Cogitation and Rumination

Dynamic Playlists

2011-03-31T16:58:00.002-04:00

There is a feature I miss from Audion, which they removed before they retired the app entirely, that I have yet to see recreated in any other music player. It was simple. It was brilliant. I want it back.

Basically, Audion used to allow you to group tracks in your playlists into folders, and - this is the important part - check or uncheck folders to include or exclude them from the playlist, temporarily.

Big deal, right? iTunes lets you check or uncheck songs, and you can multi-select and do a bunch at once. Except that it unchecks them everywhere, not just in that playlist, and you still have to do your multi-select by hand every time.

The beauty of this was it gave playlists a sort of dynamic quality: I could have a playlist with folders for happy tracks, funny tracks, angry tracks, sad tracks, tracks with a good beat, tracks with a fast beat, etc. and so on. Then, depending on my mood, I could check, say, happy songs and songs with a good beat, when I'm in a good mood. Or angry songs and songs with a fast beat, when I'm looking to play some first-person shooters. And if my mood changes an hour later, I can uncheck parts and check other parts and it will just keep shuffling through whatever is active when it comes time to pick the next track. It was brilliant.

And I miss it, and I want it back. iTunes doesn't do it, WinAmp doesn't do it, Songbird doesn't do it, VLC doesn't do it... nobody does. And it doesn't seem like it should be necessary to write an entire music player just to get this one feature; maybe one day I'll get up the nerve to modify Songbird or VLC to do it. Or maybe, sometime between now and then, some kind-hearted developer will hear my pleas and implement it in their player. Who knows.

If anybody out there knows of a player that does have this functionality, please, let me know in the comments... I'd be forever grateful!

On New Tricks, Old Hacks, and Web Browsers

2010-07-06T11:06:00.003-04:00

I must say, I'm a little curious why I haven't seen mention of this before; a quick Google search didn't turn anything up either. For the last, oh, ten years or so, web designers have been wrestling with all the different browsers, and different versions of each browser, to get their web pages to behave the same - or at the very least, behave relatively well - on all the browsers their users are likely to employ.

The whole time, the W3C has been releasing new standards and new versions of old standards to give web designers new tricks... and every time, the browsers all catch up to the new standards at different speeds, and implement different parts of the standards, or implement them slightly differently.

My question, then, is this: why is there no W3C specification for browser detection? Why can't I use CSS selectors to target certain styles at certain browsers, without resorting to lousy hacks? Even CSS3's new media queries allow me to check the screen size before applying styles, but not whether or not the browser supports, say, CSS3 Of course, it'll take forever for designers to be able to count on all the browsers supporting a new feature like that, but I haven't even seen a proposal.

Today, putting together a design involves pulling up your design in all the browsers, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and then applying hacks specific to each browser. Life would be so much easier in the web design world if instead you could say something like, "if the browser doesn't support CSS3 background properties, apply this style instead."

Suddenly, I don't need to use the hack that hides CSS from IE, and the other hack that hides CSS from everything but IE, and test it, and then find another set of hacks for the Android browser, and another for FireFox, and so on. I can apply styles logically by selecting for specific features, rather than selecting for specific browsers, then having to keep up with the features of each browser - because the features are all I really care about as a designer.

I would much rather "hack" for specific features than specific browsers because it's more intuitive, and it's less work to support multiple browsers and different versions of each browser. The browser makers know what features they support. If I can select for the features I want to use, I don't have to worry about keeping up-to-date with what features are supported by what versions of what browsers.

I'm bringing it up on the W3C mailing list, but I thought I would bring it up here... I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Home-Made Guitar Work Mat

2010-02-01T10:23:00.005-05:00

I made a guitar work mat for about $6 and ten minutes' work. It works perfectly, so I thought I'd share it here.

From Mat

While I was at the grocery store one day, I saw a small selection of shelf/drawer liners. They had a rubber webbing liner, and a self-adhesive cork liner. I bought one of each, I think the cork was $4 and the rubber was $2.

The rubber roll was 12" x 5', and the cork roll was 12" by 4'. 12" is too narrow, so I used two rows of each. I laid the rubber down in two 2' rows, then adhered the cork to it in two perpendicular rows, so that each side would hold the other side together. So far it's been fine, but if the layers start to separate I plan to seal around the edges with tape, probably electrical tape.

This picture shows how the seams on each layer run perpendicular. Half of the mat is rolled up so you can see the cork side against the rubber side.

Advantages:

Rubber bottom provides traction on all surfaces -- I have a glass work table and it's rock solid.
Cork top provides good traction for your guitar body, but will not mar or scuff the finish in any way.
Both the cork and the rubber provide some level of impact protection; a regular cloth doesn't protect your guitar from the hard surface underneath, while the rubber and cork will.
Rolls up for easy storage.
Costs less than a store-bought guitar work mat, which will probably not have the nice non-skid surface. Cheap & easy to replace if it gets lost or damaged.

If you try this out yourself, please let me know in the comments how it worked out for you!

Neverwinter Nights 2 Crash on Windows 7

2009-12-12T22:15:00.002-05:00

I've had Neverwinter Nights 2 pretty much since it was released, but I never bought the expansion packs. I installed it on my new machine, and it's worked perfectly. Then I saw that the expansion packs were 50% off right now, so I went and grabbed them, digital download.

I installed the first expansion first, Mask of the Betrayer. I launched NWN2. It crashed before it ever started. I tried to update, in case there were updates specific to MotB, but it said I had to launch the game before I could update; but launching the game hangs instantly.

So I uninstalled, thinking the issue was that NWN2 was fully updated before I installed MotB, which is built against v1.10. I reinstalled NWN2, didn't update it, just launched it, closed it, and installed MotB. And it crashed as soon as it opened.

So I installed Storm of Zehir. And it installed successfully. And NWN2 launched without crashing. SoZ is built against v1.20, so it was a short trip to the current latest v1.23, which also launches without crashing. All is well now.

Just thought I'd post this for anyone having Neverwinter Nights 2 crash on Windows 7 after installing Mask of the Betrayer. Try installing Storm of Zehir (if you've got it) and see if that helps. I don't know if you have to install against a base (non-updated) copy of NWN2, as I haven't tried it with updating NWN2 fully then installing the expansions. However, given that there are no catch-up patches and you have to install all the intermediate patches to get the boxed v1.00 up to the current v1.23, installing MotB and SoZ may be the fastest way to get a fresh install fully-updated anyway.

Hope that helps somebody out there!

Windows Backup Error (0x80070002) When Adding Custom Libraries

2009-12-10T12:22:00.004-05:00

I've encountered an issue with Windows Backup in Windows 7 that, upon some research, appears to be both a) not uncommon and b) not new; it seems this has been an issue since the new backup tool arrived in Windows Vista. Users have posted in Microsoft's forums, and Microsoft has responded with workarounds, but no indication that a fix is forthcoming.

For those with this issue (your backup completes successfully but "some files were skipped", and the log shows something like "Backup encountered a problem while backing up file C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\My Projects Error:(The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002))" -- the "My Projects" would be the name of a folder you added to a library you created), the fix is relatively simple.

Either click the Change Backup Settings link from the error message, or open Backup and Restore and click Change Settings.
Choose your destination drive.
"Let me choose."
Uncheck any libraries you've created.
At the bottom under Computer, expand you drive and work your way to the folder(s) contained in the libraries you disabled in step 4. Check each one.
Click next, make sure all your files are listed, and click Save & Exit.
Try your backup - it should complete successfully, with no files skipped.

Chronos Mk. IV

2009-12-09T10:57:00.004-05:00

Chronos Mk. IV is now online.

Is it a secret military program? The codename for SkyNet? No, it's my new PC. It's replacing -- well, in some respects -- my last PC, Chronos Mk. III.

My last box was built four years ago, after I got a new job and saved up enough to build it. It was an Athlon 64 box that was upgraded two years ago with another hard drive, a new graphics card (GeForce 8800GT, replacing whatever was mid-range when I first built the machine), and a dual-core Opteron.

This year my best friend got me a Radeon 5770 as an early Christmas present. It's a good 50%+ performance improvement over the 8800GT. But graphics wasn't the only place where I found lackluster performance on the old machine. It was time for a full upgrade.

So, after some research and prioritizing and budgeting, I put together a machine for $1150 including display, but excluding the graphics card, which was a gift. Taking off the display and adding the graphics card would come out roughly even. It's the low end of midrange, but that doesn't mean I've had to sacrifice performance.

Chronos Mk. IV Specification:

Intel Core i5-750 @ 2.6GHz x 4 cores (up from 2.2GHz x 2 cores)
ASRock P55 Extreme motherboard
4GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR-1600 (up from 2GB DDR-400)
2 x 1TB Samsung SATA-II HD (up from 1 x 120GB PATA & 1 x 240GB SATA)
ATI Radeon 5770 (up from nVidia GeForce 8800GT)
Plextor DVD-RW with LightScribe (about the same as Chronos III's DVD-RW, with the addition of LightScribe, which is pretty awesome)
Sunbeam 680W high-efficiency modular power supply
CoolerMaster RC-690-KKN1-GP (last case was a CoolerMaster Centurion 532)
Samsung SyncMaster 2343 LCD (only $200 on newegg, and very high contrast and pixel density -- 2048x1152 in 23 inches!)
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (up from Windows XP Home SP3 32-bit)

After four years, it doesn't take much to make a serious upgrade. And a serious upgrade it is. This thing is beyond snappy, at least compared to the old box. Maybe one day I'll get an SSD and really get a feel for fast, but in the meantime, this will do quite nicely. In the next two years or so I expect to upgrade the CPU and/or GPU -- the two-year half-upgrade worked well for me last time around, I don't see any reason to abandon the strategy; if anything, the rate of advancement is slowing down. If, in two years, SSD prices have fallen significantly (and some of the kinks have been worked out), that may be included in the half-stride upgrade.

It works fairly well with the processor technology cycle; a socket usually lasts about 2 - 3 years, which means if I buy when the socket is no longer brand-spankin' new (i.e., not agregiously overpriced), then two years later, I can buy a CPU upgrade on the cheap as they offload old inventory to make room for the next new socket type. GPUs, on the other hand, don't worry about the socket type -- the last non-backward-compatible slot change for graphics cards was several years ago with the change from AGP to PCIe). However, their lifecycle is much shorter; we see a slew of new graphics cards every year. That means a two-year upgrade plan nets you a graphics card two generations newer, so a midrange card at a modest price can bring a significant performance improvement. Very rarely does one need to worry about not being able to play a new game with a two-year-old card; the only concern might be not being able to max out all the graphics settings. But when you get your new card, you can max out all your old games, and play new games with very respectable quality.

Everything else can remain the same, barring any component failures, for four years, until it's time to bite the bullet and move up to the next big thing -- meaning a new socket, which means a new motherboard, which means new memory, and at that point you might as well just build a whole new box.

What am I using all this horsepower for? PC gaming, audio mixing and low-latency recording, image editing, and video editing. I can nearly max out all of my current game library (Neverwinter Nights 2, a relatively old game, still can't be run at maximum quality at full resolution; I either have to turn shadows down to medium, or turn the resolution down), and I have high hopes for the games I'm looking forward to right now (Supreme Commander 2, Starcraft 2).

I can run Reaper at latencies as low as 18ms with DirectSound. Using the DigiTech RP500 ASIO driver with Reaper x64 on Windows 7 x64 causes entire machine to hang, even the task manager is inaccessable, forcing me to force power-off. If anybody else is having has/had this issue, please post in comments -- a Google search didn't turn up much for me.

I'm happy with all of the components, but there's little to say that benchmarks and more-informed reviewers can't cover better than I can. Check out AnandTech if that's what you're looking for.

The case, however... I'm very happy with this case. My previous CoolerMaster tower I love dearly, and I've built several other people computers using the same case. It's roomy but not huge, it has excellent ventilation, and a clean, modern look. The CoolerMaster 690 is similar, but better -- the look is even more sleek, the ventilation even better, and the case is even easier to work with. I've even gotten used to having the power supply on the bottom.

The case offers a full grille front for ventilation, much like the Centurion 532, but they also made the back half of the top of the case a grille with space for two 120mm fans, directly over the CPU and memory. This provides excellent passive ventilation without fans, and a great spot for exhaust fans if you're planning on overclocking. The case comes with a 120mm fan in the front, next to the hard drive bays; one in the back, at the top; and one in the side, over the GPU. There is also a mounting for one more 120mm in the side, over the CPU, and one more in the bottom, between the PSU and drive bays. If you wanted, you could make this thing sound like -- and possibly generate -- a tornado. The motherboard tray is also drilled under the CPU, and the right side panel as well, providing back-side passive ventilation for the CPU and motherboard.

The hard drives mount without tools using plastic caddies. The cables face the left side of the case, meaning you have to remove both side panels to add or remove drives, but it does clean up cable routing inside the case, which could be a nightmare with the PSU next to the drive bays. The 5.25" drives are toolless, using a bracket that snaps into the screw holes on the drive with a sliding lock lever. The PCI backplates are also toolless, though I had to use one screw to mount my graphics card because part of the card wouldn't allow one of the toolless clips to snap into place, but the other did (it is a two-slot card).

The power supply mounting has rubber feet that the power supply sits on, and a foam rubber gasket between the power supply and the back of the case where it screws in, to isolate the vibration of the power supply from the case. So this can be a loud, cool case with many fans, or a cool, quiet case with few fans but plenty of passive ventilation.

The power and reset switches, and the power and HDD lights, are on the front right edge of the case, a little below mid-height. The springs are a little stiff for my tastes, but otherwise, no complaints. The ports are all on top of the case -- 2 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 eSATA, headphone & microphone -- which is convenient for me since I keep the case sitting on the floor. My previous case also had the ports on top, which I liked, but the power and reset buttons on top were a disaster -- I had to unhook the lead for the reset switch because my cats kept restarting my computer at inconvenient times. I hardly ever use the reset switch anyway. The new case is perfect for my needs.

Windows 7 is a solid upgrade as well; I skipped Vista entirely, just like I skipped ME. I've had no problems so far finding drivers, and had no compatibility problems, though apps not designed for Vista/7 seem to cause some aggravating problems with UAC; I've got a couple of apps that prompt me every time I open them if I'm sure I want to open them, which is infuriating. I found a fix that involves using the Application Compatibility Toolkit, which I've yet to try out, but I certainly hope it helps.

So far I've been able to replace Launchy with the new Start menu - same functionality for the most part, all I have to do is hit the Windows key instead of Alt-space. Aero is decent, if not mind-blowing, and it does a much better job of DPI scaling than XP did; my display has a high enough pixel density that turning up the interface DPI was a must, otherwise text and UI features were just too small to work with.

All in all, I'm very happy with the new machine; you can expect to see updates here if any of the components turn out to have serious problems or shortcomings that are not yet apparent.

NetBeans + Tomcat + Java for MacOS X 10.5 Update 4 = Fail

2009-06-30T11:04:00.003-04:00

Just struggled with this for a couple of days. After updating MacOS X with the latest Java update (Java for MacOS X 10.5 Update 4, patching security holes mentioned in the news the last few weeks), I could no longer launch Tomcat from NetBeans. And that's a Bad Thing. I use NetBeans all day for work, on a web application that gets tested through the local copy of NetBeans.

The error I was getting was that it couldn't find a file/directory under "/var/folders/ZC/ZCcmX61vGaqOjbHwwgwW-k+++TI/-Tmp-/". The filename changes every time, in the format "context1234567890123456789.xml". The "+++" throws it off because the path is passed as a URL parameter to the Tomcat Manager, which converts the +'s to spaces.

The solution is to go to your NetBeans application folder, right-click the application, and choose Show Package Contents. Under Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc, open netbeans.conf, and find the line for "netbeans_default_options". Go to the end of this line, and add, inside the end quote, "-J-Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp". Restart NetBeans, and you should be good to go.

DO WANT

2009-01-08T16:24:00.002-05:00

Yes, both are still at the early-adopter, not-well-supported, haven't-gotten-all-the-kinks-out stage, but come on, how can you not want to combine a haptic full-3D controller with a high-def, full-color stereoscopic display? When I think about it I feel like Howard Hughes at the end of The Aviator - the way of the future, the way of the future, the way of the future....

Imagine a simple chess game, to take an easy example. You've got a 3D chessboard on screen, you click and drag to move pieces around, simple enough. Put on your 3D glasses, and you suddenly see the board with depth, as if its actually floating in front of you, just beyond the surface of the screen. Lose the mouse, and instead reach out and grab one of the pieces - touch it, it feels substantial, it has weight, and it has texture - feel the difference between wooden pieces and glass. Move the piece and set it down, and feel it connect with the board.

Don't like chess? Doesn't matter. Extrapolate to any game you like. See your favorite shooter in full 3D, and feel the recoil of your gun with every shot. Watch effects pop out of the screen, reach out and touch the environment you see. A whole realm of possibilities become available. It could completely change the level of 3D gaming.

While $200 for a game controller, $200 for a pair of 3D glasses, and hundreds more for a top-of-the-line LCD capable of operating stereo 3D may seem steep (especially considering that assumes you've already got a top-notch gaming rig with a recent NVidia graphics card) as early-adopter products go, that's really not bad -- it could be half the price in two or three years, if it catches on, production ramps up, and refinements are made. And if they can get developers excited about it, application support will speed its adoption and spur further improvement and innovation.

I can't wait to see what the next gen of gaming will look like. The way of the future, the way of the future...

Stackoverflow.com

2008-09-15T10:49:00.003-04:00

Today marks the public launch of Stackoverflow.com, the new programming Q&A site started by the famous Joel Spolsky. So far it looks like it's shaping up to be a very good resource for developers; and I agree with everything they said about Googling for solutions in this post. You can look me up on the site.

Beyond the site itself, which I think will become an oft-used resource for me, I also really like their badge system. I think a similar system could be a huge boon to any forum, social networking site, or other community site. Game developers learned years ago that people will be more active in an area they already enjoy if they can be recognized for their activity. The same idea applies just as well to community sites. I think it's brilliant, and I think we're going to be seeing similar implementations a lot more often.

Google Chrome

2008-09-09T12:21:00.003-04:00

I downloaded and installed Google's Chrome browser today, and I have to say, I'm impressed. It handles tabs better than FireFox 3 does. The UI is clean and intuitive, though no moreso than FireFox's. It performs well, but not noticeably better or worse than FireFox 3. It has a desktop web app mode - exactly what Prism was supposed to be, only it actually works.

