Let me give you an example. I have opened iChat (connected to AIM), and Mail on my MacBook. When I look at my Inbox, I noticed a green ball next to the name of one of my contacts. When I check iChat, I see that that contact is online now so Mail is notifying me as such with a green ball because I put this contact’s AIM name in my Address Book. Knowing this, I opened up Address Book and confirmed that everyone i have on my AIM list is in my address book so they show up as online when I have Mail and iChat open. This also makes iChat show the full name of the people instead of their AIM names so it is easier for me to know whom is online and whom is not.

The moment I put an AIM name into Address Book, it changed in iChat, updated Mail, and made me feel like the time I spent on updating had an immediate affect on the system. Of course this is just an illusion of value but it does give me a warm feeling of accomplishing something that helps my programs talk to each other. Sony does this by making all of their components talk to each other easily. A PSP can connect to your home PS3 and stream video or music content to your PSP in real time. Value added content just for staying brand loyal.

This is a simple concept anyone can use when writing a suite of software. Seek out technologies that may make your development easier and allow your users to have value added services. Things like OpenID will allow for single sgn on capabilities and may give you additional information on your users you may not have had the time to develop independently.

This past weekend I was able to get my hands on the new Mac Book Pro that was announced on Tuesday. After having a bit of hands on with it I have to revise my comments from earlier this week as the user experience is different than what I imagined.

1. I need to take back my comments on the trackpad. Instead of it being an unresponsive flat pad you tap, I was surprised to realize the whole pad is actually a button. One big clickable button with the proper feedback as a normal button on a mouse. That totally negates my argument about tap clicking. Also, I found that 2 finger scrolling came naturally, 3 finger was ok, and 4 finger was just kinda annoying.
    
2. I didn’t notice if this model had the keyboard mistake on it but I will definitely check next time.
    
3. I have to add that the glossy screen is not my favorite. I could deal with it but I can see how it would massively annoy some people.

All in all still a good machine but I am much happier with what I have.

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1. One thing I am happy about is that I got a system with the OLD keyboard on it. Having used the chicklet keyboard on the Mac Book and the Air I have to say it would quickly become the bane of my existence if I had it on my Pro.
   I do not like it here or there
   I do not like it anywhere
   I do not like the chicklet keyboard
   I do not like it, Steve I Am
    
2. An advanced graphics card was expected and is only really put to the test while gaming or doing high end graphics. I don’t do either of these on a consistent basis so no huge loss there.
    
3. Getting rid of the button on the track pad is something I HATE. The first thing I did on my old notebook was turn off the touch pad clicking feature so this is a huge win for the older model.
    
4. By putting all connections on the side, they have actually reduced the number of devices you can connect. In the new version you lose 1 usb port, the firewire 400 port, and the DVI connector in lieu of the mini display port (Apple proprietary and will require an additional purchase for non-Apple displays).
    
5. Being able to quickly swap the drive like you could with the MacBooks is a nice new touch.
    
6. The new MBP can now have double the hard drive space, double the RAM, and 4X the graphics capacity of my current MBP. However, it is a good $700 more than what I paid for my MBP. Also, my model is a 17 inch display while the new models will only be 15.4 inch or 13 inch.
   UPDATE: In the QA session it was mentioned the 17″ model is being refreshed as well but no details on specs or price were given under the new design. At the Apple store the current 17″ model is still for sale but is unchanged in terms of specs, design, and the $2800 price tag. Roughly a $1000 more than what I paid for a refurbished model.

Bottom Line: I am far happier now than I was before the announcements. The new additions either don’t apply to me or I wouldn’t want them.

Photo Provided by Wicho via Flickr

Well it has been a couple of months now since I have switched from using a PC Notebook to a 17″ Mac Book Pro and things are still going well. As I mentioned before I used to be a die hard Mac fanatic about 10 years ago but switched to PCs due to the lack of decent software on the Macs at the time. My recent switch back had to do with my desire to pick the right tool for the new media and technology development I currently do. As promised, here are my top of the head observations over the past two months.

