Just posted Path Finder 5.1.0. Fixed lots of bugs and made many improvements as usual.

Working on 5.1.1 now which should be out in a few weeks.

-steve

I posted Path Finder 5.0.9 a few days ago. Seems to be working great so check for updates if you haven't already updated.

I'm busy working on the next release which should be ready in a few weeks.

Thanks!

-steve

Just posted a 5.0.8.

I found the problem and it was with some code added for ExpanDrive compatibility. I'll have to fix that for 5.0.9. Everything else should work great though.

Sorry for the 5.0.7 confusion. The bug wasn't really my fault, some weird OS bug caused by some unix calls I was making to get the Expandrive volumes. Should have been OK, but has side effects.

Now working on 5.0.9

Thanks!

-steve

There have been a small number of reports of "sluggishness" with 5.0.7, so it's been temporarily pulled off the server. I'll have a 5.0.8 as soon as I can figure out what the problem is.

It works fine for most people, but others are seeing slowness and hangs.

If you want to revert back to 5.0.6, download it again, but if things are working great then continue to use 5.0.7. I only pulled 5.0.7 to keep people from updating and having sluggish performance.

Stay tuned.

Thanks,

-steve

I released Path Finder 5.0.7 on Monday, so "Check for Updates" if you haven't gotten it already.

One big problem I fixed was a crash using the Application Launcher window. The Application Launcher window uses core animation, but it crashes on machines equipped with NVIDIA graphics cards. I spent weeks emailing Apple hoping they would fix it, but after not getting any answers I went out and bought an NVIDIA card for my Mac Pro and discovered a simple work around. I apologize to everyone who had to wait to get this fixed. I assumed since it was crashing in the video driver that there was nothing I could do on my end. Luckily it was easy to work around.

I'm now working on 5.0.8. So expect more great features and bug fixes in a few weeks.

Thanks,

-steve

Path Finder 5 has a plugin SDK. The SDK has been around since Path Finder 4, but I didn’t publicize it much.

It’s posted on my personal site at:

http://www.freshcocoa.com/Main/SDK.html

There is documentation in the download. It should be fairly easy to figure out if you know Cocoa. Email me if you have questions.

Why is it on my personal site and not the main site? It’s just easier for me to update since it’s using iWeb and I can quickly add updates as needed. You can also read my personal blog and see some family picts. I still need to add more picts.

I finally finished Path Finder 5.0 and is now on the servers for download. It was a wild and crazy ride (as usual) getting this version debugged and ready to roll. Software is pretty tricky and always takes months longer than anyone could predict.

I managed to keep my sanity throughout the development, but it was getting pretty bad near the end. I almost lost it a few times. :) If I ever have to get a real job in the future, nothing can phase me now. I've been to hell and back and it can't get much worse than it was. 80 hour weeks? That's nothing. Multi page bug lists? Piece of cake!

Anyway, I'm sure everyone will enjoy the changes in version 5. We beta tested it for months and fixed/improved tons of stuff until everyone was satisfied. But, there's going to be a 5.0.1 shortly, so anything that's still not perfect will be addressed soon.

I started my own personal site. Check it out at: www.freshcocoa.com
On freshcocoa I'll post more personal stuff. Family picts, ranting blog posts, and other things that don't belong on the company site. It's still a very new site, so nothing too exciting yet, but I hope to grow it over time. I still have lots of picts and movies to add.

Thanks for all your support! I'm so glad to get this version to the public. It's a huge improvement.

- Steve Gehrman

Getting the list of SMB shares on a network isn't as easy as it should be. I spent weeks trying to hunt down a solution online and after asking the Samba mailing list, the Samba IRC channel, Apple DTS and emailing a bunch of people, I finally got the answer. You would think this would be very simple to do, but there is one trick you need to know to discovering all the available shares.

First step is to get a list of master browsers:

nmblookup -M -- -

Output looks like this:

querying __MSBROWSE__ on 172.26.44.255
172.26.44.202 __MSBROWSE__
172.26.44.168 __MSBROWSE__

Parse out the IP addresses and pass them to smbclient:

smbclient -g -p 139 -NL (ip address)

Output looks like this:

Server|StevesServer|
Server|SharedPC|
Workgroup|MyWorkgroup
Workgroup|Fredsworkgroup

Parse out the "Workgroup" lines and save the names in an array.

