Bobbis.net

So, a lot has been happening since the last time I posted. So, here I go.

4th of July happened. We actually saw Meridith and she hung out with us for pretty much the whole time, which was cool of her. None of us in Ames really get to see her much. We had a grill out at my place and went to the municipal band concert at Moore Park. After the concert we went to Nerdig's place near Des Moines to watch fireworks from the roof of their house, which was really cool.

I'm now dabbling a little bit in making dashboard widgets. I found this nifty little utility called Widgetarium, which is a beta IDE for dashboard widgets. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will make a useful little widget. I plan on creating a widget at work that will integrate with our help ticket system and show the us what tickets we need to work on.

Last night, Gaila went with me and my 'rents to Grundy Center for a family get-together on the occasion that my cousin Jody and family were in town from Connecticut. Spent the day munching and talking. She seemed to approve of my family.

There is a sale going on at IT Sales for Dell computers. I have configued the following system and may be purchasing it sometime this week or month.

• Dell OptiPlex GX280 SMT
• P4 3.4 Ghz with Hyperthreading
• Gigabit Ethernet
• XP Pro SP2
• 1GB DDR2 (2 DIMMs)
• Dell 17" UltraSharp 1704FOV (DVI)
• 80GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Cache
• 48x32 CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
• 3 Year Warranty (On-Site Service)
• Total Price $1,061.62

So, today is the 11th, which means my class starts today. It actually starts right about now, so I should be going. I have class every day from 10 to noon until August 5th. This summer is so short. I hope POM will be as easy as TrLOG was.

Laters.

Well, Chris' last day was today and I have been officially put on the CMS project. This is going to be fun since I really haven't looked around at his code yet for this system. Hopefully it's straight forward and well documented. Also, as a result, I am now in charge of the servers at work. The sad thing now is that I will no longer be taking care of our Macs anymore :(. Though in my position I may be able to make a better case for Tom to get xServes instead of Dells for new server purchases.

Also, it's time to get the inventory people to grab our old equipment so we won't have it for the move. We were told we should be moving sometime this July (note they haven't worked on power or network requirements yet). So there is a lot of equipment to organize and catalog. Also, Tom gave the okay to start deploying Tiger clients to use the AD since I setup a building procedure.

Anyway, so much technical stuff lately. The problem is, there really hasn't been very much else going on. Other than work, I have been hanging out a lot with Gaila, but time with her just seems to go so quickly. I'm looking forward to hanging out with friends on the 4th.

The following is a quick and dirty AppleScript I created to deal with activating a different Kerberos realm after login using a different or multiple kerberos realms. For example, you authenticate your users on an AD that is not connected with a realm the user uses for email (Eudora). Set this script to run at login, and it will mount a file server using the computer login ticket, prompt the user for the second realm username and password then change the active user to the other realm so they can check their email. With this script that I made, I now feel confident that I can move our Mac users onto the domain. Hopefully this will be helpful for others who are trying to do the same thing.

set serverString to "smb://your.server.tld/"
set shareString to "sharename"
set userString to "$USER"
set realmString to "REALM.TLD"

tell application "Finder"
	open location serverString & shareString
	set founded to false
	repeat while founded is false
		set thename to the name of every Finder window
		if thename contains shareString then
			set founded to true
			close window shareString
		end if
		delay 1
	end repeat
end tell
tell application "Kerberos"
	launch
	set w to first window
	set visible of w to 0
	get tickets
	quit
end tell
do shell script "kswitch -p " & userString & "@" & realmString

So, we have been busy at work with the whole CMS thing, I have been busy with the help ticket thing, thinking about bug/feature request system, and I know Colin continuously works on ATX. Over these projects I have been thinking more and more about effective project management. The following are some things that may make sense, but really isn't done too often. A lot of this can also be applied to non-computer related projects as well.

1. When doing a project for someone (or even setting a goal for a personal project), give an estimate 1.5 to 2 times the amount of time you think it will actually take to get done. When developing there is always going to be something that snags you or causes development to slow down or stop for a while. Thus, if you overestimate your time required, you will find that you made it in just about the right time. Also, if you do happen to be super awesome and get your project done before your given estimate, you or your client will be happy that you finished early.

2. Before starting on a project have a set of goals for the project and don't add anymore goals until the first set of goals have been attained. Agree on a set feature list. Know exactly what a project is going to do and how it is going to do it. Once you have a list of features, have the client sign a contract that says they can not request any more features until the current contract is fulfilled. This is something that is biting us in the butt right now with the CMS. Every day there is a new list of features the client wants and every day adds more time required to finish the system. When the project started, we thought it would be a simple one month project, now it's probably going to take twice as long. And these estimates were thinking about point number 1.

3. Before making a version available, test, test, test and test it again. Try really hard to break things. Delete preferences, insert random quotes in web fields, put letters in a place numbers should go. Check the tab order of fields. What happens to your data when it unexpectedly quits? What if you don't complete the wizard? Don't do this by yourself. Even though you may think you are being objective, you can't be. You're human. Give it to a friend or someone and make them do the same thing. They can give you insight into what doesn't work right, or may think of things you haven't thought of. Fix the problems you find and repeat this process. I know it sucks. Just do it and you will have a reliable application.

These 3 things have been bugging me a lot lately and I thought it would be cool to talk about it here so that other people may take in this advice. I know I probably haven't followed this advice to a T when I have been doing stuff, but the more you adhere to these lessons, the better things will be.

Well, this week also went by really fast. I did the AD authentication for the help ticket system and added a few more features. The more features I think of, the more I want a simple system of keeping track of feature requests and track bugs with (even those that I want, I sometimes forget about). I know Colin has this problem as well. So, this has prompted me to create a feature and bug tracking system sometime this summer. Other things that I need to add on to my summer goals is to build another computer for my MIS work. So, Lets review my summer goals.

• Get apartment
• Learn cocoa - didn't happen before WWDC, still a goal
• Do something with web site - Decided to make a CMS for all the pages so I can add/delete/modifiy simple things quickly
• NEW Create Bug and Feature request system
• NEW Build a Windows PC (or buy a *gasp* Dell)

So, now that I reviewed my summer goals, I'll continue with what has been going on this week. Thursday was the municipal band concert. I was under the impression that Colin was going to be there, but he didn't show up or answer his phone.

Friday was an eventful day at work. The file server decided to stop communicating well with the AD, thus causing permissions errors and people not being able to login. We spent the whole day trying to figure out what had happened when we decided, the fastest and easiest way to get the file services back up was to go ahead and blast away the install and use Windows Server instead of trying to make Linux work. Since the boss was at a funeral (can't spell funeral without FUN!) he doesn't really know what what the solution to the problem was. It will be an interesting Monday moring as Tom figures out what we did (more so, what Chris did) and we finally get a cooling system installed in the new office space (over a year in counting since we were supposed to move there!). After leaving work after dinner, Gaila and I hung out until it was time to crash.

Saturday, I got around to getting my oil changed in my car, and cleaning my car. I mean really cleaning it. Getting rid of the the trash that has accumulated over the past year or so in the back seat of my car. It got dusted and everything too. I have no clue what Sunday has in store for me, but I know I will be sleeping in really good (unless I get a call for working on the server some more).

Also, on a last note. On the student sunday day of WWDC, I attended a presentation done by Wil Shipley founder of the Omni Group (makers of OmniWeb, and other Omni* tools) and Delicious Monster (makers of the insanely great Delicious Library). His inspiring Keynote slides have become available to the genearl public at http://wilshipley.com/blog/2005/06/student-talk-from-wwdc-2005.html. Colin managed to pick this up and throw it in his blog before I could even tell him, so yeah, it's really good advice for aspiring Mac developers :). Though, I have to say, the presentation was much better than just the slides.

