Changing the default scan format on a Canon imageCLASS MF8450c

I provide tech support for an office with a Canon Color imageCLASS MF8450c. It’s a printer, scanner, fax machine, and copier all in one. It is a usability nightmare. It takes dozens of button presses to accomplish anything. This is made worse by the fact that it has some pretty stupid default settings. For example, …

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December 9, 2010 – 6:01 pm | By Benjamin | Posted in Nerdery | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

How to Learn to Program in 2010

This is a response to a friend, Nate Dern, a smart guy who wants to learn to program but doesn’t know where to start. Spoiler alert: I rant for a while and then briefly answer his question at the very end. Here’s what worked for me: I was born in 1980 to parents who were …

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October 29, 2010 – 4:25 pm | By Benjamin | Posted in Personal | Comments (2)

Not even Apple can predict the future

As soon as Apple announced that a Mac App Store is coming, somebody on macsb lit the following match: So… what do folks think about the app store? Good? Bad? That was Wednesday, and the thread is still going on. The discussion has actually been pretty reasonable. Anyway, I just spent a while contributing the …

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October 23, 2010 – 5:58 pm | By Benjamin | Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Comments Off

File references relative to DERIVED_FILE_DIR in Xcode

Let’s say you have a Mac or iOS app which stores its data in an SQLite database. It looks for this database file on launch; if missing, the app copies a template file from its bundle. How do you configure your Xcode project to store that template file in the app bundle? Let’s also say …

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September 28, 2010 – 4:42 pm | By Benjamin | Posted in Nerdery | Tagged | Comments Off