Groknik

I’ve been a casual programmer for years. Not an experienced or even a good programmer, mind you, but I’ve dabbled in the art since I un-boxed my Commodore VIC-20 as a wide-eyed kid way back in 1981. That led to the Commodore 64, then the Commodore 128, and then my infatuation with the Commodore Amiga. I eventually (and somewhat reluctantly) gave up on Commodore in the early 1990s, and have lived in the world of Microsoft and Windows since then.

My first computer, the Commodore VIC-20. (Image from Wikipedia)

My programming exploits started with VIC-Basic and Commodore Basic, and learned small amounts of Pascal, Fortran, and Assembly in an “Introduction to Computer Programming” class in high school. I remember sitting in front of my Commodore 64 for hours typing in programs from COMPUTE!’s Gazette magazine, then spending just as many hours debugging what I entered to actually get the blasted thing to run.

I’ve done a tiny bit of programming and scripting here and there, but I consider myself an absolute novice when it comes to today’s modern programming languages, including Java, C,  Objective-C, C++, C#, PERL, and many others. I’ve always wanted to reenter the world of programming, at least in a don’t-quit-your-day-job sort of way. After owning and using the iPhone 3GS (and now an iPhone 4S), I’ve decided that the time is ripe for me to roll up my sleeves and learn how to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad.

I’ve also decided to keep an ongoing series of blog posts about my progress. If you’re also a beginning iOS programming, I’d love to hear your comments and feedback on what I’m up to. If you’re an iOS veteran, I’d be more than open to any advice and feedback you can send my way, so feel free to add a comment or two to this blog post. Wish me luck!

Next Post: Choosing a Mac for iOS development

Popularity: 100% [?]

In order to participate in the Warhammer Online open beta, users had to download the WAR client from FilePlanet, a file downloading service that is part of IGN Entertainment, a division of Fox Interactive Media.

In order to download the client, open beta participants had to choose between one of two download options: try their luck with the free download service, or subscribe to FilePlanet to get preferential treatment.

I chose the former, and waited for more than 12 hours for the WAR beta client to download. I wasn’t at the PC when the download completed, and the FilePlanet download manager removed me from the download queue. Determined to download the client, I reluctantly signed up for FilePlanet’s $15/quarterly service, which provides preferential download treatment.

I don’t fault FilePlanet for offering free and premium services, as I know as bandwidth isn’t free, especially when we’re talking about massive 9GB file sizes. Yet the goal of any product sampling experience is to give potential customers a taste of your product, and hope that a positive experience convinces them to upgrade. Granted, I upgraded to download the client. But I didn’t upgrade because I was satisfied with the service; I upgraded because it was the ONLY way to download the WAR open beta client. It’s akin to Google suddenly saying that you’re allowed to see how many emails you have in your Google email account, but you can only read them if you bust out the credit card. The experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that canceling my FilePlanet account is at the top of my to do list.

Update: It seems I’m not alone in thinking FilePlanet’s user experience needs work. See here, here, here, and here for more opinions on the subject.

Popularity: 82% [?]

If you’re only of the many thousands that picked up the Warhammer Online preorder package from Target — like me — you may have already spent more than a few minutes pounding your desk and cursing Mythic for their ineptitude. Why?

It appears that a printing error with the preorder cards turned the letter “Q” into “O” on all of the open beta codes, so the codes weren’t working. A post on the Warhammer Online Herald site (see screenie, above) confirms the glitch.

Popularity: 81% [?]