What's it all about, Alfie?

My kids are good kids. I mean they are all smart, healthy, clever, athletic, and at the same time they can be the biggest pain in my butt that I've ever had. It's true - no one can hurt you like those closest to you. And kids are a constant source of happiness and grief. I love them, and because I love them, they are able to frustrate me like no other human beings on earth.

Case in point: Joseph this morning. He wants to wear his (curly) hair plastered down with a (large) handful of mousse. Why? "Because it looks good." Ask anyone else and it looks like 1970's 'AfroSheen' - constantly wet and when you touch it it's actually brittle. Amazing. But try and tell him that softer and natural looks better and you are the one being unreasonable.

So Liza tries to talk to him, and gets very frustrated in the process. He's always splitting hairs, trying to make it seem like he's the injured party. So she comes back into the bathroom to take a shower, and she's furious with him. I decide that since I'm not yet upset, my chances of staying calm for him are pretty good.

Silly Daddy!

I try to talk to him, and everything is about how his Mom is trying to "control his entire life." Yeah, like I haven't heard that before. So I point out all the freedoms he has, and he responds with "Yeah, but she's trying to control my hair, and after that, it'll be the rest of my life." Paranoid much? So I'm trying to point things out, and I don't realize that there's no talking to a 15 yr. old boy that's convinced his mother is out to control his entire life - starting with the amount of mousse he puts on his hair in the morning.

In about 8 years, I'm going to show him this post, and he's going to apologize to me and his Mother, and then in about another 20 after that, he's going to call us up and thank us for not killing him at the age of 15. For his new 15 yr old son will be saying the same things to him, and he'll be ready to drop him off at the orphanage. It's the same way for every kid. It's called maturity.

I wish he had more of it now, but that, too, is the point, now isn't it? It's my turn to call my Mom and tell her I'm glad she didn't kill me at the age of 15. Of course, this isn't the first time I've called my Mom and thanked her for letting me live... it's just the latest.

So I'm writing this down because some day I'm going to look back on this and laugh. But today is not (yet) that day.

Skitch is just about one of the handiest little apps I use, and today they released a new version - 1.0b8 (v821) available via auto-updating from within Skitch. The release notes included updates for the Unibody MacBook's camera grab as well as better compatibility with Spaces. In general, there were a ton of updates to the program. Sure wish they'd have the release notes available on their web site, but I guess we can't have everything.

So get it, you won't be sorry.

This morning Marc Liyanage tweeted that someone had used his build process to build PHP 5.2.9 for Leopard and posted it to Marc's web site. I downloaded and installed it and when I tried to run my old info.php I was surprised to get nothing:

  <? phpinfo() ?>

When I checked Marc's website I saw that hist test info.php was slightly different:

  <?php phpinfo() ?>

Trying that, it worked like a charm. I'm wondering if that's something in PHP 5 that I have been missing up to this point in time. I'll have to check and see what my other PHP scripts have to say about the matter.

Yup, it's the default setting on PHP - to require the 'long form' of the script start. It's configurable in the php.ini file, but that's a little dangerous as there might not be this setting in the web servers it runs on, etc. So I went through all my PHP code for the North Hollow Farm site and fixed it up.

[3/15] UPDATE: OK, so I took the time this morning to clean up the North Hollow project and then repoint the workarea to the right repository on frosty. It was a little bit of a hassle, since I hadn't touched this since I got it off my SGI box, but still, it was not horribly hard. Now I have something that works with the default PHP install and the PostgreSQL database is permissioned for the user _www as opposed to the older www. Minor change, but a pain to figure out.

It passed this year with no fanfare at school, but it was Pi Day nonetheless. I still think how funny it was the first time I heard about this with Marie's math class. What a hoot.

Well... here's to Pi! (Nina would say "Pie!")

OK, I'm old school, and as such, I'm not a big IDE user, but I recognize that they have a place in this world, and it saves a lot of people a lot of time. Just not me. Not most of the time. But when I'm coming into a new project, and it's already established in this IDE and a certain language, it's just plain silly to buck these established "standards".

But I have to say... C# is one of the oddest languages that I've ever seen. I believe it's written for people who have never seen a programming language before, and it's meant to be "easy" for them to understand what it's doing. Let's look at the setters and getters in C#, shall we?

  private string _farm;
 
  ...
 
  public string Farm {
      get {
          return _farm;
      }
      set {
          _farm = value;
      }
  }

where the first line is the definition of the instance variable, and the thing that looks like a method definition in Java or C++ or C is really a combination definition and meta-data for the getter and setter. The use of this code is simple:

  obj.Farm = "three";
 
  ...
 
  string l = obj.Farm;

Here the first call will end up calling the set 'method' in the Farm definition, and the second will call the get method. C# looks at the usage and then decides what method to call based on the naming conventions. I can see this, in theory, but it's so totally contrary to what you'd expect if you knew Java or C++.

In fact, in either of these two languages it's clear what:

  obj.cnt++;

means, but in C# is it calling the getter, doing the increment and calling the setter? It would appear it would have to. However, it's not clear from the language structure. Call me silly, but I like the language to infer as little as possible about the workings of the code for me. If I wanted that, I'd have written macros for preprocessing.

I have to use C#, so I will, but I can't imagine that I'm going to look at this anytime soon and see this as a good, descriptive, understandable, language. No time soon.

First week here and it's clear that there's no one universal set of development tools or techniques - C#, C++, Java, Flex, even VB... it's a lot of tools and there's very little unification of method, style, documentation, etc. It's very much what I expected - dictated by the needs of each group, but one thing is clear - if I want to be more in-line with the group, it'll mean that I need to get used to Eclipse or IntelliJ. Now, I'm not about to get IntelliJ for my Mac, but I can download Eclipse and then have a go with it.

