Boyzoid's Blog & Stuff - Tech Stuff

Apple Gets Major Points in My Book

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:55:00 -0400

One thing my wife and I are very passionate about, but I rarely, if ever, blog about (I should change that), is that we home school our children. I can get into the why in another blog post, but suffice to say, it has been one of the most fulfilling endeavors of our lives.

I am going to be replacing my laptop and my wife's desktop with Apple products. I want to get a Mac Book Pro, and my wife is leaning towards a Mac Book. While I was looking around at prices today, a friend pointed me to the education section of their site. I was stunned to see this, where Apple offers the same educational discount for home schools as other educational institutions.

It is refreshing to see companies like Apple offering discounts like this. I hope more companied follow their lead.

I Have Pownce Invites

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:10:00 -0400

I have 7. If your interested, leave a comment, the first 7 (if I even get 7 responses) will get one.

I really want to be cool...

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:41:00 -0400

I really want to be cool and get a Mac Book Pro (MBP).

I really want to find out what's in the Kool-Aid that Apple sells that makes anyone who owns one of them become a full on zealot.

I really want to find out what the big deal is.

But at what cost?

I am considering replacing my Windows based laptop, and my wife's Windows based desktop with a MBP for me, and an plain ole' Mac Book for her. I say considering because I went to Apple.com today to just get an idea of how much we would need to spend. I say considering because I did not expect the 'sticker-shock' I got when I went to the site.

The standard MBP was $2799.00. After comparing the specs with my current laptop I was astounded to find out, there rally isn't a whole lot more, if anything, the MBP offers that I don;t already have in terms of hardware. The processor in the MBP is a bit faster than what I have, but my current hard drive is 60GB larger. Also, the video card is a bit more beefy than what I have, but all I do is development on my laptop. I don't so a great deal of graphics work, nor do I watch DVDs, so this is kind of a waste for me. Both have 2GB of RAM, WiFI and Bluetooth.

Here is the kicker, I paid over $1000.00 less than the MBP. I am sorry, in my opinion, the differences in the specs don't warrant that $1000 difference.

So, I am asking for help. I am having a hard time convincing myself (much less my wife) that it is worth the extra money to get a Mac. What can I do with a MAC that I cannot do with my Windows machine?

Help convince me its worth the extra grand.

And please don't say I can run OSX and Windows on the same machine, that's not really a selling point to me. I am not going to pay an extra $1000 so I can run Windows.

Good Java Book

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:03:00 -0400

I know this is like opening Pandora's box, but can someone recommend a good resource for learning Java? If you could include reasons why you recommend the book, it would be extremely helpful. Also, any resources I should avoid like the plague? (Again, can you include some reasons why?)

Thanx!

Kudos to Uniden and Pioneer/XM Satellite Radio

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:02:00 -0400

I meant to post this last week, but the flu kind of got in the way.

Two weeks ago, we purchased 2 products that had some unexpected features.

The first was a handset for our Uniden phone system at home. This is one of those systems that has a 'base' that is connected to a phone line, and the ability to add numerous 'handsets' to the system. One of our handsets needed replacing, and when at the store, saw a handset which claimed to work with 'any Uniden 5.6 MgHz phone system. I was a bit skeptical as the phone system was several years old, but it was cheap, and could easily be returned if it didn't work.

I was amazed that all I had to do was drop the handset into the base for a few seconds so it could be 'registered' with the base, and it worked. What surprised me most is that the new handset fit into the old base.

The second product was a car kit I bought for a new handheld satellite radio I received for Christmas (It's a Pioneer Inno). I already had an XM radio in my car, and was not looking forward to having to run a new wire for a new antenna. Not that it was difficult, just rather time consuming and annoying. I was surprised to find out that not only could I continue to use the same antenna, but I could use the same plastic base on which the radio is installed.

I was impressed with how easily these new products worked with older equipment, and thought it was very 'forward thinking' of the companies involved. A co-worker pointed out, though, its kind of sad that something like that would impress me as much as it did, since stuff should work that way anyway. But, considering it doesn't, or usually doesn't, I am still impressed, and hopeful that other companies follow their lead.

Web Developer Toolbar

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:30:00 -0400

I have been a faithful user of the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox for quite sometime. I will admit, I don't even tap a fraction of its potential. I typically only use it to edit the CSS of a page where I am still creating or editing the layout. For those who might not know, the Web Developer Toolbar lets you edit the CSS of any page, and renders the changes you make to the page. It does not save the changes to the file (now that would be both cool and dangerous), but you can copy and paste any changes into the real CSS file.

Today, I was told about 2 nifty little features I did not know existed.

'Display Element Information' - This is available on the 'Information' menu or, by default, by pressing ctrl+shift+f. You can then mouse over different parts of the page and see information about the page, such as: the type of element (<td>, <p>, <div>, etc..), and attributes of the tag, any children and the 'ancestors'. Very cool.
'View Style Information- - This is available on the 'CSS' menu or, by default, pressing ctrl+shif+y. You can then click on any element and any CSS specific to the element you clicked will open in a new tab. Also very cool.

