Chris' Blog.

My occasional thoughts on iOS development, developers careers, trying to make an income from the App Store, and updates on life in general.

Neural Networks explained with spreadsheets - 1

Hi all, I’d like to do a series on neural networks (or machine learning, or AI), starting from the very basics, not using any frameworks. This is inspired by Andrej Karpathy’s intro video here so perhaps consider watching that (if you can find a few hours spare!). I seem to be writing about maths a lot lately, which gave me an idea: everyone understands spreadsheets (Excel / Pages / Google Sheets), so I’m going to use them to (hopefully!) make the maths clearer.

Explanation

I want to make ‘what is a neuron’ concrete in some way, to give you a ‘scaffold’ to build your learning on, I believe that helps.

So: say you want to define a mathematical formula for ‘how much is a square block of land worth’. It has two inputs: width and length. It might look like this:

Land price($) = width(m) * length(m) * 200 + 100000

You could call this a function: value(s) in, value out. A machine learning neuron is just one of these: It takes some input(s), does some maths with them, and outputs a value. And a massive grid of these neurons all connected together can achieve surprisingly complex results.

Maths

Here’s how the maths behind a single neuron works. There’s not much to it:

Net input = Input 1 * Weight 1  +  Input 2 * Weight 2  +  Bias
Output = tanh(Net input)

Spreadsheet

Please click here to see the above in spreadsheet form. I tried embedding a nice JS spreadsheet but it didn’t work on mobile, thus the google sheets link. In case that doesn’t work, it looks like so:

  A B C D E F G H I
1 Input 1 Input 2 Weight 1 Weight 2 Bias Net Output Target Loss
2 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 =A2 * C2 + B2 * D2 + E2 =tanh(F2) 0.8 =(G2 - H2)^2

Explanation

You may be wondering what ‘tanh’ is. It’s a hyperbolic tangent, which neatly squashes the net and spits out a value between -1 and 1. This is called the ‘activation function’ - there are other options (eg the logistic function) that can be used instead.

Initial values for the weights and bias are random numbers in the range -1..1. They are tweaked in the learning process, which I’ll explain in an upcoming article. The collection of weights and biases are also called the parameters.

Loss is used to calculate how ‘good’ a neural network is at calculating the desired target. It will be always positive, and the closer to zero the better. In this simple example, it is calculated as the square of the output-vs-target delta:

loss = (output - target)^2

Obligatory Rust

Because I enjoy fooling around with Rust, here’s a little demo, perhaps this will solidify the concepts from a developer’s perspective:

struct Neuron {
    input1: f32,
    input2: f32,
    weight1: f32,
    weight2: f32,
    bias: f32,
}

impl Neuron {
    fn net(&self) -> f32 {
        self.input1 * self.weight1 +
        self.input2 * self.weight2 + 
        self.bias
    }
    fn output(&self) -> f32 {
        self.net().tanh()
    }
    fn loss(&self, target: f32) -> f32 {
        let delta = target - self.output();
        delta * delta
    }
}

fn main() {
    let neuron = Neuron {
        input1: 0.1,
        input2: 0.2,
        weight1: 0.3,
        weight2: 0.4,
        bias: 0.5,
    };
    println!("Net: {:.3}", neuron.net());
    println!("Output: {:.3}", neuron.output());
    println!("Loss: {:.3}", neuron.loss(0.5));
}

Thanks for reading, hope you found this helpful, at least a tiny bit, God bless!

Photo by Josh Riemer on Unsplash


The Kalman Filter with Velocity

Hi all, here’s how to implement a position-and-velocity Kalman filter from scratch, in C++ish pseudocode, from the perspective of a developer who isn’t a professional mathematician and doesn’t understand the kind of symbology used in many Kalman articles. I wrote another article about a simpler Kalman filter as a primer on the subject, if you read it first it will hopefully help make this article easier to understand.

Firstly we need to implement some matrix maths stuff as a prerequisite. It might help to skim-read Wikipedia on the topic first.

