Sydney CocoaHeads 2012 (again!)

[Mark Aufflick]

Hi all,

My last email got overtaken by an infinite auto-responder cycle, so here goes again for those of you who tuned out!

2012 is promising to be a huge year for the Apple developer community. Jobs are appearing thick and fast and skilled Cocoa developers command a premium. We humans tend not to become excellent in a vacuum so it's in all of our interests to help make CocoaHeads a vibrant and exciting community of learning.

With that in mind it's time for us all to step up! That smaller city to the south has been having awesome presentations all of 2011, you can see their recent talks on video:

http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/category/presentations/

I'm looking for people who are interested in a topic or framework etc. to propose and do talks - otherwise you're going to hear from me every month and that will get boring! I'm also interested in someone/ones who might be interested in helping me with videoing the talks (if you have a camera, awesome, otherwise I'll pony one up). I'm  hoping to start getting them online -- both for the benefit of those who couldn't make it, and also to help increase the exposure of those who are willing to put in the time and effort of doing a talk.

Please send me (or the list) any topics you would like to see this year, or if you are interested in presenting yourself. I'd love to hear from people who want to present in Feb, but more generally throughout the year.

Look forward to seeing you all again and some new people too. Don't forget to reserve the first Thursday evening of the month in your diary every month. Do it now so you don't forget.

Mark.

--
Mark Aufflick
 http://mark.aufflick.com/about/contact
 http://pumptheory.com/about

[BareFeetWare]

On 17/01/2012, at 2:47 PM, Mark Aufflick wrote:

Please send me (or the list) any topics you would like to see this year, or if you are interested in presenting yourself. I'd love to hear from people who want to present in Feb, but more generally throughout the year.

Hi Mark,

I think it would be very helpful for us all to post to the list, topics we could present but especially those that we would each like to see. Then others can chime in and basically vote or tweak the request to suit demand.

So I'll start off. Off the top of my head I'd like to see talks on:

1. iCloud, how you're using it.

2. In app purchasing

3. Marketing case study, what worked, what didn't.

4. Graphic design resources, such as show off a library of icons, gradients and textures (free or sold)

5. Simple but effective graphic design techniques that even a software engineer can understand, especially vector drawing tools (not pixels).

6. Clever third party libraries that deliver a lot of bang for buck. Show how you used it in your project.

7. Simply show off your app, what it does, what key features it has.

8. Show off your partially finished app and show us where you're stuck and need help.

9. Photo/video processing such as OCR, barcode, face tracking, augmented reality or some other magic.

10. Most things Cocoa related.

I'd especially like to see step by step procedures, as either snapshots or live demo, describing a problem and showing (or asking for) the solution.

I'd be happy to give a talk on whichever of the following people might want to see/hear:

1. DropBox API, introduction to integrating your app to read, write and sync files with DropBox.

2. Spatialite - storing and searching complex geo-spatial data, such as joining or subtracting polygons (eg council or state regions), determining which location points are in a given polygon.

3. Building communication with a custom back end server (probably very simple PHP and SQLite).

4. Resizing table cells to fit the text within them.

5. Horizontally scrolling table views

6. Anything related to SQLite or table views.

I have so much work on for the next few weeks that if you're desperate for speakers in February I could realistically only prepare a 10 minute talk. Later months will hopefully be less hectic so I'm happy to do more then.

Thanks,
Tom
BareFeetWare

--
iPhone/iPad/iPod and Mac software development, specialising in databases

deve...@barefeetware.com

--

Twitter: http://twitter.com/barefeetware/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BareFeetWare

[chris hulbert (splinter.com.au/pages/apps)]

+10 for marketing case studies! That's my biggest struggle with my
apps - getting the word out there.

Also, it'd be neat to let people give short (5 min?) presentations
about apps they've done. I think it'd be a great way of people to 'dip
their toe in the water', like a good step up into making a full length
presentation.

On Jan 18, 4:38 pm, BareFeetWare <list.develo...@barefeetware.com>
wrote:

> develo...@barefeetware.com

[Con Eliopoulos]

I agree on both points!

Margeting case studies would be great!

Showing people the apps you have completed would also great for newcomers.

Cheers,

Con

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[Craig Stanford]

I'm working on a large brand hybrid app for ninemsn at the moment,
using a lot of UIWebViews & sharing them across iPhone + iPad. I'd be
happy to share my experiences once the app is done (around March -
April).

I've also had my first foray into In-App Purchases recently, so I can
do an intro to that too...

And I'm a self-taught Photoshop/Illustrator user & will gladly share
what I know, though I'm not sure how I'd structure a talk like that!
Perhaps a Live Demo where I talk through what I'm doing, explaining
the basic concepts?

