Blog | Fluidic | John

Another Day Another Year

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:43:34 -0400

That's all I got.

Newest Version of Calc

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:37:19 -0400

So I put up a new version of Calc. I have been upgrading it for the last couple of weeks, but the tool I use to create my site wasn't using the latest version. So I guess I have to manually upload a version each time I do a release build. So enjoy.

New Kitty Tomorrow

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:22:10 -0400

Well tomorrow, I get my new kitty from the humane society. I have been pet free for over 1 year and a half. So two days ago, I finally stopped making excuses. I went to humane society and picked out my new cat. Her name is Erida cause when I was holding her she just cried and cried. So it reminded me of the Illiad cause her screams drove me to hate. So her name is the goddess of hate.

Worried that my new white leather couch will be the new scratching post. So I have figure out what to do about my furniture. I figured that first thing is declawing. Then a water gun.

Once I get her home, I will put up lots of pictures. Check back later.

New Loft

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:00:24 -0400

Well, I finally think we are at the bottom of the real estate market in Florida. So I decided to purchase a loft in the building that I'm renting. The new loft is exactly like the loft I'm living in now, so I don't get that new,fresh feeling. However, I already love my place, so why change something that I love.

I will be moving around the end of June 2008 and since I'm a minimalist, it should pretty quickly. Also, I'm in the same building, so this will be a snap to move.

Security Now and audio files

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:35:55 -0400

A couple of shows ago, Leo and Steve were looking for a way to download all pass Security Now podcasts. So I created a simple one line CURL command to do that. I twittered the command to Leo, and he mentioned "me" on the eposide #142.

So here is the command.

curl --output "SecurityNow-#1.mp3" "http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/sn/SN-[001-100].mp3"

Added Twitter

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:49:12 -0400

Well now you can see my Twitter posts on my blog. I'm using Twitter more and more since it really works like my brain does. I have streams of thought, but not really long thoughts. So tweets work for me.

New pictures from my Colorado trip

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:12:26 -0400

I have upload my pictures from the February 2008 ski trip to Colorado.

No more niceness in the world

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:23:32 -0400

Nice is dead. Being supportive is dead. Doing the right thing....that's right dead.

At an old age of 37, I'm more confused over humanity than ever. With people thinking more and more "what's in it for me," I'm done trying to be the righteous person. I'm not talking religious righteous, just a do to others person. Well the hell with it.

I'm done trying to make sure others are supported, others are happy, and others get their needs fill. If its not good for me, then it doesn't get done. I'm not going to be last in the non-ending queue anymore.

Fun, senseless movie

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:39:12 -0500

OK, It has been forever since I wrote anything. So you know that this must be something special. Well its not. Just something I saw tonight.

Using my AppleTV 2, I rented "Shoot'em Up." If you like movies with guns, sex scenes, and sex scenes with guns, then this is the movie to watch. It stars Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, and the very hot Monica Bellucci. But who cares. You're not watching it for the stars ( well you are for Ms. Bellucci ), but for the violence. And there is plenty of it.

Now I could go on for hours about the plot, the acting, and the drama. Again who cares. He kills someone with a carrot. Twice. Well two different people. I mean you can't be killed twice. Unless you are a living dead.....

Anyways, put the kids to bed, and go rent this movie. It will make you laugh and laugh. You are even going to love the villain.

New Version of Calc

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:35:17 -0500

Just a quick note. I did a really small upgrade to my Calc application. I just added ToThePower (^) operator. So now you can handle "2 raised to the 32nd power" (2 32 ^).

Download

More Microsoft Screwing Me

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:35:57 -0500

OK, this blog is going to sound like I hate Microsoft. And I guess I'm starting to hate some of software since I'm using more Windows software now that I'm at a new position. Previously I wrote about their SSIS loading software. Again, Microsoft pushes a "standard" that wasn't broken.

Adobe product, PDF, has become the de facto standard for page document format. Basically, PDF will be exactly like a page if you had printed the document on a printer. On the Mac operating system, PDF remains centrals to all printing operations. When I print something, I can select a printer, save to PDF, or save to another application.

