Rob Fahrni

Twitter Engineering Weblog

2010-02-06T09:46:00.001-08:00

The Twitter Engineering Blog: "Welcome! I'm Ben, and I'm an engineer at Twitter. We've started this blog to show some of the cool things we're creating and tough problems we're solving." - Besides having interesting content I love how clean the design is. Oh, if you're in the market for a job, check out the jobs listed in the right column, they have quite a few, and they're very interesting. If you're into Ruby, Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS you may be a nice fit!

Also, check out their photo stream on Flickr, it's nice to be spoiled.

Still my favorite Potter movie poster

2010-02-06T09:00:00.001-08:00

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

2010-02-06T08:56:00.001-08:00

The Disney Blog [hat tip Steven Vore]: "Universal Orlando has expanded the offerings on their preview website for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter land set to open its first stage this spring. It includes a new interactive map along with descriptions of all the rides and attractions." - Wow, I haven't posted about everybody's favorite wizard in a very long time. It's funny how my excitement about everything Harry Potter has died down now the series is complete and we're not going to see another book. We still have the final two films to look forward to, but there's always something disappointing about them. That said it almost seems too late to have built The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Then again, I'd love to see it.

Fun with Wordle

2010-02-06T07:23:00.001-08:00

Go make your own at Wordle, it's fun.

Looking back on CrunchPad

2010-02-05T07:41:00.001-08:00

Back in November, 2009, Michael Arrington announced the death of the CrunchPad

"It's a sad day at TechCrunch HQ. Hitting the publish button on this post, which makes all of this so...final...is a very hard thing to do. I'm enraged, embarrassed, and just...sad. The CrunchPad is now in the DeadPool."

I can't help but believe it was a good thing it failed. Yes, a good thing. Just think what would've happened to it after the iPad announcement? Sales would've dried up and he'd have been selling them out of his garage at a heavily discounted price just to get rid of them.

Movie line of the week answer

2010-02-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

Good morning movie liners, we have a winner, Mr. Bill Lazar. Congratulations Bill.

The correct answer was...

The Big Lebowski

iPad, mark his words

2010-02-04T22:21:00.001-08:00

David Cole: "It's not 'far superior' -- it's way better. What's the difference? 'Way better' is what regular people say. And that's where the iPad will find an audience. Regular people around the globe will flock to the iPad, maybe even faster than they did to the iPhone. This is not just for geeks. It's not even for geeks. It's for everybody." - Wow, I don't think I've EVER seen David this excited about something, and he makes a lot of excellent points. Go read the post, I think you'll like it. I know I did.

Microsoft is failing

2010-02-04T08:55:00.001-08:00

NY Times: "Microsoft's huge profits - $6.7 billion for the past quarter - come almost entirely from Windows and Office programs first developed decades ago. Like G.M. with its trucks and S.U.V.'s, Microsoft can't count on these venerable products to sustain it forever. Perhaps worst of all, Microsoft is no longer considered the cool or cutting-edge place to work. There has been a steady exit of its best and brightest." - I never thought I'd see this happen to Microsoft. When we moved to the Seattle area in 1993 it was a hotbed of software development, and Microsoft was probably the most desirable place to work. Now it's a second-tier destination. It's still a great place to work, just not what it used to be.

Another choice quote from the article: "Another example: When we were building the tablet PC in 2001, the vice president in charge of Office at the time decided he didn't like the concept. The tablet required a stylus, and he much preferred keyboards to pens and thought our efforts doomed. To guarantee they were, he refused to modify the popular Office applications to work properly with the tablet. So if you wanted to enter a number into a spreadsheet or correct a word in an e-mail message, you had to write it in a special pop-up box, which then transferred the information to Office. Annoying, clumsy and slow." - That VP was none other than Steven Sinofsky. We had plans to make Visio a world class citizen on the tablet, to really embrace it, but Sinofsky didn't like it, so the plans were flushed.

I have a dear friend that led that effort, and after many years of watching Microsoft make strange decisions, he's finally left the company. He'll be a great hire for a company that's interested in creating a truly great user experience.

