Rumors, Wishes & Blatant Lies

How Inconvenient

2006-07-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Went on FRED the show today to talk about the movie "An Inconvenient Truth".

I'm not an environmentalist, or an activist or an expert on climate science. (And I said so at the top of the interview.) I'm just a concerned citizen, armchair scientist and parent of two kids that's scared silly about the kind of world that my children will be living in. The idea was that I'd come on, discuss the movie a bit with the host (Robert T. Nash in this case, cause el Jefé was having lunch with the Governor), and take some calls.

I was really surprised by the pure venom that almost all of the callers sent my way. I had no political agenda, no candidate to push, I was just looking to discuss the movie on its merits.

Fortunately, taking apart an argument like, "Electric cars didn't work 30 years ago, so Hybrid cars will NEVER work!" is easier than shooting a brain-dead fish in a barrel. Frankly, it was fun....

"The caller makes an excellent point... Technology NEVER advances. Why, my cell phone used to weigh 5 lbs and today it, um, well, it fits inside a pocket, inside my pocket. But the caller is right, hybrid and electric car technology will, be forever stuck in the 1970s."

Another caller, pointed out that science really couldn't be trusted, and the data presented in the movie was mostly lies because of that.

I told him he was right. Science has never done ANYTHING to improve our lives. I also informed him that he should pull over immediately and throw his cell phone away. I'm not sure if he hung up or had a bad connection. Probably a bad connection. Because, you know, science made that cell phone.

Like I said, big fun!

Diz

Let's Protest the NSA Wiretapping

2006-05-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't really dipped into any political issues in this blog... heck, I haven't actually even posted here in a long time. But the growing NSA-wiretapping/domestic spying scandal has really disturbed me for quite some time.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks, it's become clear that the Congress, even if they had the spine to place an actual check on the President's power, would simply be ignored by the President once they actually did attempt to slow our current descent into dictatorship. (The President would probably just issue a signing statement dictating that he could ignore any laws passed to curtail his power.)

So, that said, what can ordinary citizens do to protest this latest abuse of power?

I think that the best course of action would be something that was non-violent (of course), bypasses Congress completely, and sends a clear message directly to the perpetrators of this latest outrage.

So, pick up your phone and dial: 1-382-596-8492.

You'll get a message that this is a number that is not in service. But that's OK. They are only tracking the numbers you call, not the conversations you are having. (You believe that, right?)

(Note that I checked this number just before posting this and believe it to be an inactive/invalid number. I do not want to make some poor innocent persons life miserable by flooding them with a million phone calls a day. So, if you call this number and a human does pick up, let me know immediately and I'll post a retraction.)

Why this particular number? Well, drag out your cell phone and look at the letters that go along with these digits.... Read a certain way, they spell out a little message for the President. I'll give you a hint: 1-F82-5Y6-8GWB.

So, imagine that this number starts showing up hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of times a day in the NSA fishing net. And they investigate, and the President asks what it's all about.

I'm pretty sure the words are small enough that he'll understand.

Diz

D'oh!

2005-06-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Well, obviously I hadn't read the whole Universal Binary programming guide when I made my last post. Apparently, some future version of Finder will automatically tell you which processors a binary is targeting. As seen here.

Time to go to bed.

Diz

Well, That Was Easy!

2005-06-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

I just took a stab a creating my first Universal Binary, and after a false start, I got it up and running with very little effort at all.

It's not quite as easy as Mr. Jobs made it look during Monday's keynote.... You have to do more than just hit a check box in your project. Not much more, mind you, but a bit more.

To be sure you get things set up right, be sure to read the Universal Binary Programming Guidelines document that Apple is providing.

I did this for a product that we are planning to release next Monday (6/13/2005), but since I can't actually test the Intel side of things yet, I think I'm going to just release the PowerPC version as planned, and make the Universal Binary available as a separate download.

I Want to Know... Don't You?

Which brings me to another point... At this point in time, the Finder gives you no easy way to tell a Universal Binary from any other kind of binary. So, what I've done is adopted a version naming convention that lets me look at the Get Info window for any given binary I've created and immediately tell what type it is. Basically it's this simple:

v1.0;p - The ";p" signifies a PowerPC-specific binary
v1.0;i - The ";i" signifies an Intel-specific binary
v1.0;u - The ";u" signifies a Universal Binary that will run on both Intel and PowerPC.

Like I said, simple. In fact, it took me about as much time to write this post as it did to create the Universal Binary, test it and come up with this version numbering/target processor convention.

So, Mr. 8-Ball, will this transition be pretty simple?

Signs Pont To Yes.

Diz

Yes, It IS Exciting!

2005-06-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Just had a chance to watch the stream of the 2005 WWDC keynote... and now I'm definitely excited about Apple's switch from PowerPC to the x86!

