Lori M Olson OPED — Lori’s Unvarnished Opinion
I missed sending out a newsletter last time, sorry about that folks. You see … well … my Dad died. So I’m still processing all of that, and helping my mom. Therefore you’ll understand, I’m sure, I’m still not really feeling much like writing this time. I’ll just say this:
Miss ya, Dad.
FITS — Featured in the School
We’re excited to say that the WNDX School finally has a new game course coming, from the talented Cameron Gose. It’s currently in final review, and we’re confident that we’ll be launching it in the next couple of weeks. If you’d like a sneak peek—and you are willing to write up your experience with the course—hit reply and let us know so we can add you to the beta test list.
TALK — Talk of the Tech
Here are this issue’s selections from two of the finer RubyMotion/DRGTK chat spaces:
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Discord — Remember Bomberman? Well, it came out in 1983 which means you could be up to 40 years old and still be able to say “that’s a little before my time”. In any event, it’s an oldy-but-goody and it has just been recreated with DragonRuby.
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</a>Slack — There is typically no better conversation starter in any sort of forum than “so what’s everybody working on?” In this particular case, we have the affable Lucas Haley to thank. Read the answers others have provided—or perhaps consider adding your own? There are some really nice apps written in RubyMotion!
You will find participating in either and/or both of these two forums is a real benefit and the price (that is, free!) is certainly right.
SPOT — Spotlight On…
Speaking of chat spaces there was also mention of the DragonRuby Game Toolkit on reddit recently. Amir intriguingly subtitled the post More Portal Shenanigans and How You Can Use Them to Reach Higher Places. 🤔 Guess you’ll just have to go and find out for yourself. Nice sound effects, though.
GAME — All Things Gaming
The mind boggles at the thought of a ‘buddy mode’—how many games can you think of which could be enhanced in this way? ➡️
Or a variation on that theme where you sit on the passenger side of the car and go for a ride-along in Gran Turismo or settle in to the first officer’s seat in X-Plane to get a feel for how the ‘professionals’ do it?
APP — All Things App
One of the eternal, burning questions is what kind of app should you write? Haven’t all the good ideas already been taken? Not in a million years. However instead of broadening your outlook you might have to narrow your search—focus in on a single PITA problem and solve it really effectively. A great example is Video for Ants. 🐜 The length and breadth of what it does is compress videos to make them fit on Mastodon. That’s it. That’s the entire app. Now, wasn’t that easy?
TWIL — This Week I Learned…
If you’ve ever wished that your command line understood your own quirky, one-off vernacular, then you’re going to love alias. You’ll have your CLI speaking your language before you know it. Thank’s to Eric Meyer for this helpful tidbit.
HAHA — And They All Laughed
We’d be lyin’ if we said we hadn’t done this at least a time or two (or three):
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 “It’s the way you ride the trail that counts, |
Here’s a happy one for you. | Happy trails to you, | Until we meet again. | Happy trails to you, | Keep smiling until then.” — Dale Evans |