March 2008 – Long Pointers

Scott Stevenson on Writing Copy For Product Pages

Scott Stevenson, webmaster and author for his Cocoa development site Cocoa Dev Central and weblog Theocacao, has written a new post on writing copy for product pages. The ‘keep it simple’ meme is the gist, but read what he has to say.

This is quite interesting to me as I have a product release that is imminent. Well, maybe not imminent. The code is almost done. Now I need to write some copy, figure out the PayPal IPN, incorporate Sparkle… etc. etc. Ok. Nevermind. It’s not imminent.

Anyhow, thanks for the post Scott. This is good stuff.

Microsoft Product Launch Less Than Inspiring

Silhouette Dude Heroes? So we drove up to Denver this morning for the Microsoft Product Launch they’ve dubbed Heroes Happen Here (exsqueeze me? What?). We all got signed up late so we had to do the morning sessions which weren’t the developer sessions.

That was really fine because we were all only going for the free software. I’ve gotta say, though, that the sessions were nothing but big snooze-fests. Maybe the developer track was better, but wow. ZZzzzzzzz.

After attending one session, we went to a different track to see if it was any better. Had to leave within a few minutes for fear that the enthusiasm with which these folks presented their topics was enough to make one’s mind seize up from inactivity (doesn’t work that way, but I’m bad at analogies. Work with me here).

Ok. I exaggerate. When we did duck out of the second session early, much to our surprise and delight, we found that they were handing out the goods without requiring the session evaluations. Sweet! We grabbed the software and got outta there. The software included Visual Studio 2008 (Standard), SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.

I haven’t done any Windows development in a while, but should the time come again that I need to, I will have the latest software. It was worth the trip, but only for that reason. The presentation was, well… lacking.

Don’t think they have that problem on that other platform.

Core Animation Tutorial: Dashboard Effect

I just finished another Core Animation tutorial and posted it at CIMGF over the weekend. This was a pretty fun one. I wanted to duplicate the effect of the Dashboard widgets flying in and out from off screen and this is what I came up with. Take a look and let me know what you think. Core Animation Tutorial: Dashbaord Effect.

Guitar Hero On The Commodore 64?

Wow, some people have some serious hacking skills. That, and a lot of time. This guy built his own interface that allows him to connect the Guitar Hero controller for the Playstation up to his Commodore 64 on which he plays a Guitar Hero clone he calls Shredz64.

That’s very geeky… and cool!

Get more information at Toni Westbrook’s website and here is more about his Shredz64.

Zarra Studios releases iWeb Buddy, the post-processor for iWeb

Colorado Springs, Colorado – Zarra Studios LLC announced today the release of iWeb Buddy. iWeb Buddy is a post processor application for iWeb that is designed to bring additional functionality to iWeb that professionals and “pro-sumers” have come to need on their web sites.

iWeb Buddy allows you to have multiple domain files with iWeb so that you can keep your sites separated into their own files. iWeb Buddy also post processes web pages created in iWeb; allowing the user to add Google Analytics, Social Bookmarking, Haloscan comments and custom HTML code to your website automatically.

In addition, iWeb Buddy remembers your settings, account numbers, etc. making it easy to update your website whenever you make a change in iWeb.

With iWeb Buddy, a user can “monetize” their websites that they have created in iWeb by being able to track the traffic on their sites, add custom html code for shopping carts and more.

Explains Marcus Zarra, owner of Zarra Studios, “iWeb is a great website design application. It is geared for the consumer but it is so close to being truly viable for professionals to use but it is missing a few key features – iWeb Buddy brings those features to iWeb.”

Features:
* Use multiple “domain” files with iWeb
* Add Google Analytics to your website
* Redirect your RSS feeds to sites like Feedburner
* Fix the RSS links on your iWeb blog pages
* Add Social Bookmarking to your blog posts
* Add Haloscan comments to your pages/blog posts
* Add Custom code to your web pages (WITHOUT IFRAMES)
* Add Mint site tracking to your webpages

Pricing and Availability
iWeb Buddy is available today for $25.00 USD for a single user license. A family license is also available for $35.00 USD. A demonstration copy is fully functional for the first 30 days and can downloaded from Zarra Studios website.

Congratulations on this release, Marcus and Zarra Studios!

Core Animation Tutorial: Wizard Dialog with Transitions

Marcus can really crank these articles out. His latest demonstrates how to create a Wizard interface with next and previous buttons, however, this is not your average every day Wizard interface. This one employs Core Animation. When you click the next or previous buttons, you’ll see that the next view slides in from the right or left depending on which you clicked. Take a look at his latest tutorial post: Core Animation Tutorial: Wizard Dialog with Transitions.