What I find particularly striking about Chrome's interface is a kind of minimalism that one usually expects to see in mobile software. It makes me wonder if, like Apple bringing Safari to the iPhone, Google might be using the desktop as a proving ground for a browser destined for the Android mobile platform. Use it for a few minutes and tell me if you can't picture using the same interface on a palm-top touch-screen.

It's not all roses, however. Chrome is currently Windows-only, a big downside in my book, as I use my MacBook more often than the PC when it comes to web browsing. It doesn't have all the options that FireFox does. It's got some quirks - the "smart" address bar can be irritatingly overzealous, and the scroll wheel seems to scroll half a page at a time, with no way to change it. And, of course, all those lovely FireFox extensions I've gotten so used to having around aren't going to work with Chrome. Still, it's a solid alternative to IE, especially for the more casual web user. Web developers, however, are better off sticking with FireFox and it's treasure trove of extensions.

XML: No, it isn't.

2008-06-25T14:44:00.003-04:00

XML, well, just isn't. It's a raging misnomer. XML is, in theory, the eXtensible Markup Language. I have a couple of problems with that idea.

First, it's not extensible. It just isn't. You can't extend it. I can't extend it. No one can extend it. You know how I know? Because there aren't any extensions. Not a single one. Go ahead. Go find an extension to XML. I'd love to hear about it.

But it's just as well - there's no reason to extend it. XML defines very little; it's a syntax definition, nothing more. DTDs and Schemas are what make XML useful. They aren't extensions to XML, they're applications of XML. What's more, the DTDs and Schemas can be combined in a single document, but even they can't be extended.

Second, while it can be used as a markup language, it almost never is. XHTML is a markup language based on XML. There are a few others that are (debatably) markup languages, like DocBook, but even the likes of DocBook are more on the side of data structure definition than markup. A database file isn't markup. A Java properties file isn't markup. It's a data structure. Per Wikipedia:

A markup language is an artificial language using a set of annotations to text that describe how text is to be structured, laid out, or formatted.

Does that sound like most of the XML formats you've encountered? How many XML config files have you had to deal with? Do they fit that description, even a little bit? Of course not. You don't care about the structure, layout, or formatting of the text in a config file. All you care about is getting at the particular block of text you want. So, what is XML then? Something of a generic hierarchical data file format - though I suppose GHDFF just isn't as catchy as XML.

Now, besides being aggregiously misnamed, it's also a wretched tool for nearly every purpose to which it is applied. It's a language that aims for the middle ground between human-readable and machine-readable, and while it achieves both, it does so very poorly. XML is annoying to read, tedious to write, and resource-intensive to process.

I'm not suggesting dumping XML entirely, not at all. The angle-bracket tax is a fee worth paying for actual markup - you need syntax to seperate the markup from the text. XML is a flexible and effective format for marking up text. What it isn't is an effective format for storing arbitrary data. It's usable, but nowhere near optimal. What's the solution? Something else.

Programmers have a tendency to cling to standards, to try to apply them as much as possible. "Don't reinvent the wheel," we say. And that's a perfectly reasonable mantra - but that doesn't mean all wheels are created equal. When's the last time you saw a bicycle wheel on a car? Would the world be a better place if every wheel were the same? Sure, they'd be interchangeable - but they wouldn't be anywhere near as effective.

We need to step back sometimes, and think about whether there is, or could be, a better wheel for any given situation.

More on this to come.

My head hurts.

2008-04-03T17:44:00.003-04:00

Falling in love is like being hit in the back of the head with a gold brick out of the middle of nowhere.

*WHACK* OW! What the fu- holy shit, that's a gold brick!

My head still hurts, but that will pass. The gold is mine for keeps.

Of KVMs and Synergy...

2007-10-25T23:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, so a few months back I discovered Synergy, and filed it under "neat stuff worth a quick look." Now I've cast off the shackles of my KVM, cleared off my desk, and set up a second monitor. I can now seemlessly switch back and forth between Mac and PC as easily as you can switch between two screens connected to a single computer.

Here's how it works: you hook up computer A (the server) to keyboard, mouse, monitor, and network. You install Synergy, and start the server. You hook up computer B (a client) to monitor and network, install synergy, and start the client. Now, move the mouse connected to computer A past the edge of the screen, and it appears on computer B's screen - and now that the mouse is there, the keyboard is directed to computer B as well. And because it's just a KM (keyboard and mouse) solution, unlike VNC which has video, the connection is extremely snappy - so much so that it's unnoticeable to me.

Synergy is free, open-source, and works on Windows, MacOS X, and Unix/Linux. If you frequently use two (or more) computers, have the desk space for multiple monitors, and would like so save yourself some serious trouble, you should give Synergy a try.

Ergonomics FTW

2007-10-22T23:48:00.001-04:00

I went out yesterday and picked up a couple of things, and I'd just like to say, ergonomics FTW.

First off, I'm typing this out on my nice new Logitech Wave corded USB keyboard. The keyboard is also available as a wireless desktop combo with an LX7 laser mouse; the keyboards are identical save for the wirelessness.

The keyboard shows off Logitech's typical quality and attention to detail; I've always loved Logitech's products. The drivers are good, but not great, and the UI they use is dated. However, the keyboard itself is lovely; it features an ergonomic design that works quite well for me; I've never been able to tolerate the split keyboards that have been the only ergo-option for some time. The keys are all the same size, and, as the name suggests, there is a gentle rolling curve to the keyboard that feels very comfortable under the fingers. It includes a built-in wrist wrest (not removable - not a problem for me, but it may be for those with less desk space), and has 4 and 8 degree angle stands. It has the usual menagerie of multimedia and function buttons, as well as a suite of fn buttons laid over the F-keys - luckily, unlike most keyboards with this feature, they are normal F-keys by default and only use the special action if you hold down the fn button.

The caps/scroll/num lock lights are strangely placed below the numpad; it's not really a problem, just unusual. The keyboard also features the same navigation key layout with the large delete key and no insert key that I enjoyed so much on the Microsoft Comfort Curve that this board replaced.

One downside to the board is it's just not very comfortable for WASD FPS gaming; something about the arrangment of the W key just makes it difficult. Luckily I had an old Fang sitting in my "spare peripherals" bin, so I hooked that up and it works quite well. It is something to keep in mind if you're considering this board, however.

Onto my new pointing device, another Logitech product, the Wireless TrackMan Optical. I'm not sure exactly why it's wireless - wires only ever bother me on mice, not on trackballs - but it's not much of a downside; I would have preferred a wired version to save me the trouble of dealing with batteries, but alas. Also, unlike their wireless mice, the trackball uses standard AA batteries rather than utilizing a charging dock.

The trackball is a small finger-operated (as opposed to thumb-operated) trackball, featuring left and right click (left click is the silver sliver in the thumb rest, NOT the giant silver pad on top), clickable scroll wheel, cruise up/down, drag lock, and back/forward buttons. The buttons are all fairly comfortably placed for me, but would probably be more comfortable for someone without my huge mitts. See notes above regarding the drivers; it's a different tab in the same program.

All in all I like the trackball; I've used trackballs before extensively, and I keep going back and forth; I prefer trackballs for their ergonomics, but I prefer mice for their precision. However, as I haven't been doing much FPS gaming or graphic design of late, I'm going for ergonomics over precision. (However, I'll be keeping my trusty MX1000 handy for the occasional bout of Team Fortress 2.)

Last, but absolutely, positively not least, I picked up a Eurotech Ergohuman EH-HAM/ME7ERG, a super-ergonomic mesh executive chair, at Office Depot. I won't talk about my experience at Office Depot. It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad enough to rail them for it. The chair, however, is a work of art.

Not to say it's beautiful; I like the look alright but it might not be for everyone. The comfort, however.... oh, my goodness. Okay. Adjustables: seat position forward/back, seat height up/down, arm wrest height up/down, arm wrest angle left/right, back height, headrest height, headrest angle, back angle, back tension. All of it has a wide enough adjustment range to suit me, and I'm 6'6". Well, okay, to be fair, I'd like it if the back came up just one more inch. But, it's better than any other chair I've sat in by far regardless.

The back of the chair is three parts: the main back of the chair, which is just like any office chair back, is in the middle. Above it is the headrest, really a neckrest, and below it is the lumbar support. The lumbar support is on a hinge-and-spring mechanism so that when you're leaning forward it still provides support, and when you lean back, it folds back enough to keep you properly supported without jabbing you in the spine.

My only real concern about the chair is the attractiveness of the mesh to cat claws; we'll see how it goes. I got a 3 year warranty that covers the upholstery just in case.

On an unrelated note, I also picked up the Logitech Precision Gaming Headset, and as it wasn't available in USB form near me, I also picked up the SIIG USB SoundWave Pro 7.1. More on those as time permits... for now, I'm going to get out of this insanely comfy chair and go to be.

Portal is more fun than it should be.

2007-10-18T14:57:00.000-04:00

In this game, you'll have to learn how to shoot a portal at the wall and a portal at the floor, so that you can fall down and fire yourself sideways. It makes more sense when you're doing it.

The Haps

2007-10-13T11:51:00.000-04:00

Yeah, yeah, no postey lately. I've been viciously addicted to EVE Online (my char is Tremor Loktar, holla). I haven't posted in two months. Two months... lesse:

The Java servlets spec needs to freaking add core support for multipart form encoding and file uploads. Seriously. Like, yesterday.
I'm impatiently awaiting the new EO expansion - not because I'm starved for new content, but because they're totally revamping the graphics engine and the shots they've released are purrty.
I'm also impatiently awaiting the release of Battalion Wars II for Wii on the 29th.
Metroid Prime 3 Corruption is pretty farkin good.... but I still liked Godfather better.
I hope the EVEMon team release their ship fitter soon. If I knew .NET, I'd help.
Amazon's new MP3 download service is teh winnar. Music is cheaper by the song and by the album, it's un-DRMed, higher-quality, and downloads faster. The only disadvantage is catalog size, and I doubt if that will be a disadvantage for long, what with Amazon being the masters of the monster catalog.

KTHXBAI

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The $200 Billion Rip-Off | PBS

2007-08-12T16:07:00.001-04:00

I've talked about this before, but this is a brilliant explanation of how we got where we are today, and just how much it has cost consumers to get there. A definite must-read for anyone who cares.

read more | digg story

On the "Digital Civil Rights" Movement

2007-08-07T13:32:00.001-04:00

The Yearly Kos Conference is holding a panel on net neutrality and other issues which are more and more often being grouped under a new banner of "Digital Civil Rights". I agree with many of the points being raised, but calling this a civil rights issue, I think, is misleading, in that they are trying to evoke ideas of the civil rights movement of the 1960's. This has little to do with equality in treatment, and everything to do with an aging government failing to come to grips with the new, digital age.

They even tried to make it about racial equality, noting statistics that minorities frequently use the internet on mobile phones rather than on computers. This isn't about racial equality. It's about giving the lower classes fair access to our new, digital world. And while it's still true that minorities are disproportionately in the lower classes, that's a completely unrelated issue - and, in my mind, a much more important one, and one we've been battling for decades.

But I'm not here to talk about racial or sexual equality. I'm here to talk about the failure of our government to keep up with the fast-paced advancement of technology in the digital age. This nation invented the modern computer, and the internet, yet while we trip, stumble, and fall, other developed nations have taken this new technology and hit the ground running. The US is ranked 14th among nations in broadband penetration. Broadband here is more expensive than almost any other developed nation, it's slower than in other developed nations, and it's available to less of the population. Not coincidentally, the US is also the only developed nation without a national broadband deployment policy.

We have in this country the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) going on a vast crusade against their own customers, bringing countless illegitimate and frivolous lawsuits to bear against hundreds of people nationwide, demanding obscene compensation for infractions that, quite often, never occurred. Unfortunately, the RIAA has enough political power to keep their witch-hunt going on unchecked.

We have in this country a deeply-entrenched broadband duopoly, again with enough political weight to keep themselves in power into the foreseeable future. They have little to no incentive to reduce prices, increase speeds, or widen deployment into rural and low-income areas. Monopolies and duopolies are a free-market failure that hurt the consumer in countless ways, limiting innovation and elevating prices. And, should they decide to start bringing to bear their threats of bandwidth shaping for the highest bidder, there will be no free and neutral alternative for internet access.

Don't think it's an issue? Look at Japan: 50Mbps DSL is available for $35 per month, 100Mbps fiber is available for $50, and 1 Gbps service over power lines is available for $90. I'm currently paying $43 for a paltry 6 Mbps, and I'm lucky to even have such "high" speeds available in my area; the majority of DSL customers in America are limited to 1.5 or 3 Mbps service, if DSL service is available at all.

So why are things in such a sad state in the country that originated the digital revolution? It's very, very simple: wretched companies with no concern for the consumer have far too much power, and the people have far too little. Is there a simple solution? Of course not. The unchecked political power of big corporations is a staple of American politics, and I don't see it changing any time soon. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are on the take from Big Business, leaving voters to choose the lesser of two evils.

The State of the Wii

2007-08-03T13:12:00.000-04:00

I picked up Mario Strikers Charged on Wednesday. I haven't had enough time with it to really put in a solid review, but I will say that online multiplayer is really solid, and it's about damn time. More than anything, playing Strikers makes me yearn even more for Battalion Wars II, set to release in the US on October 29th, and it can't come soon enough. BW on the GameCube was a blast, and is a clear target for a dose of Wii controls.

I was beginning to feel a little down about the Wii, as the first half of this year was sparse on new titles, even more so for good ones. Godfather is top-notch, and that was about it. I was beginning to worry about the platform's viability with such a lack of good games coming out, then I saw what the second half of this year looks like, and, well... it looks amazing. See for yourself.

Ultimate OS Wishlist

2007-07-30T17:37:00.000-04:00

You'll find below my ultimate OS feature wishlist. This is from years of use of Windows and Mac OS, as well as some Linux use. Now, I know, some of these may be covered by one or more of the countless Linux distros out there, however, Linux isn't ready for my desktop (whether it's ready for the desktop is a matter for people smarter than I).

The ultimate operating system would feature:
• A completely vector-based UI with full transparency, allowing users to select not only a monitor resolution, but also a display DPI, so that large, high-density displays could be used to display the same size features at higher quality.
• An auto-update system that's open to all developers to use. Currently, modern OS's (Mac OS and Windows) supply a system auto-update feature that cannot be used by installed applications, forcing application developers to write their own, separate auto-update libraries.
• A bug/crash reporting system that's open to all developers to use. We sort of have this now, but it could get a whole lot better.
• A complete skinning/theming system that can be used to apply complete OS-wide interface makeovers, as well as skinning specific applications. Currently, operating systems typically require a seperate piece of software to skin the OS, and many individual applications provide a means to skin that application.
• Filesystem-level local revision control, and integrated access to remote revision control repositories. Revision control isn't just for programmers any more.
• A tightly-integrated, professional-quality Personal Information Manager (PIM), integrated into the system's clipboard and drag-and-drop functionality. Apple almost has the right idea here, except that the PIM applications themselves are dreck. It should be simple to use my computer, without any 3rd-party software, to store contacts, set reminders and appointments, create a to-do list, and so forth.
• Multiple clipboards and clipboard history.
• Solid remote command-line and remote desktop capabilities. Only *nix really has this nailed down. I want to be able to throw away my KVM in favor of my LAN.
• System self-optimization based on usage statistics. C'mon, guys, this can't be that hard. I shouldn't have to do much, if any, of my own optimization; operating systems should be smart enough to monitor how I use my PC and adjust system settings accordingly.
• Window-manager-level support for tabbed interfaces. It should be up to the user, not the developers, what windows and applications can be run in tabs rather than a slew of individual windows.
• A decent application launcher. Seriously, this is the core functionality of all operating systems - running applications. But still, with every OS I've ever used, I've had to install a 3rd-party application launcher to really get the most out of my system. I should have a customizable solution that completely eliminates the need for programs like QuickSilver, Colibri, Katapult, DragThing, and so on.
• Easy management of startup items. For crying out loud, this is still a pain in the ass on both Windows and Mac OS. Why?!?
• A cappuccino maker.

So, what's your OS wishlist? Post in the comments!

Religion

2007-07-27T14:50:00.000-04:00

Wow. I just found this (quite old) post from my apathosist days... although I consider myself to be an Atheist now, most of it still rings true, so I'm reposting it here.

Okay, time to cover religion. You've got your ideological religions - agnosticism, atheism, and apathosism. Atheists believe there is no god. Agnostics don't know if there is a god or not. And Apathosists don't care if there is or not, they'll find out when they get there. If you haven't guessed, I fall into the last category.

Then you've basically got three other types of religions - anglican, based around the Old Testament, the New Testament, or some Testament or another involving lots of guys with shabby clothing, unkempt beards, and a bit of an overzealous love for wine; and eastern, based around spending lots of time doing menial tasks or sitting very, very quietly for long periods of time to reach a state of personal enlightenment; and the Old Religions, which were mostly about farming, eating, killing, and procreating (and what else would you need in life?)

And then, of course, there are the Unitarian Universalists, who believe in stuff, and who evangelise door-to-door in comfortable shoes saying "Hello, I'm with the Unitarian Universalist Church, and I was hoping you could take a moment to hear the joys of, well, whatever you believe in, being, ah, really really good, and all." If you've ever been to a Unitarian church, you'll notice a lot of Birkenstocks and Ugg boots and other brand-name hippie footwear. In fact, as a kid, for a brief while, I went to a Unitarian youth program at Our Lady of Sensible Shoes - fantastic lot, lots of candles, cork sandals, sex ed is done every year 5th grade through high school at an anual sleepover weekend at the church (good planning...) Makes for an interesting childhood, lemme tell ya.

And Unitarian ministers are great - they all sound like announcers from NPR, or maybe subliminal tape voiceover actors from Canada. Very polite, always soothing tones, lots of talk about how pretty the trees and the sky and the flowers are. Very politically correct church, they try to keep it non-denominational - no, not easy in a church, but if it's not a challenge, it's probably not worth doing, right? Or maybe it's just not worth doing right? I always get those confused...

