My little place on the web
Technology
The Ultimate Hypocrisy
Aug 2nd
Remember that post in which I described my absolute despise for Apple and all Apple products (particularly the Safari web browser)? Well, God has a sense of humor: Not only has Safari become my favorite browser, but I have also adopted a MacBook Pro for my mobile computing needs. I was even using an iPhone at the time I posted that article.
I guess I owe Apple an apolology… I learned that Chrome is based on the WebKit framework, which is an Apple project that is open standard to all developers. Chrome actually removed some of the extra cool effects that Apple included so that it would be a more lightweight web browser. Safari was the slowest browser on my old computer which had a 32-bit Windows (Vista) operating system running on a 1.2 GHz CPU with only 2 GB of RAM. Now, I have a 64-bit Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system running on a 2.4 GHz CPU with 4 GB of RAM. Safari opens to my “Top Sites” well within 2 seconds… and that’s from a cold start!
Another thing I’d just like to throw out there: I’ve been using iPhone 4 for a while now, and I have not had any problems whatsoever with reception or “Antennagap” (or whatever the sue-happy people are calling it). I actually get better reception now than I did with my iPhone 3G. Bottom-line, the iPhone 4 is a vastly superior smartphone in my opinion.
I must say that I am very pleased with what Apple has been doing recently: the iPad, iPhone 4, Unibody MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, etc. My friends tell me that it would be extremely ironic if I start working for Apple once I graduate. To be honest, I’m actually considering it…
A Diamond in the Rough, or was it a Ruby on Rails
Jun 5th
I have made my decision from when I asked the question in Thursday’s post: I will try to learn as much as I can about Ruby and C++ over the next two months.
After watching and following along with this video about the amazing power of Ruby on Rails (“Rails” for short), I realized how similar Rails and CakePHP are: the frameworks are identical in every way; only the languages differ. In other words, I only have to learn the (seemingly simple) Ruby language before I can start using Rails like a pro.
Learning C++ would give me a jumpstart into many of the other languages I would like to learn (like Cocoa and Android) since they are based on the concepts of C++. I also have the opportunity to learn this language from its inventor, Bjarne Stroustrup: I will be following the guidelines set forth in his book, Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++. C++ will also be the primary language that I will use during my college education. I have studied C++ in the past for Robotics, but I do not know enough to make an application for a computer… yet.
Since Ruby and C++ should be fairly easy to learn, I might have enough time to start learning one more language this summer. I’m still open for suggestions, so please let me know what you think.
Language Learning Time!
Jun 3rd
Now that summer has arrived and I am no longer burdened by assignments and homework, I would like to expand my programming horizons by learning some new languages.
I try to learn at least one new language/framework each summer. Last summer, I learned how to use CakePHP (PHP), jQuery (JavaScript), Prototype (JavaScript), and CSS3. I attempted to learn JSP with much frustration due to its complexity. However, I would be willing to try again.
As I’ve learned more about CakePHP, I have come to love the MVC setup, which makes Ruby on Rails look very appealing. That also means that I will have to learn Ruby. Being a web developer, the server-side languages seem more useful, but I would also like to be able to make desktop applications that can be compiled to run on any machine. I have also made the commitment to make at least one mobile app that interfaces with an online database by the end of this year.
I have more languages that I would like to learn more about, but I don’t know where to start. This is where you (the reader) can help. Out of the following languages, which would be the best, easiest, or most useful to know?
- Python
- Ruby
- Ruby on Rails (by extension of Ruby)MVC
- JSP
- Bash scripting
- C++ (which I will learn in College anyway, but would like to get a head start)
- Cocoa (Mac OS X; based on Objective-C)MVC
- Cocoa Touch (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad by extension of Cocoa)MVC
- Android (by extension of C++)
You are welcome to suggest other languages or frameworks. Please comment below to cast your vote. I will post the results later.
BEST Robotics 2009
Oct 24th
I will be participating in the 2009 BEST Robotics Competition today. The SJS Robotics Team has really pulled together this last week to go from a base robot design that barely moves to a fully functional robot. Please come out to Texas A&M Consolidated High School sometime between 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM to show your support.
Please pray that our robot performs to the best of it’s ability (pun not intended).
Google Wave
Oct 3rd
I just took a look at the Google I/O video that unveils the development preview for Google Wave: Google’s newest endeavor to create the next generation of collaborative work and communication.
Google brings up a good point: email has been around for 40 years, which is older than the World Wide Web! Therefore they posed the question: ‘What would email look like if it were invented today?’
