Basic GPX export has been added to the github repo. That is all.

http://github.com/rcarlsen/Mobile-Logger/commit/9e1dc73304de562c30e64fa9a9b61840e69963c3

The mobile logger server seems to be having some trouble at the moment. I’m investigating the issue and will update this space when there’s news.

In the meantime, I’d advice anyone having trouble logging to disable the Upload feature in the settings.

Thanks for patience!

UPDATE: It looks like the server is back online. 12:09 6/22/2010

UPDATE #2: Err, I may have jumped the gun with that good news. Going to sleep on it.

UPDATE #3: everything seems to be working again. 8:00 6/22/2010

just returned from a much needed week in Aruba. the only tech i allowed myself to get involved with was a Google Voice / Gizmo5 integration for free calls back home using local wifi (which worked out really).

now to get back to work…the semester is looming.
(but it may be hard to focus after this)

I’m switching my Source Control Management  software to git. Performance has been great, I’m learning to branch and merge with wild abandon and philosophically it’s right on (what with the distributed model and all).

Creating a new remote repository on my private server was *almost* too easy. The one snafu was getting sshd to include the git binary path for non-interactive login. To save me the trouble of having to look this up again later, add a .bashrc file to your user dir:

export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH

Other steps, again for reference.

• Download the git installer
• Create a new bare repo on the remote machine:

mkdir -p /path/to/remote/repo.git
cd /path/to/remote/repo.git
git --bare init
exit

• Add the remote repository to the local machine:

git remote add origin ssh://server/path/to/remote/repo.git
git push origin master

• Done!

(Unless, of course you get the following message try the .bashrc workaround above)

bash: git-receive-pack: command not found

i recently switched to Coda for web development. now, i don’t do much web dev any longer…mostly for myself (as evidenced my this latest overhaul of robertcarlsen.net – which amounts to theme hacking, really). i never had a problem with tabbing through several programs to get the job done, but i like Panic’s style.

the interface is clean and with keyboard shortcuts for each of the view modes. i do so wish for more info in the files panel….i’m used to comparing modification times and the sync features of full-fledged FTP clients.

anyway, it’s good software – and i’ve come to really appreciate good software lately after writing a lot of bad software myself.

i’ve updated the site’s design and will be migrating it to a new server over the next couple of days. in the meantime, please forgive any oddities (but feel free to let me know about them – i’m currently dealing with the code examples formatting right now).

also, all the old permalinks are dead and i need to fix that.

In preparation for several iPhone application development gigs which have lined up for the summer I’m getting back into my previous projects. Specifically, I’m going to get Follower and Pinwheel ready for release and am looking to push them out to the AppStore in the next month or so.

Also, as an exercise to get working with a web API I’m building an iPhone native client for SHIFD, called Slide. Right now it’s overly simplistic, but I much prefer the native app to the mobile web app. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it as a learning project or also invest the time and resources to make it another released application.

All this is in service to building out cloudreader.me, the online version of the CloudReader generative text animation project. I’d like to make that something available sometime.

On a much needed vacation following the ITP Spring Show. Just back from a week in Philadelphia catching up with beloved places and friends. Looking forward to a few more days of relaxing in NYC before getting back to work.

Toggle an integer variable between 0 and 1. Useful for a flag to control program flow in C without boolean types.

toggleVar = 1>>toggleVar;

What this is doing is right shifting the integer 1 either zero or one place, depending on the current value of toggleVar.

An 8-bit (unsigned – positive values only) integer has 256 possible values. This is a byte of information whose bits can be represented in binary as 00000000. The least significant bit, the smallest values are on the right…so, 00000001 = 1, 00000010 = 2 … 11111111 = 255.

Ok, this isn’t a binary lesson…so, right shifting is simply moving all the bits to columns to the right. 2>>1 = 1 or, 00000010 >> 1 = 00000001 (which is binary for 1).

The expression at the top does exactly this: When toggleVar is zero, it becomes 1>>0 = 1 and when toggleVar is 1 the expression is 1>>1 = 0. The last bit gets shifted right into oblivion!!! (sorry for that).

Of course, with boolean data types toggleVar = !toggleVar is still shorter, by one char!

Following up on the initial post about the brauswitch – the eyebrow activated headband switch. Here is some video with a simple application demonstrating it’s use. There are separate switches for both the left and right sides. The simple Arduino code listed below will indicate if the left, right or both sides have been activated. A Processing sketch reads the serial output of the device and plays a variety of sound samples.

There is something really nice about the amplification of a small facial movement and the larger audio/visual response of the sketch. It’s also nice to interact in a handsfree way. Oh! Fun. Code after the video. (more…)