question

why is it that the effects of alcohol hit after the guests leave? just an idle wondering....

Ashcroft

I now have yet another reason to hate John Ashcroft.

Books 1.0beta3

The third beta of Books is now online. This is primarily a bug fix release, though I did incorporate some interface suggestions made by Mark Davis. So, go get it and report back with any problems.

Books

Once more, apologies for the light blogging. My attention as of late has been focused on Books, the open-source Cocoa application I have been developing. I keep telling myself that I'll slow down once I get a 1.0 out the door that is a non-beta. I just released the third beta, and if no more bugs are found, this will be the release version. After I get a release-quality version out the door, I'll step back for a bit in order to let the bug reports and feature requests collect for the 1.1 release. Then I'll be getting back to regular blogging here. God knows that I'm itching to put out some more misguided political commentary.

Amazon Integration - Complete

I was bored this afternoon, so I decided to work on having Books query Amazon for fields when an ISBN was present. After a good start, I made a goof -- requested the "lite" instead of "heavy" document -- recovered from the goof, and managed to finish the integration. It's pretty slick. I guess I just need to get a bar code reader to completely automate this process. Zap - Query - Save. Zap - Query - Save... Continue...

Books!

Books is finally online. The releases version is not the 1.0 I was aiming for, but rather a 1.0beta. The "beta" suffix is there as I need to refactor code a bit and flesh out the help documents before I can call it a release version. I opted to put it out there in order to show the fellow whose icons I'm using (Adam Dickson) what the icons are living within. I also wanted to get it out the door to start getting users and feedback on the application. So, quit lollygagging about and go get it!

Get Your Books!

Books is finally online. The releases version is not the 1.0 I was aiming for, but rather a 1.0beta. The "beta" suffix is there as I need to refactor code a bit and flesh out the help documents before I can call it a release version. I opted to put it out there in order to show the fellow whose icons I'm using (Adam Dickson) what the icons are living within. I also wanted to get it out the door to start getting users and feedback on the application. So, quit lollygagging about and go get it!

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?

Test your identification skills.

Iraqis on Ritalin

This is too funny.

Drat

I was just browsing and found an application called Library for MacOS X. It does things like Amazon auto-fill that I am planning on adding in mine and it's rather slick. So, the question is whether I should commit seriously to Books.app and plan on putting these features there, or take the program to 1.0 status and leave it at that... Thoughts?

Grades Are In

I pulled off an A- for my politics course this summer. :-)

Blah

I've been a lousy poster as of late. I've been primarily working on a MacOS X application in my free time. You can follow the saga here on Aetherial.Net. Other than that and watching Star Trek between coding sessions, I've not been up to too much. This weekend, I'll be doing frisbee and (possibly) heading up to a Radiohead concert on Saturday.

Matrix Trailer

Mirror here courtesy of Aetherial.Nu.

You know you want it...

Here is a local mirror of the "Matrix Revolutions" trailer. Please be kind to my DSL connection.

Veggies, Please

Someone give me some rotten fruits and veggies, because I have a concert to attend. They've been nice enough to provide a damn good target.

Neglect

I've not forgotten about this blog. I've just been immersed in learning Objective-C and Cocoa and working on my first OS X application. I'll be posting details later, so be sure to download Apple's Developer Tools and be reading Learning Cocoa with Objective-C in the meantime.

SCO "Encrypts" Malloc Code

Bruce Perens has written a decent article about the code SCO accuses Linux of stealing. The funny thing about this is that given my time working on the Chicago Homer's new Unicode support for Greek and my poor study of the Russian language, I am able to roughly make out the Symbol font that SCO used to "encrypt" the code. This is getting sillier and sillier every day.

Computers in 2013

Slashdot is running a story asking how computers in a decade will be different than machines now. I also found a very interesting discussion of the same topic in 1994.

Do you always take grenades to church?

Shia Iraqis start to riot because a passing helicopter blew down a flag from a mosque. BBC link Continue...

I'll Never Trust My Eyes Again!

I've ranted about "Photoshopping" before. I just found this site that belongs to one of the toucher-uppers. It's amazing what this guy can do (look at the photos of the women). I'll never trust another poster again.

Ogg Vorbis on OS X

I've been in the process of encoding the 2001 SCOTUS term in MP3 format. Now that the MP3s have been made and are awaiting labeling, I am working on a frequent Oyez user request -- Ogg Vorbis files. Since the audio (WAVs and AIFFs) live on an OS X box with a Firewire RAID array, I wanted to do the encoding in MacOS X as I have done the MP3 encoding (using LAME). Here are the steps I followed. Continue...

Jobs Interview

Business Week interviews Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Information Feeds

For those interested, here is an OPML file containing the news and blogs I read regularly. Now you know where my wacky views are fed from. I'll work on an HTML version for the RSS-impaired later.

Roller Revisited

I have a test install of Roller installed here. Feel free to test it out. Below, thoughts on the product. This is my sample site. Continue...

How Not to Write OS X Software

I have found this great site called Perversion Tracker. Unlike it's good and just twin, Version Tracker, Perversion Tracker reviews and scores the worst Mac software around. Continue...

Roller

I'm in the process of trying out Roller, an open-source Java-based blogging package that appears to be feature-compatible with Movable Type. The question is whether this software can be easily deployed and adapted to serve as a potential University-sponsored and supported blogging service for the University community. Below are a few things that have been brought up when considering the best way to bring blogging to Northwestern in a big way. Continue...

Image Courtesy of Alexis

UPDATE: Image moved to body due to size and lag in front page loading. Continue...

Cool Image

Legacy Code

During my senior year in college, I worked on a thesis that attempted to build an information architecture for distributing location data, such as maps, online. I built a server for serving the data and some client applications for using the server. Among the client applications I built were a PocketPC-based location tracker and a Java application for sucking data from Garmin GPS receivers and saving it in XML to be used later. I'm currently wondering what the best things to do with this legacy code are. Continue...

SCO / Classes / Press

A couple of decisions to make...

1. What class should I take in the next quarter?

2. Should I bother shorting SCO stock?

What to do? (Also links to more Oyez press...) Continue...

Apologies

I've been neglecting this blog a bit this week. It's not because I don't love you all. Oyez has been getting press in the New York Times, Wired, and the Associated Press -- so I've been keeping an eye on the server to see how the changes I made to the MP3 code have been scaling.

J G

If you don't listen to his audio, this man is liable to pop a cap in your ass.
From the New York Times.

Enter Pundit Mode

My career as a hack political pundit has begun. The Associated Press writes about Oyez. Note that the guy in the photo is not me. Silly reporters. And if you missed it, Wired covers Oyez. We should be in the New York Times tomorrow. Pray for my servers.

Knee... Jerk!

Sometimes, people just miss the point. Fortunately for me, the Internet is always washing up such entertaining knuckleheads Continue...

Back...

... I guess. I've not been in much of a blogging mood, having been playing Final Fantasy IX and pushing the new PowerMac. I'll say that the card game in FFIX is too addicting. I also picked up a Dazzle DV/Analog bridge and I've been digitizing movies. Great fun, I say. Continue...

Blah

After eating some bad ice cream yesterday (Avoid Breyer's low fat at all costs!), I'm working from home for a bit. I apologize for the few posts that this blog has gotten -- I've just been trying to get Aetherial.Net going enough to achieve that critical velocity. Continue...

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Recent Entries
question
Ashcroft
Books
Books!
Iraqis on Ritalin
Grades Are In
Blah
You know you want it...
Veggies, Please
Do you always take grenades to church?