Category: Software

These are linked to everywhere already, but since I think they show a possible trend in future software/AI, here they are. Smart Sites. They aren’t amazing, but they have open ended input and try to react no matter what you type. It’s not a new concept, but with more powerful computers and people with more time, I think they’ll become more popular:

1. The Subservient Chicken – Sponsored by Burger King this is an odd chicken that does “stuff.” You can tell him to do pretty much anything.
2. Let them sing it for you – Type in the lyrics and have famous people sing it back to you.

Right now, it’s only two. I’m sure there are plenty of others, if you know of them, feel free to post them in the comments.
[update] corrected URL on the Subservient Chicken

I have a question. If OS X is Unix-like, why does it have to be restarted almost every time I do a software update?

I have a Linux server (also Unix-like) that has been up for hundreds of days at a time without having to be restarted for fairly major updates including updating PHP, Apache, mySQL, the hostname, perl and dozens of other software packages.

What is it about OS X that requires it to be restarted for updates?

That’s right and class is in session… well, almost. I’ve begun preparation and will soon commence teaching Dreamweaver MX 2004 classes all day, one day a week, three weeks of the month every other month.

Prepare to be illuminated as I log my first experience as an ‘official’ teacher.

Looking for a quick way to lose all your Firefox bookmarks, saved passwords, history and preferences? Just download a nightly build and install it without backing everything up first. *Poof* You’re starting afresh. I did it today–I should have known better and backed up my profile folder, but now that everything’s gone, it’s actually kind of nice starting over with a clean browser. If only I could do the same with email…

On another note… are you looking for another way to disconnect yourself from the real world (see yesterday’s article)? If so, check out ArtRage. It’s a free progam for Windows that comes closer to emulating real-world painting than anything else I’ve seen. This is an image I painted of my wife, Jenny, using the trace feature–it’s only part cheating 🙂

I’m currently trying to set up a Flash Socket Server so I can experiment with some more interactive, live updating applications. I’ve found two free XML socket servers so far – Enhydra (a general purpose, open source socket server written in Java) and Oregano (an xml socket server geared specifically towards Flash, also in Java and open source) and I’ve also found this XML resource for general XML / Flash questions.

The journey has just begun. If you have examples of Flash apps using an XML socket server or resources, I’d be interested…

Ok, so I’m making a leap of logic, but here’s how I arrived at that conclusion….
Corbis, a company owned by Bill Gates, is having a contest where the prizes are Apple Macintosh G5 computers.

Either Bill Gates runs this company in a very hands-off way and is not aware of the prizes, or he has placed his seal of approval on giving away the 22 Macs worth a total of almost $110,000. I’m guessing it’s the latter; he’s aware of it and that somewhere, deep down inside his heart, there’s a special place for Macintoshes.

This is purely personal, I’m not making any recommendations here, just my observations of what’s good about each of the two after almost 6 months of using an Apple Macintosh G5 at work and a Dell Laptop at home. Some of it’s based on cold hard facts, the rest is just my perceptions.

First off… advantages of PC’s over Macs:
• Sepy Actionscript Editor They’re porting it to OS X, not a big reason.
• Price, price (did I mention price)
• Office’s native platform Office just feels nicer on the PC to me… can’t quite explain it.
• ActiveX controls (3cim, timecharge) Some of the companies I work for or do work for have web apps that require IE 5.5 or higher.
• Counterstrike… minesweeper… I’m not much of a gamer. Buying a mac would ensure things stay that way.
• Dreamweaver, Flash are just plain faster and easier to use on the PC.
• Filezilla and leech Ftp programs that take RBrowser and kick it all over the room.
• Way better IM programs Can iChat do desktop sharing? How about games? Ok.. so it does video and voice, but only with AIM, not MSN…
• Camtasia I’d miss Camtasia studio.
• Gospel link, LDS collectors library – These are programs that have large collections of books written by memebers of my church and, you guessed it, PC only. PAF is a family history program my church distrubutes and my family uses–again, PC only.
• Swift 3d This is more just for fun, but I really do like using Swift every once in awhile.
• IE 6 – for testing… blech. Personally, I can’t stand IE, but everyone uses it so I have to keep it around somehow to test things.
• Taskbar. I like the taskbar better than the dock. Sorry… I just do.
• No fear that the next software pkg I need won’t run on Windows. Another one of those intangibles.
• Pocket PC support without buying any 3rd party software (and I like my iPaq). Now if Apple came out with a sub $500 handheld, I’d jump ship and get it in a heartbeat… I have no doubt it would be good.
• Better networking in my experience anyway.

