What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning I saw that MarsEdit had gone to v2.1 with a bunch of improvements in the release notes. Honestly, the performance is nice, but there has been one little annoying thing that I've mentioned to the author and he's yet to address - probably because he thinks it's not necessary. That is the minimal size of the posting window.

Window sizes, I've come to learn, are a very personal thing. I've had some people look at my 80x24 terminal screens and think I was insane. But it's what I learned on, and the idea of having a big, wide, terminal is just something I may never use. I'll always deal with 80 column editor windows, and "taller" terminals are OK, and I use them often enough, but for a lot of the work I do, smaller is better.

So when I started using MarsEdit, I liked the fact that it could be personalized to the weblog I had (WordPress), and that just about everything about it was configurable. Very nice. But then I tried to make the posting window narrower - like an editor window, and it stopped short of what I wanted. Now, I'm guessing that I can go into the nib file and change this minimum size, but I sent the author an email and his response was that he needed to make sure there was room for the 'sidebar' in the window. Well... I don't use the sidebar, and do I've got more space than most.

He said he'd look at it, but I'm guessing that it's not going to amount to anything. Maybe I'll ask him again today.

Anyway, the update is nice, and the tool is, in general, a wonderful way to post to just about all the weblogs out there.

UPDATE: basically, he said 'Take IB and change the nib'. Not what I hoped, especially with updates, but it's always been a possibility.

Since last Friday I've been really out of it. Bad, bad sickness. That's the primary reason that I haven't posted anything. I haven't written much code, either. It's been a hunker down siege mentality - just get through the days. Then, when I started to feel about 75% recovered yesterday, I decided to come in to work and see what's what at the Shop.

Several meetings - unusual for me, but it's all part of a new 'interest' in the goings on of the development staff. It's gotten big enough that the business (traders) don't know all the faces and therefore have no idea what each one is doing. This shouldn't apply to me, and when I asked, I was told only to include a few broad strokes as they knew what I was doing, but even so, it's a level of inspection that shouldn't apply to someone who deals with the traders on a daily basis. I know my Boss isn't filling out what he's been doing.

Anyway, that kind of micromanaging might be perfectly normal in a lot of places, but here, it's not normal at all. I fill out a journal with everything I do on a daily basis for this exact reason, but they don't want to read that - they want the executive summary. I don't like doing paperwork for the sake of paperwork. They know what I'm doing as I'm doing it in front of them, but with the new org-chart, I've been put in a 'box' that requires that we fill this out. It's more than annoying to me.

If my 6+ years here haven't proven themselves as trustworthy and doing the "right things", then let me know and I'll move on. After a time, asking me about what I'm doing it really quite insulting. Enter the 'disgust'.

More meetings... and then one with a data vendor. As a result I'm supposed to change the utility of one of the market data server's data providers and change it to conform to their new requirements for reporting. It comes down to this: I have to know who's asking for what and ensure that that's the only person looking at it. Well... in an of itself, that's not a bad request, but in comparison to what's out there now, it's a major step backwards. For example, all automated jobs getting data are now dead. Period. I have to know who it's going to, and that person needs to be logged in right them. That's the part that kills the jobs. What if the job takes an hour to get all the data? Today, we have that hour-long job start at 3:00 am so the data is sitting there waiting for them when they arrive.

Tough luck, they say... they have to be logged in and then they can start the hour long request.

It's unreasonable, and rather than allow me to point these things out, they say "Sure, OK" and then it'll be up to me to make it work. Which means I'm going to have to find some silly way to circumvent the literal rules of the license just because they didn't say "Hey, we love this data... but it takes too long to get it how you want us to get it. Make it take 30 sec and not an hour and then we're OK." But no, they know nothing, and yet they are the ones making these decisions.

Classic Dilbert.

I know it happens everywhere, it's just that I've been sick and have no stomach for this today. Gotta get some rest and let it go. Problem is I care, and that's a key reason I'm as good as my job as I am. Who wants to have someone that's not committed to the job? Not me. No way to live.

OK, I'm not one to care a lot about business moves because the real reasons for them are most often than not inaccessible to the public. Oh, there's a public spin on the deal, but the real underlying reasons are often much less noble, and are far more focused on the profit a few can make on the deal.

However, today's announcement that Bank of America (my personal Bank) buying Countrywide (the holder of my mortgage) has me both interested and a little upset at the sub-prime lenders. I'm a "30 year fixed" person, myself. Yes, it means that I could possibly get more house with less per month if I did some more creative financing, but that's not the purpose of a mortgage, in my opinion. I need a roof over my family's head. I need stability for them. I don't need to play a game with my kid's home. I need to be reasonable, and safe.

So the idea of sub-prime mortgages is just something that may get some people into homes they could not afford otherwise, but in the end, I'm not sure that they can stay in those homes. Face it... if you can't afford the mortgage, then what makes you think you can afford the house? Taxes always go up... fees... assessments... all those costs with a home always rise. So if you can't afford the house to day on even a standard ARM, why get in at a sub-prime level? You're not going to be able to keep the place unless you start to make a lot more money - but at that time you're refinancing the mortgage and you're not sub-prime anymore.

