Felt Tip Software

I just did some work to fix a bug in the Bookend Audio monbot, which is an AppleScript Studio app that lets you add an intro and outro audio clip to a file and batch process them. The bug was fixed by changing one variable name, though figuring out what was going on took the better part of the day since I didn’t write the code.

There was also a bug in the Sound Studio AppleScript dictionary, which was fixed by deleting two lines of code, though once again it took much longer to track down and test enough to isolate the problem to those two lines.

The fixes are being sent out for testing and once they pass testing, they should be ready for a new update release.

I’ve updated my blogging software to WordPress 2.6. A few months ago my old version 2.0.2 blog got hacked and I disabled the blog until I could update to a newer version. Unfortunately, the old-style permalinks on longer work, and since I’m hosting on Yahoo, there’s not much I can do about it. The blog theme is going to look rather generic until I have the time to whip up some graphics and layout.

Sound Studio 3 is in the $64.99 MacUpdate Parallels Bundle. It’s currently locked, which means that it won’t be available until 5,000 people buy the bundle. (Everyone who already bought the bundle will get the key for Sound Studio when it’s unlocked.) Check it out: mupromo.com.

It’s more of a mini-review: IT Enquirer on Sound Studio 3.

Veronica wrote a little review of Sound Studio 3, and gave it 4.5 limecats. Cool.

Sound Studio 3 (mini-review) [veronicabelmont.com]

I really want the MacBook Air, but the 80 GB hard drive is a sticking point. Currently, I use a MacBook Pro with a 100 GB hard drive, and have less than 10 GB free. Most of the space is taken up by a 50 GB iTunes library. One idea I have is to keep all my music on an 80 GB iPod Classic synced to my PowerBook G4 12″ (also 80 GB), while keeping podcasts on my iPhone synced to the MacBook Air, but this means working with two different computers, one just for iTunes music, and the other for everything else, and I prefer to keep everything in one place.

I’m in no rush to get the MacBook Air. I can wait until April before I order one, and I hope that Apple comes out with a larger hard disk version by then. If not, I’ll order one anyway, along with a 80 GB iPod Classic.

I did get to try out the MacBook Air at Macworld Expo. I think it’s perfect for me, though I would want to get the USB SuperDrive if I want to use it as my main computer. I already have a USB EvDO card for 3G wireless broadband Internet access, for both on the road and at home, where I would dock the MacBook Air to a 23-inch Cinema HD Display, USB backup hard disk (for Time Machine), studio monitor speakers, keyboard, and mouse.

The hard part is waiting.

I just added an iPhone and iPod touch icon for this site, by uploading an “apple-touch-icon.png” icon to my server’s root folder, as referenced by John Gruber, who links to Dan Dickinson’s blog.

I arrived at SFO today. I’m now at Union Square waiting for my cousin to get off work so I can drop off my stuff and then go out. But for now I have some time to blog.

Just before WWDC 2007, I met Chris Messina and Tara Hunt of Citizen Space:

Citizen Space is a coworking space in San Francisco located at 425 Second St on the third floor. It is generally open from 10am - 6pm weekdays.

The idea of Citizen Space is to take the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) and the best elements of a workspace (productive, functional) and combine them to give indie workers the chance to have their own, affordable space. Citizen Space was built on coworking philosophy.

Myself being a self-employed programmer working from home, I like the idea of getting out of the house and working in a more social environment like they one they’ve created. At first, I had a hard time grasping what they were doing, leasing out space to random people so they could all work in the same place.

Recently I’ve been given the chance to have some space up in Brooklyn, NY, to do essentially the same thing. I would continue to be independent and work on my own stuff, but I’d also work in an office with other programmers and other people in tech.

When you’re working at home, you’ve got lots of great perks: the commute is nil, you’ve got all the comforts of home at your office, and you can be a lot more casual than in a real office environment. But it has its downsides. You start to miss being around people every day, and you have to make it a point to get outside. Or if you have a family, it’s hard to separate work time from family time. And when you do go to a coffee shop to work out in public, it’s not quite the same as being surrounded by people with similar technical skills and similar career goals.

The coworking space idea seems like a worthwhile thing to try out. Part of the inspiration for this post was a recent Ars article (On Apple employees “going indie”) about a couple programmers deciding to leave the mothership and work on their own. Partly it was because I’m in San Francisco right now working out of a coffee shop on Union Square.

I’ll be at the Freeverse Inc. booth again this year at Macworld Expo San Francisco 2008. The booth will be towards the back of the main hall, and I’ll be there for a couple hours each day. Come by and say hi!

Happy New Year!

Macworld magazine just put up a short review of Sound Studio 3. Overall it’s positive and accurate in its placement of Sound Studio as continuing the legacy of SoundEdit 16 without trying to compete with heavyweights such as Logic, Peak, or Soundtrack Pro.

The Mac has more than its share of capable sound editors, but until now, not one has stood out to me as a go-to tool for everyday tasks. The free Audacity can be buggy and feels unintuitive, while Bias’s Peak and Apple’s Soundtrack are powerful, but with steep learning curves and hefty price tags.

Falling squarely in between those products, Sound Studio 3.5.5 finally fills the role of the long abandoned and much loved Macromedia SoundEdit 16 (which never made it to OS X). Sound Studio is an easy-to-use program for recording, editing, and applying effects to digital audio that can be used for everything from podcasting to digitizing those old cassette tapes and vinyl records you have lying around in the basement.

Sound editing program offers balance between power and ease of use [Macworld magazine]