Read it.
Learn it.
Live it.

And download the PDF for when you stupidly remove the LucidaGrande.dfont from your /System/Library/Fonts/ directory.

No…I admit to nothing.

To return podcasts to a playlist, you have to use the iTunes 9 trick:

Then your podcasts return in a playlist in the correct order, but you’ll have to toggle it on again to update the playlist list.

This bug has existed since iTunes 9 and it seems to only be getting worse. Hopefully Apple will fix it soon - I can’t believe they don’t want us to listen to podcasts in a playlist! C’mon Apple - fix this already!

Not Apple’s fault you got your hopes up. You wanted to believe in every fantasy out there and so you did. That’s about your religion - not Apple.

Then there’s the Whispers. About a sales rep speaking higher than his pay grade, he’s a “insider with exclusive access”. Some CEO who blabs for a bit of self-promotion on every front page (but he’s not at the event…hmmm).  Part of this is genuinely newsworthy - but for week’s we’ve seen fanboy renders and ridiculous articles that make the product everything from the Second Coming to the moment Apple lost it. Speculation, endless speculation, that drives traffic, that angers readers, that drives traffic, that engorges fanboys, that drive’s traffic, that also drives stock prices unnaturally high in expectation and hinders entire market segments. If you’re financially involved in Apple, in some commercial way, shape or form, I’d imagine you’d feel it almost your ouroborostic duty to create, conflate, regurgitate and re-gorge on every other bit of speculation out there.

Not Apple’s fault your stock dropped after the launch. You wanted people to believe you knew something you didn’t, that you were something you were not. Makes writing easier if you get your own “Princess Diana” to promote/slate/reconcile, I guess. A proper journalistic source? Sorry - you don’t even appear relevant this morning - you’ve been caught with a sock in your pants.

This is not a healthy ecosystem. Replace “the media” with “the banks” and We The People would have had them in front of Congress by now.

If you’re disappointed in Apple this morning, I’d say you’re blaming the wrong people.

I say that because people today poo-poo the Mac and it’s graphic interface, and there are generations living now that have no idea what it’s like to boot up a tape-drive and wait 5 minutes for a text adventure to start. And rightly so: these were neanderthal systems and the more advanced graphic systems left this branch of early hominid-interface far, far behind. You have to know where you came from to appreciate where you’re going.

For years, there was a constant howling about what the next steps should be. I genuinely missed my Newton (I still have one, a 2100, sitting on a shelf - near pristine and unused) but the downsides were too much to bear in this connected world. For years, at every coming of a MacWorld, the whispers that a new “tablet was coming” drove bloggers into a delicious madness.

Such speculation considered the Tablet to be a small, light Mac. With Apple’s current success, desires morphed it into a big iPhone. Big iPhone = Dumb Tablet, at least to me. The core of the iPhone’s success is it’s ability to move small bits of information to and from you - a photo, a video, a web page, a tweet. Small screen, small consumption.

Enter the Apple Invite for the 27th of January 2010:

Looks like whatever it is, it’s primarily a creative device. The Zapruderization of the invitation has already fueled another day’s speciousness and speculation. The truth is, as we always already know, not to be found on webpages anywhere. This is the age of the news we want, not the news we need.

I know nothing other than what I’ve experienced with the iPhone (v1 & v3), my Newton, a decade of experience with Macs and my desire for a Star Trek slate handed to me by a pretty yeoman. But since blogs are a suckers game…I’m in.

What I’d like to think is this:

But that’s all I can guess at, given what we all know; anything more is a mugs game. I’ve got the credit card warmed-up and parked in the garage, raring to go. I’ll let you know what happens to my bank balance in a bit over a week..

Is it too late to make a resolution?

Die, die, die…

As you know, we’ve banded together to motivate ourselves to actually (gasp!) write in our own blogs. To actually put content…up.

Shame, shock, horror - doesn’t everyone perpetually blog?

Answer: No - not if you have a life.

Some of us have to be prompted, shamed, encouraged, lead by a carrot on a stick, and if not, then beaten with that stick.

Writing can be the most frustrating thing in the world. It can also be the most transformative thing too - but part of the process is getting past the “have. to. write”-pressure and setting one’s thoughts free. Perhaps this initiative is a good thing - I’ve already written two posts this month, as well as half-built a new portfolio website. Procrastination is falling by the wayside, and co-incidentally my intake of Nespresso is on the rise.

(Hmmm - Nespresso. Say what you want about Nestlé, but they’re doing the Nespresso brand the way it should be.)

Anyhoo - it’s motivation, and all motivation is good.

So I hope to see you, fellow Project 52’ers, here and there. Check out the Google Groups Project 52 discussion and if you like it, come join us. I expect this to take shame some time, as we all learn from each other and create communal threads (perhaps every week a new discussion point might be fun..)

And off we go!

