Closing in on the end of another year. I am mentally reviewing 1998, and I don't think it will be a terribly memorable year ten years from now for me. The Web continues to grow like a weed, and I am along for some of that ride.
It's not necessarily a bad thing.
Lots of excitement here at Bump over our recent purchase of a copy of RealBasic from Real Software. For 90% of the desktop level programming tasks I have in mind, this tool fits my needs perfectly. Of course, I'm only one day and 50 pages worth of tutorial into it, but it really makes building things that actually run very simple compared to a C, Java, or C++ environment.
In checking out the Company's support site, I discovered that there are a lot of resources available on the Web to help the newbie learning RealBasic. I'll be putting up a page on this site over the weekend listing these resources and my personal experiences with learning this environment.
I'm coding a Styled text editor with the intention of building a tool that stores it's files in an XML'd format. It will be open source when I am done.
Still enjoying my Christmas gifts. I got a 12 Mb Voodoo2 Card that I plan on installing over the long weekend. Should make my Myth II experiences even better. Bungie is resetting the Myth II leader board tonight, so I got some additional practice at the new games(Stampede, Hunting, Assasin) last night.
Lastly, I hope to launch the new site for my brother's band, Die Laughing, this weekend. I have been working on it over the last couple of weeks in my spare time. Just a couple more images and some Javascript work and we'll have soup.
I had a phenomenal Christmas holiday break. Kate loaded me up with so many Geek toys that I haven't even updated these pages in the last few days.
Follow this up with a tremendous back up of work at the daily grind, and you have a semi-stressed out Bump.
I will make every effort to get more up here over the next couple of days.
We went to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam. It was fantastic. Great costumes and design, and an interesting plot. The performers did some really spectacular things, and I really enjoyed the way everything fit together seamlessly. As I said to everyone who asked, It was just twisted enough for me to really enjoy it.
One of my gifts, that I spent an entire day working with, was the LEGO Mindstorms . You build a robot, complete with motors, touch sensors, and light sensors, then use you Windows based PC to program the robot to do what you want. FUN STUFF. I do wish they had left more room for the tinkerers as the programming interface is completely graphical.
I'm looking forward to Tuesday's MacWorld Expo . Although I am not attending, I got invited to the local broadcast of the keynote. I think they are going to announce some big things. I know they are going to announce the new "Yosemite" machines, but I have a feeling that there is something else coming down the pike.
Userland has released Frontier 5.1.5 . I have upgraded my registered copy, and things are working great. Dave and the gang have really done some strong work over the last six months.
I've only been playing a little Myth II. They are resetting the ranking system tomorrow, so I look forward to that fresh start.
Well, I've got to get my work done. Plans for this weekend mainly revolve around reworking my brother's Web site. I am also looking into new Web hosting companies as I think I am paying too much.
The New York Times has a story that implies that Circuit City has been building "fan" sites for DIVX. I wouldn't put it past them. Again, I say that DIVX is a terrible deal for the consumer for a wide variety of reasons. The most distressing is the model it sets up and the precedent it establishes.
I spent several hours yesterday doing maintenance type tasks on my home workstations. I then went on to install PowerPC Linux on one of the stations. More on this process later. Not terribly user friendly. I wouldn't recommend it for casual computer users yet. The x86 verions I've played with in the last couple of months have been easier to install.
If you haven't checked it out, you need to experience the Psyberspace News Hub . I have no idea how Andy, whose site this is, manages to turn out the sheer volume of material. Some really good Cold Fusion pointers here too.
There is a new site for Macintosh-based Webmasters called MacWeb Developer .
AppleInsider has the scoop in Internet Explorer 4.5 For Macintosh Revealed! . Among the features is Form Autofill, something I am dying for. I currently use Netscape, but I am flexible. I wish the article had some mention if there are any changes in the parsing engine.
Ambrosia Software has released Slithereens . I bet its good.
