The ZAZ Studios: Blog: Thom McGrath

The Web Edition and Resources by Thom McGrath

On Tuesday we announced something I've been working on for quite a while now. If you're reading my blog, you almost certainly know I'm talking about the web edition of REAL Studio.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've known for some time now that we've got a winner on our hands, because every single person we've shown it to was absolutely blown away. But I was still surprised at all the great questions, responses, and users salivating over it. I'm very proud to be a part of this, and can't wait to put it into your hands.

I've only heard one negative thing: we're pulling resources away from our existing products. Here's why that isn't true.

Aw crud. by Thom McGrath

It turns out I've had a Twitter account for a few years now. You guessed it, @tekcor.

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My fellow iPhoners by Thom McGrath

I got a launch day iPhone. Skipped the 3G, and got a 3GS. Once I got the 3GS, I never intended on purchasing the next model. I'm not in the habit of buy every iPhone model.

But then something bad happened. My 3GS went through the wash. Knowing the next model was coming, and a new 3GS would be expensive without a subsidy, I downgraded back to the first gen.

I've found myself in a predicament though. My iPhone is giving me more problems by the day. The battery cannot last a full day (and lasts only about half an hour if I play any games on it), I have "No Service" around the end of the day (a restart solves that), and now it takes about 30 seconds to place a call. Not to mention it is unbelievably slow, especially when compared to my wife's iPhone 4.

I need to replace this beast. I'm torn between waiting for the white model, or purchasing a black one. I greatly prefer the white, and I know if I purchase a black, the white will become available shortly after. It always works that way. But it won't be soon enough to return the black.

So I have a favor to ask. If anybody is upgrading from a 3GS to a 4 that would be willing to donate their phone, please drop me a line. I'll return it to you once I get my white model if you prefer.

It's a long shot, sure. But it certainly can't hurt to put the request out there.

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Macs and Games by Thom McGrath

I don't think there is a person alive who won't contend that Macs don't play games well. They did, a long time ago, but not any more.

This is nothing new. What is new is Steam on Mac. With its recent release, this argument has been revived. Again. I'd like to take a second to point out a simple fact:

PCs suck at games too!

Here's the key fact. A PC you buy off the shelf is no better at playing Portal than a Mac is. Both standard Macs and PCs include low-power discrete video cards, or run on integrated cards alone. This is nothing new! If you want to play games on a PC, you put in a powerful video card. If you want to play games on a Mac, you put in a powerful video card.

The problem is that Macs don't have the expansion options that PCs do. PC components almost always adhere to similar standards, so parts are interchangeable. Nearly every PC has at least one PCIe slot suitable for a video card. Macs don't.

So for the record: Macs suck at gaming about as much as PCs do. But you can upgrade the PC, making it suitable for gaming.

Oh, and I'm a PC gamer. Screw the Xbox, my PC can run circles around it. I'm primarily a Mac user though.

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Microsoft officially supports H.264. by Thom McGrath

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the mess regarding HTML5, Flash, and video. Some new developments have surfaced, which changes the game significantly.

Microsoft announced yesterday that Internet Explorer 9 will support only H.264 video in the HTML5 video tag.

All of the sudden, H.264 looks like it'll win the war. Microsoft doesn't traditionally pick the winning technology (if you need an example, Microsoft sided with HD-DVD years ago) but in this case, they're siding with Apple who usually does win technology wars.

Apple is betting on the wrong horse by Thom McGrath

Since the iPhone's release and Apple's bold stance against Flash, I have sided with Apple in the belief that Flash must die and they are doing the right thing.

Apple is instead pushing for rich content powered by HTML5. HTML5 is a remarkable step forward for the web, although as usual, Internet Explorer isn't keeping pace with the rest of the industry. Most of the things developers are using Flash for can be done with HTML5 instead, but without browser plugins.

When it was new, Flash was fun and exciting. We knew it was unoptimized, but we expected that to be fixed. We said "hey, this is a great first start, it should have nowhere to go but up." And it did. It grew wildly, but not because it was good. Flash was never properly optimized, with its developers assuming more powerful computers would offset their laziness.

