, “I know you’re just doing your job, but I don’t hate on you for it,” was to them a sign of suspicion.

So a few years ago I had enough. I knew I was going to be treated like excrement glaced with vomit, so I gave them exact, precise honesty. Frowning, grunting out replies, staring at them fully expecting the treatment I was surely going to be having, and I had it every time but that one time last year. And amusingly, I’ve not been questioned extensively or brought to any rooms with mexicans since.

Then came ESTA. Going to a country which is a part of the Schenger agreement (I think that’s the one) lets you, without a visa, enter the country for up to 90 days. Except someone in the states decided this was awfully unsafe, so they put up ESTA, a web site with seemingly no meaning whatsoever* , where you are asked questions you will be asked again, later.

(* except to deny you entry BEFORE you fly all the way over there, which I guess is a good thing — I’ve heard of people being sent all the way back home)

Regardless, what are these questions then, you might ask? Anyone who’s gone to the states has no doubt (whilst giggling quietly to themselves) answered these absolutely ridiculous questions.

I mean… good thing I said No to all of those, right! Phew. Just look at (B), for example. If I was — and to any U.S. officials swinging by to see why the ESTA content are being published on my blog, I might assert that I am not — planning on “engaging in criminal or immoral activities”, I’m sure I’d be tempted for at least a second to answer Yes, honest as I am.

The big dump of excrement in my eye though is that this ridiculous form underwent a change as of March this year.

It now charges you $14 per application.

So not only am I forced to waste my time on the above bullshit, but I’m charged to do so.

Wednesday: exam, Linear Algebra and Geometry — uh, yeah. That was a waste of effort.

Friday: exam, Networks and Communication — at least this one went reasonably well.

Monday’s exam I didn’t study for, at all. I’d gone through the whole course like a breeze, learning lots of interesting little tidbits (e.g. the assembly language!), and mostly enjoying myself, which is why I felt that I could walk in there and do the exam like it was nothing. Turns out I was wrong, as I saw the “solution proposal” they put up (I’d done a bunch of errors, not read text properly, etc). I think I’ll pass, but no flying colors here.

Wednesday’s exam was the one I *did* study for. A lot. But because of ass-hole teachers who won’t bother answering emails, I didn’t get to enter the course until 2 weeks into it, and since I didn’t get the go ahead until that late, it took about another week before I had the book, which resulted in constant lagging behind. The intention was to sit down with it a weekend and study like a fiend to catch up with the others, but that just never happened. Over this weekend and Monday-Tuesday, I studied like a fool, but in the end I had to skim through something like 100 pages worth of stuff, skipping over the actual problem sections each time. I’ve developed an unprecedented hatred for Howard Anton, the author of the book, for his unrivaled incompetence in pedagogy.

Friday’s exam there’s not much to say about. I didn’t study anything up until the last day (i.e. yesterday), and the studying I did was only reading old exams. No flying color passing here either, but I’d be surprised if I didn’t pass.

At least it’s all over. For now.

- her: by the way!
- me: yep?
- her: when you come here, you said you’d put a bunch of chocolate in your bag, right?
- me: yep!
- her: sure you’re not going to forget about it?
- me: already started buying stuff, and going to buy more tomorrow
- her: oh, okay! good! thanks!

It’s not just “a nice gesture,” and since we’re getting married, I have to be extra careful about this kind of stuff. So I went on a buying spree earlier today. This is the haul:

(edit: this looks completely fuck-tarded with my current WP theme; suggest you look at the LiveJournal syndication)

Lots and lots of chocolate. Of various kinds.

This thing apparently causes bubbles to appear when you move it. Brother's 2-year old will approve, I'm sure. Though it says '3+' so will have to be supervised playtime on this one.

I obviously need to gift a rat too. Not sure who will be the recipient yet but I'll figure it out.

Here you see its beady little eyes. Love at first sight, no?

This dog is sooo fat. It's for brother's son. Though I'm thinking of getting one for myself, cause frankly, this thing is potentially the coolest plush toy I've ever seen.

This guy...

... has a shot at winning some 'nightmare inducing' award...

Hug... me.... now...?

.... need... love.... now...!

1. I found an outlet to plug my lap top in. Outlets when traveling are like oases when traveling… in deserts. They mean unlimited usage, with no battery life risks. My MacBook Pro actually has like 7 hours of battery life but I *will* be on a 15 hour trip and that’s counting “first plane take off” until “second plane landing” only. So, I am electropowered.

2. Google (I think it’s Google?) hosts a free wifi service here. It’s fast, too, especially at 1 am in the morning. Free wifi means the internet, which means I’m pretty much able to do everything I do normally. Except I’m sitting on a hard, cold floor and my feet are about to perish (stretch left leg out over crossed right leg, then do variations of that, ugh, running out of comfortable ones though), but I might go for a walk and maybe find a café or something in a bit. I always have my discreet, quiet, electropowered spot to retreat to if all else fails.