Enough introduction, let’s get to the good stuff! Waves start out as a shared document: when you create a wave, you put some initial information (text, pictures, and attachments, etc.) on it and invite people to view it. You can invite as many people as you want, and it will show up in each person’s inbox. People can then add pubic comments or replies, send direct messages to certain users, make changes to the original text, and “instant message” with other users in real time (online users can see other people typing on a character-by-character basis). In this sense, a wave becomes more than a shared document: it can take on the role of an email, a blog post, a chat room, an instant system, and a photo/file gallery.
A user can choose to make a wave public by posting it to Blogger or embedding it on a website. Embedded waves have all of the same features that they would if they were on the Google Wave site: users can see real-time updates and all edits are immediately synchronized with all places where the wave might be located.
Google Wave is currently available to invited users only. One may request an invite on the Google Wave homepage, but don’t expect any immediate reply. Wave is supposed to go public by the end of the year, and I look forward to using it!
Remodeled Layout
Sep 30th
I have updated the theme for my blog to be a more flexible and custom theme. I plan to integrate alternative methods to post comments, the ability to follow me around the web such as on Facebook and Twitter, options to share posts via email, Digg, etc., and the like.
If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know.
MMS for iPhone Coming Friday
Sep 24th
AT&T announced on their Facebook page that they will unlock the MMS (Multi-Media SMS) feature for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS this Friday, September 25, 2009.
AT&T had originally promised to release this feature to the public in late summer… It’s a little late, but better late than never.
The feature that I am most excited about is the iPhone Internet tethering release. AT&T still hasn’t released a date; they say that it will be “coming in the future.” This feature used to be hackable, so iPhone users know that AT&T has the ability to support Internet tethering. So why don’t they allow us to access it? My theory is that the current cellular network would not be able to withstand the load that tethering would create.
The only thing that we can do at this point is wait for AT&T to upgrade their hardware.
Safari 4 Released
Jul 12th
I never thought I’d see the day that I would blog about an Apple product… I just took a good look at the newly released Safari 4, and I must say that it looks… impressive to say the least.
Before I get into further details, let me first say that the Safari 4 interface looks strikingly familiar. As a web developer, I have to make sure that my websites look the same across all web browsers. That means that I have most of the browsers in the world on my computer: Mozilla Firefox (my favorite), Flock, Orca, Opera, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer (why Is that piece of junk called a web browser anyway?), Konqueror, Epiphany, and so on… Now I’ll get to the point: Safari is basically Google Chrome under a different name. Chrome introduced the minimalistic user interface (back and forward buttons on the right side, an address/search bar in thr middle, and only two menus–”Page” and “Settings”–on the left. The rest of the screen was devoted to displaying web page content. Apple’s Safari 4 looks identical to Chrome except the search bar is a separate text field in Safari. The only thing that Apple did to make it different was throw in a couple of glitzy effects: Chrome’s “Most visited sites” page has been given a 3D effect and has been renamed to “top sites”. I must admit that the bookmark management is better in Safari than in Chrome, but I’m just mad that Apple had to steal another idea and call it their own. Don’t even get me started on the fact that Apple stole Compiz from Linux…
On a more positive note, Apple’s new release of Safari 4 has full support for many new and exciting (for developers like me) web features like JavaScript, CSS 3, HTML 5, etc. In fact, Safari scores a perfect ’100′ on the Acid3 Test, and it is the first web browser to do so. However, Apple proudly boasts that Safari is the “World’s Fastest Web Browser,” but I still have yet to see their speed stats hold true on any machine: Gmail runs faster on Chrome and Firefox than Safari; Safari takes the longest to load on my machine at (28 seconds–22 more than Firefox); and Safari takes up the most RAM of all browsers on my computer.
Safari has jumped from it’s position next to Internet Explorer up next to Chrome on my browser ranking scale, but it still has to get through Opera and Flock before it has even a remote chance of replacing Firefox as my favorite browser. If Safari were truly as fast as Apple says it is, did not take up so much RAM, and had a huge database of add-ons that enable you to do anything, then it might have a shot at being my favorite.
Now Using WordPress
Jun 18th
After several months of “Blogware Shopping”, I finally decided to settle with WordPress. It has the best interface, the fastest and simplest install and management features, and gives the most flexibility when making your site.
Sorry for the Outage
Feb 15th
Sorry that my blog has been down recently. I just now had a chance to check it, and I found that there was an error. I do not know how long my site has been like that, but I do know that Mosso, my hosting provider, was running some routine maintenance a few days ago. Something probably happened on their end that threw all of my permissions settings out of whack. Everything should be back to normal now, but if you do find a problem, please let me know:
Send an email to: matthew[at]komputerwiz[dot]net
The [at] and [dot] prevent spamming robots from getting my email address 