• When I bought the Mac I knew I was going to be running certain PC software and games. I started to go down the path of using Parallels but found that transferring my XP license off my existing notebook would basically make it impossible for me to sell it as a low end PC. After a month I broke down and bought CrossOver instead. CrossOver is the OSX port of WINE which does not require that you have a full version of XP/Vista to run your software. You will need a Mac with an Intel chip to run the software properly. All of my PC games run flawlessly under it and most of my PC software runs as well. Unless you absolutely need XP on your machine for some obscure reason like your network doesn’t play well with Macs, I would opt for CrossOver first for any windows software emulation.
• I am just amazed by how much free software is out there to help make a transition between PC and Mac easy. I did break down and buy some tools I use all the time like the Adobe Suites. However, things like NeoOffice, FireFox, AppFresh, QuickSilver, and TweetDeck have become invaluable tools. Even the free Apple software like Safari, Mail, and GarageBand have revolutionized how I use the notebook.
• One thing I forgot about Macs and missed was that things just work. I plug a microphone in, it recognizes it and records from it. I plug a camera in, it finds it and lets me control it from the software. I want to record a video, iSight comes on with the mic and just records without a loss. On the PC side you can make things work but it takes time and is never 100%.
• My co-workers often complained about how they HAD to be PC based for all of the development they do. After a bit of searching I found that the Mac could do all of the things my PC could do for development and more. It was just a matter of taking the time to seek out a solution for a specific problem. For example, I thought I would be totally at a loss for remote desktop connections to PCs until I found that Microsoft wrote a RDC client for OSX. It’s not widely publicized but if you look for it, you can find it. Major problem solved.
• Web development is like night and day. On the PC I got into the habit of developing code and pushing it to a testing server. On the Mac, everything was not only included but pre-installed. Apache, PHP, Virtual Hosting. All on my box and ready to roll. The only thing I needed to add was MySQL and that was very easy. Granted I will need to break some old development habits but given the fact I can now test and code anywhere without having to be dependant on a connection is just amazing.
• Slowly over this time I have noticed something very significant for me. I haven’t turned on my notebook in the past 2 months at all except to transfer a file or two. I am significantly using my desktop PC less and less. The Mac has actually help me do things like rebuild my 9000 song music collection, clean out software I don’t use, and make it easier for me to backup my work and life.

Do I regret the purchase? Absolutely not! Apple has come a long way to address software, hardware, and just confidence concerns. Under Steve Jobs this company has finally moved forward enough to really be the company they always should have been. I understand why so many people are converting now. This is one seriously sexy and powerful piece of kit. Apple also puts so much information online and makes it so easy to just find things like software and solutions that I can’t imagine going back to the “pay for everything” world of PCs. And it looks like things are only going to get better with the Apple announcements tomorrow.

I do need to break some old habits like calling it a Mac when I am talking about OSX. I also know I am grossly underusing the machine’s true power. But that will come with more time. I am just incredibly happy with this rather expensive purchase and can see getting a lot of use out of this machine for a very long time.

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Many many moons ago when I was in college in high school I got my first exposure to Macintosh. Our school was lucky enough to get a grant from New York State and our school picked Apple as the provider of choice for all our computer labs. The Macintosh Classic confused me at first and the lab teacher thought I may break it for not being “trained” how to use it. A thought that amuses me to no end even to this day seeing how my school let me take a TRS-80 II home when i was in Junior High.

I won’t say that I fell in love with the Mac at that point because it wasn’t until my mom helped me buy a Classic II for college that I grew to just enjoy it. Easy to use, portable for moves, powerful, and connected with ease. My love grew with my understanding of the system so much that when I went to work for Computing Services at the university my areas of expertise for support were the CMS Based Mainframes and Macintosh systems. Many would say they are polar opposites in the computing work but I knew better than to classify any computing system to people.

As I left college my Macs came with me. Classic giving away to an LC II, LC II giving away to a Power Macintosh. Then something happened. I took a good long look at my Mac and came to a hard decision. While I still loved the system, I couldn’t find software for it. That’s not to say it wasn’t there but I hated the feeling that I couldn’t walk into the local computer store, pick up software, and just install it on my Mac. Remember, this is pre-1998. No Apple Store, no deal to put Mac products in CompUSA, no Steve Jobs. I wanted to game more and work more and the Mac was just not where it was at.

