The Lucas Eckels Blog

Downloads fixed

2008-12-30T23:15:00.001-05:00

The download links have been broken for some time, since my old ISP finally noticed I stopped giving them money and took down my web space. I finally got around to getting all the files together and updating the links.

Everything should work now.

Fuzzy Freddy

2007-01-06T16:31:00.002-05:00

It has recently come to my attention that I failed to post here about my entry for Iron Coder 2, Fuzzy Freddy.

The API that time around was CoreGraphics, and the theme was Time.

Fuzzy Freddy is an action-packed game of adventure, romance, and hygiene. It is a Universal binary and is best viewed in at least 1280x1024.

I'm pretty happy about how it turned out.

Download Fuzzy Freddy (includes source)

Close

2006-10-29T17:32:00.001-05:00

Iron Coder 4 is quickly coming to a close. My entry is Close. We'll see in a few hours how it compares against everyone else's.

Here's the description from the readme:

Close is an intense psychological thriller of a game, where the player must avoid getting their personal space invaded by coworkers in a highly detailed workplace environment.

Use your mental and physical abilities to your fullest to defend yourself against these intrusions.

Using Apple's Core Image technology, Close provides a level of visual quality never before seen in a game of its kind.

Download Close 1.0

Edit: Okay, I've been caught. It's a clone of Daleks. Enjoy the bonus level.

2006-05-08T21:30:00.003-04:00

The Iron Coder website has been updated with a lovely green gradient. Oh yeah, plus it's the site for official information.

Check it out.

Iron Coder v1

2006-04-28T20:18:00.000-04:00

Since I won the last Iron Coder competition, I get to run the next one.
And now the next one has a date. Since my birthday is May 18, I thought a celebration was in order.

A celebration of caffeine and feverish. half-finished code.

On Friday, May 19, 6pm EST, an API will be announced.
On Saturday, May 20, 6pm EST, a theme will be announced.
On Sunday, May 21, 6pm EST, judging will begin.

The setup is the same as before. I'll pick an API and a theme. It's your job to come up with something cool to earn the title of Iron Coder.

Judging will be based on four criteria:

Style

Technical expertise

Use of API and theme

Cool factor

Some rules:

The programs must run in their own address space- so that rules out input managers and haxies. The program must also run without authentication.

Source code has to be included, and you've got to be ok with it being public.

New projects only! The idea is to try and cram all development into a 24hr period.

If it's some sort of movie, or something that you have to sit through, it can't be longer than 1:27 seconds.

Files must be under 5mb compressed (for uploading).

A quick little blurb on how to run your program, what it does, and how it ties into the theme is probably a good idea.

The app has to be totally self contained. We don't want files littered all over the judge's system.

The judge has to be able to compile the code.

Instant disqualification if judge is too scared to run the code.

You must be willing to be the next competition's judge.

Unless somebody wants to buy the judge a new Intel Mac, it better run on PPC. Bonus points to anyone who sends the judge hardware.

See you there.

Dairy Queen exploits

2006-04-24T18:14:00.000-04:00

I went for a lovely spring walk with my fiance over the weeekend. We figured we would stop at the local Dairy Queen for some "cool treats". By the time we arrived, the dining room was closed, but the drive through was still open. Since we don't weight as much as a small car, we didn't set off the drive through sensor thing, so stood in line between cars. When we got to the window, we were informed that they only serve people in cars.

Naturally, we were pissed. So we filed a complaint with dairyqueen.com, noting that we were walking partially due to environmental awareness.

Today we got a response. Read it here.

Embedding a file in VoodooPad

2006-03-30T00:51:00.003-05:00

[Update: This is probably pretty useless now, since this feature has been built-in to VoodooPad for two major releases now. It's not in the free version, but neither is the scripting. If for some reason, you're still using VoodooPad 2, please enjoy!]

I was musing the other day about the apparent lack of a way to embed a file directly into VoodooPad. So I turned to the semi-experimental plugin interface.

Now you can enjoy the fruits of my labor. Just look at the file embedding menu off of the plugin menu. A file takes up an entire page and links up like anything else in VoodooPad. Just click on the link and it opens up.

Double click EmbedFile.vcplugin and VoodooPad will install it for you.

Download EmbedFile 1.0b1 (21k)

Address Book Exporter

2006-03-20T23:55:00.002-05:00

I recently needed to ability to export just addresses from a group in Apple's Address Book application. While there are a number of solutions out there for exporting data from Apple's handy Address Book app, none were quite what I was looking for. So, being the developer that I am, I wrote one.

Address Book Exporter is simple to use -- just select a group, hit export, and choose a file to export it to. ABE exports to a CSV file ready for use in Excel or other spreadsheet applications. It pays attention to distribution lists -- so set up which addresses you want to go with the list in Address Book -- go to Edit/Edit Distribution List

Download Address Book Exporter 1.0.1 (35k)

[edit: updated to 1.0.1, which places first and last names in separate columns]

Symphony

2006-03-07T20:28:00.001-05:00

I participated in the zeroth Iron Coder challenge over the weekend. There were a lot of great entries, but mine was lucky enough to win.

Symphony is a useless little app that makes a lot of noise, Mardi Gras style. It abuses the secret ingredient API to determine when things happen on your computer -- you start an application, move a window, type something. For each event, a sound is played. They all wash together and form a soundscape.

Since judging, I've fixed a few bugs, added a feature or two. Symphony now requires 10.3.9 with Quicktime 7 or Tiger. It is built universal.

Download Symphony 1.0 (3.27 meg)
Download Symphony 1.0 source (3.22 meg, BSD license)

[Update: Corrected link to source]

Automatically find zip codes in Address Book

2006-02-21T19:31:00.001-05:00

Anne was putting together wedding invitations and asked me if Address Book could look up zip codes. Now it can. She likes it -- maybe you will, too.

This is just a small Address Book plugin. It adds a menu item so that when you click on an address, you can find a ZIP code (including ZIP+4 for most addresses) and set it automatically.

To install, copy FindZip.bundle inside of ~/Library/Address Book Plug-Ins or /Library/Address Book Plug-Ins — creating the folder if it’s not already there. You'll need to restart Address Book to get the menu to appear.

FindZip requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later. It is built as Universal but has not been tested.

FindZip comes with no warranty. While I have made every effort to make it as bug-free as possible, it may trash your address book, computer, and your car -- though most likely the zip code. Let me know if you have any problems.

Download FindZip 1.0b2 (16k)