CiancaLog

The Altair 8800 from MITS of Albuquerque, NM, was my first computer. It came as a kit and was initially called a “minicomputer” in 1975. It had 256 BYTES of memory, which would not be enough to store this review. The front panel (the icon has the 8080B) had 2 rows of switches and 2 rows of LED’s. In simple terms the top row of switches controlled the address and data registers (memory) and the buttom the cpu (run, single step, input/output, write/read, etc).

After building the 8080, there was no operating system, no basic, no nothing. You would create your very simple “program” by flipping those switches and hoping to get a reaction, such as adding some binary numbers together. Eventually BASIC would become available along with 1k memory board. I had hooked this up to an ASR33 teletype machine and was able to finaly save and load programs using paper tape punched with holes.

It would be another year before a floppy was added, and you had to write your own assembler programs to make them work. When Gary Kidall released CP/M, it still required a lot of hours to get it to work and you had to “roll your own” BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) or “drivers” to get anything to work.

The first Apple computer would become available about a year and half later and also came in a kit. But it had BASIC built in and only had to be hooked up to a TV screen to make it work.

Interacting with CP/M was done on a paper printing terminal rather then “glass” dispaly. Eventually I got an ADM display.

When I first saw this I was hoping for a real simulator with functioning switches and controls, but, alas (as Jerry Pournellle would often say) it accomplished its goal of taking me down memory lane.

However, this is part of the Computer History Simulation Project.

Apple AppStore Link

The Altair 8800b model.

2Do is a visually stunning todo manager with a user interface that is well thought out. As with Guided Ways Groups application, I like the (optional) side tabs, allowing one to quickly jump to group of tasks without having to navigate through an extra set of menus or screens.

The task detail screen is clean and easy to read. One can also assign multiple alarms to a task.

While all the basic info one needs is in the tasks there are some additional fields that I’d like to see in future versions. One is the ability to attach contact(s) to a task, so that I can quickly call or send an email to that person. Another is the ability to attach location data / map to a task, a feature that is becoming common in iPhone apps everywhere. Because the layout of the detail records is nice an clean, adding additional fields should be a fairly easy proposition.

2Do should also incorporate support for urls (and url parsing) in its notes fields, which it currently doesn’t do.

A companion desktop app for OSX (free) allows the syncing of tasks to iCal, which has always been one of my criteria for calendar or tasks programs in the past.

2Do can be found at the iTunes store here.

The HP Mini 1035NR netbook has the same basic features as just about every other netbook that exists on the market today. The 1.6 GHz Atom and 1024 x 600 display are all standard. There isn’t much to distinguish one netbook from another, but HP really did a fine job in some of the most important areas.

Before I purchased the 1035NR I had an opportunity to check out the offerings from Asus, Acer, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung and Sylvania. I was down to a choice between the HP 1035 and a Lenovo S10 (which is $50 less and comes with an express card slot).

OmniGraffle Pro is without question the best diagramming tool available for any platform. The new version which was just released to Public Beta is simply an incredible update to this amazing tool.

Some of the new features are welcome and well executed. Here is a quick list of some new or updated features:

The updated interface, designed to reflect the Leopard design direction, incorporates user interface elements well onto the window, giving the entire application an updated, modern & refreshed look.
Some common tools have been added directly onto the ruler eliminating the need to use the corresponding inspector to get to them (they are still in the inspector though). There is also a new Tool Palette similar to what many other programs have which should make it easier for Visio, Illustrator and other users to transition to OGP.

The new Stencils manager fixed numerous usability issues with the old one.

Expanded Variables support (but none yet that will display the foreground and background color values, useful when making a visual style guide).

Leopard QuickLook Support.

Shared Layers which replace the old Master Canvas. This one will take some getting used if you use Master Canvases, but it’s really an awesome solution to something many have wanted for some time – the ability to add multiple master canvases to a single canvas. It also makes it very easy to adjust the items on the Shared Layer so that they show up everywhere.

Subgraphs allow you to group a collection of objects into a single entity very easily.

There are some big changes with OGP5 and this includes having to update your documents (QuickLook only works with OGP5 format files).

A slight issue is with documents that are larger then a printed page and where sized using the “Fit To Page”. These will open with the page size reset to the standard page settings. The new scaling features should eliminate the prior issues with having documents that had more vertical or horizontal pixels then a standard printed page would hold.

You will also need to update any custom templates you are using.

The best tool just got better: “OmniGraffle will you marry me?”

Download OmniGraffle Pro 5

Tables is constantly improving and the developer has been very responsive to issues. In just a few months it has gone from usable to excellent. Tables is also very stable for me. The last crash I had was due to an Input Manager and not Tables.

Excel compatibility has been pretty good, with no problems sharing files with Windows Excel users.

Like many, I bought iWork 08 as soon as it came out. Numbers is a slick application (reminds me of an old Mac Spreadsheet called Trapeze) and overall I like it. But Tables is much faster when using lots of data and overall feels more responsive. I often use Tables with data extracted from databases as CSV files to “massage” and analyze the data and assorted other such needs. Tables is better then Numbers for actually crunching numbers and data. Try importing a 23401 row / 33 column CSV file into Numbers and hear your MacBook Pro fan kick into overdrive for a while…

Numbers is great for presentations, where you have a limited amount of information that is usually going into Pages or Keynote. In some cases I will crunch data in Tables, and then copy/paste results of that into Numbers for use in Keynote.

Oddly enough, Tables also has more control over the formatting of cells, particularly numbers.

In my toolbox, there is a place for both and I for one am super happy to never use Excel again. The cost of Tables and iWork together is still cheaper then getting MS Office and provides a much better experience for the user.

