Using TestFlight

When EasyRoute got into the later stages of development, I knew that as the designer and developer, I was the worst person to test it. I wanted to get other people to look at it.

Being as this was my first iOS app, I was not familiar with provisioning profiles nor the process involved in installing the app on other people’s devices. After doing some reading about it, it didn’t seem very straightforward.

Then, a colleague told me about TestFlight. It’s awesome.

You create an account on TestFlight and it will allow you to upload your app as an .ipa file along with the provisioning profile. At this point, you recruit testers by having TestFlight e-mail invitations to them. Once they accept your invitation, they can install your app over the air after just a few authorization prompts.

As a result, I had a number of people looking at EasyRoute that would not or could not have installed it otherwise.

Also, I installed the TestFlight Desktop App and was able to streamline my release process. Once I archived a new test build, the app would pop open and ask to upload it to the web site. I would put in the release notes, double-check the permissions, the app would be uploaded and my testers would be notified.

There’s even SDK that gives you more information about how your testers are using your app. It sounds nice but I haven’t used it yet.

All this, and it’s free.

By John Famiglietti | February 20, 2013
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Recovering From Pneumonia, Back to Running

I had my follow-up with the doctor today. Good news and bad news.

The good news is my lungs are clear, the bad new is I shouldn’t run in the cold.

Warmer weather is just around the corner, and the word “cold” is relative. Some time ago I couldn’t run in the cold at all. It would bother my throat and lungs. Eventually, I got used to it and have run through four winters now. Before the pneumonia, cold weather was not an issue at all.

Looking back, 40°F was my threshold for what I considered cold running. Those kinds of temperatures should become common during the midday soon, but since I run in the morning, I typically have to deal with colder temperatures.

I was also advised to start from scratch. I was going to do this anyway, I did a short test run about a week ago and the loss of fitness was quite apparent. Looks like I’m a beginner again. I’m a long way from that marathon I was going to run this year.

By John Famiglietti | February 19, 2013
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EasyRoute Submitted!

I wrote an app for the iOS App Store and just submitted it today! It’s called EasyRoute!

It’s a route planner for runners. Yes, there are route planners available on the web, but I’ve wanted this feature on my iPhone and iPad for years (literally) and decided to do something about it.

I like to have a plan before I leave the house on a run. Depending on a number of factors, it might not be so straightforward to just go out and run say, 5 miles. If I follow a particular road around, how far will that be? If I use one entrance to a park instead of another, how much longer (or shorter) will that make the route?

I do have a GPS watch, a Garmin Forerunner 610 which I’ve mentioned before, and it’s wonderful for showing me what I did, but I like to plan new routes while sticking to the prescribed distance for the day. I don’t like crossing big roads during my run and I like a loop where the return trip is different from the way out.

So if I want to try something new before heading out, instead of powering up the computer or dragging out the laptop, I can now just whip out my iPhone or iPad.

I’m happy with the way it’s come out so far. I say “so far” because version 1.0 is not the end, it is just the beginning.

By John Famiglietti | February 18, 2013
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Some changes ’round here

Code and Run

First, I changed the name of this blog to Code and Run. I like it better than just using my name because I can tell people about it without having to spell my name. It suits me really well too.

Font Runner

I released the source code for Font Runner on SourceForge. For numerous reasons, it is unlikely I’ll put any major effort into it anytime soon. People are still downloading it and I’m glad people are still using it. Keeping the code to myself wasn’t helping anybody.

I released it under the GPLv3 license for a few reasons. Mainly, if anyone else changes it, I want those changes released back into the community. If this were a library, I would have used a more permissive license to promote adoption, but as a complete program, I thought the GPL would best protect it.

A New Host

I am now using A Small Orange as my host. I tried them out and liked them much better than my old host. The site seems faster, I have more control over it and it’s cheaper too. During the setup process, their support people were terrific. I won’t name my old host, but they weren’t bad. They suited suited me better when I needed to host a corporate website, but for a little personal site like this, A Small Orange is perfect.

A New Project

Pretty soon, I’ll be drawing the curtain back on a whole new little bundle of bits I made for the world.

By John Famiglietti | January 27, 2013
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No Long Island Marathon for me this year

Last week I had some small hope that I could somehow get back into training for the 2013 Long Island Marathon after I recovered from pneumonia. Boy, did I underestimate pneumonia.

I thought it was unlikely, but had a little hope of salvaging the marathon because after some searching, I saw some people were able to do it. Also, I didn’t really feel like the pneumonia was that bad. However, my attempt to return to my desk job was a disaster, so now I know it’s going to take some time to start running again, and quite a bit more time to get back to the mileage I was at before.

