[{"content":"From How Wired.com Tracked the iPhone Finder:\nIn response to Wired.com\u0026rsquo;s scoop identifying the finder of the lost iPhone prototype, many have asked me how we did it. The process of uncovering digital footprints to identify Brian Hogan was indeed challenging and enlightening, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d tell the story here. Heck, it might even teach police officers a thing or two so they don\u0026rsquo;t have to kick down doors.\nWired certainly deserves some credit for breaking the story. Initiative in this day and age of blogs usually get you the good kind of attention. However, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t give you free license to be a jackass and make smarmy comments that make no sense.\nThe facts are that:\nThe police were able to search Jason Chen\u0026rsquo;s home because what they did can be considered illegal unto itself. There is no data to suggest that the police seized his drives to find the iPhone finder. Breaking the door down is completely justified because no one answered the door. Why? Because otherwise every two-bit cyber thug would simply ignore the police knocking on the door, delete all their data, and then let in the police. At which point, the police would be criticized and called inept for not breaking down the door. You\u0026rsquo;re naive if you believe otherwise. Wired, kudos on your exclusive and please tone back the glib.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/05/03/lets-try-not-to-be-too-glib/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFrom \u003ca href=\"http://brianxchen.tumblr.com/post/565083430/how-wired-com-tracked-the-iphone-finder\"\u003eHow Wired.com Tracked the iPhone Finder\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn response to Wired.com\u0026rsquo;s scoop identifying the finder of the lost iPhone prototype, many have asked me how we did it. The process of uncovering digital footprints to identify Brian Hogan was indeed challenging and enlightening, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d tell the story here. \u003cstrong\u003eHeck, it might even teach police officers a thing or two so they don\u0026rsquo;t have to kick down doors.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWired certainly deserves some credit for breaking the story. Initiative in this day and age of blogs usually get you the good kind of attention. However, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t give you free license to be a jackass and make smarmy comments that make no sense.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Let's try not to be too glib"},{"content":"If you were confused about whether Apple was still committed to the Mac, their lack of Apple Design Awards for anything Mac pretty much says it all.\nThe Apple Design Awards 2010 recognize iPhone OS applications that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation, technology adoption, and quality.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/04/28/saying-it-without-really-saying-it/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIf you were confused about whether Apple was still committed to the Mac, their lack of \u003ca href=\"http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/ada/\"\u003eApple Design Awards\u003c/a\u003e for anything Mac pretty much says it all.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Apple Design Awards 2010 recognize iPhone OS applications that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation, technology adoption, and quality.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"Saying it without really saying it"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been spending some time revisiting GTD and Inbox Zero. Several of the themes are important and in particular, the idea that your time is finite is probably most important. As I get older, my time becomes even more limited. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure how to explain this, but there it is.\nAs this is the case, the content you consume needs to match your limits. Trying to consume more than you have time for simply frustrates you and leaves you less time to consume the content you actually enjoy.\nBe passionate about your content When you\u0026rsquo;re going to invest your time into something, make sure that it\u0026rsquo;s something you truly enjoy. Watching movies because a bunch of anonymous strangers think it\u0026rsquo;s a great movie, listening to podcasts because they\u0026rsquo;re about a subject your care about, or watching TV shows because you liked precious seasons are not rules that you must obey. Those motivations are great ways to home in on content you might like, but it doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean you will like it.\nPodcasts are probably one of the best examples to examine because they\u0026rsquo;re almost entirely free, serialized, in directories with ratings, on any subject you can think of, and are obtained easily. Your first motivation is to subscribe to everything popular or concerning a subject you\u0026rsquo;re passionate about. Remember though, your tastes won\u0026rsquo;t align with everyone else and podcasts can be drivel in spite of the subject matter.\nYou want to be passionate about the content itself and not just because of the original motivation to check it out to begin with.\nStop worrying losing content The fact is, that unless something was created by you (your own blog, your photos, your paintings, your own podcast), you have no reason to archive it like a librarian. That content isn\u0026rsquo;t going to disappear off the face of the earth if you don\u0026rsquo;t consume right away or hold on it “for later”.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s the internet age! If you aren\u0026rsquo;t holding on to it, you can rest assured some geek, somewhere, with too much time on his hands is. Not only that, he\u0026rsquo;ll be willing to post it to a half dozen places at a moment\u0026rsquo;s notice. Barring that, everything is being put on DVD (Bluray) now. Podcast authors want to feel immortal, so their back archives will be available forever.\nDiscard piles You ever hear the phrase “same shit, different piles”? That\u0026rsquo;s more true than you realize. If you\u0026rsquo;re amassing piles of stuff, there\u0026rsquo;s a reason for it. You don\u0026rsquo;t like the content. You think it\u0026rsquo;s shit.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s just ignore edge cases where you\u0026rsquo;re saving it for someone else or you\u0026rsquo;re catching up.\nThose 15 episodes of the latest season of Law and Order are telling you that you really don\u0026rsquo;t want to watch them. Those 100 podcast episodes sitting in iTunes are telling you the same thing (and for the love of everything holy, don\u0026rsquo;t manual refresh feeds when iTunes notices you\u0026rsquo;re not listening and stops downloading on its own). Heck, that Netflix disc that\u0026rsquo;s been sitting next to your TV for weeks as you watch and return disc after disc is dying to be sent home.\nYou can quickly sort out some of the stuff you have the least interest in while freeing up the most bandwidth in one shot. Free yourself as well as your DVR\u0026rsquo;s hard drive. Delete the stuff collecting in a clump.\nThis is not a job Consuming your content is not a job. Don\u0026rsquo;t feel obligated to consume if you aren\u0026rsquo;t getting excited. Did you subscribe to a podcast because it was about something you liked but feel dread about playing that latest episode? Are you only listening because it\u0026rsquo;s filling up your iPhone/iPod? Stop listening. You should be anticipating the next episode, not dragging through it. Your doing this for enjoyment, not out of obligation (financial or otherwise).\nI don\u0026rsquo;t know if I can stress this enough. Too many people continue to take in the same crap because they feel they should or because they\u0026rsquo;ll be left out if they don\u0026rsquo;t. Neither is true. Be Thomas Jefferson about it. Throw it away. If it comes back to through someone know or something you enjoy, it was important. If it didn\u0026rsquo;t, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t important to begin with. Save your time for the fun stuff.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/04/27/use-a-garden-hose-instead-of-a-fire-hose/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been spending some time revisiting GTD and Inbox Zero. Several of the themes are important and in particular, the idea that your time is finite is probably most important. As I get older, my time becomes even more limited. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure how to explain this, but there it is.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs this is the case, the content you consume needs to match your limits. Trying to consume more than you have time for simply frustrates you and leaves you less time to consume the content you \u003cem\u003eactually enjoy\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Use a garden hose instead of a fire hose"},{"content":"Put you App Store icon on a less frequented page. You\u0026rsquo;ll feel less compelled to check for updates and look for new apps.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/04/21/quick-iphone-time-saving-tip-app-store/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePut you App Store icon on a less frequented page. You\u0026rsquo;ll feel less compelled to check for updates and look for new apps.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Quick iPhone time-saving tip: App Store"},{"content":"Cory Doctorow wrote a piece on why he won\u0026rsquo;t be buying an iPad (which extends to why you shouldn\u0026rsquo;t either. I don\u0026rsquo;t agree with his article, but the vehement arguments against some of his have been equally asinine.\nJoel Johnson wrote an otherwise brilliant piece that says:\nSo what if you can\u0026rsquo;t make iPad programs on an iPad. I don\u0026rsquo;t complain I can\u0026rsquo;t make new dishwashers with my dishwasher.\nDoctorow doesn\u0026rsquo;t outright call this out as an issue, but it fits with the theme of what he wrote. The problem is this is analogy is flawed. Let\u0026rsquo;s see if you can tell the problem with it if I put it in mathematical format.\niPad programs : iPad :: dishwasher : dishwasher\nIt becomes rather clear, doesn\u0026rsquo;t it? It\u0026rsquo;s essentially saying that iPad programs are iPads unto themselves. Let\u0026rsquo;s make it even worse.\nApologies to Dan Jalkut (I love MarsEdit; don\u0026rsquo;t hate me), but this gem is even worse.\n“You can\u0026rsquo;t write apps for the device.” Yeah, and you can\u0026rsquo;t publish a book with a book. Or write a pen with a pen.\nJoel\u0026rsquo;s analogy almost worked because he started talking about appliances. It goes wrong from there, but the groundwork is there. The above is just wrong from the get-go.\nThis isn\u0026rsquo;t to say I agree with the concept. Is it important to be able to develop iPad applications using an iPad? No. The ability to create content for a platform using the platform itself isn\u0026rsquo;t important. It\u0026rsquo;s really not. Computers are one of the few (if only?) devices that do this extensively. Let\u0026rsquo;s use some other (slightly more valid) analogies to argue against this idea.\nYou can\u0026rsquo;t make PS3 games using a PS3. You can\u0026rsquo;t make movies using a Bluray player. It\u0026rsquo;s easy. I\u0026rsquo;m sure you can come up with some as well.\nThe fact is that for consumer devices (which the iPad is), it\u0026rsquo;s not important to be able to develop content for it with the device itself. I agree with you. But I\u0026rsquo;m also begging you all to stop using bad analogies to argue this truth.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/04/02/fighting-stupidity-with-stupidity/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eCory Doctorow wrote \u003ca href=\"http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either.html\"\u003ea piece on why he won\u0026rsquo;t be buying an iPad\u003c/a\u003e (which extends to why you shouldn\u0026rsquo;t either. I don\u0026rsquo;t agree with his article, but the vehement arguments against some of his have been equally asinine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJoel Johnson wrote \u003ca href=\"http://gizmodo.com/5508286/cory-doctorow-you-are-a-consumer-too\"\u003ean otherwise brilliant piece\u003c/a\u003e that says:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo what if you can\u0026rsquo;t make iPad programs on an iPad. I don\u0026rsquo;t complain I can\u0026rsquo;t make new dishwashers with my dishwasher.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoctorow doesn\u0026rsquo;t outright call this out as an issue, but it fits with the theme of what he wrote. The problem is this is analogy is flawed. Let\u0026rsquo;s see if you can tell the problem with it if I put it in mathematical format.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fighting Stupidity with Stupidity"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since I took a hard look at my backup situation, but a series of blog posts in my reader has caused some naval gazing.\nA long time ago in a computer far far away My backup plan was once dead simple. I used CCC or Super Duper to create a clone of my boot drive whenever I thought of it. Sometimes I was good and did it weekly, sometimes I went months without.\nThankfully I had no crashes during this period. I never had to experience the frustration of losing a month of data.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s do the time warp again Time Machine! I was so excited when I finally got a drive to use with it. I turned it on and got frustrated any time it monopolized my I/O attempting to back up. Honestly I can\u0026rsquo;t tell you if specifically Snow Leopard fixed it, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t gone searching for the Time Machine menu to stop the backup for a long time.\nI still did my Super Duper backups, but it became less of a priority because it wasn\u0026rsquo;t automated.\nDisaster It finally happened. I lost my boot drive (which was under warranty thankfully). I could cool off the drive and get a few minutes of work, but not enough time to do a Super Duper backup and I/O just made it die faster. I was using my Super Duper drive to temporarily back someone else up.\nLuckily, I had a Time Machine backup ready to go. That was almost not the case as just weeks before I finally replaced the power supply on my Time Machine disk (thank you OWC for quick diagnosis and replacement).\nIt was time to see if the machine would do its job.\nIt just worked Once I got my replacement boot drive, it was time to stick in the SL disk and try the restore. As you can already guess, it worked. I selected my Time Machine disk and initiated the restore.\nYour mileage may vary, but Time Machine is now my preferred method for incremental and bulk backup. There are a few reasons why.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t have to do anything to keep it up to date. Seriously, no matter how many calendar reminders or OCD you are, backup plans fail when you need to do something on a schedule rather than the machine do it for you. It protects you from your own stupidity. Clones are great, but they won\u0026rsquo;t help you dig out a file you deleted three weeks ago unless you either didn\u0026rsquo;t backup since then (shame on you) or you keep a clone rotation large enough to have a backup old enough (expensive and impractical for most as well as having the problem of requiring lots or manual interaction). You can do a bulk restore easily despite it not being a bootable disk. Stick in your Mac OS X install DVD and you can do it with a few clicks. The moving target Time Machine works great if you have a desktop or regularly connect your computer to a series of peripherals, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t chained a laptop down like that in years. Needless to say, the cloning plan I used on my MacBook wasn\u0026rsquo;t working for me.\nI could in theory use a Time Capsule to use Time Machine for this situation. Problem 1 is that I\u0026rsquo;m cheap. Time Capsules are expensive. Problem 2 is that assuming I could get it accessible using Back to My Mac behind my FiOS router, it\u0026rsquo;s not really supported.\nThe solution was to use Crashplan. If you use their software to backup to another computer belonging to you or a friend, it\u0026rsquo;s free. I have a computer that\u0026rsquo;s on a lot with lots of storage and it\u0026rsquo;s own backup plan in place! I installed the software, told the Mac Pro to use a specific hard drive as the destination, and initiated backup from the MacBook.\nNow anytime the two are on at the same time, the MacBook will back up to my Mac Pro regardless of local network or over the Internet proximity. Crashplan has fantastic in the background incremental backup. It meets the requirement of doing its work without me.\nI only have it set up to back up my home directory, but I don\u0026rsquo;t store significant irreplaceable data anywhere else, so at worst I reinstall and then restore my home directory.\nThe Achilles heel As written (correctly) elsewhere, my backup plan is incomplete. One fire at my house would wipe it all out. More specifically, my plan doesn\u0026rsquo;t include offsite backup.\nWhen I finally stop being cheap (can\u0026rsquo;t help it), I will probably sign up for Crashplan\u0026rsquo;s subscription service. I have two options for that.\nI purchase the single computer plan and backup only the Mac Pro. That actually covers both computers. I buy the family plan and set both computers to use it. The MacBook would still back up to the Mac Pro as well because assuming I connect it to my network, restoration would be much faster from the Mac Pro. It also lets anyone living with me back up their computers. I\u0026rsquo;m not saying my plan is a blue print for everyone else. I am saying that you need to consider the profound importance of a backup strategy that requires no action on your part. The biggest risk in any backup plan is always you. Backups are for the improbable situation. The most probable unfortunate event is you failing to connect your backup drive and running your backup software. Take it out of the loop, or at the very least, make it a redundant bonus.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/03/24/my-horribly-incomplete-backup-plan/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been a long time since I took a hard look at my backup situation, but a series of blog posts in my reader has caused some naval gazing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"a-long-time-ago-in-a-computer-far-far-away\"\u003eA long time ago in a computer far far away\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy backup plan was once dead simple. I used CCC or Super Duper to create a clone of my boot drive whenever I thought of it. Sometimes I was good and did it weekly, sometimes I went months without.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My horribly incomplete backup plan"},{"content":"\u003c?php get_flickrRSS(); ?\u003e","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/photos/","summary":"\u003c?php get_flickrRSS(); ?\u003e","title":"Photos"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m a fan of Low End Mac‘s Mac catalog. It\u0026rsquo;s a quick and easy way to go look up vital stats about old computers, such as when they were released, the original specifications, and the original price. I\u0026rsquo;ve settled many quibble\u0026rsquo;s using its information.\nHowever, their other columns present sometimes out of date, and sometimes even wrong information. For example, Charles Moore often writes about the failure of IMAP. This goes back years, but let\u0026rsquo;s check out the latest installment.\nWhy am I not an IMAP fan? Guess I\u0026rsquo;ve spent too many years with slow Internet access and prefer to have my email archives on my hard drive and accessible without being online. Not many wireless hot spots in this neck of the (literal) woods, and with IMAP your messages remain on the central mail server, whereas POP downloads all messages in your inbox onto your computer where you can access them for reference whether you\u0026rsquo;re online or not.\nI appreciate that IMAP can be a good choice for people who need to access email from multiple computers, but for my own accounts where that is more convenient, I use Gmail with POP access configured to leave the messages on the Gmail server, which seems to me the best of both worlds.\nThe entire argument centers on the idea that IMAP doesn\u0026rsquo;t allow for email reading and searching when you\u0026rsquo;re not online. That would be a great argument against its use in some cases (as it is for webmail) if it were true. It\u0026rsquo;s not.\nThe fact is that IMAP email clients for as long as I can remember have cached the contents of your IMAP account. Mail.app does it. Entourage does it. Thunderbird does it. There may have been cases in the long past when this was turned off by default, but I can\u0026rsquo;t remember the last time I had to check the “Cache my mail” option.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;ve ever watched Mail.app\u0026rsquo;s Activity Viewer when working with an IMAP account, you\u0026rsquo;ll notice it making a series of connections as it traverses your folder structure, downloading headers, and the message bodies of all your email. It writes them to your disk and from that point on, if you try to look at that email and you\u0026rsquo;re offline, it simply reads it from the disk.\nIt seems totally obvious if you take a moment to think about it. When you do a Spotlight search, it goes through all your email trying to find that phrase. Does it really seem practical or even possible (when accounting for speed) that it would be prodding a server for all that information every time you did a search? Of course not.\nThe fact is that there is no good reason to use POP over IMAP anymore. None. Well, that is unless you have a hankering to use Claris Emailer again.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/02/19/behold-the-wonder-of-imap-caching/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m a fan of \u003ca href=\"http://www.lowendmac.com\"\u003eLow End Mac\u003c/a\u003e‘s Mac catalog. It\u0026rsquo;s a quick and easy way to go look up vital stats about old computers, such as when they were released, the original specifications, and the original price. I\u0026rsquo;ve settled many quibble\u0026rsquo;s using its information.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, their other columns present sometimes out of date, and sometimes even wrong information. For example, Charles Moore often writes about \u003ca href=\"http://lowendmac.com/misc/10mr/mb0217.html#8\"\u003ethe failure of IMAP\u003c/a\u003e. This goes back years, but let\u0026rsquo;s check out the latest installment.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Behold the wonder of IMAP caching"},{"content":"The recent Firefox 3.6 update made me re-examine my add-ons as always. What struck me as odd was that Google Gears wasn\u0026rsquo;t compatible. Clearly that was a mistake. Google couldn\u0026rsquo;t possibly ignore the chosen browser of most of the tech elite.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s not totally ignored no. Indeed there\u0026rsquo;s a ticket for the problem. It has a Medium priority. Medium? Not working with Firefox isn\u0026rsquo;t that important?\nThat got me thinking. The last time I checked, the latest Safari in Snow Leopard wasn\u0026rsquo;t supported. Still true. Also has a Medium priority.\nSo, it\u0026rsquo;s not supported on Safari in Snow Leopard, the latest Firefox, or Chrome for Mac OS X. That leaves… nothing. No Snow Leopard support using the latest browsers.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s two conclusions. First, Google Gears isn\u0026rsquo;t a priority for Google. Second, Mac OS X support isn\u0026rsquo;t a priority for Google. Take your pick.\nEdit: Turns out that I missed the Google announcement that Gears was effectively dead in favor of HTML5\u0026rsquo;s storage capability. While a move to a standard is good, nowhere on Google\u0026rsquo;s Gears site does it mention this fact. Indeed this fact probably makes all non-security Gears tickets a “WONT-FIX” but it\u0026rsquo;s very poorly being communicated and does nothing to address the fact that today\u0026rsquo;s sites with offline capabilities still use Gears.\nIn order to get any satisfaction as a Snow Leopard user, you\u0026rsquo;ll need to download Firefox 3.5.x. That\u0026rsquo;s a little backward.\nUpdate: Finally, some kind of acknowledgement.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2010/01/24/google-gears-maintenance-isnt-a-priority-for-google/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe recent Firefox 3.6 update made me re-examine my add-ons as always. What struck me as odd was that Google Gears wasn\u0026rsquo;t compatible. Clearly that was a mistake. Google couldn\u0026rsquo;t possibly ignore the chosen browser of most of the tech elite.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s not totally ignored no. Indeed there\u0026rsquo;s a ticket for the problem. It has a Medium priority. Medium? Not working with Firefox isn\u0026rsquo;t that important?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat got me thinking. The last time I checked, the latest Safari in Snow Leopard wasn\u0026rsquo;t supported. Still true. Also has a Medium priority.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Gears maintenance isn't a priority for Google"},{"content":"The three or four of you that have forgotten that you have me saved to your RSS reader of choice will likely suddenly realize that I\u0026rsquo;ve not written in a long time. I didn\u0026rsquo;t fall off the face of the earth or even end up in a ditch. The fact is I saturated myself in what I loved.\nI love Macs and technology in general. Combine that with my work ethic-like approach to new things, and you can see how I could burn out. It became a job. An endless job of trying to turn a few grains of actual information into an expansive network of information. At one point, the site was effective enough to give you a way to track what I did minute to minute.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not by any stretch of the imagination famous and it seemed to be too much. I began to feel paranoid about who knew what. It\u0026rsquo;s not even that I necessarily did anything bad or worth being ashamed about, but being approached by people about things you didn\u0026rsquo;t even give a second though to has a strange effect on one\u0026rsquo;s psyche.\nAs an aside, I feel that now that I\u0026rsquo;m back on Twitter. A casual mention of a product is enough to get a response from a corporate representative. Empowering and creepy at the same time.\nBacking off from this site and eventually my Mac blogging job gave me some relief. It also afforded perspective about what\u0026rsquo;s really important to me. As much as I like keeping up with the latest in the technology world, treating it like a competition wasn\u0026rsquo;t making me happy. It made me frustrated.\nBy treating it as I should have all along, I could start to enjoy technology once again. The thrill of poking around at software had returned. I was doing it for fun and not to write another article late at night that ultimately was filled with information to keep commenters from turning into hecklers.\nMake no mistake. The internet is filled with anonymity-empowered asshats. You can\u0026rsquo;t publish something to the internet without some basement dwelling, pop-tart scarfer correcting you on some minor, inconsequential piece of information. These are people so frustrated with their own situation that they\u0026rsquo;ll do anything in their power to transfer their angst to you.\nThe worst part is that it works. It gets to you. You can do great work. You can do it for years. You can bring great information to the table. The moment you have a typo, you\u0026rsquo;ll get the most vicious comment. It\u0026rsquo;s enough to drive you to rage and want to forsake the whole lot of them (and by whole lot of them, that include people genuinely appreciative of what you do, but don\u0026rsquo;t want to seem like sycophants by chiming in with “Great article” comments).\nThere are times when rather than using reason and wit to address and embarrass a jackass, you\u0026rsquo;d rather tell them “fuck you and the horse you rode in on.” You can almost taste that anger relief. It\u0026rsquo;s so sweet. You suck it up, try to be the bigger man, and bottle it.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a while since I\u0026rsquo;ve dealt with it, but it\u0026rsquo;s not far from my mind and in my travels across the web I find instances every day. These are established people in the industry that I respect and are generally the most patient I\u0026rsquo;ve found.\nI think it\u0026rsquo;s time I return to the web at large, or, more aptly, a return to small portions of it. No longer am I going to try to be part of every growing trend. If the last couple of years have taught me nothing else, web services come and go. As much as I enjoy Twitter, the people that are proclaiming that it\u0026rsquo;s taking over the web are so far up their ass that they can\u0026rsquo;t see that Twitter will have its day and fade to the background, just like every other fad.\nTwitter is the new Usenet. And I mean really, who remembers Vox? Do those web “experts” that proclaimed the death of email realize that all those email killers are dead?\nI\u0026rsquo;m not going to get as invested as I once did. I\u0026rsquo;ll move with software and web services as the times dictate, but never build anything up as the solution to everything. Being obsessive sucks the fun out of things.\nSo… I\u0026rsquo;m back.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2009/09/04/perspective/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe three or four of you that have forgotten that you have me saved to your RSS reader of choice will likely suddenly realize that I\u0026rsquo;ve not written in a long time. I didn\u0026rsquo;t fall off the face of the earth or even end up in a ditch. The fact is I saturated myself in what I loved.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI love Macs and technology in general. Combine that with my work ethic-like approach to new things, and you can see how I could burn out. It became a job. An endless job of trying to turn a few grains of actual information into an expansive network of information. At one point, the site was effective enough to give you a way to track what I did minute to minute.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Perspective"},{"content":"To my towel, you\u0026rsquo;re awesome and I love you.\nPS You\u0026rsquo;re still a towel.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2007/07/29/for-the-record/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTo my towel, you\u0026rsquo;re awesome and I love you.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePS You\u0026rsquo;re still a towel.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"For the record"},{"content":"Something has been building steadily for a couple weeks now and I just can\u0026rsquo;t contain it anymore. After countless hours of reading though, the rage within me has reached the spilling level. I read nearly every Mac website I can find (via RSS). I can give non-Mac news sources a pass on this, but the rest of you should hang your heads in shame.\nMacworld, as in Macworld Magazine and Macworld Expo, is spelled as I have it. Macworld Expo is like Mecca, but for Mac users. It\u0026rsquo;s the ultimate event in the Mac universe. Given that fact, why is it so god damned hard to spell it right?\nI\u0026rsquo;ve noticed two groups are the worst offenders, or at least get under my skin the most: vendors sending out promotional emails and Mac news outlets and blogs. The two most common misspellings are MacWorld and Mac World. Let me tell you something guys, it\u0026rsquo;s your responsibility to at least be able to spell the name of the event.\nThe news sites/blogs are the worst because they act as authoritative sources about Mac culture and information. How am I supposed to take your predictions and prognostications seriously when you don\u0026rsquo;t even spell it right. No matter how hard I try to displace my thoughts, all those articles end up looking like:\nAt teh MacWorld expo I preedict the AWEsome iPhone!!11!!!!!11!!\nSo please, I beg of the Mac community: spell it right. Don\u0026rsquo;t look like an idiot. Don\u0026rsquo;t make us all look like idiots.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2007/01/04/its-macworld-damnit/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSomething has been building steadily for a couple weeks now and I just can\u0026rsquo;t contain it anymore. After countless hours of reading though, the rage within me has reached the spilling level. I read nearly every Mac website I can find (via RSS). I can give non-Mac news sources a pass on this, but the rest of you should hang your heads in shame.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMacworld, as in Macworld Magazine and Macworld Expo, is spelled as I have it. Macworld Expo is like Mecca, but for Mac users. It\u0026rsquo;s the ultimate event in the Mac universe. Given that fact, why is it so god damned hard to spell it right?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It's Macworld Damnit"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been using Gmail for most of my mailing lists. There\u0026rsquo;s a very good reason for this. It groups things into discussions beautifully. I also subscribe to several mailing lists that reside on the same server. For example, I subscribe to BBEdit Talk and Yojimbo Talk, both of which are run by Bare Bones (shocking, considering they develop them).\nThey don\u0026rsquo;t have a domain that\u0026rsquo;s dedicated to mailing lists, so the addresses are productname-talk@barebones.com. I\u0026rsquo;m also a compulsive filer, so I apply labels to these messages for quick manipulation. One label is “mailing lists”. Rather than map email “To:” each of these email addresses, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using the fact that filters work on a contains instead of match basis to simplify. For the longest time a filter that looked for “To: talk@barebones.com” worked perfectly. It\u0026rsquo;s suddenly stopped working. It\u0026rsquo;s now an exact match.\nDear Google,\nDon\u0026rsquo;t change filter behavior without notifying your users and giving them an alternative method to attain the same functionality.\nThanks,\nDerik\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the wacky part. If you filter based upon an email string with nothing preceding the at sign, such as “@barebones.com”, the filter becomes a contain based filter. Ugh. Say it with me: inconsistent.\nI was willing to cut Google some slack with their filters and the fact that it can\u0026rsquo;t filter based on arbitrary headers (like the list headers that most mailing lists slap on for easy filtering). It\u0026rsquo;s annoying, but something I could live with. Now the filters are essentially useless. Why? It\u0026rsquo;s not hard to implement powerful, flexible filters. As accurate and fast as their search is, I still want to organize my email to help prune. It makes the results more manageable. It\u0026rsquo;s almost as if Google is intentionally trying make its filters impotent to the point that users have to stop using it, at which point, Google can axe it completely.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/11/29/gmail-filters-changed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been using Gmail for most of my mailing lists. There\u0026rsquo;s a very good reason for this. It groups things into discussions beautifully. I also subscribe to several mailing lists that reside on the same server. For example, I subscribe to BBEdit Talk and Yojimbo Talk, both of which are run by Bare Bones (shocking, considering they develop them).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey don\u0026rsquo;t have a domain that\u0026rsquo;s dedicated to mailing lists, so the addresses are \u003ca href=\"mailto:productname-talk@barebones.com\"\u003eproductname-talk@barebones.com\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m also a compulsive filer, so I apply labels to these messages for quick manipulation. One label is “mailing lists”. Rather than map email “To:” each of these email addresses, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using the fact that filters work on a contains instead of match basis to simplify. For the longest time a filter that looked for “To: \u003ca href=\"mailto:talk@barebones.com\"\u003etalk@barebones.com\u003c/a\u003e” worked perfectly. It\u0026rsquo;s suddenly stopped working. It\u0026rsquo;s now an exact match.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gmail Filters Changed?"},{"content":"Thanks to my article about a bullshit Steve Jobs interview, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten my first threat.\n12:11:04 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dlong\n12:11:08 AM mmskmmskmmsk: get the fuck outta here\n12:11:16 AM mmskmmskmmsk: posting garbage on digg\n12:11:24 AM mmskmmskmmsk: trying to promote your own shitty site\n12:11:44 AM mmskmmskmmsk: like you broke a story or something\n12:11:48 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you didnt break shit\n12:12:00 AM mmskmmskmmsk: the article on that site was not proven fake\n12:12:11 AM dbasstard: oh, you\u0026rsquo;re an ewoky guy!\nChanged status to Online (12:12:11 AM)\n12:12:12 AM mmskmmskmmsk: so stop trying to get press off it like you owned them\n12:12:15 AM mmskmmskmmsk: nope\n12:12:24 AM mmskmmskmmsk: but ive followed this since last night\n12:12:34 AM mmskmmskmmsk: and you\u0026rsquo;re acting like a retard trying to cash in\n12:12:51 AM dbasstard: so, is it Chris? or Lethal?\n12:13:00 AM dbasstard: why are you so obsessed about this?\n12:13:05 AM mmskmmskmmsk: because you are\n12:13:15 AM mmskmmskmmsk: because you\u0026rsquo;re trying to fuck up someones site\n12:13:21 AM mmskmmskmmsk: the shit was explained\n12:13:29 AM mmskmmskmmsk: but no, you had to go and fuck with them\n12:13:30 AM dbasstard: no, I\u0026rsquo;m pointing out a fraudulent article\n12:13:38 AM mmskmmskmmsk: no you\u0026rsquo;re not\n12:13:41 AM mmskmmskmmsk: it wasnt proven\n12:13:45 AM mmskmmskmmsk: its speculation\n12:13:50 AM dbasstard: dude, I wrote to Apple\n12:13:58 AM mmskmmskmmsk: and why are you on it anyway? bored? no real news to report?\n12:13:59 AM dbasstard: it was fraudulent\n12:14:03 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you suck as a reporter\n12:14:09 AM mmskmmskmmsk: prove it then\n12:14:15 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you suck as a journalist\n12:14:27 AM mmskmmskmmsk: be a man\n12:14:30 AM dbasstard: how would you like it proven?\n12:14:30 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dont be a girl\n12:14:38 AM mmskmmskmmsk: actual evidence\n12:14:43 AM dbasstard: like what?\n12:14:51 AM mmskmmskmmsk: fuck you anyway, your article will die soon\n12:14:56 AM dbasstard: besides the email from Apple PR?\n12:15:03 AM mmskmmskmmsk: fucking wannabe reporter\n12:15:06 AM mmskmmskmmsk: watch your back\n12:15:10 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dont fuck with people asshole\n12:15:14 AM mmskmmskmmsk: warning u\nChanged status to Offline (12:15:20 AM)\nReal mature.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/11/17/its-official-ive-made-it-as-a-writer/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThanks to my \u003ca href=\"http://www.macuser.com/people/steve_jobs_interview_not.php\"\u003earticle about a bullshit Steve Jobs interview\u003c/a\u003e, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten my first threat.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:11:04 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dlong\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:11:08 AM mmskmmskmmsk: get the fuck outta here\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:11:16 AM mmskmmskmmsk: posting garbage on digg\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:11:24 AM mmskmmskmmsk: trying to promote your own shitty site\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:11:44 AM mmskmmskmmsk: like you broke a story or something\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:11:48 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you didnt break shit\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e12:12:00 AM mmskmmskmmsk: the article on that site was not proven fake\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It's Official: I've Made It as a Writer"},{"content":"While I\u0026rsquo;m going on and on about utility companies (because let\u0026rsquo;s face it, Verizon and Comcast are rapidly becoming nearly the same), how about I write up the experience I just had.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t normally expect visitors on a Saturday unannounced. Further, I don\u0026rsquo;t get packages. When I got to my front door, it was a Comcast employee. He warmed up by asking if I had Verizon home phone service. Well, seeing as I don\u0026rsquo;t like getting taken advantage of, the answer is no. He then asked me if I had a home phone. It\u0026rsquo;s clear where he was going, so I played along. Yes, I have internet phone service (Vonage in particular). He guessed that it was Vonage.\nHe then told me that Comcast offered the same service, but with better quality. That could be, but I haven\u0026rsquo;t had any issues. He then told me that Vonage uses their pipes (that\u0026rsquo;s not a quote, I don\u0026rsquo;t remember the exact phrasing) and that they allowed that, but they could shut them off at any time. For $8/month more than what I\u0026rsquo;m currently paying, I\u0026rsquo;d get a phone line through them and I\u0026rsquo;d get digital cable with a free year of Starz and HBO.\nIf I dropped Vonage, I would save money. However, I like the portability of being able to bring my box anywhere with me. When I go to Macworld Expo in San Francisco next year, being able to bring my phone with me will be a big bonus. Plus, I plan on spending a good amount of time at my parents\u0026rsquo; fancy new house in Maine. I can\u0026rsquo;t do that with Comcast.\nI\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;re brain is bubbling, or you may be even screaming. Why haven\u0026rsquo;t I said anything about Comcast basically telling me that they could shut off Vonage whenever they want? Well, that\u0026rsquo;s because I wanted to get the other stuff out of the way first.\nPay attention boys and girls: this is Net Neutrality hitting home. Comcast threatened to degrade my independent internet phone service to the point of being shutoff in order to promote their own service. That internet connection they supply is for my use and what I choose to do with it is my business. If I want to use Vonage, I can use Vonage. The day they lock me out of it is the day they lose me as a customer. It\u0026rsquo;s unacceptable.\nHowever, I think it\u0026rsquo;s all bark. The real question is do I want to pay $8 for an extra phone line, digital cable, and some premium channels. I think I might.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/09/23/a-visit-from-the-cable-guy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhile I\u0026rsquo;m going on and on about utility companies (because let\u0026rsquo;s face it, Verizon and Comcast are rapidly becoming nearly the same), how about I write up the experience I just had.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t normally expect visitors on a Saturday unannounced. Further, I don\u0026rsquo;t get packages. When I got to my front door, it was a Comcast employee. He warmed up by asking if I had Verizon home phone service. Well, seeing as I don\u0026rsquo;t like getting taken advantage of, the answer is no. He then asked me if I had a home phone. It\u0026rsquo;s clear where he was going, so I played along. Yes, I have internet phone service (Vonage in particular). He guessed that it was Vonage.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Visit from the Cable Guy"},{"content":"Verizon FiOS is looking real good, $44.95 for 15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up. My Comcast cable access is 8 Mbps for $52.95. Verizon sends me advertisements in the mail multiple times per week advertising their fiber internet service.\nGiven, it\u0026rsquo;s lumped in with those mass mailers that clog my mailbox, but it\u0026rsquo;s getting sent directly to my house. They proclaim in big proud letters:\nThe limitless fiber-optic power of Verizon FiOS Internet is now here.\nAm I interested? You bet. Inevitably, their address checker proclaims me ineligible. After getting the 20th advertisement, I decided I wanted to find out why Verizon was taunting me. I got back this response:\nThank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. My name is [deleted], and I will be handling your request today.\nThis message is in response to your email dated September 20, 2006. You inquired about receiving advertisements for FiOS through the mail. I understand your concern and I will be happy to assist you.\nI apologize for any misunderstanding. Unfortunately, we do not have the capability of pre-qualifying all of our customers lines for FiOS service before sending out the advertisements for our products and services. Our advertisements include the disclaimer that states that Verizon FiOS/DSL Internet Service is provided by Verizon Online and is not available in all areas. Service availability is subject to final confirmation by Verizon.\nAt this time we do not have a date when FiOS will be available.\nVerizon continues to work to provide FiOS access to as many customers as possible. So, while you may not qualify for high-speed Internet access from Verizon today, it is possible that you could be able to receive it in the future as the technologies improve.\nIf you haven\u0026rsquo;t already done so, you may check the availability of Verizon Fios any time you wish at:\nhttp://www.verizon.net/fios Simply enter your telephone number in the space provided. If FiOS is not available, you will have the option of requesting an email notification when it is available.\nIt has been my goal today to address and clarify your concerns related to Fios service availability. I hope I have succeeded in meeting that goal. In the meantime, if you have any other questions, please let us know. We look forward to serving you.\nThank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your business.\nPleasant enough, so I can\u0026rsquo;t fault them for that. However, the line “Unfortunately, we do not have the capability of pre-qualifying all of our customers lines for FiOS service before sending out the advertisements for our products and services.” is bunk. They can automatically supply that information using the database linked to their website.\nNaturally, perhaps the advertising company they\u0026rsquo;ve hired just blankets areas, but that\u0026rsquo;s a problem they are completely in control of. They could market more accurately.\nCould I just ignore it? Sure, but the fact is that very rarely am I interested in things I get in the mail. The one time I\u0026rsquo;m interested in buying the product I get jerked around. Bah.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/09/23/verizon-needs-to-stop-jerking-me-around/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://verizonfios.com/\"\u003eVerizon FiOS\u003c/a\u003e is looking real good, $44.95 for 15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up. My Comcast cable access is 8 Mbps for $52.95. Verizon sends me advertisements in the mail multiple times per week advertising their fiber internet service.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGiven, it\u0026rsquo;s lumped in with those mass mailers that clog my mailbox, but it\u0026rsquo;s getting sent directly to my house. They proclaim in big proud letters:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe limitless fiber-optic power of Verizon FiOS Internet is now here.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Verizon needs to stop jerking me around"},{"content":"All right guys, Fall is fast approaching and you know what that means. It\u0026rsquo;s time for football. Last year we all had a lot of fun (though I barely summarized each week\u0026rsquo;s results and that\u0026rsquo;s likely to be worse this year).\nWithout further ado, here is the info to join up.\nGo to Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s Football Pick\u0026rsquo;em page. You\u0026rsquo;ll need a Yahoo! account.\nOnce there, choose to join a private group.\nGroup ID: 31839\nPassword: sharpie\nI hope you all join.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/08/26/football-time-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll right guys, Fall is fast approaching and you know what that means. It\u0026rsquo;s time for football. Last year we all had a lot of fun (though I barely summarized each week\u0026rsquo;s results and that\u0026rsquo;s likely to be worse this year).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWithout further ado, here is the info to join up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo to \u003ca href=\"http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/pickem/\"\u003eYahoo\u0026rsquo;s Football Pick\u0026rsquo;em page\u003c/a\u003e. You\u0026rsquo;ll need a Yahoo! account.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce there, choose to join a private group.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGroup ID:\u003c/strong\u003e 31839\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Time Again"},{"content":"Despite my sporadic blogging here lately, I got chosen to be interviewed with a local newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News, for an article in their Sunday edition today. I haven\u0026rsquo;t seen the finished product, but we talked about blogging, professional blogging, journalistic integrity, and a blog\u0026rsquo;s effect upon your job and career in general.\nHopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll come across as insightful. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to post the link once it appears on the website.\nUpdate: The article is up. The print version lacked my picture. I don\u0026rsquo;t know why, but I\u0026rsquo;ll suggest it\u0026rsquo;s because I\u0026rsquo;m so attractive.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/07/23/interview-with-the-metrowest-daily-news/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDespite my sporadic blogging here lately, I got chosen to be interviewed with a local newspaper, \u003ca href=\"http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/\"\u003ethe MetroWest Daily News\u003c/a\u003e, for an article in their Sunday edition today. I haven\u0026rsquo;t seen the finished product, but we talked about blogging, professional blogging, journalistic integrity, and a blog\u0026rsquo;s effect upon your job and career in general.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll come across as insightful. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to post the link once it appears on the website.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Interview with the MetroWest Daily News"},{"content":"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I\u0026rsquo;d figure out who said it first, but that would mean I have time to. Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick rundown of everything that\u0026rsquo;s been keeping me busy.\nThe Day Job I\u0026rsquo;ve been involved in a task that\u0026rsquo;s rather new to me, high pressure, and interesting. Overall I\u0026rsquo;m enjoying it, but it\u0026rsquo;s still soaking up my free time.\nSoftball to the Face I managed to take a softball to the face 2.5 weeks ago. I was wearing my glasses and as a result, I managed to shift my nose over. I didn\u0026rsquo;t feel any pain and the initial swelling hid the fact that my nose became crooked. I had a nose bleed, but it went away quickly, so I didn\u0026rsquo;t get it looked at immediately.\nOnce I found out if it was fractured, I signed up for surgery I underwent Wednesday. My phobia of needles nearly made me faint as they put in the IV. Luckily, I didn\u0026rsquo;t and moments after they started pumping drugs into me, I was out. They straightened my nose and now I\u0026rsquo;m in a good deal of pain. I went to work Thursday, which was a total mistake, but the new task was acting rather needy. Luckily, my real coworkers could tell I wasn\u0026rsquo;t doing well and told me to go home.\nI\u0026rsquo;m taking this week off, so I should be normal again by the time I go to work.\nMacUser, Gadgetbox, and iPod Case Reviews MacUser, Gadgetbox, and iPod case reviews for Playlist Mag are fast becoming more than a part time job.\nAfter blogging on the former two sites, it\u0026rsquo;s usually just too late for me to do it here. I miss it. I have a bit more freedom here and I\u0026rsquo;m not really obligated to find a picture to go with my posts, which takes up a surprising amount of time.\nNintendo DS Lite I bought a Nintendo DS Lite and I love it. I got the New Super Mario Brothers, Mario Kart DS, Brain Age, and Zelda: the Minnish Cap. If you have Mario Kart DS, let me know. I want to play you.\nThe Future I want to resume normal posting, but it\u0026rsquo;s all time dependent. I get a surprising number of compliments from people that I contact for MacUser on this site and it\u0026rsquo;s made me realize that I was building a readership that\u0026rsquo;s likely rather disappointed I went on such a long hiatus. It\u0026rsquo;s time I returned.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/07/01/greatly-exaggerated/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eRumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I\u0026rsquo;d figure out who said it first, but that would mean I have time to. Here\u0026rsquo;s a quick rundown of everything that\u0026rsquo;s been keeping me busy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"the-day-job\"\u003eThe Day Job\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been involved in a task that\u0026rsquo;s rather new to me, high pressure, and interesting. Overall I\u0026rsquo;m enjoying it, but it\u0026rsquo;s still soaking up my free time.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"softball-to-the-face\"\u003eSoftball to the Face\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI managed to take a softball to the face 2.5 weeks ago. I was wearing my glasses and as a result, I managed to shift my nose over. I didn\u0026rsquo;t feel any pain and the initial swelling hid the fact that my nose became crooked. I had a nose bleed, but it went away quickly, so I didn\u0026rsquo;t get it looked at immediately.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Greatly exaggerated"},{"content":"If you keep your eye on Macs, you probably already know about Boot Camp. It\u0026rsquo;s a bit of a surprise, but I suspect it was done so that users choosing to run Windows can do so in a safer manner with proper drivers. The drivers included with the new software are the key part of this announcement.\nHacking the firmware to coerce a Mac into booting Windows took a little while, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t really all that complicated. However, putting money into a development staff for Windows drivers is quite an expensive proposition and it goes to show Apple\u0026rsquo;s commitment to leverage the move to x86 to their full benefit. They can easily scoop up fence sitters that afraid of losing the ability to run Windows.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s a bold move and I\u0026rsquo;m a fan.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/04/05/boot-camp-without-all-the-pushups/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIf you keep your eye on Macs, you probably already know about \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/\"\u003eBoot Camp\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a bit of a surprise, but I suspect it was done so that users choosing to run Windows can do so in a safer manner with proper drivers. The drivers included with the new software are the key part of this announcement.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHacking the firmware to coerce a Mac into booting Windows took a little while, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t really all that complicated. However, putting money into a development staff for Windows drivers is quite an expensive proposition and it goes to show Apple\u0026rsquo;s commitment to leverage the move to x86 to their full benefit. They can easily scoop up fence sitters that afraid of losing the ability to run Windows.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Boot Camp without All the Pushups"},{"content":"Von-Age; the tele-fon works!: Vonage has sent me dozens and dozens of advertizements and free phone deals for months lately. Seems like they’re stalking me out after Verizon mentioned how I threatened to go into their Manhattan office three years ago in order to cancel my line faster (really it was a simple request they couldn’t/wouldn’t understand, cancel my line as of that day, they took 40 days to cancel my phone)\nAnywho’s, Saturday night about 3am I signed up to Vonage after my friend d00d (hi d00d!) sent me an invitation to try it out.\n[Via bored. beyond. belief.]\nThis is just more backup that the telcos have something to fear, and it ain\u0026rsquo;t Skype.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/03/18/von-age-the-tele-fon-works/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eVon-Age; the tele-fon works!: Vonage has sent me dozens and dozens of advertizements and free phone deals for months lately. Seems like they’re stalking me out after Verizon mentioned how I threatened to go into their Manhattan office three years ago in order to cancel my line faster (really it was a simple request they couldn’t/wouldn’t understand, cancel my line as of that day, they took 40 days to cancel my phone)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Von-Age; the tele-fon works!"},{"content":"If you\u0026rsquo;re thinking about sound software right now, you\u0026rsquo;re way off. Instead I\u0026rsquo;m talking about the literal words. VOIP (Voice Over IP) is a really hot technology right now because it makes phone calls much cheaper than using traditional telephone service. I\u0026rsquo;ve pondered whether IP network use is cheaper than maintaining traditional phone networks, or if the telco\u0026rsquo;s were simply sticking it to everyone. Considering recent more aggressive pricing by the telco\u0026rsquo;s, I\u0026rsquo;d suspect it was the latter.\nBias Perhaps the most famous of the VOIP services is Skype. It\u0026rsquo;s been gaining steadily in popularity for several reasons. First, it allows free calls between users. Because there is no service charge, big savings can be had. Second, the application to use the service is cross platform. Finally, the cost to call a regular phone or have a regular phone number attached to your account is very inexpensive. That\u0026rsquo;s built a rather rabid fan base.\nThat base can\u0026rsquo;t just like the service, they have to see it as numero uno. Witness Skype Journal\u0026rsquo;s latest rant against Vonage. Here\u0026rsquo;s the quick summary: Vonage\u0026rsquo;s business plan sucks. I guess the waiting to be bought out by eBay strategy is the way to go (witness the dot com bubble burst). Considering the title of the website, isn\u0026rsquo;t the analysis just a little biased? Maybe?\nReason The big reason there hasn\u0026rsquo;t been a massive exodus to VOIP is that people don\u0026rsquo;t like change. The question you have to ask yourself is whether your grandmother could adapt easily. With Skype, that answer is a resounding no. Being tied to the computer sucks (headsets don\u0026rsquo;t really alleviate the situation). On the other hand, your grandmother is already familiar with the phone. This is where Vonage is going to stick it to Skype time and time again. Phones have become so ingrained in our culture that they\u0026rsquo;ve become transparent technology. That\u0026rsquo;s what gets the masses excited.\nAnother issue to the billing. Unlimited plans are still very popular, even in cases where metered may actually be much more cost effective. People will put up with the higher flat fee because with it comes peace of mind. It just feels good to know that you don\u0026rsquo;t need to monitor your own usage. People have had enough of that with traditional telcos.\nMom and Dad I\u0026rsquo;ve been using Vonage as my phone service ever since I bought my townhouse. I\u0026rsquo;ve been so happy that I sold my parents on it. It was an easy sell for many reasons. However, the easiest way to grasp it is to look at it from my parents\u0026rsquo; perspective.\nThe equipment isn\u0026rsquo;t changing in the house. In that regard, nothing is changing. They get unlimited local and long distance. They get free caller ID, voicemail (with web access), and call forwarding to their cell phones. They get a portable device that lets them bring their phone with them anywhere. Their bill drops from $33/month to $25/month. They get to keep their phone number. Compare that with Skype and it becomes abundantly clear why Skype isn\u0026rsquo;t a real phone replacement and why serious adoption is going to hover way out of their reach. It simply doesn\u0026rsquo;t offer the features that will ease the transition to VOIP. It\u0026rsquo;s more of a stark slap in the face that will appeal to few besides the young and the technophiles. Vonage has the right idea and it\u0026rsquo;s time Skype recognized, especially if they really want to assert market dominance.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re thinking about getting Vonage, drop me a line either in the comments or using the contact form. I can send you a referral that will get me a couple months of free service. Thanks!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/03/08/bias-and-reason/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIf you\u0026rsquo;re thinking about sound software right now, you\u0026rsquo;re way off. Instead I\u0026rsquo;m talking about the literal words. VOIP (Voice Over IP) is a really hot technology right now because it makes phone calls much cheaper than using traditional telephone service. I\u0026rsquo;ve pondered whether IP network use is cheaper than maintaining traditional phone networks, or if the telco\u0026rsquo;s were simply sticking it to everyone. Considering recent more aggressive pricing by the telco\u0026rsquo;s, I\u0026rsquo;d suspect it was the latter.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Bias and Reason"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sorry I said what I did. You\u0026rsquo;re amazing and didn\u0026rsquo;t deserve that. I love you.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/03/03/im-sorry-erica/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sorry I said what I did. You\u0026rsquo;re amazing and didn\u0026rsquo;t deserve that. I love you.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm Sorry Erica"},{"content":"In another vain moment, I rechecked my PageRank at Google. I remembered it being 5/10. I was right. Take that, Mike and his rank of 6.\nEdit: Doh. Higher is better. I\u0026rsquo;m a moron.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/26/beating-mike-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn another vain moment, I rechecked my PageRank at Google. I remembered it being 5/10. I was right. Take that, \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetmike.com/blog/2006/02/24#pagerank\"\u003eMike and his rank of 6\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEdit:\u003c/strong\u003e Doh. Higher is better. I\u0026rsquo;m a moron.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Beating Mike Again"},{"content":"Because Mike wrote today about how his site is ranked 690,887 at Alexa, I had to find out what this site was ranked. Cue up “You\u0026rsquo;re so Vain” please.\nApparently, I\u0026rsquo;m much more popular than Mike, sitting pretty at 530,545.\nBooya.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/23/im-better-than-mike/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBecause Mike wrote today about how \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetmike.com/blog/2006/02/23#alexa\"\u003ehis site is ranked 690,887\u003c/a\u003e at Alexa, I had to find out what this site was ranked. Cue up “You\u0026rsquo;re so Vain” please.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApparently, I\u0026rsquo;m much more popular than Mike, sitting pretty at 530,545.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cSCRIPT type='text/javascript' language='JavaScript' src='http://xslt.alexa.com/site_stats/js/t/b?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgodlikenerd.com'\u003e\u003c/SCRIPT\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBooya.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm Better than Mike"},{"content":"I can\u0026rsquo;t help but feel like I\u0026rsquo;ve abused the good ranking I get with this blog on Google, but when I complained about the stress ball I had that squirted over my shirt (the Morf ball), I didn\u0026rsquo;t expect to get a response from the company. I certainly didn\u0026rsquo;t expect this kind of response.\nJade Hansen wrote:\nWe came across your web log regarding our Morf Ball. We are sorry to hear of the trouble you encountered with it leaking. As a result, we\u0026rsquo;d love to send you a complimentary Cyber Gel Squeeze Ball, our other popular stress reliever. Rest assured, this item will not explode or leak. Please provide us with your shipping address, and I will have them sent out to you ASAP.\nWebsite: handstands.com\nNaturally I\u0026rsquo;ll take them up on the offer. This is a new level of customer service. Not only are they going to replace a product, but they searched me out. Take a look at their site and order anything that catches your eye.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/13/good-public-relations/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t help but feel like I\u0026rsquo;ve abused the good ranking I get with this blog on Google, but when I \u003ca href=\"\"\u003ecomplained about the stress ball I had that squirted over my shirt\u003c/a\u003e (the Morf ball), I didn\u0026rsquo;t expect to get a response from the company. I certainly didn\u0026rsquo;t expect this kind of response.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJade Hansen wrote:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe came across your web log regarding our Morf Ball. We are sorry to hear of the trouble you encountered with it leaking. As a result, we\u0026rsquo;d love to send you a complimentary Cyber Gel Squeeze Ball, our other popular stress reliever. Rest assured, this item will not explode or leak. Please provide us with your shipping address, and I will have them sent out to you ASAP.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Good Public Relations"},{"content":"A little while back, Google announced it was hosting San Jose City College\u0026rsquo;s email. Prior to that, rumors started circulating that Google would be licensing its Gmail technology to others due to clues in the code.\nHonestly, I could not see a downside to this arrangement (paranoid delusions are not considered). Most college students don\u0026rsquo;t want to fiddle with email client configuration. A webmail interface is perfect for campus wide availability. The over 2 gigabytes of storage space works great for students to send files back and forth on a regular basis. Because it\u0026rsquo;s maintained by Google, it also means it\u0026rsquo;ll be available to students even after they graduate. And yes, I am still a little bitter that U-Mass is too damn cheap to give lifetime email addresses to graduates.\nApparently, this arrangement is a beta test of sorts. Google followed that announcement up with a small testing program for others to host the email for a domain. Not only do they supply Gmail accounts, but they supply an administrative interface for the owner of that domain. That\u0026rsquo;s pretty slick and considering the apparent price (free), a pretty good deal.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to try it out for the domain I set up for my family as ideally, I\u0026rsquo;d like them all using Gmail because otherwise, I have a feeling they\u0026rsquo;ll constantly change email address as well as lose their emails. Should I get picked, I\u0026rsquo;ll share my experiences, but I expect they\u0026rsquo;ll be positive.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/12/using-gmail-on-your-domain/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA little while back, Google announced it was \u003ca href=\"http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/big-mail-on-campus.html\"\u003ehosting San Jose City College\u0026rsquo;s email\u003c/a\u003e. Prior to that, rumors started circulating that Google would be licensing its Gmail technology to others due to clues in the code.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHonestly, I could not see a downside to this arrangement (\u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com/\"\u003eparanoid delusions\u003c/a\u003e are not considered). Most college students don\u0026rsquo;t want to fiddle with email client configuration. A webmail interface is perfect for campus wide availability. The over 2 gigabytes of storage space works great for students to send files back and forth on a regular basis. Because it\u0026rsquo;s maintained by Google, it also means it\u0026rsquo;ll be available to students even after they graduate. And yes, I am still a little bitter that U-Mass is too damn cheap to give lifetime email addresses to graduates.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Using Gmail on your Domain"},{"content":"Like any hardcore Netflix user, I read Hacking Netflix. One of the more repetitive, annoying themes is the dissatisfaction of Manuel. If you thought I was obsessive about Macs, well, it\u0026rsquo;s nothing compared to this guy and Netflix. And it has to be bad. In fact, he takes this quest so seriously that it has shades of a Don Quixote syndrome. Netflix is one mighty windmill. He\u0026rsquo;s pulled the AP in as his Sancho Panza. It even has a picture of him. Lovely.\nNow, that\u0026rsquo;s not to say that Netflix is perfect. I\u0026rsquo;ve had a few broken/scratched discs and sometimes they can\u0026rsquo;t find discs I\u0026rsquo;ve returned until I report them missing (then they turn up that afternoon). Overall, I\u0026rsquo;m a very satisfied customer and I don\u0026rsquo;t feel like they\u0026rsquo;re restricting my use. Rather, I tend “throttle” (slow usage) myself because I\u0026rsquo;m too busy to watch that many movies. I\u0026rsquo;ve done the analysis and I\u0026rsquo;m getting good value out of my account.\nFor some real Netflix analysis though, I\u0026rsquo;d check out Mike\u0026rsquo;s Netflix analysis though it hasn\u0026rsquo;t been updated in a little while. Update: Look at the power I yield, Mike updated his graph. It\u0026rsquo;s far more complete than Manuel\u0026rsquo;s anecdotal account of Netflix quality. On an up note, if our society has progressed to the point where this becomes the main concern for someone, we\u0026rsquo;re doing pretty good.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/12/whine-whine-whine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLike any hardcore \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e user, I read \u003ca href=\"http://www.hackingnetflix.com\"\u003eHacking Netflix\u003c/a\u003e. One of the more repetitive, annoying themes is the dissatisfaction of \u003ca href=\"http://www.manuelsweb.com/netflix.htm\"\u003eManuel\u003c/a\u003e. If you thought I was obsessive about Macs, well, it\u0026rsquo;s nothing compared to this guy and Netflix. And it has to be bad. In fact, he takes this quest so seriously that it has shades of a \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote\"\u003eDon Quixote\u003c/a\u003e syndrome. Netflix is one mighty windmill. He\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060210/ap_en_mo/netflix_throttling_2\"\u003epulled the AP in\u003c/a\u003e as his Sancho Panza. It even has a picture of him. Lovely.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Whine, Whine, Whine"},{"content":"Ever since Google released Gmail to the public, Yahoo and Microsoft have been watching the hipster geek crowd move away from their webmail systems (Yahoo Mail and Hotmail respectively). Gmail shows users that webmail doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to suck. It lit a fire under the ass of webmail providers. Ultimately, it prompted the two companies to actively develop their offerings, and adopting the Google model, release them as “beta”. “Beta” in this case can be read as “if something don\u0026rsquo;t work, you\u0026rsquo;re on your own.”\nYahoo I finally got into Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s Mail Beta program a week or two ago. It mirrors traditional desktop email clients, allowing drag and drop among other things. It also unclutters the interface (which is simply atrocious). They finally prioritize actions that users really do use instead of things that they want to promote.\nAs a bonus, it works in recent Gecko browsers and Windows IE. Safari and Opera are left out in the cold for now.\nMicrosoft As part of Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s new “Live” offerings, their webmail beta also adopts the traditional desktop interface, very comparable to Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s version. However, instead of having the message listing sitting above the preview pane, it\u0026rsquo;s to the right of it. That\u0026rsquo;s great for widescreen users, but I don\u0026rsquo;t like it. I like windows that are more square. Also the revamp feels very slight as far as rethinking the interface. It still uses tabs for things other than email itself.\nIn typical Microsoft style, it only works in the very latest IE for Windows.\nThe Revolution is Next Week All in all, I\u0026rsquo;m not terribly impressed with either beta. They both adopt the traditional desktop interface, which although is nice for consistency, doesn\u0026rsquo;t really compel me to move over to their system. That\u0026rsquo;s only really useful if I use the webmail interface primarily, but if I do, why not use an honest to goodness desktop client? The desktop client will even handle offline situations. Emulating current conventions isn\u0026rsquo;t going to get me (or most users) to switch.\nOn the other hand, Gmail gives me pause because it presents an entirely new way of looking at things that I don\u0026rsquo;t get in a desktop client. Add that to the slick interface, and that\u0026rsquo;s why I still wrestle with the idea of moving to Gmail.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/10/webmail-now-in-beta/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEver since Google released Gmail to the public, Yahoo and Microsoft have been watching the hipster geek crowd move away from their webmail systems (Yahoo Mail and Hotmail respectively). Gmail shows users that webmail doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to suck. It lit a fire under the ass of webmail providers. Ultimately, it prompted the two companies to actively develop their offerings, and adopting the Google model, release them as “beta”. “Beta” in this case can be read as “if something don\u0026rsquo;t work, you\u0026rsquo;re on your own.”\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Webmail, now in beta"},{"content":"Because Mike still doesn\u0026rsquo;t have comments, I\u0026rsquo;m forced to respond over here to another of his posts. The gist of the article is that some punks at myspace were using his images on their profile pages, sucking up his bandwidth. I had the same thing happen with a punk at Xanga. The conversation I had with him was:\n“Hey, could you either attribute my photo or take it off your site?” (My site address was given.)\n“What photo?”\n“The one hosted on my site.”\n“Huh?”\n“This one, dumbass.”\n“Huh?”\n“Go to hell.”\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/02/07/hotlinking/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBecause Mike still doesn\u0026rsquo;t have comments, I\u0026rsquo;m forced to respond over here to \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetmike.com/blog/2006/02/06#visits-updated\"\u003eanother of his posts\u003c/a\u003e. The gist of the article is that some punks at \u003ca href=\"http://www.myspace.com\"\u003emyspace\u003c/a\u003e were using his images on their profile pages, sucking up his bandwidth. I had the same thing happen with a punk at \u003ca href=\"http://www.xanga.com\"\u003eXanga\u003c/a\u003e. The conversation I had with him was:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hey, could you either attribute my photo or take it off your site?” (My site address was given.)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hotlinking"},{"content":"Dear Apple,\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re going to publish calendars for your iCal users and advertise them, keep them up to date. A movie release calendar that ends late October of last year is useless.\nYour pal,\nDerik\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/29/acting-self-important/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDear Apple,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you\u0026rsquo;re going to publish \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ical/library/\"\u003ecalendars for your iCal users\u003c/a\u003e and advertise them, keep them up to date. A movie release calendar that ends late October of last year is useless.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour pal,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDerik\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Acting Self Important"},{"content":"Back in December, I made some predictions.\nThe quick recap is, I was completely right about the Powerbook (though I didn\u0026rsquo;t see the moronic name change coming). I didn\u0026rsquo;t see the iMac coming. The Mac mini rumor was nice, but ultimately, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t in the cards. My hope clouded my judgment.\niLife \u0026lsquo;06 and iWork \u0026lsquo;06: Yawn. Again.\nI\u0026rsquo;m surprised at the complete lack of information about Leopard. The prospect of getting surprised is actually exciting. Apple may just sit on the features until after Vista appears. That might slow Microsoft just a bit. Tags: macworld, puppy ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/23/post-macworld-roundup/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBack in December, I \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/09/macworld-expo-san-francisco/\"\u003emade some predictions\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe quick recap is, I was completely right about the Powerbook (though I didn\u0026rsquo;t see the moronic name change coming). I didn\u0026rsquo;t see the iMac coming. The Mac mini rumor was nice, but ultimately, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t in the cards. My hope clouded my judgment.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eiLife \u0026lsquo;06 and iWork \u0026lsquo;06: Yawn. Again.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m surprised at the complete lack of information about Leopard. The prospect of getting surprised is actually exciting. Apple may just sit on the features until after Vista appears. That might slow Microsoft just a bit. \u003c!-- technorati tags start --\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Post Macworld Roundup"},{"content":"I use my Gmail account to manage several mailing lists I\u0026rsquo;m subscribed to. I also regularly re-evaluate it for use as my main email address. So far, no dice. I just like desktop email clients much more.\nOne of the more compelling things about Gmail is the amount of space allotted for each user (2686 MB at the moment). With most emails being only a few kilobytes big, users aren\u0026rsquo;t going to fill up that space (particularly because that allotment grows every day). There are exceptions, such as Adam Curry (who receives lots of audio files in his email), but other users aren\u0026rsquo;t going to have an issue.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s for this reason that Gmail didn\u0026rsquo;t make it easy to delete email. There was no point. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t that it was impossible either. All one needed to do was choose “Move to Trash” from the actions pop-up menu. Keeping it less accessible was a good thing because it trained users to stop trying to delete every piece of email. That was no longer part of the paradigm, save for extreme cases.\nGoogle has finally given up on its “delete nothing” paradigm and put a delete button prominently in the toolbar. Well, it was a good idea while it lasted. Tags: gmail, google, email ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/21/gmail-has-lost-its-focus/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI use my Gmail account to manage several mailing lists I\u0026rsquo;m subscribed to. I also regularly re-evaluate it for use as my main email address. So far, no dice. I just like desktop email clients much more.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the more compelling things about Gmail is the amount of space allotted for each user (2686 MB at the moment). With most emails being only a few kilobytes big, users aren\u0026rsquo;t going to fill up that space (particularly because that allotment grows every day). There are exceptions, such as Adam Curry (who receives lots of audio files in his email), but other users aren\u0026rsquo;t going to have an issue.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gmail Has Lost Its Focus"},{"content":"Macworld\u0026rsquo;s lab tests of the new intel iMac confirm what I\u0026rsquo;ve been telling people since the Intel transition was announced.\nI can summarize the results pretty quickly. Considering that the Intel processor in the new iMac is a dual core, the speed isn\u0026rsquo;t really that much better. In fact, taking that into account, it\u0026rsquo;s slower. Also, Rosetta isn\u0026rsquo;t the panacea that everyone bought into. I knew it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t work with anything that requires precise timing and it\u0026rsquo;s slow. Slow.\nThis shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be surprising, but considering what all the pundits said, you\u0026rsquo;d think it would be. I don\u0026rsquo;t think that the Intel transition will break Apple, but let\u0026rsquo;s not pretend it\u0026rsquo;s all candy and roses. It ain\u0026rsquo;t. Tags: imac, intel, rosetta ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/20/rosetta-is-not-all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/2006/01/features/imaclabtest1/index.php?pf=1\"\u003eMacworld\u0026rsquo;s lab tests\u003c/a\u003e of the new intel iMac confirm what I\u0026rsquo;ve been telling people since the Intel transition was announced.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI can summarize the results pretty quickly. Considering that the Intel processor in the new iMac is a dual core, the speed isn\u0026rsquo;t really that much better. In fact, taking that into account, it\u0026rsquo;s slower. Also, Rosetta isn\u0026rsquo;t the panacea that everyone bought into. I knew it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t work with anything that requires precise timing and it\u0026rsquo;s slow. \u003cstrong\u003eSlow\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rosetta is Not All That and a Bag of Chips"},{"content":"Over at Mike\u0026rsquo;s blog, he\u0026rsquo;s redirecting all mail from a domain that gets over 3000 pieces of spam a day. I\u0026rsquo;m really looking forward to his results because he usually puts together pretty visual results that are fun to look at.\nI\u0026rsquo;m still waiting for an objective comparison of the various spam filters out there, particularly the ones built into the big webmail services like Yahoo and Hotmail. I\u0026rsquo;ve found those services perform pretty terribly. Despite trying to “train” their filter, I regularly get mail with similar subjects dropped right into my inbox. I\u0026rsquo;ve heard Google\u0026rsquo;s is better, but I\u0026rsquo;d rather not pollute my own account for experimentation.\nTags: google, spam, webmail\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/19/pushing-gmail-to-the-limits/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOver at \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetmike.com/blog/advertising/spam/gmail01.shtml\"\u003eMike\u0026rsquo;s blog\u003c/a\u003e, he\u0026rsquo;s redirecting all mail from a domain that gets over 3000 pieces of spam a day. I\u0026rsquo;m really looking forward to his results because he usually puts together pretty visual results that are fun to look at.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m still waiting for an objective comparison of the various spam filters out there, particularly the ones built into the big webmail services like Yahoo and Hotmail. I\u0026rsquo;ve found those services perform pretty terribly. Despite trying to “train” their filter, I regularly get mail with similar subjects dropped right into my inbox. I\u0026rsquo;ve heard Google\u0026rsquo;s is better, but I\u0026rsquo;d rather not pollute my own account for experimentation.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pushing Gmail to the limits"},{"content":"After recently hinting that I had something big to share, the time has come to let everyone know what it is. Macworld has taken me on as one of two regular contributers to their new MacUser blog. This is an incredible opportunity and I couldn\u0026rsquo;t be happier to be involved with this project.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll be writing extremely regularly over there, though the pieces will be much, much shorter compared with my pieces here. I will be writing the occasional extended rant on MacUser, but nothing compared to here.\nThe downside is that as a side effect, my posting here will probably continue at its current slow pace. I originally intended to post daily here, but I\u0026rsquo;ve since figured out that\u0026rsquo;s not quite my style and I was always searching for something to comment upon, even when there wasn\u0026rsquo;t anything that really interested me. I also didn\u0026rsquo;t want to write one liners because my analysis seems to garner much more positive attention.\nAt any rate, check the site out if you\u0026rsquo;re interested in or use Macs. I hope to see some comments!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/09/the-big-news/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter recently hinting that I had something big to share, the time has come to let everyone know what it is. \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com\"\u003eMacworld\u003c/a\u003e has taken me on as one of two regular contributers to their new \u003ca href=\"http://www.macuser.com\"\u003eMacUser blog\u003c/a\u003e. This is an incredible opportunity and I couldn\u0026rsquo;t be happier to be involved with this project.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll be writing extremely regularly over there, though the pieces will be much, much shorter compared with my pieces here. I will be writing the occasional extended rant on MacUser, but nothing compared to here.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Big News"},{"content":"I regularly SSH into my desktop at home to both run things from the command line and also set up tunnels to connect via VNC. The problem with this has always been knowing your IP address. Consumer broadband connections have no guarantee of retaining an IP for any amount of time. As a result, so called Dynamic DNS services were created. These services allow one to regularly change a domain name to match your current IP.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t have the numbers, but I imagine most users of these services use update programs on their computer to keep the number up to date. The fact is though, that this is unnecessary. It requires a computer to be on and uses resources on that computer. Nearly all modern routers today have built in update clients. The services supported will vary between manufacturers and models, but it\u0026rsquo;s worth checking out because you can set it and forget it.\nThat works great, but example.selfip.org isn\u0026rsquo;t particularly pretty. There are a wide range of domains available, but to be honest, I\u0026rsquo;m not a big fan of any of them. Besides, I own several domains. Isn\u0026rsquo;t mynet.godlikenerd.com much better? I think so. Many of these services will administrate your domain records, but that\u0026rsquo;s a pain (and potentially costly), particularly when my webhost already does this well.\nDreamhost recently added custom DNS to their bottom end plan (which I use and is far more than I\u0026rsquo;ll ever need). This allows me to define any kind of entry I want. Check with your host to see if they\u0026rsquo;ll let you do the same. What is needed is a CNAME entry. Basically, it allows one to point one domain at another domain rather than an IP, essentially an alias. All that\u0026rsquo;s left now is for you to mentally connect the dots.\nFirst, sign up for a dynamic DNS account and pick a domain name. This domain isn\u0026rsquo;t particularly important because we\u0026rsquo;re only going to use it to set up. Second, visit your router\u0026rsquo;s configuration page to enter the necessary login information into its dynamic DNS client. You should probably test to see that it updates correctly by trying to access a service at this domain. Third, set up a CNAME entry. For example, mynet.godlikenerd.com should point at example.selfip.org. This way, when someone looks up mynet.godlikenerd.com, it says “look at example.selfip.org”, which in turn returns your IP address. As a bonus, because mynet.godlikenerd.com is pointing at a name instead of an IP, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t require any updating. You\u0026rsquo;ve just leveraged a free service into automatically updating a custom domain name with your IP address.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/05/pretty-dynamic-dns-names/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI regularly SSH into my desktop at home to both run things from the command line and also set up tunnels to connect via VNC. The problem with this has always been knowing your IP address. Consumer broadband connections have no guarantee of retaining an IP for any amount of time. As a result, so called Dynamic DNS services were created. These services allow one to regularly change a domain name to match your current IP.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pretty Dynamic DNS Names"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;d hope that readers of my weblog would be familiar with Planet d00dism. It\u0026rsquo;s a website run with Planet Planet that uses my various RSS feeds to construct an aggregation of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing online (stolen wholesale from Erik Benson). There\u0026rsquo;s even an RSS feed for it. However, installing the software (which still hasn\u0026rsquo;t had a formal release), is a bit much for most people. Some don\u0026rsquo;t even have proper web hosting.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s why I was so excited to read that 43People has added this capability. By default, it includes your 43Things, 43Places, 43People, and All Consuming.\nSidebar: Look me up on 43People and make sure you mark me as someone you know.\nYou can take a look at my feeds page to see what I\u0026rsquo;ve added. The absolutely coolest feature is that if you\u0026rsquo;re a Netflix subscriber (don\u0026rsquo;t forget you can add me as a friend there too) and you add your activity feed, it will automatically add and update when you\u0026rsquo;re consuming and have finished consuming your movies. I used to do that manually, but then I got lazy. Now my All Consuming page is going to be regularly updated. I can tag and write entries at my leisure without worrying about forgetting to enter the movies when I get them. Sweet.\nGet an account and tell me the address so I can subscribe to your RSS feed.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2006/01/04/create-your-own-planet/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;d hope that readers of my weblog would be familiar with \u003ca href=\"http://planet.godlikenerd.com\"\u003ePlanet d00dism\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a website run with \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetplanet.org\"\u003ePlanet Planet\u003c/a\u003e that uses my various RSS feeds to construct an aggregation of what I\u0026rsquo;m doing online (stolen wholesale from \u003ca href=\"http://erikbenson.com\"\u003eErik Benson\u003c/a\u003e). There\u0026rsquo;s even an RSS feed for it. However, installing the software (which still hasn\u0026rsquo;t had a formal release), is a bit much for most people. Some don\u0026rsquo;t even have proper web hosting.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s why I was so excited to read that \u003ca href=\"http://www.robotcoop.com/articles/2006/01/03/add-any-rss-feed-to-your-account\"\u003e43People has added this capability\u003c/a\u003e. By default, it includes your \u003ca href=\"http://www.43things.com\"\u003e43Things\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.43places.com\"\u003e43Places\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.43people.com\"\u003e43People\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net\"\u003eAll Consuming\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Create Your Own Planet"},{"content":"Heather noticed that I turned on several of the FeedFlare features for my RSS feed. I fall in love with FeedBurner more and more every day.\nEmail this\nSend a link to your item to someone via email.\nEmail author\nAllow subscribers to email you directly. (If there is no email address in your feed, this will be hidden.)\nTechnorati Cosmos\nDisplay the number of links to your item from blogs, as measured by Technorati. (If there are no links, this will be hidden.)\nDel.icio.us tags\nLists del.icio.us tags for an item. (If there are no tags, this will be hidden.)\nSave to del.icio.us\nAllows subscribers to bookmark the item with del.icio.us.\nCount comments\nLists the number of comments posted to an item (for WordPress blogs only).\nCreative Commons\nDisplays the Creative Commons license that you may have applied to your feed (or to individual content items).\nI\u0026rsquo;ve turned them all on, save the Email Author feature, for obvious reasons. I may turn off the comment counter as I think it\u0026rsquo;ll cause NetNewsWire to register a change, and therefore mark it as new again. All this for free! Tags: feedburner, feedflare ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/31/feedflare-rocks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.pixelscribbles.com/journal/\"\u003eHeather\u003c/a\u003e noticed that I turned on several of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/feedflare\"\u003eFeedFlare\u003c/a\u003e features for my RSS feed. I fall in love with FeedBurner more and more every day.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEmail this\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSend a link to your item to someone via email.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEmail author\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAllow subscribers to email you directly. (If there is no email address in your feed, this will be hidden.)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTechnorati Cosmos\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDisplay the number of links to your item from blogs, as measured by Technorati. (If there are no links, this will be hidden.)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"FeedFlare Rocks"},{"content":"I haven\u0026rsquo;t thought of any resolutions, other than to stop being prematurely mysterious when hinting about announcements.\nWhat are yours? Have any suggestions for me? Tags: newyears, resolutions ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/31/happy-new-year/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI haven\u0026rsquo;t thought of any resolutions, other than to stop being prematurely mysterious when hinting about announcements.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat are yours? Have any suggestions for me? \u003c!-- technorati tags start --\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"tag-description\"\u003e\n  Tags: \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net/tag/newyears\" rel=\"tag\"\u003enewyears\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net/tag/resolutions\" rel=\"tag\"\u003eresolutions\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c!-- technorati tags end --\u003e","title":"Happy New Year!"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve become really addicted to Digg. Slashdot has simply become too slow and excludes far too many worthy stories. The unfortunate side effect is that some stories get more attention than they really deserve.\nThis month, it was a whole class of stories: “Best of”. Pseudonyms include “things you didn\u0026rsquo;t know about”, “things you should download”, and “things for new blank users”. They\u0026rsquo;re just lists of things that people like. They\u0026rsquo;re not noteworthy and usually, they\u0026rsquo;re not even original.\nThe story that was the straw that broke the camel\u0026rsquo;s back was 10 Apps Every New Mac User Should Download. I like and use many of the applications on his list.\nNone of them are particularly original. Honestly, I don\u0026rsquo;t even think every new Mac user should download them. I don\u0026rsquo;t think Mom is going to get just how cool Quicksilver is. Heck, how many people actually need Nvu, the web page editor? That aside, does this topic need to be rehashed three times a day, particularly when new versions of these apps have their own Digg stories?\nIs it really practical to run 50 Firefox extensions when some of them don\u0026rsquo;t even work with the current version? Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers \u0026amp; Designers. How about a list of the 10 most mediocre, unremarkable pieces of software?\nTags: bestof, software ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/31/december-2005-tis-the-season-of-best-of/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve become really addicted to \u003ca href=\"http://digg.com\"\u003eDigg\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"http://slashdot.org\"\u003eSlashdot\u003c/a\u003e has simply become too slow and excludes far too many worthy stories. The unfortunate side effect is that some stories get more attention than they really deserve.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis month, it was a whole class of stories: “Best of”. Pseudonyms include “\u003cem\u003ethings\u003c/em\u003e you didn\u0026rsquo;t know about”, “\u003cem\u003ethings\u003c/em\u003e you should download”, and “\u003cem\u003ethings\u003c/em\u003e for new \u003cem\u003eblank\u003c/em\u003e users”. They\u0026rsquo;re just lists of things that people like. They\u0026rsquo;re not noteworthy and usually, they\u0026rsquo;re not even original.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"December 2005 tis the Season of “Best of”"},{"content":"Being the vain man that I am, I google myself every once in a while. I feel the compulsion, if for no other reason because I\u0026rsquo;m afraid of Derik Farnsworth overtaking me, then coming to my house to call me a girly man.\nImagine my surprise when I found out that there was a story about me as a camel. I know everyone thinks of me as a camel because I have foul breath and spit a lot. Ha ha. Seriously though, the story is priceless as is the following repeated phrase.\nDerik, Derik, has no hump. Derik, Derik, what a chump!\nIt\u0026rsquo;s official. I have no hump and I am a chump.\nTags: camels, chump, derik, hump, vanity ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/31/derik-the-camel/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBeing the vain man that I am, I \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=derik\"\u003egoogle myself\u003c/a\u003e every once in a while. I feel the compulsion, if for no other reason because I\u0026rsquo;m afraid of \u003ca href=\"http://www.derikfarnsworth.com\"\u003eDerik Farnsworth\u003c/a\u003e overtaking me, then coming to my house to call me a girly man.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImagine my surprise when I found out that there was a story \u003ca href=\"http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/stories/middleeast5.htm\"\u003eabout me as a camel\u003c/a\u003e. I know everyone thinks of me as a camel because I have foul breath and spit a lot. Ha ha. Seriously though, the story is priceless as is the following repeated phrase.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Derik the Camel"},{"content":"Merry Christmas to all the Christians in the audience. I hope you find your hopes and dreams under the tree.\nHopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll have a big announcement to share with y\u0026rsquo;all soon.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/24/merry-christmas/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMerry Christmas to all the Christians in the audience. I hope you find your hopes and dreams under the tree.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll have a big announcement to share with y\u0026rsquo;all soon.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Merry Christmas"},{"content":"A big ado was made when the Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer team announced they would use Firefox\u0026rsquo;s feed icon. I guess it\u0026rsquo;s better than yet another icon, but I never what the problem was with the original XML icon, etc. was in the first place. Mozilla seemed to create the icon because “RSS” wasn\u0026rsquo;t considered kosher considering the number of Atom feeds out there.\nAs an aside, what\u0026rsquo;s even more maddening is that Safari still opts for Atom feeds over RSS feeds despite ordering in the source when one clicks the RSS subscribe button. Not only is that an inconvenience for webmasters, but it confuses the hell out of users.\nI guess I can accept the new icon as the de facto standard. Firefox and IE are the two big players. I do have to find some irony here though. Firefox was pushed so heavily because it was a minority browser and helped push community established web standards into the published web. Now that it\u0026rsquo;s a major player with IE, the two of them have essentially ganged up to force their picked icon as the standard for xml based feeds. I missed the community involvement here. But I digress.\nI can even try to overlook the fact that there is still a very real disconnect between rss and atom feeds and this icon. Typical non-geek users that don\u0026rsquo;t already know what the icon means aren\u0026rsquo;t going to know what it means. How is the average user supposed to identify this icon with this rss feed you speak of? They won\u0026rsquo;t.\nYou\u0026rsquo;re getting impatient. I can feel it. What\u0026rsquo;s the point? This website is infuriating. Basically, some dude decided to try to use the current situation to derive some profit and attention to his own web designs. If we take a look at the readme that\u0026rsquo;s on the site, we have four authoritative sources.\nhttp://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx\nhttp://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2005/12/firefox_feed_ic.html\nhttp://mattbrett.com/archives/2005/12/the-new-standard-feed-icon\nhttp://feedicons.com\nThe last is of course itself. That\u0026rsquo;s authority by recursion. The third is a post by the author on his blog. The very same post that spawned the “project”. That leaves two sources, Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s announced adoption of the icon and a blog post by Asa Dotzler of Mozilla. Again, I\u0026rsquo;m missing the community involvement.\nNow that we\u0026rsquo;ve all supposedly decided this is to be the standard, we come to this part of the site:\nCustomize Not a fan of orange? Download the package and customize the icon to your liking. We believe that as a symbol, the feed icon is recognizable enough that it doesn\u0026rsquo;t need to be restricted to one colour.\nWho is we? What happened to a standard and trying get the userbase to recognize the one icon? Won\u0026rsquo;t users wonder if maybe the different color means different content? Maybe green means podcast? Meh.\nIn all fairness, I do believe that Matt is serving a very good purpose. He is supplying a high quality, scalable version of the icon. That\u0026rsquo;s certainly a great service to those that want to support the icon as the standard. Talking in the first person plural should be reserved for royalty. (I\u0026rsquo;ll try to reserve comments about the PayPal Donation button because bandwidth is expensive.)\nHowever, there is one irony too delicious to ignore. The site uses a mailing list for notifications. If the irony doesn\u0026rsquo;t jump out right away, give it a moment. Okay, in case you missed it, a site promoting a new icon standard for XML based syndication feeds doesn\u0026rsquo;t itself offer an XML feed for notifications, opting instead to syndicate via email. I think that says it all. Tags: firefox, ie, standards, rss\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/24/standardizing-the-feed-icon/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA big ado was made when the Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer team \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/archive/2005/12/14/503778.aspx\"\u003eannounced they would use Firefox\u0026rsquo;s feed icon\u003c/a\u003e. I guess it\u0026rsquo;s better than yet another icon, but I never what the problem was with the original XML icon, etc. was in the first place. Mozilla seemed to create the icon because “RSS” wasn\u0026rsquo;t considered kosher considering the number of Atom feeds out there.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAs an aside, what\u0026rsquo;s even more maddening is that Safari \u003cstrong\u003estill\u003c/strong\u003e opts for Atom feeds over RSS feeds despite ordering in the source when one clicks the \u003cstrong\u003eRSS\u003c/strong\u003e subscribe button. Not only is that an inconvenience for webmasters, but it confuses the hell out of users.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Standardizing the Feed Icon"},{"content":"Next to my TV, I have an EyeHome and a Playstation 2 (with ethernet adapter). I originally bought a D-Link DWL-G810 wireless to ethernet bridge. That way, devices with only an ethernet port could join the wireless network I had running out of my loft. It worked, but only for one device because it only had one port. To remedy this, I bought a D-Link DSS-5+ switch. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that don\u0026rsquo;t work. It seems the bridge will recognize only one MAC address at a time.\nPricey It seems that most wireless to ethernet bridges are handicapped in this way. At $80, I didn\u0026rsquo;t feel like getting one of these devices every time I add a non-wireless capable device. Linksys makes a wireless to ethernet bridge, the WET54GS5, which includes its own switch. However, it\u0026rsquo;s a pricey $180. That\u0026rsquo;s no good either.\nThe Answer to My Hopes and Dreams The solution is the do-it-all wireless router, the WRT54G (or WRT54GS or WRT54GL). Thanks to its open source firmware, third-parties have been able to take the ball and run with it. The most prominently known is Sveasoft with their Alchemy and Talisman firmwares. The former is freely available, the latter is not. There are cracked versions of the firmware available for free. There\u0026rsquo;s been a long running debate as to whether Sveasoft can control their firmware distribution as they do. I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to get into it or pay (because I\u0026rsquo;m cheap), so I went with DD-WRT. It\u0026rsquo;s free and full featured, but slightly more intimidating.\nThe v23 beta 2 version includes a “client-bridged” mode. The firmware makes a ~$50 device into a ~$180 device, and I\u0026rsquo;m not even mentioning the firmware\u0026rsquo;s dozens of other features. As an added bonus, it even lets you connect with WPA, a feature I\u0026rsquo;m not sure I\u0026rsquo;ve seen elsewhere. My Eyehome and PS2 can now connect at the same time in happy harmony.\nCaveats Unfortunately, not all WRT54G models were created equal. The v1 versions only have a 125 MHz CPU and the v5 uses VxWorks instead of Linux. Any other version is good, as is any version of the WRT54GS or the WRT54GL.\nTreasure Hunting I found a WRT54GSv4 for $50 after rebates at Staples and a WRT54Gv4 at Walmart for $50 straight up. It\u0026rsquo;s worth noting that other than Linksys officially supporting “Afterburner” (their proprietary speed boosting technology), the devices are identical. In fact, the hardware itself is the same, as is the WRT54GL, which is currently selling for $70.99 at Amazon. Linksys seems to have finally realized that they were sitting on a gold mine.\nMost online retailers are shipping the latest versions of the router by now, so your best options include gasp shopping offline. First, check places like Walmart that likely have low technology product turnover. They probably have some older versions on their shelves. Also, the WRT54GS (with Speedbooster version) is still safe. If you can find a good deal for that model online, that\u0026rsquo;s a good option.\nConclusion You might note I got two compatible routers. One has just become the new main router for my network. I love to tinker and this is certainly the router to do just that. Tags: ethernet, linksys, networking, bridge ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/23/wrt54gs-i-think-i-love-you/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNext to my TV, I have an \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007AB4X0/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eEyeHome\u003c/a\u003e and a Playstation 2 (with ethernet adapter). I originally bought a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CEPCH/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eD-Link DWL-G810\u003c/a\u003e wireless to ethernet bridge. That way, devices with only an ethernet port could join the wireless network I had running out of my loft. It worked, but only for one device because it only had one port. To remedy this, I bought a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000023VUE/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eD-Link DSS-5+\u003c/a\u003e \u003cspan class=\"float-right\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://static.flickr.com/38/76633918_9bf5286640_t.jpg\" alt=\"WRT54G\" /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e switch. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, that don\u0026rsquo;t work. It seems the bridge will recognize only one MAC address at a time.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WRT54G(S), I Think I Love You"},{"content":"Google, little by little, is trying to draw me into using Gmail full time. The latest round of feature additions include a vacation auto-responder (something I think ends up being unintentionally annoying) and contact groups. I was so excited to see the latter feature. I thought it would end my auto-filing problems. The truth be know, I filter my email more than anyone I know. Half of my email is auto-filed away from my inbox. The other half is colored according to who its from, allowing me to color prioritize. Purple is family email. Blue is from friends. So on and so forth.\nHowever, creating a simple filter in Gmail to apply my “friends” label to email is painful. I need to create a rule for each of my friends. That\u0026rsquo;s painful. Beyond that, if I decide to change the behavior of mail from friends, I need to alter each of those already created rules. That sucks. I thought now that there are contact groups, I\u0026rsquo;d be able to select messages based upon messages from people being in that group. However, you can\u0026rsquo;t. It\u0026rsquo;s simply for addressing emails. Bah. That\u0026rsquo;s half implementation.\nUntil Google beefs up its filtering capabilities, I\u0026rsquo;ll have to keep using genuine (non web) email clients.