It’s been a long time coming and I’m pleased to announce the release of Layout Planner: The Only Software Tool for Rapid Design of Unique Paving Stone Layouts.

Designing software can be fun…especially if you don’t need to write the code. Dan at Synclab Consulting has done the heavy-lifting and I’ve expanded my knowledge of Java more than I wanted to. I’ve done my fair share of coding in VBScript, PHP, and Visual Basic for Applications and have come to appreciate loose data type checking. Oh sure, it’s piss-poor from the view of a purist but dealing with Java’s type checking is more than I can bear.

During this time I’ve seen Drupal go from version 4 to 5, built a custom theme (thanks to Cameron at Prolifique), and done some twiddling in PHP to shape things to my liking. Throw in some Greybox AJAX and wrangling of CSS - it’s been quite a party.

In any event the efforts of many a contractor and myself can be seen in Layout Planner. It’s the only software that can quickly design paving stone layouts. Draw a region to scale, choose your pre-cut stone (or bricks with patterns), watch the layout get generated, and save your installation diagram for later use. Grab the Bill of Materials, call your nearest supplier, then spend the day installing your new patio.

How easy is it to use? Think of the those old “paint by numbers” kits where you put a swatch of color onto a canvas wherever a number was found. In our case, place Stone 1 where the diagram shows Stone 1. Stone 2 for Stone 2, and so on.

How fast are layouts created? Once you’ve taken the time to accurately draw an outline of your installation site, just click a button and wait less than 30 seconds. Don’t like the layout? No problem, click a button and another one is created.

The strength of Layout Planner is the ability to design a layout using random stone placement, non-consecutive stone edges, and with minimal waste. It’s a Java application and runs natively on the Mac, Windows, and Linux. Architects can export to AutoCAD. Installers can run on auto-pilot with the installation diagram. Builders save money and time.

If you’re in the business of architecting, building homes, landscape design, stone masonry, or just a DIY’er, take a peek at the Layout Planner web site and sign-up to beta test the product before the general release in mid-March.

When I switched to the Mac most everything I used was compatible except my PhatBox MP3 player. I found a great replacement, PhatMac, but didn’t think the application icon was “Mac” enough. After some twiddling with Photoshop and alpha masks (damned transparent icons!) you can get your copy here.

For web designers in the know this is called the “flash of unstyled content” or FOUC. What happens is IE renders HTML content and applies the style sheet afterward, resulting in a quick transformation into the expected design. Even though the CSS is applied in a flash it’s still perceptible.

I’ve been working with a colleague on a Drupal-powered web site and he got tired of watching FOUC. Here’s his fix.

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blog/canon_xl2.jpgHere’s a consolidated list of hardware, software, and suggestions on low-budget filmmaking. The key word here is low-cost so the gear isn’t the best or the flashiest but if you don’t have a budget, well then, this will need to do.

Original article found on TUAW.

After a few weeks of development I’m pleased to announce the launch of the new web site for the California Democratic Council. It’s hundreds of lines of PHP and MySQL code wrapped into a sophisticated CMS and data management system.

Too bad no one can see the code. I swear it’s really good… Many thanks to Cameron without whose committment to quality the site wouldn’t be what it is.