I've released the beta 2 of my main project, Z-Maestro. I hope people will find it useful. Basically, it is a music composition program similar to Apple Garageband or Acid Pro. I hope that it is easier to use than Acid Pro and that it will eventually have more features than Garageband. Right now, it works mainly with MIDI. I have split MIDI functionality into two parts: instrument and drum. There is also an audio ability where you can import WAV files and use them along with the MIDI stuff, but right now it doesn't do much. Eventually, it will have advanced audio editing capabilities such as being able to time-warp the audio, converting of audio into MIDI data, and more. Right now, you can export the instrument and drum tracks to a MIDI file, which works quite nicely. Once I finally get audio perfected, I'd like to move it away from MIDI into realtime audio instruments using something similar to SoundFonts. Then, you could apply audio effects and filters on instrument and drum data. It is a ways away from that right now, but I don't think it will be too many versions away.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
WIX
I have been using WIX for a while and I must say that it is great. If you don't know, WIX stands for "Windows Installer XML". It is basically a way to script a MS installer file (.msi) using a simple XML based language. It is perhaps the best way you can possibly write a MSI file. It is free, open source, and MS has been using it for years. In fact, most of their products' installers were written with it. The second best choice is probably to buy an installation-maker such as InstallShield. However, the prices for these types are programs are generally through the roof and even then they don't offer exactly what you want. WIX is many times more powerful than any program I've seen and it has better results. MS could practically sell it; it is that good (of course, it wouldn't be as good if it wasn't free).
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Firefox 2 RC2
That's right, you can find the RC2 of the next version of Firefox here. Most improvements that consumers notice first are the new UI features. Taking many hints from IE7, Firefox now puts close buttons on the tabs themselves rather than off to the right and and created a very similar phishing advisor/blocker/tool. Also, the themes and extensions windows have been combined into one big add-ons window. There are of course, many updates to the Gecko rendering engine, but I didn't really notice to many other differences.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The Installation
I must say, installing Windows Vista was easier than I thought it would be and it was certainly easier than using XP. Of course, it doesn't yet check for updates or ask you for which components to install. Still, it did take 40 minutes to install which is twice as fast as Microsoft is aiming for. The installation consists of a few parts. First, you boot from the DVD, enter your license key, select your language/region, and choose which partition to install it on. Then, it installs it. When it (finally) reboots, it provides you with a neat aurora effect behind a Vista progress bar. What it does here, I don't know, but the aurora effect is pretty cool. The screen goes black, and it restarts again. This time, the "energy Vista effect" appears on screen the first time (it reappears at every boot), you enter your time zone, and create a new user account. Finally, you select a desktop background from the default Vista list and it logs you in.
The login/loading desktop screens are both much cooler than XP's. They have also changed the text so that when you are logging in, it now says "Preparing your desktop...". I also noticed a quick effect they must have thrown in the help show off the new graphics technology that sort of looks like a little paper airplane curving upwards and leaving a trail behind it.
I'll be writing more about Windows Vista as I work with it.
The login/loading desktop screens are both much cooler than XP's. They have also changed the text so that when you are logging in, it now says "Preparing your desktop...". I also noticed a quick effect they must have thrown in the help show off the new graphics technology that sort of looks like a little paper airplane curving upwards and leaving a trail behind it.
I'll be writing more about Windows Vista as I work with it.
Monday, August 14, 2006
The Partition Pro
A week ago, I installed the Windows Vista Beta 2 onto my computer. Why, you ask, didn't you install it when the beta actually came out? The answer is that I was worried about partitioning my computer to allow XP and Vista to run side by side. I have a lot of data that would cause me to become insane if I lost it. Thousands of lines of code, hundreds of pictures and graphics, and numerous other files scattered around my computer (the Vista backup system is much needed by me).
