Now I just need to get rid of Bruce and Ellen! I mean...

 

So, first thursday of february then? Snow? Check. Super.

 

So I drove out to GP Land like I said. No big deal, fixed in a flash, that sort of thing. How someone can live a whole year with an anti-virus popping up with "You are not protected!" I don't know, but there it is.

 

Then back here. Worked a little more on the Comic Maker. See, I had this for loop that, if you dropped a folder full of a folder full of images on the top bar (where they live so they can be dragged down into the main document) that was fine. But, I said to myself, could it be one, perhaps even two seconds faster to show the images? So I recalled reading about Grand Central Dispatch when it was first announced quite awhile ago, and how someone replaced a for loop with.. get this, threads. So I looked for it. And... didn't find it. But I did find other resources leading me to a solution. And after a bit of work, it functioned again. But then I noticed that, oops, the items now were in a slightly weird order, which made sense. As I was no longer loading them in one at a time, but rather all at once...

 

SHORT PROGRAMMING LESSON

   Threads allow a program to do more then one thing at a time. How, you ask? If you have any sort of modern system (purchased in the last five years, I mean, and shame on you if you don't) you probably have more then one processor at the heart of your machine. That second processor can decode the MP3 files you're listening to (in iTunes) while the first one shows that website you're looking at. (for example). If you only had one processor, they would have to switch back and forth between these two tasks, swiftly enough that YOU, with that meat brain of yours (I have one too, it's nothing to be ashamed of) think it's doing everything simultaneously. It's not. Now, my machine has four of those guys inside, so in theory, I could do four separate things, all at full speed, with no switching. 

END PROGRAMMING LESSON

 

Where was I? All at once, right, see, if I was loading 400 images into the window, my machine would load 100 images per processor (on average) or basically four at once. If you had a machine from 10 years from now with 400 processors (work with me here) each one would get one image to load. So you see the appeal. So after I loaded them into my tidy little NSMutableArray I told said array, (and this is the clever bit) "sort yourself with the imageUID as your key." which it did. Success! As I say, it probably isn't much of a savings, given the fact that even loading a couple hundred images, any reasonably modern machine would have no trouble doing it. And of course running on a single processor machine would actually be slower because of the thread overhead. But who has a single processor machine anymore, right? I mean, come ON! Right?! And if I WAS doing them sequentially, I would not need the step of sorting them... you get the idea. But as an exercise in remembering how threads (i.e. grand central dispatch) worked, it was worthwhile.

 

I also tried working around the HDMI XBox 360 input switch reboot thingy but it's not going to happen. Microsoft does sell a cable that will solve the problem for $50. Or I could get it on ebay for... $5.00? Huh. At least they used to, I don't see it on their website. Well, ebay it is, I guess.

 

Then out again. Yup, her hard drive is dead all right. Interestingly, the machine knew it was there, as it did not list "none" as the empty slots did, but rather "       ". 

 

Then out to Sylvia's, one last time. Got her machine all into one box because I'm awesome like that, and put in the trunk of her car.

 

Only two calls today, so just Bruce and one other tomorrow. And grandma, let's not forget grandma. And then phartyyyyy for Dad where he reads his super cool card and opens his super cool gift. So there.

 

Fun was had last night playing Reach, getting a milllllion points in firefight thanks to Abel's gametype in about twenty minutes. Rockets everywhere! Tonight we shall perhaps play Left4Dead? Perhaps.

 

Oh yeah, did the driveway again too. Figured out what the noise was- one of the rivets has come out of the impeller, so the rubber thing that sticks off the blade is kinda thumping around in there. I'll have to see if I can get a nut/bolt on there well enough to steady it. Despite the cold, it was a sun shiny day today, let's keep that up, humkay? These piles of snow all over are starting to annoy me.

 

Game tentatively for saturday, or more painting at the very least, perhaps. Slacker.

 

Perhaps a little New Vegas? I think I shall. 

 

 

SUPPLEMENTAL:  

 

Turns out dragging is more complex then I thought, because I tried something before I closed it up and it didn't work. I realized users can drop any combination of things, that is:

 

 

So I had to cover all four. Which I did. So there.