Older Me entries

iPhone 3G - first day

UPDATE: Looks like I'm not the only one having problems getting a reliable 3G connection. You would think that San Francisco would be well covered. If I could do it over again, I would probably just buy a used original iPhone and use that until the 3G kinks have been worked out. I'm still considering returning my 3G. $30 extra a month for a 3G network with bugs is a rip-off.

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My office is just a few blocks from the downtown San Francisco Apple store, but I kept putting off buying a 3G because I didn't want to wake up early and stand in line. But last Sunday I was working late and it was already 3am, so I decided to just keep working until 8am and I picked up a white 16GB phone Monday morning on my way home. The line was very short, just 3-4 people. I only waited for 2 minutes before being helped.

When I was buying the phone at the Apple store, I asked the sales guy how I could wipe my old iPhone clean so I could give it to my wife. I explained to him that it's a developer phone with the beta of 2.1 installed and that I didn't know how to downgrade it back to 2.0. I knew it wasn't something that wouldn't be possible unless I knew some trick to get iTunes to download and install a clean copy of 2.0. The sales guy was totally clueless and just lied to me saying just to plug it in to iTunes and it would do the right thing. I knew that was wrong and just said forget it then, if you don't know how to do it I don't want the phone. He then went upstairs, asked the Genius bar and they were also clueless. He assured me that iTunes would revert it back automatically. Well, when I got home he was wrong. iTunes refused to downgrade it. It's amazing that after all this time, the geniuses at one of the most high profile Apple stores on the planet can't answer a simple question. I called the store back and they said to call Applecare and ask them. I called Applecare, waited on hold for 20 minutes and they guy told me the procedure. Turn off the phone, unplug it from USB, hold down the home button and plug it in. iTunes then goes into forced recovery mode downloading the latest 2.0 OS and installing it. Very simple. I have know idea why the Apple store employees didn't know about this simple procedure.

I've been using the phone and have been disappointed with the 3G coverage. I live in San Francisco and I can't get a very strong signal in my house. It seems that most of the time I have 1 bar showing unless I'm in downtown. I've been cut off many times, and I've only made a few calls so far. Downtown coverage seems much better. My old iPhone didn't have problems with signal. I tried turning off 3G. It seemed to help, but can't be sure. I didn't do much testing.

Here's an interesting story. I was iChatting with one of my friends in Japan, and he bought an iPhone but couldn't get a signal in his house. So he calls up Softbank and they send a guy over to install an indoor antenna so he could get a signal. They didn't charge him anything, but my friend says you have to remain a customer for 2 years after the installation otherwise they will charge him. Do they offer a service like that in the US?

Another big disappointment with the iPhone 3G is the price of the service plans. I didn't read the agreement, but the guy at the Apple Store said it was $30 extra a month and NO text messages included? He said the old iPhone gave 200 messages, but the 3G costs extra. I think I heard it was $15 extra a month for text messages. Is this true? Seems insane to increase the price by $30 for a 3G network that's still in "beta" and no text messages? I wonder if I heard wrong. That doesn't make any sense, unless AT&T is evil. :)

Klaus Nomi - The Nomi Song

I saw a great movie recently about an 80s new wave artist named Klaus Nomi called "The Nomi Song"

I had never heard of him before watching the movie, but he's a very fascinating character. There's lots of videos and other information online, so rather than summarizing his story here, just do some searches on Google.

Here's two of my favorite videos by Nomi. When I first watched the movies I thought this guy was just weird, but after watching the documentary and his videos, I've started to really appreciate his talents. He was also one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS.

The first video starts off slow, but gets really good. I especially like the segment starting at 1:45.

Here's another video that's cool.

Japan trip report

I just got back from Japan recently and finally have some time to blog about it. I went for 17 days and had a great time.

If you've never visited Japan, I recommend it. There's lots of cool things about the city and culture that are worth experiencing. I remember the first time I went in 1991, not knowing what to expect, and my whole perspective on the United States changed forever. I always assumed we were the most advanced country on earth (I was young and naive back in those days). That's not to say Japan is perfect, but there are many great things there that I wish would make it's way to the USA.

One of the best things about Japan is the food. I'm not talking about fugu or high priced sushi or anything fancy. I'm talking about Japanese fast food, donut shops, pastry shops and even food from 7-11. Just about anything you try there will be good and the service will be good. Plus there's no tipping!

Here's a pict of one of my favorite places. "Mister Donut". Cheap, good coffee and a cute japanese girl comes by every few minutes to refill your coffee. What more could you want?

The infamous "Cocoa Float" at a great fast food place called "First Kitchen". If you're ever in Japan, you MUST try this. It's awesome.

Starbucks has a green tea frappuccino that is delicious:

During the trip I met up with some fellow mac developers living in Japan. One day we went to Kamakura to visit a Zen temple and sat in for a session of zazen. It was one of the most famous Zen temples. I can't remember the name at the moment.

