(mt) does it again… :)
I. CAN. HAZ. IT ??? Apple SysAdmin Geekness At Its Greatest ^^,
Mea Culpa: I know I should’ve blogging more…
I know, I know… I had plans to blog more, had ideas on what to blog, had the right tools for the task, etc… The only thing I was and currently am missing is: TIME! ;(
I’ve been meaning to write about a lot of stuff that happened during this last month. Among other things, I got my shiny new Macbook Pro. The whole order/shipping process deserves a blog post of its own so I’ll keep you curious. Since I got it, my workflow is starting to “feel” better. There’s one huge downside though: having a laptop, gives me the ability to easily waste time anywhere I am! I’ve been finding myself playing games or reading feeds/news at even later hours… On the other hand, having the ability to run VMware Fusion presented me with a whole new world of possibilities like running linux testing servers on my machine, windows (Vista runs more smoothly than XP on VMware IMHO), etc… And I can even run MyEclipse on top of all this without even “feeling it” (4GB RAM surely help :p). Ok, enough of that…
In the mean time, Wordpress 2.5 came out and I upgraded! Didn’t think it’d go all that smoothly (especially after reading this post a while back - which I commented there as well!).
OK, bottom line: I will blog about the laptop like I promised; I will blog about my impressions on VMware Fusion and even WP2.5 (not so sure about this… nothing new to add to what others have said already!). I feel bad that it’s been over a month since I blogged and I *need* blogging… It helps with my… errr… “well-being”!
In other news, I started running/jogging! =) yay And no, I do not like running all that much! And no, I’m not running with anyone else! So why am I running you ask… Well… I need the physical activity, and I want to become healthier! (not that I’ve been having problems on that particular, thank God!). Got some Nike Shox Arraw, even bought the Nike+iPod kit… even though I don’t have an iPod nano! I’m hoping Apple releases the software needed for it for the iPhone in June… pleeaasseeee!! I just don’t feel like spending $ on a nano when I already have an iPod Video 80Gb and an iPhone! I’m willing to buy a 1st gen White Nano though… If anyone wants to get rid of it at a decent price, I’m willing to help you with that! :p
For frequent news on what’s going on with me, Twitter is the way to go! haha I’m finishing this post while waiting to board from Detroit to Newark after my original flight got delayed+cancelled 5 hours ago, and I’ve been twittering like a maniac about all of this! For those who thought of it as spam, I’m sorry. I bet you can find some interesting stuff just by listening to me yapper a whole lot! :p
Well, that’s enough for now. I have a few more thought out posts to make in the near future. Maybe all this time in airports is helpful to make you do stuff that you postpone all the time… More on that later! 
Apple SDK rocked my day!
Today has been pretty hectic… My back has been killing me all day and Apple released the iPhone SDK which caused a huge stir around the web!
As to my back, I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know I’ve a small cyst right next to my spine, mid-back, for a while. Never felt it… until the last few days! And I can’t even blame the pain on the AWESOME chair I have at work… I’ll probably go to the chiropractor soon, but I’ll need to see a doctor eventually.
On to the news of the day: Apple (finally) released the SDK for the iPhone! It was a very exciting keynote, with Steve Jobs only introducing other people and not taking much part on it until the press Q&A at the end (could this be the start of a slow “backing off” by Jobs preparing his succession?). Among the great news and technical details about the SDK and upcoming apps for the iPhone, we were introduced to Apple’s “AppStore“. Basically this is no more than a mix between the iTunes Store but for applications with the current Installer.app for jailbroken phones. One of the things that got me excited were the apparent 3D capabilities of the iPhone, showcased with a few games (including a demo of the upcoming Spore) and the information that EA is already working on developing games for the iPhone (FIFA 08 with multi-touch+accelerometer ?? wow). And no, no jailbreaking/unlocking apps… or porn!
Then came the part most techies & developers have been speculating lately: the distribution model and its price. I think Apple is keen on creating the best development platform in the world. OSX has been proven to be just that and a lot of developers have invested time and resources into developing excellent apps for that platform. Apple is trying to do the same with iPhone and the latest rumours before today already pointed towards that, which got confirmed today during the SDK presentation when Scott Forstall, Apple’s VP for iPhone Software talked about how “Apple is a platform company” (something some of us already thought of but was never mentioned this clearly).
