Author: Mark

Mark is an American computer programmer living in Switzerland.

Space 1979

This was the year when the full initial wave of LEGO Space sets was released worldwide. As a child I had at least 3 of these sets.

 

Space Shuttle (442)

Small two-seater open ship.

Features: Single white astronaut, room for 2, dual steering wheels, jets, positioning thrusters, computer, laser gun, and antenna.

Thoughts: Simple, swooshable. I had this set as a child.


 

Mobile Ground Tracking Station (452)

Features: White astronaut, doors in back swing open to reveal a computer terminal, rotating sensor array, and trailer with radar dish,

Thoughts: Another of my childhood sets. I 💛 mobile lab sets – something about the intersection of exploration and science. The use of hinge bricks plus tile to create the moving doors made a big impression on me.

Errata: The 2 clear dishes up top should be transparent clear minifig shields, but they’re quite expensive so I did without.



 

Galaxy Explorer (497)

LL928: Flagship of Classic Space: largest of 3 early enclosed spaceships.

Features: Large ship with opening cockpit and rear compartment, rover, small base with radar dish, four astronauts, landing plate and a crater plate.

Thoughts: This thing had it all. 🚀 One of my favorite sets as a child – I could build it again and again. I believe this was the only ship to come with 2 base plates. Really just one of a few sets ever to come with 2 base plates. Also maybe the only ship to come with a small base (future ships came with deployable rear modules that could be considered bases).



 

Space Scooter (885)

Small flying wedge

Features: Transparent dark blue round bricks stuck in a fence for engines, red astronaut, antenna, and a slope printed with the Classic Space logo.

Thoughts: One of the smallest Classic Space sets. Maybe too simple.



 

Space Buggy (886)

Space Jeep!

Features: A small rover with antenna, astronaut, and a laser gun

Thoughts: The other smallest Classic Space set. . That gun was my favorite piece! This vehicle appeared in almost the same form in the Galaxy Explorer (497) and Beta-I Command Base (6970).



 

Radar Truck (889)

Features: Small truck with movable radar dish and a red astronaut.

Thoughts: Not particularly exciting, but a solid little vehicle. Bonus points for the laser gun.



 

One Man Space Ship (918)

LL918: Little brother to the Galaxy Explorer. Smallest of 3 fully enclosed early spaceships.

Features: Red astronaut, opening cockpit, storage in the rear.

Thoughts: This was about as small a ship as you could make in 1979 and yet be fully enclosed. Unlike its two larger siblings, the rear does not split open on hinge bricks. The printed control piece was originally used as oven dials! Despite its small size it still merited its own pair of printed model number bricks, the last space set to do so.

Wrap-Up

These seven sets together with the four sets from 1978 compose the initial wave of LEGO Space sets. (I’m not counting minifigure packs nor base plate packs. I’m also excluding duplicates where the same set was released under different numbers.)

Next up: Space 1980!

Space 1978

This was the debut year for LEGO Space. According to Brickset there were 4 sets released in North America in late 1978. I’m fairly certain that I received the Alpha-1 Rocket Base for Christmas 1978, so that seems about right to me. On to the sets!

 

Mobile Rocket Launcher (462)

Features: Two astronauts, vehicle, trailer, rocket, computer console, and a radar dish for tracking.

Thoughts: Simple yet functional. LEGO would iterate on the mobile rocket launcher concept several times. This first rocket was fragile and couldn’t even be removed from the launcher without taking it apart (unless you flew it with the gray bracket in the middle).



 

Alpha-1 Rocket Base (483)

My first LEGO Space set!

Features: Rocket, movable gantry, fuel truck, control center with upper and lower computer banks, radar for tracking, and three astronauts on a crater plate.

Thoughts: 💙💛 The fueling station is a nice touch as are the hoses on the fuel truck. The hardest parts for me to acquire were the hoses and the blue taps.

That radar array looks pretty awesome in profile. It could easily be a weapons emplacement.

Unlike the Mobile Rocket Launcher, this rocket at least could be launched without disassembly, but it was still quite fragile. It was also pretty wobbly in its base and prone to being knocked over.