So anyway, and then there was the Unitarian Inquisition - "Excuse me? Ah, excuse me?" "Yes?" "Well, I was just wondering... what do you believe?" "What do you mean?" "You know, the whole god, devil, afterlife thing - what's your stance?" "Well, I'm a Pagan, as a matter of fact." "Ahhh, yes, very good. Good for you, that. Hope you're enjoying it." "Well, the orgies are nice..." "Ah, yes... Ahh.... Have some tea?" "Well, aren't you supposed to be putting me on the rack now?" "What? Oh, goodness no... that'd be terrible... we might light some candles later..." "Candles?" "Yes, candles, love the things, can't get enough of 'em. May I ask another question? Do you have a comfortable pair of shoes?"

So, yes. That's the UU Church. I also did the Old Gnostic Mass for a while, that's pretty interesting, a dozen drunken Jews in Southern California putting on a Shakesperian play set in Pagan Rome with nude women and oh, what the hell, we'll use whiskey for sacrement, can't find the wine, whiskey's better anyway, I always feel closer to God after I've had a few. "There is nothing in me that is not of the Gods." Unless you're Michael Jackson, in which case most of what's in you is synthetic anyway.

I've done pagan circles too - again with the whiskey. I find that the alternative religions tend to very quickly decide that hard liquor is much more religious than wine. And if those stale crackers are the body of Christ, I really have to worry about the guy. I understand people are supposed to taste like pork, not cardboard. He might want to have a quick chat with God about that one. "Excuse me, dad?" "Yes?" "Well, I was wondering.... why do I taste like crap?" "Ahh, well... Huh... Hadn't really thought of that... Ahhh... well, you see, it's... it's, ahh.... it's all Adam's fault, that bastard! He - he made me do it!Yes, that's it..."

So, yeah. That's religion in a nutshell for ya. If you're still having trouble choosing one, go with Apathosism, it's easier, and it lets you have a lot more fun.

On the iPhone

2007-06-29T11:42:00.001-04:00

I don't care.

I would, however, take an iPod with the same interface, at half the price and ten times the capacity. C'mon, Apple, you can do it.

Public Airwaves for the Public Good

2007-05-30T15:52:00.000-04:00

I just learned about a really important issue, and signed a petition about it. The federal government is on the verge of turning over a huge portion of our public airwaves to companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast--who will use them for private enrichment instead of the public good.

These newly available airwaves are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revolutionize Internet access -- beaming high-speed signals to every park bench, coffee shop, workplace, and home in America. Phone and cable companies don't want this competition to their Internet service--they'd rather purchase the airwaves at auction and sit on them.

You can sign the petition I signed here - urging the government to make sure the public airwaves are used for the public good:

http://civic.moveon.org/airwaves/?r_by=-5971883-538sJA

ME WANT!

2007-05-20T19:26:00.000-04:00

O, M Fing G. I want one. Yes, I'm a technophile, but few products arouse my tech-interest quite like this one has. It has to be seen to be understood - so just go check it out for yourself. The Optimus Maximus keyboard, by Art. Lebedev.

The Joys of Hibernate

2007-05-13T11:37:00.001-04:00

I just spent the last few days troubleshooting a HibernateException with the error message Illegal attempt to associate a collection with two open sessions. After much Googling, I had tried every solution I could find, and none of them worked - so hopefully this solution will make it into the next person's search.

In my case, the issue was that I was taking a persistent object, storing it in the HTTP session, and trying to reconstitute it later. By storing the ID in the browser session and loading by ID each time, the error was eliminated.

I hope this helps someone - if so, or if you're having a similar issue, post in the comments!

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition (Wii)

2007-05-08T15:02:00.000-04:00

I got The Godfather: Blackhand Edition for the Wii for my birthday, and I'm totally hooked - and, after borrowing the game for a day, so is my best friend: he ran out and bought his own copy, after holding mine hostage for a few days. It's all the best qualities of Monopoly and Grand Theft Auto, set in the The Godfather, with the Wii controls allowing you to literally beat the pulp out of business owners with a baseball bat while extorting them for cash, and physically tossing people over balconies for bonus points.

Yes, it's that kind of game. Yes, it's not for kids. Yes, it's on the Wii. And yes, it's damned addictive.

The game smoothly mixes a wide array of sandboxing opportunities, including extorting businesses, setting off mob wars, robbing banks, taking on hit contracts, and so on, with a deep plotline that follows the story of the films. You start as a young gangster on hard times, dealing with a bad crowd. Luca Brasi comes to your aid, and initiates you into the Corleone family with a few tutorial missions. Then, it's up to you to take on any of the many "business opportunities" throughout the city, or continue to advance the main plot. The game lets you delay the main plot as long as you want between missions, letting you set the pace the entire time.

The graphics aren't stunning, but they definitely get the job done. It's enough for suspension of disbelief, particularly for fans of the films. Having not seen them for many many years, playing the game now makes me want to watch the movies again - and then play the game again from the beginning.

All in all, I'd give it a solid 8/10, and a definite recommendation to anyone that enjoys a little digital bloodshed in the morning.

Wired vs. Wireless

2007-05-04T00:40:00.000-04:00

I was talking to my mom today, and she wanted to set up a wireless network. I advised against it,
and her argument was that wired networks seem archaic.

Now, while I can certainly understand the idea that the same cables we've been using for decades are still just fine today may be hard to swallow, but in reality, wired networking is advancing far faster than wireless.

Wireless networking, over the last decade, has gone from 11mbit (802.11b) to 54mbit (802.11g) to "up to 700mbit" (802.11n; effectively 100 - 200 mbit). This bandwidth is per airspace - multiple clients on a network, and multiple networks in the same airspace, must share the available bandwidth.

Meanwhile, wired networks have gone from 10 to 100 mbit, then to 1 gbit and now 10 gbit, all on copper cable. And each client on a wired network gets a dedicated, full-bandwidth pipe all to its own.

So, while the cables may not have changed much (cat 6 is hard to tell from cat 5 to the average person), wired networks are advancing far beyond wireless, and all the while, they provide greater reliability, security, ease of use, and power efficiency.

All in all, I'll keep my wired network.

Mario Kart DS

2007-05-03T01:02:00.000-04:00

Now that I've had a few hours with Mario Kart DS, I must say, it's a really good game. Even my girlfriend, not much of a gamer, thinks so. I'd say it's console-quality, and definitely a solid update to a time-tested franchise.

MK DS includes 16 new tracks, and a selection of 16 tracks sampled from past MK games. Each racer (the usual 8: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser, Wario, and DK) has two cars to choose from, with differing stats.

Online play is smooth and easy to manage, and it allows random matchups via WFC without swapping friend codes. On a related side note, the DS apparently doesn't speak WPA2-PSK, which makes me very sad, since I'm never using WEP, and I'm certainly not going unencrypted just for WFC. I may have to invest in one of the Ninty USB WFC gadgets.

Nintendo DS

2007-05-02T20:20:00.000-04:00

I just picked up a DS, and I must say, it's a very nice little machine. Ultra-portable, long battery life, built-in touch screen, microphone, and wireless, and a solid lineup of titles including a long history of GameBoy Advance titles which are still compatible with the machine. (Titles for older Game Boy models, such as original GB and GBC carts, will not work with the DS - only GBA titles.) This is particularly nice as I already have a small collection of games for my aging GBA SP, some of which I've now picked up and started playing again.

I've had it about 48 hours, and so far, I'm extremely happy with it. Final Fantasy III for the DS is a great game in the classic Final Fantasy tradition. Mario Kart DS is a solid title in the Mario Kart line, and blows away any portable Mario Kart title to date - honestly, you'll be amazed at the quality of the graphics and gameplay packed into a handheld game.

Elite Beat Agents is a good game for fans of rhythm games (which I am, even though I tend to be terrible at them). It uses the touch screen to great effect and provides a good challenge throughout, with as much replay value as can be packed into the relatively few songs included with the game.

I have yet to play multiplayer (DS-to-DS or via Nintendo WiFi Connection), but if you'd like to help me give it a shot, post your friend codes in comments.

My Mario Kart DS FC: 274976-668344
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin FC: 090293-173479

GarageBand is Fun

2007-04-14T20:39:00.000-04:00

GarageBand is fun. Came with the Mac, came with around a thousand loops. So, I tossed this together over a couple of hours - let me know what you think in the comments!

Original

Drums Remix

Google Traffic Maps

2007-04-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but some time in the last couple of days, Google finally added traffic information to Google Local/Google Maps. It's not available everywhere, but it is available for the major freeways here in Atlanta, and many other US cities. Look for the stop-light icon on Google Maps.

LAMPP and then some

2007-03-23T22:28:00.000-04:00

I recently built Apache, MySQL, PHP, Python, SQLite, OpenSSL, Subversion , and Trac on a Mac, an Ubuntu box, and a RHEL 4 box. Don't ask why, just see these tips:

Try building your own APR. Also, check what APR is being used; if you already have an APR version 0.9.x, the new APR will be named apr-1-config instead of apr-config, and likewise apu-config will be apu-1-config to get the proper version.
Try building Apache --with-included-apr.
Try using a different version of OpenSSL, even if you have to go back a version. Security holes are typically backported as a letter release to the previous one or two point releases.
Under linux, remember to run sudo ldconfig, make clean, make if you're having trouble.
Under MacOS, if you're building under a prefix, make sure to add the prefix to the environment variable DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH.

More tips, and maybe even a step-by-step, will be forthcoming.

Blogger vs Google

2007-03-21T11:40:00.000-04:00

Does it make sense to anybody out there that Blogger, a Google property, doesn't automatically generate, or even have an option to generate, sitemaps, which are a Google initiative?

Call for Help (Updated)

2007-03-15T18:29:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've been struggling with this issue for several days now. So, if anybody out there has successfully built Subversion 1.4.2 or 1.4.3 on MacOS 10.4, please, PLEASE let me know if you know how to resolve this issue.

When I try to build Subversion, I can configure it just fine, but when I try to make, I get the following:

Reason: Incompatible library version: libaprutil-0.0.dylib requires version 6.0.0 or later, but libexpat.0.dylib provides version 2.0.0

I can install Subversion via fink just fine, but if I try to run it (e.g., svn -v), the above message displays and the execution fails. As far as I can tell, there is no version 6 of libexpat; I've updated libexpat via fink and tried compiling it manually myself.

Update: I've since resolved the issue. The fix (in my case, at least - YMMV) was to custom-build APR 1.2.3, and specify that APR and APR-util on the command line (apr-1-config and apu-1-config) when building Subversion. You can also build APR and APR-util automatically along with apache by adding --with-included-apr to apache's ./configure. Please post in comments with your experiences.

Urgent Apps - Mac Development Kit

2007-03-14T12:51:00.000-04:00

After yesterday's post, I got to thinking. I had pulled some items out of that list because they were highly developer-centric applications. However, that does mean that some really top-notch programs didn't make the list, and I think that's unfair. There are some apps that I really can't live without when it comes to development work.

Before we begin, I should point out that my particular development tasks typically include the administration of a MySQL database, editing PHP, Java, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, and operating revision control; the tools laid out here are centered around those tasks.

Now, without further ado, the list:

jEdit
jEdit calls itself "the programmer's text editor", but that's selling it short. jEdit is, to put it lightly, a god among executables. I've never seen another program come close to its level of flexibility, modularity, and customizability. The sacrifice for all this goodness is that it's a bit of a RAM-hog, particularly running under the MacOS JRE (I highly recommend updating to the 1.6 JRE available on apple's website, and completely switching over to 1.6; it provides some vast performance and footprint improvements.)

NetBeans
NetBeans is, of course, the Java IDE, unless you're one of those people that thinks that Eclipse is the Java IDE, but I'm not.

SmartSVN (payware)
The best SVN client I've seen for the Mac. Unfortunately, there aren't many good free options.

MySQL GUI Tools
The real deal, straight from the source.

Platypus
This nifty little app lets you take any shell or other script file and turn it into a Mac application package.

ArgoUML
Java-based UML designer.

Subversion
Revision control extraordinaire. Any box I do development on has a local Subversion server for anything I happen to want to keep a history for.

Trac
I've recently fallen in love with Trac, which is why it made the list. It's not exactly an application - it's a web application. However, it can be installed on a Mac, so it made the cut, and I do love it dearly. Go check out their page; the Trac site runs on Trac.

Anything I'm missing? Post in the comments!!

Urgent Apps - "20" Mac Software Picks

2007-03-13T14:13:00.000-04:00

So, I just reformatted my laptop and reinstalled the OS, which got me to thinking about which applications I installed first, reflexively, as I can't stand to be without them - and then I progress on through the stuff that I need infrequently, but I do still need nonetheless. These are my "Urgent Applications".

Firefox
The best browser, period. Well, okay, Camino might actually be better - I haven't used it, because it doesn't support FireFox plugins. Bust.

Adium
The ultimate multi-messenger application. Handles MSNM, Y!IM, AIM, ICQ, GTalk, Jabber, IRC, and a whole host of smaller services. Moreover, it's just about the most customizable instant messaging app I've ever used, on any patform.

Quicksilver
Quicksilver is a launcher and then some. It doesn't just let you quickly find and open documents and applications; it lets you do anything to them, with just a few key presses. I still have yet to fully discover its potential.

TextWrangler
Nice text editor, especially for programmers, webmasters, and power-users.

Punakea
MacOS file tagger and tag-based file browser. Stores tags in meta data so they can still be searched with Spotlight.

Growl
Global notification app. Many of the programs on this list support Growl notifications, and more applications add Growl support every day.

7zX
On windows, 7Z has always been one of my "urgent apps" whenever I reinstall. 7zX holds the same spot for OS X.

Xcode
I know, I know, it's cheating, but hey, you do have to manually install it. And besides, it's required for Fink.

X11
Again, I know, it comes with MacOS, but again, it must be installed seperately. X11 is found in the "optional installs" package on your MacOS disk, and it allows you to run graphical Linux applications on your Mac, side-by-side with Mac applications (programs such as OpenOffice, the GIMP, and Inkscape.)

NeoOffice
A pure Aqua port of OpenOffice. It's got some quirks, and it tends to be a couple of steps behind the official OpenOffice tree, but it's still a very solid port.

VLC
VLC isn't just a multimedia player; it's an omnimedia player. I've only run into a couple of files in my life that VLC can't play; and even when multiple players will play the same file, VLC usually does so with better quality, less resource usage, in fullscreen (unlike unregistered Quicktime), and for free.

Fink
Fink is the Darwin package manager, like apt or yum (in fact, it's a forked port of apt to Darwin.) It's a command-line tool you can use to install and update the thousands of standard (free) packages that have been ported to Darwin.

FinkCommander
For those squeemish at the command line, there's FinkCommander, which puts a nice graphical interface over top of Fink. Heck, I love the command line, but I still use this instead of fink itself 90% of the time.

FruitMenu (payware)
One of the few pay apps on my list, FruitMenu is well worth the price. It lets you turn your Apple menu into, well, something that's actually useful for stuff. There's a free demo, so check it out.

FileZilla 3.0 beta
The famous FTP client for Windows has in its third generation finally been ported to the Mac - and the people rejoiced. My all-time favorite Windows FTP client is finally available, and completely free, for the Mac (and, for that matter, Linux as well!)

Chmox
Mac OS X app that lets you view Windows CHM helpfiles, which are prolific throughout the open source community in providing packaged online documentation. Works very well, with an interface similar to Preview.

OnyX
OnyX is a system tweaking, tinkering, optimizing, and maintenance tool. And it's free. Go get it. I run the full suite about once a week.

SuperDuper (payware)
The other pay app on my list, SuperDuper lets you quickly back up your Users directory, your entire disk, or any selection of files, to a disk image.

hfsdebug
Hfsdebug is a command-line utility you can use to quickly get information about an HFS drive, such as file size and fragmentation. The only free way I know of to determine file fragmentation on an HFS+ disk.

Dashboard Widgets
iStat Pro
Shows various system stats, such as memory use, network info, disk use, fan speeds, temperature readouts, CPU usage, uptime, battery status, and more.

Delivery Notification
The best package tracking widget I've ever seen, bar none - and I've used many of them. If you do a lot of online shopping - or even just occasionally - check this little widget out.

Color LS
Yes, yes, this would make #22 (#21 if you count the dashboard widgets as one item, which I do, because I'm a cheater), but it's not exactly just an application, so I'm not counting it as one. In order to get LS in color, you have to install a version of LS which supports color output. You can do this from Fink by installing the "fileutils" package. This gets you a color-capable ls, but it's not in color by default; you have to use the --color=always flag. However, you can change this by editing your ~/.bash_profile and adding a line like so:

alias ls='ls --color=always"

You can find more info here: http://kung-foo.tv/xtips.html#9.

Open Terminal Here Workflow
(See note from Color LS about how this doesn't put me over 20 items.) Sometimes you're browsing around the Finder and you need to get to the current directory in a Terminal window - only to discover there's no easy way to do it; you can't even quickly copy and paste your current path. So, what is a power-user to do? Script the action!

Right-click on a folder's background (or the desktop background) and choose Automator -> Create Workflow. This will open Automator with a new Workflow, with "Get Selected Finder Items" already inserted as Step 1. Choose Automator as the library, find Run AppleScript, and add it as Step 2. For the script body, use:

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Terminal"
set firstpath to item 1 of input
do script "cd " & (quoted form of POSIX path of firstpath)
activate
end tell

return input
end run

Now save the file as a Finder Plugin, and name it anything you want. Now, to get a Terminal that's where you are in the Finder, just right-click, and choose your script name from the Automator menu.

Know of a superior alternative to one of my picks? Or something that should be on the list but isn't? Post a comment and let me know!!

Short Story

2007-03-10T20:52:00.000-05:00

The other night, in the middle of the night, a fragment of a story popped into my head, and I typed it out. Since then, none of it has come back to me - I can't think of any of the qualities of the characters other than what's laid out in what I had written. So, in the hopes that it might come back to me some day, I'm going to post what I wrote here. Please forgive its roughness, and, obviously, its incompleteness.

We came across a great battle - legions of men fighting, screaming, sweating, bleeding. I recognized the colors of my people - and immediately after, I realized that they were sorely losing.

"Your people are being slaughtered, Dorian. They are no match for these warriors, either in number or in tactics," Jonas said.

"I see that, Jonas, but what can I do for them? Surely you don't mean for the two of us to jump headlong into battle against thousands," I said.

"We needn't do any such thing," Jonas replied. "Close your eyes."

This seemed like a dreadful idea - we had suddenly walked out of the wood and into the middle of a vast battle - eyes open, I was doing my best not to be killed just by being in the vicinity. I pointed this out to Jonas.

