Category Archives: uncategorized

HelpDesk 2 should be in beta around Christmastime. Yeeha!

Well, this is pretty freaking cool: updating your Radio weblog with .Mac. Of course, I don’t use Radio since I wrote a program to do everything I need it to do, and I don’t use .Mac because I can’t justify $100 a year for an email account and some web space (I mean, I administer a CommuniGate Pro box at work, I know how cheap email can be). But, just the same, this is very cool.

Wow, I haven’t been posting a for a while. I’ve been cranking away at HelpDesk 2, which is going to rock unbelievably. I’m doing all the work at home to avoid any conflict of interest. I’m learning more and more about REALbasic, object oriented programming (sometimes I learn a little bit too late, though), SQL, and PostgreSQL.

And now, James Milne of Essence Software has resurfaced after a long hibernation, only to give away SuperSocket for free, along with the code. And under a BSD-style license no less! And he’s continuing work on MozPlug, which makes me want to dance when I think about it.

Plus rumors that REALbasic 5 will support UDP Sockets. It’s all coming together.

I didn’t know that sodium was so explosive, but then I never paid much attention in Science class. Apparently, some others are aware.

Sunday’s Dilbert.

There’s a good article about Lawrence Lessig here.

Maybe Apple’s market share is bigger than everyone says.

Vanity: My submission gets posted on MacSlash.

Here’s an unsettling tale. I guess we’re all supposed to rally around the guy looking at kiddie porn and feel sorry for him, but I don’t. You hurt kids, you pay. Even some of the most hardened criminals believe that.

Ten Rules of Common Sense Computing and Virus Defense.

Well, I’ll be. I didn’t expect this. At least, not yet.

Apple stands alone against DRM.

Crazy Apple Rumors Site: iPod means something dirty in French.

Today I installed a Red Hat Linux 8 system. Wow! Linux has come a long way in the last couple years. The last time I tried to use Linux on the desktop was about two years ago, and despite my best efforts, it just sucked too much to use. I installed RH8 on a test server today and my first thought was, “This is nice enough to use as a desktop now.” Nice graphics, bundled OpenOffice.org, and Ximian Evolution is awesome.

But I’ll stick with OS X.

but we have to add value.”

Unicron

Oi! Some days I really enjoy my job. This wasn’t one of them. Started the day by finding out that we had a power failure over the weekend, so I spent the first half hour or so removing AppleTalk and re-installing it on my Windows 2000 Servers to get them to advertise themselves properly again. Why? Because of a huge bug in Windows 2000 File Server for Macintosh when you’re running dual processors and Intel NIC. Fun stuff.

Oh, yeah, and my boss was out sick today, while my other co-workers were either on vacation or at her new job. So it was just the intern and I today. Fortunately, the intern, DW, is an incredibly hard worker.

Watched Monsters, Inc. and Swordfish over the weekend. Both very good movies. I’m sure I’ll be watching Monsters many more times in the near future, because when Grace finds a movie she likes, we watch it constantly. She also has the new Larry Boy video, so we’ll probably alternate for a while.

I’ll have some pictures from the beach up soon.

Back from Ocean City, and taking a sick day. I woke up with some pretty impressive congestion in my chest, and no amount of coughing seems to help. So, I’m bagging work today.

Older, but interesting article: What is the difference between Carbon and Cocoa and should I even care? Written by Geoff Perlman, CEO of REAL Software, Inc. We need more informed and reasoned articles like this. I’m so sick and tired of the attitude that Cocoa is somehow “more native” than Carbon. What does “more native” even mean? You can’t be “more native”. That’s like being “more dead” or “more married”. You’re either native, or you’re not. And, while Cocoa is cool and everything, I’m tired of it being hailed by the ignorant as the greatest thing that’s ever happened to anyone, anywhere. It’s just an API. And let’s not forget that Carbon, which allows Mac programs to run on UNIX, is a pretty big engineering feat in and of itself.

Tom Waits: Don Henley is willing to get a haircut and go to Washington. I’m all for that.

This is so tempting, but I think I’ll forego it and knuckle down with SQL.

Tomorrow I’m off to Ocean City, NJ, for the weekend. Once there and settled in, I plan to take a long nap, after which I’m going to spend some quality time with my daughter, my wife, and my PowerBook.

There are some in things in life money can’t buy. This is one of them.

We slept in the tent in the backyard last night. We were thinking of going to a real campground, but we figured we’d better give it a try on a small scale before going all the way, since Grace is only three. I don’t think we’ll be going to a real campground until late next spring, maybe.

And today I feel like crap. My throat is raw and I’m stiff and sore. I’ve been feeling like I’m on the verge of being sick for a few weeks, but last night in the tent did me in.