What's new in programming--Cocoa A lot has changed since the last time I seriously sat down to write Macintosh software. At that time, we were still using System 7 (I think...) and the Mac was dominated by the now-deprecated and renamed Carbon API. It was a good programmatic API, but …

So, for reasons involving the Virginia Department of Taxation, I found myself digging through some old web sites for Inter.net this morning. As a part of this, I needed to make captures of the Library of Congress's web captures of Inter.net's 9/11 site, MyStory.Inter.net. As …

You can't get away from cycles, they're everywhere. Today I'm going to focus on what I believe is a great cycle in software development – the return to meaningful software development. When I started programming in (gulp) 1979, the world was unencumbered by GUIs. Most interfaces were text-based unless you were …

I know it's been a nearly-inexcusable 50 days since my last posts here, but there's been a lot going on out here in Virginia. Aside from the usual fall stuff, and some family trips, I have been diligently working on my first major new piece of software since I did …

Beware geeks in London! David Mery writes in The Guardian about being detained and arrested (not to mention having his flat searched, etc.) because he looked suspicious in a tube station in London. What did he do? Not much that you or I wouldn't do...

So, you may be wondering what's going on with Gaige's Pages these days. I'll be making an announcement some time soon to this list, but I have a new project under wraps right now which will likely result in something I haven't done in almost a decade: publishing a new …

Wired has a short interview with Bob Wiederhold of Transitive, the makers of Apple's Rosetta technology that allows you to run old PowerPC software (built for OS X, not Classic) on an Intel-based Macintosh. Not lengthy, but some interesting commentary, especially in the end about the need to innovate.

Don't let the title fool you, this is actually quite amusing. If you've ever seen Top Gear (originally BBC, available in the US via ), you know Clarkson and his dry, sarcastic humor and fine analogies. Well, Mr. Luddite has found the iPod and it's taken over his life. Pretty good …

SPF tests can be added quickly using a method similar to that used for the DNS tests outlined in my earlier article. By using CPAN to install the package Mail::SPF::Query, and restarting amavisd (detailed in the previous post), you will start receiving additional scoring based on SPF failures …

According to a letter disclosed as part of the SCO v. IBM case and reprinted on GrokLaw, SCO had tried previously to find evidence of copyright violation in the LINUX source and had been unsuccessful. It's a pretty amazing read considering some of the commentary made by SCO executives after …

Anyone who has flown into Washington DC's (Ronald Reagan) National Airport since 9/11 is certain to be familiar with the inconvenient (and often very uncomfortable) fact that you cannot get out of your seat within 30-minutes of takeoff or landing at the airport. This rule, intended to prevent terrorist …

According to a press release from the ACLU and tons of other places, there is a move afoot to schedule a vote next week on Representative Sensenbrenner's HR 3199 which would completely repeal the sunset provision in the Patriot Act... you remember the part that the lawmakers told us made …

Finally, somebody has done the legwork for Carol and I to show that the increased number of quick-to-market and "small n" medical studies are resulting in a lot of questionable information getting to the public. And, it doesn't even study how poorly these scientific studies are interpreted by the mass …

A report from AppleInsider indicates that Apple developers who are participating in Apple's early access program (Developer Transition Kit) for the Intel-based Macintosh have been pleasantly surprised at both the raw speed of the offering and the speed of PowerPC emulation under Rosetta.

Last night after the market closed, Apple released their F3Q05 numbers, surprising many supporters on the street and possibly quieting some of those concerned that the firms future is in doubt, at least for a quarter or two. I have some details in the rest of the article, and the …

The venerable BBC has launched an open source site for hosting their (soft)wares created under a variety of licenses. Lots of stuff here, including CPAN modules, Apache modules, and their new codec.

An article from Ars Technica attempts to put a different view on why Apple announced their switch from IBM's PowerPC chip to the Intel brand processors. Whereas the article had some interesting, and probably correct assertions and ideas, I do think that there are some points that are either glossed …

In a move likely spawned more by the lack of leadership in software than by a true belief in free markets, the European Union has rejected the pending legislation on software patents. According an article from CNet, the landslide victory is likely to result in a delay of at least …

The XCode 2.1 developer tools is a very large package (pushing well over .5GB), and now you have one CD and want to install it on a fleet of machines. Note: this can help with installing almost anything... I was just about to use one of my favorite tools …

Not one of my diatribes... one from somebody else. Wil Shipley (now CEO of Delicious Monster and former member of the OMNI Group) gave a presentation to a group of 300 or so people who were brought to the Apple WWDC on scholarship. He's now posted his talk on his …