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/15/gmail-gains-groups/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eGoogle, little by little, is trying to draw me into using Gmail full time. The latest round of feature additions include a vacation auto-responder (something I think ends up being unintentionally annoying) and contact groups. I was so excited to see the latter feature. I thought it would end my auto-filing problems. The truth be know, I filter my email more than anyone I know. Half of my email is auto-filed away from my inbox. The other half is colored according to who its from, allowing me to color prioritize. Purple is family email. Blue is from friends. So on and so forth.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gmail Gains Groups"},{"content":" Love to see your comments about MacWorld 2006 on your blog, if you have any. This year will be my first as an attendee, and I plan on drinking Steve\u0026rsquo;s Kool-Aid all week. Even sadder, I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to it a little bit more than Christmas…..not sure what that says about me.\nSo, if you have predictions, comments, hopes or desires you want to see happen that week, I think you have enough geeks that would enjoy hearing your perspective.\nKind Regards,\nAndy\nI can\u0026rsquo;t pass up a question that someone asks me to answer. I\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking about it a little, but not too hard this year.\nFirst, a recap of the current rumors is worth listing. According to MacRumors, there are six strongish rumors.\nIntel PowerBooks Intel iBooks Intel Mac mini iLife \u0026lsquo;06 iWork \u0026lsquo;06 Leopard Preview New Hardware The current popular rumor which has risen to the level of fact via the mechanism of urban myth is that Apple will transition the low end Macs first. While all the speculative stories in the media about the transition said that Apple would be doing so, followed by the high end machines, at no point did Steve say that in the keynote. Go ahead and check the transcript. He didn\u0026rsquo;t say it. The other part of that rumor is that the transition will start mid-year.\nBut starting next year we will begin introducing Macs with Intel processors in them and over time these transitions will again occur. So when we meet here again this next time next year, our plan is to be shipping Macs with Intel processors by then, and when we meet here again two years from now, our plan is that transition will be mostly complete.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t see mid-year anywhere in there. The closest thing to that is that Intel Macs will be shipping by the next WWDC. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t preclude earlier and actually in a way suggests before. So let\u0026rsquo;s put the myth to bed.\nAs far as I can tell, the only reason that people are suggesting that the iBook will be making the transition so early is because of those early rumors. Given, I\u0026rsquo;ve been wrong before, but I simply cannot see the motivation for Apple here. The cost motivation is bullshit because industry analysts have already stated that Apple had a sweetheart deal with IBM that gave them the chips cheaper.\nWhile better battery life, power consumption, and performance are all excellent reasons to upgrade the laptops with Intel, they aren\u0026rsquo;t good reasons for upgrading the iBook. Customers looking to purchase the iBook aren\u0026rsquo;t likely to care enough about those issues to the point that it would affect sales. The iBook\u0026rsquo;s real selling point is the price point.\nThe Powerbook on the other hand, does need these things. Badly. The Powerbooks have been long in the tooth for a long time now. The best evidence of this is the fact that the last Powerbook revision had no processor speed bump at all. As far as I know, that\u0026rsquo;s unprecedented (save the Powerbooks going from G3s to G4s, but they gained new chips). Apple needs to bring attention back to the Powerbooks. A fancy new screen isn\u0026rsquo;t going to cut it for long.\nThat just leaves the Mac mini. While the same argument I made against an iBook transition applies to the Mac mini, it is Apple\u0026rsquo;s switcher machine. Making it an Intel machine means that dual booting with Windows will be possible, allowing switchers to feel safer because they can run a full up Windows installation for software they still need. It\u0026rsquo;s a terrific safety net. Further, virtualization software will make running Windows inside OS X nearly transparent.\nMedia Mac mini A fairly significant rumor about the mini came out of Think Secret. New features include an updated Front Row, DVR functionality, an iPod dock built in, and a 3.5″ hard drive.\nThe iPod dock and 3.5″ hard drive are completely unexciting to me. I don\u0026rsquo;t care if they do it. I think the dock is cutesy and unnecessary. The 3.5″ isn\u0026rsquo;t exciting because a stacker device already corrects any performance or storage issues.\nAn updated Front Row is a no-brainer, as is it becoming available for all Macs (though it may be for pay). Apple trying to restrict it to a single machine is a practice in futility.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s really exciting about this is the DVR functionality. I don\u0026rsquo;t count the iTunes Music Store carrying TV shows as DVR functionality. While it does suggest a future model that video content may be delivered over (you know Comcast and the cable providers are already headed that way with On Demand), it\u0026rsquo;s not currently viable due to cost and show availability. Recording TV off cable is viable right now.\nDVR is really compelling when coupled with existing Mac functionality. Imagine a $500 machine that can act as a TiVo, play DVDs, burn DVDs, play your iTunes music, show off your photos, play video games, etc. All that and it\u0026rsquo;s so small that stuffing it in your entertainment center is almost easier than with a normal DVD player.\nNot only does the Mac mini become the ideal switch machine, but the ultimate consumer gateway into Macs. It becomes conceivable that people will begin buying them not because they\u0026rsquo;re a computer but because they\u0026rsquo;re a great complement to a TV. This is assuming of course that Apple thinks ahead and makes it easy to attach to TVs without DVI (by adding some kind of more traditional video output).\nYawn The last three rumors are completely boring, so predictable to the point that they\u0026rsquo;re not rumors. That is all.\nThe Summary Here\u0026rsquo;s what I foresee happening. The iBook processors will be bumped up to current Powerbook speeds. The 14″ might actually get a better resolution than the 12″. The Powerbooks will move to Intel. I expect they\u0026rsquo;ll start using the new Airport/Bluetooth combo cards, or that will become completely integrated with no way to remove it.\nThe Mac mini will start shipping with a new Front Row and Intel processors. As much as I like the idea of it doubling as a DVR, it may not happen.\nOne thing I\u0026rsquo;d like to see, thought it probably won\u0026rsquo;t, is Apple start prepping for 802.11n with either some MIMO products or something that will be capable of being updated to the 802.11n standard. I\u0026rsquo;m a little disappointed with the lack of rumors in this aspect of Apple\u0026rsquo;s business, and it\u0026rsquo;s time that they returned to being on the wireless forefront.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/09/macworld-expo-san-francisco/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLove to see your comments about MacWorld 2006 on your blog, if you have any. This year will be my first as an attendee, and I plan on drinking Steve\u0026rsquo;s Kool-Aid all week. Even sadder, I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to it a little bit more than Christmas…..not sure what that says about me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo, if you have predictions, comments, hopes or desires you want to see happen that week, I think you have enough geeks that would enjoy hearing your perspective.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Macworld Expo San Francisco"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s official. I have way too many movies in my queue. I tried to add Suspiria to my Netflix queue, only to get the following response.\nIf you wish to add this movie to your Queue, you must first remove some movies.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to trim it a little, but I fear I may be forced to spawn a new queue (just for TV shows). Boo to Netflix for its artificial 500 movie queue limit. Split it into multiple pages if necessary. I don\u0026rsquo;t care how they handle it. It\u0026rsquo;s an inconvenience to me.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/05/the-day-netflix-told-me-no-more/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s official. I have way too many movies in my queue. I tried to add \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60037424\u0026amp;trkid=181036\"\u003eSuspiria\u003c/a\u003e to my Netflix queue, only to get the following response.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you wish to add this movie to your Queue, you must first remove some movies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m going to trim it a little, but I fear I may be forced to spawn a new queue (just for TV shows). Boo to Netflix for its artificial 500 movie queue limit. Split it into multiple pages if necessary. I don\u0026rsquo;t care how they handle it. It\u0026rsquo;s an inconvenience to me.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Day Netflix told me No More"},{"content":" Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m just behind the times or didn\u0026rsquo;t read the news stories about the dual core G5s intently enough. Apple is using combination Airport Express/Bluetooth 2.0 cards in G5s now instead of the Airport Express cards used in all other Macs.\nFrom the Apple KB:\nPower Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers are designed to work with a combination AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card, which combines AirPort and Bluetooth wireless technologies on one card. Please note that other versions of AirPort cards cannot be used with Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers. Although the connector on the computer\u0026rsquo;s logic board will fit an AirPort Extreme card, it is meant for the AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card only. Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers will not recognize an AirPort Extreme card if you attempt to install one.\nThe antennas in the Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) also differ from previous Power Mac G5 models, which had an external antenna that attached to the back of the computer. All Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers have internal wireless antennas that come preinstalled, regardless of whether or not the computer has an AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card installed.\nThe AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card is available either as a factory-installed option at the time you purchase your Power Mac G5 (Late 2005), or you can add wireless capability post purchase(1) by having an Apple Authorized Service Provider or a retail Apple Store install the AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card for you. The AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card is not a DIY (do-it-yourself) part.\nThe AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card is now available from service providers for installation. While this is a good idea, especially considering Bluetooth post sale was a band-aid USB solution, it\u0026rsquo;s made things more complicated for the consumer, which isn\u0026rsquo;t positive in the short term.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/04/the-new-g5s-cant-use-standard-airport-express-cards/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaybe I\u0026rsquo;m just behind the times or didn\u0026rsquo;t read the news stories about the dual core G5s intently enough. Apple is using combination Airport Express/Bluetooth 2.0 cards in G5s now instead of the Airport Express cards used in all other Macs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302721\"\u003eApple KB\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePower Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers are designed to work with a combination AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card, which combines AirPort and Bluetooth wireless technologies on one card. Please note that other versions of AirPort cards cannot be used with Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers. Although the connector on the computer\u0026rsquo;s logic board will fit an AirPort Extreme card, it is meant for the AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR card only. Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) computers will not recognize an AirPort Extreme card if you attempt to install one.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The New G5s Can't Use Standard Airport Express Cards"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been trying to get keychain syncing to work between my two Macs. You\u0026rsquo;d think that the login keychains would sync (especially since .Mac syncing is supposedly enabled), but they don\u0026rsquo;t. I decided to make a new keychain and try to get it to work.\nI start using the Reset function to try to force synchronization. And for those interested, no, I still haven\u0026rsquo;t had any success getting keychain syncing to work. It\u0026rsquo;s way too hard to get working.\nI digress. Suddenly, clocking the Reset Sync Data… button did nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. It did output something to the console log every time I clicked it.\n2005-12-04 16:44:54.451 System Preferences[501] *** Assertion failure in -[NSMenuItem initWithTitle:action:keyEquivalent:], Menus.subproj/NSMenuItem.m:140\n2005-12-04 16:44:54.455 System Preferences[501] Invalid parameter not satisfying: aString != nil\nAwesome. System Preferences swallows up this error, leaving the user sitting there endlessly, futilely clicking the button, wondering why they aren\u0026rsquo;t being asked what to reset. Obviously, some preference or cache was all screwed up. Which one though?\nWell, caches are easy. Just nuke them all. Naturally, that didn\u0026rsquo;t help. Next on the chopping block were Sync Services and System Preference preferences. No dice. I had to delete “com.apple.DotMacSync.plist” in Home/Library/Preferences and Home/Library/Safe Preferences. I\u0026rsquo;m fairly certain I\u0026rsquo;d already deleted the former, making me conclude that “Safe Preferences” is worthless. It\u0026rsquo;s just another place to delete preferences from. In this case, the problem seemed to be the fact that Transmit Bookmarks were in that p-list, but they weren\u0026rsquo;t in the syncing list anymore. I have no idea why, but there it is.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/04/puking-on-prefs/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been trying to get keychain syncing to work between my two Macs. You\u0026rsquo;d think that the login keychains would sync (especially since .Mac syncing is supposedly enabled), but they don\u0026rsquo;t. I decided to make a new keychain and try to get it to work.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI start using the Reset function to try to force synchronization. And for those interested, no, I still haven\u0026rsquo;t had any success getting keychain syncing to work. It\u0026rsquo;s way too hard to get working.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Puking on Prefs"},{"content":"I was checking activity on my credit cards today only to find a $15 charge I couldn\u0026rsquo;t remember. Then it came to me. The free Senseo carried a $15 shipping and handling charge. It was placed on my card on Monday which means it could arrive any day now. Then I can be all jacked on coffee at home too.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/02/burp-senseo-on-the-way/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI was checking activity on my credit cards today only to find a $15 charge I couldn\u0026rsquo;t remember. Then it came to me. The free Senseo carried a $15 shipping and handling charge. It was placed on my card on Monday which means it could arrive any day now. Then I can be all jacked on coffee at home too.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"*burp* Senseo on the Way"},{"content":"We may have finally reached the final chapter in the Linksys Compact Wireless router (WRT54GC) saga. The replacement arrived today. I started first by upgrading the firmware with Firefox. It went through without a hitch.\nSo far, I like it, but what I\u0026rsquo;ve read about poor range looks to be true. That said, it may not be the fairest comparison when matched with my DI-624, in whose review on CNet was noted for long range.\nThe good: Fast; long range; removable antenna; configurable firewall; compact.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s actually pretty amusing that it was noted for being compact. It illustrates the age of the review. I\u0026rsquo;ll try to put a more comprehensive review together in the coming days including pictures.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/12/01/second-times-the-charm/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWe may have finally reached the final chapter in the Linksys Compact Wireless router (WRT54GC) saga. The replacement arrived today. I started first by upgrading the firmware with Firefox. It went through without a hitch.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo far, I like it, but what I\u0026rsquo;ve read about poor range looks to be true. That said, it may not be the fairest comparison when matched with my DI-624, in whose \u003ca href=\"http://reviews.cnet.com/D_Link_DI_624_router/4505-3319_7-20817312.html?tag=pop\"\u003ereview on CNet\u003c/a\u003e was noted for long range.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Second Time's the Charm"},{"content":"So, the WRT54GC router arrived on Monday. Seeing as it was my birthday, it was like a gift to myself. I immediately started playing with it, turning on WPA2 and putting in a password from Steve Gibson\u0026rsquo;s excellent WPA password generator.\nBeing the obsessive compulsive software upgrader that I am, I decided to flash its firmware. Keep in mind that I\u0026rsquo;ve flashed many network devices including an original Airport Base Station, a Linksys BEFSR41, a D-Link DI 624, a D-Link DI-524, a Motorola WA840G, a D-Link DWL-G810, and a couple other routers. I can\u0026rsquo;t list the others because usually I was upgrading the firmware of some stranger\u0026rsquo;s unprotected router over the wireless connection. Yes, I am a daredevil.\nAll that said, when I attempted this (totally routine and over a wired connection) upgrade, it failed. I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about simply needing to retry it or having to reset the router and try again. I\u0026rsquo;m talking about an amber powerlight complete meltdown. I got walked through the reset procedure by two separate Linksys tech support people (even though I\u0026rsquo;d already done it). Finally, they told me to return it to Amazon for a replacement.\nWhen the new one arrives, I\u0026rsquo;m going to try it again even though it\u0026rsquo;s tempting fate. If it fails again, I\u0026rsquo;m going to be a little suspicious.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/30/firmware-meltdown/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo, the WRT54GC router arrived on Monday. Seeing as it was my birthday, it was like a gift to myself. I immediately started playing with it, turning on WPA2 and putting in a password from Steve Gibson\u0026rsquo;s excellent \u003ca href=\"https://grc.com/pass\"\u003eWPA password generator\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeing the obsessive compulsive software upgrader that I am, I decided to flash its firmware. Keep in mind that I\u0026rsquo;ve flashed many network devices including an original Airport Base Station, a Linksys BEFSR41, a D-Link DI 624, a D-Link DI-524, a Motorola WA840G, a D-Link DWL-G810, and a couple other routers. I can\u0026rsquo;t list the others because usually I was upgrading the firmware of some stranger\u0026rsquo;s unprotected router over the wireless connection. Yes, I am a daredevil.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firmware Meltdown"},{"content":"This is going to sound like a terrible plug. I know it.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been having some issues with my D-Link DI-624 router. In particular, now that I\u0026rsquo;m using WPA, my Powerbook will suddenly lose connectivity even though the signal is full. It\u0026rsquo;s frustrating. Disconnecting and reconnecting restores connectivity for varying amounts of time.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve always had good experiences with Linksys routers. However, because of that record, they tend to cost more than the competition. The WRT54G has been hovering steadily at $40, while the WRT54GS is sticking at $60. I was beginning to give the WRT54G some serious thought (particularly because of the ability to use alternative firmware). However, that ability has been lost in the latest revision of the product.\nI looked at their MIMO offerings, but I can\u0026rsquo;t justify $132.99. That\u0026rsquo;s when I stumbled upon the WRT54GC compact wireless G router. I\u0026rsquo;ve read that it runs on Linux, making it theoretically hackable, but I can\u0026rsquo;t confirm and the source code hasn\u0026rsquo;t been released.\nPerhaps the neatest thing about this router is its size. It barely has enough space on one of its edges for four LAN ethernet ports, a WAN port, and a plug for the power adapter. I finally bought it as an impulse buy because it dropped in price to $30. It\u0026rsquo;s a good thing networking equipment isn\u0026rsquo;t placed next to the candy at the checkout in grocery stores.\nUpdate: Apparently Amazon has stopped offering the WRT54GC through their warehouse. You can still get it through their affiliates, but the price is now $55. Buy.com currently has it for $30 with a $10 Mail-in-Rebate. Best Buy has it for $30 after a $30 Main-in-Rebate and it comes with a $10 Gift Card (making the effective price $20). I personally don\u0026rsquo;t want to deal with rebates, so I avoided that offer.\nUpdate 2: It\u0026rsquo;s back at Amazon again for $30 with no rebates.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/26/im-a-sucker-for-networking-equipment/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is going to sound like a terrible plug. I know it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been having some issues with my D-Link DI-624 router. In particular, now that I\u0026rsquo;m using WPA, my Powerbook will suddenly lose connectivity even though the signal is full. It\u0026rsquo;s frustrating. Disconnecting and reconnecting restores connectivity for varying amounts of time.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve always had good experiences with Linksys routers. However, because of that record, they tend to cost more than the competition. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00007KDVI/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eWRT54G\u003c/a\u003e has been hovering steadily at $40, while the \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001D3K8A/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eWRT54GS\u003c/a\u003e is sticking at $60. I was beginning to give the WRT54G some serious thought (particularly because of the ability to use alternative firmware). However, that ability has been lost in the latest revision of the product.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm a Sucker for Networking Equipment"},{"content":"I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I\u0026rsquo;m glad that I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to celebrate that with my family today.\nI hope all of you are in good health and have much to celebrate. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to save room for some pie!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/24/happy-thanksgiving/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have a lot to be thankful for this year and I\u0026rsquo;m glad that I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to celebrate that with my family today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hope all of you are in good health and have much to celebrate. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to save room for some pie!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Happy Thanksgiving"},{"content":"Ever since Woot sent me a Motorola WA840G by mistake, it\u0026rsquo;s been augmenting my parent\u0026rsquo;s wired network as a wireless access point. It\u0026rsquo;s been working great for their needs (connecting my old Pismo via its Airport card).\nWhen I got home today for a Thanksgiving stay, I decided I\u0026rsquo;d update the firmware on all their network devices. The old Linksys router\u0026rsquo;s firmware hasn\u0026rsquo;t been updated in quite a while. That\u0026rsquo;s fine because the thing is rock solid. The Motorola access point had a new version with many new features, so I updated it.\nOther than having to configure everything again, it all looked good. That is until my brother told me that my old Powerbook couldn\u0026rsquo;t connect. I tried turning the card off and on again and restarting. No dice. I decided to turn everything off and then on again. Of course, that\u0026rsquo;s when Charter decided to have some issues.\nRegardless of those issues, I should still have been able to connect to the access point with the old Powerbook. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t. I thought maybe I had turned off 802.11b compatibility (the Pismo has regular Airport while my current Powerbook has Airport Express). Visiting the WA840G\u0026rsquo;s configuration page showed that it was set for “compatibility” but the other options were “performance”, “LRS”, and “802.11b only”. I\u0026rsquo;ll be damned if I could figure out what “LRS” stood for, but it afforded extra compatibility for 802.11b clients according the description.\nOnce that was set as the operating mode, the Pismo connected to the access point perfectly. I really wish this was explained better in Motorola\u0026rsquo;s documentation, but it\u0026rsquo;s worth noting for those having problems, even if I don\u0026rsquo;t know why it works.\nTechnorati Tags: wireless, 802.11b, motorola, airport, lrs\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/23/acronym-soup-lrs/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEver since \u003ca href=\"http://woot.com\"\u003eWoot\u003c/a\u003e sent me a Motorola WA840G by mistake, it\u0026rsquo;s been augmenting my parent\u0026rsquo;s wired network as a wireless access point. It\u0026rsquo;s been working great for their needs (connecting my old Pismo via its Airport card).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen I got home today for a Thanksgiving stay, I decided I\u0026rsquo;d update the firmware on all their network devices. The old Linksys router\u0026rsquo;s firmware hasn\u0026rsquo;t been updated in quite a while. That\u0026rsquo;s fine because the thing is rock solid. The Motorola access point had a new version with many new features, so I updated it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Acronym Soup: LRS"},{"content":"John Gruber recently wrote about why going to a single computer (a Powerbook) is going to work for him in Full Metal Jacket. Naturally, his new philosophy reflects his personal needs. He does take a look at the opposite viewpoint using a single example (Jonathan Rentzsch), but his needs are overly specialized and overly rare. There are many more reasons one would want two machines.\nTether To start, the big assumption for this article is that the user wants or needs a laptop. The reasons are fairly unimportant. I personally started with a laptop because I wanted mobility.\nBeing able to sit in bed, watch TV, or even (gasp) go to the bathroom with your computer is liberating. As if being able to move it around weren\u0026rsquo;t cool enough, I bought my first Powerbook when they first got Airport. I shelled out the big bucks for the card and Airport Base Station ($129 for the card if I remember correctly, $300 for the base station).\nI seriously freaked my roommate out in college when I instant messaged him from the toilet for the first time. This is all very gratuitous, but I think it makes the point that laptops are simply cool. You want one.\nGaming Traditional logic dictates that laptops are poor for games. As Mac game guru Peter Cohen explains, a Powerbook can be sufficient for the large majority of games.\nI actually do a lot of my gaming on a PowerBook G4, 17-inch model with 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM and Radeon Mobility 9700 graphics (with 64MB VRAM). This is effective enough for a lot of games, although the Radeon Mobility comes up short dealing with games that have really advanced pixel and shading effects or tons and tons of polys.\nHe then hits on why a Powermac (or desktop) is still essential for gamers that like to live on the edge and play the latest games (as well as have some future life for future games). They simply have power that laptops can\u0026rsquo;t match. Their future also isn\u0026rsquo;t so bright.\nExpandability You simply can\u0026rsquo;t compare a laptop to a desktop when it comes to upgrades. They can\u0026rsquo;t hold nearly the same amount of RAM (and the RAM for laptops is more expensive). You can\u0026rsquo;t replace the video card. You can\u0026rsquo;t put PCI cards in laptops. Heck, you can\u0026rsquo;t even get big hard drives to put in laptops.\nIf one wants the ability to add a massive amount of storage or use more interesting hardware peripherals, desktops (and Powermacs) are still where it\u0026rsquo;s at.\nPower Let\u0026rsquo;s not mince words or pretend not to notice. The performance gap between Mac Powermacs and Powerbooks is massive. Hell, an iMac G5 will beat the piss out of a Powerbook. Even a Mac mini will give it a run for its money in several areas.\nUntil the Intel Powerbooks arrive, users with performance concerns need an iMac or Powermac. The Powerbooks may be nothing to sneeze at compared the machines of yesteryear, but they just aren\u0026rsquo;t that string.\nCenter of the Universe I like having a Powermac stationary right on my desk because of the above reasons partly. Another part is that I use El Gato\u0026rsquo;s EyeTV DVR. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t use it to do anything but watch live TV or record while I was at the computer and had it tethered to the cable outlet. Again, we\u0026rsquo;re back to the tethering issue.\nI\u0026rsquo;m actually thinking about getting a Mac mini to leave on all the time and pick up a lot of the Powermac\u0026rsquo;s responsibility. However, that won\u0026rsquo;t be enough for me to move to a Powerbook full-time as I\u0026rsquo;ll want an Intel Powermac to dual boot with Windows.\nYour mileage may vary, but there\u0026rsquo;s still plenty of reason to use a laptop and desktop, at least for the time being.\nTechnorati Tags: laptops, desktops\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/13/why-i-cant-commit/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Gruber recently wrote about why going to a single computer (a Powerbook) is going to work for him in \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2005/11/full_metal_jacket\"\u003eFull Metal Jacket\u003c/a\u003e. Naturally, his new philosophy reflects his personal needs. He does take a look at the opposite viewpoint using a single example (Jonathan Rentzsch), but his needs are overly specialized and overly rare. There are many more reasons one would want two machines.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"tether\"\u003eTether\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo start, the big assumption for this article is that the user wants or needs a laptop. The reasons are fairly unimportant. I personally started with a laptop because I wanted mobility.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Why I Can't Commit"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s no surprise that Digg became a target for spam, but would you believe that del.icio.us is now a target? Check this guy out.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t click his link. It leads to a dummy Blogspot page containing nothing but an ad for Google\u0026rsquo;s Firefox toolbar extension. Blogspot is fast becoming a playground for spammers. Google needs to get a tighter grip on that.\nAt any rate, the guy labeled that single link with every technology buzzword out there in order to pollute del.icio.us. It\u0026rsquo;s amazing the stupid lengths these jackasses will go to.\nTechnorati Tags: spam, google, del.icio.us\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/05/spam-on-del.icio.us/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s no surprise that \u003ca href=\"http://digg.com\"\u003eDigg\u003c/a\u003e became a target for spam, but would you believe that \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us\"\u003edel.icio.us\u003c/a\u003e is now a target? Check \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us/webiest\"\u003ethis guy\u003c/a\u003e out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDon\u0026rsquo;t click his link. It leads to a dummy Blogspot page containing nothing but an ad for Google\u0026rsquo;s Firefox toolbar extension. Blogspot is fast becoming a playground for spammers. Google needs to get a tighter grip on that.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, the guy labeled that single link with every technology buzzword out there in order to pollute del.icio.us. It\u0026rsquo;s amazing the stupid lengths these jackasses will go to.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Spam on del.icio.us"},{"content":"In case you didn\u0026rsquo;t read the link in the supplemental, for a picture of your coffee pot doing something unusual (I opted to fill it with Halloween candy) you get a Senseo machine (currently valued at $49.99). Ok, so you need to pay $15 for shipping and handling, but that\u0026rsquo;s still huge savings.\nAnyway, I submitted my photo and it was accepted this morning. It won\u0026rsquo;t ship for 4-6 weeks due to high demand (geez, free $50 device, who thought that\u0026rsquo;d be popular?). I can\u0026rsquo;t wait so my lazy ass can have coffee every morning.\nTechnorati Tags: coffee, free, senseo\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/05/free-senseo-on-the-way/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn case you didn\u0026rsquo;t read the link in the \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us/d00d/supplement\"\u003esupplemental\u003c/a\u003e, for a picture of your coffee pot doing something unusual (I opted to fill it with Halloween candy) you get a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001ES9G2/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eSenseo machine\u003c/a\u003e (currently valued at $49.99). Ok, so you need to pay $15 for shipping and handling, but that\u0026rsquo;s still huge savings.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnyway, I submitted my photo and it was accepted this morning. It won\u0026rsquo;t ship for 4-6 weeks due to high demand (geez, free $50 device, who thought that\u0026rsquo;d be popular?). I can\u0026rsquo;t wait so my lazy ass can have coffee every morning.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Free Senseo on the Way"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;ve all read about SmashMyiPod.com. I thought it was infantile in concept before I read the website. You can imagine my shock when I read his classy responses over on Cult of Mac.\nI hear ipod video screens cause impotence and hair loss.\nThen I made a stupid mistake and went to the site where I got to read the following.\nI hear iPods cause cancer and genetic mutations in fetuses.\nI read two samples of his writing and he\u0026rsquo;s already sounding repetitive. His schtick isn\u0026rsquo;t even terribly clever or funny.\nI hear reading his site and watching the video causes loss of brain cells and maturity.\nUpdate: Then the guy tries to crash and chew up the bandwidth of a rival site and gets pissed when the guy running the competing site steals the traffic to show his own site. Moron.\nTechnorati Tags: ipod, idiots\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/04/smashmymaturity.com/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;ve all read about \u003ca href=\"http://www.smashmyipod.com\"\u003eSmashMyiPod.com\u003c/a\u003e. I thought it was infantile in concept before I read the website. You can imagine my shock when I read his \u003cem\u003eclassy\u003c/em\u003e responses over on \u003ca href=\"http://cultofmac.com/index.php/2005/10/31/smashmyipod_responds_where_the_money_wen\"\u003eCult of Mac\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hear ipod video screens cause impotence and hair loss.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen I made a stupid mistake and went to the site where I got to read the following.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hear iPods cause cancer and genetic mutations in fetuses.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SmashMyMaturity.com"},{"content":"There have been times that I wanted to remote control someone\u0026rsquo;s Mac. In particular, a friend of my brother that went to my school used to need the occasional help. VNC was a huge help in those situations. Unfortunately, getting the VNC server configured was a hassle, required third party software, and ended up taking more time than the actual troubleshooting.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s why I was thrilled to find out that there is now a VNC built into Mac OS X. I know it\u0026rsquo;s in Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure about earlier versions. You\u0026rsquo;ll need to poke holes in your firewall if you\u0026rsquo;re using a router or a software firewall that isn\u0026rsquo;t the one built into Mac OS X.\nFirst, mosey on over to System Preferences. Go to the Sharing pane. You\u0026rsquo;ll see something like below.\nEnable Apple Remote Desktop. You\u0026rsquo;ll see the below.\nEnable the VNC Viewers option and choose a password. Choose and extremely strong one if your Mac is accessible directly to the net (not behind a firewall or router).\nYou\u0026rsquo;re all set. Now just fire up your favorite VNC client (I like Chicken of the VNC). Plug the IP address (or Bon Jour address) of your Mac into it along with the password and fire it up. As a bonus, it even works with multiple displays.\nTechnorati Tags: vnc, remotecontrol\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/04/remote-control-your-mac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThere have been times that I wanted to remote control someone\u0026rsquo;s Mac. In particular, a friend of my brother that went to my school used to need the occasional help. VNC was a huge help in those situations. Unfortunately, getting the VNC server configured was a hassle, required third party software, and ended up taking more time than the actual troubleshooting.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s why I was thrilled to find out that there is now a VNC built into Mac OS X. I know it\u0026rsquo;s in Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure about earlier versions. You\u0026rsquo;ll need to poke holes in your firewall if you\u0026rsquo;re using a router or a software firewall that isn\u0026rsquo;t the one built into Mac OS X.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Remote Control Your Mac"},{"content":" Someone please tell me that someone is screwing with IMDB. Topher Grace is supposed to play Venom in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 according to IMDB.\nDidn\u0026rsquo;t someone already play Eddie Brock in the earlier Spider-Man movies? I might be wrong, but I remember pointing it out to someone. Let\u0026rsquo;s ignore that because actors are regularly replaced.\nTopher Grace though? Venom is a powerful, violent killer. He inspires terror in people. Does this this face scare you? Really?\nTechnorati Tags: spiderman, tophergrace\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/04/topher-grace-is-venom/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"float-left\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://static.flickr.com/2/3779052_e807c110a4_m_d.jpg\" alt=\"Topher Grace\" /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e Someone please tell me that someone is screwing with IMDB. \u003ca href=\"http://imdb.com/name/nm0333410/\"\u003eTopher Grace\u003c/a\u003e is supposed to play Venom in the upcoming \u003ca href=\"http://imdb.com/title/tt0413300/\"\u003eSpider-Man 3\u003c/a\u003e according to IMDB.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDidn\u0026rsquo;t someone already play Eddie Brock in the earlier Spider-Man movies? I might be wrong, but I remember pointing it out to someone. Let\u0026rsquo;s ignore that because actors are regularly replaced.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTopher Grace though? Venom is a powerful, violent killer. He inspires terror in people. Does this this face scare you? Really?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Topher Grace is Venom?"},{"content":"Yahoo Maps is back with a new vengeance with their new beta. It\u0026rsquo;s like Google Maps, but with some new features like a tiny overview map showing what your context is from a farther perspective. That\u0026rsquo;s slick.\nEven better, you can superimpose current traffic conditions. Finally! This is going to hold my attention over Google Maps, at least for a while. I like. Now if only I could get my hands on that Yahoo Mail beta to see if it really beats Gmail.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/03/the-new-yahoo-maps-beta-is-a-real-drag/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYahoo Maps is back with a new vengeance with \u003ca href=\"http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/\"\u003etheir new beta\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s like Google Maps, but with some new features like a tiny overview map showing what your context is from a farther perspective. That\u0026rsquo;s slick.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven better, you can superimpose current traffic conditions. Finally! This is going to hold my attention over Google Maps, at least for a while. I like. Now if only I could get my hands on that Yahoo Mail beta to see if it really beats Gmail.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The New Yahoo Maps Beta is a Real Drag"},{"content":"All right, so Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.3. There were a huge number of improvements. The most notable of which Safari passing the Acid2 Test (even though this was attainable before the update by using your own custom WebKit), homepage URLs in the Address Book are synchronized, iChat sessions over .Mac names can be encrypted, and Disk Utility can verify the boot volume.\nWe saw a new round of Powerbooks that were pretty unexciting without a processor improvement. The screen resolutions were enhanced and DDR2 was added, but only for the 15″ and 17″ models. The 12″ model was completely passed over. The message is clear, nothing big is coming in the Powerbooks until they go Intel.\nThe Powermacs got a boost with DDR2 RAM (which they can actually utilize). They also got dual core processors which only really benefit the high end model, the only one retaining two processors. However, the clock speed dropped to 2.5 GHz instead of 2.7 GHz processors. They were also outfitted with dual gigabit ethernet ports. AGP and PCI-X were dropped in favor of PCI Express. They also introduced a Quadro FX 4500 (be prepared to mortgage your home).\nFinder and Spotlight Improves responsiveness during Spotlight searches in the Finder. Spotlight comments entered in the Finder are now preserved when using iDisk syncing. Get Info windows correctly display non-Roman language versions and copyright strings. Improves the alert that appears when replacing an item during a copy when the capitalization of the items\u0026rsquo; names is the only difference. Permissions for items inside packages are now correctly set when applying permission changes to enclosed items in the Finder Info window. Items copied into a Drop Box have permissions set correctly. Addresses an issue in which Spotlight cannot find a file after using iPhoto to rename it if the filename originally contained an ampersand (\u0026amp;). The Spotlight image indexer now uses the “Software” TIFF property to support graphics rendering and image editing applications that use this property. Safari, Internet, and networking Safari can now pass the “Acid2” test. Improves compatibility of Safari with many webcams. Improves the handling of Hebrew and Arabic text in Safari and Mail. Improves compatibility for OpenGL-accelerated Macromedia Shockwave 3D webpage content when using Safari. Addresses an issue in which an SMB volume might not mount again after it\u0026rsquo;s unmounted. Addresses some issues in which the Finder might not be able to connect to an SMB volume. Bluetooth Setup Assistant now lets you toggle the Modem menu extra on or off (you can also use System Preferences). Resolves an issue in which Internet Connect wouldn\u0026rsquo;t connect to a dial-up ISP if the account password contained a double-quote (“) character. Improves compatibility with Squid proxy servers. Syncing With this update, you no longer need to store Address Book contact URLs in the Notes field when syncing with .Mac. Mac sync error alerts now provide a better description of the issue (for more details about a .Mac sync error, see the dotmacsync.log file). Allows your Address Book contacts that are organized in subgroups to be synced to an iPod using iTunes. Mail Addresses an issue in which Mail might prompt you to download items attached to an IMAP email message more than once. In the Fonts \u0026amp; Colors preferences in Mail, you can now customize the font used in the list of Mailbox names. Smart Mailboxes that use “Entire Message Contains” and another criteria with the “any” qualifier now work as expected. Smart Groups of addresses can now be dragged from Address Book to a message\u0026rsquo;s To, Cc, or Bcc field. The number of messages in a Smart Mailbox are now displayed in the title bar. Pressing Tab while composing a Mail message now inserts a tab character, instead of four spaces. Accounts created in Mail after installing this update will avoid an issue in which .Mac mail could not be sent if the Internet Service Provider blocks port 25. Reduces the amount of blank lines Mail might insert into a message when forwarding or replying to it. Addresses an issue in which some Mail rules could be lost or duplicated after a .Mac sync. Addresses in the “To:”, “Cc:”, “Bcc:” fields, as well as the Accounts pop-up menu, no longer appear in red if the address is in a different lettercase than what is entered in the “Mark addresses not in the domain” field; for example, “Mac@MAC.Com” will no longer be marked in red if the “Mark addresses not in the domain” field contains “mac.com.” Searches of “All Mailboxes” can now, optionally, include items from Junk and Trash. Resolves an issue in which meeting requests sent from Microsoft Outlook to an Exchange account in Mail might not appear. iChat iChat preferences now allow you to display emoticons (such as a smiley face) as text (such as ” 🙂 “) instead of as a graphic. Resolves an issue in Activity Monitor in which you might see “iChatAgent (Not Responding)” in red text, even though iChat works just fine. Addresses a “No data has been received for the last 10 seconds” alert that could often appear when participating in a video chat in iChat with someone using AIM on a PC. .Mac members can enable encrypted chat sessions after installing this update. Further addresses potential causes of persistent “insufficient bandwidth” alerts. Other applications Disk Utility can now verify your Mac OS X 10.4 startup volume if it is Mac OS X Extended (Journaled)-formatted. Many improvements for Calculator are included, such as: A black triangle icon no longer appears below “Infinity.” Calculator now filters out unusable characters when pasting from the Clipboard, certain “rounding error” issues are addressed, and other issues. Addresses an issue in which iCal could not publish or subscribe to a secure URL if your password contained a question mark (?). Addresses an issue in which Preview might only print the first page of a multipage TIFF document. Keychain Access searching is no longer case-sensitive after installing this update. This update allows Keychain Access to directly import .pkcs12 files. X11 windows no longer stay in the background after selecting the X11 application from the Dock or with Application Switcher. Other Software Update now lets you know when only ignored (hidden) updates are available for installation. Addresses an issue in which incoming faxes are saved as “from unknown” PDF files. Addresses an issue in which some Traditional Chinese input methods, such as Pinyin, limit the number of candidate characters presented in the candidate window. Resolves an issue for Palm Desktop software in which the Command-Q keyboard shortcut would sometimes not quit the application unless it was pressed a second time. Improves compatibility with Microsoft IntelliPoint mouse modifier clicking; that is, mouse buttons configured to act as a Control-click or Command-click, for example. Improves window scrolling when dragging an item into a window that\u0026rsquo;s viewed as a list, where not all of the list is visible. Improves compatibility with Microsoft Word and Excel 2004, addressing an issue in which the application could stop responding for several seconds. Addresses an issue in which cases and/or specific user conversion dictionaries could be disabled after upgrading to Tiger. Addresses performance issues affecting three AppleScript commands: do shell script, system info, and delay. The Core Data framework has been updated to improve relationship management issues, resolve issues with data migration, improve Undo and Redo commands, and improve insertion performance. Resolves a potential redraw issue in which an application window\u0026rsquo;s scroll bars could appear in the wrong place. Allows Apple Wireless Keyboards to work in single-user mode. Addresses an issue in which high ASCII characters in a password could lead to a blue screen at startup, or prevent log in. MS-DOS-formatted volumes, including the iPod Shuffle, perform better and consistently mount (become available) in the Finder. Improves results when printing to an optional envelope feeder on some printers. Disables Quartz 2D Extreme—Quartz 2D Extreme is not a supported feature in Tiger, and re-enabling it may lead to video redraw issues or kernel panics. Includes previous standalone security updates. ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/11/02/mac-os-x-10.4.3-and-a-long-overdue-powerbook/mac-overview/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll right, so Apple released \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301984\"\u003eMac OS X 10.4.3\u003c/a\u003e. There were a huge number of improvements. The most notable of which Safari passing the \u003ca href=\"http://www.webstandards.org/act/acid2/test.html\"\u003eAcid2 Test\u003c/a\u003e (even though this was attainable before the update by \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/09/roll-your-own-safari/\"\u003eusing your own custom WebKit\u003c/a\u003e), homepage URLs in the Address Book are synchronized, iChat sessions over .Mac names can be encrypted, and Disk Utility can verify the boot volume.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe saw a new round of \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/powerbook/\"\u003ePowerbooks\u003c/a\u003e that were pretty unexciting without a processor improvement. The screen resolutions were enhanced and DDR2 was added, but only for the 15″ and 17″ models. The 12″ model was completely passed over. The message is clear, nothing big is coming in the Powerbooks until they go Intel.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/powermac/\"\u003ePowermacs\u003c/a\u003e got a boost with DDR2 RAM (which they can actually utilize). They also got dual core processors which only really benefit the high end model, the only one retaining two processors. However, the clock speed dropped to 2.5 GHz instead of 2.7 GHz processors. They were also outfitted with dual gigabit ethernet ports. AGP and PCI-X were dropped in favor of PCI Express. They also introduced a Quadro FX 4500 (be prepared to mortgage your home).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.4.3 and a Long Overdue Powerbook/mac Overview"},{"content":"Was making the movie Zathura necessary? Really? It\u0026rsquo;s about a couple boys who find a board game that propels their house into a space adventure. Does that sound familiar? That\u0026rsquo;s Jumanji, except in space instead of the jungle.\nWell, that\u0026rsquo;s not entirely accurate. There\u0026rsquo;s no Robin Williams, or even young, hot, Kirsten Dunst. Instead, we have Dax Shepard (I\u0026rsquo;ve never heard of him either) and two young boys. Oh, and Tim Robbins. I can understand the younger actors getting involved, but Tim Robbins. I should send this, if I had his address.\nDear Tim,\nFire your agent. He\u0026rsquo;s a moron.\nYour friend, Derik\nIn all fairness, this actually a sequel of sorts to Jumanji, but didn\u0026rsquo;t we get our fill of that plot in the first movie? Is there an original idea in all of California? Based upon the script ideas in Query Letters I Love, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem like it. Hell, this summer was all remakes and sequels.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s a reason I\u0026rsquo;ve seen a single movie in theaters in the last three months. It\u0026rsquo;s not because it\u0026rsquo;s expensive (that only helps).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/29/hollywood-same-shit-different-pile/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWas making \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406375/\"\u003ethe movie Zathura\u003c/a\u003e necessary? Really? It\u0026rsquo;s about a couple boys who find a board game that propels their house into a space adventure. Does that sound familiar? That\u0026rsquo;s Jumanji, except in space instead of the jungle.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, that\u0026rsquo;s not entirely accurate. There\u0026rsquo;s no \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000245/\"\u003eRobin Williams\u003c/a\u003e, or even young, hot, \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000379/\"\u003eKirsten Dunst\u003c/a\u003e. Instead, we have \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1009277/\"\u003eDax Shepard\u003c/a\u003e (I\u0026rsquo;ve never heard of him either) and two young boys. Oh, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000209/\"\u003eTim Robbins\u003c/a\u003e. I can understand the younger actors getting involved, but Tim Robbins. I should send this, if I had his address.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hollywood: Same Shit, Different Pile"},{"content":"I love RSS. I subscribe to 243 feeds. I\u0026rsquo;ve curbed my reading though, so I miss most stuff during the day. However, that doesn\u0026rsquo;t stop me from being driven nuts on a regular basis.\nThe first is Day by Day. First, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t put the comic in the feed. That alone is forgivable. Lots of comic RSS feeds do that. The problem is that new entries show up before the cartoon is uploaded. Hello? This isn\u0026rsquo;t a once in a while thing. This happens every night. Message received by this reader: I will unsubscribe and stop reading.\nThe second is Google\u0026rsquo;s RSS news feeds. They constantly changed the items, causing them to show up unread time and again. If they\u0026rsquo;re concerned about people seeing the full list of sources, they should link to their site instead of polluting my reader.\nThat is all.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/25/understanding-good-rss-use/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI love RSS. I subscribe to 243 feeds. I\u0026rsquo;ve curbed my reading though, so I miss most stuff during the day. However, that doesn\u0026rsquo;t stop me from being driven nuts on a regular basis.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first is \u003ca href=\"http://daybydaycartoon.com\"\u003eDay by Day\u003c/a\u003e. First, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t put the comic in the feed. That alone is forgivable. Lots of comic RSS feeds do that. The problem is that new entries show up before the cartoon is uploaded. Hello? This isn\u0026rsquo;t a once in a while thing. This happens every night. Message received by this reader: I will unsubscribe and stop reading.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Understanding Good RSS Use"},{"content":"I haven\u0026rsquo;t posted in a while due partially to getting a cat (pictures will follow… someday). As I went to go to take pictures, I realized both my batteries were dead. Charging them takes a while, so I sat down to finally label and describe all the photos I took when I moved into my house, all 82 of them. Now you know why it took me a couple months to get around to it.\nI haven\u0026rsquo;t fully tagged it, but it\u0026rsquo;s certainly viewable over on Flickr. Now you can see where the magic happens. While I was logged in, I noticed that Jason put up some cool football pictures which are worth a look if you\u0026rsquo;re a football or Cal/WSU fan.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/24/house-pictures/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI haven\u0026rsquo;t posted in a while due partially to getting a cat (pictures will follow… someday). As I went to go to take pictures, I realized both my batteries were dead. Charging them takes a while, so I sat down to finally label and describe all the photos I took when I moved into my house, all 82 of them. Now you know why it took me a couple months to get around to it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"House Pictures"},{"content":"We didn\u0026rsquo;t see Powerbook, Powermac, and Mac mini revisions like most level headed analysts thought. Macrumors\u0026rsquo; Buyer\u0026rsquo;s Guide still has the bright red “Don\u0026rsquo;t Buy” description next to the Powerbooks. The typical cycle is 185 days, and we\u0026rsquo;re now 255 in. I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be surprised to see them next revised in January as the first Intel Macs (as they stand to benefit the most, being stuck with maxed out G4s).\nInstead, the long-awaited video iPod arrived, the iMac got revised (in a rather interesting way), and the eMac has returned to its proper status as an education product.\nThe iPod The iPod has returned to its original name, simply “iPod”. No more “photo”. No “video”. They\u0026rsquo;ve added video capabilities, which will please some. Naturally, they\u0026rsquo;ve started selling music videos to play on it. But really, who watches music videos more than once or twice? Who\u0026rsquo;s going to speculatively buy a music video without having seen it first? And if they\u0026rsquo;ve seen it first, why wouldn\u0026rsquo;t one just buy the song and save some cash?\nThat was my problem with that being Apple\u0026rsquo;s bread and butter for the video iPod. Music videos simply aren\u0026rsquo;t compelling content. Save the “old fart” arguments. Don\u0026rsquo;t tell me that I don\u0026rsquo;t understand kids today and that they will come out in droves for them. It\u0026rsquo;s simply not true. If kids do buy them, it\u0026rsquo;s because they have no notion of money and music videos on the iPod will be a novelty. At best.\nThe staying power for video on the iPod is TV (and later, movies). That was the key move that Apple needed to make to lock its position in the consumer video world. Until this, the problem was content. Sure, there were hacky (and illegal) ways to get television content and movies into portable devices, but for the consumer, it was virtually unavailable. Portable video players were very pretty, expensive bricks.\nApple has combined time shifting with a portable player to capture market share previously untapped by both Apple and television producers. Not everyone can stay up to watch shows when they are shown. TiVo has captured a lot of that market, but for many consumers, it\u0026rsquo;s still a bit too complicated. Many people have rather extended commutes (I\u0026rsquo;m now excluded from that group, ha). With rising gas prices, mass transit is increasing in popularity, leaving some with an hour+ ride. Bring able to watch one\u0026rsquo;s favorite TV shows during that commute is not only a good way to pass the time, but effectively frees up even more leisure time. That\u0026rsquo;s big.\nNext will be movies, the hesitation point there being a couple things. First, bandwidth. Despite consumer perception, it costs money. For movies, that can be a lot of money. Further, high quality movies can take a long time to download. Compare that with things like On Demand, and the value begins to dwindle. The second issue is quality. Currently, only 320 x 240, 768 Kbps movies can be handled by the iPod. That\u0026rsquo;s a quarter of the pixels in standard television. Also, that level of compression can create artifacts.\nThat simply comes nowhere near DVDs, which has become the gold standard for movies. That means that although you can play those movies on your TV, the video quality will be severely lacking and you also won\u0026rsquo;t have surround sound. Apple will need to have another revision before the iPod will become everybody\u0026rsquo;s home for movies.\niSight iMac The direction for the iMac has become much more clear. It\u0026rsquo;s moving away from the prosumer status it had and back firmly into consumer. I\u0026rsquo;m not saying it\u0026rsquo;s no longer a capable machine. Really, it\u0026rsquo;s more capable than ever. However, it\u0026rsquo;s not targeted at pros. It\u0026rsquo;s all about the consumer.\nFirst off, an iSight built into the computer itself is brilliant! Of course, it\u0026rsquo;s not so great if it breaks or you get a new computer and want to migrate it, but it makes the iMac much more complete out of box. Immediately you can start video conferencing with your family. This would be ideal for people like my dear mother. She could set it up in the kitchen and practically use it as a videophone.\nAdd to that the new Front Row software, which includes a remote, you\u0026rsquo;ve got a really easy to use computer. In fact, I\u0026rsquo;d say that this single application adds all the media center functionality that many people desire. What\u0026rsquo;s missing is some kind of TV device for TiVo functionality. Had Apple included something like that, I\u0026rsquo;d be ordering one. Even without I\u0026rsquo;m still considering it because there\u0026rsquo;s always El Gato and their EyeTV line of hardware/software. I could even use my existing USB version.\nHype The iMac upgrade has gotten less attention from the public at large because the video iPod was talked about so much. I\u0026rsquo;m much more excited about the new iMac than the iPod. That strikes me as odd because the iPod is much cheaper and generally computer revisions do little for me (well, except the iMac G4 previously).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/13/ipod-video-and-new-imac-thoughts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWe didn\u0026rsquo;t see Powerbook, Powermac, and Mac mini revisions like most level headed analysts thought. \u003ca href=\"http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/\"\u003eMacrumors\u0026rsquo; Buyer\u0026rsquo;s Guide\u003c/a\u003e still has the bright red “Don\u0026rsquo;t Buy” description next to the Powerbooks. The typical cycle is 185 days, and we\u0026rsquo;re now 255 in. I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be surprised to see them next revised in January as the first Intel Macs (as they stand to benefit the most, being stuck with maxed out G4s).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInstead, the long-awaited video iPod arrived, the iMac got revised (in a rather interesting way), and the eMac has returned to its proper status as an education product.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iPod Video and new iMac Thoughts"},{"content":"According to live news updates out of Apple\u0026rsquo;s press conference today, iTunes 6 will be introduced today.\nYou didn\u0026rsquo;t misread that. Barely a month after its introduction, iTunes 5 has been superceded by iTunes 6. A month. Good lord.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s official: iTunes 5 was most meaningless iTunes update ever. Either that, or we can expect iTunes 7 at Thanksgiving, earning it the name “iTunes Turkey Edition”. That will be followed by a Christmas version 8 with an all red and green interface.\nThe question jumbling around in my brain is “Is video the only addition in this version?” From what I read, it is. iTunes already had rudimentary video support. Why, oh why didn\u0026rsquo;t Apple just bump the version to 5.5 (at most, I think 5.1 would be more appropriate). It would explain why Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t change iTunes\u0026rsquo; icon color (minor, yes, but it was enough to bug me).\nHonestly, Apple is getting a little loosey goosey with iTunes versioning. It\u0026rsquo;s time to reign it back in.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/12/itunes-5-is-dead-long-live-itunes-6/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAccording to live news updates out of Apple\u0026rsquo;s press conference today, iTunes 6 will be introduced today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou didn\u0026rsquo;t misread that. Barely a month after its introduction, iTunes 5 has been superceded by iTunes 6. \u003cstrong\u003eA month.\u003c/strong\u003e Good lord.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s official: iTunes 5 was most meaningless iTunes update \u003cem\u003eever\u003c/em\u003e. Either that, or we can expect iTunes 7 at Thanksgiving, earning it the name “iTunes Turkey Edition”. That will be followed by a Christmas version 8 with an all red and green interface.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iTunes 5 is Dead; Long Live iTunes 6"},{"content":"My brother called me today, slightly frantic, but calmed. His iMac G4 wouldn\u0026rsquo;t start up. Normally, I\u0026rsquo;d recommend zapping the PRAM, resetting the Open Firmware, things like that.\nThe problem was, he couldn\u0026rsquo;t do those things. It wouldn\u0026rsquo;t boot at all. There wasn\u0026rsquo;t even a chime. The computer was absolutely dead silent.\nLittle did I realize that the flat panel iMacs also had the PMU (Power Management Unit) like my Powermac and Powerbook had. Apple even has instructions.\nThe instructions are great and colorful, but they\u0026rsquo;re slightly lacking in one way. When pressing down the button, it\u0026rsquo;s a good idea to hold it down for a little bit. Tyson (my bro) pressed it once quickly, but it didn\u0026rsquo;t restore booting. That scared me. He decided to try it again but hold down longer.\nI was greeted soon thereafter by the dulcet tones of a Mac starting up over the phone. Victory.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/11/i-need-more-power-scotty/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy brother called me today, slightly frantic, but calmed. His iMac G4 wouldn\u0026rsquo;t start up. Normally, I\u0026rsquo;d recommend zapping the PRAM, resetting the Open Firmware, things like that.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem was, he couldn\u0026rsquo;t do those things. It wouldn\u0026rsquo;t boot \u003cstrong\u003eat all\u003c/strong\u003e. There wasn\u0026rsquo;t even a chime. The computer was absolutely dead silent.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLittle did I realize that the flat panel iMacs also had the PMU (Power Management Unit) like my Powermac and \u003ca href=\"http://www.igroupmac.org/tag/powerbook\"\u003ePowerbook\u003c/a\u003e had. Apple even has \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95165\"\u003einstructions\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I Need More Power Scotty!"},{"content":"Think Secret has retracted its earlier statement that there would be no video iPods tomorrow.\nThey\u0026rsquo;re now calling for them. To quote them:\nThe rumor business is not always kind. Reliable evidence has corroborated reports of the development of a video iPod, but information until now had pointed to a release date later than October. Recent notes suggest otherwise, however, and tomorrow may in fact see the release of a video iPod, while Mac updates may not be delivered until next week.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s great to be in a business that is purely speculative so that the story can change a couple times before an event or even change after.\nPersonally, I still don\u0026rsquo;t see much utility in a video iPod as there isn\u0026rsquo;t any legal way to get DVD video into another format (cracking the encryption on the discs is a violation of the DMCA). Surely Apple can claim that the player is purely for music videos and vidcasts, but the move would be suicide if they don\u0026rsquo;t support a format that users can easily convert DVDs into (H.264, etc.).\nThat said, Apple was able to capitalize on rampant illegal peer to peer file sharing to fuel iPod sales. They were able to skirt the RIAA\u0026rsquo;s vengeful fist because CDs can be legally encoded as MP3s. Not so with DVDs. Will the music video excuse be enough to keep the MPAA placated?\nAnd what about recent problems for projects such as MacTheRipper? Without DVD ripping utilities, would a video iPod be successful? That question is likely to be moot as someone will develop a program to fit the need, but it\u0026rsquo;s still of concern, particularly if someday we hope to keep all our movies in our pocket, like we do with music today.\nThat also begs the question about what kind of outputs would such a player have. Could this new iPod have the full assortment of AV output connections to hook up to a television? Could the current dock connector act as a conduit and supply the necessary bandwidth for such data?\nI have lots of questions and few answers.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/11/video-ipod-tomorrow/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.thinksecret.com\"\u003eThink Secret\u003c/a\u003e has retracted \u003ca href=\"http://thinksecret.com/news/0510oct12c.html\"\u003eits earlier statement\u003c/a\u003e that there would be no video iPods tomorrow.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey\u0026rsquo;re \u003ca href=\"http://thinksecret.com/news/0510oct12d.html\"\u003enow calling for them\u003c/a\u003e. To quote them:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rumor business is not always kind. Reliable evidence has corroborated reports of the development of a video iPod, but information until now had pointed to a release date later than October. Recent notes suggest otherwise, however, and tomorrow may in fact see the release of a video iPod, while Mac updates may not be delivered until next week.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Video iPod Tomorrow?"},{"content":" I finish this project\nThank all visitors for reading my blog all this time. I really enjoyed to post hot “around macintosh” news and rumors, funny pictures. Unfortunately, I decided stop it, and here is a main reason, a part of e-mail was received tomorrow:\n“We\u0026rsquo;ve received a complaint that content in your blogs… infringes upon the copyrights of others…\n…with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects…\n…asking that you please remove the allegedly infringing content in your blogs…”\nI just posted on my blog IT-news I could find in the Internet, hole from open sites.\nI didn\u0026rsquo;t find there any “infringes upon the copyrights of others”. Maybe, I just can\u0026rsquo;t identify “allegedly infringing content” in this news, which repeated everyday on the thousands internet sites and blogs . Anyway, after this e-mail I make decision delete all data with or without “Vallegedly infringing content”.\nI wouldn\u0026rsquo;t delete “topmac.blogspot.com” from Blogger, because many readers are coming here everyday. I had more then 90.000 visitors for this period, 500-1000 Unique Visitors everiday, and more then 3000 in the my best days.\nIf anybody would like to continue support this blog, public news, ext. — just e-mail me to mhasman@comcast.com. I\u0026rsquo;ll be happy to hand blog over somebody for continue TopMac.\nFollow I put visitors statistic for last 3 months.\nThanks!\nSeriously, with gems like:\nI just posted on my blog IT-news I could find in the Internet, hole from open sites.\nMaybe copying verbatim was the smarter move.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/10/the-digg-spammer/plagiarism-major-throws-in-the-towel/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI finish this project\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank all visitors for reading my blog all this time. I really enjoyed to post hot “around macintosh” news and rumors, funny pictures. Unfortunately, I decided stop it, and here is a main reason, a part of e-mail was received tomorrow:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We\u0026rsquo;ve received a complaint that content in your blogs… infringes upon the copyrights of others…\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e…with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Chilling Effects…\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Digg Spammer/Plagiarism Major Throws in the Towel"},{"content":"I came across this article recently, which includes an Excel spreadsheet for analyzing your own Netflix usage.\nThe problem is that Excel v.X for Mac likes to paste tab delimited data into multiple columns (as it well should). The original sheet was written to parse the data out of a single column based upon character position. That\u0026rsquo;s clever if you don\u0026rsquo;t have it separated. It\u0026rsquo;s a lot more work though.\nI made my own clone for Mac users. There are far fewer instructions built into the sheet though because I\u0026rsquo;m lazy. The first three values in the analysis section can be set as seen fit. To input your data, select the cell just below “Shipped” and paste after copying out of the email you get from Netflix when you request the full history. Make sure that the fourth column is filled in with the formula as far down as your data goes.\nDownload the sheet and try it out.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/07/netflix-analysis/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI came across \u003ca href=\"http://www.geektronica.com/2005-10-04-netflix-analysis-spreadsheet\"\u003ethis article\u003c/a\u003e recently, which includes an Excel spreadsheet for analyzing your own Netflix usage.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem is that Excel v.X for Mac likes to paste tab delimited data into multiple columns (as it well should). The original sheet was written to parse the data out of a single column based upon character position. That\u0026rsquo;s clever if you don\u0026rsquo;t have it separated. It\u0026rsquo;s a lot more work though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI made my own clone for Mac users. There are far fewer instructions built into the sheet though because I\u0026rsquo;m lazy. The first three values in the analysis section can be set as seen fit. To input your data, select the cell just below “Shipped” and paste after copying out of the email you get from Netflix when you request the full history. Make sure that the fourth column is filled in with the formula as far down as your data goes.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Netflix Analysis"},{"content":"Just when I was getting ready to drop Bloglines for NewsGator because it will soon have NetNewsWire syncing, Google released its own RSS reader.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to check it out soon, but unfortunately, I can\u0026rsquo;t share anything now because its OPML import facilities aren\u0026rsquo;t working for me.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/07/google-reader/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJust when I was getting ready to drop \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e for \u003ca href=\"http://www.newsgator.com\"\u003eNewsGator\u003c/a\u003e because it will soon have NetNewsWire syncing, Google released \u003ca href=\"http://reader.google.com\"\u003eits own RSS reader\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m going to check it out soon, but unfortunately, I can\u0026rsquo;t share anything now because its OPML import facilities aren\u0026rsquo;t working for me.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Reader"},{"content":"I noticed Orkut was listed in part of Google\u0026rsquo;s services once you\u0026rsquo;ve logged in with a username. A new Google service? I must try it out!\nUnfortunately, it\u0026rsquo;s invitation only. If you\u0026rsquo;ve got an account, please invite me.\nPlease?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/07/orkut-begging/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI noticed \u003ca href=\"http://www.orkut.com\"\u003eOrkut\u003c/a\u003e was listed in part of Google\u0026rsquo;s services once you\u0026rsquo;ve logged in with a username. A new Google service? I must try it out!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnfortunately, it\u0026rsquo;s invitation only. If you\u0026rsquo;ve got an account, please invite me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePlease?\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Orkut Begging"},{"content":"A recent Digg submission listed disposable email services. It\u0026rsquo;s a great idea especially now that spam can overrun your inbox.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t use any of those services personally. I recently made a domain and when I sign up at a new site, I use the name of the service in the email. When I start to receive spam at that address, I have a good idea of who sold my address (though it\u0026rsquo;s not perfect). Mike takes it a step further. My only qualm with Mike\u0026rsquo;s method is that because you use a hash, you need to record which hashes match up with what services.\nHowever, not everyone is so blessed to own their own domain name. Given, you can probably get one fairly cheaply, but why bother if you can do the same with a free email service? I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about any of the ones from the article. I\u0026rsquo;m talking about Gmail (I have plenty of invites).\nA severely under-advertised but useful feature is its “+” email function. You can use _username_@gmail.com as everyone knows, but did you know that username_+alias_@gmail.com also works? “alias” isn\u0026rsquo;t literal either. You can plug anything in there. You can use my technique to track who might be spamming you. If you start to receive a lot of spam on a particular alias, you can make a filter that will automatically move it to the trash, or if you\u0026rsquo;re feeling malicious, you could also forward that mail back to the original service.\n.Mac has disposable email aliases, but you can only have 5 at a time and they need to be defined ahead of time. That\u0026rsquo;s far too limiting in my opinion. While it may help reduce spam, you can\u0026rsquo;t effectively track the source.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/07/fighting-email-spam/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA \u003ca href=\"http://digg.com/security/Disposable_e-mail_address_roundup\"\u003erecent Digg submission\u003c/a\u003e listed disposable email services. It\u0026rsquo;s a great idea especially now that spam can overrun your inbox.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t use any of those services personally. I recently made a domain and when I sign up at a new site, I use the name of the service in the email. When I start to receive spam at that address, I have a good idea of who sold my address (though \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/01/frassle-sells-your-email/\"\u003eit\u0026rsquo;s not perfect\u003c/a\u003e). \u003ca href=\"http://planetmike.com\"\u003eMike\u003c/a\u003e takes it \u003ca href=\"http://f79f65a2ea59016f063cb987424ed7b2.planetmike.com/\"\u003ea step further\u003c/a\u003e. My only qualm with Mike\u0026rsquo;s method is that because you use a hash, you need to record which hashes match up with what services.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fighting Email Spam"},{"content":"To be fair, I didn\u0026rsquo;t use NewsGator until this morning when I heard rumors of this move on the NetNewsWire mailing list. I\u0026rsquo;ve always been a Bloglines fan myself. However, the NNW/Bloglines synchonization left a lot to be desired, mostly due to deficiencies in Bloglines\u0026rsquo;s API.\nNow that NewsGator has acquired NetNewsWire, it looks like I may finally get the cross-computer, cross-platform syncing I\u0026rsquo;ve been craving (much like what IMAP does for my email). It also looks like I\u0026rsquo;ll get access to FeedDemon, which was also acquired.\nFor those cases when I\u0026rsquo;m not at one of my Macs or my work PC, I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to get my news through a web interface which upon cursory examination looks very similar to Bloglines. All in all, it looks like a terrific move and I\u0026rsquo;m looking forward to the next version of NNW.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/04/netnewswire-acquired-by-newsgator/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTo be fair, I didn\u0026rsquo;t use \u003ca href=\"http://www.newsgator.com\"\u003eNewsGator\u003c/a\u003e until this morning when I heard rumors of this move on the NetNewsWire mailing list. I\u0026rsquo;ve always been a \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e fan myself. However, the NNW/Bloglines synchonization left a lot to be desired, mostly due to deficiencies in Bloglines\u0026rsquo;s API.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow that NewsGator has \u003ca href=\"http://newsgator.com/NetNewsWire.aspx\"\u003eacquired NetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e, it looks like I may finally get the cross-computer, cross-platform syncing I\u0026rsquo;ve been craving (much like what IMAP does for my email). It also looks like I\u0026rsquo;ll get access to FeedDemon, which was \u003ca href=\"http://newsgator.com/FeedDemon.aspx\"\u003ealso acquired\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"NetNewsWire Acquired by NewsGator"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve always wanted to brew my own beer. Well, I have at least as long I made beer my drink of choice. Lately, I\u0026rsquo;ve been on a real wine kick, but when I saw a beer brewing kit for $20.\nIt includes everything you need, even bottles, which usually one has to recycle from other beers they\u0026rsquo;ve consumed in a drunken marathon (I imagine). You\u0026rsquo;ll need to add $6.95 for shipping, but considering how low the price is, that\u0026rsquo;s acceptable. It\u0026rsquo;s also possible to get additional beer variety canisters from the manufacturer (with a name like Mr. Beer, you know it must be good), should you decide that your beer didn\u0026rsquo;t taste like ass.\nCheers.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/04/brew-your-own-beer-on-the-cheap/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve always wanted to \u003ca href=\"http://www.43things.com/things/view/342\"\u003ebrew my own beer\u003c/a\u003e. Well, I have at least as long I made beer my drink of choice. Lately, I\u0026rsquo;ve been on a real wine kick, but when I saw \u003ca href=\"http://www.after5catalog.com/product.aspx?ID=248-05019\"\u003ea beer brewing kit for $20\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt includes \u003cstrong\u003eeverything\u003c/strong\u003e you need, even bottles, which usually one has to recycle from other beers they\u0026rsquo;ve consumed in a drunken marathon (I imagine). You\u0026rsquo;ll need to add $6.95 for shipping, but considering how low the price is, that\u0026rsquo;s acceptable. It\u0026rsquo;s also possible to get additional beer variety canisters from \u003ca href=\"http://mrbeer.com\"\u003ethe manufacturer\u003c/a\u003e (with a name like Mr. Beer, you know it must be good), should you decide that your beer didn\u0026rsquo;t taste like ass.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Brew your Own Beer on the Cheap"},{"content":"I regularly have to check my iTunes podcast subscriptions for problems. It\u0026rsquo;s not necessarily iTunes fault (case in point, Diggnation recently did something to their feed that forced iTunes to download over and over, which I didn\u0026rsquo;t care about because they can foot the bandwidth bill for their mistake).\nFrom time to time, high volume podcasts such as the Daily Source Code will have their feed download fail. When I saw Accident Hash fail, I was a little perplexed. I clicked the little alert icon.\nI had no idea that was a feature. It\u0026rsquo;s actually a good way to tell whether you should unsubscribe from a podcast. I don\u0026rsquo;t know what criteria it uses though.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/10/01/itunes-says-keep-up-with-your-podcasts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI regularly have to check my iTunes podcast subscriptions for problems. It\u0026rsquo;s not necessarily iTunes fault (case in point, Diggnation recently did something to their feed that forced iTunes to download over and over, which I didn\u0026rsquo;t care about because they can foot the bandwidth bill for their mistake).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom time to time, high volume podcasts such as the Daily Source Code will have their feed download fail. When I saw Accident Hash fail, I was a little perplexed. I clicked the little alert icon.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iTunes Says “Keep Up with your Podcasts!”"},{"content":"I wrote about Digg, the social news site, a while back. However, for all the cool stuff it affords, it\u0026rsquo;s also beginning to show some signs of the pitfalls of a fast growing site.\nWikipedia notes a few criticisms, the worst of which seems to be recurring stories. Wikipedia doesn\u0026rsquo;t note what I think will become an overwhelming problem in the very near future: Digg spam.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not talking about traditional spamming by bots that submit URLs to porn sites, debt consolidation, or poker. It seems like Digg\u0026rsquo;s staff has that quite well in hand. Rather, Digg spamming (or Damming) for my purposes is a practice by wherein the author of a blog signs up on Digg and submits every single article they write. Sound familiar? It should.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s what Pinging is. The difference here is that those services provide the weblog ping API. They want to aggregate any and all blog articles. This is Technorati‘s forte.\nDigg doesn\u0026rsquo;t offer this capability. Nor should it. Imagine if you will, trying to pick articles out of Technorati to digg. Digg moves fast enough with user submissions (and will move faster as the user base grows). If it starts to move too fast, interesting stories won\u0026rsquo;t get the number of diggs necessary to move them onto the front page. The cream will stop rising to the top because the milk is getting poured too fast.\nFurther, most people\u0026rsquo;s blog entries simply aren\u0026rsquo;t worth of a digg, which is the whole reason someone else doesn\u0026rsquo;t submit them. For this reason, I\u0026rsquo;ve never submitted one of my own articles. Of course I find them interesting. I wrote them. The real question is if some else does. It\u0026rsquo;s Digg\u0026rsquo;s first filtering mechanism for the web. Slashdot requires editors to approve stories. That\u0026rsquo;s also a downfall as the news gets flavored by the editorial staff\u0026rsquo;s taste. Because Digg relies on users to approve stories to the front page, such flavoring is avoided. While this is a positive thing, it may not be the best method to avoid Damming.\nMy theoretical discussion of this issue can only go so far though. A more intuitive understanding can be developed through the use of a concrete example. I\u0026rsquo;d like to single out the user that exposed this type of abuse to me by doing it so repetitively. macaquentosh is perhaps the worst example I can find.\nA quick glance yields that nearly all of his submissions are for a single site, one called TopMac (I refuse to link it, but if you want to see it, add “.blogspot.com” to the name). I\u0026rsquo;ve seen it before, most notably it was being spammed into many threads in Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums, so when I saw it again, I knew it was worth looking into. Not all of his submissions are for that site though, which may throw you until you notice that the other sites are run by the same guy. Surprise, surprise, one of his sites is all about credit cards and other types of credit. I know that will come as a huge shock.\nMaybe I\u0026rsquo;m being too harsh though. Maybe he has some original, interesting content of his own that he\u0026rsquo;s sharing. At least then he\u0026rsquo;s contributing something. Unfortunately, he fails that test too. He\u0026rsquo;s copying, verbatim, in their entirity, articles from other websites. He\u0026rsquo;s not adding his own commentary or anything. He\u0026rsquo;s just copying the text for publication on his own site. Plagiarism anyone? He at least attributes the text to the originating website in the format “Souce: Macworld” where “Macworld” is a link. Is it a link to the article on that site or the main page of that site? Nope. It\u0026rsquo;s a link to one of his other sites. Huh? Is this guy also trying to skew Google\u0026rsquo;s search results?\nThis guy has no shame, so maybe no one should be surprised. However, what he\u0026rsquo;s doing at Digg is detrimental for other reasons. For one, he\u0026rsquo;s submitting articles to Digg that are actually copied from other sites, so he\u0026rsquo;s getting diggs that should be for those sites. Additionally because of this, he\u0026rsquo;s adding to the problem of duplicate stories (which right now is the most significant problem on the site).\nMy proposal to Digg would be to automatically review users that consistently submit stories from the same domain, particularly the free blogging domains. This kind of shameless self-promotion will destroy the usefulness of the site if they\u0026rsquo;re not careful.\nUpdate: Mark Hasman (aka macaquentosh) is now using two usernames so he can dig the stories that his other pseudonym posts, artificially bringing the number of digs to 2. I\u0026rsquo;ve also reported his plagiarism to Macworld and Mac Observer.\nUpdate 2: Digg has removed Mark\u0026rsquo;s usernames from the system.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/30/digg-spamming/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI wrote about \u003ca href=\"http://digg.com\"\u003eDigg\u003c/a\u003e, the social news site, \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/22/digg-it-dugg-it-good/\"\u003ea while back\u003c/a\u003e. However, for all the cool stuff it affords, it\u0026rsquo;s also beginning to show some signs of the pitfalls of a fast growing site.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWikipedia notes \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digg#Criticisms\"\u003ea few criticisms\u003c/a\u003e, the worst of which seems to be recurring stories. Wikipedia doesn\u0026rsquo;t note what I think will become an overwhelming problem in the very near future: Digg spam.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m not talking about traditional spamming by bots that submit URLs to porn sites, debt consolidation, or poker. It seems like Digg\u0026rsquo;s staff has that quite well in hand. Rather, Digg spamming (or Damming) for my purposes is a practice by wherein the author of a blog signs up on Digg and submits every single article they write. Sound familiar? It should.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Digg Spamming"},{"content":"A couple weeks ago, Gallery 2 was released. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using Gallery as my photo gallery software on this site for a long time. I probably would use it a lot more if Flickr weren\u0026rsquo;t so addictive.\nThe problem is that Gallery is software and not a service. Therefore, I have to supply the storage space and bandwidth. I do have well over 5 GB of storage space and 120 GB of bandwidth at my disposal (thanks Dreamhost, which recently added unlimited domains to all their plans). I probably couldn\u0026rsquo;t consume that much space and bandwidth, but when I can upload up to 2 GB per month for $25 a year (note to web services: this is a good price point) and the photos can be dowloaded unlimited times, Flickr wins out.\nThat said, Gallery 2 is extremely slick. They\u0026rsquo;ve moved up to using a database backend instead of a patchwork system and the install process is like butter. It\u0026rsquo;s interface is also a lot friendlier to people that simply want to browse photos. Also compelling is that you can give accounts to people, allowing them to upload on their own. You don\u0026rsquo;t have to force them into getting a Flickr account (and then set up a group/use a common tag/some other kludgy solution).\nI\u0026rsquo;m thinking about adding a gallery for readers to post pictures. Anyone have any other ideas?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/29/photo-gallery-updated-to-version-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA couple weeks ago, \u003ca href=\"http://gallery.menalto.com/gallery_2_0_released\"\u003eGallery 2 was released\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;ve been using Gallery as my photo gallery software on this site for a long time. I probably would use it a lot more if \u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e weren\u0026rsquo;t so addictive.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem is that Gallery is software and not a service. Therefore, I have to supply the storage space and bandwidth. I do have well over 5 GB of storage space and 120 GB of bandwidth at my disposal (thanks \u003ca href=\"http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?ddelong\"\u003eDreamhost\u003c/a\u003e, which recently added unlimited domains to all their plans). I probably couldn\u0026rsquo;t consume that much space and bandwidth, but when I can upload up to 2 GB per month for $25 a year (\u003cem\u003enote to web services:\u003c/em\u003e this is a good price point) and the photos can be dowloaded unlimited times, Flickr wins out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Photo Gallery Updated to Version 2"},{"content":"My HP Deskjet 5150 suddenly decided to stop printing the other day. It reported a “Pen Failure”. The little ink light on the front of the printer started blinking as well.\nIt happened just before I went to print out some driving directions, so it was rather inconvenient. I decided I\u0026rsquo;d try HP\u0026rsquo;s website to explain the error, because it\u0026rsquo;s rather cryptic, even for me.\nThat was totally fruitless. I resorted to fruitless Google searching. A couple people complained about it, but no definite answer was found. The best I could find was an ink module issue.\nI pulled out my black ink cartridge and it stopped the blinking. My Powermac also stopped giving errors. I went down to Wallyworld and bought a new model 56 print cartridge. I put it in and all was well. Apparently the solution to a “Pen Failure” is a new print cartridge. Too bad HP doesn\u0026rsquo;t explain this.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/24/pen-failures/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy \u003ca href=\"http://www.hp.com\"\u003eHP\u003c/a\u003e Deskjet 5150 suddenly decided to stop printing the other day. It reported a “Pen Failure”. The little ink light on the front of the printer started blinking as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt happened just before I went to print out some driving directions, so it was rather inconvenient. I decided I\u0026rsquo;d try HP\u0026rsquo;s website to explain the error, because it\u0026rsquo;s rather cryptic, even for me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat was totally fruitless. I resorted to fruitless Google searching. A couple people complained about it, but no definite answer was found. The best I could find was an ink module issue.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pen Failures"},{"content":"First, Security Update 2005-08 fixes the so-called Safari Image of Doom. Can we all move on now? Thanks.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s fixed by:\nImageIO\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2747\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: Viewing a maliciously-crafted GIF image may result in arbitrary code execution.\nDescription: By carefully crafting a corrupt GIF image, an attacker can trigger a buffer overflow in ImageIO which may result in arbitrary code execution. Several components of Mac OS X utilize ImageIO including WebCore and Safari. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of images.\nI\u0026rsquo;m more concerned by the arbitrary code execution than the crashing aspect (which is relatively harmless).\nOther fixes:\nMail\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2746\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: When using auto-reply rules, Mail.app may expose the contents of encrypted messages.\nDescription: Mail.app includes the contents of messages when processing auto-reply rules. If a message being processed was encrypted, the automatically generated response will include the decrypted message contents. This could allow an attacker to intercept the message. This update addresses the issue by ensuring that unencrypted responses to encrypted messages are not generated. Credit to Norbert Rittel of Rittel Consulting for reporting this issue.\nMail\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2745\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9\nImpact: Using Kerberos Version 5 for SMTP authentication Mail.app may disclose sensitive information.\nDescription: When using SMTP authentication with Kerberos Version 5, Mail.app may append un-initialized memory to a message. This update addresses the issue by updating Mail.app. Credit to the MIT Kerberos team for reporting this issue. This issue was resolved in Mac OS X v10.4.2 by Security Update 2005-007.\nmalloc\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2748\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: Insecure file handling may result in local privilege escalation.\nDescription: When certain environmental variables are set to enable debugging of application memory allocation, files with diagnostic information are created insecurely. This could allow a malicious local user to alter arbitrary files. This update addresses the issue by disallowing malloc debugging in privileged programs. Credit to Ilja van Sprundel of Suresec LTD for reporting this issue.\nQuickDraw Manager\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2744\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: Viewing a maliciously-crafted PICT image may result in arbitrary code execution.\nDescription: By carefully crafting a corrupt PICT image, an attacker can trigger a buffer overflow in QuickDraw Manager which may result in arbitrary code execution. Several components of Mac OS X utilize QuickDraw Manager, including Safari, Mail, and Finder. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of images. Credit to Henrik Dalgaard of Echo One for reporting this issue.\nQuickTime for Java\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2743\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9\nImpact: An untrusted applet may gain elevated privileges.\nDescription: The Java extensions bundled with QuickTime 6.52 and earlier allow untrusted applets to call arbitrary functions from system libraries. This update addresses the issue by limiting these calls to trusted applets. Systems running QuickTime 7 or later are not affected by this issue. Systems running Mac OS X v10.4 or later are also not affected by this issue. Credit to Dino Dai Zovi for reporting this issue.\nRuby\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1992\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: Ruby applications utilizing the xmlrpc module may be vulnerable to arbitrary code execution.\nDescription: The Ruby xmlrpc/utils module utilizes the method Module#public_instance_methods to determine which methods may be invoked remotely using XML-RPC. A change between different versions of Ruby caused this method list to unintentionally include methods that may be used to execute arbitrary Ruby code. This update addresses the issue by updating the xmlrpc/utils module. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.\nSafari\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2524\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9\nImpact: Maliciously crafted web archives could potentially allow cross-site scripting.\nDescription: It is possible to view web archives served from remote sites in Safari. Maliciously crafted web archives may be rendered as content from sites they did not server them. This update prevents remote web archives from being loaded. Safari web archives were introduced in Safari 2.0. This issue was resolved in Mac OS X v10.4.2 by Security Update 2005-007.\nSecurityAgent\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2742\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: A user with physical access to the system may be able to bypass the “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver” setting.\nDescription: Under certain situations, the “Switch User…” button may appear even though the “Enable fast user switching” setting is disabled. This could cause the currently logged-in user\u0026rsquo;s desktop to be displayed without authentication. This update prevents the “Switch User…” button from appearing when inappropriate. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4. Credit to Luke Fowler of the Indiana University Global Research Network Operations Center for reporting this issue.\nsecurityd\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2741\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\nImpact: Malicious users may grant themselves rights to manipulate arbitrary files or perform other privileged actions.\nDescription: Authorization Services allows unprivileged users to grant certain rights that should be restricted to administrators, which may lead to privilege escalation. This update addresses the issue by adding restrictions to which rights unprivileged users can grant themselves.\nI find it interesting that many people are given credit for discovering these security issues. They went straight to Apple with it instead of immediately broadcasting it and even threatening to tag web pages with an offending image in order to get their attention. Just sayin'.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/22/security-update-2005-008/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFirst, \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/securityupdate2005008macosx1042.html\"\u003eSecurity Update 2005-08\u003c/a\u003e fixes the so-called \u003ca href=\"http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/000635.html\"\u003eSafari Image of Doom\u003c/a\u003e. Can we all move on now? Thanks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s fixed by:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eImageIO\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCVE-ID: CAN-2005-2747\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.2, Mac OS X Server v10.4.2\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImpact: Viewing a maliciously-crafted GIF image may result in arbitrary code execution.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDescription: By carefully crafting a corrupt GIF image, an attacker can trigger a buffer overflow in ImageIO which may result in arbitrary code execution. Several components of Mac OS X utilize ImageIO including WebCore and Safari. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of images.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Security  Update 2005-008"},{"content":"Apple bumped .Mac\u0026rsquo;s storage to 1 GB (1024 MB for those wondering if they\u0026rsquo;d correctly count). They also released Backup 3.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been keeping my email allotment steady at 100 MB, but that\u0026rsquo;s been feeling a bit constricting, especially when Gmail is now allowing more that 2.5 GB and my web host gives me 5 GB. However, I really like using Apple\u0026rsquo;s Mail.app (Gmail does have POP, but that\u0026rsquo;s not adequate because I can\u0026rsquo;t do server side email management that way) and my web host\u0026rsquo;s webmail package, SquirrelMail, isn\u0026rsquo;t all that bad, it\u0026rsquo;s just not all that good, or at least not as good as .Mac.\nNow that I can allocate 400 MB for email, I feel confident that I can stay within my limit (at least until it gets bumped again). This upgrade might also explain why the email has been going down pretty regularly for me. Hopefully now that the upgrade is complete, the rock solid reliability will be back (yes, I said rock solid; I don\u0026rsquo;t share the experiences of a select vocal few).\nBackup 3 looks like a worthy upgrade to an originally very mediocre piece of backup software. Of particular interest to me is the suggestion that backup can be used to synchronize documents between computers. I\u0026rsquo;ve been mostly storing things on my Powermac and using file sharing to access them on the Powerbook, but this might solve that problem.\nAs usual, you can order both the regular and family pack versions of .Mac off my Amazon shopping page. You can buy it through Amazon for both new and renewing accounts. As an added bonus, the single user version of .Mac is a mere $77.99 (more than $20 off Apple\u0026rsquo;s online price).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/20/.mac-upgrade/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple \u003ca href=\"\"\u003ebumped .Mac\u0026rsquo;s storage to 1 GB\u003c/a\u003e (1024 MB for those wondering if they\u0026rsquo;d correctly count). They also released \u003ca href=\"http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Tools.woa?destination=backup\u0026amp;aff=consumer\u0026amp;cty=US\u0026amp;lang=en\u0026amp;identifier=iJWsGVKEq9INycjg\"\u003eBackup 3\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been keeping my email allotment steady at 100 MB, but that\u0026rsquo;s been feeling a bit constricting, especially when Gmail is now allowing more that 2.5 GB and my web host gives me 5 GB. However, I really like using Apple\u0026rsquo;s Mail.app (Gmail does have POP, but that\u0026rsquo;s not adequate because I can\u0026rsquo;t do server side email management that way) and my web host\u0026rsquo;s webmail package, \u003ca href=\"http://www.squirrelmail.org\"\u003eSquirrelMail\u003c/a\u003e, isn\u0026rsquo;t all that bad, it\u0026rsquo;s just not all that good, or at least not as good as .Mac.\u003c/p\u003e","title":".Mac Upgrade"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m both throroughly embarressed and relieved. The Mac Genius was able to fix my Powerbook.\nThe steps he took were:\nRe-sat the Airport card. I didn\u0026rsquo;t know that could be a common cause. Reset the power manager. I did that. Reset the open firmware. At this point, the screen was working. When I did it, I had to use my external display. All is well again and seeing as a little bit of my pride saved me several hundred dollars, I think I can suck it up. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to hold off a little on applying for a part-time Genius position though.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/20/red/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m both throroughly embarressed and relieved. The Mac Genius was able to fix my Powerbook.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe steps he took were:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRe-sat the Airport card. \u003cem\u003eI didn\u0026rsquo;t know that could be a common cause.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReset the power manager. \u003cem\u003eI did that.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReset the open firmware. \u003cem\u003eAt this point, the screen was working. When I did it, I had to use my external display.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll is well again and seeing as a little bit of my pride saved me several hundred dollars, I think I can suck it up. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to hold off a little on applying for a part-time Genius position though.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Red"},{"content":"Rather than post separate entries, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d explain why I haven\u0026rsquo;t been around with one.\nVisiting Hours My friend Scott finally freed up some time to see the new place, which he now calls a sweet setup. I\u0026rsquo;m inclined to agree.\nHe came out Friday night and got the full tour. Naturally, the four floors of my place were a high point. So far, no one has really had a bad word, but then again maybe they\u0026rsquo;re all being polite and saving the criticism for later.\nHe stayed until this morning, allowing us to catch up and even figure out that the nearest theater (in Lowell) wasn\u0026rsquo;t all that far. Given, it can\u0026rsquo;t beat the theater just 5 minutes down the street in Northborough, but it\u0026rsquo;ll do.\nAnyway, entertaining makes it hard to keep up with the online life (among other things, read on).\nWaterworks I spent most of the day helping father pull his boat out of the water. Ok, it took all day. My dad didn\u0026rsquo;t realize that at high tide, the ramp\u0026rsquo;s slope is really slight and as such, the trailer doesn\u0026rsquo;t get deep enough into the water to drive up on. That forced us to wait several hours.\nI did get a footlong meatball sub out of it, so it\u0026rsquo;s not all bad, but it did prevent me from doing certain things today (read on).\nAnd the Lights Went Out So I decided to check some directions while Scott was dropping a nasty deuce into one of my toilets. I opened up my laptop to see the screen blink on and then off. That\u0026rsquo;s right, the screen died.\nBeing the troubleshooting wizard I am, I started going through things that would help (hopefully).\nShut down and started the computer. Nada. Pressed the brightness keys. Nada. Shut down the computer for an hour while at breakfast. Nada. Reset the PRAM (waited for three dongs). Nada. Reset the power manager. Nada. Connected an external display. The external display worked correctly, but when I visited Displays in System Preferences, only the external display was listed. Not good. System Profiler implies that the display is disconnected/off. In the words of Andy\u0026rsquo;s Dad, we are fucked, completely and utterly fucked.\nI wanted to take it in Saturday to the Apple Store, but with Scott around, that seemed rude. I waited until Sunday, but I got back really late, so that was out. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to go tomorrow after work because I can\u0026rsquo;t live without the mobility. Sure, the desktop is certainly essential, but life sucks without my trusty Powerbook.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll have to hope that I can afford the repair bill (and obligatory Amazon page plug). Oh, and thanks to whoever bought that big screen TV. I love you!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/18/big-weekend/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eRather than post separate entries, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d explain why I haven\u0026rsquo;t been around with one.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"visiting-hours\"\u003eVisiting Hours\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy friend Scott finally freed up some time to see the new place, which he now calls a sweet setup. I\u0026rsquo;m inclined to agree.