Chaos Server

I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. - The Doctor My Timelord app has had two updates in the past two years. Last year when I switched jobs, got a new MacBook Pro Retina, and I realized that Timelord wasn't retina. UNACCEPTABLE. Staring at non-retina text was like applying sandpaper to my eyes. Then I learned there is a simple flag that makes Swing use Retina. Why is that not default? I don't know, but I fixed the build process to add it. I haven't been actively time tracking for the past six months, so no big deal. A week ago I went to run Timelord and it wouldn't launch. Huh? Further investigation showed that the JavaApplicationStub bundling method only worked on Apple's version of Java, and since Oracle has taken over with updates, the program wouldn't launch anymore. One fix is to install the old Apple Java Runtime. Oracle to the rescue... sort of. There is a new version of the bundler from Oracle. My build process us...

PCs are going to be like trucks. They are still going to be around. However only one out of x people will need them. - Steve Jobs Somewhere around a year ago I decided to see if I could do the majority of my personal computing on an iPad. It's okay - but required a decent amount of shennanigans. Eventually I got a Compass Stand , Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and lap desk and I had basically designed a laptop except I could just carry around the iPad when I wanted. I kept the iPad in a cute cloth case my wife sewed for me, but I would always loose track of that case when the iPad was out of it. The keyboard is also annoying, how do you pack the keyboard? I've upgraded! I got a new iPad Mini Retina. The old iPad was nice, but I really didn't need that size. So to get a smaller iPad with the exact same screen resolution is great. I also got the T-Mobile Cellular version which gives me 200MB of data a month for FREE (as in beer) for the life of the device. That...

But we have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what’s in it. - Nancy Pelosi American health insurance is frustrating. Historically, whenever I get a bill I make sure that it shows some amount of insurance coverage (to make sure they billed my insurance) and then I pay the remainder. I've always had a slightly more expensive PPO, so I'm used to $40 copays on blood work and that sort of thing. I had exciting copays back when I got my 20+ cavities filled. Now a baby is really exciting thing from a medical bill and insurance standpoint. We got sent an initial hospital bill and after insurance adjustments it was quite reasonable. I'm not going to say cheap, but at least it was close to what our insurance said it would be. Then we got a second bill for the anesthesiologist and it was expensive. Insurance had only covered about 20% of the bill. That made me sad, but we begrudgingly paid. Then we an updated will for the delivery and the price we had to pay ...

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. - Mark Twain I've sure been posting a lot of 'nerd' updates lately. When Mini-Chaos was born, one of my coworkers told me to put all of my hobbies on hold for the next few years. There is a decent amount of truth to that - but I manage to sneak in nerd work from time to time, which is half hobby and half job-training. What I find interesting in the technology development world is the amount of "code names" that people like to use. Code names exist for a very specific purpose: to keep people without context from knowing what things are. Time and time again in my history building software apps, I've seen engineering teams come up with clever code names for engineering systems: "Jefferson Airplane," "Messina," "Mountains of Madness," "Kafka." Each of these has a clever reason behind the name that allowed the team to pat themselves on the back. The pro...