You could use the “manual search and destroy” method for removing the .svn directories, but that can be time-consuming.  The quick and easy way is to use the following command in your Terminal:

$ cd /path/to/application/directory
$ find . -name “.svn” -exec rm -rf {} \;

This command can be used to remove any pesky directories or files that are scattered throughout a directory tree - just change “.svn” to the name of the file or directory that you wish to eliminate (for example, “.DS_Store”).

Hope this helps anyone who is looking for a quick way to get rid of those pesky files and remove your application from version control.

It was brought to my attention today (thanks to a tweet by @ajvchuk) that the most recent beta version of Adium now supports Facebook chat.  Since then, I’ve discovered that Digsby added support almost a month ago.

Why is this so amazing you ask?  Well, because chat isn’t even included in the Facebook API!  I scoured the API documentation today looking for any mention of interacting with the chat system and came up empty handed.

It turns out that coderrr, a freelance Rails developer that apparently has no last name (it appears that he goes only by “Steve”), took it upon himself to “look under the hood at how its [the Facebook chat] protocol works”.  Steve discovered that it uses a combination of Comet and JSON for receiving messages and a simple POST for sending them.  He whipped up a quick proof-of-concept in Ruby and documented the findings on his blog.

I’m not sure how Digsby approached implementing Facebook chat (it was announced a few days before Steve’s blog post), but Adium took the work that he did and put it to use.  In good form, Adium developer Evan Schoenberg gave Steve credit for his discovery.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I think I’ll be using Facebook chat a lot more often now.  If only there was a way to completely disable the browser version of it…

It turns out that there was no truth to this rumor.  Steve Jobs, our “fearless leader”, made no mention of video calling when he announced the second generation of the iPhone on Monday.  At first my little heart was broken… then I realized the potentially hazardous implications video calling could have on my social life.

Video calling is destined to become the most devastating weapon in the arsenal of a chronic drunk dialer.

For example, consider the following scenario:

It’s a Friday night.  You’re at the bar with your friend and the drinks keep on coming.  We all know how most guys (and gals) get when they’ve had a few too many; suddenly you’re on a mission - a mission that, if successful, will end in a bedroom (or car, broom closet, bathroom at Taco Cabana, etc.)  The next thing you know, it’s 4:00 in the morning and you instinctively reach into your pocket.  You pull out your iPhone, scroll through the contact list, take a few moments to let your eyes re-focus after that last shot of Jäger, and lightly tap your finger on a name.  Any name, as long as it belongs to a member of the opposite sex - or the same sex, whatever floats your boat.

So far, it sounds like any other drunk dial.  Usually, you have two options at this point - voice or text?  Whatever choice you make, you can always use the story that “some random guy” got his hands on your phone and started harassing everyone in your address book.  I mean, it’s hard to tell who you’re talking to on the phone based only on their voice, am I right?  Either way, with these options there’s a good chance you can deny everything tomorrow.

Imagine that you have a third option - phone-to-phone video chat.  This is where things get a little, well…sticky.  You no longer have that glorious deniability factor - they know it was you.  They saw your face, or even worse - in your drunken state, you decided to give them an impromptu “show”.  There are countless ways that video calling could leave you hiding your face in shame the next morning, with no chance of using that “random guy who grabbed your phone” as a scapegoat.

Being a drunk texter who will be getting the new iPhone in July, I’m glad Apple didn’t include video calling.  Sure, it would be awesome to video-chat with family and friends whenever and wherever, but I’d rather not spend the rest of my weekends regretting last night.

Not anymore!  Now that things are up and running, I plan on writing here as often as possible.  I intend to use this blog to discuss all things tech, with the occasional random rant that I am sure will pop-up here and there.  If you don’t already know me or what I do, check out the about page and that should give you at least a vague idea of what I’ll probably be writing here.

Among other things, I’d like to post at least one how-to article a week so that other developers out there can learn from my experiences as I’ve learned from theirs.  Whenever I have trouble figuring out how to do something, be it a programming or design related situation, 90% of the time I find the answer on random blogs that Google so kindly referred me to.  I would love to re-pay all that free help that I’ve received by contributing myself.

Thanks for reading, and follow me on Twitter @andyhite!