Bit by a linker issue

Apple has some great code to handle adding and removing items as login items called LoginItemsAE which uses AppleEvents to talk to System Preferences. I've used it on a number of projects and found it to work well. That was until today. A client complained that my install code wasn't working that added it as a login item. I couldn't reproduce this on my Mac Mini (Intel) and I use the same piece of code in another app in the same bundle and it worked fine. After a bit of fighting with the system and remembering that sometimes Carbon framework needs to be linked, I linked it in and the problem went away. Why, oh why, didn't I get a linker error?

Merging ReceiptWallet and DocumentWallet

After a bit of mental wrangling and taking some email to heart, I decided to merge ReceiptWallet and DocumentWallet. This means that ReceiptWallet can now open DocumentWallet libraries in addition to ReceiptWallet libraries. When you create a library, you choose for it to be a receipt or a document library. This now makes a lot more sense since multiple libraries can be open at once. The libraries still have a few things different (number stuff doesn't make sense in a pure document library).

What does this mean for DocumentWallet? Well, DocumentWallet serial numbers will now work in the new version of ReceiptWallet. This will be a free update for all users. When this new version comes out, I will be raising the price as I have added a significant amount of functionality with the last few updates. My current price was meant to be an introductory price, but I never got around to raising it. Now is a good time to do so.

One kind of weird thing is that DocumentWallet users can't automatically update to ReceiptWallet using the auto update mechanism because the applications are named differently and the application identifiers are different. So, users will have to download ReceiptWallet and update through that.

The new ReceiptWallet beta is available in the standard way.

Are political primaries the will of the people?

With the current heated race between Obama and Clinton, the inner workings of the primaries are becoming more public and being talked about in the paper and on the news. Prior to this year, I personally had no idea how the primaries worked. So, if you vote in the primary, your candidate may or may not be your party's candidate, even if he or she receives a majority of the popular vote. First off, the delegates (which is OK as it is supposed to be representative of the people) aren't required to vote for the people that they represented. Second, there are "super delegates" that can vote for whoever they want. These super delegates are random people (some important, some ordinary). Third, "the party" can make deals and put up whoever it wants ("the party" being the important people in the party). Fourth, "the party" can make up its own rules on who can vote. For instance, the Michigan and Florida Democratic primaries don't count because they were held before "the party" wanted them held.

So, does your vote count? Got me. Yesterday when we were coming out of Target, someone registering voters said, "are you registered to vote?". My flippant response was "unfortunately". Why did I say that? I find it hard to believe in our political system when in this day and time, we can't have a true democracy. How hard is it to get the total number of votes and elect someone? We could get this mess over with very quickly by letting each candidate lay out his or her plans and views, have a few rounds of questions submitted via the Internet, and then have people vote. We could do the entire election for a few million bucks and take the tens of millions spend on campaigning and help to finance the public debt or even attempting to balance the budget.

SqueezeCenter and Apple TV Take 2

I decided to take the plunge today and install the Apple TV Take 2 update on my Apple TV and attempt to get the SqueezeBox software (now called SqueezeCenter) running on it. I previously had this running on Apple TV version 1.1, but I want the ability to rent movies, so I had to update my Apple TV and decided to install the new SqueezeCenter at the same time. Unfortunately this has been quite complicated. I almost have things working.

1. Following the instructions in this thread, I created a PatchStick to install SSH on my updated Apple TV. Prior to updating the Apple TV, I copied all the necessary SSH files off my Apple TV
2. Pick up the latest SqueezeCenter (7.0) and the XM Radio Plugin
3. Create a folder on the Desktop called SlimServer
4. In that folder create 2 files. The first is called StartupParameters.plist and it contains:

   {
     Description     = "SlimServer";
     Provides        = ("SlimServer");
     Requires        = ("Disks");
       Uses		= ("mDNSResponder", "Resolver", "DirectoryServices", "NFS", "Network Time");
       OrderPreference	= "Last";
       Messages =
       {
   	start = "Starting SlimServer";
   	stop = "Stopping SlimServer";
       };
   }
   

   The second is called SlimServer and it contains:

   #!/bin/sh
   . /etc/rc.common