"Close your eyes, Dorian," he said again. I closed my eyes. I was shaking gently with fear, waiting for an axe to land in my skull. Waiting to open my eyes and find Dorian gone, or dead. My breathing was ragged, fast, my heart pounding.

"Take a deep breath," he said.

"I can't."

"Do it!"

I tried to take a deep breath, and succeeded in taking a nearly normal one. I tried again, but just couldn't do it. I opened one eye to peer at Jonas.

"Close your eyes!" he shouted, "and take a deep breath!" I closed my eye again, and suddenly he was behind me, one hand clasped hard over my eyes, the other covering my nose and mouth.

I struggled against his grip, pulling at his arms with my hands, trying to wriggle myself free. I started to feel lightheaded as I tried in vain to gasp for air, when none was available. Suddenly he let go, and I gasped, sputtering, filling my lungs completely in one giant breath, and exhaling slowly. "Relax," he said.

I looked around at the battlefield, and everything seemed to be moving so slowly. The sounds had gone from a deafening roar to the murmuring of some distant conflict; yet I could hear Jonas as clear as day.

"Can you see alright?"

"Yes," I said, "I can see fine - why?"

"Your eyes are still closed," he said, and I realized he was right - my eyes were still shut, but I could see the battle raging around me with perfect clarity.

"Do you see their leader over there?" he asked, pointing. I concentrated, and picked him out of the bustle.

"Yes, I see him," I said.

"Good," Jonas replied. "Now kill him."

"But... Jonas, surely you're kidding? He must be a hundred yards away - and even if I made it to him alive, he'd flay me before I could make a move! I'm no soldier, and certainly no assassin!"

"But, Jonas... don't you see? He's not really all that far away, if you think about it. And do you see how slowly he moves? Surely you could step right up to him and run him through before he could turn around. Go ahead, do it."

I took another deep breath, and realized Jonas was right - though I knew he was a hundred yards away, I was sure I could just step right over to him, and in three strides I was there, untouched by any of the clashing warriors around me. And indeed, he was moving incredibly slowly now, and it seemed he hadn't even noticed me walk up to him, blade drawn. I stabbed him hard in the gut, pulled my blade back out, and kicked him hard as I could in the wound, knocking him back hard into one of his own men. Two steps later I was right back at Jonas' side.

"Good work, Dorian," he said. I opened my eyes, and stared in amazement at the field of battle: the death of their leader left the enemy forces confused, disorganized, and demoralized; while at the same time, it gave my own people a second wind, as they pushed forward, turning the tables on the enemy.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH...

2007-02-28T12:16:00.000-05:00

...HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Development Tactics

2007-02-23T21:53:00.000-05:00

I recently set up an account with hosted-projects.com, because I wanted a Subversion repository more accessible & stable than the one running on my home desktop. I shopped around for a while, and decided on this place - it's a small project, and a starter account is only $7/month, so I figure, what the heck.

My account was set up within a few minutes, even though I ordered after business hours - I'm guessing they've got a pretty good automation system going. I get fast, secure access for unlimited users to unlimited projects in 100M of space, plus a free Trac - not a bad deal. As far as reliability and support, well - only time will tell.

The host is all well and good, but what I really wanted to talk about is Trac. I had looked Trac up some time ago, and decided to take a pass on it - it just wasn't mature enough at the time, and didn't have most of the features I was looking for.

Now, however - after some time, and a few bug tracking schemes - I find myself with a free Trac page sitting around, and I figure, what the hey, I'll give it a shot. And you know what? It still doesn't have some of the features I was looking for. But it works so well, it doesn't matter.

The whole thing runs on a Wiki engine. This Wiki engine identifies all CamelCase as wiki links, which I find a bit annoying, but I got used to it pretty quickly. It lets you easily link to pretty much anything, and inline, too: #123 is ticket 123, r456 is revision 456, etc. It hooks up to your Subversion repo and lets you keep an eye on changelogs and browse the repo; plus, this means if you put properly formatted notes in your commit messages (which isn't hard), you get links in the changelog, for free.

While not quite as versatile as MediaWiki, for example, in terms of page layout and design, it's probably easier to use - and programmers tend to go for form over function anyway. It's a developer's tool. Developers probably won't spend all day perfecting page templates and macros.

The system provides for a roadmap of milestones, a list of issue tickets, the wiki, and the repository. That's it. What's the big deal? How insanely easy it is to wire them all together. With some really basic formatting, you can turn a simple list of milestones into this.

It's got some rough edges, and there are definitely some huge opportunities yet to be taken advantage of - particularly, I have yet to discover decent, proper JavaDoc support, with full wiki integration. I may just have to learn enough Python to write a plugin for it. I'd also really like to see automatic backlinks added to all the internal links.

I know it's still version "0.10.3", but it's pretty stable so far, and everything works pretty well. I have yet to run into any bugs or bad behavior - however, you should keep in mind that this is bleeding-edge software if you're considering deploying it. Don't let that scare you off though: if you don't mind the under-heavy-development label, you really should give this little application a try and see what you think. At the very least, check out Trac's own website to see what it can do.

Status Update

2007-02-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't posted here much lately, I'm sorry... My del.icio.us has been lighting up though, if it's any consolation. Basically, I've been swamped, between work, a new health regimen, and a new side project. The side project is in its very early stages, so I'm not going to jump the gun and start talking about it now... so far it's just a registration page and a login form, it doesn't actually do anything. Watch this space for more details, kids.

I am, however, trying to gain 60 pounds in the next 6 - 12 months. That's right, gain. I'm currently 60 pounds under my "optimal" body weight, with a BMI of 18.5. So I'm now on a 3600 calorie/day high-protein high-fat diet, as I want to build up both muscle mass and a healthy level of body fat. I'm tired of being cold all the time, damnit. I'm doing half an hour of heavy calisthenics every weekday (why half an hour? that's pretty much exactly when I can no longer lift myself up.) I'm also working on building a regular cycling habit; me, my girlfriend and at least one or two friends in my apartment complex are gonna join up and get our cycle on. I'm really excited about it; I haven't been cycling in a long time, but I love it, and it's good for ya.

So, wish me luck!

More Del.icio.us.ness

2007-02-08T00:46:00.000-05:00

I have a few friends who use Stumble, and I noticed that Stumble now includes a tagging feature. I have to say, though, that I never got that into Stumble - something about their algos I suppose (or maybe the decidedly retro interface) just didn't jive with me. But, it certainly serves a purpose that Del.icio.us doesn't quite manage to accomplish... but why not?

There is, of course, the Random page on Delicious, but it's totally random. What they need is a personalized random link page that pulls a random link stumbled recently by someone else who labeled it with a label you have used. Make a bookmarklet for it, and voila, you have yourself a solid StumbleUpon replacement.

So, what say you, Del.icio.us Masters? Have I stumbled onto something good here? Or is this just not feasible from a performance perspective due to the high volume of tag searches?

Update 2/8/07: I sent this to the feedback address for Delicious, and got a reply back stating, "Basically, what you’re talking about is showing users links based on things they’ve liked enough to tag in the past, right? If so, we’ve already got something in mind." I can't wait!

Symbolic Tagging: Tags 2.0

2007-01-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

Tagging has become extremely popular these days, and with good reason - people naturally catalog things under various categories mentally, and are able to recall them by any of those routes. So, it makes sense to use a multiple-tagging system rather than a singular system like plain categories or folders.

Combining tagging with social networking, as Del.icio.us does, is particularly effective - a set of aggregate tags that allow a community to classify data for use by the whole. However, the problem with this is that not everyone uses the same tags to mean the same things.

The words are just symbols; tags demand meaning. It makes sense, in a simple system, to consider words and their meaning to be one and the same; however, as the system expands, it needs to understand the relationships between words and meanings. Enter symbolic tagging. Rather than making the tags the words and the words the tags, separate the two - after all, they are in fact separate.

From an architecture perspective, this means we need two constructs: the symbology (words) and the semantics (tags), with a 1..*:1..* relationship between the two. One symbol can have multiple semantics, and one semantic can have multiple symbols. As an example, let's say two symbols, "foo" and "bar" both share a semantic X. When a user searches for "foo", they will see all records associated with semantic X; the same when they search for "bar". Alternately, assume the symbol "baz" is attached to two semantics, X and Y. When a user searches for "baz", they will see all records associated with semantic X, Y, or both.

How does the system learn which symbols reflect which semantics? The same way it determines which records match which tags - community input. Take, for example, the following process for developing and refining a symbolic-semantic map.

1. As new records are added, the user adding them tags those records as they normally would. Any time a user inputs a tag that isn't already in the map, a new symbol is created for the tag, and a new semantic is created for it as well. At initialization, the two share a 1:1 relationship.
2. The user may opt to go through a refinement process, either manually initiated, or initiated as an additional step in the new-record process. This refinement process prompts the user with a list of tags they have used, and for each tag T, lists other tags associated with records which are also associated with tag T. The user may mark zero or more of these related tags as being synonymous with the tag in question.
3. For each tag being marked synonymous, if that tag is associated with more than one semantic, the user may chose one or more semantic associations between the two tags. The semantics can be identified by the list of tags associated with them. If none of the semantic lines is appropriate, the user may choose "other" to create a new semantic and link it to the two tags being compared. If the tag in question is only associated with one semantic, that semantic is automatically used, avoiding the additional step.

This allows the system to continue its organic social self-construction, while greatly improving the quality of the tag browsing/searching system as a whole, and imparting exponentially more meaning on the dataset itself, which can be used in other areas of research - the data from one large-scale implementation could prove invaluable for semantic computing, computer linguistics, and social networking research and development.

So, Del.icio.us - are you up to the task?

Sustainability, Energy Independence and Agricultural Policy

2007-01-29T17:43:00.001-05:00

Long, but definitely worth the read.

The Oil Drum | Sustainability, Energy Independence and Agricultural Policy

One of the biggest threats the USA faces today is a serious shortage of energy. Vulnerabilities in our system have been made glaringly obvious several times; since the 1970's the USA has had social and economic upheaval due to the actions of foreign oil producers, and two hurricanes in 2005 showed just how fragile our remaining domestic supplies of oil and natural gas are. The fact that the nation has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve shows that this is a matter of national security.

For such a serious matter, it's being treated in a very casual fashion. There is no national program to manage oil demand in the event of a supply crisis, or employ market forces to help. Neither is there a long-term initiative to reduce oil dependence and the size of the threat. While the US looks to become dependent upon imported natural gas in addition to oil, there's nothing in the works for a Strategic Natural Gas Reserve. And as for a national building code or even minimum standards for building codes, there's nothing worth mentioning.

Other, less-serious problems have been dealt with far more competently. The USA had a plan for achieving the goal of saving the peregrine falcon and bald eagle from DDT, and another for saving the world's ozone layer from halocarbon emissions. Both of these were carried forward both domestically and internationally, with considerable success on both programs. Given the last ten years of concern about global warming and three decades of concern over energy supplies, you would expect something similar would be in the works for those also.

The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

2007-01-29T11:45:00.001-05:00

The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines

Ask anyone which search engine they use to find information on the Internet and they will almost certainly reply: "Google." Look a little further, and market research shows that people actually use four main search engines for 99.99% of their searches: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.com (in that order). But in my travels as a Search Engine Optimizer (SEO), I have discovered that in that .01% lies a vast multitude of the most innovative and creative search engines you have never seen. So many, in fact, that I have had to limit my list of the very best ones to a mere 100.

Not a bad article, despite him being an SEO guy.

Cirque du Soleil: Corteo

2007-01-24T23:37:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Corteo, my first live Cirque show, and it was awesome. I've wanted to see Cirque live forever, and I wasn't dissappointed. Of course, we blew near $300 just on souvenirs and gifts, and the tickets weren't cheap either... but it was well worth it! I wish you were allowed to take pictures, I'd be able to post some good shots up here - oh well.

The show is themed around a look at death in the 1920's; the music, costumes, and plotful interludes follow this theme, though of course, the acts themselves aren't particularly plot-related - not that that makes them any less spectacular. My three favorite acts were the ribbon act (that girl is fabulously gorgeous - wow), the juggling act, and, my top favorite of the night, the chandelier act at the very beginning of the show - I can't wait to see it again on video (DVDs were $30, so I skipped that - it'll be on Bravo for free soon enough), as I'm sure there's a ton I missed while I was paying attention to the orchestra, the extras, or the angels constantly floating through the rafters, dropping things off, picking things up, and raining glitter down onto the stage.

There was also a great interlude where they put a midget in a harness, hooked her up to a mass of balloons, and floated her out into the audience, who got to bounce her around, kind of like a beach ball at a concert. It was hilarious, and inspiring: I'm determined to find a way to construct a similar rig for Boris, so we can float his lazy, furry ass around our apartment!

Okay, off to bed now - too much excitement for one night...

Foreign Perspective on the State of the Union

2007-01-24T14:09:00.001-05:00

The American hostility towards Iran

"One of the notable features of President George W Bush's State of the Union speech was its hostile attitude towards Iran."

This is the title and tagline of the BBC's article analyzing President Bush's State of the Union address last night. And it's not off base. Bush may manage to drag America headlong into the third middle-east conflict of the Bush Administration. It's no wonder the entire rest of the world thinks that America is destructively stupid on an epic scale - it's true.

History of the Oil Wars

2007-01-24T12:59:00.001-05:00

YouTube - History of the Oil Wars

Very interesting video on the state of oil in America, and how we've gotten where we are. Highly recommended.

HDCP: beta testing DRM on the public?

2007-01-22T10:56:00.001-05:00

Ars has a nice summation of the state of HDCP/HDMI, and how we got there. A lot of this wasn't news to me, but it's put into perspective very nicely.

HDCP: beta testing DRM on the public?

When the supposedly uncrackable copy protection used on DVD was indeed cracked back in 1999, two very different messages were received. Hackers and most tech enthusiasts took the crack as yet another sign that these encryption schemes will all, ultimately, fall to the efforts of hackers. The titans of the entertainment industry received another message—a challenge, as it were, to build an even more "robust" content protection system.

I, Cringely -- When Being a Verb is Not Enough: Google wants to be YOUR Internet.

2007-01-20T01:59:00.001-05:00

From TFA:

I spoke recently with an old friend who is a bandwidth broker. He buys
and sells bandwidth on fiber-optic networks around the world. And he
told me something that I found not completely surprising, but I
certainly hadn't known: Google controls more network fiber than any
other organization. This is not to say that Google OWNS all that fiber,
just that they control it through agreements with network operators.

I knew they'd been snapping up fiber en masse for years, but I didn't know they'd managed to control more fiber than anybody else. That's a hugely impressive feat... I dunno if Cringely is right here, but I'm just as curious as he to see exactly what they're up to.

Giving in to the Deliciousness

2007-01-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

That's right - I've finally given in and started a del.icio.us account. I've been resisting it since they started to get popular a couple years ago... but, in keeping with my ongoing attempt to "join in" on this whole community-driven internet deal, I'm jumping on the tasty bandwagon. Who knows - maybe I'll be using Digg a couple months from now (perish the thought!)

Anyway. I've added my del.icio.us feed to the right-hand pane of this site, and it's further accessible here.

10 Business Lessons From a Snarky Entrepreneur

2007-01-17T14:03:00.001-05:00

10 Business Lessons From a Snarky Entrepreneur by Steve Pavlina:

As a companion to 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job and 10 Stupid
Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed, here are 10 positive lessons
I learned from more than 12 years as an entrepreneur. A few of these
are rehashed from the 10 Mistakes article, but most are new.

Fantstic article; I also highly recommend the two noted articles (10 reasons not to get a job, 10 stupid mistakes), as well as pretty much everything he's written on business, including 10 myths about self-employment, and how to earn $10,000 in an hour. I've been wrestling with the idea of entrepreneurship for the last several years, picking and choosing from the array of ideas I come across on a daily basis, trying to decide what will work and what won't and how much it'll cost to get it off the ground; his blog has convinced me it's high time I just picked one and dove in whole-heartedly, and make it succeed. It's not about the planning, it's about the doing, and it's time for the doing to be done.

Wish me luck.

Long time, no post

2007-01-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted here, so I thought I'd catch up everything that's happened before I get myself back into the swing of posting random nonsense.

Chronos is running smoothly with its new PSU, no issues since the replacement, save for some bizarre incompatibility between my D-Link USB 802.11b/g+ WiFi adapater and the uTorrent BitTorrent client. I have no idea how they could even manage to be incompatible, but somehow, if I run uTorrent, after a few minutes Windows will lose my wireless, and I have to unplug and replug the USB adapter for it to get back on. This will let the connection stay up for another few minutes before the cycle repeats itself. It only happens when uTorrent is open; if I get disconnected, reseat the USB adapter, and close uTorrent, I can stay connected for days on end. I don't get it.

Also, I bought a MacBook (13" widescreen, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB DDR-667, 80GB HD, SuperDrive), and I love the thing to death. The old Dell Latitude D600 was a POS from the day I got it, and I rarely used it (it's a work machine - I didn't actually buy a $2k laptop and never use it.) The MacBook, on the other hand, has more CPU power than my desktop, it's extremely portable due to its size and weight, and the power adapter is far more portable than any laptop charger I've ever seen. The screen quality is fantastic, and I'm actually starting to get back into the swing of MacOS.

Five or so years ago, I had never used a PC. I used an Apple //c when I was five, started programming it in BASIC and assembly when I was 7, got a Mac SE at 10, a Mac Quadra 605 at 14, and a PowerMac G3 (Blue & White) at 16. Then I got a job doing tech support for an ISP, and had to get a Windows-based computer to be able to keep up with the issues experienced by our majority-Windows customers. So, at 19, I bought my first PC, and built it myself from parts, just to have the experience. I sold my last remaining Mac when I was 21, and now I'm nearing my 24th birthday, and I have a Mac again.

Why did I ditch the Mac in the first place? Mac OS X. I've used every Mac OS from System 4 on the IIgs to System 6 on the SE to System 7 on the Quadra to MacOS 8, 9, and eventually X on the G3. It kept getting better and better; every update was faster, easier to use, more feature-full than the last. With MacOS 9.1.2 my system was more responsive than it had ever been.