I have a database with all my notes, PDF, passwords, and other life snippets. The software is called Yojimbo. So as an example is having a website page that I want to save. I just paid a bill online, and I need a copy of the payment confirmation. On my mac, I can print to Yojimbo, and the operating system creates a PDF file, and lets Yojimbo about the PDF. Yojimbo takes the PDF and adds the PDF to the database. Perfect workflow.

Now, what does all this have to do with Microsoft. Well, Microsoft has decided to create a new PDF type markup language for Windows. The new format is called XPS. Why? XPS doesn't really bring anything great to the table of document sharing. I can send a PDF to anyone, and they can see it. No problem. I had to print a soft copy of a website on Internet Explored 7. However, no PDF print option just XPS option. OK, I thought, I'm sure there are a plethora of converters. But not for Mac. So much for a portable document format.

So again, Microsoft again doesn't want to play with other companies. They say develop for our platform, but if you have a hit, then we are going to bring out our own product.

SSIS and medieval times. Somethings still work.

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:14:57 -0500

I'm a Mac user. However, in the enterprise space of data loading and analysis, Windows remains the platform of choice. I spend time equally among Unix, Windows, and Macs. Its all good, since I love technology.

So at my new position, we use Microsoft Sql Server as our database. Not really that bad for a database. And the price stays low. With a Sql Server license, we get a product called Integration Services, SSIS. Free.

In medieval times when an enemy was laying siege to a stronghold, the enemy would catapult rotting corpses over the castles walls. This would cause healthy citizens and solders to contract diseases. Slowly this tactic destroys the people trying to defend the city.

Today, this tactic is being used with SSIS. Using bundled and free software, Microsoft is hurling rotting pieces of software in to the enterprise. Hoping that this software will take root, Microsoft can then expect yearly license renewals.

And don't get me started with SharePoint. If I could get relevant results from the SharePoint's search it might be useful. But nope I never do.

[Edit: Tuesday; November 27, 2007 1:08:57 PM ]

OK, I didn't think this rant required a new entry. So I figured I would just edit this post about SSIS.

There is a concept in SSIS called expressions that you can set properties of a task using mathematical or logic expressions. Except in a mode called data flow. What the hell. Its like selling a car with the caveat of 'doesn't work in downtown area cause of one way streets.'

Data Flows have a lot of SQL in them, and expressions would make it easy for dynamic queries. Nope. You have to use a variable, then you can use expressions. But if you are in control flow, and you use a Execute SQL task, then you have an expression available to you. It feels like SSIS is just a Frankenstein monster that Microsoft just throw together.

My New Desk

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:54:44 -0500

I finally finished my new desk. The entire desk design was stolen, I mean borrowed, from the internet site. Using Kee Klamps and PVC I was able to create a unique desk that is usable.

The great thing about this desk is that I can take it apart to add anything I want. If I need a wider desk, I have to replace 3 pipes and the top. If I need a deeper desk, just the top goes away. If I want to completely new design, use the same Kee Klamps and new PVC pipe.

This is by far the best desk I have ever owned.

October 29, a Day in Infamy.

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:07:29 -0400

Nothing special to say to everyone. Just wanted to add something that only has meaning for me.

Core Values

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:50:08 -0400

A long time ago, I told myself "My core values define me." I believe that your values create your personality and how you interact with everything around you. Never, and I mean never, allow someone to convince you to bend your core values. These are you; hence core. It would be like removing your arm. Sure you could do that, but now you are only a part of your former self.

Someone tested my core values, and instead of listen to my values, I listen to the "professional." I was told that sometimes there are shades of grey within core values. No! And the exclamation point is not there for looks. The values are yours and not anyone else's. If you abandon them or even bend them, you are hurting and damaging yourself.

