This is a post in my series “Road to Xcode.” I am currently reading Become An Xcoder by Bert Altenburg, Alex Clarke and Philippe Mougin.

02: No comments? Unacceptable!

There was nothing new going on in this chapter. I was introduced to commenting code. I am actually very familiar with this since I spend some time messing about with CSS/XHTML/PHP. I will sometimes comment over my additions or tweaks to themes and plugins I use in WordPress.

03: Functions

Functions are pretty much where I stopped during my PHP studies. I had a hard time grasping how they were called and how the variables outside the function related to inside the function and returning values. The book hasn’t had me open up Xcode yet, so my playing around with functions and their arguments is non existent at this point. PolyVector has been taking my incessant “why?” very well regarding declaring functions and how the compiler knows where to look etc. I must say I am a little confused on this main() function and why it must be there.

These last chapters were rather short and I am beginning to grow anxious as I near opening up Xcode and my first real encounter with compiling example code. Though these journal entries starting out aren’t full of useful information it is helping me feel not so isolated in my studies.

Being a part of more than one social network that is based on status updates (like that of Twitter, Identi.ca, Plurk, and Jaiku) can get a little burdensome when trying to post updates. Sure you could run a native desktop client for each, but I find that a little tedious as well. My solution as of late (even though I am only a part of three microblogging services) is to use Ping.fm.

Ping.fm is a web based service that supports an enormous amount of social networking sites to post to all at once. I won’t bother naming each service as you can check out what they support right on their front page.

Now if you are like me and don’t dig going to a web site when you want to post updates Ping.fm supplies plenty of ways to get your updates through them out there. I current am updating through their AIM bot, which then send my status update out to all the social networking sites I have added in my Ping.fm Dashboard. You can even post pictures using email.

If you want to give this service a go you can signup, using the beta code “legendofping.” But be warning beta codes get used up fast and I am sure it will end up changing here soon. If you try and sign up and the beta code doesn’t work, go ahead and sound off in the comments and I’ll give an updated beta code it is now in open beta!.

I am extremely happy with the service and it is helping me test out the new comers to the microblogging scene. I still love Twitter and the native Mac OS X client Twitterrific. But curiosity kills me every time and while I try and decide what service I am going to mainly use (right now it is Twitter), Ping.fm helps me not neglect any of my other accounts.