According to a Computer Retail Week story , Apple is going to ship machines with Linux pre-installed in the new year. Yes yes yes.
I have used Hotline since almost its first appearance. Unlike many of the people that frequent the Hotline community, I actually paid for the software. A couple of years ago, I wrote one of the first reviews of this marvelously written piece of software.
Today, Hotline is being used mostly to distribute porn and illegal software, but I ocassionally fire up my copy and download amusing material and sounds. Here is a really depressing article on what is happening with Adam Hinckley , who wrote the software, and Hotline Software, the company he helped found. Shame on these people.
My Christmas shopping is starting to come to an end. I have to find a gift for my younger brother Paul still though.
The discussion on the impeachment issue heated up yesterday on the new discussion boards at scripting.com . I just think that the constitution is being used as a partisan tool in this matter. Shame on them.
My weekend was eaten by two work Christmas parties and a graduation. I am at work and Monday feels pretty rough on me. I'm coding some forms and adding data validation to them. Pretty boring, monotonous work.
I finally opened my Furby . He proudly announced that his name is "SUMO", and has been a lot of fun to play with. He is kind of rude and keeps farting and belching every time we feed him. Still, I can see why people are going so crazy over them. An interesting computer/gigapet/electromechanical toy combination. In case you were wondering, I paid $70 for him over the Internet.
The Iconfactory released their Photoshop plug-in for building icons and icon sets, Icon Builder . I downloaded it and it seems to be what I would expect from them, Quality. I especially liked a feature that isn't in the software yet: Windows Icon compatibility. It's planned for a future release.
I am making the frustrating round of phone calls I make every two or three months to the phone and cable companies asking about high speed access at home. I can't get either ADSL from BellSouth or Broadband cable access from Media One in my neighborhood yet. Hurry up!!!
On this note, I have to say that the level of customer service that these big utility companies provide is really bad. I wait on hold forever just to be forwarded twice before someone tells me what I want to know. I have a feeling that this might change when the cable company has some competition and AT&T starts to go for the local service as well as long distance. I know that, if there were an alternative cable provider, Media One would already be gone. Our service goes out almost once a week.
I ordered about 70% of my Christmas gifts this year over the Internet. They are starting to arrive slowly.
I got email from Bungie today letting me know that they would be charging my cards and my pre-ordered copy of Myth II would ship out before the end of the year.
Well I have to go back to the text farm, have a good day.
Myth II has gone golden master. This highly anticipated sequel to Myth should be shipping around December 31, as it is now in production. I got a chance to check out the development verions of this game at both E3 and MacWorld.(Here's a write up I did after E3.) I can't wait for its arrival. They will be releasing a demo version this month.
I have two Christmas parties to attend this weekend. One for my office and another for Kate's. I expect that I will be learning Dreamweaver 2.0 during the day as my copies arrived yesterday.
I purchased a couple of Furby's online, and they are arriving today. I will post my experiences with this year's hot toy.
I have an unopened Gold Collector's Edition Zelda Cartridge for the Nintendo 64 that I am looking to sell for $150.00. I have seen the regular cartridge(not collector's) go for over $100 online, so I don't think this price is too high. I will put it on eBay for auction if I don't find a buyer before December 15.
The Bump clubhouse Christmas tree has arrived. We are letting the little guy settle in before we decorate him.
Continued testing of the new MacPac seems to show that it is a very high quality product. I already am getting more use out of my Palm Pro than I have in months.
The Fire Ant has now proven itself to also be a high quality product.
I put a deposit down on the Volkswagon New Beetle of my dreams this morning. Expected arrival date is in February.
My sinus infection continues to plague my concentration.
I downloaded the new MacPac software from Palm Computing's Web site. It is amazingly good. I especially am enjoying its shared menu which sports an easy interface for opening the new desktop software, a quick to do list, and a search engine for finding contacts. It seems really stable on my machine(a G3 MT 266 running Mac OS 8.5) and I plan on bringing it to my home workstation tonight.
