Stuart Hacking

Hurray! Apple fanboys should be pleased with the release of OS X, version 10.6. Snow Leopard panders to their desire for an all Apple platform. For the rest of us sensible users, Apple have screwed the pooch.

Okay, we have new shiny toys like Quicktime X and – well, that’s about the height of noticeable changes. I’m all for enhancing the user experience, but in this case, in my opinion, it has come at the expense of developer comfort.

What I’m referring to here is the lack of Java support in the new XCode 3.2. I’ve always felt that XCode was a fairly elegant environment for writing all C/C++, Java and Objective-C projects. So- why, Apple, would you arbitrarily drop support for a language? Out of spite? You didn’t even drop support – you just made it frigging irritating to use. Do you enjoy kicking your users in the nuts with each new release?

I’m not even surprised at this stage. I guess I could add the XCode templates back in manually but I’m more in favour of adopting a more portable command line build process… It seems the best way to get away from Apple’s user abuse.

Programming Computers, error, mac, Programming, Rant

I am forced to use a Windows based laptop in work and one of the more frustrating features is the updates that get pushed out by the IT ‘services’ group. Of course, updates are a good thing, but we do them during downtime when it won’t disrupt actual work. Here are the things I most hate about these Windows updates:

Do it now, or else.

There are updates available for your computer. You can install them now or they will automatically be installed in 15 minutes. After installation your computer will be restarted.

I’m sorry, were you busy?

As if point 1 didn’t irritate me enough (which is most certainly does), updates frequently occur right in the middle of a large task. Copying a large file or set of files is doomed to failure. In other cases the updates will simply interrupt anything you happened to be doing, forcing you to break your concentration.

Update Dependencies

OK, I’ll install your updates already! Tick, tick, tick… *reboot*
Your updates have been installed. There are new updates to install.

Yes, some updates rely on the presence of previous updates so it takes a couple of runs to get them all installed. which also means a couple of reboots; a couple more minutes of your precious day.

And one of my personal favourites: The “Your computer must be restarted dialog” which always stays on top of other windows. In case you forget.

Software Computers, error, Windows