Adobe / Macromedia = Flash

Yeah... let's talk about Flash for a minute shall we?

Dearest Adobe, why does your product choose to update ... what it seems like every 5 minutes. Or every time I turn around? Why?

You can't seriously be adding that many changes to the Flash program installed on my computer... can you? Perhaps I should start following every little release you do to the software so I'll know exactly what it is you're adding to my computer now. Honestly... it's starting to become annoying. Well more than annoying. Sure you want your followers computers to be up to date and everything... and you think that by making them update every so many days will keep them that much safer. Yeah... about that.

There a freakin' way you can just do it in the background? Without bothering me? That would be nice.

Fix something... make it better... make it more seamless. I don't want to even see you that often!

Spotify

Okay... let's talk about Spotify for a second or two. Spotify is a music service. You can either get a free account or a paid account. As usual the paid account has more bells and whistles to it.

It's streaming music. You can't download any songs, but you can stream it to your computer. With the paid account, which is $5 a month, you can stream music on our phone thru their iPhone or Android app.

The service has been around for a few years. Due to copyright bleh it just became available in the U.S.

Anywhoo... I enjoy it. Peoples should def check it out.

Networking Bleh

Been trying to hit my XP box with my Vista box tonight. Not having much luck... I was able to hit XP with my Linux box without problem. Something tells me Vista just doesn't like to play well with others for some reason... well of the same family.

Silly Microsoft... oh well, what are they gonna do about it? Shut down any and all support for XP, even though it's widely used still. Oh well... perhaps it's time to format the Vista machine over to Linux after all. Wouldn't be the first time I've done that. Probably won't be the last.

Paint.NET

It's a sweet alternative to MS Paint... hell it's a good alternative to other paint programs if you don't need all the wizbang bleh of everything. Need a simple and easy to use paint editor, but don't need all the bells and whistles of Photoshop? Try Paint.NET. You won't regret it!

Chrome OS

Can't wait for Chrome OS to come out next year... dang. Watched a video on YouTube today. It was a demo... the machine booted in 7 seconds, and they say that they're working on decreasing it even further?! WOOT!

That's what I'm talkin' about.

Well we have to wait till the end of next year for it to come out. It will be worth it for sure. Methinks I will wait on getting a netbook until Chrome OS comes out. It is going to rock for sure.

One interesting thing about it... is it's taking the whole "Cloud" computing at heart. From the demo, it looks like Chrome OS will take advantage of the internet 100% for everything. You want to write a document, bam you get logged into Google Docs... etc. Very nice indeed.

Hello World!

You know the age old tried and true method where you know you have a programming language installed correctly. The one where create a "Hello World" application? Yeah, that's the one.

Kids start off with their first words being "Mama" or "Dada", a programmer's first words are "Hello World!".

Side Note: Actually my first words were "Holy Sh** it worked!" But more on that another time.

Ah yes, a tried and true method. I remember reading a book once, where instead of starting with the Hello World example, 'cause the author thought it was rather boring... he started off with a different example completely.

I found this approach to be rather soothing. I was grateful that they had decided to go with a different approach. Needless to say it caught my attention.

Side Note: Must not have caught my attention that great... 'cause I can't recall what it is at the moment... darn it! Oh well.

So yes, next time you write a book or create a script, instead of doing the whole "Hello World!" nonsense, begin with something else... who knows, perhaps it will lead to something greater.

How Ant Changed My Life

Let's talk about Ant for a moment and how it has basically changed my life. Talk about an awakening.

Ant is basically a version of Make. I've never used Make, so I haven't a clue how that works... but I'm sure someone out there knows how Make does its thing.

You see, Ant is awesome. It allows you to automate your builds. You can compile and run Java programs using Ant. You can create directories, zip up files, delete directories and lots of other things.

Whenever I create a new Java project, I usually create an Ant build to go with it. Heck, I've even used Ant for web projects allowing me to push a website I'm testing into the localhost folder so I can view it with my web browser. I've even setup Ant to handle database creation, e-mailing updated files to my gmail account, and even ftping files to my live server. Talk about efficiency!

Talk about making my life easier.

Seriously, if you've not checked out Ant... you should. It's well worth it.

DVR

I know I've said this in the past... but I'm saying it again. I LOVE the DVR. It's so sexy... okay sexy isn't the correct term, but you get my drift. lol

Love coming home to a disk full of tv to watch. Currently on my playlist:

Law and order SVU

Enterprise

ColdCase

JAG

Robot Chicken

Cow and Chicken

and the list goes on... can't remember it all at the moment. Anyways... good times, good shows... and I don't miss a thing anymore. Yay!!!