Mon - June 14, 2004
Peter is a married man, single ladies everywhere shed a tear
So once again I will start an
entry with an apology for not having put any new information up here in a long
time. I must also apologize for taking so long with the next version of The
Unread which is in the works and nearing completion. Lots of people have
written in reporting bugs (mostly the same ones) and I haven't written them back
because I've been so busy the last few months. I usually try to respond to all
my emails in a timely manner so to all those people who haven't heard from me,
I'm sorry.
So once again I will start an entry
with an apology for not having put any new information up here in a long time.
I must also apologize for taking so long with the next version of The Unread
which is in the works and nearing completion. Lots of people have written in
reporting bugs (mostly the same ones) and I haven't written them back because
I've been so busy the last few months. I usually try to respond to all my
emails in a timely manner so to all those people who haven't heard from me, I'm
sorry.
I hope everyone will forgive me and understand. The main reason I've been so busy is because I got married about a month ago and went on my honeymoon! I took a ton of pictures (my wife got me an awesome new digital camera -- a Sony DSC-F717 -- for the wedding. I got her an iPod Mini) and I have put some of the better ones up on my .Mac site if anyone is interested in taking a gander. Here's one of my favorites:
So now that the wedding and honeymoon are both over, things are calming down a bit and I've been working on The Unread. I am completely overhauling the stuff behind the scenes, especially the preference handling. There is a bug in the current version that causes it to "forget" your preferences sometimes. For some people it happens rarely and for others it happens almost every time it is started. That's bad. It will be fixed in the next version. I'm also adding some new features so you can look forward to that if you are a user of The Unread. I hope to have it finished in a week or two because...
I'M GOING TO WWDC!
That's right! I've always wanted to attend Apple's World Wide Developer Conference but I never had the money. This year, I applied for a student scholarship to the conference and I got one! All I have to do is get myself to San Francisco, the scholarship covers the conference pass (which are expensive). It starts on June 28th and runs through the 2nd of July. It should be a lot of fun and I should learn a lot of stuff, too. I'll report back here when I return or perhaps even while I'm there.
I hope everyone will forgive me and understand. The main reason I've been so busy is because I got married about a month ago and went on my honeymoon! I took a ton of pictures (my wife got me an awesome new digital camera -- a Sony DSC-F717 -- for the wedding. I got her an iPod Mini) and I have put some of the better ones up on my .Mac site if anyone is interested in taking a gander. Here's one of my favorites:
So now that the wedding and honeymoon are both over, things are calming down a bit and I've been working on The Unread. I am completely overhauling the stuff behind the scenes, especially the preference handling. There is a bug in the current version that causes it to "forget" your preferences sometimes. For some people it happens rarely and for others it happens almost every time it is started. That's bad. It will be fixed in the next version. I'm also adding some new features so you can look forward to that if you are a user of The Unread. I hope to have it finished in a week or two because...
I'M GOING TO WWDC!
That's right! I've always wanted to attend Apple's World Wide Developer Conference but I never had the money. This year, I applied for a student scholarship to the conference and I got one! All I have to do is get myself to San Francisco, the scholarship covers the conference pass (which are expensive). It starts on June 28th and runs through the 2nd of July. It should be a lot of fun and I should learn a lot of stuff, too. I'll report back here when I return or perhaps even while I'm there.
Posted at 02:31 PM
Mon - April 26, 2004
The Unread gets a significant upgrade.
HUGE upgrade to The
Unread!
I've just released a new version of
The
Unread that has a LOT of new features and bug fixes. Too many for me
to mention here but believe you me it's a big upgrade. Read about all the new
stuff in the Version
History.
Posted at 02:49 PM
Sat - April 24, 2004
New look, same great taste!
SchartWorks Software and
Films undergoes a massive facelift.
First off, I know I NEVER update this
blog - perhaps I'm just not a blog person, but I'll try to do better. There is
a lot of stuff in the works at SchartWorks so I might actually have interesting
stuff to put here... Not that anybody reads it (you do?! let me
know).
Now that that's out of the way, you probably noticed our great new website on your way to this blog. Unless you have it bookmarked for some reason (YOU DO?! Seek psychiatric help. Soon). I freakin' love the new design and the new logo.
If you've been around for a while, you're probably thinking to yourself, "How could it be that the person responsible for the horrendous graphics in the first versions of Cocoa Poker and DooZee was able to make such pleasing and high quality graphics for this new version of schartworks.com? Well, I didn't.
I WISH I could take the credit, believe me I do. I would like nothing better than to have the skills needed to pump out some quality graphics like these but I can't. I can admit it. I'm a big boy.
The real man-behind-the-scenes is frequent SchartWorks contributor, Matt Bowmer [new window] (who, in addition to being a spectacular graphic artist, is also a member of an awesome band from the U.K. - The Illuminations [new window]). As I mentioned, Matt has contributed many times to various SchartWorks products, most notably the graphics for DooZee, and over the year or so since he first emailed me we have become pretty good friends - if I dare say so myself.
Anyway, a month or so ago I got an email from him saying, "I was looking at your site and thought it looked to grey. Would you mind if I redesigned it for you?" Uh... No. I would LOVE it if you redesigned it for me! And so he did.
So I've spent most of this weekend updating the site and moving all the pages to the new look. I sincerely hope everyone likes it because I think Matt did a hell of a job and I can't thank him enough. Thanks Matt!
I also have a few big updates to some of my apps getting ready to roll out in the next few days but I wanted to get the new site up first so that downloaders could get a taste and maybe provide some feedback. So look for a LARGE update to The Unread VERY soon as well as a bug fix release of Cocoa Poker (improper straight/straight flush recognition fixed). Later you'll finally witness the release of the much vaunted Triple DooZee, but that's a bit in the future. We also have a couple brand spanking new apps threatening to be ready for prime time, so keep an eye out.
thanks for listening,
peter schart
P.S. You may also have noticed the new Donate page... Even if you don't have any plans to donate, I'd ask you to go read the page and find out why I put it up before you decide that I'm just pimping myself for small change. :)
Now that that's out of the way, you probably noticed our great new website on your way to this blog. Unless you have it bookmarked for some reason (YOU DO?! Seek psychiatric help. Soon). I freakin' love the new design and the new logo.
If you've been around for a while, you're probably thinking to yourself, "How could it be that the person responsible for the horrendous graphics in the first versions of Cocoa Poker and DooZee was able to make such pleasing and high quality graphics for this new version of schartworks.com? Well, I didn't.
I WISH I could take the credit, believe me I do. I would like nothing better than to have the skills needed to pump out some quality graphics like these but I can't. I can admit it. I'm a big boy.
The real man-behind-the-scenes is frequent SchartWorks contributor, Matt Bowmer [new window] (who, in addition to being a spectacular graphic artist, is also a member of an awesome band from the U.K. - The Illuminations [new window]). As I mentioned, Matt has contributed many times to various SchartWorks products, most notably the graphics for DooZee, and over the year or so since he first emailed me we have become pretty good friends - if I dare say so myself.
Anyway, a month or so ago I got an email from him saying, "I was looking at your site and thought it looked to grey. Would you mind if I redesigned it for you?" Uh... No. I would LOVE it if you redesigned it for me! And so he did.
So I've spent most of this weekend updating the site and moving all the pages to the new look. I sincerely hope everyone likes it because I think Matt did a hell of a job and I can't thank him enough. Thanks Matt!
I also have a few big updates to some of my apps getting ready to roll out in the next few days but I wanted to get the new site up first so that downloaders could get a taste and maybe provide some feedback. So look for a LARGE update to The Unread VERY soon as well as a bug fix release of Cocoa Poker (improper straight/straight flush recognition fixed). Later you'll finally witness the release of the much vaunted Triple DooZee, but that's a bit in the future. We also have a couple brand spanking new apps threatening to be ready for prime time, so keep an eye out.
thanks for listening,
peter schart
P.S. You may also have noticed the new Donate page... Even if you don't have any plans to donate, I'd ask you to go read the page and find out why I put it up before you decide that I'm just pimping myself for small change. :)
Posted at 11:58 PM
SchartWorks Films
Well, we've kind of been
making films for a while now, but we're consolidating things a bit and now we've
got our software and films all under one
banner.