I'm interested in Zen, but I'm too lazy to practice it. Maybe some day. One thing interesting happened during zazen. There were about 40-50 people there and we were all sitting down and the priest walks around carrying a big stick. If a person gestures to the priest, the priest will whack the guy on the back. But the problem is every other person requested getting whacked on the back so it was really hard to meditate with so much noise. I couldn't focus!

Here's a pict of me and one of my developer friends waiting to eat awesome Japanese beef stew in Kamakura.

I also stopped by my friends office to see what's its like to be a developer working in Japan. The office was very tiny, but it was cozy and enough room for a desk and monitor and stuff. (not the best pict, but the office was so tiny it was hard to get anything in frame)

Like a good geek I had to take a trip to Akihabara which is the mecca of the infamous "Otaku". Akihabara is home to the "maid cafe" phenomenon. Here's a maid on the street begging me to taste her treats. I found out later that the best looking maids are inside, but they are extremely strict about taking photographs. I was forced to erase a picture I took inside by an angry maid.

We visited a few Maid cafes and they were fun. It's wasn't what I expected. It's really quite normal except for the fact that the waitresses wear costumes. All the customers where normal people men and women. I expected there would be tons of geeks drooling over the maids, but it's wasn't like that at all. Good food and service.

I'm kind of perplexed how so many shops there are in Akiba selling dolls and figures. There are tons of them and all packed to the roof. Who buys this stuff? It's all very cute and fun, but in order for these places to all stay in business there must be tons of Otaku buying lots of figurines. They sell everything thing at these stores. Doll clothes, hair, doll paint. Once again it was hard to take a picture since the spaces where so cramped and tight with stuff. Here's some bare dolls you can buy and you can design your own anime character.

Here's another pict of one display case. The store is packed wall to wall with cases of figures. I just noticed the "no camera" sign on the left side.

Another shot of display cases stuffed with stuff.

We had lunch at the famous Otaku food stand. Star Kebab.

Me and the gang hanging out inside the Star Kebab.

We walked by this business which offers a high tech face massage given by a maid. I regret not trying it!

There were also lots of shops selling vintage game systems from the 80s and 90s.

Here's a classic. I wonder why it never took off?

Some vintage hand held game systems:

We also visited this vintage arcade. Every machine there was filled with almost every known game ROM imaginable. All the classics in one place.

Before the Otaku took over Akiba, it was home (and still is) to vendors selling every conceivable electronic part or device. You can find any type of resistor, switch, capacitor etc. There are rows and rows of these little one man shops no bigger than 6x6 stuffed to max with electronics with a little old man sitting behind it all selling day after day.

I only bought one thing in Akiba. This killer mask for my son Kai. It was only $2.

Here's a pict that really illustrates why Japan is awesome. This is a toilet on the public train. No graffiti, no trash, clean and safe. It wouldn't last 1 day in San Francisco. In SF they locked all the public toilets in the train stations for "Security Reasons" Where do they expect the bums to shoot heroin?

Here's the family in front of some Cherry blossoms. There were blooming why we were there.

Bought my kid another mask. His hero is Ultraman!

The toilet on the Bullet train for Gaijin like me.

My brother in-law is also a Mac user. He does page layout for game magazines and has a hardcore setup.

Here he is wearing the Steve Jobs uniform

My sister in-law is an awesome cook. Here's your typical Japanese high rise Kitchen.

Another thing great about Japan is the CD and DVD shops. Everything you could ever want and you can rent them. Most people rent them, copy them and return them the next day. It's super cheap.

My sister has this great place in Tokyo near Shinagawa station. They're on the top floor and have a great view of Tokyo.

Well, that's it. There was lots I didn't mention, but those were some highlights. Just like anything, you have to experience it. There's lots to see and do.

Macworld Blast Party

It's a little late to be blogging about Macworld, but I've been busy coding like mad on Path Finder 5 and haven't had much time to devote to the blog.

So after Macworld, I went to the MacSB dinner and it was cool. Met a bunch of interesting Cocoa devs and had a nice dinner. I went back to my office to get my things and was skating to the Muni station to head home when I ran into it to my old friend Nobi. It was a total coincidence. Nobi said he's going to the Macworld Blast party and said he could get me a ticket. So I'm like "Sure, why not." Little did I know at the time how cool it was going to be.

So, first stop was at a little bar on the corner of Yerba Buena Gardens to get some free drinks and to get our tickets. There was this wacky drunk out of her mind old lady hitting on me telling me how cute I was (she must have been drunk). It was pretty hilarious. She was asking me if I liked Elvis Presley and she could barely stand. I guess she was looking to score :) It was very weird. I kept looking at Nobi hoping he would save me from this awkward situation. Luckily the bus to the Warfield had arrived and I politely ran out as fast as I could.