[BareFeetWare]

On 20/01/2012, at 10:13 AM, Craig Stanford wrote:

> I'm working on a large brand hybrid app for ninemsn at the moment, using a lot of UIWebViews & sharing them across iPhone + iPad. I'd be
> happy to share my experiences once the app is done (around March - April).

Sounds great. I'd like to see that.

> I've also had my first foray into In-App Purchases recently, so I can do an intro to that too...

And that! Terrific :-)

> And I'm a self-taught Photoshop/Illustrator user & will gladly share what I know, though I'm not sure how I'd structure a talk like that! Perhaps a Live Demo where I talk through what I'm doing, explaining the basic concepts?

My personal view is that CocoaHeads should predominantly be about Cocoa and aimed at Cocoa developers. However, we obviously have to include graphics in our apps. I don't want to see a one hour talk on how to use PhotoShop. However, it would be great to see someone like you give a very targeted talk aimed at showing how to create common graphics elements, required for a Cocoa app, with a minimum of overhead.

I've touched very briefly in some of my talks on using Pages (iWork) to create very basic PNG graphics with alpha from photos, and creating vector based graphics.

I'd especially like to see how you use some graphics tools, with a minimum of overhead (learning and expense) to create:

1. Embossed graphics, so they look etched out of wood or plastic. (ie not just a shadow on one side).

2. Vector based tools that facilitate resizing etc without pixel level alterations.

3. PNG transparency with ease. Beyond one bit transparency, such as shadows and antialiased curved edges.

4. Quick, perhaps template driven.

5. Perhaps some guidelines for themes (textures, look and feel).

For serious graphic design, I've depended on the expertise of a dedicated graphic design professional, and will continue to do so. But I'd like to broaden by own resources without becoming a graphic designer myself.

Thanks,
Tom

Tom Brodhurst-Hill
BareFeetWare

--
iPhone/iPad/iPod and Mac software development, specialising in databases

deve...@barefeetware.com

[Mark Aufflick]

Hi Chris,

Let it be a matter of record that I have not, to this date, disallowed *any* talk of any length about any topic :) Apart from presentations that are clearly advertising, all talks about current projects are welcome, so long as they contain at least some technical content.

Mark.

[Mark Aufflick]

First Thursday of the month, so that's next Thursday, Feb 2nd!

No facebook group I'm afraid, Facebook isn't really ideal for high volumes of tech discussion. You can subscribe to the digest message if you prefer.

I've put you down as a possible for a marketing talk!

Mark.

On Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 2:37 PM, bma2 <bm...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

hey when is the next sydney meet?

Is there a facebook group as well? love google messages, but hate that it gunks up my inbox.

I like chris' ideas.

we might be able to do a talk about a complete marketing failure (we have a few) versus a success story and what we did differently

John
http://www.inkids.com.au
www.facebook.com/inkidsapps
www.twitter.com/inkids

[Mark Aufflick]

I've started a spreadsheet tracking Tom and Craig's suggestions, and possible speakers etc.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AljG_rqVStz0dExQVFNrSXd2MFVqbGtjTXRSNkdVWnc

Feel free to add your own ideas, indicate your votes and sign up to present talks you think you might like to take a stab at!

Mark.

[Sean Woodhouse]

Thanks for collecting those suggestions Mark. I assume the Melbourne crew are at liberty to cherry pick some of the juicy topics too right ;-)

Seriously though, I have Jesse Collis locked in for the Feb 9th meetup but I'm still looking for another presenter. I know a few of the Melbourne regulars were doing stuff with CouchDB. Anyone wanna stick their hand up to talk about that (or any other topic for that matter)?

Cheers

Sean

[Cameron Barrie]

Happy to put my hand up for an In App Purchase talk at Sydney Cocoaheads for Feb.

-Cam

[jesse jacobson]

hello there
i live in the western suburbs of Melbourne
and im trying to teach my self Xcode and objective c and hopefully be able to make an app
but i cant find enough resources to help me learn and was wondering you had any books or course or if you know of courses/books i could buy or go to
to help me get on my way to creating apps
thank you very much
best of regards jesse

[Cameron Barrie]

I'd also be happy to talk on In App purchases if you want.
And Cocos2d as well potentially.

-C

[Marcin Szczepanski]

A talk idea that I'd like to see.. I recently started working on a Mac App idea and thought a talk along the lines of "Mac Development Primer for iOS Developers" given by someone experienced with both might be neat.  I'm starting to get it now, but I'm pretty sure I'm still "doing it wrong" because of the majority of my Cocoa experience is iOS biased.

