I'm at the office, coding away. I thought I would take a Bump update break.
The answer to the previously mentioned Palm V alarm issue seems to be soft reseting the device through the reset button on the back. Two of us have tried this with great success. Just make sure you don't erase your data.
Wired News has a story about a contest that Kipling , the maker of the excellent line of Hacker bags, is running. It seems that no one has been able to break their code yet despite a mention on Slashdot . I have one of their computer bags and I love it.
Dan Schafer's most recent Builder.com article, IE 5.0 improves on earlier releases but complicates Web builders' lives is a fantastic overview of the problems with Internet Explorer 5.0 from a developer's perspective. It's another case of the browser vendor just ignoring the developer community. It makes me really angry. They had a great opportunity with this release to finally implement a bunch of things we have been asking for, and they blew it.
I downloaded Internet Explorer 5.0 last night and played with it quite a bit. Not much has changed to the eye of the Web user. I like the Radio component, which lets you listen to your favorite radio station while browsing. It took forever to download, even over a T-1, so there must be more than a few people joining in the fun.
Be continues to roll with a PC bundling deal in Europe. Go BE!! News.com has the story .
I had a network volume go down this morning at work at the worst possible time. When I'm stressed out, I tend to smile and laugh alot.
Tim Bray, the creator of XML, talks about XML support in Internet Explorer 5.0 . It's actually something of a primer on real world use of XML for Web jockeys.
In his most recent, and very insightful, DaveNet , Dave Winer reveals that Userland will be doing an RSS engine like My Netscape, but open and less restrictive legally. This could be the thing I was talking about a couple of days ago, allowing us to do our own interfaces.
Mac OS Rumors is reporting that developers are looking at doing an XML interface as a part of the Darwin project. This could be of huge help in furthering the use of XML on the Macintosh.
One Week to the show. I have 5 projects that dead end next week. Going to be a fun, hard week.
Today also marks the release of Internet Explorer 5.0 for all of the Windows platforms.
News.com has a special report covering the release, it's implications, and its effects on the marketplace as a whole.
I'm not going to have time to experiment with and comment on it today, but I will write it up in full later this week.
The New York Times covers the Better Business Bureau's foray into online privacy monitoring. I think this is a really good thing. Being on the back end of things, people want to do all sorts of things with collected data that I'm not comfortable with. I stand really firmly on this stuff at work.
This move also encroaches on trustE's territory. Which one of the two seals is better? The Industry Standard has an article covering this today.
I've discovered a major issue with my Palm V, the alarms don't sound when the device is turned off. This makes it useless as a reminder. Apparently, this is an issue that Palm Computing is working on. I'm also still waiting for the modem that I ordered with the Palm V two weeks ago.
Builder.com has launched a new column called Critique of the Week . This week they look at the Hartford Courant, a paper I delivered as a kid.
Reminder from yesterday, Bump is now live on the My Netscape Network channel system . To add my page to your My Netscape , follow this link
For those of you who don't want to go there to see what it looks like, here's a screenshot of the Bump Channel.
Macintouch has good unbiased coverage of the Mac OS X Server release event yesterday.
StepWise , a site maintained by a well respected long time OpenSTEP developer, has some notes on Mac OS X Server too. He had access to it in the limited beta release cycle, so he's pretty well tuned in.
I am encouraged by the pricing, and by the iniative of the open sourcing. I want to see more though. Open Source the whole thing. I worry that this is more of a media event thing than an actual committment, but we'll find out about that down the road.
Work will be crazy for me over the next ten days, we have our largest trade event coming up next weekend. You may see a small lack of consistency with regards to updates. Well, it does say sporadic in our statement of purpose above.
I've been playing with AvantGo on my Palm V over the last day and a half. I think it would be useful if I only wanted to read the sites, but I like to follow links, so it frustrates me. For me to cache all of the material I would want, I would have to have a Palm with 16 Mb of RAM.
PC WEEK has an article that reviews what the original Palm creators are doing called Catching up with the creators of the Palm They are moving towards a more consumer oriented device based on the Palm OS. based on what a good friend told me of his recent trip to Germany, they use the Palm in some very different ways there now. It all makes a lot of sense to me.
