Webthoughts

Following up on my post yesterday, it appears that Mother Nature took exception to my comments. I'm writing this while looking at at least a foot of snow on the ground and 30-40 mph sustained winds. Yes, Omaha's in the midst of a blizzard.

My wife and I were awakened around 5:30 this morning by a couple claps of thunder and some lightening. During a snowstorm. That's called Thundersnow. It's an interesting phenomenon. I don't pretend to understand what causes it, but it's very disconcerting to see it snowing while lightening is flashing across the sky and thunder is rumbling around you. It's especially disconcerting because it means that, if it hasn't already, it will soon be dumping snow on you. That foot of snow came very quickly.

As of 11:00 this morning, the street in front of my house has yet to be plowed. My wife took the truck to work this morning because there's no way the car is getting through this stuff. I got out around 8:00 this morning before the wind got too bad to shovel out the driveway. Not only is there a lot of snow, but it's very heavy snow as well. Luckily, my neighbor was nice enough to come by with his snow-blower and help me finish up the driveway (our snow-blower died earlier this season and has yet to have been replaced). Of course, they're talking another several inches of snow before this is all over. And the winds are supposed to continue through tomorrow at least.

I'm sure this is all happening because of my comments yesterday. Mother Nature can be a vengeful person.

This is what I dealt with today.

I didn't go into work today because weather and road conditions were so poor. My wife went into work this morning (she took the truck), but she left early.

Even though the driveway was cleared earlier this morning, with the window and continued snow, it doesn't look like it anymore (I'll deal with it in the morning).

Only 20 more days until Spring. Only 20 more days until Spring. Only 20 more...

As if it were a swarm of bees, you should stay away from the SyncServices folder in Mac OS X 10.4.

Heh. I love these little gems that you sometimes find in Apple's Knowledgebase. It's nice to see that even a corporation that relies on a professional image (for the most part), can still have a little fun from time to time.

Happy π Day everybody!

So, I'm not really a Ford guy, but I think this is pretty cool. Here's the story (and lots of photos) of a guy who slapped a Peterbilt cab onto a Ford F350 frame and made a pretty sweet pickup truck out of it.

It took the guy three-and-a-half years (and who knows how much money) to build this thing. That's a lot of dedication and the results look great!

One part of the development process that I truly despise is writing help and documentation. It is a tedious process that simply bores me to tears.

I have begun work on writing the new documentation for the next version of Print Window. Although it will be based on the docs from Print Window 3.1.5, the new version of the software has enough significant changes that modifying the current documentation for the new version will not just be a trivial task.

To make matters even more interesting, the new version of Print Window will, hopefully, include a full Help Book (used by Mac OS X's Help Viewer application) to provide task-based help for Print Window. This, obviously (since it hasn't existed before), will need to be written completely from scratch.

I'm the type of person who likes to "play" with the software I write. I'm much more interested in tweaking the software—adding new features, fixing bugs, streamlining processes, etc.—than telling people how to use it. Don't get me wrong; I fully believe that Print Window is intuitive enough that someone can learn how to use it by just playing around with it. But I also understand the benefits of having well-written documentation included for those that want it.

I simply hate writing documentation. It takes me away from improving the software.

But, on the bright side, the fact that I'm working on documentation now means that that light at the end of the tunnel just keeps getting brighter and brighter as the next version of Print Window gets closer and closer to release.