Playing video on the web is mess. You need to send a file to a particular browser plugin, but you don't know if the plugin exists on the user's computer. There was no sure-fire way to play video. Then Flash added support for video playback, and everybody jumped on board. It was an easy way to author video that would play on nearly any device without worrying about the details. Sure, it has the worst playback controls available, the quality generally sucks, and it eats up all a computer's resources - but it was easy for web developers.

Flash still isn't optimized. It still destroys batteries. For good reason, Apple has kept it off of their mobile devices. They've bet on HTML5, which has a new video tag allowing the browser to properly decide what to do, rather than rely on the website to declare the plugin to handle the video.

At first glance, this seems like the right move. Until you look at the HTML5 video spec.

My Take on iPad by Thom McGrath

Apple's iPad announcement was completely on-par with my expectations. It is basically a large iPod Touch. There is actually nothing magical or revolutionary about it, despite Apple's claims.

Steam is pretty cool by Thom McGrath

Steam is Valve's community and game distribution service. I was introduced to Steam some years ago when I started playing Half Life 2. The ability to download complete games was pretty neat, and I did that. The idea of having Steam running all the time bugged me however. I thought "why on Earth should I keep this running just for Half Life?"

Also, digital download services bother me, because I don't physically have a copy of the product. When I want to install a game, I really don't want to wait hours to download it.

I recently started playing Left 4 Dead 2, which requires Steam as well. This time around, however, my impression of it has completely changed. The reason behind the change is Left 4 Dead 2 makes excellent use of Steam and the community features. It is easily compared to Xbox Live, but less awful. Here's a few cool features:

Steam will automatically download updates for Steam-powered games.
Steam Cloud keeps my settings synced between computers.
I can make physical backups of the games I download.
Steam sells a lot more than just Valve games. In fact, most new games are available on Steam.
Valve Anti-Cheat is better than PunkBuster.
By pressing shift-tab, I can bring up an overlay which includes friend information, and even a web browser. I can do this in any game, even non-steam games. The ability to bring up a browser in-game is very handy, especially in games such as Borderlands.

I could keep going. Overall, I think Steam is pretty cool.

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Microsoft continues to threaten web development by Thom McGrath

I just read an article about Internet Explorer 9. Considering that Internet Explorer 7 and 8 have made significant strides towards standards-compliance, I was under the impression that IE9 might begin to support CSS3 and HTML5. Especially since Microsoft has taken an interest in working with the W3C, Apple, Mozilla, and Google on HTML5.

First the good news. IE9 brings significant improvements to JavaScript performance. This is fantastic since IE8 cannot keep up. I've actually disabled some features on the REAL web site when using Internet Explorer because it just is not fast enough.

The bad news is that Microsoft is continuing to threaten standards. Rather than supporting the proposed cross-platform WebGL, Microsoft intends to support their own Windows-only Direct2D. Once again, developers will need to choose which side they're on. It is nothing new either. In the IE6 days, developers needed to choose to do things right and support everything except IE6, or do them simple and wrong to support IE6. This will be even worse, because a developer looking to do 3D will have no choice than two write two sets of code, or choose to support only IE9 or standards browsers.

Does it surprise me? Yes and no. It surprises me because it seemed as if Microsoft was interested in making a good browser. It does not surprise me because Microsoft gets everything else wrong, so why would this have been different.

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Feedback Tricks by Thom McGrath

Here's a short list of some neat secrets about Feedback:

OpenSearch Support
If you use any OpenSearch enabled browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, you can visit http://feedback.realsoftware.com/ and your search field will light up with the ability to search our Feedback database. If you add it as a permanent search provider, you'll be able to search Feedback from your browser. The results will still launch Feedback and display the results there, but it can be handy if you are on our forums or read the mailing lists using a webmail app.

iSeek Site
For the few and far between users of iSeek, I've prepared this search site that will allow you to search Feedback from your menubar.

Alternate Theme
Feedback uses three different themes to render its content. On the Mac, either Aqua or Graphite is used according to the user's system preferences, and on Windows & Linux, a more neutral theme is used. Currently, only the action bar is rendered differently, but that could change in the future.