Then Mac 9.2 came out, designed to ease the migration to MacOS X, laying the groundwork for a whole new Mac OS. I tried the OS X public beta; it was dirt-slow, a total memory hog, and it eventually hosed my hard drive - but hey, it was a beta. I used 10.0 final, it was nearly as bad; 10.1 was a slight improvement, but I never got over how much the interface had changed; I still think Mac 9.1 was the easiest to use, and I think at this point Mac has come down to be roughly on-par with Windows in terms of intuitiveness; a significant fall from grace.

Now I'm using a Mac again, and it's taking some adustment, but it's not as bad as I remember it. Some of the more annoying issues have been fixed; others I suppose just don't bother me as much any more because it's been a very, very long time since I was used to the smooth effortlessness of Mac OS of old. Whatever the root, I'm taking a liking to this new OS.

Expose, which allows you to quickly view all open windows, all windows in the current application, or your desktop, with the push of a button, is very nice. Rather than icons representing each window, when you hit the button, the windows slide and shrink and move around so that you can see them all on-screen at once; these zoomed-out windows are still the real deal, however, and still update while you're looking at them in their miniature form; progress bars still update, and so on.

The Dashboard is handy as well; I'm using iStat Pro to keep an eye on CPU, memory, disk, and network use directly from the dash, as well as Sing that iTune, which automatically looks up the lyrics for whatever track is currently playing in iTunes (I can't help it, I'm a compulsive sing-along-er.)

I haven't used the iLife kit much (iMovie HD, iDVD, iPhoto, etc.), though I have tinkered briefly in GarageBand. Yet again, I find myself using iTunes even though it's a desperately sub-par product; it's become such a juggernaut that few are willing to attempt to compete - on Windows you're up against WMP, iTunes and WinAmp, not an easy fight to fight - and on MacOS, well, iTunes has a pretty significant stranglehold. There are a couple of alternatives, but nothing suitable. So iTunes remains my photo app. It also includes an app called PhotoBooth that uses the built-in webcam to let you take photos - I use it for my gtalk buddy icon, which I sign onto using iChat (works just fine, although it does require that I use a seperate app for gmail notifications - luckily Google has released a full-featured email and calendar notification pack for Mac that works extremely well for me.)

I've also got a Wireless Mighty Mouse, which works very well, aside from a small issue with the connection; it seems if I turn off the mouse, then later turn it back on (as I am likely to do quite often, what with it being a laptop - sometimes I have the room to use the mouse, sometimes I have to use the trackpad), it'll pair automagically, but it won't connect, even though the mouse as marked as a "favorite device"; every time I have to go into the Bluetooth panel and force it to connect by going through the entire pairing/connecting process again. A minor nuisance, but highly irritating when you want to just pull out the laptop and the mouse and get to work.

The Unix side of MacOS is just as one would expect; so far, the main difference between the Darwin base and any other *nix system I've used is the directory structure and a couple of missing apps, which I've since been able to easily install by compiling from source. I managed to install AMP (apache/mysql/php) with little difficulty, aside from some confusion which arose due to the apache 1.3 installation that MacOS comes with, which I didn't realise was there until it had already become a problem.

I've been able to use Automator to create a simple script which runs a bash script; I'm already using this on a daily basis, as it lets me put an item in a global menu to quickly execute a shell script. This is extremely handy; I only wish that, like under *nix windowing environments, I could run any file marked executable just by double-clicking it on the desktop. C'est la vie, maybe a future version will feature this; in the meantime, it's a relatively simple workaround to create an Automator workflow or AppleScript to trigger a shell script to run.

I'm already running jEdit (which has a very solid native Mac port), NetBeans (again, very solid Mac support), NeoOffice (a Cocoa port of OpenOffice.org; so far so good, though I've used it very little as of yet), MySQL GUI Tools (same functionality as it has on windows/*nix - but with a better interface!), FireFox (of course - I didn't use IE, and I'm no more enamored with Safari), I've got a BT client (Azureus - I don't like it, but it works, and I haven't had time to try out Transmission, which I've also installed), a Subversion client (ZigVersion, because I can't get svnX to work at all - it hangs as soon as I try to connect to my server), and of course the JRE. I still need to find a way to sync my Q to the MacBook, but that's not a huge priority for me right now.

I've loaded the thing with a sampling of my movie & music collection from Chronos (the full collection is about 60G, a bit much for the 80G disk the MacBook came with), and I find the display to be perfect for movie-viewing. The speakers are lame, but that's to be expected with a laptop; I just use the earbuds that came with my iPod, and I've got a pair of much better quality earbuds coming in the mail (look for a review shortly!)

All in all, the switch back to the Mac has been a positive experience so far; I've always appreciated Apple's attention to detail, and they haven't failed me with the MacBook itself (from a hardware standpoint), though I still find some shortcomings with MacOS as a whole. I suppose only time will tell how effective it is; if I run into critical usability or compatibility problems, you can be sure you'll see it mentioned here.

I've also upgraded from my old Palm Treo 650 to a snazzy new Motorola Q, on Verizon service. Aside from the fact that Verizon's service beats the pants off of Sprints (at least across the Atlanta area, western North & South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and western Virginia), the Q itself is far and away the better phone. Gone is the irritating touchscreen and easily-lost stylus; here is your clickable scroll wheel (thank god). Also, much to my surprise, Windows Mobile 5 is more stable, more responsive, easier to use, and has more and better software available than PalmOS ever did, in my experience. I've already got a pocket NES emulator running on the Q, with a mini-SD card loaded with every NES game ever made; for the cost of an SD card I now have over nine hundred games available on the go, compared to the $10 - $20 per game you pay to download a game from your provider (Sprint or Verizon, Q or Treo, the download prices seem about the same.)

The Q has better call quality (both due to improved reception, and improved mic & speaker), better speakerphone quality, better bluetooth support, and built-in voice-dialing and WAV/MP3 ringtone support (both of which were shockinly missing from the Treo.) Also, while the monthly service through Verizon is slightly more expensive than my service through Sprint was, the Q itself was only $100 with 2-year, while the Treo 650 was $300 with 2-year. I also thoroughly appreciate the Q's smaller, lighter form-factor; compared to the Treo, I barely notice it hanging on my belt, and I find it much easier to handle, particularly due to its thinner depth.

That's all from me for now - hopefully you'll be reading news of the fruits of a couple of new projects here in the near future, but until then, it'll be more mindless ramblings from me!

Click "I Agree" To Proceed...

2007-01-02T17:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is just getting under my skin. I "sign" agreements all the time, every day. You do to. I agree to things I never read. You do that too. Everyone does it. All the time.

I'm talking about EULAs, ToSs, T&C's, and, of course, "privacy policies". What is this stuff? Well, the end-user license agreement, or EULA, tells you what you can and can't do with a piece of software you're about to install, and it probably mentions anything shady that the software is about to do. Why be so upfront? You're not going to read it, and it absolves them legally. Unfortunately, perfectly legitimate software has EULAs too, and it's too hard to figure out which is which that way.

Terms of Service, or ToS, are what service providers, like ISPs and web hosts and such, use to lay down the litany of things which are, should they unfortunately occur, not in any way their problem. It also likely details the things which you are not, under any circumstances, to do with the service in question, regardless of whether it might seem like a perfectly viable use to you or the general public.

Terms and Conditions, or T&Cs, are usually required right before you sign up for something, like internet or cell phone service. Again, this often outlines exactly what you're not to do with the service, and exactly how much it would cost you if you did.

Privacy policies are my favorite one of all. Why? Because most of the time, you aren't actually agreeing to the privacy policy. You're just required to read it. I find this odd - typically, a company requires their employees to know their policies, not their customers. I find this particularly frightening since the only reason I'd be required to know about it is if there's something shady in there.

Of course, just like you, I still check the box and click the button and make my merry way toward whatever courtroom doom might befall me.

Click "I Agree" to proceed.

Happy New Year!!

2006-12-31T13:02:00.001-05:00

China heralds year of the fluorescent green pig
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16385433/

The Bill of Wrongs
http://www.slate.com/id/2156397/

2006 Darwin Awards
http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2006.html

Happy New Year!

More Googley Thoughts

2006-12-06T14:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here, right now, sending myself 7M of files on my Gmail account. Why? I left my thumbdrive at the office, I need to quickly port some files around, and I've got plenty of space available to do it. And it's got me thinking.

Sure, there are hacks out there to let you use your Gmail as a mounted disk in Windows, but they still have to save the files as email messages with attachments, and that's still a pain. Google needs to go ahead and start up some kind of Gdisk, letting you stash files online. Web interface, integration into Google Desktop and maybe a context menu option for Windows, and Samba/DAV support so you can mount it under Windows or Linux as a drive and use it that way. Give users direct access to their Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Picasa Web Albums, and Gmail attachments in subfolders. And, last but certainly not least, give each Google account a certain amount of space, and share that space between Gmail, D&S, and Picasa Web. It seems like that should be a relatively simple undertaking to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

Wii Sports (Wii)

2006-12-05T13:10:00.000-05:00

Well, well, well. Look what we have here. I did Excite Truck, and failed to hit Wii Sports first. Wii Sports, that game which had me up for 6 hours after receiving my midnight Wii.

Wii Sports is a very simplistic party game, in which caricatures you create (Mii's) play, well, sports. You can play Tennis (by swinging the controller like a racket), Baseball (by swinging the controller like a bat), Bowling (by swinging the controller like you're throwing a bowling ball), Golf (by swinging the controller like a golf club), and Boxing (by swinging the controller and nunchuk like, well, fists.) If that sounds like a lot of swinging, well, it is.

The game also includes a Practice mode that offers 3 training modes for each of the 5 games, for a total of 15 training modes. Power Bowling is particularly entertaining, challenging you to see how many pins you can knock down with a single throw; each of 10 tries, a new row of pins is added, such that for your final toss, you're trying to knock down 91 pins at once. The practice modes have to be unlocked one by one, with only one mode for each sport available to begin with. However, no particular level of success is required to unlock the next mode - you need only play one mode once before going on to the next.

Last but not least, it includes Wii Fitness, which gives you a random sampling of 3 of the practice modes that you have unlocked, and uses your performance to judge your "Wii Fitness Age", on a scale of 20 (best) to 80 (worst). I'm 23. The first time I tried it I was 74 years old, the next time I was 78 years old, then 41 years old, and yesterday, 31 years old. I find it makes a big difference which events it gives you - I do particularly well at the tennis events, so when I get all 3 tennis events for my test, I do very well.

The games are decent single-player, and allow you to increase your score in each game by defeating AI opponents. You start with 0 score, and work your way up to 1000 (Pro) and beyond. The real fun in the title comes from multiplayer; it's a great party game, for players and observers. One of the nice touches is in hotseat games like bowling or golf, the controller chimes when it's your turn - so if you take your controller with you to get a drink, you won't miss anything.

The games themselves are a little hit-or-miss. Personally, I find Tennis and Bowling to be highly addictive, Baseball to be mediocre, and Boxing and Golf to be downright lousy. Boxing has control issues; the motion sensing just never works like you expect it to, giving you little control of your on-screen avatar's actions. Golf, well - I'm not a big golf fan to begin with, but the way they used the motion control just doesn't work well for me. Maybe a "real" golfing title will make better use of the motion detection.

Baseball is fine, but too simplistic; you can bat and you can pitch, and everything else is handled automatically, making it purely a game of motions. It's fine as a motion-challenge game, but it's really not baseball.

Tennis and bowling are both excellent, and they're both games you can really get into with a group of 2 to 4, or even more. A particularly great game for company that's new to the Wii, and you want to introduce them to it with something simple and straightforward, but still fun to play.

Excite Truck (Wii)

2006-11-30T13:04:00.000-05:00

Excite Truck is one of Wii's big launch titles, one of several racers to hit shelves on launch day. The others are GT Pro Series, Need for Speed: Carbon, and Monster 4x4. GT Pro and NfS both strive for realism; Excite Truck and Monster both go for a more cartoony style.

Excite Truck throws realism right out the window, in fact, going for more of a Burnout-style high-flying, big-smashing, star-collecting racer. Like burnout, nearly everything you do earns you from one to five stars - drifts, air, tree runs (almost, but not quite, hitting trees), truck smashes (hitting your competitors), and so on. While you get a bonus for placing well in the race, what actually determines your success in single-player, or the winner in multi-player, is your star count.

The races take place in various fictional locations in various real countries. The single-player game is organized into 4 ranks (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum), each with 4-5 races. Each race, your number of stars grants you a rating of D to S, D being worst, A being second best, and S being best. If you complete all races in a rank with a B or better, you gain access to the next rank. If you complete all races in all ranks with an S rating, you gain access to the "Super Excite" difficulty. At seemingly random intervals you gain new vehicles, and if you get enough wins or enough S ratings with a particular vehicle, you gain a new paint job for that vehicle.

There are 19 tracks and 10 trucks in total, all of them available for single- and multi-player. There is also a tutorial mode which does a good job of walking you through all of the various tricks you can perform in order to get the most stars possible.

The single-player game is fun, but brief. I would have liked to see more tracks, more ranks, and more vehicles. But, all in all, it's definitely a good racer if you liked the Burnout series and are looking for a first racer to try on the Wii platform. The controls are solid, as is the gameplay - the only thing really lacking is in depth and in multiplayer.

Multiplayer is limited to two human players. That's it. No CPU opponents, no 3 or 4 player races. Just you and one opponent, trying to get the most stars. If you win 1st place, you don't get the 50-star bonus you'd get in singleplayer; you get a 15-star bonus, plus one star per second until your opponent crosses the finish line. This can get very frustrating when racing a less-skilled player, because you'll find they win the majority of the time. I'm serious. You'll be racing through the whole level, hitting every jump and every ring, doing air spins like there's no tomorrow, you beat them soundly, there's even a scare at the end that they might be disqualified completely for being 30 seconds behind you. Then they cross the finish with 2 seconds to go, after recovering from the 90th crash into a tree, and - what's this? They've won.

Why? Well, if you examine the scores at the end, a beginning player will tend to get a lot of drifts, because they're overcompensating their steering. This leads into getting a lot of tree runs, because they're often flailing wildly off the track. Then, of course, they hit a tree - and every crash earns you another star. Some balancing of this system is sorely needed.

Multiplayer is still a blast, however, and I've played in groups of half a dozen all waiting patiently to play the winner. It's highly addictive, and it's a lot of fun. I'm not dissappointed at all by the title - I'm just anxiously awaiting an ET2 with more tracks, more trucks, a more balanced point system, and a drastically improved multiplayer - at the very least, 2-4 player multiplayer, with the game filling out the 6-racer lineup with CPU opponents. I don't even need online play, but it would certainly be a nice touch.

The game's soundtrack is a tiring generic rock lineup, reminiscent of the SNES' Rock 'n' Roll Racing (another great game, BTW, and one I hope to see on VC soon). Luckily, if you've got an SD card, you can fill it up with MP3s, pop it in the Wii, and replace the soundtrack with those. I'm really hoping more games add a similar feature, and wishing Nintendo would go ahead and add a Music Channel to the Wii allowing you to play music from an SD card, MP3 CD, or standard audio CD, with visualisations. Doesn't seem like too much to ask.

All in all, Excite Truck is a solid title, particularly for anyone looking for a Burnout-esque racer on Wii.

Wii, by Nintendo

2006-11-29T15:06:00.000-05:00

Nintendo's latest console has finally arrived, and it's a doozy. It's low on horsepower, sparse on features, and desperately lacking in online capability. However, it's full of innovation, and the game lineup is solid.

When you first hook up the Wii, you've got the unit itself, the Sensor Bar, a power cable, and an RCA A/V cable. The sensor bar can be placed at the top or bottom of the screen, but must be level with the floor and centered horizontally to the TV screen. Useless trivia: the Sensor Bar is not a sensor, it is in fact the origin of the IR pulse. The sensor is in the Wii Remote, granting the device various rewards.

Then you've got the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The Wii Remote is a heck of a gadget: motion and tilt sensing, bluetooth wireless, a speaker, an IR sensor, and a rumble pack. You can connect up to four at once for four-player action, and each one has a set of lights indicating which player it is. The nunchuk attaches to the Wii Remote via cable, and has its own motion and tilt sensor, an analog stick, and a couple of buttons (but sadly, no rumble.) Both devices fit comfortably in my (fairly large) hands, and have been just as comfortable to everyone I've handed them to. I'd also like to note that playing without your hands tied together is far more comfortable than any controller I've ever used, and a very welcome change.

The next wireless function is in the internet connection. When you start up the Wii, your settings panel allows you to set up the wireless connection to receive firmware updates, game updates, Mii's (more on them later), and to download content from the Wii Shopping Channel.

The settings also provide for switching between 480i and 480p, 4:3 and 16:9 widescreen, and Mono/Stereo/Surround sound, settings which affect all Wii games used with the unit. You can also set the sensor bar position (above or below the TV), and adjust the "Sensor Bar Sensitivity" - I put this in quotes because you are actually, of course, adjusting the sensitivity of the IR sensor in the Wii Remotes. This isn't like the sensitivity in your mouse settings - it's the raw IR sensitivity of the camera. You can reduce the sensitivity to try to eliminate the effects of high glare, or increase the sensitivity to account for a greater-than-normal playing distance.

The system also includes the Wii Message Board, which is a bit of a mixed bag. I was hoping for something vaguely resembling Xbox Live's Achievements to but fit in there somewhere, but alas. It's basically just a log of how much you play your games (sometimes an unwelcome one), and a way to leave messages for other users of that Wii. You can also send messages to other Wii units via the internet connection, though I have yet to get this to work.

Then there's the Mii channel. Herein you can make a vaguely anime-esque 3D caricature of yourself and others; you can also share these with other Wii users, and use them as avitars when playing Wii Sports and (theoretically) other, future games. While this is a neat feature, I'd like to see it expanded in future updates with more options and a wider range of customizability. You can also copy your Mii to your Wii Remote, take it to another unit, and use your Mii on that unit with that remote. An interesting feature, but only slightly, since only Wii Sports currently makes any use of Mii's.

Weather, News, and Web channels are in the works, but have not been released yet. Current announcements put all 3 being released by the end of January.

Speaking of things that haven't been released yet, let's talk about online for a moment. There isn't any. You can download old games and play them by virtual console, but there's no online multiplayer until next year, there's no games making use of WiiConnect24 (which lets the Wii stay connected to the internet even in standby mode) until Elebits comes out "during the launch window". I'm very disappointed. And it doesn't end there. The unit doesn't support DVD or CD playback either, though a revision has been announced for Japan only for 2007 to add DVD playback.

