UIAlertController with UIImage

August 11, 2017
AlertViewController is UIAlerController subclass. It adds ability to display UIImage above the title label. Functionality is achieved by adding \n characters to title, to make space for UIImageView that is added as subview to UIAlertController.view. Set title as normal but when retrieving value use originalTitle property. It is a bit of a hack, yes. But works on iOS 9, 10 and latest iOS 11 (beta 5). I find it easier to maintain than trying to implemnet class that mimics behaviour of UIAlertController from scratch. Get is on GitHub. (more…)
#Blog posts, #Coding, #iOS Development, #Technology

MLCamera – Vision & Core ML with AVCaptureSession Inceptionv3 model

June 13, 2017
Goal of MLCamera demo is to demonstrates using of Vision and Core ML frameworks, to process AVCaptureVideoDataOutput and to perform image classification. Complete working demo can be dowloaded from github. Relevant WWDC session are Introduction to Core ML, Vision framework building on Core ML. Apple provides few models converted to its Core ML supported format here. Apple also provides tools to convert most popular machine learning model types to Core ML supported format. With that out of the way let’s get started. (more…)
#AI, #Blog posts, #Coding, #iOS Development, #Swift, #Technology

On our watch (approaching the finish line)

March 8, 2017
Have you ever imagined what it would be like living through the break out of the First World War? Have you ever fantasised about living amidst the industrial revolution, French Revolution? Or any other period that changed the structure of societies, cultures, politics, the course of history, development of civilisation. Have you thought about how you would act during such times, what would you do? The Enlightenment of the Greeks was wiped out, by centuries of dark ages. For hundreds of years, there was virtually no intellectual and moral progress. Given great strides forwards made during our life time and our parents lifetimes. It is hard not to assume that arc of history indeed steadily bends towards justice and better living conditions for all. However, there is no law of physics, no guarantee societies will continue to march towards positive progress. Investigative journalism is dead. Their business model which was predicated on the (more…)
#AI, #Blog posts, #News, #Politics, #Rants

Video Speed

February 17, 2017
Video Speed app is Safari extension that allows you to change speed of the video playback. This control is notably missing in mobile version of YouTube website. Video Speed extension does work with any HTML5 video player. Hence virtually with all web video on iOS. Thank you for supporting independent software development development! 🖖
#Apps

CompliCal – Customise calendar appearance in  watch complications

September 12, 2016
Why would one want to have current calendar event at watch face at all times ? They key corner stone of productivity is habits. Productivity aficionados are familiar with weekly reviews which are part of GTD. Ideal week method consists of scheduling everything for upcoming week in your calendar during weekly reviews. Everything from work, leisure, exercise, up to and including sleep. This removes the cognitive load of deciding what to do at any given time. Helps build positive habits. Nudges you towards productive tasks you committed to, rather then procrastination. Find out more about ideal week here. With  watch complications you are able to see what you should be doing at any given moment, every time you check the time. Virtually all calendar apps provide very little it terms of customisation when it comes to displaying calendar events in complications. It’s understandable as that is not the core of their (more…)
#Apps

Ideal week method (calendar & productivity)

Key corner stone of productivity is habits. Productivity aficionados are familiar with weekly reviews which are part of GTD. Ideal week method consists of scheduling everything for upcoming week in your calendar during weekly reviews. Everything from work, leisure, exercise, up to and including sleep. This removes cognitive load of deciding what to do at any given time. Helps build positive habits. Nudges you towards productive tasks you committed to, rather then procrastination. What to put in a calendar ? Most obvious answer is events that need to occur at specific times and dates. Stuff like dentist appointments, work meetings, gym, classes etc. With most people this is where the utilisation of calendar ends. However calendar can be leveraged as much more versatile tool. A tool to build positive habits, to evaluate the way you are spending your most precious resource on weekly bases, to plan projects, to automate decisions and more. (more…)
#Blog posts, #Improvements, #Productivity

On Deep work: Rules for focused success in distracted world by Cal Newport

March 12, 2016
Author presents concept of deep work (state of flow). Long stretches of highly consecrated, focused work on cognitively demanding task. Ability to deploy all of ones mental capacity fully. It is deep work that accounts for considerable portion of value in knowledge economy. He then goes on to make excellent case for how contemporary workplace culture actively discourages deep work. Open plan offices, expectation of instant email replies, always on chat clients, social media, frequent meetings, constant noise and chatter. Our brains are conditioned to be distracted. Quick reply to email chain. Snarky tweet, post photo on Facebook, overhearing colleagues discussing a topic and joining in. We are addicted to consumption of small disruptive bites of information or to acting on small meaningless tasks and to the false sense of accomplishment that doing so provides. We end up with decision fatigue, cognitive overload, paying high price of context (more…)
#Blog posts, #Book club, #Improvements, #Productivity, #Science