You're not completely confined by your OS though. If you want to use the neutral theme on Mac, fire up terminal and type

defaults write com.realsoftware.feedback "Use Neutral Color Scheme" -bool YES

And reset it by using the same command, but replace YES for NO. On Windows and Linux, it's a little trickier. On Windows, you need to edit the registry. The path is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\REALSoftware\Feedback and add a value for "Use Neutral Color Scheme" = 0 to enable Aqua.

Linux uses an XML file in ~/.realsoftware/Feedback/Preferences.xml which you can add a key to:

<element><key>Use Neutral Color Scheme</key><value type="8">0</value></element>

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Feedback Ships by Thom McGrath

After a very long time in development, REAL Software's new feedback system is finally available to the public and in use.

I've been working on this system for a long time, since about mid-March if I recall correctly. It's so nice to finally see it live. I'm so proud to have contributed this to REAL Software, since it is such a crucial part of the company. Sure, I've worked on critical parts of the company for about a year now (new website backend, new servers, new order system), but there is something special about this. That other stuff is all very important, probably more than the feedback system, but this is an app that our customers will use frequently.

We've already been getting many compliments about the design of the app, and I do plan to do a post-mortem type article on the company blog. It does surprise me though, because although I find the UI simple, it's certainly not ground-breaking in my opinion. Or I just have high standards.

Early in the development process, we discussed a very critical choice: web-based or desktop-based. The discussion was heavily weighted towards web-based, and I could certainly do it, but I saw an opportunity to do something special. By creating a desktop app, it could be designed to show-off some of the abilities of REALbasic (not that the IDE does not already do that) and it allows us an unprecedented level of integration with our products and our user's systems.

Since it was being developed on the desktop, the argument was made that this should be completely integrated into REALbasic. While an interesting thought, that posed a couple problems:

If REALbasic crashes, that system has a lot of functionality that needs to work inside an application that has already had an exception and locked up. There is a lot of potential for lost information there.
If there is a minor bug in the feedback system, it could not be fixed until the next release of REALbasic. That's a significant problem for a new system. Keeping it separate allows us to push updates (yes, it has an auto-update system) to our users without them downloading the entire REALbasic package.
What about our other products? Should a customer really be expected to launch REALbasic just to report a bug about our website or REAL Server? No.

So development on the app began from the ground up. Code was developed to handle preferences correctly on each platform, open source projects were utilized to provide animation, client-to-server communication and CoreFoundation support, and the source list and automatic updates were provided by code I had laying around and needed a good testing route. Right off the bat, many of the core systems of the application were falling into place.

Another big source of debate is the app's client-to-server communication method. This app does not speak to our database directly. An abstraction layer was implemented on the server to provide security and ease development. During the beta process, many bugs were fixed simply by updating server-side code. Using a straight SQL connection could not have done that. If we needed to move databases, upgrade servers, etc then we would need to issue an update to app. Instead, we could switch the database backend entirely without the app ever complaining. There's no database login details in the app, nor does it even know where the database is. That provides a significant amount of security. This abstraction layer also allows the activity viewer to work. You'll notice that the app almost never locks up or appears unresponsive. That's another thing an SQL connection could not have provided. There is still some debate that the app should be speaking directly to our REAL Server, but I stand by my position that this abstraction layer is not only very useful, but very important.

We quickly realized people would be asking for some of this functionality in REALbasic. It'll happen. I don't know when, and I don't know what, but we are aware of some gaps in the REALbasic framework that the code from this app can fill.

We have big plans for this tool. Remember, this is the 1.0.0 release. There is plenty of room to grow. Of course, I can't say what ideas are floating around, but I will say it will keep evolving.

Lastly, although I did all the development work on the app, the entire team provided lots useful feedback, suggestions, requirements, etc. I can't take all the credit.

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Do Something Challenging by Thom McGrath

Most of the code on this website is the result of me actually needing the code in one of my own projects, but some of it, such as the HIToolbar classes and my ArchDetect project, are the result of me challenging myself in an effort to "keep my skills sharp."

Marvel Dies by Thom McGrath

Marvel has agreed to be bought-out by Disney. Need I say more? I imagine everybody else already has, but I'll say it as well.

Chrome OS by Thom McGrath

One word: Bah.

iPhone Upgrading by Thom McGrath

I decided to upgrade my launch-day iPhone to a new white 32GB 3GS. The upgrade went pretty smoothly, and the features are nice. This article is part review, part nightmare.

