Why so serious?
After my exercise in how to create 3D screenshots in Halo 3, I decided I wanted a bigger challenge. Having recently acquired an iPhone, I realized it was a handy device on which one could view their stats. The only problem was that Bungie's stats site isn't tailored for the tight confines of Apple's touch-screen phone.

It was time to flex my programming muscles.

After a couple of months of feverish work, I can proudly present iHaloStats, a webapp for viewing Halo 3 stats on the iPhone.

You can reach it at www.ihalostats.com. To quote my somewhat uninspired copy posted in Apple's online webapps directory: "iHaloStats: Check a player’s vital Halo 3 statistics, including service record, medals, weapon use, and rank history. All the important information at your fingertips."

If you're not on an iPhone you can point any browser at site, but it should be noted that the experience was customized for the iPhone version of Safari and other browsers may not render it faithfully. Internet Explorer refuses to display it and Firefox doesn't support some of the nice CSS 3 elements like drop shadows, rounded borders, and color transparency.

But enough talk. Let's see some screenshots using Director of Programming for Xbox Live Larry Hyrb's gamertag, "Major Nelson", as an example:


iHaloStats About Page

iHaloStats About Page (Landscape)
All pages display in portrait or landscape orientation.

iHaloStats Find Player
This is how you search for a player's stats.

iHaloStats Service Record
The Service Record gives a breakdown of vital stats.

The navbar can be "scrolled" left or right by tapping the appropriate arrow button, revealing more options.

iHaloStats Service Record (Landscape)
In landscape the navbar orients vertically.

iHaloStats Service Record Popup
Many elements can be tapped to bring up further stats. On the Service Record page, medals, pins, and the player portrait can be tapped (shown here) to display detailed information.

The rest of the navbar buttons can also be seen in this shot.

iHaloStats Medal Chest
The Medal Chest shows various awards and their count. Drop down selectors display medals for ranked, social, or campaign, and on a map by map basis.

iHaloStats Medal Chest (Landscape)

iHaloStats Medal Chest Popup
Medals can be tapped to bring up additional information.

iHaloStats Weapon Stats
The Weapon Stats page shows the number of kills with each weapon and the percentage of use. Drop down selectors display stats for ranked or social, and on a map by map basis.

iHaloStats Weapon Stats (Landscape)

iHaloStats Weapon Stats Popup
Weapons can be tapped to bring up additional information.

iHaloStats Rank History
The Rank History page shows the rank progression of the player.

iHaloStats Rank History (Landscape)

iHaloStats Rank History Popup
Rank insignias can be tapped to display additional information.


Visit www.iHaloStats.com to check it out. Feedback can be sent to MasterChief@iHaloStats.com. You can also check out the iHaloStats blog at www.iHaloStats.net to keep tabs on the latest changes, etc.
The latest firmware patch to the iPhone ads the ability to display lyrics. Of course, you have to provide these yourself, but it's a start. I found iLyrics to be useful in this task (it downloads lyrics from LyricWiki.org)--it's not the prettiest application, but it does a decent enough job.

Lyrics on the iPhone/iPod!
Crap, I suck at remembering birthdays! Happy Trogday, S is For Sucks Dragon!
A recipe for disaster:

Year old butter + Box of Kraft's finest = Skunky Mac & Cheese.

Buh.

I was so very hungry that I didn't trust the first awful bite. Maybe it was me. Maybe I was tired. But the second confirmed it. Also, my tongue felt vaguely numb.

That'll teach me not to buy more butter.

Still, there's nothing quite so disheartening as a food disappointment. I didn't know what I wanted for dinner when I made my quick shopping trip but the comfort of the old classic called to me (besides, when have the Canadians been wrong about anything?) So, you can imagine I was quite crestfallen (you heard me) when it turned out to be inedible.

Sigh.

I made up for it with a nice tasty bowl of oatmeal (with milk, cause water is for wimps and hobos). It hit the spot, and the extra heaping spoonful of brown sugar helped to ease my pain. Even still, I don't think I'll ever shake the feeling that somehow I was cheated a meal. Someone, somewhere, owes me a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

With fresh butter this time, of course.
I continue my adventures in assuring that I don't own a damned MP3 that doesn't have album art.

Sometimes iTunes has a very weird idea of what the right album art is. For instance, check out the picture accompanying this post. Guess what CD it thought it was appropriate for? Just guess. You'll never get it...

The Lord of the Rings Soundtrack.

Maybe there's a Bollywood version of Tolkien's epic that I am not familiar with.
It's like, what, six days into 2008, and I haven't wished everyone a Happy New Year.

Sorry.

Bad human.

So yea, Happy Happy and all that good stuff. I made no resolutions this year, cause let's be honest, that's all bullshit.

2007 was a decent enough year, so here's hoping 2008 is even better. Though, we got a big snowstorm the first day of the year, and not too long ago I dumped an entire can of pop in my lap, so that doesn't bode well...

© 2007 Kato Katonian
"I'm glad to be with you, here at the end of all things."
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