Cornerstone vs. Versions, Again

I've updated and expanded my comparison of the two best Subversion version control clients for Mac OS X. Short story, I've switched to Cornerstone.

Line Eater

There is a batch file that we run to create a version of RPM that's ready for deployment. It does some optimizations on some files among other tasks. I recently needed to have it remove the first line of every JavaScript file. After trying some unsuccessful batch file tricks, I figured it would be faster to whip up a little app to do it.

So if you need a command line utility to remove lines from the start of a file, be my guest: Line Eater.

The latest Croshaw

YC's reviews just keep getting more entertaining. As long as I've got these, who needs to play the actual games to have a good time?

More Vista

I just read Vista Annoyances Resolved and have to post it as a follow-up to my previous post. As well as providing a thorough analysis of Vista issues, Koroush touches on the similarities between the launches of Vista and the (now) praised XP.

...Windows XP was subject to the exact same types of criticisms and concerns as Windows Vista, many of them totally baseless or sensationalist as we now know.

I do love Mac, but I also love busting of myths.

Go Vista

I use a Mac at home and love it. I use Vista at work and on my HTPC and I don't mind it. If you've got a newer machine Vista is better than XP. For various reasons Vista has received a bad reputation. Microsoft knows they shit the bed on Vista marketing and the Mojave Experiment is leading their response. Unfortunately, I agree that it's bad science, and bad marketing.

However, more important to me is that despite what some people would have you believe, Vista is doing well. Microsoft has sold over 180 million licenses as of July 2008 and sales will likely accelerate. That makes me happy since every new Vista user is one less user of IE6, the bane of my profession.

So please, if you can't go Mac, go Vista. If you can't go Vista, at least go Firefox. Either way, you save a developer.

Back from Toronto

I'd like to thank everyone who came to my presentation at Agile2008 in Toronto. The highlight for me was the closing keynote by Alan Cooper.

Linux Desktop

I recently made my latest attempt at really using Linux. This time it was openSUSE 10.3. Due to my Aperture addiction I won't be replacing my iMac anytime soon, but I was hoping to have a nice laptop for web development and entertainment on the road. The result? Linux is still far too much annoyance and frustration and that laptop is back to XP. I have to agree with the Fireball:

It’s common for the Linux hacker set to poke fun at Windows’s wizard-style configuration tools, but the entire desktop Linux user interface is a pale imitation of Windows — much, much more of a rip-off of Windows than Windows ever was of the Mac. But the resemblance is merely cosmetic; functionally, desktop Linux is nowhere near as usable as Windows.

I'm Presenting at Agile 2008

I'm presenting a short experience report at the Agile 2008 Conference in Toronto. If you're there on Wed, Aug 6 please stop by for "Design to Delivery in 7 Weeks" at 3pm on the user experience stage.

The highlight of the conference for me will no doubt be the closing keynote speaker, my role model, Alan Cooper.

Cornerstone vs. Versions Follow-up

I've added a follow-up to my Subversion client comparison, including my thoughts On SmartSVN and ZigVersion.

Cornerstone vs. Versions

My quick comparison of the two new Subversion version control clients for Mac OS X.

CSS Strip

The CSSTidy optimization tool didn't meet my needs so I wrote CSS Strip. It's free so if it might help you please go ahead and try it.

Foxmarks is better

I recently switched from Google Browser Sync to Foxmarks to keep the Firefox bookmarks synchronized between my Vista work PC and iMac at home. Google kept making little mistakes that became nightmares if I did any sort of large organizational changes. So far Foxmarks hasn't made a single mistake, and I take comfort in the more transparent process. I haven't had to use them yet, but I'm also glad it has the "force overwrite" functions that Google didn't.

Google did also sync my passwords and sessions, something the more specialized Foxmarks doesn't do. However, living without that feature hasn't turned out to be big deal.

Software for a new Windows computer

A family member has purchased a new laptop. Unfortunately, most new Windows machines require someone to set it up. This involves removing all the junk and installing some best-of-breed free software. Time to review my list:

• The PC Decrapifier. I'll try this for the first time.
• Foxit PDF reader. Just say no to Adobe Reader.
• Anti-virus & anti-spyware... This changes all the time, but thankfully Tech Support Alert keeps an updated list of the best free software. I'll probably go with the AOL Active Virus Shield (AOL not required) for AV since it is a trimmed-down version of the best AV engine there is, Kaspersky (which I pay to use and am pushing my work to adopt).
• Picasa. the best photo management app for the personal photo collection of the average user. Seriously, that's including non-free photo organizer software you have to pay for.
• Firefox as the default web browser and I'll make sure the IE is 7.
• This time I'll also install something to let me take remote control for future tech support. Probably LogMeIn, although TeamViewer looks good too.

New browsers: Firefox is still king.

I've been using Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 at home and work since they were released a month ago.

7 is the best IE yet and contains improvements that were sorely past due. It finally adds tabbed browsing and a search field, finally bringing it up to par with Firefox.

Up to par with Firefox 1 maybe. However, Firefox 2 has raised the bar even higher with inline spell checking and even better extension management. Upgrading to Firefox 2 was very pleasant, especially how it went through my add-ons checking for compatibility. The one that wasn't was upgraded for me. Compare that to the IE installation which required a Windows verification and a reboot.

For me the spell checking is reason alone to prefer Firefox, but so is the responsive tabs compared to IE's which are sluggish when switching between them. Not to mention IE's unfortunate UI, including the still awful options window.

I've switched to Google Reader

I had been using Bloglines as my RSS reader for a long time, but today I switched to Google Reader. Google recently upgraded their reader and became the first company to offer me something better than Bloglines. And the switch only took about 20 seconds thanks to OPML and my existing Google account. I exported my Bloglines list, including folders, to a single file and uploaded it to Google.

Thanks Bloglines, we had some good times.

Google really has a hold on me now as I regularly use Search, Gmail, Blogger, Spreadsheets, Calendar, I manage my photos with Picasa, I recently started using their browser sync to keep my home and work computers updated, and now my feed reader (probably the single web site I visit the most).

From Linux

I'm trying out Ubuntu on my laptop. So far so good: It painlessly repartitioned my active NTFS Windows drive to make a second drive, it installed quick, graphics and wireless networking are working with no configuration on my part, and it looks pretty good. Nice to see Linux has made some strong improvements in the years since I've given it a serious attempt.

A few minor issues so far: it didn't report my laptop battery time remaining properly at first (it seems to be now), and the fonts on some websites don't look the way I'm used to. I've grown so fond of that "Trebuchet MS", I must find it in the Linux world :)

Shut up flash!

Maybe the most annoying of the (many) problems with flash is the lack of an integrated, universal volume and/or mute control. I hate websites that play music without asking, flash games with annoying sounds, videos I can't adjust the volume of without affecting my whole system volume, etc. Firefox and IE should really have built-in volume/mute controls.

Anyway, I found this great little download for Windows users, FlashMute. It sits in your system tray and gives you a universal volume control for all flash animations. Nice.

RPM the snowball

We're listing over 50 customers now, including two Fortune 500 companies. There are even more signed up, but for various reasons we can't announce them yet.

Flight of the Phoenix

On Monday night, version 3.7 of RPM went online to everyone. One customer had been using it for a week already and we had been using it internally for over a month. The codename of this development effort was Phoenix, and yes, I pick the codenames. (Actually that's more or less all I do). This version is turning out to be one of our smoothest yet with only minor defects so far, all fixed in minutes or in the minor update Thursday night. Unfortunately, I have now officially jinxed it by writing this so now I'm expecting there will be server fires and error pages on Monday.

RPM has arrived

Mid September someone forwarded me an email recruitment ad from one of our customers. They're looking for some experienced managers and list 5 benefits on their company. And there after salary, commission, and support systems, is "RPM", our product. So they like our product enough to consider it a benefit, and they feel our product has enough industry recognition that people will know what they're talking about just from the name.

Needless to say, as a product manager it made me very happy. We're the definite leader in our niche, but with a new competitor now that just means it's ours to lose. In other words, no slacking off now!