Now my values are being tested again. Again, I was told that I had to make concessions to have the "problem" go away. Even though I believe that I shouldn't make any type of concessions, I did. Again, I lost sight of my values, and I am getting hammered from it. Today I decided what I believe in and what I'm willing to do. I am willing to be me again and not someone I hate. Sure this change in direction will cause issues, I am willing to live with those new issues.

It's not worth losing yourself. Keep yourself intact and never forgot you. In the race, you will look back and smile. You will know that you believed in yourself and your values. That is what matters.

iWork and Numbers

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:34:10 -0400

As most of you know, Apple brought out a new application in their iWork suite, Numbers. Numbers is the new spreadsheet application for the Mac, and in grand style of Apple, the application looks will take your breath away. Spreadsheets ooze boring and ugly. These two words cling to other spreadsheet applications but not Numbers.

Most spreadsheets contain rows and columns. This grid layout accomplish what spreadsheets should: calculations. Nothing really sexy about that. However, Numbers takes a little different approach. Envision a page sheet of paper. Maybe in the left corner of the page, you place a spreadsheet with 5 rows and 6 columns. Now in the bottom of the page you have a different spreadsheet with 5 rows and 20 columns. Lastly in the top right corner you have a simple graph summarizing the spreadsheets. Each of these elements are independent of each other.

Take a look at Numbers and iWork. For $79 for the entire suite, the price forces even accountants to stand up and cheer.

Use it!

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:11:00 -0400

Everyone deals with pain at one point of their live. Just know this. Use the pain for two things. First, learn from it. Second, use it to drive and push you. You will make pain work for you, and you will come out stronger.

Iphone update

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:12:16 -0400

OK I have used my iPhone now for over a week. My reaction? The best phone I have ever owed. Head and shoulders (not the shampoo ) above ever other phone I have owed or tried. There are a few things that I am hard core picky about: woman, computers, software, sportbikes, and phones. That is not in any order except woman are #1.

Ok, now what I HATE about the phone. First and foremost, the ring-tones. For some reason Apple decided to separate the ring-tones and ipod music as separate items. Why? To me it is the sign of greed. I can already feel the ATT hands in this "feature." Tech wise, there is not an excuse for the separation. My 4 year old Sony MP3 phone allowed any mp3 to be your ring-tone. I don't have a problem with selling ring-tones. If people want to purchase ring-tones, they should. But for people like me that will never purchase ring-tone, Apple should have allowed any music file to be my ring-tone.

Second, SMS messaging doesn't allow me to receive or send pictures.

Third, I can only SMS a single message to a single person. I would like to send one message to multiple people. That way I can get all my friends to the party place.

Forth, crashes. Safari and YouTube applications keep crashing. Now, I'm not an Apple apologist, but this should get better over time.

Apple iPhone

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:48:13 -0400

Well I purchased a n iPhone from Apple. I didn't think I would be a lemming and purchase one of these heavy priced gadgets. But I did needed to play with a gadget that even my mother knew about.

OK, my experience in getting one. First I'm a geek, not an idiot; I'm not waiting in any line. I just won't do it. I hate 5 minute lines at the supermarket, so there is no way I'm going to sit around in a line at my Apple store. To remedy this, I just went to the store on Saturday at around 2:00 pm. The store's iPhones received all the eye balls in the store. People stroking and molesting the gadgets, and this included myself. For the next 2 hours, I took many iPhones for a spin. What I found, was amazing. The examples on TV accurately shows the capabilities of the phone.

So I'm sitting (well standing ) there waiting an iPhone. Then it hit me. I needed an excuse for purchasing this gadget of the gods. Wait, June 29 was my birthday. I completely forgot to get me something. I felt terrible. So I ran to the card store and found a belated birthday card. Then back to the Apple Store to purchase the gift for the birthday boy.

It was DejaVu. Wasn't I here just a few minutes ago. Well I dismissed this feeling and approached an Apple employee. I told him about my birthday mistake. He asked me which version do i need, and I told him the 8gig would do well. Within 3 minutes I was out the door with my new iPhone and case. 3 minutes! Lines are for suckers.

