What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning I awoke to find that Firefox RC2 is out! I've noticed a few issues on the Windows version, but that is probably related to the fact that I go through so many more page views on the Windows version, due to my work, and it's probably no more or no less stable than the Mac OS X and linux versions I also use daily. As I use Firefox, I'm amazed that there's so much effort and real improvement going into browsers these days. WebKit and the new SquirrelFish JavaScript engine... Firefox and it's improvements... it seems that the browser really is trying to become the application delivery vehicle these days.

I'm not sure where all this is going... the browser has a ways to go before it's going to compete with a desktop OS for application building. Forms-based apps are easy - like the green screen apps of old, form fillers are a big segment of the use of computers. But there's still a lot of things that are at least done a lot easier on a desktop OS, than in a browser. But it's getting less and less. Impressive work.

UPDATE: so far, I'm very pleased with RC2. It's working much better on Windows than RC1, and as that's the one I do the most page hits on, it's nice that it's working better. I'm hoping the good news just keeps coming.

Just now I realized that I hadn't plugged in my external FireWire drive, which is my TimeMachine drive, to my laptop yet this morning, so I plugged it in and in a few seconds it started cranking on the backup and everything was happy. And this lead me to realize that the upgrade for 10.5 was really quite marvelous. I have used TimeMachine probably less than a dozen times, but each time it's saved my bacon in a way that I didn't used to have. I've been able to create new machines from old dead ones... I've gotten back single files, and I've reached a level of relaxation with regards to the data on my laptop that I simply never used to have.

I've tried several programs, and ended up rolling my own eventually, but I didn't really keep up with it properly, and so I always had some exposure to loss. Now - it's only an hour. That's pretty impressive. It's really taken my data security to a new level. Thanks, Apple. Well done.

I very close friend of mine this morning pointed out the followers that I had on Twitter. I had no idea I had as many followers as I do. Oh, sure... it's nothing like the 20,000 or 30,000 that some folks have, but it's still very interesting to me to see that I'm basically using it to communicate with one friend. That, and the reliability issues with Twitter in general... well... I have to say that this has become something I hadn't expected.

If they can get their infrastructure cleaned up, and I think they can with the money they have, then this might be a very interesting little tool. Then again, I almost never use the web site - instead, I use Twitterrific client that's far more fun to use.

We'll have to see how things progress with Twitter, but I have to say that I'm really quite amazed with the following.

I have started to use WordPress at work for my daily journal of activities. Previously, I had a simple static HTML page that I'd write in daily and it worked - but it wasn't really nice and it certainly didn't make it easy for others to join in and do their journaling as well.

So I set up a WordPress infrastructure and it's working very well. But the problem is that I can't run MarsEdit on linux or Windows - and the web-based WordPress posting page works, but is far far too wasteful of screen real-estate for my tastes. So I have been looking for a nice, free Windows or Linux blogging client. I've tried a few and they seem to work OK, but the problem with the best of the linux clients is that they don't allow for multiple Category selections, and I do that often to indicate which projects this entry 'touches'.

So I had to broaden my horizons to include Windows apps.

I found w.bloggar and it seems at first look to be just what I'm looking for - monospaced font editing (in HTML, please), multiple category selections, easy editing and posting, and it's free. Can't beat that. Small... compact... just what I was looking for. It's a shame that it's on Windows and not Linux - or that Drivel (the best linux blogger) doesn't allow for multiple category selections, but that's life, and I do not feel like writing one myself.

So... good to know that I've got the tools on Windows (at least) to do the updates efficiently and cleanly. Not bad.

Today I decided to try and see if I could get the latest source of MAGIC (7.5.140) compiled on Mac OS X 10.5 without a lot of major hassles. Turns out there are a few things you need to know, and I'll detail them here, but the end result is that yes, you can get it compiled and it'll use the X11/OpenGL display and it's not bad at all.

I used MAGIC on some old DEC VAXStations and even an Amiga 1000 back at Auburn University when I taught there. It was a lot better than the home-grown layout tools that I had been using in my graduate work at Purdue - but most of that was likely because the guys at Purdue had to write their own tools - there just weren't any layout tools for the old TEK 4014 screens they had, and they didn't get color screens until late in my work. So it was probably a necessity. But MAGIC is just beautiful.

It can display the overlaps with different visual cues so that you know you have a gate when the poly crosses the n-diffusion. Also it had design rule checks built-in which made it a hundred times easier to really make something in MAGIC as you didn't have to constantly worry if your layout was going to fail in mask fabrication or in the actual foundry. The real kicker for grad students was the MOSIS rules and the pads they created.

With the MOSIS rules and the 'tiny chip' pad, we could have designs sent out to be fabbed at any of a number of silicon foundries in the country. It was an amazing thing to send out the file and see the chips come back and have the students see what they had made. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, let's get to the building.

First thing is to get the source. I went to the MAGIC site and got the source for 7.5.140. I then unpacked it into a directory and went into the magic directory (a symlink is made in the un-tar).

The only change needed is to edit the configure command due to a linking issue with X11 and OpenGL - as OpenGL is referenced in both the X11 libs and the OpenGL Framework. Apple discusses it here and the fix to the configure script is pretty easy. Replace:

  -lGL

with:

  -lGL -dylib_file \
  /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib:\
  /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib

where it's all one line - I just put in the line breaks for readability sake.

Then it's the standard configure, make, and make install and it's installed in /usr/local/bin with supporting files in /usr/local/lib. Make sure you have the path right and you're golden.

