About the Cobras
I'm a C, C++, Objective C and PHP programmer. I develop various things for PCs, Macs and the iOS platforms. On and off I'm developing an iPhone game which I expect I shall never finish. I feature progress reports on how far I am from completing it in this blog along with me rattling on about learning French and any other junk I need to get off my chest. I shouldn't really need to say it in this day and age, but obviously, the opinions here are mine and not those of anyone who pays me... unless I've been bribed, in which case, all bets are off. There's more here.-
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18:14 party train Apple bad planning BBQ bees book braiiiiins C++ castle-nine-popes cobra art cobra family debugging education endless task French germs giraffe iPhone irregular pigeon khaaaaaaaaaan! long fish long post is long map editor Michel Thomas passwords pointless observation programming standards rants raspberry pi schedules scrolling security slow progress snake space space snake specifications Spongebob Squarepants sprummer stupid mistakes the future train twitter UI user interfaceMeta
Author Archives: Chief Cobra
Bees: the miracle powering modern computing
Computers. How do they work? Magic? Bees? Magnets? Who knows. All those components, wires and other bits and bobs, it’s pretty much a mystery that we’ll never really understand. Well, no, actually. Almost nothing (I say almost because, well, you … Continue reading
Posted in Software development
Tagged 6502, bees, cobra art, giraffe, Girafferillo, machine code
1 Comment
Duh duh duh. Duh duh duh. Duh duh duh
Duh duh duh. The sound of GSM digital phones interfering with electronics. It’s also the sound of lies, as I enjoyed witnessing on BBC breakfast a couple of months ago. They’d wheeled in a chap called Michael Roberts from ATOC … Continue reading
Posted in Armchair general, Rants
Tagged 18:14 party train, rants, train
Comments Off on Duh duh duh. Duh duh duh. Duh duh duh
Top secret big nuts
For top secret work1 reasons I am learning a touch of C# at the moment. Normally, because it’s a Microsoft technology, you’d expect any knowledge you acquire to be transient due to their merciless and comprehensive deprecation strategy. This, as … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous rubbish
Tagged C++, cobra art, Coco de Mer, giraffe, pointless observation, shiny box syndrome
2 Comments
Rollin’ contracts rollin’… Until the END OF TIME ITSELF
We’ve all laughed and giggled at pictures of those people on TV queueing on launch day for some device or another. Well, back in May 2010, I was those people. At 7AM (and this was pre-baby cobra, so 7AM was … Continue reading
Posted in Rants
Tagged castle-nine-popes, cobra art, customer "service", downright thievery, Internet Publicity Wan Kenobi, iPad, O2, rants
2 Comments
Aliens… from Mars
“♫ So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth, ♬ ♪ And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space, ‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth. ♬♩” – Eric Idle, … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous rubbish, Space
Tagged aliens, cobra art, ET, germs, giraffe, leedle loodle, Mars curiosity, seti
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Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
“What can be palpably more absurd and ridiculous than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches?” – member of the public, early 19th century England In 1823, Robert Stephenson and Company was formed with the … Continue reading
Posted in Cool stuff
Tagged 18:14 party train, 3d printer, bad predictions, cobra art, germs, the future, train
9 Comments
Comfy sofa, STAT!
You’d better sit down for this. Ok, here it is. I’m going to tell it to you straight, I owe you that. I won’t pussy-foot around, beat around the bush, procrastinate or generally dance around the issue. I am going … Continue reading
Posted in My iPhone game
Tagged 18:14 party train, C++11, cobra art, cocoa spritesheets, drawInRect, iPhone, map editor, schedules
Comments Off on Comfy sofa, STAT!
Which low hanging fruit are you?
Unless you’re a hermit who lives in a pineapple under the sea, you’ve almost certainly read/heard about an unfortunate incident in recent days where hackers made off with over six million user accounts from Linked In. They broke in and … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous rubbish
Tagged bandwagon, cobra art, free awful software, germs, hash, long post is long, md5, passwords, raspberry pi, security, sha-1
2 Comments
The most anticipated post of 2012!
Yes, that’s right, let’s have a big hand for the iPhone game progress report! So, iPhone game, what have you been up to since we last had a non-excuse progress report over a year ago? “Well, Mr Cobra, huge progress … Continue reading
Posted in My iPhone game
Tagged cobra art, iPhone, map editor, promises I won't keep, slow progress
1 Comment
P P P Pick up a patent (portfolio)
“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.” – Bill Gates, Challenges and Strategy Memo, 16 May 1991 … Continue reading