So we get on the bus heading to Warfield. I've never been there before, but it's a famous place for bands to play in downtown San Francisco. We get off the bus and wait in line and eventually get in.

So before the show started, Microsoft had their Office for Mac 2008 launch party which was really cool. They gave away tons of free stuff. They were throwing stuff out into the crowd and I happened to catch a leather iPhone case. They also gave away an iMac and a bunch of other cool things.

Everyone got two tickets for free drinks, so I got my drinks and waited for the main event. DEVO!!

The show starts off with this amazingly trippy video. I loved it and took a short clip. The video got cut short since a security guy tapped me on the shoulder and said "No filming". I've seen a few other videos on YouTube with the complete video, but here's the footage I got...

Here's the sign out front of the Warfield

Here's the ticket

Here's another sign out front

Microsoft launch party pict

DEVO!

After the show Nobi and I met up with some of his Japanese friends. A young Japanese girl in the group had no idea who DEVO was which was kind of funny. I guess I'm old. After the show I met up with my friend and fellow mac developer Steve Dekorte at the Cafe Royale. DEVO was awesome. I had no idea they still could rock the house. The sound was great and an all around amazing show.

HD DVD Dead: Who Cares?

I have no interest in the HD DVD / Blu-ray war. I would never consider buying a new format when I have had such a horrible experience with the original DVD format.

Wouldn't it be great if after inserting a DVD it just immediately played the movie? That's what I want, but the content producers force you to wait for FBI warnings, previews, disclaimers, fancy animations, and a bunch of other annoying graphics and menus before the movie starts.

The worst offender is Disney. I can't remember the exact disk, but even after hitting the play button in the DVDs menus, no less than 6 additional annoying graphics played before the movie starts. Disney digital, THX audio, etc. I don't remember the exactly what was played, I just remember being shocked. Just to watch the movie I had to hit the next button 6 or 7 times.

I own a few japanese DVDs that do immediately play the movie on insertion, but they are rare.

I bought the DVD to watch the movie, not this additional crap.

I was at the bus stop this morning in San Francisco and Disney had a billboard saying "101 Dalmatians, now for the first time on 2 disks". Why would anyone want 2 disks? 2 disks of crap that takes forever to navigate. I just want the movie and nothing more.

This is why I'm through buying DVDs.

Nokia N810 Review

Slow, buggy, unpolished and frustrating. Yes, Nokia’s N810 sucks big time. I hoped I could have told you the story of how I fell in love with my little Nokia, but she’s a real bitch and we’re through! Back in the box she goes. Off to a landfill where she’ll leak heavy metals and probably cause birth defects in future generations. It’s a sad pathetic little device.

There are tons of problems with this device, but all that really matters is this: Does the device’s function outweigh the effort to operate it? In this case, it doesn’t. The N810 is just a pain in the ass to use. It’s frustrating at every corner. Every action is incredibly slow and painful. If the processor were 20x faster it might be usable, but even then there are still lots of bugs and bad UI to deal with.

General usability

When using a tiny computer like the N810, it becomes obvious very quickly that scrolling is the most important UI action. You’re constantly scrolling content around its tiny screen. Apple obviously understands this well with its perfect implementation of finger scrolling on the iPhone. Nokia is absolutely clueless. Scrolling on the N810 is abysmal. It does have finger scrolling, but it rarely works the way you would hope, and half the time it thinks you want to select text or select an item in the list. Using the tiny scroll bars requires that you use the stylus. Using the stylus isn’t that bad, but then you run into the other problems with scrolling - for example one click in the scroll bar often gets sent as two clicks. Dragging the thumb is hit or miss. Most of the time miss. Even when you do it just right, the OS frequently just hangs so you’re not sure if the click or scroll actually registered, so you try again, and again and eventually it will click or scroll 10 times and take you somewhere you didn’t mean to go.

Scrolling also flickers like crazy which is really disconcerting. It’s always erasing the screen and redrawing and your eye can’t follow where you are going. Trying to scroll slowly by dragging the thumb results in a back and forth wiggle effect. Scrolling quickly leads to blurred drawing and massive flicker problems. It’s hard to write down every bit of detail on why the Nokia is a poor scroller, but I can tell you it makes it extremely frustrating to use.

Zooming is equally important and the Nokia also fails horribly. There is a zoom button on the top of the device. Hit it and it erases the screen white, then delays, then it decides it will slowly redraw. Flickery, ugly, slow and confusing sums it up nicely.