// A 2-row column vector.
struct Vector {
    double a // aka Position or Price
    double b // aka Velocity
}
// A 2x2 matrix.
struct Matrix {
    double tl // Top Left, eg row 1 column 1
    double tr // Top right, r1c2
    double bl // Bottom left, r2c1
    double br // Bottom right, r2c2
}
// vectorA + vectorB.
+(Vector lhs, Vector rhs) -> Vector {
    return Vector {
        a: lhs.a + rhs.a,
        b: lhs.b + rhs.b
    }
}
// vectorA - vectorB.
-(Vector lhs, Vector rhs) -> Vector {
    return Vector(
        a: lhs.a - rhs.a,
        b: lhs.b - rhs.b
    )
}
// matrixA + matrixB.
+(Matrix lhs, Matrix rhs) -> Matrix {
    return Matrix(
        tl: lhs.tl + rhs.tl, tr: lhs.tr + rhs.tr,
        bl: lhs.bl + rhs.bl, br: lhs.br + rhs.br
    )
}
// matrixA - matrixB.
-(Matrix l, Matrix r) -> Matrix {
    return Matrix(
        tl: l.tl - r.tl, tr: l.tr - r.tr,
        bl: l.bl - r.bl, br: l.br - r.br
    )
}
// matrixA * matrixB.
*(Matrix l, Matrix r) -> Matrix {
    return Matrix(
        tl: l.tl * r.tl + l.tr * r.bl,
        tr: l.tl * r.tr + l.tr * r.br,
        bl: l.bl * r.tl + l.br * r.bl,
        br: l.bl * r.tr + l.br * r.br
    )
}
// vectorOutput = matrixA * vectorB.
*(Matrix m, Vector v) -> Vector {
    return Vector(
        a: m.tl * v.a + m.tr * v.b,
        b: m.bl * v.a + m.br * v.b
    )
}
// Invert a matrix (the matrix version of 1 / m).
invert(Matrix m) -> Matrix {
    return Matrix(
        tl:  m.br, tr: -m.tr,
        bl: -m.bl, br:  m.tl
    )
}
// Transpose a matrix (mirror it diagonally).
transpose(Matrix m) -> Matrix {
    return Matrix(
        tl: m.tl, tr: m.bl,
        bl: m.tr, br: m.br
    )
}

Next, you’ll need the ‘external noise covariance matrix’. This is usually referred to as Q in Kalman literature:

const double Q_POSITION_VARIANCE = 0.1
const double Q_VELOCITY_VARIANCE = 0.1
const double Q_POSITION_VELOCITY_COVARIANCE = 0.1
const Matrix Q_EXTERNAL_NOISE = {
    tl: Q_POSITION_VARIANCE,            tr: Q_POSITION_VELOCITY_COVARIANCE,
    bl: Q_POSITION_VELOCITY_COVARIANCE, br: Q_VELOCITY_VARIANCE,
}

Next, you’ll need the ‘measurement noise covariance matrix’, aka R in Kalman articles:

const double R_POSITION_VARIANCE = 0.1
const double R_VELOCITY_VARIANCE = 0.1
const double R_POSITION_VELOCITY_COVARIANCE = 0.1
const Matrix R_MEASUREMENT_NOISE = {
    tl: R_POSITION_VARIANCE,            tr: R_POSITION_VELOCITY_COVARIANCE,
    bl: R_POSITION_VELOCITY_COVARIANCE, br: R_VELOCITY_VARIANCE,
}

How do you select good Q and R values? I’m not an expert, but here’s my two tips:

  • If you’re filtering position and velocity sensors that have a normal / gaussian error, and they really are separate sensors as opposed to faking velocity by nowPosition-lastPosition, use the variance and covariance of the two sensors for R, and perhaps experiment with Q until it works the way you’d like. Variance = average[residual^2], covariance = average[positionResidual * velocityResidual], residual = measuredValue - realValue. If you don’t have real values, you could try substituting some kind of moving average.
  • If you’re filtering non-gaussian data (eg stock prices), or your velocity is faked, simply experiment with Q and R until you’re happy with the filter performance. I’d write a program to generate a million random Q+R pairs, then choose the pair that predicts ‘next’ data points best. That is a (whopping) exercise for the reader, sorry!

Next, we need our ‘state transition matrix’, aka F in Kalman articles. This is a constant matrix that, when multiplied by the current state vector (position + velocity), gives us our expected next state vector (old position + velocity, same velocity). Eg it looks like:

const Matrix F_STATE_TRANSITION = {
    tl: 1, tr: 1,
    bl: 0, br: 1,
}

Maybe the above needs more explaining. Say our old state is position 100m, velocity 10m/s. Multiplying this by F works out like so:

Normal matrix * vector formula:
a: mat.tl * vec.a + mat.tr * vec.b,
b: mat.bl * vec.a + mat.br * vec.b

AKA:

new position: f.tl * position + f.tr * velocity
new velocity: f.bl * position + f.br * velocity

AKA:

new position: 1 * position + 1 * velocity
new velocity: 0 * position + 1 * velocity

AKA:

new position: position + velocity
new velocity: velocity

AKA:

new position: 110m
new velocity: 10m/s

In other words, for a timestep of 1 second, F simply adds the velocity-per-second to the current position, and assumes no friction hence velocity stays constant.