So far the phone is great. The ipod is great. The browser is great if you are on a wifi connection. On Edge network its way too slow but useable in a pinch. Mail is great. YouTube rocks in you are on wifi.

Well I will put more about the phone with pictures on a later day. I'm leaving now to watch fireworks with friends. Good luck.

Saddest TV Show

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:27:37 -0400

Well, I just got home from dinner, and I started watching some TV. While flipping through the HD channels, I ran across this show called Intervention. It's a show about drug addiction, and the people that effects. Hard to believe that people do this to themselves. The episode I am watching is about a nursing student that is addicted to crack and a former marine that is addicted to heroin. Even with everything that has happened in my wife, I rejoice that I have never done drugs.

Its like a train wreck. I'm watching another episode about a 21 year old woman that has bulimia. I never knew that bulimia was an over-eating disease. I thought it was a weight-controlling purging act. I didn't know that it involves binge eating then immediately throwing up. Once they are finished, they start all over again. Also, I didn't realize the amount of money someone would spend to keep this habit going.

Like the title says, it is a really sad show to see people struggling with these diseases. I thought I had major life changing points in my life. But they are nothing what some people that have addiction go through.

I'm sorry that this post is so serious. The show really put everything into perspective.

More AppleTV Stuff

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 09:55:01 -0400

I just got a Casino Royal for the AppleTV. No worries, I own the DVD also. I encoded the dvd into h264 file, and it looks great on the AppleTV. The more stuff I have for the AppleTV, the more I like it. The controls add easy to the use, and the remote only has one flaw: no volume control for the system. Grant you this is not that big of deal since I should be getting a Harmony remote, but I'm not sure if I will be able to control the AppleTV using that remote.

Now the bad part of the AppleTV. I'm really pissed that Apple decided to add a new option to the AppleTV line one week after I purchased mine. Now you can get 160 gigabyte hard drive. Now I know that I can add a drive myself. But I'm an old man now of 36. My days of DIY computer projects became extinct when I turned 30. One of the main reasons for using a Mac. I don't want play with hardware, I want the software to do most of the work. Well I guess I will be doing a hardware project now.

One more thing bad about the AppleTV. I have to have a copy of video in two places, one on the computer and one on the AppleTV. That also makes me unhappy. I know I can stream the video, and we will look into that.

AppleTV

Wed, 30 May 2007 15:13:45 -0400

Well I just got an AppleTV and a Toshiba 1080p 42" TV. And So far, its cool but slow. The syncing from my computer to the AppleTV over a 802.11b wireless connection. Now I know that I should have a 802.11g connection, but I'm kind of sharing a wireless connection in the new condo building I just moved. Hopefully when I get my 802.11g setup, everything should be much better.

Now I have been able to stream podcasts and tv shows from my computer to the AppleTV, and I have to say it works nicely. The podcasts are 720p, so the picture is wonderful. The TV shows are just 480, so when up scaled to 1080, they look ok. I hope tonight I can watch all my Heros episodes that I have downloaded from iTunes.

Now I have watched some DVDs that I have ripped and streamed from my computer. They look really great. Even though the content is still 480, it is really clear since encoding the video into h.264 at a real high bit rate.

Well I am going to keep watching, and I will let everyone know if my opinion changes.

New Version of Calc

Mon, 07 May 2007 16:44:12 -0400

I have created a new version of Calc. I have incorporated a lot of the requested features. There are still a few little weird things, but all in all not bad. The drag and drop of operations was a little more difficult than I thought at first. Since I don't do a lot of coding with native front end apps, it was a little weird. I had a hard time mostly with the dropping of the operation onto the NSTextView. The control has the performDragOperation: method implemented, but no documentation that describes the drag type that the control is expecting.

Sorry I haven't been around

Tue, 01 May 2007 13:52:25 -0400

Not that I have been spitting out great truths, but I have had real world issues happening in my life. I have received a lot of email the Calc application, and I will get to the bugs once I move to my new place. I can't believe that 236 downloaded the application. I can't imagine that many people have found this website. Now I have a lot of pressure to produce a better blog and software. Thank you all.