I made the shift, turned in my Apple stickers, got my tatoo removed and bought my first PC. It was fun, crazy, and a bit of a relief. I bought software galore. Fell in love with PC gaming (specifically Grim Fandango) and enjoyed being able to just pick up software and go. A couple of years later I built my first desktop PC and have upgraded it to the current machine I use. But something about Mac has always lingered for me.

That something is the hardware. It has always just worked. Plugin a camera, Mac recognizes it. No drivers, software, or fuss. Need to sample video? Plug and play without needing to do massive configuration. Wanna make a radio show? Plug in a mic and start recording. That is something the PC side of me has never been able to fully achieve. I have produced full radio shows on the PC but to get it to the point of quality production is always a pain. Then if I author a DVD, I have to reconfigure all my audio hardware to shift back to radio production. Not so on the Mac side.

Recently through the shifts that Jobs has implemented, the Mac has one again become the powerhouse of a machine it always should have been. Software is more prevalent and true windows/Mac OS compatibility has been achieved. While still pricey, the Mac is worth every dollar and has a high resale value even after five years. Cross machine folks like myself can choose where they want to be at any time (BSD, Mac, Windows, etc). Acceptance in the mainstream has also resurfaced and developers are adopting the open mentality that is driving Apple.

So last night I bit the $2K bullet and bought a MacBook Pro to rejoin the cult. The PC desktop isn’t going anywhere but the PC notebook and I will be parting ways. It won’t be a sad goodbye because all the PC goodness will be transfered to the Mac and will live on. This kind of full circle is good for me to reassess what places computers hold in my life. Maybe I will go back to serious video production. Maybe programming in open source realms will happen more. Maybe I will just pet the 17″ inch monitor and coo “pretty”.

In any case, it’s nice to feel like I am coming home to Mac and Apple. We both seem to have tread down the path of growing up into what we should have always been. Hopefully my old friend and I will meet and create some more while sharing the things we have learned along the way.

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A while back I was tasked with writing a program that took content out of a database and reformat it as a PDF document with a specific layout. I found this nice CPAN module for perl called PDF::API2 which allows you to write PDFs on the fly. After some database giggery pokery I had a program in place that created the 500 PDF files in about 2 min.

After I wrote the program I wanted to address the complete lack of documentation for the module. I ended up writing an article that never got linked anywhere. I am correcting that issue now and hopefully this will help someone else with a similar problem.

First, I have never been the type of developer who lets a language define my application development. I have moved from C, to PERL, to PHP, to Java, to ASP, to C# .Net with relative ease but varying results. You see, I don’t really care what the language or the structure of a programming language is to complete a task. What I am more concerned with is the results and the speed at which I reach them.

Most self proclaimed programmers I have run into tout the structure and organization of their programs as far superior to anything a scripter could create. However, these same people refuse to document their code in a way that makes it understandable. They trust that their programming skills will speak for themselves and code documentation just won’t be needed. In the real world, however, it always helps to have a map to see what is going on. Documentation is that map that ‘programmers’ skip. Scripters can fall into this same trap but since most linear programming is done this way at least it is somewhat easier to follow.

Second, programmers are under the belief that only complex code can solve complex tasks. This is not true. Efficiently written code can solve any task. If code is overtly complex for the sake of complexity or standardized structure, you are either trying to dupe someone into thinking you work harder than you do or you are so embedded in the belief of absolute adherence to code structure is needed that you are missing the point of effcient programming. When a Zen Archer shoots an arrow, they only expend as much energy as is needed to accomplish the task. No more, no less. If the arrow is traveling 100 yards or 1 inch, it does not matter. The energy is the same. Programmers and Scripters need to adopt this philosophy. Code should be written to do what it’s intended task is. If it is written otherwise, it either lacks power to sustain itself or has unneeded levels of code or structure.

Finally, look at the major web sites out there and you will find a curious thing. Google: running on Linux with open source custom code written mostly in Java. Amazon: running on Linux using SOAP interfaces to their back end. Digg: running on Linux with a completely PHP back end. CNet: Linux servers with PHP and MySQL back ends. Yahoo: Linux based systems using a mixture of Java, Javascript, PHP, AJAX, and MySQL to drive their network of sites.

