designoMatt

3D Tech Demo Source Released

I’ve finally published the project I wrote for my VTM conference talk in Boston last November (2011). This project is iOS 5 specific and uses GLKit for all the rendering and math. It also implements a version of our Particle engine enhanced to work in 3D which is really cool. It uses bill boarded images for the particles so you can fade them, rotate them etc and it all looks great in 3D. We haven’t got 3D supported yet in Particle Designer but it will be in V2.0 ) so for now you have to manually edit the XML config file.

The project includes gyro based movement, 3D skybox, textured 3D models created using blender and exported as Objective-C header files (we will be making changes in this area with a new tool we are working on), Bullet 3D physics based collision detection and iPhone/iPad support.

We have put this project on Github to make it easier for us to manage and people to get hold of and play with.

So check out the project and have a play. If it inspires you and you create something awesome with it let me know as we love seeing what people are creating.

If you have any questions let us know. I’ll be creating a new forum for questions relating to the project.

It turns out Apple didn’t need an iPhone 5 to bolster sales.

The company reported on Tuesday that its profit for the holiday quarter more than doubled. And that was largely thanks to sales of the iPhone 4S, which, when it was introduced in October, was greeted with grumbling from pundits and some users for lacking the razzle-dazzle that many imagined an iPhone 5 would bring.

Adobe PhoneGap

Developing native Android apps requires coding in Java, while building iOS apps requires coding in Objective-C. What if you don’t have such skills on hand? PhoneGap creates mobile apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that can tap local storage and native features in Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm, and Windows Phone 7 devices. Although PhoneGap doesn’t create truly native apps (performance of processor-intensive apps will suffer) and lacks its own tools for creating user interfaces (Dreamweaver and third-party tools fill the gap), it’s a winning solution for most mobile projects. PhoneGap may be the fastest way to build mobile applications on the market today.

– James R. Borck

hey! we made the number 1 slot on the featured page for the creators project. thanks to whomever put us there!

I have a long list of places with Latitudes and Longitudes in a plist. I want to show a tableView of the places only within X distance of the user’s current location. Is there a way to create objects from the lats & longs in the plist file so I can use ‘distanceFromLocation’? More importantly, how do I get the array to only display the names with a distance from current less than X? I’m assuming I would need to make a series of objects from lats & longs in the plist, then do an objects in array if objects distanceFrom is less than X, correct?

Please help.

Here’s where I am now: I get an error on the double clubLatitude line

via stackoverflow.com

It’s fairly easy to get the heading of the user as they move in an iPhone app. More difficult however, is how to find the heading between two specific points that the user may or may not be at. In my case, this was in order to let the user pick a specific point, walk away from it, then have the device point the user back towards the point. I decided to tackle the problem using some vector mathematics.

Official White House Response to Stop the E-PARASITE Act. and 1 other petition

Combating Online Piracy while Protecting an Open and Innovative Internet

By Victoria Espinel, Aneesh Chopra, and Howard Schmidt

Thanks for taking the time to sign this petition. Both your words and actions illustrate the importance of maintaining an open and democratic Internet.

Right now, Congress is debating a few pieces of legislation concerning the very real issue of online piracy, including the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act and the Online Protection and Digital ENforcement Act (OPEN). We want to take this opportunity to tell you what the Administration will support—and what we will not support. Any effective legislation should reflect a wide range of stakeholders, including everyone from content creators to the engineers that build and maintain the infrastructure of the Internet.

While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.

Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small. Across the globe, the openness of the Internet is increasingly central to innovation in business, government, and society and it must be protected. To minimize this risk, new legislation must be narrowly targeted only at sites beyond the reach of current U.S. law, cover activity clearly prohibited under existing U.S. laws, and be effectively tailored, with strong due process and focused on criminal activity. Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing.

We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security. Our analysis of the DNS filtering provisions in some proposed legislation suggests that they pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk.

Let us be clear—online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy, and threatens jobs for significant numbers of middle class workers and hurts some of our nation’s most creative and innovative companies and entrepreneurs.  It harms everyone from struggling artists to production crews, and from startup social media companies to large movie studios. While we are strongly committed to the vigorous enforcement of intellectual property rights, existing tools are not strong enough to root out the worst online pirates beyond our borders. That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response.  We should never let criminals hide behind a hollow embrace of legitimate American values.

This is not just a matter for legislation. We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.

So, rather than just look at how legislation can be stopped, ask yourself: Where do we go from here? Don’t limit your opinion to what’s the wrong thing to do, ask yourself what’s right. Already, many of members of Congress are asking for public input around the issue. We are paying close attention to those opportunities, as well as to public input to the Administration. The organizer of this petition and a random sample of the signers will be invited to a conference call to discuss this issue further with Administration officials and soon after that, we will host an online event to get more input and answer your questions. Details on that will follow in the coming days.

Washington needs to hear your best ideas about how to clamp down on rogue websites and other criminals who make money off the creative efforts of American artists and rights holders. We should all be committed to working with all interested constituencies to develop new legal tools to protect global intellectual property rights without jeopardizing the openness of the Internet. Our hope is that you will bring enthusiasm and know-how to this important challenge.

Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation. Again, thank you for taking the time to participate in this important process. We hope you’ll continue to be part of it.

Victoria Espinel is Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget

Aneesh Chopra is the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President and Associate Director for Technology at the Office of Science and Technology Policy

Howard Schmidt is Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff