The ZAZ Blog: When all you have is a chicken and a rocket launcher, make some really badass scrambled eggs.

Archives: 2007
Home | 2008 »

Supremely Awesome

I consider myself a bit of a gamer. I have, until now, kept it mostly secret to the outside world that a) I have a PC, and b) I use it to play games. Let's face it - the Mac sucks for games. Completely and utterly terrible. Everything else, and you wouldn't hear me say enough good things about the Mac. But gaming? No way, at least not until Apple makes a truly customizable Mac.

But we won't get into that today.

What I've done here is one of those "Holy crap that was a good idea" moments we all like to have once in a while.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) | Accepting Pings (0) ]

Leopard Compatibility Notice

I have waited the line for my copy of Leopard.

Mail.app RSS sucks.

But more importantly, I've tested my projects for compatibility for Leopard. I find no flaws. Everything, including HIToolbar and Mac OS X Search Field appear to work exactly as they should.

[ Permalink | Accepting Comments (0) | Accepting Pings (0) ]

Some insight about REALbasic toolbars

So upon looking into a new rewrite of HIToolbar, I've wanted to hit at least one of two incredible features: controls-in-toolbars and cross-platform toolbars.

Focusing on the latter in this post, I said to myself "If REAL Software can do it, then there is no reason why my class cannot do the same."

This statement, as it turns out, is incorrect.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) | Accepting Pings (0) ]

Converting HTML Entities [Updated]

I've made another mini-release. This is simply a REALbasic module which allows quick conversion back and forth between HTML entities, and their actual character.

[ Read More | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (0) | Accepting Pings (0) ]

Blog Comments Back Online

Alright, the upgrade to Movable Type 4 is nearly complete - at least for now.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) | Accepting Pings (0) ]

Signal: Don't Bother

I've given a shot to a relatively new program called Signal which allows mobile control of iTunes from an iPhone or Windows PocketPC.

While it's remote-side interface is beautiful, I was very disappointed by this app.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Macros, Combo-Filtering, and 68k Scanning

Using only two small screenshots, today I'll show two very useful features and one "why the hell not" feature of ArchDetect 2.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

New feature (and official announcement) of ArchDetect 2

Today, I'm publishing a very nice screenshot of ArchDetect 2 in action. I expect you'll be able to figure out what's going on.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Bad Apple! No Biscuit!

In reference to my "OH GOD IT'S SHUFFLING" bug reported a couple days ago, I've found it not to be a bug, just horrible UI.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

iPhone is making life less fun

Yeah, you read that headline correctly. There's really two reason, one more obvious that the other.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

For cryin' out loud... STOP SHUFFLING!!!

Alright, I've officially found my most annoying bug of the iPhone - it's shuffling all of my music.

Apple added a very handy "Shuffle" item to the top of every playlist - something I have wanted for a very long time. Pressing it picks a song at random and plays it, and keeps shuffling through only songs in the playlist - excellent. But when I don't want to shuffle (I have one playlist which I intentionally list my newest stuff first and usually like to play it in that order) it'll shuffle anyway. It'll play the song I selected first, but then instead of going to song #2, it'll pick another at random.

Hey!!!!

The iTunes original playlist is not set to shuffle. There are no other shuffle settings anywhere. Don't do this to me... please! Best of iPod ever my ass - it can't even not shuffle right!

I have reported this bug to Apple. Bug #5306255.

[ Permalink | Accepting Comments (0) ]

More iPhone Goodness

In case there wasn't enough on the internet about Apple's iPhone, here is some more.

As I said in my last entry, the device is fantastic. It automatically checks my e-mail every fifteen minutes, I've already used it to get directions, I'm typing two-handed pretty well - it's overall excellent. There are, of course, going to be things about the device that are less than perfect. Luckily, all of my complaints can be fixed via software. The hardware is so far, fabulous. This entry is not all complaints - just points.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Yet Another iPhone Thread

I waited in line. I got one. Here's some things I've learned so far.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Safari 3 seems a little... confused...

After playing around with the AT&T coverage map in anticipation for iPhone, I discovered something odd with the Safari 3 beta.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

ArchDetect 1.2.2 Released

I have released ArchDetect 1.2.2 to the public. This release fixes a couple minor bugs, as well as adds an End User License Agreement. Due to some preference changes, it will re-ask you to confirm update checking once launched.

[ Read More | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Now accepting donations for ArchDetect

I've been working with Jordan Langille of OneToad Design on a new application icon and toolbar icons. Of course, this is going to cost money. On a freeware app, anything is too expensive. So if you would like to contribute some money to the ArchDetect project - either because you agree the icon is tacky, or just as a thank you, here is your venue. See the ArchDetect page at http://www.thezaz.com/products/archdetect/.

Also, anybody will to donate localization services, please get a hold of me. Use the address attached to the post above, or the one listed in the about box of ArchDetect.

[ Permalink | Accepting Comments (0) ]

ArchDetect 1.2.1

ArchDetect 1.2.1 is a maintenance release fixing a couple important bugs, and refining the user experience. Some users have reported crashes while scanning certain folders, particularly folders with long or non-ascii names. This bug appears to have been fixed.

