Download the update here and/or view the source code here.
The update fixes a crash-inducing bug in library code that you’d probably never notice, but it’s good to have at dealt with.
Category Archives: Programming
How to provide file icon thumbnails in macOS
Update My PreviewMarkdown app, which provides Markdown file previews and icon thumbnails in Catalins, is now available from the Mac App Store.
Providing content-based icon thumbnails in macOS Catalina follows the same pattern as generating file previews: QuickLook runs code from an app extension and calls a function within that code to draw the image that will be placed on the icon.
How to create file previews in macOS
Update My PreviewMarkdown app, which provides Markdown file previews and icon thumbnails in Catalina, is now available from the Mac App Store.
macOS Catalina introduces a new mechanism for providing file previews and content-based file icons. The system for doing this is still QuickLook, but the standalone or app-hosted QuickLook generators that have been in use for some time have been deprecated in favour of delivering this functionality through app extensions.
pdfmaker 1.1.0 released
I’ve just released version 1.1.0 of pdfmaker. You can view the source code here, and download an installer package here.
You can now select a single source file, not just a folder of files, and you specify the output PDF’s filename as part of the specified destination path, rather than separately (so the --name switch has been removed).
For a more detailed post about pdfmaker, click here.
How to make one PDF from multiple images on macOS
Google the title of this post and you will get plenty of results, but all almost all of them steer you toward opening the image or images in macOS’ Preview app and exporting to PDF. Yes, this method works, but it doesn’t give you much control over the process, and it’s not scriptable.
macOS image manipulation with sips
macOS has long included a command line tool called sips. It’s a comprehensive image manipulation tool that can also be used to apply ColorSync profiles. Being a command line tool, it’s available to be used in scripts written to perform repetitive tasks.
A case in point: I regularly apply a fixed set of attributes — height, width, format, dots-per-inch (DPI) resolution — to batches of image files, and sips allows me to do that without firing up Pixelmator or Gimp to change each image individually.
Continue readingHow to build your own Apple iBeacon… with a Raspberry Pi
US department store Macy’s recently said it is implementing iPhone-based tracking tech the better to encourage browsing punters to buy. Of course, Macy has chosen to pitch this as an Apple technology – figuring, presumably, iPhone owners are more receptive to inducements delivered through technology and have more cash to splash than Android fans.
How to program the Pebble smartwatch: Part 3
Update Pebble has released version 2 of its OS and this invalidates much of what follows, which was written for an earlier version of the OS.
As it stands, the app I created in Part 2 appears in the Pebble’s menu simply as a name, Ball, which is entered into the boilerplate PBL_APP_INFO created by the SDK’s create_pebble_project.py script. This also sets the app’s unique UUID, which you’ll see at the top of the file. You can also modify this to set the app’s version number and to add your name as author. But what’s really needed is a menu icon, and you can add one by editing the resource_map.json created for you in the /resources/src folder within the project folder.
How to program the Pebble smartwatch: Part 2
Update Pebble has released version 2 of its OS and this invalidates much of what follows, which was written for an earlier version of the OS.
In Part 1 we got our basic Pebble app up and running, but it doesn’t do very much. Let’s add some user interaction.
How to program the Pebble smartwatch: Part 1
Update Pebble has released version 2 of its OS and this invalidates much of what follows, which was written for an earlier version of the OS.
Pebble didn’t invent the smartwatch, but it has done more than most to bring this new product category to the attention of the world, largely thanks to its hugely successful and well-reported Kickstarter funding campaign.
smittytone messes with micros 