Alex's Journal

[digg=http://digg.com/tech_news/Social_Networking_10]I’ve often wondered what kind of long term effects social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook and the hundreds (if not thousands) of knockoffs will have on my generation in the future. When I was in high school, these sites were just beginning and almost no one I knew had an account or had even heard of these sites. By the time I reached college, however, practically everyone I knew had an account on one, if not both. In fact, quite a few people I knew even had such a reliance on these websites that they used them as a primary source of communication between each other. To enforce this reliance, there are even newly created English verbs associated with both of the sites. Grammatically speaking, the infinitives would be “to myspace” and “to facebook”. It is not an unusual thing to hear one student say to another, “Facebook me” or “Myspace me” or even “I’ll facebook you”, etc.

Admittedly, I have accounts on both MySpace and Facebook and even on a site called studiVZ (basically a German equivalent of Facebook). I don’t think I would have survived socially in the world of a university student without them. I think if everyone one had access to them from anywhere (like they do a cell phone), they would quickly become the only real source of communication; even topping text messaging, which, I would have to say, is at number one right now.

Another thing I have noticed is that it widens the gap between my generation and my parents’ generation. There is a whole layer of communication that goes on between people my generation that my parents’ generation (and older) can’t seem to grasp. They’ve ceased to be quite so surprised by it, but for a while, I would tell my parents that I was going over to such-and-such’s house because he had invited me over and they would comment that we hadn’t gotten a phone call for hours. I would have to explain to them that I hadn’t been invited by phone, but rather by a message on MySpace or Facebook.

I’m not sure what exactly prompted me to write about this, but it was a thought I had, so I decided to share it. I can’t honestly say I have any idea what the long term effects will be, but I’m fairly sure we’ll see some sort of reaction to it; whether it be just another method of communication or it affect the way people learn to communicate and socialize with others overall.

What do you think will happen?

[digg=http://digg.com/apple/GarageBand_08_is_Frustrating]Edit: This problem has been fixed with the update to GarageBand that Apple just released.

As I’ve said in a previous entry, I recently upgraded iLife from version ‘04 to version ‘08. The I really do like the new versions of every application included in iLife: iPhoto, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb (which I didn’t have in my previous version of iLife). I can’t include iMovie in my list because the iLife installation program didn’t install it since my computer doesn’t meet the minimum computer requirements.

Although I really like the way the new GarageBand acts and feels, there is one annoyance that I can’t seem to get around. I am a power user of GarageBand. In fact, I originally bought iLife ‘04 because it included GarageBand and I wanted to use it. In most of my musical creations, I have electronic effects to spice things up and in order to create these electronic effects, I use a separate application, Propellerhead’s Reason, which connects to GarageBand via a technology called ReWire (also developed by Propellerhead).

For those of you who don’t know what ReWire is, it is simply an software technology that allows music programs to connect to one another via a “master program”. When you press play or stop in the master program, all of the tracks from every program begin to play. When you export your final creation from the master program, it will export all of the tracks from every program into one, playable file.

Generally speaking, GarageBand tends to serve as the master program. As I’ve said before, I’ve never had any problems with it up until I upgraded to GarageBand ‘08, however with the new version, all ReWire applications will only play through the left channel. When I open the file I created in Reason by itself, it plays just fine in stereo. When I connect Reason to other programs via ReWire, it also plays in stereo. I don’t know what Apple did with its ReWire compatibility, but it’s really irritating.

Basically that leaves me with two options: I can either sit around and wait for Apple to come up with either a fix or a solution for this problem or I can downgrade my version of GarageBand back to ‘04. Until one of these happens, my music creation is basically at a stand still.

If you have any suggestions or comments, it would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: This problem has been fixed with the update to GarageBand that Apple just released.

[digg=http://digg.com/apple/1984_Apple_Lisa_Demonstration]This is kind of amusing for us now:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4BlmsN4q2I]

[digg=http://digg.com/programming/Me_a_Programmer_I_don_t_think_so]I think it would only be reasonable for me to begin by saying that although I have played around with Xcode, I am not a professional software developer, I’m only a hobbyist. Now that I’ve gotten the truth out there, let’s begin.