Finally, I centered my sights on a partitioning program called GParted. Basically, it's a completely fabulous partitioning program built on a tweaked version of the linux OS. All I had to do was download the live CD image, burn it to a CD, and boot from it. It takes about a minute to set itself up, loading the linux OS into memory along with the included software. The actual partition control panel is extremely easy to use. It creates a "graph" of your hard drive showing you all of your partitions and their respective file systems. I just right-clicked on the XP partition (formatted in NTFS) and selected "Resize/Move". From there, you can just drag the edge of the partition on a graph to make it smaller (or larger). Then, I created a new NTFS partition in the empty space for Vista. Finally, I just rebooted into XP and let it run the "check disks" program and I'm ready to install Windows Vista. No corrupted files, no lost data. It was so easy, I decided to tell the world about it here, and I think you will enjoy the simplicity this program offers.
You can find the GParted homepage at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/. There you can also check out screenshots. You can find numerous ISO burning programs on the web such as MagicISO at http://www.magiciso.com/.
Finally, I centered my sights on a partitioning program called GParted. Basically, it's a completely fabulous partitioning program built on a tweaked version of the linux OS. All I had to do was download the live CD image, burn it to a CD, and boot from it. It takes about a minute to set itself up, loading the linux OS into memory along with the included software. The actual partition control panel is extremely easy to use. It creates a "graph" of your hard drive showing you all of your partitions and their respective file systems. I just right-clicked on the XP partition (formatted in NTFS) and selected "Resize/Move". From there, you can just drag the edge of the partition on a graph to make it smaller (or larger). Then, I created a new NTFS partition in the empty space for Vista. Finally, I just rebooted into XP and let it run the "check disks" program and I'm ready to install Windows Vista. No corrupted files, no lost data. It was so easy, I decided to tell the world about it here, and I think you will enjoy the simplicity this program offers.
You can find the GParted homepage at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/. There you can also check out screenshots. You can find numerous ISO burning programs on the web such as MagicISO at http://www.magiciso.com/.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Apple's Leopard: Deja Vu?
I recently watched Apple's WWDC in which they introduced Mac OS X Leopard. They spent quite a while making fun of Windows Vista before hand which seemed a little inappropriate considering Vista is currently light years ahead of Tiger. Then, they really surprised me by adding features to their new version of OS X, Leopard, that greatly resembled Vista features along with some features that have been around since earlier versions of Windows.
If you haven't seen the WWDC video, you can find it on Apple's website, here. Or, you can just view the Mac OS X Leopard preview here, which is really all you need to understand this article (and hopefully laugh at Apple along with me).
1. Time Machine - This one may not be as obvious as you might think, but I'm sure you've heard of Windows Server 2003's file versions feature. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a technology that has been built into the Windows server line that keeps copies of your files for every change you make. Not only that, but it only keeps the changes you've made so it doesn't use a ton of space on your harddrive. Apple's version basically takes Windows file versions and combines it into Windows Backup. Hmm...
2. Mail - During the segment where they made fun of Windows Vista, Apple compared a screenshot of their new Mail with a screenshot of Windows Mail included in Windows Vista. First of all, in case you didn't know, Windows Mail is Outlook Express with a Vista skin on it. There are two reasons the name needed to be changed. One, it sounded like a demo of Outlook. This isn't true because it only handles email while Outlook is for email, calendars, scheduling, tasks, memos, etc. Two, it better describes the program. I'd like to point out that Outlook Express has been around since Internet Explorer 4 (which came out with Windows 98!!!). Apple Mail first came out in 2001 with Mac OS X....
3. iChat - Obviously, the idea of an IM client is not very innovative. Numerous other IM clients exist on the internet such as Yahoo, AOL, just to name a few. Microsoft's Messenger (previously MSN Messenger and now Windows Live Messenger) has been around for quite a while. While iChat's new realtime video effects have no equivalent in Messenger (although even Apple has to admit that this feature will probably be rarely used in the long run), all of the other new features such as remote desktop and application sharing (a.k.a. presentation sharing) have been implemented in Messenger since the beginning (in fact, these features originally appeared in Windows Net Meeting which is no longer in development, having been superseded by Messenger). Messenger even has an extra feature Apple has yet to implement in iChat, even though it seems to fit perfectly into Apple's idea of the ideal IM client.