Also please let me know if you like the new design for the website. I like the Great Wall picture.

Calc, the RPN Calculator release

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:33:18 -0400

I have finally release the first release my RPN calculator, Calc. Please let me know what you think. The interface in simple, and a little weird for people use to real world calculator. Click here to goto the Calc page.

Marble, continued

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:32:08 -0400

One day Michael Jr. found daddy's old toys. What a treasure chest of play items. There was everything here. "Cool," Michael Jr thought. "This little car runs perfectly on the floor. Why doesn't daddy play with these anymore?" Then there is was.

Michael Jr. had never seen anything a beautiful as it. What was it? As the hand of the child reached out and grabbed the object, his eyes gleamed almost as much as his dad's eyes gleamed when he first saw the "green eye." "It must be a jewel of great money," thought Michael Jr. He thought of all the games that he could play with his new jewel. Pirates, yes pirates. He would be the riches pirate of them all.

Where should he hide his new jewel? No one should be able to find it. No one.

"What was that sound? I need to hide my new jewel." So Michael Jr. put the jewel in his month.

As his father walked into the room, Michael Jr. smiled innocently. His father looked at his offspring, and just smiled. How could something be so beautiful be so messy. But all he could so is grin at his son.

Just then, Michael noticed his son looked a little pale. Not pale, but a tint of blue. "What's going on?", he thought. Crap he is choking. On what. What could it be? Like a cat, Michael snatched up his son and started slapping his back. "Spit it out! Jr. Spilt it out!" Smack! Smack! Smack! Furiously, Michael laid the boy down, and stuck the meaty fingers trying to grab whatever was killing him. There, he felt it. Its round. Its hard to grab. He had to do anything to save his son. With a final shove of his hand into the boy's month, Michael latched on to the object and ripped it from the young throat. It was his childhood's treasure. The treasure he "won" from his friend. The green eye. All Michael could do was sit hug his kin, while crying. If only he didn't "win" the green eye.

Marble

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 12:00:45 -0400

As a young child, Michael enjoyed playing marbles. His marbles gleamed in the sunlight when he played with friends. To Michael, winning marbles from the other children gave him great joy.

One day, Michael challenged Johnny to a game of marbles. Michael knew Johnny's green eye marble would be a prize; Michael always desired that marble. However, Johnny's playing style commanded the marble circle, and Michael knew that he would have to play his best game of his life. The game begins.

As the arena is constructed, Johnny and Michael layout out their weapons of the coming battle. Johnny struck first with a removal of the cat eye marble. Michael revenge awarded him with a plain marble, but his eye still fixed on the green eye. Johnny next volley misses its mark. Michael sets to remove another pawn marble. Shot fired. Shot hit. The pawn marble fell into the grasp of Michael. The intense battle continues for what seems like months. Both kings taking their warriors in battle, but the loses are heavy on both sides.

Michael realized the combat turned against him. How did Johnny get two marbles with one hit. Impossible, he wasn't going to have enough servants to complete his conquering of the green eye. Then a clear thought entered his mind. "Yes, it will be easy. I really need the green eye," thought Michael. Then with a smile, he started his plan into motion.

Michael looked at Johnny, then looked over their teacher. Johnny's concentration remained on the battle at hand. Undeterred, Michael said, "What is Mrs. Sweet doing over there?" Michael now watching Johnny's head turn, knew that he was going to be victorious. Johnny's oblivious to the plan, Johnny looks over at Mrs. Sweet. "What? What is happening?" At that moment, Michael reaches out and takes control of Johnny's main general, the galaxy marble. Placing the marble in his hand, Michael knows that he has won. He had no choice. He needed the green eye to feel complete.

In the end, Michael conquered Johnny's green eye admiral. In disbief, Johnny handed the green eye over to the winner, Michael. With his new marble in his hand, Michael left the playground with a feeling of contention. He had won.

Years past, and Michael now has a Michael Jr. of his own. Living with his wife and beautiful son, life was perfect.