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe came out Friday night and got the full tour. Naturally, the four floors of my place were a high point. So far, no one has really had a bad word, but then again maybe they\u0026rsquo;re all being polite and saving the criticism for later.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Big Weekend"},{"content":"So I\u0026rsquo;m currently 4 out of 5 and Henry forgot to pick confidence so he didn\u0026rsquo;t get any points (Henry, if you\u0026rsquo;re reading this, fix it before this weekend).\nsmudie (101) Katie (89) Mike (85) Me (81) Henry (**** explained above) It\u0026rsquo;s a little embarressing. For a scot living in France, Stuart knows his football. In fact, he did better than anyone in my work football group.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s my picks ordered from least confidence to most. Real winners are bold. Bold are picks that I had right. Italics are ones that I was wrong.\nDetroit vs. Green Bay San Diego vs. Dallas New York Giants vs. Arizona Kansas City vs. New York Jets Jacksonville vs. Seattle Denver vs. Miami Buffalo vs. Houston Washington vs. Chicago Minnesota vs. Tamba Bay St. Louis vs. San Fransisco Philadelphia vs. Atlanta Indianapolis vs. Batlimore Carolina vs. New Orleans Cincinnatti vs. Cleveland Pittsburgh vs. Tennessee New England vs. Oakland What\u0026rsquo;s interesting is that no one, save Stuart, thought New Orleans would win, not even Henry. That was a real coup. Other notable upsets were San Fransisco, Dallas, and Atlanta. As much as I hate St. Louis, I\u0026rsquo;m still surprised they lost to San Fransisco.\nEveryone thought Minnesota was going to win over Tampa Bay, but it\u0026rsquo;s looking like they\u0026rsquo;ll be the big losers this year without Moss.\nHaving seen all the teams play, it\u0026rsquo;ll be interesting to see if everyone\u0026rsquo;s accurary improves or gets worse, particularly Stuart.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/13/football-picks-week-1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo I\u0026rsquo;m currently 4 out of 5 and Henry forgot to pick confidence so he didn\u0026rsquo;t get any points (Henry, if you\u0026rsquo;re reading this, fix it before this weekend).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003esmudie (\u003cstrong\u003e101\u003c/strong\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKatie (\u003cstrong\u003e89\u003c/strong\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMike (\u003cstrong\u003e85\u003c/strong\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMe (\u003cstrong\u003e81\u003c/strong\u003e)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHenry (**** explained above)\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s a little embarressing. For a scot living in France, Stuart knows his football. In fact, he did better than anyone in my work football group.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere\u0026rsquo;s my picks ordered from least confidence to most. Real winners are bold. Bold are picks that I had right. Italics are ones that I was wrong.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 1"},{"content":"Earlier this week, Apple released iTunes 5 and the iPod nano. I didn\u0026rsquo;t write anything about either because I\u0026rsquo;m not particularly impressed by either. I\u0026rsquo;m even less impressed with the iTunes phone aka Motorola ROKR. I should say something though.\niTunes 5 This is perhaps one of the most pathetic iTunes\u0026rsquo; “upgrades” yet. No, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t worthy of a first digit number change. 5.0 doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to follow 4.9 either. They could have continued with 4.10. There\u0026rsquo;s even an implicit acknowledgment of this by Apple illustrated by the lack of a color change in the icon. Every other first digit change brought a new number. I love green, but it\u0026rsquo;s getting stale.\nVersiontracker has the following as the updated features:\nNew Look – Streamlined design makes iTunes even easier to use. Search Bar – Find stuff fast and refine your search with the handy new Search Bar. Smart Shuffle – Adjust random playback to hear what you want. Sync from Outlook – iTunes now supports iPod syncing for Outlook and Outlook Express on Windows PCs. Playlist Folders – Organize all your playlists into folders. Parental Controls – Limit kids’ access to the iTunes Music Store and sharing features. Album Reviews – Browse over 1,000 album reviews. The Complete Harry Potter – Download all six audiobooks or the Digital Box Set and add the collector’s iPod with Hogwarts crest. iTunes for Your Mobile Phone – Sync music to the Motorola ROKR E1. First, what I don\u0026rsquo;t really care about. Sync from Outlook is worthless because I\u0026rsquo;m using a Mac and even if I were using Windows, I\u0026rsquo;d have to be brain dead to use Outlook or Outlook Express. Parental Controls may be interesting to some, but I don\u0026rsquo;t have kids and even if I did, trying to use automated censorship is lame (in my opinion). The Complete Harry Potter is just content, not a feature. Besides, $250 to listen to all of the Harry Potter books when I could buy all of them for probably less than $30? Sounds a little foolish. Finally, support for the ROKR is lost on me because of reasons I\u0026rsquo;ll list below.\nThe new Search Bar is an incremental improvement. Hardly mindblowing.\nPlaylist Folders are neat, but they don\u0026rsquo;t show up on my iPod.\nThe Album Reviews are good, but they go into that category of iTunes Music Store content and not features.\nSmart Shuffle is good for some people, but the response it\u0026rsquo;s getting is extremely irritating. “I\u0026rsquo;m glad they made shuffle more random.””Shuffle is more powerful.” Steve himself said it. Smart Shuffle isn\u0026rsquo;t more random. It\u0026rsquo;s less. Part of truly random shuffling is the possibility of having several songs by the same artist in a row. As for “more powerful”, there\u0026rsquo;s more computation necessary, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure that qualifies as more powerful.\nThe biggest change by far was in the New Look. iTunes has a much debated entirely new look. I\u0026rsquo;m on the fence about it. The purist in me really dislikes it. The user in me thinks it looks slick. I don\u0026rsquo;t like the custom corner radius. I like the lack of margins. I dislike the fact that the lack of margins makes it harder to adjust the size of elements. I like the way the background looks and the glassy look of the readout. I\u0026rsquo;m not going to chide Apple like some self appointed expert, but I will say that I\u0026rsquo;m not a fan. I really like consistency, which is what keeps me using the Mac platform.\niPod Nano It\u0026rsquo;s a smaller capacity replacement for the iPod mini. I\u0026rsquo;m not exactly why Apple felt it necessary to drop the iPod mini completely. The iPod line is getting rather complicated, so some consolidation was a good idea from a marketing standpoint, but the mini had some things that the nano doesn\u0026rsquo;t.\nIt was bigger for one. The iPod mini was almost getting into the storage capacity that I could consider getting one. They may have hit a ceiling, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure that\u0026rsquo;s a reason to dump it until the nano matches or surpasses it.\nThe iPod nano also can\u0026rsquo;t be used over a Firewire connection. I have USB 2.0 on all my Macs, but not all Mac users do. Sure, the old adage of “you need the latest to use the latest” applies, but part of iPod mini\u0026rsquo;s audience were users with small hard drives that could possibly fill up a regular iPod.\nI think it\u0026rsquo;s a neat choice for many people, but I\u0026rsquo;ll still miss the mini.\nMotorola ROKR Two words describe why I won\u0026rsquo;t be getting one of these: service provider. As much as I dislike Verizon\u0026rsquo;s landline services (and their associated cost), their wireless is great. I get good signal everywhere. I\u0026rsquo;m not moving to Cingular. I\u0026rsquo;m getting tired of the fact that I can\u0026rsquo;t get cool phones because they\u0026rsquo;re tied to a single incompatible service type. Phone makers, please make cross-service phones. I want to buy the phone I want to use with the service I want. Unfortunately, when it comes to choosing the phone or service, I\u0026rsquo;ll pick the service every time.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/11/im-not-small-the-water-is-cold/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEarlier this week, \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e released \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/itunes/\"\u003eiTunes 5\u003c/a\u003e and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/\"\u003eiPod nano\u003c/a\u003e. I didn\u0026rsquo;t write anything about either because I\u0026rsquo;m not particularly impressed by either. I\u0026rsquo;m even less impressed with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.motorola.com/rokr\"\u003eiTunes phone\u003c/a\u003e aka Motorola ROKR. I should say something though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"itunes-5\"\u003eiTunes 5\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is perhaps one of the most pathetic iTunes\u0026rsquo; “upgrades” yet. No, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t worthy of a first digit number change. 5.0 doesn\u0026rsquo;t have to follow 4.9 either. They could have continued with 4.10. There\u0026rsquo;s even an implicit acknowledgment of this by Apple illustrated by the lack of a color change in the icon. Every other first digit change brought a new number. I love green, but it\u0026rsquo;s getting stale.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm Not Small, the Water is Cold"},{"content":"I know it\u0026rsquo;s late notice, but I just got turned on to Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s Football Pick\u0026rsquo;em page (like what I did last year, but automated, so scrap that idea).\nAnyway, I expect all of you to join and participate especially Henry (that\u0026rsquo;s two mentions), Dana, and Katie. The group has 50 slots, so if it comes to that, it\u0026rsquo;ll be first come, first serve.\nYou need a Yahoo! id and enough time to pick teams to win (no spread) and assign confidence (1 – 16). Each week\u0026rsquo;s picks have to be in 5 minutes prior to the first game of the week. The Patriots are playing tonight, so you\u0026rsquo;ll need to enter your choices before then.\nIn order to join the group, just go to Pro Football Pick\u0026rsquo;em, click the “Sign Up” button (or “Create or Join Group” if you are a returning user). From there, follow the path to join an existing private group and when prompted, enter the following information…\nGroup ID#: 40151\nPassword: slappy\nI\u0026rsquo;ll post my weekly results and analysis of the group\u0026rsquo;s performance each week. Sign up now!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/08/football-picking/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI know it\u0026rsquo;s late notice, but I just got turned on to Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s Football Pick\u0026rsquo;em page (like what I did last year, but automated, so scrap that idea).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnyway, I expect all of you to join and participate especially \u003ca href=\"http://www.hbusby.com\"\u003eHenry\u003c/a\u003e (that\u0026rsquo;s two mentions), \u003ca href=\"http://xandriamd87.blogspot.com\"\u003eDana\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com/~kayteebird/\"\u003eKatie\u003c/a\u003e. The group has 50 slots, so if it comes to that, it\u0026rsquo;ll be first come, first serve.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou need a Yahoo! id and enough time to pick teams to win (no spread) and assign confidence (1 – 16). Each week\u0026rsquo;s picks have to be in 5 minutes prior to the first game of the week. The Patriots are playing tonight, so you\u0026rsquo;ll need to enter your choices before then.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picking"},{"content":"When it becomes time to buy a house or condo, you start thinking about the various attributes that properties have. Which is the most important? Anybody will tell you that the top three are location, location, and location. I\u0026rsquo;ll be extremely methodical about this and dissect them one at a time.\nLocation With gas prices at all time highs, being close to work is more important than ever. That\u0026rsquo;s especially true if you drive a big honking SUV. Hell, it can add up even if you drive an average car. Sure, buying a hybrid or motorcycle might be cheaper than buying a house, but you\u0026rsquo;re not moving just for that.\nBesides gas, think about all those hours of your life you lose. They\u0026rsquo;re irreplaceable. Your time is worth money. Further, if you drive, all that aggravation and stress will take years off your life.\nStarting your search with work as a central starting point if you have a stable job (which is a very good idea when making such a major purchase). If you\u0026rsquo;re buying with someone else, a midpoint can be a good central location.\nLocation I want to live near the ocean. I\u0026rsquo;m not alone (just examine any population density map). Some people want to live near a lake. Yet others like mountains. Figuring out what kind of terrain you want to live in can be very important.\nProximity to a population center is also important to consider. If you like the hustle and bustle of the city, the country may bore you to tears. Likewise, country bumpkins may be driven insane by the incessant noise of a city.\nLocation Finally, think about the people that will be living near you. Your neighbors can make your life miserable. The obvious example is if they\u0026rsquo;re drug dealers or gang members. There\u0026rsquo;s a reason I didn\u0026rsquo;t decide to live in Lowell.\nHowever, a touchy older person can be just as annoying, constantly telling you to quiet down or even call the cops. Your neighbors might have kids, which might be annoying for some.\nI Know Where You Live Before you do anything else, research where you want to live. Drive around (if you can afford the gas). Talk to friends. Get crime and school statistics for the area you\u0026rsquo;re looking in. Realtors can supply this information, but doing the research on your own will get you less biased results.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/06/survey-says/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen it becomes time to buy a house or condo, you start thinking about the various attributes that properties have. Which is the most important? Anybody will tell you that the top three are location, location, and location. I\u0026rsquo;ll be extremely methodical about this and dissect them one at a time.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"location\"\u003eLocation\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith gas prices at all time highs, being close to work is more important than ever. That\u0026rsquo;s especially true if you drive a big honking SUV. Hell, it can add up even if you drive an average car. Sure, buying a hybrid or motorcycle might be cheaper than buying a house, but you\u0026rsquo;re not moving just for that.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Survey Says"},{"content":"I couldn\u0026rsquo;t hold this one back. I picked up some Trident White gum at Walmart. “White” promises whiter teeth in as little as four weeks. Sounds easy enough. I chew gum and I\u0026rsquo;d like whiter teeth.\nI decided to dig a little further and figure out exactly what was needed to get these results. It\u0026rsquo;s not written on the package, so I went to the product\u0026rsquo;s web site. There I found what I was looking for.\nConsumers may see results when they chew as little as 2 pieces for 20 minutes, 4 times per day for 4 weeks.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a lot of numbers. I like numbers, so let\u0026rsquo;s figure out exactly what they mean. First, how many pieces of this gum will it take to see results?\n2 pieces/chewing * 4 chewings/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks = 224 pieces\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a lot of gum. How much of my time will it take to chew enough?\n4 chewings/day * 7 days/week * 4 weeks * 20 minutes/chewing = 2,240 minutes or 37 hours and 20 minutes\nGood thing I can walk and chew gum at the same time. That\u0026rsquo;s almost a work week. How many packs of gum is that?\n224 pieces / 12 pieces/pack = 18.67 packs\nI think I\u0026rsquo;ll give up on the dream of whiter teeth now.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/06/recommended-trident-white-usage/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI couldn\u0026rsquo;t hold this one back. I picked up some \u003ca href=\"http://www.tridentgum.com\"\u003eTrident\u003c/a\u003e White gum at Walmart. “White” promises whiter teeth in as little as four weeks. Sounds easy enough. I chew gum and I\u0026rsquo;d like whiter teeth.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI decided to dig a little further and figure out exactly what was needed to get these results. It\u0026rsquo;s not written on the package, so I went to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.tridentgum.com/white_facts.html?content=2\"\u003eproduct\u0026rsquo;s web site\u003c/a\u003e. There I found what I was looking for.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Recommended Trident White Usage"},{"content":"Like pretty much everyone else, the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina saddened me. I have written anything about because I personally wasn\u0026rsquo;t affected (unless you count gas prices, which I don\u0026rsquo;t) and because I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be saying anything that others had already said in a much more elegant way.\nI\u0026rsquo;m glad that Henry is well.\nI suggest donations be made to the Salvation Army.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/05/hurricane-katrina/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLike pretty much everyone else, the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina saddened me. I have written anything about because I personally wasn\u0026rsquo;t affected (unless you count gas prices, which I don\u0026rsquo;t) and because I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be saying anything that others had already said in a much more elegant way.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m glad that \u003ca href=\"http://www.hbusby.com\"\u003eHenry\u003c/a\u003e is well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI suggest donations be made to \u003ca href=\"http://www.salvationarmyusa.org\"\u003ethe Salvation Army\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hurricane Katrina"},{"content":"A more common question on the Macworld Forums is about using a Mac as a wireless base station. I\u0026rsquo;ve done it several times and at one point, it was a cost saving thing to do. That was back when Airport Base Stations cost $300 and WiFi wasn\u0026rsquo;t a household name. I freaked out my friends by surfing the net wirelessly.\nThings are different now. In a pinch, using Internet Sharing to facilitate the use of a Mac as a base station is a good idea. However, using it as a long term solution isn\u0026rsquo;t. Apple hasn\u0026rsquo;t really dropped pricing on its base stations much however, causing many Mac users to think that it is a cost effective solution. Really, $129 for an Airport Express is a bit excessive. The Airport Express Base Station has even less value per dollar for consumers at $199.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s the power of using your own naming for standards based devices. You can fool many consumers into thinking that they\u0026rsquo;re not the same thing. Despite popular rumor, Airport is just fancy naming for 802.11b just as Airport Extreme is for 802.11g. That\u0026rsquo;s what makes Airport so seemingly ubiquitous.\nWhat Apple doesn\u0026rsquo;t advertise is that third-party 802.11b/g devices work just as well as Airport Express and Airport Extreme Base Stations. I personally prefer the third-party devices for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that due to poor power supply design, my original Airport Base Station nearly died. Apple owned up to the flaw, but because they carefully chose a series of serial numbers to get most, but not all ABS owners with the flaw such that the remaining victims couldn\u0026rsquo;t mount an effective class action lawsuit. Clever. I swore I\u0026rsquo;d never buy another Apple Base Station. I\u0026rsquo;ve stuck to that.\nAnyway, that prompted the purchase of my D-Link router when I wanted to move up to 802.11g. I found I got much better range and reception. Best of all, it only cost me $40 (compare that with $300). Third-party routers are an excellent solution and much better than using Internet Sharing for several reasons.\nYou need to leave your sharing computer on all the time. That\u0026rsquo;s not cheap. It\u0026rsquo;s likely to get more expensive.\nThe range is not as good as a dedicated device.\nYou have less options. You can\u0026rsquo;t configure Internet Sharing like you can a router.\nYou have to screw around with OS X\u0026rsquo;s firewall to get anything to work well. It\u0026rsquo;s painful. Very painful.\nThe router is cheaper. $20 is a lot cheaper than $80.\nDo yourself a favor. Do it the easy way.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/09/02/doing-it-the-hard-way/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA more common question on the \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/\"\u003eMacworld Forums\u003c/a\u003e is about using a Mac as a wireless base station. I\u0026rsquo;ve done it several times and at one point, it was a cost saving thing to do. That was back when Airport Base Stations cost $300 and WiFi wasn\u0026rsquo;t a household name. I freaked out my friends by surfing the net wirelessly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThings are different now. In a pinch, using Internet Sharing to facilitate the use of a Mac as a base station is a good idea. However, using it as a long term solution isn\u0026rsquo;t. Apple hasn\u0026rsquo;t really dropped pricing on its base stations much however, causing many Mac users to think that it is a cost effective solution. Really, $129 for an Airport Express is a bit excessive. The Airport Express Base Station has even less value per dollar for consumers at $199.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Doing It the Hard Way"},{"content":"This is standard update fare. Fire up software update or download the updates from Apple (1.3.1 and 2.0.1).\nApple\u0026rsquo;s documentation is pretty light on what\u0026rsquo;s changed.\nSafari version 2.0.1/1.3.1 for Mac OS X Tiger/Panther improves website compatibility, application stability and support for 3rd party web applications.\nIt sounds like WebKit might have been updated (perhaps to include Acid test compatibility). It could also be that minor parts of the interface were amended, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t find any such changes. If you use Saft, you\u0026rsquo;re going to have to update that too.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/30/safari-2.0.1-and-1.3.1-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is standard update fare. Fire up software update or download the updates from Apple (\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/safariupdate131.html\"\u003e1.3.1\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/safariupdate201.html\"\u003e2.0.1\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApple\u0026rsquo;s documentation is pretty light on what\u0026rsquo;s changed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSafari version \u003cem\u003e2.0.1/1.3.1\u003c/em\u003e for Mac OS X \u003cem\u003eTiger/Panther\u003c/em\u003e improves website compatibility, application stability and support for 3rd party web applications.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt sounds like WebKit might have been updated (perhaps to include Acid test compatibility). It could also be that minor parts of the interface were amended, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t find any such changes. If you use Saft, you\u0026rsquo;re going to have to update that too.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Safari 2.0.1 and 1.3.1 Released"},{"content":"Opera is giving away their excellent web browser away for free today only.\nGo get your registration codes now!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/30/get-opera-free/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.opera.com\"\u003eOpera\u003c/a\u003e is \u003ca href=\"http://my.opera.com/community/party/\"\u003egiving away their excellent web browser away for free\u003c/a\u003e today only.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo get your registration codes now!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Get Opera Free"},{"content":"Because I\u0026rsquo;m a cheap bastard, I decided to buy my cable modem instead of rent or buy from Comcast.\nReview It\u0026rsquo;s hard to review a cable modem really. Sites like CNet can do group comparisons, but I have neither the cash nor the time to do a full comparison like that. I can use it for a bit to see if I need to reset it and what kinds of speeds I can get.\nIn those two regards, this modem is excellent. I haven\u0026rsquo;t needed to reset the modem once. I\u0026rsquo;ve also been getting 800 KB/s downloads. That translates to 6.25 Mbps, which is actually a quarter of a Megabit greater than the service I\u0026rsquo;m supposedly getting. I\u0026rsquo;m happy with that.\nI can recommend the D-Link DCM-202 without reservation. Go get yours at Amazon.com.\nUpdating the Firmware with a Mac Most routers let anyone with a slightly modern web browser update the firmware using a web page form. It\u0026rsquo;s child\u0026rsquo;s play. The D-Link DCM-202 isn\u0026rsquo;t quite as easy. Fortunately, cable modems don\u0026rsquo;t need regular updates.\nThere is a single update aimed at Comcast users. Keep in mind that my modem was working just fine, but I\u0026rsquo;m an update junkie. I simply can\u0026rsquo;t leave well enough alone. Well, you can imagine my disappointment when I found out that D-Link only provided files to perform the update on a Windows machine. The update was three parts, the firmware file, the instructions, and a Windows update utility.\nThe thing is though, the Windows update utility is really just a TFTP server. What happens when you update is that you activate the TFTP client in the modem and tell it to download from a TFTP server (generally the one being run via the Windows utility they supply).\nWhat few people know is that Mac OS X includes a built-in TFTP server. That\u0026rsquo;s right, with a stock OS X installation, you too can update this firmware. A few caveats before the instructions. If you are looking for someone to blame should something go wrong, don\u0026rsquo;t use these instructions. I can\u0026rsquo;t make any guarantees. You\u0026rsquo;ll also need to use the Terminal.\nDownload the latest relevant firmware update from D-Link. You should see have three files when you\u0026rsquo;re done downloading and decompressing: the instructions, the firmware, and the Windows utility. Verify you have these three files. The name of the firmware at time of publication was Hitr252.bin.\nCopy the firmware into the TFTP server directory. To do this, use the following command in the Terminal and authorize when prompted for password.\nsudo cp /path/to/Hitr252.bin /private/tftpboot/\nActivate the TFTP server. You\u0026rsquo;ll also probably want to disable any firewalls. Use the following command in the Terminal to start the TFTP server.\nsudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tftp.plist\nConfigure your network settings. You\u0026rsquo;ll need to visit Network in System Preferences. Go to the Ethernet configuration and set it to use 192.168.100.2 as the IP address and 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask. Make sure you apply those settings.\nConnect your Mac directly to the modem via an Ethernet cable. You\u0026rsquo;ll probably also want to disconnect the coaxial cable from the cable modem.\nTelnet into the cable modem. You\u0026rsquo;ll need to use another Terminal command for this one.\ntelnet 192.168.100.1 23\nLog into the modem. Use username dlink and password dlink.\nTell the modem to download the firmware from the TFTP server you\u0026rsquo;re running. You\u0026rsquo;re going to type a command to the modem which you\u0026rsquo;ve connected through telnet to.\ndload 192.168.100.2 Hitr252.bin\nWait until the modem resets and the cable light turns blinking amber. The Ethernet light will also be dark.\nReset the modem using the pinhole in the back. Hold down for 7 seconds.\nVerify the firmware correctly updated. Point your web browser at 192.168.100.1. Log in with username admin and password hitron. I think my username or password may have differed from these (I\u0026rsquo;m basing these instructions of the D-Link provided ones). Once you\u0026rsquo;re logged in, look for the firmware version. It should match what you uploaded.\nYou\u0026rsquo;re done! You just did the impossible by doing something that normally would require a PC. Enjoy the new firmware and the satisfaction of doing it yourself.\nUpdate: David notes that he had to use different IP addresses than what I wrote. My bad. I\u0026rsquo;m correcting them.\nAs a side note, I had to use “100” in the following steps rather than “0” (zero):\nSTEP 4: 192.168.0.2–\u0026gt;192.168.100.2\nSTEP 6: 192.168.0.1–\u0026gt;192.168.100.1\nSTEP 11: 192.168.0.1–\u0026gt;192.168.100.1\nHe also confirmed the username and password. Thanks David!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/26/d-link-dcm-202-and-firmware-how-to/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBecause I\u0026rsquo;m a cheap bastard, I decided to buy my cable modem instead of rent or buy from Comcast.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"review\"\u003eReview\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s hard to review a cable modem really. Sites like CNet can do group comparisons, but I have neither the cash nor the time to do a full comparison like that. I can use it for a bit to see if I need to reset it and what kinds of speeds I can get.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"D-Link DCM-202 and Firmware How-To"},{"content":"I got the opportunity to write another article for Macworld Online (I don\u0026rsquo;t know if it\u0026rsquo;ll get used in Macworld Magazine or not). Check it out.\nI got to review one of my favorite pieces of Mac software, Growl. In short, it manages all kinds of alerts. It\u0026rsquo;s still not 1.0, so the review is a “Promising Prospect” piece. I hope that by the time it reaches 1.0, it\u0026rsquo;s part of every good Mac user\u0026rsquo;s arsenal; it\u0026rsquo;s part of mine.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/24/macworld-article-deux/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI got the opportunity to write \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2005/08/growlprospect/index.php\"\u003eanother article\u003c/a\u003e for Macworld Online (I don\u0026rsquo;t know if it\u0026rsquo;ll get used in Macworld Magazine or not). Check it out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI got to review one of my favorite pieces of Mac software, \u003ca href=\"http://growl.info\"\u003eGrowl\u003c/a\u003e. In short, it manages all kinds of alerts. It\u0026rsquo;s still not 1.0, so the review is a “Promising Prospect” piece. I hope that by the time it reaches 1.0, it\u0026rsquo;s part of every good Mac user\u0026rsquo;s arsenal; it\u0026rsquo;s part of mine.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Macworld Article Deux"},{"content":"After many rumors, Google has released its own IM and VoIP system, Google Talk (in beta).\nGoogle decided to use Jabber as the backbone. That means you can IM Google Talk users with any Jabber client using their Gmail address as their username. You can even do so using iChat. If I gave you a Jabber account for godlikenerd.com, you can use that as well. Update: Or not. I can\u0026rsquo;t seem to connect to chat via anything but a Gmail name. That\u0026rsquo;s not cool. According to Google:\nIt isn\u0026rsquo;t possible to call or chat with non-Gmail users through Google Talk (but we\u0026rsquo;re working on it). You can email any of your contacts by clicking the envelope next to their names in your Friends list, but if you want to talk to your friends live, they need to be Gmail (and Google Talk) users too.\nYou can invite your friends who aren\u0026rsquo;t Gmail users to download Google Talk. They\u0026rsquo;ll receive an invitation to create a Gmail account at the same time. Just sign in to Google Talk, and click ‘invite\u0026rsquo; next to your friend\u0026rsquo;s name or click ‘Add friend\u0026rsquo; at the bottom of your Friends list. Then follow the prompts to email an invitation to his or her email address.\nThe bad thing is that Google\u0026rsquo;s official client (the only one with VoIP capability) is currently Windows only, though Mac and Linux versions are in the works. VoIP for those not in the know, is Voice Over Internet Protocol, otherwise known as phone on the Internet. Skype has recently made this service particularly popular, offering such options as voicemail, external phone numbers, and the ability to dial phone numbers. Google Talk still lacks this apparently.\nGoogle also will be supporting SIP in the future, allowing communication with Gizmo and Vling users.\nThis extra weight may push a lot more users to Jabber, which benefits us all (due to its decentralized nature, there is no reliance on a single body). Heck, it may push the major players (AOL/ICQ, Yahoo, MSN) into opening a Jabber interface into their services. I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t hold my breath though.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/24/google-talk/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter many rumors, \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e has released its own IM and VoIP system, \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/talk/\"\u003eGoogle Talk\u003c/a\u003e (in beta).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoogle decided to use Jabber as the backbone. That means you can IM Google Talk users with \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html\"\u003eany Jabber client\u003c/a\u003e using their Gmail address as their username. You can even do so using iChat. If I gave you a Jabber account for godlikenerd.com, you can use that as well. \u003cem\u003eUpdate:\u003c/em\u003e Or not. I can\u0026rsquo;t seem to connect to chat via anything but a Gmail name. That\u0026rsquo;s not cool. According to Google:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Talk"},{"content":"Lately my car has been making some unusual noise. It got worse yesterday, so I dropped it off at the mechanic and rode into work with my father. We took 128 North, then cut onto Commerce Way.\nSomehow we ended up behind a police cruiser. Normally, that\u0026rsquo;s not an issue because they speed. This morning, we ended up behind that rare police officer that doesn\u0026rsquo;t. In fact, according to our speedometer, he was below the speed limit (by an MPH or two). We normally end up in the left lane because one has to turn left into Raytheon anyway.\nWith that setup, you can understand why my father changed into the left lane, and increased his speed to the blazing 40 MPH that was allowed on the street. As the cruiser was going slightly less, we ended up passing him… very… slowly. When I saw the cruiser then change lanes behind us into the left lane, I knew something was up. Either he was about to turn left, or he was going to pull us over.\nBeing the rational person he was, he turned on his lights and pulled over my 70 year old father. The cop strutted over and after the usual “license and registration” spiel, asked my father if he knew why he was pulled over. Good old Dad must have figured that Because I passed you, therefore drawing your masculinity into question wasn\u0026rsquo;t the right answer, so he went with I have no idea. You were speeding, said the police officer, I clocked you and got you with the radar gun.\nI\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;re dying to know what dangerous speed we were traveling. 43. The speed limit was exceeded by 3 MPH (if we are to believe that the cops speedometer was that much more accurate than the one in the Celica). Can anyone say waste of tax payer money? Naturally dad responded by saying My speedometer read 40 MPH exactly. This is when the real cop\u0026rsquo;s real motivation was revealed. I was going the speed limit. It\u0026rsquo;s common sense that you don\u0026rsquo;t pass a cruiser.\nHold up. He was lecturing us about passing him. Exactly what law prohibits the passing of police cruisers? My father argued that his speedometer indicated 40 MPH, so it was well within his legal bounds to pass. The cop then suggested that my father decided to pass because he “had somewhere to go and couldn\u0026rsquo;t wait.” He marched back to his cruiser and proceeded to make us wait an excessive amount of time. Keep in mind that I can see the Raytheon building and walk to it in probably a minute or two. The cop had the balls to suggest that my dad callously ignored the law to get somewhere faster. The problem here is, of course, our speedometer indicated that we were not speeding.\nI was closing my eyes, trying to take a nap when the officer returned. He then lectured my 70 year old father about speeding. He layed out in careful detail that Massachusetts had a mandatory $100 speeding ticket along with insurance sucharges that could get rather expensive. My dad isn\u0026rsquo;t a teenager. He knows all the details and didn\u0026rsquo;t think he was speeding. The cop then said “It\u0026rsquo;s not that you were speeding all that much.” No fucking shit, genius. He continued, “It\u0026rsquo;s common sense that you don\u0026rsquo;t pass a police cruiser when it\u0026rsquo;s going the speed limit.” Hello! Is anybody in there? We didn\u0026rsquo;t think he was going the speed limit.\nAfter all that, he gave us a warning. The reason for that is abundantly clear. He knew he didn\u0026rsquo;t have a leg to stand on. A quick visit to the local courthouse and the court magistrate to fight the ticket would have ended in its immediate dismissal. He knew the ticket would have been completely bogus. It was completely fueled by some immature, macho, testosterone-driven response to being passed. He wanted to stick his chest out, beat it a little bit, and show my father who was the boss. Color me unimpressed, jackass.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong. I have nothing against cops as a rule. My brother was one this summer in Cape Cod and will likely go on to be one permanently once he graduates. I\u0026rsquo;m quite proud of him. I sincerely hope this isn\u0026rsquo;t indicative of the entire Woburn police force. I want to believe this is the only idiot on their staff.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/24/woburn-cop-powertrip/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLately my car has been making some unusual noise. It got worse yesterday, so I dropped it off at the mechanic and rode into work with my father. We took 128 North, then cut onto Commerce Way.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomehow we ended up behind a police cruiser. Normally, that\u0026rsquo;s not an issue because they speed. This morning, we ended up behind that rare police officer that doesn\u0026rsquo;t. In fact, according to our speedometer, he was below the speed limit (by an MPH or two). We normally end up in the left lane because one has to turn left into Raytheon anyway.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Woburn Cop Powertrip"},{"content":"The next big thing in Internet news is digg. According to the site it is:\nDigg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a lot of buzzwords to be sure. It\u0026rsquo;s much easier to explain in another way. Digg is a site where people post what they consider interesting stories. Other users can agree by “digging” the entry. Each user can “digg” a story only once.\nThe best/most interesting stories are naturally the ones with the most diggs. Those stories get promoted to the front page, allowing one to see the most popular stories of the day. This differs from a site such as Slashdot, where editors take submissions and decide which stories are best. Given, the Slashdot editors do tend to pick the most important stories, but one never knows what the dynamic of a large crowd will pick out. That, my friend, is what non-hierarchal editorial control.\nThe other buzzwords can be explained much easier. Social bookmarking is when you mark things you want to remember or find interesting and those choices are made public, allowing friends and strangers to see what you\u0026rsquo;re looking at. Blogging allows one to easily post a story along with your own comments to your blogging system of choice (yes, even Blogger and LiveJournal). RSS feeds for the most popular stories, stories you\u0026rsquo;ve dugg, and even those of your friends are available.\nSpeaking of friends, like many new websites, you can add other users as friends. I\u0026rsquo;m d00d if you\u0026rsquo;d like to add me and see what I\u0026rsquo;m digging. I\u0026rsquo;ve integrated that feed into Planet d00dism already. Another good friend to add is diggnation. Diggnation isn\u0026rsquo;t just a user on the site, it\u0026rsquo;s a pod/vidcast.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re into tech or science news (I can think of at least one person interested in the latter), join the revolution.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/22/digg-it-dugg-it-good/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe next big thing in Internet news is \u003ca href=\"http://www.digg.com\"\u003edigg\u003c/a\u003e. According to the site it is:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDigg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s a lot of buzzwords to be sure. It\u0026rsquo;s much easier to explain in another way. Digg is a site where people post what they consider interesting stories. Other users can agree by “digging” the entry. Each user can “digg” a story only once.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Digg It, Dugg It, Good"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;d like to thank whoever bought Meet the Fockers, Pirates of Silicon Valley, and The Bourne Identity through my Amazon links. I really appreciate it. Hopefully this will be the start of a trend. Living in your own place is a little expensive.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/21/first-amazon-associates-purchases/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;d like to thank whoever bought Meet the Fockers, Pirates of Silicon Valley, and The Bourne Identity through my \u003ca href=\"/shop/\"\u003eAmazon links\u003c/a\u003e. I really appreciate it. Hopefully this will be the start of a trend. Living in your own place is a little expensive.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"First Amazon Associates Purchases"},{"content":"When I first read that Flickr was merging accounts with Yahoo! accounts, I thought it would be a good idea.\nAs of now, anyone can log in to Flickr using their Yahoo! ID. New users will have to use their Yahoo! ID (or create a new one if they don\u0026rsquo;t have one); older users can continue to use their existing Flickr.com account details to log in, or choose to merge their Flickr.com accounts and Yahoo! IDs together*. One note: Existing users will be able to keep their existing screen names on Flickr whether they choose to merge accounts now or not – you don\u0026rsquo;t have to change your name.\nNow, based upon that, nothing would be lost and I\u0026rsquo;d just be able to log in with my Yahoo! account. However, not everything was perfect.\n*Having said all that, there may be reasons why existing Flickr users would not want to associate their accounts yet: if you use API-based programs developed by outside developers, your favorite programs may not work until those developers update their programs to work with the new authentication API – many developers are already doing this, but during the transition process you\u0026rsquo;re better off to ask first and merge later!\nAn application I recently discovered, 1001, has already been updated. If you\u0026rsquo;re an iPhoto addict though, you probably use Frasier Spears\u0026rsquo; Flickr Export Plugin for iPhoto. That plugin hasn\u0026rsquo;t been updated and authentication will fail if you merge with your Yahoo! account. I would suggest waiting this out.\nUpdate: FlickrExport has been updated to 1.3.0b1 with support for the authentication. If you were waiting for this, you can pull the trigger on the ID merge.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/20/wait-to-merge-your-flickr-and-yahoo-accounts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen I first read that \u003ca href=\"http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2005/08/one_less_passwo.html\"\u003eFlickr was merging accounts with Yahoo! accounts\u003c/a\u003e, I thought it would be a good idea.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs of now, anyone can log in to Flickr using their Yahoo! ID. New users will have to use their Yahoo! ID (or create a new one if they don\u0026rsquo;t have one); older users can continue to use their existing Flickr.com account details to log in, or choose to merge their Flickr.com accounts and Yahoo! IDs together*. One note: Existing users will be able to keep their existing screen names on Flickr whether they choose to merge accounts now or not – you don\u0026rsquo;t have to change your name.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Wait to Merge Your Flickr and Yahoo Accounts"},{"content":" Claiming that its image and persona have been hijacked as part of a marketing campaign for Burger King\u0026rsquo;s new chicken fries, the costumed heavy metal band Slipknot is threatening the fast food giant with legal action.\nI actually wondered for a brief moment if it was Slipknot, but it\u0026rsquo;s so blatantly not.\nread more | digg story\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/20/slipknot-sues-burger-king/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClaiming that its image and persona have been hijacked as part of a marketing campaign for Burger King\u0026rsquo;s new chicken fries, the costumed heavy metal band Slipknot is threatening the fast food giant with legal action.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI actually wondered for a brief moment if it was Slipknot, but it\u0026rsquo;s so blatantly not.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0817052slipknot1.html\"\u003eread more\u003c/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"http://digg.com/music/Slipknot_sues_Burger_King\"\u003edigg story\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Slipknot sues Burger King"},{"content":"No Need to Click Here – I\u0026rsquo;m just claiming my feed at Feedster\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/18/feedster-claiming/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://feedster.com/claimfeed.php?key=92d047d79bcd6ca7f25432e192d9bb6e\"\u003eNo Need to Click Here – I\u0026rsquo;m just claiming my feed at Feedster\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Feedster Claiming"},{"content":"So, the essential part of moving has been accomplished. I\u0026rsquo;ve got my cable modem and Vonage working. Screw food and hygiene, net access and phone capabilities are what really matters.\nDespite hearing grumbling about Comcast service issues, so far my experience has been great. The installation was quick and easy. The installer simply needed my cable modem\u0026rsquo;s serial and model number to register it and I was off. I even applied a Comcast specific firmware update to my D-Link DCM-202. I actually flashed it using my Mac, which isn\u0026rsquo;t supported by D-Link. In fact, because you can\u0026rsquo;t simply upload the firmware via a form as is normal for most network devices, it\u0026rsquo;s hidden. Look forward to a how-to with my method. I\u0026rsquo;m even experiencing 800 KB/s downloads, faster than any other connection I\u0026rsquo;ve ever used.\nAs for Vonage, it took a bit of tweaking to get it working as I wanted it to. For most users, it would be easy as pie (let me be your referrer if you decide to sign up, I\u0026rsquo;ll get two free months), but I\u0026rsquo;m an uber geek and I\u0026rsquo;ve discovered some problems in the Linksys RTP300 which is the router that Vonage ships now. More on that in my Vonage review that I\u0026rsquo;ll try to get out after using the service for a longer period.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/17/getting-connected/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo, the essential part of moving has been accomplished. I\u0026rsquo;ve got my cable modem and Vonage working. Screw food and hygiene, net access and phone capabilities are what really matters.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite hearing grumbling about Comcast service issues, so far my experience has been great. The installation was quick and easy. The installer simply needed my cable modem\u0026rsquo;s serial and model number to register it and I was off. I even applied a Comcast specific firmware update to my D-Link DCM-202. I actually flashed it using my Mac, which isn\u0026rsquo;t supported by D-Link. In fact, because you can\u0026rsquo;t simply upload the firmware via a form as is normal for most network devices, it\u0026rsquo;s hidden. Look forward to a how-to with my method. I\u0026rsquo;m even experiencing 800 KB/s downloads, faster than any other connection I\u0026rsquo;ve ever used.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Getting Connected"},{"content":"Close friends already know that I just bought a townhouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (reducing my commute time to under half an hour). This is the big secret that I made reference to in earlier posts. I closed on Thursday.\nOriginally, I planned on posting that day or on Friday along with pictures. However, due to all the work associated with trying to move in, I haven\u0026rsquo;t had time (as evidenced by my light posting). The pictures are taken, but now I need to download them from the camera and get them properly loaded onto Flickr. That\u0026rsquo;s another lengthy task I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get around to.\nMore observant readers may have been able to pick on the context clues, such as buying a cable modem and talking about getting Vonage. I\u0026rsquo;m sure I said other stuff that gave it away. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t really trying to keep it under wraps. I wanted to simply not crow about it, possibly putting a jinx on the deal (which I still believe was possible).\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been a very long hard road to get to home ownership. I didn\u0026rsquo;t really have a good guide to it. Because of this, I decided to add yet another direction for the site. I\u0026rsquo;m going to document my entire struggle, beginning to end. I\u0026rsquo;ll be changing names (except when I\u0026rsquo;m rewarding people for really helping me) because some of the stories are extremely embarrassing or at least I imagine it would be.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll also be documenting major and minor repairs that I\u0026rsquo;ll be performing as a new homeowner. Let\u0026rsquo;s face it. When you watch This Old House and the carpenter is doing things that he\u0026rsquo;s done a million times before, it\u0026rsquo;s frustrating because he doesn\u0026rsquo;t touch on the finer points that a newbie wouldn\u0026rsquo;t know.\nHopefully I can help some people out. If not, the pictures should be fun to look at.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/15/proud-homeowner/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eClose friends already know that I just bought a townhouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (reducing my commute time to under half an hour). This is the big secret that I made reference to in earlier posts. I closed on Thursday.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginally, I planned on posting that day or on Friday along with pictures. However, due to all the work associated with trying to move in, I haven\u0026rsquo;t had time (as evidenced by my \u003cem\u003elight\u003c/em\u003e posting). The pictures are taken, but now I need to download them from the camera and get them properly loaded onto Flickr. That\u0026rsquo;s another lengthy task I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get around to.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Proud Homeowner"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m not surprised at all by this. In fact, I expected it ever since Blockbuster started their strong-arm, undercutting price competition with Netflix.\nFrom CNET:\nThe price of Blockbuster\u0026rsquo;s three-movies-out-at-once rental plan will now be $17.99 per month, up from $14.99, the company said Tuesday. The new rate is the same that Netflix charges for three movies–the most it allows customers to have at a time. … The new prices go into effect Aug. 19.\nWhen Netflix didn\u0026rsquo;t budge, some analysts predicted a decreased user base. Instead, they had a great quarter.\n“Our business performed impressively across all key operating measures in the second quarter, reflecting the broadening consumer appeal of our service and the rising competitive strength of our organization,” said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and chief executive officer. “Looking at the second half of 2005, we\u0026rsquo;re confident of hitting four million subscribers by year\u0026rsquo;s end and expect to reach that milestone profitably and as the clear-cut market leader.”\nMeanwhile, Blockbuster is screwing over its new customers by sticking them with the hiked price this month. Longer term subscribers can enjoy lower prices slightly longer.\nBlockbuster\u0026rsquo;s $17.99 price applies to new subscribers and anyone who signed up on or after March 1, 2005. Customers who subscribed for the service prior to March 1 were guaranteed the $14.99 rate through Jan. 31, 2006, the rental company said. All Blockbuster online customers can access a library of 40,000 titles and get two free in-store rentals per month, the company said.\nThis move is a triage measure, as the company is apparently struggling hard.\nMovie rental chain Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) on Tuesday posted a quarterly loss that was more than double Wall Street\u0026rsquo;s forecast as lackluster new video releases failed to attract consumers.\nThe largest U.S. home video and DVD rental company also said it was no longer on track to meet its 2005 financial forecast and said it has reached an agreement with creditors to waive certain debt covenants for the second and third quarters. Without the waiver, the company would have been in default, Blockbuster said.\nBlockbuster is a sinking ship. If I had any stock, I\u0026rsquo;d be dumping it now. With Amazon poised to enter the Internet DVD rental business, Blockbuster is in its last throes. I\u0026rsquo;m glad I stuck with the slightly more expensive Netflix.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/09/blockbuster-bit-off-more-than-it-could-chew/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m not surprised at all by this. In fact, I expected it ever since Blockbuster started their strong-arm, undercutting price competition with Netflix.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom \u003ca href=\"http://news.com.com/Blockbuster+to+raise+online+rental+prices/2100-1026_3-5825083.html\"\u003eCNET\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe price of Blockbuster\u0026rsquo;s three-movies-out-at-once rental plan will now be $17.99 per month, up from $14.99, the company said Tuesday. The new rate is the same that Netflix charges for three movies–the most it allows customers to have at a time. … The new prices go into effect Aug. 19.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Blockbuster Bit Off More Than It Could Chew"},{"content":"Any good child of the eighties played the original Nintendo and loved it. They loved every cartridge blowing, standing two inches from the TV playing Duckhunt, square, blister causing controller minute of it. Mega Man was a rocking game during that time. It was so popular that he was a character on the awesome Saturday morning cartoon, Captain N.\nDo you remember that high quality, 8-bit saturating effect when you started a level? You can see that all the time, even without playing the game, with the amazing MegaManEffect. You\u0026rsquo;ll have chills when you see the graphics and hear the sounds, or maybe that\u0026rsquo;s just me.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s even more satisfying is what the developer says about a Windows version:\nI’ve been getting a lot of emails asking about a Windows version of this. Sorry but I don’t use Windows anymore and have no interest in making a port.\nI\u0026rsquo;m sure those 15 variations of Barbie\u0026rsquo;s Playhouse that Windows users can get at Best Buy will soften the blow.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/07/mega-man-redux/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAny good child of the eighties played the original Nintendo and loved it. They loved every cartridge blowing, standing two inches from the TV playing Duckhunt, square, blister causing controller minute of it. \u003ca href=\"http://www.capcom.com/megaman/\"\u003eMega Man\u003c/a\u003e was a rocking game during that time. It was so popular that he was a character on the awesome Saturday morning cartoon, \u003ca href=\"http://www.captainn.net\"\u003eCaptain N\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDo you remember that high quality, 8-bit saturating effect when you started a level? You can see that all the time, even without playing the game, with the amazing \u003ca href=\"http://mikezornek.com/cocoa/megamaneffect/\"\u003eMegaManEffect\u003c/a\u003e. You\u0026rsquo;ll have chills when you see the graphics and hear the sounds, or maybe that\u0026rsquo;s just me.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mega Man Redux"},{"content":"Well, after some fairly convincing evidence earlier in the week that the Macintel developer kits use DRM, followed by some vehement opposition and angst to the idea, sites are now feeling confident enough to proclaim no DRM (and again and again).\nControlled Bloom My head is spinning. Let\u0026rsquo;s slow it down. First, what is using DRM in the new Apple Intels?\nWe\u0026rsquo;ve discovered that Rosetta uses TCPA/TPM DRM. Some parts of the GUI like ATSServer are still not native to x86 – meaning that Rosetta is required by the GUI, which in turn requires TPM.\nThose of you addicted to emulation technology news will remember that Transitive\u0026rsquo;s technology. Supposedly, it delivers 80% performance during emulation. I\u0026rsquo;m still less than convinced (and I still have the backup of Xbench testing, which shows a very large disparity).\nLet\u0026rsquo;s assume for the moment that it is that good. They\u0026rsquo;d have a very large motivation to keep it from getting out in the wild. Also, Apple would be bending over backwards to get it because the success of the transition pivots on the strength of the emulator. In this scenario, using advanced DRM to satisfy Transitive is a necessary evil.\nAngst At the same time, using DRM to keep generic Intel hardware from is a worthy motivation and it doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that DRM will pervade all parts of the system and applications. However, that doesn\u0026rsquo;t prevent reactions like:\nKill DRM Dead, a poem by C.K. Sample, III:\nHave I ever told you that I hate you, DRM?\nI do. I hate you, DRM. You ruin everything. You make everything more difficult. You break apart the sharing goodness that makes society flow. I hate you. Die, DRM. Die.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s worse is that even those that take a more even keeled approach to the whole thing feel obliged to dispel the fears of the irrational. Rather, they repeat that the current development machines don\u0026rsquo;t necessarily represent the final hardware. While that\u0026rsquo;s true, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t imply that the DRM will be removed either.\nDoes it really make any sense for Apple to put development cost into DRM for the development machines only to remove it for the production machines? Not really, but we still don\u0026rsquo;t know the extent to which it will be used.\nA Nonny Mouse, My Best Friend After pictures of the Infeon chip used for DRM being released as well as detailed descriptions of APIs for use with the technology, what is the compelling evidence that is laying the fears to rest?\nCommenting on earlier reports, a reliable source who requested anonymity told OfB, “While many rumors are being circulated on the web about Apple\u0026rsquo;s future direction on Intel processors with DRM, the majority of them are just that – rumors.” The source, a third-party Apple developer, continued, “Reality is that these boxes are production PC\u0026rsquo;s in an Apple case, not DRM or TCPA protected, and none of these boxes will remain in circulation after their purpose has been served – they must be returned to Apple.\nAs to why those with access to the kits have been quiet concerning the claims, our source said, “you can rest assured that Apple is keeping very close tabs on those of us who have them.” The kits are only available to those who accept a non-disclosure agreement. [OfB]\nA “reliable source who requested anonymity” is who we are to believe? Oh please. The guy is locked into a NDA but wants to set the record straight. Sounds a little too mythical for real news. I\u0026rsquo;m not the only one.\nEditor\u0026rsquo;s Note: Some have written in questioning the validity of the source quoted in this report. While we are unable to provide any further identification, per the stipulations under which the source agreed to provide us with the information reported above, the source\u0026rsquo;s identity and credentials are well known and established by Open for Business.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s the journalistic equivalent of “trust us”.\nLet It Be TCPA and the possibility of its inclusion is something that both Mac and PC users should be prepared to deal with in the future. It\u0026rsquo;s a strong possibility regardless of its inclusion in Apple\u0026rsquo;s development machines. It\u0026rsquo;s still at least six months out before we could possibly see an Intel based Mac, so let\u0026rsquo;s all cool it. Do some research to determine its actual impact on your life and prepare for that possibility. Then we can all cross that bridge together.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/05/drm-yes-no-maybe/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWell, after some fairly convincing evidence earlier in the week that the \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/01/os-x-intel-uses-drm/\"\u003eMacintel developer kits use DRM\u003c/a\u003e, followed by some \u003ca href=\"http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/31/apple_to_add_trusted.html\"\u003evehement opposition\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.tuaw.com/2005/08/01/drm-on-mactel-machines/\"\u003eangst\u003c/a\u003e to the idea, sites are now feeling confident enough to proclaim \u003ca href=\"http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News\u0026amp;file=article\u0026amp;sid=380\u0026amp;mode=\u0026amp;order=0\u0026amp;thold=0\"\u003eno DRM\u003c/a\u003e (and \u003ca href=\"http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/05/08/04/1338205.shtml?tid=118\u0026amp;tid=158\u0026amp;tid=3\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.tuaw.com/2005/08/04/no-drm-in-mactels-afterall/\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"controlled-bloom\"\u003eControlled Bloom\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy head is spinning. Let\u0026rsquo;s slow it down. First, what is using DRM in the new Apple Intels?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe\u0026rsquo;ve discovered that Rosetta uses TCPA/TPM DRM. Some parts of the GUI like ATSServer are still not native to x86 – meaning that Rosetta is required by the GUI, which in turn requires TPM.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"DRM, Yes, No, Maybe?"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m not as surprised as much as I would have been prior to the Macintel announcement, but I still didn\u0026rsquo;t expect to see this happen. Apple is making a multi-button mouse with a scroll interface, the Mighty Mouse [Amazon link]. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t look to be a wheel, but a little nub. Apple\u0026rsquo;s site mentions rolling though.\nMighty Mouse offers 360-degree scrolling capability, thanks to its Scroll Ball, perfectly positioned to roll smoothly under just one finger.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll need to get one for myself to play with (because I doubt I\u0026rsquo;ll like it more than my Logitech MX1000) so I can figure it out. Is it a mini trackball? A nub? Please let it not be a nub. My finger hurts just think about them.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s really interesting is that it\u0026rsquo;s not a generic three-button mouse. Apple seems to have jumped headfirst by including side buttons, which act as a fourth button. At $50, it has the same suggested retail price as a Logitech MX518 but will likely stay at that price unlike the Logitech, which can be had for $40 right now.\nAt any rate, this is likely to satisfy many people that have been crying for years for an Apple branded multi-button mouse. The downsides are the price, no fancy optics, and lack of a bluetooth version (big boo for that one). Hopefully Apple will start offering an option to switch out the regular mouse for this on new systems (for a discounted price of $20 or so) or even be so bold as to make it the standard mouse for Powermacs, leaving the single button for the iMacs and eMacs.\nUpdate: It even makes noises when scrolling. Cute!\nUpdate 2: Amazon has it available for pre-order.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/02/mighty-mouse-saves-the-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m not as surprised as much as I would have been prior to the Macintel announcement, but I still didn\u0026rsquo;t expect to see this happen. Apple is making a multi-button mouse with a scroll interface, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/\"\u003eMighty Mouse\u003c/a\u003e [\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007Y79E4/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eAmazon link\u003c/a\u003e]. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t look to be a wheel, but a little nub. Apple\u0026rsquo;s site mentions rolling though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMighty Mouse offers 360-degree scrolling capability, thanks to its Scroll Ball, perfectly positioned to roll smoothly under just one finger.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll need to get one for myself to play with (because I doubt I\u0026rsquo;ll like it more than my Logitech MX1000) so I can figure it out. Is it a mini trackball? A nub? Please let it not be a nub. My finger hurts just think about them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat\u0026rsquo;s really interesting is that it\u0026rsquo;s not a generic three-button mouse. Apple seems to have jumped headfirst by including side buttons, which act as a fourth button. At $50, it has the same suggested retail price as a \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007Z1M50/d00dism-20?creative=327641\u0026amp;camp=14573\u0026amp;link_code=as1\"\u003eLogitech MX518\u003c/a\u003e but will likely stay at that price unlike the Logitech, which can be had for $40 right now.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, this is likely to satisfy many people that have been crying for years for an Apple branded multi-button mouse. The downsides are the price, no fancy optics, and lack of a bluetooth version (big \u003cem\u003eboo\u003c/em\u003e for that one). Hopefully Apple will start offering an option to switch out the regular mouse for this on new systems (for a discounted price of $20 or so) or even be so bold as to make it the standard mouse for Powermacs, leaving the single button for the iMacs and eMacs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e It even makes noises when scrolling. \u003cem\u003eCute!\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate 2:\u003c/strong\u003e Amazon has it available for pre-order.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mighty Mouse Saves the Day"},{"content":"I pulled the trigger on it. I added Google Ads to Tag Central. I\u0026rsquo;ve also added a shop section to this site. If you\u0026rsquo;re looking to buy something I\u0026rsquo;ve reviewed on the site or anything else from Amazon, please use that page. There is no cost difference to you and I get a percentage of the sale. It\u0026rsquo;s a great way for you to get some merchandise at a good price generally with free shipping and support the site.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t worry. Putting ads here is not something I plan to do (at least for now). I reserve that right if times get tight, but I really don\u0026rsquo;t think it\u0026rsquo;ll be necessary. I\u0026rsquo;m definitely not putting ads into the feeds. That\u0026rsquo;s plain obnoxious. As for Tag Central, now that I\u0026rsquo;ve got it set up and running by itself, I need some other kind of motivation. I thought I\u0026rsquo;d try out financial.\nAs usual, let me know your thoughts.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/01/payola/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI pulled the trigger on it. I added Google Ads to \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;ve also added a \u003ca href=\"/shop/\"\u003eshop section\u003c/a\u003e to this site. If you\u0026rsquo;re looking to buy something I\u0026rsquo;ve reviewed on the site or anything else from Amazon, please use that page. There is no cost difference to you and I get a percentage of the sale. It\u0026rsquo;s a great way for you to get some merchandise at a good price generally with free shipping and support the site.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Payola"},{"content":"There has been an update, so please read to the bottom of the post. I leave the original entry above for posterity.\nFrassle is a neat service. What is not neat is that they seem to resell email addresses. My domain allows me to use any address at it (they all get redirected to a central address). This allows me to tailor a name to each service. The old tact was to use a Yahoo or Hotmail account (which didn\u0026rsquo;t have any accountability). My convention right now is either service1 or service.login1.\nSome addresses that were slightly exposed at one point, contact and photoadmin, regularly get email about updating their bank, ebay, and paypal records, with a handy, dandy link to do it right from the email. Real nice. eyeroll\nFor the first time, I received some spam from a service email, frassle1. Not cool. I will be emailing the operator of the site to get an explanation. I\u0026rsquo;ll keep y\u0026rsquo;all updated. In the meantime, if you want to use their service, use a throwaway address like a Yahoo account.\nUpdate: As Shimon explains in the comments, the email was not sold. I apologize for accusing him of such. In fact, he was doing the right thing to an ill effect.\nThe problem lies in RSS 2.0, which mandates an email address in the author element as well as in the managingEditor and webMaster elements. Luckily, they are optional, but the fact that they can\u0026rsquo;t simply be a name as written in the specification, sucks. Surely, the creators of RSS 2.0 forsaw that a machine parseable format would lend itself to spambots harvesting feeds for email addresses.\nShimon was filling in this element with the registration email, which according to the specification, was proper and good. He was supplying all the information that was available. A good thing to do in most cases. He has altered the feeds to remove this optional element. Other sites take an alternative tact and instead fill in a bogus email address just to make the feed validate. There\u0026rsquo;s something quite clearly wrong with RSS 2.0 when feed authors are forced to use bogus data.\nUpdate Part Deux: Shimon wrote a blog entry about the link (discovered via Technorati prompting me again to perhaps drop trackbacks and use Kramer). He\u0026rsquo;s a good guy for taking my original accustion with such grace and being up front with his users. He even lives in the Boston area like yours truly.\nWell, if you consider the Boston area the eastern half of Massachusetts. No “boondocks” quips from the peanut gallery.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/01/the-dangers-of-email-addresses-in-rss-feeds/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThere has been an update, so please read to the bottom of the post. I leave the original entry above for posterity.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://frassle.net\"\u003eFrassle\u003c/a\u003e is a neat service. What is not neat is that they seem to resell email addresses. My domain allows me to use any address at it (they all get redirected to a central address). This allows me to tailor a name to each service. The old tact was to use a Yahoo or Hotmail account (which didn\u0026rsquo;t have any accountability). My convention right now is either \u003cem\u003eservice1\u003c/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eservice.login1\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Dangers of Email Addresses in RSS Feeds"},{"content":"Found via Slashdot, Apple is using DRM to keep parts of the OS from working on unauthorized computers. The Slashdot story includes links to a wiki on x86 Mac OS X, which in turn pulls its information about the TCPA/TPM DRM from this FAQ.\nThe problem is that the site is titled Against TCPA (which is also their domain name). It\u0026rsquo;s not exactly an unbiased source, to say the least. I want to find a slightly less paranoid breakdown of the technology.\nThat said, this may very well be the way that Apple wants to use to prohibit use of Mac OS X on generic Intel PCs. The question then becomes is this DRM in some way hackable? If so, we\u0026rsquo;ll likely see OS X on generic Intel PCs. If not, we won\u0026rsquo;t.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/08/01/os-x-intel-uses-drm/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFound via \u003ca href=\"http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/01/0421248\u0026amp;from=rss\"\u003eSlashdot\u003c/a\u003e, Apple is using DRM to keep parts of the OS from working on unauthorized computers. The Slashdot story includes links to \u003ca href=\"http://www.osx86.classicbeta.com/wiki/index.php/TPM\"\u003ea wiki on x86 Mac OS X\u003c/a\u003e, which in turn pulls its information about the TCPA/TPM DRM from \u003ca href=\"http://www.againsttcpa.com/tcpa-faq-en.html\"\u003ethis FAQ\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem is that the site is titled \u003cstrong\u003eAgainst TCPA\u003c/strong\u003e (which is also their domain name). It\u0026rsquo;s not exactly an unbiased source, to say the least. I want to find a slightly less paranoid breakdown of the technology.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"OS X Intel Uses DRM"},{"content":"Address Book has some neat built-in features. Some are more hidden than others. Most people find that by clicking on addresses, a menu will pop up offering to bring up a map for that address. Very cool. What is not cool is that it uses MapQuest.\nLet me revise that. I don\u0026rsquo;t like MapQuest. It\u0026rsquo;s a pain to work with. I like Google Maps. Wouldn\u0026rsquo;t it be nice if you could use it instead? You can with the Google Maps Plugin (donationware).\nNot only will it bring up addresses in Google Maps, but it will also assist in finding directions between any two entries or custom addresses you write in.\nIt even sports its own preferences, allowing for customizations that will assist in making the address shown more accurate (by blocking out apartment numbers and the like). If you enjoy Brian\u0026rsquo;s terrific work, let him know with a donation.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/31/google-maps-plugin/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAddress Book has some neat built-in features. Some are more hidden than others. Most people find that by clicking on addresses, a menu will pop up offering to bring up a map for that address. Very cool. What is not cool is that it uses \u003ca href=\"http://www.mapquest.com\"\u003eMapQuest\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet me revise that. I don\u0026rsquo;t like MapQuest. It\u0026rsquo;s a pain to work with. I like \u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com\"\u003eGoogle Maps\u003c/a\u003e. Wouldn\u0026rsquo;t it be nice if you could use it instead? You can with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.briantoth.com/addressbook/\"\u003eGoogle Maps Plugin\u003c/a\u003e (donationware).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Maps Plugin"},{"content":"Back when the Supreme Court handed down their decision on Grokster, I made a few quick conclusions based upon some cursory reading I did. I didn\u0026rsquo;t really expect to get quoted on Computerworld.\nDerik DeLong says Grokster assisted in the act of piracy and that it, “Wasn\u0026rsquo;t just turning a blind eye.”\nI need to find a better way to figure when I get linked. It happened over a month ago.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/29/grokster-linkage/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBack when the Supreme Court handed down their decision on Grokster, I made \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/27/grokster-loses/\"\u003ea few quick conclusions\u003c/a\u003e based upon some cursory reading I did. I didn\u0026rsquo;t really expect to \u003ca href=\"http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/464\"\u003eget quoted on Computerworld\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDerik DeLong says Grokster \u003cem\u003eassisted\u003c/em\u003e in the act of piracy and that it, “Wasn\u0026rsquo;t just turning a blind eye.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI need to find a better way to figure when I get linked. It happened over a month ago.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Grokster Linkage"},{"content":"My coworkers haven\u0026rsquo;t seen me without my Morf stress ball since I got it at Staples. I constantly have to do something with my hands and it occupied them. squish squish\nI was sitting at my desk, listening to a podcast, and looking at my computer screen. All of a sudden, I heard a squirting sound and something touching my shoulder. I froze. What was that? I looked over at my shoulder and all over my shirt was a bunch of yellow goo. A tiny hole opened itself as I squeezed and the contents were now decorating my shirt.\nFabulous. The stress ball couldn\u0026rsquo;t take the stress. My attempts to rinse the goo off were unsuccessful. Of course that put me in a terribly pissy mood. However, according to their site, the goo will wash out.\nIf a MORF ball leaks its gravy-like contents onto clothing rest assured that since the coloring comes from food-grade dye, it will wash out completely in one or two trips to the washing machine. Use a spot remover like “Spray n Wash” if the area has dried or hardened. Try to wash it out as soon as possible. Red-colored gravy make take multiple wash cycles.\nUpdate: You\u0026rsquo;ll be glad to know it washed out (warning: it was the yellow and not the red as Andy pointed out). I also will not be buying another.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/27/apparently-im-stressed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy coworkers haven\u0026rsquo;t seen me without my \u003ca href=\"http://www.handstands.com/retail/fun_fitness/morf.shtml\"\u003eMorf stress ball\u003c/a\u003e since I got it at Staples. I constantly have to do something with my hands and it occupied them. \u003cem\u003esquish squish\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was sitting at my desk, listening to a podcast, and looking at my computer screen. All of a sudden, I heard a squirting sound and something touching my shoulder. I froze. What was that? I looked over at my shoulder and all over my shirt was a bunch of yellow goo. A tiny hole opened itself as I squeezed and the contents were now decorating my shirt.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apparently, I'm Stressed"},{"content":"Apple released new iBooks and Mac minis. All in all, the updates were really minor. The good news is that all Mac models now sport at least 512 MB of RAM. That\u0026rsquo;s pretty much the whole of the update for the minis.\nThe iBooks on the other hand, have been bumped to 1.33 GHz and 1.42 GHz. They\u0026rsquo;ve also moved up to Radeon 9550s in lieu of Radeon 9200s. Oddly enough, the 14″ also gained 9 MHz for its bus apparently. This is the only Mac I\u0026rsquo;ve read of ever to have a 142 MHz bus. That might be the only thing to make this round of revisions memorable.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/26/new-ibooks-and-mac-minis/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple released new iBooks and Mac minis. All in all, the updates were really minor. The good news is that all Mac models now sport at least 512 MB of RAM. That\u0026rsquo;s pretty much the whole of the update for the minis.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe iBooks on the other hand, have been bumped to 1.33 GHz and 1.42 GHz. They\u0026rsquo;ve also moved up to Radeon 9550s in lieu of Radeon 9200s. Oddly enough, the 14″ also gained 9 MHz for its bus apparently. This is the only Mac I\u0026rsquo;ve read of ever to have a 142 MHz bus. That might be the only thing to make this round of revisions memorable.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New iBooks and Mac minis"},{"content":"Along the lines of their other recent moves, like buying Flickr, Yahoo! has acquired Konfabulator. Longtime Mac fans should recognize the product and its author, Arlo Rose, for his role in creating Kaleidoscope. Recent Mac fans should recognize the debacle surrounding Apple\u0026rsquo;s creation of Dashboard.\nThis brings the immediate benefit of making Konfabulator free. Previously, the framework itself cost $20 to register. When comparing Konfabulator to Dashboard, the price difference (Dashboard being free with Tiger) gave Dashboard the edge. Yahoo! effecting this price change will have a dramatic effect upon its market share. Mac users will feel free to compare it directly to Dashboard without feeling obligation. As for Windows users, the new Yahoo! association should bring lots of attention. Those two effects should stimulate Widget developers into developing for Konfabulator again. That\u0026rsquo;s a good thing because as I write this, there is still no working package tracker. Very lame.\nAnother point I glossed over is that Konfabulator is cross-platform. I\u0026rsquo;ve already installed it at work. Should I discover a set of Widgets that I really like, I may even start using it at home on my Macs. Seeing as the Widgets themselves are written using web languages that interpreted rather than compiled, it\u0026rsquo;s only natural that it be cross-platform. There\u0026rsquo;s nothing blocking a Linux version as well.\nAlso worthy of attention is the response this acquisition has generated. It was to be expected though. Some are naturally cheering the move because it breaths new life into the project along with a steady stream of money. It also gives the end user a new toy to play with. It has also yielded the unoriginal negative response. As you read this, people are getting in a huff, protesting the illicit corporate takeover of their puppy favorite software. Yahoo! is the antichrist. It\u0026rsquo;s completely irrational of course, but don\u0026rsquo;t dare say that or you might get a long winded rant on how corporations are destroying everything near and dear.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s not to say that some trepidation isn\u0026rsquo;t warranted. Certainly, Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s track record concerning the Mac OS hasn\u0026rsquo;t been sparkling. Long term we may see declining support for the platform that originally played host in favor of Windows. However, jumping to that conclusion now is terribly premature. Lots can happen and Yahoo may see the value in maintaining its cross-platform nature as it brings a host of Mac-based developers who, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, have a much better eye for presentation and user interface behavior. Indeed, that may have been what sold Yahoo in the first place.\nTo borrow a tired phrase, I for one welcome our new Widget overlords. Download a copy on them.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/25/konfabulating-your-life-with-yahoo/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAlong the lines of their other recent moves, like \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/20/yahoo-buys-flickr/\"\u003ebuying Flickr\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.yahoo.com\"\u003eYahoo!\u003c/a\u003e has \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/07/24/konfabulator/index.php\"\u003eacquired Konfabulator\u003c/a\u003e. Longtime Mac fans should recognize the product and its author, Arlo Rose, for his role in creating Kaleidoscope. Recent Mac fans should recognize the \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/28/mac-os-x-tiger-and-other-mac-news/\"\u003edebacle surrounding Apple\u0026rsquo;s creation of Dashboard\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis brings the immediate benefit of making \u003ca href=\"http://www.konfabulator.com\"\u003eKonfabulator\u003c/a\u003e free. Previously, the framework itself cost $20 to register. When comparing Konfabulator to Dashboard, the price difference (Dashboard being free with Tiger) gave Dashboard the edge. Yahoo! effecting this price change will have a dramatic effect upon its market share. Mac users will feel free to compare it directly to Dashboard without feeling obligation. As for Windows users, the new Yahoo! association should bring lots of attention. Those two effects should stimulate Widget developers into developing for Konfabulator again. That\u0026rsquo;s a good thing because as I write this, there is still no working package tracker. Very lame.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Konfabulating Your Life with Yahoo!"},{"content":"Our lawmakers are hard at work. This time the pressing issue is extension of daylight savings time. The current plan is to extend it by a month total, three weeks in Spring and a week in the Fall. The goal of this legislation is to reduce oil consumption.\nI\u0026rsquo;m no fan of daylight savings. It just means more work for me to change all my clocks. I\u0026rsquo;d be more in favor of dropping it entirely and picking one damn time scheme. After all, if extending it will save on oil consumption, shouldn\u0026rsquo;t moving to that time scheme permanently save us even more?\nReps. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, and Fred Upton, R-Michigan, must think there is substantial savings to be had. They originally wanted to extend by a whole month on both ends. They must have something to back up that claim. There must be some compelling reason to do this despite concerns about effects on livestock and international flight scheduling (as well as requiring new programming for computers).\nWell, if you thought that like I did, you were wrong.\nSenate negotiators accepted the new version, along with a call for a study on how much daylight-saving time actually affects oil consumption.\nWait, wait, wait. They haven\u0026rsquo;t even done a study on how much the move would actually save? Isn\u0026rsquo;t that putting the cart before the horse, just a little bit? I would think that careful analysis of the pros and cons of a piece of legislation would be the first step before introducing it. I guess I was wrong.\nBesides, who needs studies when you have reason like:\n“The beauty of daylight-saving time is that it just makes everyone feel sunnier,” said Markey.\nand:\nUpton noted that the extension means daylight-saving time will continue through Halloween, adding to safety. “Kids across the nation will soon rejoice,” said Upton, because they\u0026rsquo;ll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.\nJust thinking about it makes me feel “sunnier”. How about you?\nUpdate: I didn\u0026rsquo;t even realize how fucked up Indiana is.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/24/daylight-savings-time-makes-me-feel-sunny/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOur lawmakers are hard at work. This time the pressing issue is \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/22/congress.daylighttime.ap/index.html\"\u003eextension of daylight savings time\u003c/a\u003e. The current plan is to extend it by a month total, three weeks in Spring and a week in the Fall. The goal of this legislation is to reduce oil consumption.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m no fan of daylight savings. It just means more work for me to change all my clocks. I\u0026rsquo;d be more in favor of dropping it entirely and picking one damn time scheme. After all, if extending it will save on oil consumption, shouldn\u0026rsquo;t moving to that time scheme permanently save us even more?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Daylight Savings Time Makes Me Feel Sunny"},{"content":"Shop Writing for this site and maintaining its services are a joy for me. However, the webhosting still costs me money, a cost I\u0026rsquo;d like to cover. Now, asking directly for money isn\u0026rsquo;t something I want to do. However, if you\u0026rsquo;re looking to buy something from Amazon, you can do it from here and I\u0026rsquo;ll get a percentage of the sale, at no cost to you.\nAs an added bonus, I\u0026rsquo;m adding links to all the stuff I own or review (that\u0026rsquo;s available on Amazon). Thanks!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/shop/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"shop\"\u003eShop\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWriting for this site and maintaining its services are a joy for me. However, the webhosting still costs me money, a cost I\u0026rsquo;d like to cover. Now, asking directly for money isn\u0026rsquo;t something I want to do. However, if you\u0026rsquo;re looking to buy something from Amazon, you can do it from here and I\u0026rsquo;ll get a percentage of the sale, at no cost to you.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs an added bonus, I\u0026rsquo;m adding links to all the stuff I own or review (that\u0026rsquo;s available on Amazon). Thanks!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Shop"},{"content":"Some time ago, I used Feedburner to make a new feed for the site. I called it the Superfeed and used their service to add in Flickr photos and del.icio.us bookmarks. However, I found it way too limiting. There were other sources I wanted to add, such as my Netflix notifications and my Ta-da List. While I used it though, I became addicted to their statistics. I could instantly gauge how many people were reading.\nThe problem was that many people probably weren\u0026rsquo;t using the Superfeed. I used the stock RSS feed as the official one for a long time and despite making the Superfeed the default (and then switching in another Feedburner feed that was just the blog), I imagine many were still using the old feed (meaning my count was wildly inaccurate). To make matters worse Safari would choose the Atom feed no matter what. I started to cobble a solution together by adding an Atom version of the feed. That wasn\u0026rsquo;t a complete solution.\nI was so relieved to discover a WordPress plugin that would redirect all feeds to your Feedburner feed. It required a little tweaking (there\u0026rsquo;s a bug if the WordPress installation is in another location), but it seems to have successfully redirected most everyone. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure about Bloglines as it still says I\u0026rsquo;m using the old feed (which suggests that Bloglines doesn\u0026rsquo;t obey 302 permanent redirects correctly; I guess you can\u0026rsquo;t win them all). Anyway, today\u0026rsquo;s count is up around 40, a pretty respectable number in my book. I may have to put one of those little chiclets on the main page to brag.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/20/burned/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSome time ago, I used \u003ca href=\"http://www.feedburner.com\"\u003eFeedburner\u003c/a\u003e to make a new feed for the site. I called it the \u003ca href=\"http://feeds.feedburner.com/godlikenerd\"\u003eSuperfeed\u003c/a\u003e and used their service to add in \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e photos and \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us\"\u003edel.icio.us\u003c/a\u003e bookmarks. However, I found it way too limiting. There were other sources I wanted to add, such as my Netflix notifications and my \u003ca href=\"http://www.tadalist.com\"\u003eTa-da List\u003c/a\u003e. While I used it though, I became addicted to their statistics. I could instantly gauge how many people were reading.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Burned"},{"content":"I realized today that between a real lack of Apple/Mac news and having lots to do (relating to the mysterious piece of news I referred to in our last exciting episode) that I likely wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be posting much, though the supplemental is going to get regular updates.\nThe good news is that once I get back into the groove, I\u0026rsquo;ll be adding a lot of content that is in a vein that this site hasn\u0026rsquo;t explored before. Stay tuned.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/19/im-still-alive-just-busy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI realized today that between a real lack of Apple/Mac news and having lots to do (relating to the mysterious piece of news I referred to in our last exciting episode) that I likely wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be posting much, though the \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us/d00d/supplement\"\u003esupplemental\u003c/a\u003e is going to get regular updates.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe good news is that once I get back into the groove, I\u0026rsquo;ll be adding a lot of content that is in a vein that this site hasn\u0026rsquo;t explored before. Stay tuned.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm Still Alive, Just Busy"},{"content":"All Consuming All Consuming tracks books, music, and movies that people consume. I\u0026rsquo;m tracking my stuff too.\nRecent Activity requested list not available\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/activity/consuming/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"all-consuming-xml-rss-feed\"\u003eAll Consuming \u003ca href=\"http://43.allconsuming.net/person/d00d/rss\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"XML RSS Feed\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/buttons/xml.gif\" title=\"All Consuming Activity RSS Feed\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://43.allconsuming.net\"\u003eAll Consuming\u003c/a\u003e tracks books, music, and movies that people consume. \u003ca href=\"http://43.allconsuming.net/person/d00d\"\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m tracking my stuff too.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"border: 1px solid #c9c; padding: 10px; width: 250px;\"\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"recent-activity\"\u003eRecent Activity\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003erequested list not available\u003c/p\u003e","title":"All Consuming"},{"content":"Those of you that I talk to daily already know why I\u0026rsquo;m ordering a new D-Link DCM-202. Please don\u0026rsquo;t mention it in the comments. I\u0026rsquo;m going to be all superstitious about it and write a big post about it later.\n{.float-right}Anyway, at about $40 with mail-in rebate at Amazon with DOCSIS 2.0, this was the modem to get. I won\u0026rsquo;t be posting a review for a while, but I\u0026rsquo;ll do all kinds of testing when I do. I\u0026rsquo;ll use Skype, Gizmo, Vonage (as I\u0026rsquo;ll likely be getting that too), Bittorrent, and so on. There won\u0026rsquo;t be anything too formal (as switching between a couple cable modems isn\u0026rsquo;t really an option, nor something I want to do), but I will be able to definitively say whether I think it sucks.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/15/cable-modem-ordered/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThose of you that I talk to daily already know why I\u0026rsquo;m ordering a new \u003ca href=\"http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1\u0026amp;pid=323\"\u003eD-Link DCM-202\u003c/a\u003e. Please don\u0026rsquo;t mention it in the comments. I\u0026rsquo;m going to be all superstitious about it and write a big post about it later.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com/photos/19959606@N00/26343867\" title=\"DCM-202\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"DCM-202\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://photos23.flickr.com/26343867_889db39128_s.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e{.float-right}Anyway, at about \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=d00dism-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=B0002JKGRQ%2526tag=d00dism-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/B0002JKGRQ%25253FSubscriptionId=0EMV44A9A5YT1RVDGZ82\" title=\"View product details at Amazon\"\u003e$40 with mail-in rebate at Amazon\u003c/a\u003e with DOCSIS 2.0, this was \u003cstrong\u003ethe\u003c/strong\u003e modem to get. I won\u0026rsquo;t be posting a review for a while, but I\u0026rsquo;ll do all kinds of testing when I do. I\u0026rsquo;ll use Skype, Gizmo, Vonage (as I\u0026rsquo;ll likely be getting that too), Bittorrent, and so on. There won\u0026rsquo;t be anything too formal (as switching between a couple cable modems isn\u0026rsquo;t really an option, nor something I want to do), but I will be able to definitively say whether I think it sucks.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cable Modem Ordered"},{"content":"Apple released the iPhoto 5.0.3 update yesterday. Normally, iApp updates aren\u0026rsquo;t particularly exciting. In fact, the details are excruciatingly boring.\nHere are the changes according to Apple:\nOn Tiger, images are no longer color-shifted after editing (Mac OS X 10.4.2 update required) Book layouts will not change when moving an image on a page An issue was addressed that caused some book orders to be cancelled Smart Albums will display correctly in other iLife applications Normally, I\u0026rsquo;d ignore this and just install it, but the first bullet is the interesting one. It fixes a problem that has rather profound effects. Generally, it\u0026rsquo;s referred to as the iPhoto color shifting bug. The linked article is probably the best documentation of the bug I\u0026rsquo;ve seen (complete with animation). At any rate, it means I can start editing photos again.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/14/iphoto-5.0.3-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple released the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/iphoto503update.html\"\u003eiPhoto 5.0.3 update\u003c/a\u003e yesterday. Normally, iApp updates aren\u0026rsquo;t particularly exciting. In fact, the details are excruciatingly boring.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere are the changes according to Apple:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOn Tiger, images are no longer color-shifted after editing \u003cem\u003e(Mac OS X 10.4.2 update required)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBook layouts will not change when moving an image on a page\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAn issue was addressed that caused some book orders to be cancelled\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSmart Albums will display correctly in other iLife applications\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNormally, I\u0026rsquo;d ignore this and just install it, but the first bullet is the interesting one. It fixes a problem that has rather \u003ca href=\"http://www.brendanloy.com/archives/018071.html\"\u003eprofound effects\u003c/a\u003e. Generally, it\u0026rsquo;s referred to as the iPhoto color shifting bug. The linked article is probably the best documentation of the bug I\u0026rsquo;ve seen (complete with animation). At any rate, it means I can start editing photos again.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iPhoto 5.0.3 Released"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve already updated all the Macs in the house with no ill effects. The most visual difference is the addition of a Widget Manager (for those afraid to fiddle around in their Library/Widgets folder).\nApple has posted a knowledge-base article (#301722), as well as a delta updater and a combo updater. The changes as described by Apple, are as follows.\nThe update mentions improved Safari scroll speed, so I expected that it was a recent WebKit build (with Acid2 test compatibility). Unfortunately, it seems that this hasn\u0026rsquo;t gone mainstream yet, so reliance on NightShift, SafariOnAcid, or your own builds will have to continue.\nAirPort With this update, logging out of Mac OS X automatically disconnects the computer from an AirPort network if it is using WPA Enterprise security settings (this does not affect WPA Personal WEP-secured networks). The AirPort menu extra displays more information when you enable a Software Access Point with this update installed. Adds support for AES encryption of WPA-PSK networks, which are supported by many wireless access points. The Try Again button behaves as expected when attempting to join a third-party, WEP-enabled wireless access point with this update. Improves reliability when associating with wireless networks after waking from sleep. Improves WPA2 wireless encryption support for AirPort Extreme cards. Mail In Mail, if you retrieve and sort IMAP mail using multiple email clients, the counts of unread IMAP messages in mailboxes other than what\u0026rsquo;s in your Inbox are more accurate with this update. Addresses an issue in which IMAP messages deleted in Mail could unexpectedly “reappear” after a few seconds. In some situations, a Mail message\u0026rsquo;s attached graphic displayed as a small blue box with a question mark inside the message window, even though the attached file was just fine; this update addresses the issue. Mail no longer tries to print an HTML message\u0026rsquo;s remote images if the “Display remote images in HTML messages” option is deselected—the message is printed without the graphics instead—after this update is installed. This update addresses an issue for Mail in which signatures with graphics were not appearing as expected. iChat With this update, you can successfully send and receive AIM messages using iChat after changing network locations (without having to log out and back in)—from wireless to Ethernet, for example. If iChat is logged in to your AIM account in Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.4.1, logging in to the same account on a different computer disconnects the Tiger computer without warning—this update adds a preference choice to iChat to avoid this, if desired. iChat no longer states that the network is unavailable if you intentionally disconnect from the Internet using Internet Connect without first quitting iChat. Improves video framerate for iChat when certain kinds of background processes or applications are running. Resolves a situation in which iChat could incorrectly report “insufficient bandwidth to maintain conference,” even though enough bandwidth was available. Finder Addresses an issue in which the Finder could unexpectedly quit if Show Package Contents was chosen several times from the shortcut menu for the same package. The Finder slideshow feature should now always work as expected. If ACLs were enabled on an SMB volume, a Get Info window in the Finder wouldn\u0026rsquo;t show the Details section when getting info on files stored on the volume—this update addresses the issue. Addresses an issue in which a supported burning device could unexpectedly be seen as “unsupported” by the Finder. The duration of MP3 files is accurately reported in Get Info windows in the Finder with this update. Other applications With this update, many applications, including Safari, work better with proxy servers that require authentication. With this update, you can use Safari to log in to MyAccount on cingular.com. Safari pages scroll better with this update when scrolling with a scroll wheel (such as one on a third-party mouse or keyboard). Orange iCal calendars, with alarms that go off while iCal is not open, no longer change color after the alarm is snoozed. Addresses an issue in which Stickies.app notes could disappear unexpectedly if Stickies opens automatically during login (if it was set as a Login Item in Accounts preferences). Addresses an issue for Adobe Premiere 6.5 in which the application could unexpectedly quit when exporting a file. With this update, the Reduce File Size option in Preview works as expected when saving a file as a PDF from the File menu. Addresses a Keychain Scripting issue in which the “password” property of a key often could not be retrieved. iDisk, WebDAV Improves .Mac iDisk syncing after changing network locations—an iDisk could incorrectly appear to be offline after switching networks, causing syncing to stop working. With this update, you can access iDisk or other WebDAV servers through HTTP and HTTPS proxies. HTTP/HTTPS proxy account and password settings defined in Network preferences are now used by the WebDAV file system as expected. Addresses some issues that could occur when saving files directly to an iDisk. Networking Addresses an issue in which some Apple internal modems would not dial, and the PPP log would include a message such as “Failed to open /dev/cu.modem: Resource busy”. Adds improvements to Active Directory support. Addresses an alert “Error code -8065” that could occur when copying a file through SMB to a Microsoft Windows-based PC volume a second time, if the file had previously been deleted from the PC. Includes other enhancements related to connecting to and using Windows-based file servers (SMB/CIFS). Allows Active Directory users with Mobile Accounts to authenticate without being connected to the Active Directory network. Allows Active Directory users to log in after a restart. Resolves an issue that prevented Active Directory users from accessing certain Kerberized services, such as ssh, on a Windows 2003 server. Active Directory users can be given local admin privileges on a client computer, with this update. Other enhancements Software Update no longer unexpectedly quits in certain situations after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and changing Network Port settings, after installing this update. More…. With this update installed, Disk Utility (and fsck) can better resolve “Overlapped Extent Allocation” issues that could appear when verifying or repairing a disk. Xgrid can now map multiple input files using the inputFileMap key, and retrieve results from multitask jobs using the command line. The Dashboard widget Unit Converter requires much less CPU usage after installing this update. Improves performance for the web-based Power School student information system (http://www.apple.com/education/powerschool/). Improves compatibility when using an HP Deskjet 5850 printer wirelessly. Improves compatibility for HP LaserJet 1320 printers. This update ensures that periodic background maintenance tasks as scheduled in launchd.conf. Addresses an issue in which custom installations from a Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Install disc that don\u0026rsquo;t require starting up from the disc could cause Installer to stop responding (“hang”) for a couple of minutes if the destination volume was write-protected (eventually, a “There is not enough space for this item” message would appear). External disks no longer unmount unexpectedly when switching users, if Fast User Switching is enabled. Addresses an issue in which after performing a NetInstall or restoring Mac OS X from a disk image, you may see certain files and folders at the root level of the Mac OS X volume that are not supposed to be visible, such as etc, tmp, and var. More…. With this update, the ttys file can be edited in Tiger; for example, if you\u0026rsquo;re creating a login hook. Addresses an issue in which the computer might wake from sleep with a black screen if it went to sleep while prompting you for a keychain password. Allows users to log in with Kerberos authentication when using an edu.mit.Kerberos file. These Automator actions are updated in this update: Add Files to Playlist, Add Songs to Playlist, Import Photos into iPhoto, New Mail Message, Run Shell Script. The AppleScript “do shell script” command has been revised. ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/12/mac-os-x-10.4.2-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve already updated all the Macs in the house with no ill effects. The most visual difference is the addition of a Widget Manager (for those afraid to fiddle around in their Library/Widgets folder).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApple has posted \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301722\"\u003ea knowledge-base article (#301722)\u003c/a\u003e, as well as a \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate1042.html\"\u003edelta updater\u003c/a\u003e and a \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate1042combo.html\"\u003ecombo updater\u003c/a\u003e. The changes as described by Apple, are as follows.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe update mentions improved Safari scroll speed, so I expected that it was a recent WebKit build (with Acid2 test compatibility). Unfortunately, it seems that this hasn\u0026rsquo;t gone mainstream yet, so reliance on NightShift, SafariOnAcid, or your own builds will have to continue.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.4.2 Released"},{"content":"Apple opened up a public CVS repository for WebKit, it made it possible to get the latest source, compile, and run it yourself. They even broke the steps to do so into easily digested step-by-step instructions. All one need do is get source and compile it.\nYou need to make sure that you have XCode installed and be comfortable with running Terminal commands. You don\u0026rsquo;t need to really understand them, just be able to type them in. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to avoid all that, there is a shortcut. Boyd Waters has put together and updated version of WebKit in an easy to use container called SafariOnAcid. The name is an homage to the fact that using the updated code, the Acid2 test passes. It\u0026rsquo;s worth checking out not only for standards compliance, but speed.\nUpdate: Apparently I\u0026rsquo;ve been linked by MacSlash (something I figured out by being pingbacked by macpro.se). Several of the comments over at MacSlash are worth commenting on.\nFirst, this is rolling your own WebKit, not Safari. Quite right. You continue using the existing Safari application just with the new version of WebKit. However, the real meat of Safari is WebKit.\nThis is old news indeed. I played with my own builds of WebKit but I stopped playing with it until someone mentioned SafariOnAcid (which is a very slick package). The speed increase is pretty terrific. Even with lots of tabs and windows, Safari stays extremely responsive.\nThis comment is terrific. It mentions NightShift, an automated way to get a nightly compilation of WebKit. I missed this on Daring Fireball\u0026rsquo;s Linked List. This is probably the best way to run with an updated WebKit.