Dev Dawn

So while I’m sitting here, waiting for a huge app to compile .. thought I’d share some pain.

I have a thread variable that is being set with 180 before it’s used. I’ve done the usual searching (through the txas and using UltraEdit search in files) for anything using the thread variable. It’s all kosha.

So then .. I thinks to myself .. I’ll use another thread, but call the same procedure.

THREAD:Dummy is in place, calling the browse procedure .. and BAM .. what do you know, it works. And then, on closing, it clears the original thread variable, so when i call the procedure using the actual thread, it works.

But restart the program, and it’s back to 180. Very strange. If I figure it out, will try and remember to update this post.

Edit:

Turns out the problem was I had two (that’s right, read em), TWO global thread objects being declared. One was not created by me, one was.  Anyway. My lack of understanding how programming works wins the day again.

Facebook is on the rise. It’s not too hard to see the same signs as with previous big deals. YouTube, Flickr, .. others .. i guess.

Anyway, even though they probably won’t sell .. the whole buzz that is firing up smells the same. Lots of people == lots of greed .. i mean money.

Jono asked me about it a while ago. So decided to take a look. And I have to say .. it’s cool. The “Wish I’d thought of that” cool. These applications are getting way beyond simple. Facebook allows you to construct pretty much whatever you want within it’s own framework. Kind of like Second Life without the graphics.

I guess we’ll see what happens in a few months. Christmas seems to bring about big news. Maybe they’ll knock back a billion dollar deal from Microsoft. Maybe not.

Was just reading this post, http://www.devdawn.com/id-cry-if-there-were-any-tears-left. I had some big plans earlier in the year.

I guess they are still alive, just barely. I’d still like to create software and sell it myself.

You know the biggest problem i faced?

It was the selling part. The simple act of knowing that people can now buy my stuff.

Getting the shop together on the website wasn’t hard, it needs a bit of work, but that’s straight-forward. And deciding on prices .. same. These are just decisions. I’d gotten a PayPal account, which would take care of security.

But the idea that people could soon be paying for these products seemed ludicrous to me. I mean, i’d barely spent two months on the three (DeleteThem, SecretKeep and Rasp) from conception to where they are now. And of the three, Rasp is the only one really worth much.

I guess it will always be a problem. Worry that the site is lame, that the presence will be unprofessional, that the company name is waaay too long.

So, the future rarely and barely listens to me. That’s not bad. It’s just interesting to look back even 6 months and see how much has changed.

Man i forget a lot of stuff. The price of being a hype-monkey i suspect.

I need a little less hype, a little more action.

It was at the recent Aussie (Clarion) DevCon that I got to see one of my big crutches.

In the first day of Capesoft Training, very early on, I was struggling to concentrate on doing work.

It was music.

You see, for a few years now, I’ve developed a pavlovian response/need to have headphones on and music going while developing.

It’s quite bizarre. Kind of crazy. And I might one day have to seriously consider breaking me of it.

The question for the moment is ..

What are your development crutches?

MS really did it right with the Express Editions of their Development tools. I like the idea very much

It would be interesting to get some stats on what products are being created (or started) with the Express editions. I’d like to know how MS is measuring the success of this strategy. Letting people have, for free, a chunk of a development tool.

Makes me wish that SV had an Express Edition of Clarion. I realise this is probably in the works for 7. I hope so.

I’d forgotten how easy it is to just write thoughts onto a blog. Scoble is good at it. Maybe some people don’t like how there’s a lot of babble.

Not sure how long I’ll keep this up. But for the moment, I’m seeing it as exercising my typing and writing skills. What level of skill remains to be seen. Ha ha.

Not only that .. but it’s far easier to write when you don’t have to restrict yourself. On PimpMyClarion, i am restricting myself purposefully. But that makes it a lot harder to write. Of course, the quality of writing is probably far better, because of said restriction. Or rather .. it’s direction. Purpose.

Last night, we finally got around to watching some telly recorded on our (pvr?). It was an episode of Lost, two weeks past i think.

Anyway, all was well, until the signal starts artifacting all over the place. Artifacting. That’s right. Ha ha.

Anyway, it made at least 20 minutes of the show unwatchable. Which was a real pain. Because it was a good one. We missed Sawyer’s confrontation with the man who was his .. his catalyst i guess. Tom Sawyer. Locke’s dad.