The graphics are... so-so. I've seen the 360 in hi-def, and while it's impressive, I'm not one to see games as being all about the visuals. I got the Wii for the controller, and I'm happy with the tradeoff. But be prepared, because the games aren't exactly gorgeous. Most fit their theme well, and games like Zelda: Twilight Princess are graphically impressive, just not on the scale of the 360 or PS3. So, if you're looking for grandiose graphics, move on; if you're looking for something new, I highly recommend the Nintendo Wii, for any one, any age, girls and boys alike. It's a great system for solo and even better for multiplayer (as long as you're all in the same room together.)

All in all, I'm very happy with mine.

My Wii Launch Experience

2006-11-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

Let me start this flashback with a note on what happens after this tale: it was all completely worth it.

Friday, November 17th: myself, CJ and Amy all went to Wal-mart to see if they'd be offering a midnight launch. A notice posted in the electronics section confirmed a Wii launch at 12:01am on Sunday the 19th. They hadn't gotten many inquiries about it, and most of the employees didn't even know what Wii is. Good sign. We decide to start calling them on Saturday around 6pm, and actually go down there at 10pm to wait in line, just to be sure that everybody got one.

Saturday, November 18th: It's around 5pm, I'm walking my laundry down to my apartment complex' laundry room, and CJ passes by in his car. He's on his way to Wal-mart to check out the situation, because they aren't picking up the phone. At 5:30pm, I get a call saying there's already a line over a dozen people long, camped out in Wal-mart in folding chairs. Me and Amy pack up and leave, picking up Tim on our way in. We arrive at Wal-mart 15th, 16th and 17th in line for "about 20 units".

The line continues to grow, with at least half a dozen people coming every hour. There are laptops, portable DVD players, iPods, and DS's everywhere. We can't get an employee to give an official unit count. We passed the time chatting, playing cards, and roaming the store. Luckily they had a McD's in the store or we might've starved to death.

At 10:00pm, they finally gave us an official unit count: 21 units. Some of the nearly 30 people in line were very disappointed. By 11:00pm everybody had an official ticket marking their place in line, and were free to roam as long as everybody was back by midnight. At 12:01, the sales started; the only people that didn't buy Zelda with their unit were buying it as a gift or eBay fodder. Wii's are shipped in boxes of 3, games appear to be shipped in cases of 20 or 24. I was number 16 in line, and they were already out of controllers by the time I got up there; I still got my hands on a Wii, Zelda, Red Steel, and Excite Truck. The 21st person in line was told that there were only actually 20 units - odd, since a hard count showed 21 units, and they come in boxes of 3... I'm guessing one was a display unit, and they failed to deduct that unit during the hard count. Anyway, one customer was HIGHLY disappointed, and I can't blame them.

So, myself, Amy, CJ and Tim all left with Wii in hand. We returned to CJ's apartment (biggest TV), hooked it up, popped in Wii sports, and proceeded to play Wii Sports and Excite Truck for the next six hours. No kidding, I woke up the next morning with tennis elbow.

The next day I finally hooked up my own unit, updated it (a nearly 30 minute process, with as overloaded as the servers were on launch day), configured it, made a few Miis, and then picked up CJ to head to Best Buy. Before we get to that, I'd like to point out that the Wii interface is fantstic, really intuitive, and overall I was very impressed with the unit, before ever inserting a game disc. There are some disappointing qualities, and so far, almost all surround online functionalities. I'll get into more detail in a later posting - back to the tale.

At BB, I picked up a Wavebird, and several GCN games (they're all new to me, since I never had a GCN): Super Mario Strikers, Mario Kart Double Dash, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Pikmin 2 and Animal Crossing for Amy. No spare controllers at BB either.

Went home, packed up, and made my way to Asheville for my own personal Wii Tour. In Asheville my mom got her hands on it for a few hours, and loved it - so far so good for the "all audiences" idea, although my mom is something of a gamer (her current addiction is Burnout Revenge, one of my old faves.) From Asheville we went on to Roanoke, VA to spend some time with Amy's family. Once again, the Wii was hooked up and passed around, with Amy's entire family getting in on the action. Everybody got hooked on Excite Truck up there, while my mom had preferred Wii Sports. We also found one store with Wiimotes in stock, so I picked up 3, plus a second Wavebird, a GCN memory card, and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. Me and Amy's brother rocked out on Tony Hawk, and Amy made her way through Animal Crossing and Pikmin whenever she could get the Wii to herself for a few minutes.

On the way back we stopped again in Asheville for some more Wii party action, before finally returning home Monday afternoon. We picked up our insane kittens (who haven't stopped crying and purring and snuggling since we got home), and hooked the Wii back up.

I purchased my Wii, with Zelda, around 12:30am on Sunday, 11/19. At 5:30pm on Monday, 11/27, I finally started Zelda. Sad, isn't it? I had only had a chance to play multiplayer games the entire week, and if I could play single player, I didn't have a long enough block of time to really sit down and dig into Zelda; and I knew I wouldn't be happy with starting it and having to stop before I had at least finished tutorial town. So, I finally get tLoZ:TP booted up, Link and Epona get suited up, and I commenced the jigglin.

If all the hours of play over the past week hadn't made the 7 hours in the middle of a Wal-mart while my laundry mildewed worthwhile, Zelda would have. It's beautiful, the controls are fantastic, and the story is as epic as ever. I'm only in the 2nd of 10 dungeons, but I can already say, this is a truly fantastic game. While I was gone, CJ got himself nearly to the end after over 40 hours of play, and is thoroughly impressed. I haven't even finished it yet, but I still can't wait for the next Wii RPG to come out - I think the platform poses HUGE potential for RPG fans in general, and JRPG fans (of which I am one) in particular. But, I guess only time will tell.

I now nearly have Excite Truck beat, and I'm halfway through Tony Hawk. Stay tuned for end-game reviews of all these titles and more.

So much to tell...

2006-11-28T13:43:00.000-05:00

Wow. I've been out of town for a week, and there is much to tell. Saturday I arrived at my local 24-hour walmart at 6pm to wait in line for my Wii; the last people to recieve units arrived at 6:30pm. By 1:30am I was at home and playing Wii sports frantically with friends until past 6am. I also picked up Zelda TP, Red Steel, Excite Truck and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, as well as a handful of GameCube games (hey, I never had a GCN, so they're all new to me!)

Monday we left for Asheville, Tuesday we left Asheville for Roanoke for Thanksgiving, Saturday we returned to Asheville, and yesterday we finally arrived back home, safe and sound, Wii in tow. The holiday was dreadful, but the Wii is, in a word, awesome. I've said several times it's the coolest invention ever in video games, and I stand by that.

Stay tuned for my take on the Wii, Wii Sports, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Red Steel, Excite Truck, and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam!

Brace yourselves...

2006-11-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

Seriously. Brace yourself. Make sure you're seated comfortably and securely. Put down anything liable to spill. Steele yourself. You're about to witness the funniest thing on the entire Internet. Like so many things, it's funny because it's absolutely, horrifyingly real.

Ready? Are you sure? Okay... but don't say I didn't warn you.

Prepare to be Seasoned On Impact.

Amazon: Wii demand far outnumbers supply

2006-11-16T09:39:00.000-05:00

I just received a letter from Amazon.com:

The Nintendo Wii will be available for purchase on Amazon.com on 11/19, Sunday morning (PST). We will be limiting purchases to one per household and we anticipate that we will sell through our inventory very quickly as we've received 100 times more Wii email sign-ups than consoles we'll have available for sale (i.e., for every Nintendo Wii we'll have for sale, over 100 people have signed up to be notified).

We expect to receive periodic shipments of the Wii from Nintendo throughout the holidays and we will post availability updates on the product detail page as well as in the customer discussions on the Nintendo Wii product page:

http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Wii/dp/B0009VXBAQ

So, I guess with over a million units in the US at launch, that's still not nearly enough... I'm starting to wonder if I'll really be able to get my hands on one on Sunday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Timothy McSweeny's Open Letters

2006-11-13T15:18:00.000-05:00

Through the glory of Hyperlinks, a question about the FCC led me to Timothy McSweeny's archive of Open Letters to People or Entities Who Are Unlikely to Respond. These are downright hilarious, and well worth the time to read. To cherry-pick a few favorites:

An Open Letter to the Occupants of a House on the Nintendo Game "Paperboy"
An Open Letter to the Cat, Who Pushes Glasses Off the Kitchen Counter While We're Trying to Sleep (my cats do this with our stash of laundry quarters.)
An Open Letter to a Guy I Work With Who Always Comes Into My Office to Tell Me He Sent Me an E-mail Right After He Sends Me an E-mail (I used to work with this guy)
An Open Letter to the Human Resources Department of the Superfriends
An Open Letter to Shrink-Wrap
An Open Letter to Penguins

But don't stop there... heck, read them all.

Sun Opens Java

2006-11-13T11:24:00.000-05:00

Ars Technica is reporting that Sun has finally made good on their promise to open up Java for the masses. This is good news for everyone - in fact, the only one whose benefit stands in question would be Sun. While I'm confidant that they will turn this to their advantage, it certainly assuages fears that trouble for Sun might mean trouble for Java - realistic fears when Sun's financials look shakier and shakier with each passing quarter. Now, if Sun goes down, they won't take Java with them.

What's prevented Java being open-sourced before (according to Sun's PR department) wasn't an issue of profitability for Java products - after all, the JVM/JRE and JDK are free, and all of their paid products are not being open sourced - it was an issue of branching. Sun was afraid that if they opened up the Java source, we'd see forks which would eventually diverge, bringing about compatibility issues; it's bad enough having to make sure that a user has the JVM/JRE installed and that they have an adequately recent version, without having to worry about which JVM they're using out of an array of options which may not all support the same features.

Personally, I think that's a rather silly fear - they need to revamp Java's dependency handling anyway, so why not take the opportunity to do so now? Instead of an application saying "I need this version of the JDK or newer", say "I need to use this library, and this one, and this one" and make sure those are available. This resolves both the issue of determining what your minimum JRE requirement need be, and the issue of diverging forks supporting different featuresets.

All in all, as a Java developer, I can't see this as anything but a Good Thing(tm).

Freedom of the Press (to cover up information)

2006-11-10T15:12:00.000-05:00

By way of Slashdot I discovered this post about Extremely odd behavior from the Washington Post re: the President's Rumsfeld lie. I highly recommend you take a look - the article is extremely extensive, so I won't go in depth on it here - just read the article.

"Learn to say 'I don't know.' If used when appropriate, it will be often."

2006-11-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

Appropriately, About.com is running a toplist of Rummy quotes. There are some real gems in there, too:

"I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know."

"I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty."

"Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said."

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war."

Oh, just go read them all.

Wii Spotting

2006-11-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Just got Best Buy's holiday mailer, and I was pleased to find Wii prominently placed within. More than prominently. Across two pages, you find the PS3, PSP, Wii, and DS Lite, all equally displayed. However, the previous two pages show a detail pic of Wii on one side, and a family playing Wii Sports on the other. Above the action shot, there's the text "We pledge to help you find the right games and system for any age." That's Wii alright!

US is a broadband laggard, according to FCC commissioner

2006-11-09T16:07:00.000-05:00

Ars Technica just posted an article regarding broadband availability in the US. To quote the article:

It seems like everybody agrees on an essential point: access to "quality," reasonably priced broadband is crucial in this day and age. Unfortunately, we're not even close in the US. Yes, the nation's two largest telecoms are at this moment rolling out new fiber optic networks. Better yet, consumers in areas served by Verizon's new FiOS network are seeing the benefits of increased competition: some cable providers in those areas are bumping speeds up to 15Mbps/1.5Mbps. However, fiber deployments are slow and selective, leaving most Americans out in the cold.

We may be looking at a radically different landscape in five years, with WiMAX, BPL, cable, DSL, and municipal WiFi networks offering consumers a host of equally-good choices. That rosy outcome is by no means guaranteed—there's much that has to be done in the interim to make it a reality.

I couldn't agree more. Look at Japan: basic broadband is 24 - 40Mbps, and runs the equivalent of around $20 per month. Alternately, where FttC is available, customers can get 50 - 100Mbps, for $30 - $45 per month. Right now, I pay $65 per month for 6Mbps service through Comcast, including the 15 channels I'm required to sign up for. Technically, I don't have to sign up for those 15 channels; however, the price for service to those without any TV services goes up such that it ends up being about a dollar cheaper to add the TV stations - and besides, my girlfriend watches TV, so I suppose that's fine. Also, that 6M service can burst over 12M when I've got the network to myself; it can also go down for hours at a time when it rains, or slow down to sub-200k speeds during peak times. And it's $65 a month.

DSL in my area isn't exactly better; they just rolled out 6M service, and are moving toward 12M and eventually 24M (via two lines). However, that 6M service is not available without phone service; for 6M service and a phone line (which I won't use other than for DSL), the price comes to $65, before taxes, surcharges, fees, installation, equipment, and so on.

Basically, Americans sit around thinking we're the kings of the Interweb, but, lo and behold, we're barely even on the list. We're no higher than 15th place in terms of broadband penetration, and 21st place when you factor in cost, speed and availability. And to think, we pioneered this thing.

What's the big holdup? Well, Japan managed what they've accomplished through government sponsorship of their telco, NTT DoCoMo. NTT serves every Japanese person with telephone service; it is a regulated monopoly. NTT offers phone, broadband, wireless, and TV. They also have the advantage of shorter distances; DSL offers better speeds the closer you are to your CO, allowing the more densely-packed Japan to offer higher speeds to more people. It also means a fiber rollout requires fewer miles of fiber to be laid down.

America could accomplish the same thing, but it won't - it's just too socialist for us. We'd rather foster competition: some local municipalities are offering broadband wireless, and some power companies are starting to talk about maybe eventually rolling out broadband over power lines (BPL). Both of these are great options; however, the wireless technology just isn't there yet, and there are still spectrum hurdles to be overcome. BPL is a great prospect, with the capability of huge speeds at low cost; however, it's a long way off, and the cost to the consumer is entirely decided by the provider. If the broadband market hasn't changed much by the time these offerings arrive, the providers may see little incentive to end the price gouging - it's more profitable to join in.

The Revenge of the Updated Chronos Update

2006-11-09T15:36:00.000-05:00

So, about a week after my successful mobo upgrade, CJ starts reporting narcolepsy in his bawx, which is still running my PSU. So, after all that, it turns out the issue was with the PSU to begin with. Figures.

So, I've got a shiny new Rosewill 600W modular PSU (120mm single fan) sitting next to me, which I will probably install this evening.

Aside from that, I'm trying to OC this thing a little bit, since my new board is a far better overclocker than my old Chaintech; things aren't going so smoothly, though. I'm currently at 225MHz FSB, 4x HT, 9x CPU, 1:1 DRAM, giving me 900MHz HT, 2GHz CPU (up from 1.8), and DDR-450. However, Prime95 now dies if I leave it running long enough. Theoretically I should easily be able to hit 2.2GHz with this chip, but if I step it up from 225 x9 to 230 x9, I get sporadic no-boot, no-POST, which I find perplexing. I'm not having any heat issues; it runs idle at 45C and load under 50C. I'm thinking it may be drive strength; I'm going to try bumping VCore to see what happens.

I've also upclocked my shiny new X1900 XT from the stock 600/720(1440) to 650/775(1550), which isn't bad at all, and actually gives a noticable performance bump - nothing huge, but not bad considering it doesn't cost a penny.

The ceiling on the CPU concerns me, though. I'm not planning on a CPU upgrade until I do a full system upgrade, certainly not before this time next year. So I'd like to get all I can out of the current unit. Hopefully another couple hundred mA will get me the clock I want without burning out the CPU.

Wish me luck...

Sleepless Nights in Neverwinter

2006-11-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

Finally picked up Neverwinter Nights 2 yesterday. After much anticipation, ever-changing release dates, and stocking issues at Ye Olde Beste Buye, I finally brought home the (unfortunately) CD-ROM edition.

Initially I had some problems - after install, I could update and launch the toolset, but if I tried to launch the game, I'd get an Unable to authenticate disc error.

Atari's support site doesn't list NWN2, and in order to contact them, you first have to select your game - I sent them a message under NWN, but it told me that it'd be 7 - 10 days for a response. I double-checked the readme, and it says you can send your error logs to SecuROM; I sent them an email after business hours, and got a response the next afternoon. They recommended a DVD drive firmware update (the only thing I hadn't tried at that point), which has resolved the problem solidly. However, there are numorous people on the forums for whom even this did not resolve the issue - hopefully this gets fixed in a patch later.

All in all, it's a really nice game, with very good quality graphics. They're smoother than the graphics of Oblivion, but more cartoonish where Oblivion makes some vague stab at realism. All in all, it's a solid update to the original NWN. However, it's important to note that it's a complete rewrite, no code spared, so the entire UI has changed.

The UI more customizable than before, but feels a little clunky. The new targeting system has some bizarre qualities, and I found it confusing for a while that you can attack something without targeting it, and target an enemy while doing nothing to it. I also much preferred the old context ring menus from NWN1 to the new delayed-reaction drop-down menus of NWN2. I know, I know, more than half prefer the new blah blah blah.... how much more than half? If it's a small margin, you should sit down with your testers and come up with a way to improve the system, or you offer it as an option to players.

As far as gameplay goes, the engine is a solid representation of D&D 3.5, including prestige classes. Note that it stops at level 20; no epic classes yet, though I'd put money on epic levels coming out in an expansion pack, as they did in NWN1. Mounts are NOT present either; if I remember right, this was announced to come in an expansion pack, though I can't think of the source off the top of my head.

I haven't yet completed the original campaign, however, I will say some about it. The story is pretty good; however, as most western RPG's do, it goes for breadth rather than depth. You have total control over your character, the star of the show, and their actions and decisions; thus, they've spent more resources on increasing your options than they have on developing a deep and engrossing storyline. Take Oblivion as a more extreme example - nearly a "sandbox" game, it sacrifices depth of the main plotline to offer a greater array of options and side quests. Compare this to a Zelda or Final Fantasy title, where they provide you with a character, and a fairly limited set of options, but a much more in-depth and engrossing storyine.

As there aren't many NWN2 servers out there right now, I'm holding off on reviewing online features. Online play was my favorite part of NWN1, with the capability to create a complete world from scratch and run a persistent world being a significant draw for me. So I have high hopes for NWN2 in the same areas, but only time will tell.