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/09/roll-your-own-safari/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple opened up a public CVS repository for WebKit, it made it possible to get the latest source, compile, and run it yourself. They even broke the steps to do so into easily digested step-by-step instructions. All one need do is \u003ca href=\"http://webkit.opendarwin.org/building/checkout.html\"\u003eget source\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://webkit.opendarwin.org/building/build.html\"\u003ecompile it\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou need to make sure that you have XCode installed and be comfortable with running Terminal commands. You don\u0026rsquo;t need to really understand them, just be able to type them in. If you\u0026rsquo;d like to avoid all that, there is a shortcut. \u003ca href=\"http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bwaters/\"\u003eBoyd Waters\u003c/a\u003e has put together and updated version of WebKit in an easy to use container called \u003ca href=\"http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~bwaters/projects/mac/SafariOnAcid.dmg\"\u003eSafariOnAcid\u003c/a\u003e. The name is an homage to the fact that using the updated code, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.webstandards.org/act/acid2/test.html\"\u003eAcid2 test\u003c/a\u003e passes. It\u0026rsquo;s worth checking out not only for standards compliance, but speed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Roll Your Own Safari"},{"content":"Fire up your TiVo (or EyeTV in my case). Monk is back. I love the show, but not the way in which they\u0026rsquo;ve been jerking me around. First it was just on USA. Then it was on ABC. Then back to USA. They changed the time around a couple times.\nThey had finally settled on 10 PM on Fridays. Then of course that had to be upset by putting Kojak on at that time instead (I wanted to like that show too, but I just couldn\u0026rsquo;t bring myself to). I was afraid that the replacement of Monk\u0026rsquo;s nurse had been the death knell for the show. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s the teaser for the upcoming season:\nSEASON 4 IS COMING! When a fellow detective shows up at a crime scene knowing all the answers, has Monk finally met his match… or is the other detective cheating? Don\u0026rsquo;t miss guest star Jason Alexander in the Monk season premiere, “Mr. Monk and the Other Detective,” premiering Friday, July 8th at 10/9C. And coming up later this season: Monk gets closer to his new assistant Natalie (Traylor Howard) as she becomes quite a crime solver herself; John Turturro returns in his Emmy®-winning role as Monk\u0026rsquo;s agoraphobic brother, Ambrose; Monk\u0026rsquo;s beloved murdered wife Trudy (Melora Hardin) appears to return from the dead; and you\u0026rsquo;ll meet Monk as a teenager and discover the true beginnings of how he became the Monk you\u0026rsquo;ve come to know and love. Tune in to USA Network on Friday nights at 10/9C for all new episodes of Monk all summer long!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/08/monk-season-premiere-tonight/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFire up your TiVo (or EyeTV in my case). \u003ca href=\"http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/\"\u003eMonk\u003c/a\u003e is back. I love the show, but not the way in which they\u0026rsquo;ve been jerking me around. First it was just on USA. Then it was on ABC. Then back to USA. They changed the time around a couple times.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey had finally settled on 10 PM on Fridays. Then of course that had to be upset by putting Kojak on at that time instead (I wanted to like that show too, but I just couldn\u0026rsquo;t bring myself to). I was afraid that the replacement of Monk\u0026rsquo;s nurse had been the death knell for the show. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Monk Season Premiere Tonight"},{"content":"London has been attacked. Four bombs have been set off in their public transportation systems.\nMy thoughts go out to them.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/07/london-tragedy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/07/london.tube/index.html\"\u003eLondon has been attacked.\u003c/a\u003e Four bombs have been set off in their public transportation systems.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy thoughts go out to them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"London Tragedy"},{"content":"I recently added a 43 Places page to the site. 43 Places is yet another website that\u0026rsquo;s under the Robot Co-op umbrella. You can track where you\u0026rsquo;ve been and where you want to be, something that many people were doing with 43 Things.\nHowever, as it wasn\u0026rsquo;t designed for destinations, lots of duplicate goals were registered at 43 Things. For example, you might have “See Germany”, “Visit Germany”, “Go to Germany”, and so on. 43 Places is much more exact and allows for places within other places be entered that way (such as having Fenway Park in Boston).\nThere are a few flaws with the current system. Aruba is in Venezuela according to the site. On the whole, it\u0026rsquo;s well done and definitely a good time waster.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/06/43-places/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI recently added a \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/activity/43places/\"\u003e43 Places page\u003c/a\u003e to the site. 43 Places is yet another website that\u0026rsquo;s under the \u003ca href=\"http://robotcoop.com\"\u003eRobot Co-op\u003c/a\u003e umbrella. You can track where you\u0026rsquo;ve been and where you want to be, something that many people were doing with \u003ca href=\"http://www.things.com\"\u003e43 Things\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, as it wasn\u0026rsquo;t designed for destinations, lots of duplicate goals were registered at 43 Things. For example, you might have “See Germany”, “Visit Germany”, “Go to Germany”, and so on. 43 Places is much more exact and allows for places within other places be entered that way (such as having Fenway Park in Boston).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"43 Places"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been subscribed to Your Mac Life‘s podcast for some time now. I subscribed a long time back before I knew what to subscribe to. Basically, there was a single show, which was a rant by Shawn. It was all right.\nNow, after I noticed that another show never made it self available, I did a little digging and found out that they didn\u0026rsquo;t because they made all their money on Audible, charging just about $4 a show, or $45 for a year\u0026rsquo;s subscription. Saying that he didn\u0026rsquo;t want to change their business model is a fine justification. That\u0026rsquo;s cool.\nHowever, he couldn\u0026rsquo;t just stop there. In order to bolster his own ego (and let his listeners hear the Radio Gold voice), he proceeded to bash podcasting. I don\u0026rsquo;t want to listen to the podcast again, but I believe he characterized most podcasts, even the popular ones, as “crap”. Then he singled out Dawn and Drew as the aforementioned “crap”.\nBasically, instead of recognizing that this will become another commonly accepted and used distribution medium, he wants to make sure his listeners stick with Audible. [Correction: Only old shows are charged for, the most recent is free for streaming. If you want to listen on your iPod, you have to pay or use something like Audio Hijack.] He doesn\u0026rsquo;t give any recognition to some really good podcasts (such as the Daily Source Code, the MacCast, or TWiT). Instead, he tries to dissuade the listenership from the medium all together because they may realize that paying that money week-in, week-out for something they can get elsewhere (sans Radio Gold voice) for free. In particular, the MacCast and Inside Mac Radio have fulfilled my Mac radio needs. For free.\nShawn\u0026rsquo;s already realized that he underestimated the popularity of podcasting, releasing the first “Free Podcast Friday” episode. I can only hope he realizes that bashing other shows isn\u0026rsquo;t cool. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t make you look better; it only makes you look desperate. Based on what I\u0026rsquo;ve heard, he probably should be.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/05/your-mac-jerks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been subscribed to \u003ca href=\"http://www.yourmaclife.com\"\u003eYour Mac Life\u003c/a\u003e‘s podcast for some time now. I subscribed a long time back before I knew what to subscribe to. Basically, there was a single show, which was a rant by Shawn. It was all right.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, after I noticed that another show never made it self available, I did a little digging and found out that they didn\u0026rsquo;t because they made all their money on Audible, charging just about $4 a show, or $45 for a year\u0026rsquo;s subscription. Saying that he didn\u0026rsquo;t want to change their business model is a fine justification. That\u0026rsquo;s cool.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Your Mac Jerks"},{"content":"43 Places I don\u0026rsquo;t travel often, but I track where I\u0026rsquo;ve been and where I want to go using 43 Places. You can browse my page there or look below.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/activity/43places/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"43-places\"\u003e43 Places\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t travel often, but I track where I\u0026rsquo;ve been and where I want to go using \u003ca href=\"http://www.43places.com\"\u003e43 Places\u003c/a\u003e. You can browse \u003ca href=\"http://www.43places.com/person/d00d\"\u003emy page there\u003c/a\u003e or look below.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"43 Places"},{"content":"I stick up for Apple in most cases. This time, they\u0026rsquo;re on their own. I\u0026rsquo;m going to bash them for a couple mistakes\nRight Here, Right Now I must admit after having used NetNewsWire so long, I\u0026rsquo;d gotten used to its somewhat loose connection with iTunes. It would download new episodes and dump them into iTunes (allowing me to specify genre and playlist). I used only the genre option, using Smart Playlists to find two types of podcasts. Listened to and not listened to. This was done by a smart playlist that collected all files with the genre podcast with a play count of zero and another that did the same except looked for files with a play count of at least one.\nThat way, I just listened out of one list on my iPod and deleted old ones out of the heard list. It was pretty easy management, but not totally automated, which sucked. iTunes makes it easier, allowing one to keep all episodes, only the latest, only unheard, only the last two, etc. One has the same preferences per iPod, allowing only certain podcasts as well as those management settings for each iPod. Everything suddenly became automated.\nDirector of the Year goes to Another problem with using NetNewsWire was that the directory wasn\u0026rsquo;t integrated. I can\u0026rsquo;t totally fault NNW because that\u0026rsquo;s starting to border on bloat. However, iTunes already had the iTunes Music Store, the perfect interface for a podcast directory. Honestly, I like the way Apple arranges its interface for music. It works well. They even supply Akamai bandwidth for more popular ‘casts.\nBut don\u0026rsquo;t think that you\u0026rsquo;re shoe-horned into listening only to those in the directory. Take a look in the advanced menu and the “Subscibe to Podcast…” menu item. Just plop in any feed address. Thanks to podcasting already having a standard delivery method in RSS 2.0 as enclosures.\nMagic Inconsistencies I have a few problems with iTunes handling of podcasts. To begin with, podcasts don\u0026rsquo;t appear in the Library. Now, that wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be a huge problem if Smart Playlists worked differently. They only show results from audio files in the Library, not in the Podcasts part of iTunes.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s weird is that once those files and the playlist are in your iPod, the playlist will display files matching the criteria. See the screenshots below.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s not until you look at your Smart Playlists on the iPod\u0026rsquo;s interface are those files shown. That\u0026rsquo;s really frustrating. It\u0026rsquo;s also hard to tell what the genre getting stuck onto podcasts to make those playlists. It makes one miss NetNewsWire forcing genres onto the files.\nAnother weird aspect is the two separate behaviors effected by the same preferences.\niTunes allow you to keep a certain number of episodes. I only listen to my podcasts once, so I use the “keep only unplayed” setting. It\u0026rsquo;s a poor description though. Once again, there\u0026rsquo;s a disconnect between iTunes and the iPod.\nFor iTunes, song files don\u0026rsquo;t actually get deleted until the play count is one. Even if you use the “Mark as Played”, it remains. That\u0026rsquo;s weird enough, but then those songs marked as played don\u0026rsquo;t get synced to the iPod per the same preference. Arg. Be consistent!\nOnboard Despite some maddening problems with iTunes new podcasting support, I\u0026rsquo;ve moved all my subscriptions over from NNW to iTunes. It\u0026rsquo;s working pretty good right now. I don\u0026rsquo;t even have to delete old episodes. That\u0026rsquo;s progress.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/02/podcasting-done-right-almost/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI stick up for Apple in most cases. This time, they\u0026rsquo;re on their own. I\u0026rsquo;m going to bash them for a couple mistakes\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"right-here-right-now\"\u003eRight Here, Right Now\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI must admit after having used NetNewsWire so long, I\u0026rsquo;d gotten used to its somewhat loose connection with iTunes. It would download new episodes and dump them into iTunes (allowing me to specify genre and playlist). I used only the genre option, using Smart Playlists to find two types of podcasts. Listened to and not listened to. This was done by a smart playlist that collected all files with the genre podcast with a play count of zero and another that did the same except looked for files with a play count of at least one.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Podcasting Done Right… Almost"},{"content":"Looking through my del.icio.us inbox I came across a link to the Gizmo Project. Basically, it\u0026rsquo;s a nice face for the SIP protocol, similar to Skype (though Skype doesn\u0026rsquo;t use SIP).\nSkype has always served me well (though I\u0026rsquo;ve admittedly only played with it). It\u0026rsquo;s a good OS X citizen, sporting a great interface and utilizing some neat OS X software like Growl. However, you have to pay for the voicemail service. You don\u0026rsquo;t have to with Gizmo (an interim name). Gizmo has both a Mac and Windows version. A Linux version is in the works.\nAnyway, I\u0026rsquo;ll be playing with it. If you want to download and give me a call, drop me a line so I can prep myself.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/07/01/gizmo-the-open-skype-alternative/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLooking through my \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us/inbox/d00d\"\u003edel.icio.us inbox\u003c/a\u003e I came across a link to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.gizmoproject.com\"\u003eGizmo Project\u003c/a\u003e. Basically, it\u0026rsquo;s a nice face for the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol\"\u003eSIP protocol\u003c/a\u003e, similar to Skype (though Skype doesn\u0026rsquo;t use SIP).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com/photos/19959606@N00/22904620\" title=\"Gizmo Main Screen\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Gizmo Main Screen\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://photos17.flickr.com/22904620_1df3e3e741_m.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSkype has always served me well (though I\u0026rsquo;ve admittedly only played with it). It\u0026rsquo;s a good OS X citizen, sporting a great interface and utilizing some neat OS X software like \u003ca href=\"http://growl.info\"\u003eGrowl\u003c/a\u003e. However, you have to pay for the voicemail service. You don\u0026rsquo;t have to with Gizmo (an interim name). Gizmo has both a Mac and Windows version. A Linux version is in the works.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gizmo, the Open Skype Alternative"},{"content":"Apple, as part of its new podcasting initiative, has added extra metadata for iTunes to use. Naturally, when you touch any existing “open” standard as a corporation, you get a shitstorm of criticism. That\u0026rsquo;s not to say that sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s not deserved, but a lot of the time resentment forces out more criticism than is necessary or real. Dave Winer and Edd Dumbill both had some beefs. I know, I know. It\u0026rsquo;s a real shocker that Dave is pissed. Edd seems to be a little more balanced, but still misses some important points.\nBingo Here\u0026rsquo;s what I agree with. Let\u0026rsquo;s begin with Edd.\nFirst up, the namespace, http://www.itunes.com/DTDs/Podcast-1.0.dtd. Apparently DTD as a namespace, containing a version number in the name. Almost always a bad idea. Versioning and namespaces are a complex mix, and limiting future flexibility by changing the namespace with each revision can be a bad idea. Try resolving that URI, and you get redirected to an HTML page. Verdict: poor.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s look at something helpful now. The itunes:duration element is useful, carrying some much-needed extra metadata about audio content. Verdict: good.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s an itunes:image element, for specifying imagery for the iTunes store. Reuse is less likely in this case, so a dedicated element makes total sense. Verdict: good.\nA selection of elements cover textual description. We all know about RSS\u0026rsquo;s description, but iTunes adds itunes:summary and itunes:subtitle. Both of these elements are mandated to be plain text. In most cases, it looks like summary should be the same as description. The egregious practice of including escaped HTML in description–which was meant to be a plaintext field–has meant this situation is just about unavoidable. I do worry that with title, description, summary and subtitle this is all getting rather too complex. Verdict: okay.\nSome miscellaneous observations. iTunes wants RSS feeds in UTF-8. Verdict: good. Aside from itunes:summary, “all fields will be truncated to 255 characters”. Verdict: daft.\nI\u0026rsquo;d like to provide more detail, but on clicking the “Learn more” link on Apple\u0026rsquo;s podcasting page results in a blank page on my Firefox, with an error “itmss is not a registered protocol”. Verdict: gob-smackingly ignorant.\nAnd from Dave.\nFurther, I think it\u0026rsquo;s kind of a bad idea to use a trademark in the name of a namespace. I think Apple may regret doing this. Also their competitors, already objecting to the use of “pod” in the name of the category, may further object to supporting information with a trademark of a competitor as its name. I\u0026rsquo;ll give Dave the fact that Apple using the word “itunes” for something that\u0026rsquo;s likely to be used by other things isn\u0026rsquo;t quite right. In their defense, if they used a more generic term, pundits (and Dave) would be jumping down their throats for being presumptuous. Classic rock and a hard place. At the same time, waiting forever while people hashed out what should be in it wasn\u0026rsquo;t an option for Apple.\nHold Up Here\u0026rsquo;s all the complaints. They\u0026rsquo;re largely repetitious and I apologize for that, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t write it. First Edd.\nNext up, there\u0026rsquo;s a bunch of replicated Dublin Core type metadata, all in the iTunes namespace: owner, name, email, author, keywords. It would have been nice if existing conventions for dc:publisher, dc:creator etc. could have been re-used. That way RSS feeds won\u0026rsquo;t get cluttered with multiple redundant elements. Nevertheless, I can see why iTunes might want all this stuff completely disambiguated. They don\u0026rsquo;t imagine finding RSS in the wild and adding it to the iTunes store, instead they expect people to create RSS with the express purpose of lodging it with iTunes. Verdict: so-so.\nCategorisation within the iTunes store is handled by the itunes:category element. You have to see this markup to believe it:\n\u0026lt;itunes:category text=\u0026quot;Technology\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;itunes:category text=\u0026quot;Gadgets\u0026quot; /\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/itunes:category\u0026gt; Add to that a prose restriction that categories can only be nested to two levels and I\u0026rsquo;m left scratching my head. It also stands out as just about the only attribute-carried text content within RSS. Verdict: nuts.\nThe remaining elements are used to control content restrictions within iTunes. The itunes:explicit element is meant to be included if your content is “explicit”. Okay… And itunes:block can be used to block a podcast from appearing in the iTunes store. These elements seem vague, underspecified and certainly open to abuse. Verdict: poor.\nNow Dave.\nTheir category element is a duplicate of the existing RSS 2.0 category element, although more verbose. I love the part where they say it\u0026rsquo;s okay to duplicate information, in other words we\u0026rsquo;re funky and we know it. I suggest ignoring the itunes:category element, their software seems to work fine without it (Morning Coffee Notes is listed, apparently, we don\u0026rsquo;t have any of their extensions, nor do I expect to add them any time soon).\nSame with author. RSS 2.0 has an item-level author element. They don\u0026rsquo;t say why they reinvented this, giving theirs (again) the same name as the core element, indicating that they probably knew it was there. (The RSS 2.0 element is a mail address, but a person\u0026rsquo;s name is easily included in a mail address.)\nBasically, most of the repetition is ironically enough, complaining about the repetition the namespace addition introduces. However, this entirely misses the point. The reason for the replication is that the posting person may not be the author of the enclosure. That bears repeating. The posting person may not be the author of the enclosure. Imagine if you will, a podcast that consists of a person posting new songs from a variety of people. The poster didn\u0026rsquo;t make those songs. The creator of those songs didn\u0026rsquo;t post it either. The failure here is that the enclosure needs its own metadata, independent of the post. That idea must be recognized. Apple did.\nThe categories are a slightly different issue. It\u0026rsquo;s true that RSS already supplies a way to specify arbitrary categorization (with hierarchies). Apple is avoiding this so it can enforce a category depth of two. If it gets any deeper, it becomes hard to navigate for most users (which was the main reason people stopped using\u0026rsquo;s Yahoo\u0026rsquo;s directory).\nFinally, the explicit and block tags are good to have. The explicit tag isn\u0026rsquo;t all that vague and at the very least, it gives the iTunes moderation staff a heads up. The block tag isn\u0026rsquo;t vague at all and allows artists to keep out of the iTunes directory if they don\u0026rsquo;t want to be in it. Nothing wrong with that.\nEgo the Giant Naturally, as with anything Dave Winer writes, his ego gets in the way.\nI suggest ignoring the itunes:category element, their software seems to work fine without it (Morning Coffee Notes is listed, apparently, we don\u0026rsquo;t have any of their extensions, nor do I expect to add them any time soon).\nDave seems to be suffering from a disease that Steve Jobs has been reported to have, the deadly NIH. Not Invented Here syndrome is the entire reason that Dave doesn\u0026rsquo;t want to use the new tags. Nevermind that it\u0026rsquo;s helpful and trivial to do, Dave is raising the hairs on his back and growling. That\u0026rsquo;s productive.\nIt would have been really smart to review this stuff with the community before releasing their software.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s clear something up here. By “the community” Dave means him. He refuses to be honest because he sounds like the blowhard he is if he does. The fact is that he\u0026rsquo;s pissed that he got left out of the loop. He\u0026rsquo;s the self-proclaimed father of RSS. How dare they not consult him for every move they make? Even if he did actually mean some kind of community, look at how RSS 2.0 turned out. It didn\u0026rsquo;t include this stuff to begin with, and seeing as Dave doesn\u0026rsquo;t see the distinction between post and enclosure metadata, it would have been all watered down and broken. Don\u0026rsquo;t even get me started on why pubDate being optional is totally lame.\nCome on Apple, we can do better.\nPointless chest beating. Does Dave want to goat Apple into some useless pissing contest, or does he realize that they won\u0026rsquo;t waste the time to do so, letting him look like a big toughie taking on the big bad corporation?\nsigh At any rate, the iTunes additions aren\u0026rsquo;t perfect, but they add substantial functionality to an existing standard. What I don\u0026rsquo;t see is constructive criticism or even an attempt to comprehend Apple\u0026rsquo;s motivations, which is too bad.\nFollow-up: Dave has finally flown off the handle about not being acknowledged.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/29/itunes-rss-2.0-podcasting-namespace-additions/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple, as part of its new podcasting initiative, has added extra metadata for iTunes to use. Naturally, when you touch any existing “open” standard as a corporation, you get a shitstorm of criticism. That\u0026rsquo;s not to say that sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s not deserved, but a lot of the time resentment forces out more criticism than is necessary or real. \u003ca href=\"http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/06/28#a682\"\u003eDave Winer\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://usefulinc.com/edd/blog/contents/2005/06/28-rss-apple-itunes/read\"\u003eEdd Dumbill\u003c/a\u003e both had some beefs. I know, I know. It\u0026rsquo;s a real shocker that Dave is pissed. Edd seems to be a little more balanced, but still misses some important points.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iTunes RSS 2.0 Podcasting Namespace Additions"},{"content":"I went through my list of podcasts last night, transferring them from NetNewsWire to iTunes. One of my absolute favorites is the Winecast. Check it out. Even if you don\u0026rsquo;t drink a lot of wine or know pretty much nothing, this podcast is a pleasure to listen to. I can\u0026rsquo;t speak for experienced wine drinkers, but for a novice like me, the show is a godsend. It explains the origins of various wine varieties.\nI was really dismayed to find when I first added it to iTunes that iTunes choked on it, displaying that infuriating exclamation point symbol. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t figure it out. NetNewsWire dealt with it fine, so what was iTunes issue? It turns out, iTunes will whine about podcasts if all audio attached entries have slipped off the feed. This is what happened with the Winecast.\nI got in touch with Tim, who makes the Winecast. He explained to me the issue. I noticed that he was using WordPress. I also use WordPress (though I don\u0026rsquo;t make it as obvious as most people) and I knew that one could configure the syndication (RSS) portion to publish more entries. This mitigates the risk of adding enough text entries to bump all audio attached entries. Sure, it\u0026rsquo;s not perfect (you can still post text entries and bump audio enclosures by adding the number of entries contained within the feed itself), but it works well enough and Winecast was restored to working order in iTunes.\nTim was kind enough to thank and link me, a gesture I very much appreciate.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/29/welcome-winecast-listeners/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI went through my list of podcasts last night, transferring them from NetNewsWire to iTunes. One of my absolute favorites is the \u003ca href=\"http://www.winecast.net\"\u003eWinecast\u003c/a\u003e. Check it out. Even if you don\u0026rsquo;t drink a lot of wine or know pretty much nothing, this podcast is a pleasure to listen to. I can\u0026rsquo;t speak for experienced wine drinkers, but for a novice like me, the show is a godsend. It explains the origins of various wine varieties.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Welcome Winecast Listeners"},{"content":"I woke up this morning and was alerted to the availability of the much discussed 4.9. Really, it\u0026rsquo;s the most feature-rich update to iTunes I can remember since version 4 debuted with the iTunes Music Store capability. Every release since has been pretty lackluster.\niTunes 4.8 added the capability to play music videos, but really, there haven\u0026rsquo;t been any really compelling new features added, in my opinion. I\u0026rsquo;ll be taking screenshots later as well as reviewing how I\u0026rsquo;ll be using it. Really, this should have been iTunes 5.0, but maybe Apple has some other really compelling feature(s) to add beyong this, but I doubt it. Here\u0026rsquo;s a breakdown of what iTunes has added starting with iTunes 4.0.\n4.0 Instantly buy and download music from the iTunes Music Store. Share music within the same household. Encode more efficiently using AAC. Add and view album artwork. Burn DVD archives of your music. Search using more options. Categorize tracks by beats per minute. 4.0.1 Includes a number of performance and network access enhancements, and only allows music sharing between computers using iTunes 4.0.1 or later on a local network (in the same subnet). If you have an Apple SuperDrive, you can archive your song files to a DVD disc as well as burn playlists to standard audio CDs to play in your car or home stereo.\n4.1 Share music between Macs and PCs. Sync voice notes and On-The-Go playlists created on your iPod. Burn large playlists onto multiple CDs or DVDs. Drag and drop links from the iTunes Music Store into emails, instant messages or web pages. Audiobooks now available in the Music Store New Power Search feature using more options. Set up allowance accounts so children can access music legally, without giving them a credit card. Give the gift of music send gift certificates to friends and family via email. 4.2 iTunes 4.2 allows you to sign in and buy music from the iTunes Music Store using either your AOL or Apple Account, view the iTunes Music Store in a separate window, and includes a number of performance improvements.\n4.5 Share Your iMix. Post and email songs in your playlists for everyone to see. Rate iMixes from other music lovers to drive them up or down the charts, and discover new music at the same time. Party Shuffle. Be your own DJ with a playlist that\u0026rsquo;s always full of songs. Add, delete and rearrange them on the fly to create the best mix for the moment. Print CD Inserts. Create stunning CD jewel case inserts for your album or mix disc using designer templates for both color and black \u0026amp; white printers. Discover Music. Find out what\u0026rsquo;s playing on more than 1,000 radio stations around the United States. Get music and audiobooks related to a movie. See a music video, get the track. Download a free song. Previews in Playlists and Quick Links. Save store previews to purchase later. Find more music from the artists you love via Quick Links in your library. Automatically convert WMA to AAC. Convert the music you saved in Windows Media Player (unprotected WMA files) to AAC format. Apple Lossless. Use the new lossless encoder to import music from CDs and achieve sound quality indistinguishable from the original, at about half the original file size. Plays in iTunes and on iPod. 5 computers can play protected songs (up from the previous limit of 3). Identical playlists containing protected songs can be burned up to 7 times (down from 10). 4.6 Includes support for playing your music wirelessly using AirPort Express with AirTunes. It also includes a number of other minor enhancements.\n4.7 Support for copying photos to an iPod photo, the ability to show duplicate songs in your library, and other performance improvements.\n4.7.1 iTunes 4.7.1 includes support for iPod shuffle and other performance improvements.\n4.8 New Music Store features and support for transferring contacts and calendars from your computer to your iPod (requires Mac OS X version 10.4 on your computer).\n4.9 With iTunes 4.9, you can now browse and subscribe to podcasts from within the iTunes Music Store. Podcasts are frequently updated radio-style shows downloadable over the Internet.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/28/itunes-4.9-with-podcasting-has-arrived/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI woke up this morning and was alerted to the availability of the much discussed 4.9. Really, it\u0026rsquo;s the most feature-rich update to iTunes I can remember since version 4 debuted with the iTunes Music Store capability. Every release since has been pretty lackluster.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eiTunes 4.8 added the capability to play music videos, but really, there haven\u0026rsquo;t been any really compelling new features added, in my opinion. I\u0026rsquo;ll be taking screenshots later as well as reviewing how I\u0026rsquo;ll be using it. Really, this should have been iTunes 5.0, but maybe Apple has some other \u003cstrong\u003ereally\u003c/strong\u003e compelling feature(s) to add beyong this, but I doubt it. Here\u0026rsquo;s a breakdown of what iTunes has added starting with iTunes 4.0.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting has Arrived"},{"content":"In yet another landmark decision, the Supreme Court has ruled against Grokster. Now, upon first examination, I thought this was a very bad thing. However, reading the Groklaw article on the ruling has put some of my fears to rest.\nIn fact, the Sony decision isn\u0026rsquo;t infringed upon. From the decision:\nWe hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promotion its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.\nBasically what sets this case apart is the fact that Grokster was marketing specifically for illegal activities. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t just turning a blind eye; it was assisting in the act.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/27/grokster-loses/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn yet another landmark decision, the Supreme Court has ruled against Grokster. Now, upon first examination, I thought this was a very bad thing. However, reading the \u003ca href=\"http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050627130232598\"\u003eGroklaw article on the ruling\u003c/a\u003e has put some of my fears to rest.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn fact, the \u003cem\u003eSony\u003c/em\u003e decision isn\u0026rsquo;t infringed upon. From the decision:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promotion its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Grokster Loses"},{"content":"I revisited PimpMySafari and one of the three must have utilities was Safari Stand. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure I would be impressed and I\u0026rsquo;m always afraid of slowing down Safari with more stuff. I\u0026rsquo;ve been keeping it pretty lean with just PithHelmet and AcidSearch.\nSo far, I like what it brings to the table. It has a lot of neat features, like adding keyword searching, auto download window closing, and my personal favorite, source editing. You can visit a web page, tweak the source code and see the result of your change right in the Safari window.\nYou don\u0026rsquo;t really think they had the following headline at CNN, did you?\nWell, it\u0026rsquo;s not entirely unbelievable, but I doubt it\u0026rsquo;s front page news. Anyway, at the low, low price of free, Safari Stand is worth a download.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/26/safari-stand-a-new-toy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI revisited \u003ca href=\"http://pimpmysafari.com/\"\u003ePimpMySafari\u003c/a\u003e and one of the three \u003cem\u003emust have\u003c/em\u003e utilities was \u003ca href=\"http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html\"\u003eSafari Stand\u003c/a\u003e. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure I would be impressed and I\u0026rsquo;m always afraid of slowing down Safari with more stuff. I\u0026rsquo;ve been keeping it pretty lean with just \u003ca href=\"http://culater.net/software/PithHelmet/PithHelmet.php\"\u003ePithHelmet\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://pozytron.com/acidsearch\"\u003eAcidSearch\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo far, I like what it brings to the table. It has a lot of neat features, like adding keyword searching, auto download window closing, and my personal favorite, source editing. You can visit a web page, tweak the source code and see the result of your change right in the Safari window.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Safari Stand, a New Toy"},{"content":"Earlier this week, my El Gato EyeHome arrived. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t come with any AV cables. So I had to march down to Wallyworld to pick up some cables. Then the fun began.\nI had a few choices when it came to cables. There\u0026rsquo;s composite, S-video, and component video outputs. For audio, there\u0026rsquo;s component and optical. Now, if I had the right equipment, the right connections would be the component video and the optical audio. Optical audio: isn\u0026rsquo;t that an oxymoron? I don\u0026rsquo;t and I need the most flexibility, so I went with the component video and audio. Note that there is no RF coaxial output, so if that\u0026rsquo;s all your TV has, you may have to route it through a special adapter box or through your VCR.\nAfter all the reviews I read, I expected the most pain-free install ever. It was close, but not quite there. However, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure I can fault the EyeHome. I\u0026rsquo;m connecting it through a wireless to ethernet adapter and switch. Upon turning on the EyeHome, it didn\u0026rsquo;t recognize that my Powermac upstairs had the software installed. Manually putting in its IP didn\u0026rsquo;t work either. Then I noticed that it had a self-assigned IP address (one starting with 169). Shutting down all the network equipment and starting it again fixed the issue and it\u0026rsquo;s worked ever since, so I don\u0026rsquo;t know what the issue really was, but it appears to have been transient.\nOnce I had that worked out, the Powermac appeared and I started playing. My EyeTV recordings showed up and played perfectly. However, the times listed didn\u0026rsquo;t seem right. The unit wasn\u0026rsquo;t setting its own time and date correctly and there is no way to set it manually (that can be counted as a flaw because I can imagine that sometimes the network the EyeHome is on won\u0026rsquo;t have an NTP server, but I digress).\nI tried the rest of the features, save the movie one because I had no movies saved to my hard drive. They all performed as I would hope (except being unable to play iTunes Music Store files, but that\u0026rsquo;s not their fault). The movie playing function is much more important to me anyway. As a test, I used Handbrake to encode a movie. The first time I used an MPEG4 container with H.264 video and AAC video. It looked and sounded great. However, they didn\u0026rsquo;t sync up. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure what the problem was. I re-encoded into an AVI container with MPEG 4 video and MP3 sound. That synced up great. Perhaps the added complexity of AAC caused the sound delay. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure.\nI did run into a problem with certain scenes though. In particular, White Noise has a lot of scenes that are almost all static. Those… scenes… would… skip… a… lot. Fortunately, those scenes were few and far between. All other video was fine as far as I could tell.\nDespite some little issues, I feel like the $129 I spent on my EyeHome (refurbished price, brand new currently on sale for $150) was well worth it. At the $200 normal price, I\u0026rsquo;m a little more hesitant, but that\u0026rsquo;s just more reason to get one now.\nPros: Handles all kinds of media. Easy setup. Regular firmware updates. Works with EyeTV. Only $150.\nCons: Some initial setup problems. Doesn\u0026rsquo;t work with iTunes Music Store files. Issues with some intense movie sections. No manual time setting capability.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/25/eyehome-review/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEarlier this week, my \u003ca href=\"http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyehome\"\u003eEl Gato EyeHome\u003c/a\u003e arrived. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t come with any AV cables. So I had to march down to Wallyworld to pick up some cables. Then the fun began.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had a few choices when it came to \u003ca href=\"http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/howto-av.html\"\u003ecables\u003c/a\u003e. There\u0026rsquo;s composite, S-video, and component video outputs. For audio, there\u0026rsquo;s component and optical. Now, if I had the right equipment, the right connections would be the component video and the optical audio. \u003cem\u003eOptical audio: isn\u0026rsquo;t that an oxymoron?\u003c/em\u003e I don\u0026rsquo;t and I need the most flexibility, so I went with the component video and audio. Note that there is no RF coaxial output, so if that\u0026rsquo;s all your TV has, you may have to route it through a special adapter box or through your VCR.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"EyeHome Review"},{"content":"Twice this week someone I\u0026rsquo;ve met through the Macworld forums has passed away. I got the email a few days ago from a friend of his. It was by far the saddest piece of news to ever enter my inbox. Chris Breen, who knew him longer than I, has written an excellent forum post about it. Please read it. Chris has far more experience writing and his piece is really touching. One snippet hit me pretty hard.\nDuring one such exchange Grant and I engaged in a heated debate about the benefits of bleu cheese dressing (complete with Grant\u0026rsquo;s never-fail recipe for same). If you glance at just about any of his posts you\u0026rsquo;ll see that he continued to integrate a part of his “real” life into many of them–often illustrating a point by talking about how his wife Mo was amazed by some new trick he made his Mac perform or passing along a wholly unrelated tidbit about life in the mythical-sounding Pahrump, Nevada.\nI never met Grant. I don\u0026rsquo;t know what he looked like. I don\u0026rsquo;t know what kind of car he drove or much about what he did earlier in life. I do know, however, that Grant was a sterling reminder of just how kind, generous, and helpful people can be. Our forums will be poorer without him.\nChris brings up an interesting point that I really didn\u0026rsquo;t think about too much until I started telling people close to me. Part of dealing with the loss of someone you cared about is communicating what you knew of them to others. It\u0026rsquo;s a cathartic experience. However, when I explain how I knew Grant, people have so far said something along the lines that I didn\u0026rsquo;t really know him or that it seems like I knew him. As far as I\u0026rsquo;m concerned, I knew him. Downplaying the role that he played in his life has made it harder for me deal with it and keeps me from being able to express myself to that person. Maybe they\u0026rsquo;re trying to make things easier for me by trying to logically argue that I shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be that sad, maybe convince my brain it\u0026rsquo;s not that bad to lessen the blow. It\u0026rsquo;s not really having that effect though. I feel as though they are trivializing my feelings.\nI do feel like I missed the opportunity to get to know him though. He had a huge impact on my life and I never so much as talked to him on the phone. Our interactions were limited to postings in the forums, private messages, and email. When I got to the forums, Grant had a large number of posts. I want to say the most, but back in the days of the Gabbery forums some people pumped their posts counts with one word entries. Grant didn\u0026rsquo;t. He spent much of his time scouring the forums for people to help and learning new knowledge to spread later. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t help but respect him and his astounding patience. He knew how to cool down a situation and deal with even the most abrasive poster. When I overstepped my bounds, Grant would call me on it.\nWhen it came time to make the OS X Forum FAQ, Grant jumped right in, writing a guide to maintenance utilities, which I will be preserving on this website for posterity. As time wore on, my youthful enthusiasm helped me outpace him and my post count became #1. I even reached 10,000 posts. Grant only reached 9,548 posts, never breaking the five digit barrier. Also worth noting is that he posted enough to earn the coveted title of Forum God. If anyone deserved that title, he did.\nHe succumbed to leukemia Wednesday evening in a hospice in Nevada. There will not be a funeral. He\u0026rsquo;ll be cremated and his ashes spread at sea (a man after my own heart). His wife asked that no flowers, etc. be sent and instead that donations be made in his name to the hospice. If you knew Grant or my description of him moved you in any way, please contribute.\n_Nathan Adelson Hospice\n4141 Swenson St.\nLas Vegas NV 89119_\nYou can even donate online.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/24/grant-g-has-passed-away/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTwice this week someone I\u0026rsquo;ve met through the Macworld forums has passed away. I got the email a few days ago from a friend of his. It was by far the saddest piece of news to ever enter my inbox. Chris Breen, who knew him longer than I, has written an excellent forum post about it. Please read it. Chris has far more experience writing and his piece is really touching. One snippet hit me pretty hard.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Grant G has Passed Away"},{"content":"Make sure you take MIT\u0026rsquo;s survey for blog authors.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/23/do-you-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMake sure you take MIT\u0026rsquo;s survey for blog authors.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/request\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://blogsurvey.media.mit.edu/images/survey-statistic.gif\" alt=\"Take the MIT Weblog Survey\" style=\"border:none\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Do You Blog?"},{"content":"Anyone that\u0026rsquo;s been a member of Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums for a significant amount of time may remember the “Gabbery” forums. They were a haven of off-topic conversation with its own unique flavor. It ultimately had to come to an end. That story is for another time though.\nOne of the leading contributors was a member named Passenger. He was passionate and believed in what he said. That\u0026rsquo;s a rare trait now. When the “Gabbery” forums were disbanded, one of the members, Kahloz, started a new forum at his own website. Passenger made the migration with a few others. For months (or a year, I can\u0026rsquo;t remember), we talked about all topics, routinely getting on one another\u0026rsquo;s nerves.\nThere were times that I hated Passenger\u0026rsquo;s guts, but I always had to respect him. Eventually, the new community disbanded (history repeating I suspect) and most of us went our separate ways. Then the other day, Stryder, whom participated in the Kahloz forums, contacted me the other day. I was rather surprised as we never really personally spoke. It turned out that Passenger had passed away (see also Kahloz\u0026rsquo;s entry).\nPass and I hadn\u0026rsquo;t debated in a very long time, but I\u0026rsquo;ll still miss the guy. I hope he finds peace wherever he is.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/23/goodbye-passenger-youll-be-missed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAnyone that\u0026rsquo;s been a member of \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/\"\u003eMacworld\u0026rsquo;s forums\u003c/a\u003e for a significant amount of time may remember the “Gabbery” forums. They were a haven of off-topic conversation with its own unique flavor. It ultimately had to come to an end. That story is for another time though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the leading contributors was a member named Passenger. He was passionate and believed in what he said. That\u0026rsquo;s a rare trait now. When the “Gabbery” forums were disbanded, one of the members, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hurtingwang.com\"\u003eKahloz\u003c/a\u003e, started a new forum at his own website. Passenger made the migration with a few others. For months (or a year, I can\u0026rsquo;t remember), we talked about all topics, routinely getting on one another\u0026rsquo;s nerves.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Goodbye Passenger, You'll Be Missed"},{"content":"I don\u0026rsquo;t normally encourage people to get involved with causes, but I feel this one is vital. Don\u0026rsquo;t let Ground Zero become a political war ground. The memorial should be for and about the victims, not some politically correct quest for international popularity.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been working my butt off the last few days creating an online petition system for [takebackthememorial.org](http://takebackthe memorial.org)\nThe World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on “a journey through the history of freedom” – but do not be fooled into thinking that their idea of freedom is the same as that of those Marines. To the IFC\u0026rsquo;s organizers, it is not only history\u0026rsquo;s triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man\u0026rsquo;s inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich\u0026rsquo;s Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.\nOpinionJournal: The Great Ground Zero Heist\nEveryone rolled their eyes when serial dickhead Bill Maher suggested that we build a “Why They Hate Us” pavilion at ground zero… but don\u0026rsquo;t blink: it\u0026rsquo;s happening.\nGo sign the petition, if this sickens you.\nWe, the undersigned, believe that the World Trade Center Memorial should stand as a solemn remembrance of those who died on September 11th, 2001, and not as a journey of history\u0026rsquo;s “failures” or as a debate about domestic and foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. Political discussions have no place at the World Trade Center September 11th memorial, and the International Freedom Center honors no one by making excuses for the perpetrators of this heinous crime. The memorial should be about what happened that day, about the brave heroes who risked their lives so selflessly, and about the innocent lives that were lost- nothing more.\nTakeBackTheMemorial.org: Petition\n[via Tempus Fugit]\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/21/your-duty/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t normally encourage people to get involved with causes, but I feel this one is vital. Don\u0026rsquo;t let Ground Zero become a political war ground. The memorial should be for and about the victims, not some politically correct quest for international popularity.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been working my butt off the last few days creating an online petition system for [takebackthememorial.org](http://takebackthe memorial.org)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on “a journey through the history of freedom” – but do not be fooled into thinking that their idea of freedom is the same as that of those Marines. To the IFC\u0026rsquo;s organizers, it is not only history\u0026rsquo;s triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man\u0026rsquo;s inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich\u0026rsquo;s Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Your Duty"},{"content":"Not from Mac to Windows, or vice versa, but rather in a more important way. I\u0026rsquo;ve switched from the fabulous LaunchBar to the very new and slick Quicksilver. Between those two and Butler, if they\u0026rsquo;re mentioned in the same breath to a large crowd, you can expect some blood to be spilled. You\u0026rsquo;d see a religious war that would rival the Mac OS X text editor war (BBEdit vs. SubEthaEdit vs. TextMate etc.).\nI was a huge LaunchBar fan. Soon after I registered it, I started hearing things about Quicksilver. Being free and open-source, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d give it a try. I was less than impressed. I didn\u0026rsquo;t see any compelling features and the results I got weren\u0026rsquo;t nearly as good as LaunchBar\u0026rsquo;s. I deleted it and ran back to LaunchBar.\nRecently, I started reading 43 Folders, which has frequent articles on it. Either I missed a lot, or Quicksilver gained a lot of functionality since I last tried it. I\u0026rsquo;m going to lean to the latter. At any rate, until LaunchBar gains the ability to perform the breadth of actions that Quicksilver can (which is extensible), I\u0026rsquo;m switching.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/19/ive-switched/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNot from Mac to Windows, or vice versa, but rather in a more important way. I\u0026rsquo;ve switched from the fabulous \u003ca href=\"http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/\"\u003eLaunchBar\u003c/a\u003e to the very new and slick \u003ca href=\"http://quicksilver.blacktree.com\"\u003eQuicksilver\u003c/a\u003e. Between those two and \u003ca href=\"http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?section=butler\u0026amp;layout=default\"\u003eButler\u003c/a\u003e, if they\u0026rsquo;re mentioned in the same breath to a large crowd, you can expect some blood to be spilled. You\u0026rsquo;d see a religious war that would rival the Mac OS X text editor war (BBEdit vs. SubEthaEdit vs. TextMate etc.).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I've Switched"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sure this will piss off a few people (and already has some others), but I saw my third Red Sox game of the season this past Tuesday night. And this is after the World Series I said that it would be impossible for me to see even a single game. But I digress.\nAnyway, Allison invited me to go with her as part of a package deal that her mother had access to. The package was a bus ride into Boston, as much beer as you could drink, a sandwich, and a ticket to the game. Not that bad.\nWhat was bad was the ride in. I started pounding beers, as did Allison. We arrived at the first and only rest stop on the way (from Worcester). I didn\u0026rsquo;t really feel like peeing and being all man, I didn\u0026rsquo;t to break the seal. Allison didn\u0026rsquo;t want to either, but I doubt it had anything to with wanting to be all man.\nThat decision caught up with me really quickly. We\u0026rsquo;d barely reached the 128 exit and I was dying to write my name in some snow. Well, the rest of the ride became a blur as that desire turned into a necessity. All I could think about was peeing and how immature not wanting to break the seal was.\nAnyway, as we rolled (slowly) through Boston, I decided I just couldn\u0026rsquo;t wait any longer. My kidneys started to hurt. I shit you not. Thankfully Allison couldn\u0026rsquo;t wait either, so we jumped out of the bus in the middle of Boston. We rushed into the Cheesecake Factory. I swear to you, answering nature\u0026rsquo;s call never felt so good.\nWe walked out, saw that the bus was gone. We had to find Fenway. Thanks to having visited Dana so many times, I did. We were really close to her old apartment so I took charge (that\u0026rsquo;s 100% testosterone) to get us there an out into the second inning.\nIt was a good game, a 7-0 victory against the Reds (not that much of a triumph really). In fact, deep into the sixth inning it looked like Wells was going to pull out a no-hitter. Honestly though, the events preceding the game are far more exciting.\nThe ride home sucked. I don\u0026rsquo;t even want to relive it to write the story. $60 for all that was pretty worth it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/17/red-sox-game-three/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sure this will piss off a few people (and already has some others), but I saw my third Red Sox game of the season this past Tuesday night. And this is after the World Series I said that it would be impossible for me to see even a single game. But I digress.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnyway, Allison invited me to go with her as part of a package deal that her mother had access to. The package was a bus ride into Boston, as much beer as you could drink, a sandwich, and a ticket to the game. Not that bad.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Red Sox Game Three"},{"content":"This is a strange predicament that I\u0026rsquo;ve been placed in. Normally, I agree with what most Mac pundits say. However, many of them are being over-confident and taking Steve\u0026rsquo;s word for gospel. They\u0026rsquo;re not doing any analysis or technical reviews of the transition. Rather, they believe the marketing hype otherwise known as a keynote.\nOne of the primary concerns was the ability to run PowerPC software. This was addressed with a slick piece of software called Rosetta. Slick though it may be, it\u0026rsquo;s still emulation. In other words, it\u0026rsquo;s slow. To put that concern to rest, Steve told us it was fast enough. Fast enough? What kind of vague bullshit is that? I can let that go because, as I said before, keynotes are marketing hype. What\u0026rsquo;s sickening is the way in which evangelists are parroting this as if it was the result of some kind of scientific study.\nMy suspicions were fulfilled by a Think Secret article. Before you get snotty and scream that Think Secret is a rumor site, this report has actual proof associated with it (far more than the keynote\u0026rsquo;s pony show). The proof in question is on the Xbench website. The benchmarking software was run under Rosetta, to get a real feel for PowerPC application emulation.\nFrom Think Secret\u0026rsquo;s article:\nOverall, the Intel Mac are scoring between 65 and 70 with Xbench, a far cry from the 200+ scores higher-end G5 systems reach. The CPU test is landing in the high teens compared with scores of 100 to 200 for G5 systems, but that appears to be primarily due to lackluster FPU scores. According to a recent Macworld story, Rosetta does not support AltiVec instructions, which substanties [sic] the results. The GCD Loop score for the Intel Mac, part of the CPU test, is a respectable 110, compared to dual-2.5GHz G5 Macs that score about 140.\nThe Intel Mac performed substantially less well than the dual-2.5GHz G5 at Thread test, scoring an 82 compared to 225. In the Computation Thread test the Intel Mac scored a respectable 110 compared to 155 in the G5, but the G5 blew the doors of the Intel Mac in the Lock Contention test, scoring a 420 to the Intel Mac\u0026rsquo;s 66.\nThe Memory Test tells a similar story: overall the Intel Mac scored a 214 to the G5\u0026rsquo;s 378, but the Intel Mac actually exceeded the G5\u0026rsquo;s Stream Memory Test: 351 to 319. The G5 trounces the Intel Mac at the system memory test, however, scoring a 464 while the Intel Mac musters a 154.\nThe Intel Mac scored a 125 on the Interface Test, compared to a 380 for the G5.\nOuch. That sounds awful. Think Secret alludes to the fact that Altivec instructions aren\u0026rsquo;t executed by Rosetta, resulting in the running of the vastly inferior G3 fallback code. This brings up the other misconception that a universal binary version of applications will fix everything. Developers that previously wrote Altivec code will be able to use the Accelerate framework to get the same kind of performance using Intel\u0026rsquo;s SSE. Or will they?\nFrom SIMD tech forum:\nOn Jun 6, 2005, at 5:22 PM, Bob Currier wrote:\nMaybe it is a good tool, but it\u0026rsquo;s the 22x vs. 9x that is making me feel ill. I\u0026rsquo;ve already got both Altivec and SSEn versions of my core code, and the Intel stuff sucks, badly. My best case shows about the same ratio you\u0026rsquo;re seeing.\nI\u0026rsquo;m feeling the pain myself, in-fact I think I\u0026rsquo;ll be sick all week (and likely a lot longer than that). My Wintel colleague and I have just completed some large SIMD optimizations for a very well known image processing application. I also see the same performance ratio – the AltiVec version is easily more than twice as fast as the SSE2 version (take the fastest G5 you can find and the fastest x86 you can find and the AltiVec-G5 version is easily twice as fast). I\u0026rsquo;ve taken pride in being able to handily beat the SSE2 version and in many cases doing so with far less instructions. I don\u0026rsquo;t drink the Kool-aid.\nI had a conversation with an engineer from a certain fruit company today and he said that even Intel engineers were having problems getting SSE2/3 versions of some of the Apple Altivec sample code running at anything better than half the speed of the Altivec code, and this on a CPU with twice the clock speed of a G5. Steve can sit in his distortion field all he wants but that doesn\u0026rsquo;t change the fact that Altivec is far superior to SSE2/3. In fact, in many other ways the G5 and PPC architecture is superior to Intel and x86 (but not in all ways of course). Many of us here know this through experience. The way I see it this is for mobile chips and that\u0026rsquo;s it. That\u0026rsquo;s the only weak point of the current PPC architecture and currently the strong point for Intel. AMD is beating them on the Desktop and Intel is even having to adopt AMD\u0026rsquo;s 64-bit architecture.\nDigest that. G5s will continue to beat the snot out of Macintels for some time to come. We\u0026rsquo;re not talking about a minor difference in performance. We\u0026rsquo;re talking about two times the performance using existing hardware. It\u0026rsquo;s no secret that x86 chips are reaching the ceiling in cycles and that G5s still have some wiggle room. According to Steve himself we can look forward to some advancements before the switch.\nWe can all look forward to benchmarks and reviews of the Macintels in comparison to the PowerPC Macs that will underline the processor differences that we\u0026rsquo;ve been talking about for years. That\u0026rsquo;s when this will get really interesting.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/13/fast-enough/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a strange predicament that I\u0026rsquo;ve been placed in. Normally, I agree with what most Mac pundits say. However, many of them are being over-confident and taking Steve\u0026rsquo;s word for gospel. They\u0026rsquo;re not doing any analysis or technical reviews of the transition. Rather, they believe the marketing hype otherwise known as \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc05/\"\u003ea keynote\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the primary concerns was the ability to run PowerPC software. This was addressed with a slick piece of software called \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/07/rosetta-is-not-a-magic-cure-all-or-the-death-of-classic/\"\u003eRosetta\u003c/a\u003e. Slick though it may be, it\u0026rsquo;s still emulation. In other words, it\u0026rsquo;s slow. To put that concern to rest, Steve told us it was \u003cem\u003efast enough\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cstrong\u003eFast enough?\u003c/strong\u003e What kind of vague bullshit is that? I can let that go because, as I said before, keynotes are marketing hype. What\u0026rsquo;s sickening is the way in which evangelists are parroting this as if it was the result of some kind of scientific study.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fast Enough"},{"content":"So, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I\u0026rsquo;ve finally gone ahead and ordered an Elgato EyeHome. Dealnews alerted me about a deal to get a D-Link 5-port switch for $10. That was a good deal, so I ordered it.\nNow, I\u0026rsquo;ve been looking for a good deal on a switch to attach to my DWL-G810 wireless bridge. Right now, it\u0026rsquo;s only attached to my Playstation 2. It only has a single ethernet port and because I\u0026rsquo;m too lazy to switch the cable over between the two devices.\nFor those not familiar, the EyeHome is a device that will facilitate the display of computer media onto a TV. In non-geek, that means you can play movies, TV shows, music, etc. on your TV without having to be near the computer. I can use my EyeTV (TiVo for my computer) which is upstairs to record things. Then I can send that data through the network to the EyeHome to display it on the TV.\nLook forward to a review when it arrives (that is if I\u0026rsquo;m not to busy using it).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/12/eyehome-coming-home/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I\u0026rsquo;ve finally gone ahead and ordered \u003ca href=\"http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyehome\"\u003ean Elgato EyeHome\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"http://www.dealnews.com\"\u003eDealnews\u003c/a\u003e alerted me about a deal to get a \u003ca href=\"http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1\u0026amp;pid=69\"\u003eD-Link 5-port switch\u003c/a\u003e for $10. That was a good deal, so I ordered it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, I\u0026rsquo;ve been looking for a good deal on a switch to attach to my \u003ca href=\"http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1\u0026amp;pid=241\"\u003eDWL-G810 wireless bridge\u003c/a\u003e. Right now, it\u0026rsquo;s only attached to my Playstation 2. It only has a single ethernet port and because I\u0026rsquo;m too lazy to switch the cable over between the two devices.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"EyeHome Coming Home"},{"content":"Hacking Netflix had an article on “the worst movie ever”. The article mentioned that Netflix carried the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version.\nI never thought of the possibility that Netflix had MST3K. But they do! In fact, they have a large selection (27 by my count) and they\u0026rsquo;re all in my queue now (which has reached triple digits in size). Does anyone else have the same desire to watch them all?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/09/netflix-has-mystery-science-theater-3000/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.hackingnetflix.com\"\u003eHacking Netflix\u003c/a\u003e had an \u003ca href=\"http://www.hackingnetflix.com/netflix/2005/06/the_worst_movie.html\"\u003earticle on “the worst movie ever”\u003c/a\u003e. The article mentioned that \u003ca href=\"http://netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e carried the \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70003577\u0026amp;mqso=60186664\u0026amp;trkid=129129\"\u003eMystery Science Theater 3000 version\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI never thought of the possibility that Netflix had MST3K. But they do! In fact, they have a large selection (27 by my count) and they\u0026rsquo;re all in my queue now (which has reached triple digits in size). Does anyone else have the same desire to watch them all?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Netflix has Mystery Science Theater 3000"},{"content":"Apple released Security Update 2005-006. I\u0026rsquo;m not going to do my breakdown this time as I\u0026rsquo;m pretty busy. However, Apple\u0026rsquo;s notes should be fairy self-explanatory.\nAFP Server\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1721\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: A buffer overflow in support for legacy clients could permit the running of arbitrary code. Description: The Mac OS X AFP Server supports a number of legacy clients. A buffer overflow in support for one of these clients could permit arbitrary code to run. This update modifies the AFP Server to correct this buffer overflow. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.4.\nAFP Server\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1720\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: On an AFP Server that uses an ACL-enabled volume for storage, copying a file with POSIX-only permissions can leave an ACL attached.\nDescription: When copying a local file to an AFP Server that is using an ACL-enabled volume for storage, a temporary ACL is attached to the remote object during the copy process. This ACL can be left behind if the file copy went into a directory that was not using ACLs. The ACL that is left behind could cause confusion, as it will override the POSIX file permissions for the file owner. The ACL does not permit other users to access the file. This update modifies the AFP Server so that it correctly removes the ACL that is used for copying the file. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.4.\nBluetooth\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1333\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1, Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9\nImpact: Directory traversal via Bluetooth object exchange\nDescription: Due to insufficient input checking, the Bluetooth object exchange services could be used to access files outside of the default file exchange directory. This update provides an additional security improvement over the previous release by adding enhanced filtering for path-delimiting characters. Credit to kf_lists[at]digitalmunition[dot]com for reporting this issue.\nCoreGraphics\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1722\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: Applications that use either PDFKit or CoreGraphics to render poorly-formed PDF documents could abort due to a NULL pointer dereference.\nDescription: If a poorly-formed PDF document is passed to PDFKit or CoreGraphics for rendering, the rending engine will detect an error and stop processing. As part of the cleanup process, a check for a NULL pointer is omitted. This omission can cause an application that handles PDF documents to abort, requiring that the application be restarted. CoreGraphics is updated to correctly handle the cleanup of poorly-formed PDF documents. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.4. Credit to Chris Evans for reporting this issue.\nCoreGraphics\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1726\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: Console users can gain root privileges.\nDescription: The CoreGraphics Window Server is updated to disallow unprivileged users from launching commands into root sessions. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.\nFolder Permissions\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1727\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: Potential file race condition via world- and group-writable permissions on two directories.\nDescription: Secure folder permissions are applied to protect the system\u0026rsquo;s cache folder and Dashboard system widgets. This exposure does not exist in systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4. Credit to Michael Haller at info@cilly.com for reporting this issue.\nlaunchd\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1725\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: The setuid program launchd can allow local privilege escalation.\nDescription: A vulnerability in launchd allows local users to gain ownership of arbitrary files. The launchd command is updated to safely change ownership of files. Credit to Neil Archibald of Suresec LTD for reporting this issue. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.\nLaunchServices\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1723\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: File extensions and mime types marked as unsafe but not mapped to an Apple UTI could bypass download safety checks.\nDescription: Mac OS X 10.4 contains a database of known unsafe file extensions and mime types. If an addition to the unsafe types database was made without a corresponding Apple UTI (Uniform Type Identifier), then a query on certain forms of the file extension or mime type would not be marked as unsafe. All entries in the current unsafe type database are mapped to an Apple UTI. This update corrects the query code to correctly identify unsafe file extensions and mime types regardless of the presence of an Apple UTI. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.4.\nMCX Client\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1728\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: Portable Home Directory credentials may be available to local system users.\nDescription: MCX Client is updated to not log portable home directory mounting credentials. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.4.\nNFS\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1724\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: An NFS export that\u0026rsquo;s restricted using -network and -mask flags will export to “everyone.”\nDescription: The use of -network and -mask on a filesystem listed in the NFS exports file would result in that filesystem being exported to “everyone.” This update modifies the NFS exporting code to correctly set the network and mask parameters. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.4.\nPHP\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0524, CAN-2005-0525, CAN-2005-1042, CAN-2005-1043\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1, Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X Server v10.3.9\nImpact: Multiple vulnerabilities in PHP, including remote denial of service and execution of arbitrary code.\nDescription: PHP is updated to version 4.3.11 to address several issues. The PHP release announcement for version 4.3.11 is located at http://www.php.net/release_4_3_11.php.\nVPN\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-1343\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.4.1, Mac OS X Server v10.4.1\nImpact: A local user can obtain root privileges if the system is being used as a VPN server.\nDescription: A buffer overflow in “vpnd” could be used by a local user to obtain root privileges if the system is configured as a VPN server. This issue does not occur on systems that are configured as a VPN client. This issue cannot be exploited remotely. This update prevents the buffer overflow from occurring. This issue was fixed for Mac OS X v10.3.9 via Security Update 2005-005. Credit to Pieter de Boer of the master SNB at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) for reporting this issue.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/08/security-update-2005-006-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple released \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301742\"\u003eSecurity Update 2005-006\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m not going to do my breakdown this time as I\u0026rsquo;m pretty busy. However, Apple\u0026rsquo;s notes should be fairy self-explanatory.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Security Update 2005-006 Released"},{"content":"You\u0026rsquo;re going to want to head down to your local newsstand if you\u0026rsquo;re not a subscriber to Macworld magazine. The July 2005 issue features an article written by yours truly (it\u0026rsquo;s the sidebar on page 46). It\u0026rsquo;s already been published online, but there\u0026rsquo;s nothing like a physical copy right in your hands.\nI plan on buying a couple copies so I can frame it as it\u0026rsquo;s my first published work. It\u0026rsquo;s quite an exciting day for me. Hopefully I can make this a more regular thing.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/08/get-those-scissors/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYou\u0026rsquo;re going to want to head down to your local newsstand if you\u0026rsquo;re not a subscriber to Macworld magazine. The July 2005 issue features an article written by yours truly (it\u0026rsquo;s the sidebar on page 46). It\u0026rsquo;s already been published online, but there\u0026rsquo;s nothing like a physical copy right in your hands.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI plan on buying a couple copies so I can frame it as it\u0026rsquo;s my first published work. It\u0026rsquo;s quite an exciting day for me. Hopefully I can make this a more regular thing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Get Those Scissors"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s not often that I can find fault with John Gruber of Daring Fireball. However, I think he may be downplaying some things in his latest entry Bombs Away. Considering all computer users are always looking towards their next purchase, the issue of when to buy is always paramount. He said:\nThis transition period is going to be hard on Apple, not hard on Mac users. If you?ve just purchased a machine recently, or need to buy one soon, you?re no worse off than you would have been if Apple had remained committed to producing new PowerPC hardware ? today?s machines would have been obsoleted by even-better machines next year no matter what processors they contained. And no one is abandoning PowerPC software development. I see no reason to expect Intel-only Mac software in the near future. Universal Binaries take full advantage of both Intel and PowerPC Macs. That?s worth repeating: Universal Binaries take full advantage of both Intel and PowerPC Macs.\nThis smacks a little bit of cheerleading. There\u0026rsquo;s nothing wrong with being optimistic, but when you\u0026rsquo;re over the top, you lose credibility. Luckily, I have none to begin with, so I don\u0026rsquo;t have that to worry about any of that. However, John does, so to see this kind of statement out of him is a little disconcerting. Let me highlight the portion that isn\u0026rsquo;t quite right in my judgment.\nUniversal Binaries take full advantage of both Intel and PowerPC Macs.\nBolding should drive my point home a little more. Universal binaries will run on both platforms. They will not necessarily take full advantage of those platforms. In order to take full advantage of both processor types, processor specific optimizations have to be implemented in both. Seeing as x86 is the future of the Mac, I fully expect developers to begin integrating SSE code when applicable. I\u0026rsquo;m sure Adobe is gearing up to transfer all that optimized code from their Windows version to the Mac version. The real concern is whether Altivec code will be developed anymore. Considering the limited shelf-life of PowerPC Macs, I don\u0026rsquo;t think so. Spending that extra development time for code that will soon be obsolete would be foolish because of a very low return on investment.\nThen there\u0026rsquo;s his other point.\nAnd no one is abandoning PowerPC software development. I see no reason to expect Intel-only Mac software in the near future.\nFor most classes of software I would expect this to be true. However, I foresee that Mac games (should companies still find profitability in it even after Macs gain the ability to dual-boot Windows) could very well start doing this next year. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t terribly long before games started requiring G5s. Add in absolutely astounding integer operation performance on Intel\u0026rsquo;s chips, and we\u0026rsquo;re looking at a recipe for Intel-only games.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s for these two reasons, the lack of PowerPC optimization or support at all, is enough to keep me from buying until I can get an Intel Mac to my liking. The same goes for everyone in my family and anyone that seeks my advice for future Mac purchases. There are extenuating circumstances for some, but for the majority of users, there is no reason to be so impatient as to not wait a year (which is not all that long). By waiting just a little bit, you can avoid getting locked out and ensure a long life for your new Mac.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/08/the-waiting-game/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s not often that I can find fault with John Gruber of \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net\"\u003eDaring Fireball\u003c/a\u003e. However, I think he may be downplaying some things in his latest entry \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2005/06/bombs_away\"\u003eBombs Away\u003c/a\u003e. Considering all computer users are always looking towards their next purchase, the issue of when to buy is always paramount. He said:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis transition period is going to be hard on Apple, not hard on Mac users. If you?ve just purchased a machine recently, or need to buy one soon, you?re no worse off than you would have been if Apple had remained committed to producing new PowerPC hardware ? today?s machines would have been obsoleted by even-better machines next year no matter what processors they contained. And no one is abandoning PowerPC software development. I see no reason to expect Intel-only Mac software in the near future. Universal Binaries take full advantage of both Intel and PowerPC Macs. That?s worth repeating: Universal Binaries take full advantage of both Intel and PowerPC Macs.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Waiting Game"},{"content":"One of the more overlooked aspects of the transition from PowerPC to Intel x86 CPUs is the effect it will have on the software you can run. I\u0026rsquo;ll be discussing this move and my take on it in a later article, but I think a subset of the transition strategy needs highlighting first.\nYou Won\u0026rsquo;t Feel a Thing Steve made the transition sound utterly painless. According to him, developers will have to do little more than recompile their cocoa software. But what about existing software? Rosetta is the answer proclaimed Steve. Processor emulation will make it all better. Now, for the time being, I\u0026rsquo;m willing to ignore the inevitable confirmed speed cost, but what about compatibility and functionality? The keynote seems to make it seem like all your old software will just work. Well, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t buying that, My suspicion was rewarded when I read Apple\u0026rsquo;s document on Universal Binaries.\nSide-effects Include Rather than make you sift through the document, I\u0026rsquo;ll cut to the chase and the all important section.\nRosetta is designed to translate currently shipping applications that run on a PowerPC with a G3 processor and that are built for Mac OS X.\nRosetta does not run the following:\nApplications built for Mac OS 8 or 9 Code written specifically for AltiVec Code that inserts preferences in the System Preferences pane Applications that require a G4 or G5 processor Applications that depend on one or more kernel extensions Kernel extensions Bundled Java applications or Java applications with JNI libraries that can?t be translated Classic, We Hardly Knew Ye Back up a second there. Did I copy and paste that right? Mac OS 8 and 9 applications will not be supported?\nThat\u0026rsquo;s right Mac fans, your copy of Office 98 is going to need replacement. That little gem that you could never find an OS X equivalent for? Yeah, that\u0026rsquo;s not making it to the new machines. If you can\u0026rsquo;t run those applications, what\u0026rsquo;s the point of Classic? There is none. It\u0026rsquo;s not so unrealistic to expect that Leopard, the next version of OS X won\u0026rsquo;t even include it. On the other hand, it may still include it for the PowerPC machines still left, but there\u0026rsquo;s a very real future with a version of OS X without Classic.\nThose that must use older applications: migrate or stockpile PowerPC machines. And you thought the loss of booting into OS 9 smarted.\nNo Panacea in Here Despite the ease and comfort with which Steve reassured everyone that running existing PowerPC software would not be an issue, as we can tell from the above list, that\u0026rsquo;s not the case. Let\u0026rsquo;s look at them point by point.\nCode written specifically for AltiVec Kiss all that optimization that Adobe put into Photoshop and their other applications goodbye. You\u0026rsquo;d better hope that the author made alternate unoptimized code. Code that inserts preferences in the System Preferences pane I\u0026rsquo;ve got at least half a dozen System Preferences panes from third-parties. That includes things like APE. Applications that require a G4 or G5 processor Check your software\u0026rsquo;s system requirements. If it says G4 or G5, you\u0026rsquo;ve likely got a problem. Some software does inflate its requirements to ensure a good experience, but much of it doesn\u0026rsquo;t. Any software that utilizes a feature specific to G4s and G5s (like Atlivec) is not going to work. Applications that depend on one or more kernel extensions Sidetrack, USB Overdrive, Intellipoint, Logitech Control Center, M-Audio Revolution drivers: they aren\u0026rsquo;t going to work without a recompile. Most hardware driver software includes some kind of kernel extension (SCSI cards, sound cards, some USB devices, etc.). Let\u0026rsquo;s not forget VPN software. Considering that some of those packages still don\u0026rsquo;t work in Tiger, we can probably expect months of no x86 Mac compatible VPN software. Bundled Java applications or Java applications with JNI libraries that can?t be translated Admittedly, I can\u0026rsquo;t come up with a good list of software that utilizes such packages, but I\u0026rsquo;m sure this will bite a few. I find it a little more than disturbing that many are already citing Rosetta as the solution to the problem of software not compiled for x86. It\u0026rsquo;s a nice (assuming the speed hit isn\u0026rsquo;t horrendous) band-aid, but that\u0026rsquo;s all. It can\u0026rsquo;t be relied on, nor can it be used in all situations. Users are still going to need some aspirin to dull transition pains.\nUpdate: Added link to Think Secret article on speed cost.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/07/rosetta-is-not-a-magic-cure-all-or-the-death-of-classic/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the more overlooked aspects of the transition from PowerPC to Intel x86 CPUs is the effect it will have on the software you can run. I\u0026rsquo;ll be discussing this move and my take on it in a later article, but I think a subset of the transition strategy needs highlighting first.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"you-wont-feel-a-thing\"\u003eYou Won\u0026rsquo;t Feel a Thing\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSteve made the transition sound utterly painless. According to him, developers will have to do little more than recompile their cocoa software. But what about existing software? Rosetta is the answer proclaimed Steve. Processor emulation will make it all better. Now, for the time being, I\u0026rsquo;m willing to ignore the \u003cs\u003einevitable\u003c/s\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0506intelxbench.html\"\u003econfirmed\u003c/a\u003e speed cost, but what about compatibility and functionality? The keynote seems to make it seem like all your old software will just work. Well, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t buying that, My suspicion was rewarded when I read Apple\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universal_binary/universal_binary.pdf\"\u003edocument on Universal Binaries\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rosetta is not a Magic Cure-All, or the Death of Classic"},{"content":"Well, I\u0026rsquo;m sure most everyone has read the CNet story on Apple switching Macs to Intel, the Wall Street Journal story, the Inquirer version, the Yahoo/AP version, or even the New York Times version.\nThe number of sources coming forward to confidently say that they are has turned even ardent disbelievers in the rumor, such as John Gruber, the other way (or maybe not). I\u0026rsquo;m personally in the “I think this is a load of crap” camp.\nSo, this will be repetitious, but let\u0026rsquo;s review what such a move would entail.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s first suppose that this is an architecture switch to x86. This is the wet dream of platform detractors that own a machine (self-hating Mac user) and the fair weather fan (fans of the platform but don\u0026rsquo;t own a single Mac).\nMac OS X would need to be made to run on x86. So what? yell the throngs in love with this idea, Darwin already runs on x86 (as if the Unix core of OS X really defines most of its being) and Project Marklar means that the whole thing already runs on it. That\u0026rsquo;s of course dependent upon Marklar being real and reliable.\nNo Mac software is compiled for x86 processors. The argument here is that developers can simply recompile, or Intel will come up with some kind of emulation.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s completely unrealistic to expect the former. Many Mac users are still heavily rely upon older software. If a program hasn\u0026rsquo;t been updated for Mac OS X, do you really think the developer is going to shell out for a compiler that would recompile that application for x86? Even worse, there is no such thing. Kiss all that old software goodbye.\nWhat about large existing software packages? Adobe is going to have to start distributing x86 versions of their software. Oh, and remember all that Altivec optimization they\u0026rsquo;ve done? It\u0026rsquo;s going to be totally useless and those sections will require major rewrites (read as months and months of no Adobe apps for x86 Macs).\nWe now have two different compilations. That\u0026rsquo;s a logistical nightmare. Imagine people asking for support asking why the Mac software they just downloaded won\u0026rsquo;t start. Well, that tech support person is going to have to explain that they probably downloaded the PowerPC version instead of the x86 version they should have downloaded. Do you really think that is going to woo the 98% that Apple would supposedly be going after? I don\u0026rsquo;t think so either. The answer then becomes some kind of “Fat” binary which contains both versions, bloating the size (doubling effectively) of Macs until some point at which the PowerPC machines will be deemed “unfit” to run software.\nPseudo Apple fans (as outlined above) are rubbing themselves raw because they think that this may lead to the ability to run Windows or Windows applications on Mac OS X. That would be a disaster, a total disaster. What motivation would be left for companies to develop Mac versions of their software anymore? None. Zero. Zilch. Rather than deal with the rather painful transition from PowerPC to x86 on Macs, they could just stop development and tell customers to use the Windows versions on their Mac. I don\u0026rsquo;t see any reason that Adobe, Quark, Microsoft, etc. wouldn\u0026rsquo;t go this route. Macs then lose huge portions of their selling point because all those fancy services that the Mac OS afforded applications would no longer be used. It would only be a matter of time before Apple became a digital media company (think iPod and iTunes Music Store) and nothing else.\nWell, what about putting an emulator into the chip or OS? Well, I think we all have seen the efficiency of emulating different processors (VirtualPC and PearPC anyone?). The question then becomes why couldn\u0026rsquo;t they do with the transition from 68k processors to PowerPC. One reason is the design of the chip. Going from a chip with few registers to many is significantly easier than vice versa. Further, PowerPC chips were monsters compared to 68k processors. They simply powered through the emulation. It won\u0026rsquo;t be that easy with this kind of transition and the performance hits are going horrendous.\nThe other possibility is that Intel is going to start making PowerPC chips (which is far more likely logistically). The problem here is that Intel hasn\u0026rsquo;t had the licensing to make a PowerPC chip (can Apple extend that license to them?), nor has it ever done the research and development for this kind of chip.\nOne theory is that they are jumping into PowerPC development because they want to woo game station makers with their wares (as pretty much all of the next generation consoles use PowerPC). That sounds more plausible than most theories.\nThat would be really expensive for Intel, and by natural extension, Apple. Industry experts already say that Intel\u0026rsquo;s chips are more expensive than what Freescale and IBM make, so how could this be a cost saving step on Apple\u0026rsquo;s part? Well, apparently tech news editors are sleeping at their desks because the price difference between PCs and Macs does not lie totally in the CPU. That kind of thinking is naive.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s going to happen tomorrow? I really don\u0026rsquo;t know, but like the Daring Fireball, my money would be on Intel making PowerPC chips (but I won\u0026rsquo;t be betting much).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/05/intel-chip-monday/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWell, I\u0026rsquo;m sure most everyone has read the \u003ca href=\"http://news.com.com/Apple+to+ditch+IBM,+switch+to+Intel+chips/2100-1006_3-5731398.html?tag=nefd.lede\"\u003eCNet story on Apple switching Macs to Intel\u003c/a\u003e, the Wall Street Journal story, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23714\"\u003eInquirer version\u003c/a\u003e, the \u003ca href=\"http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story\u0026amp;u=/ap/20050605/ap_on_hi_te/apple_chips_3\"\u003eYahoo/AP version\u003c/a\u003e, or even the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/technology/06apple.html?ex=1275710400\u0026amp;en=3fe62e771be44e02\u0026amp;ei=5090\u0026amp;partner=rssuserland\u0026amp;emc=rss\"\u003eNew York Times version\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe number of sources coming forward to confidently say that they are has turned even ardent disbelievers in the rumor, such as \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2005/05/intelmania\"\u003eJohn Gruber\u003c/a\u003e, the \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2005/06/see_you_intel\"\u003eother way\u003c/a\u003e (or \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2005/06/intel_apple_odds_and_ends\"\u003emaybe not\u003c/a\u003e). I\u0026rsquo;m personally in the “I think this is a load of crap” camp.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Intel Chip Monday"},{"content":"So I alluded to some problems I was having when combining Planet d00dism and Netflix‘s activity RSS feeds. However, based upon how the planet site currently looks, I overestimated the the effect that the deficiency in their feeds would pose.\nYou may notice that the first entries of Netflix are in a big clump. Obivously, all those movies didn\u0026rsquo;t go out and leave at the same time. This appears to have happened because Netflix doesn\u0026rsquo;t use the optional pubDate field of the RSS 2.0 format.\nNow, based upon that observation I guessed that anytime that feed changed, that Planet would bump them all to the top in a clump (which wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be what I wanted naturally). However, I was wrong. Planet seems to internally add and track dates of incoming items regardless of whether the feed itself supplies that data. So although Netflix is semantically wrong for not including the pubDate field, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/03/netflix-feed-problems-sort-of/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo I alluded to some problems I was having when combining \u003ca href=\"http://planet.godlikenerd.com\"\u003ePlanet d00dism\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e‘s activity RSS feeds. However, based upon how the planet site currently looks, I overestimated the the effect that the deficiency in their feeds would pose.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou may notice that the first entries of Netflix are in a big clump. Obivously, all those movies didn\u0026rsquo;t go out and leave at the same time. This appears to have happened because Netflix doesn\u0026rsquo;t use the optional pubDate field of the RSS 2.0 format.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Netflix Feed Problems, Sort Of"},{"content":"After thinking a lot about how to implement my own Erikkregator, Marshall recommended RSSMix. Now, that was an excellent suggestion. However, that only solves the problem of the RSS feed. I wanted to have a webpage to go along with it though.\nAt that point, if I was going to be programming with an RSS parsing library, I might as well be mixing my own RSS feed. That sounded extremely painful though. That\u0026rsquo;s why I was glad to come across a slick piece of software called Planet.\nThey describe their software as:\nPlanet is a flexible feed aggregator. It downloads news feeds published by web sites and aggregates their content together into a single combined feed, latest news first.\nIt uses Mark Pilgrim\u0026rsquo;s Universal Feed Parser to read from RDF, RSS and Atom feeds; and Tomas Styblo\u0026rsquo;s templating engine to output static files in any format you can dream up.\nThis software will take a series of feeds, and combine them into web pages and feeds. You can template any kind of output you can dream up. Now, I had seen the software used at Planet WordPress, but based on what I\u0026rsquo;d seen, it didn\u0026rsquo;t look like there were any feeds. They neither linked them or put the appropriate tags into the head. There\u0026rsquo;s no way to tell there are feeds (if there are in fact any).\nWell, I set it up for my very own Planet d00dism. Check it out. It\u0026rsquo;s still not quite ready for primetime. I need to make the feeds more easily available as well as give it my own special visual touch. Yeah, it\u0026rsquo;ll probably look like ass, but it\u0026rsquo;ll look like my ass (which is bootylicious). I also ran into a little problem with Netflix\u0026rsquo;s activity feed. I\u0026rsquo;ll save an in-depth discussion of that and its solution for a later entry though.\nTune in later, same bat page, same bat feed.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/06/02/planet-d00dism/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter thinking a lot about how to implement my own \u003ca href=\"http://hello.erikbenson.com/\"\u003eErikkregator\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://marshallk.blogspot.com\"\u003eMarshall\u003c/a\u003e recommended \u003ca href=\"http://www.rssmix.com\"\u003eRSSMix\u003c/a\u003e. Now, that was an excellent suggestion. However, that only solves the problem of the RSS feed. I wanted to have a webpage to go along with it though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt that point, if I was going to be programming with an RSS parsing library, I might as well be mixing my own RSS feed. That sounded extremely painful though. That\u0026rsquo;s why I was glad to come across a slick piece of software called \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetplanet.org/\"\u003ePlanet\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Planet d00dism"},{"content":"So my good friend Allison invited me to her house in Worcester for a cookout. Good times. I went home in a good mood.\nThe next morning, mother woke me up. Did you get in an accident last night? she asked. Now, I didn\u0026rsquo;t remember an accident. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t that out of it. It made me wake with a start though.\nIt turns out that while I was parked on that side street in Worcester, someone managed to hit my car. This is the 4th time it\u0026rsquo;s been hit while it was stationary. Line right up ladies and gentlemen. See the car that only gets dented when not in motion.\nThis means that I won\u0026rsquo;t be able to go anywhere while it\u0026rsquo;s in the shop. No softball games. That\u0026rsquo;s depressing. It also means that I\u0026rsquo;m likely to spend my $500 deductible because some jackass in a stupid SUV couldn\u0026rsquo;t judge the size of his vehicle.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/31/hit-and-run/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo my good friend Allison invited me to her house in Worcester for a cookout. Good times. I went home in a good mood.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe next morning, mother woke me up. \u003cem\u003eDid you get in an accident last night?\u003c/em\u003e she asked. Now, I didn\u0026rsquo;t remember an accident. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t that out of it. It made me wake with a start though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt turns out that while I was parked on that side street in Worcester, someone managed to hit my car. This is the 4th time it\u0026rsquo;s been hit while it was stationary. Line right up ladies and gentlemen. See the car that only gets dented when not in motion.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hit and Run"},{"content":"Growl is an awesome piece of freeware that supplies a universal event notification system. Sounds complicated, but basically, it gives applications alternate ways to tell you things.\nOne of the new features in the 0.7 version is the ability to send these events to networked computers via Bon Jour. For example, let\u0026rsquo;s say you have a downloading application that issues events upon completion. However, you kicked that download off at your desktop and you want to use your laptop. You don\u0026rsquo;t want to babysit your desktop to know when it reached completion.\nWith Growl now, you can designate that messages on your desktop are sent to your laptop. That\u0026rsquo;s wicked cool. However, what happens if you designate your laptop to get your desktop\u0026rsquo;s events and vice versa? You get an endless loop. Imagine two kids playing catch. The desktop passes the event to the laptop. Then the laptop passes it back. Lather, rinse, repeat.\nWell, unlike real kids, Growl doesn\u0026rsquo;t get bored playing catch. It keeps going forever and ever. This gets old really fast. At any rate, until this is fixed, try to avoid loops with Growl network notifications.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/27/growl-0.7-and-the-endless-loop/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://growl.info\"\u003eGrowl\u003c/a\u003e is an awesome piece of freeware that supplies a universal event notification system. Sounds complicated, but basically, it gives applications alternate ways to tell you things.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the new features in the 0.7 version is the ability to send these events to networked computers via Bon Jour. For example, let\u0026rsquo;s say you have a downloading application that issues events upon completion. However, you kicked that download off at your desktop and you want to use your laptop. You don\u0026rsquo;t want to babysit your desktop to know when it reached completion.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Growl 0.7 and the Endless Loop"},{"content":"I just couldn\u0026rsquo;t resist posting up this piece of spam.\nSubject: please call me Frank\nFrom: “Glenn” azjuoyjxqjhm@aanda.datanet.hu\nHi.,\nWould you like at least $1500.00 to $3500.00 per day just for returning phone calls? I do! If you have a telephone and can return calls you are fully qualified for this program.\nThank you,\nJohanna\nOkay, so which name should I use when I call the number?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/25/wait-who-are-you-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just couldn\u0026rsquo;t resist posting up this piece of spam.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSubject:\u003c/strong\u003e please call me Frank\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom:\u003c/strong\u003e “Glenn” \u003ca href=\"mailto:azjuoyjxqjhm@aanda.datanet.hu\"\u003eazjuoyjxqjhm@aanda.datanet.hu\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHi.,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWould you like at least $1500.00 to $3500.00 per day just for returning phone calls? I do! If you have a telephone and can return calls you are fully qualified for this program.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank you,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohanna\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOkay, so which name should I use when I call the number?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Wait, Who Are You Again?"},{"content":"One of the neatest things I\u0026rsquo;ve found lately is the proliferation of websites to manage aspects of your life publicly. Seeing as I\u0026rsquo;m not totally privacy paranoid, it\u0026rsquo;s a fun hobby. I recently discovered All Consuming which was created by Erik Benson. It\u0026rsquo;s a neat way to track books, music, and movies that you\u0026rsquo;re reading, listening to, and watching respectively.\nRobot Co-op, the company that runs 43 Things, bought it up. This means that the two services will soon be intertwined. 43 Things is one of the sources on Tag Central but unfortunately All Consuming is not because they don\u0026rsquo;t supply RSS feed for their tags. Hopefully that will change.\nErik also does a very neat thing with his site. He collects all his data from many sites into a single place using Bloglines. It\u0026rsquo;s ultra-slick. I almost do this with Feedburner, collecting my Flickr and Del.icio.us data into the feed. However, at press time, they still don\u0026rsquo;t allow addition of arbitrary RSS feeds, which is really disappointing. I think I\u0026rsquo;ll start an aggregation a la Erik\u0026rsquo;s site sometime soon so I don\u0026rsquo;t feel pressed to publish all the time. I\u0026rsquo;ll keep you updated.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/25/all-consuming-consumed-by-43-things/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the neatest things I\u0026rsquo;ve found lately is the proliferation of websites to manage aspects of your life publicly. Seeing as I\u0026rsquo;m not totally privacy paranoid, it\u0026rsquo;s a fun hobby. I recently discovered \u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net\"\u003eAll Consuming\u003c/a\u003e which was created by \u003ca href=\"http://www.erikbenson.com\"\u003eErik Benson\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a neat way to track books, music, and movies that you\u0026rsquo;re reading, listening to, and watching respectively.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.robotcoop.com\"\u003eRobot Co-op\u003c/a\u003e, the company that runs \u003ca href=\"http://43things.com\"\u003e43 Things\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://robotcoop.com/weblog/72/\"\u003ebought it up\u003c/a\u003e. This means that the two services will soon be intertwined. 43 Things is one of the sources on \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e but unfortunately All Consuming is not because they don\u0026rsquo;t supply RSS feed for their tags. Hopefully that will change.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"All Consuming Consumed by 43 Things"},{"content":"I got home really late last night. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t because of anything even mildly exciting. Rather, my left front tire decided to die. I noticed a slow leak lately (like a couple PSI over a couple weeks) but it decided to shit the bed yesterday.\nI stopped at a gas station near work. Guess what. It was broken. I put 75 cents into a broken air pump. That flipped my Hulk rage switch. I had to put the donut on the car and drive home.\nUgh.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/25/changing-tires/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI got home really late last night. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t because of anything even mildly exciting. Rather, my left front tire decided to die. I noticed a slow leak lately (like a couple PSI over a couple weeks) but it decided to shit the bed yesterday.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI stopped at a gas station near work. Guess what. It was broken. I put 75 cents into a broken air pump. That flipped my Hulk rage switch. I had to put the donut on the car and drive home.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Changing Tires"},{"content":"Today has yielded two news items from Apple. One is wild speculation. The other is real news. Let\u0026rsquo;s start with the real news.\niTunes Podcast Support Steve Jobs, at D: All Things Digital Conference, announced that iTunes 4.9 will have Podcasting support. iTunes will allow you to subscribe Podcast RSS feeds and automatically download the song files into your library. The update is due within 60 days.\nIn the meantime, I\u0026rsquo;ll still use NetNewsWire (and I may do so after). Apple adding this is almost trivial now that they have the Safari RSS backbone to use. The question in my mind is whether Apple will try to integrate a bittorrent client. I find podcast feeds that distribute using Bittorrent exceedingly irritating. Currently, the only feed that I subscribe to that does this is This Week in Tech. Ok, ok, so they probably have the largest listening audience out of any podcast, but having to screw around with Bittorrent completely defeats the purpose of podcasts (they\u0026rsquo;re delivered automatically without user intervention).\nMacs to Use Intel Microprocessors The annual (or is it bi-annual now?) rumor that Apple is thinking of going to Intel processors is back. According to the AP (via ABC News), Apple is in talks with Intel to put their microprocessors into Macs. Naturally, not understanding why this is highly improbable and costly even if it were to happen, the stock market jumped at the news. Yes, these are the same people that cause stock prices to go down shortly after a company posted higher than expected profits.\nWall Street was cheered by the Apple report as such a change could be the biggest shift in the Mac\u0026rsquo;s makeup since it came out in 1984 and could make the machines less expensive.\nGeez. People read and believe this crap. God forbid that the AP do some actual research. Several things would be necessary for this move to take place.\nFirst, Apple would need to maintain two versions of Mac OS X (in order to deal with the architecture differences). It\u0026rsquo;s not like that would be expensive. Nah. Imagine two codebases and making sure that any fixes applied to one works with the other.\nTwo, Apple would need to get developers to recompile their old apps for x86 and either distribute in a fat format (combined PowerPC and x86) or two separate versions. The former option would be space heavy and the latter is simply confusing. That sounds fabulous. That also assuming that Apple could get developers to go along with this and even if all active developers do, what about all those old gems that haven\u0026rsquo;t been updated for a long time? Users of the new x86 machines wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be able run them. That is unless Apple bundled an emulator (there\u0026rsquo;s more cost).\nThree, related to the above, Apple would need to get developers to optimize their applications using Altivec and x86 specific chip features. I\u0026rsquo;m sure Adobe is chomping at the bit to do that. Programs that use low level bit manipulation are going to require major rewrites. Where do I sign up?\nDespite those three facts, Wall Street thinks this will make Macs less expensive. Pass the pipe boys, cause that\u0026rsquo;s some good shit.