On 17/01/2012, at 2:47 PM, Mark Aufflick wrote:

[bma2]

hey when is the next sydney meet?

Is there a facebook group as well? love google messages, but hate that it gunks up my inbox.

I like chris' ideas.

we might be able to do a talk about a complete marketing failure (we have a few) versus a success story and what we did differently

John
http://www.inkids.com.au
www.facebook.com/inkidsapps
www.twitter.com/inkids




On 24/01/12 2:33 PM, Mark Aufflick wrote:

[Stewart Gleadow]

Marcin - I've been trying to convince Tony Arnold to make a trip down to Melb to do a "So you know iOS and you want to try a Mac app" talk... now I'm just going to drop his name publicly for that! Sorry Tony...

[Mark Aufflick]

Just added that idea to the spreadsheet and also added a Melbourne column. I added Alan to the suggested speakers for that too :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AljG_rqVStz0dExQVFNrSXd2MFVqbGtjTXRSNkdVWnc

--
Mark Aufflick
 http://mark.aufflick.com/about/contact
 http://pumptheory.com/about

[Oliver Jones]

Check out the Stanford iOS programming courses on iTunes U. Also, this book is good:
http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/ios_programming_the_big_nerd_ranch_guide_nd_edition_

[Craig Stanford]

I believe our illustrious Sydney Leader is a Mac Developer first, iOS
Developer second... maybe you can do a talk on Mac Dev for iOS Devs,
Mark?

[Mark Aufflick]

Of course!

Speaking of Melbourne, a reminder for all Sydney people you can watch quite a few of the awesome Melbourne CocoaHeads talks online:

http://www.melbournecocoaheads.com/category/presentations/

--
Mark Aufflick
 http://mark.aufflick.com/about/contact
 http://pumptheory.com/about

[Damien Cooke]

Mark,

Is there any chance we could skype in to the meetings?  I am based too far away to come in but I am very happy to present on coreData and some other topics but it is going to have to be remotely. I have plenty of experience presenting to a remote room.

Damien

[Kallikak]

Just discovered this list. I'm flying to HK Thurs night so probably
can't make this month's meeting - but looking forward to attending
regularly this year. Happy to do a talk on the Apple 1 as Mark
suggested last time I came as well.

But, in terms of iOS programming, having just finished my first iOS
app - a fairly substantial one, here's a brain dump of things that I
tussled with to varying degrees that could be worth thinking about
when deciding topics. Most I've solved to my satisfaction. Some were
quite easy but had a big effect and so are worth listing (e.g. GCD).
Some I'm still a little puzzled by.

- nested view controllers (callbacks, orientation, autoscrolling to
top...)
- keyboard handling - hiding, preventing switching on space and ',
preventing <space><space> mapping to .<space>, adding an accessory
view
- handling UNIX signals and catch-all for exceptions
- writing document files on the iphone
- Settings app page
- linking external libraries
- animation (esp timing issues for window frame querying etc)
- affine transformations
- zooming and aspect ratio
- custom animations
- when and when not to use IB
- categories and private members
- using an activity indicator
- GCD (semaphores, cleanup)
- orientation management (especially making sure it ends up right and
look ok when spun back and forward fast with paged scrolling etc!)
- quartzcore and layers
- zooming and gestures
- scroll views on scroll views (on scroll views...)
- iOS 5+ (should I support 4?)
- 'did' methods vs 'will' methods in the API
- overriding vs delegation
- simulator vs real device (e.g. 32 bit i386)
- XCode tools (Instruments, Analyze etc) and IDE quirks
- to ARC or not ARC?

And a couple from the OS X version of my app

- OS X Help Books
- bindings

Ken

[Pedro fp]

On 27/01/2012, at 8:02 AM, Damien Cooke wrote:

Mark,

Is there any chance we could skype in to the meetings?  I am based too far away to come in but I am very happy to present on coreData and some other topics but it is going to have to be remotely. I have plenty of experience presenting to a remote room.

Damien

Being from rural parts I gotta +1 this.

Cheers, Pedro :-)

AIM: ped...@mac.com Jabber / Google Talk: bandi...@gmail.com
Yahoo: pedro_fp MSN: bandi...@hotmail.com Skype: pedrofp
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[Mark Aufflick]

Hi guys,

Definitely something we can consider. Right now we've just recorded video for the first time, so we're a little way off some kind of intergalactic streaming or presenting, but let's bring this up again when we have the video and audio stuff down pat. That could be really cool.

Mark.
--
Mark Aufflick
 http://mark.aufflick.com/about/contact
 http://pumptheory.com/about