I've noticed that either I don't have enough time to do what I would like, or that time is speeding up, take your choice, either one.

I'd love to have a couple hours to sit down and really work on my web app and have my brain sit and actually want to work on it. But I haven't been in the mood to do such things lately. I know I need to work on it, but I just can't get motivated enough to really put a ton of time into it.

The other thing I haven't had time to do much of lately is read my OS X 10.5 Leopard support book. I did read a bit earlier this week but not really a ton. I do need to find time to continue reading the book so I can take the certification test, which I wanted to do back in May. If the darn thing only came as an audiobook I would have already listened to it, twice probably, and taken the certification test. I know it doesn't sound that interesting to most, but Audio is definitely a better format for me. Alas until that occurs I'll just have to make time for it...

I've been working on a webapp for the last few weeks. I haven't come up with a name, website, or even finished the thing yet. I do have a domain, so we'll see how it goes... It's nearing the 1.0 completion. There are still a list of things to do, but it's getting there. I'll post links and the like when I get everything going.

The big question with the project is where to stop development for the 1.0 release. I don't want to do a beta, that's just ridiculous and it shows that you have no clue where to go with your application. The main item that I'm asking myself is 'What is the best way to monetize it?'. Should I do the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, whereby you give away the software but have people pay for support. Or do I sell the application and the support?

Let me know by filling out the poll.

[poll id='2']

So I picked up my copy of Mario Kart for the Wii earlier today. It's a good game and I think those who want something a bit challenging but nothing too difficult will really like this game. The graphics look really good, I haven't noticed any pixelation, but then again I've been a bit too busy racing to notice too much, so maybe I'm just missing it. Another good thing about the game is the ability to unlock items, maybe this was in the previous ones and I never got around to unlocking them. But there are definite unlockable items which enhances the gameplay.

This version has online features that allow you to connect with friends and pay against them. However, I should not need to enter in a 'friend code' in order to play against somebody... this is just wrong... I should be able to browse a channel or startup a 'quick match' to go up against somebody, but this is Nintendo..

However, there are a couple of things that do irritate me about the game. First off if you're in first place you are more likely to get hit by 2 or 3 items, one right after the other. This is just annoying, while it hasn't cost me any race yet, it's just poor implementation. Additionally for items there seems to be an exorbitant ratio of banana peels and green shells. While this doesn't detract from the game play, it just seems like in ordinate amount of the same item.

Overall it's a good game. Nothing dirty, since it's nintendo, and it's good for a quick round and something fun to play. It's also good if you want to have a tournament. Check it out and see if it's right for you.

mugshot, 1988
Originally uploaded by merlinmann

This is From Merlin Mann's flickr account. Man, take a look at the hair... what a transformation from this in 1988 to .

So a couple of weeks ago I bought an XBOX 360 Pro version. With the 20GB Hard drive, and the whole thing. I'm debating on getting a 12 Month Xbox Live subscription. I'm debating on getting either just the 12 Month Subscription here or maybe the Xbox Live 360 Camera Bundle. I guess the bundle is actually cheaper overall since buying each component would be more expensive, so I'm just wondering which one to get.. ideas?

Ok, so I want to build a webapp... while for most things the stock apache / php / mysql installs on Leopard are great... but not if you want extensions... I need to be able to create PDFs... and so I need to build all of the stuff from source... Let's see exactly how well that went..

Here are the basics... Step One... obtain Apache source Step Two... ./configure apache2 with the necessary options Step Three install apache2 using the sudo make install command

This went well.... Next Thing to install... PHP Get Source ... do ./configure then sudo make install That went well... Except for the 4 hours spent trying to get everything needed in order to actually compile the damn thing... but I finally got it working this morning

Mysql.... actually went well...

Now in order to create PDF files I need PDFLib... which will require a rebuild of PHP... I also need to make sure that the ldap extension works for my webapp... and lo and behold... it's not installed... so now I have to find it...

Find Ldap source... using openldap... And I try and compile that and guess what... it requires Berkeley DB, which is installed on mac by default.. but it's the wrong version... guess I'll go and build that... There were well written instructions on how to do that...

download source decompress cd build_unix ../dist/configure sudo make sudo install

That's compiling as I write this... I just hope that this works so I can have PDFLib on my server...

With the 10+ hours spent thus far just compiling things I wonder if Leopard server would've had any of these issues...

oh well... just the way it goes... I wonder if doing this on a linux box would be any easier...

I'll keep everybody posted...