Mr. Jobs did a fantastic job explaining the "why," "when," and "how" of the transition. The result is that I'm genuinely excited as both a Mac developer and as a Mac user.

As a developer, I'm excited because it looks like it will be dead-simple to support both PowerPC- and x86-based Macs. The story of how Mathematica was ported in just 2 hours (from a dead start, without the programmer even knowing why he was being flown to Apple last Thursday!) was a powerful testament to just how much work Apple has put into this already.

The demo of Microsoft Office for Mac and Photoshop CS (both PowerPC versions), running on an Intel-based Mac via the Rosetta-translation tech, was another eye-opener.

As a user, the exciting part was watching the x86-based Mac that Mr. Jobs was using chew through all of the different demos. All the eye-candy (the Dashboard ripple, for example) was there, and all of the apps (iTunes, Spotlight, Photoshop, etc.) seemed to perform flawlessly.

It was also exciting to realize that I won't have to re-purchase all of my current applications again. I use a lot of the iApps, with the balance of my time spent in DreamWeaver (which will probably be replaced by GoLive!, which Adobe has promised to port to the x86 version of OS X) and Microsoft Office, which was shown to work on x86 Mac OS X today.

Best of all it was all done with a single 3.6GHz (I think) Pentium 4. Not a dual-core machine, just a single Pentium 4. Not too shabby.

But, just imagine... a 3GHz, Dual-Core, 17-inch PowerBook!

It's not just a dream anymore!

Hey! This will be fun!

Diz

This is Exciting! I think....

2005-06-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I've written... lots going on here:

Both kids have had birthdays and been sick, the wife has been to Canada and back, the troupe has left one gig and started another.... all in all, it's been a busy month or so.

But this... the news that Apple is switching the Mac from PowerPC to Intel x86 chips has finally roused me from my writing slumber.

When I first heard the rumors of this last Friday, I was, frankly, scared out of my wits. It was as if the world was upside down.

Then I realized that it might not be such a bad thing. For all it's intellectual and manufacturing might, IBM hasn't been able to crack the 3GHz barrier with the G5 and the possiblity of a G5 PowerBook (which, like many other folks, I was waiting for) was looking more and more like pure fantasy.

And, let's face it, Apple has done this before. Twice, in fact: the transition from 68000 to PowerPC and then the transition from "Classic" Mac OS to Mac OS X.

Both were bumpy, but I never lost the ability to do work during either transition, and the other side of the process was SO much better than what I'd had before.... I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt simply based on those two experiences.

To top it off, a careful reading of today's announcement reveals that this transition might be even smoother than the two noted above:

"Fat Binaries" are back! - During the transition from 68000 to PowerPC CPUs, Mac applications had to be created with executables for both processors inside. (Hence the term "Fat Binary.") I've repressed most of the memories of how this was done, but I seem to remember it was a pain in the tukus. This time however, Xcode (Apple's excellent and FREE development environment) will automatically create Fat Binaries containing both x86 and PowerPC executables. This should let us easily create software that's native to both architectures and ship it in a single application. This means that owners of older PowerPC-based Macs will be able to run almost any new software that comes out DURING and AFTER the transition.
Rosetta - Basically, this sounds like a PowerPC "Classic" environment. Supposedly, it will let you run your PowerPC-based apps on x86-based hardware. This means that owners of x86-based Macs should be able to run just about any old software that came out before the transition.

I suppose the biggest question I have to work out right now is, "Can I recommend today's Macs to my customers?" This isn't a small consideration: I've got 4 major clients that are Mac-based and two of them are just at the point of upgrading several of their systems. So, do I have them buy new Macs or wait (for a year!) till the x86-based Macs start showing up?

Fortunately, the process of simply writing out the question has revealed the answer: Of course I can recommend today's Macs.

Switching to Windows is simply not an option. (When you get right down to the bottom of the Mac vs Window argument, it really isn't the hardware that's the issue, it's the OS itself.)

Waiting a year is simply not an option.

So, Mac it is.

But, aren't today's Macs a dead end? Absolutely not. It will be two full years before the transition to x86 CPUs is complete and a Mac purchased today should provide a viable system for at least that long. (My server is a 4 year old iBook. The computer I type this on is a 2 year old PowerBook and most of the machines my clients are looking to replace are more than 5 years old. [Those original iMacs sure have some staying power!])

Macs simply have a longer usable lifespan than an equivalent Windows machine. That fact, combined with the fact that we'll have x86+PowerPC Fat Binaries around for at least 2 years after the end of the CPU transition (scheduled for the end of 2007) means that a Mac purchased today is going to be viable until at least the end of 2009. Not too bad a life span for a machine with a dead-end CPU.

