Super Hi Res Monitor

I spent a rather dumb amount of time recently trying to get my MacBook Pro to display more than 1920x1440 on my external 27" monitor. At that resolution, I'm just not taking very good advantage of the size of the monitor. In FileMaker (and other apps) having the higher resolution allows you to deal with multiple windows and palette windows more effectively.

It turned out that my monitor simply wasn't capable of displaying anything higher than that resolution.

I decided to get rid of my old monitor and purchased an Asus monitor capable of displaying 2560x1440. It was a little expensive, but now I'm really enjoying the additional screen real estate, particularly in FileMaker when I'm using the debugger and data viewer.

-- John Newhoff

Insert From URL

We’ve recently been working on a project for a company in Seattle that you'll all be familiar with -- Space Needle. Yes, it's a company, as well as a large pointy building. Space Needle runs the eponymously named structure, as well as the Chihuly Garden of Glass nearby.

Working with the folks at Space Needle, we are developing an iPad FileMaker Go application for their managers to use to document the status of the grounds, staffing, service, etc., so that they can have objective information about their overall quality of service over time.

One of the pieces of data to be gathered is the weather conditions each day. In order to standardize how this data is gathered, we decided to try and obtain it from an internet source. 

A little research at the Programmable Web turned up Weather Underground as a good-looking option. They have an extensive API for obtaining weather data, and one of their weather reporting stations is only a few blocks away from the Space Needle.

Utilizing the Insert From URL script step introduced in FileMaker 12, we created a button that allows the manager to insert the current weather. The data returned from the Weather Underground API is in JSON, which is fairly easily parsed. The API returns a lot of data, from which we parsed out the sky conditions and the high/low temps.

Upon further discussion with our client, it turned out that a button to capture the current weather was not necessarily ideal, since the weather can vary considerably through the day. We looked back at the data available from Weather Underground, and in addition to current conditions, they have an API call for getting weather history, so we may choose now to standardize on capturing the daily weather observation at a consistent time of day, rather than whenever the manager happens to click the weather button.

The Insert From URL script step is a powerful new feature in FileMaker Pro 12.

Google Maps App Release

It seemed like nothing could be more thrilling to iPhone users than the release of Google Maps new app for the iPhone Wednesday night. The app quickly shot to the top of the downloads in the app store. If you have held back from upgrading to iOS 6.0 because of Apple maps, now is the time to upgrade.

Besides having much more accurate directions and maps, some perks of the new app are:

• Voice guided turn by turn navigation - just like Apple maps.
• New Google Maps SDK allows developers to integrate with other apps.
• Google has partnered with Yelp and Zagat so entering a business will now reveal more than just the location.
• Detailed public transportation directions.

One of my personal grievances with Apple maps is that once you have begun the voice guided navigation, there’s no easy way to get a greater overview of the map. It keeps you only in the next hundred feet ahead unless you display the header area with the overview button. With the Google maps app, you can easily pause the directions by tapping inside the map to view any other part of the route. When you are ready to resume, simply hit the resume button.

My Initial Experience with Windows 8

With Windows 8, Microsoft has made a rather dramatic departure from the user interface of prior versions. The general understanding is that Microsoft is trying to create an integrated operating system that will work well for users on newer touch sensitive tablet devices, as well as more traditional desktop environments.

I have yet to use Windows 8 on a tablet device, and so I might not be Microsoft’s idea of an ideal target user, but I think I’m probably very typical of a technically capable Windows 7 user.

My first use of Windows 8 was to install it on a virtual machine on my Mac laptop, using VMWare Fusion. I wanted to test whether or not FileMaker 6 (obsolete for 8 years now) worked under Windows 8. The new operating system installed on the VM without any trouble, and I was then able to install FileMaker 6, which installed fine and in the limited testing I did seemed to work ok. I created a few records and printed a simple layout.

I can’t say that this initial experience with Windows 8 made me a big fan. As an experienced Windows 7 user, I really don’t like having to re-learn where to access features that I’ve known how to use for years. Windows 8 boots up into a new tile based interface (shown in screen capture above) and you have to click a tile to get to the traditional desktop. Once there, you no longer have a ‘Start’ menu, so you have to re-learn how to open applications, access control panel functions, etc… 

My second experience with Windows 8 was significantly worse. I made the seriously incorrect assumption that I could purchase a Windows 8 mini-tower and downgrade it to Windows 7. After several hours of messing with this, I finally decided to give up, get rid of the Windows 8 system, and order a system with Windows 7 pre-installed. Just getting past the ‘secure boot’ feature in Windows 8 in order to boot from the Windows 7 installer DVD took me over an hour. 

I sound like a luddite, even to myself, but I’ll be sticking with Windows 7 for quite some time. 

--John Newhoff

Lost iPad

About six months ago I misplaced my iPad. Not a terribly unusual event, I have an unfortunate tendency to lose things occasionally (ok, some might say frequently). Usually they turn up again pretty quickly. In this case though I could not find it anywhere. I had just returned from a business trip to Eastern Washington, and I thought I must have left it in a hotel or coffee shop (check out Pioneer Coffee in Cle Elum next time you’re there, great coffee shop). 

So, out comes ‘Find My iPad’ which should magically tell me right where the missing device could be found. I’ve used it many times to locate my iPhone around the house. If you have a Mac laptop or an iOS device, I strongly encourage you to get an iCloud account so you can use this feature when needed.

Unfortunately, my iPad appeared to be offline and couldn’t be found. I called the last hotel I stayed at, but they said they couldn’t find it.

I finally decided to send a remote wipe command to it, hoping to prevent any of my data from being available to anyone that might find the iPad (this can also be done through your iCloud account).

I ended up figuring that some tech savvy person had found it and re-initialized it in the week between when I lost it and when I sent the remote wipe command.

Well, I’m embarrassed (and glad) to say that the iPad turned up this week. I had apparently fallen asleep watching Netflix and the battery drained all the way and the iPad slid behind the bed. This was at our family’s vacation place on Whidbey Island (available as a vacation rental), so I’m not there that often and with the battery dead, Find my iPad couldn’t find it.

So, the lesson here… Don’t wait for your iPad’s battery to run all the way down before you decide to lose it.

--John Newhoff

(oh, and a big thank you to my sister, Mary, who outdid iCloud and actually found my iPad).