Secret Weapon Labs

As I previously wrote, I’m recently back from both a spectacular wedding and honeymoon, that included a much needed trip to some small deserted islands of Fiji, more precisely Matamanoa and LikuLiku. My favorite pic from the trip is to the right on an eve when the moon rose above Matamanoa in a most amazing way.The trip was conceived with the help from TripAdvisor.com and a wonderful travel agent.  I’ll post details for those interested and to pay it forward to the users stopping by careof Google looking for more info on those two islands.  Bula and Isa Lei to you all (hello and thanks for coming in Fijian)!!To more professional news, the FileMaker world is getting more and more interesting.  Amid the public/developer bitch-fest about Leopard compatibility (a lot of it rightly deserved), Bento is miraculously released and other things are happening across the web that make it an interesting time to be using FileMaker.

1. First and foremost, I almost immediately purchased the official FileMaker Training Series manual and have been enjoying it for the useful little tidbits of info I’ve come away with.  Such things include the fact that multiple parameters can be passed to the Substitute function and some useful ways of generating cross-tab reports.  I’m still working on reporting and scripting and will pass along more details as I finish reading.  The first half of the book is a thorough dissection of using FileMaker browse, find, layout, and preview modes as well as various functions and menus.  It’s well put together but largely not new for intermediate developers.
2. Google has introduced the PERFECT solution for reporting and graphing for FileMaker users, a web-based service that generates PNG images based on a URL full of parameters. There are some services which have been offering this to developers at a cost, now we get the redundancy and speed of Google at up to 50,000 requests per day, FOR FREE.  I’ve been vocal about wishing for FileMaker reporting to approach the level and sophistication of 4D, Excel, or Adobe Flex.  We first got Flash reporting through the webviewer, now it gets better  Check it out here.
3. I found a wonderful Flickr gallery of business cards, I strongly recommend looking at it.  You can find it here.
4. If you ever wanted to really exist in Lord Of The Rings, then take inspiration from Simon Dale’s take on a truly organic home.  It’s positively astounding. 
5. Here’s another look at the house if you’re interested:
6. Bento has been downloaded over 100,000 times.  It looks promising and it’s about time that somebody comes up with a simple ease to use and easy to configure database that takes advantage of Mac OS’ default databases built into Address Book and iCal.  Hopefully, this inspires FileMaker to add more interesting GUI tools to the current FileMaker feature set that natively connect to iCal, etc.
7. And I still love to the cater to the child within, and an Xbox360 makes it very easy.  Most recently and especially with my acquisition of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Assassin’s Creed.  I’ll post and link to reviews of both, but without question, they are formidable games/immersive worlds that suck you in.  Frankly, I find Call Of Duty 4 to be in the top 3 of the most compelling games ever produced for Xbox360.  Halo 3 is obviously there but falls short on things like plotlines and storytelling.  I’ll deliberate about what remaining game holds that last spot, it could be Mass Effect - but I don’t know, I have a life and would not like to lose it to my Xbox (as Mass Effect almost surely guarantees such to happen).  Assasin’s Creed is within the top 10 and features subtleties and details that one can only expect from an Ubisoft production, so it’s hard not to love it.
8. If there are any dog lovers out there who appreciate a good-faith Mac app, then check out Dog Watch by Earthrise Software which is a simple database of poisons and life-saving treatments for the special pups in your life.  Don’t let it replace proper vet checkups and medical advice.