That's right. SchartWorks now
encompasses not just great Mac OS X software but also films. Pickins are a bit
slim right now but there is sure to be more to come. We've got four short films
up for your viewing enjoyment right now with one more in post-production and one
scheduled to go into production tomorrow. You'll have to wait for those, but
for now you can feast your eyes on one of
these:
People Vs. Rommel - Some impromptu footage of my dog, Rommel, and my cat, People, that I shot and decided to edit into a semi-coherent action/comedy when I got Final Cut Pro [new window] late last year. I like this movie a lot.
Imperfection (Super8) - This one is a short claymation film about not quite getting it right. This was made for my first film production class at SIU [new window] and is my first real attempt at stop-motion as well as my first foray into actual Film - shot on Super8 black and white reversal stock. I was fairly happy with the results.
Imperfection (DV) - This is basically the same film as above but this version was shot on a friend's Canon XL1 (a SWEET MiniDV camera) and thus has slightly different angles and was edited a bit differently. It shows the color of the puppets I made very well.
Cleaner - This is another school project. Again shot with B&W reversal stock. It's something of a documentary about my soon-to-be-wife's father's dry cleaning business. While perhaps a bit slow I was happy with the way it turned out (exposure, framing, editing, etc...).
Anyway, check them out if you've got a few minutes (and some bandwidth) to spare. Don't forget to check back for my next two films. I'll tease you a little bit and just reveal their titles: The one in post-production is entitled "Boonga" and the one I am planning to start filming tomorrow is (tentatively) called "Hunger." One more teaser: "Hunger" is another claymation project and I am expecting much better results this time around.
Cheers!
People Vs. Rommel - Some impromptu footage of my dog, Rommel, and my cat, People, that I shot and decided to edit into a semi-coherent action/comedy when I got Final Cut Pro [new window] late last year. I like this movie a lot.
Imperfection (Super8) - This one is a short claymation film about not quite getting it right. This was made for my first film production class at SIU [new window] and is my first real attempt at stop-motion as well as my first foray into actual Film - shot on Super8 black and white reversal stock. I was fairly happy with the results.
Imperfection (DV) - This is basically the same film as above but this version was shot on a friend's Canon XL1 (a SWEET MiniDV camera) and thus has slightly different angles and was edited a bit differently. It shows the color of the puppets I made very well.
Cleaner - This is another school project. Again shot with B&W reversal stock. It's something of a documentary about my soon-to-be-wife's father's dry cleaning business. While perhaps a bit slow I was happy with the way it turned out (exposure, framing, editing, etc...).
Anyway, check them out if you've got a few minutes (and some bandwidth) to spare. Don't forget to check back for my next two films. I'll tease you a little bit and just reveal their titles: The one in post-production is entitled "Boonga" and the one I am planning to start filming tomorrow is (tentatively) called "Hunger." One more teaser: "Hunger" is another claymation project and I am expecting much better results this time around.
Cheers!
Posted at 11:53 PM
Tue - December 30, 2003
New Utility: The Unread!
SchartWorks Software is
pleased to announce its latest product, The Unread!
That's right, there's a
brand-spanking new download here at SchartWorks Software and it's called The
Unread. Not the most complicated of programs, it simply adds a customizable
status item to your menu bar that tells you if (and if so, how many) unread
messages are in your Mail accounts. It's simple, highly customizable, and (in
my humble opinion) useful. Check it
out.
In other news, work on the 1.0 version of DooZee is progressing well, but it's going to be a while. I'm re-writing much of the code because, well... just because I'm a little bit smarter now than I was when I started DooZee and I think I can make some improvements, if only behind the scenes - in a manner of speaking. It's also going to have a very nice new look to it courtesy of a DooZee-fan-cum-SchartWorks-collaborator. Of course, the biggest noticeable change (aside from the new look) will be the option to play "Triple DooZee". If you don't know what that could mean, stay tuned, it will become clear soon enough.
Last but not least, I have a secret new game in the just-beyond-planning stages of development. I've told a few people about the idea but I'll be making the announcement soon as well as possibly posting some early screenshots of this game - the likes of which are heretofore uncharted on the Macintosh platform (I didn't research that statement, so it could be poppycock).
