Mac programming

Okay, started Carbon programming last night. Why? got Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets for our Mac awhile back. But it doesn't use the joystick. So I'm writing a program that the user will launch, it will read the joystick and "type" the appropriate command.

It took me 3 hours to find the HIDManager demo program, hack it up to read our joystick's 10 buttons and have it type 'z' when I press a button on the joystick. This morning I spent about an hour playing with Interface Builder. I've now got an idea of how events work in Carbon, and what's going to be version 1 and version 2 (or really version 0.1 and 0.2...).

Once I have a decent program that I'm willing to let others use and see the code on, I'll release it somewhere on SourceForge. I'm pleasantly surprised on just how quickly I was able to turn out a basic program, although dismayed that Apple's demo programs' source code is barely documented at all - I would have expected a little better. And I still don't see a comprehensive API documentation (like msdn.microsoft.com).

MY NEW MAC!

I am now a Mac owner. Okay, technically I was one already. (I had a Perform 575 from years ago.) I got a used Powermac G4 450MHz. We're going to upgrade it's processor, video card, and install OSX 10.4 - Tiger. I'll probably buy Tiger soon, as OS X 10.0 is pretty well useless.. I'll probably put the video card on my winter gift list, and get the processor upgrade myself (as it's around $200 or more). It's got 256MB, but we're looking to upgrade that as well.

I'll post pictures of it on my Flickr account soon.

(edit)

We got it Saturday, and we're now planning to soup it up. I've just finished installing Tiger on it, and I'll be installing Firefox and all on it. Getting it on the wireless networking isn't working yet, but I'm still tooling away on that. Happy. Happy. Happy.

(edit #2)

I've posted our mac pictures to my Flickr account.

Referenda C and D

I was thinking about Referenda C and D today. I found out that it's not an income-tax issue. It's a sales-tax issue.

I've heard the analogy. It's like a bartender, who charges $3 for a beer, you give him $5 and he says he'll keep the other $2. Except that that's a flawed analogy.

It's really like a bartender charges $3 for a $3 beer, but who's limited to a certain profit limit. The next day you come in, and he has to give you back 30 cents because he made too much profit. The $3 price was legitimate, but too many people bought beer, and so he can't keep the extra money.

The thing is, the state collects these taxes, and legally. But people seem to be spending more money (and therefore paying sales tax on these purchases) than the state is permitted to collect. Those pesky buyers! Referenda C and D would let the state keep those sales taxes, spend them as appropriate, and then report back to the taxpayers on how they spent that money.

Sounds legitimate to me.

Kippot

These kippot are cute. Of course, I don't do suede kippot. But still, very cute.

New TV Centre and stuff

Okay, we got the new TV center setup. Looks nice - I'm sure we'll post pictures at some point, probably to my Flickr account.. Had Noodles & Company tonight, their Mac and Cheese isn't half bad.

I got my wife () Luigi's Mansion for the gamecube, and she's playing that now. Fun fun. got her Yoshi's Topsy-Turvy for the game boy advance. Also quite a bit of fun.

wants a mac laptop. As in, "Chris doesn't get a mac mini, Chris buys me a mac laptop!" :). We'll see, the holidays are in a few months...

I can't wait to get my backpay. I've already allocated most of it, I think about 500-600 is still up in the air, and we'll see what happens to it.

Moving around

Well, and I just got our new TV/stereo holder. Calling it an entertainment centre seems a little weird being as it's pretty small. Anyways, I've just spent about 2 and a half hours shoving things around in the living room to install it (mostly). We had to get it installed soon so that we can get cable on Friday. Just found some cable drop boxes with the coax in them (we knew they were there, but thought that they were empty and hadn't been wired yet). So we might not have to wire the house if that cable actually connects to something useful (which I suspect that it will).

I may post pictures of my new living room once I'm done, assuming that I have the energy.

Mac Mini

I'm tempted to get a Mac mini. Very tempted. I'm getting that backpay (to the tune of ~ $1800), so I'm thinking that taking around 600 or so of it and getting me something mightn't be a bad thing.

Tomorrow's Rosh Hashanah. (Actually, as I write this it is, but tomorrow's when I go to shul for it.) Ought to be interesting to see how the Bnai Havurah and Temple Micah services contrast. I need to get working on re-reading some of the books I had out earlier, this time writing down questions.

Just (re) signed up for cable (analog). I've seen plenty of digital cable installs, I don't want the ugly visual problems, the lack of decent programming, and the larger bill. I actually thought satellite, but the first snowstorn to come through would reveal how bad of an idea that I think that it is (my opinion, here, although my aunt Cathy has it and it goes out when we get snow, so..). Get to move the TV to that corver (as I haven't bought a TV stand for it except for the huge entertainment centre, which is WAY too big for that corner). Get to do this by Friday at 1pm. Fun fun.

Still thinking about getting that Mac mini...