I had been home from work for a week on doctor’s orders, but mostly felt fine aside from a little fatigue. It turns out I felt fine because I did nothing but lay around. I went back to work on Wednesday and a full, normal day really did a number on me. The next day I did nothing but sleep and barely had the strength to get out of bed. It’s not like I do anything strenuous at work either; just sit at my desk and code.

So now, I’ll just take it easy and save running for when the fatigue is gone, whenever that may be.

By John Famiglietti | January 25, 2013
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Some notes for git

I switched from Perforce to git for personal projects a while back and these were some notes I jotted down as I was getting going.

Once I had my project going, I wanted to clone it to a bare repository:

git clone --bare project_name

…and then copy it to my server:

scp -r project_name.git john@governor:repos

I cloned it back so the source would reside on the server.

git clone john@governor:repos/project_name.git

I had some submodules in the project I was working on, this is how I dealt with them:

git submodule add john@governor:repos/project_name.git project_name

Getting submodules:

git submodule init
git submodule update

Removing submodules:

I have had success with the following procedure, posted here on Stack Overflow:

  1. Remove the relevant lines from the .gitmodules file.
  2. Remove the relevant section from .git/config.
  3. Run git rm --cached <path_to_submodule> (with no trailing slash)
  4. The submodule path now appears as untracked.  It is safe to delete.
  5. Commit.

For day-to-day work, keeping the server up-to-date:

git push
git pull

When I’m done with my commits, I issue a git push to update the server. This is the same server I’ve blogged about many times before. Mirrored drives, rshapshot backups — a good place to store things I don’t want to lose.

By John Famiglietti | January 19, 2013
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From Marathon to Pneumonia…and back?

So, I decided to sign up for the Long Island Marathon. What?! Surprised? Come on, it’s not like I ever publicly announced disinterest in running a marathon.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve changed my running habits, and took on longer runs to meet specific training goals. Once my long run got into the 10-mile range I decided that half marathon was within reach, so I ran the half at the 2012 Long Island Marathon.

Since then, the idea of taking on the full 26.2 miles has been picking up steam. Also, talking to other runners and reading running blogs, articles and discussions, the marathon comes up quite a bit, which added to my curiosity and interest.

I read Hal Higdon’s book and selected his Intermediate 1 Plan. Week 1 coincided with the first week of the year and went fine. In week 2, however, a cough and some fatigue visited me. I felt intermittently good and bad, so on the good days, I ran, and the bad days, I rested. On some good days, I figured I was probably over the illness.

Finally, on Monday, January 14th, the beginning of week 3, I felt perfectly fine in the morning and considered doing the 9-miler I postponed because it fell on a bad day, but decided to hold off one more day. This ended up being an amazingly good decision; I continued to feel great all morning, but after dinner, I was bed-ridden with a 101.1 fever. This crazy swing in wellness finally prompted me to see my doctor the following day, who diagnosed me with pneumonia.

It turns out I’ll probably only miss a week of work, and I’m hopeful I can return to some running the week after that.

The marathon? I’m hesitant to jump into an 11 or 12-mile run without the buildup from the weeks I will lose. It’s been a few months since I last broke 10 miles in a single run, so I’m not sure about jumping back into the plan at week 4 or 5. Missing a few weeks of a marathon training plan seems like a bad idea by itself much less when the reason is pneumonia.

I’m going to do some more research and see how it goes when I eventually hit the road. If it doesn’t work out, I’m looking at other marathons in the June timeframe that hopefully will not require that much travel.

Somehow, I’m now highly motivated to cover those 26.2 miles!

By John Famiglietti | January 18, 2013
Posted in Running | Tagged , | Comments Off on From Marathon to Pneumonia…and back?

Home Server Follow Up

Last time, I told you about the new home server I got and promised to tell you more about it.

Well, the rest of the story is pretty boring. I put the (two Linux software RAID 1) drives in the new machine and it came right up. I was so happy I did a cartwheel and a backflip! *

There was only one minor problem which was easily fixed. Since this is the 3rd computer this installation has lived in, the main ethernet interface has gone from eth0, to eth1 to now, eth2.

I suppose this would be seamless if I were using DHCP, but this fella has a static IP address which is set in /etc/network/interfaces. Some simple edits to this file corrected the problem.