Earlier, a guy I met at both 360iDev in San Jose and the Voices that Matter conference here in Seattle agreed to take me to the airport in the evening, so we hung out at his place for a while. He showed me a couple of games I had managed to miss, like Plants vs Zombies. My god, that game is ridiculously addictive. I downloaded a trial of it here as soon as I found my lovely charge-spot and played it until it threw me out and said ”You, mister, have been playing for an HOUR. You better pay up!” I tried arguing that it’s $20 and that’s kind of a lot of cash, but I don’t think it heard me.

So the last couple of weeks have been weird. I don’t think I’ve actually relaxed a second since I landed the 10th. It’s not that I’m not in a stress-free environment or anything, it’s just that being away from home wears on me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about “home” the last couple of years, since I’ve been away from what you’d expect to be “home” for nearly 2 years. I hated my apartment in Japan, and I wasn’t totally happy with my lifestyle either, but “Japan” felt just as much like “home” as Sweden ever did. It was when I bought that ticket to get me to Sweden that “home” suddenly changed meaning. I went through several phases of redefining my world, or something — immediately after buying the ticket, I wanted to be back home. Then that wore off after a month or so, and the last 3 or so months of my stay, I felt more and more like I actually didn’t want to go home at all.

I think I blogged about (lazy blogger, it’s 2 am, forgive) my shocking experience in finally returning back to Sweden, and I still clearly remember that feeling, and I don’t think I will see Sweden quite the same way as I did before, ever, but it’s home, now.

Ultimately, home is where you say it is, and until you do say, it won’t be home, and it won’t feel like home.

That’s all I have to say about that right now.

Kendall Gelner, Noel Llopis, and many other hugely talented but yet pleasant to be around folks were inspiring.

Only thing I regret about the thing was eating those veggie burritos. Man they were grody.

iPadDevCamp was a super-intensive “hack something together a-zap and present it two days later” thing. Actually it was roughly 1 whole day of working, with only a few hours on the Friday eve and Sunday morning to do last minute fixes. I ended up with a group of 4 others doing a ‘multi-device game’ called (eventually) Tank or Die. The idea was to be able to add iPhones as game controllers and iPads as playing fields in this ‘control the tank and try to shoot the other tanks’. There were 3 developers (4 even) and one graphics designer. Everyone decided to start working on things on Friday, but due to transportation issues, I couldn’t actually join them until Saturday. My task ended up being the connectivity between iPads (the playing fields) and I just didn’t have enough time to figure out how to get it all working in time for the demo, so when we won “best game” award, I felt a bit like a cheater when I took that wireless keyboard from the prize pile.

Was a learning experience though, and I don’t regret participating. It’s a very nice feeling when you are convinced that “if I were tasked to do this with the things I know today, I would have succeeded”, and I am.

Now I’m going to be doing some work and relax until Friday, when I go up to Seattle for the last conference in my “conference tour”.

Just kidding. I created my account 3 years ago and I “started” yesterday. On the way to the plane, actually.

It’s amazing how easily you get into habits. Such as writing short concise messages to convey something. Like the title of this blog post.

In any case, I’m appropriately arrived (yes I meant to say “I am” ) but a bit confused. And tired. And I missed the first part of the morning’s speech so I didn’t really catch on to all the things he was saying. Lots of very cool new things though (I was at the debugging and customization one ftr) and I can’t wait to poke at the docs and notes and such he left behind (not to mention the project templates — his singleton stuff looks droolicious).

It’s funny. I wanted to sit down and write lots and lots about lots and lots, but since I couldn’t find a damn Apple store anywhere all the way here I’m forced to ask the damn conference folks to borrow theirs all the time, just to get the lap top up. Consequently I try to not use it and when I use it I keep staring at the battery % indicator more than anything else.

Apple, is it really necessary to have your own AC cords? Really.

Then again, finding a hardware store (which might have a “standard” cord) looks about as hard as finding an Apple store so…

But… when I try to change it so that Swedish is the default input methods …. I can’t. Uh. Right.

… huh? Why can’t I drag and arrange my input methods in order of preference?

The deal is, whenever I open a new … window. Or tab, in Safari… I get it in Japanese.

Imagine this scenario: I open up a new tab in my browser! I decide to boldly go where none other has boldly gone before, and I type in “www.google.com” BUT!

BUT!!!! I do not GET “www.google.com” in the browser.

No sir. I don’t. I get “っっw。ごおgぇ。cおm”

in the browser.

And this is not what I wanted! Nope. No sir. Not anywhere or any way.

Can you feel my frustration shining? For now, I’ve turned Japanese off, so any time I talk to my girlfriend or whoever I will do so in “Konnichiwa watashi no chinchin wo sutte kudasai” romaji. Anyone got any nice clues on this one? It’s completely unbelievable that they’d not realize that people, sometimes, would prefer not to have their languages thrown at them in alphabetic order. (Yes, “Japanese” comes before “Swedish”.) Or is it that every tester was an American, thus “English” comes before “Japanese” and it’s not a “problem”?

EDIT: I finally figured this out. The reason it was acting up was because of 3 separate factors which, combined, do not work:

1. Japanese input.
2. Swedish as alternative input
3. English as operating system language.

The fix is to change the OS language to Swedish. I personally hate having the OS in Swedish, but I’m apparently given no choice. Better that than no Japanese though, I suppose.