I also use a program called Cronnix to run this script at various intervals the day after the draw (osascript “/Library/Scripts/lotto.scpt”).

lotto.scpt

iGroupChat

You may know that when using iChat over the local network with Bonjour there is no facility for a group chat so I wrote iGroupChat. You type the message and then hit return and the message is sent to everyone in the iChat Bonjour buddy list who’s status is Available. “>>” preceeds the message so people can tell that it is a group message.

We have noticed recently that it is not 100% reliable, some people get missed out – quitting and restart that persons iChat seems to work but I’m not sure why its not working every time.

The idea is quite simple, though I will probably complicate things more than necessary, but here goes . . .

The idea is that all the players connect to a hard drive (or maybe a network server), on this drive is a folder called Poker that contains a number of subfolders. One subfolder is called Deck, this folder contains 52 images of each card in a standard deck. Each player has their own folder in the Players folder, and each players folder contains a Hand folder and a Chips folder. There is also a Community Cards folder which everyone can see.

At the start of a game, chips (image files again) are shared out into everyone’s Chips folder. Then the Deal applescript is run by the dealer, this script first deals two player’s cards to their Hand folder. A round of betting is made by dragging chips into the Pot folder and iChat Bonjour is used to announce what you are betting.

When everyone has bet, the Deal script is run again, this time dealing the first three cards to the Community Cards folder – this is followed by another round of betting.

After all the community cards are dealt and all the bets are made, there is the showdown via iChat, the winner drags the chips from the Pot to their own Chips folder and everyone drags their cards (not forgetting the community cards) back to the Deck ready for another game.

There is a little bit of set up involved. The Deal script needs to be opened in Script Editor and the possiblePlayers property set up with each players name. A folder for each player needs to be set up in Players (the name must match the name in the Deal script), each players folder needs to contain a folder called Hand and a folder called Chips (there is also a script in the Chips folder that can be double clicked and will add up the value of the chips in this folder).

The property theGame needs to be edited to provide the path to the Poker folder (this is an applescript path – /Volumes/ not required). There is another script which updates the name of a file called TOTAL – $0 in the Pot folder with the value of the chips in the pot. This script needs to be moved to /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ and you will need to attach this as a folder action to the Pot folder.

I think that’s about it. Leave a comment if it doesn’t work or if I’ve missed anything and I will try and sort it out. Here’s the download. Enjoy!

Poker.zip (4.1Mb)

I’ve been trying to learn cocoa and have found developers blogs and especially their sample code to be very helpful, so I’ve decided to post my collection of (probably useless to most) scripts and source code.

So you can expect to see a few test projects and scripts posted as soon as I sort through all the crap.

There has been alot of interest lately in an app called iAlertU, an alarm for your MacBook Pro, and a video showing it in action.

I had been working on a similar project for fun and for my own use, however, iAlertU doesn’t currently work with iBooks or PowerBooks, so I thought people might be interested in this.

In the stuffit file is a version for the iBook, a version for the Powerbook and also it’s source (an Xcode project). It may also work on the MacBook Pro, but I am not able to test that.

It differs from iAlertU in that there is obviously no remote activation, though this could be set up to work from a bluetooth phone using an app like the excellent Romeo. To activate the alarm simply double click the icon, to deactivate, quit the app.

Uses motion.c. Copyright Christian Klein.

Click here to download app and source (zipped)
Click here to download app and source (stuffed)

Mac OS X 10.4 Only. Sorry.
And an internet connection is needed.

Download (.zip)
Alternative Download (.sit)
or download the quartz composer file that needs to be dropped into your Library/Screen Savers folder. Then you can go to System Preferences – Desktop and Screensaver and select the iQuotes screensaver.
Download iQuotes.qtz

Please donate to help with my bandwidth and future development.
Thanks.

It has been given a major overhaul and now features a color screen that displays the album art of the currently playing song – just like a real iPod. As before it also displays the name and artist of the current song but now also shows the track number and shows if the song is playing or paused.

You can also now switch shuffle on or off using the middle (select) button and the current shuffle status is displayed in the top left of the iPod’s screen.

A Complete list of new features
A color screen with album art,
Switch Shuffle on and off directly from PodTunesColor
Shuffle icon indicates if shuffle is on or off
Icon in the top left of screen now indicates whether iTunes is playing or paused
Track numbers (eg. 7 of 645) in upper left of screen
Switch the backlight on and off (Menu button)
Tooltips
More readable font
Improved graphics

Let me know if you like PodTunes (or if you don’t) as I am open to suggestions and feedback.

DOWNLOAD

New features include:-

A colour screen
Album artwork on the screen,
Switch shuffle on and off directly from PodTunes,
and more!

Look out for it here or on VersionTracker.

Click play/pause, previous, next – just like you would on your real iPod. The name of the currently playing track, album and artist also appears in the iPod’s display.

There are plenty or widgets that do this, and probably one or two that are in the shape of an iPod, but this is an actual application that stays on your desktop.

This is my first project, written using Applescript Studio. I’d be interested in hearing feedback.

DOWNLOAD