I’m a Working Man (And Other Updates)

Posted on November 25, 2008
in Personal, Site Related
by Matt

Time has seemed to slip by rather quickly these last few weeks as the end of the semester and holidays approach. I figured that I’d take some time to write about a few things briefly.

Digital Media Graphix

First and foremost, I’ve been hired doing software development with a design firm here in town, called Digital Media Graphix. It has been fairly exciting so far and I’m looking forward to projects that are about to pushed onto my plate here in the next week. So far I dived head first into writing native installers for Windows and Mac, and that was actually a good bit of fun. I’ve done some troubleshooting with Ajax and PHP bugs and meddled with helping the other designers in house organize a project so it will be easier to code and maintain.

Overall, it seems like a great fit for my personality, as the staff is relaxed and talented. There is one full time programmer specializing in Flash, AIR, Javascript, etc and I’m the apprentice, bringing useful C, C++, and Cocoa skills to the table. It’s a great first time job and I’m loving the experience and the challenge.

MacBook

I sold my trusty first generation black MacBook to a friend after the launch of the newest aluminum ones in mid October and haven’t looked back. I absolutely love this computer and it is more than I’ve ever expected from a Mac. The solid and sexy all aluminum enclosure, beautiful and bright glass covered display, and the sexy backlit keyboard all remind me why I love using Macs. I highly recommend this for anyone debating whether to get a previous generation MacBook for a discounted price. The newer versions are so much better and worth the extra 300USD.

Podcasting

It hit me today that it has been 14 months since I last produced a podcast episode. I never acknowledged the fact that I was finished with podcasting and I wanted to take the quick moment here to thank everyone who made the podcast such a success. I truly enjoyed working on it and all the listeners are what helped propel this site into the position it is in today.

If you truly miss it that much, get in contact with me. I’m looking at ways of reviving the podcast, and would love to have suggestions, or better yet, a helping hand in the project.

Facade

I’m impatiently awaiting the debut of a new theming application for Leopard, called Facade. It looks very promising, integrating full theme management and application, along with an innovative “Theme Store” for content delivery (still have some free themes). Definitely worth taking a look at.

Cappuccino

I can’t stress enough how amazing this framework is. Seriously, I put my full weight behind Cappuccino and I’m working hard on a few demo applications and tutorials to hopefully publish before New Years. I think SproutCore is certainly a viable competitor and love the competition between the two. However, Cappuccino has changed how I approach large web development projects.

Certainly take a look at my introductory article on Cappuccino here (June 2008).

Obama

I’m both relieved and disappointed that the presidential elections are over. I rather enjoyed the useless news coverage, and later in the campaign, the wonderfully amusing Palin. However, I hope the American people can unite behind Obama and ultimately bring change. Rather cliche´, but I’m okay with it.