Next, we need the ‘state error’, aka P in Kalman articles. I find it usually works fine to start filtering with this as 1. (Perhaps this should be scaled to match your typical values.)

Matrix pStateError = {
    tl: 1, tr: 1,
    bl: 1, br: 1,
}

Next, we need our ‘current state’, aka X in Kalman articles. If, like me, you’re faking the velocity, start the filter with this set using the first two measurements:

Vector xCurrentState = {
    a: data[1],
    b: data[1] - data[0], // Faux velocity.
}

Phew! Now for the interesting bit. For each new data point/measurement, we need to first predict what it’ll be, then blend that prediction with the measurement to produce an estimate. This estimate is the filter’s output. A ‘Kalman gain’ (known as K in Kalman articles) is calculated then is used to weight the prediction vs measurement when blending them to form the estimate:

// Make predictions.
Vector xPredicted = F_STATE_TRANSITION * xCurrentState
Matrix pPredicted = F_STATE_TRANSITION * pStateError * transpose(F_STATE_TRANSITION) + Q_EXTERNAL_NOISE_VARIANCE

// Update it with the measurement.
Vector zMeasurement = Vector {
    a: data[current_index], // Position.
    b: data[current_index] - data[previous_index] // Faux velocity.
}
Matrix kKalmanGain = pPredicted * invert(pPredicted + R_MEASUREMENT_NOISE_VARIANCE)
Vector xEstimate = xPredicted + kKalmanGain * (zMeasurement - xPredicted)
Matrix pEstimate = pPredicted - kKalmanGain * pPredicted

// Store for the next iteration.
pStateError = pEstimate
xCurrentState = xEstimate // This is the output!

Thanks for reading, I hope this helped, God bless, and have a nice week :)


The Kalman Filter for Programmers

Hi all, here’s how to implement the Kalman filter from scratch, in C-ish pseudocode. The intended audience is developers, as opposed to mathematicians, so there will be no complicated formulae - just additions, subtractions, and multiplications. I won’t try to explain the theory behind the Kalman filter and its intended uses, that is explained far better elsewhere (Wikipedia is a great place to start). To oversimplify, it’s a little like a moving average.

This article explains how to implement a position-only Kalman filter, as a stepping stone to implementing a position-and-velocity filter in my next article.

Firstly, you’ll need the ‘external noise variance’. This is usually referred to as Q in Kalman literature:

const double Q_EXTERNAL_NOISE_VARIANCE = 0.1

Next, you’ll need the ‘measurement noise variance’, aka R in Kalman articles:

const double R_MEASUREMENT_NOISE_VARIANCE = 0.1

How do you select good Q and R values? I’m not an expert, but here’s my two tips:

  • If you’re filtering a sensor that has a normal / gaussian distribution vs the actual value, use the variance of its inaccuracy as R (variance = average[residual^2], residual = measurement - actual value), and experiment with Q until it works the way you’d like.
  • If you’re filtering non-gaussian data (eg stock prices), simply experiment with Q and R until you’re happy with it. I’d write a program to generate a million random Q+R pairs, then choose the pair that predicts the ‘next’ data points best. That is an (whopping) exercise for the reader, sorry!

Next, we need our ‘state transition matrix’, aka F in Kalman articles. Since this is the one-dimensional filter, this is a simple double that, when multiplied by a data point, gives us our expected next data point. Eg it’ll simply be 1.

const double F_STATE_TRANSITION = 1

Next, we need the ‘state error’, aka P in Kalman articles. I find it usually works fine to start filtering with this as 1:

double pStateError = 1

Next, we need our ‘current state’, aka X in Kalman articles. Start filtering with this set to the first measurement:

double xCurrentState = data[0]

Now a prerequisite: transposing a ‘matrix’. In our simple one-dimensional case, this is a no-op, but I’m leaving it here as a stepping stone to the next article:

double transpose(double a) { return a }

Another prerequisite: inverting a ‘matrix’. In our simple case, this is just 1 / a.

double invert(double a) { return 1 / a }

Now for the interesting bit. For each new data point/measurement, we need to first predict what it’ll be, then blend that prediction with the measurement to produce an estimate. This estimate is the filter’s output. A ‘Kalman gain’ (known as K in Kalman articles) is calculated that is used to weight the prediction vs measurement when blending them to form the estimate.

