29 Apr 2010
This is the sort of evening where Stockholm flirts with me. I’ve spent too long with colleagues I seldom speak to, talking about things we never talk about during work hours. It’s so entertaining, I lose track of time, and suddenly it’s too late, I’m missing my train, and I may as well wait. A few colleagues invite me out to a pub, but I’m just short of time; going there would mean I’d miss even the next train.
Leaving the office, the air is wet but remarkably warm for late April. I could take off my jacket, but I know that would be an invitation to Thor. In the alley, I witness a short but intense gang-fight. At first I can’t tell the combatants apart (these people look the same to me in the gray dusk), but eventually I get clear sight of one of them: It’s a fox. So close to the city. I clap my hands and shout, and he runs off, leaving the cat alone to lick its wounds in the bushes.
Walking on, here it smells like pipe tobacco. Not a person in sight, just grey concrete, but the scent is unmistakable. When is the last time I smoked tobacco in a pipe? Ten years? Fifteen years? Some habits leave a trail that you can never run from. Stockholm is more than flirting with me, it’s kissing me hard and grabbing my crotch. Every vista, every beetle, every shout heard around a corner, reminds me why I live here.
Read on →
23 Feb 2010
It’s true! At long last, after months and months of late nights, the book is done. Available in digital and paper form from
Apress, as well as
Amazon.com and elsewhere. I’ve also set up
LearnCocoa.org to be a gathering-place for readers of the book; Right now, there’s not much there except for links to buy the book, and to a discussion forum where you can post questions, and also find the source code to all the example apps created in the book.
Big thanks once again to everyone who made this possible!
Read on →
28 Jan 2010
For years, I’ve been running a comment system here that’s been plagued with a variety of problems. I’ve gotten tired of fixing it, and it looks like Disqus is a much more capable system anyway, so I’ve changed. The old comments are still around, and will probably still be around forever, but for new comments, it’s all Disqus now.
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10 Jan 2010
My wife just pointed out that I haven’t blogged at all since last August! But, I have a good excuse: I’ve been writing Learn Cocoa on the Mac. And to top things off, I’m basically done! The book itself isn’t yet in print (though it will be soon), but as of a couple of days ago, the actual writing is done; All chapters are complete, all the screenshots are in place, and it’s all passed off to copy editors and layout people and whatnot (the parts of the publishing process that I really don’t know anything about). All that’s left for me is a bit of proofreading, approving editorial changes, etc.
So, sometime in January, the book should appear on bookshelves near you! Or, if not near you, at least it’s on Amazon and elsewhere. More info when I know the exact release date.
Anyway, this has been a huge project. Lots of work, and extremely satisfying on any number of levels. And now that it’s basically done, I find that I already miss it! I guess I’ll have to go on writing.
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11 Aug 2009
It has come to my attention that I haven’t said a word here about my current side project, which I’m spending all my spare time working on: I’m writing a book! This comes as a surprise to me as much as anyone, but there it is. Through a happy set of coincidences, I’ve been given the opportunity to work on the upcoming Apress book “”http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430218592">Learn Cocoa on the Mac" along with Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche, not to mention Mark Dalrymple doing tech review, and of course Clay Andres and the rest of the team at Apress.
This opportunity came about through a string of coincidences. Some of them hinge on things that I’ve done over time without any hope or intention of writing a book, which goes to show, perhaps, that sometimes when you reap what you sow, the harvest may be quite unexpected!
Anyway, this is a huge undertaking, and I feel like a bit of a hermit, eschewing the watching of TV and the reading of blogs in favor of the writing of pages, but I am truly having a blast.
Read on →