RIP Doug Engelbart
Doug Engelbart passed away last night at age 88. I remember him as one of the names behind the beginnings of modern computers, inventing the mouse, hypertext, video conferencing and collaboration. But these were not the ends of his contributions, these were the means by which he tried to achieve his intent, to augment human intellect.
Too bad we use his inventions for Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, LOLCats and flame wars; we degrade human intellect.
A Simple C++ Project Structure
One of the things I need in my new job is a bunch of blazingly fast daemons to capture market information and trade data. I prototyped them in Ruby to see what comes down the line, but I have the need, the need for speed. Which means I need a UNIX C or C++ framework.
So I went old-school. Retro even. Plain old C++. My favorite programmer’s editor. And the good old terminal, er, iTerm 2, just Mac-like.
Keep Building
Marco Arment (@marco) on his blog in Lockdown, writes:
We need to keep pushing forward without them, and do what we’ve always done before: route around the obstructions and maintain what’s great about the web. Keep building and supporting new tools, technologies, and platforms to empower independence, interoperability, and web property ownership.
The context is how the big internet companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google have locked down the open internet, and that we need to overcome their new barriers and keep building so that we can keep the great internet we know and love.
Back in the Saddle
TL;DR: I got a job! Gonna keep writing though.
As of this week, I’m back in the saddle in the finance industry, designing and developing leading edge platforms and systems for a new asset manager, my favorite kind of business. The challenges in the new firm are new to me and epic. And I love a good challenge.
How does this affect…
- My current consulting customers? Nothing changes, all your projects are in support and the support levels will continue unaffected. I will not, however, be taking on new consulting engagements.
- My blog? I love writing, and will continue to spend evenings and weekends writing and hopefully improving my craft. Actually, I think this blog may get even more geeky as I am using some very cool, modern open-source products and will likely nerd all over them and just have to share.
- My products? Of course, they too will be supported and upgraded as needed. TimeToCall will get an iOS 7 facelift, and Kifu is already rock solid.
I have enjoyed the past few years being an indie consultant (other than working for a royal pain-in-the-arse – oh, wait, um, that’s me!) and delivering some amazing products to a bunch of wonderful customers. It has enabled me to become proficient an a whole bunch of new technologies, be exposed to new industries and processes, face and defeat untold challenges, and to make a lot of new friends like you.
Pinbrowser for Pinboard Updated
I just downloaded the updated Pinbrowser for Pinboard from the App Store, an iOS app by Mikael Konutgan (@mkonutgan), and it just got a whole lot better.
Pinboard is a paid for bookmarking site that focuses on speed, utility and longevity (and anti-socialness!). Pinbrowser is an iPhone and iPad application to access your Pinboard, other’s bookmarks (making it more social) and the all famous popular bookmarks list.
It’s the social aspect that attracted me to the product in the first place. I love to see what other people I follow on Twitter and App.Net are finding on the Internet in their travels, and the ability to browse their Pinboard lists is the stand-out feature of Pinbrowser.
WWDC 2013 Post-Game Review
Just under a week ago, Tim Cook walked out on stage to present the keynote at WWDC 2013 (Video here). It was an astounding success. I think Apple has become Tim Cook’s Apple, and the products announced are living proof of that.
After letting them percolate for a few days, here are my impressions of what was announced.
Accessing SQL Server from OS X
Every once in a while I need to access a Microsoft SQL Server database from my Mac, usually to create a data migration script. In the past I used a commercial ODBC driver. But ODBC on OS X was deprecated ages ago.
In this post, I’ll talk about my current stack for accessing SQL Server databases via Ruby and Python and how to set it up. Note that I do not use homebrew, so these are all native installs.
Horizons
When I was a child, my horizon was the building I was in, my home. I could reach out and touch my family and whomever wandered into the house.
As a teenager, I got a bicycle, and my horizon was the neighborhoods within cycling range. I could reach out and touch my friends in nearby neighborhoods. And I felt less constrained.
Later, I learned to drive, and my horizon grew to the city I was living in. I could reach out and meet people from any neighborhood in the city. And I felt less constrained.
Sharing Reminder Lists
Looking for a quick and easy way to share reminders with other people? Here’s how we do it.
My wife and I share a Reminders.app list called Groceries that we check on the way home. If there is anything on the list, we pop into the shop and pick it up.
Reminders.app is an Apple app included in iOS and the Mac that enables you to create lists, set reminder dates or reminder locations. It syncs via iCloud so reminders on any device are automatically distributed to all your other devices.
Google Analytics for Status Board Server Edition
Google has finally deprecated their GAPI interface which this used to talk to Google Analytics, sorry folks, it will no longer work. See the New Google Analytics for Status Board Server Edition for an updated version.
Dropbox went down today, and I found out when my Status Board stopped updating. This spurred me on to migrate my Google Analytics for Status Board scripts from Ruby and Dropbox over to server based PHP. Huge thanks to Carl Franzon for the starter code.