Alex Fajkowski has provided an open source implementation of a CoverFlow interface for iPhone that is approved for use in AppStore applications. He blogs about it here.

When using an NSOperation with an NSURLConnection performing asynchronously, this blog post indicates that one must add a connection port (an empty NSPort object) to the current run loop in order to keep the thread alive during the “polling” process using the NSRunLoop during the execution of the start message on the subclassed NSOperation.

Handling Credentials

This forum post talks about how to integrate the use of credentials using an NSOperation and NSURLConnection. These two articles are important to be taken together, because in order to respond to authentication challenges from a server (e.g., basic authentication challenge from a REST web service), the only way to do it is with asynchronous networking, because that is the only way a delegate is used in the connection process.

I never intended to establish a New Year’s Resolution for 2010, for the new year simply serves as the second year in the progress of my personal 5 year plan. However, after reading the following quote, I changed my mind:

“My chief task has been to conquer fear. The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick; they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training that was necessary to conquer fear…no one except myself can appreciate how I have to work at this job every single day, never letting up for a moment. I always have on my mind the thought that next year I must do something greater, something more wonderful.”–Harry Houdini

Fear is the most common human emotion that prevents progress–fear of failure, fear of success, fear of self, etc. In order to go beyond the boundaries of previous experience and performance, this must be conquered in the same manner as Houdini routinely experienced in the execution of his most dangerous illusions. I have chosen to devote 2010 to the elimination and mastery of fear–privately and publicly.

Happy New Year!

The following quote embodies the perfect application of the Law of Attraction:

I’ve always believed in magic. When I wasn’t doing anything in this town, I’d go up every night, sit on Mulholland Drive, look out at the city, stretch out my arms, and say, “Everybody wants to work with me. I’m a really good actor. I have all kinds of great movie offers.” I’d just repeat these things over and over, literally convincing myself that I had a couple movies lined up. I’d drive down that hill, ready to take the world on, going, “Movie offers are out there for me, I just don’t hear them yet.” It was like total affirmations, antidotes to the stuff that stems from my family background.–Jim Carrey from Interview in “MovieLine”, July 1994

Start each day in this way, and miracles will happen all the time.

This article is the beginning of a multipart series of tutorials on OpenGL ES programming on the iPhone. A must read for anyone interested in that.

Here is Part 2, and here is Part 3.

This article provides a way to automatically update an existing database’s data model after a minor change in schema on an iPhone application. Usually, one has to uninstall an application deployed to a device along with all its data even after making minor changes to the model.

The following quote is a great one from one of the foremost visionaries in technology:

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”–Steven Jobs

Steven Jobs needs no introduction…

One of the best quotes of the day ever:

Love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love…the love that speaks the Language of the World.”–The Alchemist, from Paulo Coelho’sThe Alchemist

The Alchemist currently hold the Guinness World Record for the most translated book by a living author.

Here is a good thought for the day:

The biggest defect we human beings have is our short-sightedness. We don’t see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become.–Mitch Alborn

Mitch Alborn is a journalist best known for his publication of a memoir about his college professor stricken with ALS called Tuesdays with Morrie, which was made into a movie with Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria. He is also the author of the novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

Erica Sadun, the author of iPhone Developer’s Cookbook, has a site that posts the dumped contents of header files for the entirety of the iPhone SDK 3.0–including PRIVATE headers. Her book is a must read for serious iPhone developers, and her site is also quite helpful.