Of course, there are questions still to be answered:

What will happen with OS 9 Classic mode? (Yes, there are still users that must run OS 9 software. I don't run in to them that often these days, but you can bet they'll be making a stink over the next year or so.)
Will Intel go out of its way to create Altivec-compatible instructions in a next-gen x86 chip? If not, how much of a performance hit will older multimedia apps take under Rosetta?
What new form will Virtual PC take? At the very least, it should be much faster once x86 CPU emulation is no longer necessary.

So, that's it then. The future is coming and it looks a lot like the past: nothing but unexpected change and oppourtunity.

Sounds good to me!

Diz

What a day!

2005-05-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

We just finished up Maia's 5th Birthday party and it was a blast! I didn't get any pictures, but Uncle Zack brought his video camera and, so, hopefully, I'll have some video to post soon.

The best thing about this party was that there were almost no screaming fits or crying episodes from any of the kids! Given that there were about 10 kids, that's pretty amazing.

A big thanks to all the parents and kids that came out for the day. Everyone seemed happy, and the "new" yard was apparently a big hit. So, it looks like all that work was worth it.

Now that that's behind us, it's time to gear up for Logan's 3rd birthday in about 2 weeks. Maia's theme was a "Hello Kitty Princess Party," and I think Logan's is going to be all snakes....

Should be fun :)

Diz

No time for this

2005-05-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

Another reason I never wanted to start a blog is that I was always afraid that I wouldn't have time for it.

Sure enough, yesterday was just too packed to take the time to actually write about it. Yesterday's task list included:

Pre-register Maia for Kindergarten

Celebrate Maia's 5th birthday (party on Saturday!)

Go buy Maia a new princess dress for her party

Do various and sundry bits of work for a couple of big clients

There was a bunch more, but I've just realized that I've got to wash the new princess dress so it will be ready for the party tomorrow.

Sheesh!

Diz

Here's the finished product

2005-05-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

OK! Here's some pictures of the yard project.

First, we have (left to right) Logan, Maia, Grandpa and Grandma helping out

Then, here's the left-hand side of the house after it's all done.

And here's the right-hand side of the house.

Not too bad at all!

Diz

Heeere's Logan

2005-05-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going to upload pictures of the finished yard project, but I came across this fantastic picture of "the boy" for your enjoyment.

I was never that young or cute...

Diz

All Done!

2005-05-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we FINALLY got the front yard project done yesterday.

I must say, I was VERY skeptical at first, but now that it's done, it looks quite nice. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can get a chance to take some.

Interestingly, most of the comments we've gotten have been about the new "rock garden" that I threw together up by the mailbox. This was just a "what the heck are we going to do with all these rocks?" desperation project that my wife was totally against. Nobody notices grass, so we usually have to point out all the new sod to people.

Heh. That'll show her.

Diz

So Very, Very Cool

2005-05-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, here's something interesting... This post comes to you from inside the OS X Tiger Dashboard, via a very nifty widget called "Dash Blog".

Just pop into the dashboard, and fire off a blog entry. It almost makes blogging TOO easy.

Diz

Finally!

2005-05-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

Well, Tiger finally arrived yesterday at about 3pm. I've installed it on 3 computers and so far the only glitch is that my PowerBook crashed during the first restart after the install. One power-cycle later and all appears to be well.

So far I like it quite a bit. But, I haven't really used it on my main machine (the PowerBook) yet, so I'm not sure how or even if it's going to change my work habits.

One thing I did find is that Automator is quite useful. I was able to duplicate most of the functionality of a CMI that I wrote with a single Automator action. Not good for the old shareware revenue stream, but very cool nonetheless.

So, today will be spent importing mail and waiting for Spotlight to index the half-Terabyte of data that I've got hooked to my system. Which means it's back to Home Depot for more sod and a final push to complete the front yard project.

More on Tiger tomorrow!

Diz

Not quite there yet

2005-05-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Didn't quite get the yard finished yesterday... but we got darn close. We need about 50 more units of sod to finish it off. It's going to look quite nice I think. (I'll post pictures as soon as it's all done.)

A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for coming over and helping out. Other than telling the occasional person to "sod off," none of us had ever done any "sod work" before, so we were all quite surprised at how heavy a unit of sod is and how tedious it is to actually lay it out so that it doesn't look like a madman did it. They make it look SO easy on HGTV don't they?

Another thing that's not quite here yet is Tiger. The UPS tracking info says "Out for delivery," but that could be anytime between now and 8pm tonight.

Let this be a lesson to me. ALWAYS pay the little bit extra for early morning delivery. That way, you'll know when something is actually late and can then get on with your day.

Diz

The Big Finish

2005-05-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hopefully, today will see the end of a landscaping project that we've been working on for almost a year now.

