2006 April « Rhymes with Toaster

Apr 26 2006

Geekery

RSS Update Macro for Quartz Composer

The RSS feed functionality of apple’s Quartz Composer development tool has a lot of potential for creating dynamically generated information, but it leaves a little to be desired if you have data that is updating quickly. Quartz Composer’s RSS patch uses Safari’s RSS feed functions, which only get refreshed at a minimum of every 30 minutes. I’ve created a Custom Macro Patch that is similar to the standard Quartz Composer RSS Feed, but adds a “Duration” input that causes the RSS Feed to refresh after the specified time.

I threw it together for an information display that needed to be updated quickly at an event. The safari update times were too long, but I noticed that If I specified a new URL for the RSS Feed module it would initiate a new download of the information. So all I needed a way to change the URL string without really changing where the RSS Feed was pointing.

So what I hacked together was a function that adds a nonsense GET variable onto the URL string called “qcfoo”, and set it as the value of a counter. Every web server that I’ve tried it on so far will just ignore the GET variable when it receives the request, but when the counter changes, the RSS Feed is refreshed in Quartz Composer.

For example, when you feed in
“http://www.apple.com/main/rss/hotnews/hotnews.rss”,
the URL string input for the RSS Feed patch really is “http://www.apple.com/main/rss/hotnews/hotnews.rss?qcfoo=1″, then
“http://www.apple.com/main/rss/hotnews/hotnews.rss?qcfoo=2″, then
“http://www.apple.com/main/rss/hotnews/hotnews.rss?qcfoo=3″, etc.

Not very pretty, but it works. I’m open to improvements.

Note: You may need to “Right-Click, Save As” to download.

Tagged dev, quartzcomposer, rss

Apr 05 2006

I'm goin' to BootCamp

Apple today announced BootCamp, an Apple-created utility for dual booting your (and my) intel iMac with OS X and Windows XP. This is certainly more appealing than the OnMac method, which admirably came first.

“Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don’t have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.”

If that means native graphics drivers, bring it on. Let’s see how Battlefield 2 runs on this baby.

Update:

We’re up and running, and BF2 indeed runs smooth as silk at 1280 x 960. It’s great to have native drivers for all the hardware. Read More for some camera phone pics from the install process:

The strange thing is– I haven’t booted into XP since.

Tagged gaming

Apr 04 2006

Your Mom Knows (About) Web 2.0

Newsweek Cover …that is, if your mom reads Newsweek. That means your dad, your grandma, your uncle Louie, or your brother-in-law Stan know about it if they read Newsweek. More importantly, it also means your mayor, your police chief, and your public library board know about The New Web (2.0) if they read Newsweek.

I think Newsweek did an admirable job, covering MySpace, Flickr , and YouTube in depth, as well as mentioning technology such as RSS, AJAX, APIs and mashups. But I think they did the best at focusing on what The New Web is all about: user-created content. They are letting people understand that the web is not just another consumer media such as TV, radio, and newspapers, but it’s becoming a interactive media where you can share your knowledge, thoughts and opinions. Rather than getting cought up in the technologies of RSS, tagging, and APIs, I think it’s important for the casual observer to understand the foundational concept of The New Web. Once they get the “why”, they can support and explore its further development.

Newsweek also had an article titled “Who’s Building the Next Web?” which listed eight companies working on emerging technology. I’d only heard of two of them, and I consider myself relatively knowledgeable about the web. Interesting ideas, if nothing else.
Digg – link sharing
Plum – information collections
Sharpcast – document sharing across all devices
Jajah – two local calls connected over the internet
Prosper – person to person lending
la la – learn about and share music
FlimLoop – scrolling images easy to download and share
Mercora – easy online radio station

Now some of the other content of the magazine, such as a “geek quiz“, complete with an image of a “geek” littered with random techy gadgets straight out of central casting, was a little disappointing. I mean, “subtract 1 pt. for each nonworking computer“? Come on, every real computer geek has a dozen or so non-working computers in boxes somewhere. Also, they lose all cred for not listing the Gamecube, GBA or DS in their “Which game system are you playing most often today?” question.

So now your mom knows. And let me tell you, your uncle Louie’s MySpace is pretty scary.