September 8th, 2008

I ran across Steven Frank’s recommendations for submitting bug reports a couple of days ago.

Please check it out if you’re planning on submitting bugs for any of the Audacious Software projects. It’ll help me resolve issues and get fixes back to you much more quickly.

September 2nd, 2008

I’ve received a handful of reports where Cidney is not finding addresses in the Address Book when new calls come in. If you encounter this problem, please send me output from the log below:

This is located in the preferences.

Also, please include a snapshot of the Address Book entry that the system should be finding.

Thanks!

Update: After some user reports, the problem seems to stem from incompatible modems. If you’re experiencing this problem, please send me the log output and the modem model you’re using. I should be able to put together a fix quickly after receiving that information.

August 29th, 2008

I wanted to let any potential C4[2] attendees know that I’ll be attending the indie Mac developer conference next week.

If anyone would like to get together for drinks or dinner that weekend, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll see about getting something arranged. Likewise, you can keep an eye open for me at the conference.

August 29th, 2008

I just finished writing the instructions for setting up the Shion web interface for remotely controlling your home automation system over the web using a standard browser or your iPhone. The list of things to do is available here.

Note that this is my first pass writing this document, so please alert me to any errors or omissions.

August 15th, 2008

Shion 1.1 is now available.

This is a bugfix release that addresses interface issues and communications reliability using INSTEON Access Points.

This release also includes support for automatically activating snapshots on sunrise and sunset as calculated using the location set in the preferences. To enable this, open the snapshots window and select a snapshot as shown below:

 

 

Please post any feedback in the comments below or send an e-mail to shion@audacious-software.com.

July 21st, 2008

Shion 1.0 is now available.

This is a bugfix release that addresses interface issues and communications reliability using INSTEON Access Points.

Please post any feedback in the comments below or send an e-mail to shion@audacious-software.com.

July 10th, 2008

In addition to working on Books 3, I’ve been putting in some time working on the Books 4 application suite.

I’ve revamped the interface slightly for the Book Editor app. Below is the new “Versions” tab:

 

 

In this instance, I’m using “Ultimate X-Men #3″ as my record. In my personal collection, I have two versions of this work: the original comic book, and a PDF version of the comic. In the screenshot above, I’ve attached the two versions to the “Ultimate X-Men #3″ record.

The PDF version was created by clicking the add button under the version list and filling out the metadata and adding a cover for that version. To add the file, I dragged the PDF file over the image well in the bottom left, and the application took care of the rest.

As for the comic book version, I filled out the metadata as before, but I did not add a file to that version.

If I go back to the “Summary” tab, I get the following view:

 

 

As you can see, both versions are visible from the summary and the PDF file version can be opened (or revealed in Finder) from this tab as well. The idea for doing it this way is that you can open a .book file by double clicking it and get to the content with a minimum of effort.

Now, in terms of getting this to work with electronic readers, you would take the .book file containing the various versions and drag it to the new “Portable Reader” application:

 

 

(This is actual running code and not mocked-up example data.)

This application autodetects any potential eBook readers attached to your system and lists them under “My Devices”. To copy the a version of “Ultimate X-Men #3″ to the Sony PRS 505 I have listed, you would simply drag the .book file over the device in the list.

The device would look into the .book file and determine if any versions contained within would work on the device. If a suitable version is found, it is copied to the device and will be available for reading as soon as the device is detached from the computer. If a suitable version is not found, a message is given to the user explaining the problem.

Using this scheme, devices can support multiple formats (and versions). For example, the Sony Reader supports PDF, BBeB (Broadband eBook), MP3, and AAC files (among others). The iPod Nano supports audio files, images, and iPod Notes. (The iPhone, I’m still working on.) Using .book files as a container for the variety of electronic book formats out there, this approach will allow me to support the widest variety of devices and formats (open and proprietary) on the Mac platform.