Anyway, was annoyed, because what we thought was just set in stone (the recorder giving us the taped tv as it should be), wasn’t. This isn’t the first time it’s happened .. and probably won’t be the last. That’ll learn me.

So yesterday I was perusing my “Books” directory, looking all my writing projects, and came across a kids story i’d started on. Only a few bits and pieces. The start of the first chapter.

Upon reading my notes (”Bits” word docs) .. it seemed pretty cool. Some of the ideas.

Anyway, there’s a little shop on Fifer street that the main characters (twin boy and girl) visit. The bus stop is out the front of it.

Using “Fifer Street” when describing the shop seemed important to me.

The little shop on Fifer Street, Odds and Ends.

Anyway, taking a look on the web, which means wikipedia usually, I read up on Fife’s and the Fifer. Pretty cool stuff. A Fife (pipe) was used in folk music, and in battle. You could hear a fife above the sound of guns and such. It was phased out late in the 19th century i think, early 20th in the states (of course, all my knowledge comes from wikipedia).

Cool stuff. I mean, probably boring .. but acquiring random useless information is one of my best talents.

The last match of the Tri-Nations will be played in NZ on saturday. The Wallabies versus the All Blacks.

I’m hoping for a step up in competance from both teams. They can (obviously) both play amazing rugby when things stick. But the last two matches against South Africa have shown that the continuing quality is lacking.

The All Blacks seem to be unable to get things happening in the back line. Which seems wierd to me. I always thought they had the best backline in the world. But then Tana left. And Carter stopped playing complete games every time. You know, it occurred to me that maybe .. maybe this is all a plan. That they’re just playing below par so that it _looks_ like everyone else has a chance for the world cup.

The Wallabies on the other hand have come from almost nothing. Playing way below par against teams that were .. below par. But then, against the All Blacks, and the Springboks in SA .. they step it up about ten notches. Which is awesome. Just like to think they can maintain that level of product.

So here’s to a great game of rugby on saturday night/afternoon. Certainly, with the last couple of weeks games in hindsight, it should be a game either team can win.

Contrary to the last post, this one isn’t going to be about software development. As I’ve got http://pimpmyclarion.com as my main focus for Clarion and Development, Dev Dawn will mostly be used as an outlet, more like a personal blog. Hope that’s okay.

I’d love to tell stories for a living.

The biggest problem is that I never finish what I start. I’ve got at least 30 unfinished novels. Lots of short stories, one screenplay, and heaps of poems.

Most of them are unfinished. Well, not the short stories .. but the _vision_ for the short stories are unfinished, mostly because I was writing them together like a tv series, and only got a few done.

Good writers _write_. They keep going. That’s how I figure is the only way I’ll get anywhere. I just have to concentrate on one story, and finish it. Then another .. one step then another. And so on.

The second problem, related to the first, is that after a while, after the lustre of what i’m working on has faded, I move onto something else, something more exciting. It might be a new story, or a business software idea, or even a few times an idea for a game. But in the end, the project lies forgotten until the next time.

Another problem is that I get stuck on inconsequential issues. It shouldn’t matter that I don’t have a slick and awesome website to put my stories onto .. but at times it has really blocked my progress. I start thinking about putting together the website, and that takes my mind from the story .. and suddenly I’m fleshing out notes for a huge story telling website.

This isn’t always a bad thing .. but it’s happened so many times now that I come to dread it’s onset.

Of course, it happens with all my projects. At the moment, I’m stalled on Bank Buddy, a very cool personal finances tool. It’s an awesome idea, and has come together pretty simply .. but I can’t get past a couple of sticking points. And it’s frustrating. Thankfully I can still see light at the end of the tunnel with this particular project.

Back to the topic at hand.

I’d love to tell stories for a living. Books. Comics. TV. Movies. Radio. Each medium would provide new challenges .. but at the heart, it’s all story telling.

A few years back I had a site, TaelsOnline, for which i wrote a small number of short stories. I took it down a while back, but still have the url.

I’d like to start it up again. Maybe. Wordpress is a good tool .. but what I want out of a storytelling template is a bit more. Modding Wordpress is simple though .. maybe someone else has done it already. Will have to check out the wordpress scene.

Cheers,