Come With Us by Thom McGrath

We've started a Battlefield 2142 clan server. It's a flexible infantry-only server, only few rules. Number one rule, no demo pak whoring!

Address 68.232.170.19:16567.

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Nintendo Almost Disappoints by Thom McGrath

I watched Nintendo's E3 conference live today. As expected, it was more gimmicks. A lot of them. I'm happy to see New Super Mario Brothers coming to the Wii, and I imagine the RPG titles coming to the Wii and DS will make their fans happy too. But most of the conference was about appealing to tweens and non-gamers. That's fine, but gamers need something too!

Until the end of time by Thom McGrath

My laptop is finally a laptop again! Since my hard drive went bad about 6 months ago, I've been running it from an external. Not a small, friendly one either. I looked around and determined it would cost about $350 to repair it. That's why I've been waiting.

Life Without Logic by Thom McGrath

Not too long ago, I noticed Microsoft's new windows tagline: "Life Without Walls". Right...

REALbasic's TrueWindow by Thom McGrath

Don't get too alarmed, but I'm writing for two blogs now. I just contributed my next tutorial to REAL Software's official blog rather than my own:

REALbasic's New TrueWindow Feature

As much as I love writing content on my own blog - and I'll continue to do so - it makes more sense for the company if I do the tutorials and such in a more official capacity.

REALbasic 2009r1 Released! by Thom McGrath

REALbasic 2009r1 is one of my favorite releases, and it should be yours too. This release adds a handful of useful new features, and it's also the first release I've directly contributed code to.

The Lab! by Thom McGrath

Kelly and I have been moving since Friday morning. Got a new place with lots more space. When I started with REAL and began working from home, it quickly became obvious that I needed my own space. The apartment complex we were in has some very nice townhouses, so we put our names on the waiting list for one of those. That was in June.

Tip: Fix Linux Button Sizes by Thom McGrath

This really bugs me about Linux, at least on Ubuntu. Button sizes are typically 30 pixels tall, as opposed to the 20 pixels on Mac and Windows. So when you're creating your UI and plan to deploy to Linux as well, be aware of this. If your button sizes are 20 pixels tall - the REALbasic default - your buttons will look terrible on Linux, only showing the top half of the caption.

My solution? A subclass of PushButton I call RespectfulPushButton. In it's Open event, I simply make the height 10 pixels taller and move it up by 5 pixels. The result won't harm the UI much, and the buttons look perfect on Linux. You'll then want to define a new Open event, and trigger it from the Open event of the subclass. Of course, use conditional compiles to only resize the buttons on Linux. I then just use this subclass instead. Minimal work to setup, but you'll then need to get into the habit of using the subclass instead when placing new buttons.

PopupMenus have this pain as well. I have not seen this on any other controls, but I most write my own anyway.

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My brain hurts... by Thom McGrath

I frequent GameFAQs about daily to check out their poll. Being a CBS-owned site now, they have links to other (mostly worthless) junk at the top of the page, just below the logo. Some of it gets my curiosity of course.

REAL Software Website Updates by Thom McGrath

We've had our new site online for a little over a month now and since then, we've been listening to user feedback and rolled out some new updates for the site. Some of which you'll notice, others are under the hood. (Those under-the-hood ones are very useful, but I won't speak of them here.)

Casualty by Thom McGrath

We just got back from the vet. One of our newborn rabbits got her paw tangled in the bedding. We were using the store-bought cotton nesting material, which I would certainly not recommend. Unfortunately, we did not catch it in time, and the paw was deprived of blood for too long. Much of the paw did recover, but the toes did not.

The odds of surviving the amputation were not good. Even in adult rabbits, the survival rate is low. In a week-old such as this, there was nearly no chance she would survive it. If left untreated, it would spread and eventually kill her.

She was euthanized about an hour ago.

The other four are doing exceptionally well, and we expect them to open their eyes by the end of the weekend. We're using a couple old t-shirts for a nest now, which they and the mother are satisfied with. We're hopeful they will make it through.

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Pet Multiplication! by Thom McGrath

My wife and I are not allowed to have dogs or cats in our apartment, so we have a couple rabbits (Mystik and Rayne) instead. Turns out, we have a male and a female. We keep them in separate cages for obvious reasons, but let them run around the apartment quite a bit.