I have dabbled in programming since the time before I was even a Mac user. I’ve never actually written an entire application, but I have started a-plenty and have certainly abandoned just as many. Since the days of Mac OS 10.1 and when Xcode was still called Project Builder, I have been half-way programming applications. My most recent attempt at a program is a small little game I called Maffia. If you couldn’t guess, the application is a mafia role playing game that’s entirely text based. It’s text based because I don’t really have any desire to put forth the effort into figuring out how to make a fully graphical game.

I always seem to do the same thing when trying to write a program. I begin by creating enough of the interface to give me a good start. Then I start connecting the interface elements to code that actually makes them useful. I start with the simple ones and work my way up. Since I tend to love design and graphics, I also create most of the art work, icons, etc for the program, giving it a lovely look and feel.

(Above: Maffia in Interface Builder)

The problem is when the coding gets tricky or when I run into my first major bug in the project. I could sit down and design user interfaces all day long, design the program’s flow and even create artwork for the program, but I can’t seem to stay focused on the technical coding bit. I tend to lose interest at this point and I move on to something else for a while before coming up with another idea for a new program (which will probably have the same fate as the previous attempt).

(Above: Maffia in Xcode)

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking that I am a quitter. Well, this would in fact make me one. Just to clarify though, I am not normally a quitter. But if something loses my interest (as in this case), I move on to other things. I guess that just means I’m not a programmer.

What a useless entry. Here are some more screen shots of Maffia as far as it’s gotten:

(Above: The application icon for Maffia)

(Above: The first window you see when you open Maffia)

(Above: The main game window, minus a few icons)

(Above: Maffia’s about box including the application icon)

[digg=http://digg.com/apple/iWork_08_and_Microsoft]I’m sure by now everyone who pays any attention to anything Apple-related or even computer-related has heard about (and even had enough of) Apple’s new iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08. Well, to add insult to injury, here’s my two cents worth.

After having read quite a bit about the new software suites from Apple, I decided I would go out on a limb and try them myself. Keep in mind, I had iLife ‘04 (the first version with GarageBand) and iWork ‘06. I rushed out to the local Apple Retail Store (I was too impatient to order it online) and purchased both iLife ‘08 and iWork ‘08, even sacrificing my university student discount for time saved in getting a chance to play with them. It wasn’t until after the fact that I realized I had hurried to the store to purchase an office suite…

Anyway, what I really wanted to discuss here was the new version of iWork. To sum things up before I even get started, Microsoft should be embarrassed. For most users, the first thing they will notice is the price. At $79 for the entire suite (which includes Pages for word processing, the new Numbers application for spreadsheets and Keynote for slide shows and presentations), it’s much cheaper than the Standard Edition for Microsoft Office, which costs a whopping $399! The next thing users will notice is how beautiful the applications are. They, as would be expected from Apple, seamlessly fit Mac OS X’s Aqua look and feel. It also is noticeably more streamlined with all of the common features being only one or two clicks away than Microsoft’s clunky, outdated Office suite. For those of you who are more familiar with the technical aspects, Apple has beat Microsoft to the punch by supporting the new Open XML format. The Open XML format is used in Microsoft’s own Office 2007 for Windows. That means that iWork ‘08 can read and write the default format for Microsoft Office 2007, but Office for Mac can’t. How embarrassing for Microsoft.

That’s about all I have to say about it. On a last note, if you haven’t tried it, but are interested in trying it, Apple has a free 30-day trial available for Mac users. You can find that here: http://www.apple.com/iwork/trial.

There is also more information about iWork ‘08 (including screenshots, etc) here: http://www.apple.com/iwork.

It’s been a while since I last posted anything here. In all reality, it’s not really because I haven’t had time, but rather I mostly just forgot about it.

Anyway, stay tuned for some more great thoughts from Alex coming soon!