You know what’s really starting to piss me off? It’s really starting to piss me off that the keyboard shortcut for copying text on Windows (and Linux, as I recall) is the same shortcut that terminals adopted for, “Halt, or I’ll shoot!” (a.k.a. “Put down those freaking pencils, now!” and “Stop what you’re doing, mister, and stop it right this instant.”)

This morning has been fraught with aborted processes and I needed a moment to voice my discontent. Thanks for tuning in.

Over the course of the last, oh, I don’t know, year or so, I’ve signed up for a few social networks that looked interesting, useful or otherwise worth checking out. In case anyone’s wondering, MySpace didn’t make that cut. With respect to those that did make the cut, I didn’t go in with high expectations of any of them. C’mon, I’m a developer. Per the stereotype, I’m not supposed to be social, right?

One that I find extraordinarily useful on a regular basis is Flickr. I use it so often that I sprung for the pro account. Lest I appear disingenuous, I should state that I signed on as a paying customer because they forced me to do so. No one showed up at my house wearing a dark fedora and a shoulder holster, but they cut my free account off once my inventory reached 200 photos. It’s a hell of a service, though, so $30 a year is money well spent, I think.

Continue Reading »

Are you kidding me? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the appearance of spammers wherever so much as a modicum of community crops up, but nonetheless…I am. I know I shouldn’t waste my time being annoyed, disgusted and even a little offended, but nonetheless…I am.

This morning I woke up to six, yes six, notifications that I was being followed by spammers (and that was just this morning) on Twitter. Televisions, dog training, flowers and even stars. A freaking star?! Seriously? These guys can ruin anything for everyone. So off goes the notification of followers. That sucks.

On the other hand, the ED brokers haven’t tracked me down yet. Is it worth recognizing the silver lining or is it just a matter of time?

There’s been a bit of a huff the last few days over the fact that Apple has dropped Safari into its Windows “updater” even if Safari wasn’t previously installed. From the moment I heard about it, I was bothered by it, but it’s taken some time for me to figure out how to articulate why I don’t like it. I’m still not sure I’ve succeeded in doing so, but I was just reading this article at downloadsquad and decided that I needed to try in the interests of timeliness even if I’m not quite ready.

A number of folks, including Ian Dumych of the downloadsquad, are opining that this is not a big deal since Apple doesn’t install the browser by default. I get that, and certainly it mitigates any complaints, but there’s still something that bothers me. It feels underhanded. It feels like they’re trying to sneak something past me. It feels like the days before I switched to Foxit Reader, when an Acrobat Reader update would pop up only to offer one actual Acrobat update amid a slew of toolbars and other utility services.

No, it’s not the end of the world. Yes, Safari is a good browser. No, they’re not installing by default. Yes, other companies are more pushy. Does that make it okay to be even a little pushy? I don’t think so. A lot of folks are already afraid of spyware, malware and, at least to some extent, software in general, and not entirely without reason. When something unexpected pops up on their screen, it tweaks their Spidey sense.

Quite simply, it’s a trust issue. There’s absolutely no need to give people a reason to think they’re being used or even gamed. Want a better adoption rate? Increase the marketing budget. Don’t start throwing stuff I’m not using in my update list. It feels underhanded and it feeds and amplifies any mistrust users may already feel towards technology as a whole.

Let’s not make this bigger than it is, but let’s not dismiss it all together, either. If it doesn’t feel right then on at least some level, it’s probably not.

Although I’ve been here before, I decided to give SmartSVN another try. It’s the only one I wasn’t able to actually play with because I wasn’t even able to get it open. This time, though, I put in a little effort.

Instead of just downloading the application and assuming it would, or should, work, I decided to be sure I met the system requirements. The only requirement, as far as I can tell is a JRE of version 1.4.1 or higher.

$java -version java version "1.5.0_13" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_13-b05-237) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_13-119, mixed mode, sharing)

Requirement met…check. Application downloaded…check. Tarball extracted…check. Application opened…denied (supply your own sound effect, please).

Clearly others use this application. Some, probably, with great success and affection. Why can’t I? The only way I can get it to start is to Show Package Contents and then navigate to Contents > Resources > Java and double click smartsvn.jar. Argh. I can’t believe there’s not a better way.

I’m not even sure that opening the app that way offers full functionality. For example, I can’t find a way to simply connect to a repository and browse its content. I have to create some kind of project first. Even worse, I have to do so by connecting to an existing working directory or by checking out code from one of my existing repositories. At the moment, I want to do neither. I just want to connect and perform a little maintenance directly on the repository.

I guess it’s me and my command line for at least a little longer.