Idle Time

This is a roll-up measuring tape that tucks neatly into my wallet, mostly so that I can compare sizes of products in the store without having to buy them or go find a ruler.

Photos:

In case you’re wondering about the pattern of the mm markings, I borrowed it from this New Zealand ruler that Dave posted about.

If I were to assemble this again, I would glue the “tape” to the other end of the handle, so that I can unroll the tape from left to right using my right hand. If you’re left-handed, you might prefer to assemble yours the same way I did assemble mine.

There are two four five six development conferences coming up this fall:

• First, there’s iPhone/iPad DevCon in San Diego on September 28 and 29.
• Voices That Matter is having a second iPhone development conference this year, on October 16 and 17 in Philadelphia. The usual $100-off coupon code, PHBLOGS, applies.
• SecondConf, sort of a replacement for the late C4, is October 22–24 in Chicago.
• MacTech is also holding a conference this year, November 3–5 in Universal City (near Hollywood).
• 360|iDev is November 7–10 in Austin.
• 360|MacDev is December 10 and 11 in Denver.

Here’s an iCalendar file of these events.

The cheapest conference is 360|MacDev, at $300 ($200 with early-bird pricing). The second-cheapest is Voices That Matter, costing $395 with the coupon and early-bird pricing. SecondConf is a little more expensive, at $449, and 360|iDev is a little more expensive than that, at $599. The iPhone/iPad DevCon is hard to compare; it’s either the most expensive at $1395 ($1065 with early-bird pricing) or the least expensive at free, depending on which kind of ticket you get. Ignoring the DevCon, MacTech’s conference is the most expensive at $899, but is also the broadest, consisting of development (both Mac and iOS) plus an IT track.

I will not be at the Voices That Matter conference, SecondConf, the DevCon, or 360|iDev (I’m still not an iPhone/iPad developer), nor 360|MacDev (too far), but I will be at the MacTech conference. In fact, I’ll be presenting.

My presentation, intended for new Cocoa and Cocoa Touch developers, will be a demonstration of what various kinds of bugs look like in Cocoa and Cocoa Touch applications, along with how to hunt down and fix those bugs.

Whichever conference you go to, have fun, and if you’re coming to the MacTech conference, I hope to meet you there.

UPDATE 2010-09-10: Added SecondConf and iPhone/iPad DevCon (thanks to Jeff in the comments for telling me about the latter).

UPDATE 2010-09-11: Added 360|iDev after its organizers followed me on Twitter. Five conferences in seven weeks—maybe some of you could get together and consolidate next year? And again a few minutes later: And 360|MacDev, making six in 11 weeks.