It was last May that my wife's cousin came to visit with an eye toward, "helping around the house." I didn't realize it at the time, but this basically meant spending my money on crap we didn't need and tearing up the yard.

Well, OK, that's a little harsh, but money was spent and the yard was torn up. The worst part is that the cousin left long before the yard work could be completed and it was left to me to do most of the tearing up.

But, today we should finish it all up. A little bit of time with the tiller, a little bit of top soil and some sod, and voila! Instant (in geological terms) new front yard.

Time to till....

Diz

Damazon!

2005-04-30T05:55:00.000-07:00

Well, no Tiger for me... or for a lot of other Amazon customers.

Apparently, late Thursday night, the status of dozens (if not hundreds) of Tiger orders placed with Amazon went from "To be shipped" to "Being prepared for shipment"... and stayed there all day Friday.

Actually, the Amazon order information system spent all of Friday in a state between useless and somewhat-less-than-useless. At any give time, the system was either completely unavailable or it persisted in telling me that I'd have Tiger that same day, even though it hadn't shipped yet. (This same tale was retold in may Slashdot posts.)

Now that Saturday is here, the system tells me that my order actually shipped out Friday morning at 8am, which means I'll have it Monday. Late Monday.

To be fair, this is the first real problem I've had with Amazon. Usually, things arrive much more quickly than Amazon's estimated delivery date. It's cruelly ironic that this order, which actually IS something important for my business, should be hosed while the 2nd season of "Coupling" arrives a week early.

So, now, I have to decide if I can actually wait till Monday, or if I should head to Atlanta and pick up a copy today. (I actually need an extra license. The Family pack I ordered from Amazon won't cover all the Macs we need to upgrade. And we need to get one for my wife's grandfather too.)

But, I probably won't go yet. I've got a new storefront to build for my biggest client (demo on Tuesday!), and I'd probably just end up buying yet another Macintosh. (Which, as mentioned earlier, I could really use.)

Ah, Life is good.

Diz

Waiting...

2005-04-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Well, today's the big day for Mac users such as myself.... It's the official release day for Mac OS X version 10.4, also known as "Tiger".

Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't seem to have shipped my copy yet, so here I sit, trying to decide what to do next.

Should I:

* Hop in the shower and risk missing the UPS man and then begin the hellish UPS-missed-package tango?
* Do some actual work and just wait for the damn thing.
* Forget the whole thing and just go to Atlanta and buy a new computer (which will come with Tiger)? I really DO need a new computer... my original 12" PowerBook, while still serving me well, is beginning to show signs of advanced age.

Hmmm, when you compare and contrast this dilema with that of ancient man, things certainly have improved haven't they? Here, the worst thing that can happen is that I miss the delivery of a tiny box (or have to wait until Monday for that tiny box), whereas an ancient man would have a decision tree that looked something like this....

Uh, oh. Tiger is outside cave.... Should me:

* Run from cave and hope Tiger not eat me?
* Hide in cave and hope Tiger not come in and eat me?
* Hope that not bear me just steppe....

Yep, quite the improvement.

Diz

So, it's come to this....

2005-04-28T06:16:00.000-07:00

A blog.

Sheesh.

One surefire way that an IT "professional" can tell that he's getting old is to dismiss a useful new technology or process without ever having tried to use it himself.

So, blogs are stupid and I'm getting old.

I suppose the real issue is that I've been doing this stuff ("computers," as we used to call them) for so long that I completely missed the social aspects of it all.

In MY day (here it comes), computers weren't networked and you used them all by yourself, or with your buddy looking over your shoulder. And the room was ALWAYS dark. Even the user group meetings took place in basements and other dark, dank locations.

Then, when the Internet came along, all I could see were $$ and the potential applications for business. (My business specifically. I used to publish GS+ Magazine. Which was open-source before we even knew what that was.)

I completely failed to notice that there were children being born and actually growing up surrounded by the Internet. The thought that some of them might grow up and be smart, and actually contribute new ideas to the Internet..... crazy talk. They can't even wipe themselves!

And then I had kids.

Ah, my kids.

Some days, I'm convinced that my little geniuses will unify all the forces of nature in a single theory, which will be called "Princess-Snake Unified Field Theory". String theorist Brian Greene will be dismissed as a "poopy head" and people around the world will say, "Einstein Who?"

Other times, I fear that I'll still be helping them wipe their butts when they turn 35.

My worst fear is that some horrid combination of these two scenarios will come to pass....

"Hey Dad! Thanks for coming to CERN! I've just discovered the super-symetric partner to the graviton! But, before I show you the data, could you help me wipe my butt?"

Yes. Kids are stupid. And Blogs are stupid.

And now I have both.

Diz