March 2006 Archives

Cleaning code for better performance

I have recently been reading the book Web Standards Solutions by Dan Cederholm and it is a great book. Some of the information I already knew, but the book really gave a better understanding of why certain methods work best.

Today I took some time away from the book to do some needed cleaning and restructuring of code on this site. I like to read the book when I have a computer accessible so I can experiment with many of the concepts discussed. You may notice slight adjustments, or not. All that matters is that with my consolidation of code this site will load faster.

This book is one of many on web design that I am reading and learning from. I have also read a few chapters of another one of Dan’s books, Bulletproof Web Design. This book is great since it shows real-life examples of sites and how using web standard solutions would improve performance, maintenance, and cost.

It would be nice to hang out with the masters of this industry. I only wish I could go to An Event Apart Chicago.

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Happy Birthday

On this day in 1979 a new life entered this world. People were dancing and singing praises. OK, so that last part probably did not happen.

Today at around 2:30 AM I turned 27 years young. Not too exciting. I am past the age of 21 so drinking is not new. Also the quarter-century mark has passed. Just another year older I guess. Nothing to really look forward to at this age.

So how am I spending my birthday? Working. Celebrating birthdays just is not what it used to be. I used to have birthday parties as a boy and those were exciting.

I received a G4 Mac mini. It is not new, but new to me. My wife will be fixing me a grand dinner tonight for my birthday. Bless her heart.

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Liquor sales should be allowed on Sundays

My wife and I were at the grocery store last Sunday doing some shopping and thought we would get some wine for my coming birthday. We completely forgot about the liquor law which bans selling of liquor on Sundays.

Let me be more specific. On Sundays in the state of Indiana you are banned from buying liquor from a grocery or liquor store. However, you can go to a restaurant and drink merrily while consuming your food. Then after consumption of alcohol these same people will then drive to their next location.

It seems dumb that you can go out dining and drink, but you cannot buy from a store and then drive home to drink. I recently read an article done by the Indianapolis Star and was interesting to see some responses. Half of the state thinks that the law should remain, 43% think it should be repealed, and 7% are undecided.

I cannot wrap my head around this idiotic law. This law should be repealed on the basis that if you want to drink you can drive to any restaurant selling liquor. So why are residents of Indiana banned from buying liquor in a store and taking it home to drink, which seems more logical to me then driving while intoxicated.

Currently I am researching where this is located in the Indiana law. I am by no means an alcoholic, but I do think that this law is ridiculous.

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First week with the G4 Mac mini

Well I have had my Mac mini for a week and it has been an interesting week. First I noticed how fast the Mac mini started up. It seems very snappy at running tasks.

Since I am new to Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), I wanted to use the new features, such as Dashboard and Spotlight. I have to admin I have not used Spotlight much as I am accustomed to using an application called Quicksilver. Quicksilver is an application launcher, but it also does much more. I really only use it for opening applications using the keyboard.

I have played with Dashboard and have found that for the most part it is not very useful. There are tons of widgets you can download from Apple’s website. There are only a few widgets on my dashboard and my weather widget receives the most views. As I continue to use Tiger I may find more use for Dashboard.

I transferred everything over from my iBook and for the most part everything works great. The Mac mini runs quiet and only a few times has the fan kicked on to a high level.

My main problem is that I cannot sync my iPod using the FireWire port. It charges but is not recognized by the computer. I have spent the last week researching this and have found I am not alone.

I have reinstalled iTunes and also reset my iPod. It still syncs with my iBook so I know it cannot be the cable. My iPod has no problems. My conclusion is that there might be something wrong with the FireWire port.

In the meantime I sync my iPod via USB then connect it to another FireWire cable to charge. My iPod is a third generation so I cannot charge via USB. This is a temporary solution until I can find out the true problem.

The Mac mini is no longer covered through AppleCare so if it is broke I may not be fixing it. Stay tuned.

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Mac mini as an early birthday gift

I just got a Mac mini and I was so excited that I missed last night’s episode of 24. Because of my wife’s recent obsession with myspace, I decided that sharing a computer may not be the best option anymore.

I did not buy a new computer, but instead searched craigslist in my area for any computer sale ads. I found a great ad for a Mac mini. After many emails to the seller I got it. Here are the specs:

• 1.25 GHz G4 processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 40 GB hard drive
• Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) drive

This does not come with wireless installed, but that is not a big deal. I am using an Ethernet cable for my network connectivity. This comes with 2 USB ports, which I have already used, and one FireWire port.

What made this so sweet is what I got with the Mac mini. An Apple keyboard, Mighty Mouse, and a 17″ Apple Studio Display. The display is not a flat screen. It is a CRT and is a monster to carry. Tiger is also installed, which is nice since I have Panther (10.3) installed on my iBook.

First thing I did was erase the hard drive and run a clean installation of Mac OS X. I am now in the process of moving my data from the iBook to the Mac mini. This process should be completed by tonight. So what about my iBook? Well, I am giving that to my wife to use.

No more sharing and having to wait for my turn to use the computer. Unless I need access to a laptop I will be using the Mac mini as my primary computer.

Since I got this used and was initially purchased over a year ago, I am not able to purchase AppleCare. This is a little disappointing, but if anything were to happen I have resources available to me to assist in fixing the Mac.

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Older web browsers and stylesheets

I recently received more feedback on the redesigned ApplePickers website. Some good and some not so good. One in particular which was not so good regarded Netscape 6.2.3 running on Mac OS 9. Using this browser there are several problems accessing site content.

This opened my eyes to something I should have paid more attention to. Unfortunately in my current situation I am only testing the sites I create in current browsers on relatively current operating systems. Using web standards I know that much of my work is rendered nearly the same in most web browsers. However, there are differences.

In many cases Netscape plays by different rules. I understand that there are may people out there who are using outdated operating systems such as Mac OS 9 or Windows 9x and cannot use current web browsers. Part of me feels that I should not worry about these people. Some people are happy with their outdated web browsers since they probably go by the motto “If it is not broke, don’t fix it.”

On the other hand I feel that I am shutting out people who may use older browsers, especially Netscape. This may not be a huge deal, but what if the guy who gave me feedback never goes back to the website. Maybe he does not want to use a different browser or even upgrade his operating system. That is fine and have no problems with that.

In the future I will do my best to make my sites function on as many browsers and platforms as possible.

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