Wally Wang's Apple Farm
“RSS Feeds and the Mac”
by Wally Wang

If you like reading the latest news, you may not want to keep visiting your favorite Web site over and over again. As a more convenient alternative, sign up for a Web site's RSS (Really Simple Syndication, one of many definitions for this acronym) feeds. An RSS feed simply provides you with a list of the latest articles from a Web site. Now instead of visiting that site, you can just skim through your RSS feeds on your computer to catch up with the latest news.

There are two common ways to retrieve RSS feeds: through Safari or Mail. With Safari, you're essentially bookmarking a page of RSS feeds. Whenever an RSS feed gets new articles, Safari's bookmark displays a number identifying all the new articles available.

To find the RSS feed of a Web site, just search in your favorite search engine (such as Google) and look for "CNN RSS Feeds" (substituting "CNN" for the name of your favorite Web site). Remember, not all Web sites offer RSS feeds.

Click on the link to display the Web page containing the RSS feeds, and then bookmark that page. Now whenever you want to check if your favorite Web site has something new to read, view your bookmark and you'll see the number of new articles appearing in parentheses.



A second way to retrieve RSS feeds is through the Mail program. Just load Mail and from the File menu choose Add RSS Feeds. This displays a dialog where you can select the RSS feeds you want to retrieve. Selecting one or more feeds now displays those feeds as separate messages in the Mail window.




Back before the days of video games, many people enjoyed playing paper war games that involved a printed map overlaid with hexagons, and cardboard counters that represented anything from infantry divisions and airplanes to battleships or dragons.

Although today's video games allow real-time action against computer-controlled opponents, many people still enjoy the old-fashioned paper wargames, since their turn-based play forces you to think rather than merely react with the best eye-hand coordination.

Such paper war games still exist from Decision Games, but buying these games typically means trying to find an opponent to play against. To solve this problem, a company called HexWar has come to the rescue.



HexWar lets you choose from a variety of war games, from the Civil War to World War II. Instead of pushing cardboard counters around on a paper map, you get to push counters on a computer map. Even better, with so many people subscribing to HexWar, you're sure to find an opponent to play against, whether in the next state or in another country.

One unique feature of HexWar is that if you play multiple games, you may soon lose track of which pieces your opponent has moved. To refresh your memory, each game lets you play back the past moves so you can see what your opponent has done. By playing against human opponents, you'll always be challenged by the different playing styles that a computer opponent can never match.

Playing a game in HexWar is like playing a chess game by mail. You don't have to be playing in real-time. Instead, you can make a move, wait until your opponent logs in and makes his move, and then you can take your time making your next move.

Originally, HexWar created its war games using Visual Basic 6.0, which meant that only Windows users could play their games. As Keith Martin-Smith, the gamemaster of HexWar says, "We started with Visual Basic 6.0 as it seemed a very good idea at the time. It could do almost everything we wanted it to do and [we] could buy off-the-shelf controls for things it could not. It gave us rapid development and low costs, and for a small business that was a winner."
 
The problem with Visual Basic 6.0 was that Microsoft stopped developing it and switched to VB.Net, which dramatically changed the Visual Basic language. Another problem with Visual Basic 6.0 was that it created only Windows programs.

Keith says, "We moved to REALbasic for a number of reasons. I always knew that VB 6.0 was a dead duck and did not have a long-term future. I was tired of Microsoft DLL hell whenever [a] user's installation hit problems."

(DLL hell is a term coined by programmers, which occurs when every program installs a different version of a DLL file on a computer. Programs that rely on one version of a DLL file often refuse to work with a newer version of that same DLL file, which is one reason why Windows programs can be so fragile and crash-prone.)

To keep HexWar up to date, Keith and his team of programmers had a choice. They could update their Visual Basic 6.0 program to the latest VB.Net. Or they could update their program to REALbasic.

After testing, they realized that not only was it easier to switch to REALbasic than VB.Net, but REALbasic also gave them the chance to create both a Macintosh and Windows version of their programs without any additional work.

"The last point was decisive," Keith said. "As a small business, if we can get 10 percent extra customers for 1 percent extra effort, that's a major improvement in cash flow and profitability."

Despite starting as a Windows-only program, HexWar now expects that Macintosh users will make up 15 percent of its customer base by 2009, and that number will likely continue to grow.

When asked about his company's recent change from Visual Basic 6.0 to REALbasic, Keith gave these highlights:
 
• Creating Macintosh versions of their programs takes almost zero extra effort.
• The IDE (Integrated Development Editor) and debugger are excellent.
• The graphics capability (2-D) is excellent for the strategy type of games. We can do so much more than we ever could with Visual Basic.
• We use Monkey Bread Software Plug-Ins, and so far they have filled every gap in our needs.
• I love the fact that I can work on a PC (Windows Vista), and run, test and build a Macintosh application.

To learn more about HexWar and its online war-game community, drop by the Web site and play a trial game. After seeing the games in action on your computer (Windows or Macintosh), you'll see the power of REALbasic. Now imagine what your good idea could look like running as a Windows and Macintosh program that you could sell to others.


If the first thing you do every time you turn on your Macintosh is check your e-mail or run any other program, here's a shortcut. Rather than turn on your Macintosh and then load your favorite program, why not make your favorite program start up automatically?

Here's what you need to do. Click the Apple menu and choose System Preferences. When a Preferences dialog appears, click the Accounts icon under the System group.

Click on your account in the left panel and then click the Login Items tab. This displays a list of programs that start up automatically every time you turn on your Macintosh.



Click on a program in this list and click the minus sign icon to keep that program from starting automatically. Or click the plus sign icon and when a dialog sheet drops down, and dig through your folders until you can find and click on the program you want to load automatically.