Considering this, developers wanting to sell/distribute their apps through AppStore (the only possible way anyway) will have to enter the iPhone Developer Program and paying for that $99. This price covers everything. I think the price is appropriate considering Apple is not charging hosting, distribution, etc… They only charge 30% of whatever you charge your customers. If you choose to freely distribute your app, Apple gets… yes, $0! Considering this, I think $99 is a fair fee to have access to Apple and having them check your app, host it, publicize it, etc…
But now comes something I only discovered in the midst of a Twitter discussion with Luis Rei and David Rodrigues. While I don’t agree with calling the $99 an “Apple Tax” I agree with the fact that it’s pretty bad that Apple doesn’t allow you to install your own personal, experimental apps on your OWN iPhone! While I understand the reason to do it (as it would open the way to code being shared and compiled with the freely available SDK, which would bypass Apple’s check and system!), I don’t like it! I was getting really motivated to learn Cocoa and Objective-C and start messing around with small apps and utilities but not having a way to test them on my own phone is sad.
But all said and done, the customer won’t mind any of this! As (free) apps will be available even through wi-fi and even EDGE, as a customer, I couldn’t be more delighted… Well, maybe I could… June??? Can I haz it now??? =)
My new computer is coming… :)
So my Twitter friends followed the whole adventure pretty closely but I need to share it with all of you! I know I haven’t been updating my blog as frequently as I’d want to but the current stress/workload as kept me from sitting down to actually right something. But this is too good to not stop for a few minutes and share! 
As you probably all know by now, Apple updated their laptop line(s): new Macbook and Macbook Pro. Many of you know that I have been waiting for this update since last November and had the needed funds ready since January (around the Macworld). I was getting really frustrated but finally, on February 26th (yes, the best month of the year - not because of Apple, don’t worry :p) I ordered my own Macbook Pro. I uploaded the order details to my Flickr but here it is:
(click for full size)
It’s coming!! =) Expected shipment is between the 6th and 11th of this month (March). It’ll arrive 4-5 days later!!!
In other news, my 2×2GB Kingston (from newegg.com) will arrive later today, and the rest of that order (VMware, the backpack and .Mac) have all arrived 2 days after the order (the backpack got here the next day actually).
I’m REALLY looking forward to it! I’m currently working on a PowerMac G4 867Mhz Dual with 1GB of RAM! No matter how good these machines perform considering they are 6-7 years old, they don’t have enough “juice” for all the work I need to get out of them! Adobe CS3 apps are heavy and I’m a “multitasker”, which requires me to have several apps open at the same time! Now if you consider web development only, I need Firefox+Safari and Textmate, CSSedit (at times), Transmit and Fireworks! Just the browsers take quite a bit, and if you add all the “normal” applications (Adium, iChat, Transmission, iCal, Mail, Things, iTunes, iPhoto, Linkinus, Twitterific, Pownce, Terminal, etc…) you understand why I’m *suffering* at this time and in desperate need of a new machine! And I’m not even going to mention not being able to run VMware/Parallels/Bootcamp with Win/Linux or playing games or… argh (mental note: “relax… it’s almost over!”)
It’s coming but… WHY IS IT NOT HERE YET???
MacHeist: AWESOME!
So I haven’t posted about this, but after reading Rui Moura’s post on this (I got the bundle on a “Pay 2, Get 3″ sale along with Rui and José Carlos) and looking online for some info about it, I had too say something! This was BY FAR the best deal I’ve ever had on software. This is one of the few bundles released once in a while of independent OSX apps, and it only comes to show the true power os OSX: even these small, independent apps look amazing, integrate well with the rest of the OS, etc… This is only possible because of the amazing platform OSX is and the tools Apple provides developers with!
Following a post I read on Prt.Sc about open source and its “freedom” and a discussion on the mailing list, I want to reaffirm my opinion on Open-Source Software (OSS) vs Commercial Software. I look at OSS as both “free speech” and “free beer”. Most of the times I recommend OSS (OpenOffice comes to mind quite often here) is to people using Windows or OSX and in need of a FREE (as in “beer”) alternative. I don’t even need/want to mention that “You can actually get to the source code and make it do*exactly* what you want it to do!”… Why?? Because it makes no difference for 99% of the people out there. Have you heard the business motto of “If somebody else has developed a solution, go ahead and buy it… Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel!”??? Well, I tend to agree… but not completely. I like following the developmental process of a solution that is supposed to fit my needs, but in some cases, it’s a LOT easier to adapt my needs to a commercial solution. The best reason why is CONFORMITY! (the word that scares all open source puritans) Conformity is a nice thing in a networked world. But it doesn’t mean I’ll opt for a worst/bad solution just for the sake of conformity. No, instead I’ll search for the best solution available, even if it’s not the most widespread. Of course, this is not always possible/desirable and thus exceptions are normal) (proving the rule).
These were just random thoughts… Probably not a very good line of thought there, but I felt I had to say this after talking about a great value bundle of COMMERCIAL software. I actually feel good about supporting these developers and helping some non-profit organizations on the way!