Let’s cover apprehension first: I’m a web developer, and unlike many of my peers I’ve worked with only 2 big companies over the past 10 years, not hop-skipping from one job to the next. There are pluses and minuses on both sides, but for an American, moving to another country - different language, different work/life mix, different mindset…different everything - the best thing to integrating into a culture (aside from marrying someone there) is getting stuck into a company.

The thing is - as a non-EU citizen, you need to have the company sponsor you. That means them navigating the changing channels of immigration policies, tax credits and financial barriers, etc. Very few are inclined, unless you possess a skill that is in need, and happily web development is such a skill. The problem is, ultimately, you can be too jacketed in a company, especially when they know you can’t actually leave without leaving the country as well.

I’ve been fortunate in my first two companies - the initial group were tied to government and big business, and could move glacially slow, but we were asked to always innovate and so we went from FrontPage websites to Flash (yes, sorry, it was 2000) and up to Broadvision and Documentum-based sites. The latter also goes to show that often large organizations are moved to change not by needed technology but by valued partnerships. Documentum, a great package for document storage and archival, can’t make a website without considerable back-end programming. Ultimately we moved on to a smaller application, ExpressionEngine, that did more than either of the previous powerhouse efforts - but only with major management changes.

The next jump went to a company who has long-since run fast and actively tried new technologies, but it too suffered from politics and internal wrangling. I came to work on the EE platform, and while I (and others) could try many options, the final choice of Wordpress was made long ago, for reasons long since invalidated. So, considering the number of css developers alone who can mark-up a WP template, it’s no surprise they no-longer do new development in-house - far too expensive. Still, you grow and learn, and they were fantastic people to work with—one of the few groups I’ll genuinely miss.

So here I stand - where to next?

I love the Netherlands, but they’re often more management-driven than solution-driven. Do I work for another company? Do I start out on my own. My heart says the latter, but previous work habit instills apprehension, and that can divert energies. Must. Stay. Focused.

Where to next…that’s the $2010 question…

So what do I moan about now?

The modern web developer has huge amounts of value to offer a business. Indeed the type of professional you often find in this role encapsulates the very best the web has to offer:

up-to-date knowledge of available and emerging technologies

extensive experience of implementing de facto web standards and programming patterns

database configuration and data manipulation

implementation across multiple platforms and legacy software applications

provisioning for mobile devices

data aggregation

graphics sourcing and creation

search engine optimisation (SEO)

a thorough understanding of the aesthetics and parameters of designing for the web

This and more are true - very often, as front-end developer, the definition of our work is to make the whole of the development process seamless. In a world where the squeaky wheels get the grease, making everything “just work” somewhat condemn us to political obscurity within the organization. So I’ve learned to move-on more often; that seems to do the trick.

Yes - this is a call-out. More fun to come soon.

Enter stage left - Balsamiq Mockups.

Think of it as a Mockup Engine - and a brilliant one at that. “Drag and Drop” components on the page, but the components are smart enough to scale accordingly without distorting. For example, drop a window component, with complete with control elements, on the layout and stretch it - the window grows but the controls stay rooted in place! Move it around, add features, drag more components down from the menu and, well, here - just look for yourself:

I have an immediate need for this.  (grin!)

View more news videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video.

Sure the nurses are beautiful, but an 8000-calorie burger??

“Works great in Classic” - Um, what’s Classic?
It seems their people have enough time to read my post and respond with reasons why, but not enough time to actually write the software or change the ad to address the issue with a timetable. We’re now nearly 3 years since the eviction of Classic from the modern Intel-based Mac and a fully-working TypeStylerX is STILL no where to be seen. While I gave them some benefit of the doubt, my doubts are more concrete now. This is ridiculous - It’s as if Duke Nukem is doing the coding! (nerd joke - sorry).

Now - don’t get me wrong. You can’t make it, for one reason or another, that’s your choice and I’m good with that. I’m not a fan who’s going to howl if the application won’t appear magically before me. If you threw in the towel, good for you - go sit on a beach. Have a refreshing beverage. Fine - just stop advertising and acting as if it’s coming!

Enough already!
Seriously, this advertising has got to stop. It’s now bait and switch, nothing more. No updates, no newer posts aside from the original claim that “the current TypeStyler 3.7.2 (one known issue) runs fine under the Classic environment of OS X of all past and currently shipping PowerPC Macs”. It’s the same page from last year and the year before.

I’m tempted to go and buy the application in the states where the programmer and MacSurfer live, just so I can have the State Attorneys General go after them for mail fraud. Because that’s what it appears to be now - there’s no OS X product, no timetable, and a constant advert at the top of MacSurfer for a vaporware version that just never seems to appear.

People moan about how some Mac software packages may appear shady - by comparison, this is an eclipse. I know people who have bought this, lumbered through in Classic to get it to work and expected support and now pretty much know they’ll never, ever see a native version. Many have had to upgrade and have left it behind, and good riddance, but seriously - this has got to stop.

Three bacon-stuffed grilled cheese sandwichs for buns, cheese, bacon and two four-ounce beefs patties.

I only just wrote that and now I need to go spinning…