Sucking less, on a budget

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Two things opened up for me today. First, I'm allowed to talk about my project at Google. Second, it once again involves working directly with the open source community, something I've really enjoyed over the last ten years with Mozilla. I'm talking about the public release of the Chromium project and Google Chrome. To be clear, this is my blog so I'm speaking solely for myself, not for Google. These are all my opinions, and mine alone.

Let's get down to brass tacks: How does this affect Camino? In the short term, it doesn't at all. Plans for Camino 2.0 based on the Gecko 1.9 are underway and unchanged. I have some super-reviews to do for smorgan tomorrow that'll get us closer to 2.0alpha status. There shouldn't be any talk of "doom" or "gloom" because really nothing has changed. People still download Camino and continue to send email to our feedback list saying how much they love the product this community has created. That's just as valid tomorrow as it was yesterday. Camino is a great product and it is appreciated. I'm not just saying that to make myself feel relevant, I want everyone in our community to know their efforts are noticed on a daily basis by real people.

I'm also looking forward to working with and becoming a part of the WebKit community, but more specifically getting jinglepants right back where he belongs. He knows where that is. It's interesting seeing how many people in the Mozilla community also participate in #webkit. I was worried for so long about what I'd say about all this and how it would be perceived and how I'd have to spin it and yadda yadda yadda, but I realized today that it's really just about building great software and being a part of a group of people who want to make the web better, faster, safer, and easier. To move the web forward. It doesn't matter if you're at Google, Apple, Mozilla, or even Microsoft. We're measured by our actions, not our words, so I wanted to make sure I used my experience to help move the needle. I think this new opportunity will allow me to do just that.

My goal (again, speaking for myself) is to build a first-rate, native Mac product for Chromium and make it so that other projects can stand on the shoulders of giants. That's what open source is all about. I don't know why I should be shy about saying that, and I don't feel bad about it one bit.

Stay tuned, I hope to have a lot more to talk about.

Objective-C Style Guide

Ever wonder what style Googlers use when they write C++ or Objective-C? Looking for a reasonable guide on which to base a new project? Well, we've recently open-sourced both guides. You can check them out at the google-styleguide project.

While I had nothing to do with the C++ guide, I had a lot to do with the Obj-C guide so I'm excited that it's finally open and usable as a reference for others. Note that we're already using it as part of Google Toolbox for Mac, an excellent repository of open-source utilities for any Cocoa developer.

:::eye roll:::

Jo: I almost got into an accident this morning!
Me: ZOMG, what happened!?
Jo: Well, I was coming to the turn at Belmont Ridge and I thought I was going slow enough but I turned the wheel and I didn't turn. What's that called again?
Me: Hydroplane?
Jo: Oh, I was going to say "astroglide".

College football season kicked off last night. Whoo hooo! My class starts up again next Monday, as of this morning I've got 8 students. We'll see how many I can scare off by the end of the first lecture.

Olympics!

I love the Olympics, though maybe not as much as football. I can't wait for some of the more obscure sports, like handball and water polo. I already got to watch some handball on MSNBC, which was very cool. Is it wrong to be looking forward to badminton?

It'll be interesting to see how much is actually available online to watch. Note that you have to have an Intel Mac to be able to watch any of it; PPC users are left out in the cold. Booooo NBC and Microsoft! I want to watch the water polo tonight, but I'm not certain which events are available. It implies they will be, but we shall see.

I'm getting really confused by McCain's commercials in Virginia. First he blasts Obama because Obama objects to off-shore drilling. Then McCain claims that only he is the candidate for renewable energy. Huh? Which is it? It's also frustrating listening to my conservative friends talk about how Obama's reference to "change" means a nationwide spiral into Communism, because "there was once this person who brought 'change' to Cuba". Yes, that's right, comrades. Where's that toilet paper line again? Seriously, people believe this shit.

My new remote control has a scroll wheel, which this week I finally got working. You can program it with a javascript-like language to do just about anything you want. I actually had it working a few weeks ago, I just had an old version of the firmware w/out onRotary() support on the device itself. Sigh. Who's the l33t hAX0r now, eh?

Football!

Football football football! Tonight! I hate pre-season, it's such a waste, but it's football!

I have to buy a new mattress. Ugh, talk about hell. All brands suck and fall apart and have terrible reviews. Hell, I tell you.

Rain or Shine

When a concert says "rain or shine", they mean it. That's exactly what happened to us at Meriweather Post on Sunday night, when a long line of thunderstorms moved through during the concert and soaked those of us cheapskates on the lawn. Thankfully we stopped at the mall right beforehand and picked up umbrellas, but we were still wet by the time we left. It rained pretty much from the minute we sat down until the minute we drove off. At least John Mayer seemed moved by our plight, but not enough to let all of us backstage.

The concert was pretty fun regardless, though I still have no clue who the opening act was. Some guy that looked like a girl. We couldn't really hear them or see them (everyone was huddled under umbrellas). Things opened up a bit when JM came on as everyone stood and most of the umbrellas came down (not the ones in front of me, however, so I couldn't see except for the screens). He's a great guitar player and worth seeing live if you ever get the chance. I may have to go buy his last couple of live albums.

Walking out in the darkness and mudslides at intermission, i almost wished for an iFlashlight on my phone. I said almost. I'm lying.

Pink 2.0

Things have been really hectic of late with Jo and Alaina moving in this month, so I haven't had much time to blog. My life has become very different, now suddenly being a full-time parent and my house is a lot smaller. Not in a bad way, just different and new. At least I'm drinking less, that's probably good, though the reverse of what I would have normally expected.

I was one of the foolish who downloaded the iPhone 2.0 image, but thankfully for me it didn't apply (I even tried twice, what was I thinking!?). I gave the other foolish mortals a day to let iTunes activation shake out (tvl?) and tried on Saturday where it went through without a hitch. I miss the days of iPods with Firewire, restoring 8gb of media takes like a half an hour! We're still holding off doing Jo's phone, but will probably do it once she builds her music collection back up on her Mac. You think I'd let a PeeCee in this house!?

Along those lines, I'm having to rely on my router (a linksys that's destined for the landfill, I hate this POS) for parental controls since the iMac in A's room isn't souped-up enough to run Leopard. I'd like to swap it for a TimeCapsule, but I can't find anything (anything!) on Apple's website that talks about its parental control functionality. Yes, I get it, it can do backups. Anything else!? If Apple is assuming that everyone can (and will) run Leopard, that's t3h suck. Tiger runs just fine on this little iMac, why should I be forced to upgrade?

The app store is fun and kinda cool, it's nice getting to run what I want, though I think I'm still one of the few who is more than happy to cede all control to Apple to ensure that my phone doesn't flake out or brick because of some rogue app. I do have some issues with them controlling what can and can't go on the store due to fears about competition (c'mon Apple, just don't be evil!), but as an end-user, my sanity thanks them. I don't think I need 3 flashlights, 10 tip calculators, or 8 todo apps, though. My currency converter is better than yours!

What I really want is a way to easily blog from the phone, but maybe that's asking too much. What I've found is that my main obstacle to doing things on my phone is that nothing remembers passwords. So if I want to make a note in FaceBook or sign into my blog, I have to re-log in, and that's a serious pain. Yes, I'm lazy. There, I said it.

I've also taken on a new role at work, leaving the Desktop team for something more exciting. After almost three years on the same team, it was time, but doing so simultaneously with Jo moving in certainly adds to my stress. I can't talk about the project, but you'll find out eventually. Or you won't and I'll go back to drinking.

Going to see John Mayer tonight, should be fun, though any long car ride with a tween is an adventure. No, damnit, we're not there yet.