I think techies the world over are mourning the loss of an icon, Steve Jobs. You were a visionary that strived for perfection. We will miss your guidance and relentless pursuit. Thank you.

Smalltalk & Seaside

Since I heard Avi Bryant's podcast on development w/ Seaside and Smalltalk, I've been trying to get my hands on everything I could find. Alan Kay is nothing if not a modern day Einstein. He and Avi are my definitely in my Technology and Innovation Hall of Fame along with Steve Jobs. These guys emblazoned a path for me to follow and I cannot let them down. They have given me practically every tool I need to forge my own trail.

   

Clockwise: Alan Kay, Steve Jobs, Avi Bryant

Great idea, but poor implementation Nikon D90

I hadn't had my D90 a week before it began to lock up on me displaying ERR in the LED on top of the camera. I called Nikon several times to see if they could resolve the problem. Eventually they advised me to send it to their repair staff in New York. A move I will forever regret.

Oh why did I leave Canon. My next camera will be the Canon 5d mark ii. No more nightmares in dealing with the Nikon folks. At least I will know that my camera equipment will be fixed or replaced in a timely manor.

Nikon D90 System

The Nikon D90 has completely made me rethink my opinion of Nikon.

Here are the highlights:

12.3 Mega Pixels
World's first DSLR w/ movie capture
GPS geo-tagging: GP-1 GPS unit (optional) provides automatic real-time geo-tagging but I will use the Eye-fi SSD card with builtin geotagging instead
WAN capability w/ Eye-fi card also has menu for Eye-fi card
On board editing - first of it's kind
3" Live view w/ super high resolution
4.5 frames per sec
11-point AF system with Face Priority

Development tools no one should be without

The internet, this is really why it was invented.
IRC application, we would almost be helpless without the human search engine/collective.
Compliant Browsers
Powerful search engines
Great operating systems and frameworks
Great IDEs
Web Services

New Hadron Collider (my personal super collider)

I just replaced my beloved dual processing Mac G4 with the out of this world (for a desktop) 8 core Harpertown Mac Pro. The only thing it isn't, is portable. Talk about world get out of my way and let me develop the most amazing software imaginable. They will have to think of new superlatives for this device because you quickly run out, in all the known human languages. I certainly won't be getting much sleep out there for the next 3 years or so. Now that I have the power to control time and space, I think I will develop a cure for cancer, end world hunger, create everlasting peace, and fill young minds with hope first. Welcome to the new Matrix.

This will be all about software development, cool technologies, apps, and sites.

Let's start with the third greatest technology company ever, that would be Google. The extraordinary advertising guys that thought hey if we gave away web services for free perhaps we can persuade advertisers to pay for it. Absolute genius and great apps to boot.

Next, my most beloved company and second best tech company, is Apple. Steve Jobs was born to do what he does and that is innovate. He is like Michael Jackson (part showman), Albert Einstein (part genius), and Tiger Woods (and part machine, relentless) rolled into one. He literally did a Lance Armstrong (brought it back to life) with the company he formed nearly 30 years ago when he returned ten years ago when they were on life support.

And last but not least, here is a shout to the best thing our government has ever done (including sending men into space). They invented this little network called the internet. I am sure they had no real clue at the time of its complete ramifications and the extraordinary things people would use it for but to me it is just the ultimate computing platform.