Where does the time go? It just seems like yesterday that I wrote my last blog entry and now it’s one-week later. My plate is to full. Did clear off one item permanently. That item is a bug ridden Volkswagen New Beetle. I purchased this vehicle in 2001 and managed to accumulate 29705 miles on it. In that time, both of the headlights burned out, the AC failed twice, all taillights including the break lights failed, and the fuel system pump broke. This was a TDI (diesel engine) and a fuel system pump was warranted as part of the drive train. On top of these problems the dealers service center was poor. Each time they worked on the car it was returned with oil smudges. Work was never completed on time and there were always hassles about rental car payments. This was my last VW.

My efforts to learn Cocoa continue. Continue to work my way through “Learning Cocoa with Object-C”. The more I work with this language and Apples development environment the more I like it. Progress has been a little slow the past few weeks because of work. Spent the last few days coding Java classes to download report data in various formants. It all came together today. Our customers can now download any report information in cvs, xml, html, or xls formats. Have not used java for some time. It was nice to get reacquaint again. Our little development company landed a contract with a local doctor who has a medical transcription business. This business has reached its max capacity. It will be our task to provide new tools to improve productivity and allow new growth. The business is there, he just needs the ability to service it.

Have sold my Dual 1Ghz G4 Mac on eBay and now have my iBook up for auction. Originally planned on moving to the G5. However, with the increasing need to work away from home, now intend to purchase a PowerBook G4. The 17-inch powerbook is really nice but just to pricy. Suspect, I will settle for the 1Ghz 15-inch powerbook. Would like to purchase it on eBay. However, so many of the listing for powerbooks appears bogus. No way would these characters get my money. If I can find a legitimate seller, will just have to fork out the extra bucks to apple.

This little smile just makes my day….

Summer has come to Phoenix, AZ. This week we have experienced official temperatures of up to 116 F …. but it is a dry heat …. like an oven. Yesterday was one of those 116F dry heat days ….. and the air conditioner at work quite working. Found that once office temperatures hit 92F, one’s ability to concentrate on the intricacies of writing code nose dives to nothing. They did manage to get it up and running again just before we left for the day.

REALITY #1 – NO AIR CONDITIONING, NO PHOENIZ.

Progress continues on learning Cocoa. Have built a skeleton program that can load edit and save a Newton Notes plist. Now working on parsing the plist XML tags to transform the data to display content as it does on the Newton. Will post a link to the executable once the basic functionality is works. That is you can load a Notes plist and it displays as it does on your Newton.

I had to make an unexpected trip to Florida. Mom , the healthy one who had not seen a doctor in 8 years took ill and was in hospital. She actually spent a full week there before being released and returning to her home of the last 25 years. She is a very determined women…… Knowing that this trip would include long hours of waiting, I took a couple of books and an iBook with me. Had just recently sold my 600 Mhz iBook for lack of use. Purchased a new 900 Mhz machine just for this trip. Was really impressed with the performance boost the extra 300 Mhz gave. The books included Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X” by Aaron Hillegass, and Cocoa with Objective-C” by James Duncan Davidson & Apple Computer, Inc. Both are excellent books. When learning a new language, I like to use two books written by different authors. Between the two they seem to answer most of the questions that rattle through my head as I learn. In the two weeks spent in Florida, I managed to get through close to three fourths of each book. In the process, discovered that I really like Cocoa. I found that the initial learning curve is quite steep. So many classes… Did find a reference to Cocoa Browser. It is a tool that organizes Cocoa documentation such that you can actually find needed class info. This is a must have resource.

I have two immediate needs for Cocoa. The first is to create an application that will provide an interface to the .plist Notes file downloaded from my Newton. The second is to create an application for the writing of my Journal. I know their are a number of Journal application out there. However, what I want is something that is as simple to use as a piece of paper and can import both Newton & Palm Notes.