So this morning I decided to have a run at Eclipse for my MacBook Pro. The download was beefy, but it's got all the tools I should need - even the CVS integration. I know there's a subversion plugin for Eclipse (Subclipse) but I want to chat with Troy about that before I go installing that. Maybe it's nice, maybe it's junk. Gotta get his take on it.

If that works out, then I should have Eclipse running on my Mac like I do on my machines at work. Not bad. Certainly Flex development is all done in Eclipse (the initial motivator) and a good bit of the Java work might be there as well. Don't know. But it doesn't hurt, and it's good to be as versed in the tools the other folks are using as the ones I'm used to.

UPDATE: Troy used it and thought it was fine - worked great. So I looked at the 'Download and Install' page and there it told me exactly how to point to the published install location and from there, Eclipse takes over and handles the install and update. Easy enough to do, and now I'm ready to do SVN work within Eclipse.

The guest wireless access provided at work is nice, it's fast, but to use it I can't use Adium to get access to my instant message systems. They need to log all chat/IM on their networks - guest or no, and because of that, they aren't currently allowing IM on the 'guest' part of the network. Seems very reasonable - it's regulations, after all. So I was thinking more about the V740 EVDO card from Verizon. It's up to 1.4Mb down, and 800kb up... not fantastic speed, but it's completely wireless, and that's interesting for a lot of reasons.

If we went on a trip to Dad's house, then we'd have the internet. Not bad. If we went on vacation in the US, I'd be online. Not bad. The Metra - nice. I'd really be able to do some work just about anywhere.

But it's $60/mo, and with the new job and going from hourly to 'base + bonus' it's not something I was sure we wanted to add to the monthly load. When I asked Liza about it she said I should do it to be able to talk to Jeremy and Troy, but she was very unhappy with Comcast's Extreme 50 service. She's been saying since we upgraded that it was, in fact, slower than the older service which I think was 12MB down, 2MB up. In theory, that should be impossible. But Liza uses her box a lot and from her point of view, the extra $80/month was making things worse, not better.

So it was clear what we needed to do: Move back to the Comcast Ultra - 30MB down, 5 MB up, and save the $80 a month (they had upgraded the speeds on every price point) and then take some of that and get the Verizon service. That way, I can use the Shop's guest wireless if I need to download some massive file - like an update to Xcode, or something, but for the most part, use that and not the guest wireless and get back to Adium.

So I told Liza to do the Comcast move - as she also wanted to remove some sports package we have that we don't need, and when she tells me that it's done, I'll order the Verizon card from Amazon where it's only a penny ($0.01) with the required 2 year service contract. That's about $129 cheaper than going to the Verizon store. Why? No idea, but it is.

In the end, I'll be able to use Adium as I want without any problems, and still have the speed when I need it, and be mobile if I really want it. Not bad.

[3/14] UPDATE: I'm pretty miffed at Amazon and Verizon. Here's what happened: I ordered the V740 card from Amazon for $0.01. They said that Verizon rejected my credit application and that I needed to call Verizon and clear it up. So I did. They explained that they don't allow a second account on the same SSN as an existing account - I said that's OK, I want it on my primary account anyway. They said I'd have to have Amazon re-send it and they'd take care of it. So I called Amazon, and after four people, I got to someone that finally said I'd hear from someone in 24 hrs. What?! This is Amazon - I could have ordered a book and had it in hand in that time. What's up with that?

So I waited, and a little later today I heard from them that the reason I can't have the V740 card is because I'm not a new customer. The discounts are only for new customers. Fine. So I can't get it from Amazon. Pitty, they didn't say anything about that in the order form, but that's life. So I decided that I'd just go to the Verizon store in Bolingbrook today and get the card there.

Not so fast, me bucko! The Verizon store doesn't carry them! There's one in the case, but none to be sold. I can't believe that they can't carry at least one! But they didn't. So now I'm waiting for this Tuesday when one will arrive in the mail and I'll be able to activate it and then I'll be able to get access from work without using the guest wireless account. What an endeavor.

This morning, most likely due to the new iPod Shuffle Apple released yesterday, there's a new iTunes and a corresponding update to Front Row on Software Update. There seems to be a few nice new features in iTunes - Genius Bar in Movies and TV Shows - that'll be interesting to see what it thinks I'll like, and a few Parental Controls on iTunes U, but for the most part, it's the new Shuffle that makes the reason for upgrade important.

Not that I plan on getting one, but I want to stay current, as always.

I have to say that it felt really good today to have a smooth day - no worries, no sense that I'm totally behind everything... I know it's going to take time, but it's just so unusual for me to be so new, it was a little unsettling. This team, friends, and Liza, as always, have really helped me through these tough days. Oh, I'm sure they aren't all gone, but I've been around the block a few times, and once I get my feet firmly on the new ground, I'm not worried about that.

In a few days, I'll be here a week. That's a big milestone for me. Also, it'll mean one guy is back and I need to get a good understanding of his project so we can expand/enhance it and deliver it to more desks in the firm. It'll be exciting to see all the phases of that here, and then get even more comfortable with the process.

Yes, things are getting better, and I'm very glad for that.

Well... I had a better day today. Sure, it's still Day 2, and I mean really - what can I expect from myself, here, but I'm hardest on myself and strive to make a difference even when there's no possible serious expectation of same. After all, if I had been at my old job and a new guy came in on Day 2, would I expect him to make a significant difference? Nope. I'd want him to learn how things are done - then make the significant difference.

I'm sure in a month, this will all seem like a bad dream, but I have to live it now, and it's uncomfortable, but getting better. I think it's important to show the kids that even adults are as uncomfortable starting a new job as they are going to a new school - or starting their first job. It's human nature.

But I had a few flashes of good today, and that's keeping me going. I know I can do this, it's just going to take time to get going.