To be continue.....

Loser, I Am

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:41:32 -0400

OK, I haven't been really good about writting to my blog. I been playing the Burning Crusader from Blizzard. The game experience takes World of Warcraft even deeper into the hard core gamer.

I have also had some real world issues that I'm dealing with right now. So not much time has gone into my development work.

I promise I will be back once life normalizes for me.

MacWorld in Days

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:50:44 -0500

Well as you may know or not know, MacWorld is happen in 4 days. This is the machead's uber conference, and the Steve Jobs keynote captures most of the news. I'm not going since I have never gone before. I personally am too cheap to make the mecca out to San Francisco when I get the news/keynote from the web.

However, I will make predictions about the super secretive Apple announcements.

Apple new cell phone will be unlocked GSM or GSM/CDMA, but not just CDMA. I can't imagine Apple would want to alienate Europe and Asia markets with a CDMA only phone.
iWork 07 will contain a new spreadsheet, and it will be simple compared with Excel. Think of it the comparison between Pages and Word.
The announced iTV will not be ready for purchase at conference.
Leopard availablity will be end of the month. At the same time as the 5 year old Window Vista release.
No new MacBooks or MacBookPros. Maybe cpu revisions, but nothing really new.

Well that is my predictions. Lets see how I do at these predictions.

Voice Mail, email, and YouMail

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 14:29:50 -0500

I finally had enough of the lack of features with TMobile's voice mail system. I don't know why cell phone carriers don't add more features to their voice mail system. In todays connected world, I would like to access my voice mail via the web or have voice mail delivered to my email or both. I don't think this is too much to require from TMobile. Well they don't even offer anything close to this.

In steps YouMail service. I started to look for a service that would delivery voice mail to my email, and I found so much more. YouMail lets you retrieve you voice mail from any browser as long as the browser supports the latest Java. Also, YouMail will send email notification to any email address, with or without attached an attached sound file. That was all I was searching, but YouMail gives more.

YouMail basically takes over your voice mail from your carrier. You have to send a message ( a sequence of numbers ) from your phone. This message notifies the your carrier that all calls that should be answered by voice answering service should be sent to YouMail. So now I can use my cell phone to access all my voice that is being stored at YouMail .

But that's not all. YouMail uses Caller-ID to give each caller a personalized greeting. So your wife can have a "Hi Honey, leave me a message." greeting and your mother a "Mom, sorry I haven't called in a while. I will call you back I promise" message. A professional client personalized message for your clients. The ideas just start coming to you as you learn what YouMail can do.

I will update the blog as more time passes. The only thing that I'm worries about is reverting back to my old voice mail system if I don't want to use YouMail anymore. However, I don't see that happening any time soon.

Did I mention that YouMail is free, but the service is in beta. I'm sure there is a business model with a monthly charge in the works, but for now enjoy it. This will be the future of voice mail for cell phones.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:41:28 -0500

Healthcare in the USA

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:49:15 -0500

Well I have been absent for a while. My father suffered a stroke, and at the age of 63, his condition scares me. I didn't think that a person that young could be associated with the a stroke.

Even as terrible as this event, I was shocked at the lack of compassion in our health care system. My father was admitted to his home town hospital. His town's hospital is very small, but the doctors and nursing staff just didn't seem to care about him. Actually the one of the doctors told me that he doesn't work weekends, and that we were luckly he came into the hospital. So what does he do, discharges my father.

So we have moved my father to a larger city hospital, which is much better. At least the healthcare staff is more professional. So if you are in a small town in Florida, do get sick on the weekends. If you do, please goto a larger town.

Calc, The Cocoa Application

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 13:20:59 -0500

Well I have a presentable application now. What I am writing is a post-fix (RPN) calculator using Cocoa frameworks. Cocoa adds so many features for free, that I can see building the application logic more than worry about the GUI part.

Well here you can see the main window of the Calc.app. As you can see, the window is a simple gui. The top is the number stack, and the bottom is the user entry area. In the entry area, the application will add 4 and 2 the multiply by 5.

