Rob Fahrni

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T10:06:00.001-07:00

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Check your facts please

2008-07-04T09:46:00.001-07:00

Have Mac will Blog [via James Robertson]: "For all OS X�s excellence, it should be remembered that OS X is a good deal younger than Vista, with the Mach microkernel sitting under BSD and a coherent interface layer sitting above it. Windows has archaelogical layers of software buried under the covers, because Microsoft chose to provide a great deal of backward compatibility." - That statement is only partially correct. NT began life in 1989, Mach in 1985. The NT Kernel is newer. As to the backward compatibility layers on top of an otherwise excellent kernel, well, he's right there.

If Microsoft were to create a new OS they should start with the NT Kernel and go from there. Microsoft could survive creation of a new OS, just as Apple did, and they can be heroes on the other side. Keep the Win32 API's in the OS as a compatibility layer, just as Apple has Carbon, and introduce the "new" way to do things, slowly turning developers to it, with a conversion deadline of a number of years, say ten. If you remember back to the initial release of NT it included two shells, Windows and the OS/2 shell. Yes, you could put a new UI on top of NT. I used to know the complete details, but my old brain is failing me at the moment.

In a nutshell Microsoft could strap the .NET runtime up on top of the NT Kernel, as the new API, just as Apple did with Cocoa, and move toward a much easier development model. Of course that's a big oversimplification of the real work, but they could do it.

There's no doubt Windows is carrying around old baggage, but the OS as a whole is not a complete loss as folks would lead you to believe.

RRoD

2008-07-03T09:58:00.001-07:00

Yes, our lovely XBox-360 has started acting up, we got the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Last night Kim was off killing folks in Call of Duty and the box would hang about every five to ten minutes, requiring a reboot, which makes for terrible game play. It's kind of frustrating it happened over the summer, when the kids and Kim are out of school, it's prime gaming time!

Oh well, the repair center was very polite. We're going to ship off the box as soon as possible so we should get it back just in time for a week of play before school starts again.

Movie line of the week

2008-07-03T08:40:00.001-07:00

Good morning movie liners, are you ready to get the day started?

Here goes, good luck!

There's a story going around 'bout how some 20 Redcoats got killed by a ghost or some damn thing, carried a Cherokee tomahawk.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Sonics move to Okie-City?

2008-07-03T07:31:00.001-07:00

ESPN: "As a result, the SuperSonics are headed to Oklahoma City with Bennett leading the way, leaving behind the team name, colors and 41 years of history." - Bennett had zero intention of keeping the team in Seattle, he just went through the motions. It's a sad, sad, day in Seattle.

Starbucks closing 600 stores

2008-07-01T15:24:00.001-07:00

Fortune: "Starbucks (SBUX) can�t catch a break. The coffee retailer says it will close 600 stores, about 8.5% of its 7,100 total stores, an expansion of the 100-store closing target it had previously announced." - Ouch! I wonder if my daughter's Starbucks is in danger of closing?

Visual Studio Command Window

2008-07-01T08:10:00.001-07:00

Sara Ford: "To create an alias, open up the Command Window (or anywhere you can type in VS commands) and type in something along the lines of..." - I've always wondered how to use the Command Window, but I've never taken the time to look into it, much less use it. I love the the alias "?", shades of Classic Visual Basic.

Plug-in car

2008-06-28T08:43:00.001-07:00

Wired: "Tony Markel drives a plug-in hybrid that runs 50 miles per charge, goes 100 miles per gallon and gets power from the sun. If he has his way, you'll drive one too before long." - This would work quite well for me, we have abundant sunshine 'round these parts to power the little bugger.

Visio Templates

2008-06-28T08:30:00.001-07:00

Visio Guy: "Ok, ok, this is all just a thinly-veiled excuse to play with the new Themes feature, see what it takes to create a custom theme with Visio 2007, and share some of that info with all y'all." - Chris explores a new Visio 2007 feature in his own special way. If you're a Visio user, developer, or remember the old vector game, Battlezone, you'll enjoy it.

Movie line of the week answer

2008-06-27T14:45:00.001-07:00

Good afternoon.

No takers for the second week in a row, major bummer.

The correct answer was...

The Little Rascals

Job of the week

2008-06-27T09:23:00.001-07:00

jobs.joelonsoftware.com: "The explosive growth of Pelco and the Imaging Systems division in particular has led to needs for a software developer who is passionate about solving complex problems, in particular the design and development of embedded Linux kernel and driver software for high performance DSPs. We need great developers to join our world-class team!" - We're hiring, come on in, the water's fine.

New York, tech job leader?

2008-06-27T09:14:00.001-07:00

New York Times: "If you�re looking for a tech job in the United States, the best place to go is not Silicon Valley. It�s New York." - We just lost a very valuable member of one of our teams to a company in New York, so there seems to be some validity to that statement.