I did notice that wish 8.4 segfaulted when I tried to run it, but that was fixed by using the configure command:

  configure --with-interpreter=scheme

so that the default Tcl/Tk interpreter is not used, but the built-in scheme interpreter is used, and then there aren't the issues. I'm sure if I built Tcl/Tk 8.4 from scratch and used that, it'd work, but I don't need an interpreter for MAGIC - I'm not doing that fancy of layouts and I didn't have one in the past, so I'm OK for now. If it gets to be an issue, I can deal with it later.

That's it... it runs.

  magic circuit.mag

and up comes the file. Just like I remember. Pretty sweet.

UPDATE: I tried getting it to work with the Tcl interpreter and it just wasn't going to fly. I'm not sure why, but the segfaults were in wish and that's not a good sign. Also, I had a hard time getting the scroll bars to work and the middle-button emulation wasn't working as I had hoped. So all in all, it's working, but only barely. It's not something I'd use for real. Oh well... it was a good try.

UPDATE: they have implemented the scrolling with the arrow keys, so it's not the scroll bars that's the problem, it's user error and remembering it the way it used to be. So I think I'll keep it for a while. Also, I figured out the middle-button issue - I had to enable 3 button behavior on X11.app in the Preferences. WIth that, I get the same one finger = left... two fingers = right... and Option+one finger = middle. Perfect. Now it's good enough to use. Good.

While I'm no artist, that doesn't mean I don't wish I were. Several years ago, I got an SGI Indigo² workstation with the HighImpact graphics card off eBay. I wanted to do lots of things - including a little graphics work because the graphics capabilities of that Indigo² were so bloody awesome! I've done a lot with barney over the years, lots of web development, database work, application icon creation - everything I wanted to do but the graphics work.

Back then, there was blender for the SGI - it was free then, even though it was owned by a company, and I was amazed at the speed and grace with which you could create 3D objects in it. When I moved to the Mac a few years ago, I was following the 'buying' of the blender code from the company by an open source group. It was interesting to see them get to the point that they had the money, and then took it over.

They even had a Mac OS X port.

Well today, they have released 2.46 of blender and it's as nice as it ever was, and just as snappy on my MacBook Pro. I'm still no artist, but if I get to the point in my life that I have months and months of time, I'm liable to try my hand at this. Take a few classes at some local college and then practice, practice, practice... Maybe I'll do this as a second career - I could do a lot worse.

I was talking to a friend today and he mentioned that these first four months of this year had been the worst he's experienced in this 3 years at the job he's at now. Everything is a give and take... good times and bad. So it's tough to know the difference between being tough and committed and over staying your usefulness. Are you being dedicated, or simply ignorant of the changing landscape? It's not an easy decision for anyone to make. We're almost always too close to the 'problem' (the job) to be able to make a good, impartial decision.

Dorey's mantra - Just keep swimming is a nice thought to keep in mind. But if you're fighting a losing battle, when does the Discretion is the better part of valor come into play? It's tough. Listening to my friend, I can see what he's saying... lots of changes, excessive management oversight (micromanagement), inadequate staff for the expected deliverables, it's nothing new, but all told, it can make a decent job downright unbearable.

But is it temporary? I can remember a lot of times in grad school where I was convinced that this was the last minute I could possibly do this. I was about to scream. But I didn't. Somehow, the spirit of Dorey saved me - Just keep swimming. It's probably not the smartest thing to do in every occasion, but it might just be the wisest in most.

I made it through grad school... maybe if my friend sticks it out, he can make it through this, too, and be better for it on the other side. Maybe it won't last much longer. Good questions, all, and not a soul on this earth can possibly answer any of them. And in the absence of any real, solid, answers, we each have to decide for ourselves.

As for me, I think I'm going with Dorey, I just need to keep swimming until a change is clear and obvious to me. Maybe it won't last four months, like my friend - maybe it will. No way to know.

I read this article this morning and from the sounds of it, Intel is getting closer to getting it's quad-core into an operating mode where it'll be able to be dropped-into the MacBook Pro frame and just run. While the report estimates that the shipping date would be sometime during the summer, it's unlikely we'll see anything from Apple until the fall, even if the chip ships from Intel on time. Apple has it's hands full with the iPhone and iPhone Store on iTunes.

However, it's very exciting to see that they will be producing something this year that should make it to the MacBook Pros by early next year at the latest. That will be an exciting thing to see.

Well, I have to say that this Kindle is awesome. It makes carrying books a dream. I got a sub-$50 4GB SD memory card and now it can hold more than 3,200 books - based on their estimates. That's a ton of books. The battery life is great - I haven't had to recharge it for days after turning off the wireless access. The page flipping is not a big deal to me - a simple flash, and it's the new page. The print is crisp and legible - I can read it as easily as a paperback. It really almost makes it fun to read. Not that reading wasn't fun, but this just makes it exciting.

It's a wonderful little gadget. I'm very glad I got it. I know there are downsides, there always are. But if you believe that Amazon is going to be around for the long haul to support this, then it's a great way to get, carry, and read books. Highly recommended.

Everyone is talking about the update to the iPhone to optionally use 3G networks and all the spiffy new things they want with that - apps, access to this and that. If I had one wish for the iPhone it would be to be able to use it as a bridge to the internet via something like Ethernet over Bluetooh. It's already in the network preferences - all that would need to happen is to make it possible from the iPhone. Then, with a fast 3G network, I'd be able to use my MacBook Pro from the train. That would be most excellent.

I don't expect them to deliver this as it would really crush the network, and that's not the point of the iPhone - at least not Apple's point. They are looking at it not as a gateway, but as a stand-alone device in it's own right. I can see this, too. But I wouldn't spend $500 for that - I just don't need it. But I might spend $500 for a gateway to the internet. I would use it that much.

We'll have to wait and see. It certainly would be cool.