KDBDallas

iDeskCal has officially been approved for the Mac App Store!

Look for it when the Mac App Store is released on January 6th.

After over 2 years of trying, and going through fertility treatment and tons of fertility meds, we are finally expecting a new addition to our family!

This last week we were able to see the first “pictures” of the baby and hear the heart beat for the first time.

It’s still a bit early to know if it’s a boy or girl, but we are hoping to be able to find out in the next few weeks.
We are going to try and get back in right before my birthday (Jan 25) to try and find out.

The due date is August 1st, however since we have to do a C-Section we will probably end up around the end of July.
That said, our main goal is to make it past 25 weeks this time.
Past that everything is gravy

We are working on getting back in to see a Perinatologist, who along with our normal baby doctor will determine the best course of action to help insure we get past 25 weeks this time.

Inspired by a similar post I saw today, I thought I would take a snap of my computer setup at work and share it with all of you.

I have uploaded it to Flickr with notes on what everything is, but I will attach the basics to this post.

This is my setup at work – Moki Networks – mokinetworks.com
All Displays powered by the iMac.

27″ iMac – 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7. 8GB RAM – Running Xcode
Samsung 27″ Monitor – Running my Mac app ‘iDeskCal’ www.HashBangInd.com/iDeskCal and Safari viewing www.philhendrieshow.com
Dell 24″ Monitor – Powered via EVGA UV Plus+ 16 (USB Display Adapter) Running iPhone 4 Simulator and Xcode Console
iPad running as a monitor using the app Air Display. Using for Mac OS Dock, Twitter (Echofon), and IM (Adium)
iPhone 4 running Safari, viewing personal Mac and iOS company HashBang Industries. HashBangInd.com
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 3G (broken screen but working)
iPod Touch – 2nd Generation
iPhone – 1st Generation
Bose QuietComfort 15 Noise Canceling Headphones
Dr Pepper!

November is Prematurity Awareness Month.

In connection with prematurity awareness month I thought I would give a little dose of current with a little dose of the past.

So to start (the present) (2010):
U.S. earns ‘D’ for premature births
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/17/premature.births/?hpt=Sbin

and now for the past (2005):
Tyler in the Salt Lake Tribune (2005)
Campaign targets premature births (PDF)

An interesting little tidbit is that this article (and Tyler’s birth) (2005) marked the third (3rd) Annual Prematurity Awareness Month, while this year (2010) is the eighth (8th) Annual Prematurity Awareness Month.

You might need to turn up your sound as his sweet little voice can be hard to hear.

I was VERY disappointed that I was unable to make it to Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) this year (it was last week).

The sessions are always VERY informative, but it is also a excellent chance to not only meet with other Mac/iOS developers, but you have the chance to talk one on one with the very people who are writing the software and API’s (Application Programming Interface) that we write software for/with.

Apple does make the videos of the sessions (along with the slides) available to everyone that attends, and allows those that didn’t attend to purchase the videos.
Before last year, these videos usually took around 6 months to become available, however last year they had them released within a month.

This year Apple TOTALLY outdid themselves and have released the videos all today!
That is LESS than 1 week!
Not only did they release everything within a week, but Apple has made all of the videos and slides available to ALL registered developers (even the free developer accounts) FOR FREE!!! That is a $500 savings for those that couldn’t attend!

I only have 2 things to say…

First: Good bye to my Hard Drive space (The videos are available in HD and Standard formats this year)

and Secondly… Classy Apple! VERY VERY CLASSY!

Reminder: Even though the videos did not cost this year, they are still covered under an NDA that you agree to when signing up for a developer account. Don’t make them sorry that they were so giving.

Those are the words that come to mind when I see Apple’s latest revision of the Mac Mini.

It’s amazing how few pieces are needed.

Repost of an article by Ted Dziuba on Saturday May 01, 2010.
Read the original article at: http://teddziuba.com/2010/05/why-engineers-hop-jobs.html

——-

What’s with all the hate on my generation? It started when somebody
quit Jason Calacanis’s industrial web spam startup, Mahalo, for a higher
paying position at a competitor. Invariably, Calacanis went apeshit on
the poor guy in a very public way, and this started a cascade of blogosphere
butthurt about people in software under thirty: that we’re unreliable,
that we’re lazy, that we’re entitled.

Well I’m as unreliable, lazy, and entitled as the next guy, but that’s not
why I’ve hopped jobs in the past. People in my generation have a very
low tolerance for bullshit, and software engineering, in general, is a
very high bullshit career. If you couple that with the standard load
of bullshit you would get from a non-technical Harvard MBA type boss —
like many CEOs that you find trying to get rich in Silicon Valley by
hiring some engineers to “code up this idea real quick” — it’s no
wonder that a good engineer will walk off the job after his one year
cliff vesting.

As an engineer, you are told that you’re “lucky to have a job”, because there are “a hundred people lined up
outside, ready to take it”. (As chance would have it, there are at
least a thousand lined up to take the job of rich prick who tells
people what to do). This backlash is the product of diseased
thinking. A CEO who makes an engineer work 80 hours a week is a driven
entrepreneur, but an engineer asking for a comfy chair is a prima
donna. So, when we are up to our knees in golf-course, martini-lunch
bullshit, don’t be surprised when we jump ship for a higher
salary.

I recognize the value of business people and
management. Somebody has to sell the code that I write, which in turn
puts food on my table. Since I am an engineer, I like
iterative optimization. Every time I have left a job, I have
further refined the requirements that a person must fill before I agree to work for him. After every job, I add one or two requirements to the list, and
I have found that my happiness at work improves dramatically with
every step.

This is my current list:

• The organization must need me at least as much as I need it.
• My direct manager must have a technical background — enough to understand why programming is hard.
• My direct manager must have enough experience or raw intelligence such that I can trust him/her to make decisions, even though I may not understand the reasoning.
• I must have absolute faith in the business plan.
• I must have absolute faith in “the business side” to execute that plan.

So, Jason, when that fellow quit Mahalo, he didn’t just leave you
in the lurch. He added something to his list. Maybe you should find
out what that is.

Newsprint version 1.1 has been Approved and should start showing up in the App Store shortly!

As an extra treat we are offering Newsprint for 50% off for the next week!

So don’t delay and pick up a copy today.

For more information on Newsprint, please visit: NewsprintApp.com

To access Newsprint in the iTunes App Store, please visit: App Store

*On sale from April 21, 2010 until April 28, 2010.
*50% off is $2.99, based on the normal price of $4.99

Newsprint 1.1 has been submitted to the App Store!

Now to get to work on the iPad version….