 

Space Cruiser (487)

LL924: Mid-sized enclosed spaceship.

Features: Two astronauts, landing pad, forklift, and spaceship with movable cockpit roof, cargo doors in rear to access a storage area that fits a small crate, and seating for two.

Thoughts: I 💙 the forklift and crate! This might be one of the smaller sets to include a landing plate. I wish more sets included baseplates. I appreciate that the first three enclosed space ships each contained a pair of bricks printed with the model number (LL924) – that’s another thing LEGO doesn’t do any more.

Errata: The forklift piece is supposed to be all light gray not gray and black. The correct piece is hard to source and too expensive.

Moveable roof and seating for two

Small crate (using a car door piece from LEGO Town sets)

 

Command Center (493)

The first space base. The earliest versions shipped with a brick-built crater because the crater plates weren’t yet ready.

Features: Open floor plan, two ground vehicles, four astronauts, radar dishes, tv antennas, and lots of yellow windows all on an iconic crater plate.

Thoughts: LL2079! I assume that this means LEGO Space is set in the year 2079, which would suggest that 1979 was their targeted launch year.

LL2079 and a space scene on this large printed brick. The astronauts had to take off their packs to sit in the chairs, but at least the chairs provide built-in storage!

Wrap-up

That’s it for the initial wave of sets from 1978. Really, I consider the 1978-1979 sets to all belong to a single wave – these just happened to ship a bit earlier in the U.S.A.

Next up: Space 1979. Onward to the future!

The LEGO Space Project

LEGO was my favorite toy as a child. That lasted up until the point that I discovered video games and computers. My favorite LEGO theme was Space (now referred to as “Classic Space”) although I only ever had a few early sets from 1978 to 1980.

Last year I discovered the websites Brickset and BrickLink. For the uninitiated both sites catalog pretty much every LEGO set ever released. Brickset has user reviews, links to online instructions, and nicer set images. BrickLink has comprehensive part inventories for every set as well as a worldwide marketplace of people with parts or sets for sale. All of a sudden I could not only find the name of some set I had always wanted as a child, but could find a way to buy it (or the parts needed to build it) and obtain the building instructions!

The set that started all this interest was a 1980 set that I had seen in catalog pages and really wanted. I had even saved up money and gone to toy stores to buy it, but never found it in stock. That set was Mobile Lab (6901). The transparent green windows and the articulated arm ending in a shovel/scoop fascinated me. It all looked so futuristic and scientific.

Well, thirty six years later I finally picked up that LEGO set and it did not disappoint. All these intervening years I never knew what else LEGO did with its Space theme after 1980. I was unaware of the golden age of LEGO space from 1987-1993 when new sub themes were introduced that were arguably better than anything produced during the “Classic Space” period of 1978-1987.

I enjoy sharing these older sets with my son who is now the same age as I was when my interest in LEGO was at its peak. Today’s sets offer many new parts and colors as well as content from licensed themes (superheroes, Star Wars, etc), but I appreciate the simplicity and design of these earlier sets that perhaps left more to the imagination.

I’ve decided to try and build all the LEGO Space sets that interest me in chronological order by release year. That will be every space set from 1978 through 1999 – over 2 decades of LEGO Space.

Update: I’ve been posting photos and a short 140-character synopsis of each set to Twitter as I build them, but I will also do a blog post with each year’s sets.

First Stop: Space 1978
Then:
Space 1979
Space 1980
Space 1981
Space 1982
Space 1983
Space 1984
Space 1985
Space 1986
Space 1987
Space 1988
Space 1989
Space 1990
 
To Be Continued…

Thoughts on iPhone 7 Plus

Four months ago I replaced my iPhone 6S with an iPhone SE. I loved the idea of the SE: the best features of the 6S with the form factor of the 5/5S for $250 less. Why did I switch? Well, there are a few things I’ve never liked about the 6-series phones compared to the 5-series:

  1. Slippery rounded sides
  2. Power button opposite the volume buttons. I find it very difficult to press the power button without also pressing volume up (and vice versa).
  3. Redesign of the volume buttons

Specifically with the iPhone 6S (especially after a year with the 6 Plus), I was disappointed with its anemic battery life. Not a deal breaker as I can charge at my desk and in my car, but not great either. I never really got into 3D Touch, so I didn’t miss not having it on the SE. The faster Touch ID on the 6S was actually an annoyance to me with iOS 9 and the difficult to press side-mounted power button.