Main features

WiFi access is why I bought the device. The plan was to use it primarily as a VoIP phone and a web surfing device. The N810 actually works well as a VoIP phone. I am using Gizmo Project and the client is well designed (relative to the rest of the OS). There is also a Skype client that I assume works well, but I haven’t used it much. The problem with WiFi on the Nokia N810 is that it just takes way too long to find and connect to a public WiFi spot. The UI is terrible and it rarely remembers your previous choices for WiFi network. Everyday when I come to the office it doesn’t want to automatically connect to my WiFi here. I have no idea why not, it does work fine at home. I am forced to manually select the network everyday. Scrolling once again makes the UI horrible when choosing an open WiFi network. As it is refreshing it’s server list (which is often), it scrolls to the top every time, therefore it’s very hard to scroll down the list. It also just takes too long to connect. And takes to long to tell you when there was an error connecting (which is 90% of the time). Pulling out the Nokia at a random coffee shop to try to surf a bit can turn into a nightmare of trying, failing and retrying the different networks until you find one that works. It really ruins the moment and is not something that is quick or convenient. I would be better off to leave the Nokia at home and enjoyed my coffee and pick up a newspaper.

The GPS system is completely useless. I got it to find satellites once when driving. I was half way to my destination and it finally got a signal, but every other time it failed. I purposely went to Golden Gate park on a clear sunny day. Got in the middle of a large field with no buildings or trees around and waited for the GPS to connect (I was hoping to locate where I was so I could find my way out). After 30 minutes I gave up. It never connected. Nokia, WTF!?!

Oh, and another big reason I purchased this device was the promise of doing video conferencing. It has a video camera, but unfortunately there are no apps that currently support it. So it just doesn’t work. Scratch that feature off the list.

Operating system

The operating system is this thing called “Maemo”. It has probably the dumbest name in the history of computing. I still have no idea how to pronounce it. It’s unpolished slow and seems very influenced by Windows with it’s annoying ugly dialogs and “wizards”. It’s based on Linux, and it’s unpolished like Linux. If you’re currently a Maemo developer I’ve got some advice: Switch to Android or iPhone SDK. Maemo is a dead end and will end up in the trash heap of forgotten technology. It’s pathetic and there’s no hope.

The N810 requires a Windows machine to upgrade the OS. There is an undocumented way of upgrading using a Mac, but it fails to properly update. This is unacceptable. It also works for Linux with some command line tool. I don’t have Windows or Linux, so I had to go to a neighbors’ house to upgrade mine. Nokia, it’s not that difficult to wrap a command line tool in a simple Cocoa app. Send me some $$ and I’ll do it for you.

I don’t understand why a large rich corporation builds a device that’s basically unusable. Anyone who uses this device for more than a few days could fill a small notebook with suggestions and tweaks. I wrote such a document, unfortunately the N810 ate my file when I updated the OS. How’s that for “engineering”! Updating the OS erases your memory card. Is that the best you could do, Nokia? Is it that hard to write an installer that preserves the Documents folder?

The rest

Here’s a huge list of things I found annoying. Not in any order, just notes of things I wrote down when using it:

• Web browsing is super slow. Scrolling webpages impossibly slow when there are many images.

• Some videos play, but most do not. You get about one frame per second and the audio is choppy most of the time. It’s worthless if you like watching youtube vids.

• Windows always stealing focus at the wrong times. Say you’re doing IM. Someone sends you a link. You click the link, start reading the page and then your friend IMs you again. Now you’re forced back in to the IM client. In order to read the web page, you either have to tell your friend to STFU, or you have to quit the IM client. Unacceptable.

• Bluetooth connection fails I wrote some notes on the Nokia and thought it would be simple to bluetooth it to my desktop. It failed. It sees the machine, it tries to send to the machine but I just get a failure with no further information. It works with my MacBook, so I know I’m not doing something wrong.

• USB is completely unusable and totally broken Maybe this is just a problem on the Mac, but Nokia should have resolved this before shipping. I couldn’t get bluetooth working, but I remembered that it has a USB port so I hooked it up and it mounted a drive on my mac. But it only seems to work. It actually fails to open folders and show the contents. But for some folders it works. It also fails to unmount cleanly. And while we’re at it, USB mini cable is impossible to tell which is the top or bottom. This is true with all USB types. Who’s the genius who decided this? 50% of the time you’re going to attempt to plug it in upside down.

• Screen brightness at max is not bright enough. It needs to be 3x brighter.

• Volume too soft at maximum volume I was in a coffee shop. VOIP rang, I answer it with headphones, turn up volume to the max and can’t hear a damn thing. Way too soft. Completely useless.

• Lots of “modes” Sometimes I’m in one app and I get stuck in a mode and can’t switch apps. App switching should always work regardless of mode in one particular app. For example I wanted to check the GPS to see why it hasn’t found a signal, but that signal checking modal dialog prevented me from switching apps.

• Headphones self-destructed within a week It’s got these little rubber rings for comfort, but I didn’t realize this until one was missing. No free replacements in the box. The wire used for the headphones is coated in sticky rubber which guarantees it to get tanged and stuck in knots with ease. The headphones button to answer calls is horrible. It doesn’t feel like a button so it’s impossible to find when feeling for it in your bag or in your pocket. Click action on this button is weak.