Objective-C and C++

2010-02-04T08:26:00.001-08:00

CodFusion [via James Robertson]: "Can Adobe just port what they have into Objective-C or use Carbon. Unfortunately no, the Flash Player is written in C++ and going from C++ to Objective-C is not very practical. Objective-C is just another superset of C. It simply adds some OOP logic and a messaging and some of the syntax is similar to Smalltalk. You can compile any C program into Objective-C but that's not currently possible to do with a C++ program." - Emphasis is mine. I can assure you, having done it myself, you can use your current C++ code from Objective-C. I took a collection of pure C++ classes, unmodified, and used them from an Object-C/Cocoa based application. That collection of classes did not have any OS specific code, which made my job easier.

That's not to say Adobe doesn't face a huge uphill climb, it really does, but it can be done. Replacing Carbon with Cocoa is going to be tough. Since they're a cross platform shop I would hope they have a nice set of frameworks that abstract most of the platform specifics from the developer, but that of course is difficult to do. The Photoshop team is in the middle of the Carbon to Cocoa battle.

Bottom line - you can use your C++ with your Objective-C code.

P.S. - I have become a huge fan of Objective-C and Cocoa, I'm just sayin'.

Movie line of the week

2010-02-04T07:32:00.001-08:00

Good morning, and good luck, here's the line...

I do mind, the Dude minds. This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

More from Blogger's Rick Klau

2010-02-03T09:30:00.001-08:00

Hats off to Rick Klau from Blogger. He's really been responsive to the confusion caused by the recent changes to Blogger. You're a class act Rick, thanks!

Here's something very telling, at least it is to me, from Rick's comment in my most recent post about the Blogger changes.

This isn't a reaction to Tumblr, or WordPress, or TypePad, or anybody else. (Each are great, btw, and have lots to offer.) This is a simple challenge: we want to deliver a best-in-class experience, and creating a product with dependencies on downstream ISPs was preventing us from delivering the stable, reliable and functional product we wanted. It was also preventing us from doing more for the 99.5% of users who host with us (either on their own domain or on blogspot.com).

Emphasis is mine. 99.5% of the users who host with Blogger will benefit, who can argue with that? I certainly can't.

I've been a very satisfied Blogger user and wish Blogger all the best. I hope you guys are able give us some killer features!

Rollin, rollin, rollin, rollin, rollin...

Never count Apple out

2010-02-03T08:00:00.001-08:00

NY Times [via Matt Scoble]: "The iPad bet could prove a loser for Apple. Some skeptics see it occupying an uncertain ground between an iPod and a notebook computer, and a pricey gadget as well, at $499 to $829. Do recall, though, that when the iPod was introduced in 2001, critics joked that the name was an acronym for 'idiots price our devices.' And we know who had the last laugh that time." - Will the iPad fail? I don't know the answer to that, but I'm sure willing to hook my wagon to it and join the journey.

Blogger changes, the future hurts

2010-02-03T07:27:00.001-08:00

Mike McBride: "As I think about it, the last time Blogger added a feature that we could, you know, use, was categories, or maybe comments? (Upon further review, scheduled posts were available regardless of where you are publishing within the last year) Any way, it's been awhile. Almost all of the innovation at Blogger now seems to be around widgets, and other tools for use with Blogspot hosted accounts. Those of us who don't have those, get nothing. I can't help but wonder if the fact that Blogspot hosted accounts have ads on them is the reason?" - Well, I guess I'm not the only Blogger "old-timer" bit by the changes. Mike has already made his choice and upgraded to WordPress, not a bad choice at all. I still struggle with my decision to not go with WordPress, it really is that good.

I don't hold a grudge against Blogger, they need to move their platform forward and had to make a tough decision. They're looking a bit long in the tooth. Their built in templates need a complete refresh and they need to build their community. Tumblr is kicking butt and taking names. They have a beautiful user interface and they've embraced their user, and designer, community. My lovely wife and oldest daughter are hosted on Tumblr, and love it. I'm pretty sure Blogger looks at Tumblr and says "Hey, we're falling behind here, and these FTP users are holding us back." The natural choice is to kill off FTP publishing. I'm certain they'll get a number of folks to switch, I have a weblog it makes sense to do that with, but this weblog isn't it.

