A little while ago I shared a snip of code I put in VoodooPad development builds, which beeps at me when I launch a second copy. I run into this problem because I use VoodooPad all day long, and - well, since I'm VoodooPad's creator, sometimes I'll accidently get multiple copies running which I don't want.

Anyway.

I've got a better version now (and I don't know why I didn't do this the first time either); use AppleScript to quit the old version and then continue on the app's merry way. I put this in my main.m file, before NSApplicationMain():



Yes yes yes, using system() is bad. I know. It's only ever run on my desktop though.

I thought I should mention before I get emails about it; comments are disabled right now as I rework my custom VoodooPad blog engine from Lua to Python. I'm porting little snippets at a time, but it's got a GUI now!



Amazing, isn't it? I knew you would be impressed. I'll make sure to give it out as sample dev code some day once it's all cleaned up.

Daniel Jalkut: Development Phase Code Signing.

'''But the user who has it worst of all is me myself, as I’m constantly revising the application, leading the system to request new approvals every time my changed application accesses the keychain.'''

After seeing that all it would take is a simple build script, I've done this to my development builds of VoodooPad. It really is nice not having to click the keychain dialog box all the time.

I'm not quite ready to do this to the release builds of VoodooPad- I'm not sure there is much benifit to it just yet.

And in case you were wondering (though I am sure you weren't), one of my main VoodooPad documents is encrypted, so that's where I see they keychain dialog pop up. It gets a bit annoying after the 1000th time.

Special Effects with Acorn Part 1: The Product Fade Effect.

Lee Falin has put together a tutorial on how to create the fading/reflective effect you see all over apple.com these days.

Theocacao: Thinking Like a Cocoa Programmer.

"Being a great Mac or iPhone programmer means more than just knowing Objective-C and the Cocoa, it means thinking in a different way about designing and writing software."

July 12th is Kirstin's next derby game, which also hasppens to be the championship bout for the season. I know some local folks (Seattle area) wanted to know when the next derby game was, so now is your chance to buy tickets.

It's a small venue, and it always sells out quick. So if you want to see her knock down some other girls (and get knocked down herself), now is your chance.

p.s. - some pics from her last bout. Kirstin is the tall one, and of course I'll be one of lazy ones.

Bill Bumgarner: What is good tequila?

'''This weblog post is at least a decade in the making. Seriously. I wrote the original version of this sometime in the late ’90s as a mailing list post, then revised it again when someone at Apple asked for tequila recommendations.'''

I didn't know what good tequila was till this past week when I visited Tommy's during WWDCfest. Ever since I got back home, I've been fascinated with the idea of making a margarita that tasted as good as what I had there. With some help via Twitter from Bill, I managed to make a pretty decent margarita tonight. (I bought some El Tesoro platinum and Partida Anejo two days after I got back. I don't really know what I'm doing but I think I made some good choices based on the bottles that showed up in his post.)

It'll be fun experimenting at any rate.

Acorn 1.2.1b1 is ready for testing, and you can grab it from the latest builds page. This is a quick bug fix release, and you can read up on the release notes here.

From Red Sweater: Pixels Are Hot

A nice little essay from Daniel Jalkut:

'''On the Mac, we’re all racing towards the same goal: mindblowing experiences for users. Even in a niche such as pixel editing, where lots of players compete, we’ll never have a declared winner. To have a winner, you need a finish line. And when it comes to maximizing user happiness and productivity, there isn’t one. Furthermore, the map to that pot of gold has been drawn differently by every user and by every developer.'''

Seth Dillingham's 2008 PMC Software Auctions are upon us.

From Seth:
'''August 1st, 2nd and 3rd (Friday - Sunday), I'll be riding my bike across the state of Massachusetts in the PMC, along with about 4400 other riders. Riding the bike for 300 miles is the easy part. The real challenge is meeting my $10,000 goal for this cancer-care-and-treatment charity'''

Flying Meat is of course donating licenses of all our apps for this. I know a lot of developers read my site, so let me suggest that it would probably be a good idea if you have an app, to donate for this as well. It's for a good cause, and can only do good for everyone (including yourself and your company).

I was going to try and put these songs up on muxtape.com, but they seem to be having... issues today.

Anyway, some live Medeski Martin and Wood for ya:

Chubb Subb, and Crosstown Traffic.

Recorded from a concert in Lawrence KS, 1996.08.08.