CDZPinger

Part of the Project Announcements series. Update: the software described in this post is no longer maintained. While writing BuyVM Manager, I was disappointed to find there was no good, easy-to-use ICMP ping library for iOS projects. Apple provides a SimplePing code sample that you can adapt into your codebase, …

The UGLi

A brief investigation into the origin of the nickname “UGLi” for the University of Michigan’s Shapiro Undergraduate Library.

Elegant UITableView row selection behavior based on edit state

If you're a Cocoa Touch developer, you've undoubtedly implemented -[UITableViewDelegate tableView:didSelectRowAtIndexPath:] a few hundred times. I did this recently and needed different behavior based on whether the table view was in its editing state (whether -[UITableView isEditing]). In this particular case, the best …

Collaborating with Git and Github

Introduction to collaboration using Git and Github. I gave this talk for Michigan Hackers in September 2012. The slides, with speakers' notes, are available in PDF. I've also posted a screen recording of the presentation, with audio. …

1.5 Years of UMich Magic Bus Data

An archive of collected University of Michigan Magic Bus data.

Shooting Theatre, Dance, and Music

Intro to photographing plays/musicals/dance/opera/concerts, with particular focus on plays, musicals, and dance. I gave this talk for the Michigan Daily's photostaff in 2012. Alternative title: "Shooting Things That Move Fast in the Dark". The slides, with speakers' notes, are available in …

Fixing 'Corrupted MAC On Input' Error with Git/SSH/VirtualBox 4.1.6

Fixing SSH error 2: Corrupted MAC on input. when using Git/SSH with VirtualBox 4.1.6

UMich Google Calendar Updated for Winter 2012

Update: the calendar described in this post is no longer maintained. I have updated my public Google Calendar for the University of Michigan for the winter 2012 semester. Find information about the calendar and how to use it here. …

Capturing Lightning

Building an analog circuit to trigger a DSLR camera when it detected lightning.

UMich Google Calendar Updated for Fall 2011

Update: the calendar described in this post is no longer maintained. I have updated my public Google Calendar for the University of Michigan for the fall 2011 semester. Find information about the calendar and how to use it here. …

How Rdio Can Kill Spotify (and vice-versa)

A couple cool new subscription music services have recently appeared: Rdio and Spotify. There are a ton of similarities between the two – they offer instant access to a world of music, they have capable mobile apps, and they share a nearly-identical pricing structure. There are several notable differences between them, …

Removing AT&T Mobile Web Bookmark from Android Phones

AT&T adds a bunch of software and bookmarks to all the phones it sells. Once you've rooted your Android phone, it's pretty simple to remove most of the provider's crapware. AT&T also adds a "Mobile Web" bookmark to …

Making a Private Gist Public

Guide to changing the privacy of a Github Gist: make a private gist public or make a public gist private.

Shooting Concerts with Strobe Lights

Many concerts these days - mainly rock/pop shows - rely heavily on strobe lights as part of the experience. Photographing these shows is challenging, even though there's (at times) plenty of light. I ran into this problem at an Ella Riot show at Ann Arbor's …

The Twitter Busyness Average

Part of the Project Announcements series. Update: the project described in this post no longer works due to Twitter API changes. At some point last week, I realized that I could measure roughly how busy I was based on the inverse of the frequency of my posts to Twitter. Based …