4. Spaces - What does this remind you of? Can you say "virtual desktops"!? You'd be right in saying that Microsoft hasn't yet put an equivalent into their OS however, have any readers ever used Microsoft's Virtual Desktop PowerToy for XP? What about the Virtual Desktop program that came with the Windows NT 4.0 resource kit around 1995? Don't think Spaces is any different.
5. Dashboard - For Apple to make fun of Microsoft copying the idea of their "widgets" into "gadgets" is so unbelievably hippocratic that it makes me sick. Does Apple think they're fooling anyone into thinking widgets are their own idea? I will say that their new "web clips" are a great idea along with their new widget creator. However, if you have ever used Konfabulator (now owned by Yahoo) or Object Desktop, you have used "widgets"/"gadgets". They are not new. Personally, I think the Microsoft implementation will be more popular with most end users due to the fact that it integrates completely with your desktop experience. You have the option to put your gadget onto the sidebar or, you can drag them onto the desktop. Really, if you are going to have a sticky note "widget"/"gadget" reminding you of something, wouldn't it make more sense to put it on your desktop where you can see it without thinking about it rather than having to open up a separate application solely for it? You may end up needing a real sticky note on your Mac telling you to open Dashboard and check your virtual sticky notes.
6. Spotlight - If you remember back to 1995 with the beginning of real windows, Windows 95, you'll remember the search option in the Start menu. You have to give Microsoft credit for at least implementing a search feature in their OS. I'll admit that it hasn't changed much until Vista and that it was really, really slow, but I used it and it worked. Apple's first attempt at search came with Sherlock released in 1998 with Mac OS 8.5. What's more, Microsoft's search was built in the NT OS's (2000, XP) to provide server search functionality. That's right, not only has Microsoft's search always supported full harddrive searching (Spotlight only searches through a few folders like your documents), it has supported searching other computers as well.
7. iCal - One word: Outlook. Windows Calendar is based on Outlook's calendar. I'm not saying Apple's inclusion of a calendar application didn't help persuade Microsoft to include Windows Calendar however, it does make sense to include a calendar application now a days. Since they changed the name of Outlook Express to Windows Mail, it's only fitting that they include a calendar to make up for the lack of Outlook's calendar.
8. 64-Bit - Microsoft originally shipped a 64-bit version of Windows in 2001 when Apple still hadn't switched. Microsoft definitively gets this one.
9. Core Animation - This is a pretty big one. If you're familiar with Windows Vista, you'll know all about Microsoft's presentation framework. Previously called Avalon, this framework includes a brand new graphics engine for windows applications allowing resolution-independent 3D based graphics along with keyframe based animation technology. Core Animation sounds too much like this for me to consider it innovative at all. Avalon can be used to do things that just look crazy. You can put video onto a 3D object and rotate it around the camera, changing with a nice fade when the user selects something different. What's more, Microsoft has created an ingenious way to author them: an XML based language called XAML.
I think this basically sums up Leopard.
If you haven't seen the WWDC video, you can find it on Apple's website, here. Or, you can just view the Mac OS X Leopard preview here, which is really all you need to understand this article (and hopefully laugh at Apple along with me).
1. Time Machine - This one may not be as obvious as you might think, but I'm sure you've heard of Windows Server 2003's file versions feature. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a technology that has been built into the Windows server line that keeps copies of your files for every change you make. Not only that, but it only keeps the changes you've made so it doesn't use a ton of space on your harddrive. Apple's version basically takes Windows file versions and combines it into Windows Backup. Hmm...
2. Mail - During the segment where they made fun of Windows Vista, Apple compared a screenshot of their new Mail with a screenshot of Windows Mail included in Windows Vista. First of all, in case you didn't know, Windows Mail is Outlook Express with a Vista skin on it. There are two reasons the name needed to be changed. One, it sounded like a demo of Outlook. This isn't true because it only handles email while Outlook is for email, calendars, scheduling, tasks, memos, etc. Two, it better describes the program. I'd like to point out that Outlook Express has been around since Internet Explorer 4 (which came out with Windows 98!!!). Apple Mail first came out in 2001 with Mac OS X.
