Disqus - Latest Comments for nilobject

Re: Experiments in the Cloud, Part 1: Traditional vs Cloud Architectures

Jonathan Johnson — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 10:52:13 -0000

Absolutely. The short answer is that AWS takes security very seriously -- I was very curious about this as well and have been pleasantly surprised at the options or built-in security everywhere I look. I'm still learning more on that though, so I expect it to be more like part 3 or 4.

Specifically about their RDS service though, it's PCI compliant when configured properly, and you can enable encryption easily (http://docs.aws.amazon.com/....

Re: Gmail Notifr Feedback

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:32:07 -0000

If I could help shape it a little further even, I'd love for it to ask which account to open.

Thanks for the great app!

Re: The Joys of SEO - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:30:31 -0000

Yep, I did the 301s last Thursday as part of the "change of address" thing in Google's webmaster tools. Didn't show up until yesterday still.

I do think a lot of it was caused by a new site showing up with a mirror of the content of the other domain that was already indexed, and then me issuing 301s. Unfortunately due to the legal things happening behind the scenes, I had to have both be independent until Friday night.

Hopefully it will honor the sitemap that says to update daily, and it will pick up my meta changes shortly. That should help give it a flying chance in the search results.

Re: Countdown for iPhone - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:00:50 -0000

Actually this was already implemented in version 1.2. You can individually turn of certain units, so if you want, you can turn off everything except for days.

Re: Site too fast...

Jonathan Johnson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:02:27 -0000

Hear.

Re: Welcome

Jonathan Johnson — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:04:34 -0000

Ah, nope, made it to Twitter though. I wonder how often Facebook imports notes from a feed.

Re: Welcome

Jonathan Johnson — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:03:17 -0000

Muchos Gracias. I assume this means it made it onto Facebook finally :)

Re: Biden a good choice? - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:40:07 -0000

It's propaganda as usual. If you research the bills (all public through the Illinois government site), you can see what was proposed, and see that he is telling the truth.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/...

Re: Biden a good choice? - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:56:02 -0000

You don't have to convince me that the Iraq war is and was a huge mistake, and that we step closer and closer to a police state and fascism everyday. That was a good link you posted with that person's testimony about the situation in Iraq.

When I said that Paul's vision was the most idealistic, I was not saying that as a negative: I meant that his vision is ideal. All I was trying to make a point in saying is that even if Paul was president and could pull the troops out, he would have to do it gradually and with sensitivity to various regions around the world, as we are in some places as humanitarian forces and those people benefit our presence and desire it. I'm sure that's the minority, but all things considered, *all foreign relations* need to be carefully conducted otherwise we always risk blowback.

I saw what Clinton accomplished, although I do agree with Paul's assessment that it's not all Clinton's doing. What I'm even more positive of is that McCain will continue to drag us in the wrong direction, while Obama appears to desire to bring us back in the right direction. Ideally, we'd have Paul who would attempt to tear to shreds so much of our tax code that it would hardly be recognizable when he was done with it. Unfortunately, Paul isn't close to having a majority.

I must admit, I have some faith in Barack's genuineness, which cannot be described by facts alone. I have read both of his books, and discussed him with other people before I had even heard him speak. What can't be argued is that he possesses that similar ability as Paul to unite for an ideal. Barack's ideal is a step towards balancing programs to be more like how they were originally meant to be. Paul's ideal is to strip us of unneeded cruft and get us back to the roots of what our government truly needs to run.

Overall, Paul is my ideal candidate. Obama sits quite a bit below him, and McCain, while better than some other Republicans, sits even further below.

I didn't wait until the main election -- I voted in the primaries for Paul. What I think the real fight is, is to attempt to get people to realize who the candidates for congress are, and what *they* believe in. The President has a lot of power, no doubt, but congress is just as important. I'm going to be doing my due diligence this year and make sure I find the Paulites to support.

Thanks for the in-depth conversation. I wish most people could discuss politics in this tone, rather than resorting to ugliness. While I generally want to write about tech stuff on this blog, my main SDK of choice is under NDA, and I've been doing a lot of political pondering, and am always looking for an outlet.

