Error installing Cocoapods: xcrun: Error: could not stat active Xcode path…

In a recently purchased Apple Mac Mini, I proceeded to setup my iOS and Mac OS X developer tools & documentation. Although the tools installed fine and I could carry on working with my existing projects, when I choose to install Cocoapods, I encountered the following error –

The nature of the error suggested an issue with the path of Xcode. A quick search in Google revealed a number of useful posts in Stackoverflow, the most relevant post suggested using xcode-select to force the correct path of Xcode.app to be used for Cocoapods installation. I proceeded to install the command line tools for Xcode followed by xcode-select and attempted to install Cocoapods. This time, the Cocoapods installation was quick and successful –

Hope this helps someone else!

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Sydney 2012 Roundup

I had the opportunity to attend the Developer, Developer, Developer Sydney event today (30/June). Other than catching up with people I only met on Twitter (David Burela, John Bristowe, Nick Hodge), catching up with people I have met before (Nick Randolph, David Glover, Brendan Forster, Jose Fajardo) and making new contacts, my main interest was in learning more about Windows 8. I attended sessions focussing on Windows 8 & Windows Azure and Microsoft ASP.NET Web API. Here is a summary of the sessions I attended today, they were all awesome!
Bring your Windows 8 Apps to Life with Push Notifications using Windows Azure by Nick Harris (@cloudnick)

Nick presented on building a Windows 8 C#/XAML application connected to the web. He built a Windows 8 app that used the camera (a webcam connected to his laptop) to take a photo, upload it to Windows Azure & stored as a blob, added geo-location to the photo with a map highlighting where the photo was taken and finally demonstrating how easy it was to implement Tile and Toast Notifications in Windows 8 applications (along with resizing the uploaded photo to fit within a tile). In tandem with the Windows 8 application was a Microsoft ASP.NET Web API application performing tasks such as uploading a photo to Azure Blob Storage, setting up push notifications, etc. Nick showed how to use Shared Access Signature to implement a simple yet powerful access policy for blob storage. Nicks’ talk (silides, recorded video and code) is available for download from – http://www.nickharris.net/2012/06/building-connected-windows-8-apps-with-windows-azure/

Some links relevant to Nick’s talk –

WindowsAzure.Notifications – https://nuget.org/packages/WindowsAzure.Notifications
Windows8.Notifications – https://nuget.org/packages/Windows8.Notifications
WNSRecipe – https://nuget.org/packages/WnsRecipe

ASP.NET Web API – From Web to REST in 60 minutes by Paul Glavich (@glav)

Paul took everyone in a journey through Microsoft’s new ASP.NET Web API. ASP.NET Web API is Microsoft’s attempt to help developers build RESTful APIs with ASP.NET MVC a breeze. Gone are the days when decorating controller methods with “HttpGet”, “HttpPost”, etc was necessary. Paul explained model binding, action parameters, authorization, logging, documenting an API and also building a task parallel API. The 60 minute talk was full of many takeaways! Pauls’ talk is available online from – http://webapidemo.azurewebsites.net, the source code for the talk is available at – https://bitbucket.org/glav/glav.webapidemo. Couple of recent posts by Paul on ASP.NET Web API are really cool, go check them out now!

Some links relevant to Paul’s talk –

ASP.NET Web API – http://www.asp.net/web-api
Getting started with ASP.NET Web API – http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/getting-started-with-aspnet-web-api

Using non Microsoft JS frameworks with Windows 8 by Nick Hodge (@NickHodgeMSFT)

Nick presented a no nonsense, no slide-deck, code only talk on building a Windows 8 app using Javascript and HTML. He showed how the power of Javascript could be used to build a Windows 8 app that functioned like a traditional “desktop” app in existing/older version of Windows. Nick then demonstrated an application built with Rafael Javascript library. John Bristowe then presented on Telerik’s Metro control suite. A great session, with lot of participation from the audience.

Some links relevant to Nick & Johns’ talk –

Rafael Javascript Library – http://raphaeljs.com/
Telerik RadControls for Metro – http://www.telerik.com/products/windows-metro.aspx

Windows 8 Development 101: The basics of XAML and ViewModels by David Burela (@DavidBurela)

David presented on MVVM & ViewModels and how they can used to build a Windows 8 application. In the last 15 minutes, David demonstrated how easy it is to implement internationalization in a Windows 8 application, very cool! David is a regular presenter in various seminars, user groups and conferences, go check out his blog at http://davidburela.wordpress.com/

What I learnt flying BoxKites  My story of Flying with Windows 8 by Brendan Forster (@shiftkey)

Brendan presented on his experiences on building ‘BoxKites’, a Windows 8 application parts of which will be open-sourced soon. The talk covered the basics on editing a copy of a XAML template, adding icons, testing and certification, etc. Overall a very informative and in-depth talk. Contents of the talk is available at – https://github.com/shiftkey/dddsydney

Some links relevant to Brendan’s talk –

BoxKits.Notifications – http://shiftkey.github.com/BoxKite.Notifications/
SyncFusion MetroStudio – http://www.syncfusion.com/downloads/metrostudio

Build a touch first mobile enterprise app using Metro WinJS & MVC by Cassandra Buono (@CBuono)

In the final talk of the day, Cassandra presented on building a Windows 8 Metro application with WinJS and HTML using the MVC pattern in Javascript. First part of the talk covered the UI design of the application in depth, very useful for developers starting on Metro design. Next part of the talk was on using the mydigitalstructure API to build an ERP application. A comparison of jQuery and WinJS and how web development skills can be leveraged to build a Windows 8 Metro app were key takeaways from the talk. Code and presentation from the talk will be available at – http://mydigitalstructure.com/metro.