I picked up a copy of Fireworks 2.0 using their upgrade discount yesterday. I used it a little last night, and it seems to be much improved over the previous version, which wasn't bad at all. I think they have unified the UI in a better way. Builder.com has a review that I more or less agree with that was posted this morning.
Microsoft is attempting to move into the distributable digital audio market. There is a Wired News story on the subject this morning. Seems they have some pretty stiff competition from some companies, including Sony, which are already in this space. This has the potential to become a real mess if one standard isn't agreed upon. I like MP3 just fine, but I understand that there are piracy concerns.
The way this works is that Netscape grabs an XML version of Bump that I create when I build the regular version. You can view this file here. They parse it into their system, and it updates when you request you page. Pretty neat.
I'm excited by the idea of having all of my content sources in one place where I can quickly review them. I hope more people adopt this publishing scheme. I also would love it if this were opened up to anyone. It would be great to be able to build myself, and my visitors, portals that were customized within my own design framework. This could work if they opened their registry of files to the public. Anyone who knows how to parse XML could then build similar sites.
The CamWorld channel looks great. A "big up" to Cameron Barrett for getting it done so fast.
Broadcast.com: MP3 Will Die Wired News I imagine that MP3 will be replaced at some point by another technology, but if you read this piece, you see that this is the viewpoint that he has to have. Otherwise, what reason does his business have for existing?
Cyberian Outpost has launched an auction site at http://www.outpostauctions.com/ They have things like Palm III's and iMacs for sale, and there may be bargains to be had. This is a closed auction model where they are the only seller.
Online Auctions Take The High Road Industry Standard Since the low end auction houses have seen so much success, the big boys of the auction world are scrambling to incorporate Internet technology into their arsenals.
Builder.com has a discussion going about whether or not it is safe to use CSS now. Since it generally degrades gracefully, I don't think that it's that much of an issue.
A List Apart has a great CSS intorduction called Fear of Style Sheets I haven't used them yet at work because of the overhead of getting the entire site system reworked is really high right now. I'm holding out for a databased redesign that will make doing it going forward much easier.
I'm waiting now for Netscape to confirm my entry into their channel system .
My first piece of writing to be published in several months marks the start of a monthly Web Authoring/Web Business column in MacNow Magazine . The name of the column is Leveraging the Web . While the magazine has more of a Macintosh focus, I'm far less interested in platform specific computing these days.
Palm Underground readers get $1 off any title they buy from Peanut Press , a company that digitizes books in a Palm compatible format. I downloaded their reader application and purchased two titles last night. My first instinct would be that reading books on a Palm device would be difficult on the eyes, but I read through about half of one title last night. I actually liked it. The Palm's backlighting made reading in bed better, and it is convenient to be able to carry a couple of titles around for my spare moments. They don't have a really wide variety of titles yet, but they do have Monica Lewinsky's book(which I would never buy).
The Netcraft Web server survey documents Apache's continued growth as the number one Web server. Despite a distant third place ranking, Netscape's servers saw the most growth over the last month.
So, I love the New Beetle . It's a really well designed vehicle, and is really visually pleasing to me too. I think the funniest thing is other people's reaction to it. In the three days I've had it, I've had several people approach me in parking lots to tell me how much they like it, and asking me if they could get a look at the inside.
It looks as if Byte Magazine's revival as an online only entity is progressing well. I always loved the print version of the publication. According to the San Jose Mercury News , the site was getting 600,000 page views a month without any new content at all before they relaunched it. When the magazine disappeared, I took it as a sign of things to come in the technology publishing field. While I doubt that magazines will disappear at any point in the near future, the Web has made it easier to keep yourself up to date on things in a daily manner rather than a once a month print thing.
The feast and famine updating motif continues. I've been doing a lot of reading and working some substantial hours during the week. Not an excuse though.
It doesn't have a lot more memory than the Palm Professional I had before, but it is faster. The screen is also quite a bit better, and the feel of the buttons is much improved. The biggest difference is the size of the device. Where it was once too large to slip into my pocket, it now is almost unnoticeable. I picked up the aluminum case for it, and it reminds my of a cigarette case. I'm still waiting on the modem so I will write more once that has arrived. It also worth mentioning that it is much better looking too.