None of this code is ready for public use yet, but I am using some of it here at home. I am hoping to make Book Editor available by the end of the summer, and Portable Reader soon thereafter. I am planning on initially shipping Portable Reader with support for the following devices: iPod (classic), iPhone, Sony PRS-505, and (maybe) Amazon’s Kindle.

If you have a device that isn’t in that list, I’ve created a forum for discussing this topic and to create plans for adding support for those unsupported devices. Likewise, if you’d like to contribute and earmark some funds for support for a particular device, please check out the donation page. Please be sure to attach a note to the donation saying what device it’s earmarked for.

June 28th, 2008

Cidney 1.0b5 is now available.

This release adds support for blacklisting spam and junk callers. To blacklist a caller, either click on the Growl notification or right click on the caller in the log. Once a caller is blacklisted, incoming calls from that source will not trigger audio or visual notifications. (The blacklisted call will still be logged, however.)

Please post any feedback in the comments below or send an e-mail to shion@audacious-software.com.

June 23rd, 2008

Shion 1.0b8 is now available.

This is a bugfix release that addresses interface issues and communications reliability using INSTEON Access Points.

Please post any feedback in the comments below or send an e-mail to shion@audacious-software.com.

June 21st, 2008

I’ve been a bit sparse on this blog lately, so I wanted to drop a note about some of my recent thoughts concerning the next version of Books. In each major iteration of Books, I try to take what I’ve learned and apply it in a new and creative ways in order to build better apps. Books 3 came out a few months after the Tiger release, and it’s well over two years old at this point. Quite a lot has happened since then and I want Books 4 to reflect that. That said, here are a few of my initial thoughts:

1. My major new focus in Books 4 will no longer be cataloging, but content. It’s becoming increasingly clear to me that much of our book content is moving online as audio books, e-books, DVDs packed with PDFs, electronic files from places like Project Gutenburg, and so on. I’m not planning on abandoning cataloging in Books 4, but I really want to find ways to make digital book content more useful.

2. Books 3 uses a single database for cataloging metadata. This works well in that it makes things quick and easy to search, but it sidelines content (such as cover images) into cover image folders and the like. In Leopard, Apple finally made Spotlight quick and usable, so I’ll be doing away with the master database design to book bundles that contain metadata, cover images, digital versions, and so on. If you want to share your electronic books with someone else, it will be as simple as mailing a book file or copying it to a thumb drive.

While this may seem like a step backward, moving to a book-per-file scheme allows me to take advantage of a lot of native functionality, including:

• Cross-network searching and sharing
• Better system Spotlight integration
• Native Cover Flow & Quick Look support within Finder
• More robust and flexible digital file support

3. Instead of there being one single Books application, Books will become a suite of related applications. Books Catalog will be the next version of the current cataloging application. Books Editor will be a simple editor for editing and adding content to book files. Books Device Manager will be an application for managing content on electronic book readers such as the Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle, iPhone, etc.

The current Quickfill functionality will become part of the Books Editor application, while the import and exporting will be included in the cataloging application. The device manager will handle converting content for particular devices.

4. Splitting things up in this manner will allow me to better manage the development process by splitting code modules into smaller, more maintainable chunks. Consequently, I’ll be able to improve on different parts of the system as quickly as needed without worrying about the whole system.

5. Personally, I’m beginning to think that the dominant cataloging metaphor employed in systems like the *Pedias, Delicious Library, and similar apps has reached its useful limits. I’m amazed at how well the catalogs work, but now that we have that problem solved, I’m interested in moving onto the next one - how do we make the Mac a compelling reading platform?

Anyways, that’s what’s going on in my head at the moment. I’m currently working on defining what a book file is and how it works within the system. (This work includes building the Books Editor application.) Once that’s complete, I’ll begin defining the Spotlight, QuickLook, and Cover Flow plugins. Once that’s finished, I’ll begin rebuilding the cataloging application.

I expect that this process will take several months, but I’m looking forward to posting my progress and getting feedback from the Books community. I’m also planning on maintaining Books 3 until we get to a point where Books 4 is stable, so keep the Books 3 feedback coming.