HBO Special: Hacking Democracy - Available on Google Video

2006-11-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

Google is hosting HBO's Hacking Democracy for free viewing on Google Video. I highly recommend anyone who cares take a look. Also see Ars Technica's How to Hack the Vote and Steal an Election.

Review: Eventum

2006-11-02T15:06:00.000-05:00

Eventum is an open-source web-based issue management and tracking system from MySQL AB. It runs on PHP with a MySQL backend (of course), and offers a rich featureset and easy installation - in theory.

Installation
Eventum is a little bit picky about it's installation environment. Attempting to install Eventum on a default installation of Apache (with MySQL libraries installed) results in some bad luck. When you load the installer, you'll get a long list of files that Apache doesn't have the permission to write to. Then, it'll tell you you're missing the GD2 library, and that you need to turn on the deprecated allow_call_time_pass_reference in php.ini.

Under Windows, installing GD2 means uncommenting one line in php.ini. Under Linux, it means gathering libjpeg, libpng, and libttf, and gd2, compiling all of them, then reconfiguring and recompiling PHP itself. Easy for some, but hey, I'm not a comand-line ninja. That stuff takes me a while.

Once you've done your bowing and scraping, the installation is rather straightforward - fill in the fields, click the button, it installs itself, but doesn't log you in or tell you the default account - you have to go back to the INSTALL file to get the default admin account, and use this to create your own account and other accounts. Then you're ready to get started.

Initial Setup
Once you've got it installed, you have to create your project. This seems simple enough until you try to create a ticket, only to discover that new projects have no default priority codes or issue types - an odd choice.

Interface
The interface leaves much to be desired, even for a developer's tool. In terms of usability, it isn't very intuitive in general, and navigation can be complex and confusing. The entire interface could sorely use a severe overhaul - something I may take on if I decide to continue using it.

Featureset
Eventum is very feature-rich, which is a bad thing in my situation. I chose it for its quick install, not for the features; I just need issue management, not timekeeping, which seems to play a large part in Eventum. I also don't need all the pie charts and graphs that made GD2 necessary in the first place.

As far as it's core featureset is concerned, it is an effective issue manager, though some features are clunky. For example, the notes on issues are difficult to get to; as a developer, I want to be able to open an issue and immediately see the note history so I can see where progress is being made and what the current status is, beyond the "implementation" status code.

It should really also open to the My Assignments page if you have assignments, rather than the Stats page. It also sorely needs a preference to let you change the default rows per page on the issue lists to something other than 5 (yes, the default is 5, and each row actually only takes up one line on the page. I'm not sure what they were thinking.)

Overall
I'm stuck with Eventum for the time being as I don't have time to find, install and migrate to an alternative. I chose Eventum as a quick-fix. Once I have time to apply to the issue of issue management, I may switch to another solution, or try to fix Eventum. I'll burn that bridge when I get to it - who knows, maybe it'll have grown on my by then. Or maybe I'll finally make that issue management system I keep putting off...

Review: FireFox 2.0

2006-11-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

After the Great Chronos Crash of '06, I was forced to reinstall, well, everything. That's mostly a bad thing, but it did encourage me to upgrade everything I use to the latest and greatest, including Mozilla's FireFox browser (my browser of choice.) So, behold the silver lining to my grey cloud: my review of FireFox 2.0.

Interface
The first thing anyone notices about a new version of a program is , of course, the interface. FireFox 2.0 sports a somewhat updated interface, particularly in the toolbar and tab bar.

The new toolbar I'm really not happy with. I like the search suggestions that have been added to the search box; other than that, I hate what they've done with the toolbar. The addition of a Go button is fine for computer novices - which I am not, yet there is no option to remove the button to free up screen real estate. Likewise, there is an equivalent Search button added to the search box - again, fine for users who don't know about hitting enter, but I want an option to remove the thing, because I don't need, use, or want it. The updated icons are ugly, particularly the home icon. Using FireFox 1.5 I left the default skin in place; now I've switched to one of the freely-available custom skins (GrayModern2, if you're wondering). I'm sorry, brown is just a really unappealing colour for a toolbar button.

The new tab bar I do like; it integrates many of the features that I previously had to add myself using extensions, like the close box now available on every tab, and the use of fixed-width tabs. I would have liked to see a close box remain fixed at one side of the tab bar; I often find myself closing a series of tabs one after the other, so the ability to just click several times in one spot to close several tabs in a row is a big plus. It's now more obvious which tab is the active tab, which is nice. They've also added a tab menu button to the far-right side of the tab bar, which gives you a list of the currently open tabs; this feature is almost useful, but deeply hampered by the fact that you can't right-click items in this menu to get the context menu you'd get by right-clicking the tab (e.g., close tab, close other tabs, etc.). They have added Undo Close Tab to the context menu, thank god - a feature I use regularly, being one who often makes mistakes.

The preferences have been updated slightly; I noticed that they removed the option to change your screen resolution in DPI - a mixed bag, since it didn't work before, but such a feature would be extremely handy if it worked, since I run at high resolution with DPI turned up for improved readability.

The extensions and theme managers have been integrated into a single "add-ons" manager - not a big deal, but a positive change nonetheless.

New Features
The new version isn't particularly big on new features, but there are a few. The new search bar has support for search suggestions, such as those available on Google, which, I have to say, I didn't really like at first. However, after leaving it on for a couple of days, it's really started to grow on me as a handy time-saver. Plus, your search history shows up ahead of the suggestions, leaving that feature unencumbered by the new addition.

It also features a long-time wish of mine, inline spell check. That means you have a spell checker like that of a word processor when you're using web form fields (such as the one I'm entering this post into.) Not much to explain, but incredibly handy. It underlines misspelled words as you type, and you can right-click to auto-correct, add to dictionary, etc.

There's a new feed reader as well, but I'm not a big RSS user. I may just have to give RSS another try with the newer clients available (including FireFox's built-in options) and post a followup here.

Overall
They say it's more stable and performs better, but it's really hard to say, as it's always been really stable and performed really well. I will say that this version seems to be bogged down less by having multiple extensions installed than 1.5 did, but that may also be partly due to the fact that all the plugin developers had to release new versions for compatibility with 2.0, so they may have released some improvements of their own along with the update.

All in all, I'd say it's certainly worth the upgrade (especially being free), but nothing ground-breaking here. I'm looking forward to FireFox 3.0 which seems to have passed the Acid2 test in development builds. Finally!

Google - Make up your minds!

2006-10-31T15:19:00.000-05:00

So, Google is on two separate and opposing rampages. On one hand, they're talking about halting new releases to improve quality and integration, and (as mentioned in a previous post), even cutting their product count by a full 20%. On the other hand, they're making acquisition after acquisition. It just doesn't add up - do they want more products, or less? Are they bulking up or slimming down? I'm a rabid technophile, I read more tech news than most people read "real" news. So, which is it, Big G?

Anyone who's read my blog knows I'm all for speculation, but this one has me stumped. I'd hate to see good in-house projects get dumped in favor of bringing in products from the outside - not so much because of the products themselves, but because of Google's merger habits. You see, when they bring out a new in-house product, it's, well, Googley. It's got the familiar Google UI, and it typically has some level of integration with existing Google products - at the very least, it shares Google's accounts system. But when they buy something up, well... how long have they had Blogger, and they're just now integrating accounts into it? And that's pretty much it. The UI is still the same dismal Blogger UI they've always had (and yes, I am using the "new" Blogger Beta), the Google logo is nowhere to be found, and integration is nearly non-existent. When they bought YouTube they stated they were keeping Google Video around, which indicates to me that they are planning on keeping the YouTube brand separate from Google for the foreseeable future.

With all their talk of wanting to scale down product count and focus on integration, they seem to be doing a lot of acquisition which works against both goals. It just doesn't add up.

Ahhhhh, Holidays.

2006-10-30T11:43:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again! Not quite time for decorations, presents, pies or turkeys, it's that special time that couples around the globe spend arguing over one thing: who's family gets which holiday.

I'm not a big holiday person. I celebrate three holidays a year: my birthday (who doesn't love getting presents?), halloween (which I missed out on this year), and new years (a time of new beginnings, punctuated with alcohol and fireworks.) My mom isn't big on holidays either, but wants to see us at some point in the winter months, so a few weeks ago I told my girlfriend she could pick who gets Thanksgiving and who gets Christmas. She chose Thanksgiving with her dad and Christmas with my mom. In the intervening time, people have made plans and time off requests and so on, making the matter rather set in stone.

To muddy matters more, it turns out my dad may be in Asheville (where my mom lives - my dad lives in Texas) for Christmas as well, making it a two-parents-with-one-stone kind of thing. On top of that, my girlfriend's dad's anniversary is on New Years. Plus, her family traditionally celebrates xmas on New Year's because they often can't get together for xmas.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I see anniversaries as something of a private deal, a couple celebrating their coupledom, typically with flowers, jewelery, fancy meals and lots of sex - things you really don't usually share with others, particularly your kids and their partners. So, being invited to my girlfriend's dad's wedding anniversary is a little bit, well, creepy. That aside, the xmas-for-New Year's thing makes sense in a way, but seems a little unfair - I don't try to celebrate thanksgiving on valentine's day with my parents just because we didn't spend thanksgiving together. And before you knock the comparison, you should know that I see New Year's as a romantic holiday - start the year together, end the year together kind of thing.

New Year's gives you a chance to close the book on all the ills of the year past, and set the stage for all the good in the year to come. I think partying, drinking, romancing, and, of course, fireworks, do this quite well; creepiness and making up for lost time do not. Besides, Atlanta has far more impressive fireworks displays than does Roanoke, or Asheville.

Of course, it doesn't help that her whole family hates me - I'm far too liberal and godless for their tastes. One holiday a year is bad enough, especially since it's the longest holiday of the year. I'm not giving up one of the holidays I actually like.

Bush Moves Toward Martial Law

2006-10-28T18:57:00.000-04:00

An article on Toward Freedom details a bill signed into law recently by President Bush which removes restrictions on his ability to declare martial law within the United States. It leaves me wondering what's left. I've seen laws rewritten, removed, bent, and broken - eminent domain, habeas corpus, and now martial law; I've seen rights and privileges eroded - education, health care; I've seen treaties ignored - the Geneva conventions, which we signed, and the Kyoto treaty, which we did not; I've seen our government trick and corrupt the United Kingdom and the United Nations. Even if we manage to oust the Republicans from office, I'm beginning to wonder if it won't already be too late by the time we have the chance - in two years, will we have any rights left? How many enemies will we have by then? I worry too that we may face a time very soon when our greatest fear is no longer international terrorism, but terrorism from within; the terrorism peddled by the White House, the Senate, and the House; terrorism peddled by MSNBC and FOX News; terrorism so insidious we don't even realize it's already happening, and it's already having a deeper impact than any bomb ever could.

My girlfriend recently flew to Los Angeles on a business trip. On this trip, they searched her bags, and found some prescriptions (in her name, of course), and some makeup (under 3 oz). They wanted to take the medications until she called in a manager to verify that the GIANT SIGN in the terminal was correct, that she was in fact allowed to keep her prescriptions. But the original security examiner, upset that he had to call his manager, and upset at having been proven wrong, instead confiscated the makeup, which he had been ready to let her take aboard. Purely vindictive.

I will say this: they have, more or less, the right idea: it isn't the Al-Kamirs we need to worry about, it's the Smiths. It's not furriners, it's 'mercans. But what they have wrong is that terror isn't in your makeup or your meds, it's not even in your luggage: it's in your mind. When we carry ideas around the country - wrong-headed, mob-mentality, un-thought-out, angry, fearful ideas, we land with a bomb in our heads, a bomb that goes of slowly, over hours and days and weeks, a biological weapon that infects everyone we talk to and everyone we judge and everyone we persecute, a weapon more powerful than a nuclear bomb, a weapon sneakier than a stealth bomber, a weapon more accurate than a laser-guided missile.

Ideas are the most powerful weapon of all - and the most powerful medicine, the most powerful defense, the most powerful single thing in the world. So many of our ideas today are dangerous, they're weapons of terror inflicted upon ourselves and each other every minute of every day. But just as these ideas have been given to us to use on one another, so too can ideas be passed around which save us from the terror, ideas which mend the wounds of propaganda, ideas that can save the country and save the world.

So please, please, I beg you - have a good idea. Do it today. Do it now. And when you've got it, share it with everyone you know and everyone you see.

It's the only thing that can save us now.

Why I hate iTunes, but use it anyway

2006-10-27T16:33:00.000-04:00

Let me preface this post by saying I'm not an Apple-hater. In fact, I was once an Apple-lover, a die-hard Mac-user. I had an Apple //c when I was 5, a Mac SE when I was 9, a Quadra 605 when I was 13, and a PowerMac G3 (blue & white) when I was 16. The first time I had used a Windows PC was when I got a job doing tech support for an ISP, so I had to learn Windows both for use as my workstation and for troubleshooting calls. My first Windows PC I built myself when I was 19.

Then MacOS X came out, and I sold my Macs and went straight-PC. I hate MacOS X. I know a lot of people love it, but, well, I disagree. It's worse than Windows, by a significant margin. But, enough ragging on OSX. I'm here to rag on iTunes.

You see, when I got this nice new job here in ATL and started making decent money, I went out, and I bought me an iPod. Loved the thing. They're just awesome. Small, lightweight, brilliant interface, good audio quality, good physical quality. Overpriced, but hey. I had a new job.

Some time later, a friend bought me a new iPod Video as a gift, and I gave the old iPod mini away to a friend. I love the new iPod even more than the old one. I even put an iPod adapter in my car so I can hook the iPod directly to the stereo - works great, I can control the iPod from the head unit, and it displays track info on the head unit's display. Awesome. Love it.

Basically, iPods are the shit.

The problem, however, is in the software. You see, iTunes is godawful. Dreadful. Ghastly. Really, really bad.

It doesn't work with multiple users. AT ALL. It gives each person a seperate library; purchases from ITMS don't show up for both users, and neither do playlists; if one person has iTunes open, the other can't open it or control the other instance, and if you switch to another user from the user that's running iTunes while it's playing, the audio goes all choppy until you force-quit the app. The application is a resource-hog. The interface is awful.

I like the iTunes Store - it's usually cheaper than buying CD's, and I can make purchases from the comfort of my livingroom and immediately put them on my iPod without having to rip CD's. I do feel a little gipped on quality settings, and I feel thoroughly gipped by the DRM. You see, I'd happily buy tracks off of ITS all day long, if I could play the damned things in, oh, say, WinAmp. I would buy Apple's hardware, I would buy Apple's content - the only part I don't want is the part they don't make a penny off of, their free software. But can you remove that piece of the equation? Well, sort of.

You see, you can burn and re-rip your ITMS tracks to get plain MP3s, it's just a pain to do so. After that, you can play them in any player you want - but you still need iTunes to update your iPod's library. Of course, you could re-flash the iPod BIOS in order to use a different app to manage it, but then you lose all accessory functionality - e.g., my car-stereo hookup. So, it's a no-win situation.

Why not switch to another MP3 player, and another online store? Well, all the online stores have DRM issues, and most of them use WMA, which I hate even more than AAC. On top of that, because Apple dominates the player market, they own the accessory market too - a good 90% of accessories are only available for the iPod, or if they work with other players, feature very limited support (i.e., audio only, no support for controlling the iPod via the device or gathering track info from the iPod for display on the device.)

So, I suppose at this point I'm suck with iTunes. But, Apple, you've got a choice: either get iTunes into shape, open up access to ITS and iPod to other software, or expect to lose a good hunk of market share as soon as decent alternatives become available. Because I'm already more than ready to jump ship as soon as a decent alternative appears.

Google’s Internal Company Goals

2006-10-27T12:46:00.000-04:00

As mentioned on Slashdot, Google Blogoscoped posted an article about Google's internal goals, and it's actually really interesting. It mentions some upcoming projects like a revamped Google News, Gmail 2.0, Google Archive Search, and "Another interesting feature foreshadowed in the Google papers was to grab relevant locations & dates from web pages allowing users to 'view results on a timeline of map.'" I'm not entirely sure what the last one might look like, but it certainly sounds interesting.

What interested me the most about this post, however, was the note that Google intends to "Count total number of Google products and reduce by 20%." When I first read this, I found it somewhat worrisome - I use a lot of Google products, and I'd hate to see a much-loved product hit the chopping block.

But I don't think that's going to happen - not that I don't think they'll reduce the product count by 20%, but that I don't think that means many products will disappear. There are basically 3 ways they could remove a product from their product count:

The obvious: dump the product entirely. I'm sure this will happen to some products.
The unlikely: sell off products. I doubt if this will happen to any Google products; if they see fit to keep it online, they'll keep it in-house as well.
The sneaky: combine disparate products into a cohesive whole. E.g., Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools might become a single, combined entity.

Since they've already stated that they want to tighten up integration between their various products, I see #3 as being a highly viable option for them to use to reduce product count; it lets them kill two birds with one stone without actually having to "kill" a product.

At least, I hope they pick #3 if they're looking at slimming down one of the many Google products I use on a daily basis.

Chronos Update Updated

2006-10-26T22:29:00.000-04:00

Okay. Chronos is back up and running stable and solid. I ran Prime95 for about 3 hours with no problems, CPU steady at 44 degrees. Ran BF2 for about an hour, again no problems. So I'm hopeful that it might actually be finally fixed. By this time tomorrow, well, I'll be moderately certain that it's fixed. At this point I'm just hedging my bets. I might call it fully fixed if it's still stable this time next week.

Chronos Update

2006-10-26T13:16:00.000-04:00

It was all going so well. Quake 4, 1280x1024, maxed out, smooth as silk. Battlefield 2, 1600x1200, maxed out, smooth as silk. I played Q4 for about an hour with no stability problems. I played Battlefield 2 for about 15 mintues, and Chronos turned off. Again. Only this time, it wouldn't turn back on.

So I pop the case, unplug everything but the CPU, HSF and mobo power connector. Still no boot. I haul the POS to CJ's place. No boot. Swap PSU's. Boots. Swap back to my PSU. Boots. Boggle. Swap back to CJ's PSU, and CJ takes mine in his bawx. His bawx boots fine. Runs stably. I take his PSU. Still boots. Haul it back to my appartment. Tired, went straight to bed. Got up. Hooked up Chronos. Won't boot. Unplug, replug. Boots. BIOS. I hear the screen res flipping as if it's about to load up windows. I get hopeful. I've got a steady HDD light. Good... good... good... screen remains black, HDD light remains on. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. No sign of progress. Solid HDD, blank screen, but the screen isn't in sleep mode - it's just blank.