Now I ask you this, if you couldn’t write complex solutions with a “scripting” language like PHP, why would so many dynamic and technology driven sites be using it? Could it be that “programmers” need to stop worrying about their programming and should focus on their solutions no matter what language they use?

Myth #1: Your computer will run faster when you upgrade to Windows Vista.

After 5 years of waiting for a new Windows OS, users have concluded that Vista performs well on computers with dual-core (or quad-core) processors. If you’re one of the many users with an older machine however, Vista’s performance isn’t so highly rated.

Because a Vista installation requires a bare minimum of 512 MB RAM, a 1.6 GHz processor, and at least 1 GB free disk space, it’s preferable to install the OS on a high-performance machine with a fast processor and a ton of memory. And while Vista can be installed on older machines, its performance on systems that just meet the bare minimum is said to be sluggish and slow. According to David Cottingham, a Vista specialist at CDW Inc, computers older than 18-24 months should not be migrated to Windows Vista. Unfortunately, this OS doesn’t perform well unless your Vista upgrade involves an upgrade to a brand new machine too.

Myth #2: Windows Vista is worth the price, the necessary system upgrades, and the hassle involved with its installation.

A blanket statement like that which means a hefty expense can’t be true. Microsoft offers 5 versions of Windows Vista, each with different features and for varying costs. And while a Windows Vista Home Basic edition upgrade seems affordable at $99, the more advanced Ultimate edition upgrade weighs in at $259. Adding to Vista’s base price is that you can only upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate if you are already running the Vista Home Basic, Home Premium or Business edition of the OS. Were you to jump in and upgrade from Windows XP to Vista Ultimate, you’d need to buy the operating system for $399.

Keep in mind here that I have been using the term “upgrade”. If you were to buy the operating system outright you will be looking at a price range of $199 for Home Basic and up to $399 for Ultimate. When you compare this to buying Mac OSX outright at $118 or downloading any Linux operating system for free you can start to see how this pricing model is a little dubious for trying to cash in on people who think they need to upgrade and stay on windows.

In addition to the cost of the OS, you may have to shell out more money for additional RAM, graphics cards or other hardware. For Vista to perform well, your computer needs to be new or stocked with hardware that exceeds the OS system requirements – all of which involves the purchase of a new machine or expensive hardware upgrades. And after you buy the OS and hardware, you still need to devote your time to actually installing the product. According to user reports of their Vista install experiences, the installation process is not smooth and requires a significant block of time to successfully complete. Technology companies have written many white papers and devoted lots of space to explaining the ins and outs of Vista installation.

Myth #3: All of your software is Windows-based and will not work on non-Windows platforms.

Even if you are running a Windows-based operating system that’s loaded with lots of Microsoft software, all would not be lost were you to migrate off the Windows platform. Open source software is readily available, often for free and with comparable functionality to Microsoft products. More and more well-known companies- such as Hewlett-Packard – have started selling Linux-installed machines, which has the added bonus of increasing the visibility and availability of open source products.

If your specific Windows software has not been ported for Linux, not to worry. Native emulators like WINE will run your windows applications within Linux without the purchase of the XP or Vista operating system and they are free. About 80% of all windows applications will run under WINE without an issue.

Myth #4: Windows Vista is safe, easy-to-use and loaded with features that make it the most stable operating system on the market.

At the end of the day Windows Vista is still a Microsoft product and more vulnerable to security breaches than less widely deployed operating systems such as Linux. The omnipresence of Windows-based computers decreases their overall safety – the payoff for breaching Windows’ security features outweighs that of breaching less-widely used systems. And when security flaws are found in Windows platforms, users have to wait until Microsoft issues patches and Service Packs for the holes to be plugged. With Open Source platforms however, users are making constant tweaks to the system and can identify and fix security flaws immediately.

Since Vista requires major changes, stop for a minute and take the time to look at what your system does. You might find that all the bells and whistles that Microsoft offers you in this new operating systems are not worth the price and will actually slow down your productivity. Linux may save you time, money, and hassle down the road while insuring long term reliability for a little bit of effort. Change is good, but uniformed change can lead to problems.