Casual Penguin

Engineering words of wisdom

2009-02-13T20:44:00.000-05:00

Engineering is about making tradeoffs. If you refuse to make the choice, then you're taking the cowardly route and ultimately are creating more work for your team. Instead of solving problems, you're creating them.

All because you're too chicken to make a hard decision.
- Raymond Chen

Google introduces free iPhone Syncing

2009-02-11T09:20:00.002-05:00

Sorry Nuevasync, I really liked your product, but I'll have to try Google's version - since it's one stop shopping. Now the real question -- why would you pay $99 for MobileMe? http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/sync.html

Free TV

2009-01-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

So true -- media companies are behind this -- and consumers bought into it, hook line and sinker.

'real' IBM Model M keyboards -

2009-01-30T21:00:00.001-05:00

Gotta get a real keyboard

Lovingly made in the USA -- who knew?

MacFUSE mounts UFS

2009-01-17T20:43:00.002-05:00

Whee! Google's MacFUSE and the UFS driver saved my bacon. Needed to recover some stuff from a decommissioned FreeNAS (a FreeBSD based NAS ) server hard drive. Seems kinda uncool that I had to compile the driver myself -- I'm a developer and all - but sheesh.

MacFuse 2.0 seems more stable than when I tried my luck a year ago.

Modifier Keys

2008-12-21T15:07:00.002-05:00

I must be the only Mac user on earth that can't remember the symbols for all the modifier keys --- why is the command key the only modifier that is blessed with it's symbol on the physical keyboard? Why aren't the modifiers just documented with their names in the menus?
Seems a little like hazing - or some other kind of secret knowledge that only real Mac users are supposed to know.

Are regular users supposed to know about modifier keys at all -- or are they supposed to stick to the mouse only?

Sure I can look them up -- but for some reason - my feeble mind can't remember what arrow thing is vs stair step thing.

Northern Virginia Bug Club

2008-11-21T00:32:00.002-05:00

Looking for other VW owners in the Northern Virginia area to start a club. Can't believe there's no club already? or is there?

www.novabugclub.com

Wishing for Wii Game Storage

2008-10-12T14:03:00.002-04:00

I'm getting spoiled - wish that I could upload Wii Games into the console. Tired of finding these disks on the floor. I haz offspring.

Wonder who they are pointing to there -- fat plugins.... hmmm?

2008-09-03T20:21:00.003-04:00

Wonder who Google could be implicating here? This feature alone may be enough.... Sorry Gus, should have done this in 2002.

Picasa 3

2008-09-02T23:40:00.001-04:00

Yet another product that keeps a Windows box warm at my house. Why is Google shy about Picasa for Mac -- iPhoto definitely sucks in comparison. Face tagging. OMG!

I have a new hero

2008-09-01T12:05:00.001-04:00

In 'n' Out 100x100 Burger what an amazing feat of manhood -- (okay womanhood too...)

Medvedev exclusive: We’re not afraid of Cold War

2008-08-26T20:29:00.002-04:00

"War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in thirty to forty years. To win, we shall need the element of surprise. The Western world will have to be put to sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There shall be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate to their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down we shall smash them with our clenched fist."

Declaration by Dimitry Manuilski
Professor at the Lenin School of
Political Warfare in Moscow, 1930

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29490

Bangalore VW Club

2008-08-13T10:33:00.002-04:00

It's amazing - I can't seem to find folks to form a VW Beetle club in Northern Virginia - but folks in Bangalore India seem to have no problem.

Cheers guys.

The Art of Manliness

2008-08-02T22:03:00.002-04:00

I've always wished that men's hats would come back into daily fashion. I'm not talking baseball caps. Came across The Art of Manliness - they have a great article about picking a hat for your face shape. Come on guys - find your style. Join the new fashion.

WWDC 2008

2008-06-11T23:59:00.002-04:00

It's been an amazing WWDC this year. Some of the iPhone sessions have been much better than expected. I'm also pleased to announce that AOL's released Cocoa wrappers for the AIM WIM protocol. It can be found at http://wimframework.googlecode.com

Separate at birth, separated once again.

2008-04-27T21:46:00.000-04:00

Separate at birth, separated once again. After 40-some years together - the two halves of my Beetle have been pulled apart. Got close to crushing myself in the process. Very glad I put on safety chains around the saw horse. Managed to shift the car 12 inches while lifting the front half of the car for the second saw horse. I'm probably 5 months behind where I wanted to be at this point. I pulled the engine around Thanksgiving - and wanted the body off my the end of the year. Now I just have realized - I hadn't really thought past this point. The chassis work is going to go first - the good news is with the saw horses in place I can roll the chassis from under the body. At some point, I'm going to have to figure out where I'm going to store the body, without making the neighbors mad.

Infocom backstories

2008-04-19T23:33:00.002-04:00

Fascinating backstory from the past -- Infocom games that never saw the light... until...

XBMC for Mac OSX

2008-03-30T21:02:00.002-04:00

Folks that know me know that I have some pretty strong opinions about the state of TV Media Playback --- there's only one answer -- and it ISN'T FrontRow. Simply said it's XBMC -- the lowly homebrew software for classic XBOX has bested everything out there.

I've known they've been porting the software to 'alternate' non-XBOX platforms - and I'm blown away again by their progress.... XBMC on my Mac is looking great. Check it out... not solid yet - but still way in front http://www.osxbmc.com/

AIM for iPhone

2008-03-09T17:27:00.004-04:00

Had a great time at Apple with Rizwan building AIM for the iPhone. Riz, man - didn't even drop my name in the presentation... sheesh ;)

VW engine

2008-01-08T00:21:00.001-05:00

It's clear that this Beetle has seen some work over the years. Turns out the engine stamp indicates that it was originally from a VW Type III Fastback --- which would perhaps indicate that it's a 1600cc engine and not the stock 1500cc that 1967 Beetles had.

A fine mess

2008-01-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

I've been logging a little more time on my VW project --- over the holiday's I've pulled the engine. I'm currently in the process of removing all of the bolts connecting the body to the chassis. I'm hoping to get the body off by the end of January. The mystery right now --- where to store the body of the bug -- without annoying the neighbors.

Livin' Next Door to Alice

2007-10-16T21:29:00.001-04:00

Logo for the 20th Century. http://el.media.mit.edu/Logo-foundation/products/software.html

Logo for the 21st Century? http://www.alice.org/

Java Applets - lost cause?

2007-10-03T21:42:00.001-04:00

So, has Sun given up on startup performance of Java on the Desktop? The java.com page features an all singing dancing demo of "stuff" written in java -- of course the singing dancing promotion is actually implemented in Flash. Go figure

Sony on my short list

2007-10-03T21:13:00.001-04:00

Okay --- it's official -- no more Sony stuff for me. Calling me a thief, some nerve.

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'"

Software is hard

2007-10-03T00:00:00.001-04:00

Software Is Hard:
Some fun and not so fun gems in here - not sure I agree with everything - but there are nice nuggets to throw back at the man.