funkatron.com

I like my Mac a lot. I use PCs all the time too, but I really enjoy my Mac more. I think it’s the combination of an elegant (although still flawed) GUI and UNIX guts. I think it also helps that it’s a laptop, so I can carry it around the house with me. My XP box in the back room doesn’t get used nearly as much, even though it has a fancy 19” LCD (a Samsung 191T — it totally rules).

Anyway, I decided to look into some GUI app dev on OS X. I had an idea, and tried implementing it in several different languages:

• Applescript Studio: This actually worked pretty well. The language is SUPER verbose, but eventually I got my head around it. It’s really easy to build GUI apps with it. Problem is, the app was pretty unstable — it would just crash without any clear reason. This may have been improved in newer versions, but it was unusable at the time
• Pure Java: I actually got a command-line version of my app going. That was great. But I got lost quickly with the Swing stuff. It didn’t help that all these layout frameworks and shit for Java just seem stupid. Who would lay out a GUI with something that makes your buttons fill all the available space?
• Java->ObjC: Total disaster here. I never got this shit working.
• ObjC: What the hell is this crap? I thought it was C, but the damn syntax looks like some kind of Little Orphan Annie Ovaltine code. A line of code should never start with a -.
• RealBasic: You know, there are things I don’t like about RealBasic, but of all languages, this was by far the nicest to work with. The IDE is really smooth and nicely integrated (the autocomplete on user-defined properties and methods is great). Programming is fun again!

Oh yeah, I got the comments working. Looks like a silly bug with Hostrocket’s suexec wrapper.

I wish I had one of these.

I did a new site design for the CIRDB site. I just did the design, so don’t give me any credit or blame for the code or content. It’s simple, but I like how clean it looks.

So in a lot of ways, Movable Type is pretty damn cool. In other ways, it’s not so cool. If your hosting doesn’t support suexec or some other kind of cgi wrapper, you have to chmod some directories to be world-writable, which is just ASKING for trouble if you’re on a shared host. But holy hell is the admin system polished. It makes me never even want to consider creating a system like this.

The comments don’t seem to be working. I have no idea why not. I’ll poke at it some when I get a chance, because I know you’re all chomping at the bit.

Right now my Powerbook tells me it is 10 degrees fahrenheit [happy now chelle? 8)] outside. It’s also sunny, which means that if it was not sunny, it would be -700. I wouldn’t know either way, because I don’t go outside — it’s overrated.

Some people will say, “Ed, why a blog? What happened to your music stuff? Are you a sucker?” The answer to the latter should be obvious, but as for the first two:

1. I’m a follower, not a leader
2. I haven’t written music in a long time, and I’m not sure I will anytime soon. I spend my time programming now, and taking care of my son

Back to the weather. I live in Lafayette, IN, which some people seem to think is the South. Anyone from the actual South will laugh in your face when they see your “Hoosier by birth, Southern by the grace of God” license plate, but some people still insist. For their sake, here’s a helpful cheat sheet to determine if you’re in the south:

• If you balls just froze to your boxers, you’re not in the south

I keep seeing Don Cheadle doing these NFL Playoffs commercials. Now I LOVE Don Cheadle. He rules. He’s one of my favorite actors ever. But Don (in case you’re reading), you’re not Sam Jackson. Sam will always be Jules. If you’re gonna do these things, you need to bring Rocket, the crazy Crip from Colors, or Mouse, the crazy guy in a suit from Devil in a Blue Dress, or Snoopy, the crazy prison inmate from Out of Sight. You do not want to bring Buck Swopes from Boogie Nights. Yes, Buck got laid all the time, but he was also a nerd, and Raiders fans will beat him up.