JungleDisk 3.0 Ups and Downs

Updated on 2/6/2010 at 1:36AM EST

JungleDisk has long been my favorite front-end to Amazon S3, and the combination has been my choice for cloud storage (backups, etc.). When I bought in, the application was $25, and you got a version for Mac OS X, Windows (even x64), and Linux, all for that low price. You even got future upgrades for life. In addition, they offered a great incremental backup service for $1 a month as an add-on for S3, which could potentially save you tens of dollars a month or more if you upload large files which change frequently, by only uploading the bits that have changed. The app is great, though, the user interface (UI) is bland at best.

Version 3.0 was just released, and I had hopes that the UI dreariness was going to be addressed. Sadly, all we got were fancier icons in the toolbar. The program is also in need of some additional backup features, like more powerful filtering. These, too, were missing. But more than that, they actually made the UI worse.

First, they changed their website and identity (logo) to match their new owner, Rackspace, which doesn't look too shabby on the site itself. But in trying to create some consistency in the application, they actually made it harder to use. The desktop icon looks really out of place; nothing like a mounted drive. I'd much prefer the stock generic drive icon it had previously. But what would be *really* cool is if they used a drive icon that had vines growing all over it - something "lickable" like the icon used by Panic's Coda application. Instead, we have this pseudo Rackspace/Windows logo, that doesn't seem to be or represent anything "JungleDisk". Very odd. So the first thing I do is "Get Info" on the drive, and paste in a new icon. 

The desktop icon may leave you with the extra chore of swapping it out with a copy/paste, but the real issue is the icon in the menu bar. They again chose to mirror their new corporate icon, which ends up looking like a gray tornado. Yep, stop rubbing your eyes. That's the Tasmanian Devil in my menu bar, and apparently he's pissed and spinning like hell. See the photo below.

Besides the spinning Australian marsupial, what's the problem? Well, the previous icon would flash a noticeable color indicating activity. This one flashes a color so dark and close to the gray used by the icon itself, that you'd need a colorimeter to know that something was going on. Do you notice the color difference in the icon below? If you do, you should be an optometrist.

I guess that I'm basically begging JungleDisk to either revert the icons, or create better ones. This is just insane.

The rest of the UI is clunky, at best, as it has always been. For example, buttons are too close to other objects, like output boxes, callout text is touching the controls they describe, the configuration menu item box is too narrow and cannot be widened, and consequently, you get scrollbar hell. The list goes on and on.

But I have to say, that like the wall flower in high school, face full of braces, skin breakouts, and too much hairspray, if you can get past the superficial stuff, what really counts is pure gold, and you'll want to spend the rest of your life with her, I mean, it. The program itself works extremely well, and there's a server edition too. And for old-tymers like me, the free upgrades and $1 monthly fee has remained in place, at least for the time being. For the newbies, it's a flat $2 per month which includes the program and the incremental upload feature. I'd go for it at that price any day. I recommend you do the same.

But bug them to fix their UI. It's killing me!

HTML Entity Quick Reference for Greek Characters

Updated on 11/19/2009 at 2:29PM EST

The following table gives the character entity reference, decimal character reference, and hexadecimal character reference for symbols and Greek letters, as well as the rendering of each in your browser. Glyphs of the characters are available at the Unicode Consortium.

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EPSON Artisan 810 a Bi-Function, not Multi-Function, Device

Updated on 1/31/2010 at 12:49AM EST

I was in a local OfficeMax, looking at an EPSON Artisan 810 all-in-one (Print, Scan. FAX, Copy), which came in a box covered with text and imagery detailing all of the amazing features it has. To my delight, I discovered that it supported OS X, albeit, they note that "some features like sharing memory cards over a network may not be supported". You'd think that would imply that tertiary (or specialty) functions may not work. But, surely, the basic 4 functions would, right?

It would have been nice if the employees had any kind of a clue with regard to the products they sell. But they don't. So I checked some support forums and the EPSON driver download page (on my phone), and sure enough, they even have Snow Leopard drivers. So I buy the printer and take it home.

I should have suspected something may be amiss when the installer asked me to enter my administrator password, but the dialog requesting the credentials kept losing focus, making it difficult to type in my password. Yikes.

I managed to get through the 30-part install (well, it felt like 30 separate, chained installers). The installer vanished, and I had no printer in my "Print and FAX" Preference Pane. Nice. So, I add a printer manually, and it did see the EPSON as a Bonjour device. One down!

So I jump over to try the scanner, and I get a troubleshooter. After scrounging around the web, I found some advice from a user who discovered that you have to go into the Utilities folder and run an EPSON scanner utility to find and configure the device. ugh. Once I did that, it seemed to work. Two down!

Now, on to the FAX. The preference pane did not see a FAX device anywhere, and the EPSON printer itself has no FAX capabilities. So back to the web. After an hour of searching, nada, and no one even complaining about this apparent "missing" feature. So I hit the manual, and notice that FAXing from a computer is only supported in Windows.

At this point, I'm not even going to try to get the "Copy" function working.