So I was happy to give the SE a try. I enjoyed the fun pink (rose gold) color. The battery life was much better. Mostly I just appreciated the return to the easy-to-grip 5-series form factor. I’ve been very pleased with the SE.

I’m an iOS developer and I tend to focus on UI, so of course I was going to get a 7-series phone eventually. The questions were: (1) which model, and (2) would it replace my SE as my daily driver.

The dual lens camera system available only in the 7 Plus, pretty much decided both those questions. I waited until the SIM-free unlocked phones were available in the U.S. before placing an order, so I only received my 7 Plus this week.

Impressions So Far

  • The matte black color is gorgeous. I’d love to see this color on watches, iPads, and MacBooks.
  • I enjoy having a 5.5″ screen back after a year away.
  • I 💜 the new home button. It feels great.
  • The rounded sides are still slippery and the power button is still not easy to use
  • 2x camera mode is great. Zooming up to 10x is handy. I love the new zoom interface.
  • This is my first 128 GB phone. I could get used to this! 32 GB is now out of the question for me if I am to use the device for more than just testing.
  • 👍

Why so serious?

This morning at breakfast my wife and I were casually discussing the hypothetical question: “What possession of your partner’s would you like to throw away?”. Typically the answer might be that beat-up recliner left over from college days or an old, ratty (but much beloved) t-shirt. Our 7 year-old son, though interpreted the question differently and asked, “Mommy, wouldn’t you like to get rid of Daddy’s seriousness?”

That really took me aback. What, me serious? Why just last night while my wife was working late in the office, my son and I had a video game and ice-cream party at home. We even made an ice-cream run so that we could have seconds, and we went crazy with the sprinkles and toppings. How could he say I was serious, while my wife was the fun one?

A bit of background: my wife and I both work and we both take our work very seriously. While we may not be workaholics, we probably come close, and at a minimum we are both quite passionate about what we do. If anything, I think my wife is more serious at work than I am. Not that she’s mean or anything, far from it, it’s just that she expects the same competency and diligence from her colleagues that she demands from herself, and has little patience for ineptitude or lack of effort. The main difference I think is that while my wife works in an office, I have been working from home for the past 12 years.

I love working from home, and it would take a lot to convince me to return to an office full-time. I have worked from home for our son’s entire life, so for him that’s how the world works: mommy works in an office, and daddy works at home. But a downside that I hadn’t really considered before today is that this means that our son is exposed to my business side on an almost daily basis. I think many people who don’t work at home, imagine that the biggest challenge to working at home would be to remain focused and continue to work instead of spending all day goofing off. Perhaps that’s the case for most people. For me though, the problem is exactly the opposite: learning to leave work behind and have more life in my work-life balance.

My work-life balance issues have been compounded by the fact that for the past 2.5 years or so, I’ve been working harder than ever. I decided at the beginning of 2012 that I really wanted to get better at being an iOS developer, and began taking extra steps to achieve that goal. That meant that on top of my full-time development job I would write blog posts, work on open-source projects, read technical books and blogs, watch technical videos, work on the occasional consulting project, and work on conference presentations (create the talk, make slides, write sample code, and practice the talk). All of the above has already paid off for me: I feel I’ve improved at a much faster rate over the past 2 years than over the previous decade. It has brought me 2 jobs that have each improved my work satisfaction and additional consulting work which has done the same. But the cost has been many weeks of early mornings, late nights, and weekends spent coding instead of enjoying my family.