Re: Biden a good choice? - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:03:04 -0000

That is a good clip. I'm anxious to see how the Rally for the Republic comes out next week. From what I gather, there's a chance more people will be attending that than the convention itself.

Re: Obama being another politician. I would agree with that somewhat, but I haven't seen anything to really counteract that what he speaks about he truly cares about. I've seen a few compromises, but not without what I feel is a pretty reasonable explanation.

I don't quite agree with Paul in saying that their foreign policies are the same. I genuinely believe that Obama will use force as a last resort. Obama is not advocating being aggressive with Iran or Russia. He has repeatedly stated we need to talk with them and let them know how we feel and try to come to an understanding. Obama supported putting 12k troops back into Afghanistan, which I can see both sides. It's our fault for not quite finishing the job we set out to originally because we focused on Iraq. However, the other part of me wants to pull everyone back.

While in theory I agree with no troops anywhere, we need to do it carefully and with cooperation with the governments abroad. If we pull out quickly in an area that their government and people truly want us and need us to help stabilize (peace keeping only), we should comply and help build them up so that we can leave. If we just jet out of every area, some foreign people will hate that (others will love it), and we must take caution not to cause any further conflicts because they felt we wronged them by leaving.

Foreign policy is a hard subject, and even though I want our troops here at home, I also foresee that we can cause blowback by pulling everyone back quickly in areas that may genuinely want us to continue helping out. We are so influential in the world that if we pulled everyone back, there would be significant changes happening nearly overnight.

Comparing to McCain's "I need a draft to have enough troops to operate my foreign policy", Obama's is much more sensible. Paul's is the most idealistic, but even he wouldn't be able to just pull the plug overnight without causing a lot of grief.

Re: Biden a good choice? - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:39:10 -0000

Wow, thank you for the thoughtful response. I'm glad I was able to spread the word about Paul to at least one person. Let me reiterate: my wife and I are Paul supporters, and I will be watching congressmen and women here for their views, and voting with my heart there.

On the national level, the two party system is a joke. I already know about Barr (not about Baldwin though) and Nader. However, Barr and Nader will not be in the debates, and I don't think any of them will have any bearing on the national election except to disrupt people who are normally republican to not vote for McCain.

The election system needs major reform. Candidates should be able to debate if they can meet a criteria that is enough to show a possibility of being popular (ie, let's say a petition with 100,000 signatures, although that's an arbitrary number). Unfortunately, the news stations have no interest in supporting third parties, and so no national debates will include the third parties for the foreseeable future. Without another debate forum happening that is an independent source, we can't get national coverage that is needed.

Additionally, the two candidates have no interest in including third parties: why dilute the vote further?

Basically, I'm fed up with the electoral system as it is today, and I feel it needs reform. However, I don't see any hope for getting anyone except McCain or Obama elected. Essentially, I'm anit-McCain, which leaves me slightly for Obama in the sense that I feel he's the only route to not having McCain elected.

It's sad that it's come to this. I know people who say they are just going to write in someone, Hillary for example, and I applaud them for doing it. But until the nation as a whole is exposed to the idea that you can vote for people who aren't listed on the ticket, or until we can get national coverage for the third parties that actually do get on the tickets, we're stuck. I will do whatever I can to see election reform take place, by voting for congressmen and women that believe in liberty and freedom, and not for strictly voting party lines.

I signed up for Campaign for Liberty, and should probably dedicate a post to it to spread the word. To this date, my only contributions have been to Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. I most likely will not donate to Obama, unless the poll numbers are actually very close.

I'm starting to lose track of this post, as it's really long also. The basic conclusion is that I have no hope for third parties (except on a local and state level) during this election, simply because the reform needs to take place to get the information out about them. This isn't happening on a national level with the most common form of media: TV. Because of my hopelessness of the situation with third parties, I do feel it's only a race between Obama and McCain, and I feel so strongly about McCain being a horrible choice for president, I would try to help Obama out if I could.

