vanderwal.net

RSS in the near future

The RSS feed is in the works here and should be ready by the anniversary of the tool, which is October 31st. There have been many upgrades to the application that runs this site in the past year, but one that I really wanted was RSS. I have it running on my laptop and it needs only one tweak and then to get dropped into my main posting page. Did I mention I am loving having my a my development tools and full webserver with all the application elements running on my TiBook laptop again?

Update on lack of broadband progress

I am still with out most of my outbound e-mail capabilities for my usual accounts. I can see all the inbound e-mail, but I am mostly devoid of responding, which is driving me crazy. This will get resolved once DSL arrives, I am still waiting on Verizon to get their act together and tie the phone number to the address. The last residents of the house has DSL running at a really good clip, but nobody can see that until Verizon understands their role in the world.

We finally got satellite TV today, which is a huge improvement over cable. Why? Much better picture, much better sound, cheaper, and channels like Tech TV and BBC America. The downside is the current placement of the dish, on the right hand corner of the roof on the front of the house. It could be a good reason to remove the tree that is creating this issue or to get the dish moved when we paint the eaves.

I spent today trying to figure out why we had no phone signal, well it turns out the PC modem fries the phone lines. I was waiting for contractors to come and fix a furnace, closets, and the dish guys. All the contractors were stuck in the traffic related to trying to find the DC shooter and we calling the often to let me know of their delays. The shootings really have not un-nerved me as the odds are long that I or anybody I know would get shot. I am much more aware of my surroundings, much like living in the UK in the late 80s with the IRA bombings and such.

I was put off from doing some work for a while today as the CD I burned on a nearly up-to-date security patched Win 2k box would not be acknowledged in the Mac. This is odd as it is how I move files out of XP Home (miserable version of XP). I finally got the CD to run in the PC (I finally had a reason to assmble it after nearly 2 weeks in the house) and reburned them on a CD, which did run on OS X. This little task and figuring out that the PC modem has phone voodoo here caused the loss of a couple hours. I knew I should have pulled the box of blank CDs out of the packing box they are in.

I am trying to focus on getting a couple reviews done, user/usability test a new site, get back to writing some articles, and putting our office together.

AppleTechs gets moving again

Damien has his AppleTechs running again. This has been on hold since late April and it will be so nice to have this back and running again as both of these sites are great resources for Apple users.

Apple security

Just in case you thought Microsoft was more secure than Apple...

iCal ideas

A weblog on iCal seems to be a good resource for the new Apple application. [hat tip Adam]

OS X blog from one of the sources

Mac OS X's product manager, Ken Bereskin has a weblog with good stuff. [hat tip Andre]

Mac helper

O'Reilly Net has a good starting point article for those folks making the "Switch" to Mac (particularly OS X). This article finally put the keyboard differences in my head properly (Jesse tried his darnedest to help, but it did not quite stick).

Perl and ColdFusion updates for OS X

A couple reminders of things to look at, well atleast for myself: Updating to Perl 5.8 on Mac OS X and installing ColdFusion MX on OS X.

MySQL for Jaguar

MySQL for Jaguar loaded wonderfully and easily.

Apache 2.0 builds for OS X

Hmmm... Yesterday I was looking at Apache and the other two pieces of the triumvirate PHP and MySQL. Today I ran across what could be an improved option, Server Logistics' Apache 2.0 along with Perl, PHP, MySQL, and Postgres. Apache 2.0 provides multithreading and other improvements to the incredibly stable and supreme Web server All of this is set to build and run on Mac OX 10.

One bad switch story

This past week I ran across Salon's Mac switcher remose story about an Episcopal priest who had purchased a Mac and found the change over was rather difficult. For those switching to a new OS there is a learning curve. I had some of the same difficulties with keyboard differences and learning new keystroke shortcuts. I did get MS Office right away to ease that transition. I have found everything else I have done on the Mac to be a much better experience than anything on the Window's side of the world. I also love the lack of the flood of serious security holes from that other platform. Getting over the hurdle, which is a rather low hurdle for most people, I and many others have never been happier. The key is easing the transition a little more. I know of some things on the horizon that could help with this transition.

Jaguar at night

Since I did not go to the Jaguar release gatherings I have been reading the O'Reilly's James Duncan Davidson discussion of the Palo Alto release party, more stories and photos from Palo Alto, and MacCentral's great coverage and discussion boards.

Once I pickup and load Jaguar I will be going to Mark's trove of Jaguar links, the ones in the Hands-on reports and the Hard-core geek section will be top on my list.

Mac server on a laptop

I did not go to the OS X 10.2 Launch last night (I was having a wonderful time at Fred and Paula's birthday gathering), but I may be picking up Jaguar shortly. When I do so I will revert back to the base Apache build in OS X. After this it will on to O"Reilly Net's Setting up a Site Server article and Marc Liyange pages. It seems when I upgraded the base Apache build on OS X the PHP builds from Liyange were not running properly as they are based on the default builds from OS X.

OS X Launch

I am strongly considering hitting the local Apple store tomorrow evening for the 10:20 release party for OS X 10.2. I would have never thought of going to a Widows release. I did go to a relase of MS Office and was copletely unimpressed. I have not met a Mac user I did not like. Now with UNIX in the underpinnings the geeks have entered the fun, which seems to bring together a crowd I really like: creative, smart, geeky.

iPhone possible

The NY Times discusses the possibility of an Apple iPhone. The signs are in Apples upgrage to their OS X (10.2) that indicate a PDA/phone could be in the works. If this is so I really would like it combined with much of what is in the iPod. Many Gigs of music or other data, great usability, but with a better screen with color and I an there. Getting the sucker to synch with AvantGo, Vindigo, etc. would get me on board in a heart beat. I love my Palm/HandSpring, but from the sounds of the NYTimes article that does not seem to likely, bummer. I am enjoying my mobile phone with Internet access and text messaging, which I use on a regular basis (reading on a tiny phone screen is not the greatest experience, but it is better than not having great resources at your finder tips. [hat tip Damien]