// Make predictions.
double xPredicted = F_STATE_TRANSITION * xCurrentState
double pPredicted = F_STATE_TRANSITION * pStateError * transpose(F_STATE_TRANSITION) + Q_EXTERNAL_NOISE_VARIANCE

// Update it with the measurement.
double zMeasurement = data[current_index]
double kKalmanGain = pPredicted * invert(pPredicted + R_MEASUREMENT_NOISE_VARIANCE)
double xEstimate = xPredicted + kKalmanGain * (zMeasurement - xPredicted)
double pEstimate = pPredicted - kKalmanGain * pPredicted

// Setup for the next iteration.
pStateError = pEstimate
xCurrentState = xEstimate // This is the output!

You may find my next article about position-and-velocity Kalman filters helpful!

Thanks for reading, I hope this helps, God bless, and have a nice week :)


You can see older posts in the right panel, under 'archive'.

Archive

Neural Networks explained with spreadsheets, 1: A single neuron 10 Mar 2024

How to implement a position-and-velocity Kalman Filter 15 Dec 2023

How to implement a position-only Kalman Filter 14 Dec 2023

Rust Crypto Ticker using Interactive Brokers' TWS API directly 28 Aug 2023

Rust PNG writer from scratch 12 Jul 2022

UIScrollView content and frame layout guides: scroll your UIStackView content purely in storyboards (iOS) 1 May 2022

Swift Security framework wrapper for RSA and Elliptic Curve encryption / decryption 21 Sep 2021

Simple, practical async await Swift examples 3 Jul 2021

Xcode pbxproj project generator in Swift 17 May 2021

UITableViewDiffableDataSource for adding and removing rows automatically to a table view in Swift 10 May 2021

Super simple iOS Combine example 23 Feb 2021

Introducing Chalkinator: Native desktop blogging app 7 Jun 2020

Flare: Open source 2-way folder sync to Backblaze B2 in Swift 28 May 2020

Making a baby monitor out of a couple of ESP32s, an I2S microphone, and a small speaker 16 Apr 2020

Chris' 2020 guide to hosting a HTTPS static site on AWS S3 + Cloudfront 15 Mar 2020

Simple Javascript debounce, no libraries needed 20 Feb 2020

Asynchronous NSOperations in Swift 5 3 Jan 2020

Deploying Golang Revel sites to AWS Elastic Beanstalk 9 Dec 2019

Golang and pure Swift Compression and Decompression 28 Jul 2019

Pure Swift simple Keychain wrapper 23 Jun 2019

Pure Swift 5 CommonCrypto AES Encryption 9 Jun 2019

Bluetooth example code for Swift/iOS 6 Jun 2019

Talking to a Bluetooth LE peripheral with Swift/iOS 18 May 2019

Obfuscating Keys using Swift 5 May 2019

State Machines in Swift using enums 10 Apr 2019

iOS timers without circular references with Pendulum 28 Mar 2019

Pragmatic Reactive Programming 11 Oct 2017

React Native first impressions 7 Apr 2017

Gondola 26 Feb 2017

Scalable Swift 22 Nov 2016

Swift 3 Migration 6 Nov 2016

Enum-Driven View Controllers 3 Jan 2016

Status bar colours: Everything there is to know 30 Dec 2015

Android server 20 Dec 2015

Generating heightmap terrain with Swift 8 Nov 2015

Swift Education Screencasts 27 Oct 2015

Swift Image Cache 24 Sep 2015

Don't be slack 13 Sep 2015

Swift KVO alternative 23 Jul 2015

Swift Keychain wrapper 21 Jun 2015

Swift NSURLSession wrapper 12 Jun 2015

iOS8 View Controller transitioning bug 17 Apr 2015

IB Designable 18 Mar 2015

iOS App Architecture 2 Mar 2015

Video Course Launch 14 Feb 2015

Video Course Pre-launch 8 Feb 2015

Blogging Platforms 13 Jan 2015

Mobile in 2014 - Year in Review 11 Jan 2015

Secret Keys talk 16 Nov 2014

Dimmi 11 Nov 2014

Project setup in Xcode6 22 Oct 2014

Uploading to an S3 bucket from iOS 15 Oct 2014

iOS8 App Testing Roundup 28 Sep 2014

Storing obfuscated secret keys in your iOS app 16 Sep 2014

Getting Core Location / CLLocationManager to work on iOS8 14 Sep 2014

Accessing the response body in failure blocks with AFNetworking 2 10 Sep 2014

How to allow your UITextFields to scroll out of the way of the keyboard 8 Sep 2014

How to subclass UIButton in iOS7 and make a UIButtonTypeSystem 4 Sep 2014

New season 1 Aug 2014

House finished 17 Jun 2014

WebP decoding on iOS 9 Feb 2014

Moving on again 22 Jan 2014

Lossy images for retina iPads - JPEG vs WebP 30 Nov 2013

Career options I wish I knew about when I was younger 20 Oct 2013

Positivity and your friends 7 Oct 2013

Tactility 26 Jul 2013

WWDC-induced narcolepsy 15 Jul 2013

Back on rails 31 May 2013

Full circle 6 May 2013

Programmatic UI on iOS 3 May 2013

Screencasts and positivity 8 Apr 2013

Year of positivity 14 Mar 2013

iOS Dev State of the Union 6 Feb 2013

Adventures with IAPs 3 Feb 2013

No longer a Googler 23 Dec 2012

Localising iPhone apps with Microsoft Translator 8 Dec 2012

Fight back (app biz update 13) 12 Nov 2012

Sent to the backburner (app biz update 12) 25 Oct 2012

Lisi Schappi 7 Oct 2012

Today's happy plateau (app biz update 11) 26 Aug 2012

First week's sales of Today (app biz update 10) 19 Aug 2012

Today launch! And a difficult decision made... (app biz update 9) 15 Aug 2012

Approved! (app biz update 8) 5 Aug 2012

Creating a graph in Objective-C on the iPhone 3 Aug 2012

Hurry up and wait (app biz update 7) 30 Jul 2012

Today app marketing site 27 Jul 2012

Today app submitted 25 Jul 2012

UIAlertView input wrapper 24 Jul 2012

Mentoring 23 Jul 2012

This is too hard! (app biz update 6) 20 Jul 2012

Perspectives (app biz update 5) 9 Jul 2012

4th starting-my-own-biz update 1 Jul 2012

ScrumFox landing page 28 Jun 2012

Server Scope landing page 27 Jun 2012

Telstra Calls and Data Usage 26 Jun 2012

Service History + Dropbox 26 Jun 2012

Impromptu Presenter 26 Jun 2012

Fertility Tracker 26 Jun 2012

Baby Allergy Tracker 26 Jun 2012

Starting my own business, update 3 22 Jun 2012

Starting my own business, update 2 17 Jun 2012

Starting my own business - First update 10 Jun 2012

I must be crazy 6 Jun 2012

Finding your location on an iPhone 7 May 2012

A generous career 4 May 2012

Skeleton Key Cocoaheads presentation 3 May 2012

CHBgDropboxSync - Dropbox auto-sync for your iOS apps 1 May 2012

That book about that Steve Jobs guy 30 Apr 2012

Another app marketing idea 23 Apr 2012

Sweet grouped tables on the iPhone 17 Apr 2012

Skeleton Key App 11 Apr 2012

Another app marketing idea... 5 Apr 2012

Quickly check for any missing retina graphics in your project 3 Apr 2012

Skeleton Key Password Manager with Dropbox 2 Apr 2012

RC Boat motor finally mounted 2 Apr 2012

Promoting apps presentation slides 1 Apr 2012

How i just wasted a month on my latest app, and how you don't need to 26 Mar 2012

The Finishing Line 20 Mar 2012

Using Launchd to run a script every 5 mins on a Mac 20 Feb 2012

Generating AES256 keys from a password/passphrase in ObjC 20 Feb 2012

Indie iPhone app marketing, part 2 19 Feb 2012

My App Manifesto: Syncing + Dropbox + YAML = Awesome 15 Feb 2012

Indie iPhone App Marketing part 1 7 Feb 2012

Perspectives 2 Feb 2012

Accountability and Free Will 1 Feb 2012

Badassery 31 Jan 2012

Sacrifice 30 Jan 2012

Lead Yourself First 29 Jan 2012

How to ping a server in Objective-C / iPhone 26 Jan 2012

iOS Automated Builds with Xcode4 16 Jan 2012

Xcode 4 - Command line builds of iPhone apps 15 Jan 2012

Guest post by Jason McDougall 13 Jan 2012

Scouts, Games and Motivation 10 Jan 2012

2011 Re-cap 8 Jan 2012

Ruby script to increment a build number 4 Jan 2012

Turning 30? All ideas, no execution? 18 Dec 2011

CHDropboxSync - simply sync your iOS app's documents to Dropbox 14 Dec 2011

Deep-enumerating a directory on the iphone, getting file attributes as you go 10 Dec 2011