Isn't that just sad?

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:18:59 -0000

So, the volume of my app is controlled by the ringer volume. If your ringer volume is up loud, the app will be loud. If it's down to nothing, you will not hear anything.

I can't find anywhere on the phone to turn off any other sounds that may affect my app. Even if I turn off all sounds, as long as my ringer volume is on, I can hear the metronome.

I'm at least relieved somewhat that it's not just my problem. My next version will fix this issue, as it is a side effect of moving to different APIs that allow me to control my volume.

Sorry for the inconvenience and my inability to figure out what's wrong.

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:34:09 -0000

And all of your other third party applications function with sound? I'm not using any crazy APIs to play the sound, so I can't think of any reason why it would work on my phone and many, many others, but not on yours.

I will be rewriting part of the code that plays the sounds to allow me better control over volume, so that may fix it for you, but if you'd rather not wait and chance it (and I don't blame you), I would contact Apple for a refund (which can be done through your account page in the iTunes store).

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:19:09 -0000

Unfortunately I'm out of ideas. This is the first report I've had of this. I would suggest deleting the app and reinstalling it, perhaps even re-downloading it in iTunes (Apple will not charge you if you "purchase" it again, it will recognize that you had already bought it).

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:48:12 -0000

Is the red dot flashing? To turn on the metronome, you need to click the Play button.

Re: Countdown for iPhone - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:23:43 -0000

It's possible, but currently it automatically rearranges based on how much time is left. If I allowed manual reordering, I would have to disable the auto-sorting. I'll have to think about it.

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:16:31 -0000

Do you have an iPod Touch or an iPhone?

If you have an iPhone, is the silent switch on? Metronome honors the silent switch. If not, you can use the volume buttons to increase the volume.

If you're on an iPod Touch, the noise will only be audible through the headphones. In the next version I'm investigating being able to make the click noise instead, but there are various difficulties with that and can not promise anything.

I hope this helps.

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:13:14 -0000

It does support years already, but 1.2 which should be out this week (just waiting for Apple's approval) will add easier to use buttons to set the year and month without scrolling a lot.

Thank you for your support and feedback.

Re: Countdown for iPhone - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:24:45 -0000

Unfortunately, the Calendar API is private on the iPhone, so we can't access the user's calendars.

However, I've thought about making it easy to add a birthday from one of your contacts.

Thank you for the kind replies. I'll hopefully have it all sorted out by the end of next week!

Re: Countdown for iPhone - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:06:54 -0000

Yep, it's coming back in 1.3 as an option on each event. 1.2 is pending in the app store, and hopefully will be out by Friday. I'm hoping to have 1.3 out by next Friday.

I'm not sure what's causing the hourglass to always be full. In 1.1, it should the hourglass should measure from when the event was created until the event date. In 1.0, it was always a scale of 365 days. Perhaps the date created logic is messed up?

Re: Countdown for iPhone - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:12:55 -0000

Thank you. The list view is a great idea.

Translating is also a good idea. I've been putting it off until I know I've written all the text for all the features I can anticipate. Perhaps after 1.3, I'll be ready to get it translated :)

Re: Group and organize your iTunes sales stats - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:40:58 -0000

I'll try to get this done in the next few days.

Re: Group and organize your iTunes sales stats - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:40:02 -0000

I don't know if I have the true answer, but while your update is pending, you can change the release date on the Pricing tab. However, my latest update I didn't change it, and it still showed up in the latest lists.

Re: Countdown for iPhone - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:04:33 -0000

Thank you for the feedback. As of this time, it's not a choice, but I am planning on adding it in a future version. I've already submitted version 1.2 to Apple, so it won't be in the next update, but I'll aim to have this in by 1.3. I also know some people want to see the number of Weeks left until a date (such as during a pregnancy), so that will be a choice also.

Re: Application Support - Jonathan Johnson's Blog

Jonathan Johnson — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:12:35 -0000

It's based on the system volume. You should be able to just turn up the volume on your phone.