/home/nil/

I was browsing my high school archives and came across this piece of literature in the “Senior Year/English 4/etc” folder.

I found it funny. Enjoy.

Our tale shall begin in the dark, cold space of Nil T. Hacker.
A boy built opposite to that of a meat packer.
With his penetrating eyes,
And his ears immune to the world’s cries.
Quietly and stealthy he types a line,
You’d think he was committing a crime.

“Alas, my work is complete,
Now, I think it is time for me to eat.�
He thinks to him self, “I can’t believe I did it,
All without digging myself into a pit.�
Wiping the sweat off his brow,
Let’s take a look and see what he’s done now.
It’s not a big job, just a simple bit of code.
Oh no, no it’s not. He hasn’t joined that node.
Could it be? Could he have pulled it off?
“They won’t know what hit them� *cough *cough*
After hitting enter and watching the worm fly
The system administrator might as well say “bye bye�
Because after Nil T. Hacker makes up his mind
Your entire system becomes undefined
The only way to stop him, is not as hard as one would think
Just threaten to tell the world that he likes to wear pink.
And there you have it, the end of our story.
Why not end it with all its glory?
And now, as I laugh myself to sleep,
My code shall turn your machine into a garbage heap.
So you may feed the parts to Marco Polo’s mountain sheep.

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I made a bit of a mistake while writing Wallsaver 2.0.

Most people (unless they add third party screen savers) don’t have anything inside the “/Library/Screen Savers” or “~/Library/Screen Savers” folders. Because of a bug in the code (details below), a lot of people were given the following error:

Can’t make every file of «class ects» of alias "Macintosh HD:Library:Screen Savers:" into type «class alst». (-1700)

In the program, there’s a bit of code that adds all the screen savers in a folder to a list. The code will run if the folder is empty or even if the folder doesn’t exist.

The bad code:
set UserScreenSavers to (files of entire contents of UserScreenSaversPath) as alias list

The fix, as you can see, is quite simple. Simply throw the offending code into a try statement. If any part fails (i.e., the folder is empty or doesn’t exist), set the list to null.

The better code:

try
set UserScreenSavers to (files of entire contents of UserScreenSaversPath) as alias list

end try


Why didn’t I put in the try block from the beginning? On both of the computers I use to test software (yes, I do test my software), all three of the directories Wallsaver searches in for screen savers exist and have files in them. There was just no opportunity for the list population to fail.

Thank you to all the users of Wallsaver who quickly downloaded (some within 2 hours of the release) v2.0 and reported the bug. Your efforts helped in the v2.1 update being released as quickly as it did.

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I wrote yesterday that Wallsaver was coming along nicely and that it would be released within one week.

I lied.

Wallsaver 2.0 has officially been released. Here’s a copy & paste of the change log from the Wallsaver product page:

• You may now choose any screen saver in the “/System/Library/Screen Savers”, “/Library/Screen Savers/” or “~/Library/Screen Savers” folders.

• The new icon properly scales up to 512×512 pixels and depicts a screen saver that is Wallsaver compatible.

The screen shot below pretty much sums up the biggest feature of the 2.0 release.

So head on over to Wallsaver’s product page and download a copy. If you’re an existing user (you == win) you can update to Wallsaver 2.0 via the built in update utility.

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I’m almost (about 75%) done with Wallsaver 2.0 and it should be ready for release in about 1 week.

What’s so special about Wallsaver 2.0?

You will no longer be restricted to the same screen saver you have set in System Preferences. You will be able to display any screen saver you’ve installed as your desktop wallpaper. This was by far the most requested feature, and it’s in Wallsaver 2.0.

There’s a new application icon.

I’d promised a menu bar version of Wallsaver by version 2.0 in the feature requests that came in via the NWW Network Support Center, but I’m pushing it back to a more distant (possibly 2.1) release.

I’d also considered charging a few dollars ($1.99) for people to download the application since I am paying quite a bit for (mt) Media Temple hosting, but decided against it because I believe that software should be free.

So, in summary, Wallsaver 2.0 (to be released in about 1 week) will allow the user to change the screen saver that is displayed as the desktop wallpaper, features a application new icon, and will continue to be free.

Thanks to all of you out there using Wallsaver!

PS: I’ve also entered the Apple Design Awards “BEST MAC OS X LEOPARD STUDENT PRODUCT” contest. Who knows? I might actually win, the prizes (even for the runner up) are pretty sweet.

Disclaimer: I’m no longer employed by Apple Inc., so there is no conflict of interest by me entering this contest.

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It’s been a long time since I last posted here. In fact, it’s been a little over 4 months.

So, what’s changed in that time?

As far as the blog’s concerned, I moved around some pages and got rid of some useless sidebar items.

As for me, a few things have changed.

First, I’m no longer with Apple. It was time to move on. Since I’m no longer bound by a “Apple employees cannot blog about Apple” agreement, expect critical opinion about the company and its products.

Second, I’m looking for a job (so if you’re hiring, head on over to my resume).

Third, I’m still at Fullerton College and hopefully transferring to a UC campus (San Diego or Irvine) by Fall ‘09.

Fourth, I purchased a MacBook Air shortly before leaving Apple. I don’t really mind the lack of an optical drive (as I rarely use the one in my iMac) but the lack of an ethernet port is annoying. The WiFi implementation around campus sucks and when coupled with the fact that most classrooms (not in the library) have un-throttled bandwidth via wired ethernet, I can’t help but curse Apple for designing for a future without wires.

All is well for now.

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