Category: Article

We Need More Architectural Engineers in IT

Even though I don’t think that software development is engineering; these two passages spoke to me in terms of project roles that should be distinguised on larger projects: architect and architectural engineer (they apply to structural engineering, but I am going to stretch them here) :

Architecture is a communicative art that situates human activity within a horizon of possibilities, the art and science of designing buildings. A wider definition would include within its scope the design of the total built environment, from the macrolevel of town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the microlevel of furniture and product design. Architecture, equally importantly, also refers to the product of such a design.

— Bambooweb

Architects are responsible for the form and appearance of a building with a focus on the way that people use and experience the spaces of the building. The Architectural Engineer is responsible for ensuring that “the building works” – that it stands up, that the HVAC system operates, that light and power are delivered as needed. Architectural Engineers use primarily the tools of engineering to achieve optimum system selection and sizing within the overall constraints usually set by the Architect.

— WikInfo
These days you are lucky to find people who can fulfill the former alone, let alone both roles.

Using DrScheme to Edit Code for Any Distribution

I would like, or for someone else to, write a plugin for DrScheme that would allow it to easily call out to execute code on any Scheme distribution.
The reason is that DrScheme is a very nice cross-platform editor with great features that you can use on R5RS and R6RS Scheme source code.
The plugin would need to be smart enough to know how to call out to another Scheme executable and disable PLT specific features.
Based on Leppie and Eli’s conversation; it seems possible.
Am I the only one that uses DrScheme for all of my Scheme editing?
I run code on PLT, Ikarus, Ypsilon, and Iron Scheme.

Setting up QBZR on OS X

Bzr is nice to use. It is tailored for the masses (of which I am a member). It has the usual UNIX support, but it has first-class Windows support, too. It has a nice UI if you want it. The community is great, too.

A few days ago I installed it on OS X and found that there was no UI support via Qt. Fortunately there are directions for setting it up here. Here are the steps that I followed:

  1. Installed bzr 1.14.1
  2. Installed Qt for Mac OS X Cocoa, qt-mac-cocoa-opensource-4.5.1.dmg, to the default location
  3. Verified its installation by running ’qtdemo’
  4. Installed sip, sip-4.7.9.tar.gz
  5. Installed PyQt, PyQt-mac-gpl-4.4.4.tar.gz (build took a relatively long time)
  6. Tried out qlog and qdiff and they worked fine

Now I am wondering if I should have just installed this using MacPorts.

Addendum: 06/21/09

Here are the directions that I followed from that link: 

In order to install PyQt, you need to have SIP installed.
1) download and install QT4.x
2) get SIP from http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/sip/download.php
$> python configure.py -d /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages
$> make
$> sudo make install
3) get PyQT from http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/download.php
$> python configure.py -q /bin/qmake -d /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages
$> make
$> sudo make install
Hope this helps to get qbzr working

BZR as of today works with Python 2.4 or greater. Leopard comes with both 2.3 and 2.5 installed; but defaults to 2.5.

I didn’t know where qmake was installed; and typing ’type -a qmake’ seemed to be the quickest way to find it.

A Simple PHP Class to Back Up MySQL

My web host is cutting over from allowing shell scripts to requiring scripting languages instead. I had wanted to write a script in PHP, so I figured this is a good opportunity.
Here is a simple PHP class to back up a MySQL database and blanket-delete old backups from a directory.
Continue reading “A Simple PHP Class to Back Up MySQL”

Voice-driven and hand held apps: a match made in heaven?

Here is an article about writing voice-driven applications.
It might be interesting to “think differently” about problem solving by taking into consideration that you might combine the power of your handheld with the ease of use (potentially at least) of voice driven applications on a server. They might compliment each other well.

Mini-malistic Mac development environment

It looks like the “non-pro” hardware is clearly the best place for me to start; the Mac Mini and Macbook fall into this camp.
My original thought was that the Macbook would be a perfect fit since I could hook it up to an external monitor at home and take it along with me when I need to go mobile. Then it dawned on me, I don’t really go mobile. I sure like to imagine all of the cool places I would go with it, but in reality such occurrences are few and far between. For when I really do need a mobile, I’ve go the XO and the ThinkPad, and who knows, if this Mac stuff pans out I wouldn’t mind picking up a Macbook or a MacBook pro. That said: Mini pricing seems very reasonable.
It looks like a Mini with a 2GHz CPU, maxed out with 4GB of ram, the default 120 GB hard drive, and an Nvidia video card that can drive a 1900×1200 display can be had for only $750USD. This seems more than adequate for setting up a Mac development environment; heck even Java would do fine here. What a steal!
The hard drive size upgrade prices are insane. If I need more space, I have a beautiful external LaCie hard drive that has been looking for a home!

Evaluating the ADC Select Membership

Apple offers 3 levels of memberships: online, select, and premier (0USD, 500USD, and 3500USD respectively). They differ of course on features. For the time being, the select looks the most reasonably priced so I wanted to learn more about how it might make sense.
From what I read, the biggest perks are the 2 support tickets and the hardware discount (10% on normal hardware and 20% on pro hardware). Access to outdated WWDC material is not very compelling. While the online “coding headstarts” might make sense, neither seem justified by the price.
The hardware discount is interesting, as the discount essentially cuts 500USD off of any pro hardware, and then you end up purchasing the select membership with what you have “saved”; so this alone can make the membership worth it. One might wonder why you wouldn’t simply purchase this membership when you want a discount and let it lapse when you don’t; but apparently if you do so, you will no longer be offered the discount. In other words, once you purchase it you have to keep it up.
For me it looks like the best approach would simply be to start with a Macbook and take some time to ramp up and get familiar with things. If it makes sense to take advantage of the support tickets and faster hardware (every year or so) then the Macbook could get passed down to someone else and I could find out how helpful the tickets really are to me.