Practical Linux ... just my thoughts

    Ever since the early 90's, when I built my first Salckware Linux distribution from source code I have been fascinated with the idea of a free, open-source operating system. When you consider the very idea of an entire planet of free thinking people all coming together, without pay, to make something truly great it staggers the mind. That is, until you really get to the nuts and bolts of it.

A time for review ...

    In [this previous post] I had started working my way through the book, Mastering Xcode 4: Develop and Design. I had decided to start with this book rather than Programming in Objective-C, third edition. The only real reason for this decision was time; I was looking for a shortcut to Mac and iOS programming. As you will soon see, it didn't quite turn out the way I expected.

How to smash your head against a desk

    Well, I made my decision. I took the shorter path, maybe. I have decided to work through the book "Mastering Xcode 4: Develop and Design." The book is very well written and comprehensive. Instructions and examples are all very clear, just make sure you look very carefully at the provided images of various parts of the Xcode software to see what "view options" are selected. If you are not familiar with Xcode, and I am not, some of terminology will take a little getting used to.

Christmas is the time for wishes to come true ...

    Today, a decision was made for me. Well, that is to say, a solution presented itself. Just in time for Christmas too. First a word about using the word Christmas.

    I am not Walmart. I am not Amazon. I do not even call myself "Christian" and my beliefs are my own. I do, however, say "Merry Christmas." Christmas is more than a religious holiday, it is an American Cultural holiday and has been for a very long time. So, I will not say things like: Merry XMas or Happy Holidays or any other such nonsense. If this offends you, then that is your problem. Deal with it.

Changing habits

    I have been using computers for as long as I can remember. My first computer was a TRS-80 Color Computer II. It was good for what it was. You could plug it into a TV and write simple BASIC programs for it. It was a lot of fun. My first "real" computer was an IBM XT with a clock speed of 4.77 Mhz (Not Ghz) and had 64Kb (Not Mb) of ram. It had no hard drive and only a single 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive. In order to use the other side of the disk you had to cut into the disk casing (there used to be a special tool for this as well) and actually flip the disk over. This was not unlike an old fashioned record player. It came with MSDOS 2.1 and could display text in four colors. It was a powerhouse for its day and was the machine that got me into low-level "assembly" language programming.

    I have been coding in various languages for over twenty years now. In the last few years my actual time writing programs has taken a dramatic fall. I have relegated myself to keeping track of developing software and trying to stay on top of the latest trends in software development.

    I blame this on my Apple Macbook Pro. Why? Because it just works.

    About a nine months ago my wife and I switched from PC to Mac. We did it all in one day and haven't looked back since. Usually we would by a new (or upgrade an existing) PC around every nine to twelve months. We had to do this one person at a time for cost reasons and so we had developed an "upgrade cycle" that was nearly never ending. I managed to convince my wife that an initial layout for higher priced Mac's would be cheaper in the long run because we would be able to break the upgrade cycle.

    It was a tough fight that took a few years, but finally she relented. She had concerns about applications she used on the PC and the total cost of switching over. These are justified and I did my best to assure her that everything was going to be fine. So far that has held true.

    For me at least, I am still forced to have Microsoft Windows. This only due to a single program that I "must have" for work; the IBM Workplace Forms Viewer. There is no alternative to this application and it is Microsoft Windows only. I also need to be able to digitally sign these form and the software for windows that does that prevents me from using such applications as "Wine Bottle" or other methods of virtualization. So I use Parallels Desktop and now I can run this one application that my employer forces upon me on my mac desktop. If I could find a way to get rid of this one application I could dump Microsoft altogether.

    My wife, on the other hand has already dropped Microsoft from her radar. Her only regret is that we didn't make the switch sooner. She loves her 21" IMac, and I must say the display really is beautiful.

    No, we have not become "Mac-O-Lites" although I do frequent the "Cult of Mac" web site. We just really like that our computers just work. It even found and setup our network printer on the first try. No installing drivers, or setting up network configurations. It found everything on the network and it took less than twenty minutes to get everything up and running.