After hitting enter in the entry area, the Calc.app places the result in the stack.

I should be able to get a Release version soon. Not that anyone reads this, but I would love feedback once I get it working.

Warcraft and the 2.0 patch

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:17:33 -0500

As most of you know (the 2 people that reads this) I was having a hellish time with WOW and all the addon changes. Well 1 week after patch, the addon situation continues to get better. Most of the addons that I used have been ported to the new patch.

My main character is a warlock, Flur on Khadgar, and she is a lot of fun again. There is a new summoned pet called a Felguard and it total rocks.

Mac OSX and Cocoa

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 15:33:30 -0500

Warning this is a really geeky entry, so if you don't like coding, then move on to something else.

I have been coding an application for the Mac using XCode, the free and great IDE from Apple. Using the Cocoa frameworks and objective-c language, I have been able to create a pretty cool application.

But I was amazed at the level of "for free" programming ideologies that Cocoa contains. Example, I needed a preferences pane. Currently I have one preference that I need to track. So I created the panel (window) that would hold the GUI end of the preferences. Drag and Drop , and I was finished in 5 minutes. Then came the part of saving information to disk. Well Cocoa has a user default system in the form of NSUserDefaults. The object handles the reading and writing of defaults. I didn't have to subclass it, just tell the object that I have a default called "precision", and that was it. Now I needed to read and write the default to the GUI window. Again using Cocoa, I was able to tell the GUI that the edit box is bound to the user default object. Done. Not a single line of code written for the preferences. Grant you that this is a simple example, but I don't see me needing to write any code for any future preferences.

So if you are a developer and it is time to get a new machine, try a Mac. Since they are Intel machines now, you can run OSX and Windows, at the same time if you want. But developing in Cocoa is really nice.

World of Warcraft, Before the Storm Patch.

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 22:33:47 -0500

OK, I will admit it. I'm a WOW junkie. I just can't get enough of the warcrack these days. I do the guild thing; I'm priest class leader of the guild; and I have hooked my wife on the game. I'm living the dream, well the Warcraft dream.

Blizzard released another patch, the Before the Storm 2.0. As with all major patches, Blizzard has screwed over every players interface addons. All the mod addon coders are running around trying to get their addon to work with the new patch. Now these programmers don't get money. Just a little 15 minutes of fame if their mod is of any worth.

Well, today, I'm just sick of redoing my interface. The great thing about WOW was how customizable I can make the interface. I just don't want to switch to new button bars again. I dont want to find a new quest manager.

Will all this make me stop playing WOW. I can't imagine that it will. I just will growl a little, and moan a lot. But I will just keep playing.

So Far so good.

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:18:11 -0500

I demoed all the apps that I felt would meet my needs for my new web site: iWeb, Sandvox, and RapidWeaver. After test each, Sandvox won my heart and wallet. I really hope that more templates are made by the company or third-parties. Since I'm a technologist and not a designer, I don't think anyone wants to see a web page that I designed.

I am working on a new Mac OSX application. Its more of a learning app, but once its finished, I will release it here.

It has begun

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:44:37 -0500

Well i have downloaded Sandvox application, and so far I like it. I decided that I needed to start building my web presence again, but I didn't want to take the Dreamweaver or hand coding route again.

Since I'm on the Mac, I had three really great choices: RapidWeaver, Sandvox, and iWeb.

After using iWeb for a week or so, I decided that I really liked the way it allowed a designed to create text boxes anywhere on the web page. I just didn't like the HTML code that it would spit out, and that I couldn't add my own HTML code. I finished my site in no time, but I didn't feel excited about the site. Grant you, not much content, but I just didn't get that feeling of wow.

Then I decide to download Sandvox. The templates for this application are amazing. Perfect for the whole family, the templates allow your youngest to your oldest designers to build a site quickly. Two features sold me on this application: the pagelets and containers.

Well I'm going to get back to work. I will put more review blogs as I learn more about this application.