So when I see this I get a little angry. Countrywide is in trouble, and while they aren't going to foreclose on me, they might have to sell assets to stay above water. But then my bank comes in and buys it up, so I'm bailing out myself. I sure hope it works out for me. In the end, it's stability that the markets want, and this offers some, which is good. But wow... I didn't see it coming.

I was watching this TED talk by J.J. Abrams entitled The mystery box, and he was talking about the unlimited possibilities of a blank page, and his love affair with Apple computers. He pointed to his Powerbook and said:

This machine is great. It's like it's looking at me and saying What are you going to do today that's worthy of me?

I share that feeling completely. I've had the 17" Powerbook since it was first created. Now I have a 17" MacBook Pro, and I think I'll always have the best laptop Apple makes. It's just a feeling of the quality of the hardware and the software. The feeling that there's just about nothing I can't do on this guy. It's the creative palette that really does allow you to achieve your best. And in that, it's expecting you to give it your very best efforts as well.

And there are certainly more days than I can remember looking at the screen of this machine and feel it look back at me with the same feeling: what are you going to do today, Bob, that's as good as this? I've listened to Steve's keynotes and they are of that same tone - these are the machines of the dreamers... the creative professionals that will shape thought... change the world. What are you doing that's like that? I just love it to pieces.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys. From ArsTechnica today:

A study conducted last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and independently verified by the Associated Press revealed that Comcast interferes with BitTorrent and Gnutella sessions by sending TCP "reset" packets to users. Despite the growing body of unambiguous evidence, Comcast still denies allegations that it specifically targets BitTorrent. Comcast vice president David Cohen told us that the company's traffic control mechanisms conform to the FCC's definition of "reasonable network management" practices (which are allowed by the FCC), but critics don't agree that Comcast's management is anything "reasonable." The FCC today indicated that "reasonable" practices should be transparent.

I don't mind a company making a buck, but when they say they're selling access to the internet only to actually allow access only to those things they want you to have access to, then I think I should get a big discount - and disclaimer. Also, I should be able to opt-out and get access to everything.

Clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks so, and I'm glad that the FCC is going to get involved. The problem is, with so much having already been done, it's not an issue of if they are doing it, it's a question of what will be the outcome of the "investigation". Again, from Ars:

The FCC's investigation will have significant implications for the network neutrality debate. Proponents of network neutrality legislation believe that the FCC's current standards and the manner in which those standards are enforced is largely inadequate to deter Internet service providers from engaging in abusive network
manipulation.

Will there be net neutrality, or will the practice of filtering be given a green light? I'm hoping that we get the former. I'm worried we'll get the latter.

Comcast announced that they will be rolling out hardware enabling up to 160 Mbps over cable. Given my recent experiences with Comcast's port blocking/interception, it's hard to believe that they'll use this for anything more than a token speed bump to get it on par with FiOS from Verizon. As much as I'd like to believe it, I just don't believe this will mean I'll be able to get even 20 Mbps symmetric or even 20/5. It's just not in their business model to allow their customers to use the connection for what they want.

But for those wanting to download stuff from iTunes or updates to applications, I'm sure this is going to be a significant upgrade. Thankfully, Chicago is a major Comcast market, but if they are trying to go up against FiOS, they won't put the new hardware here first.

I guess the best news I can read from this is the fact that new infrastructure is coming to Comcast, and if regulation follows - or they ge their act together, it'll mean better connectivity for me. That's at least something to look forward to.

Looks like there's been an update on MarsEdit for a security problem. At about the same time I noticed that WordPress is at 2.3.2, but HostMonster doesn't have it available in it's application support tool. No matter, I don't use the 'drafts' section of WordPress at HostMonster - I use MarsEdit.

Lots of things seem to be updating today... Cool.

I can't think of a better poster child for great development on the Mac than Adium. I've been using it ever since I got an Intel Mac as my old multi-protocol chat client, Fire, didn't work properly on the Intel platform. As I was looking for a solution, I noticed that Adium was looking to be the preferred solution for most Mac folks.

I downloaded it, got all my accounts into it, fiddled with the preferences to get it looking and working like I wanted, and have been happily using it ever since.

Today they released 1.2, and the release notes indicate a ton of bug fixes and localization changes. Not that I had that many problems with it before, but it's nice that they are continuing to work on it. If you need something like this, get it - you won't be sorry.

This morning I head back to work after being off for the long Christmas week. What a wonderful break it's been. The kids have been great, the time was very busy, but it was good to get all the things worked into the schedule - trips, visits, family, friends. It was a really great break.

Mornings like this are what I love. Excitement about what the day holds... anticipation that there's something really neat and exciting just around the corner. I'll admit that it's like this most days, but today it's just extra-special due to the wonderful time off.

A while back, I got some xray CDs from the hospital for Joseph and Liza and wanted to look at the images because I thought at least Joseph would find them interesting. My travels lead me to locate OsiriX - an incredible Open Source viewer of the DICOM images. Really quite amazing. Well... today they have released ver 3.0 of OsiriX for Leopard (10.5). It's 64-bit, got lots of new features, and in general looks again like it's an amazing feat of Open Source coding.

Now, I'll admit that when I start it I still get the indication "32-bit" in the About box, but again, I'm guessing that it's likely that the "64 bits" support is in some of the libraries as it's not really necessary for the GUI. Minor point.

In general, it's great to be looking at the work. It really is inspirational.