• Location of the power and headphone jacks makes it difficult to hold and type It’s right where your right hand holds the device.

• Control key on keyboard is only on the right side Makes doing a “ctrl-o” for example difficult

• Saving a simple text document takes multiple seconds to complete We’re talking about a few pages of plain text. Horribly slow and annoying. It’s also modal so you’re stuck staring at the screen.

• You must manually set the time and date Haven’t these guys heard of time servers? Not even an option.

• Full screen mode for an app always resets when app quits I’m constantly turning full screen mode back on every time I launch an app. There’s no pref for this as you would expect.

• Arrow pad thing on keyboard is useless Too flat and impossible to feel your way to finding it and using it.

• Memory card is difficult to click into position When I first got a memory card. I slipped it in the slot and thought it was in. It worked for a while and finally I was getting errors when saving files to the card. I realized that it was not fully clicked in. To properly click the card in you need long fingernails or you have to use the stylus to push it in far enough to click in to place.

• Closing windows is horribly slow When you click the close box, you get this closing window wire animation, but there is a huge lag before the window goes off screen. So you click to close again thinking it failed.

• Dragging Desktop widgets is near impossible It works after many tries and you learn to not try it again.

• Scrolling in desktop RSS reader is horribly slow and draws ugly

• There’s no “Search in Google” right-click option in the browser I use this multiple times per day on my desktop.

• Mapping software is incredibly slow and hogs RAM If I have it running, it will prevent me from launching other apps in some cases. It’s incredibly slow (even for this device) to scroll around the maps.

• Camera is completely useless unless you’re in direct sunlight Images way too dark and pixelated. I actually did a side by side comparison with the iPhone. iPhone took a great picture, the Nokia took a pixelated blob.

• Doesn’t remember scrolled position in text documents using built-in Notes program.

• Most of the downloadable apps either fail to install, or are useless I found a few games that were OK, but nothing very exciting.

• Save as dialog doesn’t remember last place visited If you want to save to an external card, you have to constantly navigate to it when saving.

• “Swap” button frequently fails It will pop up a menu and quickly go away. I find that I frequently have to click it multiple times until it sticks.

• Keyboard backlighting always turns off when you need it most Also lighting is too dim and uneven. It’s hard to read all the keys.

• Navigating menus is painful If an item has a submenu it requires you to click the right arrow to disclose the submenu. That’s an unnecessary step.

• Built in RSS reader app constantly flickers and is hard to read Why do you erase in white, then pause, then refresh. Just refresh!! I don’t need to see it flicker in white first.

• Outside screen visibility is horrible It becomes this gray-hard-to-read-mess in direct sunlight.

• Viewing PDFs is super slow Each page takes seconds to render.

• Battery rattles in the case

• Frequently locks up requiring you to force shut down and restart.

• I frequently find myself staring at the screen with no idea what to do next It really does not feel right even after weeks of use.

Nokia N810 reminds me of my old Newton - another terrible device. Lots of promise, cool animations, but just too slow and cumbersome to be useful.

I’m returning mine as I write this. The current state is not even what I would consider “beta”. It’s surprising that an “industry leader” can release something so sloppy. I’ll never trust Nokia again. Apple, you’ve got absolutely nothing to worry about. Nokia is not a viable competitor.

Don’t be fooled by the specs or cool screenshots. The N810 does look great on paper and the case design isn’t so bad, it just fails miserably because of badly written software, poor UI, and a slow processor.

Nokia hates Mac users

I recently purchased a brand new Nokia N810. There's a new OS update available for it, but Nokia requires you to install the update using either Windows or Linux.

There is no support for Mac OS X! I called the Nokia store in Chicago and they said Nokia builds its products for Windows users, not Mac users!

I'm going to review the device soon, but just wanted to warn other Mac users to avoid Nokia products unless you have access to a Windows machine.

It's annoying to think that some pointy haired corporate bozo at Nokia thinks it's OK to ignore Mac users. I say "fuck Nokia". This is the last Nokia product I will ever buy.

Just call me Roadwarrior

I bought a new bike, and I'm selling my car. San Francisco Rules!!

Life in SF is amazing. I wake up every morning, ride my bike to work and weave through the lemmings stuck in traffic. I love it. It's a great start and end to a hard days work. Fresh air and exercise.

I bought a fold up bike from Dahon

These bikes are awesome. Light weight and they fold up pretty small. The brakes are good and so is the shifting. This bike has 7 gears which is just perfect for my needs.

Man, driving sucks. One of the big reasons for moving to SF was the ability to get rid of my car. The ferries, buses and trains are perfect.

Cocoatech Reloaded

Cocoatech has moved it’s headquarters from Santa Monica, CA to Sausalito, CA. I’m still unpacking. My DSL was just turned on yesterday. Today was my first day to code in almost two weeks.