Just as a side note, I have spent more money on software since I’ve moved to OSX than ever before. And this does not include any major apps… just small, simple utilities than integrate with my daily work and enhance my user experience on the computer (isn’t this the objective of ANY app?).
I have spoken.
Tip: Show all files and folders on OSX
This is more of a “note to self” than a post, but it can come in handy to some of you too!
If you want to see all files and folders on your Finder (including /usr, /var, .DS_Store, etc…) run the following command in the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
Then restart the Finder (Option+Right-Click on the Finder in the dock > Relaunch) and you’re all set! To undo, simply run the same command changing the variable (YES) to NO.
The obvious downside of this is seeing… well, everything! Those annoying .DS_Store files in every folder, the multiple config files (like .bash_profile, etc…) but it can be useful especially when backing up or moving a lot of files/folders or accessing hidden files and folders on backups.
Hope it’s useful for anyone as it has been for me… at times!
Long time no… see!
Well, it’s been almost a month since I posted the last time and a lot of things have happened.
The Conference
The last two weeks were hectic. I was involved in a conference with leaders from all over the world, and we had to get some materials ready for it, including a DVD set with 6 sessions that we taped earlier and had to be edited and put on a DVD for release during the conference. The last session was recorded a week prior to the conference, and all the things that needed to get done had just pile up and still had to be done in time! So, like you can imagine, lots of hours of work and… very little sleep.
OS X 10.5 Leopard
During the conference my dad was here. I decided to get him Leopard (and iWork 08, so he can dump MS Office… over the course of (some) time!). I did a “Archive Install” and all went very smooth. His Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz seems snappier than with Tiger and I taught him the goodness of Quick Look and Spaces (although he seemed to enjoy Web Clips a lot more ;)). From my quick experience with it, it felt like there are things that can either be customized or I might need to “hack” them… But I can’t wait to get it… for Quick Look!!!!! 
Twitterific 3.0
Inline ads seem to be one of the few new features. And I say that because I’m not a big enthusiast of direct messages (although I find them useful) and I hate the way the way they get loaded every time I open program. But I’ve been enjoying the ads a lot… They’ve proven very useful and informative! This is the way to go with ads (kudos to the guys of The Deck for the selective approach to advertisement!), although I think they should stay inline… even after a new one comes up! (never thought I’d say this!)
Firefox 3.0b1 (RC3)
I installed Firefox 3.0b1 RC3 yesterday and I love it! I have been using Safari for most of my stuff because Firefox is just taking WAYY too much memory… 
But 3.0 seems lighter and feels snappier.
I sincerely hope Mozilla proves Steve Jobs wrong… (for those not aware, Jobs had a sad moment - the only one in my opinion - when he showed a graph of web browsers with market share split between IE and Firefox, 75% and 24% respectively, and he announced his desire for Safari: take over Firefox’s share… not even touching IE’s share!!! Bad move Steven!)
Work - Next weeks
I’ll developing the look & feel for a e-portfolio solution we’re developing here. It’s based on uPortal (scary if you ask me!) and I’ve never worked with it!! Apparently it’s all XML/XSLT… which will be all new to me! I’ll keep reporting on this because I bet I’ll learn stuff that can be interesting for most of you!
I’ll also be doing at least one design for a friend of mine that is getting married next year, and wants to have a “blog type” website with directions and info on where the wedding will be and stuff. Great idea, huh? I’m glad to help..
Twitter & Facebook
Not being very active here in the blog doesn’t mean I’ve been offline! NO! I’ve been pretty active on Facebook and Twitter! Interesting how I’ve been ever so active on Facebook after the huge discussion I saw around some blogs on how Facebook is backed by the CIA and is data mining for them… Is that supposed to scare me? I don’t care what the CIA knows about me!
iPhone… 1.1.2
Even though I had my 1.1.1 jailbroken with some third-party apps, I never used them all that much too justify not updating to 1.1.2! I made myself a promise that every time a new official firmware came out, I’d update to it even if it broke my third party apps. An interesting thing is that, when I upgraded my jailbroke 1.0.2 to 1.1.1 I did a “Restore” and not an upgrade (I hate OS upgrades as well!). When I jailbroke 1.1.1 and reinstalled some of the apps I had before, I had all my setting there… even the level I was on on the “Lights Off” game I had installed and the preferences and accounts on Colloquy and Apollo IM! Question: is the backup feature on the iPhone a VERY GOOD and thorough one, or are the third party apps installed somewhere where iTunes doesn’t access when “formatting” for Restore (because on Restore it clears all my songs and videos even… until it syncs again, of course!)??? Interesting huh?
