Author Archives: brad

A styrofoam computer case. Interesting. Apparently the guy assembled all the pieces without the case and then just sprayed it with foam. Lightweight.

Several folks wanted to know what kind of surgery Jen is having. I’ll write something up about it this weekend. It’s a long story.

Holy Cow.

HealthGuard comes through. They will pay for Jen’s surgery. All of it. What a relief. Now we can spend our tax return on a swing set for Gracie, just like we wanted to.

Network problems that you just can’t figure out really suck. That’s what I’ve been working on for a week.

Hey! I’m in a video testimonial for MacAcademy/WindowsAcademy on their website! Just click on the link, then click on the icon next to Brad Rhine when you get there. I remember filming the testimonial in Florida in February of 2001, when I was attending the FileMaker Pro Users’ Learning Summit. They asked for volunteers to be in testimonials, and I thought about it. Then they said free T-shirts for anyone who signs up. What can I say? I’m a sucker for schwag.

And yes, I found it because I was ego surfing.

I have updated my old Mindspring sites so that they all redirect to my Music page here. Hopefully I’ll be abandoning Mindspring soon anyway. I mean Earthlink, not Mindspring. They used to be Mindspring.

Top Ten Stupid Things to Engrave on Your iPod. This was funny.

Wired: Bad News. Slashdot: Very Bad News. Here’s what Dave Winer has to say about it.

Dave Winer. Sometimes I find him witty and insightful. Sometimes I find him abrasive yet informative. Sometimes I find him thoroughly annoying. But I think that mix is exactly what he’s going for.

Dial-up sucks.

I upgraded my Manila server at school today to Mac OS X and Frontier 8.05. Wow — talk about a speed boost. Very cool. Almost worth all the frustration it took to get it running on OS X. What a pain that was.

Apple Remote Desktop. Pretty cool, but bittersweet. The controller app runs on OS X, and the client runs on anything from 8.1 to 10.1, but the controller app won’t run on 8 or 9. That’s bad news for those still running a dual platform shop. I like to be able to sit at any computer in a lab and copy out from there. I won’t be able to do that using ARD unless I upgrade all my lab computers to OS X, and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Macintouch asked readers for their WWDC (Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference) concerns and ideas. They got an awful lot of hardware suggestions for a Developer Conference. My favorite is the hosehead who says: Migrate features from MacOS X like preemptive multitasking and Memory protection to MacOS 9.x without bringing the UNIX baggage with it. This can be done now more than ever before due to Carbon is making this possible. Ummm, isn’t the impossibility of that task the whole reason for Mac OS X? Remember Copland? Remember Rhapsody? He goes on: As for virtual memory, memory is cheap, and MacOS application footprints are tiny. Most Mac users turn it off anyway. Good idea. Memory’s cheap, so we don’t need virtual memory. Memory protection although may save your OS from crashing, does little to prevent data loss as a result of a crashing application. To say nothing of the other running applications that won’t lose data as a result. Hosehead.

Ever have someone pass out in your office? Trust me, it’s scary.

New Jars of Clay album, The Eleventh Hour — very cool.

An idea for a new web publishing platform is brewing in my head. The pieces: Apache, PHP, PostgreSQL, REALbasic, XML-RPC. Hmmmm. Frequency.

I love that there’s so much great open source/free software that’s not released under the GPL. I love the BSD-style licenses, not because I want to rip off the software, but because I can tie my software to it, even make it dependent on it, and not worry about the licensing issues. That’s why I’ve decided to use PostgreSQL for my HelpDesk project instead of mySQL. That’s why I’ve decided to focus on PHP instead of Perl. That’s why I’ve decided that Apache will be at the heart of my weblogging tools instead of . . . well . . . OK, there’s nothing I would have used other than Apache. It’s awesome.

Linux Journal likes Mac OS X. But of course!

What the world needs now is another weblogging API. Geez. Of course, I’m working on one, too, so I guess I can’t be too critical. Although mine is more targeted toward education.

I find Bob the Builder to be a bit disturbing. There’s one episode I’ve seen (and I’ve seen it like three times), where there’s way too much sexual tension for a show aimed at toddlers and preschoolers. It’s called “Buffalo Bob.” Bob enters a line dancing competition, and his date is supposed to be Mavis, from the Post Office. Well, it turns out that Mavis hurts her leg at the gym, and Bob is upset that he can’t go. Wendy (his construction assistant, if you’re unfamiliar with the show) gets really coy and says, “Well, Bob, there is someone you could take.” From there it just degenerates.

My boss had a rough day today. He said to me, “Would you think less of me if I needed a drink when I get home tonight?”

I said, “Sir, I couldn’t possibly think any less of you than I already do.”

Revisiting my New Year’s Resolutions, just after the Ides of March.

1) Push weight down to 180 (currently 198)

Currently 187. Pretty close, considering I started the year at 198.

2) Read through the entire Bible (along with my wife)

Coming along nicely. I just finished I Samuel 8, which puts me right on schedule (actually, a day ahead). She’s ahead of me. A little friendly competition helps the motivation.

3) Finish rewriting my HelpDesk program in REALbasic and PostgreSQL (right now it’s in FileMaker Pro)

This is the toughest one. My REALbasic skills are coming along. I’ve kind of sidetracked into XML-RPC for a little while, but that’s OK — it’s all good. My PostgreSQL skills are probably fine for what I want to do with HelpDesk.

4) Move to Mac OS X full time (with no Classic on my machine)

I made strides toward this. GoLive 6, Office X, and QuickMail Pro 3 (as much as I just barely tolerate QuickMail Pro) help a lot. I tried the Corel Graphics Suite (native), and that’s OK for most jobs, but sometimes when I need to get down and dirty, I still need Photoshop and ImageReady, and I don’t have version 7 yet (and probably won’t until summer).

5) Renovate my bathroom (late 1950’s pink)

This will depend largely on what HealthGuard decides to do about Jen’s surgery. If they agree to pay it, which they absolutely should in my opinion, then we will have some money to put toward the bathroom.

When I first started at Etown, I was able to remember everything about every computer. Now I’m starting to slip. I can’t remember everything anymore. It’s just too much.

HealthGuard got back to us with a resounding “No” today. I suppose we’ll have to appeal it. Jen needs the surgery. If they won’t pay, I’ll have to get the money somehow. I guess I could sell a kidney or something.