The new MacPac connectivity software is solid.(I've been using the beta version for a couple of months so it wasn't a surprise. The new software that sync's with Outlook 98 on my Gateway works really well. All in all, it seems like my impulse decision was a decent one. Two things are nagging at me though: 1)It's not expandable 2)The integrated battery make sme nervous that I will find myself without power or a place to charge up. In honor of this new purchase, I have added a Palm Resources section to the links page.
Most of my focus over the last two weeks has been down three paths. Broadband Internet access and the changes we can expect from it. Network appliances and the dissapearance of the general purpose computer in non-technical homes. Security and privacy.
Feed Magazine has a story name Getting What You Pay For that talks about the Free PC movement in detail. I guess I understand the underlying economics, but I don't understand why anyone would build a whole business model around this concept. As an ancillary information gathering arm of a larger company, it might make sense.
CNN has a story on How to make your fortune on the Web Interesting statistic in the last paragraph. There must be a ton of bad business ideas proposed to venture capitalists.
The next issue of Wired magazine came today. My personal opinion is that this magazine has declined greatly over the last two years.
Web Review's current feature is Running Open Source Software They cover GIMP, Apache and Zope. Free is definitely a good way to go with software these days.
In the non-Free software department, I have picked up a copy of Headline Studio from Metacreations. A really comprehensive solution for all of your banner creation needs. I expect to be writing a review of it for MacNow magazine .
Finally, my Erricson cellular phone passed away this week after a year of loyal service, abuse, and being dropped about a hundred times.
Here's a site with Sim City Icons for Atlanta. Now you can enjoy building(and destroying) the city I live in with the game.
I've been listening to the Pixies a lot this week. It reminds me of home.
In the process of questioning whether or not my work process is proper and efficent, I have been spending all of my time this week using my FireAnt. It makes me realize that I still wish things worked together better than they do, despite the layer of compatibility that the Internet provides.
One thing that kills me is email. I have office email, Internet email, and I access both at home and at the office. In each place, I have both a PC and a Macintosh(Each running more than one operating system.), as well as a Pilot that I read mail from. I have to turn cartwheels to make sure I don't delete mail I need. Inevitably, its 10 pm, and I need something that is a 20 minute drive away. So I'm looking for a solution that doesn't involve my carrying equipment around with me everywhere I go. Web based email would be the answer, I guess, but I think that there has to be a more elegant way. Also, I prefer to be able to read and compose email offline. I also like to read my sent mail and refer to it. This has become an issue for me, and I haven't found an acceptable answer yet.
I did, however, find some useful things on my quest for an answer. The first is Magical Desk Interesting place to keep your documents so that you, or others, can access them. I am using it now to transfer documents from the office to my home. I wouldn't use the free email, if I wanted that there are a million other places, but I like the idea and interface. Since it's free, it makes good sense. It also would be great for traveling types.
HotOffice takes this idea one step further.(You also have to pay for it.) For a small business with high speed Internet access, this is a quick and inexpensive Intranet with all the expected features and a much lower cost. I wonder how many users you have to have before you hit the cost barrier of doing the Intranet in house? Great solution for a small company with a distributed workforce. Unfortunately, they seem to only support some WIN32 browsers, no Macintosh browsers. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose? Still, the idea is a good business model with the commerce they are building into it.
Scripting News is tracking the disappearance of the IE 5.0 beta from Microsoft's servers. I was waiting until I would have time to do testing to download it. I guess that makes me one of the developers that got screwed in this deal. Now I have to wait for three weeks to get it.
I'm doing the preliminary sketches for the new Bump, expect the development cycle to go beta within two weeks. I plan on adding a bunch of features, better content, and some interesting ideas.(I think)
I'm trying out Enfish Tracker Pro . It indexes and tracks information that you specify on your hard drives and on the Web and then links the information based on relevancy. Over time, I think it could be a really usefull tool in tracking writing and ideas.
Finally, there is a new Pilot in the family. Since I can't use it yet, I don't have any comments. I couldn't resist once I saw it.
I'm finally approaching 100% after my bout with some kind of flu bug.
I did some work on the links page . Since I use it as my home page, I need to make sure that it's a correct listing of the sites I frequent. It's not currently.