Merlin is an attractive project management solution for OSX.

It was created by a German company, ProjectWizards. It seems that several German companies are creating great OSX Software these days.

I like how it uses a persistent saving model and allows you to keep projects in what is more or less a single document.

It allows you to import and export MS Project files, and hasn’t had any problems with the ones that I have put into (and out of) Merlin.

There are are some things that I have issues with and a few of them have been addressed in the latest release.

Here is a list of comments that I had, and the responses from the developer (in blue):

th {
vertical-align: bottom;

}

td,th {
/* Cheating here so we can get a default font and size. If it’s set in the outline then it’ll get redeclared below
and overwritten (hopefully).
*/
font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;

empty-cells: show;
}

td.subcell {
border: none;
padding: 0px;
}

table.subtable {
}

div.row {
}

.header {
text-decoration: underline;font-weight: 900;
}

.expanded {
display: inline;
}
.collapsed {
display: none;
}

.note {
color:rgb(84,84,84) ; font-style: italic;font-size: 11px;
}

/* Total table width is 665
Adjusted table width is 764 */

table.row {
width: 764px;

}

.col_width1 {
width: 764px; /* Actual width is 665 */
}

.col1 {

}

.ns-Highlight {
background-color:rgb(255,255,102) ; }

.ns-Citation {
text-decoration: underline;}

.ns-Emphasis {
font-style: italic;}

Merlin Comments
Feb 16 2005
Our answers and comments comes in blue and bold.
Saving a website opens in Safari and not the system specified browser (in my case OmniWeb)
Yes, we record this a a bug.
Bild 1
One should be able to create resources that are not in the address book, if nothing else as placeholders. When a project is imported from MS Project the resources listed aren’t in addressbook.
We have the complete rewrite of the resources functionality of Merlin on our roadmap for version 2.0. This version should come shortly after Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4). Then it should be possible to use resources form some other applications (e.g. MS Entourage) and of course from direct input (both, as names or global resources).
Why can’t i export a calendar to my own webdav server? Only .mac appears to be supported.
The calendar itself will be published only to iCal. Within iCal you can define any WebDAV server as the destination. In on of the next versions (planned for 1.2/1.3) the direct export as a .ics file will be offered.
One should be able to specify a default phone number and email to appear in the web pages for a resource. If one has multiple numbers it might pick the wrong ones.
This is a bug of the Apple address book, but we’ve fixed it. Please see this page:
Free Tools – ProjectWizards
How come the Text info for an Element can’t be displayed on the site? This would make the publishing of a project plan much more useful as a status reporting tool.
Yes, this have to come very fast. We’ve planned this for Merlin 1.2/1.3
It would be good to have a checkbox to turn individual Text info on/off for web reports.
As you can see in the preferences most information blocks are switchable, I think this will be a switch, too.
It would be useful to be able to display a Gantt chart as part of a web presentation.
This is planned for version 1.3
It would be useful to be able to display specific detail of a project as part of a web presentation.
Our plan for 1.3 is to put on the website a link behind every tile (of an activity or element) and to show a popup window with many more information form the dedicated object.
Search doesn’t always find what one expects. For example, I might have a number of activities that start with the term “QA” but if I type QA into the search field, they don’t appear in the results.
I would also expect that if “All” is selected for search, that it would allow me to search by resource name.
I just tested it again and it works as expected and as you need it. Can you describe the way you search a bit more detailed?
The top level project name appears with a disclosure triangle for a project, yet there is no way to add another top level item. I have 70+ projects, and would like to be able to have a “Project” that appears in the projects pull down menu that contains “subprojects” if you will. This would allow me to allocate resources for that group of people more effectively and would show me their conflicts. This could be accomplished by allowing me to create an activity at the top level (currently it doesn not).
A first solution for this problem is currently under development and should be published with version 1.2. We start with a kind of multi-project view which shows optionally all included projects. But this is only a first start. In version 2 we offer a complete new concept for the handling of projects.
When I add a document element to the project, there is no way to click on the document to open it from inside Merlin.

Recently my company started issuing Treo650 as the standard corporate phone/email client. At first, I was somewhat excited about the use of the Treo but when I received mine the short comings where very apparent. They keyboard is certainly better then the 600 series and the hardware seems solid with a nice looking and sharp screen. But it’s what is underneath that makes the Treo650 such a poor choice.

Firstly, the BizComm software that communicates with exchange is the worst ever. The email client is poorly written and has absolutely no integration with any of my exchange folders. It only displays up to a max of 75 most recent messages, has next to no sorting abilities and a whole list of other problems. To add insult to the injury, the BizComm software also gets your calendar appointments, but stores them in it’s own file separate from the regular calendar program and doesn’t give you any ability to create a new appointment.

But it gets even better. The Treo650 doesn’t even work well as a phone. My company uses Sprint as it’s provider, which has questionable quality, and often has static and interference in the phone calls. I get very clean calls on my personal T-Mobile phone and my last job had T-Mobile Blackberry’s which also worked well.

When one is on the subway, the Treo has a habit of stalling, so one can’t even do email effectively with it unless one turns the radio off, a procedure which seems to take a minute or two when it has no signal. The Treo also has a habit of hanging requiring a reboot when I receive phone calls. I will press the Answer button and nothing will happen. The screen is frozen, there is no caller on the other end. Then you have to reset the dammed device and of course you loose the callers info from the log in the process.

And the number one stupid problem with the Treo 650 – when it has no signal and you create an appointment, the date defaults to 1/1/1904. The only solution to this problem is to turn the network time/date off – Now that’s quality engineering a la Microsoft.

Treo you ain’t no blackberry and you have no place as a corporate communicator device.