In a few months I’ll find office space in San Francisco and be in the heart of the city, but for now I’m temporarily located in Sausalito.

I’m excited to finally live in the Bay area. I felt like I missed out on the first dot-com boom, and hope by being here I can experience the second wave.

View of San Francisco from my temporary office in Sausalito.

Bindings and NSPopUpButton hack

Cocoa bindings are great, but it still has a few rough edges and missing features. One of those is the ability to add images to menu items in an NSPopUpButton. Bindings adds the titles just fine, but there are no options for adding images. So, I came up with a hack which works great. This also adds the ability to have separator items!

This is why Cocoa is great! poseAsClass is very cool!

In the object you bind, return a description in the format: [NSString stringWithFormat:@”::$$%@$$%d”, path, kSmallMenuIconSize];

The files path and image size are encoded in the title. When bindings builds the menu item, this code converts this string to a real title and adds an image. In this code, I’m using some private classes I created, but they are easy to replace with your own code.

@interface NSMenuItemHack : NSMenuItem { }
+ (void)install;
@end

@implementation NSMenuItemHack

+ (void)install;
{
   [NSMenuItemHack poseAsClass:[NSMenuItem class]];
}

// this hack allows us to add icons to popupbuttons using bindings
//  return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"::$$%@$$%d", path, kSmallMenuIconSize];

- (id)initWithTitle:(NSString *)title action:(SEL)aSelector keyEquivalent:(NSString *)charCode;
{
   NSImage* image = nil;

   if ([title hasPrefix:@"::"])
   {
      NSArray *components = [title componentsSeparatedByString:@"$$"];

      if ([components count] == 3)
      {
         NSString* path = [components objectAtIndex:1];
         int imageSize = [[components objectAtIndex:2] intValue];

         if ([path isEqualToString:@"-"])
         {
            // ? release self since we are replacing it [self release] bombed?
            return [[NSMenuItem separatorItem] retain];
         }
         else
         {
            NTFileDesc* desc = [NTFileDesc descNoResolve:path];

            if ([desc isValid])
            {
               title = [desc displayName];

               // set the icon
                image = [NSImage iconRef:[[desc icon] iconRef] toImage:imageSize];
            }
         }
      }
   }

   self = [super initWithTitle:title action:aSelector keyEquivalent:charCode];

   if (image)
      [self setImage:image];

     return self;
}

@end

PepsiCo Sucks

Why do big corporations always buy good products and then try their best to ruin them?

I'm a big fan of Tropicana orange juice. It's a great product, but yesterday I went to the store to buy some and the shelf was filled with this garbage...

I just want ORANGE JUICE. I don't need all these wacky additives and chemicals. Luckily they still sell normal orange juice, but yesterday the "Grovestand" variety was sold out which kind of pissed me off.

Why do corporate marketing goons and pointy haired CEOs feel they need to "improve" everything. They already had a great product. Who buys this stuff anyway??

What's next? Tropicana with St. John's wart and Ginko Biloba? Tropicana with Red Bull? "Atkin's diet Tropicana" with liquified pork fat? How about "Tropicana Cold and Flu" with Robitussin?

Sounds yummy!

Skating vid

This was a few years ago. I need to start skating again. This is in Chino, CA.

Snowboarding season has just begun! Mt. High just opened last Monday! I’ll try to make a video of the mountain. It’s a cool place, just an hour outside of Los Angeles. Perfect for me since I hate driving.

Cosmos - Carl Sagan

These Cosmos DVDs should be required viewing for all the people of our planet. Truly mind blowing and inspirational.

When ever I’m feeling a little depressed, I like to pop these in and trip out (no drugs required). I was afraid these might feel dated, but it stands the test of time brilliantly.

Carl Sagan rules. A true American hero.

Anyone see “Desparate Crossings - the untold story of the MayFlower” last night? That was pretty cool too.

Kai at the Beach

My son Kai on his scooter at Venice beach. I'm following him on a skateboard. Kai will be 2 on Nov 7th.

When I'm not behind my computer, I'm playing with Kai.

Office Picts

Some people asked to see picts of my setup, so here's a few of cocoatech headquarters.

Google map

IKEA desk, Fucked Company mug, Subwoofer under desk, espresso cup, wireless mouse and keyboard, bose speakers, APC UPS, USB card reader and a bunch of other crap you can't see. My office rules! :)

Here's my bad-ass E-Glide Electric skateboard parked outside the office door. I can't tell you how much I love this board. I just got the brand new, fresh off the factory floor, rubber wheels installed, and the ride has improved 1000x. It's super smooth and quiet. The old wheels were hard and fast, but the ride was a little bumpy. Now, it's perfect.

E-Glide rules. They continue to innovate, and the boards just get better and better. Watch this company. In a few years everyone will know E-Glide. These guys are going to rule the world.