I still need to figure out what REAL features this update gives me. As of now, some little glitches with MobileMail seem to be fixed and the Ringtone classification is a lot better! I hope MobileSafari is more stable………………. :rolleyes:
Funny how I keep jailbreaking my iPhone, and updating the firmware and never had any problem… Lucky me, I guess!
Google Android and the Stock Market
I’ve been following the stock market in some way, mainly because… the iPhone makes it so easy to do so! :p But I had strong beliefs that the high rise of Google’s stocks was a result of the hyped gPhone, which some expected to be an iPhone competitor of sorts…
Google’s stocks rose above $740, close to over $300 in the last 6 months and it felt… “bubblish” IMHO! And when Google Android was announced and investors realized it was not a physical-iPhone-alternative, or a device that could make sense of Google’s interest on the 700Mhz frequency auction, the stocks plunged, with GOOG down by over $120, and even bringing down AAPL (Apple) along the way!! Of course that mini-crash was also influenced by the rise of the oil prices… but I think it was also a result of the bubble effect on the gPhone expectations…
The most interesting fact is that Google’s shares are on the rise again today… They closed at $660.55 (+$28.48) and the AAPL closed at $169.96 (+$16.20). I’m very confused with the market today… REALLY! I think the market is crazy and Google’s stocks are soooo volatile! I give up on thinking I should get money and start investing… although that would have given me at least $300 per share on Google and over $100 on Apple, had I money back when I thought it would have been good to buy them! </rambling>
Coming Next
I urge those who have any kind of interest on my sayings/rambling to get on Twitter and follow me! Twitter as proven to be a great social utility because it can function as both an instant message system, a broadcast and a micro-blogging platform. Long Live Twitter! Or you can get Facebook…
I had some stuff I wanted to blog on some weeks ago… but they’re old now! And since I was “out” for the last 2 weeks, I need to get back on track before I can start writing on a constant pace. Keep checking back folks!
Why Apple is releasing the iPhone third-party SDK by February ‘08!
Apple announced earlier today they’ll be releasing a third-party SDK in February 2008. In my opinion this was planned all along and there are a few reasons why I believe this didn’t happen at launch, but they needed to “buy” time to get the whole infrastructure ready for the wave of development coming in.
I felt like the iPhone was somewhat “rushed out” and I can back that by saying that Apple has not accustomed us to announcing a product that was to be actually released over 6 months later. And the reason behind this being that they knew other competitors were investigating the same technologies, and Apple wanted to keep the “novel” factor
The other reason is the large infraestructure that has to be deployed both on the hardware and on Apple’s end, to ensure both security but also ease of use and of install of those new apps. After all, Apple just released their “Web Apps Collection” website a few days ago, something that should have been out all along.
The final reason is that they didn’t announce that iPhone apps were to be online web apps until later on. They did mention that it would be some closed format, etc… but only in June did Steve Jobs announce that their intentions for apps on the iPhone were webapps. I can’t agree with having a phone, or better, a portable define that is a *lot* more than just a phone, to not be able to include offline apps that are missing from the phone. An example pops to my head: my boss is switching back to a Blackberry (although he hates it now, after having used the iPhone!!!) because of the lack of a To-Do list app… In all honesty, he bought an iPod Touch to go along with it, but I believe other people discovered other things that were missing. I miss a password management app. I’d love to have Password Safe (Password Gorilla, on OSX) on my iPhone.
Another parallel thing is the whole “webapps paradigm”… I really like some webapps out there! Heck, I’ve been using more webapps lately, and the percentage is increasing. But I don’t feel so good about entering my passwords and personal data into a webapp, that’s hosted somewhere, susceptible of attacks and data mining, etc… This are very serious issues! And I’m not a “privacy freak”… I don’t care too much about having photos, mails, profiles, etc… around the web. But not personal stuff, like credit card information, secure passwords for home banking and such, etc…
And, oh boy, I can’t wait to get a SSH client working on my iPhone!!! Can we access the disk now, Apple?? And have some web development tools for quick hacks and fixes on my stuff?? Pleeeeeeeeeeease… ??
iPhone’s Bugs - Round 1
iPhone Biggest Bug… should it ever exist…
Starting with this one, I’ll try and post individual bugs I keep finding on my iPhone…
BUG: If listening to the iPod while docking the iPhone, the song will fade out to a stop. When done syncing, and pressing Play again (either from the headset button, or from the quick “double-tap-home” shortut) an older state is resumed, and not the one during which the dock happen. That means another song will be resumed. Annoying!
See you next time…
Hey! I‘m Levi Figueira, an ‘82 portuguese tech enthusiast a.k.a geek! My interests range from design, photography, multimedia, production and music to linux, networking and development! *Personal tastes are subject to change without prior notice* :p Enjoy! =)