\nThe only way for Apple to avoid all that and use Intel would be if Intel suddenly started developing PowerPC chips despite never having shown motivation to do so before. Even if they did, does anyone really think that Intel will be able to cheaply research, develop, and manufacture PowerPC chips starting from scratch with no prior experience? That\u0026rsquo;s even more laughable!\nSomeone must feel at least a little bit embarressed about publishing this over at the Associated Press. At least I hope. Maybe it\u0026rsquo;s time someone looked into making a syndicated tech news service because existing services are falling down onto their collective ass.\nUpdate: Matt Deatherage thinks it\u0026rsquo;s a load of crap too.\nUpdate: So does John Gruber.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/23/apple-news-doubleshot/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eToday has yielded two news items from Apple. One is \u003cstrong\u003ewild\u003c/strong\u003e speculation. The other is real news. Let\u0026rsquo;s start with the real news.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"itunes-podcast-support\"\u003eiTunes Podcast Support\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSteve Jobs, at D: All Things Digital Conference, announced that iTunes 4.9 will have Podcasting support. iTunes will allow you to subscribe Podcast RSS feeds and automatically download the song files into your library. The update is due within 60 days.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, I\u0026rsquo;ll still use NetNewsWire (and I may do so after). Apple adding this is almost trivial now that they have the Safari RSS backbone to use. The question in my mind is whether Apple will try to integrate a bittorrent client. I find podcast feeds that distribute using Bittorrent exceedingly irritating. Currently, the only feed that I subscribe to that does this is \u003ca href=\"http://thisweekintech.com\"\u003eThis Week in Tech\u003c/a\u003e. Ok, ok, so they probably have the largest listening audience out of any podcast, but having to screw around with Bittorrent completely defeats the purpose of podcasts (they\u0026rsquo;re delivered automatically without user intervention).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple News Doubleshot"},{"content":"I added my Feedburner feed to the site\u0026rsquo;s header to make it more easily accessible to users. Firefox users get to see the entire list of feeds. Safari users are less blessed. They can only click the singular RSS button in the location bar.\nAccording to Apple, Safari uses the Atom Feed Autodiscovery standard.\nWhen Safari displays a web page, Safari RSS looks in the HEAD element for a LINK tag that points to an Atom or RSS feed. The schema for these links is fairly standard and is supported by most news readers. It is described on page 40 of O\u0026rsquo;Reilly\u0026rsquo;s Content Syndication With RSS, and in Mark Pilgrim\u0026rsquo;s draft document on Atom Feed Autodiscovery.\nBecause Safari doesn\u0026rsquo;t list all the sources, it must adhere to the rule dealing with the single feed exception.\nClients who wish to choose exactly one feed without user input SHOULD choose the one pointed to by the first autodiscovery element.\nNow take a look at the source code for this site. In particular, the link tags in the head.\n\u0026lt;link rel=\u0026quot;alternate\u0026quot; type=\u0026quot;application/rss+xml\u0026quot; title=\u0026quot;Feedburner Feed\u0026quot; href=\u0026quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/godlikenerd\u0026quot; /\u0026gt; \u0026lt;link rel=\u0026quot;alternate\u0026quot; type=\u0026quot;application/rss+xml title=\u0026quot;RSS 2.0\u0026quot; href=\u0026quot;http://godlikenerd.com/feed/\u0026quot; /\u0026gt; \u0026lt;link rel=\u0026quot;alternate\u0026quot; type=\u0026quot;text/xml\u0026quot; title=\u0026quot;RSS .92\u0026quot; href=\u0026quot;http://godlikenerd.com/feed/rss/\u0026quot; /\u0026gt; \u0026lt;link rel=\u0026quot;alternate\u0026quot; type=\u0026quot;application/atom+xml\u0026quot; title=\u0026quot;Atom 0.3\u0026quot; href=\u0026quot;http://godlikenerd.com/feed/atom/\u0026quot; /\u0026gt; Note, first comes the Feedburner feed. The very last feed is the Atom version. Guess which version Safari will look at. It chooses the last one! That\u0026rsquo;s not right.\nAll right, well, what happens when you take out the Atom version? One would think that maybe Safari would do something consistent like use the RSS 0.92 version because it\u0026rsquo;s last. No dice. Then it decides to try the Feedburner feed.\nWhat is this magical order based on? As best as I can tell, Safari sorts based upon the type and then by appearance order in the file. In other words, Atom feeds get precedence over RSS. If I change the type of the Feedburner feed to Atom (which is wrong), then Safari chooses that feed.\nBad! This takes away the publisher\u0026rsquo;s control over the primary feed. Apple isn\u0026rsquo;t adhering to the standard that they point to. Short of using semantically incorrect markup to force Safari to pick the Feedburner feed (which I will not do), I can\u0026rsquo;t make an RSS feed the primary feed if an Atom feed is available.\nNow, as I interpret the Autodiscovery document, I would call this behavior in conflict and incorrect. However, as it is called “Atom Feed Autodiscovery”, did Apple choose to interpret that only Atom feeds can be part of the standard and that any checking for RSS feeds must only happen if no Atom feeds are available? It\u0026rsquo;s conceivable, but without getting a look at O\u0026rsquo;Reilly\u0026rsquo;s Content Syndication with RSS (page 40), I can\u0026rsquo;t be sure what their rationale is. Perhaps that book outlines some behavior for multiple feed types that\u0026rsquo;s not covered in Mark Pilgrim\u0026rsquo;s document.\nIf someone out there knows what the O\u0026rsquo;Reilly book says, please let me know. Otherwise, this behavior is going to drive me insane. It\u0026rsquo;s taking away my control.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/19/safari-rss-autodiscovery-sucks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI added my \u003ca href=\"http://www.feedburner.com\"\u003eFeedburner\u003c/a\u003e feed to the site\u0026rsquo;s header to make it more easily accessible to users. Firefox users get to see the entire list of feeds. Safari users are less blessed. They can only click the singular RSS button in the location bar.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to \u003ca href=\"http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/InternetWeb/SafariRSS.html\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e, Safari uses the \u003ca href=\"http://diveintomark.org/rfc/draft-pilgrim-atom-autodiscovery-02.html\"\u003eAtom Feed Autodiscovery standard\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Safari displays a web page, Safari RSS looks in the HEAD element for a LINK tag that points to an Atom or RSS feed. The schema for these links is fairly standard and is supported by most news readers. It is described on page 40 of O\u0026rsquo;Reilly\u0026rsquo;s Content Syndication With RSS, and in Mark Pilgrim\u0026rsquo;s draft document on Atom Feed Autodiscovery.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Safari RSS Autodiscovery Sucks"},{"content":"I had to take this quiz because Henry took it. I expected to be classified as KING NERD (the highest rating), but I failed miserably. How can I possibly continue using this domain? It\u0026rsquo;s no longer appropriate.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/19/no-one-will-believe-this/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI had to take \u003ca href=\"http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php?im\"\u003ethis quiz\u003c/a\u003e because \u003ca href=\"http://www.hbusby.com/?p=138\"\u003eHenry took it\u003c/a\u003e. I expected to be classified as \u003cstrong\u003eKING NERD\u003c/strong\u003e (the highest rating), but I failed miserably. How can I possibly continue using this domain? It\u0026rsquo;s no longer appropriate.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_nq.php?im\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"I am nerdier than 76% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http://www.nerdtests.com/images/ft/nq.php?val=8729\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"No One Will Believe This"},{"content":"Apple has released Mac OS X 10.4.1, the first update to Tiger.\nIn addition to the improvements below, Apple has fixed the Widget exploit that had so many panties in a twist. In fact, they implmented the fix exactly as I would have, by adding a confirmation dialog when downloading.\nStraight from Apple, the improvements are:\nMail and Address Book When typing immediately after clicking Reply in a Mail message, all characters typed before the Reply window appeared should now appear in the window. In Mail, opening an attached Pages document could lead to an unexpected “Name of document may contain an application” alert—this update addresses the issue. Sometimes Address Book subgroups (groups within groups) might not sync correctly during .Mac syncing—this update addresses the issue. Addresses an issue in which Mail might unexpectedly quit after pasting a large graphic into a message and then typing text just before the graphic. When deleting text in a Mail message window, sometimes some of the undeleted text could unexpectedly move to the beginning of the message—this update resolves the issue. This update prevents a second unnecessary horizontal scroll bar from appearing in a Mail message. Addresses an issue in Mail in which an entire line of text could be inadvertently deleted when deleting a link at the end of the line. Resolves a potential issue in which Mail could unexpectedly quit, stop responding, or fail to import your previous emails if third-party software were installed in a ~/Library/Mail/Bundles or /Library/Mail/Bundles—this update prevents previously-installed plug-ins from loading. (Click here for more information.) Updates Mail to handle IMAP prefix paths that start with “/” better. Dashboard widgets Improves Dashboard widget compatibility with third-party mice with scroll wheels, and also for PowerBook G4 computers that feature trackpad scrolling. You can choose from three font sizes in the Dictionary widget after installing this update (regular, large, and extra-large)—click the “i” button to access the Font size pop-up menu. .Mac, iSync, and syncing Addresses an issue for .Mac syncing in which the alert “cannot login to the .Mac sync server” could unexpectedly appear when clicking the Sync tab in .Mac preferences. You can now add a Motorola V180 mobile phone in iSync 2.0 with this update. Improves iSync 2.0 compatibility for Motorola V551 mobile phones. With this update, the default option for the first sync for a mobile phone added to iSync 2.0 is now “Merge data on computer and device,” though the “Erase data on device then sync” option is still available if you need it. (Click here for more information.) This update allows you to register a computer for .Mac whose name (in Sharing preferences) contains an ampersand (“\u0026amp;”). Safari, iLife, and other applications With this update, Safari no longer unexpectedly quits when Control-clicking (or right-clicking with a multi-button mouse) some kinds of PDFs or graphics within a Safari window. Addresses an issue where iPhoto could unexpectedly quit. iDVD no longer quits unexpectedly when hiding it while burning a DVD or saving a disc image. (Click here for more information.) With this update, DVD Player no longer unexpectedly quits when opening if Turkish, Central European (Czech, Polish, Hungarian), Cyrillic (Russian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian), or Greek is the primary Mac OS X language in International preferences. With some printers, when printing a PDF webpage file that had been saved from Safari (with the Safari printing option “Print webpage information in headers and footers” deselected), only a gray bar would print—this update addresses the issue. This update addresses an issue in which text in a TextEdit document with lists could disappear (even though it really hadn\u0026rsquo;t). (Click here for more information.) Addresses an issue in which iCal could unexpectedly quit after you receive an iCal invitation in Mail (and the invitation doesn\u0026rsquo;t appear in iCal). Improves compatibility for Dreamweaver MX 2004 when double-clicking results of an XML validation, and when using “Launch \u0026amp; Optimize” with Fireworks MX 2004. Users who subscribed to iCal calendars with long names or special characters, and that were published under Mac OS X 10.3 before upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4, will now see changes made in calendars under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Includes reliability and compatibility improvements for Motion 2.0. (Click here for more information.) Other enhancements When using the FileVault secure erase feature, the progress window now states “Deleting old Home folder” when securely deleting files from their original location (instead of “Unmounting FileVault”). Note that this option may take a while to complete, during which you shouldn\u0026rsquo;t force-restart your Mac. (Click here for more information.) Improves security by disallowing files, applications, and webpages from being opened at the password prompt that appears when waking from sleep or stopping a screen saver (which can be enabled in Security preferences). Addresses issues that could, in certain situations, prevent you from opening (mounting) a disk image that\u0026rsquo;s shared by a different computer (in /Network). Improves menu scrolling behavior for third-party mice with scroll wheels, and also for PowerBook G4 computers that feature trackpad scrolling. Addresses an issue in which clicking a Help button or choosing an item from the Help menu would take you to the main page of the application\u0026rsquo;s Help content, instead of a more relevant page. Some third-party wireless DHCP servers might not provide an IP address to a computer through AirPort if the computer has a long computer name—this update addresses the issue. Resolves a potential issue that could occur when moving from one access point to another within the same wireless network—the IP address could have been lost and not restored unless the DHCP lease was renewed or the computer put to sleep and then awakened. Improves reliability when using the Active Directory plug-in. Improves the Mac OS X 10.4 Keyboard Setup Assistant. ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/17/mac-os-x-10.4.1-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple has released Mac OS X 10.4.1, the first update to \u003cem\u003eTiger\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to the improvements below, Apple has fixed the \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/11/widget-panic/\"\u003eWidget exploit\u003c/a\u003e that had so many panties in a twist. In fact, they implmented the fix exactly as I would have, by adding a confirmation dialog when downloading.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.4.1 Released"},{"content":"People that are big into blogging will recognize Dave Winer as a hugely important figure. However, like many great people, he suffers from an ego problem.\nWired ran an interview by Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing fame with Adam Curry, famous for various reasons, but currently because of the wildly popular Daily Source Code podcast.\nIn response to which, Dave Winer threw a fit. You know when people are taking the mature approach to an issue when they say things like:\nAt some point he\u0026rsquo;s going to need some friends, and then I\u0026rsquo;m going to kick him in the ass, and then look him in the eye and say “Shouldn\u0026rsquo;t have lied so much, dickhead.”\nLovely and eloquent. The last time I called someone a dickhead was… let me check my calendar… 3rd grade?\nAdam took the ball and ran with it in his latest podcast. Needless to say, it was a slam dunk. Xeni even tried to placate Dave. She clarified (as Adam did as well) that Adam did give Dave credit, but it simply got cut due to article focus and length. It was nothing nefarious.\nBetter than leave it alone, Dave felt compelled to respond again. The complete lack of maturity on his part is simply astounding. It\u0026rsquo;s hard to believe that someone so instrumental in the blogging and podcasting communities can\u0026rsquo;t check his ego at the door and look at things for what they really are.\nAnyway, Adam does take credit for work he didn\u0026rsquo;t do. You might want to check on that Xeni, it might be more interesting than the cookie-cutter bullshit puff piece you just wrote.\nRather than substantiating his claim about Adam being a glory hog (pot, meet kettle), he decides to take a cheap shot at Xeni. In fact, he seems to completely drop his original beef that Adam was taking all the credit in the interview. That\u0026rsquo;s telling.\nEdit: Let\u0026rsquo;s not forget him throwing another fit at a lecture on civility. Yes, the irony is thick.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/17/dave-winer-an-appropriate-name/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePeople that are big into blogging will recognize \u003ca href=\"http://archive.scripting.com\"\u003eDave Winer\u003c/a\u003e as a hugely important figure. However, like many great people, he suffers from an ego problem.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWired ran \u003ca href=\"http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67525,00.html\"\u003ean interview\u003c/a\u003e by Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing fame with Adam Curry, famous for various reasons, but currently because of the wildly popular \u003ca href=\"http://dailysourcecode.com\"\u003eDaily Source Code podcast\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn response to which, Dave Winer \u003ca href=\"http://archive.scripting.com/2005/05/14#When:8:02:28AM\"\u003ethrew a fit\u003c/a\u003e. You know when people are taking the mature approach to an issue when they say things like:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Dave Winer, an Appropriate Name"},{"content":"I recently added a link into the supplement about AOL giving free email to AIM users. I saw Slashdot cover the same story and one comment gave information about how to access it. Naturally I had to try it out for myself.\nNow, as far as I\u0026rsquo;m concerned, Gmail has the ultimate interface (I still have plenty of invites if you want one). So honestly, my expectations for AOL\u0026rsquo;s new mail service weren\u0026rsquo;t that great. However, the question is if it\u0026rsquo;s better or worse than the other webmail providers, such as Yahoo or HoTMaiL.\nFrom my preliminary testing, I think AOL has done a decent job with its interface. My preference for webmail services now ranks as Gmail, AIM Mail, Yahoo! Mail, and then HoTMaiL. Now, I\u0026rsquo;m definitely not trying to bash Microsoft for no reason. Let\u0026rsquo;s be honest. HoTMaiL sucks. Its interface is complex and yet, has less functionality than any other provider.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll start by telling you how you can try this out for yourself because most everyone I know already has an AIM screenname. Go to http://mail.aol.com and type in your username and password. That brings you to the main mail screen. Your email address will be _screenname_@aim.com (not aol.com, that\u0026rsquo;s important).\nIt\u0026rsquo;s nice and clean. Now, the most complicated part of a web interface (and the one you\u0026rsquo;re most likely to work the most in) is the sending part. AOL covers all the important parts well. It will auto-complete addresses you\u0026rsquo;ve sent to before or are in your address book, warn of spelling errors (without having to load a series of pages), and will confirm the send.\nReceiving the message in Mail.app immediately revealed a bad element to the new service. Like Yahoo, AOL stamps all messages you send out with a plug at the bottom of the email. The message as I received it with the test message was:\nCheck out AIM Mail – Now you can also use your AIM Screen Name as your aim.com email address.\nThis drives me insane as a receiver. I don\u0026rsquo;t want to see that because I shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be paying for the sender\u0026rsquo;s use of the service by looking at advertising. As a sender I don\u0026rsquo;t like it because I\u0026rsquo;m not told about this and it also means that they are doctoring my email messages. Given it\u0026rsquo;s just a footer, but I don\u0026rsquo;t like it.\nReceived messages are displayed in a standard way.\nNow, a while back, AOL opened up external mail access for its users via IMAP. Unfortunately, my attempts to do so failed. For now, you\u0026rsquo;ll have to access your mail either through the web, or through their new beta Triton client. Unfortunately, I can\u0026rsquo;t confirm that as the current beta still lacks the ability to be installed when behind a proxy (which is why I despise downloading installers; it\u0026rsquo;s obnoxious).\nSo, if you\u0026rsquo;re still looking for a free webmail address and have some aversion to Gmail (perhaps because you\u0026rsquo;re paranoid to the point of living in a shack in the woods), you have yet another decent option.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/14/new-aim-mail/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI recently added a link into the supplement about \u003ca href=\"http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AOL_FREE_E_MAIL?SITE=APWEB\u0026amp;SECTION=HOME\u0026amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT\"\u003eAOL giving free email to AIM users\u003c/a\u003e. I saw Slashdot cover the same story and one comment gave information about how to access it. Naturally I had to try it out for myself.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, as far as I\u0026rsquo;m concerned, \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003eGmail\u003c/a\u003e has the ultimate interface (I still have plenty of invites if you want one). So honestly, my expectations for AOL\u0026rsquo;s new mail service weren\u0026rsquo;t that great. However, the question is if it\u0026rsquo;s better or worse than the other webmail providers, such as \u003ca href=\"http://www.yahoo.com\"\u003eYahoo\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"http://www.hotmail.com\"\u003eHoTMaiL\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New AIM Mail"},{"content":" Tigger with a New Necklace Originally uploaded by d00d. My cat loses fights against inanimate objects. How embarressing is that? There are lots more pictures like this one, so check it out. ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/13/tigger-with-a-new-necklace/","summary":"\u003cdiv style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"\u003e\n  \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/d00d/13762335/\" title=\"photo sharing\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://photos12.flickr.com/13762335_6365a23936_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: solid 2px #000000;\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e \u003cbr /\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;\"\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/d00d/13762335/\"\u003eTigger with a New Necklace\u003c/a\u003e \u003cbr /\u003e Originally uploaded by \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/people/d00d/\"\u003ed00d\u003c/a\u003e. \u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy cat loses fights against inanimate objects. How embarressing is that? There are lots more pictures like this one, so check it out. \u003cbr clear=\"all\" /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tigger with a New Necklace"},{"content":"Tiger users can user Jabber usernames with iChat AV 3.0. What\u0026rsquo;s the point of that? Well, AOL can\u0026rsquo;t listen in on you for one. Second, it\u0026rsquo;s decentralized. Should AOL go belly up, we\u0026rsquo;d all be fairly screwed. With Jabber, a single service provider can go down or disappear and everyone else can keep jabbering.\nJabber also allows for chat gateways. For example, you can talk to MSN users through it. Melvin Rivera has written an excellent tutorial to get this set up.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re like me though, using a server in the Czech Republic isn\u0026rsquo;t settling. Besides, it\u0026rsquo;s a little hard to remember. You\u0026rsquo;ll be pleased to know that you can get an @godlikenerd.com username. All you have to do is contact me through the comments or the contact form.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/13/want-a-jabber-screenname/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTiger users can user Jabber usernames with iChat AV 3.0. What\u0026rsquo;s the point of that? Well, AOL can\u0026rsquo;t listen in on you for one. Second, it\u0026rsquo;s decentralized. Should AOL go belly up, we\u0026rsquo;d all be fairly screwed. With Jabber, a single service provider can go down or disappear and everyone else can keep jabbering.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJabber also allows for chat gateways. For example, you can talk to MSN users through it. Melvin Rivera has written \u003ca href=\"http://allforces.com/2005/05/06/ichat-to-msn-through-jabber/\"\u003ean excellent tutorial\u003c/a\u003e to get this set up.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Want a Jabber Screenname?"},{"content":"Time for me to brag a little. During my softball game on Tuesday night, I got on base every time I came to bat. I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about just one or two at-bats. I was up four times. One was a triple with two or three RBIs.\nOf course, my fielding is still weak-ass, but I\u0026rsquo;ll sweep that under the rug.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/13/batting-1000/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTime for me to brag a little. During my softball game on Tuesday night, I got on base every time I came to bat. I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about just one or two at-bats. I was up four times. One was a triple with two or three RBIs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, my fielding is still weak-ass, but I\u0026rsquo;ll sweep that under the rug.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Batting 1,000"},{"content":"No doubt by now you\u0026rsquo;ve heard about the Widget security issue. Thankfully, most of the Mac news sites have been fairly even-handed in their reporting. This hasn\u0026rsquo;t stopped from others on the net from proclaiming this the end of Mac security and that it\u0026rsquo;s no better than Windows (lots of hyperbole, not much substance). I\u0026rsquo;ve seen bits and pieces of information on this, but nothing that totally consolidates it yet. The MacCentral article linked probably has the best overview, but I\u0026rsquo;d like to break it down a little differently.\nThe Risks The risks involved with running an untrusted Dashboard widget is significant. We\u0026rsquo;re not talking about just launching URLs or displaying naughty pictures. The API for Dashboard includes ammenties such as running command-line programs. This includes rm (deletes files) and open (can launch applications and open files). They also have access to AppleScript. The most frightening aspect is being able to utilize the command-line by far.\nThis is not to say that giving widgets this capability is inherintly bad. All applications have these capabilities and with good reason. It makes the possibilities nearly endless. However, it also means that I could write a widget that would initiate the command rm -Rf ~/*, which would destroy your entire user folder and all the associated data. Ouch. The damage is limited to files that you have write access to, thankfully.\nThis possibility goes to further reinforce the hard rule that one must not use root as their primary login. Unfortunately, too many users (mainly OS 9 diehards) think it\u0026rsquo;s a clever idea to use it to “avoid permissions problems”. Sure, you can edit, read, and delete any file you want, but it also means something else. Any program you run can also do so. What does that mean? A malicious widget could run “rm -Rf /*” and destroy your entire drive (possibly even wipe out your external disks). This is why we have permissions and users. It\u0026rsquo;s not something to take lightly. So like drugs, if someone tells you to use the root login for normal use, just say no.\nSaving Grace While a web page can easily install a widget without your consent, this doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean your system is compromised. A widget does not run until you drag a widget out of the drawer. This is an informal confirmation of whether you want the widget to run or not. So don\u0026rsquo;t drag anything out of your drawer that you don\u0026rsquo;t recognize.\nAn Ounce of Prevention There\u0026rsquo;s a couple of ways to prevent auto-install. The easiest is to simply turn off Safari\u0026rsquo;s auto-open feature. The harder version is to change the permissions for the various widget folders (outlined later) to prevent writing to them. This will allow you to leave auto-open on, but prevent widget auto-install.\nDigging Out If you have widgets installed against your will that you would like to remove, you\u0026rsquo;ll either need Widget Manager (free, but donations encouraged) or manually remove them. Widgets are stored in Library folders. Like all files that lives in the Library, there is a series of places they can exist: user local (~/Library/), system local (/Library/), network (in the Library folder inside Network), or stock (/System/Library/). Most users need only look in the first two. Inside those Library folders, a folder named “Widgets” may appear (if not, none are installed). One can manually delete widgets from these locations.\nDruthers If I were in charge of how to fix this issue at Apple, the fix would be simple. Add a confirmation dialog when widgets are being downloaded and installed (much like Apple has now when a disk image or archive contains an application). Allow the user to allow automatic install, allow download (for manual installation), or cancel entirely. At that point, anything that happens because of a malicious widget is the fault of the user. Apple\u0026rsquo;s hands are clean.\nHyperbole All that said, maybe we can cut out the ridiculous suggestions that Mac OS X is no more secure than Windows. This security issue is contigent upon user actually invoking the widget, relegating this to Trojan status, which ultimately is a user mistake. I think we can all rest a little easier knowing that it isn\u0026rsquo;t as serious as some would like to suggest.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/11/widget-panic/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNo doubt by now you\u0026rsquo;ve heard about the \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/05/09/dashboard/index.php\"\u003eWidget security issue\u003c/a\u003e. Thankfully, most of the Mac news sites have been fairly even-handed in their reporting. This hasn\u0026rsquo;t stopped from others on the net from proclaiming this the end of Mac security and that it\u0026rsquo;s no better than Windows (lots of hyperbole, not much substance). I\u0026rsquo;ve seen bits and pieces of information on this, but nothing that totally consolidates it yet. The MacCentral article linked probably has the best overview, but I\u0026rsquo;d like to break it down a little differently.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Widget Panic"},{"content":"I wasn\u0026rsquo;t expecting to go to even a single game this year and now I\u0026rsquo;ve gone to two. I saw the first game of the double header against the Seattle Mariners today with my father.\nI know it was Mother\u0026rsquo;s Day. Hush. The game was supposed to be last night but it got rained out. Also, dad was the one that got the tickets, so taking them a second time to see a game with someone else didn\u0026rsquo;t seem appropriate.\nAt any rate, the single greatest high point of the game was not the fact that we won. Nor was it that the tickets were for the grand stand. No, the best part was that Bellhorn was out most of the game.\nNow if only it was permanent.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/08/my-second-red-sox-game/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI wasn\u0026rsquo;t expecting to go to even a single game this year and now I\u0026rsquo;ve gone to two. I saw the first game of the double header against the Seattle Mariners today with my father.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI know it was Mother\u0026rsquo;s Day. Hush. The game was supposed to be last night but it got rained out. Also, dad was the one that got the tickets, so taking them a second time to see a game with someone else didn\u0026rsquo;t seem appropriate.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Second Red Sox Game"},{"content":"The first of my series of posts on Tiger\u0026rsquo;s new features finally begins tonight with Spotlight. This post is somewhat long because of the pictures that I decided to include. As such, most of the article is in the extended section. At the same time, those pictures actually make it fun to read even for the not so geeky, so definitely take a look.\nThere Can Be Only One (Menu) Spotlight has gotten a lot of press in the Mac media. This is because it has such an overreaching effect on the whole operating system. Apple has integrated into into most of its applications and supplied a way for other developers to utilize it.\nHowever, in order for people to take notice, there needed to be a figurehead presentation to focus people in on. Apple does this with its features that it needs to make the user base embrace. It works, but it has a bad side effect. It makes people think that the feature is only the shiny thing that Apple presents to get people\u0026rsquo;s attention.\nOh well. For Spotlight, the shiny thing is the menu. It\u0026rsquo;s always there in the menu bar all the way to the right.\nThis menu can be invoked either by clicking it open or pressing command-space, which can be a boon because your hands don\u0026rsquo;t need to leave the keyboard. There\u0026rsquo;s all kinds of neat things you put into a query, including “or” by putting in a | character or enclosing in “(-notwanted)” as seen below to make sure they aren\u0026rsquo;t in the results.\nSpotlight Everywhere As I\u0026rsquo;ve already mentioned, Spotlight is pervasive. Rather than try to list everywhere Apple has integrated it, taking a look at a couple examples.\nFirst, we have the Finder\u0026rsquo;s Smart Folders. If you have a particular search that you run regularly or you create a lot of temporary folders to emulate those searches, this is for you. You create a new smart folder, specify the attributes, click save, and save it where you want. You can then open this anytime and have live updating contents. Slick.\nNext, the featured use is System Preferences, which has a really slick graphical effect that corresponds with Spotlight\u0026rsquo;s name. A spotlight will shine onto the primary search result and diffused spotlights will shine on the secondary results. Extremely pretty and functional.\nConfiguration, That Sounds Dirty Spotlight has its own section in System Preferences. From there you can order the types in results windows. You can also specify certain locations as off limits under “Privacy”. Now, before you start getting all hot and bothered with visions of dirty letters and images, it can also be used to filter out sensitive financial data as well as directories that contain a lot of nonsense data that might add a lot of noise to your results (such as programming examples).\nA Horse of a Different Color To be honest, I was than impressed when Apple introduced Tiger and Spotlight. It looked like but yet another LaunchBar clone. It\u0026rsquo;s both more and less.\nMore in that Spotlight is much more extensible through metadata and a way for developers to let their data get indexed easily. Developers can also tap into this power.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s less in that Spotlight doesn\u0026rsquo;t allow for approximate matching (typing “sp” doesn\u0026rsquo;t yield System Preferences), nor does it allow for definition of search engines as LaunchBar does.\nI can actually see LaunchBar using Spotlight\u0026rsquo;s database and searching capabilities as its own backbone in future versions, the best of both worlds. If you use LaunchBar, Butler, or QuickSilver now, chances are you\u0026rsquo;ll keep using those utilities. There\u0026rsquo;s plenty of life in them yet, and Spotlight only serves to strengthen them should their respective developers take that opportunity.\nAs for me, I\u0026rsquo;ll certainly appreciate its uses as smart folders, etc. and as a tool to collect a list of results fitting certain criteria, but it\u0026rsquo;s no launcher in my book.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/08/spotlight/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe first of my series of posts on Tiger\u0026rsquo;s new features finally begins tonight with Spotlight. This post is somewhat long because of the pictures that I decided to include. As such, most of the article is in the extended section. At the same time, those pictures actually make it fun to read even for the not so geeky, so definitely take a look.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Spotlight"},{"content":"When I took a screenshot of Safari\u0026rsquo;s contextual menu last night, I expected that it would be output as a PDF (the default format in Panther). I also wanted to take the opportunity to try out the Flickr upload widget that I mentioned before (which is terribly slick). I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure that Flickr supported PDF, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d have to convert the screenshot file. Much to my surprise, it was formatted as a PNG file. With that, I just went ahead and uploaded it (and it seems to have worked perfectly).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/05/screenshot-format-default-changed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen I took a screenshot of Safari\u0026rsquo;s contextual menu last night, I expected that it would be output as a PDF (the default format in Panther). I also wanted to take the opportunity to try out the \u003ca href=\"http://zooibaai.nl/archives/2005/05/01/of-design-mac-and-flickr/\"\u003eFlickr upload widget\u003c/a\u003e that I mentioned before (which is terribly slick). I wasn\u0026rsquo;t sure that Flickr supported PDF, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d have to convert the screenshot file. Much to my surprise, it was formatted as a PNG file. With that, I just went ahead and uploaded it (and it seems to have worked perfectly).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Screenshot Format Default Changed"},{"content":"I don\u0026rsquo;t think I\u0026rsquo;m the only one using a Mac that has become really accustomed to using context menus. Until I started using gestures to operate my web browser, I would regularly use the context menu to move back (because clicking the back button is really inconvenient).\nSafari continually jerked me around by being the only browser that didn\u0026rsquo;t have back and forward options. It\u0026rsquo;s one of the most common functions. This finally changed in Tiger and Safari 2.0.\nThank you Apple.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/04/minor-safari-2.0-observation/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t think I\u0026rsquo;m the only one using a Mac that has become really accustomed to using context menus. Until I started using gestures to operate my web browser, I would regularly use the context menu to move back (because clicking the back button is really inconvenient).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSafari continually jerked me around by being \u003cem\u003ethe only browser\u003c/em\u003e that didn\u0026rsquo;t have back and forward options. It\u0026rsquo;s one of the most common functions. This finally changed in Tiger and Safari 2.0.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Minor Safari 2.0 Observation"},{"content":"From a buddy\u0026rsquo;s away message:\nEven my boogers are spicy.\nWho else is having seconds?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/04/tasty/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFrom a buddy\u0026rsquo;s away message:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven my boogers are spicy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWho else is having seconds?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tasty"},{"content":"I promised a feature review last night and between a not so great commute, reinstalling software, and upgrading the Pismo, I never got around to playing with Spotlight, nevermind take screenshots or write it up.\nIn fact, I barely had time to catch House. I\u0026rsquo;d promise to get around to it tonight, but I have a softball game, some email regarding getting my own place to reply to, and a W-9 to fill out.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/04/ok-i-lied/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI promised a feature review last night and between a not so great commute, reinstalling software, and upgrading the Pismo, I never got around to playing with Spotlight, nevermind take screenshots or write it up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn fact, I barely had time to catch \u003ca href=\"http://www.fox.com/house/\"\u003eHouse\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;d promise to get around to it tonight, but I have a softball game, some email regarding getting my own place to reply to, and a W-9 to fill out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"OK, I Lied"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve got Mac OS X Tiger installed on the 12″ Powerbook and the MDD G4 Powermac. Let me tell you, it\u0026rsquo;s awesome. It\u0026rsquo;s fast and even more multitasking capable (if that\u0026rsquo;s even really possible). I have a few quick thoughts this morning. I\u0026rsquo;ll have a much more complete analysis of Spotlight tonight.\nSpotlight may be more like LaunchBar than I originally thought. It served as a decent replacement until I got LaunchBar installed. However, it isn\u0026rsquo;t quite the same because it groups by kind and it doesn\u0026rsquo;t indicate location. That\u0026rsquo;s bad because when I do a search for a certain application, Spotlight is currently bringing up duplicates that exist on my Panther backup.\nDashboard looks great. The Flickr picture upload widget will likely make documenting features in the coming days completely trivial. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to play with it some more to see how much it actually helps me.\n.Mac Sync was an immediate boon. I set up my email accounts on the Powerbook and upon finishing installation on the Powermac, it magically had those email accounts configured and ready. I no longer have to worry about maintaining two independent sets of rules (which is extremely painful). This could fast become my favorite feature.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s all I\u0026rsquo;ve got for now.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/03/tiger-installed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve got \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/\"\u003eMac OS X Tiger\u003c/a\u003e installed on the 12″ Powerbook and the MDD G4 Powermac. Let me tell you, it\u0026rsquo;s awesome. It\u0026rsquo;s fast and even more multitasking capable (if that\u0026rsquo;s even really possible). I have a few quick thoughts this morning. I\u0026rsquo;ll have a much more complete analysis of \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/spotlight/\"\u003eSpotlight\u003c/a\u003e tonight.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/spotlight/\"\u003eSpotlight\u003c/a\u003e may be more like LaunchBar than I originally thought. It served as a decent replacement until I got LaunchBar installed. However, it isn\u0026rsquo;t quite the same because it groups by kind and \u003cstrong\u003eit doesn\u0026rsquo;t indicate location.\u003c/strong\u003e That\u0026rsquo;s bad because when I do a search for a certain application, Spotlight is currently bringing up duplicates that exist on my Panther backup.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tiger Installed"},{"content":"Okay, so the title for this entry would have been much cooler if Tiger were arriving tomorrow. Tiger Tuesday! I could have had fame and fortune. Instead, I\u0026rsquo;ll have Tiger one day earlier and be a nobody.\nAnyway, posting won\u0026rsquo;t be on the agenda tonight. I hope to cover one Tiger feature a day. The order I cover those features is still up in there air though. Any of you out there interested in seeing my take on a particular feature first, please leave a comment. I plan on taking a lot of screenshots because no one can get enough.\nMy informal list of features to cover is:\nDashboard Spotlight Safari RSS (I\u0026rsquo;ll probably be sticking with NetNewsWire, but I\u0026rsquo;ll give Safari a whirl) Automator .Mac Sync Mail Core API stuff if I can find apps that show them off I think of particular note on Apple\u0026rsquo;s Mac OS X page is the sidebar region of the page. It has a running listing of new plugins for Tiger\u0026rsquo;s new technologies. This is further reinforcement that Apple wanted to aim this release at developers heavily. While some users may see little value at first, six months down the road, we won\u0026rsquo;t know how we lived without it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/05/02/tiger-monday/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOkay, so the title for this entry would have been much cooler if Tiger were arriving tomorrow. \u003cem\u003eTiger Tuesday!\u003c/em\u003e I could have had fame and fortune. Instead, I\u0026rsquo;ll have Tiger one day earlier and be a nobody.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnyway, posting won\u0026rsquo;t be on the agenda tonight. I hope to cover one Tiger feature a day. The order I cover those features is still up in there air though. Any of you out there interested in seeing my take on a particular feature first, please leave a comment. I plan on taking a lot of screenshots because no one can get enough.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tiger… Monday?"},{"content":"After 4+ years of using the same awful phone, I\u0026rsquo;ve finally moved into the 21st century. I no longer have the classic Saved by the Bell cell phone, pictured below.\nEveryone in my family got their phone upgraded to the LG VX3200. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty basic (no camera or bluetooth), but it\u0026rsquo;s a lot lighter and smaller than the old phone. It\u0026rsquo;s also flip style, which is much better than the older style.\nNo more blushing when I reach to pull my phone out of my pocket in mixed company.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/30/goodbye-my-sweet-brick/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter 4+ years of using the same awful phone, I\u0026rsquo;ve finally moved into the 21st century. I no longer have the classic Saved by the Bell cell phone, pictured below.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/d00d/11705164/\" title=\"Photo Sharing\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://photos6.flickr.com/11705164_e5b82bea3c_t.jpg\" width=\"75\" height=\"100\" alt=\"The Brick\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEveryone in my family got their phone upgraded to the LG VX3200. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty basic (no camera or bluetooth), but it\u0026rsquo;s a lot lighter and smaller than the old phone. It\u0026rsquo;s also flip style, which is much better than the older style.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Goodbye My Sweet Brick"},{"content":"My sadness quickly turned into rage last night because I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have my toy this weekend. I read at several places, including Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums that if you didn\u0026rsquo;t get your copy of Tiger on time, you could call Apple to get one of three things for free.\niLife \u0026lsquo;05 iWork $30 Apple Store coupon Finding this out, I called up and they promptly offered me iLife \u0026lsquo;05. I didn\u0026rsquo;t hear him offer the other two options, but personally, I didn\u0026rsquo;t care as that was what I wanted anyway.\nSo, for any of you disenchanted Apple fans that expected your copy on Friday and didn\u0026rsquo;t get it, call Apple up and see if you can collect on some free stuff.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/30/tiger-frustration-alleviation/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy sadness quickly turned into rage last night because I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have my toy this weekend. I read at several places, including Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums that if you didn\u0026rsquo;t get your copy of Tiger on time, you could call Apple to get one of three things for free.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiLife \u0026lsquo;05\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiWork\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e$30 Apple Store coupon\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinding this out, I called up and they promptly offered me iLife \u0026lsquo;05. I didn\u0026rsquo;t hear him offer the other two options, but personally, I didn\u0026rsquo;t care as that was what I wanted anyway.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tiger Frustration Alleviation"},{"content":"I was riding on cloud 9 last night. Today was supposed to be a great day. My day was supposed to be wake up at 9, see some houses at 11, then come home and relax before Tiger arrived late afternoon or in the evening.\nEverything went according to plan… except for the last part. My copy of Mac OS X Tiger got delayed for delivery by Apple. I could have driven to an Apple Store to get it, but nooooo, I had to tell Apple ahead of time that I wanted a copy. Rookie mistake apparently.\nAs a result, the series I was going to do on Tiger will be delayed and I get to stew in my sad juices.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/29/im-officially-depressed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI was riding on cloud 9 last night. Today was supposed to be a great day. My day was supposed to be wake up at 9, see some houses at 11, then come home and relax before Tiger arrived late afternoon or in the evening.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEverything went according to plan… except for the last part. My copy of Mac OS X Tiger got delayed for delivery by Apple. I could have driven to an Apple Store to get it, but \u003cem\u003enooooo\u003c/em\u003e, I had to tell Apple ahead of time that I wanted a copy. Rookie mistake apparently.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm Officially Depressed"},{"content":"During a round of service adding last night, I figured out a way to differentiate between no results and an error. That\u0026rsquo;s good because now users will know when they\u0026rsquo;ll have to visit the source itself to see the results. The worst error offender by far is Technorati. Probably the majority of the tags will come up with an error message. You can then run their feed through the feed validator and witness for yourself the problem.\nYou\u0026rsquo;ll probably see some red question marks in a see of asian characters. Many, many people submit blog entries in a foreign language. Really, they are a large part of the problem. Probably what bugs me most is that these entries are in that foreign language, but tag them in English. How does that make any sense?? I\u0026rsquo;ll let that go, but that means the responsibility then lands squarely on the feed publisher\u0026rsquo;s head to ensure that when they publish a feed encoded with UTF-8, it is UTF-8. If they don\u0026rsquo;t, it will break many RSS parsers (including MagpieRSS, which I use). It makes me look incompetent even though it\u0026rsquo;s their mistake.\nI may have to amend the error message to reflect this. Something along the lines of Sorry, a request or processing error occurred. Most likely the source has invalid characters in their feed. Please contact them if this bothers you.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/28/damnit-technorati/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDuring a round of service adding last night, I figured out a way to differentiate between no results and an error. That\u0026rsquo;s good because now users will know when they\u0026rsquo;ll have to visit the source itself to see the results. The worst error offender by far is \u003ca href=\"http://technorati.com\"\u003eTechnorati\u003c/a\u003e. Probably the majority of the tags will come up with an error message. You can then run their feed through the \u003ca href=\"\"\u003efeed validator\u003c/a\u003e and witness for yourself the problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Damnit Technorati"},{"content":"Activity Follow what I\u0026rsquo;m doing all around the web. RSS feeds of this activity is provided if possible. Below is a small sampling.\nRecent Activity Read even more at Planet d00dism.\n43 Things: Work for Apple Blog Supplemental: Fixing “Copy Address” in Mail on 10.6 Blog Supplemental: Mac worm Blog Supplemental: H\u0026R Block Goofs on Its Own Taxes Blog Supplemental: Hack your own WiFi web radio boombox Blog Supplemental: Calista Flockhart might be Gollum Blog Supplemental: Slashdot | New Secure IM Client from NTT Due this Year Blog Supplemental: $121,900 House Gets $8 Million Tax Bill Blog Supplemental: Inappropriate Responses Blog Supplemental: fastr - a flickr game Blog Supplemental: NETGEAR Skype Phone All Consuming: A story about \"Mezmerize\" All Consuming: A story about \"We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)\" All Consuming: A story about \"Cool Hand Luke\" All Consuming: A story about \"Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel\" All Consuming: A story about \"Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition\" All Consuming: A story about \"Hotel Rwanda\" All Consuming: A story about \"The Da Vinci Code\" All Consuming: A story about \"Leave a Whisper\" All Consuming: A story about \"Kalifornia\" All Consuming: A story about \"Ocean's Twelve\" All Consuming: A story about \"13 Conversations About One Thing\" Netflix: Shipped: A Good Old Fashioned Orgy Netflix: Received: Our Idiot Brother Netflix: Shipped: Priest Netflix: Received: The Change-Up Netflix: Received: Hanna Twitter: d00d: Screw you movie industry and your dummy menu items that tell me to buy the full movie. There's a reason people hate you. Twitter: d00d: Power outage killed my Belkin UPS. Replacement UPS suggestions for a 2006 Mac Pro? Twitter: d00d: @rudyrichter You still looking for someone to take a shot at reworking the GrowlMail prefs? ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/activity/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"activity\"\u003eActivity\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollow what I\u0026rsquo;m doing all around the web. RSS feeds of this activity is provided if possible. Below is a small sampling.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"recent-activity-xml-feed\"\u003eRecent Activity \u003ca href=\"http://planet.godlikenerd.com/rss20.xml\" title=\"XML Feed for my recent activity online\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"XML Feed\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/buttons/xml.gif\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead even more at \u003ca href=\"http://planet.godlikenerd.com\"\u003ePlanet d00dism\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul id=\"recent-activity\"\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.43things.com/things/view/1802\" title=\"Derik DeLong adopted this goal\"\u003e43 Things: Work for Apple\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://macdaddyworld.com/2009/09/14/fixing-copy-address-in-mail-on-10-6/\" title=\"Clearly an 'Improvement'.  Jeebus Apple.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: Fixing “Copy Address” in Mail on 10.6\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.jocgeek.com/html/techtalk.html\" title=\"Putz of last week.  The article is rife with errors and comes to a dubious, moronic solution.  The guy's site has a splash screen, need I say more?\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: Mac worm\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://rss.slashdot.org/slashdot/eqWf?m=3927\" title=\"Ooops.  Glad I used Turbotax.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: H\u0026R Block Goofs on Its Own Taxes\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/24/hack-your-own-wifi-web-radio-boombox/#comments\" title=\"Very cool.  I want to make one.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: Hack your own WiFi web radio boombox\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.thesuperficial.com/archives/2006/02/10/calista_flockhart_looks_really.html\" title=\"Wow, just wow.  That's terrible.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: Calista Flockhart might be Gollum\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/11/1516225\u0026from=rss\" title=\"And the world yawned.  Jabber and Sametime have had this from the beginning.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: Slashdot | New Secure IM Client from NTT Due this Year\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060210122809990006\u0026ncid=NWS00010000000001\" title=\"It seems to me, that's not quite right.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: $121,900 House Gets $8 Million Tax Bill\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/01/inappropriate_r.html\" title=\"I constantly say 'Good, and you?' even if I asked first.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: Inappropriate Responses\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://randomchaos.com/games/fastr/\" title=\"Another terrific time waster.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: fastr - a flickr game\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://tools.netgear.com/skype/\" title=\"All it needs is a WiFi connection?  Now this will give Skype some momentum.\"\u003eBlog Supplemental: NETGEAR Skype Phone\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/8842\" title=\"Mezmerizeby System of a DownPretty weak album overall.  It's extremely short and the songs generally don't offer anything new or particularly good.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Mezmerize\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/8220\" title=\"We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)by Randall WallaceThe movie has some good moments, but it dragged a lot in the middle.  It's simply not as good as some others.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"We Were Soldiers (Widescreen Edition)\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/8186\" title=\"Cool Hand LukeThis movie is the very embodiement of the classic genre.  I don't think there's a single bad thing I can say.  I'm also now convinced that Paul Newman is the man.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Cool Hand Luke\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/301\" title=\"Everything Is Illuminated: A Novelby Jonathan Safran FoerBest book I ever read.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/300\" title=\"Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Editionby Dave ThomasThe writing style of this book is both informative and interesting, being neither boring or overly comical.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/299\" title=\"Hotel Rwandaby Terry GeorgeIf you're ok with a really serious movie, check this one out.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Hotel Rwanda\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/298\" title=\"The Da Vinci Codeby Dan BrownI'm about halfway through the book.  It's starting to get pretty interesting but still seems to suffer from trying to plod the reader along with a carrot.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"The Da Vinci Code\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/297\" title=\"Leave a Whisperby ShinedownTo be honest, the acoustic tracks that are part of the bonus section are the best.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Leave a Whisper\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/296\" title=\"KaliforniaBrad Pitt should never do that awful, awful southern accent again.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Kalifornia\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/295\" title=\"Ocean's Twelveby Steven SoderberghI really liked Ocean's Eleven, but I had a problem paying attention through the film.  It felt like just more of the same.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"Ocean's Twelve\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/294\" title=\"13 Conversations About One ThingAnother Netflix selection that I had high hopes for.  Unfortunately, it didn't do all that much for me.  I barely paid attention.\"\u003eAll Consuming: A story about \"13 Conversations About One Thing\"\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/Movie/A-Good-Old-Fashioned-Orgy/70117584\" title=\"Shipped on 01/06/12.When his father opts to sell the family vacation house in the Hamptons, a sophomoric 30-year-old (Jason Sudeikis) realizes the home's tradition of summer parties will soon end. So he decides to go out with a bang -- with many bangs, actually -- by throwing an orgy. Enlisting the \"\u003eNetflix: Shipped: A Good Old Fashioned Orgy\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Our-Idiot-Brother/70167133\" title=\"Received on 01/06/12. Go to http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Our-Idiot-Brother/70167133 to rate it.\"\u003eNetflix: Received: Our Idiot Brother\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Priest/70126979\" title=\"Shipped on 12/31/11.In this horror-thriller based on the popular comic book series, Paul Bettany plays Priest, a man-of-the-cloth hell-bent on rescuing his niece while taking down a horde of rampaging vampires in the process. With a terrific cast that includes Karl Urban, Maggie Q, Christopher Plumm\"\u003eNetflix: Shipped: Priest\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Change-Up/70184053\" title=\"Received on 12/31/11. Go to http://www.netflix.com/Movie/The-Change-Up/70184053 to rate it.\"\u003eNetflix: Received: The Change-Up\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Hanna/70142823\" title=\"Received on 12/31/11. Go to http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Hanna/70142823 to rate it.\"\u003eNetflix: Received: Hanna\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://twitter.com/d00d/statuses/152171754121469953\" title=\"d00d: Screw you movie industry and your dummy menu items that tell me to buy the full movie. There's a reason people hate you.\"\u003eTwitter: d00d: Screw you movie industry and your dummy menu items that tell me to buy the full movie. There's a reason people hate you.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://twitter.com/d00d/statuses/131144816020041728\" title=\"d00d: Power outage killed my Belkin UPS.  Replacement UPS suggestions for a 2006 Mac Pro?\"\u003eTwitter: d00d: Power outage killed my Belkin UPS. Replacement UPS suggestions for a 2006 Mac Pro?\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003cspan class=\"rssLinkListItemTitle\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://twitter.com/d00d/statuses/129378172381839360\" title=\"d00d: @rudyrichter You still looking for someone to take a shot at reworking the GrowlMail prefs?\"\u003eTwitter: d00d: @rudyrichter You still looking for someone to take a shot at reworking the GrowlMail prefs?\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Activity"},{"content":"The transition from iPowerweb to Dreamhost is complete. I got an email from iPowerweb telling me that they were happy to renew my subscription to their service for another year. Well, considering I\u0026rsquo;d already migrated the site I thought that might be a little silly. I had to call them and let them know that they were fired.\nAs I sat there on the phone listening to muzak, I went over how this conversation would go in my head. I figured that they might ask why and I thought that I\u0026rsquo;d just mention all my issues from last summer. I\u0026rsquo;m not an unreasonable person, but after having to explain to their brain dead staff half a dozen times that my problem was not an inherent problem in WordPress or any of the plugins I was using with it. If their attitude was going to be that the problem was that I didn\u0026rsquo;t use their provided software, I knew I\u0026rsquo;d be having a problem.\nI woke from my reverie and told the representative that I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to renew and that I was canceling my account with them. May I ask why? I heard her say. For some inexplicable reason, a flood of reasons emerged.\nSupport problems from last summer Poor performance No SFTP support POP only accounts (no IMAP) No shell access The number of databases is limited Space allotment was jacked for new subscribers but mine stayed the same They lacked the features of other hosts I managed to restrict myself to the first five, but I couldn\u0026rsquo;t control myself. I felt like kicking them while they were down. Maybe it was payback for being treated like a child last summer (and having to make simple test cases to prove that they were the children). After I said a few and I could hear her typing furiously in the background, I felt bad. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t her fault. It still felt so good. It was like spitting in the greeter\u0026rsquo;s face after waiting for half an hour in line at Wal-Mart. Take that old man!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/26/cancellation-satisfaction/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe transition from \u003ca href=\"http://www.ipowerweb.com\"\u003eiPowerweb\u003c/a\u003e to \u003ca href=\"http://dreamhost.com\"\u003eDreamhost\u003c/a\u003e is complete. I got an email from iPowerweb telling me that they were happy to renew my subscription to their service for another year. Well, considering I\u0026rsquo;d already migrated the site I thought that might be a little silly. I had to call them and let them know that they were fired.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs I sat there on the phone listening to muzak, I went over how this conversation would go in my head. I figured that they might ask why and I thought that I\u0026rsquo;d just mention all my issues from last summer. I\u0026rsquo;m not an unreasonable person, but after having to explain to their brain dead staff half a dozen times that my problem was not an inherent problem in \u003ca href=\"http://wpsecurity.org/\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e or any of the plugins I was using with it. If their attitude was going to be that the problem was that I didn\u0026rsquo;t use their provided software, I knew I\u0026rsquo;d be having a problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cancellation Satisfaction"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;d like to congratulate LowEndMac on moving into the era of modern web page code, using XHTML and CSS. I guess my old criticism about their website (in reference to them judging the state of web browsers in OS 9) will have to fade into the background, but considering that they recognized that iCab was deficient (putting it kindly):\nOn the down side, pages may not work as well in older browsers once we fully implement our CSS design. And iCab really shows its noncompliance. But with 98-99% of our visitors using modern browsers, we figured it was time to make the switch.\nIt does validate my claim that iCab is indeed not a modern browser, but I\u0026rsquo;ll stick that feather in my cap and call it a day.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/25/lowendmac-moves-moves-into-the-21st-century/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;d like to congratulate \u003ca href=\"http://lowendmac.com\"\u003eLowEndMac\u003c/a\u003e on moving into the era of modern web page code, using XHTML and CSS. I guess my old criticism about their website (in reference to them judging the state of web browsers in OS 9) will have to fade into the background, but considering that they recognized that iCab was deficient (putting it kindly):\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the down side, pages may not work as well in older browsers once we fully implement our CSS design. And iCab really shows its noncompliance. But with 98-99% of our visitors using modern browsers, we figured it was time to make the switch.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"LowEndMac Moves Moves into the 21st Century"},{"content":"I took a couple hours, learned PHP\u0026rsquo;s objects and redesigned Tag Central so that all the information for the sources could be stored in a big array object. Now it\u0026rsquo;s trivial for me to add a new source, so I can start adding all those sources that everyone submitted. I may started restricting the number of results per source to a smaller number (such as I have done with BlogMarks) to avoid unsightly white space and making the page utterly huge.\nI made the formatting for describing new sources very easy, so I\u0026rsquo;ll be adding a new submission form for people to submit source information (so I don\u0026rsquo;t have to look it up myself).\nI\u0026rsquo;m only a few steps short of using database to track all this data which will make managing the site even easier for me.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/23/redesigned-back-end/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI took a couple hours, learned PHP\u0026rsquo;s objects and redesigned \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e so that all the information for the sources could be stored in a big array object. Now it\u0026rsquo;s trivial for me to add a new source, so I can start adding all those sources that everyone submitted. I may started restricting the number of results per source to a smaller number (such as I have done with BlogMarks) to avoid unsightly white space and making the page utterly huge.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Redesigned Back End"},{"content":"Peter Parkes reskinned Tag Central using PithHelmet and a custom CSS file. I think it looks simply Sensual as he put it.\nI like it so much in fact that I\u0026rsquo;m going to ask if it would be possible to make it the default and perhaps (if he\u0026rsquo;s interested) come up with some more skins (which was my plan for my blog here, but I never got around to it). I think some great things are ahead!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/21/tag-central-reskinned/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePeter Parkes \u003ca href=\"http://hiddenchemistry.com/2005/04/21/folksonomies-and-tag-sensual-skinning-tag-central-using-pithhelmet-and-safari/\"\u003ereskinned Tag Central\u003c/a\u003e using PithHelmet and a custom CSS file. I think it looks simply \u003cstrong\u003eSensual\u003c/strong\u003e as he put it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI like it so much in fact that I\u0026rsquo;m going to ask if it would be possible to make it the default and perhaps (if he\u0026rsquo;s interested) come up with some more skins (which was my plan for my blog here, but I never got around to it). I think some great things are ahead!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tag Central Reskinned"},{"content":"Spam is getting less annoying for me, mostly because of its comedic value. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if it\u0026rsquo;s intentional or not. Here\u0026rsquo;s the latest supposedly from PayPal (har har har).\nYou\u0026rsquo;re Billing Information!\nNo, I\u0026rsquo;m not! The last time I pretended to be billing information, I got my hand stuck in someone\u0026rsquo;s mail slot.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/21/i-know-you-are-but-what-am-i/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSpam is getting less annoying for me, mostly because of its comedic value. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if it\u0026rsquo;s intentional or not. Here\u0026rsquo;s the latest supposedly from PayPal (har har har).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou\u0026rsquo;re Billing Information!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo, I\u0026rsquo;m not! The last time I pretended to be billing information, I got my hand stuck in someone\u0026rsquo;s mail slot.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I know you are, but what am I?"},{"content":"When Safari 1.3 came out, several plugins broke and were quickly fixed again. That\u0026rsquo;s cool, but both the PithHelmet and AcidSearch plugin updates were a bit rushed (and with good reason because they were high in demand).\nFor AcidSearch the bug was mostly harmless. When a channel was dragged around in the configuration window, it got turned into a folder. Oops. The author quickly issued an update.\nHowever, PithHelmet had a more serious problem. Attempting to set the display of a page element to none after probing the dimensions of that object caused Safari to crash. Mike Solomon has a much better writeup for those technically inclined. Basically what this meant for an end user was that Safari crashed… a lot. It bit me with one site in particular. He issued an update which no longer crashes Safari, but unfortunately doesn\u0026rsquo;t collapse a lot of blocked elements either (which was one of my main beefs with how OmniWeb handles ad-blocking). It doesn\u0026rsquo;t happen all the time though, so it\u0026rsquo;s not going to force me into using Camino or Firefox (for now), but it\u0026rsquo;s a silly bug that hopefully will get fixed.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/21/simbl-plugin-followup/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Safari 1.3 came out, \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/16/safari-13-and-simbl-plugins/\"\u003eseveral plugins broke\u003c/a\u003e and were quickly fixed again. That\u0026rsquo;s cool, but both the PithHelmet and AcidSearch plugin updates were a bit rushed (and with good reason because they were high in demand).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor \u003ca href=\"http://www.pozytron.com/?acidsearch\"\u003eAcidSearch\u003c/a\u003e the bug was mostly harmless. When a channel was dragged around in the configuration window, it got turned into a folder. Oops. The author quickly \u003ca href=\"http://www.pozytron.com/archives/2005/04/acidsearch_04_b.html\"\u003eissued an update\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, PithHelmet had a \u003ca href=\"http://culater.net/thc/index.php?entry=/Development/PithHelmet/safari_display_none_bug.txt\"\u003emore serious problem\u003c/a\u003e. Attempting to set the display of a page element to none after probing the dimensions of that object caused Safari to crash. Mike Solomon has a much better writeup for those technically inclined. Basically what this meant for an end user was that Safari crashed… a lot. It bit me with one site in particular. He \u003ca href=\"http://culater.net/thc/index.php?entry=/Development/PithHelmet/release_v2_4.txt\"\u003eissued an update\u003c/a\u003e which no longer crashes Safari, but unfortunately doesn\u0026rsquo;t collapse a lot of blocked elements either (which was one of my main beefs with how OmniWeb handles ad-blocking). It doesn\u0026rsquo;t happen all the time though, so it\u0026rsquo;s not going to force me into using Camino or Firefox (for now), but it\u0026rsquo;s a silly bug that hopefully will get fixed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"SIMBL Plugin Followup"},{"content":"Alexa, part of Amazon has linked Tag Central very prominently in a recent blog entry. That drew quite a few visits.\nI vow that this weekend I will at least get the supporting pages up so the site isn\u0026rsquo;t quite as mysterious as it is now.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/20/alexa-links-tag-central/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.alexa.com\"\u003eAlexa\u003c/a\u003e, part of \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com\"\u003eAmazon\u003c/a\u003e has linked \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e very prominently in a \u003ca href=\"http://awis.blogspot.com/2005/04/goodbye-old-media-hello-new-media.html\"\u003erecent blog entry\u003c/a\u003e. That drew quite a few visits.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI vow that this weekend I will at least get the supporting pages up so the site isn\u0026rsquo;t quite as mysterious as it is now.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Alexa Links Tag Central"},{"content":"I read a few blogs talking about the recent Flickr bonuses for their early Pro users. Current subscribers get two free years, their upload limit raised to 2 GB a month, and two free one year Pro subscriptions to give to friends.\nWell, thanks to the fast friendship I\u0026rsquo;ve developed to Stuart over at Blethers.com and the fact that I saw his post offering a membership first, I\u0026rsquo;ll soon have a Pro membership over at Flickr.\nThat means my member page over there will be updated all the time. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably start taking pictures every day just because I can upload them all and never think about it again.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/19/ive-gone-flickr-pro/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI read a few blogs talking about \u003ca href=\"http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2005/04/new_prices_free.html\"\u003ethe recent Flickr bonuses\u003c/a\u003e for their early Pro users. Current subscribers get two free years, their upload limit raised to 2 GB a month, and two free one year Pro subscriptions to give to friends.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, thanks to the fast friendship I\u0026rsquo;ve developed to Stuart over at \u003ca href=\"http://blethers.com\"\u003eBlethers.com\u003c/a\u003e and the fact that I saw \u003ca href=\"http://www.blethers.com/weblog/archives/001888.php\"\u003ehis post offering a membership\u003c/a\u003e first, I\u0026rsquo;ll soon have a Pro membership over at \u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I've Gone (Flickr) Pro"},{"content":"Over the past few days, I\u0026rsquo;ve the site has been in transition to a new webhost. There were lots of reasons I did this, but hopefully the process has been mostly transparent. Probably the most notable change is that Tag Central now has its own domain name, tagcentral.net. I used a bit of URL rewriting trickery to transparently forward all old style Tag Central URLs (http://godlikenerd.com/tagcentral/xxxxxxx) to the new domain.\nMoving it also gave me enough motivation to make a few changes that I\u0026rsquo;ve been meaning to make. First, I\u0026rsquo;ve upgraded to the latest version of MagpieRSS which seems to be a bit more tolerant of characters in feeds that don\u0026rsquo;t match the stated character encoding scheme. Right now, that\u0026rsquo;s the biggest pain in the ass for me because it means that I can\u0026rsquo;t easily test that the site still validates because those characters make the validator choke. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a problem in my site, nor is it a problem in MagpieRSS. No, it\u0026rsquo;s a problem within specific sources of the site. I\u0026rsquo;m not going to name names, but if one is putting out an RSS feed and calling it UTF-8, it should be UTF-8, damnit.\nFinally, I used the related tag parsing code that Matt over at Oddiophile sent to me, so that prefaces the results. I hope people find that useful.\nI still have to add some new sources (thanks to everyone that has sent me an overwhelming number of folksonomy using services), but I\u0026rsquo;m holding off on that until I figure out how to tighten up the code so I use a loop instead of rewriting the same code over and over. I\u0026rsquo;ll also be adding some administrative links at the bottom of the page.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/17/overdue-tag-central-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOver the past few days, I\u0026rsquo;ve the site has been in transition to a new webhost. There were lots of reasons I did this, but hopefully the process has been mostly transparent. Probably the most notable change is that \u003ca href=\"http://tagcentral.net\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e now has its own domain name, tagcentral.net. I used a bit of URL rewriting trickery to transparently forward all old style Tag Central URLs (\u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/tagcentral/xxxxxxx\"\u003ehttp://godlikenerd.com/tagcentral/xxxxxxx\u003c/a\u003e) to the new domain.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoving it also gave me enough motivation to make a few changes that I\u0026rsquo;ve been meaning to make. First, I\u0026rsquo;ve upgraded to the latest version of \u003ca href=\"http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/\"\u003eMagpieRSS\u003c/a\u003e which seems to be a bit more tolerant of characters in feeds that don\u0026rsquo;t match the stated character encoding scheme. Right now, that\u0026rsquo;s the biggest pain in the ass for me because it means that I can\u0026rsquo;t easily test that the site still validates because those characters make the validator choke. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a problem in my site, nor is it a problem in MagpieRSS. No, it\u0026rsquo;s a problem within specific sources of the site. I\u0026rsquo;m not going to name names, but if one is putting out an RSS feed and calling it UTF-8, it should be UTF-8, damnit.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Overdue Tag Central Update"},{"content":"Using Xbench, I compared the three disks attached to my Powermac.\nFirst, I have the stock drive, a Deskstar 120GXP (80 GB).\nDisk Test 100.77 Sequential 103.00 Uncached Write 90.65 37.79 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 90.87 37.21 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 170.74 27.03 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 91.39 36.93 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 98.64 Uncached Write 101.96 1.53 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 100.45 22.66 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 95.93 0.63 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 96.47 19.85 MB/sec [256K blocks] The next drive is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (200GB) in an OWC Firewire enclosure.\nDisk Test 86.58 Sequential 71.33 Uncached Write 76.91 32.06 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 75.22 30.80 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 55.75 8.82 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 84.44 34.12 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 110.12 Uncached Write 128.62 1.93 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 135.84 30.64 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 97.47 0.64 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 91.51 18.83 MB/sec [256K blocks] Finally, the drive I just installed is a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATA drive.\nDisk Test 149.91 Sequential 159.95 Uncached Write 176.23 73.46 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 172.24 70.53 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 143.74 22.76 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 152.20 61.49 MB/sec [256K blocks] Random 141.05 Uncached Write 744.83 11.17 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Write 141.13 31.83 MB/sec [256K blocks] Uncached Read 108.76 0.72 MB/sec [4K blocks] Uncached Read 93.14 19.17 MB/sec [256K blocks] The new drive is by far the best. In particular, the first random uncached write speed is amazing. However, it was a little slower than the stock drive by just a little bit. This is a little perplexing, but considering that Xbench generally isn\u0026rsquo;t used as a disk benchmarking utility, maybe the results aren\u0026rsquo;t perfect. Unfortunately for all of you, I\u0026rsquo;m not willing to spend the $25 for QuickBench, so you\u0026rsquo;ll have to refer to Barefeats.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/16/xbench-disk-comparison/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eUsing \u003ca href=\"http://www.xbench.com\"\u003eXbench\u003c/a\u003e, I compared the three disks attached to my Powermac.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst, I have the stock drive, a Deskstar 120GXP (80 GB).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cpre\u003e\u003ccode\u003eDisk Test   100.77  \n    Sequential  103.00  \n        Uncached Write  90.65   37.79 MB/sec [4K blocks]\n        Uncached Write  90.87   37.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]\n        Uncached Read   170.74  27.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]\n        Uncached Read   91.39   36.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]\n    Random  98.64   \n        Uncached Write  101.96  1.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]\n        Uncached Write  100.45  22.66 MB/sec [256K blocks]\n        Uncached Read   95.93   0.63 MB/sec [4K blocks]\n        Uncached Read   96.47   19.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]\n\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/pre\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe next drive is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (200GB) in an OWC Firewire enclosure.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Xbench Disk Comparison"},{"content":"I got a chance to go to a Red Sox game last night with my Sox buddy, Dana. We even spanked the Devilrays 10-0.\nI wasn\u0026rsquo;t expecting to get to go this year, so it was great to go so early in the season. If Raytheon has another group Red Sox trip like they did last year, I may go again.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/16/first-red-sox-game-of-the-season/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI got a chance to go to a \u003ca href=\"http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=250415102\"\u003eRed Sox game last night\u003c/a\u003e with my Sox buddy, \u003ca href=\"http://xandriamd87.blogspot.com\"\u003eDana\u003c/a\u003e. We even spanked the Devilrays 10-0.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wasn\u0026rsquo;t expecting to get to go this year, so it was great to go so early in the season. If Raytheon has another group Red Sox trip like they did last year, I may go again.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"First Red Sox Game of the Season"},{"content":"Upon launching Safari 1.3 for the first time, I got a notification that the version of PithHelmet I was using wasn\u0026rsquo;t tested with Safari 1.3, so it would be disabled. Safari then promptly crashed.\nWell, that indicated one of three things.\nPithHelmet wasn\u0026rsquo;t actually disabling itself and crashing Safari. Something else was killing Safari. I had a botched install. The third option was very unpleasant. I knew PithHelmet was a SIMBL plugin, so I went to where my SIMBL plugins are kept. This is at “/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/”. I noticed that not only PithHelmet, but AcidSearch was in there. Just to be sure, I moved both out onto the desktop and started Safari. It launched perfectly. Now, considering that PithHelmet said it was disabling itself and AcidSearch made no such claims, I figured PithHelmet might be safe to put back (though there wasn\u0026rsquo;t much point in doing so). I quit Safari, replaced PithHelmet, and started Safari again. It worked.\nSo, it\u0026rsquo;s official, AcidSearch 0.34 is incompatible with Safari 1.3. Drag its bundle out of the above location. You might as well delete it.\nBut what about PithHelmet? Well, the good news is that you can trick PithHelmet into working. The bad news is that it\u0026rsquo;s completely untested so Safari may start crashing regularly on you. You were warned.\nUpdate: PithHelmet and AcidSearch have both been updated for use with Safari 1.3. PithHelmet is now version 2.3 and AcidSearch is 0.4.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/16/safari-1.3-and-simbl-plugins/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eUpon launching Safari 1.3 for the first time, I got a notification that the version of \u003ca href=\"http://culater.net/software/PithHelmet/PithHelmet.php\"\u003ePithHelmet\u003c/a\u003e I was using wasn\u0026rsquo;t tested with Safari 1.3, so it would be disabled. Safari then promptly crashed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, that indicated one of three things.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePithHelmet wasn\u0026rsquo;t actually disabling itself and crashing Safari.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSomething else was killing Safari.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eI had a botched install.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe third option was very unpleasant. I knew PithHelmet was a SIMBL plugin, so I went to where my SIMBL plugins are kept. This is at “/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/”. I noticed that not only PithHelmet, but \u003ca href=\"http://www.pozytron.com/?acidsearch\"\u003eAcidSearch\u003c/a\u003e was in there. Just to be sure, I moved both out onto the desktop and started Safari. It launched perfectly. Now, considering that PithHelmet said it was disabling itself and AcidSearch made no such claims, I figured PithHelmet might be safe to put back (though there wasn\u0026rsquo;t much point in doing so). I quit Safari, replaced PithHelmet, and started Safari again. It worked.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Safari 1.3 and SIMBL Plugins"},{"content":"Apple has released the 10.3.9 update for Mac OS X.\nHere are the changes.\nStickies\nAddresses an issue in which Stickies could unexpectedly quit when creating a new note. Addresses an issue in which new Stickies are invisible. Stickies windows can now be minimized (an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.4 through 10.3.8). Safari\nAccessing certain websites, such as msnbc.com, mail.yahoo.com, ticketmaster.com, and others, no longer displays a “bad server response” alert that could occur in Safari. Addresses an issue in which “safe downloads” files are not automatically opened after downloading. SSL webpages (pages with URLs that start with “https://”) load faster in Safari. Adds some important Verisign root certificates to Safari, allowing you to connect to certain secure websites that you might not have been able to surf before. Adds other trusted root certificates to Safari, such as VISA and RSA. Finder\nAddresses an issue in which copied files could become fragmented (but still usable) when you copy more than one file at the same time in the Finder. Addresses a rare issue in which a file could become damaged when copying to a FAT16- or FAT32-formatted volume. Improves reliability when mounting (making available) a disk image that\u0026rsquo;s larger than 4.7 GB. More\nAddresses slow vertical tracking and intermittent trackpad behavior on PowerBook G4 12-inch 1.5GHz, 15-inch 1.67/1.5GHz, and 17-inch 1.67GHz computers. Adds an “Apple Internal 56k Modem (v.32)” modem choice that you can use if you have difficulty using Verizon\u0026rsquo;s Airfone Jet Connect service. Addresses an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.6 and later in which the Calculator window won\u0026rsquo;t appear if the Speak Button Pressed or Speak Total options are enabled. Fixes an issue at the login window, where clicking the small space just below the bottom user account picture would produce this alert: “Internal Error *** -[NSCF Array objectAtIndex:]: index(-1) beyond bounds (X)” (where X is the number of user accounts shown). Addresses an issue in which the startup time in Mac OS X 10.3.6 through 10.3.8 may be extended if a large number of PostScript fonts are installed. If your PowerBook G4 sometimes wakes up with a kernel panic, installing this update may help. Addresses a data loss issue that could occur when syncing your iDisk at the same time that .Mac servers are experiencing heavy usage. Avoids a potential Mail issue if the application is running when Daylight Savings Time changes. Addresses some formatting issues that could occur when replying to HTML messages in Mail. The update is available in both delta and combo forms. The update from the notes seems like just another bugfix update.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s not though. I\u0026rsquo;m surprised that Apple\u0026rsquo;s notes don\u0026rsquo;t reflect the huge number of changes in Safari 1.3, which is part of the update. Luckily for us, Dave Hyatt has delineated these changes for us.\nPage Load Performance\nSafari 1.3 loads pages overall 35% faster than 1.2 as measured by IBench. In addition to improving the overall page load, Safari 1.3 will display content sooner than 1.2 did, so that subresources don\u0026rsquo;t hold up the initial display of the page.\nJavaScript Performance\nWe have substantially improved the performance of the JavaScript engine in Safari. I encourage you to check out Safari 1.3 on this benchmark for example to see the improvement relative to 1.2.\nHTML Editing\nSafari 1.3 supports HTML editing, both at the Objective-C WebKit API level and using contenteditable and designMode in a Web page. The new Mail app in Tiger uses WebKit for message composition. You can write apps that make use of WebKit\u0026rsquo;s editing technology and deploy them on Panther and Tiger.\nCompatibility and Security\nCompatibility and security are our number one priority in WebCore, and Safari 1.3 has many important compatibility fixes. For example, percentage heights on blocks, tables and cells now work much better in Safari 1.3. min/max-width/height support has been added. More of the table-related CSS properties are now supported. DOM methods like getComputedStyle are now supported.\nThe DOM Exposed\nThe entire level 2 DOM has been exposed a public API in Objective-C. This means various holes have been filled in Safari\u0026rsquo;s DOM level 2 support. In addition to exposing the DOM to Objective-C, the JS objects that wrap DOM objects can also be accessed from Objective-C, allowing you to examine and edit the JS objects themselves to inject properties onto them that can then be accessed from your Web page.\nXSLT\nSafari 1.3 on Panther now supports XSLT. 10.3.9 includes libxslt, and Safari uses this excellent library to handle XSLT processing instructions it encounters in Web pages.\nPlugin Extensions\nFor those of you writing WebKit apps, a new Objective-C WebKit plugin API is supported that lets you put Cocoa widgetry into the Web page more easily. In addition enhancements to the Netscape Plugin API (made in conjunction with Mozilla Foundation) have been implemented for plugins that require cross-browser compatibility.\nFor the non-geeks among us, the most exciting parts are the huge performance increases and the new HTML editing API. The former is witnessed immediately by using Safari. The HTML editing won\u0026rsquo;t appear until applications start using it. Imagine blog editing software with this built-in. You can beautify your posts without knowing HTML. Sweet.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/16/mac-os-x-10.3.9-update-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e has released the \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300966\"\u003e10.3.9 update\u003c/a\u003e for Mac OS X.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere are the changes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStickies\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which Stickies could unexpectedly quit when creating a new note.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which new Stickies are invisible.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStickies windows can now be minimized (an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.4 through 10.3.8).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSafari\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAccessing certain websites, such as msnbc.com, mail.yahoo.com, ticketmaster.com, and others, no longer displays a “bad server response” alert that could occur in Safari.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which “safe downloads” files are not automatically opened after downloading.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSSL webpages (pages with URLs that start with “https://”) load faster in Safari.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdds some important Verisign root certificates to Safari, allowing you to connect to certain secure websites that you might not have been able to surf before.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdds other trusted root certificates to Safari, such as VISA and RSA.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinder\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.3.9 Update Released"},{"content":"The transition is nearly complete. The weblog transition is done, now the other parts of the site must be fixed.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/14/migrating-host/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe transition is nearly complete. The weblog transition is done, now the other parts of the site must be fixed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Migrating Host"},{"content":"Shamelessly copied from Heather, below is apparently my famous blogger twin.\nYour Famous Blogger Twin is Adam Curry \u0026lt;font color=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot;\u0026gt; A little bit rock and roll, a whole lot of geek! There's no other blogger quite like you \u0026lt;/font\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; Who's Your Famous Blogger Twin? Oddly enough, I just recently discovered Adam Curry\u0026rsquo;s podcast and I\u0026rsquo;ve become very addicted (which is hard to admit because he did work for MTV). Now it\u0026rsquo;s Katie and Dana\u0026rsquo;s turn to do this.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/14/a-famous-blogger-twin/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eShamelessly copied from \u003ca href=\"http://pixelscribbles.com/journal/2005/04/my-famous-blogger-twin.html\"\u003eHeather\u003c/a\u003e, below is apparently my famous blogger twin.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable width=\"400\" align=\"center\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\"\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd bgcolor=\"#66CCFF\" align=\"center\"\u003e\n      \u003cfont face=\"Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif\" style='color:black; font-size: 14pt;'\u003e \u003cb\u003eYour Famous Blogger Twin is \u003ca href=\"http://live.curry.com/\"\u003eAdam Curry\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/font\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\"\u003e\n      \u003ccenter\u003e\n        \u003cimg src=\"http://www.quizdiva.net/bt/adam-curry.jpg\" alt=\"Adam Curry\" /\u003e\n      \u003c/center\u003e\n\u003cpre\u003e\u003ccode\u003e  \u0026lt;font color=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot;\u0026gt; A little bit rock and roll, a whole lot of geek! There's no other blogger quite like you \u0026lt;/font\u0026gt;\n\u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/pre\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cdiv align=\"center\"\u003e\n  \u003ca href=\"http://www.blogthings.com/famousbloggerquiz/\"\u003eWho's Your Famous Blogger Twin?\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOddly enough, I just recently discovered Adam Curry\u0026rsquo;s podcast and I\u0026rsquo;ve become very addicted (which is hard to admit because he did work for MTV). Now it\u0026rsquo;s Katie and Dana\u0026rsquo;s turn to do this.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Famous Blogger Twin"},{"content":"Tiger being released on April 29th was enough incentive for me to rationalize buying a fancy new Serial ATA hard drive. For a while now, I\u0026rsquo;d been eyeing the Western Digital Raptor, which is still the fastest SATA hard drive you can buy. However, it\u0026rsquo;s only 74 GB big and costs $185 (lowest price I could find).\nThen I saw a Barefeats article comparing the Raptor to a Maxtor DiamondMax 10. The question was which was the ultimate G5 boot drive. Well, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a G5, but I figure the question is just as valid for a G4 (and I\u0026rsquo;ll be moving to a G5 eventually). The verdict was that the Maxtor drive was the better drive because the performance was comparable, it was much larger (300 GB), and a little cheaper ($180 at ZipZoomFly).\nTo be able to attach an SATA drive to my G4, I also ordered a Firmtek Seritek PCI SATA card from Other World Computing. Luckily, I quickly realized I\u0026rsquo;d need a power adapter cable and ordered that as well. Thanks to ZipZoomFly having free 2-day shipping and Other World Computing having a 2-day shipping for $5, I should have the whole kit ‘n caboodle on Friday. I\u0026rsquo;ll try some Xbench tests to compare my stock hard drive and external firewire drive to it.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll keep the drive virginal for the Tiger installation. Once that\u0026rsquo;s installed, I\u0026rsquo;ll share experiences about the boot delay (due to booting from a PCI card). That week I also plan on talking about each feature and my thoughts on it. I\u0026rsquo;ll even do some screenshots (I should have switched webhosts by then).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/13/new-hard-drive-hotness/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTiger being released on April 29th was enough incentive for me to rationalize buying a fancy new Serial ATA hard drive. For a while now, I\u0026rsquo;d been eyeing the \u003ca href=\"http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=65\u0026amp;Language=en\"\u003eWestern Digital Raptor\u003c/a\u003e, which is still the fastest SATA hard drive you can buy. However, it\u0026rsquo;s only 74 GB big and costs \u003ca href=\"http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101222\"\u003e$185\u003c/a\u003e (lowest price I could find).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen I saw a \u003ca href=\"http://www.barefeats.com/boot02.html\"\u003eBarefeats article\u003c/a\u003e comparing the Raptor to a \u003ca href=\"http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.ba88f6d7cf664718376049b291346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Products/ATA%20Hard%20Drives/Desktop/DiamondMax%2010\"\u003eMaxtor DiamondMax 10\u003c/a\u003e. The question was which was the ultimate G5 boot drive. Well, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a G5, but I figure the question is just as valid for a G4 (and I\u0026rsquo;ll be moving to a G5 eventually). The verdict was that the Maxtor drive was the better drive because the performance was comparable, it was much larger (300 GB), and a little cheaper (\u003ca href=\"http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100719\"\u003e$180\u003c/a\u003e at \u003ca href=\"http://www.zipzoomfly.com\"\u003eZipZoomFly\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Hard Drive Hotness"},{"content":"Imagine my surprise when I read of the Tiger release announcement (April 29th) showed up in Bloglines (which I\u0026rsquo;m only using instead of NetNewsWire because I\u0026rsquo;m at work). It was almost anticlimactic. Months and months of anticipation built to a single moment when I read that it was (nearly) here and I let out a soft oh.\nAs usual, MacCentral has done a nice writeup. I\u0026rsquo;m sure every other Mac news site will have a piece on it, so stop by then if you\u0026rsquo;ve got some weird aversion to MacCentral.\nWIth this out, we can finally put to bed the stupid Amazon rumors. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t March 31st as originally listed, nor was it May 31st as their recent rebate suggested. The date is April 29th, so the next time around, can we please ignore Amazon.com? Please?\nStop by the Apple Store to reserve your copy and Apple\u0026rsquo;s OS X site to drool over pictures and feature descriptions.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/12/tiger-release-date-announced/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eImagine my surprise when I read of the Tiger release announcement (April 29th) showed up in \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e (which I\u0026rsquo;m only using instead of \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/\"\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e because I\u0026rsquo;m at work). It was almost anticlimactic. Months and months of anticipation built to a single moment when I read that it was (nearly) here and I let out a soft \u003cem\u003eoh\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs usual, MacCentral has done \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/12/tiger/index.php\"\u003ea nice writeup\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m sure every other Mac news site will have a piece on it, so stop by then if you\u0026rsquo;ve got some weird aversion to MacCentral.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tiger Release Date Announced"},{"content":"So, I\u0026rsquo;ve heard lots and lots about Skype, the free Internet telephony service. Macworld noticed it early on, but that wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough for me to perk up. I mean, with iChat AV (which is full video conferencing), why would I care?\nI didn\u0026rsquo;t realize how cross-platform, flexible, and feature-filled it really is. Whether you use Windows, Linux, or a Mac, you can call your friends across town or the globe for free. Remember your hot French penpal that you got tired of writing to? Now you can talk dirty to them without thought of a huge phone bill. In fact, it\u0026rsquo;s so easy that even your tech stupid relatives can use the software.\nNow, what if you want to call someone without an Internet connection or computer? You can buy for a modest fee phone time to any normal phone number. That\u0026rsquo;s cool, but what if they\u0026rsquo;re not around when you call? You can buy a phone number for your Skype account (a flat yearly fee). Let\u0026rsquo;s say you\u0026rsquo;re not in. You can buy voicemail service from them.\nNow I ask you, how cool is that?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/11/call-me-sometime/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo, I\u0026rsquo;ve heard lots and lots about \u003ca href=\"http://www.skype.com\"\u003eSkype\u003c/a\u003e, the free Internet telephony service. Macworld \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/secrets/febworkingmac/index.php\"\u003enoticed it early on\u003c/a\u003e, but that wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough for me to perk up. I mean, with iChat AV (which is full video conferencing), why would I care?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI didn\u0026rsquo;t realize how cross-platform, flexible, and feature-filled it really is. Whether you use Windows, Linux, or a Mac, you can call your friends across town or the globe for free. Remember your hot French penpal that you got tired of writing to? Now you can talk \u003cs\u003edirty\u003c/s\u003e to them without thought of a huge phone bill. In fact, it\u0026rsquo;s so easy that even your tech stupid relatives can use the software.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, what if you want to call someone without an Internet connection or computer? You can buy for a modest fee phone time to any normal phone number. That\u0026rsquo;s cool, but what if they\u0026rsquo;re not around when you call? You can buy a phone number for your Skype account (a flat yearly fee). Let\u0026rsquo;s say you\u0026rsquo;re not in. You can buy voicemail service from them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow I ask you, how cool is that?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Call Me Sometime"},{"content":"After listening to Adam at MacCast rant several times about the lack of student discount for high school students (which I think is a banal argument, but I won\u0026rsquo;t get into that here), a thought occurred to me. There wasn\u0026rsquo;t a good way to rebut his argument. Now, I could have visited the site after and posted a comment. However, seeing as most podcasts are listened to away from the computer, that\u0026rsquo;s not an easy or natural thing to do.\nEven if you do, then only the author and a few other visitors are going to see your rebuttal. The majority of the audience isn\u0026rsquo;t going read those responses. Casters can abuse this fact to “strengthen” their argument. In fact, the only comment that Adam played was one of a man from the UK saying that he got a discount and couldn\u0026rsquo;t believe we couldn\u0026rsquo;t over here. This was followed by Adam supposing (with no supporting data) that the discount will be financially beneficial in the long run. I don\u0026rsquo;t like circle jerks and the MacCast is starting to sound like one the more I listen.\nThis is also the same problem that traditional broadcasting has always had. No feedback. The blogging revolution was due only in part to the fact that anyone can easily publish. The second part was the ease in which people could talk back. Ignoring listener feedback, especially detracting feedback (and picking only weak criticism doesn\u0026rsquo;t count), will lead to obsolescence.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/08/the-problem-with-podcasting/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter listening to Adam at \u003ca href=\"http://www.maccast.com\"\u003eMacCast\u003c/a\u003e rant several times about the lack of student discount for high school students (which I think is a banal argument, but I won\u0026rsquo;t get into that here), a thought occurred to me. There wasn\u0026rsquo;t a good way to rebut his argument. Now, I could have visited the site after and posted a comment. However, seeing as most podcasts are listened to away from the computer, that\u0026rsquo;s not an easy or natural thing to do.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Problem with Podcasting"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting linked and written to like crazy for Tag Central. I added BlogMarks, a very neat link site with thumbnails (thanks to Stuart for pointing it out to me).\nThat makes the current list of supported sites:\nBlogMarks del.icio.us Furl Jots Flickr Smugmug 43 Things Tagsurf Next on the Agenda More sites! I\u0026rsquo;m trying to track down more tag using sites. If you know of one that I haven\u0026rsquo;t added yet, let me know. Administrative links at the bottom of the page. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to make about and contact pages at the very least. I\u0026rsquo;ll also link all the included services. Automated cleanup. I haven\u0026rsquo;t yet tackled the issue of cached data, but I\u0026rsquo;ll be doing so soon. Related tags. Matt at Oddiophile shared his related tags code and I\u0026rsquo;ll have to see how it works and preface the results with possibly related tags. Its own domain name. A Domain by any Other Name I\u0026rsquo;ll admit that “Tag Central” isn\u0026rsquo;t the most imaginative name for the page. I like Taggregator, but I can\u0026rsquo;t use that. I\u0026rsquo;m not terribly imaginative here, but I want the name (and domain name) to be cool. Suggest something groundbreaking! When I make the move to Dreamhost, I get a free domain name, so I want to make it a good one.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/08/latest-tag-central-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been getting linked and written to like crazy for \u003ca href=\"/tagcentral/\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e. I added \u003ca href=\"http://blogmarks.net\"\u003eBlogMarks\u003c/a\u003e, a very neat link site with thumbnails (thanks to \u003ca href=\"http://www.blethers.com\"\u003eStuart\u003c/a\u003e for pointing it out to me).