The bottom line; Blogger has to beef up its platform to compete with the likes of Tumblr, Posterous, and WordPress.

You can't blame them for that.

UPDATE: Here's the post on Blogger Buzz that explains the situation. - "Three years ago we launched Custom Domains to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users."

I'd also like to thank Rick Klau, a Blogger Product Manager, for taking the time to address my questions personally, it helped a lot Rick.

Understanding Movable Type 5

2010-02-02T09:27:00.001-08:00

Victoria Wong: "Getting Movable Type where I wanted it turned out to be much more of a project than I expected. I've documented the following in hopes that it'll help someone out there." - This is going to be invaluable as I move forward with my Movable Type 5 experiment.

As of this writing Movable Type is the front-runner in my weblogging tool search.

Zeldman on Flash and iPad

2010-02-02T08:52:00.001-08:00

Jeffery Zeldman: "Lack of Flash in the iPad (and before that, in the iPhone) is a win for accessible, standards-based design. Not because Flash is bad, but because the increasing popularity of devices that don't support Flash is going to force recalcitrant web developers to build the semantic HTML layer first. Additional layers of Flash UX can then be optionally added in, just as, in proper, accessible, standards-based development, JavaScript UX enhancements are added only after we verify that the site works without them." - Good design advice.

It's Cupid Core Time!

2010-02-01T17:38:00.001-08:00

Tinkering

2010-01-31T12:14:00.001-08:00

Mark Pilgrim: "Now, I am aware that you will be able to develop your own programs for the iPad, the same way you can develop for the iPhone today. Anyone can develop! All you need is a Mac, XCode, an iPhone 'simulator,' and $99 for an auto-expiring developer certificate. The 'developer certificate' is really a cryptographic key that (temporarily) allows you (slightly) elevated access to... your own computer. And that's fine - or at least workable - for the developers of today, because they already know that they're developers. But the developers of tomorrow don't know it yet. And without the freedom to tinker, some of them never will." - CAUTION: Mark's pretty free with the F-bomb, but the article is worth a read. The thing that really caught my eye, and my full attention, was one of Marks own comments in the comments section, it reads...

People haven't figured it out yet, but Mac OS X is on its last legs. By 2015, Apple will make appliances and developer add-ons. Not general purpose computing devices.

WOW, WHAT A BOLD STATEMENT! He might be right.

Understand the meaning...

2010-01-31T10:25:00.001-08:00

Daily Reveille > Opinion : "One speaker at a town hall meeting last July voiced their frustration with the government's meddling in, well, government-created programs. 'Keep your government hands off my Medicare,' the man demanded."

Jobs on Adobe

2010-01-31T10:02:00.001-08:00

Wired: "About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don't do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it's because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5." - I do like seeing Steve Jobs fired up!

Mmmmmm baked goods

2010-01-31T08:30:00.001-08:00

Haileigh Fahrni: "Frozen mousse and sheet cakes were the first few days, quickly followed by sauces, caramel, and plating designs. As we began week two, we started to learn about custards, sugar pulling, how to make out plates balanced and beautiful. By the end of week three, we were plating beautiful desserts, and making some pretty involved cakes." - Go check out this post just for the pictures. Maybe our little girl should specialize in baking?

The Shipley iPad Tweets

2010-01-31T08:09:00.001-08:00

Wil Shipley is a very outspoken, and very talented mind, in the Macintosh community. He's the founder of Delicious Monster, creator of Delicious Library for the Mac, and for a very short period of time Delicious Library for iPhone until Amazon's API license killed that off.

Here's a recent set of tweets from Wil about the new iPad, and his concerns about the platform. I'd like to see him write about this on his weblog. You need to start at the bottom and read up.

