A Little About Me I've been writing software for over 25 years now in a variety of languages. My experience runs the gamut but is mostly rooted in UNIX-based platforms. More recently, I've taken up implementing websites using modern CMS systems such as WordPress and Drupal. I write plugins, style extensively with CSS, and fix bugs. My personal interests include photography, competitive swimming, agility training, and of course -- my dog!
 For Hire My skill set is strong and I'm always looking for a new challenge. I love to solve problems and am often called in to get projects back on track. Contact me and let's talk!
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01.17.19 Best view ever from Mac OS X is now gone. Cover Flow has been removed with a nod towards individual image viewing in Finder. For some this may be an improvement as image attributes are now displayed in this view, for those of us who sort through thousands of photos at a time it is a nuisance. I did try to accept the changes in Finder but I found that my work flow just increased significantly. Fear not though as an enterprising company has filled that gap left by Apple.
Path Finder by CocoaTech (https://cocoatech.com/) has quite a few nice features including cover flow for viewing of images in a directory. With options like cover flow, split screen (2 directories displayed at the same time, and the traditional icon view, listing, and paned hierarchy, Path Finder is the full featured solution I wish Mac OS X Finder would be.
PSA: I am in no way affiliated with CocoaTech but I do love the product. What Finder took away Path Finder returned.
01.08.19 I was recently tasked with loading Mac OS X on a custom built Intel-based platform. Hackintosh builds have been around for years and until recently was definitely not for the faint of heart. Apple has embraced sufficient hardware vendors that with a modicum of care, building a hackintosh can be accomplished with relative ease. I say “relative ease” as I discovered when I started this task that there is a significant amount of incredibly bad advice out there in the wilds.
To be sure, Apple does not endorse hackintosh builds and it is considered a legal grey area. I am not writing this to recommend one build a hackintosh but to show the interesting learning areas to be gained by building your own computer system. All too often we look at our technology as if it’s a black box. In many ways that is a problem particularly as it relates to security. I believe that the more you know, the better you will be able to debug problems, skirt sketchy security issues, and be comfortable
. . . → Read More: A Successful Hackintosh Build
03.24.15 Having now spent 2 days trying to track down why I had so many issues with caching images, I came to the realization that imagecache is flawed and has been from inception.
. . . → Read More: Derivative Images & Why Imagecache is Busted
01.01.15 As I have done for many years, I look for the hardware/software requirements of any application I’m considering downloading. Sounds logical, right? It would seem that those few words — requires minimum OS 1.2.3 — would be simple to place on a download software web page. And yet, I would be wrong. Twice now I have downloaded applications to my desktop after I scoured the product website looking for minimum specifications (none found) only to discover that my version of OS is not supported.
While I might forgive an open source developer who is creating software more from the heart than the pocketbook, the same is not true of Amazon who was the latest to “forget” to specify minimum requirements for their software product offerings. Shame on you Amazon for assuming and we do know what that means!
10.02.14 Popup calendar events particularly when you have events of different content types and repeating events can be tricky. Setting a Colorbox trigger on your view can save the day.
. . . → Read More: Drupal — Getting Colorbox to Popup Calendar Events
06.25.14 Round two of the trials and tribulations of the various websites I maintain. I tend to go back and forth between Drupal and WordPress for CMS depending on client need. This means I keep up with 2 similar but distinctly different content management systems (CMS). This round was updating some WordPress websites. What should have been a simple update turned into another debugging session.
. . . → Read More: Simple WordPress Upgrade == Similar pain
06.21.14 I’m not one to jump every time there is a new update to Drupal core. Since all of my sites are locked down to a certain extent, I like to see the history list to see if the update will provide benefit to the website. Working production sites can easily be taken down with a single, seemingly innocuous update to core or even key modules. My motto is always “buyer beware”.
. . . → Read More: Simple Drupal Upgrade == Lots of Pain
05.11.14 I’m often amazed at my friends who get new phones so often. It seems like such a waste of time and money to be constantly changing. Now that I’m into hour 3 of trying to get my Samsung Galaxy S3 to connect to a PC to back it up, I’m now thinking that they are on to something.
. . . → Read More: My Love Hate Relationship with a Phone
04.17.14 I just had to check my calendar to just to make sure that we’ve moved past 1999 and are in fact in the 21st century. Why? Because I went looking for online training and the one of the top websites would only allow me to send off for a brochure. Villanova University — seriously their online training website requires me to give address information so that they can send me a free brochure. This line of thinking takes me back to those short voice-over ads on late night TV where you could “call now for your free brochure”. Hello? It’s 2014 calling!
04.09.13 With a move of servers, it was time to also consider upgrading WordPress & the themes I use. When this site and it’s sister site (silentadmin.gsans.com) were created, I had to do a few customizations in the underlying code beyond CSS styling to get the site to behave the way I expected. It was a painful installation and something I chose not to document in the hopes that over time I could “lose” those customizations.
. . . → Read More: Upgrading WordPress
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