3. iChat - Obviously, the idea of an IM client is not very innovative. Numerous other IM clients exist on the internet such as Yahoo, AOL, just to name a few. Microsoft's Messenger (previously MSN Messenger and now Windows Live Messenger) has been around for quite a while. While iChat's new realtime video effects have no equivalent in Messenger (although even Apple has to admit that this feature will probably be rarely used in the long run), all of the other new features such as remote desktop and application sharing (a.k.a. presentation sharing) have been implemented in Messenger since the beginning (in fact, these features originally appeared in Windows Net Meeting which is no longer in development, having been superseded by Messenger). Messenger even has an extra feature Apple has yet to implement in iChat, even though it seems to fit perfectly into Apple's idea of the ideal IM client.
4. Spaces - What does this remind you of? Can you say "virtual desktops"!? You'd be right in saying that Microsoft hasn't yet put an equivalent into their OS however, have any readers ever used Microsoft's Virtual Desktop PowerToy for XP? What about the Virtual Desktop program that came with the Windows NT 4.0 resource kit around 1995? Don't think Spaces is any different.
5. Dashboard - For Apple to make fun of Microsoft copying the idea of their "widgets" into "gadgets" is so unbelievably hippocratic that it makes me sick. Does Apple think they're fooling anyone into thinking widgets are their own idea? I will say that their new "web clips" are a great idea along with their new widget creator. However, if you have ever used Konfabulator (now owned by Yahoo) or Object Desktop, you have used "widgets"/"gadgets". They are not new. Personally, I think the Microsoft implementation will be more popular with most end users due to the fact that it integrates completely with your desktop experience. You have the option to put your gadget onto the sidebar or, you can drag them onto the desktop. Really, if you are going to have a sticky note "widget"/"gadget" reminding you of something, wouldn't it make more sense to put it on your desktop where you can see it without thinking about it rather than having to open up a separate application solely for it? You may end up needing a real sticky note on your Mac telling you to open Dashboard and check your virtual sticky notes.
6. Spotlight - If you remember back to 1995 with the beginning of real windows, Windows 95, you'll remember the search option in the Start menu. You have to give Microsoft credit for at least implementing a search feature in their OS. I'll admit that it hasn't changed much until Vista and that it was really, really slow, but I used it and it worked. Apple's first attempt at search came with Sherlock released in 1998 with Mac OS 8.5. What's more, Microsoft's search was built in the NT OS's (2000, XP) to provide server search functionality. That's right, not only has Microsoft's search always supported full harddrive searching (Spotlight only searches through a few folders like your documents), it has supported searching other computers as well.
7. iCal - One word: Outlook. Windows Calendar is based on Outlook's calendar. I'm not saying Apple's inclusion of a calendar application didn't help persuade Microsoft to include Windows Calendar however, it does make sense to include a calendar application now a days. Since they changed the name of Outlook Express to Windows Mail, it's only fitting that they include a calendar to make up for the lack of Outlook's calendar.
8. 64-Bit - Microsoft originally shipped a 64-bit version of Windows in 2001 when Apple still hadn't switched. Microsoft definitively gets this one.
9. Core Animation - This is a pretty big one. If you're familiar with Windows Vista, you'll know all about Microsoft's presentation framework. Previously called Avalon, this framework includes a brand new graphics engine for windows applications allowing resolution-independent 3D based graphics along with keyframe based animation technology. Core Animation sounds too much like this for me to consider it innovative at all. Avalon can be used to do things that just look crazy. You can put video onto a 3D object and rotate it around the camera, changing with a nice fade when the user selects something different. What's more, Microsoft has created an ingenious way to author them: an XML based language called XAML.
I think this basically sums up Leopard.
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