This morning I happened to try Transmit to get to a WebDAV server I was looking at, and I noticed that an update was out. This update fixes a few things with improving performance and the ability to deal with large files on Amazon's S3 storage. Also improved performance on a few things. Not bad.
I have to admit, it's not my favorite FTP Client, but it's very good.
Today I had my first outage at HostMonster, my hosting service. That's pretty impressive. More than a year and a half and no significant problems. This morning I couldn't post an article to my weblog and saw that the MySQL database server was down. Pretty easy to see.
I sent in a trouble ticket, and with the hour things are back up. I have to say, for the price I pay (which is not a lot) this is fantastic service. Sure, it's not a lot to them, but it's their business, and something I don't have to worry about. I have enough of those things.
So kudos to HostMonster. Not for being perfect, but for being really good.
[12/11] UPDATE: the tech support response from HostMonster said that if MySQL went down, it would repair itself and come back up. Seems reasonable to have it restart. Good enough.
This morning I noticed that Coda 1.6.2 is out, and the release notes indicate that there are a few FTP bugs fixed as well as some cosmetic highlighting and a maintenance issues. Not really earth-shattering, but I'm guessing that with the FTP process being so critical to Coda's functionality they wanted to get this out as soon as possible.
Once again, it's great to have products that are created by indie Mac developers. They see the problem, fix it, and post a release. It's that closeness with the customers that I like.
Just when you think corruption can't set any worse, this story breaks, and you realize that you can't honestly support a person who does this, no matter what good they might have done.
Selling a Senate Seat.
I shake my head at the complete absurdity of the notion.
People who represent us should know better. Hopefully, with this, they will.
In the winter I wear my hiking boots as I want my feet to be warm and dry throughout the entire, miserable, season. OK, no more editorializing. The problem was that I had a squeak in my left boot, and it was getting louder, and I was thinking it's time to get a new pair.
But I hate replacing things if I can fix them. So I went to Google for 'squeaky shoes'. I love the internet.
Turns out a really good fix for squeaky shows is to take out the insole and slather a bunch of lotion or ChapStik on the inside. I went with the lotion because I have a jumbo Baby Lotion at my desk, and I love the smell of the Baby Lotion - reminds me of my kids when they were little.
Anyway, I smeared a thin layer over the bottom of the boot, put the insole back in, and Shazam! the squeak was gone. I'm blown away. I love the internet.
VLC 0.9.8a - a security update for a problem in the Real codec, is out today. I found out by starting VLC to play a little downloaded YouTube video ('The Website is Down'), and it said there was an update, and asked me if I wanted to download it. "Sure", I say.
Then it acts as if I'm downloading a file - not updating the app. What gives? These guys make a Mac OS X app and don't even bother to use Sparkle? It's free and will do all the upgrade stuff for you. If not Sparkle, then the Google Code updater, update-engine. There are just too many reasonable ones out there to have something like VLC that's been in the works for so long, not to use one.
Anyway... it's updated now.
OK, there's a few things that get under my skin, and Comcast being down is one of them. It's not the end of the world - it's not even a reason to get really angry... but it's part and parcel of my work and what I do. It's the way I get my news, stay in contact with tracking packages, etc. It's my primary personal interaction medium. And when it's down, I'm disconnected.
I don't really use the phone all that much. There are probably weeks where I don't make or receive a call at home. I need it for emergencies, but that's about it. I don't know of anyone that uses US mail to send me anything anymore. It's just not done. I know people that start their day with the Wall Street Journal, and if they don't have it, there's a serious feeling of loss of information.
So I don't read papers, talk on the phone, or mail stuff. I do all these activities on the computer: RSS feeds, IM, email... it's my morning routine. Except for days like today.
Well... when I get into work I'll be able to get a connection there and then be able to get what I need.
UPDATE: it's just come back up at 3:52 am... OK, let's get what we need and head to the train.
UPDATE: a minute later it's down again. Grrrr....
[9:25 am] UPDATE: still down. I've gotten a call from the house saying the internet is down, and I said "Yup, it's Comcast". It's still down, and I now wish I'd moved to git from CVS as I'd have what I needed on my laptop. It's not horrible, but it's annoying, and getting more so. I want the line back up.
[1:00 pm] UPDATE: Liza called and it was back up. Hope it stays up.
GraphicConverter 6.3 is out, and it's one of the first graphics apps I got for my first G3 MacBook. It's been a valuable asset to me over the years, and while I haven't used it much since getting Acorn, I still want to support the authors, and while this was a free update, I'll get the paid updates as I think this is really good software and is deserving of my support.
I decided this morning that I'd spend a little time updating my resume - specifically, clearing out the stale links after the Big Shut Off in my office. Most of the links were old, and I doubt that there's anyone that's going to miss a few pages on my old projects, or a crypto-quip solver that can probably get spanked by an iPhone app, but it got me looking at what I've done for a career.
Some days it just doesn't seem that cool.
I'm sure a lot of people look back and say the same thing. It's the nature of some people (like myself) to minimize their achievements as simple, or easy at the time. We forget, or at least trivialize, the pain we went through. We look at what we've done as something anyone could do. And it's not fair.
While much of it might not be on par with curing cancer, it was something that took all I had. I wouldn't trivialize the accomplishments of my kids, why do it to myself? Answer: because deep down, we all know our own dirty little secrets. We can't really respect ourselves because we know too much about our failings.
I need to break out of this. It really is a wonderful life. I have done some pretty impressive things - so people tell me. I have lots of interesting and funny stories that I can tell pretty darn well. Maybe that should be the true measure of one's self-worth: How many people would willingly listen to your stories?
I have friends at Citadel, and this news is just not good for them. They do point to the up-side that the market-making fund is doing well, and I'm glad for that - for them. They are really good guys, and I'd hate to see them take any additional stress because of this, but I'm sure they will. It's part of the industry.
Just thinking about the few friends I have, and hoping they are riding out this storm OK.