Took a little time off during a recent trip to Florida to consult with the team. It was a very positive meeting. I am now highly motivated to return soon…

In my humble view, Mom makes the best beet soup. I have sampled other beet soup across this country and even in London. But there is nothing like her beet soup. While visiting with Mom at her home in Florida, our conversation drifted towards food and our favorite dishes. I brought up her beet soup…. I got her to divulge her secret recipe. This is not something she has written down… it is something she just knows how to make. Mom is a spry 86 years young. Cooking to her is something that is just part of a person. There is no such thing as a recipe. Its just a bit of this and a pinch of that and bake, warm, or boil till done. Any way here is the recipe:

BEET SOUP
2 – fatty pork steaks
4 – qt.’s water
6 – allspice seeds
1 – large onion

Boil these together until the port falls off the bone. About 2+ hours.

Add:

6 – jars of pickled beets
1/4 – cup vinegar

Simmer for 1 hour.

MIX slowly into soup, so as not to curdle or lump

1/2 – carton sour cream
1 – tbls. flour

Simmer for 1/2 hour.

Best served over home made egg noodles. However, I find it wonderful just plain, or over store bought noodles.

CAUTION:
This soup is very addictive. One bowl and you may be hooked for life.

The third iPod failed. I brought this unit home. Connected it to my G4 and loaded 4.7 G of music. Everything seemed normal. The unit played well, and operated flawlessly. Two days later, I attempted to listen to some music and found the iPod dead. It was fully charged. Didn’t seem right. That evening I plugged it into my G4. Noted that it started to charge. After a couple of hours I noticed its screen was cycling between the Apple logo and blank screen. Also that iTunes had not opened. The Mac did not recognize the iPod. Attempted a hard reset of the iPod but nothing. Took it back to the Apple store the following day. The unit was dead when they opened the box. I could not get it to respond so it just sat and cycle itself until the battery went dead. The folks at Apple plugged it in and it worked OK for them . They used the wall plug to charge the unit. We discussed that the problem could be with my G4. However, the G4 is new and my old style iPod had no problems with it. Once again Apple replaced my iPod. I am getting good at opening the iPod box and installing music. After installing the music I charged the iPod for several hours using the wall charger. After charging I found it played fine. The next morning it still worked. Later that morning I flew to Tampa, Fl and used it for three hours with no problem. The following day it still played OK. Maybe the fourth time is the charm…..of course I have not attempted to recharge the unit

Sold my 20 G iPod on eBay and purchased a new 10 G unit. The new form factor, particularly the addition of the base and its ability to remain plugged into my home stereo, and of course the new look enticed me to make the change. Moving from a 20 G to 10 G was not an issue. All of my music plus some critical files and contact information account for only 4.7 G. I can double my existing audio library and still not exceed the capacity of this unit. When I got the first unit home, I found that the contrast control had to be set to its minimum value to get an acceptable screen. Also noted the sound control had to be set at almost full range for adequate sound. When I took the unit to work the next day, it died after only one hour of use. Charged it up that night using the charger. However, the battery wouldn’t take a charge. Our local Apple store replaced this unit. The second iPod, seemed to work OK. However, did notice the contrast control had to be set to minimum for proper viewing. Even when set to minimum there were a series of dark ripples extending from the left side of the screen. While loading it up I discovered a fatal flaw. There was a piece of crud on the display behind the screen cover. It actually looked like a piece of white plastic case material. Once Again the folks at the Apple store replace the unit. This latest one is great. The contrast and volume control work just as expected. The battery takes a charge and holds it. The screen looks crystal clear. Once again I am in love with my iPod.

Installed Apple Works 6.2.2 and upgraded it to the latest version 6.2.7….. With the latest announcement that Microsoft will no longer support/upgrade IE5 for the Mac the hand writing is on the wall in clear bold letters. Microsoft’s software support for Mac is going, going, gone….. Expect we will next hear about Virtual PC and Microsoft Office. So… for me its time to start using Apple Works. I have never used it. Every time I purchase a new Mac with Apple Works installed….. I send it to the trash and load up Microsoft Office. So far I find that Apple Works has a clean interface, and lets me save documents in Word format. I am sure there are plenty of i-got-you’s in this process….. but might as well start learning now. I loaded a Word doc file. Noticed the header was missing. When I attempted to insert a new header Apple Works displayed this option grayed out. I created Apple Works doc, inserted a header, and saved it as a Word doc, and opened it in Microsoft Office. The header was there. So…. seem that if you create a header in Apple Works it successfully moves to Word. But if you create a header in Word it gets lost on its way to Apple Works.