Salon Magazine's most recent 21st column is a two side look at Yahoo . The half that looks negatively on Yahoo, Boo for Yahoo cliams that Yahoo's directory integrity is compromised by their commercial intentions. That their commercial success and market valuation have led to less improvement of service. It's hard for me to say whether or not this is true. I know that I have rarely been dissapointed by Yahoo's listing.
Are they evolving to give us better service? They are the portal that all of the others have modeled themselves after, but that design has changed little in the last couple of years. I think that this model has grown clumsy in the face of newer Web technologies. There is a lot of room for someone who does it better to come in and compete. I wonder what their vision of the future, aside from being a commerce site, is?
Really scary. I was wondering about this a week or so ago. There isn't any easy way to establish how the bug will affect the computer monitors on either side.
My sinuses have betrayed me again. I find myself working despite being sick because I am so far behind(read overloaded). I missed a day of work yesterday.
News.com has a story(and picture) about the new Palm V . Looks really cool. Sounds like they aren't adding much in the way of features though.
Dan Gillmor pokes fun at Internet Companies with eTattler .
I've got a clearer picture of what I want Bump to become in the future.
I downloaded iCab, a German independent browser. Despite the fact that everything was in German, I found it to be fast and small.(It doesn't support Javascript yet though) Version Tracker has an unofficial English version listed. It has a built in HTML 4.0 syntax checker.
XML Pushes Web Mgm't To The Fore is an interesting Internet Week story about Web servers embedded in all manner of network devices and the use of XML as the communication protocol.
SF Gate has an article that talks over the points of the Amazon issue.
I don't think I mentioned that there is a new member of the Raster family . I should have.
I lost my 20" monitor yesterday. It just decided that it couldn't go on. It's an old Radius that I have had through six different desktop computers. I picked up a new one, but I wasn't happy about spending the money.
It may be President's day, and I may have the day off, but I'm not just sitting around and loafing.
Power On Software released their first version of GoMac , the utility that adds a Windows style task bar to the bottom of your Macintosh screen. I like having the same interface on my Macintosh that I do on my Windows boxes. This version seems more stable and they have added a couple of features that I really like to it.
I've set up my Palm Professional to be a full mail and Web client over a TCP/IP connection to my ISP. I've already found the limits of the devices built in memory though. I'm trying to decide if I want to upgrade the memory or wait and buy a new PIM altogether. It's pretty neat to be able to do this stuff with such a small portable package. Bump seems to be pretty Palm friendly.
Update: At the request of two readers, I am using HandWeb and HandMail from SmartCode Software . They are both designed to work with the built-in PPP app that comes with both the Palm Professional and Palm III. I set it up with my ISP's preferences, and was connected with the Palm Modem(which I bought) in minutes. I wish that HandMail supported IMAP(I get a lot of email) , but otherwise they both perform well. I do need additional memory to really use it on an ongoing basis, but it works in a pinch.
I've gotten two really well written responses to my Amazon question and rant.(See the entries from the 9th and 10th.) I think I understand now why people got upset about it. Amazon is viewed by the Internet community as a better bookstore. A community bookstore that takes our suggestions as well as its own. People didn't expect them to be taking money for those spots/recommendations without owning up. This method of doing business, while not completely unethical in this day and age, was misleading. I think the people in our community expected better.
Bump made CamWorld's Weblog listing. CamWorld is one of the real premium Weblogs in my opinion.(There seems to be no shortage of these types of sites and the number is growing every day.) I like the design of the page too, easy to read and well developed. He seems to update on a regular basis too
I think Bump 3.0 might be coming down the pike soon. It's a great release for me to redesign the site, and I obviously could do better. I have two other independent Web projects lurking, and I hope that I can spin some of them this weekend too.
I have chosen to not address these proceedings before now on this page for a variety of reasons. I was really angry about the way the business was being conducted. I'm glad that a decision has been made, wish that things hadn't dragged out so long. Forgetting about President Clinton for the moment, there are some political wounds that need to be addressed. We need to move on.
They moved Scripting News over to Frontier 6.0 today. Userland continues to move forward. I think they have a real solid direction, and it fits with the dynamic way the industry is moving perfectly.
Builder.com has a great forum running What do you love about your job? . I read through a bunch of these. I have to say that, for me, I know I'll never have it all mastered. It moves faster than anyone can to keep up. There is nothing boring about that.
