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iPhone Hacking

I have developed a patch for the iPhone MobileTerminal that enables the beginning of proper event processing.

Part of the problem was a lot of trial and error, involving two major realizations:
1) iPhone apps don't get orientation-changed events unless they're launched from the GUI
2) Figuring out where in the __GSEvent structure the eventType parameter is.

This patch introduces a number of problems into MobileTerminal, namely causing it to not exit properly, causing it to exit on iPhone sleep, and causes it to (intentionally, because it's only temporary debug code) leak memory when printing event alerts.

Back in town

I'm back, and am at my parent's house now until sometime Saturday afternoon. Luggage is (hopefully) in St. Louis, because American Airlines is too lame to move luggage from one aircraft to another with a 20 minute layover. I'll condense trip into one post instead of the seven I was originally going to do, but in short, it was mostly lots of fun. Except for the eating too much, but I may have walked off all the extra desserts.

Now I get to switch back from Alaska time to DC time in two days (4 hours... ack!).

Alaska Vacation - Day 2 - More Seattle

All Day 2 Photos

Wandered through downtown Seattle on Thursday, but due to the weather threatning to "shower" for most of the day (and then actually commencing a light rain around 2 pm), we didn't actually do a whole lot.

Seattle has a whole bunch of pig sculptures, along the same lines as the Terp sculptures that are around Silver Spring, and the Elephant/donkeys that were in DC. I didn't get a picture of it, but the best one I saw was a bobble-head.

We went up the space needle and, though it's a tourist trap, we got a pretty nice view of downtown Seattle and the surrounding area, and I took a few pictures o

Alaska Vacation - Day 1 - Seattle

Thanks to my car troubles, arterich gave me a ride up to my parent's house. Our Eberron game Tuesday night ran a bit longer than we were expecting, so we didn't get up there until shortly after midnight.

Got up at 3:30 am to get a shower and have breakfast before leaving for the airport at 4:20 so we'd have ample time for the 6:45 flight to Seattle via Dallas. We got there to find a long line and massive disorganization and confusion at the ticket counter because American Airline's online check-in system was broken, so no one could check in prior to getting to the airport. And, there were only four people at the ticket counter, so it took quite awhile to make it through the line. I

"I underestimated the fiendish charm of the Waxman, and now Arthur is ensconced in the waxy, wax-like waxiness of her wax."

"Would you not agree that, as the embodiment of America's commitment to truth, that Captain Liberty herself is subject to the Freedom of Information Act?

"You say that it's a disgrace to this country that its symbol can be seen in the flesh, but is she not also the symbol of an open society that is the envy of every nation on the earth?

"And therefore, as that very symbol I ask you, would it be appropriate for Captain Liberty to be photographed in anything less than the nude?

"In fact, isn't it an insult that she's not naked right now?"

-- Batmanuel, "The Tick"

Steve Jobs: "Thoughts on Music"

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has written an interesting essay, "Thoughts on Music", in which he explains why Apple has refused to license its FairPlay DRM scheme, and calls out to the music industry to end copy protection. Jobs also points out that the vast amount of music on iPods is DRM-unencumbered, and argues that the 3% of music on iPods which is DRM-encumbered is hardly enough to lock users into the iPod platform.

It will be interesting to see the fallout from this essay, both from the music industry (which has recently shown signs of re-thinking DRM), and the European countries like Norway, which has declared Apple's DRM illegal.

(Also posted on Suspected tornadoes kill at least 14 in Florida".

So, on the one hand, we have lite-brites that are guilty even after being proven innocent, but the weather still has innocent until proven guilty privileges?

What's next? Some city panicking because of suspicious shoes on critical infrastructure?

Mandatory Draft for Everyone?
If I"m reading HR 393 correctly, it has been proposed that everyone aged 18 - 42 will be required to perform two years of "national service", either in the armed forces, or in some other capacity as determined by the President. This would also ammend the Selective Service Act to incorporate women as well.

National Museums of Bag Search and X-Ray
I wandered over to the National Mall on Tuesday and went through a few of the museums, spending most of my time in the Natural History and Air and Space museums, before walking over to the Capitol and the Washington Monument, before high winds and dark suggested I return home, which involved running into Shimin on the metro.

Overheard at the National Museum of Natural History:
Child (quite calmly): "I request that we go home."
Parent (puzzled): "Then why did you want to come?"

According to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, what passes for art today is a 3 ft x 5 ft tall solid black oil painting, and a 6 ft or so solid black sphere with one eighth missing. (I think it was solid black. It was kind of hard to focus on it, what with there being almost no illumination anyway.)

I took a bunch of pictures with my new camera, but the only ones I really liked are one of amethyst

Son of Mechatable
bludstone: Son of Mechatable.