OFFICEMAX Knowledgeable Sales Staff: FAIL
EPSON Customer Support: FAIL
EPSON Product: FAIL
EPSON Integrity: FAIL

So, in summary, for Mac users, this is a bi-function, not a multi-function, device. It prints and scans. They should put this on the box so people know what they're getting (or in this case, not getting). It's a real shame. I went with EPSON because Hewlett Packard did something similar with a computer I bought. The machine was billed as a multimedia and entertainment computer, yet, it couldn't play a game that was 5 years old. Do any of these companies have their metaphoric poop together?

And don't get me started on Lexmark.

Michael's Tomato Blush Sauce

Updated on 10/11/2009 at 1:41PM EST

This recipe came about as many do, as I use the contents of our cabinet to determine what to make. It's like one of those television shows, like "Chopped", where a chef is given a basket with 5 ingredients, and told to make an entree in a half hour. If I could just arrange for some prize money...

Anyway, this sauce does a great job of hiding the cream and parmesan cheese by putting the bright flavor of the tomato up front. My wife prefers it with less lemon, so the recipe here reflects that choice. I tend to be a lemon maniac when it comes to pasta sauces. She's doing a good job of breaking me of that habit. It's really delicious, and I'm thinking that it may have a really nice flavor profile with brandy instead of wine. Maybe you can try that and let me know how it works!

This recipe serves 6.

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How to Read a Binary File Over HTTP and Write to Disk Using ASP.NET and C#

Updated on 11/18/2009 at 5:34PM EST

Have you ever had the need to grab a binary file from a remote server over HTTP, and save it to your server, using ASP.NET? It may not sound like a common request, or even a difficult one. But there are a few tricks to accomplishing your goal. One challenge I encountered was that using a BinaryReader required some buffering code. A blind call to read the stream would often only return a portion of the file.

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Chloe Goofs Off at Monkey Business

Updated on 9/28/2009 at 11:12PM EST

Gwen and I took Chloe to the local inflatable playground called "Monkey Business". She loves the place, and is having her 3rd birthday party there.

But like love, every time is like the first time, and as soon as she gets in the door, it's a stare-fest, then she runs around like a maniac pushing kids out of the way if she can't get her turn fast enough. We discipline her appropriately, let her play some more, and then she finds her way into the corner where they have some tables and a play kitchen. She plays there until she's staring at the floor in pure exhaustion, and then we take her home, kicking and screaming.

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Vivian's Glorious Beef Stew

Updated on 9/27/2009 at 11:34PM EST

Here's a meal with which we're all familiar. I don't know about you, but I've had my share of very good versions of this family comfort-food classic. But this one really takes the cake. The difference is the subtle variation in the preparation and ingredients roster. It truly is "glorious", and highly recommended for those fall and winter meals. And of course, biscuits are a required side.

This recipe is courtesy of my grandmother, Vivian Argentini, and serves 6.

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EP Henry Project Gallery Launched

Updated on 9/28/2009 at 10:41PM EST

EP Henry asked us to create a web application which would allow their prospective customers to browse their vast library of installation photographs, print them, search for specific types of projects, create collections of favorites, leave sticky notes on individual projects, tell friends or contractors, view as a slideshow, and more. The site also had to function as a sales tool for contractors, allowing them to show off their projects by specific products, colors and patterns. They also needed to be able to search on product codes, and use it as a supplement for the latest EP Henry catalog.

Additionally, the site had to be content managed, allowing them easy access to a powerful set of tools for creating projects, uploading photos, managing users, products, colors and patterns. They also needed to be able to report on the usage of the site, and gather lists of prospective customers.

And on top of all that, it had to be extensible for future feature enhancements, like mobile access and media RSS feeds. And did we mentioned that this had to be created in three weeks?

Mezzocode was able to achieve all of this and more using ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server, the Halide3 API, and Javascript with jQuery. We even created a landing page that shows itself periodically, showcasing featured projects and providing a quick overview of the site. We even added finishing touches, like an animated slideshow, and rollover popups for products, colors and patterns. We're quite proud of our accomplishments given the scope and timeframe, and EP Henry was thrilled as well. We hope you'll check out the site and see for yourself.

http://photogallery.ephenry.com 

Caesar Salad Dressing

Updated on 9/27/2009 at 10:06PM EST

This is a great Caesar salad dressing, in the style of classic, creamy, garlicky, cheesy dressings you've had at your favorite restaurants, but without the anchovies.

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A New Type of Subscription

Updated on 9/7/2008 at 1:58AM EST

I was visiting my usual lineup of Apple news and rumor sites, and noticed something odd about a subscription link on one of my favorite rumor sites, AppleAddiction.net.

Don't see the oddity? Well, apparently they allow you to subscribe to their content via ass. But the icon they're using for a standard ass feed is totally wrong. It's the icon for "RSS" feeds, not "ass" feeds. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this error. But since I'm really into ass feeds, and try to keep all of my ass feeds organized into appropriately named folders, alphabetized and so forth, I couldn't stand one of them having an incorrect icon. So I sent the correct icon to the webmaster.

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