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat makes the current list of supported sites:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://blogmarks.net\"\u003eBlogMarks\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us\"\u003edel.icio.us\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.furl.net\"\u003eFurl\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.jots.com\"\u003eJots\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.smugmug.com\"\u003eSmugmug\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://43things.com\"\u003e43 Things\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://tagsurf.com\"\u003eTagsurf\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"next-on-the-agenda\"\u003eNext on the Agenda\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMore sites! I\u0026rsquo;m trying to track down more tag using sites. If you know of one that I haven\u0026rsquo;t added yet, \u003ca href=\"/contact/\"\u003elet me know\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdministrative links at the bottom of the page. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to make about and contact pages at the very least. I\u0026rsquo;ll also link all the included services.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAutomated cleanup. I haven\u0026rsquo;t yet tackled the issue of cached data, but I\u0026rsquo;ll be doing so soon.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRelated tags. Matt at Oddiophile shared his related tags code and I\u0026rsquo;ll have to see how it works and preface the results with possibly related tags.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIts own domain name.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"a-domain-by-any-other-name\"\u003eA Domain by any Other Name\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll admit that “Tag Central” isn\u0026rsquo;t the most imaginative name for the page. I like \u003ca href=\"http://oddiophile.com/taggregator/\"\u003eTaggregator\u003c/a\u003e, but I can\u0026rsquo;t use that. I\u0026rsquo;m not terribly imaginative here, but I want the name (and domain name) to be cool. Suggest something groundbreaking! When I make the move to \u003ca href=\"http://www.dreamhost.com\"\u003eDreamhost\u003c/a\u003e, I get a free domain name, so I want to make it a good one.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Latest Tag Central Update"},{"content":" im think im sexy. i give too much of myself for love. true love never dies. boys are liars. i love being loved. im a princess. 😉 i love method man. you cant hold me down i will rise above and shine\nim think ur stupid.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/06/apostrophe-whats-that/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eim think im sexy. i give too much of myself for love. true love never dies. boys are liars. i love being loved. im a princess. 😉 i love method man. you cant hold me down i will rise above and shine\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eim think ur stupid.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apostrophe?  What's that?"},{"content":"Pretty much all the pictures of me on this site will be the South Park version I made using the South Park character generator. Tada!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/06/me-a-la-south-park/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePretty much all the pictures of me on this site will be the South Park version I made using the \u003ca href=\"http://www.planearium2.de/flash/spstudio.html\"\u003eSouth Park character generator\u003c/a\u003e. Tada!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"South Park Picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"/images/southpark.jpg\"\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Me a la South Park"},{"content":"It finally happened. I surpassed Derik Farnsworth (nsfw) in Google as the #1 Derik link. Oh, how I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this day.\nNow I can put my plan for world domination into motion.\nMaybe I can sign all my email: I\u0026rsquo;m #1!!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/06/i-am-%231/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt finally happened. I surpassed \u003ca href=\"http://www.derikfarnsworth.com\"\u003eDerik Farnsworth (nsfw)\u003c/a\u003e in \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e as the \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=Derik\"\u003e#1 Derik link\u003c/a\u003e. Oh, how I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this day.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow I can put my plan for world domination into motion.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaybe I can sign all my email: \u003cem\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m #1!!\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I am #1"},{"content":"I recently got asked a question via email. I thought I\u0026rsquo;d share my answer.\nMy problem is in the WiFi category. I have AirPort turned on, and around the corner from where I live is a Starbucks, as well as other apartments that have WiFi, so I get a few connections here and there. Among these are the connections, “default” and “linksys”. I don\u0026rsquo;t know which one is Starbucks, but I assume “linksys” as I get the strongest connection. “Default” only gives me 3 bars, but it spastically goes to 1 or none every few minutes, which results in me being disconnected from iChat very often.\nWhen I first moved in, “linksys” appeared on my AirPort and I was able to go online (5 bars, yay). I still see “linksys” on the menu, but now (since recently) when I select it, I am no longer able to go online. I get the error on iChat and Safari etc. that I\u0026rsquo;m not connected to the internet. When I go to Sys Prefs; Network, it says:\n“AirPort is connected to the network linsys. AirPort has a self-assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the Internet.”\nSo something with this whole “self-assigned IP address” is causing the problems. I used to be able to use “linksys”, but now I have to use “default” because for some reason I can\u0026rsquo;t use the internet with “linksys”. Strange.\nWell, I\u0026rsquo;ll have to deal with this problem until my Verizon DSL problems are resolved, and I suspect that that will take a few weeks, so if you have any idea as to what might be causing these problems, I\u0026rsquo;d be grateful.\nAnd my answer:\nWell, my first intuition is that maybe the linksys was actually a private person\u0026rsquo;s base station. They may have noticed your usage and are using either a MAC address filter to keep you from using the network, or they\u0026rsquo;ve set their DNS server to not respond to you. It could also be that Starbucks (if it is them) has either implemented some kind of registration policy or noticed continual usage by you and shut you off.\nI think you might be out of luck until Verizon hooks you up.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/05/why-isnt-my-internet-working/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI recently got asked a question via email. I thought I\u0026rsquo;d share my answer.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy problem is in the WiFi category. I have AirPort turned on, and around the corner from where I live is a Starbucks, as well as other apartments that have WiFi, so I get a few connections here and there. Among these are the connections, “default” and “linksys”. I don\u0026rsquo;t know which one is Starbucks, but I assume “linksys” as I get the strongest connection. “Default” only gives me 3 bars, but it spastically goes to 1 or none every few minutes, which results in me being disconnected from iChat very often.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Why isn't My Internet Working?"},{"content":"Maybe it was an April Fool\u0026rsquo;s joke on Think Secret\u0026rsquo;s part. Maybe they were trying to set up a legal defense that they guess a lot (and are wrong). Maybe a delay was introduced. Who knows? At any rate, there was no Tiger announcement which would have made all the wakka-wakka gags almost bareable. Now my problem is that without Tiger as a new toy coming soon, I\u0026rsquo;m starting to eye a new SATA boot drive (a 300 GB drive). Keep me from spending money Apple!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/04/no-tiger-on-friday/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMaybe it was an April Fool\u0026rsquo;s joke on Think Secret\u0026rsquo;s part. Maybe they were trying to set up a legal defense that they guess a lot (and are wrong). Maybe a delay was introduced. Who knows? At any rate, there was no Tiger announcement which would have made all the wakka-wakka gags \u003cem\u003ealmost\u003c/em\u003e bareable. Now my problem is that without Tiger as a new toy coming soon, I\u0026rsquo;m starting to eye a new SATA boot drive (a 300 GB drive). Keep me from spending money Apple!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"No Tiger on Friday"},{"content":"I will not be doing any lame April Fools Jokes on this site today. Sorry.\nThe Management\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/04/01/apologies/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI will not be doing any lame April Fools Jokes on this site today. Sorry.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Management\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apologies"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s been rather quiet on the Mac front. Well, that\u0026rsquo;s not entirely true, we have the continuing saga of Apple versus the rumor sites. Very little has been decided in the courts, but that hasn\u0026rsquo;t stopped the Mac community at large from giving their fifteen cents. Unfortunately, the battles being waged are being clumped into one, making the debate wandering and unfocused. We have one group shouting “This is a freedom of speech issue!” while the other says (quite accurately) “This particular decision is not.” A pissing contest ensues.\nBut I digress. That quiet seems to be the calm before the storm that will be the release of Tiger. It\u0026rsquo;s making me nervous, much like being alone in a house for the first time. Boo! With rumor sites including the now infamous Think Secret predicting a release announcement tomorrow, the buzz may start to return to the Mac community. Then again, most of that buzz will likely be “Have you put your order in yet?” Now that I think about it, the release following the announcement by only a couple weeks seems a little strange. That leaves very little lead time for ordering. That\u0026rsquo;s significant because it will make it harder to estimate initial demand for the OS.\nAs for whether it\u0026rsquo;s appropriate to be releasing Tiger now, that\u0026rsquo;s entirely up to Apple and their software development people. However, by reading many messageboards, you\u0026rsquo;d think that the decision should be decided by Apple fans. We have overzealous fans who have heard through someone else that there are major bugs in Tiger and as such, they should delay until May.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s a few things wrong with that. First, it\u0026rsquo;s coming through a third-party source, which amounts to “friend of a friend of a friend” many times. “My brother knows this guy that has a friend that\u0026rsquo;s a developer that has access to Tiger builds and he says they are buggy” is not a reputable source for information. I\u0026rsquo;ve heard conclusively that Tom Cruise is gay that way.\nHowever, let\u0026rsquo;s assume that the source isn\u0026rsquo;t made up. The next part of the argument that fails muster is the definitive way in which Tiger is being pronounced “buggy”. A developer is saying this. We are assuming that the program the developer is working on doesn\u0026rsquo;t make assumptions about the behavior of a particular API (which happens all the time) or use a deprecated API call. Maybe, just maybe, the program is buggy, and not the OS. This of course goes back to the fallacious logic gem “it worked before, therefore the blame lies with what changed”. This doesn\u0026rsquo;t always apply when programming.\nIf an API call is faulty in some way, we are making the gross assumption that its severity is high, affecting daily computing. Further, it makes the assumption that the bug actually causes something to fail or even does something that\u0026rsquo;s not cosmetic. Also ignored is the number of bugs. What about the complexity of the issue as far as diagnosing, fixing, and testing go? Software engineers working on Tiger itself are most likely incapable of properly estimating these things. Their managers might better be able to do this, but then again, it\u0026rsquo;s only an estimate (and may not be right).\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a whole lot of assumptions. I\u0026rsquo;ll put them into a list to better summarize them.\nThe source is: Trustworthy Right Aware of the scope of the issues The bugs affect usability. The bugs are non-trivial to: Diagnose Fix Test That seems like a rather tenuous position to take now, doesn\u0026rsquo;t it? I\u0026rsquo;d love to see Tiger\u0026rsquo;s release announced tomorrow, but I won\u0026rsquo;t freak out if it isn\u0026rsquo;t either.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/31/tiger-tomorrow/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been rather quiet on the Mac front. Well, that\u0026rsquo;s not entirely true, we have the continuing saga of Apple versus the rumor sites. Very little has been decided in the courts, but that hasn\u0026rsquo;t stopped the Mac community at large from giving their fifteen cents. Unfortunately, the battles being waged are being clumped into one, making the debate wandering and unfocused. We have one group shouting “This is a freedom of speech issue!” while the other says (quite accurately) “This particular decision is not.” A pissing contest ensues.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tiger Tomorrow?"},{"content":"All right, so I\u0026rsquo;m way behind the curve on this, but one of the neat side-effects of widespread RSS adoption is a phenomenon known as Podcasting. RSS feeds (at least as of version 2.0) allow for a field called enclosures. It\u0026rsquo;s a bit of a misnomer, but a useful part of the spec.\nIt basically specifies the location of a file that\u0026rsquo;s associated with a post. At the current time, it\u0026rsquo;s generally an audio file (MP3, WMA, AAC, etc.). In some cases it\u0026rsquo;s a video file (but that\u0026rsquo;s much less frequent due to increased cost associated with production and bandwidth). The natural extension of this capability is transfer to iTunes and then one\u0026rsquo;s iPod (hence, podcasting). New RSS readers aim at handling these feeds (and in particular, the enclosures). There are the open-source iPodder and iPodderX (which are free and $20 respectively).\nNetNewsWire Rocks That\u0026rsquo;s well and good, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to use yet another RSS reader. In my age, I\u0026rsquo;m starting to get a little bit stubborn about my software (especially when I\u0026rsquo;ve paid for it). NetNewsWire 2.0 has podcasting support built-in (full version only). With this addition, I\u0026rsquo;ve been able to get interested. My listening list is currently limited to MacCast, WineCast, YourMacLife, and Leo Laporte. I can see myself subscribing to more, but I simply haven\u0026rsquo;t found the time to explore. Maybe one of you has a favorite podcast for me to check out?\nManagement is Stupid Now that I\u0026rsquo;ve subscribed to these podcasts, the issue becomes how to manage them. I don\u0026rsquo;t want to become my father, listening to something over and over, not realizing that I\u0026rsquo;d heard it before. This is one of those times that leveraging iTunes\u0026rsquo; Smart Lists becomes a brilliant thing to do. When NetNewsWire inserts these files into my library, it can label those files with a genre. In this case, I like “Podcast”. It also allows me the option to insert into a playlist. For some, this is a sufficient mechanism for managing these files. One just deletes the files out of the playlist once they\u0026rsquo;ve listened to them. The problem is that it\u0026rsquo;s not automatic. If I forget what I\u0026rsquo;ve listened to, how can I be expected to remember managing that playlist?\nInstead, it\u0026rsquo;s smarter to use a capability built-into iTunes and the iPod, the play count. This attribute of song files get incrememented when you finish the file and it\u0026rsquo;s done by both iTunes and the iPod. This is easily leveraged into an automatic management system. One simply makes a new Smart Playlist. I call mine, oddly enough, “New Podcasts”. Next, I set it to contain files whose genre is “Podcast” and play count is 0 (zero). Now, when I want to listen to my new podcasts, I simply go to that playlist. Not only are the contents of that list synchronized from iTunes into the iPod, but iPods will reevaluate Smart List rules every time you enter that playlist. For example, this morning, I went through my entire “New Podcast” list. When I navigated out and back into the list, it was empty. Keep in mind that you don\u0026rsquo;t need to listen to the entire list either. Listening to a single file once will remove it from the list the next time you enter it. Sweet.\nAnother Reason Satellite Radio Sucks Satellite should take notice of this new technology. It\u0026rsquo;s not going to cut into subscriptions by people interested in live broadcasts such as sports. Those people find value in nationwide access to live information. However, part of satellite radio\u0026rsquo;s value is meant to be derived from the broadcasts that they facilitate that can\u0026rsquo;t or won\u0026rsquo;t be done via traditional radio. That includes shows like Howard Stern. However, his content\u0026rsquo;s value isn\u0026rsquo;t in being live. It\u0026rsquo;s topical to be sure, but one could listen at any point within a couple days and still enjoy it.\nImagine, if you will, having that content as a podcast. You could download it to your computer. You could either listen to it there, or download it to your MP3 player of choice, then listen to it in the car or at work. You listen at your convenience. If necessary, they could charge a subscription fee for the feeds themselves, restricting others from access. Users could timeshift all their content. That\u0026rsquo;s going to be huge (as evidenced by the phenomenon that TiVo is). Clear Channel is already aware of this. It\u0026rsquo;s only a matter of time before this goes really mainstream.\nSoftware Updates A point that I may not have made more apparent earlier is that enclosures in RSS 2.0 feeds don\u0026rsquo;t need to be media files. They can be any file. To this end, Fraser Speirs had the brilliant idea of delivering sofware updates via a feed. To keep the nomenclature consistent, he calls this appcasting. It\u0026rsquo;s a new spin on how to use this.\nWho\u0026rsquo;s Misnomer? Why isn\u0026rsquo;t there a Misternomer? As I said before, calling this attribute in RSS feed items “enclosure” isn\u0026rsquo;t quite correct. It implies that the data being referenced is contained within the feed itself. It\u0026rsquo;s not. I shudder to think about the amount of bandwidth that would be consumed (one change in the feed and every enclosure would be redowloaded with the feed). Rather, feeds just point. Sure, functionally they are enclosures, but I\u0026rsquo;m a nitpicker.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/29/podcasting-is-neat/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll right, so I\u0026rsquo;m way behind the curve on this, but one of the neat side-effects of widespread RSS adoption is a phenomenon known as \u003cstrong\u003ePodcasting\u003c/strong\u003e. RSS feeds (at least as of version 2.0) allow for a field called \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss#ltenclosuregtSubelementOfLtitemgt\"\u003eenclosures\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a bit of a misnomer, but a useful part of the spec.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt basically specifies the location of a file that\u0026rsquo;s associated with a post. At the current time, it\u0026rsquo;s generally an audio file (MP3, WMA, AAC, etc.). In some cases it\u0026rsquo;s a video file (but that\u0026rsquo;s much less frequent due to increased cost associated with production and bandwidth). The natural extension of this capability is transfer to iTunes and then one\u0026rsquo;s iPod (hence, podcasting). New RSS readers aim at handling these feeds (and in particular, the enclosures). There are the open-source \u003ca href=\"http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php\"\u003eiPodder\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://ipodderx.com\"\u003eiPodderX\u003c/a\u003e (which are free and $20 respectively).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Podcasting is Neat"},{"content":"I got an email from Don MacAskill, CEO and Chief Geek (his words, not mine ;)) over at Smugmug. He informed that they are working on feeds for their content, which is absolutely terrific. I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to add more pictures and eliminate my little lack of inline-block support problem.\nAs a little side-note, Don was also very friendly in his email, so anyone passionate about sharing their photos should check out their service.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/27/tag-central-update-smugmug/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI got an email from Don MacAskill, CEO and Chief Geek (his words, not mine ;)) over at \u003ca href=\"http://www.smugmug.com\"\u003eSmugmug\u003c/a\u003e. He informed that they are working on feeds for their content, which is absolutely terrific. I\u0026rsquo;ll be able to add more pictures and eliminate my little lack of inline-block support problem.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a little side-note, Don was also very friendly in his email, so anyone passionate about sharing their photos should check out their service.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tag Central Update: Smugmug"},{"content":"I like to read a variety of blogs and get a variety of opinions. Instapundit is still the best way to do get a full sampling. I forgot how I found Wizbang, but I enjoyed reading a lot of the content.\nFast forward to a few days ago. Contributing Editor Paul decided to go into “I told you so” mode because a news story suggested that evolution was more complex than simple genetic inheritance. His expert interpretation was that evolution was severely flawed. Naturally, he got lots of flak for this. Instead of letting it go, he made felt the need to post again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Notice a pattern? This is immaturity at its most embarrassing. He continued to get lambasted with criticism in the comments.\nFeeling the tide overtake him, he resorted to deleting comments. He also edited them. Those two steps weren\u0026rsquo;t enough for him to engineer “winning” the argument apparently though. He\u0026rsquo;s turned off comments for the latest stories.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s sad and way below Wizbang\u0026rsquo;s standards (or at least I assumed it was based on the quality of posts by both Kevin and Jay Tea of the same site). Considering their colleague\u0026rsquo;s recent behavior, maybe it\u0026rsquo;s time they put him in time-out, revoking both his posting and comment system manipulation, or kick him off the site completely (which wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be a big loss). I\u0026rsquo;d like to keep reading their site, but if they don\u0026rsquo;t help curb Paul\u0026rsquo;s immaturity or offer a way to subscribe to all the posts not written by Paul, I\u0026rsquo;ll have to remove it from my RSS reader.\nUpdate: And again. Who\u0026rsquo;s the nutty one here? Will someone at Wizbang take control before the site turns into “The Paul Raging at Evolution Happy Hour”?\nUpdate 2: And again. Again, the guy is a six year old.\nFinal Update: Thank you Kevin.\nUpdate Redux: I can\u0026rsquo;t be sure that it\u0026rsquo;s not just an April Fool\u0026rsquo;s joke, but Paul posted again. That prompted Kevin to put Paul on hiatus. This was followed by a post by Jay. Again, this may prove to be an April fool\u0026rsquo;s joke. It was. Lame.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/26/wizbang-needs-to-clean-house/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI like to read a variety of blogs and get a variety of opinions. \u003ca href=\"http://instapundit.com\"\u003eInstapundit\u003c/a\u003e is still the best way to do get a full sampling. I forgot how I found Wizbang, but I enjoyed reading a lot of the content.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFast forward to a few days ago. \u003ca href=\"mailto:paul@wizbangblog.com\"\u003eContributing Editor Paul\u003c/a\u003e decided to go into “I told you so” mode because a news story \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005452.php\"\u003esuggested that evolution was more complex\u003c/a\u003e than simple genetic inheritance. His expert interpretation was that evolution was severely flawed. Naturally, he got lots of flak for this. Instead of letting it go, he made felt the need to \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005457.php\"\u003epost again\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005458.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005469.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005482.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005483.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005485.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005492.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005493.php\"\u003eagain\u003c/a\u003e. Notice a pattern? This is immaturity at its most embarrassing. He continued to get lambasted with criticism in the comments.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Wizbang Needs to Clean House"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve hit a major milestone in my involvement in Macworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums. I\u0026rsquo;ve written 10,000 entries there. I\u0026rsquo;ve learned many, many things. I\u0026rsquo;ve taught and told people many things. I was even afforded the opportunity to have the prestigious title of moderator.\nTo celebrate this moment, I\u0026rsquo;d like to share what I\u0026rsquo;ve learned.\nThe way to learn to love writing is the act itself. Would you believe that I wasn\u0026rsquo;t a big fan of writing prior to my involvement in the forums? The only reason I didn\u0026rsquo;t despise it was the encouragement I got in my college writing class. The problem was that the class ended and I didn\u0026rsquo;t really get to explore the subject matter that excites me. I found myself an outlet. I started sharing the bits and pieces of knowledge I had accrued from troubleshooting my own machines and obsessively reading Mac news and software sites. Sharing this information was my passion. All that reading I did wasn\u0026rsquo;t satisfying, it\u0026rsquo;s fuel for my writing. Patience takes time. As curt as I am now, I once had a lot more contempt for some people. Whether I perceived ignorance was caused by stupidity or laziness, it didn\u0026rsquo;t matter. Now I realize that some people really lack the knowledge to even research answers, even if it is as simple as running a Google search. I\u0026rsquo;m still impatient with some people, but that usually because of an attitude. Don\u0026rsquo;t participate to get moderator status. Becoming a moderator was incidental to me. If you go into it trying to get something, you\u0026rsquo;re not going to get anything. It\u0026rsquo;ll feel like a job and you\u0026rsquo;ll ultimately resent every other member. Don\u0026rsquo;t post just post count. You\u0026rsquo;re going to sound like an idiot if you post every thought you have. It\u0026rsquo;s annoying. Here\u0026rsquo;s a good rule of thumb. If your entire post is I wholeheartedly support X, then it\u0026rsquo;s probably not worth saying. Give a fresh perspective or an interesting view point. Know when you\u0026rsquo;ve said all that you can say. This will get you out of a lot of pissing contests. I still haven\u0026rsquo;t mastered this. It\u0026rsquo;s easy to get caught up in an argument and want to get the last word in. When you start repeating your arguments, it\u0026rsquo;s time to move on. Some people think that developing a reputation is about winning every argument (and starting them if they don\u0026rsquo;t already exist). Some people don\u0026rsquo;t want to be your friend, but most do. It\u0026rsquo;s hard to tell when someone is being a troll or is just really frustrated. The best way to figure this out is offer solutions to what they\u0026rsquo;re bitching about. If they don\u0026rsquo;t find value in any of the suggestions and thank you, they\u0026rsquo;re a troll. Either ignore them or tell them you\u0026rsquo;re sorry you couldn\u0026rsquo;t help and get out of the conversation. They\u0026rsquo;re not interested in discourse. That\u0026rsquo;s all I\u0026rsquo;ve got for now.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/25/writing-10000-posts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve hit a major milestone in my involvement in \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/\"\u003eMacworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;ve written 10,000 entries there. I\u0026rsquo;ve learned many, many things. I\u0026rsquo;ve taught and told people many things. I was even afforded the opportunity to have the prestigious title of moderator.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo celebrate this moment, I\u0026rsquo;d like to share what I\u0026rsquo;ve learned.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe way to learn to love writing is the act itself.\u003c/strong\u003e Would you believe that I wasn\u0026rsquo;t a big fan of writing prior to my involvement in the forums? The only reason I didn\u0026rsquo;t despise it was the encouragement I got in my college writing class. The problem was that the class ended and I didn\u0026rsquo;t really get to explore the subject matter that excites me. I found myself an outlet. I started sharing the bits and pieces of knowledge I had accrued from troubleshooting my own machines and obsessively reading Mac news and software sites. Sharing this information was my passion. All that reading I did wasn\u0026rsquo;t satisfying, it\u0026rsquo;s fuel for my writing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePatience takes time.\u003c/strong\u003e As curt as I am now, I once had a lot more contempt for some people. Whether I perceived ignorance was caused by stupidity or laziness, it didn\u0026rsquo;t matter. Now I realize that some people really lack the knowledge to even research answers, even if it is as simple as running a Google search. I\u0026rsquo;m still impatient with some people, but that usually because of an attitude.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDon\u0026rsquo;t participate to get moderator status.\u003c/strong\u003e Becoming a moderator was incidental to me. If you go into it trying to get something, you\u0026rsquo;re not going to get anything. It\u0026rsquo;ll feel like a job and you\u0026rsquo;ll ultimately resent every other member.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDon\u0026rsquo;t post just post count.\u003c/strong\u003e You\u0026rsquo;re going to sound like an idiot if you post every thought you have. It\u0026rsquo;s annoying. Here\u0026rsquo;s a good rule of thumb. If your entire post is \u003cem\u003eI wholeheartedly support X\u003c/em\u003e, then it\u0026rsquo;s probably not worth saying. Give a fresh perspective or an interesting view point.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKnow when you\u0026rsquo;ve said all that you can say.\u003c/strong\u003e This will get you out of a lot of pissing contests. I still haven\u0026rsquo;t mastered this. It\u0026rsquo;s easy to get caught up in an argument and want to get the last word in. When you start repeating your arguments, it\u0026rsquo;s time to move on. Some people think that developing a reputation is about winning every argument (and starting them if they don\u0026rsquo;t already exist).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSome people don\u0026rsquo;t want to be your friend, but most do.\u003c/strong\u003e It\u0026rsquo;s hard to tell when someone is being a troll or is just really frustrated. The best way to figure this out is offer solutions to what they\u0026rsquo;re bitching about. If they don\u0026rsquo;t find value in any of the suggestions and thank you, they\u0026rsquo;re a troll. Either ignore them or tell them you\u0026rsquo;re sorry you couldn\u0026rsquo;t help and get out of the conversation. They\u0026rsquo;re not interested in discourse.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s all I\u0026rsquo;ve got for now.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Writing 10,000 Posts"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve finally written something officially for Macworld. It\u0026rsquo;s a fairly proud moment in my life. It\u0026rsquo;s almost like seeing my name in lights.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/25/its-official/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve finally \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2005/03/flickrexportplugin/index.php\"\u003ewritten something officially\u003c/a\u003e for \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com\"\u003eMacworld\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a fairly proud moment in my life. It\u0026rsquo;s almost like seeing my name in lights.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It's Official"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m making Tag Central prettier. I can do all the colors and styling I want just fine. I think it\u0026rsquo;ll look super when it\u0026rsquo;s done (but then again, I\u0026rsquo;m not an artist and that will probably be painfully apparent). Anyway, I want the Flickr pictures to line the right side of the page. Then I want all the other sections to be contained within their own boxes, two per row.\nOld school webmonkeys would immediately think of using a table based layout. It seems natural and it would be very easy. The problem is, this is an abuse of HTML tables (and heresy when making an XHTML page). Only actual tabular data is supposed to go into tables. All presentation must be managed using CSS. There are many, many good reasons for this, not the least of which is that it makes the site more accessible. Besides, I\u0026rsquo;m new school.\nI can almost hear Dana\u0026rsquo;s voice in my head. Then what\u0026rsquo;s the problem, Smartypants? The problem is that while CSS provides everything I need to achieve this layout, the CSS involved isn\u0026rsquo;t supported by Firefox. To be fair, it\u0026rsquo;s not supported by Internet Explorer, Camino (not surprising), Netscape, or iCab (which goes without saying). The real question is, what does support it? Opera and Safari both do. Unfortunately, much of my target audience isn\u0026rsquo;t using these browsers and when it\u0026rsquo;s not supported, the site looks like ass with a big white ass crack going down the middle.\nThe CSS I want to use is “display: inline-block;”. Basically, it forces all the sections of Tag Central to for a box like they would normally, with block elements that don\u0026rsquo;t break out. For those uninitiated, block elements are parts of the page that force a line break. Paragraphs and headers are good examples. Normally, the container I\u0026rsquo;m using for these various areas, DIV, is a block element. However, in this case, I want these elements to display in rows without forcing a line break unless they overstep the margin of the area that they are in. In this case, I make the width of each of these areas 49%. That means only two results areas per line. If there are any more, it\u0026rsquo;ll wrap onto the next line. This is exactly the behavior I want. It works perfectly in Safari and Opera. Firefox hasn\u0026rsquo;t implemented this even though it\u0026rsquo;s part of the CSS 2.1 spec. That makes me want to scream. What\u0026rsquo;s worse is that I read that earlier versions of Mozilla actually supported it. Bastards.\nThere isn\u0026rsquo;t much I can do about this other than hope that they get off their asses and correct this. I can live with incorrect display in Internet Explorer because I\u0026rsquo;m a snob like that. The other way that this whole issue could be avoided would be that I can find a way to integrate Smugmug content. In that case, I could go to a three column format (Flickr pictures on the left, Smugmug on the right, and everything else down the middle). At any rate, it sucks.\nUpdate: For anyone interested, there is a Bugzilla bug registered for this. The bad news is that from the comments, it looks like this won\u0026rsquo;t be fixed for Firefox 1.1. The target milestone is 1.9b, but what version of Firefox that version of the core relates to is beyond me. It\u0026rsquo;s fairly disappointing to see so much work going into revamping how the preferences look when this is a bug that limits functionality at the browser\u0026rsquo;s very core.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/24/firefox-inline-block-frustration/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m making \u003ca href=\"/tagcentral/\"\u003eTag Central\u003c/a\u003e prettier. I can do all the colors and styling I want just fine. I think it\u0026rsquo;ll look super when it\u0026rsquo;s done (but then again, I\u0026rsquo;m not an artist and that will probably be painfully apparent). Anyway, I want the Flickr pictures to line the right side of the page. Then I want all the other sections to be contained within their own boxes, two per row.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOld school webmonkeys would immediately think of using a table based layout. It seems natural and it would be very easy. The problem is, this is an abuse of HTML tables (and heresy when making an XHTML page). Only actual tabular data is supposed to go into tables. All presentation must be managed using CSS. There are many, many good reasons for this, not the least of which is that it makes the site more accessible. Besides, I\u0026rsquo;m new school.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firefox Inline-Block Frustration"},{"content":"Apple has released yet another security update. Fire up Software Update.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s what\u0026rsquo;s updated, followed by my explanation:\nAFP Server\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0340\nImpact: A specially crafted packet can cause a Denial of Service against the AFP Server.\nDescription: A specially crafted packet will terminate the operation of the AFP Server due to an incorrect memory reference.\nBasically, if you use Apple File Sharing, someone can knock down the program serving the files. This is more of a pain in the ass than a security risk.\nAFP Server\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0715\nImpact: The contents of a Drop Box can be discovered.\nDescription: Fixes the checking of file permissions for access to Drop Boxes. Credit to John M. Glenn of San Francisco for reporting this issue.\nThis is slightly worse. Basically, a Drop Box is supposed to be a place where people give you files, but no one but you can see in. This problem let people see what was inside (which could be incriminating).\nBluetooth Setup Assistant\nAvailable for: Mac OS X 10.3.8, Mac OS X Server 10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0713\nImpact: Local security bypass when using a Bluetooth input device.\nDescription: The Bluetooth Setup Assistant may be launched on systems without a keyboard or a preconfigured Bluetooth input device. In these cases, access to certain privileged functions has been disabled within the Bluetooth Setup Assistant.\nThis limits the amount of influence an entirely new Bluetooth device has. Otherwise it might do something malicious. I can\u0026rsquo;t say much more. This writeup is really vague.\nCore Foundation Available for: Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0716\nImpact: Buffer overflow via an environment variable.\nDescription: The incorrect handling of an environment variable within Core Foundation can result in a buffer overflow that may be used to execute arbitrary code. This issue has been addressed by correctly handling the environment variable. Credit to iDEFENSE and Adriano Lima of SeedSecurity.com for reporting this issue.\nThis is bad. Unix has data one can set called environment variables. They\u0026rsquo;re very commonly used by programmers. Basically, by formatting the data being inserted into one of these slots in a certain way will allow any program to run without restriction. That means a trojan could do anything.\nCyrus IMAP\nAvailable for: Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2004-1011, CAN-2004-1012, CAN-2004-1013, CAN-2004-1015, CAN-2004-1067\nImpact: Multiple vulnerabilities in Cyrus IMAP, including remotely exploitable denial of service and buffer overflows.\nDescription: Cyrus IMAP is updated to version 2.2.12, which includes fixes for buffer overflows in fetchnews, backend, proxyd, and imapd. Further information is available from http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/download/imapd/changes.html.\nThis is for server only. Like the first entry, vulnerabilities could knock down the mail server program as well as grant a program full access.\nCyrus SASL\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2002-1347, CAN-2004-0884\nImpact: Multiple vulnerabilities in Cyrus SASL, including remote denial of service and possible remote code execution in applications that use this library.\nDescription: Cyrus SASL is updated to address several security holes caused by improper data validation, memory allocation, and data handling.\nThis has the same effect as the last one.\nFolder permissions\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0712\nImpact: World-writable permissions on several directories, allowing potential file race conditions or local privilege escalation.\nDescription: Secure folder permissions are applied to protect the installer\u0026rsquo;s receipt cache and system-level ColorSync profiles. Credit to Eric Hall of DarkArt Consulting Services, Michael Haller (info@cilly.com), and (root at addcom.de) for reporting this issue.\nCertain parts of the filesystem were left with permissions that allowed arbitrary data be written to them (which means a malicious program could be written out or tons of data that would be hard to track down).\nMailman\nAvailable for: Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0202\nImpact: Directory traversal issue in Mailman that could allow access to arbitrary files.\nDescription: Mailman is a software package that provides mailing list management. This update addresses an exposure in Mailman\u0026rsquo;s private archive handling that allowed remote access to arbitrary files on the system. Further information is available from http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/security.html.\nServer only again. This allowed remote people to access arbitrary parts of the system, reading your private data or writing in malicious programs.\nSafari\nAvailable for: Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\nCVE-ID: CAN-2005-0234\nImpact: Maliciously registered International Domain Names (IDN) can make URLs visually appear as legitimate sites.\nDescription: Support for Unicode characters within domain names (International Domain Name support) can allow maliciously registered domain names to visually appear as legitimate sites. Safari has been modified so that it consults a user-customizable list of scripts that are allowed to be displayed natively. Characters based on scripts that are not in the allowed list are displayed in their Punycode equivalent. The default list of allowed scripts does not include Roman look-alike scripts. Credit to Eric Johanson (ericj@shmoo.com) for reporting this issue to us. More information is available here.\nThis is by far the most visible fix for most users. Check out the full writeup including an example. Basically, using special character combinations, one can make a domain name look identical to another, such as Paypal, or Amazon. This is incredibly bad because phishers could collect your usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers by fooling you into trusting the site. Now these special domain names look different. The fake “paypal.com” suddenly becomes “xn\u0026ndash;pypal-4ve.com”. Whoa. Safari users need this update.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/21/security-update-2005-003-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple has released yet another \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301061\"\u003esecurity update\u003c/a\u003e. Fire up Software Update.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere\u0026rsquo;s what\u0026rsquo;s updated, followed by my explanation:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAFP Server\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAvailable for:\u003c/em\u003e Mac OS X v10.3.8, Mac OS X Server v10.3.8\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCVE-ID:\u003c/em\u003e CAN-2005-0340\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eImpact:\u003c/em\u003e A specially crafted packet can cause a Denial of Service against the AFP Server.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDescription:\u003c/em\u003e A specially crafted packet will terminate the operation of the AFP Server due to an incorrect memory reference.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBasically, if you use Apple File Sharing, someone can knock down the program serving the files. This is more of a pain in the ass than a security risk.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Security Update 2005-003 Released"},{"content":"How does one know when to upgrade one\u0026rsquo;s computer? The answer is apparently very simple according to an upgrade forum post.\n😉 if u up grade ur comp do it when ur redy. 😕 😕 😕 😕 😕 😕 😀 😀 😀\nNo, I didn\u0026rsquo;t add those smilies after the fact.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/21/when-to-upgrade/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHow does one know when to upgrade one\u0026rsquo;s computer? The answer is apparently very simple according to an upgrade forum post.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e😉 if u up grade ur comp do it when ur redy. 😕 😕 😕 😕 😕 😕 😀 😀 😀\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo, I didn\u0026rsquo;t add those smilies after the fact.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"When to Upgrade"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve started work on the Tag Central project I talked about previously. It currently uses the various RSS feeds that the suppported sites spit out. Unfortunately, this also means no Technorati tags. Unless I\u0026rsquo;m totally out of my mind, they don\u0026rsquo;t supply easily accessed RSS feeds.\nRight now, I\u0026rsquo;m not using a database, but instead just using the standard file based caching built into MagpieRSS which is processing all the feeds for me. Space may become an issue if this site becomes popular. I\u0026rsquo;d hate to not cache, but as I\u0026rsquo;m not getting paid for this yet, I can\u0026rsquo;t afford to use gigantic amounts of space.\nCurrently supported services Flickr del.icio.us Tagsurf Jots 43 Things Services that will be added soon Furl Services I\u0026rsquo;d like to add if I can find RSS feeds for their tags Technorati Smugmug Genielab With all that info out of the way, go check it out. Let me know what you think. I\u0026rsquo;d love to hear any feedback. That includes how you think it should be laid out and look.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/21/tag-central/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve started work on the \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2005/03/03/tag-central/\"\u003eTag Central project\u003c/a\u003e I talked about previously. It currently uses the various RSS feeds that the suppported sites spit out. Unfortunately, this also means no \u003ca href=\"http://www.technorati.com\"\u003eTechnorati\u003c/a\u003e tags. Unless I\u0026rsquo;m totally out of my mind, they don\u0026rsquo;t supply easily accessed RSS feeds.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRight now, I\u0026rsquo;m not using a database, but instead just using the standard file based caching built into \u003ca href=\"http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/\"\u003eMagpieRSS\u003c/a\u003e which is processing all the feeds for me. Space may become an issue if this site becomes popular. I\u0026rsquo;d hate to not cache, but as I\u0026rsquo;m not getting paid for this \u003cem\u003eyet\u003c/em\u003e, I can\u0026rsquo;t afford to use gigantic amounts of space.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tag Central"},{"content":"I honestly had no idea that Yahoo! was interested in buying Flickr. I\u0026rsquo;m not entirely surprised though. It\u0026rsquo;s the business model that was born out of the Internet bubble of the 80\u0026rsquo;s. Almost.\nAt any rate, the folks at Ludicorp announced that Yahoo! has bought them up.\nYahoo actually does acquire Flickr\nHoly smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!! Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks!\nWoohoo! What does this mean? It means that we\u0026rsquo;ll no longer have to draw straws to see who gets paid, schedule conjugal visits between trips to the colo….wait! That\u0026rsquo;s not what you want to know.\nReading their entry about the buyout is the best way to find out what this really means to Flickr and Yahoo! users. My quick summary of that explanation is nothing.\nThis type of buyout started with the Dot Com era. Companies would start up just to be bought out. You\u0026rsquo;d get a bunch of people together with a cool idea, develop it just enough to get noticed by a company such as Microsoft, then wait until they try to buy you out. It didn\u0026rsquo;t matter if actually had a working implementation. You just needed a cool idea and enough done to make it look like you had a product.\nThis has changed. Companies have wised up. They want working product. Now the idea is to make a cool product. You don\u0026rsquo;t really need a long term profitability plan. Just sustain yourself long enough for a company with deep pockets, a sugar daddy if you will, to want your product. Let them figure out a way to make money off it.\nAlso new is the fact that buying companies don\u0026rsquo;t want to replace the original staff or even try to integrate them into their existing corporate culture. There\u0026rsquo;s two reasons. One, those being bought out don\u0026rsquo;t want to abandon their project. They have a stake in it. Companies like this because those individuals want to keep it going. Two, these people had an idea that the existing culture didn\u0026rsquo;t yield. Stifling that creative drive is counter productive. This way, the company isn\u0026rsquo;t just buying an idea or a product, they\u0026rsquo;re getting that for free while buying talent. It\u0026rsquo;s more about the staff of those projects than the projects themselves.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s certainly an interesting paradigm. I\u0026rsquo;d like to take advantage of it, but I lack both a great idea and the balls to drop everything and gamble on its success.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/20/yahoo-buys-flickr/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI honestly had no idea that \u003ca href=\"http://www.yahoo.com\"\u003eYahoo!\u003c/a\u003e was interested in buying \u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m not entirely surprised though. It\u0026rsquo;s the business model that was born out of the Internet bubble of the 80\u0026rsquo;s. \u003cem\u003eAlmost.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, the folks at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ludicorp.com\"\u003eLudicorp\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://blog.flickr.com/flickrblog/2005/03/yahoo_actually_.html\"\u003eannounced\u003c/a\u003e that Yahoo! has bought them up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYahoo actually does acquire Flickr\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHoly smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!! Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Yahoo! Buys Flickr"},{"content":"Listed under Pages and Site Sections are some new additions to the site.\nI\u0026rsquo;m giving you all the tools to stalk me online. You can see what I\u0026rsquo;m doing with 43 Things, the music, movies, and games I have in my library, if I\u0026rsquo;m sitting in front of computer with the webcam, the movies I\u0026rsquo;m getting from Netflix, an assortment of pictures at Flickr, and now the music I\u0026rsquo;m listening to at the music section.\nWeb services at 43 Things, Netflix, and Flickr supply the data in those respective sections. The library is powered by Delicious Library and DeliciWeb. The webcam is powered by EvoCam. Finally, Recent Tunes supplies the data for the music section.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s all automated, making this site dynamic without my intervention. Sweet.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/19/new-sections/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eListed under \u003cem\u003ePages\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eSite Sections\u003c/em\u003e are some new additions to the site.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m giving you all the tools to stalk me online. You can see what I\u0026rsquo;m doing with \u003ca href=\"/43things/\"\u003e43 Things\u003c/a\u003e, the music, movies, and games I have in my \u003ca href=\"/library/\"\u003elibrary\u003c/a\u003e, if I\u0026rsquo;m sitting in front of computer with the \u003ca href=\"/webcam/\"\u003ewebcam\u003c/a\u003e, the movies I\u0026rsquo;m getting from \u003ca href=\"/netflix/\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e, an assortment of pictures at \u003ca href=\"/flickr/\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e, and now the music I\u0026rsquo;m listening to at the \u003ca href=\"/music/\"\u003emusic section\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeb services at \u003ca href=\"http://www.43things.com\"\u003e43 Things\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e supply the data in those respective sections. The library is powered by \u003ca href=\"http://www.delicious-monster.com\"\u003eDelicious Library\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://homepage.mac.com/imaxinc/DeliciWeb/\"\u003eDeliciWeb\u003c/a\u003e. The webcam is powered by \u003ca href=\"http://www.evological.com/evocam.html\"\u003eEvoCam\u003c/a\u003e. Finally, \u003ca href=\"http://freshsqueeze.com/products/freeware/\"\u003eRecent Tunes\u003c/a\u003e supplies the data for the music section.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Sections"},{"content":"I have to extend the obligatory St. Patrick\u0026rsquo;s Day greeting. So, Happy St. Patrick\u0026rsquo;s Day!\nI\u0026rsquo;d try a Guinness tonight, but considering my recent surgery, I may hold off until this weekend. At any rate, tip one back for me!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/17/happy-st.-patricks-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have to extend the obligatory St. Patrick\u0026rsquo;s Day greeting. So, Happy St. Patrick\u0026rsquo;s Day!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;d try a \u003ca href=\"http://www.guinness.com\"\u003eGuinness\u003c/a\u003e tonight, but considering my recent surgery, I may hold off until this weekend. At any rate, tip one back for me!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Happy St. Patrick's Day!"},{"content":"Well, it was confirmed. I had appendicitis and they removed my appendix. I\u0026rsquo;m appendix-less. Is that a turn-on or -off for women?\nTwo Hamburgers Please The whole ordeal started on Sunday night after having two hamburgers. My stomach felt really tight. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t normal, but I chocked it up to eating too much too fast. I tried to relieve myself, but no dice. The pain only moved down to my lower right. I immediately started thinking appendicitis.\nDude Man There\u0026rsquo;s a reason I jumped so quickly to that conclusion. I can safely blame Scott for that. He had to regale me with the story of his mother having a burst appendix. Naturally, that\u0026rsquo;s dangerous and it\u0026rsquo;s possible die from it. However, when I hear or even think of the word “appendix”, all I can hear in my head is Scott.\nDude, man. She could have died man.\nHe told me this at some point when I was especially impressionable apparently. Every time I had gas, I\u0026rsquo;d press on my lower abdomen to make sure. I sure as hell wasn\u0026rsquo;t waiting for it to burst.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s why I waited instead of acting immediately. I went to bed in the hopes that it would go away. I slept through the night which I took as a good sign.\nYou\u0026rsquo;re Still Here? Well, the pain was still there in the morning. I started dressing really casually for work. I wasn\u0026rsquo;t feeling good still but I figured I could work through it. It would subside just like all the gas I mistakenly thought was appendicitis. I started making oatmeal. All of a sudden, I felt woozy. Maybe it was time to call the doctor.\nNaturally, at 6:30 in the morning, the doctor\u0026rsquo;s office wasn\u0026rsquo;t open. I got the answering service which paged the on-call doctor. I got a very sleepy doctor to tell me there wasn\u0026rsquo;t anything she could do and if I was concerned, go to the emergency room.\nI took that advice and woke my brother. Thankfully he was home for Spring Break. My father was busy taking my mother to the hospital for surgery. It\u0026rsquo;s a strange coincidence I\u0026rsquo;ll admit. It\u0026rsquo;s a good thing he was there because I had no idea how to get to Marlborough Hospital. I\u0026rsquo;ll give him props for waking up on short sleep to do that.\nBerry Smoothies I got myself checked in and my father had arrived by the time they actually called me in to see the doctor. The doctor thought it was appendicitis. She called for a surgeon and a CAT scan. For the next hour and a half, I drank the worst berry (but probably most expensive) smoothie I\u0026rsquo;d ever had. It was oral contrast solution. I was prepped and sent to the CAT scan room.\nAs I laid on the pad, the technician attached the IV contrast to me and warned me of its side-effects. She told me that I would feel really warm, might taste something in the back of my throat, and feel like I was pissing myself. Thankfully, only two of those came true (the former two). The warmth was disconcerting I\u0026rsquo;ll admit.\nReady, Setty, Zzzzz With that, I met my surgeon and it was up to the operating room I was to go. I was naturally apprehensive as it was my first time in surgery. Shocking I know, but as I tell everyone around me, I don\u0026rsquo;t get sick. I got odd looks from the doctors when I told them of no recurring conditions, no medication, no recent sickness, and no surgery in the past. I\u0026rsquo;ve never even had oral surgery.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve never been put under either. After rushing me up to the OR, I was given a slight sedative. I started feeling sleepy. Next, I was brought into the actual room. It was an amazing flurry activity as I remember it, but at the time, I wasn\u0026rsquo;t very agitated by it, likely because of the sedative. I remember getting tickled on my lower abdomen as I was shaved down there. At that point, an oxygen mask was over my face so I was feeling really out of it. Then I was told the knockout drug entered the IV tube.\nAt the time, I thought Uh oh, I\u0026rsquo;m still awake. This isn\u0026rsquo;t good.\nWakey Wakey I suddenly woke up in the reception area outside the actual operating room. It was all over. Everything went fine. That was a relief. I was still groggy. I was aware enough to notice the cute student nurse. Sadly, she did little more than help move me to my recovery room.\nOnce there, I started coming out of my daze. My nurse for the evening (who was also incredibly cute and I would have liked to taken to dinner) introduced herself. She gave me some demerol in a shot. That was a very bad thing. It\u0026rsquo;s meant to relieve pain, but it made my shoulder (where it was injected) incredibly sore. In fact, the pain I felt from that far exceeded the actual pain I felt from my three incisions. It also knocked me out. The rest of my afternoon disappeared.\nLots of TV The rest of my stay was fairly uneventful. I watched lots of TV. I got up and walked around with the nurse. I slept. The next day I started eating regular food again. My doctor cleared me to leave the hospital. That was basically the entire event.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/16/goodbye-appendix-we-hardly-knew-ye/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWell, it was confirmed. I had appendicitis and they removed my appendix. I\u0026rsquo;m appendix-less. Is that a turn-on or -off for women?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Goodbye Appendix, We Hardly Knew Ye"},{"content":"I might now be able to write for the next few days. After dinner last night, I started having some abdominal pains. It all shifted to my right side shortly before bed and it\u0026rsquo;s still there. I\u0026rsquo;m feeling pretty woozy right now, so I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to deal with it.\nYikes.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/14/ouch-my-appendix/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI might now be able to write for the next few days. After dinner last night, I started having some abdominal pains. It all shifted to my right side shortly before bed and it\u0026rsquo;s still there. I\u0026rsquo;m feeling pretty woozy right now, so I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to deal with it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYikes.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ouch, My Appendix"},{"content":"","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/archives/","summary":"","title":"Archives"},{"content":"As I am a .Mac member, I get a free Versiontracker membership. That was the main reason that I stuck with it over MacUpdate. Lately though, I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting fed up with the rendering bugs of the site.\nThose of you who also use the site might remember its earlier designs. Back when I first started visiting, it was extremely simple. It came up fast and there was no complicated code that screwed up. Over time, the site has slowly gotten more complicated and not for the better. Today I noticed that they have put up a new beta version of their site. It\u0026rsquo;s much improved. It loads faster, looks cleaner (though extremely similar to MacUpdate), and makes me feel better about visiting.\nIf you use their service, don\u0026rsquo;t hesitate and go to the new beta. If you\u0026rsquo;ve never used such a service before, now is a good time to try. They track not only Mac software updates, but Windows and even Palm software updates.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/11/new-beta-versiontracker/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs I am a \u003ca href=\"http://www.mac.com\"\u003e.Mac\u003c/a\u003e member, I get a free Versiontracker membership. That was the main reason that I stuck with it over \u003ca href=\"http://www.macupdate.com\"\u003eMacUpdate\u003c/a\u003e. Lately though, I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting fed up with the rendering bugs of the site.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you who also use the site might remember its earlier designs. Back when I first started visiting, it was extremely simple. It came up fast and there was no complicated code that screwed up. Over time, the site has slowly gotten more complicated and not for the better. Today I noticed that they have put up \u003ca href=\"http://beta.versiontracker.com\"\u003ea new beta version\u003c/a\u003e of their site. It\u0026rsquo;s much improved. It loads faster, looks cleaner (though \u003cstrong\u003eextremely\u003c/strong\u003e similar to MacUpdate), and makes me feel better about visiting.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Beta Versiontracker"},{"content":"Yesterday evening started out wonderfully. The video card had arrived and dinner was pastrami sandwiches. Delicious. I probably wolfed it down too quickly to actually enjoy it, but that\u0026rsquo;s what happens when I get a new toy. Ask Dana how much attention I paid her after I used her student status to get my Powerbook.\nSo I ran upstairs to my room and carefully installed the new card. I plugged everything back into my computer, removed the ADC to DVI adapter on my Formac display and plugged that in, and let her rip. The computer seemed to start up as normal. Good.\nThen I realized, no, it hadn\u0026rsquo;t started up as normal. Nothing was showing on my monitor. It was acting like it didn\u0026rsquo;t get any signal at all. Damn it. I restarted. Still nothing. Now I was getting concerned. I unplugged everything but the essentials and restarted. Still nothing. That\u0026rsquo;s a huge problem. My mind raced. Was the video card defective? Did I not ground myself correctly, frying the card?\nLuckily, there\u0026rsquo;s a couple old VGA CRT displays kicking around my house. I plugged one of those into the other port and restarted the computer. The CRT came on with perfect picture. Crap. Did I screw up the DVI port on the video card? I unplugged and replugged the Formac. The display disappeared from the CRT and came back like it would if it were recognizing a new display. Nothing showed still on my LCD though. I fired up various display and profiling utilities. They all came back with the same answer. No, there\u0026rsquo;s no display on the DVI port.\nI was getting distressed. As a desparation move before trying my original video card, I plugged and unplugged my monitor in several ways. I tried inserting slowly. Then only halfway in. I unplugged the main power for the monitor while still in the video card. The little LED that blinks when the monitor is sleeping was on. I had the brilliant idea of plugging the monitor in while the power was unplugged. Once it was in, I plugged in the power. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. More precisely, I saw video come onto my Formac monitor. Well, that\u0026rsquo;s progress at least.\nIn order to more easily plug and unplug the monitor, I had moved my desktop. Well, I had to move it back. I plugged everything back in and… nothing. It was just working! My father came upstairs to see how things were going. I was probably a bit brusque with him. When I\u0026rsquo;m troubleshooting something, particularly something on my own computer that\u0026rsquo;s giving me a lot of grief, I\u0026rsquo;m not fun to be around. I get into total concentration mode and any attempt to talk to or help me gets a gruff response because I feel like it\u0026rsquo;s slowing me down.\nAnyway, I plugged the CRT back in and restarted. Again, it worked. I then did with the LCD what I had done before. I unplugged it, detached the power, plugged it into the video card, and reattached the power. It came up. This was getting old, fast. I shut down the computer and then start it back up as was. The LCD worked. Then I tried disabling the CRT and disconnecting it. The LCD worked. I then shut down and started the computer again. The LCD came up all by itself. It was at this point I decided to leave well enough alone and went to bed. I left the power on to the LCD unlike normal (because it\u0026rsquo;s bright I turn it off). The computer shut down on its own like normal. This morning, I started it up to see if the monitor would work. It did.\nThe next step is to turn off the monitor before I go to bed to see if the display is still recognized in that state when it starts up. If it is, then I\u0026rsquo;m satisfied but I\u0026rsquo;ll be curious about why the order to plugging things in mattered.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/11/my-formac-my-new-radeon-and-a-whole-lot-of-cuss-words/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYesterday evening started out wonderfully. The video card had arrived and dinner was pastrami sandwiches. Delicious. I probably wolfed it down too quickly to actually enjoy it, but that\u0026rsquo;s what happens when I get a new toy. Ask Dana how much attention I paid her after I used her student status to get my Powerbook.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo I ran upstairs to my room and carefully installed the new card. I plugged everything back into my computer, removed the ADC to DVI adapter on my Formac display and plugged that in, and let her rip. The computer seemed to start up as normal. Good.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Formac, My New Radeon, and a Whole Lot of Cuss Words"},{"content":"My video card was delayed yesterday, as the UPS site described. It was nowhere to be found. I cried and cried. Very sad.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been watching the tracking status intently today (with an updated delivery estimate of today). Just a few short minutes ago, I noticed that the status had been changed to delivered.\nI finally get to play with my new toy. Seriously, I\u0026rsquo;m like a kid at Christmas with this stuff. To quote myself: “Weeee!”\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/10/rejoice/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy video card was delayed yesterday, as the UPS site described. It was nowhere to be found. I cried and cried. Very sad.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been watching the tracking status intently today (with an updated delivery estimate of today). Just a few short minutes ago, I noticed that the status had been changed to delivered.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI finally get to play with my new toy. Seriously, I\u0026rsquo;m like a kid at Christmas with this stuff. To quote myself: “Weeee!”\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rejoice!"},{"content":"I live in Massachusetts. Snow is not a weather phenomenon here; it\u0026rsquo;s a way of life. Due to that fact, I\u0026rsquo;ve learned to accept snow and snowstorms. They can\u0026rsquo;t be avoided, only dealt with. Every time the white stuff hits the ground, I know I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to shovel it off the driveway and the deck. I know I\u0026rsquo;ll have to clean off my car. I know there\u0026rsquo;s going to be so much salt on the road that I\u0026rsquo;m going to go through a gallon of windshield wiper fluid (because, unlike peanuts, windshields are best when unsalted). I know traffic is going to be terrible going in to work.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s almost something I take pride in to deal with. It becomes a problem when it infringes upon my playtime. Right now, the status for my Radeon 9800 Pro is “Exception.” The estimated delivery date which formerly was today, is now missing. The last entry in the tracking system says “ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS CAUSED THIS DELAY.” However, it did arrive in Shrewsbury (the local UPS distribution station) last night, so maybe they\u0026rsquo;re just hedging their bets. At any rate, I\u0026rsquo;m going to be a whiny little boy today if I don\u0026rsquo;t get my toy. pout\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/09/damn-snow/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI live in Massachusetts. Snow is not a weather phenomenon here; it\u0026rsquo;s a way of life. Due to that fact, I\u0026rsquo;ve learned to accept snow and snowstorms. They can\u0026rsquo;t be avoided, only dealt with. Every time the white stuff hits the ground, I know I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to shovel it off the driveway and the deck. I know I\u0026rsquo;ll have to clean off my car. I know there\u0026rsquo;s going to be so much salt on the road that I\u0026rsquo;m going to go through a gallon of windshield wiper fluid (because, unlike peanuts, windshields are best when \u003cem\u003eunsalted\u003c/em\u003e). I know traffic is going to be terrible going in to work.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Damn Snow"},{"content":"It may start to look like I have a personal jihad against the fine folks at LowEndMac, but I really don\u0026rsquo;t. I enjoy a lot of their content. Their archived Mac technical information is pretty good. Well, it used to be. It\u0026rsquo;s now filled with missing files (Error 404 abound!) and all attempts to notify them seem to be directed into /dev/null (or “sent into the void” for my less geeky readers). Some of their articles are interesting and inspiring.\nSome are not. Today\u0026rsquo;s example is Four Classic Mac OS Features Still Missing in OS X by Jeff Adkins. He brings up four things he misses from OS 9.\nTabbed folders – aka tab drawers. Drag a Finder window to the bottom of the screen and it turns into a tab. A more complete location function. Changing locations changes a myriad of settings instead of just network connection ones. Installing and temporarily disabling system extensions at startup. Link all kinds of sounds to system events. I will give Jeff the first two. They were handy features. The latter two are examples of poor journalism.\nExtensions are dead. Long live extensions! Perhaps the biggest problem of OS 9 and earlier was the existence of extensions. They were essentially little plugins that added all kinds of functionality to the OS. To do anything slightly interesting, a developer generally had to include one of these. Want a new menu in the menu bar? You need an extension. Want to burn CDs? You need an extension. So on and so on.\nThis wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have been a problem except that extensions had a nasty habit of interfering with one another. Rather than dealing with this somewhat gracefully by disabling features should a conflict occur, these conflicts would cause crashes because OS 9 was rather unstable in this regard. One had to be knowledgable in order to hunt down and solve these problems. You had to know what you could disable, which extensions were interrelated, and when extensions should loaded. It was no small task, and as such, they were done away with.\nOS X uses a much different approach. Nearly everything is daemon based. Background applications generate menus and run services for other applications. In more technical terms, more functionality was pushed from the system space into user space. Different users no longer have to run a lot of the same software. It also meant less restarting, vastly improved stability, and more control. Extensions became a thing of the past.\nEnter Jeff Adkins take:\nInstalling and temporarily disabling system extensions at startup. [Editor\u0026rsquo;s note: Okay, they\u0026rsquo;re not called extensions any more, but you know what we mean.] Of course, OS X apologists would have you believe you don\u0026rsquo;t need to fiddle with system extensions because OS X never crashes. Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I\u0026rsquo;ve never used a computer I couldn\u0026rsquo;t cause to freeze or crash.\nIn fact, in my illustrious career, I\u0026rsquo;ve managed to crash (software wise) a copy machine, a calculator, and every operating system I ever used – OS X, OS 4-9, Apple II, Atari, DOS, all 31 flavors of Windows™, some Linux distribution I used for a day, a Prime minicomputer [I kind of cheated on that one], a VIC-20, a Commodore 64, a Timex-Sinclair 1000, an Atari 2600 home video game, a Pac-man home version I bought in a joystick handle for Christmas, and a red-LED-only football game I got in 1980-something.\nIt was nice being able to fix things without a degree in computer science. Now, I\u0026rsquo;ve cracked open the Terminal and done a few tricks, but only because I had to. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean it was fun.\nWell, that was fun. Now that Jeff has dated himself, we\u0026rsquo;ll examine the actual meat of what he wrote. He wants a mechanism to disable system extensions at startup. The thing is, extensions as they were once known, don\u0026rsquo;t exist anymore. It\u0026rsquo;s like asking for a way to disable extensions in Windows. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t make sense. We\u0026rsquo;ll cut him some slack and pretend that what he meant was kernel extensions by that editor\u0026rsquo;s note (though he left it so utterly vague, he could be talking about daemons).\nKernel extensions are somewhat similar to OS 9 style extensions, except that they\u0026rsquo;re not. They have a very special purpose. They provide developers with a very low level way to interface with hardware. This is an important distinction for several reasons. First, because they deal with hardware, it limits the number of them to the number of devices you\u0026rsquo;ve attached to your computer. Second, they do not get loaded by the OS unless they are attached. If you disconnect that peripheral, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t get loaded at startup. It\u0026rsquo;s like magic.\nNext, there is a way to disable them no matter what at startup. You hold shift, like days of old. That\u0026rsquo;s right, just like before. Holding shift even disables the daemons I talked about. Amazing! One can then disable or uninstall that software that they think is causing the problem.\nThat brings up the next issue. Jeff appears to still be stuck in the OS 9 world where extension troubleshooting was standard procedure. Again, OS X is different from OS 9. Extensions are not the problem when you are having an issue. It\u0026rsquo;s like insisting that one is having an extensions issue when running Windows. Wrong OS. This is further reinforced by the last sentence in the quoted portion.\nIt was nice being able to fix things without a degree in computer science. Now, I\u0026rsquo;ve cracked open the Terminal and done a few tricks, but only because I had to. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean it was fun.\nHe perpetuates the myth that Unix (accessed via the Terminal) is hard and necessary for troubleshooting in OS X. It\u0026rsquo;s not. Every function that a normal user needs out of the Terminal has had a nice GUI face slapped onto it by a kind developer. Further, running commands in the Terminal that have been supplied by a helpful third party or by some reference guide is not hard. You simply need to type what you have been told. I assume Jeff can type. It hardly requires a degree in computer science.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s really ludicrous about that passage is the suggestion that in some way it\u0026rsquo;s easier to troubleshoot extension conflicts rather than type a few commands into a prompt. Extensions troubleshooting is so absurdly hard that a product was made to automate it to some degree (Conflict Catcher) but it was never an exact or perfect science. That is not easy for a layperson. This is confusing personal familiarity with ease. Also, extension conflict finding isn\u0026rsquo;t fun either.\nYelling at the Kids from the Couch Next up on the agenda is the lack of a utility to connect sounds to certain system events. There\u0026rsquo;s little to say about this. Xounds will do it. No fuss, no muss. It would take someone less than a minute to find it if they tried which Jeff admittedly had not.\nI also wish OS X could link all kinds of sounds to system events. I did it with shareware in OS 9 and have never even looked to see if there\u0026rsquo;s such a thing of OS X. It\u0026rsquo;s not essential, but it is fun.\nGod forbid he look! He\u0026rsquo;s much too busy criticizing that OS X doesn\u0026rsquo;t have an extensions manager to even look. He even says that it was done with shareware in OS 9. How can something that was never in the Classic OS be “missing” from OS X? Hello? Bueller? This is no different from the Classic OS.\nTrying Too Hard or Not Enough? There are legitimate gripes one can have with OS X. I think Jeff brought up two good ones. However, he\u0026rsquo;s inventing problems in order to find a fault in OS X with the third. Then he doesn\u0026rsquo;t even try to look to find a solution for the last gripe. LowEndMac provides a fine service for owners of older Macs. I support them in that. I will not support these inaccurate circle jerks that they are calling columns. Having a website and a large readership doesn\u0026rsquo;t give you license to publish crap.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/08/more-lazy-journalism-at-lowendmac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt may start to look like I have a personal jihad against the fine folks at \u003ca href=\"http://lowendmac.com\"\u003eLowEndMac\u003c/a\u003e, but I really don\u0026rsquo;t. I enjoy a lot of their content. Their archived Mac technical information is pretty good. Well, it used to be. It\u0026rsquo;s now filled with missing files (Error 404 abound!) and all attempts to notify them seem to be directed into /dev/null (or “sent into the void” for my less geeky readers). Some of their articles are interesting and inspiring.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"More Lazy Journalism at LowEndMac"},{"content":"When Google Desktop first came out, it was moderately cool. You could search Outlook Mail, your files, Internet Explorer web history, and AOL IM chat history. I use Windows at work, so I tested it out. It worked from what I could tell, but I use Thunderbird for mail, Firefox for web, and Gaim for AIM chat. I totally forgot about Google Desktop.\nThen Google Desktop came out of beta. Not only did they add Firefox and Thunderbird support, they supplied a plugin interface. This is huge. That enables developers to add Google searching to any product. For example, someone could write a plugin to search Gaim logs. It\u0026rsquo;s tempting to get a free t-shirt, but as I don\u0026rsquo;t have a Windows box at home, I doubt I will even attempt making a plugin.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s just a small case. Imagine the possibilities! Search your iTunes library. Search Opera\u0026rsquo;s web history. If there was a Windows equivalent of Delicious Library, you could search that. They\u0026rsquo;ve even made it easier to access it by allowing you to embed it in your taskbar or make it a floating window. Very cool. Very extensible. These plugins take a mediocre product and make it wicked cool.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/08/google-desktop-is-now-wicked-cool/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003ca href=\"http://desktop.google.com\"\u003eGoogle Desktop\u003c/a\u003e first came out, it was \u003cem\u003emoderately\u003c/em\u003e cool. You could search Outlook Mail, your files, Internet Explorer web history, and AOL IM chat history. I use Windows at work, so I tested it out. It worked from what I could tell, but I use Thunderbird for mail, Firefox for web, and Gaim for AIM chat. I totally forgot about Google Desktop.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen Google Desktop \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/03/taking-plunge.html\"\u003ecame out of beta\u003c/a\u003e. Not only did they add Firefox and Thunderbird support, they \u003ca href=\"http://desktop.google.com/developer.html\"\u003esupplied a plugin interface\u003c/a\u003e. This is \u003cstrong\u003ehuge\u003c/strong\u003e. That enables developers to add Google searching to any product. For example, someone could write a plugin to search Gaim logs. It\u0026rsquo;s tempting to get a free t-shirt, but as I don\u0026rsquo;t have a Windows box at home, I doubt I will even attempt making a plugin.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Desktop is Now Wicked Cool"},{"content":"After spending a lot time surfing the net looking for the best upgrade for my Powermac, I decided on an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition video card. It\u0026rsquo;s the best video that will ever work in my Dual 1 GHz G4 Powermac. I know you\u0026rsquo;re all very excited for me.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s even better about it, is that it will likely correct the KotOR problems I was having. There was an update that was supposed to correct it, but I was too disheartened to try it again. Besides, I barely have time for anything lately. I haven\u0026rsquo;t even been playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.\nThe straw that broke the camel\u0026rsquo;s back as far as buying the card was the recent price change. The suggested price dropped to $250. That\u0026rsquo;s not horrible, but it\u0026rsquo;s not great either. I remembered that Buy.com had the card for less than $300 while it was still supposed to be $350. They had it for about $240. I did some digging and Clubmac had it for $203.99 with free shipping. I had to pull the trigger on that. So I did.\nI still have a few other things I\u0026rsquo;m eyeing to upgrade my computer with.\n512 MB of PC2700 DDR RAM (to bring it up to 1.75 GB) SATA PCI card (a Firmtek Seritek card) an SATA hard drive a CPU upgrade I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about a Western Digital Raptor or a Maxtor Diamondmax 10 drive as they were close in a comparison at Bare Feats. The speed is similar (with an edge to the Raptor), but the Maxtor drive is cheaper and much larger space wise. As for the CPU upgrade, there\u0026rsquo;s a dual 1.42 GHz upgrade, but with recent upgrades for older Macs reaching speeds of up to 1.7 GHz, I\u0026rsquo;m waiting for a similar upgrade for mine (to nearly double the clock speed).\nWho wants to bankroll me?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/04/radeon-9800-pro-ordered/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter spending a lot time surfing the net looking for the best upgrade for my Powermac, I decided on an \u003ca href=\"http://mirror.ati.com/products/radeon9800/radeon9800prome/\"\u003eATi Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition video card\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s the best video that will ever work in my \u003ca href=\"\"\u003eDual 1 GHz G4 Powermac\u003c/a\u003e. I know you\u0026rsquo;re all very excited for me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat\u0026rsquo;s even better about it, is that it will likely correct the \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/01/knights-of-the-old-republic-performance-problems/\"\u003eKotOR problems\u003c/a\u003e I was having. There was \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/20/kotor-performance-problem-update/\"\u003ean update\u003c/a\u003e that was supposed to correct it, but I was too disheartened to try it again. Besides, I barely have time for anything lately. I haven\u0026rsquo;t even been playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Radeon 9800 Pro Ordered"},{"content":"You may or may not notice that all attempts to load any address on this site starting with “www.godlikenerd.com” will now be forwarded to the same address with the “www.” stripped out. I like it that way. It keeps the addresses shorter and it hasn\u0026rsquo;t been necessary to put that on anything since the middle 90\u0026rsquo;s.\nThis is of course explained better at no-www.org. Anybody running their own domain name with the ability to use .htaccess files should check it out.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/04/www.-is-deprecated/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYou may or may not notice that all attempts to load any address on this site starting with “www.godlikenerd.com” will now be forwarded to the same address with the “www.” stripped out. I like it that way. It keeps the addresses shorter and it hasn\u0026rsquo;t been necessary to put that on anything since the middle 90\u0026rsquo;s.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is of course explained better at \u003ca href=\"http://no-www.org\"\u003eno-www.org\u003c/a\u003e. Anybody running their own domain name with the ability to use .htaccess files should check it out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"www. is Deprecated"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve already run this idea by a couple people, but I thought I\u0026rsquo;d write about it so there\u0026rsquo;s some record that it was my damn idea. If you\u0026rsquo;ve read someone write about this or actually do it already, let me know in the comments.\nTag, You\u0026rsquo;re It Many of you are already familiar with tagging, or folksonomies. Popular services use this categorization/organization paradigm to help users manage their content. For example, there\u0026rsquo;s del.icio.us for bookmarks, Flickr for pictures, 43 Things for goals, and even Technorati for blog posts such as this one. Some of these services are even beginning to list content from these other services when browsing tagged content.\nReselling My bright idea is that instead of relying on any of these services showing the relevant data from other sites, you use an independent tag aggregator. That\u0026rsquo;s where I step in. Exact implementation details aside, I want to provide an interface to browsing tagged data from every site possible. I don\u0026rsquo;t want to restrict the data to the several already popular sites, but also include results from lesser known services, such as Tagsurf, the tagged message board.\nIt could provide a common interface, allow for different stylesheets, maybe even have user profiles to retain certain browsing/searching preferences. All these ideas are very free form right now, but I\u0026rsquo;d like some feedback on what you\u0026rsquo;d like to see.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s the Problem, Bub? My real hangup about this idea is several fold. They all basically relate to popularity if this does catch on like I expect it would.\nFirst, bandwidth could be a real concern. My site barely uses any now, but at the same time, I don\u0026rsquo;t have the largest readership (I still haven\u0026rsquo;t found a good way to measure it, so maybe I\u0026rsquo;m wrong). Many sites that provide even small sized content (like just text) have issues with this due to popularity. Take a look at DrunkenBlog.\nThe second issue is that of implementation. Should I use PHP? Maybe Python? What about caching? I don\u0026rsquo;t know. It also depends on how hard it is to interact with the various APIs that these services provide. There is no universal API for these types of services (which is in itself a shame). XML-RPC, REST, SOAP…. I\u0026rsquo;ll be knee deep in alphabet soup. I could (and will) take on help should anyone want to help. The problem then becomes how to manage the software. I\u0026rsquo;ll be honest that I\u0026rsquo;ve never set up a version control repository. Do I want to make it open source or do I want to try to be greedy and keep the code to myself?\nThe third issue really troubling me is that of caching. Most of these services are concerned about bandwidth (and processor time) as well, requesting that anyone using their services don\u0026rsquo;t abuse them. They kindly, and rightly, request that some kind of caching be used. The question becomes how should this be done? I could store a cache file for each tag (up to a certain predetermined number of items), but will that horribly slow the site? Could a MySQL database help with that? I don\u0026rsquo;t know. Another issue is how much space will it take up. Could I run out of space at my host?\nA fourth issue is that of funding. Ideally, I\u0026rsquo;d add something like Google\u0026rsquo;s AdWords in a sidebar. However, will all the services I will be tapping with this be cool with that? Will they want some kind of service charge or kickback?\nI have lots of questions and no real answers, so please leave any thoughts you have.\nTangentally Related A recent Robot Co-Op broached the issue of API access to their service. Should they provide facilities for members to manipulate their data externally, I\u0026rsquo;d like to make a Mac OS X client for it, a la Cocoalicious or Flickr Export for iPhoto. It\u0026rsquo;ll be good practice.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/03/tag-central/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve already run this idea by a couple people, but I thought I\u0026rsquo;d write about it so there\u0026rsquo;s some record that it was my damn idea. If you\u0026rsquo;ve read someone write about this or actually do it already, let me know in the comments.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"tag-youre-it\"\u003eTag, You\u0026rsquo;re It\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany of you are already familiar with tagging, or \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy\"\u003efolksonomies\u003c/a\u003e. Popular services use this categorization/organization paradigm to help users manage their content. For example, there\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us\"\u003edel.icio.us\u003c/a\u003e for bookmarks, \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e for pictures, \u003ca href=\"http://43things.com\"\u003e43 Things\u003c/a\u003e for goals, and even \u003ca href=\"http://technorati.com\"\u003eTechnorati\u003c/a\u003e for blog posts such as this one. Some of these services are even beginning to list content from these other services when browsing tagged content.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Tag Central"},{"content":"Wired magazine has been steadily losing favor in technology circles. This isn\u0026rsquo;t because they\u0026rsquo;re a commercial giant. It\u0026rsquo;s because of piss poor reporting. In New Browsers, Same Unwanted Ads, we get to read all the same FUD that has been spread by Microsoft about other operating systems, just in the sphere of web browsers now. In other words, Firefox (and others) are only more secure now because of security through obscurity. You\u0026rsquo;re only safe because you\u0026rsquo;re using something that attackers don\u0026rsquo;t know about (yet).\nTo back up this claim, they interview a “security expert.”\n“There\u0026rsquo;s still a lot more spyware that gets in through the holes in Internet Explorer than through the holes in Mozilla, but it\u0026rsquo;s changing,” said Anthony Arrott, director of threat research for InterMute, a maker of software that blocks spyware and pop-up ads.\nAs of today, spyware writers have not successfully targeted Firefox users on a large scale. However, Arrott says that spyware writers are more attracted to Mozilla today simply because it has more users. A few years ago, when Internet Explorer dominated the browser arena to a greater degree, there wasn\u0026rsquo;t much reason for authors of malicious applications to target its rivals. Now that Mozilla has critical mass, however, it\u0026rsquo;s become worth their while.\n“The reason there is so much spyware in IE and not on these alternate browsers is not because IE has so many more inherent security problems but because IE has so many more users,” Arrott said. As other browsers become more popular, he added, spyware users will go after them too.\nThe upshot of spyware writers\u0026rsquo; newfound attraction to Mozilla, Arrott predicts, will be that in the next six months or so computer security guides will stop recommending that people switch from IE to halt intrusions.\nSounds authoritative, no? Well, sure, if you discount the fact that the guy is in management for a company that sells protection software. You can\u0026rsquo;t very well do that though because that\u0026rsquo;s his only claim to being an expert of any kind. As such, we\u0026rsquo;ll have to analyze this position.\nI want you to brace yourself. Ready? Arrott\u0026rsquo;s company makes software that blocks spyware and pop-up ads for Internet Explorer and no alternate browsers. It\u0026rsquo;s shocking I know. His company relies upon two things. First, Internet Explorer needs to have large security holes and exploits. Well, that\u0026rsquo;s already been provided. The second thing they rely on is continued Internet Explorer usage. Their market size and level of success is directly proportionate to the usage rate of Internet Explorer. Let me be a little more verbose about what that means. He and his company have direct financial interest in keeping people on Internet Explorer and scaring them away from alternate solutions.\nThis truth is transparently obvious. The guy has bias coming out of his ears. Yet, author Joanna Glasner still felt that he makes a good source for her story. Further, she makes him the centerpiece for the article. Is this news or an advertisement? Not only is she furthering InterMute\u0026rsquo;s business by spreading FUD, but she gives them free advertising spotlight. Have you heard of this software before? Neither have I.\nIf Wired wants to be a shining beacon of respected technology news and information, they need to stop publishing pieces like this. The real news at the heart of this article is that advertisers have recently found a way to subvert pop-up blocking software in all browsers. This includes solutions like the pop-up blocker built into the Google Toolbar (which, unlike InterMute\u0026rsquo;s software is free). I personally have not experienced this issue (with Firefox on Windows or Safari on OS X). Unfortunately, the code to do this (which I assume is a piece of Javascript) has not been exposed. For this reason, it\u0026rsquo;s impossible to place blame. It does not suggest that moving to Firefox in lieu of IE for security reasons is a bad idea. Wired has to stop whoring itself out.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/03/01/reason-10467-that-wired-is-losing-respect/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.wired.com\"\u003eWired\u003c/a\u003e magazine has been steadily losing favor in technology circles. This isn\u0026rsquo;t because they\u0026rsquo;re a commercial giant. It\u0026rsquo;s because of piss poor reporting. In \u003ca href=\"http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,66726,00.html\"\u003eNew Browsers, Same Unwanted Ads\u003c/a\u003e, we get to read all the same FUD that has been spread by Microsoft about other operating systems, just in the sphere of web browsers now. In other words, Firefox (and others) are only more secure now because of security through obscurity. You\u0026rsquo;re only safe because you\u0026rsquo;re using something that attackers don\u0026rsquo;t know about (yet).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Reason 10,467 that Wired is Losing Respect"},{"content":" Don\u0026rsquo;t you just hate it when supposed “authorities” on computing can\u0026rsquo;t get their facts straight?\nWhy yes, yes I do Dan Knight of Low End Mac. That\u0026rsquo;s why I\u0026rsquo;m taking you to task for ‘Creaky Operating Systems\u0026rsquo; Good Enough for Millions. There were some mistakes in the original Washington Post article, but “correcting” them with more mistakes is plain irresponsible and loses you all credibility. Then again, Dan also wrote Apple does us a favor by not shipping a better mouse, so perhaps credibility isn\u0026rsquo;t on his agenda.\nAt any rate, the Washington Post article quite accurately says:\nMac OS 8 and 8.5: […] Not a single modern, compatible browser is available for these systems.\nThe fact is, no matter how much one wants to fight this fact, it\u0026rsquo;s still true. Dan retorts (and he thinks cleverly):\nI guess he\u0026rsquo;s never heard of iCab, which remains in development for Mac OS 7.1 and later on 680×0-based Macs, 7.6 and later for PowerPC Macs, and Mac OS X. It may not be a perfect browser, but it\u0026rsquo;s definitely modern.\nWrong. iCab is not modern. I\u0026rsquo;m not saying that because I don\u0026rsquo;t like iCab. Some time ago when pretty much all OS X web browsers were fairly slow, iCab had some decent speed. Development was fairly active too. I shelled out $30 to help out with the effort. The development has since stagnated.\nThe reason that one can not call iCab modern is simple. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t even support CSS1 fully. The W3C recommendation for this standard was set forth on December 17th 1996 and last revised January 11 1999. Just to put this into perspective, we are now several months into 2005. That\u0026rsquo;s six years. How can a modern browser not support this? For those of you not up to date on web standards (which Dan seems to be a part of), CSS is now at version 3. Incomplete CSS support earns iCab the technical title of “Broke Ass”.\nDan meanders on to more the more recent versions of the Mac OS. Here is the original quote:\nMac OS 8.6-9.2: These releases are slightly better in terms of software support — there still aren\u0026rsquo;t any good browsers\nTo which Dan brilliantly responds:\nAs for Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2, Pegorara claims “there still aren\u0026rsquo;t any good browsers.” What about Internet Explorer 5.1? Okay, maybe not the best or most modern browser, but very functional.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s WaMCom 1.3.1, a build of Mozilla available for Mac OS 8.6-9.2.2. No matter how you look at it, Mozilla has to be classified as a modern browser, even if WaMCom is based on an 18-month-old release of Mozilla source code.\nFirst, the author didn\u0026rsquo;t say there weren\u0026rsquo;t any modern browsers for OS 9. He said no good ones. Given, Internet Explorer 5.1 for Mac is still a decent browser (but it has no pop-up blocker) and set a gold standard for browsers that followed. However, it\u0026rsquo;s starting to show its age and due to lack of development, doesn\u0026rsquo;t support many of the new cool technologies coming out. The same goes for Mozilla 1.3.1.\nWhile neither are nearly as broke ass as iCab, they simply do not support new technologies currently out there and can not support them in the future due to discontinued development. That means that things will only get worse. Dan has entirely missed the point of Rob Pegoraro\u0026rsquo;s article. Rob has pointed out some deficiencies in these older OSs. While he was wrong about USB support for older versions of OS 8, what he said is largely true.\nDan seems to take the whole article very personally. This is most visible in the title of his rebuttle article: “‘Creaky Operating Systems\u0026rsquo; Good Enough for Millions”. This is not something that Pegoraro disputes. Let\u0026rsquo;s read one of the first paragraphs in the article.\nThose operating systems still fire up in the morning as they always did. But they show their age in other ways — newer programs and gadgets can\u0026rsquo;t or won\u0026rsquo;t coexist with them.\nPegoraro is saying that these computers will still work as they always have. For most, this is sufficient. Let\u0026rsquo;s examine what he\u0026rsquo;s really asserting. First, newer programs won\u0026rsquo;t coexist with these older OSs. The classic Mac OS still has no support for Safari or Firefox (we might as well restrict the scope, but this is true of all fields). Second, newer gadgets won\u0026rsquo;t work with older OSs. The classic Mac OS doesn\u0026rsquo;t support any of the newer iPods. Thus, what he has said is true.\nDan needs to recognize that this is the reality of running older hardware or software. Over time, it limits you. Then again, getting lectured by someone who writes for a website that doesn\u0026rsquo;t even validate about what makes a modern browser is absurd to begin with.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/28/brain-dead-cheerleading/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDon\u0026rsquo;t you just hate it when supposed “authorities” on computing can\u0026rsquo;t get their facts straight?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy yes, yes I do Dan Knight of \u003ca href=\"http://lowendmac.com\"\u003eLow End Mac\u003c/a\u003e. That\u0026rsquo;s why I\u0026rsquo;m taking you to task for \u003ca href=\"http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0228.html\"\u003e‘Creaky Operating Systems\u0026rsquo; Good Enough for Millions\u003c/a\u003e. There were some mistakes in \u003ca href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55207-2005Feb26.html?nav%3Drss_technology\u0026amp;sub=new\"\u003ethe original Washington Post article\u003c/a\u003e, but “correcting” them with more mistakes is plain irresponsible and loses you all credibility. Then again, Dan also wrote \u003ca href=\"http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0223.html\"\u003eApple does us a favor by not shipping a better mouse\u003c/a\u003e, so perhaps credibility isn\u0026rsquo;t on his agenda.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Brain Dead Cheerleading"},{"content":"Compliance This website was once extremely compliant and no longer is due to repeated WordPress and template updates. Some day I\u0026rsquo;ll get around to fixing it again.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/about/compliance/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"compliance\"\u003eCompliance\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis website was once extremely compliant and no longer is due to repeated WordPress and template updates. Some day I\u0026rsquo;ll get around to fixing it again.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Compliance"},{"content":"Mozilla has updated Firefox to 1.0.1. This is primarily a bug and security fix release (recommended for all users).\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re familiar with bittorrent, please use the Mozilla provided torrents. If not, visit their main download page.\nThere is an unofficial changelog for the update.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/25/firefox-updated-to-1.0.1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.mozilla.org\"\u003eMozilla\u003c/a\u003e has \u003ca href=\"http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=6129\"\u003eupdated Firefox to 1.0.1\u003c/a\u003e. This is primarily a bug and security fix release (recommended for all users).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you\u0026rsquo;re familiar with \u003ca href=\"http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/\"\u003ebittorrent\u003c/a\u003e, please use the \u003ca href=\"http://bittorrent.mozilla.org\"\u003eMozilla provided torrents\u003c/a\u003e. If not, visit their \u003ca href=\"http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/all.html\"\u003emain download page\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is an \u003ca href=\"http://www.squarefree.com/burningedge/releases/1.0.1.html\"\u003eunofficial changelog\u003c/a\u003e for the update.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firefox Updated to 1.0.1"},{"content":"The new comment spam plug-in automatically tracks caught spam statistics. Before that I used WP-Blacklist, which worked pretty well. Now for the shocking data. It caught over 2900 spam comments (doesn\u0026rsquo;t include spam trackbacks). With that number recorded, I will now delete them as the mail notifications of them take up 2.9 MB. Yikes.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/24/spam-stats/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe new comment spam plug-in automatically tracks caught spam statistics. Before that I used WP-Blacklist, which worked pretty well. Now for the shocking data. It caught over \u003cstrong\u003e2900\u003c/strong\u003e spam comments (doesn\u0026rsquo;t include spam trackbacks). With that number recorded, I will now delete them as the mail notifications of them take up 2.9 MB. Yikes.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Spam Stats"},{"content":"Tonight on Dennis Miller, Gersh Kuntzman of Newsweek appeared on the Varsity discussion panel. I didn\u0026rsquo;t get a chance to get the entire quote but he said about Arnold Schwarzenegger:\nHe speaks Austrian better than….\nApparently, Austria has decided to rid itself of the German language and adopted its own new language. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to subscribe to Newsweek because I\u0026rsquo;m missing some major stories.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/24/newsweek-is-smaht/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTonight on Dennis Miller, Gersh Kuntzman of Newsweek appeared on the Varsity discussion panel. I didn\u0026rsquo;t get a chance to get the entire quote but he said about Arnold Schwarzenegger:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe speaks Austrian better than….\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApparently, Austria has decided to rid itself of the German language and adopted its own new language. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to subscribe to Newsweek because I\u0026rsquo;m missing some major stories.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Newsweek is Smaht"},{"content":"Truth be known, I do have a HoTMaiL account just for registration to sites that almost certainly will spam me. There have been rumors that access to Hotmail accounts through things like Outlook Express, Entourage, and third party plugins, such as the one for Mail.app would be shut off. You\u0026rsquo;d be forced into using the web interface (which still sucks).\nIt became official today:\nDear MSN Member,\nRecently, Hotmail announced that in order to improve customer experience and reduce spam and junk e-mail abuse on MSN services, Hotmail will no longer allow new e-mail accounts to be accessed via Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express.\nWe are pleased to inform you that because you are an existing and valued customer, at this time your current Hotmail and MSN account(s) are exempt from this restriction and you will be able to continue enjoying access to those accounts from Outlook or Outlook Express. However, any new Hotmail or MSN accounts you create will not be accessible via Outlook or Outlook Express.\nNote that only new accounts will be affected. That means your existing accounts will keep working with these services. Hoard those existing addresses or dump it all together and get Gmail (I have over 40 invites left).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/23/microsoft-shuts-off-external-access/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTruth be known, I do have a \u003ca href=\"http://www.hotmail.com\"\u003eHoTMaiL\u003c/a\u003e account just for registration to sites that almost certainly will spam me. There have been rumors that access to Hotmail accounts through things like Outlook Express, Entourage, and third party plugins, such as \u003ca href=\"http://www.automagic-software.com/products.php\"\u003ethe one for Mail.app\u003c/a\u003e would be shut off. You\u0026rsquo;d be forced into using the web interface (which still sucks).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt became official today:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDear MSN Member,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecently, Hotmail announced that in order to improve customer experience and reduce spam and junk e-mail abuse on MSN services, Hotmail will no longer allow new e-mail accounts to be accessed via Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Microsoft Shuts Off External Access"},{"content":"Apple\u0026rsquo;s sticking with the new security update naming convention. Security Update 2005-002 is primarily a Java fix.\nAccording to Apple:\nSecurity Update 2005-002\nAvailable for: Java 1.4.2\nCVE-ID: CAN-2004-1029\nImpact: Updates Java to address an issue where an untrusted applet could gain elevated privileges and potentially execute arbitrary code.\nDescription: A vulnerability in the Java Plug-in may allow an untrusted applet to escalate privileges, through JavaScript calling into Java code, including reading and writing files with the privileges of the user running the applet. Releases prior to Java 1.4.2 on Mac OS X are not affected by this vulnerability. Further information is available in Document ID 57591 from Sun.\nBut what does that mean Professor? One of the rules of untrusted Java applets was that they had no access to the hosting computer\u0026rsquo;s filesystem. This prevents things like collecting your personal information and sending it to their servers (and then to spammers). It also prevents modifications to your data and prevents things from being written out, like say the Opener malware. Not good.\nAnyway, run software update so you too can feel warm and fuzzy inside.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/23/security-update-2005-002/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple\u0026rsquo;s sticking with the new security update naming convention. \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300980\"\u003eSecurity Update 2005-002\u003c/a\u003e is primarily a Java fix.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Apple:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSecurity Update 2005-002\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAvailable for: Java 1.4.2\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCVE-ID: CAN-2004-1029\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eImpact: Updates Java to address an issue where an untrusted applet could gain elevated privileges and potentially execute arbitrary code.