I'm sure there are a lot of Mac developers worried about this, and other things. Some of us are just trying to write apps.

wilshipley
On first run, they should say, "This is UNSIGNED and could be dangerous. Do you know/trust this vendor?" This is already in Mac OS X.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Apple shouldn't distribute unsigned apps. They should just allow the device to run them if you download them from a vendor directly.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
All the reasons given why iPhone was closed off aren't valid on iPad: You don't need to call 911. You don't have a voice line to burn.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
We don't need to boycott the iPad. I think it's a great device. All we need to do is get Apple to ALLOW UNSIGNED APPS.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

ccgus
@wilshipley You're not alone in feeling this.
about 8 hours ago from Tweetie

wilshipley
DOES THAT NOT WORRY ANYONE BUT ME?
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Developers now don't only have to compete with Apple in the consumer software space, Apple ALSO gets to approve or deny our competition.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Consider: Every single iPhone app from Apple uses undocumented APIs, but if developers use them, their apps are (were) banned.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Is this REALLY want we want to win? Apple making the choices for us? They are choosing in THEIR interest, not ours.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
For instance, I'd like to use Google Voice. Oops, Apple think it sort of competes or something, so I can't. Too bad.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
How long did we put up with Windows' near-hegemony? Is that what we want from Apple, now? "Go elsewhere if you don't like our monopoly?"
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Don't give me this: "If the market doesn't like it, they'll go elsewhere," argument. We use Macs. We know the market can choose poorly.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
What we're going to end up with is what we have for the iPhone: a million apps, 99,999,900 of them crapware.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Who is going to spend years writing an app for a device where Apple can (and does) reject apps with constantly-changing criteria?
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
How are we going to innovate if we can't compete with Apple's Mail or Browser or Address Book or Calendar?
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
What happens when a small developer pisses off Apple? Will our apps still get approved? Note that Steve banned a book from Apple Store.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
The danger of a closed system with a single chokepoint is the next generation of apps that just don't happen. We'll never know.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
Pages. Numbers. Keynote. iTunes. All these started out as products at tiny companies, not Apple. Innovation comes from them.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
For instance, Nintendo interfered with Castle Woflenstein so much Carmack vowed never to work with them again.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

wilshipley
I don't like the "Video game systems already are closed systems" analogy because I don't program for video game systems for good reason.
about 8 hours ago from Twitterrific

The weblog publishing search continues

2010-01-30T10:17:00.001-08:00

Rob Wells: "Tumblr isn't a bad system. It's really not. It's fantastic. But it's just not what I'm looking for for my main site. I've still got it set up and I'm still going to post things to it, but 'proper' blog posts that have taken time and effort will be published here." - A view from a switcher. This particular Rob went from WordPress to Tumblr back to WordPress. My research into weblogging systems continues. I've been experimenting with Movable Type a bit, along with Tumblr, and of course I'm continuing to use Blogger to post.

I hope to put together an official review of the systems I'm evaluating in the near future. To be perfectly honest I'd love to move to WordPress but it misses the one feature I find most important; static publishing. If it wasn't for that I'd have leapt to it a while back.

So, we're down to three systems as of today. Movable Type, Tumblr, and Blogger.

P.S. - I am well aware of WordPress caching systems. Thanks.

Flash and the iPad

2010-01-29T18:57:00.001-08:00

Prasenjeet Dutta: "On the other hand, John Nack points out that Flash made video ubiquitous on the web. They do deserve a hat-tip for that, but now that Youtube, Vimeo, BBC and several other sites have standardized around H.264, the de facto future of web video appears to be H.264 " - If you want to display video it would make sense to create a standalone Flash application for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. Forget the browser for now, focus on writing an app that'll let people view video. Hey, it's a start, and I can't imagine Apple would reject it.

Omni Group to embrace iPad

2010-01-29T18:50:00.001-08:00

Omni Group Blog [via @danielpunkass]: "Remember how Macintosh was intended to be the computer 'for the rest of us'? That's what we feel Apple's iPad is: the best computing device for most of the things people use computers for. (Or, as Apple puts it, 'the best way to experience the web, email, and photos.') It's the computer people can sit down and start using immediately, without training, whether they're 2 or 92." - That is a huge commitment from one of the leading independent Mac developers on the planet! WOW!

Movie line of the week answer

2010-01-29T10:18:00.001-08:00

Good morning movie liners, we have a winner!

Congratulations to Mr. Steven Vore!

The correct guess was...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade