Recently, I found myself in possession of a $20 “virtual” Visa gift card. To make a long story short, I found the Wolfram Alpha iPhone app useful enough to spend $20 on it when the price dropped from $50, but then it later dropped to $2 and Mr. Wolfram decided to issue refunds to those … Continue reading On the usability of virtual pre-paid gift credit cards
Author: Brian Enigma
Brian Enigma is a Portlander, manipulator of atoms & bits, minor-league blogger, and all-around great guy. He typically writes about the interesting “maker” projects he's working on, but sometimes veers off into puzzles, software, games, local news, and current events.
iOS 4: Folders in the Dock
A feature new to iPhone OS 4 (iOS 4) is the ability to create folders. You can stack a few icons atop one another and they turn into a folder. You touch the folder, it pops open, then you can touch an item in the folder to launch it. BUT! Did you know that you … Continue reading iOS 4: Folders in the Dock
A vuvuzela iPhone ringtone. You’re welcome.
Because the world does not yet contain enough vuvuzela, I made an iPhone ringtone of a vuvuzela. You’re welcome. Just download it and drag it into iTunes. The original audio file that I used is from the above-linked Wikipedia article, so if you can think of other uses for the sound clip, go crazy! I, … Continue reading A vuvuzela iPhone ringtone. You’re welcome.
ARG Tools for iPhone
As a few readers of this blog may know, I have been tinkering with iPhone development for about a year. Technically, a bit longer than that — since the first jailbreaks and community SDKs — but realistically, with all seriousness, about a year of what I’d consider above “tinkering” but below “professional.” In recent months, … Continue reading ARG Tools for iPhone
The horrors of internet calendar formats
I have been working on a little side-project for a few weeks now. One of the things I thought I could add easy-peasy, slam-dunk, was a read-only view of a shared calendar. I have seen the iCal data format before, and it didn’t strike me as particularly difficult, just A BUNCH OF CAPITAL LETTERS and … Continue reading The horrors of internet calendar formats
Hello World, App Store Edition
A picture, without comment. Posted in:
Farewell, Facebook
My first website was born in 1995. Previous to that, I had participated in a few mailing lists and lurked on Usenet, but that was my first public internet presence. Those were the days before background images, before cascading stylesheets, before, even, the <blink> tag. Most days, my browser of choice was Lynx — mainly … Continue reading Farewell, Facebook
The Eternal Airport
Hanging around in the jury selection common room, waiting to get called into a trial, is much like being stuck in an airport. Security is similar in both places. Any “luggage” of bags or backpacks tends to never escape your watchful view. When will my name get called? When does my flight depart? You cannot … Continue reading The Eternal Airport
The power (and cost savings) of fixing it yourself
I did something the other weekend that kind of pushed my comfort limits. I fixed the refrigerator. You see, usually when I task myself with fixing something, I actually know how to fix it. At the very least, I have a reasonable idea of how to fix it. This time was 100% guesswork. You see, … Continue reading The power (and cost savings) of fixing it yourself
Most expensive cat toy redux: iPad + Meowmania
It looks like I am a little late to the party on this one. Various technology blogs have now featured videos of cats and dogs on the iPad. (…although technically I did this on day two, but have been lazy about posting.) As with the iPhone and Meowmania post, this is the Meowmania [iTunes link] app, … Continue reading Most expensive cat toy redux: iPad + Meowmania