Leonardo da Vinci. Not to be confused with Leonardo da Turtle.

I’ve seen various posts lately talking about a “C++ Renaissance”.  I’m trying to make some sense of this, and mainly to figure out whether it’s true.

It seems there is some belief that just because there is a new C++ standard (C++11, formerly known as C++0x) there is a “renaissance”.  Most of the posts I’ve seen on the subject are basically restatements and requotes from a recent interview with a couple guys on Microsoft’s Visual C++ team.  So far all I can tell is that the VC++ guys are hyping their own product, and some people are buying into it.

I haven’t heard of any widespread transition from Java/PHP/Python/Ruby/Perl/Objective-C/etc to C++.  Server-side developers who are developing for maximum performance may use C++, but they probably already were before the so-called renaissance.  Mobile developers are still primarily using Objective-C on iOS and Java on Android.  Console game developers were already using C++.  Embedded developers will continue (not start) to use C++ if they have the luxury; otherwise they’ll use C or assembler.  Kernel developers will continue to use C.

The major remaining category is desktop apps.  Mac apps are generally written in Objective-C (in fact that’s the only way to access the Cocoa GUI framework).  Linux code is largely written in C.  So the renaissance must be on Windows, right?  Well, Microsoft seems to be the focus of this “renaissance”, and even they aren’t fully embracing C++.  Yes, it will be possible to write Windows desktop apps in C++, but Metro is Microsoft’s latest-and-greatest development tool, and Metro apps are mostly about HTML and Javascript.  And .NET (primarily C#, VB.NET) probably still fits into Microsoft’s plans somewhere.

So where exactly is the renaissance supposed to happen?

There has always been an option to customize sounds, but it’s always sucked… until now. iOS 4 and below only let you turn a lot of the alert sounds on and off, but iOS 5 lets you customize each sound:

iOS 4: Lame

iOS 5: Yaaaaaay!

And on top of that, you’re not limited to the built-in alert sounds! You can finally use any ringtone for any alert sound, whether you purchased it from iTunes or made it yourself for free.  For example, I’m using a Saw ringtone to celebrate Halloween.

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to download some free video game ringtones.

(Edit: I almost forgot to mention you can edit any contact and set their individual text sound as well.)

Contact names not showing up for text messages or incoming calls

My wife, myself, and several other people had this issue.  Fortunately there’s a solution:

1) Open the Phone and dial *228. This is a Verizon over-the-air programming number.

2) When the system answer press 1 for “Program or activate your phone”

3) Wait for the call to disconnect. You should get a prompt stating something like, “Settings updated.”

4) Open the Task Manager and kill the Phone, Message, and Contacts Applications

5) Wait a few minutes (I waited 3 just to be extra safe)

6) Open the Message App to verify the fix.

If you are still broken, kill the Message App again, then reboot your phone.

Siri having trouble connecting to the network

Before you try this, be aware that your phone will reboot immediately, and that you’ll lose your saved wi-fi networks and passwords.

Launch the Settings.app, go into the General tab followed by the Reset tab and tap the Reset Network Settings button

If that doesn’t work, try this more detailed solution.

Three Guys One Joystick

LiveHTTPHeaders, one of my favorite Firefox plugins, hasn’t been officially updated for Firefox 4.0 compatibility yet.  I hacked the .xpi file so it will install in FF4.  If you’re impatient like me, grab it here.  It’s working fine for me, but I can’t guarantee it will be 100% stable.

Download LiveHTTPHeaders 0.16 for Firefox 4.0 (unofficial)

Michael,
Thanks for this addictive game. I’ve been playing it on my Nokia phone for over a year now.

Since I love the game so much, I’ve ported it as a MediaPortal plugin (C#). I’ve used your base classes and added my own touch (multiple levels, scoring system, timed game, sound effects).

You’re of course credited as the source for my plugin, and my plugin source is available to the public.

Additional information is available at:
http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/mediaportal-plugins-47/plugin-mypipes-puzzle-game-88706/

http://github.com/mkerley/PipesJ2ME

Anyone is welcome to submit source code, documentation, translations, etc. directly to Github. I’m putting the source under the GPL license.

I’ll be happy to answer questions about the source and the code architecture, but I probably won’t be able to help much regarding how to use Git or Github. Most of my experience has been with Subversion, CVS, and Perforce, so Git is still new to me

Note: The iPhone version of Pipes will remain a separate closed-source project under my personal ownership.

The fact is I simply don’t have the time or resources to maintain the J2ME version. I don’t have a J2ME phone anymore, and since I don’t make any money from the J2ME verison, I can’t justify buying development equipment.

So my question is this: If I were to release the source, would anyone be willing to help out by adding new features?