In other news, work on the 1.0 version of DooZee is progressing well, but it's going to be a while. I'm re-writing much of the code because, well... just because I'm a little bit smarter now than I was when I started DooZee and I think I can make some improvements, if only behind the scenes - in a manner of speaking. It's also going to have a very nice new look to it courtesy of a DooZee-fan-cum-SchartWorks-collaborator. Of course, the biggest noticeable change (aside from the new look) will be the option to play "Triple DooZee". If you don't know what that could mean, stay tuned, it will become clear soon enough.
Last but not least, I have a secret new game in the just-beyond-planning stages of development. I've told a few people about the idea but I'll be making the announcement soon as well as possibly posting some early screenshots of this game - the likes of which are heretofore uncharted on the Macintosh platform (I didn't research that statement, so it could be poppycock).
Posted at 05:14 PM
Tue - November 25, 2003
The latest goings on at SchartWorks...
It's been a while since this
site has had an update but it's finally here.
So, yeah, it's been a while. I've
been a busy guy lately. I am back in school full-time and, up until
very
recently, I was still working 30+
hours a week. That didn't leave me with much time for much of anything else.
blah blah blah, I know, "Excuses, excuses..." but things are different now and
I'm getting back into the swing of things, so to speak. Here's everything
that's new:
New versions of all current programs.
DooZee is now at 0.9 beta 3, a few bugs were fixed and it has been compiled with Xcode and runs well in Panther on all machines it has been tested on. This will likely be the last beta version and 1.0 should be out in the not-too-distant future. 1.0 is going to be a significant update most notably including new graphics and a "Triple DooZee" option (play 3 games at once). Keep an eye out. I'm still hoping to get networking in the game, but I don't have any experience with network code so it could be a while.
Cocoa Poker is now at 1.6.1, mainly a maintenance release. I think I've finally nailed the duplicate card bug (which caused some hands that looked to be winners not get recognized) and it, too, is now compiled with Xcode and should run in Panther.
DropCT is now at 0.9 beta 1, a significant improvement over the previous betas, it now includes a drawer that holds a list of user-defined codes that can be stored and applied to files with just a few clicks. It also now has the ability to *get* the codes of dropped files (and store them in the above mentioned list) which makes it easy to find the right codes for the job.
Other than that, I've got a few projects in the early planning/beginning stages of development categories. More on that as they get nearer to completion.
Also, I got engaged! I'm marrying the most wonderful woman on the planet (she happens to be a Mac Addict, just like yours truly!) on May 15th of 2004. Don't ask me how I managed it, I'm still trying to figure that out myself, but rest assured that I am in love, love, love. Here's a picture of myself and the love of my life, Ellen:
New versions of all current programs.
DooZee is now at 0.9 beta 3, a few bugs were fixed and it has been compiled with Xcode and runs well in Panther on all machines it has been tested on. This will likely be the last beta version and 1.0 should be out in the not-too-distant future. 1.0 is going to be a significant update most notably including new graphics and a "Triple DooZee" option (play 3 games at once). Keep an eye out. I'm still hoping to get networking in the game, but I don't have any experience with network code so it could be a while.
Cocoa Poker is now at 1.6.1, mainly a maintenance release. I think I've finally nailed the duplicate card bug (which caused some hands that looked to be winners not get recognized) and it, too, is now compiled with Xcode and should run in Panther.
DropCT is now at 0.9 beta 1, a significant improvement over the previous betas, it now includes a drawer that holds a list of user-defined codes that can be stored and applied to files with just a few clicks. It also now has the ability to *get* the codes of dropped files (and store them in the above mentioned list) which makes it easy to find the right codes for the job.
Other than that, I've got a few projects in the early planning/beginning stages of development categories. More on that as they get nearer to completion.
Also, I got engaged! I'm marrying the most wonderful woman on the planet (she happens to be a Mac Addict, just like yours truly!) on May 15th of 2004. Don't ask me how I managed it, I'm still trying to figure that out myself, but rest assured that I am in love, love, love. Here's a picture of myself and the love of my life, Ellen:
Posted at 04:12 PM
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Published On: Jun 14, 2004 02:32 PM
Published On: Jun 14, 2004 02:32 PM