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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Tag Archives: cobra art
The Bedroom Programmer: Cycle over?
“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.”Don Marquis It seems only reasonable that the first (and possibly only, I’m really not doing well with this blog lark recently) post of 2014 consists of some editorial that leads to … Continue reading
Posted in Armchair general, My iPhone game, Rants, Software development
Tagged cobra art, excuses, iPhone, slow progress
9 Comments
Conversational Geography
“Civility is only a passenger – not a driver – on the information superhighway.” – Don Rittner So, this is interesting. Jeff Atwood, one of the chaps who was instrumental in building what has become, without a shadow of a … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous rubbish
Tagged cobra art, discourse, discussions, forums
Comments Off on Conversational Geography
Square wheels are better than no wheels at all, right?
“The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he, by peddling second rate technology, who led them into … Continue reading
Posted in User experience
Tagged cobra art, Gary the sea snail, Spongebob Squarepants, stuck record, UI
2 Comments
Opinion! Quick, someone tell the Internet!
The problem with walled gardens is forgetting who’s supposed to be on each side of the wall. In the past half year or so, though, it looks as if Apple have managed to manoeuvre the wall between themselves and their … Continue reading
Posted in Armchair general
Tagged Apple, appleocalypse, cobra art, conclusions from no data, internet opinion, iPhone
2 Comments
I know what I did last summer
You, like most people on this planet, probably have a dishwasher. Even if you don’t, you almost certainly know how to use one. I, on the other hand, had neither owned nor used a dishwasher until last summer when thanks … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous rubbish, Software development
Tagged cobra art, dishwasher, flood, UI, user interface
Comments Off on I know what I did last summer
Overcomplicated shark is overcomplicated
“This is my 22nd year doing this, and every single console transition we’ve seen an increase in development costs. Over long periods of time it gets smoothed out, but I would say this is not a transition where that’s going … Continue reading
Posted in Armchair general, Software development
Tagged bad planning, cobra art, complexity, rants
1 Comment
The Incredible Adventures of Rattles McCoil
Imagine this scenario. You are sitting in front of the TV watching the Spongebob Squarepants movie1 and you’re a little peckish. In fact, what you could really, really do with for that authentic movie experience is some popcorn. No problem! … Continue reading
Posted in Software development
Tagged adventure game, cobra art, Rattles McCoils, schedules, slow progress, snake, specifications, Spongebob Squarepants
8 Comments
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
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