And now, for something completely different…
Briefly, (or Boxerly?) I would just like to point out that deciding to split a program’s language strings out into a separate file so that they can be easily modified after you’ve already done a significant amount of development work to get the project to a stable and functional point is a bad thing. Stupidly, I’d thought about doing this when I first started this project, but I dismissed the idea as something I’d get to later, when everything was up and running. Only now I have about a bajillion strings to split out of the program into an XML container file, and I have to work language loading code into every page around the structure of the existing code.
To continue the stream-of-consciousness style implied by the title of this entry, I have a couple of lists to present. The first is “things I need to do tonight”, in no particular order:
- Make jewelry. I’ve got a couple of necklace ideas I want to work on. Hopefully I can get them done within an hour or two tonight and actually get them posted to our Etsy store. If not, they’ll probably go up tomorrow.
- Finish figuring out Cha-Ching. As I mentioned in my previous post about resolutions, I’m looking at an app called Cha-Ching to manage our finances, both personal and professional. It’s also got some handy budgeting features in it to track what we’re spending, where it’s being spent, and how much we have left to spend in the current budget. The main drawback to this program is that the demo I’m using is limited to 100 transactions, which makes it a fairly useless demo to see if it will properly track the several accounts we’ve got across a span of several months. Still, I’m going to sit down tonight with it and the help file open in its own space and poke around at it a bit more. There’s a couple of other options I can look into if this ends up not being what I need, but from the small amount of time I spent with it yesterday, it seems like it’ll do the trick.
- Write back to slightperil about Archivist stuff. I have a lot of bridge-building to do, but hopefully I can work out a way to start cross-linking with all of the Guild and group sites (like the Messengers, the DZS, the Cartographers, the Greeters, etc.) to create a massive inter-connected resource network for the Cavern and the community at large. We have so much technology at our disposal that the original Guilds of D’ni would never have had, and I think it’s only appropriate that we take advantage of it and make things as open and connected as we can possibly make them.
My second list is a list of things I’d like to see added to the iPod Touch’s software. I’ve had the thing for just shy of a month now, and after using it fairly extensively, I can say that the following are things that could (and should) be in the software, but aren’t for whatever reason. I’m not even talking here about things like copy/paste or the lack of a Maps or Mail app, just “little” things that lack the typical level of integration and ease-of-use that usually comes with an Apple device. It might be that some of this stuff isn’t in there in favor of making the device more compatible with the Windows market, but that’s one of those things that just kind of annoys me even more than it just not being included for no reason. Anyway, on with the list:
- Multiple on-the-go playlists. The Touch has a flippin’ keyboard. When I’ve created a playlist in the on-the-go section, let me save it as a normal playlist and give it a name. If I’m away from my computer for a fair amount of time (like, say, 9 hours, as I am every work day), I’m probably going to want to mix up more than one playlist a day every now and then (and I have, actually). Don’t make me delete the playlist I made first just so I can make another one. Let me save it, and then sync it back to iTunes when I get home.
- On a similar note, make all playlists editable. Again, this thing has serious multitasking capabilities, and if I can edit the on-the-go playlist in the most fantastically awesome way ever (really, it’s damn spiffy), why can’t I edit the rest of my playlists this way? Heck, just ditch the on-the-go playlist concept and make an “add playlist” button or menu option at the top of the playlist pane for even better consistency, and add an edit button to the top right of each playlist you select, just like the on-the-go one has now.
- Support multiple calendars from iCal across the board. This is probably one of those cross-platform compatibility issues, but I have a Mac, and it has iCal. I have an iPod that syncs events from all of the calendars in iCal. Why can the iPod Touch not properly segregate them into the various calendars (by color, please?) like even my old iPod Mini can? Furthermore, why can’t I add an event to a specific calendar that’s been synced to the Touch? I had the “wild” idea about two weeks ago to make use of a GTD-style method of tracking due dates and events for various things, but that kind of fell apart when I found out the Touch didn’t support creating events in separate calendars. Wha? I realize this is a consumer device and not a business PDA, but seriously… I’m a consumer with a lot of things to do; why support multiple calendar syncing if it doesn’t do anything visible on the iPod? Stupid CD player in the trunk…