Some links relevant to Cassandra’s talk –

mydigitalstructure API signup – http://mydigitalstructure.com/gettingstarted_signup

 

 

To wrap up the event on a high note, I was one of the recipients of a Telerik Ultimate collection from a lucky draw! Thank you Telerik and David for the prize. Lewis and his team did a phenomenal job of organizing and running the event. DDD Sydney (and hopefully other cities) will be in my list of “to attend” events.

I have had a hiatus from blogging. While I have been silent, I have worked extensively on building connected applications with Windows Azure & SQL Azure for mobile applications that run on Apple iOS, Google Android and Windows Phone 7. With an explosive June (Azure, Surface, Windows Phone 8, iOS 6, Android announcements), I aim to blog often staring with this post.

Vodafone Australia, Huawei E220 and K3765

After quitting my full-time work career and starting as an independent consultant in May/2007, I started telecommuting on customer engagements. I got a chance to work in my own private space flexibly, in cafes, libraries, Starbucks, sometimes in shopping malls. During the initial days, I had to depend on free Wi-Fi for internet connectivity in my laptop. I slowly started feeling the need of having an internet connection that I could use anywhere I like. Thus began the crusade…

I joined Vodafone Australia in January 2008 on a A$39/month post-paid mobile broadband contract for 24 months. In those days, the Huawei E220 USB dongle (branded Vodafone) felt like a luxury item! Vodafone had a generous 5Gb per month data allowance which was more than sufficient for me over the two years. I was on a direct debit plan on my VISA credit card and everything went well flawlessly for the billing. I did have teething issues with coverage during the two years. Vodafone was working hard to build their own 3G infrastructure in the Sydney Metro area and I acknowledged it by tolerating frequent dropouts, several hours of no connectivity in CBD areas in Sydney, and so on.

In January 2010, the contract expired. I continued using the Huawei E220 and Vodafone kept billing me every month. End of March 2010, I got a call from Vodafone, offering me a 6Gb/month plan at the same price with a new Vodaone K3765 modem on a 24 month contract. While I didn’t really shop around for cheaper/better mobile broadband plans, I had my eye on Telstra’s 3Gb/month mobile broadband plan. While on the phone, I was somehow sold this new contract with the assurance that I do not need to call anyone at Vodafone since I have given the authority to record the conversation which is as good as signing a document. I was told that existing billing details will be ‘carried over’ to the new contract and everything will progress smoothly after I activate the new SIM which will be shipped with a K3765 modem. I received the SIM and the new modem, activated & started using the new connection from April 15. Until the latest VISA credit card bill, I could see Vodafone charging me $39 every month for the mobile broadband service. Yesterday, 9/July, when I tried to connect to internet after plugging in the modem, I got an error popup and Internet Explorer was trying to open an URL – ipc.vodafone.com.au/insufficient_funds.

I called Vodafone customer service, tried my best to get rid of the “friendly” IVR prompts and managed to talk  to someone within the first 10 minutes – thats’ a win, I thought. After completing the identification formalities, I was told that my account has been suspended due to non-payment of charges! I was shocked. The account history showed that I haven’t paid Vodafone since April 15 when I started using the account. I spoke 5 different customer service agents in the 1hr20mins I was on the phone – I got Vodafone to cancel the accounts. Vodafone accepted the fault and advised that $11.60 that I am owed will be credited back to my VISA credit card.

Next, I wanted to check if the E220 modem (which I can use since the contract was over and I have already paid for it) and the K3765 modem will work with another prepaid SIM (I am considering Virgin since they use the Optus network). I started searching on the internet for help with testing whether the modems are locked/unlocked and how to unlock them if they are locked. Through the Whirlpool Australia forums, I found a link to the GSM forums where one could post their IMEI and get an unlock code. A kind soul sent me the unlock code for the K3765, however, I was advised that the E220 can not be unlocked by inserting a unlock code. I did find this link to unlock the E220, but, I was keen to unlock the K3765. I then downloaded the “dc unlocker client” version & installed it in my Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Macbook Pro laptop. I have VMC Lite version 9.4.3.16284 installed when I setup the K3765. I plugged in my E220 I shut down the “MobileConect” and “VMC” services through the task manager and fired up the dc unlocker. dc unlocker detected the E220 and returned – “SIM Lock status     : unlocked”. Next, I inserted the K3765 and repeated the process, this time,  I saw a “SIM Lock status     : Locked (Card Lock)”. With the unlock code for the K3765 ready for use, I started looking for a program to use the unlock code with the K3765. I found this pack from a forum post here. I used the “code.exe” to add the code (after asking it to detect the K3765 in a COM port) and unlock the K3765. Next, I ran dc unlocker and it reported “SIM Lock status     : unlocked”. HURRAY!

Next on – I plan to get a Virgin pre-paid SIM card and use with one of the two unlocked modems, preferably the K3765. I hope by following the steps in this post, I will be able to use one of the two modems and have mobile broadband for my laptop. I’ll post an update on my attempt to use Virgin with the modems.

What I have been up to…

Hello Everyone,

When I started this blog, I was riding a wave – that of WPF, Silverlight, and lot more, developing RIA’s and quick prototypes for several clients. In the subsequent months (January/February 2009), I moved contracts and started focussing more on rapid prototyping of products, usability analysis & graphic design, building web applications with ASP.NET MVC & SQL Server 2005/2008 and couple of months ago, I started working on iPhone application development. It has been such a journey!

There are so many things to blog about – observations, criticisms, lessons learnts, trap & pitfalls of working on the bleeding edge, the list goes on…. I shall try to blog as often as possible, stay tuned for some exciting updates 🙂