Both of these will likely save me a lot of time when creating templates, or trouble shooting CSS issues.

Let's try this again...

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:20:00 -0400

OK, so I thought the color green that used to be in the navigation menu, and on top of the pods would grow on me. It didn't. So here is attempt #2 at some new color. I think this one is a bit more pleasing.

New Look

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:34:00 -0400

In case you have not noticed, I have updated the layout of this site. While I love the way the header and menu look, I am not too sure about the side pods.

This is a layout I got from Open Source Web Designs and modified to work with BlogCFC. I did have to make a few changes to some of the 'core' files, but most of the changes are from the updating the CSS.

I am not sure where this golf course is, but I really liked the picture, which I got from another site I use a lot for site design, Stock.XCHNG, which has tons of free and cheap stock images. I will try to find out where it is, and then play there. If you happen to know where it is, please share.

Let me know what you think.

Google goodness for everyone.

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 10:59:00 -0400

I was lucky enough to have been able to get an invite for Google Analytics a while ago. I have used it for on a few sites, and the amount of information collected is astounding.

Google has announced that anyone can now sign up for Analytics.

Oh, yea, and its free...at least for now.

Nifty Eclipse time saver

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 16:57:00 -0400

I am not sure if this is a function of Eclipse or CF Eclipse, but either way, its a great time saver.

OK, lets say that off of your web root, you need to create a directory structure that looks like /components/MyApp/user/data/gateway. You could keep doing right-click --> New Folder, until you were done. Or, you could right-click on the parent folder for components, and in the dialog box that pops up, add, components/MyApp/user/data/gateway and Eclipse (or CF Eclipse), will create the directory structure for you.

Anyone else want to share some time saving tricks from Eclipse or CF Eclipse?

KidGamers.org

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 14:46:00 -0400

As a lot of people know, I am a huge video game fan. I am also the father of two young video game fans. One problem my wife and I frequently encounter is finding out which games are appropriate for kids, and whether or not they are good games.

Sure, there are review sites out there, but they tend to focus more on all games, and very rarely review games for kids, or how games might be played and/or enjoyed by kids. Enter KidGamers.org. KidGamers.org aims to go beyond basic ESRB ratings, and typical reviews, and provide reviews of games with kids in mind.

KidGamers.org is a collaborative effort between myself, Ray Camden, Ben Forta and Emmet McGovern. All of us are gamers, all of us are parents, and all of us are parents of gamers of varying ages. Check out the site and let us know what you think. We plan on doing a review each week, so visit often.

Reason number 12,783 why I love FireFox

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:07:00 -0400

I love FireFox. I have loved it since I first laid eyes on its beautiful tabbed browsing back when version 1 was still in beta. Since then, I have found many more reasons to love it. I happened on another one, by mistake, yesterday.

I was troubleshooting an application, and needed to modify some JavaScript. To make sure the changes I made were actually doing what I wanted, I needed to refresh the page, then view the source, a real pain in the ass.

During one round of 'change code -> save ->go to browser -> refresh page -> view source', I alt+tabbed to the wrong window, and instead of looking at the page in FireFox, I was looking at the 'View Source' window. Since I had gotten into a rhythm, I had hit F5, before I realized I was in the wrong window. To my surprise, the code in the 'View Source' window refreshed, and showed me the result of the updated code.

I am in awe. I no longer need to keep opening 'View Source' window after 'View Source' window when changes I make to my code are not viewable in a regular browser window. I love when FireFox makes my job easier.

Connecting to SQL DB using a different port

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:25:00 -0400

OK, so maybe I am an idiot. I have spent the last hour or so trying to connect to 2 different SQL Servers (one is SQL 2000 one is SQL 2005) while using the new MS SQL Studio. The problem is that both of these servers are behind a firewall, and port-forwarding is being used. As such, neither connection uses port 1433, the default port for SQL Server. [More]

Book Review - Don't Make Me Think!

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:23:00 -0400

For Christmas, I received 'Dont' Make Me Think' by Steven Krug and I have been reading it during my daily commute, and I am finding it increasingly more difficult to put down. The book has been around for a while, and is now in its second edition.

For anyone who even has a role in designing a site's layout, even if it is a tertiary role, this book is a must read. The book devotes a lot of time discussing a 'common sense approach to web usability'. However, as we prove time and time again, common sense isn't all that common.

CSS Bliss.

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 22:17:00 -0400

Anyone who knows me knows that I am somewhat of a CSS zealot. One of the biggest pains in the arse when coding CSS is the differences between IE and Firefox (Mozilla). I would have to have 2 windows open (one IE and one Firefox), and switch between them to constantly check my styles to make sure they were as consistent as possible. [More]