Rancilio coffee grinder. A must have if you want fresh espresso.

Rancilio Rialto espresso machine. I've had this for about 8 or so years and still works like new. Makes great espresso!

True story: Remember that TV Show a few months back "American Inventor"? Parts of it were filmed in my office. They guy in the next room over from me runs an inventor's consulting business and was in the show. He handled two products on the show. The sweat absorbing wig pad, and the singing "Here Comes Niya" doll.

New Mac Pro!!

I got a new Mac Pro dual 3ghz. I actually got it a while ago, but have been too busy to blog recently.

It's much faster than my old dual 2.5 G5. Not mind blowingly fast, but it's a huge improvement. Doing a full build on my old dual G5 with a dual 1.25 G4 set up as a distributed build machine took around 50 minutes. Now it takes about 15 minutes. I'm doing a lot less waiting and able to write more code.

The new Mac Pro is also much much quieter. The old G5 fans drove me nuts. Every time I hit "build" in XCode the fans would wind up like it was struggling to do the work. It was kind of stressful. I felt like I was hurting it every time I compiled.

I also love the new SATA drives. It's super easy to add additional hard disks. No jumpers to mess with, just pop it in and boot up.

Here's my current setup:

Dual Mac Pro 3ghz
3gb RAM
30" Cinema
23" Cinema
Wireless Keyboard and mouse
3 internal drives. 2 250s and a 160 SATA

The 30" is new. It makes a big difference, but I still wish I had 2 30" monitors. Maybe next year I'll upgrade my 23" to a 30".

Better than a Segway!

I recently purchase a Powerboard from E-Glide. These things are incredible!

Here’s the lowdown:

• It’s 1/10th the price of a Segway. About the same as the sales tax on a Segway!
• It’s faster than a Segway. Segway = 12.5mph vs. Powerboard = 20mph
• Smaller and lighter than a Segway.
• More fun than a Segway.
• The coolness factor is way higher than a Segway!

These boards are made in Santa Monica, CA only a few miles from Cocoatech headquarters. The owner is very cool and is very responsive to customer suggestions.

I’ve been using mine daily to go out to lunch, to get to the local skatepark or to ride down to Venice beach. I hate driving, and don’t really like walking, so this has really improved my day to day life.

It’s made me a big believer in personal transportation, and I think the Segway is an incredible product. This is a great cheaper and more fun alternative. The only downside is you will need some basic skateboarding skills to be able to stand on it. I haven’t had any accidents yet, but hitting a big pothole going 20mph might not be so fun.

Star Wars? I don’t get it.

I don’t understand why anyone would want to pay to see the latest Star Wars film. The last 4 sequels/prequels were terrible!

The original Star Wars episode IV (un-butchered version) is probably my all time favorite movie, after that Star Wars became a soap opera in space. Too many ewoks, love stories, dinosaurs and goofy characters designed to appeal to “the kids”.

Another thing that really turned me off was how “The Force” went from a mysterious unseen power that could be use by people with faith, to a something very visible and obvious. That ruined the sense of mystery. Han solo didn’t even believe in the force in the first Star Wars, neither did some of the Empires leaders. How could you not believe in a force if people were making objects fly around? One of the best sceens in the first Star Wars was when Vader was choking that guy by holding up his two fingers. It was cool because you weren’t sure if Vader really had this magic power, or if it was some kind of psychosomatic mind control thing. It was mysterious and cool. Looking at an object and making it fly around the room is not cool or mysterious. It’s pretty boring.

There are many who would disagree with me, and many people liked the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. That’s cool. I have no problems accepting that, but even the most hard core Star Wars geeks slammed episode 1 and 2. Why would those same people line up to see episode 3?

I don’t understand this herd mentality. I guess I’m just not a geek.

Project: Tony Iommi Stratocaster

I’ve recently become addicted to electric guitar customizing. It’s another one of my diversions that keeps me from practicing, and it gets me off the computer now and again. I currently have a 1997 Stratocaster and I’m customizing it by removing the current pickups and pickguard and replacing it with a single Gibson Tony Iommi Humbucker pickup and new pickguard. I’m also going to install just a single volume knob. The idea is to create a basic guitar for playing Rock/Metal/Punk. No neck or middle pickup, just the bridge. Keeping it simple - EVH style.

Replacing the pickups is fairly simple. I previously replaced one of my strat’s pickups with a Seymour Duncan HotRail. That’s what started this whole obsession. Ever since then, I’ve been itching to take it apart again. Electric guitars are very simple electronic devices, and replacing parts is easy if you’re not afraid of soldering.

Here’s my current setup:

Stock American Strat with a Seymour Duncan HotRail installed at the bridge. Pretty boring huh?

