• May 6, 2011

    Struggling with Distributed Version Control Systems, e.g. git

    I've been using subversion for version control on just about all my projects for years, whether they were my own projects or for clients. It worked well and I got very used to it. Recently I've been put on projects that use distributed version control systems and have also been working on some open source projects that use it as well. Several of my projects use Mercurial, but most are using git.

  • Apr 26, 2011

    Suggestions for the TSA

    I've ranted a number of times about the TSA, so I've decided to offer the TSA some suggestions on how to handle airport security. I ask for nothing in return, even though I'm sure my ideas would be worth millions if I was contracted to do an overhaul of it.

  • Apr 26, 2011

    Storing User Data in Application Support

    I recently switched to a new MacBook Pro and decided to piecemeal move my data over so that I wouldn't bring over old crusty preferences and files like that. This has worked quite well, but in two cases today, I found that some user data was stored in the Application Support folder. Since I hadn't copied this directory over, when I ran the apps, I had no data and had to dig through an old Time Machine backup to find the data. To make matters worse, I'm storing my personal data on an encrypted disc image and in order to get the apps to run, I had to create a symbolic link to my disc image's directory that contains the data.

  • Apr 22, 2011

    Review: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-WX9

    As I wrote a few weeks ago, I enjoyed editing video on my iPad 2 in iMovie which got me started on putting all my video in a format that the iPad could read without conversion. While our Canon PowerShot SD960IS wrote video in h.264, a format that the iPad can read, the audio was a PCM format that the iPad didn't like and therefore iTunes wouldn't put the video on the device and using the camera connection kit, I still couldn't get the iPad to play it. If my dream of taking an iPad on vacation to edit a movie while still on the vacation using video shot during the trip, I had to find a compact digital camera that output the video in an iPad compatible format. I wasn't convinced that just reading the specs would ensure compatibility, so I decided I was going to look and buy locally in the event I had to return the device.