ScreenSteps, cool idea, but not quite a Mac app

On Friday I stumbled across ScreenSteps, a program for doing documentation by quickly and easily capturing screen shots. While I no longer do documentation for my own software, I am starting to do some internal documentation for work on things like connecting to our VPN, setting up connecting to a file server, etc. I put together one "lesson" in maybe 15 minutes and was able to stick it on our internal web site. One thing that bothered me was that there were some dialogs that didn't look like Mac dialogs like the following (The icon looks funny and it should have been a sheet):

Things like this usually indicate it was written in REALbasic. While I don't have anything against REALbasic itself, I have problems with people slapping together programs in REALbasic and passing them off as Mac applications; in most cases they work like Mac applications, but they seem unpolished. I realize that this is a generalization, but I haven't seem a REALBasic based program that I'd purchase (at least knowingly). ScreenSteps didn't have the REALbasic libraries buried in its app bundle, so I knew it wasn't built using REALbasic. So did the developers purposely create crappy looking buttons? I don't think so. They appear to release the Mac and Windows versions at the same time, so they must be using some type of cross platform library. Ah, the about box gives me a clue. They're using a system called Runtime Revolution. Uggh, another attempt at creating cross platform applications with the click of a button.

So the question boils down to, can I live with the sort of Mac like appearance to quickly build documentation or can I find another tool? I'm not sure, but I'm definitely not a fan of cross platform tools as they produce apps that just aren't up to Mac UI guidelines.

NekFit, hokey but useful

At Macworld, I saw an iPod Nano case called nekfit. I have been running with my iPod Nano using an armband, but the wires always got in the way, so I was intrigued by nekfit. When I stopped by their booth, the marketing guy said if I didn't like it, give him a call and he'd make it right. So, I went ahead and ordered one. I received it a few weeks back and must say that it looked like something that was slapped together in a garage. If you take a pair of sunglasses, but them on backwards around your neck and attach an iPod to it, that's what the nekfit looks like.

I've taken it for a few runs and after I got all the wires tied up the way I wanted (one of the wires kept getting caught on the side), I think I like it. It's pretty comfortable and definitely keeps the wires out of the way. I had to turn off the rotate mode on my iPod Nano 4G as I couldn't switch tracks when it was rotated (it kept going to CoverFlow mode). My only complaint is that I wish I could adjust the angle that the iPod hangs as it kind of rubs against my neck.

Will this last? I have no idea. My previous armbands had to be replaced as the neoprene started breaking down and smelled so bad that I couldn't use it anymore (I went as far as bleaching it and that didn't help).

For $35, it is definitely a viable alternative to an armband as long as you don't mind people thinking you're a little crazy for having this thing around your neck!

iWeb, the hidden gem?

I bought iLife '09 and installed it, but all I've had time to do is launch iPhoto a few times and play with the facial recognition which is pretty cool. The other night I was watching CNET's weekly TiVo videocast and they reviewed or at least introduced iLife '09 (which is kind of surprising as they seem to not like Macs). One of the things that was mentioned is that iWeb '09 now has the ability to upload to FTP. Hmmm...I only played with iWeb a few times way back when, but ignored it as I don't have a .Mac/MobileMe account. I fired up iWeb '09 and immediately looked for the FTP export. Not only did I find it, I found that it also did SFTP (Secure FTP, which is FTP over SSH). To top off that, it lets you specify the SSH port (I changed the port on my server from the standard 22 to another port to reduce the number of attempts to get in; while people we're getting in, it bogged down the system denying the requests). Very, very cool. I played a little more with iWeb and am quite impressed; I like the ability to place pictures wherever as it seems more flexible than anything else I've used. Publishing worked well and this might be my new web tool of choice (for the little web work I do).

Hurting the environment by conversing

Prior to our son being born almost 2 years ago, my wife and I decided that we'd use cloth diapers with him (she did the research and I just nodded my head). They are a bit of work to clean and wash (my wife does most of it), but we figure in the long run, they will be better for the environment. How can we say that? Well, we believe that there will be clean energy in the future (solar, wind, etc.) and we'll (as a society) be able to cost effectively desalinate water.

On the other hand, disposable diapers possibly use less energy to make, don't require any water to clean, but they will end up in the landfill where they can't decompose (decomposition requires sunlight and most items in a dump don't get any sun).

Our mayor has announced that we'll have water cutbacks this summer and there will be fines for excess use. Since we use a lot of water to do diapers, we have to consider if we're going to eat the fines or switch to disposable diapers. So if we conserve water and are unable to wash diapers, we'll have to use disposable diapers that will basically hurt the environment.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.