Here’s the new parts I purchased:
Gibson Tony Iommi Pickup: ($120)

Believe it or not, the Mac OS X desktop image on the pickup is a reflection from my monitor. It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t even notice until someone emailed me about it. The pickup is chromed like a mirror.

Pickguard: ($19)

Volume Pot 500k: ($6)

Volume knob: ($2)

Soldering Iron: ($20) I love the smell of melting solder!

Step One: Cut off the strings and remove old pickguard:

This is why I decided to keep things simple. See all this crap! Too messy, too many wires, too many knobs. Zen like simplicity is key. Ohmmmmmm…

Step Two: Solder in new pickup and volume knob.

Isn’t that so much cleaner!! A pickup, volume knob, a few wires and some solder. Beautiful.

NOTE: Not all Stratocasters are routed the same. As you can see by the above photo. My strat has the classic “Swimming Pool” routing. This makes it possible for me to have any combination of humbucker or single-coil pickups. Before you order a humbucker, peek under your pickguard and see how it’s routed. Some strats are routed for 3 single coils which would not fit a humbucker.

Old stock parts going to the trash can. Stock parts suck!!

Result:

How does it sound? It KICKS ASS!!! I’m not a pro, and don’t have much to compare it to, but I can say with certainty that it sounds a hell of a lot better than the stock pickups and better than the HotRail pickup. It’s better than I thought it would be. This is why customizing is FUN!!

Almost every guitarist I meet is afraid to do their own customizing. You got to do it! It’s a great way to become intimate with your instrument. Once you do it, you’re going to be finding excuses to keep changing stuff. It’s very addicitve. It’s also reassuring. If it breaks, You’ll know how to fix it. No need to truck it to the guitar shop, wait two weeks, and get it back only to find that it was just a loose wire.

Buy a soldering iron, buy parts, pickups, pickguards etc. and go for it. You really appreciate your guitar more when you’ve personalized it. It’s an amazing feeling of accomplishment when you put everything back together and it sounds even better than it did before!

Beck: Guero is an instant classic

Beck has done it again! His new album is GREAT! His previous album Sea Change was cool, but not my favorite. Guero is classic Beck. Hear it once and the songs stick in your head like super-glue. Very cool.

Beck is genius and one of the few true artists. He’s been one of my all time favorite artists since Mellow Gold. Thank you Beck!

Beck Guero at iTunes music store.

Beck Guero at Amazon.com

NASE SUCKS! Help spread the word!

There’s a company based in Texas called the National Association for the Self-Employed (www.nase.org). They claim to provide valuable services for the self employed, but I learned the hard way that it’s not a good deal. I was lied to and ripped off and decided to start a website to warn others.

http://www.nasesucks.org

There’s not much information yet. I have to find some time to write down my negative experiences, but take a look at it and link to the site if you can. The more links, the greater chances that the word will get out and hopefully others won’t suffer the way I did.

Thanks!

Sweet Maria’s Coffee Supplies

I found this great website for coffee and supplies.

www.sweetmarias.com

I recently purchased a Rocky coffee grinder by Rancilio from them. One thing I love about the site is all the pictures and information.

I don’t consider myself a coffee connoisseur, I just drink for the caffeine. This site helped a novice like myself figure out what I needed.

I also own a Rancilio Rialto epresso machine which has been great. I’ve owned it for 6 years now and it has worked flawlessly. I make 2-3 shots per day, so it’s gotten heavy usage for a home machine.

Trippy surf music

I just bought "The Ghastly Ones : A-Haunting We Will Go-Go" album off iTunes. It's really cool. It's Halloween surf music. Check it out

Snowboarding Season has Begun!!

Winter is here and the snowboarding season has begun!! I bought a season pass to the local mountain near LA www.mthigh.com, and went boarding last Thursday. It was super fun!

Just got a new board from Switzerland, a new Burton jacket and an iPod. Nothings better than boarding to Black Sabbath blasting through iPods excellent headphones!

Going again on Monday. Hopefully this will be a good year with lots of snow.

Check out my movie

I won a programming contest in Japan... Made a movie to say "Thanks"...

click to play (50mb)

I look kind of freaky... Keep in mind was up all night the night before programming.

Back from Japan

I'm back from my vacation in Japan. It was great. My wife's parents live in Odawara, which is south of Tokyo along the east coast of Japan. It takes about an hour and a half to reach Tokyo by train. It takes 50 minutes to reach Yokohama.

I bought this killer digital camera in Akihabara. "Sanyo Xacti". It will probably take a few months to reach the U.S, as it was still hard to find in Japan. It's really cool: 3.2 megapixels, takes quicktime movies up to 640x480 at 30 frames per second. The movies are flawless and the Camera itself is super light and small. I got a 512mb SD memory card (which is really important if you want to take long movies) Great user interface too. Not too many buttons, but lots of easy to navigate menus. The Japanese UI designers are Gods.

Check out this short movie of the camera, made by the camera.