Getting a date without the time component in objective-c 6 Dec 2011

Memory management in Objective-C 4 Dec 2011

Starting small 29 Nov 2011

Dictionary Types Helper 29 Nov 2011

Observer Pattern in Objective-C 16 Nov 2011

Why you should give presentations 13 Nov 2011

How to get a programming or design job in Sydney 9 Nov 2011

Custom nav bar / toolbar backgrounds in iOS5 8 Nov 2011

Stuck 27 Oct 2011

Dead easy singletons in Obj-C 19 Oct 2011

JSON vs OCON (Objective-C Object Notation) 18 Oct 2011

In defence of Objective-C 16 Oct 2011

Update the MessagePack objective-c library to support packing 12 Oct 2011

Icons 11 Oct 2011

How to host a site on Amazon AWS S3, step-by-step 7 Oct 2011

Drawing a textured pattern over the default UINavigationBar 6 Oct 2011

Markdown Presentations 1 Oct 2011

More MegaComet testing: Ruling out keepalives 15 Sep 2011

MegaComet test #4 - This time with more kernel 14 Sep 2011

Building People 10 Sep 2011

Half way there: Getting MegaComet to 523,000 concurrent HTTP connections 5 Sep 2011

Making a progress bar in your iPhone UINavigationBar 22 Aug 2011

Hacker News Reader 20 Aug 2011

How to programmatically resize elements for landscape vs portrait in your iphone interface 16 Aug 2011

MegaComet testing part 2 3 Aug 2011

Australian Baby Colours 28 Jul 2011

Boat prop shaft 25 Jul 2011

Megacomet with 1 million queued messages 24 Jul 2011

Installed the strut and rudder 18 Jul 2011

Painted the inside of the boat 17 Jul 2011

Fuzzy iphone graphics when using an UIImageView set to UIViewContentModeCenter 13 Jul 2011

My 3 Data and Calls Usage 11 Jul 2011

Reading a line from the console in node.js 10 Jul 2011

Trim whitespaces on all text fields in a view controller 9 Jul 2011

Final finish 9 Jul 2011

MessagePack parser for Objective-C / iPhone 30 Jun 2011

Lacquering the starboard side 25 Jun 2011

What do do with EXC_ARM_DA_ALIGN on an iPhone app 23 Jun 2011

Lacquering the hull 23 Jun 2011

Staining the boat 22 Jun 2011

NSMutableSet with weak references in objective-c 20 Jun 2011

Iphone gesture recogniser that works for baby games 20 Jun 2011

Image manipulation pixel by pixel in objective C for the iphone 19 Jun 2011

Baby Allergy Tracker 12 Jun 2011

Power sanding the deck 10 Jun 2011

Planing the edge of the deck 2 Jun 2011

Figured out the deck 2 Jun 2011

Boat bulkheads 2 Jun 2011

Simulating iOS memory warnings 31 May 2011

Putting a UIButton in a UIToolbar 29 May 2011

How to allow closing a UIActionSheet by tapping outside it 29 May 2011

Finding the currently visible view in a UITabBarController 24 May 2011

Random Chef 17 May 2011

Centered UIButton in a navigation bar on the iphone 16 May 2011

Little Orchard 13 May 2011

Boat update 13 May 2011

How to get the current time in all time zones for the iphone / obj-c 12 May 2011

Design portfolio 10 May 2011

Tricks with grand central dispatch, such as objective-c's equivalent to setTimeout 9 May 2011

How to make an iphone view controller detect left or right swipes 5 May 2011

Centered section headers on a UITableView 5 May 2011

Christmas in may 4 May 2011

Finished trimming the boat (its floatable now!) and got some parts 29 Apr 2011

How to make a multiline label with dynamic text on the iphone and get the correct height 27 Apr 2011