Mail to the Future is a really cool application based on the soon to be released Frontier 6.0. It allows you to send mail to yourself or anyone else on any day in the future. I've used it to send tommorrow's me a mail before.
My Aeron chair came today(much to the pleasure of my back). My rationalization is that I spend more time in the chair in front of my computer than anywhere else. As a result, I need a chair that will keep my body healthy.
On a side note, there is a really good case study article on what Herman Miller has been doing with their Web presence, and how this channel change has affected their existing channels at the Industry Standard .
More on yesterday's rant about the Amazon.com issue. It's common practice for magazine distributors to pay newstands for the premium shelf placement. It's also common for bookstores to take money for special display of books in strategic parts of their stores. Can someone explain the difference to me?
Webmonkey has a feature up today entitled From Web to Print . I think this is really interesting because this issue is usually approached from the opposite angle.
So everyone is mailing me, "What happened to updating your site?"
I'm in deep thought mode. I've got a lot of projects on the table, and I feel like there are a thousand things that need to be explored, both mentally and technically.
Work is beating me up. Lots going on, mostly just more work than should humanly be pushed onto one person. I think that some of this may be in violation of the Geneva Convention.
I went to my local meeting of the Association of Internet Professionals last week. A good reminder of how good it feels to be around other people who get it.
I spent much of the evening tonight installing a G3 processor in my old PowerBook 1400. It really feels ten times faster. Despite the limitations of the original system architecture, this upgrade made an almost unusable computer feel snappy.
This InfoWorld Electric Story Welcome to the 'new Web Order' is a must read for those of you that may have missed it. This is the technological core of where the whole industry is going to be in the near future. Impossible to compete with this stuff using static tools to build static sites.
I regained contact after several months with a good friend and former employer this weekend. I think our brief email exchange helped both of us sort out work situations that we have each have been finding difficult. There's no replacement in this world for people who care about you and are willing to tell you the truth.
I have been spending a lot of time analyzing my process. Do I think about things with a clear head before I make decisions?
Kate has been away the last two weeks straight, and I think that has something to do with this introspection.
Amazon Will Offer Refunds . Maybe I'm just cynical, but I just assume when I go to a site like this one that the recommendations are partially paid for. Is this any different than selling placement on search engines? I know that in this case it means that a financial transaction occurs, but who is buying a book solely based on this recommendation?
I buy a lot of books, sometimes in bookstores, sometimes on the Internet, and sometimes direct from publishers. I don't think this is the big deal people are making it out to be. It's no different, for instance, than Oprah Winfrey having a stake in the film rights to a book she is recommending on her show. I don't see her shelling out refunds. However, this recommendation is also not all that it seems.
Don't take things at face value. Evaluate things for yourself and make good decisions based on the information available to you. I give myself this advice every day, and I wish I followed it more diligently.
The Falcons were crushed. They didn't have what it took to take Denver out of their gameplan. Since I'm a Giants fan, I can only say that the Falcons at least made it to the Super Bowl.
January has gone by so fast. Guess when you're busy, the time flies.
I picked up a copy of Web Design in a Nutshell , one of the newest O'Reilly books. It seems to have a ton of useful information. It's animal is the Weasel.
A friend pointed out that Bumpe , the round red cow from Sweden is getting a lot of press these days. While we at Bump are not affiliated with Bumpe, we endorse his general attitude.
I love having distinctive desktop pictures(wallpaper) and I change the backgrounds on both my Windows and Macintosh machines on a regular basis. Desktopia is a Web site(with an iMac-esque interface) that warehouses all sorts of interesting pictures for this purpose.
Regardless of what happens with my work environment(as you can tell, it dominates my mental landscape these days), this process has re-awakened some of the thinker in me that has been lulled to sleep over the last year.
In the meantime, there is a lot going on Web-wise. Plenty to read, and many technologies to become a student of.
As devoted to the Web as I am, I'm still a magazine junky. My current favorite is Fast Company . Real world material that applies to me everyday. They do the best job, of any magazine I've ever been a devotee of, of developing a community. It's almost as if they have applied the Web concept of community to their print publishing efforts, and it has worked.
I'm listening to some Beck and doing the baseline work for some pages I'm doing for a friend's wedding. What we came up with in the hour or so we have worked on it so far is here . I imagine we will improve it quite a bit going forward.