    It is also because everything "just works" that I really have no interest in writing software anymore. I think my MacBook Pro is making me lazy. Yes, I can re-write the IBM Workplace Forms Viewer for Mac, but I really don't want to. I started to at one point and even got to the point that i could open and edit a few of the forms and save the data back to the file.

    But alas, I have found an easier "more Mac Friendly" solution. Adobe Acrobat Pro. You see, Mac's can natively print to PDF. I can then use Acrobat Pro to make a "blank" form not only fillable but also digitally sign-able. I even found "ezPDF Reader" for my Android phone that lets me edit these PDF's right on my phone. Once I get a tablet (I hoping for a new Kindle Fire for Christmas) I will be able to load that app on the tablet and continue to work from the tablet using PDF's.

    Mac, has once again, screwed me by "just working". Thanks.

    So what now? Now, I am in that transitional phase between developer and user. I am sliding away from writing my own software and just using what works. Its amazing how much is really available. Oh, I also haven't had to restart my Macbook Pro in 18 days, 14 hours and 31 minutes as of this post, but that's just bragging.

   

Self publishing

    You know, our world just keeps getting better. Today I discovered something that, while not exactly new, seems relatively unknown. Perhaps its because it is a niche market thing. I don't know. Let me explain.
   
    You see, for a while now I have been an avid fan of a piece of software called Scrivener. It was originally a Mac only product, but has recently been moved to Windows and Linux as well. If you do any kind of writing, this thing is awesome. I am not sure what I can compare it too, but take my word for it. This thing is great. And, it just got better. Well for me anyway.

    Amazon sells books. Well they sell a lot of things, but books are a major part of that. In fact, any Amazon customer can (and probably already has) sign up for Kindle Direct Publishing. This is a free service that allows (would-be and other-wise) authors to self publish their work for free and Amazon will sell their work in the Amazon book store.

    The catch? Well, none really. Amazon will give you 70% of total sales of whatever you publish. They list it on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and a couple of other countries. You can receive your payments via old fashioned cheque, or by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). You can even specify the currency to be paid in. It really seems like a fairly sweet deal. After asking a few questions in some writing forums online I found more than one author who uses this services exclusively and they make a fair amount of scratch for their work.

    So how does Amazon selling your stuff for you involve software? Scrivener now has a feature to "Publish" your latest creation directly to Kindle format. (Free software plugin download from Amazon required) You can choose your cover art, build a table of contents (or let Scrivener do it for you), and more. Basically, with a few tweaks you can have your novel or whatever ready for primetime in no time.

    Once you're happy with the way it looks, you just upload, set your price and wait. No more agents, no more publishing houses. Now, you go strait to your target audience with your creation. A few simple clicks and you are a published author. Of course, you still need to write something first. In any case, it is option for new aspiring writers that can't seem to find a home with an established publishing house.

   So, if you have tried to pitch your novel and have more rejection letters than you shake a stick at, give it a try. What do you have to lose?

Amazon's, Apples and Google's ... oh my!

    Tablet, eReader or just move some stuff around for a while? That is the question.

    A while back I was trying to decide to whether to develop for Android or iOS/osX. I have since decided on the latter. Not for any altruistic reason, mainly because I just like the way Apple products work. Then, when I wasn't looking, Amazon introduces the Kindle Fire. A "sub" tablet like device intended for media consumption. The competition on the field seems to be getting better.

    Since my initial decision to learn Xcode I have started to setup my "development environment". Not just the software I use, but my workspace as well. A few surprises have struck me in the way I work. First, I have decided that whenever possible I will get the electronic version of any book I buy. I already have more books than my house can store in any reasonable manner so this was an easy choice.

    What I haven't counted on is the way I access such material. I have the Kindle app on my Android phone and my MacBook pro. I have purchased a couple of books (in Kindle format) to help me learn Xcode and Objective-C. What I didn't count on was how inconvenient it was to have to switch from my Xcode screen and my Kindle application. I really like running the Amazon Kindle application full screen as it get a full page view that is easy to read at a glance. What I need is a way to move my eBooks off of my desktop that I am also trying to do work on. The screen on my Android phone is just too small to get the job done. What to do?