LG Dare, dead on the vine

2008-06-27T09:07:00.001-07:00

Apple Gazette: "The phone will retail for $250. You then get a $50 mail-in-rebate�which will bring the cost down to $200 when you eventually get your rebate check in the mail." - The only chance this phone has to compete against the iPhone, it's one and only chance, is it's offered by Verizon. If you don't want to switch networks you have a phone that is a distant second to the iPhone's design. We're going to see tons of clones now, but that's what happens when you're the best of breed.

Good luck with that LG.

DVD and Books Collection

2008-06-26T10:55:00.001-07:00

I was looking for a particular title in our pile of DVD's last night, they're in a few places, and couldn't find what I was looking for. Then I though "Hey, maybe we don't actually have this film?" I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure we don't. Bummer, I really wanted to watch it again.

Anywho, I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be nice to have a piece of software to organize this stuff? One with barcode support and automagic lookup."

There is such a beast, it's called Librarian Pro. Time to buy some software, and a barcode scanner.

National Champion Fresno State Bulldogs!

2008-06-26T08:12:00.001-07:00

Fresno Bee: "OMAHA, Neb. - It happened, just as it does in the fairy tales. A happy ending to complete this Cinderella season. A movie based on real-life memories that won't go away anytime soon. Maybe not ever." - The "Wonderdogs" do the impossible. Congratulations Fresno State!

Movie line of the week

2008-06-26T07:32:00.001-07:00

Good morning movie liners! This mornings line comes from our youngest daughter, Bug.

Are you up to the challenge? Here goes...

He makes me melt like a Popsicle on the 4th of July!

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Brent Simmons, mad man!

2008-06-25T16:40:00.001-07:00

Brent Simmons via Twitter: "Finally put NetNewsWire for iPhone in svn. Was relying on Time Machine and scripted backups." - Wow, that's something I'd have done straight away, but I'm paranoid like that.

I think the bigger thing to take from this post is we're getting NetNewsWire for the iPhone. I look forward to using it.

Wonderdogs!

2008-06-24T21:21:00.001-07:00

ESPN: "After spotting Georgia a five-run lead in the third inning, Fresno State struck for 15 runs over the next three innings for a 19-10 victory in Game 2 of the College World Series finals." - Unbelievable! Little Fresno State is one game away from a National Title.

Chyrp

2008-06-24T20:12:00.001-07:00

So, is anyone out there using Chyrp?

It looks like it could be another nice weblogging system.

Losing Weight

2008-06-23T15:36:00.001-07:00

Get Fit Slowly: "This morning, I hit another magical 10 pound increment. Since November 1, I�ve managed to drop 30 pounds. That�s 31 weeks and 30 pounds for those of you counting. And even though I complain a lot, I really couldn�t be much happier. I�m fitter, lighter, and healthier than I was 8 months ago�a statement that I haven�t been able to say in a very long time. I�m hoping to keep that streak going for a very long time to come." - This is the hardest thing in the world to do! I want to lose fat, not weight, and I've had a heckuva time doing it. I drop ten, then gain it back. Maybe Get Fit Slowly can help.

Resizing a VMWare Fusion image?

2008-06-23T10:02:00.001-07:00

I need some help. I'd like to resize two VMWare images, one Windows, one Ubuntu Linux. I Googled for an answer and got quite a few hits, but I'd like some community input before continuing.

Please, if you have a tool of choice for resizing a VMWare image, leave a comment or drop me a line.

Thanks!

Movie line of the week answer

2008-06-20T13:22:00.001-07:00

I expected this to happen. Go on vacation, miss a week, and nobody takes a stab at it, DOH!

No matter, we'll be back next week.

The correct answer was...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Add to the wish list

2008-06-19T14:20:00.001-07:00

The Art of Dale Mathis is amazing! Yes, I want one of these desks, just because.

I'll take one of those clocks while you're at it.

Movie line of the week

2008-06-19T08:56:00.001-07:00

Yes, I missed last week, but the beach was calling!

Are you ready to get started? Ok, here goes...

You know, for an old man you ain't bad in a fight. What are you, like 80?

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Pulling the plug on Microsoft

2008-06-18T22:44:00.001-07:00

MSFTextrememakeover: "It's sobering to realize that during Ballmer's term as CEO, MSFT has underperformed almost all of its top tech peers (including AAPL, IBM, HPQ, SAP, INTC, CSCO, SYMC, NOK, ORCL, ADBE, RIMM, QCOM, Ebay, and AMZN), and badly lagged the major averages. We may even see our third plunge to test the 2000 lows during his watch. Unbelievable." - So long Mr. Makeover, it's been nice reading ya.