So, Chronos is back in critical condition, YET AGAIN. I feel more and more an idiot every day.

Also, I've cancelled our trip to Asheville this weekend. I'm just not up to it. My girlfriend is sick, my cat is sick, my PC is sick, my project (at work) is sick (buggy, and I'm not sure what's wrong with it), my appartment is a wreck. I have no costume.

Chronos Reborn

2006-10-25T11:09:00.000-04:00

Chronos is back with the living, for the most part. I'm having some drive lettering problems, and I've yet to really reinstall everything, but it's booting and I'm using it to post this right now. Photos to come later.

Update: turns out it requires an act of Congress to reletter your system drive, so I get to reinstall again. But I have an upgrade copy of Windows, and the Win98 disk with which to authorize it is at CJ's house, and CJ is at work. So... Chronos is back in critical condition until such time as I can reinstall windows AGAIN. YAY!

New Parts Arrived

2006-10-24T14:21:00.000-04:00

My new parts arrived (mobo, GPU and thermal grease) about an hour ago. I've taken photos but can't import them via the laptop (no Picasa), so I'll post photos once Chronos is back up and running. Not sure when that will be, however, because I can't get the farking HSF off the motherboard. It's an Athlon64, with your standard 3-stage retention clip. I've released the tension lever, I was able to unhook the clip opposite the lever using a screwdriver, but I can't for the life of me get the last clip (the one on the same side as the tension lever) off. It's starting to piss me off. However, the knowledge that lovely new parts are just waiting to be installed is keeping me in a fairly good mood.

I've been messing with the HSF for the last half hour or so, so I'm giving up on it for the moment. I've got some quick work to do, then off to Best Buy to pick up a legal (gasp) copy of Windows XP, and something with which to break in my new GPU (Neverwinter Nights 2 if they've got it, possibly Battlefield 2142 if they don't, but the whole spyware thing has turned me off of that title - maybe I'll find something else to toy with.)

More news here when it happens.

Why won't MS make a handheld?

2006-10-23T17:49:00.000-04:00

Microsoft has sternly declined to enter the handheld gaming market, and insists it isn't changing it's mind any time soon. And that may be true... for the Xbox division. But with MS smartphones doubling in number every year, with better mobile processors, higher-bandwidth cellular, and wider-range WAN technology coming out all the time, I see them pouncing on the handheld market like a starving hyena in 2-3 years.

They're already hinting at integration between smartphones and Xbox Live, allowing cross-communication with buddies who are online on Live, and possible viewing of stats and "downloadable game content". This is where it starts - the day Xbox Live Mobile debuts is the day Sony and Nintendo had better tighten their grips on the handheld market.

They start by offering Xbox Live Mobile services for cellphones and smartphones. This starts with communication link-ups, stats viewing, maybe trailer downloads. They start offering downloadable games you can buy with points from your existing account. Then mobile games start featuring Achievements which affect your Live Gamerscore. Players start seeing games that offer interaction between the version for their Xbox and the version for their phone.

Then, that's when the unthinkable happens: Microsoft releases a new hardware unit, seeking the same glory Ngage failed to achieve, an all-in-one cell phone/smartphone/handheld gaming console. Actually, I'd bet good money it'll be an MP3 player, too - and probably a camera (maybe an option, like the regular and deluxe 360 packages?). I see games being purchased solely through direct-download - possibly a retail push with a flash-based format, like the SD-based Nintendo DS.

Personally, I still love my GameBoy Advance SP, and I've not yet been impressed enough with the Xbox 360 or the PSP to buy one. But, given a handheld offering from MS, I might have to give it a spin.

Parts on the way...

2006-10-23T13:47:00.000-04:00

ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe ATi CrossFire 3200 mobo
ATi Radeon X1900 XT 256M PCIe GPU

Rush + next day, so hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow. NewEgg to the rescue!

PC Problems (Pt 3)

2006-10-23T02:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, went over to CJ's, swapped PSU, it still dies. Swapped RAM. Still dies. Found out one of the cables was interfering with the front case fan - shouldn't be a big deal, particularly since the entire front of my case is a vent, and even more so because the side panel was off the whole time I was testing it at CJ's. Unhooked unnecessary devices. Still dies. All fans are operating properly, nothing feels hot (CPU, GPU, southbridge, or drives).

So, tomorrow I'll be buying a new motherboard, and if that doesn't resolve the issue, I'll be sorely pissed off. But for now, it's half past two in the morning, so I'm going to bed.

I've failed at Halloween...

2006-10-22T21:51:00.000-04:00

I've failed. Halloween is coming up - in fact, I'm going to a party each on Friday and Saturday. And what am I going to be this year?

I have no freaking clue.

Hey Larry and Sergei!

2006-10-22T13:25:00.000-04:00

I hope somebody's listening, because Google has some glaring gaps in their coverage.

First and foremost in my mind, they need a download service, something like C|Net's Download.com. I'm shocked that this has yet to happen. It's got to happen sooner or later. I just hope it's sooner.

They need to add Google Docs & Spreadsheets to Google Apps for Your Domain. I've got Apps FYD, and while it works well, it's, well, it's not much - it's Gmail, Gtalk and a WYSIWYG page editor. That's it. I expect more from them out of an offering like this. I also thoroughly expect this to come out in an appliance like the GSA. I think such a product would do really well.

For some reason Hello is still a seperate program from Gtalk. They've got to fix that. Scrap it and integrate Picassa into Gtalk to send images that way.

They've got to have a truly wicked project and source management system - any chance we might see this opened up for use by open-source projects? They could probably knock the wind out of Sourceforge. Sourceforge is a good site, but it's not the best user experience in the world.

They're now vaguely tracking music listening habits via Gtalk to Google Trends. This is silly. Especially since they have a video property and no music property. They need to get off their asses and snap up Last.fm, or just fork the project (it's open-source, after all). Build the Scrobbler into Gtalk and/or GDS, merge the Last.fm database into Trends, and combine your Last.fm profile with your Google profile. I know they don't typically take on competitors head-on, but this gives them a handy way to take the scenic route to a fight with iTunes, and in a good way - in a way that would let Google truly ambush Apple, particularly if Google is able to swing a deal offering DRM-free content that could be put on any player, not just specific players. I'm not naive enough to expect Google to go into commodity hardware sales.

If they're going to push the whole Sitemaps thing, they should have Blogger and Google Page Creator automatically generate Sitemaps and automatically submit them to Google. Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics should both be tied directly into the admin panel for Apps FYD. AdSense and AdWords can be tied into it too for those using AdSense and/or AdWords with their GAFYD site.

I'm amazed we haven't seen an official virtual disk service from Big G yet. Many people are using what's now nearing 3G of space on a Gmail account as disk space, and various tools have been created to facilitate such use. But wouldn't it be better if they just made something for that purpose? Tie the client into GDS? Use it for storage, file sharing, backups, transfering files between work and home... Oh, the possibilities.

And, last but not least, I have to gripe about the quality of Google Page Creator. It's lousy. It's buggy, and it doesn't give you nearly enough flexibility to make a decent site. And on top of it all, it's deathly slow during pretty much all operations. I'm hoping they improve it fast, otherwise I'm going to have to ditch it.

Prosper: P2P Loan Agency/Network

2006-10-21T15:48:00.000-04:00

http://www.prosper.com/

"The online marketplace for people-to-people lending"

Very interesting. I kind of like the idea - it's somewhat like the stock market (well, more like the bond market), only with real, genuine, honest-to-goodness people. My only concern is over Prosperity's trustworthyness in terms of their fees and their criteria for borrowers. It looks like a good system, though; I may just try it as a lender to see how it goes. Or maybe I'll take out a loan to fix up my ailing PC.

PC Problems (Continued)

2006-10-21T15:35:00.000-04:00

Still can't figure out what's wrong with Chronos, and it's starting to piss me off. I've found a reliable way to generate a crash: if I load up Rome: Total War, it will crash. Sometimes it dies before it goes fullscreen, sometimes it dies while loading, sometimes I get all the way to the main menu and I'm able to select "Continue Campaign" before it tanks. I tried clocking my 1.8GHz Athlon 64 3000+ down to 1.2GHz (CPU multi from 9x to 6x), and it's still tanking. I also turned my auto-shutdown temp from 60C to 65C with no luck. I doubt it's a heat issue at this point. Last night I cleaned the case out and made a brief visual inspection of all components, and everything looks good.

A couple of times it's died before it even posts, which is particularly alarming. I'm going to try to borrow somebody's (probably CJ's) PSU for a little while to see if that resolves it; if that doesn't fix the problem, I'll probably replace the mobo and go from there. I'd just hate to buy a new mobo to fit my last-gen CPU, only to find out I need to replace the CPU - if I have to replace both, I'd rather move up to current generation (AM2 or Core 2).

Blah. This r suX0rz.

Wiiiiiiiiiiii!

2006-10-21T13:03:00.000-04:00

That's right boys and girls, it's time to talk about Wii. I'll start by saying this: I want one. I'll be standing in line somewhere on launch day to buy one. I think the controller is brilliant, the virtual console is awesome, and they've got a lot of really interesting and innovative titles coming out for the system. Plus, the system and games are cheap, and the online service is free.

My only real gripe is with the online service, which won't be featuring online multiplayer until next year, and games released between now and then won't gain the feature after online muliplayer launches. I'm really dissappointed about this, and was hoping for more out of Nintendo this time around.

Launch day I'm looking at Excite Truck, Zelda (of course), and Red Steel. I'm really excited to see what an FPS feels like with the Wiimote. I've always loved FPS games on the PC and hated them on consoles, because of the unintuitiveness of dual analog sticks. I think this will be a breath of fresh air.

As for Zelda, well, I haven't really gotten into a Zelda game since Link to the Past on SNES, but with all the hype being poured onto this title, I've got to see what's what. I'll give Link another chance. Besides, this is the first time a system has launched with a Zelda title - they're putting a lot of stock in the game as a showcase for the system, which means they've done their very best with it.

Excite Truck, well... I'm a Burnout Revenge addict (PS2 & 360), and Excite Truck looks like it bears enough similarity to be worth buying on that merit alone. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing how the controls feel for a racing game on Wii.

I'm also looking at Elebits and/or Trauma Center for my girlfriend, and we're both desperately hoping they come out with a Katamari sequel for Wii.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for NWN2 to finally be released so I can occupy myself with that until I've got my hands on Nintendo's lovely new little white box.

Internet Perspective

2006-10-21T10:34:00.000-04:00

So, okay. I've started blogs before, and they tend not to last me long. I get distracted, I get disheartened from lack of readership, or I just plain get bored with it. I'm trying to stick to it this time. Why? It's a Web 2.0 thing.

Web 2.0 is a term that's been flying around the industry for the past couple of years, and nobody is quite sure what it means. There are countless definitions, and countless "experts" willing to point out what qualifies and what does not. There are two main Web 2.0 camps, it seems, and we'll call them types A and B. A says it's the tranformation from web pages to web applications, including all the AJAX and SOAP and web services goodness that's so popular right now. B says it's the transformation from a top-down content-buffet where one group posts content and the other (majority) group consumes it, into a bottom-up collaborative user-content-driven system where everybody posts content for everybody else to consume.

Now, I think that both are very interesting points in the evolution of the internet, however, it is coincidental that they happened around the same time. Neither requires the other; they're no more related to eachother than a car is related to where it's going. The only reason they've been given the same name is because they're happening at the same time; this does not, mind you, make them the same thing.

As a developer, I've done quite a bit of work with the Type A definition. It's cool and you can do some really neat stuff with it, but it's much more evolution than revolution. Type B, on the other hand - well, the jury's still out on its revolutionary qualities, but I will say that it represents a much more fundamental shift in the internet, and in our world as a whole.

Where once we were fed the opinions of the rich, famous, and overqualified, we are now all engaging in millions of gigantic conversations between the average, mundane, and underqualified. Blogs were just the beginning; behold Wikis and social networking sites and YouTube and Flickr. These sites are about mass-publishing, not just mass-media. They're about everyone making their voices heard. They're about participation.

And that's why I'm trying the blog thing again. Participation. As steeped as I am in technology and the internet, as much time as I spend browsing the internet and as much time as I spend building the sites that make up the internet, I'm not a very good participant. You can browse the web, or you can join in. Well, damn it, I'm joining in.

I'm still undecided on my level of Internet intimacy. Some people are more than happy to post every intimate detail about their lives and their thoughts and their feelings for all the world to see and comment on, like their own personal reality TV show. I'm not that much of an extrovert; I have a lot of ideas, some of which I want to share with the public, and some of which are my own. I suppose that's a line each person must draw for themselves.

So, feel free to examine my music listening habits, or my personal photos, but don't expect all to be laid bare.

PC Problems, Ho!

2006-10-20T11:41:00.000-04:00

I've got a DIY box (Chronos III) I built almost a year ago. Athlon 64 3000+ (1.8GHz), ATI Radeon X800XL PCIe, 2GB DDR-400, and a total of 460G of HD space across three drives.

Over the last couple of weeks, it's been turning off. No warning, no errors, no memdumps, nothing in the system log. It happens in the middle of the night when the machine is idle, it happens while you're using it under low CPU load, it happens under high CPU load. It's like a narcoleptic - you're having a conversation, and suddenly *off*. So that's fun.

I'm trying to work out the problem; MemTest86 completed 2 passes with no errors. I recently added a USB hub, so I unplugged that - still happens. The PSU is good quality, but there are always bad apples in the bunch, so it's always a possibility. It could be a heat issue as well, though at this point I doubt it.

Anyway, I just hope I've got this resolved by the time I've got NWN2 on this box; that game will probably have me doing one last upgrade (to an X1950 Pro, when they hit shelves) before Wii comes out, at which point I doubt I'll have much left to spend on my PC.

If anybody has any suggestions, post a comment...

Getting Google-Eyed

2006-10-19T21:28:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm a regular reader of Ars Technica, which is a regular poster of Google news. Every time Google makes some nifty new toy, Ars posts about it.

So, when I look at the tiny toolbar in the top-left corner of my Gmail and Google Calendar pages and notice two new links, I'm intrigued. So, what do I do? I sign up for both Google Docs & Spreadsheets, and Picasa Web Albums.

I started with Docs & Spreadsheets, and I'd have to describe it as "not bad". It's still in beta (isn't everything?), and it shows. There are serious inconsistencies with the interface, and I experienced one point when the application said my connection had been lost, and along with it, my changes - oddly, I didn't actually lose any changes, but regardless, that's not a good sign. I wouldn't use it for anything work-related honestly, but I will say it makes a decent home word processor and spreadsheet suite. I like the collaboration and sharing tools; they're simple but effective. Revision control is a very nice feature as well; being a developer and used to using revision control when programming, I'm glad to see it catching on in other areas.

I uploaded some files by email, both in the body of the email (which works very smoothly, but takes a while to process), and as attachments (takes an extremely long time to process, and I ran into some problems, which I was able to resolve by searching the Google Group dedicated to the application.) I also tried editing and creating new documents through the web interface. I uploaded spreadsheets and text documents by email and by upload form, and created a new one of each via the web interface. Everything worked well, but there are some inconsistencies between the two applications (such as the way documents are renamed), and the interface for Spreadsheets can be irritating, as you have to switch between tabs to switch between formatting and data entry/formula editing. I don't know how many spreadsheet functions it supports, but probably not many - this might present some difficulties when importing more complex spreadsheets, so I wouldn't recommend it.

On the whole, however, it is an application I will continue to use for my personal use going forward, and for some documents I need to collaborate on for work purposes, that aren't mission-critical or highly confidential.

On to Picasa Web Albums. This works extremely well. There are a couple of minor bugs with the (again, beta) Picassa 2 software with the Web Albums upgrade. I already had and have used Picassa 2, but I had to download and install the new version seperately (no auto-update as Gtalk has.) There are some minor glitches with the upgrade that are unrelated to the web album feature - UI glitches with scrolling, for example - but the web album works quite well. You select your photos, click a button, give the album a title and description, and it resizes and uploads the photos to your free 250M of storage. For $25 per year you can upgrade to 6G of storage, plus the ability to post video.

You can re-caption, re-name, and reorganize photos via the web interface, and you can add to existing albums from within Picasa. The web page also gives convenient links to email your friends from your Gmail account, and the links are fairly easy to remember (it's basically your Gmail address). It also accepts uploads from Apple's iPhoto.

This is something I will definitely be using going forward, because I share a lot of photos to keep in touch with friends and family across the country. I would recommend it as a photo-sharing service, but it is not a social networking site; you are only intended to find someone's web album if they tell you about it. They do, however, offer methods of embedding your photo feed into your blog or (shudder) MySpace page.

Now, this got me thinking on everybody's favorite debate: What's next for Google? Well, they just announced they want to slow down on new product development, and spend more time refining their existing offerings and integrating them together. This is what Google Docs & Spreadsheets is about, and we're going to see more of that. Web albums was a simple matter of leveraging their existing technologies; we're going to see more of that, too.

I also see a few holes in their big push areas. They've got many-to-many text (Google Groups), one-to-one text (Gmail), live one-to-one text (Gtalk), one-to-many text (Blogger), and live one-to-one audio (Gtalk Voice Chat). I see live many-to-many text (chatrooms built onto Gtalk), live many-to-many audio (Gtalk conference calls), and possibly live one-to-one video (Gtalk video chat) on the horizon, easily. The reason I say possibly on one-to-one video as it's still not hugely popular, and it still doesn't work very well. However, Google is known for changing those traits in everything they touch, so they may be able to pull something out of their PhD-lined hat.

That's everybody's communications. They're also taking care of everybody's media, with Google Video and a recent YouTube acquisition, and of course Picasa and the new Web albums. What's missing is, of course, audio. I see an appeal to independent artists, and possibly another grab of public domain material (like their recent indexing of all books whose copyright had expired). I can definitely see an acquisition in this space, and I particularly like the idea of Last.fm coming under Google's wing. I think it'd be a really good matchup, and I think it'd do great things for both companies. But, of course, this is all conjecture - only time will tell what Big G has planned.