RubyMotion Provisioning Profiles

Note: This article on provisioning profiles was first posted in the RubyMotion Google Group on May 10, 2012. It was also referenced on Stack Overflow.

Everything with RubyMotion worked great until I tried to run the sample apps on a physical device. And then I had to spend a few hours wrestling with provisioning profiles. Hopefully this post will save time for somebody else.

Unix for Ruby Developers

It is gratifying to know that learning something tangentially related to Ruby will, in fact, teach me more about Ruby.

Working With Unix Processes, by Jesse Storimer, is ostensibly about Unix internals. However, in reading this book, I have become more aware of how executables run on my favorite family of operating systems, which in turn gives me more insight into Ruby.

Passing Arguments

For example, what happens when we pass arguments to a process, Ruby or otherwise? How do the arguments get there? Storimer offers a 1-line Ruby program called argv.rb that we can use to play with the ARGV array:

Mobile Makers, Objective-C, and RubyMotion

This week I enrolled in the iOS Accelerated course offered by the Mobile Makers Academy. If you would like to do the same, mention my name and we’ll both receive a $300 discount on tuition.

Class starts on Jan 7, 2013. The evening lectures are convenient for those who serve clients by day.

Of course, a tuition discount and easy schedule are poor reasons to enroll in a course. This article will describe my reasons for enrolling. If your thirst for learning is anything like mine, you might like Mobile Makers too.

Design and Big Ideas

WisdomGroup is hiring a web design intern. Our current volume of work requires it. The ideal candidate will share our beliefs about design, summarized as…

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. ~Steve Jobs

Great design is functional and inspiring. Autodesk captures the idea in this ad from several years ago:

Ruby on Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer roughly the size of a deck of cards. It’s equipped with an ARM processor that runs Linux. USB ports let you attach a keyboard and mouse. Video is supported via HDMI and RCA. Storage is handled by SD cards. There’s an Ethernet port.

You can buy a Raspberry Pi for $35.00.

Will it Run Ruby?

When my Raspberry Pi arrived, I was curious: Will it run Ruby? How about Rails? This article describes my experience with RVM, Ruby, and Rails on a Raspberry Pi, along with the “gotchas” I encountered along the way.