Mark Lilback

I was working with sending REST calls to Docker via /var/run/docker.sock and needed to print out the text of the request to send via the file descriptor. This code converts a URLRequest into a CFHTTPMessage and then convert that to a string.

I’m always thinking about blogging, but I didn’t realize it had been almost 5 years since I wrote something. Hosting my own site with a generator was way too much hassle. Now that I’ve switched to Github Pages, things will be much easier and I will post more frequently.

As a developer, I was excited to see that Mountain Lion would support AirPlay. I could do all the same things from a Mac that I could from an iPad. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. For a technical breakdown of how desktop AirPlay is implemented, read ArsTechnica article on AirPlay. Basically it uses a technology called QuickSync that is in newer Intel graphics chips. So no matter how much better your discrete chip is, you’ve got to use the weaker Intel one to mirror. Which means you won’t want to mirror Diablo 3.

One of the first things I do on starting a new AppKit or UIKit project is add a few lines of code to set default values for NSUserDefaults. You’ll never have to check to see if nil was returned from a call to NSUserDefaults once you do this.Add the following snippet to your application delegate’s finished launching method.

I just found a really great app called gfxCardStatus that works with any 2008 or later MacBook Pro. It is a menu-bar app that shows you which GPU is currently being used. Keeping it down to the Intel GPU decreases the heat generated and increases battery life.

just got my Mac Book Pro Retina and without a doubt it is the best computer I’ve every owned. My vision is pretty crappy, and I can’t make out heads or tails on a MacBook Air screen at the default resolution (glasses make no difference). But the MBP retina display is so crisp and sharp that I can even read the text from a few feet away. I had really thought I’d never be able to comfortably view a laptop screen again. I got the 2.6 GHz model with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD. And it is a screamer. I ran geekbench on all of my current computers, and the numbers are impressive. All the older machines have a 256GB SSD in them.

Ben Brooks wrote about the problems with using Dropbox and multiple Macs, offering a solution using Keyboard Maestro. Here is the solution I’ve been using for a while. Save the following AppleScript and set it up as a Folder Action in your Dropbox on each machine (you must do it on both machines if you want it to work both ways).

I’ve noticed more and more of the bloggers I read prefer Chrome over Safari (the two I remember off the top of my head are MG Siegler and Justin Williams.) So last month I decided to give it a try.