Check out the updated Draconis homepage - it’s quite a bit different from before, with no flash! The remaining RSP pages and other related content is still the same, but that will be converted over at some point in the near future. I spent quite a bit of time on this design, so be sure to let me know your thoughts!
I’m very sad - the logic board on my MacBook died on me several days ago. I’m very glad I bought the AppleCare extended warranty, though, as it was almost exactly one year and one month since I bought it (and would have been one month out of warranty had I not purchased the extended plan).
It’s currently being repaired now, which means I’m stuck using an old machine until I get it back (an aging Windows Pentium 4 I had). It’s tough going back to Windows now that I’ve been used to the Mac for so long, but I’m still able to get work done. I’m using Gmail for my email (I had set it up to automatically download all of my work email to Gmail before my Mac died, so I have most of my important messages there), the e text editor, which is very similar to TextMate, WinSCP (to replace Cyberduck), and Putty for my terminal.
When the MacBook died, I was getting very nervous, as I had a deadline (today) for a client. I brought the laptop to the Apple Store nearest me, and they helped me get the documents I needed off the drive before sending it in for repair (they pulled out the drive and inserted it into another MacBook, as I had FileVault turned on - big mistake - where I was able to plug in my external USB hard disk and trasfer the docs I needed). That was way cool, and extremely helpful, as I wasn’t able to get it to boot into target mode.
So, long story short, I should have it back early next week. First problem I’ve had with it, and luckily I had all my important documents backed up (and I met my deadline!). So the process was about as painless as it could have been, and I should have it back early next week.
Update: I got my Macbook back from Apple. It powered on and was working fine until I went to plugin the power adapter. Turns out the light on the power adapter (green or orange) doesn’t light up, and it doesn’t charge my battery. Very frustrating, so I brought it back to the Apple Store, which they are now repairing (again).
There’s a funny article up on ReadWriteWeb about some of the worst webapp names, though only 10? Almost every day there’s a stupid name coming across the TechCrunch wires. But on the flip side, you have to give a lot of these people credit: coming up with a name for a product is very difficult.
Case in point: for a long time, we’ve been calling our monitoring software RSP (which, for those paying attention, doesn’t stand for anything). The name is forgettable and boring, and really doesn’t convey what the product is all about. So, in a teaser for the future, we’ll be ditching the name RSP in favor of something else. It’s a bit more web 2.0-ish, it’s kind of fun, and it’s different. I won’t say just what it is yet, but it’s coming soon. 
The latest and greatest Linux kernel (2.6.22) has just been released. Of the numerous interesting new features, I’m especially excited about two things: a new way to measure approximately how much memory a process is using (via the process footprint measurement facility), and the ability to measure file timestamps using nanoseconds for greater precision.
In addition, there’s a new wireless stack, a new Firewire stack (very cool), and a slew of new drivers and other changes. Check out details about this release here, then download the kernel. Enjoy!
I was thinking I’d start a new thread on this blog about some of the things I do on a regular basis to get work done. Lately (like since the release of the new Safari beta), I’ve been trying out different web browsers to find one that really fits. For a long time, I was using Firefox on my Mac and was doing just fine, until I really gave Safari a chance and realized how much FASTER Safari is over Firefox (and how much that really makes a difference for me).
Using Safari was good for some time, though my biggest issues were the plugins (I really need a good ad-blocking program, and SafariBlock seemed buggy and missing some features), and site support. Since many sites are setup to allow only the most popular browsers, certain features weren’t available within Safari. With Apple’s latest version of the browser being released for Windows as well (most likely in a ploy to get more developers on board for the iPhone), this will probably change. But for now, I found Firefox was still a better choice for me over Safari.
I then tried out Camino (which is what I’m using currently). Camino is different from Safari in that it uses the same rendering engine as Firefox (so pages that work in Firefox should also work in Camino), though has a much more MacOS-friendly interface than Firefox (and seems a bit faster). So far, I’ve been very happy with Camino, and I like the built-in ad-blocking feature. One downside, however, is the lack of a Javascript console. Since I do a lot of web development, I’ve come to rely on Firefox’s Javascript console (and the Firebug plugin), so unfortunately, I still need to use Firefox to do this.
Hope you found this useful. I’d like to turn this into a regular thing: discussing what tools I use in my work, why I choose to use that tool, etc.