In the rounds of looking for a specific syntax highlighting mechanism for Text Wrangler ( a fairly nice but large text editor for OSX). I found what I was looking for there but realized there was a problem with Text Wrangler, it would only start the syntax highlighter based soley on the extension of the file. This is a problem because I was looking for a syntax highlighting for cmake, and the primary build files are usually denoted as CMakeLists.txt files. I really didn't want to start the syntax highlighter for all txt files as I end up processing a large variety of files.

The usual Developer's dilemma here, I went on a hunt to try and find a decent open source cross platform C++ library that offered a good logging system. One that would write proper text logs on mac/linux and write either to the event viewer/text file on windows machines. Well all the systems I found out there worked really good on one platform but seriously lack in other areas. So in typical open source fashion I figured I would write my own that would be generic and fit my current needs.

A little while ago I had the task of creating a break out clone, but was only given 24hrs to get as far as possible with it. This is the result of the 24hr session. Written in C++ with the SDL libraries, specifically for mac OSX. Other than basic functionality for a break out clone this more of a rough draft than a completed game.

Screenshots: 

In network security there is always the drive of creating the most secure network imaginable. To achieve that security risks and vulnerabilities are constantly being assessed, evaluated and fixes being resolved. Also most network security experts would say that the weakest links are the people that use the network. Usually the way to fix the people as the weakest link is with training and sometimes scenarios.

So in the rounds that I go on the internet I came across this article: Git vs. Mercurial: Please Relax. Had I seen this back when I was reading up on dvcs it would have swayed my decision on which one to go with back then. But since I have read it and I thought it was a well represented case between git and mercurial I figured that I would at least look into it a bit more.

There are actually quite a few really good resources and good walk-throughs out there. There are a few things that really none of them talk about on any real level and that is what *should* be used or in which way it should be used. First off NFS does work with OS X Leopard and using the directory utility under the utilities folder in applications can be setup to automount. But NFS seemed really a pain to deal with and doesn't offer similar level of general functionality as AFP does.

In the last couple of days I somehow got turned towards Mercurial as a Versioning system, and after a pretty in depth look decided that it would be the better of the versioning system. At least significantly better than Subversion at any rate not sure about the other versioning systems but I decided to go with this one in particular. Some of the things that I gathered that make it better than Subversion is that it is a distributed system and the way these particular ones work is that the whole repository is cloned instead of a revision being checked out.

Yes its true, at least in my general opinion. Several conversations and articles later I keep hearing that the reason why linux isn't more mainstream desktop is because of advertising and I have to disagree with this point pretty completely. Look at apple, they run advertising campaigns all the time, they have a percentage of the market share however that percentage is still rather low by all accounts. Now knowing that can one still make the argument that the only reason why neither apple nor linux have a larger market share is because of advertising.

Figured I would talk a bit about what tools I use under what circumstances for Development. Primarily I am a whatever shoe fits best kind of developer so I use a very broad range of tools to accomplish a variety of tasks. Very much dependent on what I am working on at that particular time.
Computers

• My primary daily use/development box is an iMac 24" intel based machine. I have Vmware fusion and use bootcamp for windows and a variety of *nix flavors.
• Amd 3300+ that is running vista
• an older dell gx110 that is being used as a router

In fact mac has this nifty speech recognition built-in to the OS that simply can be turned on from the preference and includes a fair decent command set. What makes it more powerful is that the command set can easily be extended by applescript and attached to individual programs. It also works fairly well with video games, like World of Warcraft and I am sure with other games. There are a few things with the speech recognition that need to be taken into consideration when using it for gaming.