Alternatives to Objective-C that target iOS

While some have fun with Objective-C and despite neat features like automatic reference counting I have no deep love for the language.   So I started looking for some alternatives to target iOS devices.  So far my list is very short:

• RubyMotion – based on MacRuby is a Ruby implementation built in Objective-C.  The backend is a LLVM derived compiler that emits iOS native code.
• MonoTouch – from Xamarin, the developers of Mono, it’s a version of C# that targets iOS.  They also have developed Mono for Android so there is the possibility of sharing some code between platforms.
• RoboVM - translates Java bytecode into native ARM or x86.  One advantage RoboVM has over RubyMotion and MonoTouch is that source is available at GitHub robovm/robovm.

WikiPedia has a longer list of platform development environments in a  Mobile application development article.  Also, Simone D’Amico summarizes several cross-platform mobile development SDKs.  Finally, there are some mutterings around about developing with other languages, besides MacRuby,  then emitting iOS binaries via the LLVM middle-end optimizers and LLVM back-end code generators.

SCIgen

I forgot about this one…SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator.   The generated papers are rather fun.

Slashdot Alternatives?

I was a long time Slashdot reader but, in my opinion, the site is on a death spiral since it was sold to corporate overlords.  I’m looking for some alternatives.  So far it seems that Hack A Day,  IEEE Spectrum and OSnews might scratch my geeky news itch.  The Daily WTF can fill in the techy humor gap.
Google Trends shows Slashdot's declining search volume index and, of course, what post like this would be complete without a link to Quit Slashdot.org Today!

Learning From Data course material

Caltech Professor Yaser Abu-Mostafa is allowing online live access to Learning From Data lectures April-May 2012.  The Learning From Data book is available from Amazon.

Technic– Minecraft launcher with mod pack support

Technic - finally a Minecraft launcher with support for some of the big mod packs.  At time of writing it supports: Technic, Tekkit,  Vanilla, VoxelMODPACK, and YogBox.   The only quirk I’ve run into so far is that it requires a 64-bit JRE on 64-bit OSes.

Kid-friendly Multi-Player games (Console)

Another rainy weekend… Tried out several PC oriented games over the last couple weekends with varied success.   This weekend it was time to hit the “bargain bin” at Amazon for “Lego video games” and Zelda for the Wii.

Kid-friendly, Open Source, Multi-Player/LAN games

I was looking for some kid-friendly, free, open source, multi-player/LAN oriented games that will work on Windows and Linux boxes.  Kept having my kids friends show up after school to play online games.  Hopefully, this will spark some interest in “how” the games were made.  My main criteria were: support multi-player; multi-computer - prefer LAN server over Internet server;  and most-important a low initial learning curve.  I wanted a mix of: real-time and turn-based; 2D and 3D.
Here’s a few that I’ve installed.  I still have to see how the group responds  to the games :

• Armagetron – real-time Tron light-cycle arena clone in 3D.
• Bitfighter –  real-time 2D space combat game with dual-axes controls.
• BZFlag – real-time 3D tank battle game.  This one can be a bit frantic.
• Domination – turn-based 2D “risk” like strategy game that supports alternative world maps.
• Hedgewars -  turn-based 2.5D strategy, artillery, action and comedy game.
• Scorcehed3D -  turn-based 3D artillery game.
• WarMUX -  turn-based 2D Worms-like game.

Here are some that I might try.  Depends on how the games above work out:

• Aeron – a combat flight simulator.
• Freeciv -  turn-based civilization like game.
• FreeCol – turn-based strategy game like civilization.
• JSettlers2 – web-based version of Settlers of Catan.
• SuperTuxKart – a kart racing game that supports up to four players on one PC. Unfortunately, no LAN play at this time.

If you are looking for a streamlined way to find and install other open source games check out the games available via PortableApps.com and the Game Downloader.