So, I've created this support system at work and I'm working on making it web standard in order to be able to sell it.. I'll have to do some major changes to it before I can actually go ahead and sell the thing. I've setup MYSQL on my macbook and I'm using it for all of my development of this. You would think I wouldn't have to change anything, but alas I do, since the code that is currently been done on a Windows server and it works on Windows, but is not cross-platform. Which is my goal, so it'll be a while before I get it done. But good things take time.

I'm totally irritated with Twitter Tools. I stopped pulling my tweets and posting them to my website everynight as of 2/08/08. So I deactivated the custom twitter tools script I had for my stories. And that has no effect. So I completely give up on it. I'll just re-instate my stories twitter tools and just deal with it. Guess I'll have to go ahead and see if there's another way to do it instead of twitter tools.

I've been brooding over this for the past couple of days, as to whether or not to blog about this, and I've decided I will.

While listening to Apple Phone Show #43, Scott Bourne was talking to Chris Breen about the iPhone being released in Ireland. During this conversation he made the statement "the iPhone gives them one more reason to drink, like they need another reason to drink'. Being March, and me being Irish, I took some offense to this. Most of the time, something like this wouldn't bother me, but for some reason it must've been the way he said this statement and implied, at least to me, that all Irish are drunkards. I posted a comment on the blog entry for the episode about how his statement implying that all Irish are drunks and they'll use 'any excuse' to drink. With statements like this it is detrimental to 'New Media' producers when they are supposed to be expanding the view of listeners / participants and all they are doing is just perpetuating the narrow-minded views of the world.

Here was the conversation (via e-mail) that followed. It is a direct copy-and-paste.

From Scott Bourne: Wayne I am half Irish. Sorry if that throws a wrench in your diatribe.

If you're one of those looking to be offended - life will keep you busy. I never insinuated Irish were drunkards. That's your thing - you decided that. Perhaps you have a problem of being an Irish hater and can't face it. I said (not insinuated) the Irish like to drink. That's different from being drunk. And by and large we do like to drink. Should that fact be changed to match some politically correct scorecard you carry? Hell no.

As for new media being forced to cow tow to every politically correct jerk looking for a reason to express faux outrage - well for me, that's the REASON to do new media. We don't have to do that. And if new media's acceptance were to hang on living in a politically correct world where we tip toe over everything we say - then there's no need for new media. We have old media to be afraid of people like you.

You need to get over yourself and maybe you'd find life more enjoyable.

And as my father's family would quote

The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another. —Samuel Johnson 1709-1784

I've marked your IP address as spam. Good day. My Reply: Mr. Bourne: I can't be an Irish hater when I am Irish. Therefore I'm not an Irish hater. But your statement of insinuating that I'm an Irish hater is very disappointing to me. I'm not saying that new media has to go ahead and be politically correct, I actually enjoy that they're not, it allows me to consume media that I could never get from traditional media But making a statement that 'it gives them another reason to drink' is only aiding in stereotyping the Irish. In an age when the whole idea of new media to help others broaden their mindset, statements like that only help narrow it. I'm sorry that this is your mindset. It's a disappointment to find those who are trying to make a big change in one area but continue to perpetuate stereotypes in other areas. You've lost a listener, who will not recommend any podcasts of yours to anybody. While this one person may not have much impact, it is a lost revenue stream. Particularly after listening to you and Alex on TWiP, I was all set to go off and purchase a book of yours, but no longer. My biggest disappointment in this is that I cannot support Andy Ihnatko or Chris Breen by listening to this podcast. I'll just have to support them in other ways. Scott Bourne's Reply: Wayne I don't need your money. I don't do the shows because of the money I make doing them. If I did have to rely on them for income, I'd be held hostage to people like you. I'd never put myself in that situation. Your attitude is immature and frankly, I feel sorry for you. By the way - Chris, Alex and Andy will all find some way to manage without your support. We have millions of listeners. You're the only one to complain. That says a bunch more about you than me. Now to me, this is just plain arrogance and complete selfishness on his part. Mr. Bourne doesn't think that one listener has any potential to change something. Well guess what Mr. Bourne, you're wrong. There's no need to feel sorry for me. I'll be fine, the fact that you have chosen to go ahead and take the 'I'm holier than thou' approach will be your downfall. Needless to say I've unsubscribed to the podcast. I'm half debating whether to unsubscribe to any podcast he's on, but well, Mac Break Weekly and TWiP are too entertaining or informative to stop listening to. But if he doesn't appear on them, I won't be sorry.

Just in case you didn't realize, ever year on 3/03 there are exactly 303 days left in the year. Nothing cool, nothing too terribly special, just the only case where this occurs.