Anyway, enough rambling.

So, this week is going by fast again. Monday, I hear no word about the status of my car, I call them up around 5:00 and it sounds like they lost my car! Tuesday morning I get a call from them telling me what the problem was and that it would be ready by 10:00 AM. Yeah! The bad thing is that the total cost of the repair (bad starter) with towing was $340.00. I should be getting $50 back from the insurance company for the tow coverage. My car works great now, so I'm happy, and the extra $120 from consulting work made things a little bit better. Taking out the refund from insurance and the subsidy of my extra work the bill comes to a more manageable $170.

So, what else has been happening? I'm pretty much done with the new help ticket/inventory/user management system. All I need is some searching functionality and authentication against the AD for the admins. Tuesday I didn't even get to work on any little project at work, it was all user support, all day. It was just one of those busy days. By the end of that day, my upper back was aching, but a nice massage by Gaila that night made things so much better :-) Thanks hon.

The other night (I actually can't remember since all these days have been running into each other) I shot out an online notepad for me and colin to use for figuring out what stuff we will be bringing for the apartment. I'm quite surprised at myself for getting this done in about 30 minutes and it includes password protection. I think I have been breathing PHP for a little bit too long lately.

Today, I organized servers, and figured out what to do with some spare servers we have. Perhaps next week I will be making a file server. Tomorrow will be a municipal band concert at 7:00 by the campanile. Perhaps I'll see some of you there.

I still haven't gotten around to doing anything with Cocoa lately, so I guess I will stop writing in my blog and get to work on that.

Laters

So, I leave work on Friday to go pick up Gaila to do stuff this weekend. I get there and we do a few things there, hang out, then we try to leave, my car doesn't start. We found that it is not the battery and we put some coolant in since it was empty, still not work. Saturday I called in for a tow and they should be looking at it today. Lucky now Gaila has a car now, so she has been driving me around. I guess if my car had to die, it picked a good time to do it.

Anyway, the weekend was pretty good. On Saturday Gaila and I walked around Ida Hayden lake. During our walk (in the middle of the afternoon on a hot day) we spotted a deer. We then, went to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Sunday, I made french toast and egg for breakfast (father's day). In the afternoon I had an appointment to help someone with their computer and made a good $80, thursday I made $40 installing and setting up the computer, so that brings me $120 this weekend, which I will probably be throwing into my car getting repaired.

Anyway, that was my update. Back to work.

Edit: Maths

So, it's almost friday already. This week went by really really fast. Work has been pretty busy all week. I have been working on a help ticket / user, equipment, and support office administration system to replace the old one that is getting kind of out of date and less feature-full. Also, I have been staying on top of what's going on with the new CMS system Chris is writing for the entire college. This has to be done before the 30th when he leaves for his new job. Things that are still on my plate for the summer is AD integration for the macs, and a new revision of the scholarship system that will be fitting into the new CMS.

A review of my summer goals shows that I completed the number one thing, getting an apartment. Number two thing, learning cocoa, has started the week before WWDC; but I just need to continue in the book. Number three, updating my website, is something I really haven't been thinking about much. Though now that I think about it, I know one easy thing that I want to do now. I want to get rid of my guestbook. The reason being, the last post to it was over a year ago, it was my first PHP project, and I get about 10 spam messages a day attempting to post to it that get sent to me via e-mail for to approval. The guestbook will go away sometime tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm tired. Good night.

So, now that I'm getting back into things, I figure I should finish writing about my week in San Francisco.

Wednesday night I met with Ted from the ISU stat department and Rod form AIT at the conference. We went down the road to a mexican restaurant and discussed bits about Tiger in the ISU environment. We exchanged ideas about directory services and what not, and my meal was on Ted (Thanks!). Later that night I found that Colin's universal binary of ATX works well on the Intel machines.