By now, if you're paying any attention at all, you'll guess that Mystik just gave birth. And you'd be correct, we have five new bunnies!

New Website! by Thom McGrath

Finally, after a few months of work, the new REAL Software website is live. We've been working hard on this for a little while now, especially Dana and I, so here's a look at what we've done that may or may not be instantly noticeable.

Image Masking by Thom McGrath

Over the past few days I've seen this topic come up on the REAL Software Forums and the REALbasic NUG. There's quite a mix of information - some correct and misleading. Luckily, I've not seen information that is just flat out wrong.

Custom Controls: Finding your global screen bounds by Thom McGrath

I find myself writing a fair amount of custom controls. Frequently, I find myself wanting to find the position of the mouse relative to my control. The MouseDown, MouseDrag, etc. events have this info, but if you need this in the Paint event, you must either save it to a property or get it from the system. We're exploring the latter, as it's not as simple as you might think.

I hate Gmail by Thom McGrath

I hated Gmail before I ever used it. Now I've been using it for about 5 months now and I've learned to complete despise it.

What I've been up to by Thom McGrath

Just a general post, nothing special about it.

HIToolbar 1.1.3 Released by Thom McGrath

Even though I should be working on getting two other projects made public, I thought I would update HIToolbar first. Since it broke on REALbasic 2008r3, it made sense that this one should get more attention.

Determining if a window should be highlighted by Thom McGrath

I've been working on a window designed to look similar to Safari. This means a window with a "Unified" toolbar and tabs that blend into said toolbar.

Does a window have a sheet? by Thom McGrath

So Norman Palardy recently posted some code for detecting if a window has a sheet attached. Charles Yeomans took this code and modified it to work without subclassing window.

I take it one step further, and fix a bug...

The ZAZ's Open Source Roadmap by Thom McGrath

I've got a brand new open source project coming up. In fact, the code is already complete and in use, I'm just working on the documentation... and this one will have significant documentation. I imagine that nearly every REALbasic project will want this code included.

Best. Song. Ever. by Thom McGrath

I'm going to keep this short and simple. View the picture.

Relove for the iPhone by Thom McGrath

I used the leaked iPhone 2.0 firmware. It's like I when I first bought the iPhone over a year ago - I can't put it down.

But this time, I can keep adding features. Some will be better when push support comes in September, like AIM and NetNewsWire, but it's pretty damn cool.

My personal favorite new app is Shazam. That's one really cool thing Verizon customers could have over me - but this is here now and free!

OmniFocus is pretty great too, I'm keeping it synched with my desktop.

I'm sure you'll read about this everywhere else, but I felt like saying something here.

:: Sent from my iPhone, BTW ::

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Figures... by Thom McGrath

I've been working on an internal tool for REAL Software that is probably my best web app to date. It's a web 2.0 app, feels like a desktop app, on caliber with some of the .Mac stuff. Really sweet.

And yet, I'll never get to show the world.

Figures.

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Tropical Sillyness by Thom McGrath

So, I stumbled across a trailer I thought I might check out.

Tropic Thunder - don't bother. Just to view the trailer, the website asks for too much personal information.

Source-Controlled Website by Thom McGrath

This concept is so simple and easy, I'm amazed I had not yet thought of it. See, I keep a subdomain of this website which I use as a sandbox. I draft new designs or concepts with it. But it's always been a complete pain to bring the sandbox to the live site. I don't want to overwrite too many or the wrong files, and I made the mistake of keeping subdomain files inside my www directory. It's a mess, and I know better now.

Finally, a new day job by Thom McGrath

So after five and a half years with Subway, I have found a new job that's actually in the industry I have real talent in. Not to say hadn't done a good job managing over a hundred teenagers, it just isn't what I want to do. Not to mention it requires me to work about 50 hours a week over 6 days. If I were single and had no friends, it wouldn't be so bad, but considering neither of those are true it really gets to me sometimes.

But no more. I just signed and returned an offer letter.

AnimationKit 2.0 Released by Thom McGrath

I have finally found some free time, so I decided to release a brand new version of AnimationKit. This new version is significantly changed, and will break existing code. It does, however, include some great new features.

