JAFDIP

Just another frakkin day in paradise

Reviews

Head First HTML5 Programming

cover art for: Head First HTML5 Programming
cover art for: Head First HTML5 Programming

By: Eric Freeman & Elisabeth Robson
ISBN: 978-1-449-39054-9
Publisher: O’Reilly

Do not let this books seemingly simple title fool you. Unlike the dreaded XHTML, HTML5 is actually an extension of HTML4 building upon that great foundation not replacing it entirely. The authors go to great lengths to drive that fact home and I feel that they hit the mark. One of the most interesting things, I found is the small amount of space actually given to HTML or CSS for that matter. It seems that the majority of HTML5 is actually JavaScript or at least that is the take away I received from this book.

I suppose that is the one nebulous thing about HTML5 in the first place as it is not simply a mark up specification but a entire system for creating robust web based applications. Truthfully, that is why JavaScript is the magick ingredient of HTML5 that makes it such an appealing and robust possibility. There are many exciting chapters in the book however my personal favorite is the Mandelbrot or fractal rendering on a HTML5 canvas, using multithreaded JavaScript. Yes that is correct I said multithreaded JavaScript programming.

When I mentioned this to a friend who is and adept at Jquery and Ajax he gasped I did not know js could do that. Obviously anyone who’s even worked with node.js would have known this but that has always been the problem with the internet vast array of options. Unless you are in the know you have to stumble upon these secrets or wait for someone to craft a well written text like this one.

Ultimately if you are familiar with HTML, CSS and JavaScript but wish to update your skill set then this is definitely a book you should place on your holiday, birthday, Amazon wish list. I honestly do not think you will be disappointed.

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And Now For Something Completely Different

FreeBSD's mascot is the generic BSD daemon, al...
Image via Wikipedia

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me to recommend a version of Linux to them or to answer the what version do you run question…I’d be. Well let’s just say I’d have a fist full of dollars. A very fat roll of them and probably could afford much better hosting than this. Bee that as it may I always answer the same to these questions.

“I do not recommend Linux to anyone.”

The reason is quite simple. Although I do use Linux on various projects for various clients I always opt for one of the BSD operating systems (OS) as my first choice. Typically I will lead in with FreeBSD for just about every application that I need a reliable server OS. There are scant few exceptions to this BSD first rule of mine and that would be where I need to run something that only runs on a particular OS and not one of the BSDs. In those instances I deploy the appropriate supported OS.

Be that as it may I have been test driving PC BSD 9 release candidate 1 for a while now and I am finding it becoming my desktop BSD OS of choice. I have used many flavor of Linux Debian, CENTOS, Ubuntu, Red Hat ES and SUSE to name but a few. ALL of these Linux environments have left me wanting. Of all the Linuxes the Debian based distributions have the most acceptable level stability and comfort for me. I even toyed with the idea of running Ubuntu as my desktop for a while but again there is something about FreeBSD that has always driven my systems.

As most of the longtime readers know I shifted from Windows for my desktop and even home server needs ages ago. To be honest I became “Windows free in 2k3” which was my goal throughout all of 2002. For my mainstream operating system and development needs I shifted to Mac OS X which is conveniently derived from FreeBSD. Under the hood it is very familiar to my FreeBSD servers however I decided that I wanted to try X again in a big way. This lead me through a series of Linuxes then circling right back around to PC BSD.

I had never tried PC BSD before and had always built my own X from source on top of FreeBSD which can be a long process when you think about it thank the developers for the ports is all that I can say. In any event I wanted something to test that I could deploy much easier and after reviewing the PC BSD handbook by Dru Lavigne I’d always kept this in the back of my mind as an option.

As you can see I successfully installed this RC1 and had it running well in under 30 minutes not including the download time. At this point I tested a few things namely the AppCafe which allows you to install applications from PBIs which is a PC-BSD proprietary bundle format onto the system. Considering that Hurricane IRENE was approaching I opted for installing FreeCiv so that I could have something to occupy my time when the deification hit the rotary oscillator later that evening.

In addition I played around with numerous KDE options which I found eerily similar to Mac OS X. I suppose imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Take a look at the follow two screen shots the first is the PC-BSD System Settings and the second the Mac OS X System Preferences.

In any event I have found that PC-BSD is a more than capable desktop covering all of the bases out of the gate. In addition their graphical installer was a nice addition to the system. However do not believe for a second that I have fosaken the ncurses based textual installation screen of FreeBSD. If you have ever had to install an operating system over a very slow connection this is an absolute must. I can honestly say that without the basic installer I’d have been up a serious creek without a paddle. I have had to work on servers that were on the opposite side of the globe more time than I care to admit and connectivity is not always the most reliable when you are in a foreign airport/hotel/country.

So the next time someone asks me to recommend an Operating System I am going to hand them a PC-BSD DVD and say “Enjoy.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network and JAFDIP.

 

 

 

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review::WordPress for Android vs iPhone

Originally published on May 17th, 2011 this is an update to the original.

I recently installed the WordPress for Android app. While not something entirely new I figured it would be handy to have for some those short on the go type of posts. I also thought it would be worth a comparison to the WordPress for iPhone app which I have used from my iPodTouch on occasion.