Ok. That having been said, here are the advantages (in my mind) of the Mac over the PC.
• Expose – One of the things I miss the most when I’m not using a Mac.
• Apple (command) Key location. Whose idea was it anyway to put my left pinky through so much stress pressing ctrl? The command key on the mac makes so much more sense.
• Resell value – My laptop (1.13ghz Inspiron, all the goodies) is worth maybe $500 now. That’s a pretty big drop from the $3000 I paid for it. On the other hand, a Powerbook from around the time I bought my laptop is worth a few hundred dollars more and it cost a few hundred dollars less new.
• iPhoto, iMovie, iDvd, iTunes, Garage Band – I really love the iLife suite. In fact, that’s one of the big deciding factors for me. iTunes runs on the pc. I know. It just feels so much more at home on the mac though. Adobe Albums (for what it is) makes a lot more sense than iPhoto, but for some reason I still like iPhoto better–I think a lot of it is because it takes care of organizing all my photos automatically. I have to tell Albums where they are. iDvd and iMovie… more goodness I don’t want to live without.
• Final Cut – Speaks for itself.
• Good looks – I’m a designer. My laptop is ugly. All Dells are ugly. Some gateways are okay, some Alienware computers are okay, but on the whole, Apple’s just look better. That’s important to me.
• Quicksilver – Woah… just wrote about this one the other day. This is one piece of software that I don’t want to live without.
• Fink, X11 – Cool. I can run my linux stuff on my mac and do it easily. I don’t even want to ever hear the words cygwin again. No. Stop.
• Responsiveness – I like being able to click the Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Word, Entourage, iChat, iPhoto, iTunes and whatever else I feel like clicking all at once and still browse the Internet while I’m waiting without major lag. I’ve never seen a PC that can handle that.
• MacJournal – Yet another piece of software I don’t want to live without.
• Free SDK – There’s probably one for Windows as well, but developing for the Mac seems so much more sexy and fun. I’m not really even a programmer, but using a mac makes me want to become one.

So that’s my off the cuff list. I’m sure I’m forgetting things. Which way will I go for my next computer? I’m not sure, but at the moment… that G5 is looking really tempting.

[updated 6/8/2005 to fix some encoding issues]

This will change the way you use OS X forever. Thanks What Do I Know.

Flash is trying to make a programmer out of me. I took a Java class in college and really did not feel that I was cut out to program. Flash is starting to change my mind. While I’ve known Flash for several years, I hadn’t really started learning Actionscript until about 3 months ago. This is my work-in-progress quiz. It’s all actionscript–only one keyframe (several layers) in the whole movie. Note: I didn’t design the thing… just programmed it.

I think that for someone who is naturally a very visual thinker, Flash is a great way to learn to program object oriented code. You can start off little by little and still get great results.

Mozilla Firefox is, by far, my favorite browser on the PC, and I’ve used it (previously as Firebird) almost exclusively on my Mac at work for the last 5 months as well but alas, no more. I cannot figure out why, but it is several times slower than Safari on my 1.6 ghz G5. I can have the two browsers open side by side and Safair will have loaded a page with all it’s graphics before Firefox finishes saying “Resolving Host.” So, until something changes, farewell Firefox.