Hamachi Starter by Thom McGrath

After reading about some trouble on the Hamachi forums, I decided to whip together something more than the how-to I wrote a few weeks ago. I have here a Mac OS X installer package which will install the files necessary to auto-start tuncfg, and give you a "Start Hamachi" application which you can add to your login items to automatically start Hamachi. You can find it in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

This is not an installer. You must have a working install of Hamachi in order for this to work.

The package is only lightly tested, comes with absolutely no warranty, and is not an official or sanctioned product of LogMeIn.

Download the small file here

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Worst Headphones Ever by Thom McGrath

http://www.arriva.com/

I don't normally do stuff like this, but this thing dropped my jaw to the point I feel a rant is due.

Ham & Cheese Update by Thom McGrath

This is important information for anybody interested in Ham & Cheese. The product will not see the light of day due to a contract I have recently agreed to. As I'm now under an NDA, I cannot reveal any new information, so please keep the requests to yourself. I'm confident this move is the best for every party involved. Thank you for your support.

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Passwording, Favorites, and... Invitations and Profiles? by Thom McGrath

Tonight, I'm sharing two screenshots. Nothing fantastic on that front. But I'm also going to share an idea I just had that I think is very cool - and it's another unique feature!

Services Preview by Thom McGrath

Want more Hamachi? Who doesn't! These screenshots should hold us over for a few days... or make everybody want it more!

Hamachi for Mac OS X by Thom McGrath

After being supremely upset with the current options for using Hamachi on Mac OS X, and the difficultly of getting it installed in the first place, I set out to solve every issue I've ever had with Hamachi on the Mac. At least, as much as is possible.

It's important to note that I am NOT an official developer for LogMeIn, and this project may not see the light of day due to some issues I cannot yet speak about.

But if this does work out... damn... Hamachi on Mac worries are over.

Supremely Awesome by Thom McGrath

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.

Leopard Compatibility Notice by Thom McGrath

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.

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Some insight about REALbasic toolbars by Thom McGrath

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.

Converting HTML Entities [Updated] by Thom McGrath

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.

Blog Comments Back Online by Thom McGrath

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

Signal: Don't Bother by Thom McGrath

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.

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Macros, Combo-Filtering, and 68k Scanning by Thom McGrath

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

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New feature (and official announcement) of ArchDetect 2 by Thom McGrath

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.

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Bad Apple! No Biscuit! by Thom McGrath

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.

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iPhone is making life less fun by Thom McGrath

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

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For cryin' out loud... STOP SHUFFLING!!! by Thom McGrath

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.

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More iPhone Goodness by Thom McGrath

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.

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Yet Another iPhone Thread by Thom McGrath

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

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Safari 3 seems a little... confused... by Thom McGrath

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

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ArchDetect 1.2.2 Released by Thom McGrath

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.

Now accepting donations for ArchDetect by Thom McGrath

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.

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ArchDetect 1.2.1 by Thom McGrath

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.

ArchDetect 1.2 by Thom McGrath

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.

Brad Rhine releases the Toolbar Utilities module by Thom McGrath

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.

Smart Crash Reports is a godsend by Thom McGrath

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.

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ArchDetect 1.1 Released by Thom McGrath

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.

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ArchDetect 1.0 Released by Thom McGrath

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.

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HIToolbar 1.1.2 Released by Thom McGrath

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.

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HIToolbar Crash Situation by Thom McGrath

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.

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Status Update for REALSyndication by Thom McGrath

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.

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Dropping support for Atom 0.1 by Thom McGrath

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.

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Panic outdoes themselves... again. by Thom McGrath

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

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First Alpha of REALSyndication coming soon by Thom McGrath

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.

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Hey, what smells like blue? by Thom McGrath

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!

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New feed icons available by Thom McGrath

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.

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Of Going Mad and Losing Work by Thom McGrath

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@*#!!.

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Creating Aqua effects in code by Thom McGrath

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

New ping system ready by Thom McGrath

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.

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New comment system live by Thom McGrath

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.

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Mac OS X Search Field 1.1 Released by Thom McGrath

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

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HIToolbar 1.1.1 Released by Thom McGrath

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.

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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.