Jeffrey C. Long

In the interest of reinvigerating my posting on my site, I’m giving a short mac-centric tech report. The first is Sound Source, the second is Kung Log and I conclude with a brief commentary on how my use of technology is changing.

Today, I installed the small program Sound Sourcefrom Rogue Amoeba Software. It’s simple purpose is …

Today, I installed the small program Sound Sourcefrom Rogue Amoeba Software. It’s simple purpose is …to provide a quick menu for switching audio routing for input, output and system sounds.

The importance to me, and other pro audio users is that when you have pro audio monitors set up with a digital audio card, your system sounds can be deafening. I’ve quite nearly cried a few times after being assaulted by an error sound. Sound Source has solved this by routing system sounds back to the system speaker and away from my reference monitors.

The second tech tool report of the day, is that I am posting this using Kung Log an offline client for posting to Typepad, Moveable Type and Blogger. I think it’s cool.

There is a philosophy at play here for me. I try as much as possible to keep a lot of my data as portable as possible, usually using online resources for storing addressbook, mail, and files. That way, they are available to me at both home, work, or on the road. However, I’ve noticed a few limitations. The first was that if the network at either place went down, I no longer had access to my calendar and address book. The second was that even though I had the materials portable, I couldn’t access them unless I was near a computer.

My solution is that I’m working on programs that are client-centric, i.e. they run from the computer and then syncronize with the web. My previous model was server-centric, i.e. the programs ran from the server. Kung-Log is an example of this. It is a client on a computer that posts to the Typepad server.

The real test though, will be when I push “publish” does this wind up on the site. We’ll find out. (cross your fingers)