[ Read More | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (0) ]

ArchDetect 1.2

In honor of our most popular creation to date, ArchDetect gets some real features. Users can now filter and search results and find updates online from any download site. ArchDetect 1.2 is also now localizable, and there is also a couple bug fixes and optimizations.

[ Read More | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (1) ]

Brad Rhine releases the Toolbar Utilities module

Based on code provided by myself and Charles Yeomans, Brad Rhine has released the Toolbar Utilities module - a REALbasic module which adds most of the standard Mac OS X toolbar features to built-in REALbasic toolbars.

[ Read More | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Smart Crash Reports is a godsend

Ok developers, if you haven't heard of this yet Unsanity has created an InputManager plugin called Smart Crash Reports. To sum up the entire story, this plugin allows the user to send the crash report to you as a developer, rather than only Apple.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

ArchDetect 1.1 Released

I have released an updated version of ArchDetect which fixes a couple bugs preventing scans from ever being completed. This release also uses Sparkle for automatic updates, and Smart Crash Reports for helping me fix bugs.

[ Permalink | Package Included! ]

ArchDetect 1.0 Released

Introducing my very first released Cocoa project, ArchDetect - an excessively simple program which provides an overview of the architectures of every application on your computer.

[ Read More | Package Included! ]

HIToolbar 1.1.2 Released

This maintenance release to HIToolbar fixes a critical bug which prevented every toolbar's ItemClicked events from firing on Intel Macs. This update is strongly recommended for all users of HIToolbar.

Sorry this was not caught sooner. And thanks to the users which brought this to my attention.

[ Permalink | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (0) ]

HIToolbar Crash Situation

One of my users of HIToolbar has brought a crash to my attention, forwarded from one of his users. I'm at a loss for the reason, and the developer himself has been unable to replicate the crash. However, we do have a crash log from the user. If anything, this article should be to make other users of HIToolbar aware of the situation, if not solve the problem.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Status Update for REALSyndication

Hey anybody paying attention may have noticed a bit of inactivity over the last week. I've been working on a website for the company I actually work for, so my time is a little... spent. I'll get this done.

[ Permalink | Accepting Comments (1) ]

Dropping support for Atom 0.1

I've decided to drop support for Atom 0.1 formats - if they even exist. I can't seem to find any documentation or even mention that they really exist.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (1) ]

Panic outdoes themselves... again.

Legendary Mac software company, Panic, Inc has recently released Coda, a new web development tool that's really, not that new.

[ Read More ]

First Alpha of REALSyndication coming soon

I've just completed a good chunk of the work for this project. It's at the point now where the classes can create very nice RSS & ATOM feeds of any version. Although, why anybody would want to create anything other than ATOM 1.0 and/or RSS 2.0 is beyond me.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (2) ]

Hey, what smells like blue?

Those that do not get this reference should remember to Futurama episode 3acv19: Roswell That Ends Well when Fry puts an "Iffy Pop" into the microwave: the impossible happens. Well this mini post is simply to inform my few readers that my impossible happened! REAL Software has not only verified my bug, but has also fixed it! I honestly expected to live with this forever! Thanks REAL Software!

[ Permalink | Accepting Comments (0) ]

New feed icons available

In celebration of our upcoming Syndication Kit for REALbasic, we've created a set of wonderfully fun feed icons. The package includes the icons in 8 colors of 8 sizes each, all PNG - because PNG is awesome.

[ Permalink | Accepting Comments (1) ]

Of Going Mad and Losing Work

While working on my new RSS class, I lost a couple classes that seemed to disappear. I started cursing and such, because my work was long gone - you know the drill - sonofa#*@*$iknewtherewasareasonnottouserb@*#!!.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

Creating Aqua effects in code

Using nothing but some gradient code and logic, you can creating Aqua effects using REALbasic code. We'll explain both.

[ Read More | Package Included! | Accepting Comments (0) | Accepting Pings (0) ]

New ping system ready

Anybody paying attention to the RSS feed - thank you for your patience. I've implemented a new ping system which will allow other blogs to notify us of an update, and will put a little star next to the link on the sidebar.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (0) ]

New comment system live

Our new comment system seems to be working well. There's another improvement I plan to make, in order to make it totally invincible, but I have not found a plugin for MT that can do what I need, so I may need to write my own plugin.

[ Read More | Accepting Comments (11) ]

Mac OS X Search Field 1.1 Released

Our Mac OS X Search Field has been updated to support Universal Binaries. There are no other new features.

[ Permalink | Package Included! ]

HIToolbar 1.1.1 Released

As well as updating code to work with modern versions of REALbasic and bug fixes, HIToolbar has been update to work with Universal applications as well. This is a must-have upgrade for all users of HIToolbar.

[ Read More | Package Included! ]

Disclaimer: I am currently an employee of REAL Software. My comments and opinions are mine alone and do not represent those of my employer. My posts are not official REAL Software communications, and may contain information that is incorrect or misleading.