I'm still a little under the weather. I think I will be fine by the end of the day.
It never fails with me. I travel and then I get sick.
I've been laid up the last couple of days with kind of sinus flu bug. Been able to play some video games, but not to get a lot of work done. Even small things like going to the store have exhausted me.
I'm back at work this morning, but I'm already tired from just driving in so I may have not made the best decision in coming in at all.
MacWEEK reports that there is a Mac OS 8.5.1 update coming out in December that fixes a bunch of bugs in Mac OS 8.5.
The reports of Bill Gates' testimony in the Java case mirror the experience that the Justice Department had with him in the anit-trust lawsuit. He is openly hostile at times, and can't seem to remember much about anything or to confirm the meanings of simple colloquial phrases.(Mercury News report ). Some genius.
Well I have to try and get some work done before I pass out.
I had a phenomenal Thanksgiving. I spent it with my family in Connecticut, and celebrated my younger brother's 21st birthday in the process. The reconciliation with my family gives me one more thing to be thankful for this year.
I have a lot to be thankful for. In saying so, I am not just giving lip service to the tradition. Every day I wonder how I got so lucky. I get to work at something I love. I have people who love me. It's fantastic.
Now I'm back at work.
My RIO PMP 300 arrived this morning. I won't be able to check it out until tonight, but expect a full writeup either then or tommorrow morning.
Rasterweb has a new Code section . Looks like I might find it useful. It reminds me that I want to add some of my Applescript and Frontier efforts to Bump.
I went with my three brothers, their girlfriends, and Kate to see Enemy of the State I thought it was really good, but not great. I still haven't seen A Bug's Life
I started out using Mosaic as my first browser. It was a few years ago, and I hardly remember those early days of using the net. I remember the change to Netscape only slightly, but I do remember each version change in those early days. We'd check Netscape's FTP server waiting for the new betas. Before I was doing the net as my full time gig. It was special. This marks the end of an era, and rather than resisting, I am going to choose to embrace the change.
Plenty of news coverage of the announcement already.
Update: An enterprising reader has pointed out to me that you can order the Episode 1 poster(single-sided) for less than $20 from the Official Star Wars fan club. They can be reached at 1.800.truefan. Thanks for the heads up Eric!!
It's a shortened week so I won't have too much time for updating, but I will try to get something up every day.
AOL-Netscape deal close is an SJ Mercury article on the impending acquisition of netscape by AOL and Sun Microsystems. Am I the only one who sees this as a bad idea? Partnering would be a good idea, but I'm convinced that this is akin to Pepsi owning Pizza Hut. Other ISP's aren't going to want to fund their competitor's expansion. The offshoot of it will be that Netscape's browser will lose marketshare.
They would have to fundamentally change their strategy because, right now, everything is leveraged off of that browser marketshare. Sun owning server software that runs on Windows NT might not be the best idea in the world either. I sonehow think that they will improve the Solaris version of Enterprise server before the NT version. As you can see, I am very skeptical of this deal. I'm not convinced that its a good thing for anyone in the long run.
I am addicted to eBay . I found the Episode One poster that I have been looking for there, as well as the Japanese Pokemon figurines that I have wanted since Nintendo was showing them off at E3.
Those recent to Bump as readers may not be aware that the second domain I registered(and one that still leads to this site and my mailbox) is yoda.org. I am a Star Wars fiend, and proud of it.
Yesterday, I finally got to see the trailer for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I was blown away, and the if this is any indication of how good the movie will be, they will break the Titanic record.
I am now searching the Web for a copy of the poster . If you know where I can get one, please email me.
Salon Magazine is tracking the flood of trailer news, and Slashdot.org is posting a list of places you can download the trailer off the Web.
My next redesign will include a Phantom Menace page and I will begin to track news from here on out.
Iconfactory has the details of their new icon creation tool, IconBuilder, posted along with a screenshot.
