February 28, 2006
Mail so bad it hurts
Every once in a while (like, two to three times a week), Mail.app will get in a mess, and eventually bugs out and crashes (or has to be force-quit). This, despite me ritualistically restarting the damned thing every morning. And sometimes things get even more wonky, like this afternoon. Not only did Mail crash, but the "Submit Crash Report" window got confused too, and wouldn't let me send it to Apple. (Note how the send button is greyed-out in the screenshot).
It's not like I do anything outrageous with my mail client. Most of the time, I'm unsurprisingly just trying to read email. It's true that I have a rather large archive - nudging close to 4gb at the moment - and something like 50 filtering rules set up. But still - it shouldn't be that hard, should it?
It was with serendipitous delight that I saw drunkenbatman's interview talking about Mail.app, with this perfect quote:
[...] its IMAP support drunkenly feeling around the alley looking for an excuse to wee on itself [...]
It seems to sum up precisely the kind of blind stumbling that Mail.app does, usually accompanied by the sound of the IMAP server begging for mercy under the relentless multiple connection thrashing and locking.
I guess I really am going to have to give up another evening of my life and finally, completely switch to tbird. After two major and several minor OS revisions, Apple don't seem to be in any hurry to improve things.
February 25, 2006
Amsterdam week seven
I think I fell in love this morning.
Last night we abandoned bikes in favour of taxis, so I had to walk to the office today. Spring has really arrived now, the air was crisp and clean and the sun was shining, making the canals sparkle. As I walked up the road, it was idyllic - smiling people going about their business, lots of small shops packed with wonderful goods, trams and cyclists sauntering past.
This city is like the best bits of Norwich, but with more water. I love it.
February 23, 2006
Football
So, last night a bunch of us went to see the Ajax-Inter game. The first half was pretty good, but the second half was a disappointment. Ugo has more pictures.
February 21, 2006
February 19, 2006
Q
Sometimes it's impossible to avoid the need for Windows. In the past I've used Virtual PC on the Mac, but I've been looking for a good free alternative. I think I've found one. Qemu is a generic open source processor emulator, and Q is a "feature packed cocoa port".
After a short time installing, I got a copy of Windows 98 working. I felt almost nostalgic seeing the first screen on boot. Was it really 8 years ago? Doesn't time fly ...
Anyway, if you're a Mac user who sometimes needs to run Windows software, take a look at Q. It's not astoundingly fast, but it's good enough.
February 18, 2006
Conferences
Bertrand got the scoop on this one:
The ApacheCon Planners are pleased to announce that ApacheCon Europe 2006 will be held in Dublin, Ireland, at the Burlington Hotel, June 26-30. Further details to follow as they are available. CFP to follow shortly.
Meanwhile, there's an interesting conference coming up earlier: "FOSS Means Business", on 16th March in Belfast, with Richard Stallman and Bruce Perens as keynote speakers.
Finally, of course, a reminder that the OSS Watch conference on Open Source and Sustainability takes place in Oxford on 10-12 April 2006.
February 15, 2006
Web 2.0
The term "web 2.0" makes me want to scream and throw large heavy objects at the person using it, but there's no doubting that it's a useful moniker for what's going on with internet application development right now.
For anyone interested in "doing the web 2.0 thing", Tom Coates' presentation is a must-read.
I particularly liked the slide:
Good URLs are a thing of beauty and a mark of design quality
- Tom Coates, The Future of Web Apps
Which I think also gives us a corollary:
if you can't make your URLs beautiful, you may have a design flaw in your application
- me, Just Now
One of the things I've spent the last ten years arguing for is good (and persistent!) URLs - it's surprising how often this gets forgotten, or subverted in favour of simplicity elsewhere.
February 14, 2006
MacBook updates, win one!
According to TUAW, Apple have just given the new MacBook Pros a speedbump. Great news!
This of course means that the SourceSense 'win a MacBook Pro' competition prize has changed, and is now a 1.83Ghz laptop for the winning design.
Gianugo has put logos submitted so far online in the SourceSense logo gallery, and has some interesting facts in his blog about the attention the competition has drawn. I already have a favourite amongst the designs... but I won't say which one ;-)
February 12, 2006
Hmm, upgrades
Back for the next slice of Amsterdam. I was curious to know which room I'd end up in this time, since last time I wrangled a free upgrade to get closer to the wifi. This time I didn't even have to ask: the hotel is getting busy, and because I'm here for so long they've given me an even better upgrade than last time. I'm in a room overlooking the bar, and unless I'm very much mistaken, I think I can hear it calling to me now...
February 11, 2006
February 10, 2006
Fly to Amsterdam
I think KLM have a wicked sense of humour. This just landed in my inbox:
February 9, 2006
February 7, 2006
Win a Macbook Pro
The news is out: SourceSense are running a competition to design a logo for the company. The prize: a shiny new Macbook Pro. Cool stuff!
See also Gianugo, Ugo, and Matthew.
Ironic
This strikes me as ironic: Euan Semple has struck out on his own as a social computing consultant after years at the BBC. See if you can spot the one thing missing from his web site.
Euan, I look forward to reading your blog ... when you add it ;-)
February 6, 2006
Amsterdam
It's hard to believe I'm into week four of my stay in Amsterdam already. I'm still finding new things to love about this city, and at some point over the next few days I might get a chance to polish up my notes and post my recommendations on places to eat, drink and be merry. And no, I still haven't partaken of the herb or the cake or the flesh, and no, I don't have plans to. Sorry to disappoint!
Meanwhile, I've been cycling past this rather apt sign in a hotel window every day, thinking "I really must get a photo of that". So tonight I did, mainly as an opportunity to work out another feature of the camera (shutter priority). I'm reasonably pleased with the result, although a decent night photo without blurring somewhat ruins my excuse for buying a tripod - damn. I am of course throwing the half-way decent (imho) photos onto flickr, under the Amsterdam photo set. I'll try to keep it updated.