So at this point I am attempting to work with the newest version of WordPress for iOS on my iPT. While I do not wish to condemn the app because it could very well be the device, I am going to say the at this moment I wish I were on my droid.

iOS logo
Image via Wikipedia

In either case both apps offer the same features and each version is tailored to respond as one would expect an app on the respective OS should. Likewise the look and feel are respective of each environment.

One issue on iOS seems to be the lack of or intermittent auto capitalization  on the start of a new sentence which is rather annoying. This is something that I can work around but wish I didn’t have to.

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review::Rawmazing Desserts

Rawmazing Desserts cover

By: Susan Powers
Publisher: Susan Powers
ISBN: 9781453684801

I have purchased self published books in the past and they have always left me feeling a little underwhelmed. This book however is the exact opposite, I am thankfully overwhelmed by the quality of this simply amazing text. I have only known Susan for nearly a year now and through our brief interactions I have come to learn that she is meticulous when it comes to something she is passionate about. When you hold this book in your hands I guarantee you will understand what I am saying.

This is an absolutely first rate book. It easily stands up to some of my favorite cook books of all time. What is most striking about this book is the quality and beauty of each page which goes beyond the photographs of each delicious dessert. I am serious the directions for each accompanying recipe are masterfully designed in a friendly unassuming manner. Susan has done a fantastic job of coaching the cook through the process with friendly tips that will lead to successful deliciousness. The cooking channel chefs could learn a thing or two from the structure of this book.

Ultimately if you like desserts regardless of whether or not you have special, gluten free or vegan dietary needs this book is a must have. It is fantastic holiday gift but do yourself a favor. If you plan on gifting this book buy a second one to give to yourself. Seriously you’ll thank me later!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network.

Firefox 4 beta

Firefx 4.01 download Firefox 4.01 beta has been available for testing for a few weeks now and I thought that it would be nice to help some of you get up and rolling with the new version. You will want to surf over to Mozilla and download the version of Firefox 4 Beta appropriate for your operating system. In this example we are working with the Mac OS X version. Once your download starts you will see something similar to the progress bar displayed in figure 1.

Firefox 4 beta download progress
Figure 1

After the download has completes your system should unpack the disk image and mount it on the desktop presenting a mount icon as shown in figure 2.

 

Firefox mounted disk image
Figure 2

Inside this mounted disk image you will see the familiar Mac OS X application  installation screen. However in lieu of dragging the application to the ‘Applications’ folder icon as shown in figure 3 we will copy it to the desktop shown in figure 4.

 

Firefox 4 beta application install
Figure 3
Figure 4

I am copying Firefox 4 beta to the desktop is because it is a beta application and I do not wish to corrupt my stable copy of 3.x. Therefore, I will use this opportunity to rename the application bundle before placing it in the ‘Applications’ folder as displayed in figure 5.

 

Figure 5

Now that I have successfully renamed and copied the beta application to the ‘Applications’ folder without munging my production installation I can launch it without issue. Upon first launch you will be presented with the downloaded applications are potentially unsafe warning as shown in figure 6. This message is intended to protect users from themselves much in the same way that coffee cups are required to have a “Contents may be HOT’ warning. In any event, I usually just click ‘OK’ and proceed to the important tasks at hand.

 

coffee cup warning: Contents may be HOT!
Figure 6

Of course if you are like me then you will receive this notice advising you that you are indeed an idiot because you can only have one copy of Firefox open at one time. Yes I felt rather dumb when this popped up, mostly because on a FreeBSD or Linux where one can install from source you can have multiple versions of an application thus avoiding idiot-grams like the one in figure 7. Please note that because Mac OS X is actually a UNIX based operating (truthfully a close cousin to FreeBSD) one could use the MacPorts to install multiple copies of Firefox, but that’s really not within the scope of this text.

Firefox duplicate application idiot-gram
Figure 7

Now once I realized the error of my ways I shutdown the 3.x version I was running and of course happily received yet another warning to quit or save and quit as shown in figure 8. Obviously I chose the latter option saving the tabs I still had open.

Figure 8
Figure 9

Now finally after all of this I am able to successfully open Firefox 4 beta and interestingly enough it picked up the tabs I saved in version 3.x so I am potentially back up and rolling as if I hadn’t spent the last 30 minutes reading silly warning messages. To verify that things are indeed functional I opened the about page as displayed in figure 9.

Obviously this is a sign to rejoice as I have successfully completed my goal of installing the application without borking the previous version. With this step complete I can get down to business and actually put Firefox 4 beta through it’s paces. One thing I observed immediately is that this first beta is missing the top tabs of it’s Windows based counterpart. There is an explanation that the development team is working on this.

One other issue worth mentioning is that most of my plugins and add-ons are disabled in this version of Firefox. This is entirely understandable as many of the plugin and add-on developers are just starting to work with this new version and it will be some time before they are ready to update their applications. Still all of those misses aside I am most impressed with the stability of this beta application. I had one tab that was misbehaving and this new version caught the exception offering to nullify the tab thus saving me from a complete restart. I like it when things work as advertised.

At this point it looks as if Firefox 4 beta is well worth the trouble endured (no trouble really) to get things up and running. I intend to report further as I use the new version a bit more thoroughly. Until then if you’ve followed along I would like to invite you to return and comment with your findings as you test drive the beta application. Finally here are a few useful links related to the project.

Feedback:
http://feedback.mozilla.org/

Bug reporting:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

Release notes:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b1/releasenotes/

Known issues:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/4.0b1/releasenotes/#issues

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network.