Now comes the trick. For some reason, on some networks, the list of master servers returned with nmblookup -M -- - is incomplete. I'm sure there is a reason why this happens, but I have no idea why.

To get the complete list of master browsers, take your array of workgroups and ask each one for it's master browser like this:

nmblookup -M (workgroup)

Output looks like this:

172.26.44.94 WORKGROUP

Parse out the ip address. This is another master browser!

Now take the list of master browser returned from nmblookup -M -- - and combine it with any master browsers received querying the workgroup names and run this again for each ip:

smbclient -g -p 139 -NL (ip address)

Server|StevesServer|
Server|SharedPC|
Workgroup|MyWorkgroup
Workgroup|Fredsworkgroup

This time parse out the "Server" lines from the output you will have a complete list of SMB shares.

UPDATE: 2.1 Update fixed all my problems. Works great now and battery life seems better too.

UPDATE: Looks like I'm not the only one having problems getting a reliable 3G connection. You would think that San Francisco would be well covered. If I could do it over again, I would probably just buy a used original iPhone and use that until the 3G kinks have been worked out. I'm still considering returning my 3G. $30 extra a month for a 3G network with bugs is a rip-off.

---------------------

My office is just a few blocks from the downtown San Francisco Apple store, but I kept putting off buying a 3G because I didn't want to wake up early and stand in line. But last Sunday I was working late and it was already 3am, so I decided to just keep working until 8am and I picked up a white 16GB phone Monday morning on my way home. The line was very short, just 3-4 people. I only waited for 2 minutes before being helped.

When I was buying the phone at the Apple store, I asked the sales guy how I could wipe my old iPhone clean so I could give it to my wife. I explained to him that it's a developer phone with the beta of 2.1 installed and that I didn't know how to downgrade it back to 2.0. I knew it wasn't something that wouldn't be possible unless I knew some trick to get iTunes to download and install a clean copy of 2.0. The sales guy was totally clueless and just lied to me saying just to plug it in to iTunes and it would do the right thing. I knew that was wrong and just said forget it then, if you don't know how to do it I don't want the phone. He then went upstairs, asked the Genius bar and they were also clueless. He assured me that iTunes would revert it back automatically. Well, when I got home he was wrong. iTunes refused to downgrade it. It's amazing that after all this time, the geniuses at one of the most high profile Apple stores on the planet can't answer a simple question. I called the store back and they said to call Applecare and ask them. I called Applecare, waited on hold for 20 minutes and they guy told me the procedure. Turn off the phone, unplug it from USB, hold down the home button and plug it in. iTunes then goes into forced recovery mode downloading the latest 2.0 OS and installing it. Very simple. I have know idea why the Apple store employees didn't know about this simple procedure.

I've been using the phone and have been disappointed with the 3G coverage. I live in San Francisco and I can't get a very strong signal in my house. It seems that most of the time I have 1 bar showing unless I'm in downtown. I've been cut off many times, and I've only made a few calls so far. Downtown coverage seems much better. My old iPhone didn't have problems with signal. I tried turning off 3G. It seemed to help, but can't be sure. I didn't do much testing.

Here's an interesting story. I was iChatting with one of my friends in Japan, and he bought an iPhone but couldn't get a signal in his house. So he calls up Softbank and they send a guy over to install an indoor antenna so he could get a signal. They didn't charge him anything, but my friend says you have to remain a customer for 2 years after the installation otherwise they will charge him. Do they offer a service like that in the US?

Another big disappointment with the iPhone 3G is the price of the service plans. I didn't read the agreement, but the guy at the Apple Store said it was $30 extra a month and NO text messages included? He said the old iPhone gave 200 messages, but the 3G costs extra. I think I heard it was $15 extra a month for text messages. Is this true? Seems insane to increase the price by $30 for a 3G network that's still in "beta" and no text messages? I wonder if I heard wrong. That doesn't make any sense, unless AT&T is evil. :)

I saw a great movie recently about an 80s new wave artist named Klaus Nomi called "The Nomi Song"

I had never heard of him before watching the movie, but he's a very fascinating character. There's lots of videos and other information online, so rather than summarizing his story here, just do some searches on Google.

Here's two of my favorite videos by Nomi. When I first watched the movies I thought this guy was just weird, but after watching the documentary and his videos, I've started to really appreciate his talents. He was also one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS.

The first video starts off slow, but gets really good. I especially like the segment starting at 1:45.

Here's another video that's cool.