I’m John C Bland II

Husband, Father, Tech Author, Deacon.
Founder of Katapult Media, and full-stack polyglot developer.
Political Free Agents Podcast Host.

I create. I launch.

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I post regular fun on YouTube like me playing the bass and anything else I find fun. 

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Hitting our stride with Android by Dan Kim of Basecamp

by | Jun 19, 2015 | Software

We’re rigorous about shipping.Even though our self-imposed two week deadlines are arbitrary, we respect them. We close our to-dos, write release notes, and bring in QA. If we’re going to ship, we’re going to ship like we mean it.

Source: Hitting our stride with Android by Dan Kim of Basecamp

I love that: we’re going to ship like we mean it. Shipping software can be arduous but when you respect your small milestones just as much as your large one’s it becomes natural to ship.

A “shipping stride” feels just like a running stride. When both are done right it’s like smooth poetry. As I always tell clients: “Ship early and often.”

Great read.

Mail in OSX Lion Rocks!

by | Jul 24, 2011 | Software

That is all.

Ok, seriously though it is an excellent upgrade. I keep it full screen and in conversation mode. All I need is an archive button [I use Gmail for all mail accounts] and I’d be set! 🙂

How’s the Mail upgrade for you?

Axosoft OnTime 2008: Worth a look

by | Jun 6, 2008 | Software

If you are looking for a good piece of software for bug tracking, I highly suggest looking at Axosoft’s OnTime. I last used the 2006 version and had numerous issues with it. My biggest issue was licensing. For a small, growing shop, at the time, with contractors coming in and out I didn’t want to keep buying licenses for every contractor that wasn’t a steady contractor. Without that issue, the desktop and web versions were a bit slow at times.

Well, 2008 has fixed the issue of slowness. It is really fast, in comparison, and still very easy to use/setup. The web version is AMAZINGLY better than ’06. It was pretty bad in 06: very slow, not as slick, everything was a refresh (no ajax), etc. I just installed the ’08 Web and I’m pleased.

Anyways…I’m not going to give a feature-by-feature review but thought I’d let folks know they might want to take a look.

Watch the videos and you’ll get a good feel for several of the great features OnTime provides.

BTW, it is “Totally Free” for a single user.

Adobe Photoshop Express Launched

by | Mar 26, 2008 | Flash Platform, Software

I’m not even going to pretend like I know anything about this. I just so happen to be up late and saw “Ryan has a detailed post”:https://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1366 so I registered. Figured I’d share the wealth. The only thing I do know is the entire thing is built in Flex. {Homer’s voice} Hmmmm…sexxxy!

“Check it out here:”https://www.photoshop.com/express/.

Free Flex Builder 3 Pro for Education Registration Site

by | Mar 9, 2008 | Software

I ran across this site on a mailing list and thought I’d help propogate the existence of it. It has been public knowledge for a while so I’m not first to post or anything. 🙂

Anyways…not much to say other than check it out:

“Adobe Flex Builder 3 Pro is available for free to all education customers. This includes all students, faculty and staff of eligible education institutions.”
Source: “https://www.flexregistration.com”:https://www.flexregistration.com/

Picnik.com ROCKS!

by | Feb 28, 2008 | Flash Platform, Software

There isn’t too often I run into an RIA that I can’t break down and come up with numerous feedback emails (which I may or may not send). So…here is my take on “Picnik”:https://www.picnik.com:

IT ROCKS!

I remember seeing the site before but I didn’t pay much attention because I just clicked around a couple times and left. This time I looked at it and actually used it. This is the “general computer user’s” Photoshop online. That is sweet! Now people who need to edit a photo can jump into Picnik, make their edits, and save it to their computer or do a any number of saves (to computer, online service, etc).

Here is a “picture of me and my son (John III) at the Suns game”:https://www.flickr.com/photos/johncblandii/2297997880/ last friday edited on Picnik. Here is the “original picture”:https://www.flickr.com/photos/johncblandii/2286794402/.

Pretty cool huh? Rock on Picnik!!

“Try it for yourself”:https://www.picnik.com!

SQLite Admin Tool

by | Feb 12, 2008 | Software

I found another SQLite admin tool called “SQLite Administrator”:https://sqliteadmin.orbmu2k.de/. This is much more robust (at least it has more icons; lol) than “the last one I chose to use”:https://sqlitebrowser.sourceforge.net/.

If you’re doing AIR dev’, this could be very useful to you. At least it is for me. 😉

Flash Media Server 3 Released

by | Jan 25, 2008 | Software

“https://www.adobe.com/go/fms”:https://www.adobe.com/go/fms

Nothing much to say here other than GO GET IT! This is an amazing release. I’ve been playing with it locally for a bit and streaming files other than flv is kinda sweet. 🙂

Click to Activate…GONE!

by | Nov 11, 2007 | Software

Woo hooo! 🙂

“Back in April 2006, we made a change to how Internet Explorer handled embedded controls used on some webpages. Some sites required users to “click to activate” before they could interact with the control. Microsoft has now licensed the technologies from Eolas, removing the “click to activate” requirement in Internet Explorer. Because of this, we’re removing the “click to activate” behavior from Internet Explorer! ”
– Source: “https://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/11/08/ie-automatic-component-activation-changes-to-ie-activex-update.aspx”:https://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/11/08/ie-automatic-component-activation-changes-to-ie-activex-update.aspx

Great news! I was hoping everyone would have used a JS library to bypass the issue but there are a ton of people still using Object/Embed. Either way…it doesn’t matter anymore! 😉