Older blog entries for xf (starting at number 4)

mrd: Haha, that's a copy of Apple's Exposé, which wasn't an entirely new concept anyway, but the first time it was properly implemented IIRC. (Why are all my posts about Apple stuff?) It's definitely a cool feature, something that ends up becoming absolutely essential, and I was wondering how long it'd take somebody to hack something together.

It's always great to see innovative, original concepts surface first in OSS (Gnome seems to do this a lot, which is brilliant, and why it's my desktop of choice), but it doesn't hurt to bring good ideas to the masses. Let's just hope Apple didn't patent it, which is something they seem to like doing :-(

haruspex: I've found Opengroupware quite fragile, too, and I'm not really a huge fan of it; I look forward to future developments, though. Have you checked out moregroupware at all? It's a project I'm involved with (plug plug), but IMHO it's the nicest web-based groupware out there; the interface is consistent, logical, and easy to use; the backend is very, very capable (the user/group rights system rocks); and it's under /very/ heavy development; new features continually (I'm currently working on a new module right now; the company I currently work for have a few commercial modules, such as stock inventory, which I'm trying to get GPL'ed). Grab a CVS snapshot. There's currently two calendar modules; Calendar2, which is based off PHP iCalendar, and the original Calendar1 module, which is currently being rewritten to be a far more corporate calendar. Calendar2's currently the most usable, and it's quite capable for group calendaring.

Argh, how long do Apple want to delay these 15" G4 Powerbooks for?

I ordered one going back a month now and keep getting told all sorts of stories about them being recalled due to memory issues, LCD issues (RevA AlBook white spots, apparently due to spacers in the back of the screen?), shipping mistakes, the list goes on; I'm guessing that the people I'm speaking to don't actually really know. I've given up hope of seeing it anytime soon.

What I don't understand is why the 12" and 17" models don't appear to have the same issues; they were never recalled, and I've seen plenty get sold in the last month. Surely they'd share some of the same issues, whatever they are?

Now that I'm doing some artwork for Linux.Conf.Au 2004, currently the maps, I /really/ miss my old TiBook. I'm super keen to see some of these open source vector Desktop Publishing tools (sodipodi, scribus) properly mature on Linux; they're really very cool, but still have some way to go in terms of features IMHO. At least, though, they don't seem to be as damn buggy as most of Adobe's products on Windows (@!*&$#$).

Wonder if the delay's just an Aussie thing.

It's amazing how much your coding style can develop over the years.

I've just dug up an old streaming Quicktime project I was working on a few years ago, and my god, the code's *so* freaking messy. I quite distinctly remember thinking how well I was structuring everything at the time, too.

Guess its what happens when you leave things on the backburner too long ;-)

So, I get into work this morning, planning on a productive day, and I find my machine's rebooted into XP (I normally run Sid), and it's locked up solid.

Turn it off, turn it on again, and the damn thing won't turn on.

Took out my Linux hard drive, with all my important bits on it, and it doesn't appear to be working at all in another machine (i.e. BIOS doesn't pick it up).

Ack ;-( I hope I can recover information off it, otherwise it's the third or fourth hard drive I've lost mysterously in the past few months, losing valuable work.

And I normally keep backups by rsync'ing to my laptop before I leave, but I'm currently without one at the moment because I just sold my Powerbook G4/500, and I'm waiting for my new one (G4/1250).

Arg. Somebody up there hates me ;-(