So, I did a presentation today on GUI scripting using Applescript. People are showing up, hopefully, to get a copy -- and here's the presentation... If you're interested in the code, here the code is.
If you're interested in comics, I also do a comic strip at http://www.soaptoon.com called Soapbox. Fun, and hopefully enjoyable.
Update: I goofed. The presentation link was to the file I used, but Keynote isn't exactly a web-friendly file type. It shows up as a folder, which is probably not what anyone wants. Here's a PDF for something a little more friendly.
It's always fun to see David Pogue; he's got to be one of the most entertaining speakers out there. He spoke for about an hour on Panther -- and found stuff I'd never even thought to take a look at. I was floored. Definitely need to pick up his book.
Afterwards, I needed to work on my presentation... which didn't work so well, as I got into conversations with Bob Fraser (from Apple) and Damien Barrett, which was very interesting; started around Damien's brother Cameron, who is working on the Clark campaing. Wandered a while on all sorts of things, with a really smart crowd.
Now, Rael Dornfest is behind me, Rob Flickinger is in front of me. Rael and I sang Tom Jones' "It Not Unusual" just a moment ago.
Yes, it's getting weird. :)
A few notes from Tim O'Reilly's talk:
* Tim talked about how the iApps don't connect in the same ways to one another, which is interesting. His whole point, I think, was that the iApps need to be both two way, seamless, and allowing people to hack them (using applescript or whatever).
* Tim also emphasized something I've heard before, in a way that does make a bit of sense. He asked everyone in the audience, "Who uses Linux?", then asked "Who uses Google?" Then he stated, "It's a trick question. You use Google, you're using Linux."
His point, not a bad one, was a little beyond "The network is the application." It's more "The total of everything connected to the network is the application." An interesting thought.
OK, so I'm off at the Mac OS X Conferences. First up has been a class on using Extreme Programming for doing Java programming on Mac OS X. So far, it's been interesting; talking about how to use XP to code, building test cases, etc. I'm doing pair programming with one of the project managers of the Java builders at Apple -- which is cool, as he's built applescripts & sample projects for Ant cases.
Fun all around.
Also, my class has suddenly become *very* interesting, as the "beta" software just made it into 10.3... so now, I've got to test everything over there.
Some days, it doesn't pay to not be on the bleeding edge.
I guess it's just a bad day for cars. It seems that Accordion Guy's Boss Ross got his car broken into. Well, I didn't get my car broken into, (not unreasonably; any half-intelligent burglar would be better off breaking into anything else, my car's a 1987 Nissan Sentra), but the battery did die.
But I have had cars broken, if not broken into. The above car, for example, lost both it's moon roof and it's sloped-back window within 2 weeks of one another.
The moon roof was destroyed during a staging of the Manly Game of How Far Can I Throw This Industrial Bolt by the construction workers next door to the parking lot my car sat in. One of the contestants won for distance but lost on accuracy. The back window was lost owing to a tree branch & some heavy winds.
What will always strike me as funny, though, was that my dad was the driver at the time; he'd taken the car so that he could repair it.
SI.com - MLB - Cubs win first postseason series since 1908 - Monday October 6, 2003 12:36AM
This is, I suppose, the first time I've mentioned that I'm a Cubs fan here (although usually people guess when I wear a Cubs jersey around the office.) But let's face it, this is just amazing.
This is 95 years, people.
That's a long time in baseball. Also in football, hockey, soccer, tennis, dragracing, role-playing games, and darn near anything.
1908.
My granddad wasn't born yet. His parents were, I believe, still in Slovokia.
My college was shiny-new, about 5 years old. It's buildings, now ivy covered, were only 4 years old.
My chosen art form, comics, was no more than 10 years old. Some say less.
I could say computers weren't around, and we hadn't flown to the moon, there were no TVs, film was new-ish, man-powered flight was invented that year, and radios were, at best new. But those are obvious.
Well, let's see. Our diets have changed (pizza, sandwiches, soda, iced tea and ice cream were all new, hamburgers and fries weren't invented yet). Our transportation has changed. Our 9-5 lifestyle has changed.
Our media have changed. Then, it was rare for a house to have more than a few books. Mass printing was still pretty new; newspapers were the preferred form of getting information.
Our clothes have changed a *lot*. Then, women's ankles showing was considered risque. Jeans were part of the 1849 gold rush, so they were around, but considered bad form. Any man without a hat and suit was a bum. Suits were the main form of clothing. Women wore full dresses and bustles (collapsable, but still...).
Few people left their home town for their entire life; or if they did, it was to the nearest big city for their honeymoon, and that was the trip of their lives.
And a long time ago, the Cubs won a post-season game.
Go Cubs.
This is downright *scary*. 60% of the population either believes that we've found WMD, there's evidence that Saddam was in cahoots with al-Qaida, or that the invasion was supported or split in opposition/support by the international community. It's a little frightning; makes me think of Soviet-era agit-prop.
Also, this disproves the theory that the majority can't be wrong.
CNN.com - General: 3-6 GIs die each week in Iraq - Oct. 2, 2003
This, my friends, is half of the real tragedy. We've got troops over in Iraq trying to defend... something... not really *democracy*, not really *a government*, not really a solid thing either. But they're there, defending, and they're defending it with their lives.
The other half is that this already war-torn country (Iran-Iraq war in the 80s, Gulf War and various bombings in the 90s) is now going to be subjected to both Vietnam-type occupation from the Americans and guerrilla warfare tactics from those opposed to the Americans' occupation. The people that live there, they're going to be suffering for years, whether it's with Americans in the country or not. People will be fighting day in and day out over small issues, over pieces of land, and over small bits of power for the next 10-20 years.
We've created turmoil, we haven't a clue as to how to fix it. Soldiers and civilians are the ones who will pay; and the politicians shrug, squirm, and evade.