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDescription: A vulnerability in the Java Plug-in may allow an untrusted applet to escalate privileges, through JavaScript calling into Java code, including reading and writing files with the privileges of the user running the applet. Releases prior to Java 1.4.2 on Mac OS X are not affected by this vulnerability. Further information is available in Document ID 57591 from Sun.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Security Update 2005-002"},{"content":"Apple updated its line of iPod MP3 players. Specifically, the iPod mini and the iPod photo. The mini now comes in two sizes, and the photo had some pronounced price changing. In fact, it\u0026rsquo;s created an interesting pattern. For the most part, the pricing of all the models and sizes are separated by $50.\niPod shuffle 512 MB $99 iPod shuffle 1 GB $149 iPod mini 4 GB $199 iPod mini 6 GB $249 iPod 20 GB $299 iPod U2 20 GB $349 iPod photo 30 GB $349 iPod photo 60 GB $449 What\u0026rsquo;s really interesting about this is that while Apple has established a linear pricing structure, the sizes are exponential. Of course, the biggest bang for your buck change is still the difference between the high-end mini and the regular iPod (14 GB for $50). Apple has bent over backwards to woo the various MP3 player customer types.\nThe (very) bad thing about this update is the removal of firewire cable as a standard accessory. Let that sink in. Apple is now making USB 2.0 the standard interface for the iPod. While USB 2.0 has higher theoretical speed, it has lower real world speed than firewire, isn\u0026rsquo;t available on many existing Macs, and can\u0026rsquo;t deliver the same amount of power. One has to trickle charge their iPod unless they use the AC adapter. Boo.\nApple did pick up on customer desire by announcing a new $29 iPod Camera Connector which allows one to download their photos straight from their camera to their iPod photo. That\u0026rsquo;s huge. Photographers can take boatloads of pictures without carrying around a big laptop or terribly expensive photo cards. Then they can review them right on the iPod. It\u0026rsquo;s sweet functionality for a terrific price.\nUpdate 1: Rosyna of Unsanity also noticed the lack of a Firewire cable and denounced the move.\nUpdate 2: CNET has a full length article on the decision to leave out Firewire.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/23/ipods-in-50-increments/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple updated its line of \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ipod/\"\u003eiPod\u003c/a\u003e MP3 players. Specifically, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ipodmini/\"\u003eiPod mini\u003c/a\u003e and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/\"\u003eiPod photo\u003c/a\u003e. The mini now comes in two sizes, and the photo had some pronounced price changing. In fact, it\u0026rsquo;s created an interesting pattern. For the most part, the pricing of all the models and sizes are separated by $50.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod shuffle 512 MB $99\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod shuffle 1 GB $149\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod mini 4 GB $199\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod mini 6 GB $249\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod 20 GB $299\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod U2 20 GB $349\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod photo 30 GB $349\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPod photo 60 GB $449\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat\u0026rsquo;s really interesting about this is that while Apple has established a linear pricing structure, the sizes are exponential. Of course, the biggest bang for your buck change is still the difference between the high-end mini and the regular iPod (14 GB for $50). Apple has bent over backwards to woo the various MP3 player customer types.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"iPods in $50 Increments"},{"content":"Blogger icon Jason Kottke of Kottke.org has decided to make blogging a career. It\u0026rsquo;s a bold move to say the least. I must admit that I only recently (and by recently I mean in the last couple months) got turned on to his website in full. His remaindered links blog was the inspiration for my own supplement.\nPen for Hire It\u0026rsquo;s been interesting to watch various weblogs have gotten acclaim for various reasons. The most notable and recognized by the public being the exposure of the CBS memos as fakes. However, in computer culture, other sites have earned more attention and respect from their respective audience. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has built a huge following using little more than a spartan web page and thought provoking commentary. I say thought provoking, but really what I mean is that his logic is so utterly relentless that any thought you might have had contrary to his generally gets a thorough beat down. He parlayed that following into a way to build revenue through ads and now subscription only content.\nThe market is out there for this. The question is how can one bend that market into something they can use.\nProduct Placement Jason has decided to forgo advertising. I find that semi-puzzling as most people are willing to accept advertising. He has some good arguments against it though.\nWhy not advertising? Like I said above, there\u0026rsquo;s got to be a way to support media that doesn\u0026rsquo;t involve advertising. But more than that, I don\u0026rsquo;t want to disrupt the relationship dynamic we\u0026rsquo;ve got going here. There are currently two parties involved with kottke.org: me and the collective you. Advertising introduces a third party. In my experience, the third wheel of advertising often works to unbalance the relationship in favor of either the author or the readers (usually in favor of the author). If ads were involved, I might feel the need to change what or how I write to appease advertisers. I might write to increase pageviews and earn more revenue. I could fill pages with ads, earning more revenue but making the content more difficult to read or pushing some content off the page entirely. You could block advertising and deny me needed revenue.\nNone of that is appealing to me. If I\u0026rsquo;m writing, you\u0026rsquo;re reading, I\u0026rsquo;m responding to what you\u0026rsquo;ve got to say about my writing, and we\u0026rsquo;re mixin\u0026rsquo; it up in the comments, why do we need a middleman? Why not keep that dynamic intact if we can?\nThe dynamic he describes is untangible and impossible to argue against, at least no more than I can argue against the way people feel. The arguable aspect is whether an advertiser introduces a third party into the interaction. Now, it does introduce a visual element to the page itself. Again, had Jason argued that it mucks with his presentation, that\u0026rsquo;s fair. I doubt I\u0026rsquo;d enjoy Shakespeare if the costumes were adorned like race cars. Things don\u0026rsquo;t have to be like that though.\nShout it from the Rooftops There was a time when all advertising had to be largely untargeted (and therefore simply annoying) and in banner form. Advertisers started using bold colors to divert attention from the real subject of interest to their product. Then they added animation. When they started using Flash (which is an act against humanity in most cases anyway), that\u0026rsquo;s when I had to draw a line.\nCombine strobing animations capable of sending just about anybody into a seizure, subtle yet irritating sounds (AOL Instant Messenger used to wake up one of my friends with its ads), and windows that opened by themselves and you\u0026rsquo;ve successfully forced consumers into looking for ways to avoid that advertising. It should send a message when every major browser includes pop-up suppression. People don\u0026rsquo;t like them. At all.\nWhispering instead of Shouting Enter Google and their Adwords. I don\u0026rsquo;t want to paint Google as a messiah necessarily (as there is a mounting group of people that are suspicious of them), but they were one of the pioneers of targeted, text-based advertisements. The ads were no longer obnoxious or unrelated. Web authors can style that text to fit in with the general presentation of the site, negating the distraction and defacement argument. The ads match the content, not the other way around. One does not need to try to appease advertisers as that is inherent in the technology. Further, most people don\u0026rsquo;t feel the need to block those ads because they don\u0026rsquo;t interfere. Imagine if this kind of advertising was accepted as the norm before the hey-day of the pop-up. We might not have pop-up blocking at all. In short, I think if one chooses the appropriate advertising, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t need to obscure the message.\nSelling your Soul The real question becomes whether it is necessary to advertise in order to support one\u0026rsquo;s self. The answer to that I think is dependent upon your model. If you choose to adopt a subscription model, locking out non-paying users, advertising is wholly avoidable. One only need set the price appropriately (according to market conditions). If one makes those materials available freely without mandatory compensation, the true nature of humans is revealed. People won\u0026rsquo;t pay as a generalized view. The reasons vary between being cheap, lacking the funds, and being forgetful. I\u0026rsquo;m just as guilty as anyone. I use a lot of donationware and read a lot of web sites with virtual tip jars. It\u0026rsquo;s not that I\u0026rsquo;m unwilling to pay, it\u0026rsquo;s just that I have no motivation to and paying for things online is still a pain in the ass.\nThe result is that the author must remind his audience that he survives on that income. If this is in the form of a “please donate” graphic or link, it is little more than a direct advertisement. The alternative is to work the plea into posts at various times, or as most people know it, begging. Begging may be a bit harsh as a characterization, but at the very least it is a guilt trip. How well do guilt trips play into an author audience dynamic. I would submit that it is worse than having an advertiser off to the side. It becomes a part of that conversation. It becomes a primary concern and motivating factor. That\u0026rsquo;s what Jason was seeking to avoid to begin with though. I hope he finds a way to avoid advertising without moving to the begger\u0026rsquo;s model because I fear it will both changed his dynamic with his audience and ultimately fail.\nNot Here, Not Now It\u0026rsquo;s rather easy for me to criticize and make these assertions because I\u0026rsquo;m not in his position. I don\u0026rsquo;t have the audience he has. My comments are mostly limited to the ramblings of close friends (well, unless I get linked in MacSurfer which is always welcome). I hope that some day I might. As it is now, I come nowhere close to my monthly bandwidth allotment. It\u0026rsquo;s almost embarrassing how far from I am actually. Maybe that\u0026rsquo;s actually a testament to how light I keep my site.\nWhen I actually start to draw some good traffic and get some participation going, I\u0026rsquo;ll seriously consider adding some kind of non-annoying advertisement. I\u0026rsquo;d like to be able to run this site for free and perhaps even make a profit. I\u0026rsquo;d like even more to be able to consider doing what Jason is doing, but the reality is that it\u0026rsquo;s far more likely that I write for another publication than do this for a living.\nFor now I\u0026rsquo;ll wish him well, but I hope he comes up with a far more inventive business model.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/22/drop-the-job-to-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBlogger icon Jason Kottke of \u003ca href=\"http://www.kottke.org\"\u003eKottke.org\u003c/a\u003e has \u003ca href=\"http://www.kottke.org/05/02/kottke-micropatron\"\u003edecided to make blogging a career\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a bold move to say the least. I must admit that I only recently (and by recently I mean in the last couple months) got turned on to his website in full. His remaindered links blog was the inspiration for my own \u003ca href=\"/supplement/\"\u003esupplement\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"pen-for-hire\"\u003ePen for Hire\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s been interesting to watch various weblogs have gotten acclaim for various reasons. The most notable and recognized by the public being the exposure of the CBS memos as fakes. However, in computer culture, other sites have earned more attention and respect from their respective audience. John Gruber of \u003ca href=\"http://www.daringfireball.net\"\u003eDaring Fireball\u003c/a\u003e has built a huge following using little more than a spartan web page and thought provoking commentary. I say thought provoking, but really what I mean is that his logic is so utterly relentless that any thought you might have had contrary to his generally gets a thorough beat down. He parlayed that following into a way to build revenue through ads and now subscription only content.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Drop the Job to Blog"},{"content":"Just when you think those porn pushing, pill selling, poker playing swindlers had done everything in their power to try to get into your email box (and my comment system), I get the below message:\nHello, I\u0026rsquo;m a regular visitor to your site so i finally decided its time to sign your guestbook, so here i sign !\nI assume the thought here is that I won\u0026rsquo;t notice the URL that the bot signed with and assume from the message text that it\u0026rsquo;s a real person. It does say that he is a regular visitor, right? Thing is, the blog isn\u0026rsquo;t a guestbook. Hell, I don\u0026rsquo;t even have a guestbook (how 90\u0026rsquo;s is that exactly?).\nIt is interesting that everything that they try to sell starts with a P though, isn\u0026rsquo;t it?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/20/those-daffy-spammers/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJust when you think those porn pushing, pill selling, poker playing swindlers had done everything in their power to try to get into your email box (and my comment system), I get the below message:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello, I\u0026rsquo;m a regular visitor to your site so i finally decided its time to sign your guestbook, so here i sign !\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI assume the thought here is that I won\u0026rsquo;t notice the URL that the bot signed with and assume from the message text that it\u0026rsquo;s a real person. It does say that he is a \u003cem\u003eregular visitor\u003c/em\u003e, right? Thing is, the blog isn\u0026rsquo;t a guestbook. Hell, I don\u0026rsquo;t even have a guestbook (how 90\u0026rsquo;s is that exactly?).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Those Daffy Spammers"},{"content":"Yes, it\u0026rsquo;s geeky and there isn\u0026rsquo;t really much defending it, but my new favorite show is anime. It airs Thursday and Saturday nights on Adult Swim. Check their website for current showtimes.\nThe show of course is Fullmetal Alchemist. It\u0026rsquo;s about a pair of brothers extremely interested in alchemy, the science of making anything as long as you have the correct ingredients. They try revive their mother using this science/art, which is forbidden. They find out why. The older brother loses two limbs while the younger loses his entire body, being bonded to some empty armor.\nThe main reason I love the show though is the character, Winry (as seen to the left). Blonde, cute, smart, and mechanically inclined (she made Ed\u0026rsquo;s automail limbs), she\u0026rsquo;s everything a good geek like me looks for in a woman. Well, except of course being flesh and blood or non-fictional, but relationships are all about compromise. I\u0026rsquo;m willing to forgive those traits.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/20/my-new-favorite-show/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYes, it\u0026rsquo;s geeky and there isn\u0026rsquo;t really much defending it, but my new favorite show is anime. It airs Thursday and Saturday nights on \u003ca href=\"http://www.adultswim.com\"\u003eAdult Swim\u003c/a\u003e. Check their website for current showtimes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/images/winry.jpg\" alt=\"Winry\" title=\"The New Love\" class =\"float-left\" /\u003eThe show of course is \u003ca href=\"http://www.adultswim.com/shows/fullmetal/\"\u003eFullmetal Alchemist\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s about a pair of brothers extremely interested in alchemy, the science of making anything as long as you have the correct ingredients. They try revive their mother using this science/art, which is forbidden. They find out why. The older brother loses two limbs while the younger loses his entire body, being bonded to some empty armor.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My New Favorite Show"},{"content":"As Logitech provides rather piss poor drivers for their mice, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using USB Overdrive. It\u0026rsquo;s a great product, but it lacks support for the MX1000\u0026rsquo;s horizontal scrolling features. No one had heard from the author since some time in 2003 (when the last version had been released). I tried writing to him, but like many others, got no response.\nGood news for those that have been waiting (for side scrolling and Bluetooth support): he is still very much working on USB Overdrive and it shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be too long before a new version is released. He wrote the below on Versiontracker:\nMany users are wondering if the USB Overdrive is still being developed and improved because one year went by since the last release. I\u0026rsquo;d like to reassure everyone that I\u0026rsquo;m still working actively on the Overdrive and that the Bluetooth version that many of you are waiting for is not far away. I had to spend some time with my (new) family during the past year and I had a lot of other work to do, but the USB Overdrive is still my main interest and I\u0026rsquo;m not about to let it down. I may not be able to reply to all the incoming email but I do read it all, and all the requests are taken into account. The current beta supports more wireless mouse models, can handle more buttons, knows about tilt wheels for horizontal scrolling, and fixes several minor UI bugs. Next on the horizon are Bluetooth support and a real System Preferences user interface, both of which are almost ready. Keep an eye on VersionTracker and thanks for your support!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/20/usb-overdrive-update-coming/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs \u003ca href=\"http://www.logitech.com\"\u003eLogitech\u003c/a\u003e provides rather piss poor drivers for their mice, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using \u003ca href=\"http://www.usboverdrive.com\"\u003eUSB Overdrive\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a great product, but it lacks support for the MX1000\u0026rsquo;s horizontal scrolling features. No one had heard from the author since some time in 2003 (when the last version had been released). I tried writing to him, but like many others, got no response.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood news for those that have been waiting (for side scrolling and Bluetooth support): he is still very much working on USB Overdrive and it shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be too long before a new version is released. He \u003ca href=\"http://www.versiontracker.com/php/feedback/article.php?story=20050201135343888\"\u003ewrote the below\u003c/a\u003e on \u003ca href=\"http://www.versiontracker.com\"\u003eVersiontracker\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"USB Overdrive Update Coming"},{"content":"I was using Kitten\u0026rsquo;s Spaminator to supplant WordPress\u0026rsquo;s built-in spam fighting abilities, but unfortunately, it was being far too aggressive. It said that Katie‘s recent comment was spam. It said the referrer was bad (it wasn\u0026rsquo;t). It also thought that the lack of email or URL was bad. Those three things were enough to label her post as spam. Not good. I had to retire the plugin from this site. If you tried to post and got rejected because of that, my apologies.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve switched to Dr Dave\u0026rsquo;s Spam Karma which seems to be working. It has a terrific interface giving much better control and insight into how it works. The comment forms now give it credit and also list how many spams killed by it. Neat. As always though, none of these packages are infallible, so let me know if your comments get munged.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/19/changed-anti-spam-packages/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI was using \u003ca href=\"http://blog.mookitty.co.uk/wordpress/spaminator/\"\u003eKitten\u0026rsquo;s Spaminator\u003c/a\u003e to supplant WordPress\u0026rsquo;s built-in spam fighting abilities, but unfortunately, it was being far too aggressive. It said that \u003ca href=\"http://livejournal.com/~kayteebird/\"\u003eKatie\u003c/a\u003e‘s recent comment was spam. It said the referrer was bad (it wasn\u0026rsquo;t). It also thought that the lack of email or URL was bad. Those three things were enough to label her post as spam. Not good. I had to retire the plugin from this site. If you tried to post and got rejected because of that, my apologies.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Changed Anti-spam Packages"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve almost got the site\u0026rsquo;s theme to the point where I\u0026rsquo;m ready to start distributing it. There are still a few rough spots I\u0026rsquo;m sure, so please let me know any weird things going on.\nOnce I\u0026rsquo;m totally satisfied, I\u0026rsquo;ll be making the theme available through one of the site\u0026rsquo;s about pages.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/19/theme-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve almost got the site\u0026rsquo;s theme to the point where I\u0026rsquo;m ready to start distributing it. There are still a few rough spots I\u0026rsquo;m sure, so please let me know any weird things going on.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce I\u0026rsquo;m totally satisfied, I\u0026rsquo;ll be making the theme available through one of the site\u0026rsquo;s about pages.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Theme Update"},{"content":"Participation This website participates in several web communities. They are listed below.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/participation/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"participation\"\u003eParticipation\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis website participates in several web communities. They are listed below.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"nobullet\"\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.technorati.com/profile/d00d\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/technorati.gif\" alt=\"Technorati\" title=\"Technorati Member\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://gmpg.org/xfn/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/xfnbtn.png\" alt=\"XHTML Friends Network\" title=\"XFN Member\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"/foaf.rdf\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/foaf.gif\" alt=\"FOAF\" title=\"Friend of a Friend\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.Bloggernity.com/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://www.Bloggernity.com/images/80x15.png\" alt=\"blog search directory\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.blogarama.com/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://www.blogarama.com/images/button.gif\" alt=\"Blogarama - The Blog Directory\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.top100bloggers.com/in.php?id=52\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://www.top100bloggers.com/images/2.png\" alt=\"Top 100 Bloggers\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://no-www.org\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/no-www.png\" alt=\"No WWW\" title=\"www. is deprecated\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Participation"},{"content":"Resume My resume is available in PDF format. Contact me for more information.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/resume/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"resume\"\u003eResume\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy resume is available in \u003ca href=\"/documents/resume.pdf\"\u003ePDF format\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"/contact/\"\u003eContact me\u003c/a\u003e for more information.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Resume"},{"content":"Software Used in This Site The bulk of this site is generated using the wonderful WordPress. The posts are written using Markdown which gets run through Michael Fortin\u0026rsquo;s PHP Markdown port. I generally post at home via MarsEdit.\nI use a series of WordPress plugins.\nAcronym Replacer automatically adds acronym tags. Auto-hyperlink URLs automatically turns URLs into links. Search Hilite highlights searches that come internally and from Google. RSS Fetched Link List generates most of the automated lists on this site (including the supplement). Witty Text puts the quotes into the footer. The OS X Forum FAQ is served using phpMyFAQ. Currently, the forums are run using phpBB, but I may soon move to bbPress when it gets more stable. The webcam is driven by EvoCam. The main photo gallery uses Gallery and pictures are posted with iPhoto using the Gallery Export Plugin. The contact form uses FormMail.\nThe supplement uses del.icio.us as a backend. Posting is assisted using Cocoalicious. Pictures are added to Flickr using iPhoto with the Flickr Export Plugin. Feedburner helps combine several of the feeds into one.\nTo maintain various parts of the site, I use RBrowser and BBEdit.\nI\u0026rsquo;d like to thank the authors of all these utilities for making things easy for me.\nButtons ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/software/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"software-used-in-this-site\"\u003eSoftware Used in This Site\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bulk of this site is generated using the wonderful \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e. The posts are written using \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\"\u003eMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e which gets run through Michael Fortin\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://www.michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/\"\u003ePHP Markdown\u003c/a\u003e port. I generally post at home via \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/marsedit/\"\u003eMarsEdit\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI use a series of WordPress plugins.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.huddledmasses.org\"\u003eAcronym Replacer\u003c/a\u003e automatically adds acronym tags.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/\"\u003eAuto-hyperlink URLs\u003c/a\u003e automatically turns URLs into links.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Search_Hilite\"\u003eSearch Hilite\u003c/a\u003e highlights searches that come internally and from Google.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://rawlinson.us/blog/index.php?p=212\"\u003eRSS Fetched Link List\u003c/a\u003e generates most of the automated lists on this site (including the supplement).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.w-a-s-a-b-i.com/archives/2004/05/27/wordpress-random-witty-text-plugin/\"\u003eWitty Text\u003c/a\u003e puts the quotes into the footer.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"/osxforumfaq/\"\u003eOS X Forum FAQ\u003c/a\u003e is served using \u003ca href=\"http://www.phpmyfaq.de\"\u003ephpMyFAQ\u003c/a\u003e. Currently, the forums are run using \u003ca href=\"http://www.phpbb.com\"\u003ephpBB\u003c/a\u003e, but I may soon move to \u003ca href=\"http://bbpress.org\"\u003ebbPress\u003c/a\u003e when it gets more stable. The \u003ca href=\"/webcam/\"\u003ewebcam\u003c/a\u003e is driven by \u003ca href=\"http://www.evological.com/evocam.html\"\u003eEvoCam\u003c/a\u003e. The \u003ca href=\"/photos/\"\u003emain photo gallery\u003c/a\u003e uses \u003ca href=\"http://gallery.menalto.com\"\u003eGallery\u003c/a\u003e and pictures are posted with \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/iphoto/\"\u003eiPhoto\u003c/a\u003e using the \u003ca href=\"http://zwily.com/iphoto/index.xsl\"\u003eGallery Export Plugin\u003c/a\u003e. The \u003ca href=\"/contact/\"\u003econtact form\u003c/a\u003e uses \u003ca href=\"http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html\"\u003eFormMail\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Software"},{"content":" For my first step in learning Ruby, I'm ordering Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition from Amazon.com. With free shipping, that'll only be $31.40. Not bad for a 862 page book.\n\u0026lt;p\u0026gt;If I can find the time to read all those pages, I should do well.\u0026lt;/p\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\u0026lt;div class=\"goalprogresslink\"\u0026gt;See more progress on: \u0026lt;a href=\"http://43things.com/people/progress/d00d?on=94649\"\u0026gt;Learn Ruby\u0026lt;/a\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt; ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/18/ordering-the-pickaxe-ii/","summary":"\u003cdiv class=\"goalimage\"\u003e\n  \u003ca href=\"http://images.43things.com/entry/00/00/06/1639l.jpg\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://images.43things.com/entry/00/00/06/1639s.jpg\" class=\"goalimagetag\" alt=\"Programming Ruby\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"goalentry\"\u003e\n  For my first step in learning Ruby, I'm ordering \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0974514055/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_2/104-9907542-8363123\"\u003eProgramming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition\u003c/a\u003e from \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com\"\u003eAmazon.com\u003c/a\u003e. With free shipping, that'll only be $31.40. Not bad for a 862 page book.\u003c/p\u003e \n  \u003cpre\u003e\u003ccode\u003e\u0026lt;p\u0026gt;If I can find the time to read all those pages, I should do well.\u0026lt;/p\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\u0026lt;div class=\"goalprogresslink\"\u0026gt;See more progress on: \u0026lt;a href=\"http://43things.com/people/progress/d00d?on=94649\"\u0026gt;Learn Ruby\u0026lt;/a\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/div\u0026gt;\n\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/pre\u003e","title":"Ordering the Pickaxe II"},{"content":"Starting now, I will be adding a new feature to the blog. Tidbits of exceptional brilliance will be posted to all to read (and attempt to decipher). More regular updates to the site will ensue.\nWith that, our first contribution:\nu blaze, ur sexy n u know it lol… nah but if u cool peoples, have anything in coomon with me… go to job corps or have gone… lyk the same music as me n jus lyk to chill n bug out.. smoke.. laugh… w/e.. than holla at me..\nI couldn\u0026rsquo;t make this shit up if I tried.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/18/our-first-gem/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eStarting now, I will be adding a new feature to the blog. Tidbits of exceptional brilliance will be posted to all to read (and attempt to decipher). More regular updates to the site will ensue.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith that, our first contribution:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eu blaze, ur sexy n u know it lol… nah but if u cool peoples, have anything in coomon with me… go to job corps or have gone… lyk the same music as me n jus lyk to chill n bug out.. smoke.. laugh… w/e.. than holla at me..\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Our First Gem"},{"content":"Robot Co-op announced today that they are supporting WordPress blogs (adding to Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, and Type Pad). As of this entry post time, it was still rough. The description texts are still not filled out right (making it apparent that they simply use the same method as for Movable Type, hardly a surprise), but I assume it works. This should be have been trivial for them to do (as all the major blogging packages use XML-RPC and Movable Type APIs).\nAt any rate, what this means for you is that if I make an entry on one of my goals that I consider significant and worthwhile to be read in 43 Things, it will get automatically posted into this blog. As of yet, I do not know how this will look, so the first time will be a surprise for both of us. If any of you write in a blog (and please tell me about yours, because I\u0026rsquo;m always interested in new stuff to read), you can do the same. Very cool.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/17/43-things-supports-wordpress/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://robotcoop.com\"\u003eRobot Co-op\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://robotcoop.com/weblog/55/new-features-just-launched-cheers-cities-help-and-more\"\u003eannounced today\u003c/a\u003e that they are supporting \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e blogs (adding to Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, and Type Pad). As of this entry post time, it was still rough. The description texts are still not filled out right (making it apparent that they simply use the same method as for Movable Type, hardly a surprise), but I assume it works. This should be have been trivial for them to do (as all the major blogging packages use XML-RPC and Movable Type APIs).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"43 Things Supports WordPress"},{"content":"Contact Me Email me at webmaster at this domain name.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/contact/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"contact-me\"\u003eContact Me\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmail me at webmaster at this domain name.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Contact"},{"content":"Between upgrading to WordPress 1.5, adopting a new page layout, moving Scott and Bob\u0026rsquo;s blog data into a separate database, and rebuilding my blog database, I\u0026rsquo;ve reduced the page generation time from well over a second (sometimes close to two seconds) to a mere third of a second (for the main page).\nIt should feel like the entire site is flying now. Things may bog down as I customize, but it was still a nice little surprise.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/16/speed-improvements/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBetween upgrading to WordPress 1.5, adopting a new page layout, moving Scott and Bob\u0026rsquo;s blog data into a separate database, and rebuilding my blog database, I\u0026rsquo;ve reduced the page generation time from well over a second (sometimes close to two seconds) to a mere third of a second (for the main page).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt should feel like the entire site is flying now. Things may bog down as I customize, but it was still a nice little surprise.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Speed Improvements"},{"content":"Subscription There is a variety of ways to get your daily fix of this site. The Feedburner feed, aka Superfeed, combines all of my content and doings as collected at Planet d00dism. Eagle-eyed users will notice that the RSS2.0 feed is actually at Feedburner as well, but that\u0026rsquo;s for statistical purposes only. No extra content is added.\nEnjoy!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/subscription/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"subscription\"\u003eSubscription\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a variety of ways to get your daily fix of this site. The Feedburner feed, aka Superfeed, combines all of my content and doings as collected at \u003ca href=\"http://planet.godlikenerd.com\"\u003ePlanet d00dism\u003c/a\u003e. Eagle-eyed users will notice that the RSS2.0 feed is actually at Feedburner as well, but that\u0026rsquo;s for statistical purposes only. No extra content is added.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnjoy!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"nobullet\"\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://feeds.feedburner.com/d00dism\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/rss2feed.png\" alt=\"RSS 2.0 Feed\" title=\"Link to the RSS 2.0 Feed for d00dism\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://feeds.feedburner.com/godlikenerd\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/feedburner.gif\" alt=\"Feedburner Feed\" title=\"Link to the Combined Feedburner Feed for d00dism\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"/feed/rss/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/rssfeed.png\" alt=\"RSS 0.91 Feed\" title=\"Link to the RSS 0.91 Feed for d00dism\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"/feed/atom/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/atomfeed.png\" alt=\"Atom 0.3 Feed\" title=\"Link to the Atom 0.3 Feed for d00dism\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"/feed/rdf/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/rdffeed.png\" alt=\"RDF Feed\" title=\"Link to the RDF Feed for d00dism\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"/comments/feed/rss2/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/rsscomments.png\" alt=\"RSS  Comments Feed\" title=\"Link to the RSS 2.0 Comments Feed for d00dism\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://43things.com/rss/uber/author?username=d00d\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/43things.png\" alt=\"43 Things Feed\" title=\"Link to my 43 Things RSS Feed\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=19959606@N00\u0026format=rss_200\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/flickr.png\" alt=\"Flickr Feed\" title=\"Link to Flickr Photostream Feed\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us/rss/d00d/supplement\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/delicious.gif\" alt=\"Supplement Feed\" title=\"Link to the RSS Feed for the d00dism Supplement\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/d00dism\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/myyahoo.gif\" alt=\"Add to My Yahoo!\" title=\"Add to My Yahoo!\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"aim:goim?screenname=blogchangebot\u0026message=subscribe+godlikenerd.com\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/bcblogo.gif\" alt=\"Add to Blog Change Bot\" title=\"Watch with Blog Change Bot\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://feeds.feedburner.com/d00dism\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://www.bloglines.com/images/sub_modern5.gif\" alt=\"Add to Bloglines\" title=\"Subscribe with Bloglines\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.feedster.com/myfeedster.php?action=addrss\u0026#038;rssurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/d00dism\u0026#038;confirm=no\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/feedster.gif\" alt=\"Subscribe with myFeedster\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/subext.aspx?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/d00dism\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/newsgator.gif\" alt=\"Subscribe in NewsGator Online\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n    \u003ca href=\"http://my.msn.com/addtomymsn.armx?id=rss\u0026#038;ut=http://feeds.feedburner.com/d00dism\u0026#038;ru=http://godlikenerd.com\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"/buttons/mymsn.gif\" alt=\"Add to My MSN\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Subscription"},{"content":"About Me My name is Derik DeLong and I\u0026rsquo;m a 29 year old senior software engineer. I\u0026rsquo;m currently employed writing code in Woburn.\nI graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. I spent an abnormally short four years there.\nI leave droppings all over the web and my about.me page has a decent list of the more popular places that I leave them.\nI grew up in Northborough, Massachusetts and currently reside in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/about/author/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"about-me\"\u003eAbout Me\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy name is Derik DeLong and I\u0026rsquo;m a 29 year old senior software engineer. I\u0026rsquo;m currently employed writing code in Woburn.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI graduated from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.umass.edu\"\u003eUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst\u003c/a\u003e with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. I spent an abnormally short four years there.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI leave droppings all over the web and my \u003ca href=\"http://about.me/derik\"\u003eabout.me page\u003c/a\u003e has a decent list of the more popular places that I leave them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Author"},{"content":"Welcome to Godlikenerd.com This site is dedicated to general geekery, like many other sites. However, I, Derik DeLong, have my own spin. I\u0026rsquo;ll break down the fast and furious world around you into digestable chunks. I\u0026rsquo;ll also assault you with things that I find interesting.\nAs the site develops, more site sections will be added (and be available in the sidebar). I will give you all the tools necessary to stalk me.\nSo click around and enjoy.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/about/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"welcome-to-godlikenerdcom\"\u003eWelcome to \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com\"\u003eGodlikenerd.com\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis site is dedicated to general geekery, like many other sites. However, \u003ca href=\"author/\"\u003eI, Derik DeLong,\u003c/a\u003e have my own spin. I\u0026rsquo;ll break down the fast and furious world around you into digestable chunks. I\u0026rsquo;ll also assault you with things that I find interesting.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs the site develops, more site sections will be added (and be available in the sidebar). I will give you all the tools necessary to stalk me.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"About this Site"},{"content":"Don\u0026rsquo;t worry. I will not be leaving it as it looks now. It\u0026rsquo;s a work in progress. I just didn\u0026rsquo;t want to screw around installing WordPress a thousand times.\nAnyway, please litter this entry with recommendations. I already have a picture in mind for the top, so don\u0026rsquo;t worry about that. Everything else is fair game though!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/15/upgrade-complete/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDon\u0026rsquo;t worry. I will \u003cstrong\u003enot\u003c/strong\u003e be leaving it as it looks now. It\u0026rsquo;s a work in progress. I just didn\u0026rsquo;t want to screw around installing WordPress a thousand times.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnyway, please litter this entry with recommendations. I already have a picture in mind for the top, so don\u0026rsquo;t worry about that. Everything else is fair game though!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Upgrade Complete"},{"content":"I know all of you haven\u0026rsquo;t been waiting like I have been for this, but the fine folks over at WordPress have finished work on WordPress 1.5 “Strayhorn.” This means that I\u0026rsquo;ll be taking the site down later. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if it will be tonight, tomorrow, or sometime later this week. First, I need to finish at least one new theme. I\u0026rsquo;ve already started working on it on my test blog. It\u0026rsquo;s a modification of the fabulous Kubrick. When I\u0026rsquo;m done, I\u0026rsquo;ll be letting Michael know that I borrowed from him (though I tried to limit that as much as possible).\nOnce I\u0026rsquo;m satisfied with the new theme, the old themes will be nuked. It\u0026rsquo;s time to start fresh. I\u0026rsquo;ll be archiving it in case there is some reason I ever need the existing design again, but I doubt it. I will package up the new theme for anyone interested in using it (and be released under GPL as the original Kubrick is). I will insist that people interested in using the new theme notify me. I\u0026rsquo;d like to see if/when my work is being used.\nIt also means I\u0026rsquo;ll be taking a lot of the clutter off the main page. All those buttons are being moved into various Pages. At the very least, I will have a page for contact (thanks for reminding me Heather), one for subscription (RSS, Atom, etc), my full blogroll, and listings of various services I use (Flickr, 43Things, etc.). I\u0026rsquo;m going to trim down my blog database by moving Scott and Bob\u0026rsquo;s blog data into a separate database. I\u0026rsquo;m also probably going to switch to another spam blocking package. The current system is far too makeshift to make it a long term solution. In other words, nearly the entire site will change.\nIf you blog and have been looking at WordPress to replace your current software, now is the time to move on up.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/15/wordpress-1.5-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI know all of you haven\u0026rsquo;t been waiting like I have been for this, but the fine folks over at \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e have finished work on WordPress 1.5 “Strayhorn.” This means that I\u0026rsquo;ll be taking the site down later. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if it will be tonight, tomorrow, or sometime later this week. First, I need to finish at least one new theme. I\u0026rsquo;ve already started working on it \u003ca href=\"/test/\"\u003eon my test blog\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s a modification of the fabulous \u003ca href=\"http://binarybonsai.com/kubrick/\"\u003eKubrick\u003c/a\u003e. When I\u0026rsquo;m done, I\u0026rsquo;ll be letting Michael know that I borrowed from him (though I tried to limit that as much as possible).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WordPress 1.5 Released!"},{"content":"From time to time, I\u0026rsquo;ll be putting up protected entries (such as the other post today). If you want to read it, contact me.\nThis is mostly a measure to keep some of my more personal stories away from the general public that\u0026rsquo;s probably here simply for my tech analysis. Don\u0026rsquo;t feel intimidated about asking. I\u0026rsquo;ll give you the password most likely.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/14/a-quick-note-about-protected-entries/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFrom time to time, I\u0026rsquo;ll be putting up protected entries (such as the \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2005/02/14/vday-surprise/\"\u003eother post today\u003c/a\u003e). If you want to read it, contact me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is mostly a measure to keep some of my more personal stories away from the general public that\u0026rsquo;s probably here simply for my tech analysis. Don\u0026rsquo;t feel intimidated about asking. I\u0026rsquo;ll give you the password most likely.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Quick Note about Protected Entries"},{"content":"Today, I\u0026rsquo;m going to be myself and reduce a day that\u0026rsquo;s based solely on feelings and break it down mathematically in Mastercard commercial style. It\u0026rsquo;s completely unoriginal, but hey, it works.\nFuzzy box of chocolate truffles: $13\nDriving yourself into work so you can go straight to your sweetie\u0026rsquo;s place: $6\nGetting dumped the morning of Valentine\u0026rsquo;s Day: Priceless\nIt\u0026rsquo;s not often that I\u0026rsquo;m going to post anything in depth about my lovelife. The reason for this is several-fold. First, I\u0026rsquo;d like to keep this site fairly professional. Let\u0026rsquo;s face it, my post teen year angst just isn\u0026rsquo;t something that\u0026rsquo;s going to get CNET to ask your opinion on something. Second, it\u0026rsquo;s not interesting to the Internet at large. Very personal blogs are only interesting to friends. Finally, the subject of your post may actually read the post. I\u0026rsquo;d rather not broadcast this to her.\nLet me begin with some background on the situation. Claire messaged me on OKCupid.com. I didn\u0026rsquo;t seek her out. I didn\u0026rsquo;t initiate contact. We talked a little and she seemed really nice. As I didn\u0026rsquo;t really initiate it, I just let her lead where things went. This eventually led to her suggestion that I buy her dinner sometime.\nNaturally, I decided it was worth a shot. She was cute, smart, and interested in me. We met for a lunch date. It went great. We talked for three hours before either of us looked at our watches. I escorted her while she shopped at Target. We hugged goodbye and I went home feeling pretty good.\nClaire got sick the week following our date. We talked while she was able to sit up. We talked about all kinds of things. Then she asked me for my advice on something. She mentioned going out with the son of a family friend. Apparently it didn\u0026rsquo;t go well and she just wasn\u0026rsquo;t into him. I joked Are you trying to tell me something? Oh, yes, I thought that was clever. It was, but simply too clever. She told me that she definitely wasn\u0026rsquo;t trying to drop a hint or anything. Naivete was the soup du jour.\nThe next Saturday, we went out to dinner at a neat little BBQ place. She even drugged herself up with Sudafed for me. That is just the sweetest gesture ever, right? We had a good time. She asked if I wanted to walk her back to her car. Surely I did. We kissed next to her car. I was really beginning to dig her. Sure, this was much slower than I normally took things, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t care.\nSo, in the next week, we talked on the phone like every night. We set up a date on Valentine\u0026rsquo;s Day and another on the Saturday preceding. In the course of conversation, she mentioned ending several relationships because she liked the guy too much and didn\u0026rsquo;t want to get hurt. She then told me Don\u0026rsquo;t hurt me. I was pretty surprised. She just told me that she was really into me. There is no other way to interpret that, right? I don\u0026rsquo;t think it\u0026rsquo;s that insane to think that. She even told me that she found me cute. Attractive even. I\u0026rsquo;m not above a little ego stroking.\nI was still trying to stay distanced, but with that kind of reassurance, why should I? She even told me that she wanted to take things slow and do it right with me. All good things in my book. So we had our third (and final) date on Saturday night. We went to the IMAX theater in Jordan\u0026rsquo;s Furniture (I still recommend it despite the ill feelings now associated). We caught a bite after and browsed Barnes and Noble.\nI drove her back to her car (because we were still meeting at places). We started making out a little in my car (which I still think is stupid and awkward). Suddenly, she stopped me and said You\u0026rsquo;re crazy with that tongue. Being a man and still in the mood, I turned it into a joke and we made out some more. I had to be self-conscious about kissing at this point. Let me tell you, it really takes the fun out of it. Completely. I tried to put it out of my mind. I drove home, again, feeling pretty satisfied.\nYesterday, I spent most of the day in Amherst for Scott\u0026rsquo;s senior recital. I figured that giving Claire some time before our Valentine\u0026rsquo;s date would be good. That way she wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be sick of me. That night, after I got back, she messaged me. She said she wasn\u0026rsquo;t feeling well and going to bed before 8 PM. I called her back and asked if she was getting sick again. She said she wasn\u0026rsquo;t. We ended the phone call and my spidey-sense was tingling all over my skull. I\u0026rsquo;ll admit it, sometimes I get a little paranoid. However, when I have a strong feeling something bad is going down, it\u0026rsquo;s usually dead-on.\nShortly before Lisel and I split, I was totally out of my mind scared. I tried loving her with renewed vigor. Ultimately, that weekend, she dumped me. I got scared last night as well. I let myself become emotionally invested and I knew that what was coming would hurt. I talked to my close friends about it. The critique during our makeout session should have been my cue to end it. Dana said she would have kicked Claire out of my car in my position. That would have been the more appropriate action in hindsight. However, most told me not to worry. I had a date on Valentine\u0026rsquo;s Day with her. I\u0026rsquo;d get to see her place (which was another hint because she never even suggested seeing it before making plans for today). Everything would smooth out and I\u0026rsquo;d forget all about this.\nThen this morning came.\n(08:05:34) Claire: hey\n(08:05:44) Derik: hey hey, how are you?\n(08:05:47) Claire: i\u0026rsquo;m ok.\n(08:05:52) Claire: but you\u0026rsquo;re gonna hate me.\n(08:05:55) Derik: uh oh\n(08:05:59) Claire: i did a lot of thinking last night.\n(08:06:05) Claire: i really don\u0026rsquo;t think we should see each other again\n(08:06:09) Claire: i feel really bad doing this.\n(08:06:14) Claire: i fully realize i am doing a totally shitty thing\n(08:06:22) Claire: but i just don\u0026rsquo;t think things are going in the direction you would like.\n(08:06:29) Derik: why\u0026rsquo;s that?\n(08:06:31) Claire: and i feel like it\u0026rsquo;s better to be honest and just end it than to string you along.\n(08:06:48) Claire: i\u0026rsquo;m really sorry.\n(08:07:12) Derik: I don\u0026rsquo;t understand\n(08:07:54) Claire: you don\u0026rsquo;t understand what i\u0026rsquo;m saying ?\n(08:08:00) Claire: or you don\u0026rsquo;t understand why i\u0026rsquo;m saying it?\n(08:08:06) Derik: both I suppose\n(08:08:20) Claire: i don\u0026rsquo;t know what to tell you\n(08:08:35) Claire: if it makes you feel better, i think it has very little to do with you.\n(08:08:40) Claire: perhaps i\u0026rsquo;m more troubled than i once thought.\n(08:08:50) Claire: i just can\u0026rsquo;t get into this.\n(08:08:53) Claire: i apologize\n(08:09:25) Derik: are you ever going to at least explain to me what you mean?\n(08:09:25) Claire: i just don\u0026rsquo;t get the feeling that we\u0026rsquo;re going to be that compatible in the long run.\n(08:09:29) Claire: and i don\u0026rsquo;t want to waste your time.\n(08:10:16) Derik: why don\u0026rsquo;t you let me worry about that? or is it that you just don\u0026rsquo;t want to see me?\n(08:11:08) Claire: i\u0026rsquo;m just not that into you.\n(08:11:09) Claire: i\u0026rsquo;m sorry\n(08:11:20) Claire: i thought it would be something that would develop\n(08:11:30) Claire: but i\u0026rsquo;ve learned that if it doesn\u0026rsquo;t happen the first few times you\u0026rsquo;re with a person, it won\u0026rsquo;t\n(08:11:39) Claire: and i don\u0026rsquo;t want to lead you on any longer\n(08:11:43) Claire: i am really really sorry\n(08:11:49) Claire: and i know that i\u0026rsquo;m doing a shitty horrible thing\n(08:11:57) Claire: this is very hard for me\n(08:12:04) Derik: it\u0026rsquo;s ok, wish I\u0026rsquo;d known yesterday\n(08:12:09) Claire: well, me too\n(08:12:14) Claire: i just had to think things through\n(08:12:25) Claire: again, i apologize\n(08:12:55) Derik: it\u0026rsquo;s all right, but a word of advice, be a little more careful who you tell “don\u0026rsquo;t hurt me” to\n(08:13:25) Claire: i never ever meant to do this.\n(08:13:29) Claire: we all hope things will work out\n(08:13:35) Claire: and they don\u0026rsquo;t always.\n(08:13:50) Claire: please know that i feel really terrible.\n(08:14:23) Derik: it\u0026rsquo;s ok, you really don\u0026rsquo;t have to feel that way\n(08:14:44) Claire: yeah, i do.\n(08:15:12) Claire: but it\u0026rsquo;s better this way\n(08:15:21) Claire: think how pissed off you\u0026rsquo;d be if i pulled this a month from now\n(08:15:30) Derik: I know\n(08:15:42) Claire: i gotta get dressed for work.\n(08:15:50) Claire: i fully understand if you don\u0026rsquo;t want to talk to me again.\n(08:15:57) Claire: i\u0026rsquo;m sorry things turned out this way\n(08:15:59) Derik: nah, I\u0026rsquo;m not like that\n(08:16:08) Derik: I like being friends with my exes\n(08:16:14) Claire: i\u0026rsquo;ve noticed.\n(08:16:18) Claire: you\u0026rsquo;re a good guy\n(08:16:21) Derik: thanks\n(08:16:41) Claire: later for now then.\n(08:16:45) Derik: later\nThe timestamps are indeed accurate. Best way to get your heart going at the beginning of the day, isn\u0026rsquo;t it? No, I didn\u0026rsquo;t think so either. So, I\u0026rsquo;m left holding a fuzzy box of chocolate truffles and my crushed heart. Now I have to go straight home and endure the humiliation of spending the evening with my parents. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I love my parents and spending time with them is not embarressing. However, having to face anyone tonight that saw how excited I had been is just tough. What\u0026rsquo;s worse is that Valentine\u0026rsquo;s Day is now tainted for me. I can\u0026rsquo;t spend another one without thinking about being dumped. I\u0026rsquo;ve become one of the millions of disillusioned.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to try to get back to work now. I really just feel like lying down and sleeping.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/14/happy-valentines-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eToday, I\u0026rsquo;m going to be myself and reduce a day that\u0026rsquo;s based solely on feelings and break it down mathematically in Mastercard commercial style. It\u0026rsquo;s completely unoriginal, but hey, it works.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFuzzy box of chocolate truffles: \u003cem\u003e$13\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDriving yourself into work so you can go straight to your sweetie\u0026rsquo;s place: \u003cem\u003e$6\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGetting dumped the morning of Valentine\u0026rsquo;s Day: \u003cstrong\u003ePriceless\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s not often that I\u0026rsquo;m going to post anything in depth about my lovelife. The reason for this is several-fold. First, I\u0026rsquo;d like to keep this site fairly professional. Let\u0026rsquo;s face it, my post teen year angst just isn\u0026rsquo;t something that\u0026rsquo;s going to get CNET to ask your opinion on something. Second, it\u0026rsquo;s not interesting to the Internet at large. Very personal blogs are only interesting to friends. Finally, the subject of your post may actually read the post. I\u0026rsquo;d rather not broadcast this to her.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Happy Valentine's Day"},{"content":"I have a habit of getting very little sleep during the week and sleeping excessively on the weekends. It was a system that worked great from the beginning of high school on. At some point though, this changed. If I really cut my sleep short, like less than five hours a night for several nights, my eyes start getting really irritated.\nI honestly can\u0026rsquo;t figure it out. First, my right eye starts to feel really itchy. I rub my eye to try to get rid of what seems to be an eyelash, only nothings really there. Naturally, it gets all red and bloodshot. Super. Naturally everyone notices and feels some kind of irrepressible urge to tell me. Hey, Derik, your eyes are really bloodshot. Gee, thanks, I had no idea. I\u0026rsquo;ve just been rubbing it all day because it feels so damn good. The next question is Is that pinkeye? Well, I don\u0026rsquo;t know, but considering I don\u0026rsquo;t have any of the symptoms other than redness and an itch and that it goes away after a good night\u0026rsquo;s sleep (or two), I don\u0026rsquo;t think so.\nMaybe I should go to the doctor at some point and get it checked out. I just lack the motivation. So I sit here this morning, hoping that getting a little more sleep between last night and tonight that my eyes will be cleared up for tomorrow.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/11/my-frickin-eyes/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI have a habit of getting very little sleep during the week and sleeping excessively on the weekends. It was a system that worked great from the beginning of high school on. At some point though, this changed. If I really cut my sleep short, like less than five hours a night for several nights, my eyes start getting really irritated.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI honestly can\u0026rsquo;t figure it out. First, my right eye starts to feel really itchy. I rub my eye to try to get rid of what seems to be an eyelash, only nothings really there. Naturally, it gets all red and bloodshot. \u003cem\u003eSuper.\u003c/em\u003e Naturally everyone notices and feels some kind of irrepressible urge to tell me. \u003cem\u003eHey, Derik, your eyes are really bloodshot.\u003c/em\u003e Gee, thanks, I had no idea. I\u0026rsquo;ve just been rubbing it all day because it feels so damn good. The next question is \u003cem\u003eIs that pinkeye?\u003c/em\u003e Well, I don\u0026rsquo;t know, but considering I don\u0026rsquo;t have any of the symptoms other than redness and an itch and that it goes away after a good night\u0026rsquo;s sleep (or two), I don\u0026rsquo;t think so.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Frickin' Eyes"},{"content":"A few days ago, Dana told me she had 50 Gmail invites. I naturally got a little irked as I was the one that invited her to begin with. That\u0026rsquo;s the way it goes I guess. Well, I checked today because I read that one Gmail invite spooler had over a million and a half invites to hand out. I had 50! I sent one to Bob who didn\u0026rsquo;t want to be left out and added 9 to the spooler.\nAnyway, I still have 40 to give out, so just drop a comment with a valid email address if you want one. Your email address won\u0026rsquo;t be displayed publically, so don\u0026rsquo;t worry about that. If you are going to worry about it in spite of my reassurances, just send an email to gmailinvite at this domain name.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/10/gmail-invites-out-my-ears/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA few days ago, Dana told me she had 50 \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003eGmail\u003c/a\u003e invites. I naturally got a little irked as I was the one that invited her to begin with. That\u0026rsquo;s the way it goes I guess. Well, I checked today because I read that \u003ca href=\"http://isnoop.net/gmailomatic.php\"\u003eone Gmail invite spooler\u003c/a\u003e had over a million and a half invites to hand out. I had 50! I sent one to Bob who didn\u0026rsquo;t want to be left out and added 9 to the spooler.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gmail Invites Out My Ears"},{"content":"The Mac OS X 10.3.8 update is out and ready for consumption. You know the drill, fire up software update, download the delta updater, or the combo updater. The delta updater weighs in at 27.7 MB and the combo is a hefty 103 MB. Software update will deliver a variable size updater dependent upon the machine you are running.\nUpdate Details Addresses an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.7 in which iChat, Mail, or other network-based applications could take a long time to open. Addresses an issue in which a computer wouldn\u0026rsquo;t always restart automatically after a power failure, even when the Energy Saver preference option “Restart automatically after a power failure” was selected. Improves the performance of Blizzard World of Warcraft\u0026rsquo;s “Full Screen Glow” video feature. Improves DVD Player compatibility when playing a movie (using certain ATI Radeon cards) to an external widescreen TV with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Resolves an issue in which a “flicker” could be seen when navigating DVD menus in DVD Player on certain PowerBook G4 computers. Addresses an issue in which a PowerBook G4 computer would, on rare occasion, wake from sleep with a black screen and not respond to any keyboard, mouse, or trackpad input. Addresses “jumping cursor” issues that might occur when using your portable computer\u0026rsquo;s trackpad with your thumb, side of thumb, or a “flat” finger. Resolves an issue on certain Power Mac G5 computers where a fan cycles erratically at unexpected times, such as when Seti@home software is running. Speeds up Address Book and Mail LDAP lookups that are performed by a Cisco DistributedDirector DNS server. Addresses an issue that could prevent clients using the Active Directory plugin from binding to their Active Directory server. Observations Mail.app seemed to load much faster for me, as was described above. I suspect that the difference lies in using a non-blocking network call. The rest largely don\u0026rsquo;t affect me, especially because I don\u0026rsquo;t have a “flat” finger.\nThere have been some reports that user\u0026rsquo;s eject keys stop working (particularly on iBooks). However, a simple restart seems to correct that issue. It also goes to show that some people will start crying bug! before taking trivial steps to make sure it\u0026rsquo;s not a fluke.\nInstallation went fine on the 12″ Powerbook, the Powermac, and the old Pismo Powerbook for me.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/10/mac-os-x-10.3.8-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate1038.html\"\u003eMac OS X 10.3.8 update\u003c/a\u003e is out and ready for consumption. You know the drill, fire up software update, download the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate1038.html\"\u003edelta updater\u003c/a\u003e, or the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate1038combo.html\"\u003ecombo updater\u003c/a\u003e. The delta updater weighs in at 27.7 MB and the combo is a hefty 103 MB. Software update will deliver a variable size updater dependent upon the machine you are running.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"update-details\"\u003eUpdate Details\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.7 in which iChat, Mail, or other network-based applications could take a long time to open.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which a computer wouldn\u0026rsquo;t always restart automatically after a power failure, even when the Energy Saver preference option “Restart automatically after a power failure” was selected.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eImproves the performance of Blizzard World of Warcraft\u0026rsquo;s “Full Screen Glow” video feature.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eImproves DVD Player compatibility when playing a movie (using certain ATI Radeon cards) to an external widescreen TV with a 16:9 aspect ratio.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue in which a “flicker” could be seen when navigating DVD menus in DVD Player on certain PowerBook G4 computers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which a PowerBook G4 computer would, on rare occasion, wake from sleep with a black screen and not respond to any keyboard, mouse, or trackpad input.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses “jumping cursor” issues that might occur when using your portable computer\u0026rsquo;s trackpad with your thumb, side of thumb, or a “flat” finger.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue on certain Power Mac G5 computers where a fan cycles erratically at unexpected times, such as when Seti@home software is running.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSpeeds up Address Book and Mail LDAP lookups that are performed by a Cisco DistributedDirector DNS server.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue that could prevent clients using the Active Directory plugin from binding to their Active Directory server.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"observations\"\u003eObservations\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMail.app seemed to load much faster for me, as was described above. I suspect that the difference lies in using a non-blocking network call. The rest largely don\u0026rsquo;t affect me, especially because I don\u0026rsquo;t have a \u003cem\u003e“flat” finger\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.3.8 Update"},{"content":"Google‘s services are growing quickly. Very quickly. First it was just a web search engine. Then they added image searching (of course, it still has its kinks). They added newsgroups, news, and price searching, aka Froogle. That wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough though. They added a free email service (I have 6 invitations sitting around doing nothing for anyone interested) and desktop searching which still doesn\u0026rsquo;t support Macs, Firefox, or Thunderbird. I\u0026rsquo;m still leaving out countless other products and services.\nVery recently, their new “local” service added things like finding restaurants and other businesses. As I played with it, I noticed something. They had their own maps embedded in those searches. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t Yahoo Maps or MapQuest based. I personally preferred the former to the latter. My suspicion was well founded as Google is publically beta testing their new Map service. It uses some very new browser tricks (standards based) to make the maps interactive without any heavy Java or endless page loading. My words can\u0026rsquo;t do it justice, so check it out for yourself.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/09/maps-done-right/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e‘s \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/options/\"\u003eservices\u003c/a\u003e are growing quickly. Very quickly. First it was just a web search engine. Then they added \u003ca href=\"http://images.google.com\"\u003eimage searching\u003c/a\u003e (of course, it still has its \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2005/02/05/thank-you-dana/\"\u003ekinks\u003c/a\u003e). They added \u003ca href=\"http://groups.google.com\"\u003enewsgroups\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://news.google.com\"\u003enews\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://froogle.google.com\"\u003eprice searching\u003c/a\u003e, aka Froogle. That wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough though. They added a \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003efree email service\u003c/a\u003e (I have 6 invitations sitting around doing nothing for anyone interested) and \u003ca href=\"http://desktop.google.com\"\u003edesktop searching\u003c/a\u003e which still doesn\u0026rsquo;t support Macs, Firefox, or Thunderbird. I\u0026rsquo;m still leaving out \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/options/\"\u003ecountless other products and services\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery recently, their new \u003ca href=\"http://local.google.com\"\u003e“local” service\u003c/a\u003e added things like finding restaurants and other businesses. As I played with it, I noticed something. They had their own maps embedded in those searches. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t \u003ca href=\"http://maps.yahoo.com\"\u003eYahoo Maps\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"http://www.mapquest.com\"\u003eMapQuest\u003c/a\u003e based. I personally preferred the former to the latter. My suspicion was well founded as Google is publically beta testing their new \u003ca href=\"http://maps.google.com\"\u003eMap service\u003c/a\u003e. It uses some very new browser tricks (standards based) to make the maps interactive without any heavy Java or endless page loading. My words can\u0026rsquo;t do it justice, so check it out for yourself.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Maps Done Right"},{"content":"Hurrah for the Pats! I managed to survive the Superbowl party I went to. I even posted up some pictures. No pictures of me, for those of you curious.\nAt any rate, it was a great time and a pretty good game (from what I can remember). Now where\u0026rsquo;s Freddie Mitchell\u0026rsquo;s big mouth?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/08/the-patriots-are-officially-a-dynasty/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHurrah for the Pats! I managed to survive the Superbowl party I went to. I even posted up \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/photos/superbowl05\"\u003esome pictures\u003c/a\u003e. No pictures of me, for those of you curious.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, it was a great time and a pretty good game (from what I can remember). Now where\u0026rsquo;s Freddie Mitchell\u0026rsquo;s big mouth?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Patriots are Officially a Dynasty"},{"content":"There is only one possibility for a Superbowl win. The Patriots will beat the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pats will soon join the ranks of other great teams like the Cowboys in the 90s.\nGo Pats! ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/06/football-picks-superbowl/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThere is only one possibility for a Superbowl win. The \u003cstrong\u003ePatriots\u003c/strong\u003e will beat the Philadelphia Eagles. The Pats will soon join the ranks of other great teams like the Cowboys in the 90s.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"go-pats\"\u003eGo Pats!\u003c/h3\u003e","title":"Football Picks Superbowl"},{"content":"Dana has brought something to my attention. I love churros as much as anyone else, but I think Google might be a little confused.\nOne of these things is not like the other. Look carefully. I think y\u0026rsquo;all can figure it out.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/05/thank-you-dana/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://xandriamd87.blogspot.com\"\u003eDana\u003c/a\u003e has brought something to my attention. I love churros as much as anyone else, but I think Google might be a little confused.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://images.google.com/images?q=churros\u0026amp;num=100\u0026amp;hl=en\u0026amp;lr=\u0026amp;safe=off\u0026amp;output=search\"\u003eOne of these things is not like the other.\u003c/a\u003e Look carefully. I think y\u0026rsquo;all can figure it out.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Thank you Dana"},{"content":"Just a quick one today. I\u0026rsquo;m sure most people have already heard of Flickr and so had I, but up until recently I hadn\u0026rsquo;t done anything with it. The buzz is well deserved. They fully support RSS, Creative Commons, as well as a million other features. I\u0026rsquo;ve barely scratched the surface. They\u0026rsquo;ll always have a free version in addition to premium accounts. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably stick with Gallery for some time to come, but this is definitely a more than worthy replacement for WebShots. So boys and girls, put up some pictures and let me see the goods.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/03/ill-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJust a quick one today. I\u0026rsquo;m sure most people have already heard of \u003ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com\"\u003eFlickr\u003c/a\u003e and so had I, but up until recently I hadn\u0026rsquo;t done anything with it. The buzz is well deserved. They fully support RSS, Creative Commons, as well as a million other features. I\u0026rsquo;ve barely scratched the surface. They\u0026rsquo;ll always have a free version in addition to premium accounts. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably stick with \u003ca href=\"http://gallery.menalto.com\"\u003eGallery\u003c/a\u003e for some time to come, but this is definitely a more than worthy replacement for \u003ca href=\"http://www.webshots.com\"\u003eWebShots\u003c/a\u003e. So boys and girls, put up some pictures and let me see the goods.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'll Show You Mine if You Show Me Yours"},{"content":"I thought I\u0026rsquo;d link the CNET article on G5 Powerbooks as David Becker was kind enough to email me and ask my opinions. Unfortunately, it seems that they couldn\u0026rsquo;t use any of my ramblings, but I thought it might be of interest to publish what I wrote, considering my rather short, lackluster writeup on the new Powerbooks.\nDavid sent me the below email with questions.\nHi–my name is Dave Becker, and I\u0026rsquo;m a reporter for CNET News.com. Saw your bloggings on matters Mac and hoped you might be willing to offer your comments on possible/planned G5 PowerBooks.\n— How hungry is the Mac community for these? Do want one yourself?\n— What if it meant having to design somethiong that departed from Apple\u0026rsquo;s slim and quiet aesthetic?\n— What would be the advatages of a G5 PowerBook over a G4 running at similar speed?\nThanks for your help, David Becker, staff writer CNET News.com\nI responded with:\nI\u0026rsquo;d be more than willing. Thanks for asking. I\u0026rsquo;ll answer the questions in turn.\nLarge portions of the Mac community are very interested. In particular, the more vocal parts that participate in forums. However, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if that\u0026rsquo;s entirely representative of the Mac community at large. I\u0026rsquo;m inclined to think that even some of the newer users recognize the general emphasis placed upon the generation number of the processor. A G5 inherently sounds more powerful than a G4, and it is.\nHowever, whether the same users that cry out for G5 speed need or can even really utilize is a question I\u0026rsquo;ve yet to be seen answered definitively. I\u0026rsquo;ll speak more to that later. As for myself, it\u0026rsquo;s tempting. I know I don\u0026rsquo;t need one, but having a Powerbook G5 is just so damn cool. It\u0026rsquo;s bragging rights and a status symbol. However, I just got a new 12″ Powerbook last summer (though outdated by today\u0026rsquo;s announcement) which more than satisfies my needs. I\u0026rsquo;ve also got a Powermac G4 sitting upstairs that also has plenty of life in it. I can\u0026rsquo;t justify spending the money just yet. Then again, if you guys at CNet feel like sending me one, I won\u0026rsquo;t refuse it. 😉\nThe question of aesthetics is astute. Apple (at least under Steve Jobs) makes looks and feel a top priority. Would the original iMac or the iMac G4 have been such hot sellers without looking so good? I doubt it. The drastic difference in sales and the state of Apple pre and post iMac is proof positive. However, I don\u0026rsquo;t doubt that Apple will find a way to integrate both the beautiful and powerful. I think the real question is whether the whole Powerbook line will go G5 all at once. The extra space afforded by a 17″ or 15″ case facilitates better thermal management than could be possible in a 12″ case. We may see a period where just the 17″ or the 17″ and 15″ are G5s while the Powerbook 12″ is marketed as an ultra-portable with extended battery life as it will inevitably consume far less energy than even a low power G5.\nThe first and foremost advantage of a G5 Powerbook is marketability. One can imagine the commercials already. “The power of supercomputer in your bag.” The supercomputer reference would naturally be to the Virginia Tech G5 cluster System X. The actual technical advantages would primarily be growth potential and bus speed. A half speed or even third speed bus would be easily three times as fast as the current bus. However, the utility of this is unclear in the context of a portable. The real advantage of having such a powerful bus is being able to manipulate many high speed devices. In order to force that situation with a Powerbook, it would essentially need to be chained to a desk negating portability. This might be of real interest of those that don\u0026rsquo;t do the majority of their work on the road, but only occasionally do so and primarily use their laptop as a desktop replacement. If that\u0026rsquo;s the market segment they go after, then they may be able to get away with a less aesthetic, larger, more utilitarian portable. It could be a whole new line, named something like the Xbook or similar. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure about any other advantages as the main limiting factor for Powerbooks as I see it are the video cards. The just don\u0026rsquo;t measure up to desktop video cards and that will prevent the Powerbooks from being as powerful as many Powerbook G5 proponents want.\nI hope some of what I\u0026rsquo;ve said is useful. Please write back if need any clarification. I look forward to anything you might write using any of this. Please send me the link if you do. Thanks for the opportunity.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/02/cnet-g5-powerbook-article/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI thought I\u0026rsquo;d link \u003ca href=\"http://news.com.com/Apple+on+G5+PowerBook+Not+so+fast/2100-1044_3-5559311.html\"\u003ethe CNET article on G5 Powerbooks\u003c/a\u003e as David Becker was kind enough to email me and ask my opinions. Unfortunately, it seems that they couldn\u0026rsquo;t use any of my ramblings, but I thought it might be of interest to publish what I wrote, considering my rather short, lackluster writeup on the new Powerbooks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid sent me the below email with questions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHi–my name is Dave Becker, and I\u0026rsquo;m a reporter for CNET News.com. Saw your bloggings on matters Mac and hoped you might be willing to offer your comments on possible/planned G5 PowerBooks.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"CNET G5 Powerbook Article"},{"content":"Dear Web Community,\nHard wrapping is stupid. This is important. Hard wrapping is stupid.\nI\u0026rsquo;m begging everyone to stop doing it. Allow me to be a bit pedantic for a moment and explain what I mean. Essentially one of the first features added to computers when they were being made was to automatically start printing text onto the next line once the current line was overfilled. This is known as wrapping. When people used typewriters, it was necessary to manually wrap and a little bell told one when to do so.\nThis manual makeshift system was thrown out because it was quickly discovered that computers could compute how many characters long the current line was and if the current word exceeded that bounds, place it on the next line. They even programmed it to recalculate these bounds and word placement when a particular line of text was modified. This amazing feature was updated when variable width character fonts were introduced.\nHell, most kids don\u0026rsquo;t even know that at one point it was necessary to manually (hard) wrap your lines. They only know automatic (soft) wrapping that is present on every computer out there. That\u0026rsquo;s why it blows my mind that some people still take it upon themselves to do this work for the computer. This naturally results in text like the following.\nTo this day, I still have no idea that computers can do something so utterly mundane as wrapping text for me. I will continue to do it as my father did so before me and his father before him. We naturally end up with the above. The line lengths are nowhere close to correct. We have a nice jagged edge. It makes one look like a complete and utter moron. Making the problem worse, many text entry boxes on web pages are fairly small. In addition to a jagged edge, the lines are extra short. In the case of a forum post, this makes your post look like a haiku.\nHard wrapping is lame\nMany think it is correct\nIt really is not\nOne must also realize that since the advent of variable width fonts, hard wrapping has become completely obsolete. Something that is perfectly wrapped in a Monaco will look utterly absurd Helvetica. Even something aligned using Geneva is likely to look stupid in Helvetica. People use different fonts to browse the web and the font in a text entry box may not match the end result.\nSo join the 21st century please. Let the computer softwrap for you. Hard wrapping is stupid.\nYour pal,\nDerik\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/02/02/an-open-letter-to-the-web/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDear Web Community,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHard wrapping is stupid.\u003c/em\u003e This is important. \u003cstrong\u003eHard wrapping is stupid.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m begging everyone to stop doing it. Allow me to be a bit pedantic for a moment and explain what I mean. Essentially one of the first features added to computers when they were being made was to automatically start printing text onto the next line once the current line was overfilled. This is known as wrapping. When people used typewriters, it was necessary to manually wrap and a little bell told one when to do so.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Open Letter to the Web"},{"content":"After a little hiatus this weekend, I\u0026rsquo;m back. So is Apple with exciting news. They\u0026rsquo;ve updated their Powerbook line of computers. Don\u0026rsquo;t get too excited though, they\u0026rsquo;re still G4s. However, it\u0026rsquo;s a nice solid revision. The bus speed is the same, but there\u0026rsquo;s a whole host of new statistics.\nFor the 17″:\n1.67 GHz G4 512 MB RAM 100 GB hard drive 8x SuperDrive ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128 MB) dual-link DVI $2,699 For the 15″:\n1.67 or 1.5 GHz G4 512 MB RAM 80 GB hard drive 8X SuperDrive or Combo drive ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (64 MB) $2,299 or $1,999 respectively Finally, the 12″:\n1.5 GHz G4 512 MB RAM 60 or 80 GB hard drive 8X SuperDrive or Combo drive Nvidia GeForce FX GO 5200 (64 MB) $1,699 or $1,499 respectively More detailed stats are available at Apple\u0026rsquo;s website as always.\nWith the only real change being a price drop and a little faster CPU from the former model, I can still be proud of the 1.33 GHz G4 Powerbook I type this on. But what about the increased RAM? Why did I ignore that in comparing to my Powerbook?\nIt\u0026rsquo;s worthy to note all the Powerbooks come with at least 512 MB of RAM. This is a good thing. However, I still can\u0026rsquo;t take that into effect. Little publicized as of yet is the fact that the 12″ still has a single accessible slot and the soldered RAM is still only 256 MB. That means your single slot is taken up with a fairly puny 256 MB stick no matter what. Should you choose to upgrade the RAM on your own (for example, by putting in a 1 GB stick), that stick becomes completely useless. That\u0026rsquo;s a rather big waste.\nHowever, the addition of Bluetooth 2.0 bodes well for these new Powerbooks and opens the way for all kinds of new peripherals. Only time will tell what they will be.\nUpdate: Some clarification of my comments regarding the RAM have been requested. When you upgrade the RAM on a Powerbook 12″, you have to put whatever you buy into the one accessible slot. The standard configuration currently places a 256 MB stick into that slot by default. You must remove it to insert the new RAM. The new amount of RAM (256 MB plus whatever the size of the stick you choose) will definitely be useful. However, that 256 MB you removed is now destined for a shelf, or maybe if you\u0026rsquo;re enterprising, eBay. In my case, my Powerbook came with only the soldered 256 MB of RAM. I bought a 1 GB stick and brought the machine up to 1.25 GB. Now, if I were to get one of today\u0026rsquo;s Powerbook 12″ models, it would come with 512 MB of RAM. I\u0026rsquo;d have to remove 256 MB in order to add the 1 GB and still end up with only 1.25 GB of RAM and a stick that I essentially couldn\u0026rsquo;t do anything with. It would have been far better if Apple had made the soldered amount 512 MB and left the only slot free. However, more starting RAM is a step in the right direction and they should be commended for at least that.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/31/new-powerbooks-today/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter a little hiatus this weekend, I\u0026rsquo;m back. So is \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e with exciting news. They\u0026rsquo;ve updated their \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/powerbook/\"\u003ePowerbook line of computers\u003c/a\u003e. Don\u0026rsquo;t get too excited though, they\u0026rsquo;re still G4s. However, it\u0026rsquo;s a nice solid revision. The bus speed is the same, but there\u0026rsquo;s a whole host of new statistics.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the 17″:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1.67 GHz G4\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e512 MB RAM\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100 GB hard drive\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e8x SuperDrive\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128 MB) dual-link DVI\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e$2,699\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the 15″:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Powerbooks Today"},{"content":"The Mac mini has spurred large amounts of interest in the PC community. With the mini\u0026rsquo;s lack of a bundled keyboard and mouse, the natural question becomes “Can I use my existing mouse and keyboard with the Mac mini?” Given that they are USB, the answer is yes. For mice, this is largely trivial. Just plug it in and use it. Optionally install drivers if it\u0026rsquo;s a Logitech or Microsoft product.\nKeyboards are a whole other can of worms because of a single section, the bottom row. On a Mac keyboard, the keys along the bottom, in order, are control, option, command, space bar, command, option, control. The topic of this article is USB keyboards, so custom layouts such as laptop keyboards are ignored. On a PC keyboard, the keys are generally control, Windows, alt, space bar, alt, Windows, context, control. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty similar save the context key.\nThe fact is that despite different labeling, these are essentially the same keys, serving very similar functions in that, except for the space bar, they are modifier keys. You hold the key and press another to perform some function. As such, it should come as no surprise that these keys will work. One can invoke all the available hotkeys on a Mac with a PC keyboard that one could using a Mac one.\nThere is a large caveat. Although one would expect that the placement of these keys would indicate equivalent function on a Mac keyboard, this isn\u0026rsquo;t true. Control is control, Windows is command, and alt is option. The last two are the difference. Ignoring the labeling on the physical keys, when a PC keyboard is attached to a Mac, the functional order of the keys is control, command, option, space bar, option, command, nothing, control. The order of option and command are reversed.\nPC users unfamiliar with this traditional layout won\u0026rsquo;t be bothered by this. They will still have to know what the keys do without correct labeling. Users familiar with Macs will be bothered by this. There is a quick, easy, and cheap (free) solution. DoubleCommand is a key remapper, allowing one to effectively swap the two keys. With that, you can have a PC keyboard work perfectly on a Mac.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/28/pc-keyboards-the-mac-mini-and-you/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macmini/\"\u003eMac mini\u003c/a\u003e has spurred large amounts of interest in the PC community. With the mini\u0026rsquo;s lack of a bundled keyboard and mouse, the natural question becomes “Can I use my existing mouse and keyboard with the Mac mini?” Given that they are USB, the answer is yes. For mice, this is largely trivial. Just plug it in and use it. Optionally install drivers if it\u0026rsquo;s a Logitech or Microsoft product.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"PC Keyboards, the Mac mini, and You"},{"content":"Apple has released the 2005-001 Security Update for Mac OS X. This update fixes several important vulnerabilities.\nat Commands The at commands (at, atrm, batch, atq, and atrun) allow a user to specify commands be run at a later time. That\u0026rsquo;s not the inherint bad thing. Being able to schedule things on a whim without using cron is good because it\u0026rsquo;s a one time deal. Want to run permissions repair in an hour while you\u0026rsquo;re on lunch, but afraid you\u0026rsquo;ll forget to initiate it later? Use the at command.\nAnyway, the problem was that the commands scheduled with at didn\u0026rsquo;t run with the initating user\u0026rsquo;s permissions. For example, a malicious user can\u0026rsquo;t delete your home directory because it\u0026rsquo;s owned by you. The rm command will fail due to lack of permissions. Using the unpatched version of at, that malicious user could schedule that rm command and it would complete successfully. That\u0026rsquo;s not good.\nThankfully, outside of server and large multi-user environments, this isn\u0026rsquo;t a large concern. It first requires that a malicious person has successfully logged into your machine, which shouldn\u0026rsquo;t happen unless you\u0026rsquo;ve given them an account.\nColorsync ICC (color) profiles that are malformed could run arbitrary code, which means that a program doing anything could be run and wreak havoc on your machine.\nlibxml2 Library Programs linking against this library could take advantage of some buffer overflow problems, again, allowing pretty much any code to be executed, resulting in complete compromise of the machine.\nTracing Mail(.app) This security problem is interesting. One of the RFC-822 required email headers is a unique identifier (GUUID). That ID is associated with the ethernet component of the computer. That means that your email messages could be traced back to your particular computer. This is naturally undesirable. That ID is now hashed and concatenated with a random number to complete obscure any data associating your computer with that piece of mail.\nPHP The exploit that was used a little while ago to make a web worm (many websites suddenly had “you are pwned” web pages up instead of their regular content) was present in the default version of PHP included with OS X. They\u0026rsquo;ve updated it to 4.3.10.\nSafari This isn\u0026rsquo;t so much a technology exploit as a social engineering exploit. If pop-up window blocking isn\u0026rsquo;t enabled, aribitrary web pages can display pop ups. They can also do it when in the background (in a different window or tab). If a web page opens up another actually trusted web page (say your bank\u0026rsquo;s site or a e-commerce site), uses a timer while waiting in the background, and then pops up a window prompting for information while you\u0026rsquo;re at the trusted site, you might mistakenly think it\u0026rsquo;s from the trusted site and give out sensitive information. The real problem is that people will assume that the trusted site popped that window up without proof. They happily type out their social security number, mother\u0026rsquo;s maiden name, login ID and password into the bank site. It\u0026rsquo;s fixed anyway.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/26/mac-os-x-security-update-2005-001/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple has released the \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300770\"\u003e2005-001 Security Update for Mac OS X\u003c/a\u003e. This update fixes several important vulnerabilities.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"at-commands\"\u003eat Commands\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe at commands (at, atrm, batch, atq, and atrun) allow a user to specify commands be run at a later time. That\u0026rsquo;s not the inherint bad thing. Being able to schedule things on a whim without using cron is good because it\u0026rsquo;s a one time deal. Want to run permissions repair in an hour while you\u0026rsquo;re on lunch, but afraid you\u0026rsquo;ll forget to initiate it later? Use the at command.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X Security Update 2005-001"},{"content":"Now you can\u0026rsquo;t. I read this out of CNN:\nDuring the committee hearings, Boxer said the Bush administration had changed its rationale for the Iraq war from eradicating weapons of mass destruction after no such weapons were found.\nIn response, Rice asked Boxer to “refrain from impugning my integrity.”\nThat sounds pretty damning for Rice. It also seems very clear cut that she was avoiding a question. However, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem so when we examine the actual question posed (or at least what appears to be what Rice was responding to).\nWhen Senator Voinovich mentioned the issue of tsunami relief, you said — your first words were The tsunami was a wonderful opportunity for us. Now, the tsunami was one of the worst tragedies of our lifetime, one of the worst, and it\u0026rsquo;s going to have a 10-year impact on rebuilding that area. I was very disappointed in your statement. I think you blew the opportunity. You mentioned it as part of one sentence. And I would hope to work with you on this, because children are suffering; we\u0026rsquo;re worried they\u0026rsquo;re going to get in the sex trade. This thing is a disaster — a true natural disaster and a human disaster of great proportions.\nNote, according to the transcript, Rice said no such thing. Also worthy of note is that Boxer didn\u0026rsquo;t so much as interview Rice as lecture her for untold minutes. According to Word, the speech leading up to Rice\u0026rsquo;s initial response was 2,109 words long. My application essay to U-Mass was capped at a fourth of that. Rice\u0026rsquo;s response wasn\u0026rsquo;t limited to that simple phrase either. It was 626 words long.\nIf CNN\u0026rsquo;s misleading, oversimplified version of Boxer and Rice\u0026rsquo;s extended exchange isn\u0026rsquo;t bias, I don\u0026rsquo;t know what is. Before you make any decisions about Rice\u0026rsquo;s answers, read the transcript. It paints quite a different picture than the one that Boxer has been trotting in front of the media.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/25/ever-doubt-bias-in-mainsteam-media/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNow you can\u0026rsquo;t. I read this \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/25/rice.confirmation/index.html?section=cnn_topstories\"\u003eout of CNN\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring the committee hearings, Boxer said the Bush administration had changed its rationale for the Iraq war from eradicating weapons of mass destruction after no such weapons were found.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn response, Rice asked Boxer to “refrain from impugning my integrity.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat sounds pretty damning for Rice. It also seems very clear cut that she was avoiding a question. However, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t seem so when we examine the actual question posed (or at least what appears to be what Rice was responding to).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ever Doubt Bias in Mainsteam Media?"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking about replacing my Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer for some time now. It\u0026rsquo;s a great mouse and has always served me well. However, considering it was a gift from my ex, it carries some emotional discomfort with it. Besides, it only has five buttons and is wired. Wired peripherals are soo 2003.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve done so well with Microsoft mice thus I thought I\u0026rsquo;d continue to throw business their way. I looked at the Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 in the “Night Vision” color. I found it listed at Buy.com for less than $20. Kick in a mail-in rebate and a store coupon and the price was $12. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t afford to not get this mouse. Sadly, it seems that the mouse has been discontinued by Microsoft, catching nearly every retailer carrying the mouse off guard. Nearly every retailer I visited showed the mouse as in stock, but in the several days following my order, all of them marked the mouse as discontinued.\nSo much for that.\nI expanded my search. I included Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s main competition in the mouse market, Logitech. The unfortunate lack of Mac support of their Bluetooth MX 900 mouse immediately ruled it out. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a problem localized to Logitech. Microsoft also doesn\u0026rsquo;t support their Bluetooth Intellimouse Explorer on Macs either. The laser using MX 1000 mouse really caught my eye. Marketed (and verified through several review sites) as the most accurately tracking mouse ever, I was drawn in. It featured a laser instead of an LED for tracking and a tilt-wheel (one of the features on the Microsoft mouse that seemed really enticing).\nI had to have it. Dana heard me go on and on about it in my typical geeky awe. However, at a suggested retail price of $80, it\u0026rsquo;s not only considered the best mice out there, it\u0026rsquo;s also the most expensive. The price started dipping down to $70 at many retailers. Just recently it\u0026rsquo;s hovered a little above $60. When Staples offered it for $60, I pounced. I combined that price with a $15 off $75 purchase and $15 worth of DVD-Rs and cases to get the mouse plus $15 of stuff for $60. I pulled the trigger on the sale.\nSo now I wait for the mouse to arrive. Staples is telling me that it should arrive today via UPS. You can expect a review shortly thereafter if it does.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/25/getting-a-fancy-new-mouse/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been thinking about replacing my \u003ca href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=003\"\u003eMicrosoft Intellimouse Explorer\u003c/a\u003e for some time now. It\u0026rsquo;s a great mouse and has always served me well. However, considering it was a gift from my ex, it carries some emotional discomfort with it. Besides, it only has five buttons and is wired. Wired peripherals are soo 2003.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve done so well with Microsoft mice thus I thought I\u0026rsquo;d continue to throw business their way. I looked at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=002\"\u003eWireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0\u003c/a\u003e in the “Night Vision” color. I found it listed at \u003ca href=\"http://www.buy.com\"\u003eBuy.com\u003c/a\u003e for less than $20. Kick in a mail-in rebate and a store coupon and the price was $12. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t afford to not get this mouse. Sadly, it seems that the mouse has been discontinued by Microsoft, catching nearly every retailer carrying the mouse off guard. Nearly every retailer I visited showed the mouse as in stock, but in the several days following my order, all of them marked the mouse as discontinued.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Getting a Fancy New Mouse"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;ve all been waiting for an update from yours truly to make sure I survived the blizzard. I have.\nI spent a good portion of the day cleaning several feet of snow off our deck. Sounds easy enough, but it\u0026rsquo;s far more involved than it seems. First, I had to use the regular scoop shovel to make a little path and level the snow down enough to use the wide push shovel. Then as mother was using that, I had to try to level down the rest of the deck. After a couple hours of that, the deck is almost finished.\nOn to the car and an almost equal ordeal (stupid 2 car garage and having no space for my car). At least it gave me motivation to put the new registration sticker on my license plate.\nThen of course it\u0026rsquo;s time to rake snow off the roof right back onto the deck. Argh. Pete and Repeat were on a boat. Pete fell off. Who\u0026rsquo;s left?\nGood news is that I got to have some soup for lunch and dinner is my absolute favorite, Split Pea Soup. Yeah, I like soup. Chowder too. Anything wet actually.\nSo I\u0026rsquo;m alive. And Jeremy, if you\u0026rsquo;re reading this, I can\u0026rsquo;t imagine how jealous you are.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/23/heart-of-the-blizzard/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;ve all been waiting for an update from yours truly to make sure I survived the blizzard. I have.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI spent a good portion of the day cleaning several feet of snow off our deck. Sounds easy enough, but it\u0026rsquo;s far more involved than it seems. First, I had to use the regular scoop shovel to make a little path and level the snow down enough to use the wide push shovel. Then as mother was using that, I had to try to level down the rest of the deck. After a couple hours of that, the deck is almost finished.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Heart of the Blizzard"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s tough for Mac software and hardware developers to make announcements at events like Macworld Expos. The all encompassing Stevenote will always overshadow them. Some of the more overlooked announcements this year are:\nElgato and ATi teaming up for the EyeTV Wonder: Finally a lag-free external TV device for Mac. People can finally play their Playstation 2 and other consoles on their iMac (or any USB 2.0 capable Mac). While I can\u0026rsquo;t live without my original USB EyeTV, the lag made it useless for much other than TV watching (or maybe VHS tape digitizing). This is huge. Imagine a Mac mini coupled with a nice LCD monitor, one of these bad boys, and your game console of choice. You have a tiny, modular media center. Elgato EyeTV 500 adds digital cable support: My primary concern about moving up to digital cable when I finally get my own place (damn down payment takes too long to build up) was that I couldn\u0026rsquo;t use my EyeTV to record the enhanced content and in order to enjoy it, I\u0026rsquo;d either have to actually be watching when the show was on (god forbid) or shell out the money for the cable company\u0026rsquo;s DVR. That\u0026rsquo;s no longer a concern. Unencrypted digital cable stations can be watched and recorded with this. Cool! Elgato intros EyeConnect streaming software: Last Elgato plug, I swear. This software lets you use standard UPnP AV hardware devices to view your content. You can watch your movies, listen to your music, look at your pictures, EyeTV recordings, whatever! Elgato already has their Eyehome product to fill this niche, but now you can get or use your existing device (such as D-Link\u0026rsquo;s) to look at this media on your TV. MacMice intros lots of new products: This infamous company seems to have finally come into its own. They now offer such distinctive products as a bluetooth trackball. MacBU reaffirms Mac support: Mostly expected, but it\u0026rsquo;s still good to hear. Griffin shows BlueTrip, Filewave: iPod music streamed via Bluetooth to your home stereo? How cool. Is it $150 worth of cool? I don\u0026rsquo;t think so. However, that all pales in comparison to Bare Bones software‘s announcement.\nFreedom of… Text? First, a bit of history. BBEdit has long been the premier text editor for Mac. Easy to learn, extensible, and powerful, it caught like wildfire. However, at $200, it\u0026rsquo;s a bit hefty for most people. Bare Bones solution was to create a stripped down, free version called, appropriately, BBEdit Lite.\nSide note: BBEdit is a text editor. One of the more common initial reaction is “you can\u0026rsquo;t even make text bold”. That\u0026rsquo;s what word processors are for. They manipulate text formatting primarily. Text editors are for editing text only, with powerful manipulation features not present in a word processor. It also makes them ideal for programming.\nThey made the mistake of making it a little too powerful though. It had more than enough features for some of the audience that they hoped to buy the full version never did. They discontinued it and introduced TextWrangler. It added new features previously unseen in Lite. However, it cost $50. That was still far too steep for most of BBEdit Lite users. Suddenly, the market for text editors had opened up (in the low end). Bare Bones no longer had a lock on text editors. The result was SubEthaEdit, Smultron, and TextMate.\nThe BBEdit Lite to TextWrangler transition left customers with a bad taste in their mouths, resulting in large competition in the inexpensive text editor market. As of Macworld SF and the release of TextWrangler 2.0, TextWrangler was made freeware. They even gave paying customers their money back. Bare Bones gave [their reasoning for the move].\nSo why give away an otherwise successful product after just releasing a major update? Bare Bones Software said they wanted to raise the bar for other developers thinking of making a text editor.\n“These overnight text editors don\u0026rsquo;t reflect well on the genre or the platform,” Bare Bones Software President Rich Siegel, told MacCentral. “We are raising the bar, elevating the standard.”\nVery altruistic. It sounds good, but I don\u0026rsquo;t think that\u0026rsquo;s really the reason. If it was, they wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have made it $49 to begin with. I submit that sales of TextWrangler began to dwindle and that was probably the motivating factor in Bare Bones decision to make it free. That seems to contradict all logic. After all, even though sales were small, Bare Bones was still making money in. By making it free, the make nothing. By giving the money back, they actually lose money. What\u0026rsquo;s more important is the role that a free or cheap scaled down text editor plays in selling the bigger, much more expensive BBEdit.\nLike a crack dealer, Bare Bones offers up something at first for free to get you hooked. Letting people use TextWrangler will not only give them a prediliction for Bare Bones\u0026rsquo; software, but adapt their work habits to the way in which it works, making it harder for users to adapt to other text editors. The natural concern is that what if users figure out that all they need is TextWrangler. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a real concern because such casual users are unlikely to be willing to pay anything anyway, as Bare Bones found out through the mass exodus to other products. In this case, beggers can be choosers.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong. I love my copy of BBEdit (and I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t mind working for them either). However, this move was just as much for Bare Bones as it was for the consumer. Probably more so. However, because of the nature of the business, we all make out as consumers. If you\u0026rsquo;re a Mac user, I suggest you head on over to the download page and get a copy even if you can\u0026rsquo;t think of a possible use. You\u0026rsquo;ll find a use eventually. Maybe you\u0026rsquo;ll want to edit a web page. Maybe you\u0026rsquo;ll need to peek into the contents of a file to see what\u0026rsquo;s inside. Play with it. If you already have something you know you can use it for, get it now. The recent free alternatives are great, but they hardly hold a candle to TextWrangler and its features.\nYou may have gotten all caught up in Apple\u0026rsquo;s announcements, but this is something you can have now and for free.\nAddendum: They did get some recognition.