The has been a lot of community conflict(an ongoing thing) between Script Meridian and Userland Software . I have to say that it amazes me how difficult it is for people in any community, Web based or not, to get along without these sorts of dramatics. Egos get in the way mostly. People with different visions and competing egos are at the root of this. I just want to use software and make interesting things.
I found an eMate cheap, so I ordered it. It could become a good writing tool.
Well, I have to go look for a box to ship a Bebox in, expect more this week than in the last few as I am thinking and writing.
You'll find that I moved the December content to its archive page, updated the links page and the information page, and started working on more content.
My two week work induced hiatus is over. We went to New York(our home office) and kicked butt. Gave the presentation, and made all of the points we wanted to make. I think that it went as well as it possibly could. We essentially were introducing an Internet business model for the trade publishing business over the next five years.
So the decision on whether to proceed with this plan is now out of my hands. While that relieves me of a burden, it doesn't necessarily comfort me. We'll see how things play out. Without being dramatic, I think that I let this drag out too long.
All in all, it was great experience for me. We worked very hard to develop a long term plan, and I've never been in a situation where I was the one presenting to the CEO of a large corporation before. I learned a lot from the experience that I'm sure I'll use over the next twenty years.
I've always worked for smallish companies and this marks the first time that I really don't have access to the primary decision makers on a daily basis. It's definitely frustrating. It's really difficult to transfer your vision to someone in a two or three hour presentation.
MacAmp Lite 1.0 has been released by @Soft. It's shareware for $5 and worth every penny. They'll give you a five dollar discount off the full version when it is released too. I went over and bought it as soon as I found out. I really enjoy the whole MP3 thing. I just wish my RIO would work with my Macintosh too.
OK so I'm a dorky consumer and I ordered this Internet Time Watch from Swatch. It came today, and I think it's pretty cool. It keeps this Internet time in addition to regular time, includes a year 2000 countdown timer, and has a built in animation of a dog pissing on a lamp post. The band however is huge.
CNN is using Internet Time in their time stamp on their home page.
I'm using Internet Explorer 4.5 on my Macs now. It's pretty impressive. I really like the "Pageholder" feature that allows you to hold a page in a window to the left. I'm using the Bump Links page and it fits great, giving me access to all of my frequently visited sites.
It's really the first time I've strayed from Netscape in five years. I also have enjoyed the form autofill feature.
I may also move to Outlook Express on the Macintosh for my mail needs. I'm still pretty frustrated with the performance on Bare Bones Software's Mailsmith, and former Emailer engineer, Jud Spencer, is working at Microsoft on Outlook Express now. I use Microsoft Outlook on my PC's, and the Exchange Server version of Outlook at work, so it might be a good match.
Microsoft also has posted a site called MacTopia . Strange how much effort they seem to be spending to get Macintosh Internet customers. The site doesn't look terribly useful, but I'm going to monitor it.
You can actually get into the Apple Store today. I wish they were shipping DVD drives as standard components. It's the standard in the PC world for professional level systems. Come on, don't just give industry standards lip service Apple, set the trends. I'm glad that they finally got Firewire onto the motherboard though.(Even if Sony did beat them to it.) I'm waiting until I have all the specs before I make a final purchase decision on the new G3's.
Still big doings at work. I report to someone new. It's going to take some work to get him up to speed on things. I do like a challenge.
Well I've opened the new year in fairly good fashion. This morning was very very stressful, but I am settling down now.
I'm analyzing the log files at work from December. Hoo hum, it's pretty boring sitting around waiting for the logs to process.(Good thing I have two computers on my desk.)
I spent most of the weekend working on my machine at home. I added the 3dfx card, and played a fair amount of Myth II to test it out.
I'm still working on my list of things that I want to do in 1999. I also didn't finish my brother's site over the weekend(Sorry Chris, I'll get to it this week.)
Here's a site I did in an afternoon at work. I think I have improved, and I hope to keep improving in the new year.
I'm still cranking along with RealBasic . I may post an alpha version of the tool I'm building with it to this site as soon as February.
O'Grady's PowerPage posted a site redesign today. MacWorld announcements tommorrow should be interesting. It's the first show in a year that I have missed.
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.