Thursday morning I hit up the integrating OS X in a heterogeneous environment. After lunch I hit up the advanced dashboard widgets section and the end of the session for AppleScript (I must remember to download the session slides for AppleScript, the session was taught in a way that makes sense for C, or C++ type programmers). Immediately after the session I got in line for the busses to Apple campus. I ended up setting next to an Apple employee form Sacramento who works on the Power School application for K-12 education. We talked about data validation, databases, and web servers. Very cool.

At the bash, I ended up loosing the Apple employee I sat with (he might have been able to get me in to see the rest of campus ;)). Campus was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but still pretty cool. To add one more reason why I need to work for Apple, there is an Outback Steak House right across the street. They didn't let us inside the place very much, just the main lobby and a couple conference rooms for the PlugFest. The food was mediocre, but they had good beer, though not enough of it. By the time I got to the beer tent they were already out of one variety of beer, and I had one of the last glasses of a second variety.

After hanging out in the courtyard for a while, I stood in line for at least 90 minutes to get into the Apple Company Store. By the time I got inside I only had 15 minutes to wait in line until the busses would leave for San Francisco. I only had time to pick up a shirt that says "I've been to the source" and a nice Apple coffee mug.

On the bus ride back and sat next to a person who is working on a really interesting application that utilizes CoreImage and CoreData to be a photo editing application similar to Photoshop, except for the consumer and easier to use, called Lets Grin!. Sounds like an interesting concept, but they had a nice marketing goof when they were planning to promote it at WWDC and have a demo available for download.

Friday was the trip back to Ames. I didn't mention this before, but on our way in at the San Francisco airport the air tram was broken. The air tram takes people from the terminal to the parking and car rental places about a mile or two away from the terminal. We had to take a shuttle bus from the terminal to the rental counter, and once we got our vehicle, the tram started working again. As you can imagine, as soon as we get in and drop off the car, an announcement comes on saying that the air tram was out of service and to take the shuttle busses again. Then, once we were on the plane taking off, we see that the air tram was working again! Arg!. Anyway, Gaila was at the airport to pick us up in Des Moines and we went for Outback steak and I slept in 'til 4pm Saturday.

Now, things are getting back to normal.

Also, if you have been keen the past day or so, I have posted pictures from San Francisco.

Well, Tuesday became a lot less stressful. A lot of people have left and the Internet at the center has become a bit more usable. I am enjoying all the free food. I spent most of the day with Enterprise IT stuff. I attended sessions on OS X Server, Enterprise Lab, and Active Directory Integration. I ate lunch with a couple people who do consulting work form Canada, then saw a presentation by Tim O'Reilly, CEO O'Reilly books. After the conference, dad came by to pick me up to do a little bit of sight seeing and take me to dinner. I ended up drinking a $8 glass of wine at a fancy place in Sausalito overlooking the bay. I will have some pictures eventually when I have time to download them. I may even stitch together some panoramic pictures. I have to say, the bay and the bridge is a lot bigger than I was expecting from the pictures I have seen.

Today I spent the morning learning about dash board widgets. Hearing some comments people had about them and what not. People have some very interesting ideas about where they would like to see dashboard go, and the dashboard team seems to be very open to suggestion. One thing that has been a recurring theme here is that the developers are always looking for feedback. If there is something you would like to see or perhaps you encounter a small bug, please don't hesitate to submit a but at bugreport.apple.com (ADC Membership required).

Over the lunch hour I hung out with a few people from Xerox talking about how cool their new phaser printers are and they asked me how we use their printers and our general feeling about their products. Pretty cool people. The lunch session I attended was about PHP given by the creator of PHP Rasmus Lerdorf. Mostly a forum about the past and future of PHP, nothing really technical.

This afternoon I'm looking forward to the session about setting up a subversion server and how to use it, and then a session on upgrading to OS X Server 10.4 Tiger. I also found out someone from ISU is here (non student) so, I will be meeting him around 6:30.

Laters.