    I have a few of options to play with, but neither the time nor money to explore every possibility in practice. So, as I usually do, I research the problem to death until I can find a solution that will work for me.

    Solution #1:
    Use a USB to VGA adapter to setup a second external screen, rotate it into portrait mode and just leave it for things like the Amazon Kindle application or viewing PDF's. Since the frame rate of USB video is usually unusable for gaming (with I rarely do anyway) it would be just for simple documents or web pages. This would free up my desktop and still allow me to easily have my eBooks open at the same time.


    Solution #2:
    Get an eReader.

    The Amazon Kindle Fire looks to be a great choice, at least at first glance. The problem is that I know it can do so much more than Amazon will allow. So, I will probably end up rooting the darn thing to make it do more. I will spend so much time on that I won't get any real work done. Also I am not sure how well the display will look in direct sunlight.

    The Apple iPad or iPad2 is a great choice and I would get one today if they weren't so expensive. After using an iPad2 that a co-worker has purchased, I really like it. I just can't justify spending that kind of money on something I won't be doing my primary work on. Call me cheap, but I don't think I would take it to work either. I would be in too much fear of scratching and/or breaking the thing.

    Getting a "real" Android tablet is also out of the question. The ones that are worth anything cost as much as an iPad2 but Android just isn't refined enough yet to compete for a quality user experience. Besides their cost, the sheer size and weight are a major deterrent. Some of these feel like a laptop with the lid flipped over.

    Of course, there is also the basic $79 Kindle eReader from Amazon that would do the job. In fact it's currently the forerunner of the eReaders I am looking at. It's cheap, reliable, small and light weight yet large enough to "look" like a real book. However it is in black and white, so color pages may or may not display correctly. My wife currently has a Kindle 3G (the one with the keyboard) and has many medical books on it. While images look just fine most of the time, there are those rare occasions when you get an error like "image size to large" or some such. While not a perfect solution, I could just as easily toss it in the car and read it when I am my lunch break and not worry to much about damaging it. That alone makes it a very attractive option.

    Solution #3:
    This one will require a complete re-arangment of my work area. You see, I currently use a "Henge Dock"( http://www.hengedocks.com/ ) which stands up my MacBook pro on end when docked. That means the lid is closed and I use an external display, hence Solution #1. Basically I would drop the dock, and go back to plugging in and unplugging some four or five connections every time I leave my desk with my laptop. The dock is great for just grab and go. When I return I just drop the laptop back in and I am ready to go. Easy peasy.

    Of course, this is also the cheapest option as I do not have to purchase anything else, but would do away with my dock that I have already spent $60 on. This is actually the most complicated option really. Mainly because I have a smallish work space as both me and my wife share a room that we both use as an office. It's not cramped, but doesn't really leave room for expansion either.

    However, since it is in fact the cheapest solution, and the holidays are coming up fast, I think it will be the one I at least try first. Who knows, maybe Santa will be nice this year.

Of books and electrons ...

    I love books, all kinds of books. I can read a user manual the same way I read a good piece of fiction. I love to learn new things as much as I like to get lost in my imagination as I am swept away on a galactic quest to save the universe. Books can inspire, teach, inform and even change opinions. Books are a very powerful thing.

    Books are things. They can be held, burned and even torn apart. The feel of paper against your fingers is a very real sensation. Seeing words printed on a page gives them a sense of finality that is hard to explain or quantify. Most of us have been reading books since before we can remember, from the earliest days of our youth.

    I own many books. Nothing rare or exotic, but I do own a lot of them. They take up more space than I initially imagined. Whenever I get a new book, I look at its small size and think nothing of where to put it when I am done with it. I just buy it, read it and if the book is lucky I will take the time to find a nook to cram it into on one of my many book shelves. More than likely it will get moved from coffee table to the end table, from there to the headboard, then on to my desk, and finally back to coffee table more times than I can count. Eventually, it will most likely end up in an unlabeled cardboard box in the storage shed. It seems like a semi-tragic end for a thing that, at least for a time, brought me some small semblance of joy.