One of the things I love most about working from home is the flexibility it brings. Being there (almost) every day when my son arrives home from school is priceless. It’s the perfect time to take a break, head downstairs, get a hug and ask him how his day at school was. But somedays if I happen to be in the middle of a conference call or am deeply focused on a difficult task with a critical deadline looming, I can’t take that break, and if my son comes up to tell or ask me something, he glimpses my serious, focused side, and depending on what’s going on (e.g. conference call with a client) I may hardly be able to acknowledge his presence let alone have the conversation he wishes to have with me.

Why so serious?

This morning was definitely a wakeup call for me. I’m sure I’ll never be able to “throw away my seriousness”, but I can make an effort to not think about work outside of work hours, and to take every opportunity to appreciate and enjoy my wife and our son. After all, if I can’t take advantage of the flexibility that working at home affords me, then what’s the point? Kids grow up so fast that I need to savor every precious moment.

Speaking of which, it’s Memorial Day weekend and our pool has just opened for the season. It’s high time to close my laptop and go have some fun.

 

 

Device orientation vs interface orientation

Just today I got bit by confusing device orientation and interface orientation. I really should know better. Device orientation is of course the orientation that the device is currently being held in, while interface orientation is the orientation of the running app’s user interface.

What I was trying to do was to hide the status bar while in landscape mode and show it in portrait mode for an iPhone app that operates in the 3 principal orientations: portrait, landscape left, and landscape right.

To achieve that I was using code like this:

#pragma mark - Status Bar

- (BOOL)prefersStatusBarHidden
{
    return (UIDeviceOrientationIsLandscape([[UIDevice currentDevice] orientation]));
}

#pragma mark - Orientation

- (void)willAnimateRotationToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration
{
    [super willAnimateRotationToInterfaceOrientation:toInterfaceOrientation duration:duration];
    
    [self setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate];
}

This works fine at first blush, especially in the simulator, but not so well in practice. First off, the app doesn’t even support all 4 possible interface orientations (the fourth being upside down portrait), so what happens when the phone is held upside down? Well the interface orientation doesn’t change from its previous orientation (most likely landscape) but the device orientation is not landscape and so the status bar appears. Bug.

But even worse, there are additional device orientations (namely face up and face down) that are neither portrait nor landscape and have no matching interface orientation. If the phone was last in landscape interface orientation and then gets laid flat on the desktop, the device orientation is no longer landscape (it is flat), and so the status bar appears. Bug again.

Just for the record, here’s the definition of UIDeviceOrientation:

typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, UIDeviceOrientation) {
    UIDeviceOrientationUnknown,
    UIDeviceOrientationPortrait,            // Device oriented vertically, home button on the bottom
    UIDeviceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown,  // Device oriented vertically, home button on the top
    UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft,       // Device oriented horizontally, home button on the right
    UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight,      // Device oriented horizontally, home button on the left
    UIDeviceOrientationFaceUp,              // Device oriented flat, face up
    UIDeviceOrientationFaceDown             // Device oriented flat, face down
};

And here’s the definition for UIInterfaceOrientation:

typedef NS_ENUM(NSInteger, UIInterfaceOrientation) {
    UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait           = UIDeviceOrientationPortrait,
    UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown = UIDeviceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown,
    UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft      = UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight,
    UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight     = UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft
};

It’s interesting that UIInterfaceOrientation is defined in terms of UIDeviceOrientation.

TL;DR;

So what I should have been doing was this:

#pragma mark - Status Bar

- (BOOL)prefersStatusBarHidden
{
    return (UIInterfaceOrientationIsLandscape([[UIApplication sharedApplication] statusBarOrientation]));
}

This works as expected when the device is upside down or flat.

LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar 2013 in Pictures

This is the 3rd year in a row that I’ve gotten the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar for my (now 7 year old) son. Each day is either a mini-figure, accessories, or a micro-scale model. It makes each morning in December a lot of fun. Every year I take pictures of each day’s build using my current iPhone. This year I used the iOS 7 Camera.app on my iPhone 5S. Previously I had used Instagram to take square photos. It’s interesting to see the evolution of the iPhone camera (and Camera.app) over the years. For these types of photos (indoor, still-life macros) the 5S is a minor improvement only over the 5, but a major improvement over the 4S camera.

Previous Year

2012