There was another minor problem in that the machine was emitting waves that summoned werewolves! Apparently, there’s a kernel module that does this with the right mix of hardware, but I took care of that with an rmmod. I explained to the werewolves that it was just a misunderstanding, let them hang out with my Labrador Retriever they were cool about it. They said that if I ever needed some werewolvin’, I could call them again. **

See, boring.

* No backflips or cartwheels. I remained upright the whole time.

** Yup, that whole paragraph is false.

By John Famiglietti | January 18, 2013
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A New Home Server!

A few months ago, that little box I’ve mentioned a few times broke down.

I took the mirrored drives out and put them into another old PC, and it came right up like magic!  Terrific!

However, that old PC isn’t a good long-term replacement.  It is noisy, and even with everything non-essential stripped out of it, it is power hungry.  Since I pressed it into action as a server, I’ve been mulling the idea of building another Shuttle box to replace it.

Then, I noticed the HP Proliant N40L on sale for $259 at NewEgg during their Black Friday sale (which lasted until Tuesday, and now sells for $319.99.) and snapped it up.

Maybe it’s not the best server in the world, but it costs less than a cheap Shuttle-based box and suits my needs better. You could argue the CPU is a bit wimpy, but my old CPU was low-end, much older, but still more than fast enough for what I needed.

My old Shuttle box could hold only two hard drives and I had to take it apart to get to them. The new server supports four easily-pluggable drives. Maybe they’re not hot-pluggable, but I can live without constant uptime. If I have to take the machine down for a few minutes to change a drive, that’s fine.

Also, it ships with only 2GB of RAM. This is fine too. The Shuttle box was fine with only 1GB and the current temporary machine has 2GB. The Ubuntu install fits well within those sizes. Even if I needed extra memory, upgrading it would not be costly.

Finally, Silent PC Review took a look at this server and it should be much quieter and more efficient than the old PC holding down the fort now.

It has arrived and I opened it only to peek at the manual. My hope is to pop the drives into this machine and have everything work as before. I’m going to attempt this over weekend and will update the blog then.

(I know the whole Internet will be waiting breathlessly until then!)

By John Famiglietti | November 28, 2012
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Greg Fried Memorial 5K in Roslyn

How about that? A timely race report!

Saturday, April 21, 2012. 256 people show up at Roslyn High School on a very busy race weekend on Long Island. Not only did I count 14 races listed on the trusty Long Island Race Calendar for this weekend, but three races I did last year fell on this weekend too. I had been trying decide between the St. James 5-Miler (2012 results) and the Race for Spinal Victory in Wantagh, but when I noticed this race in Roslyn, the decision was easy.

While I enjoyed both of those other races last year and fully intended on doing them again this year, the opportunity to run through my childhood home town of Roslyn was too good to pass up.

Okay, okay, I only live 20 minutes away, but I don’t get the opportunity to visit that often and I haven’t set foot on the grounds of Roslyn High in more than 20 years. Also, Greg Fried, “Mr. Fried” as I knew him, was my gym teacher.

The building itself was closed, but since I arrived early and had to walk around the premises to get from my parking spot to the registration/start area, I got to walk around and let the memories flood in. The place hasn’t changed much (at least from the outside).

If you enjoy a challenging race through through a scenic, historic location, then this is the race for you.

They did a great job getting the faster runners up to the front of the starting line. I’ve done plenty of races where they try to do this and you’re still ducking between slow runners/walkers who were where they shouldn’t be.

We started off down Harbor Hill Road, turned right onto Roslyn Road, and went straight down to the Village. The first mile is completely down some pretty steep hills with the marker about halfway down Main St. Mile 2 is pretty much the complete opposite, heading back to the high school, this time doing it completely up the hills. Mile 3 starts after you pass the high school on Roslyn Road and make a left onto Round Hill Road. Round Hill Road starts off with another climb before leveling off a bit. The remainder of the race is in the neighborhood near the school and includes another stretch of road with a noticeable rise. Finally, you hit Harbor Hill Road again and it takes you back to Roslyn High for the finish.

I won’t get into my performance too much other than to say I was happy with it. 23:18 was good enough for 13th overall and 2nd in my age group. For a hilly run, I’ll take it.

There were plenty of post-race refreshments and everyone got a packed goody bag. This was a very friendly field of runners too, I met some nice people.

The Roslyn Bulldogs Booster Association deserves thanks for this event and the Fried family should be proud. I really enjoyed this inaugural run and even if there are twenty races the same weekend next year, I’ll be back.

By John Famiglietti | April 22, 2012
Posted in Running | Tagged | Comments Off on Greg Fried Memorial 5K in Roslyn