I am in the beginning stages of a new design for this site. new features will include more links to work I have done and a static posting of my resume. I want the site to be more photographically and graphically rich than it is now.
A very talented friend of mine, Mark Delfs, from Albany, NY where I used to live is holding a support drive to get Diammond Multimedia to build application software and an interface for its portable MP3 player, RIO , for the Mac. I already ordered a RIO, but I would love to have Mac software and connectivity for it. He also wrote an article on the subject named MP3 Wars: Blame it on Rio .
We are having our big Thanksgiving lunch at work today.
I'm wearing my brand new glasses. My first pair, and they feel good. I only have to wear them while I'm on the computer(which is very near all of the time), and I see things without any of the strain I had yesterday. Still, it's going to take a little while for me to get used to them.
Sun wins an injunction against Microsoft.(San Jose Mercury news story ) I don't know how I feel about this. If this means we will see Java move back towards being a platform independent programming language then I'm for it. I fear that Microsoft will withdraw its support of the technology, which would make the whole argument a mute point.
I can't believe how fast the weeks have been flying by recently. Seems like I blink and the week is half over.
I finished MedEvil, the Playstation game I was addicted to.
I got the new DJ Q-Bert album, Wave Twisters, and it is really good. He gets great sounds out the turntables, and samples some really strange and diverse things.
Also of note on the music front is Portishead, one of my all time favorites, and their new live album, PNYC. Really good quality live versions of a show at New York City's Roseland(where I've seen a ton of shows). They are backed by a full orchestra. If you aren't familiar, check it out.
I will update again in the early afternoon.
My diet continues. I have made my first goal, and continued three pounds past it. My second goal is still ten pounds away.
Top secret chip less secret now is a News.com story about the details that are emerging about Transmeta. This company got a lot of press attention six months ago because of its secrecy(no one knows what they are working on) and the fact that they employee Linux creator Linus Torvalds. Looks like they are after Intel's market, and seem to have patented an Intel killer. Exciting stuff.
I think that the News.com redesign is a little too jumbled and busy.
Intel is investing in Be. This is great news for Be afficianados(I have an original Bebox at home), and better news for Be itself. I hope they survive this jump to the next level. They have a great Operating System.
They've shipped the millionth consumer DVD video player.(Press Release) I wonder sometimes why they overlook the market penetration occurring in the computer space. I was watching Rollerball yesterday on my laptop while waiting at the doctor's office.
Lots of meetings today. I came in early to get ahead, and got nowhere.
I'm not sure that I dig the new Beck album. Very mellow. I would have to be in the right mood to get into it.
The Beastie Boys will be on Saturday Night Live 11/21/98 and The Chris Rock Show 11/24/98. Warm up the VCR.
I'm learning more every day about what it's like to work for a company that is in the transition after being acquired by another company. It's very uncomfortable at times. It is also frustrating. I know that some of the people that I work with probably won't make it to the other side of the transition, maybe I won't. You never know I guess. They don't reveal all of their plans, and that makes it like walking around in the dark. There are rules that you don't know about. I'm actually enjoying watching it unfolding.
Interesting Salon article that seems to compare Linux's emergence to the Reformation that split the Catholic and Protestant branches of Christianity. This is news?
RasterWeb points to Revelation Records on the Apple Computer site. This label released a ton of the records that mean a lot to me. I still listen to the Inside Out record that they released. Also the Into Another stuff(before they went to the major label) and the seminal Quicksand and Burn, Orange 9MM. Weird how life fits together at times.
I'm working on my Christmas list which is never easy for me. I want all this electronic stuff, but my tastes are a little expensive.
I tried to help a friend set up a small home Windows network over the last two days. He had purchased three new computers(including a 450Mhz Xeon based machine), and just wanted peer to peer sharing and printing. After two nights of trouble, we gave up for the time being. Very frustrating. It should be easy enough for a non-technical person with the right manuals to do. It's not.
Transit , my new favorite FTP tool for the Mac, has been updated to 1.1.1.