Forcing an image size on the image in a table view cell on an iphone 20 Apr 2011

Git on the Mac 19 Apr 2011

Build a url query string in obj-c from a dictionary of params like jquery does 12 Apr 2011

Rendering a radial gradient on the iphone / objective-c 11 Apr 2011

Skinning the port side of the boat 8 Apr 2011

Skinning the side of the boat 5 Apr 2011

Sending a UDP broadcast packet in C / Objective-C 5 Apr 2011

How to talk to a unix socket / named pipe with python 4 Apr 2011

Skinning the bottom of the boat 31 Mar 2011

Service discovery using node.js and ssdp / universal plug n play 30 Mar 2011

Extremely simple python threading 29 Mar 2011

New rescue boat 26 Mar 2011

HttpContext vs HttpContextBase vs HttpContextWrapper 5 Nov 2010

Simple C# Wiki engine 30 Sep 2010

Simple way to throttle parts of your Asp.Net web app 29 Sep 2010

How to implement DES and Triple DES from scratch 4 Aug 2010

How to use sessions with Struts 2 30 Jul 2010

How to use Cookies in Struts 2 with ServletRequest and ServletResponse 30 Jul 2010

Using Quartz Scheduler in a Java web app (servlet) 27 Jul 2010

Javascript date picker that Doesn't Suck!(tm) 27 Jul 2010

Using Oracle XE with Hibernate 20 Jul 2010

A simple implementation of AES in Ruby from scratch 29 Jun 2010

Asp.Net Forms authentication to your own database 28 May 2010

AS2805 (like ISO8583) financial message parser in C# 7 May 2010

Ruby hex dumper 4 May 2010

Using Spring to manage Hibernate sessions in Struts2 (and other web frameworks) 13 Jan 2010

Emails in C#: Delivery and Read receipts / Attachments 12 Jan 2010

Using Java libraries in a C# app with IKVM 16 Dec 2009

Learning Java tutorial 27 Nov 2009

Using generic database providers with C# 17 Nov 2009

Scheduled task executable batch babysitter 29 Oct 2009

Working with query strings in Javascript using Prototype 30 Sep 2009

Still fighting with String.Format? 9 Sep 2009

How I'd build the next Google 24 Aug 2009

Getting IIS and Tomcat to play nicely with isapi_redirect 24 Aug 2009

Using the new ODP.Net to access Oracle from C# with simple deployment 11 Aug 2009

C# Cryptography - Encrypting a bunch of bytes 14 Jul 2009

Sorting enormous files using a C# external merge sort 10 Jul 2009

Reconciling/comparing huge data sets with C# 9 Jul 2009

Some keyboard-friendly DHTML tricks 10 Jun 2009

How to figure out what/who is connected to your SQL server 18 Mar 2009

Adding a column to a massive Sql server table 16 Mar 2009

Multithreading using Delegates in C# 10 Mar 2009

Using C# locks and threads to rip through a to-do list 6 Feb 2009

Using threads and lock in C# 3 Feb 2009

Compressing using the 7Zip LZMA algorithm in C# beats GZipStream 14 Jan 2009

MS Sql Server 2005 locking 17 Dec 2008

Simple Comet demo for Ruby on Rails 19 Nov 2008

Geocoding part 2 - Plotting postcodes onto a map of Australia with C# 24 Oct 2008

Using evolutionary algorithms to make a walkthrough for the light-bot game with C# 20 Oct 2008

How to tell when memory leaks are about to kill your Asp.Net application 16 Oct 2008

C# version of isxdigit - is a character a hex digit? 15 Sep 2008

Geocoding part 1 - Getting the longitude and latitude of all australian postcodes from google maps 26 Aug 2008

Converting HSV to RGB colour using C# 14 Aug 2008

Opening a TCP connection in C# with a custom timeout 11 Aug 2008

Oracle Explorer - a very simple C# open source Toad alternative 31 Jul 2008

Linking DigitalMars' D with a C library (Mongrel's HTTP parser) 23 Jun 2008

Connecting to Oracle from C# / Winforms / Asp.net without tnsnames.ora 16 Jun 2008

A simple server: DigitalMars' D + Libev 6 Jun 2008

Travelling from Rails 1 to Rails 2 9 Apr 2008

Online Rostering System 9 Apr 2008

DanceInforma 9 Apr 2008

Using RSS or Atom to keep an eye on your company's heartbeat 10 Nov 2007

Easy Integrated Active Directory Security in ASP.Net 24 Oct 2007