mattdb.com - Home

Mental Reflexes

2008-07-16T00:41:00Z

I get a real kick out of something that happens in my mind that lets me know I’ve gone hopelessly far down a road.

A certain way of thinking, when it’s become such a natural part of the way you think about a topic, starts to seep through to other areas of your brain. Your brain reflexively starts down the familiar road for just a split second before logic catches up and you realize you’re not in Kansas anymore.

What the hell I am talking about? Just tonight I had a list of very similarly named files in the Finder and I wanted to change the beginning of all of the files. I started to reach for my option key to create a multi-line cursor ala TextMate. Of course, the Finder has no such feature. Off to the Terminal.

The first time I really remember this happening was when I was deep into my GTA 3 playtime. You know how it was easiest to get from downtown to the mechanic’s shop by cutting over a little strip of grass? Sure you could go around on the pavement but what was the point, right? So I’m on my way to work one day and there’s this annoying strip of grass that’d make things a whole lot shorter if it wasn’t there… Obviously these thoughts aren’t entertained for long but the fact that they show up at all is of great amusement to me.

Apple backlash, part 2

2008-01-15T18:56:00Z

Today was the big Macworld Stevenote, where the lights dim in some areas of the country from all of the server load generated by millions of clicks on browser refresh buttons.

As an iPod Touch owner, I am severely cheesed off about charging $20 for the upgrade. WTF? This is stuff that should have been in revision one, everyone pointed it out, and now you’re wanting $20 more bucks? Please. I’m expecting an iPhone-price-drop-style reversal on this one, but you think they would have learned from that experience.

I’ve seen the argument made that you bought the iPod touch without those applications- But the Apple TV got an update for free today too, an update I see as a lot bigger than the touch’s.

Also, the MacBook Air: very sweet. But, Apple glossed over the fact that the RAM is not upgradeable. At least they put 2 gigs in- probably a reasonable compromise for what that machine is intended for. Also the solid state hard drive is very cool, but it’s clear why that wasn’t made standard– it’s a $1K addon(!)

(part 1 of the backlash, for those keeping track at home, was the aforementioned reaction to the iPhone price drop)

'The Rails Way' and the sad state of DRM

2008-01-03T01:39:00Z

In another of what is starting to be a series of public-interest stories¹, I recently set about attempting to find a PDF copy of Obie’s masterpiece, The Rails Way.

Unfortunately, this book is published by Addison Wesley, who aren’t exactly the Pragmatic Programmers. Daunted by the 912-page heft, and following nightmares of a 20-pound addition to my computer bag, I sought out some sort of PDF option.

Obie himself recommended diesel-ebooks² on Josh Sutter’s blog. Surely an enlightened member of the agile community would not recommend some fly-by-night organization? Diesel’s site listed the format as “Adobe”, alongside a tiny PDF icon. I searched for information on the help pages, etc. about the if there was any DRM, etc. I couldn’t find any. Perhaps it does exist somewhere, but I’m a pretty savvy web user and if I couldn’t find it in 5 minutes, you can bet Joe Consumer ain’t gonna find it, either. So I shrug, and with the thought of 900 pages on my back, I decide it’s worth a shot. I pony up my dough, more than amazon is charging for the actual, physical book, and go through a pointless exercise in getting a code from them from an automated phone call³. I retrieve my email and click that verification link, and I get to download a file. Wait, it’s a .etd file, and only just over 1 kB in size? I guess it’s some special reference file that Acrobat Reader understands?

Yes, and no. I download Acrobat Reader⁴, and drag my file over. It tells me I need something called “Digital Editions” or something like that and bounces me to the webpage to download. Except I can’t. Where I gather the link is supposed to be, inside a flash applet, is just a link to the system requirements. Digital Editions does not run on Leopard (nor are you allowed to even try, apparently). End of road. Except I’m out my 36 bucks.

I have now put in a support request at diesel asking for a refund, as I can’t even use it, and this was not disclosed to me. Somehow I’m not that hopeful. So far I haven’t even heard a peep from them. I’m mentally preparing myself for the fun that contesting the credit card charges will be.

Please world, if ever a book deserved a real, honest-to-goodness PDF version, this is the one. Can’t we work out some sort of a deal? I’d stop short of giving an arm or a leg, perhaps a toe or something? Maybe the one who got roast beef?

¹ Perhaps I should apply for a gig at The Consumerist?

² No link love for the wicked.

³ I guess they have a verified number that I was at, but wouldn’t a “bad guy” just have it call a pay phone somewhere?

⁴ Thank you, Preview, for saving me from this for so long.

Macbook secret HD repair program

2008-01-03T00:44:00Z

A quick note on something I think could use a little sunshine:

My MacBook’s hard drive died, and I took it along to the Apple Store to vent a bit (in a very calm and rational way, of course!), as this MacBook has had a difficult life so far. The tech was understanding, but said there wasn’t much he could do for me, since I was substantially out of warranty. Kind of what I expected, but I felt slightly better. We went on to my next issue with my iPod touch, and he then remembered something.

Apparently there is some sort of “Quality Program” on MacBooks with 60 gig (and possibly 80, I got a vague notion of that but couldn’t say for sure) hard drives. The issue is not disclosable to the public, but it exists on the magical genius bar knowledge base, which is apparently much better than the one us lowly plebes get access to.

Thus, if you have a MacBook with a dead 60 (maybe 80, too?) gig HD, bring it in and they should fix it. (I got a 80 gig replacement, too, the tech seemed to indicate that is what all 60s are being replaced with) I don’t have a recommendation for telling your genius how to find this program other than “look harder”. Good luck, but remember that Apple keeps your hard drive!

blogosphere << self

2007-12-27T05:41:00Z

Hi, I’m Matt. I’ve actually been doing Rails development for a while. I just never thought I had anything useful to add- I was always looking up at those “more advanced” than I.

But sitting at RailsConf this year, I realized that I do know more than many of the people who were there. And if there were people at the conference that I knew more than, surely there’d be a lot more out in the world at large.

I also realized a problem I think the Rails community is suffering from– the very first substantive post will address that topic.

These realizations led me to where we are now: time to slice out a mephisto install and get to work.

Then get distracted by other things for half a year and let in languish. I’m back, hopefully it’ll stick this time.

Coming soon...

2007-05-30T23:37:00Z

Welcome. We hope to have a couple of articles inspired by RailsConf 2007 up within the next <strike>day</strike> year or two. Stay tuned.