I've found at last two bugs in BBEdit 5.0 (and reported them) that are inconvenient to the way I work. I will revert to 4.5 until they are fixed.
Alien Skin Software released their new set of Photoshop plug-ins Xenofex . I played with the beta version of this. I thought that the visual effects it created were stunning. Is it useful? I'm not sure.
Yoot Tower is from the gentleman who developed Sim Tower. The programmer is a Mac fanatic. I ordered a copy.
I would love to hear opinions from anyone who has first hand experience with the Beetle .
My BBEdit 5.0 arrived via Fedex this morning. My first impression is that this is a real tuneup as far as the HTML authoring part of the application goes. Things are where I expect them to be. Commands have moved physically, but all of the keyboard strokes that I am fond of are the same.
In the past, it was a text editor that sort of lucked into being the best HTML authoring environment. This tuneup marks the start of a focus on the HTML authoring capabilities. I already can see that this is a must have $39 upgrade.
The week ahead is filled with nose down programming work. I look forward to weeks like this.
Always the interface junkie, I took advantage of the the theme archive at FreeThemes.com. My Fire Ant is sporting a Final Fantasy theme.
I am down more than 10 pounds in the diet. Although I did cheat a little over the weekend
I've spent almost the entire weekend kicking the tires on the Gateway Fire Ant I recieved on Friday. So far, I'm impressed.
I also have spent a bunch of time this weekend contemplating the purchase of a new Beetle .
I've been experimenting with a variety of Windows software to meet my usage needs. I'm using HomeSite 4.0 to edit this site right now. It seems really good.(It's no BBEdit however)
Of the FTP programs I tried today, I've settled on AbsoluteFTP 1.5.
It's strange for me to be making this subtle transition. I've been there at work for a while now, but at home there is a big difference.
I'm addicted to SONY's MediEvil PlayStation game. Great animation, entertaining characters, and well thought out game challenges are combining to suck up my leisure time en masse.
I don't think Kate is too pleased with the amount of time I have spent working on the computers this weekend.
I ended up needing reading glasses the other day. Yesterday I went and picked them out. I'm aging.
I moved the September and October content into the archives.
I have been tracking the Fire Ant's progress across the country. From Iowa to Kentucky to Tennessee and finally to Georgia last night. I am awaiting it this morning.
Sigerson, a really good Sherlock sets manager for Mac OS 8.5 that I've been using, has been updated to version 1.5. You can find it here .
If you are planing on traveling for Thanksgiving, and haven't made plans yet, you need to get it done today. I paid a little more than I'm accustomed to because I waited so long.
Here's an article in the San Jose Mercury News that describes Intel's "Concept PC." They are getting rid of ISA and adding USB and Firewire support while creating something that looks stylish, not boxy. Sounds a real lot like Apple's iMac with Firewire support added.
I'm going to get my eyes checked out this afternoon...
The "Smart Card" test that Citibank was doing in Manhattan is being closed down. Here's the New York Times story . Their failure was thinking they could get a valid test market in one neighborhood in New York City. They would be better off taking over an entire mid-sized town as a test case. That way everything in the town would accept the cards.
I've managed to open up an email conduit with a second of my three brothers. One more to go.
I've also been doing some work on the links page in keeping with my use of it as my home page. I will be changing the way it is laid out to allow for more links tonight.
I read a couple of issues of a magazine called the Silicon Alley Reporter . I really liked the magazine, kind of a right coast counterpart to The Industry Standard . The Web site sucks. No content at all. No online content, and this is supposed to be a digital culture/Web industry magazine? Very dissapointing.
Apple should consider the proposal outlined by MacKiDo in this October 14th editorial piece . Put the the best GUI on top of the most powerful OS and in theory you have the best possible combination. Apple, however, is even more of an antithesis to the Open Source world than Microsoft is. At least the hardware is open in the Intel world. I think that this combination, if done well, could really be a viable alternative to Windows 2000.