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/18/overlooking-textwrangler/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s tough for Mac software and hardware developers to make announcements at events like Macworld Expos. The all encompassing \u003cem\u003eStevenote\u003c/em\u003e will always overshadow them. Some of the more overlooked announcements this year are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/11/eyetvwonder/index.php\"\u003eElgato and ATi teaming up for the EyeTV Wonder\u003c/a\u003e: Finally a lag-free external TV device for Mac. People can finally play their Playstation 2 and other consoles on their iMac (or any USB 2.0 capable Mac). While I can\u0026rsquo;t live without my original USB EyeTV, the lag made it useless for much other than TV watching (or maybe VHS tape digitizing). This is huge. Imagine a Mac mini coupled with a nice LCD monitor, one of these bad boys, and your game console of choice. You have a tiny, modular media center.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/11/eyetv500/index.php\"\u003eElgato EyeTV 500 adds digital cable support\u003c/a\u003e: My primary concern about moving up to digital cable when I finally get my own place (damn down payment takes too long to build up) was that I couldn\u0026rsquo;t use my EyeTV to record the enhanced content and in order to enjoy it, I\u0026rsquo;d either have to actually be watching when the show was on (god forbid) or shell out the money for the cable company\u0026rsquo;s DVR. That\u0026rsquo;s no longer a concern. Unencrypted digital cable stations can be watched and recorded with this. Cool!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/11/eyeconnect/index.php\"\u003eElgato intros EyeConnect streaming software\u003c/a\u003e: Last \u003ca href=\"http://www.eglato.com\"\u003eElgato\u003c/a\u003e plug, I swear. This software lets you use standard UPnP AV hardware devices to view your content. You can watch your movies, listen to your music, look at your pictures, EyeTV recordings, whatever! Elgato already has their Eyehome product to fill this niche, but now you can get or use your existing device (such as D-Link\u0026rsquo;s) to look at this media on your TV.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/07/macmice/index.php\"\u003eMacMice intros lots of new products\u003c/a\u003e: This infamous company seems to have finally come into its own. They now offer such distinctive products as a bluetooth trackball.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/11/microsoft/index.php\"\u003eMacBU reaffirms Mac support\u003c/a\u003e: Mostly expected, but it\u0026rsquo;s still good to hear.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/12/bluetripfirewave/index.php\"\u003eGriffin shows BlueTrip, Filewave\u003c/a\u003e: iPod music streamed via Bluetooth to your home stereo? How cool. Is it $150 worth of cool? I don\u0026rsquo;t think so.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, that all pales in comparison to \u003ca href=\"http://www.barebones.com\"\u003eBare Bones software\u003c/a\u003e‘s announcement.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Overlooking TextWrangler"},{"content":"Seeing as there are only two games next week, I think I can pick them now.\nNew England vs. Pittsburgh Atlanta vs. Philadelphia Atlanta looked really strong and I think their run game may destroy the Eagles. Pittsburgh simply didn\u0026rsquo;t look that good against the Jets (who would have won save for two missed kicks).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/17/football-picks-playoffs-week-3/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSeeing as there are only two games next week, I think I can pick them now.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Pittsburgh\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Philadelphia\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAtlanta looked really strong and I think their run game may destroy the Eagles. Pittsburgh simply didn\u0026rsquo;t look that good against the Jets (who would have won save for two missed kicks).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Playoffs Week 3"},{"content":"You can suck on that Vanderjagt!\nWho\u0026rsquo;s up for a road-trip to his house to rub it in?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/16/go-patriots/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYou can suck on that Vanderjagt!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWho\u0026rsquo;s up for a road-trip to his house to rub it in?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Go Patriots!"},{"content":"The Jets:\nS-U-C-K\nSUCK!\nSUCK!\nSUCK!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/15/jets-vs.-steelers/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe Jets:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eS-U-C-K\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSUCK!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSUCK!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSUCK!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Jets vs. Steelers"},{"content":"Last week my picks were poor and the only one I got right was the one I was hoping would be wrong.\nNY Jets vs. Pittsburgh St. Louis vs. Atlanta Minnesota vs. Philadelphia Indianapolis vs. New England 8-8 teams should not make it beyond the second week.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/14/football-picks-playoffs-week-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLast week my picks were poor and the only one I got right was the one I was hoping would be wrong.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Jets vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSt. Louis vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMinnesota vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndianapolis vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e8-8 teams should not make it beyond the second week.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Playoffs Week 2"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s but a few days since Apple released the Mac mini and we already have a product from another cool company with a similar (ok, exactly the same) name. Google has released the Google Mini.\nBefore you plunk down $4,995 to get one of these neat blue boxes, you have to know that this isn\u0026rsquo;t a consumer device. Rather, it\u0026rsquo;s a server to index a business\u0026rsquo;s documents and facilitate searches of those documents.\nThe Google Mini can provide search for up to 50,000 documents, and it supports over 220 different file types. The price includes 1 year of full customer support, software updates, and replacement coverage.\nIf you still want one, you can get it off their online store. The store actually has some cool stuff for consumers like Google and Blogger branded clothes and even stress goo!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/13/mac-mini-meet-google-mini/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s but a few days since Apple released the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macmini/\"\u003eMac mini\u003c/a\u003e and we already have a product from another cool company with a similar (ok, exactly the same) name. Google has \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/01/honey-we-shrunk-google.html\"\u003ereleased the Google Mini\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore you plunk down $4,995 to get one of these neat blue boxes, you have to know that this isn\u0026rsquo;t a consumer device. Rather, it\u0026rsquo;s a server to index a business\u0026rsquo;s documents and facilitate searches of those documents.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac mini, Meet Google Mini"},{"content":"Michael wrote to me:\nAny idea how OSX runs on the 256 MB of ram model? I’ve heard arguments go both ways. What about Panther?\nMichael is of course asking about the new Mac mini. He\u0026rsquo;s considering one as he describes in his blog entry:\nI\u0026rsquo;m seriously considering purchasing the new Mac-Mini. Ultimately I am in Apple\u0026rsquo;s target demographic of devout PC users who are considering in dabbling in Macs but are standoffish about the price of Macs.\nThis is going to become a common series of questions, so I think answering them publicly could be helpful.\nHow much RAM is necessary for OS X to run well? The short answer is 512 MB. You can get away with 256 MB for very light computing, but somewhat experienced computer users will quickly begin to feel some pain as it wouldn't take too much to force the computer into using virtual memory. I personally have 1.25 GB of RAM in both my Powermac G4 and my Powerbook G4. However, given the apparent Apple authorized technician requirement for installation of RAM and the rather sizable cost for the 1 GB RAM stick from them, I'd recommend against anything more than 512 MB. What about Panther? I'm going to assume Michael meant [Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4)](http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/) here. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther is already the default, included OS on all Mac mini's. History has set up a pattern of no upgrade-pricing, meaning full price for every upgrade. The full price of OS X thus far has been $129. This means that unless one were to wait until the day that Tiger was released, they're likely to shell out that money to get the latest and greatest (and Tiger looks spectacular, making the decision harder). A formal release date still hasn't been set. All that is known is \u0026amp;#8220;first half of 2005\u0026amp;#8221; which could mean June, which is potentially a very long wait. If you're willing to wait, you could save $129, but I wouldn't blame you if you can't (I know I couldn't). ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/12/how-much-ram/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.writehard.blogspot.com/\"\u003eMichael\u003c/a\u003e wrote to me:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAny idea how OSX runs on the 256 MB of ram model? I’ve heard arguments go both ways. What about Panther?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMichael is of course asking about the new \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macmini/\"\u003eMac mini\u003c/a\u003e. He\u0026rsquo;s considering one as he describes in \u003ca href=\"http://writehard.blogspot.com/2005/01/im-seriously-considering-purchasing.html\"\u003ehis blog entry\u003c/a\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m seriously considering purchasing the new Mac-Mini. Ultimately I am in Apple\u0026rsquo;s target demographic of devout PC users who are considering in dabbling in Macs but are standoffish about the price of Macs.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How much RAM?"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m going to review the new Apple product announcements inwhat I consider increasing importance.\niLife \u0026lsquo;05 To me, this is pretty incremental. I don\u0026rsquo;t use anything in iLife (sans the free iTunes and iPhoto). Garageband fans will be overjoyed with a full 8 tracks to manipulate. At $79, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure I\u0026rsquo;ll be getting it though. I don\u0026rsquo;t need the new version of iPhoto that badly.\niWork Apple finally tried to update AppleWorks for the new millenium with iWork ($79). Apparently though, they only had two tickets for the trip, taking along a word processor (Pages) and a slideshow app (Keynote). Spreadsheets and database manipulation were sadly left at the station with their heads hanging dejectedly. Pages looks really cool, like a publishing application more than a wordprocessor. However, if I\u0026rsquo;m going to have an office suite, I want a speadsheet application. End of story.\niPod shuffle At first, I really disliked the iPod shuffle. There\u0026rsquo;s no screen and very limited storage. However, at $99 (for 512 MB, 1GB for $149), it\u0026rsquo;s got that small price feel to it. It\u0026rsquo;s almost to the point of an impulse buy. It\u0026rsquo;s certainly ideal for running or working out because it can\u0026rsquo;t skip and one generally doesn\u0026rsquo;t stare at the screen during those activities. What began to sell it to me was that it was basically the size of a USB thumb drive. In fact, it can be used as one. Combine that with the fact that my 512 MB thumb drive cost a little less than $200 when I got it, these things are pretty useful and a value. Would I give up my iPod for one of these? Hell no. For some people though, it might be just the ticket. I\u0026rsquo;d seriously consider getting one if I needed a new thumb drive.\nMac mini Oooooh. The first ever sub $500 Mac. Overall, I like it. The specs are:\n1.25/1.42 GHz G4 processor 256 MB RAM Radeon 9200 with 32 MB VRAM 40/80 GB hard drive Firewire 400 port Two USB 2.0 ports DVI port (with VGA adapter) 10/100BASE-T Ethernet 56k modem Headphone port Optional Airport Extreme and Bluetooth Those specs are a perfect fit for my father (who is still using a rapidly aging Powermac 7600 with an upgrade card). Well, the RAM I\u0026rsquo;d have to bump up to at least 512 MB. The problem is, the one slot it seems to have isn\u0026rsquo;t user accessible. The details on this aren\u0026rsquo;t clear yet, but I\u0026rsquo;m hoping that it won\u0026rsquo;t actually require an Apple tech installation. It\u0026rsquo;s a nice low cost machine for those that may still have a monitor, keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse aren\u0026rsquo;t even included (which is fine by me as I\u0026rsquo;d rather use my iceKey and Intellimouse Explorer anyway). It seems like the perfect computer to draw in some more Windows users. We\u0026rsquo;ll just have to wait and see how it does.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/12/expo-product-thoughts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m going to review the new Apple product announcements inwhat I consider increasing importance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"ilife-05\"\u003eiLife \u0026lsquo;05\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo me, this is pretty incremental. I don\u0026rsquo;t use anything in \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ilife/\"\u003eiLife\u003c/a\u003e (sans the free iTunes and iPhoto). Garageband fans will be overjoyed with a full 8 tracks to manipulate. At $79, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure I\u0026rsquo;ll be getting it though. I don\u0026rsquo;t need the new version of iPhoto that badly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"iwork\"\u003eiWork\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApple finally tried to update AppleWorks for the new millenium with \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/\"\u003eiWork\u003c/a\u003e ($79). Apparently though, they only had two tickets for the trip, taking along a word processor (\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/\"\u003ePages\u003c/a\u003e) and a slideshow app (\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/\"\u003eKeynote\u003c/a\u003e). Spreadsheets and database manipulation were sadly left at the station with their heads hanging dejectedly. Pages looks really cool, like a publishing application more than a wordprocessor. However, if I\u0026rsquo;m going to have an office suite, I want a speadsheet application. End of story.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Expo Product Thoughts"},{"content":"New from the expo:\nThe Mac mini The iPod shuffle iWork iLife \u0026lsquo;05 The other announcements aren\u0026rsquo;t terribly exciting and the lack of a Tiger release date was disappointing. More tonight.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/11/expo-announcements/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNew from the expo:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macmini/\"\u003eThe Mac mini\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/\"\u003eThe iPod shuffle\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/iwork/\"\u003eiWork\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ilife/\"\u003eiLife \u0026lsquo;05\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe other announcements aren\u0026rsquo;t terribly exciting and the lack of a Tiger release date was disappointing. More tonight.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Expo Announcements"},{"content":"The Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote is less than 4 hours away. The whole Mac community is waiting with baited breath. Personally, I want to find out more about Tiger. In particular, a release date more specific than “first half of 2005” and hopefully sooner rather than later.\nWe also get to find out which rumors were worth something. The current most popular rumors are:\niWork Apple\u0026rsquo;s new office suite flash-based iPod headless iMac the $500 Mac Mac OS X Tiger info and release date Powerbook updates with slightly faster processors I still don\u0026rsquo;t get the head-popping excitement being generated by the flash-based iPod. Shortly after the keynote is done, I\u0026rsquo;ll do a quick summary. Later tonight, I\u0026rsquo;ll do my little rant on what all the news will mean for the future.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/11/can-you-feel-it/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote is less than 4 hours away. The whole Mac community is waiting with baited breath. Personally, I want to find out more about Tiger. In particular, a release date more specific than “first half of 2005” and hopefully sooner rather than later.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe also get to find out which rumors were worth something. The current most popular rumors are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eiWork\u003c/em\u003e Apple\u0026rsquo;s new office suite\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eflash-based iPod\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eheadless iMac\u003c/em\u003e the $500 Mac\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eMac OS X Tiger\u003c/em\u003e info and release date\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003ePowerbook updates\u003c/em\u003e with slightly faster processors\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI still don\u0026rsquo;t get the head-popping excitement being generated by the flash-based iPod. Shortly after the keynote is done, I\u0026rsquo;ll do a quick summary. Later tonight, I\u0026rsquo;ll do my little rant on what all the news will mean for the future.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Can you feel it?"},{"content":"I swear I\u0026rsquo;m not getting paid for this. At any rate, Netflix just added two very cool features to their service.\nProfiling The first is profiles. This is going to catch like wildfire. I\u0026rsquo;d wager a guess that most Netflix subscriptions are shared by multiple people. Just think about families, roommates, and couples. The original implementation of Netflix didn\u0026rsquo;t really take this into account. Everyone had to share the same queue, same ratings, and same recommendations. Having the same queue meant constant manipulation so that everyone got their movies instead of just one person. The downfalls of the other two are self-explanatory.\nThe solution was profiles. As the account owner, you set up profiles for all the people that will be using Netflix. You select the highest rated movie they can get (PG for kids is an example). Then you choose how many of the movies out of your current plan they get. In my case, I let one of my three movies be solely for my mother (can you believe such a sweet man is still single ladies?). I still have two that get sent based upon the contents of my queue. I send one of my movies back, another from my queue gets sent out. When my mom sends one back, another from her queue gets sent out. Likewise, our ratings and recommendations are completely separate. I don\u0026rsquo;t think mom would like the Blade movies as much as I did.\nThis feature is saying something about Netflix though. They want you to share plans. They recognized how people would use this service and because of the way it\u0026rsquo;s set up now, they increase the possibility of people getting the larger plans.\nEveryone Needs a Friend The other new feature is friends. Ever wonder how crappy your friends taste in movies was? Now you can know. You simply send an invite through email to one of your real (Netflix using) friends and you instantly have access to all their reviews. They also have access to yours. Neat.\nBandwagon Time One can see Netflix\u0026rsquo;s new business strategy with these two enhancements. They want to maintain and grow their userbase. They maintain their userbase through the friends feature. Users will be more hesitant to switch to something like Blockbuster\u0026rsquo;s service because their friends are on Netflix. Profiles will grow their business. Superficial examination would seem to suggest the opposite. People that would normally join to get their own service may now simply join onto someone else\u0026rsquo;s plan. However, this also means that they won\u0026rsquo;t try Blockbuster\u0026rsquo;s service. They will get another user and based upon already liking Netflix and the friends feature, are likely to keep using it, even when they almost inevitably leave the original plan because they move out. Brilliant.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/10/more-neflix-stuff/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI swear I\u0026rsquo;m not getting paid for this. At any rate, Netflix just added two very cool features to their service.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"profiling\"\u003eProfiling\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first is profiles. This is going to catch like wildfire. I\u0026rsquo;d wager a guess that most Netflix subscriptions are shared by multiple people. Just think about families, roommates, and couples. The original implementation of Netflix didn\u0026rsquo;t really take this into account. Everyone had to share the same queue, same ratings, and same recommendations. Having the same queue meant constant manipulation so that everyone got their movies instead of just one person. The downfalls of the other two are self-explanatory.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"More Neflix Stuff"},{"content":"This weekend, I was downloading some software that was compressed. I have those files automatically open with Stuffit Expander (as is the default on most setups). I noticed though that Stuffit Expander was bouncing over and over… and over… and over again. I assumed it had hung, force quit, and tried opening it again. Same thing occurred. I tried reinstalling Stuffit. It kept doing it. I left it going for a while and eventually it started. I thought that was mighty strange. I was starting to get worried that it was particular to my Powerbook and that I\u0026rsquo;d have to think about reinstalling the OS.\nThen I read today that this was caused by version checking. This was at MacFixit, so due to their draconian members only archive, this won\u0026rsquo;t be available for long. If a Stuffit product has version checking on and none of Allume‘s servers are up or available, it will bounce until all connection attempts time out. That takes a while. Remember how many bounces it took to launch the first OS X version of Internet Explorer on Mac OS X 10.0? That\u0026rsquo;s how long.\nI find that unacceptable. You can avoid this by turning off version checking in the preferences for your Stuffit programs, or type:\ndefaults write com.stuffit.Expander allowVersionChecking -bool NO in the terminal. In fact, I personally recommend turning it off for this reason. It\u0026rsquo;s incredibly poor application design to have the program block during startup for a task like version checking. Save yourself some frustration and time now: turn it off.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/10/fix-slow-stuffit-startups/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis weekend, I was downloading some software that was compressed. I have those files automatically open with Stuffit Expander (as is the default on most setups). I noticed though that Stuffit Expander was bouncing over and over… and over… and over \u003cem\u003eagain\u003c/em\u003e. I assumed it had hung, force quit, and tried opening it again. Same thing occurred. I tried reinstalling Stuffit. It kept doing it. I left it going for a while and eventually it started. I thought that was mighty strange. I was starting to get worried that it was particular to my Powerbook and that I\u0026rsquo;d have to think about reinstalling the OS.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fix Slow Stuffit Startups"},{"content":"No Pats this week. Very sad.\nSt. Louis vs. Seattle NY Jets vs. San Diego Denver vs. Indianapolis Minnesota vs. Green Bay I picked Indy, but after the shameful way that they threw the last game of their season so they could play Denver, I hope Denver whoops them. Irony is delicious.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/08/football-picks-playoffs-week-1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNo Pats this week. Very sad.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSt. Louis vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Jets vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDenver vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMinnesota vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI picked Indy, but after the shameful way that they threw the last game of their season so they could play Denver, I hope Denver whoops them. Irony is delicious.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Playoffs Week 1"},{"content":"The infamous company MacMice has announced a new product called “The Ball”. I\u0026rsquo;ll admit, it sounds a little dirty to me (and would probably illicit a snicker or two from less mature audiences).\nIt follows its brother product, “The Mouse”, not in nomenclature, but in appearance. It\u0026rsquo;ll fit in with your other Mac peripherals. What makes this trackball cool though is the fact that it\u0026rsquo;s Bluetooth. In fact, it\u0026rsquo;s the first Bluetooth trackball I\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen. That alone makes it pretty cool. However, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure that it\u0026rsquo;s $90 worth of cool. I never really understood the practicality of wireless trackballs either, so this isn\u0026rsquo;t something I\u0026rsquo;m likely to get.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/07/a-bluetooth-trackball/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003einfamous\u003c/em\u003e company MacMice has announced \u003ca href=\"http://www.dvforge.com/theball.shtml\"\u003ea new product\u003c/a\u003e called “The Ball”. I\u0026rsquo;ll admit, it sounds a little dirty to me (and would probably illicit a snicker or two from less mature audiences).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt follows its brother product, “The Mouse”, not in nomenclature, but in appearance. It\u0026rsquo;ll fit in with your other Mac peripherals. What makes this trackball cool though is the fact that it\u0026rsquo;s Bluetooth. In fact, it\u0026rsquo;s the first Bluetooth trackball I\u0026rsquo;ve ever seen. That alone makes it pretty cool. However, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure that it\u0026rsquo;s $90 worth of cool. I never really understood the practicality of wireless trackballs either, so this isn\u0026rsquo;t something I\u0026rsquo;m likely to get.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Bluetooth Trackball"},{"content":"All I can say is finally. Paul Beard brings us the news that CNN has finally joined the rest of modern online society and started offering their content in RSS feeds. It works great. I find it particularly useful because although the New York Times offers feeds, they\u0026rsquo;re woefully inadequate. The Front Page feed is only six long. That means for most people that unless they continually check their RSS reader, stories are likely to slide off the feed before you get a chance to look at them. Such a fast moving page needs more history in the feed. CNN\u0026rsquo;s is much longer and I honestly prefer their reporting.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re lazy and you don\u0026rsquo;t want to go to Paul\u0026rsquo;s site for the feeds, here they are:\nCNN Top Stories: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_topstories.rss CNN Most Popular: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_mostpopular.rss Money Top Stories: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_topstories.rss Money Most Popular: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/money_mostpopular.rss Sports Illustrated Top Stories: http://rss.cnn.com/rss/si_topstories.rss Update: CNN has a page dedicated to their RSS support.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/07/cnn-goes-rss/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll I can say is finally. \u003ca href=\"http://www.paulbeard.org/wordpress/index.php?p=2430\"\u003ePaul Beard\u003c/a\u003e brings us the news that CNN has finally joined the rest of modern online society and started offering their content in RSS feeds. It works great. I find it particularly useful because although the New York Times \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/index.html\"\u003eoffers feeds\u003c/a\u003e, they\u0026rsquo;re woefully inadequate. The Front Page feed is only six long. That means for most people that unless they continually check their RSS reader, stories are likely to slide off the feed before you get a chance to look at them. Such a fast moving page needs more history in the feed. CNN\u0026rsquo;s is much longer and I honestly prefer their reporting.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"CNN Goes RSS"},{"content":"LiveJournal, or more aptly its parent company, Danga, was bought by Six Apart. For those not entrenched in the blogging community and its politics, Six Apart makes Movable Type, the most popular blogging software out there, and TypePad, one of the most popular paid blogging services.\nSix Apart essentially sets the standard for what a blog is, and what its features should be. In particular, Movable Type supports Trackbacks which allow blogs to reference entries in other blogs. Most major blogging systems support them (including my software, WordPress).\nWhy should anyone care? Because it could shape the future of the web as we know it. There\u0026rsquo;s already growing concern that Trackbacks have a huge effect upon Google because of the large amount of links that it uses (which is one of Google\u0026rsquo;s ways of ordering search results). One of Six Apart\u0026rsquo;s top priorities is to add Trackbacks to LiveJournal (bringing it up to par with other web log systems).\nDespite LiveJournal being open source, nearly all the features and work being put into it were largely trivial. Things like mood indicators and current song information were the bread and butter of LiveJournal. That mostly reflected the desires of its user base, which isn\u0026rsquo;t all that technical (I\u0026rsquo;m putting this nicely). It has a theme system that\u0026rsquo;s easy, but totally inflexible. It didn\u0026rsquo;t do any really neat things, just stuff that would entertain users.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s going to change I suspect. LiveJournal may start supporting text filters like Markdown. It will have Trackbacks. Hopefully they\u0026rsquo;ll update their editing interfaces. Currently LiveJournal only supports the Blogger editing interface, which is limited, to say the very least. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t even support titles, so users of software such as MarsEdit need to use a custom tag in the body of their post in order to set one.\nStandard blogging features combined with LiveJournal\u0026rsquo;s huge user base will make Six Apart an even larger force than it already was.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/06/livejournal-belongs-to-six-apart/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com\"\u003eLiveJournal\u003c/a\u003e, or more aptly its parent company, \u003ca href=\"http://www.danga.com\"\u003eDanga\u003c/a\u003e, was \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com/users/news/82926.html\"\u003ebought\u003c/a\u003e by \u003ca href=\"http://www.sixapart.com\"\u003eSix Apart\u003c/a\u003e. For those not entrenched in the blogging community and its politics, Six Apart makes \u003ca href=\"http://www.movabletype.org\"\u003eMovable Type\u003c/a\u003e, the most popular blogging software out there, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.typepad.com\"\u003eTypePad\u003c/a\u003e, one of the most popular paid blogging services.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix Apart essentially sets the standard for what a blog is, and what its features should be. In particular, Movable Type supports \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback\"\u003eTrackbacks\u003c/a\u003e which allow blogs to reference entries in other blogs. Most major blogging systems support them (including my software, \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"LiveJournal Belongs to Six Apart"},{"content":"A large part of living in New England is learning to either love (or at least tolerate) snow. Normally, I\u0026rsquo;m thrilled by it. I\u0026rsquo;m not a skier; I just like the way it looks. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s fun to wad up and throw at your friend as he stammers out a greeting to a pretty girl. That or stick it in the tailpipe of the car that he\u0026rsquo;s brushing off. Best of all, going out in your friends Ford Taurus as he does donuts and makes his car smell like an old boat.\nBut I digress. It\u0026rsquo;s not fun when it warms up and rains on that snow, turning it into a substance resembling soaked, wadded up paper towels. Then, as you desperately try to clear your driveway with the little plastic shovel that you thought would be “good enough” you curse yourself for being a cheapskate. This is shortly followed by a loud crack, which of course is your only shovel breaking. Rather than pitifully trying to scoop with your hands, you head inside. You tell yourself that the warm temperature and wet rain will dissolve the rest of it.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s a lie of course you find out the next morning as you discover not only is the snow still there, but it\u0026rsquo;s covered in a tough layer of ice that taunts you as you try to pound and break it so you can almost clear your car off. You give up on your roof, becoming “that guy”. Yes, that guy that shedding snow on the highway. Huge chunks of ice fly off, hurtling straight back into the windshield of the guy behind you.\nYay New England.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/06/theres-no-business-like-snow-business/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA large part of living in New England is learning to either love (or at least tolerate) snow. Normally, I\u0026rsquo;m thrilled by it. I\u0026rsquo;m not a skier; I just like the way it looks. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s fun to wad up and throw at your friend as he stammers out a greeting to a pretty girl. That or stick it in the tailpipe of the car that he\u0026rsquo;s brushing off. Best of all, going out in your friends Ford Taurus as he does donuts and makes his car smell like an old boat.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"There's No Business like Snow Business"},{"content":"The stability and speed of Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) built a strong userbase that continues to this day (even with 10.4 Tiger right around the corner). It haunts developers, keeping them from using neat tools like Cocoa bindings which are present in Panther but not Jaguar. It also haunts its users with old issues that many of us have simply forgotten.\nA poster in the Macworld forums recently posted that he mistyped his password and much to his surprise, it was accepted and login continued like normal. Disturbing, no? Even more troubling was that not all passwords were accepted either. This problem was a result of an old authentication mechanism, which used at maximum, 8 characters. But OS X (and more importantly, Keychain) supported longer passwords. The (rather half-assed) solution was to simply truncate the password for comparison. In other words, if my password was areallylongpassword, then only areallyl was necessary for login. Additionally, input passwords were also truncated (therefore making this normally completely transparent for the user). That meant you could tack on extra chracters and it would be acceptable. So, all of the following would work:\nareallyl areallylongpassword areallylippykid areallyl1234 Your once long, strong password is weakened without your knowledge. Thankfully, car1son points out that Keychain uses the full password, so it won\u0026rsquo;t be unlocked automatically and that information is kept relatively safe. Panther fixed all this, but Apple never made a patch for Jaguar (which likely would require substantial changes). One can still make a pretty tough password with only 8 characters, so Jaguar users should do so if not already aware.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/04/an-old-truncation-issue-lives-on/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe stability and speed of Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) built a strong userbase that continues to this day (even with 10.4 Tiger right around the corner). It haunts developers, keeping them from using neat tools like \u003ca href=\"http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000080.php\"\u003eCocoa bindings\u003c/a\u003e which are present in Panther but not Jaguar. It also haunts its users with old issues that many of us have simply forgotten.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA poster in the Macworld forums recently posted that he mistyped his password and much to his surprise, it was accepted and login continued like normal. Disturbing, no? Even more troubling was that not all passwords were accepted either. This problem was a result of an old authentication mechanism, which used at maximum, 8 characters. But OS X (and more importantly, Keychain) supported longer passwords. The (rather half-assed) solution was to simply truncate the password for comparison. In other words, if my password was \u003cem\u003eareallylongpassword\u003c/em\u003e, then only \u003cem\u003eareallyl\u003c/em\u003e was necessary for login. Additionally, input passwords were also truncated (therefore making this normally completely transparent for the user). That meant you could tack on extra chracters and it would be acceptable. So, all of the following would work:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Old Truncation Issue Lives On"},{"content":"As we draw close to Macworld Expo San Francisco, the number of rumors generally increases. The reason is multiple fold. First, supposedly more leaks happen closer to the expo. Second, people\u0026rsquo;s desire for rumors increases exponentially. Finally, it\u0026rsquo;s a quick and easy way to draw traffic as a Mac based website. Yes, I\u0026rsquo;m a traffic whore too, so let\u0026rsquo;s review\nFlash-based iPod For almost as long as the iPod has been around, this has been the popular rumor. And why not? It seems like a natural progression. Flash memory based MP3 players tend to be smaller and cheaper than hard drive based players. The ridiculous, respect-less rumor wells throw caution to the wind, ignoring hard real analysis (done by such people as John Gruber). It combines tiny size (as if the iPod mini\u0026rsquo;s compact flash hard drive is bloating it terribly and flash memory is that much small) and low costs (as flash memory is so cheap, still hundreds of dollars for any significant size) to make for a some people\u0026rsquo;s wet dreams. Ignore the fact that the iPod\u0026rsquo;s main attraction is having your entire music collection in your pocket. We\u0026rsquo;ve got a rumor to foist upon the public and get attention. To make the situation worse, iPod sites such as iPodlounge are encouraging the rumor with iPod flash Concepts contest. Dangle some expensive headphones in front of work starved artists and watch as you get hundreds of designs that are either physically impossible or hopelessly stupid. Yeesh.\nThe Headless iMac, or the Rumor that Won\u0026rsquo;t Die Continuing in the tradition of hoping for something that\u0026rsquo;s absurd but what a few want desperately, we have the rumor of the headless iMac. A low cost machine that doesn\u0026rsquo;t come with a monitor (the “head” of the machine), it appeals to those who think that it\u0026rsquo;s the single and only solution to Apple\u0026rsquo;s small market share and cheapskates. To be fair, the latest rumor came out of Think Secret which generally is right. The rumored specs are:\n$500 1.25 GHz G4 Combo drive 40 – 80 GB hard drive 256MB of RAM USB 2.0 FireWire 400 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet 56K V.92 modem AirPort Extreme support But as soon as the rumor hit the streets, the whining started. It\u0026rsquo;s like music… Britney Spears b-side music. It\u0026rsquo;s only a rumor and thus sparked the normal questions/complaints:\nStill too slow Too little RAM Where\u0026rsquo;s the Firewire 800? Why not Gigabit Ethernet? How about an integrated TV tuner? It should have an upgradeable video card. Fuck! No sooner does someone publish a rumor that essentially gives what people have been ranting about for months, if not years than people have to piss all over it. A quick summary as to why these concerns are moronic: It\u0026rsquo;s a low cost machine. There\u0026rsquo;s a reason my \u0026lsquo;97 Cavalier didn\u0026rsquo;t have a GPS. It\u0026rsquo;s not a high end car! Does it make any sense for a low cost (loss leading) computer to have more stuff/better specs than it\u0026rsquo;s more expensive siblings, the eMac and the iMac? No. I\u0026rsquo;m still skepticle of this rumor, but if we are going to buy it, it needs to be bought as is.\niWork A favorite of the rumor since the half-assed adaptation of AppleWorks to OS X has been an updated version. Again, nothing new, except for the name: iWork. Again, Think Secret has thrown its weight behind this rumor, giving it special creedence. The fact that another company originally owning the name iWork has sold it to Apple as reported in Macminute makes this a strong rumor.\nSlow Rumor Expo, Run the Usual Note that none of the rumors above are new (Mac Rumors will likely have a roundup in the coming days). In fact, they all go back several years, which I find rather uninspiring. Where are the shocking rumors? The last minute slipups on Apple\u0026rsquo;s site? What about product revision rumors? What happened to all the Powerbook G5 rumors that were causing us to wet ourselves? I guess I don\u0026rsquo;t have to worry about getting access to this year\u0026rsquo;s keynote video.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/04/when-in-doubt-go-with-the-old-favorites/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs we draw close to \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworldexpo.com/\"\u003eMacworld Expo San Francisco\u003c/a\u003e, the number of rumors generally increases. The reason is multiple fold. First, supposedly more leaks happen closer to the expo. Second, people\u0026rsquo;s desire for rumors increases exponentially. Finally, it\u0026rsquo;s a quick and easy way to draw traffic as a Mac based website. Yes, I\u0026rsquo;m a traffic whore too, so let\u0026rsquo;s review\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"flash-based-ipod\"\u003eFlash-based iPod\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor almost as long as the iPod has been around, this has been the popular rumor. And why not? It seems like a natural progression. Flash memory based MP3 players tend to be smaller and cheaper than hard drive based players. The ridiculous, respect-less rumor wells throw caution to the wind, ignoring hard real analysis (done by such people as \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2004/12/flash_gordon\"\u003eJohn Gruber\u003c/a\u003e). It combines tiny size (as if the iPod mini\u0026rsquo;s compact flash hard drive is bloating it terribly and flash memory is that much small) and low costs (as flash memory is so cheap, still hundreds of dollars for any significant size) to make for a some people\u0026rsquo;s wet dreams. Ignore the fact that the iPod\u0026rsquo;s main attraction is having your entire music collection in your pocket. We\u0026rsquo;ve got a rumor to foist upon the public and get attention. To make the situation worse, iPod sites such as iPodlounge are encouraging the rumor with \u003ca href=\"http://www.igroupmac.org/\"\u003eiPod flash Concepts contest\u003c/a\u003e. Dangle some expensive headphones in front of work starved artists and watch as you get hundreds of designs that are either physically impossible or hopelessly stupid. Yeesh.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"When in Doubt, Go with the Old Favorites"},{"content":"Little known fact about Netflix, they have multiple plans (beyond their $17.99 3 at a time plan). In fact, they also have a 5-at-a-time for $29.99 and a 8-at-a-time for $47.99. Like the normal plan, that also includes unlimited rentals.\nFor the frugal user, they also have a 2-at-a-time plan. However, that comes with a caveat. You only get 4 movies a month total. However, at $11.99 it may still be worth it to some users.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/03/a-netflix-for-everyone/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLittle known fact about \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e, they have multiple plans (beyond their $17.99 3 at a time plan). In fact, they also have a 5-at-a-time for $29.99 and a 8-at-a-time for $47.99. Like the normal plan, that also includes unlimited rentals.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the frugal user, they also have a 2-at-a-time plan. However, that comes with a caveat. You only get 4 movies a month total. However, at $11.99 it may still be worth it to some users.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Netflix for Everyone"},{"content":"Following what could best be described as absolute confusion for its users, the WordPress developers have clarified that WordPress 1.3 will be known as WordPress 1.5 due to extensive changes. It\u0026rsquo;s completely a placebo effect, but I feel a little more comfortable waiting for WordPress 1.5 instead of 1.3. True, it\u0026rsquo;s the same thing ultimately, but I\u0026rsquo;m feeling better.\nIn related news, they\u0026rsquo;ve also released a pre-release version of their upcoming bulletin board software, bbPress. I may just move over to it once a more formal version is released as PHPbb is overkill for what I need (due to extremely low volume).\nAlso, I resolve to post more. Being on vacation has sapped me of all motivation.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2005/01/03/wordpress-1.3-is-now-wordpress-1.5/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing what could best be described as absolute confusion for its users, the WordPress developers have \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org/development/2004/12/version-skip/\"\u003eclarified that WordPress 1.3 will be known as WordPress 1.5\u003c/a\u003e due to extensive changes. It\u0026rsquo;s completely a placebo effect, but I feel a little more comfortable waiting for WordPress 1.5 instead of 1.3. True, it\u0026rsquo;s the same thing ultimately, but I\u0026rsquo;m feeling better.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn related news, they\u0026rsquo;ve also released a pre-release version of their upcoming bulletin board software, \u003ca href=\"http://bbpress.org\"\u003ebbPress\u003c/a\u003e. I may just move over to it once a more formal version is released as PHPbb is overkill for what I need (due to extremely low volume).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WordPress 1.3 is now WordPress 1.5"},{"content":"All the best to you and yours in 2005. Special thoughts go to those affected by the tsunamis.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/31/happy-new-year/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll the best to you and yours in 2005. Special thoughts go to those affected by the tsunamis.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Happy New Year"},{"content":"The last regular season week of this. After doing it this entire season I\u0026rsquo;ve decided something. I have to make some software to do this for me next year. I\u0026rsquo;ll be looking for help from anyone with PHP and MySQL experience (or those with some interest).\nMiami vs. Baltimore Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo New Orleans vs. Carolina Green Bay vs. Chicago Cleveland vs. Houston San Francisco vs. New England Cincinnati vs. Philadelphia NY Jets vs. St. Louis Detroit vs. Tennessee Minnesota vs. Washington Tampa Bay vs. Arizona Atlanta vs. Seattle Indianapolis vs. Denver Jacksonville vs. Oakland Kansas City vs. San Diego Dallas vs. NY Giants ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/30/football-picks-week-17/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe last regular season week of this. After doing it this entire season I\u0026rsquo;ve decided something. I have to make some software to do this for me next year. I\u0026rsquo;ll be looking for help from anyone with PHP and MySQL experience (or those with some interest).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMiami vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Buffalo\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew Orleans vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Chicago\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eHouston\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Francisco vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e vs. St. Louis\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetroit\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tennessee\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Washington\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eArizona\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAtlanta vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Denver\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Oakland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKansas City vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDallas\u003c/strong\u003e vs. NY Giants\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 17"},{"content":"Probably one of the most frustrating aspects of moving from Mac OS 9 or Windows to Mac OS X was the lack of a PDF browser plugin. It can be almost maddening in academic environments such as U-Mass as most assignments and documents aren\u0026rsquo;t published in HTML. They\u0026rsquo;re published in PDF because of the guaranteed formatting and handling of special symbols (such as the formulas that plague a young computer scientist).\nIn fact, it was one of the leading questions in the forums. For a while, the only solution was to feed the file to an external application such as Acrobat Reader (now Adobe Reader) or Preview. This wasn\u0026rsquo;t quite the experience that users were looking for.\nLuckily for all of us, Manfred Schubert stepped in and brought us his PDF plugin. It was free for private and education users. Later versions even brought some of the toolbar options that were part of Adobe\u0026rsquo;s standard plugin. That filled the void and as a community, we forgot that Adobe had seemingly forsaken the platform. That no longer seemed to matter as both this plugin improved and Preview improved as well.\nAdobe suddenly woke up though. Starting with the recent release of Adobe Reader 7 we had a new PDF plugin. For the most part, the fact that the plugin had returned was quiet. In fact, the MacCentral article doesn\u0026rsquo;t even mention this. So, if you spend a lot of your time looking at PDFs on websites, get Adobe Reader 7. You\u0026rsquo;ll finally have all those options that you were missing.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/30/adobe-pdf-plugin-comes-to-mac/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eProbably one of the most frustrating aspects of moving from Mac OS 9 or Windows to Mac OS X was the lack of a PDF browser plugin. It can be almost maddening in academic environments such as U-Mass as most assignments and documents aren\u0026rsquo;t published in HTML. They\u0026rsquo;re published in PDF because of the guaranteed formatting and handling of special symbols (such as the formulas that plague a young computer scientist).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adobe PDF Plugin Comes to Mac"},{"content":"Just two regular season weeks left!\nGreen Bay vs. Minnesota Oakland vs. Kansas City Denver vs. Tennessee NY Giants vs. Cincinnati Chicago vs. Detroit San Diego vs. Indianapolis Houston vs. Jacksonville Atlanta vs. New Orleans Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh New England vs. NY Jets Buffalo vs. San Francisco Carolina vs. Tampa Bay Washington vs. Dallas Arizona vs. Seattle Cleveland vs. Miami Philadelphia vs. St. Louis ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/24/football-picks-week-16/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJust two regular season weeks left!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGreen Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOakland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eKansas City\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tennessee\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Giants vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCincinnati\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChicago vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDetroit\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Diego vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHouston vs. \u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e vs. New Orleans\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaltimore vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. NY Jets\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBuffalo\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Francisco\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tampa Bay\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWashington vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDallas\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eArizona vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eMiami\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. St. Louis\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 16"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been fighting comment spam for a long time now. The majority of those sites are selling prescription drugs to fight erectile disfunction and poker sites. I long for the days when spam was ads for pornography. At least I could get some use out of that. But I digress.\nThese spamming sites have been mostly no name, fly-by-night outfits that don\u0026rsquo;t have a reputation to maintain. They don\u0026rsquo;t care that the public at large hates them. They make some quick profit and then die as a company.\nThis is the reason that you never see these companies being advertised in any other form. That is except DIRECTV. They aren\u0026rsquo;t doing it directly, but an installation partner of theirs has been busy trying to spam my blog for the last couple days. I refuse to post the URL, but for those of you that are curious the middle part of the domain (between www and com) is three words separated by dashes: direct tv online.\nDue to their lack of responsibility in choosing business partners, I will never be ordering anything through them. I\u0026rsquo;m going to recommend that no one I know do so either. I\u0026rsquo;ve never been spammed by a cable company and for that, they get my continued business. DIRECTV are a bunch of scumbags for associating with these scammers. I\u0026rsquo;ve already let them know by sending an email. If you\u0026rsquo;re feeling saucy, you can do the same, or just passively let them know by never subscribing to their service.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/23/directv-is-a-bunch-of-scumbags/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been fighting comment spam for a long time now. The majority of those sites are selling prescription drugs to fight erectile disfunction and poker sites. I long for the days when spam was ads for pornography. At least I could get some use out of that. But I digress.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese spamming sites have been mostly no name, fly-by-night outfits that don\u0026rsquo;t have a reputation to maintain. They don\u0026rsquo;t care that the public at large hates them. They make some quick profit and then die as a company.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"DIRECTV Is a Bunch of Scumbags"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m indecisive about my browser on my Macs (the choice is easy for PCs, Firefox all the way). Pre Safari and Firefox, the choice was easy. Camino (formerly Chimera) was the end all for Mac browsers. Now my choice switches between Firefox and Safari. Firefox is fast most of the time, but after some use seems to slow down. Safari is fairly fast, but tends to have pregnant pauses when connecting to servers (or at least this is what the status bar tells me).\nMaking Firefox More like Safari After fighting it for a long time, I went to Firefox. There were several things that bugged the crap out of me that I made acceptable with the help of some other pieces of software. The first is the lack of bookmark syncing. Safari\u0026rsquo;s implementation is simply so beautiful and transparent that it makes it hard to go back. The other problem was the default widgets that Firefox draws. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t even try to use native buttons, and as such, very boring, ugly, utilitarian buttons are drawn that simply do not fit. Two products mostly solved this for me.\nBookmarks Synchronizer lets you sync your bookmarks via FTP. Kevin Gerich\u0026rsquo;s Pretty Widgets lets you have widgets that look pretty good. This is most easily applied with Firefoxy. However, the bookmarks synchonizer doesn\u0026rsquo;t allow for syncing based on intervals of time (instead relying on manual sync and program start and termination). It\u0026rsquo;s possible to loose bookmarks as it doesn\u0026rsquo;t handle changes from multiple locations at relatively similar times gracefully. It\u0026rsquo;s still mostly a kludge solution. As for the Pretty Widgets, they tend to mess up in some situations, making the buttons disappear all together. This happens on my WordPress blog\u0026rsquo;s configuration screen. You can still click the buttons, but you have to know they are there to begin with.\nMaking Safari More like Firefox Part of my problem with Safari (beyond the fact that it refuses to respect stylized elements) was that things seemed to load slowly. I traced some of this back to Mike Solomon\u0026rsquo;s PithHelmet, which is just about as good as Firefox\u0026rsquo;s AdBlock. It\u0026rsquo;s better in some respects, worse in others. Mike started working on performance, forcing me to reevaluate Safari again. Its bookmark syncing is compelling, as is just how damn pretty it makes all pages look. After some time, I\u0026rsquo;ve found the three pieces of software that makes Safari good enough for now.\nThe new 2.2 beta of PithHelmet has made incredible strides in improving load times and gives me my beloved Machete back. acidsearch gives you multiple search channels (a la Firefox) and Find As You Type (AKA Type Ahead Find). It\u0026rsquo;s free too. CocoaGestures gives me back my gestures, which improve web surfing ease ten fold once you start to learn it. Hold down a mouse button, move the mouse in a specified way and you invoke a command. It\u0026rsquo;s best experienced. They also have a new (for pay) product that looks compelling, but offers more than I\u0026rsquo;m looking for. These three products get Safari pretty damn close to what I like. However, Safari still has some very annoying rendering bugs (such as drawing stuff all over the screen in Gmail), but I can live with those until either Safari 1.3 is released (please?) or Tiger and Safari 2.0 grace my Macs.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/21/making-safari-livable-post-firefox/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m indecisive about my browser on my Macs (the choice is easy for PCs, Firefox all the way). Pre Safari and Firefox, the choice was easy. Camino (formerly Chimera) was the end all for Mac browsers. Now my choice switches between Firefox and Safari. Firefox is fast most of the time, but after some use seems to slow down. Safari is fairly fast, but tends to have pregnant pauses when connecting to servers (or at least this is what the status bar tells me).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Making Safari Livable Post Firefox"},{"content":"To follow up on my old post, Brad Oliver has posted a new beta build of the Knights of the Old Republic game. Of particular note is that even in its current rough form, users with Radeon 8500, 9000 or 9200 cards will see double framerates. However, in some cases, this is doubling 2-3 frames per second to 6-7 FPS. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably just keep playing with my Powerbook, although the initial problems have left such a bad taste in my mouth that I haven\u0026rsquo;t returned to the game since discovering that fact.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/20/kotor-performance-problem-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTo follow up on \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/01/knights-of-the-old-republic-performance-problems/\"\u003emy old post\u003c/a\u003e, Brad Oliver has posted \u003ca href=\"http://www.brad-oliver.com:8080/~boliver/blog/archives/000606.html\"\u003ea new beta build\u003c/a\u003e of the Knights of the Old Republic game. Of particular note is that even in its current rough form, users with Radeon 8500, 9000 or 9200 cards will see double framerates. However, in some cases, this is doubling 2-3 frames per second to 6-7 FPS. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably just keep playing with my Powerbook, although the initial problems have left such a bad taste in my mouth that I haven\u0026rsquo;t returned to the game since discovering that fact.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"KOTOR Performance Problem Update"},{"content":"Two Saturday games. Yay!\nPittsburgh vs. N.Y. Giants Washington vs. San Fransisco Carolina vs. Atlanta Buffalo vs. Cincinnati Dallas vs. Philadelphia Denver vs. Kansas City Houston vs. Chicago Minnesota vs. Detroit San Diego vs. Cleveland Seattle vs. N.Y. Jets New Orleans vs. Tampa Bay St. Louis vs. Arizona Jacksonville vs. Green Bay Tennessee vs. Oakland Baltimore vs. Indianapolis New England vs. Miami ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/18/football-picks-week-15/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTwo Saturday games. Yay!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e vs. N.Y. Giants\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWashington\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Fransisco\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCarolina vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBuffalo\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Cincinnati\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDallas vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDenver vs. \u003cstrong\u003eKansas City\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHouston\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Chicago\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Detroit\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Cleveland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e vs. N.Y. Jets\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew Orleans vs. \u003cstrong\u003eTampa Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSt. Louis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Arizona\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJacksonville vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTennessee\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Oakland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaltimore vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Miami\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 15"},{"content":"Fire up software update or download the delta or combo installers. The enhancements, straight from Apple are:\nApplications Allows TextEdit to open certain RTF documents that previously wouldn\u0026rsquo;t open, resulting in a “TextEdit Open Failed. Couldn\u0026rsquo;t open file” alert. Resolves an issue in which Safari, Mail, and other networking applications that use DNS lookups could experience intermittent connectivity issues with Security Update 2004-09-30 and Mac OS X 10.3.5 or later installed. Addresses an issue with Blizzard World of Warcraft in which the game\u0026rsquo;s frame rate could drop considerably when in “Ghost mode,” if the computer uses an nVidia graphics card. Resolves an issue in which enabling Vertex Shaders in World of Warcraft could lead to unexpected graphics issues when using an nVidia graphics card. Addresses an issue with World of Warcraft in which incorrect colors or unexpectedly flashing objects could appear when using an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card, making gameplay difficult. Improves compatibility for Pacific Tech\u0026rsquo;s Graphing Calculator 3.5—some 3D surfaces might not render in Mac OS X 10.3.6. Other Addresses an issue in which a brief “flash of lines” may appear on the screen when waking the computer from sleep after the “Flurry” Screen Saver has run, if the computer uses an ATI Radeon 8500, 9000, 9200, 9600, or M9 graphics chip. Improves compatibility for FireWire-based audio interfaces, including the Edirol FA-101 FireWire audio interface. Enables E*TRADE PDF account statements to be viewed in Preview. An Apple Cinema 22″ ADC display, when connected to certain PowerBook computers, no longer shows random “stuttering” or other graphics anomalies in the Finder and DVD Player. Addresses an issue in which shadowed text in a PDF file may print differently than it appears on the screen when printing to a raster printer. Filenames longer than 31 characters are no longer shortened when the file is saved on a server via Apple File Sharing. Resolves an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.6 in which some FireWire hard drives would not appear (“mount”) on the desktop. Addresses an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.6 in which DVD Player might not open on some Power Mac G4 computers that use an ATI Radeon 9800 AGP video card. Resolves an issue that prevented printing to some Windows-based print servers. ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/15/mac-os-x-10.3.7-update-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFire up software update or download the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate_10_3_7.html\"\u003edelta\u003c/a\u003e or \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxcombinedupdate_10_3_7.html\"\u003ecombo\u003c/a\u003e installers. The enhancements, \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300385\"\u003estraight from Apple\u003c/a\u003e are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"applications\"\u003eApplications\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAllows TextEdit to open certain RTF documents that previously wouldn\u0026rsquo;t open, resulting in a “TextEdit Open Failed. Couldn\u0026rsquo;t open file” alert.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue in which Safari, Mail, and other networking applications that use DNS lookups could experience intermittent connectivity issues with Security Update 2004-09-30 and Mac OS X 10.3.5 or later installed.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue with Blizzard World of Warcraft in which the game\u0026rsquo;s frame rate could drop considerably when in “Ghost mode,” if the computer uses an nVidia graphics card.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue in which enabling Vertex Shaders in World of Warcraft could lead to unexpected graphics issues when using an nVidia graphics card.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue with World of Warcraft in which incorrect colors or unexpectedly flashing objects could appear when using an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card, making gameplay difficult.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eImproves compatibility for Pacific Tech\u0026rsquo;s Graphing Calculator 3.5—some 3D surfaces might not render in Mac OS X 10.3.6.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"other\"\u003eOther\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which a brief “flash of lines” may appear on the screen when waking the computer from sleep after the “Flurry” Screen Saver has run, if the computer uses an ATI Radeon 8500, 9000, 9200, 9600, or M9 graphics chip.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eImproves compatibility for FireWire-based audio interfaces, including the Edirol FA-101 FireWire audio interface.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnables E*TRADE PDF account statements to be viewed in Preview.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAn Apple Cinema 22″ ADC display, when connected to certain PowerBook computers, no longer shows random “stuttering” or other graphics anomalies in the Finder and DVD Player.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which shadowed text in a PDF file may print differently than it appears on the screen when printing to a raster printer.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFilenames longer than 31 characters are no longer shortened when the file is saved on a server via Apple File Sharing.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.6 in which some FireWire hard drives would not appear (“mount”) on the desktop.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue with Mac OS X 10.3.6 in which DVD Player might not open on some Power Mac G4 computers that use an ATI Radeon 9800 AGP video card.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue that prevented printing to some Windows-based print servers.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.3.7 Update Released"},{"content":"Following my post about Netflix, a new story about Blockbuster came to my attention. Blockbuster has announced that it will no longer charge late fees, or at least that\u0026rsquo;s how everyone is reporting the policy change. Putting it this way is a little misleading.\nThey are using this necessary change to their business model as a way to promote their own business. The growing popularity of Netflix (and even their own similar service) has demonstrated a strong consumer interest in being able to retain videos for an extended amount of time. Getting burnt by late fees once or twice is enough to drive any consumer to another system. Additionally, the way in which late fees were assessed made little sense. My roommate in college rented a movie and didn\u0026rsquo;t return it for three weeks. When he finally went to return it, they charged him in excess of $20. This is obviously more than the video cost to begin with and he didn\u0026rsquo;t even get to keep it. The fees weren\u0026rsquo;t based upon what it would cost to replace the copy of that movie, but instead based upon the amount of profit lost due to being unable to rent it to another member. Obviously, this was a broken system.\nIn order to add their own spin, Blockbuster supplied revenue numbers for their late fees. Late fees earned them appoximately $300 million. What is missing about this information is its relevance to the situation. That money shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be counted separately from its rental fee income as it is meant as compensation for that to begin with.\nThe new policy doesn\u0026rsquo;t change “due dates” for movies, but instead institutes a week long “grace period”. Let\u0026rsquo;s examine that a little further. You are entitled to keep that movie until the due date by virtue of paying your rental fee. If you can not return that video by the proposed date, you are allowed to keep it up to a week longer at no penalty. Because there is no penalty, the “due date” loses all significance. It is nothing more than a suggested return date. The real due date becomes the end of the grace period. It\u0026rsquo;s not going to take more than a month for consumers to figure that out.\nThe second part of their new policy is that following that week long grace period, you are not charged a “late fee” but you are charged that remaining cost of the video and it becomes yours. At least they recognized the problem with the old system. However, that charge is a fee and it\u0026rsquo;s assessed if you keep the video later than the grace period allows. How is this not a late fee? Well, the only functional difference is that you get to keep the movie. It is still a late fee. A change of nomenclature doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that you\u0026rsquo;ve actually elimintated late fees. They\u0026rsquo;re just collecting them in a different way.\nThe next question is what if the renter doesn\u0026rsquo;t want to pay the (probably inflated) price for the movie. Blockbuster has you covered there too. Customers whom keep movies beyond the grace period may recoup that money by returning it within 30 days. The catch here is that you will be charged “restocking fees”. There is no functional difference between late fees and restocking fees. In both cases, you are paying money for keeping the movie too long and you don\u0026rsquo;t get to keep it afterward.\nIs Blockbuster eliminating late fees? Not really. They\u0026rsquo;re eliminating it by changing the nomenclature. They can now advertise “No Late Fees” both in stores and on television. The sad thing is some people will be taken in by this and buy it hook, line, and sinker.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/15/late-fees-are-dead-long-live-late-fees/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing my \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/12/you-should-join-netflix/\"\u003epost about Netflix\u003c/a\u003e, a \u003ca href=\"http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=58898\"\u003enew story\u003c/a\u003e about \u003ca href=\"http://www.blockbuster.com\"\u003eBlockbuster\u003c/a\u003e came to my attention. Blockbuster has announced that it will no longer charge late fees, or at least that\u0026rsquo;s how everyone is reporting the policy change. Putting it this way is a little misleading.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey are using this necessary change to their business model as a way to promote their own business. The growing popularity of Netflix (and even their own similar service) has demonstrated a strong consumer interest in being able to retain videos for an extended amount of time. Getting burnt by late fees once or twice is enough to drive any consumer to another system. Additionally, the way in which late fees were assessed made little sense. My roommate in college rented a movie and didn\u0026rsquo;t return it for three weeks. When he finally went to return it, they charged him in excess of $20. This is obviously more than the video cost to begin with and he didn\u0026rsquo;t even get to keep it. The fees weren\u0026rsquo;t based upon what it would cost to replace the copy of that movie, but instead based upon the amount of profit lost due to being unable to rent it to another member. Obviously, this was a broken system.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Late Fees are Dead; Long Live Late Fees"},{"content":"There was quite a stir when Real announced that they would make songs for their new online music service available for use on iPods. What made this so provocative was that their music service uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) to prevent copying, exactly as Apple does with FairPlay and Microsoft does with their own scheme. However, Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t license FairPlay to Real.\nThat was the rub. Real was maintaining DRM without a license to use FairPlay. In order to accomplish this feat, they reverse engineered FairPlay. They got to use software that Apple supplied without paying for it in some way. The fact that Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t want to license at any price is a moot point. They are the legal owners and it is their decision whether to sell licenses or not. Just because I\u0026rsquo;m not willing to sell my car to you doesn\u0026rsquo;t give you the right to jack it.\nWell, it should come as no surprise that Apple has intentionally broken compatability with Real\u0026rsquo;s Harmony service with both changes in the iPod Photo\u0026rsquo;s firmware and the latest round of firmware updates to click-wheel iPods. Real itself knew this was coming, as did any well read user. However, many of Real\u0026rsquo;s customers may not have known this and may now be irrate that their music that previously played is now useless (at least until Real figures out how to remedy the situation). First they\u0026rsquo;ll blame Apple for breaking their iPod (even though it\u0026rsquo;s not broken at all) and then they\u0026rsquo;ll come to loathe Real as they find out iTunes songs and MP3\u0026rsquo;s play fine. The true loser in this situation is going to be Real, having committed themselves to a goal that is not only underhanded but nearly impossible to ever achieve over the long run.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/15/apple-locks-out-real/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThere was quite a stir when \u003ca href=\"http://www.real.com\"\u003eReal\u003c/a\u003e announced that they would make songs for their new online music service available for use on iPods. What made this so provocative was that their music service uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) to prevent copying, exactly as Apple does with FairPlay and Microsoft does with their own scheme. However, Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t license FairPlay to Real.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat was the rub. Real was maintaining DRM without a license to use FairPlay. In order to accomplish this feat, they reverse engineered FairPlay. They got to use software that Apple supplied without paying for it in some way. The fact that Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t want to license at any price is a moot point. They are the legal owners and it is their decision whether to sell licenses or not. Just because I\u0026rsquo;m not willing to sell my car to you doesn\u0026rsquo;t give you the right to jack it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple Locks Out Real"},{"content":"I was sorry to read about his loss. What happens following a tragedy can make things even worse. My best wishes to him and his family. I (and his other readers I trust) can wait while he takes the time he needs.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/13/my-condolences-to-mike-at-accelerate-your-macintosh/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI was sorry to read about \u003ca href=\"http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/index.html#S18517\"\u003ehis loss\u003c/a\u003e. What happens following a tragedy can make things even worse. My best wishes to him and his family. I (and his other readers I trust) can wait while he takes the time he needs.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Condolences to Mike at Accelerate Your Macintosh!"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;ve all heard of Netflix, the online movie rental service. In case you haven\u0026rsquo;t, I\u0026rsquo;ll explain how it works. You pick a number of movies that you\u0026rsquo;d like to see. Netflix sends you 3 of those movies at a time (this is the default plan). They mail them to you along with return envelopes (with prepaid postage). You send those movies back whenever you feel like it (no late fees) and when they receive one of your movies back, they send another from your list (queue). To top it off, it costs only $17.99 per month regardless how many movies you get.\nThis model is so popular and successful that Blockbuster introduced their own similar plan. It\u0026rsquo;s worth checking out because the main differences between the two services is that Blockbuster offers two free in-store rentals per month (including games). It also costs 50 cents less at $17.49.\nUp until recently, I brushed off the service. Offhand, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t think of even a couple movies that I wanted to see. How could I possibly get my money\u0026rsquo;s worth? Even if I could find enough movies to make it worthwhile, how can I effectively browse for movies? I can\u0026rsquo;t walk down the aisles after all.\nA single feature of Netflix (and I assume of Blockbuster, maybe someone can confirm) makes those non-issues. That is its excellent recommendation feature. These recommendations aren\u0026rsquo;t made based upon what you rent. It\u0026rsquo;s based upon how you rate movies. As you browse the site, you mark movies on a one to five star scale. You can also mark them “No opinion” or “Not interested”. Based upon these ratings, it will start to recommend movies, which is indicated by a little star. If you are curious as to why a movie was recommended, it will reference which movie ratings you set that suggest that you will enjoy that movie. Within minutes, you will have recommendations tailored to you. My recommendations reminded me of movies I wanted to watch and had simply forgotten about.\nYou can also manipulate your queue, reordering the movies that you want. It naturally pulls the next available movie should one of your top three be out or not released yet. Just to give some perspective, I had only one or two movies that I could think of to rent. By the time I finished playing with the website for the first time, my queue had 20 movies in it. They even feature TV series DVDs, which are an easy way to pad your queue.\nThere are two other things that Netflix a winner for me. Their website is fast and friendly. It\u0026rsquo;s not overly ornate (as Blockbuster\u0026rsquo;s site is). I like a nice, simple design. The other thing is their complete use of RSS. They have personalized member feeds for:\nYour Queue Your Activity Your Recommendations All of which make it easy to monitor your account. You can also subscribe to an Overall Top 100 list, as well as category top 25 lists, new releases, and their resident reviewer\u0026rsquo;s list. If you need even more ways to pick, they offers (non-RSS) lists by a variety of reviewers and awards winners.\nI\u0026rsquo;m sold already, and I haven\u0026rsquo;t even gotten my first shipment. Imagine how happy I\u0026rsquo;ll be when I actually start getting my movies.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/12/you-should-join-netflix/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;ve all heard of \u003ca href=\"http://www.netflix.com\"\u003eNetflix\u003c/a\u003e, the online movie rental service. In case you haven\u0026rsquo;t, I\u0026rsquo;ll explain how it works. You pick a number of movies that you\u0026rsquo;d like to see. Netflix sends you 3 of those movies at a time (this is the default plan). They mail them to you along with return envelopes (with prepaid postage). You send those movies back whenever you feel like it (no late fees) and when they receive one of your movies back, they send another from your list (queue). To top it off, it costs only $17.99 per month regardless how many movies you get.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"You Should Join Netflix"},{"content":"And again:\nOakland vs. Atlanta NY Giants vs. Baltimore Cleveland vs. Buffalo New Orleans vs. Dallas Indianapolis vs. Houston Chicago vs. Jacksonville Seattle vs. Minnesota Cincinnati vs. New England Miami vs. Denver NY Jets vs. Pittsburgh Detroit vs. Green Bay San Fransisco vs. Arizona St. Louis vs. Carolina Tampa Bay vs. San Diego Philadelphia vs. Washington Kansas City vs. Tennessee ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/12/football-picks-week-14/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAnd again:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOakland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Giants vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBuffalo\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew Orleans vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDallas\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Houston\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChicago vs. \u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeattle vs. \u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMiami vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Jets vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDetroit vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Fransisco vs. \u003cstrong\u003eArizona\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSt. Louis vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Washington\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKansas City\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tennessee\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 14"},{"content":"The blog editing software I\u0026rsquo;ve been using for a while now, MarsEdit, has finally gone 1.0. I consider it the second most essential software I use on my site (right after WordPress). It works with a variety of blogging packages, so if you use a Mac and blog, you need to check it out.\nCongratulations Brent. I look forward to future development of this software.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/10/first-post-with-the-brand-new-marsedit-1.0/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe blog editing software I\u0026rsquo;ve been using for a while now, \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/marsedit/\"\u003eMarsEdit\u003c/a\u003e, has \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/?comments=1\u0026amp;postid=982\"\u003efinally gone 1.0\u003c/a\u003e. I consider it the second most essential software I use on my site (right after WordPress). It works with a variety of blogging packages, so if you use a Mac and blog, you need to check it out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCongratulations Brent. I look forward to future development of this software.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"First Post with the Brand New MarsEdit 1.0"},{"content":"It didn\u0026rsquo;t pay to roll out of bed early this morning to catch the news. Even with the Christmas (and other holidays) closing in quickly, we have to deal with the harsh reality that is, well, everything outside of the holiday advertising that we get inundated with every year.\nFormer Pantera Band Member Death At a show in Columbus, Ohio last night, Damage Plan\u0026rsquo;s Dimebag Darrell, formerly of Pantera, was shot and killed. A deranged gumnan rushed the stage and accused Darrell of breaking up Pantera before pulling out a gun and killing four others before being shot and killed by a police officer.\nThe drummer at the show was also reportedly killed. Normally, the drummer is Darrell\u0026rsquo;s brother, Vinnie Paul, who was also a member of Pantera. However, it has not been confirmed that indeed Vinnie has also been slain yet.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s absolutely sick how seriously people will take their favorite bands. It\u0026rsquo;s music people. Nothing more. This one jackass has ruined things for so many people and will likely cause even more stringent security policies. To be honest, this guy deserved what he got and now everyone involved can move on instead of moving ahead with a farce of a trial that would ultimately land the shooter in a mental institution. This of course would be a futile measure as anyone that takes music that seriously has some so wrong at his core that he could not be saved.\nU-Mass Senior Shot Dead by Westfield Resident A University of Massachusetts student was shot and killed in the very bedroom of the accused shooter. Apparently, he was shot several times with a rifle. It\u0026rsquo;s not known whether the shooter will be found competent to stand trial (see above for my thoughts on that).\nEver since I decided to go to U-Mass at Amherst and my ex-girlfriend decided to go to Westfield State, that the two towns have been intrisically linked for me. First, it was all positive things including my brother going to Westfield and his former girlfriend going to U-Mass and my brother becoming a U-Mass police cadet. Now it\u0026rsquo;s even linked in tragedy.\nRadio Legend David Brudnoy Says Goodbye In this age of extremist poltics, David Brudnoy was the voice of reason, running a radio talk show at 7 PM on WBZ 1030 every night until last night. Instead of analyzing politics in relation to one party or the other, turning every detail into some kind of battle, he took an objective look at the relevance of current events. His questions to his listeners and guests were neither cowtowing or aggressive. Instead, they were thought provoking, acting as a springboard into honest, interesting discussion.\nFollowing a long battle with AIDS and the merkel-cell carcinoma that ultimately overran his kidneys and liver, he decided to call it quits and end his battle. It came as a shock to me listening to the radio last night as WBZ announced this and an interview by colleague Gary Lapierre that was played during his normal time slot. There has been an outpouring of support for him in what will be his last days as he ends his treatment and lets the cancer overtake his body. In a heartfelt plea during his interview, he asked listeners to be more open with their love for others as they have been with him in the hours following his accouncments. He hoped that listeners would express their love in every day life instead of being so “stingy”.\nMy best wishes go out to David. I hope he makes the most of his last few days. I know I will miss him.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/09/sad-day-in-the-news/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt didn\u0026rsquo;t pay to roll out of bed early this morning to catch the news. Even with the Christmas (and other holidays) closing in quickly, we have to deal with the harsh reality that is, well, everything outside of the holiday advertising that we get inundated with every year.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"former-pantera-band-member-death\"\u003eFormer Pantera Band Member Death\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt a show in Columbus, Ohio last night, Damage Plan\u0026rsquo;s Dimebag Darrell, formerly of Pantera, was \u003ca href=\"http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2004/dec04/20041209_damageplan.html\"\u003eshot and killed\u003c/a\u003e. A deranged gumnan rushed the stage and accused Darrell of breaking up Pantera before pulling out a gun and killing four others before being shot and killed by a police officer.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Sad Day in the News"},{"content":"Much like most of the WordPress community, I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting with baited breath for the release of 1.3. I\u0026rsquo;d all but forgotten about it until I recently discovered Blogsome in an attempt to get Dana into a quality blogging package.\nBlogsome is a little known free blogging site. And it\u0026rsquo;s run with WordPress 1.3 software. They even give you your own subdomain name in the format: yourname.blogsome.com. How sweet is that?\nAt any rate, seeing the new features in 1.3 resparked my interest. I know it\u0026rsquo;s only a matter of time before it\u0026rsquo;s released (and hopefully soon). As such, I\u0026rsquo;ve put up a testing installation. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be in a state of flux as far as format and looks go, but the content will be static as I simply copied the data from this 1.2.1 installation into a new database for testing.\nBy the time I\u0026rsquo;m finished and pending any changes in 1.3, I\u0026rsquo;ll have a complete theme that I use for my site available for use by other WordPress users.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/08/wordpress-1.3-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMuch like most of the \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e community, I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting with baited breath for the release of 1.3. I\u0026rsquo;d all but forgotten about it until I recently discovered \u003ca href=\"http://blogsome.com\"\u003eBlogsome\u003c/a\u003e in an attempt to get \u003ca href=\"http://xandriamd87.blogspot.com\"\u003eDana\u003c/a\u003e into a quality blogging package.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlogsome is a little known free blogging site. And it\u0026rsquo;s run with WordPress 1.3 software. They even give you your own subdomain name in the format: yourname.blogsome.com. How sweet is that?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, seeing the new features in 1.3 resparked my interest. I know it\u0026rsquo;s only a matter of time before it\u0026rsquo;s released (and hopefully soon). As such, I\u0026rsquo;ve put up a \u003ca href=\"/test/\"\u003etesting installation\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s going to be in a state of flux as far as format and looks go, but the content will be static as I simply copied the data from this 1.2.1 installation into a new database for testing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WordPress 1.3 Update"},{"content":"I made a startling realization when I got my 12″ Powerbook. It\u0026rsquo;s a lot smaller than the classic Pismo that I\u0026rsquo;d been lugging around for 4 years. My L.L. Bean saddle bag\u0026rsquo;s laptop slot was actually too big for my shiny new Powerbook. The sides of the compartment are padded, so they naturally hold the shape. There\u0026rsquo;s so much room that the new ‘book flops around in it. It\u0026rsquo;s unsettling.\nAfter a brief quest of asking for opinions on sleeves to insulate my Powerbook as well as some searching forums, a name that kept coming up was Waterfield. Much like Apple, the agreement was that the bags were pricey, but worth it. I liked the styling, so I bit the bullet and got one of their sleeves for my recent birthday.\nI wasn\u0026rsquo;t let down.\nThe bag is solidly made with an incredibly soft lining. There\u0026rsquo;s no worrying about scratches with this bag.\nAs part of the ordering process, the fine folks at Waterfield also help you choose a size that ensures a snug fit.\nI also ordered the flap cover and a strap so I could carry just the sleeve around if I wish. As an extra bonus, the bag also has pocket that covers the back of the bag. It\u0026rsquo;s not spacious, but it\u0026rsquo;s enough room to stuff your power adapter.\nPros: Solid construction, tight fit, great styling, friendly customer service.\nCons: At $70, very expensive.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/07/waterfield-sleeve-case/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI made a startling realization when I got my 12″ Powerbook. It\u0026rsquo;s a lot smaller than the classic \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple-history.com/frames/body.php?page=gallery\u0026amp;model=pg3sfirewire\"\u003ePismo\u003c/a\u003e that I\u0026rsquo;d been lugging around for 4 years. My \u003ca href=\"http://www.llbean.com\"\u003eL.L. Bean\u003c/a\u003e saddle bag\u0026rsquo;s laptop slot was actually too big for my shiny new Powerbook. The sides of the compartment are padded, so they naturally hold the shape. There\u0026rsquo;s so much room that the new ‘book flops around in it. It\u0026rsquo;s unsettling.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a brief quest of asking for opinions on sleeves to insulate my Powerbook as well as some searching forums, a name that kept coming up was \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbags.com\"\u003eWaterfield\u003c/a\u003e. Much like Apple, the agreement was that the bags were pricey, but worth it. I liked the styling, so I bit the bullet and got one of their sleeves for my recent birthday.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wasn\u0026rsquo;t let down.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Waterfield Sleeve Case"},{"content":"Sometimes a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It gives someone the ability to make a bogus assertion about something while sounding somewhat authoritative. Even worse, it makes laypeople think the entirely wrong thing about a subject that has lots of subtlety. The nightly news does this every night, breaking complex issues down into sound bites.\nThe technology news is no better, saying things that are outright wrong in order to break it down for their readership. An example of this was the reporting on the latest G5 model, a single 1.8 GHz tower. Macworld reported that this model has a 32-bit bus instead of 64-bit like its brethren.\nUnlike its siblings in the current Power Mac family, the new model has only a single processor- a 1.8GHz G5. Its front-side bus – the channel connecting the CPU to the rest of the system – can handle only 32 bits of data at a time, and it operates at one-third the clock speed of the processor (600 MHz). By contrast, the current dual-processor Power Macs have 64-bit front-side buses running at half the processor’s speed (900 MHz, 1 GHz, or 1.25 GHz).\nExplanation of this concept is complete devoid in this article, letting readers draw some very inept conclusions. There is a lot of nuance here that is being overlooked. Further, coupling the different bus/clock cycle ratio with this fact is enough to suggest to some users that the bus being 64-bit is dependent somehow upon a certain ratio being maintained. That\u0026rsquo;s not true. I consider that fairly irresponsible. Let\u0026rsquo;s examine instead where this myth\u0026rsquo;s element of truth originates.\nTo begin, we will examine Apple\u0026rsquo;s architecture page for the G5. The most relevant section is below.\nDesigned to harness the power of the PowerPC G5 processor, a 1.25GHz, 64-bit bidirectional Double Data Rate (DDR) front-side bus maximizes throughput between the processor and the system controller. And unlike most processor interfaces, which can carry data in only one direction at a time and waste precious time changing directions, the PowerPC G5 features two high-speed unidirectional 32-bit data paths – one flowing continuously into the processor and one flowing from the processor.\nNote, each G5 processor has its own 64-bit front-side bus. The confusion settles in because of the nature of that bus. 32-bits are dedicated to going into the processor and 32-bits are dedicated into leaving the processor. A person sophisticated enough to recognize this distinction is now given some compelling information. Only 32-bits at a time can flow into the processor in any given cycle. We can now identify how the myth was created. It only stands to reason that because each G5 processor has its own front-side bus and each direction has 32 bits of bandwidth, that a dual processor G5 would have a 64-bit bus while a single processor machine would have a 32-bit bus. It sounds good, right?\nIt may sound good, but it isn\u0026rsquo;t. In this case, we are making the wildly naive assumption that bus bit-width is defined by aggregation. We can see how absurd this is by a simple extension. If we have a 4 processor machine, we would have a 32 x 4 = 128 bit bus. Astonishing. If it has 8 processors, the bus would be 32 x 8 = 256 bit. Does that make any sense? No, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t. The original assumption is a bad one. Further, because of the math involved, less sophisticated users draw the conclusion that because 32 and 64 aren\u0026rsquo;t equal, that the single processor G5\u0026rsquo;s are hamstrung in some way (or “not really 64 bit” if you want to get even more extreme). This is a bad conclusion.\nFurther, we completely ignore the fact that the bus is still bi-directional with the ability to transport a total of 64 bits in any clock cycle. In order to reduce such a bus to 32 bit is assuming that we are interested in only a single direction. Which direction do we deem the important one and why? This is an important question that must be overlooked for the purposes of this conclusion. Again, in order to make the original conclusion, we would be forced to overlook this important aspect of the bus itself.\nTo get even more technical and exact about why bus bit-width aggregation is wrong, we need to get more into how a computer works. In order to take full advantage of this aggregated bit-width, our 64-bit chunk of data has to be split into two 32-bit chunks. Each chunk goes to a different processor. Their destinations must be different. This is important because it means that each piece of data has to be worked on independently. If our original data was a single 64-bit long integer, it has lost all meaning by being sent to two different processors. The only utility in this situation is if those two 32-bit pieces are not directly related and processing can be split into two independent activities. In other words, this is only an advantage if you have two separate processes to begin with. We only gain if we are taking advantage of the multi-processor nature of the machine. Dual processor G5\u0026rsquo;s are only better than single processor G5\u0026rsquo;s because of the fact that they have an extra processor. The bus is no more wide in practical terms.\nOne can make a case for the bus being inferior on this new G5 and the iMacs to the current dual processor G5\u0026rsquo;s by virtue of the fact that the operating ratio is 1/3 instead of 1/2, but not based on some silly claim that the bus is 32 bit instead of 64. To report and publicize such an absurd conclusion without showing the (weak) reasoning behind it is misleading and irresponsible. How can one expect his readers to appreciate the subtlety of this argument when one does not correctly grasp the fundamentals of the argument to begin with? It\u0026rsquo;s obvious that in order to draw this conclusion, the author knew enough about computers to grasp some things, but not nearly enough to make the statement he did. Further, giving this information digested (to the point where its origin could not be ascertained) causes the audience to make even worse conclusions.\nTo sum up:\nMyth: Single processor G5\u0026rsquo;s have a 32-bit bus while dual processor G5\u0026rsquo;s have a 64-bit bus. Single G5\u0026rsquo;s aren\u0026rsquo;t really 64-bit.\nReality: The front-side bus for every G5 processor is identical, save for cycle ratio. Dual processor G5\u0026rsquo;s are no more 64-bit than single processor G5\u0026rsquo;s.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/06/myth-and-reality-32-bit-bus-on-single-processor-g5s/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSometimes a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It gives someone the ability to make a bogus assertion about something while sounding somewhat authoritative. Even worse, it makes laypeople think the entirely wrong thing about a subject that has lots of subtlety. The nightly news does this every night, breaking complex issues down into sound bites.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe technology news is no better, saying things that are outright wrong in order to break it down for their readership. An example of this was the reporting on the latest G5 model, a single 1.8 GHz tower. \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/2004/11/reviews/singlecpupowermac/index.php\"\u003eMacworld reported\u003c/a\u003e that this model has a 32-bit bus instead of 64-bit like its brethren.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Myth and Reality: 32-bit Bus on Single Processor G5s"},{"content":"And again:\nCincinnati vs. Baltimore Minnesota vs. Chicago New England vs. Cleveland Arizona vs. Detroit Tennessee vs. Indianapolis Buffalo vs. Miami Carolina vs. New Orleans Houston vs. NY Jets San Fransisco vs. St. Louis Atlanta vs. Tampa Bay Kansas City vs. Oakland Denver vs. San Diego Green Bay vs. Philadelphia NY Giants vs. Washington Pittsburgh vs. Jacksonville Dallas vs. Seattle ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/04/football-picks-week-13/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAnd again:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Chicago\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Cleveland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eArizona vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDetroit\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTennessee vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBuffalo\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Miami\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e vs. New Orleans\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHouston\u003c/strong\u003e vs. NY Jets\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Fransisco vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSt. Louis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tampa Bay\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKansas City\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Oakland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Diego\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGreen Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Giants vs. \u003cstrong\u003eWashington\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Jacksonville\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDallas vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 13"},{"content":"Apple has released a security update for both Panther and Jaguar. You can get it at the download section of their site or by using Software Update. It weighed in at 12.7 MB coming in through mine.\nAs always, Maccentral has an excellent writeup.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/02/december-security-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple has released a security update for both Panther and Jaguar. You can get it at \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/\"\u003ethe download section of their site\u003c/a\u003e or by using Software Update. It weighed in at 12.7 MB coming in through mine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs always, Maccentral has \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/12/02/securityupdate/index.php\"\u003ean excellent writeup\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"December Security Update"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s amazing what some people will do for their iCrack. Ever since Apple announced the availability of the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) in Canada, those crazy canucks have been going crazy waiting for it.\nIn fact, they\u0026rsquo;ve been protesting as Bush came to town. While the mainstream media has been widely reporting that this is due to policy concerning Iraq, this is entirely wrong. Such immature angst could not be explained by anything but concerns about the iTMS being available late. It even looked like it would be late, but everyone\u0026rsquo;s favorite computer company made sure that the delay was minimal, delivering on its promise last night, a mere day late.\nSo relax Canada. You can pack up those protest signs and spend your money on the latest yodeling songs (or whatever you nutty northerners listen to).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/02/youve-got-the-itunes-music-store-now-stop-protesting/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s amazing what some people will do for their \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/itunes/\"\u003eiCrack\u003c/a\u003e. Ever since Apple \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/oct/26itmseu.html\"\u003eannounced\u003c/a\u003e the availability of the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) in Canada, those crazy canucks have been going crazy waiting for it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn fact, they\u0026rsquo;ve been protesting as Bush came to town. While the mainstream media has been widely reporting that this is due to policy concerning Iraq, this is entirely wrong. Such immature angst could not be explained by anything but concerns about the iTMS being available late. It even looked like \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/12/01/cdnmusic/index.php\"\u003eit would be late\u003c/a\u003e, but everyone\u0026rsquo;s favorite computer company made sure that the delay was minimal, \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/12/01/cdnstore/index.php\"\u003edelivering on its promise last night\u003c/a\u003e, a mere day late.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"You've Got the iTunes Music Store, Now Stop Protesting"},{"content":"Perhaps the greatest thing about first person shooters is that they inevitably have expansion packs which cost dramatically less than the game originally. You essentially get more of the game you liked originally.\nThen sometimes, they don\u0026rsquo;t give you more of what you liked. They give you something loosely based upon something you liked. It\u0026rsquo;s sort of like the new Star Wars movies. Breakthrough features the same great gameplay, graphics, and weapons of the first two. It even seems to have better performance than Spearhead. However, it\u0026rsquo;s not quite as good.\nOne of the problems is the design of several of the levels. In particular, any level requiring you to protect something sucks. It\u0026rsquo;s far too hard without knowing what the specific strategy the designers were expecting you to figure out. It\u0026rsquo;s not obvious or even logical. Without reading a guide, I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have thought to stand on some crates far away from the person I was trying to protect. Seems counter intuitive, no? And everyone loves trying to attack incoming tanks with mortars.\nWhat makes the game unbearable at times is the complete lack of ammo. You\u0026rsquo;d expect to be able to pick up ammo from enemy soldiers, but that\u0026rsquo;s a bad assumption. You\u0026rsquo;ve got to scrounge around like an irishman for a drink. Eventually, you\u0026rsquo;ll get to a point where you get ambushed and you\u0026rsquo;ll realize you\u0026rsquo;ve got about 20 pistol bullets, 4 rifle, and 10 submachine gun with no ammo in sight. After dying the fourth time trying to beat enemies to death, you have to become a marksmen with your pistol. It\u0026rsquo;s not fun.\nThis is a decent, but extremely challenging expansion pack for Medal of Honor. At $30, it\u0026rsquo;s probably worth getting.\nPros: It\u0026rsquo;s a Medal of Honor expansion pack. Only $30\nCons: Poor level design. Not enough ammo availability.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/01/medal-of-honor-breakthrough/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePerhaps the greatest thing about first person shooters is that they inevitably have expansion packs which cost dramatically less than the game originally. You essentially get more of the game you liked originally.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen sometimes, they don\u0026rsquo;t give you more of what you liked. They give you something loosely based upon something you liked. It\u0026rsquo;s sort of like the new Star Wars movies. \u003ca href=\"http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/mohaab/\"\u003eBreakthrough\u003c/a\u003e features the same great gameplay, graphics, and weapons of the first two. It even seems to have better performance than Spearhead. However, it\u0026rsquo;s not quite as good.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Medal of Honor: Breakthrough"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s no secret that my birthday was last weekend. My parents were nice enough to get me several gifts. I got a Waterfield Powerbook sleeve, Medal of Honor: Breakthrough, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. You can look forward to a full length review of the bag and a short review of Breakthrough. In the mean time, you can get a review of Breakthrough from Inside Mac Games.\nHowever, I soon discovered to my own displeasure that Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) ran rather poorly on my Dual 1 GHz Powermac G4 with 1.25 GB RAM and Radeon 9000 Pro video card. The very first scene (which is a simple tutorial) stuttered. If the game weren\u0026rsquo;t turn based, I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have been able to play it effectively. The problem only worse when I got to the game\u0026rsquo;s first cantina. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a very intense scene (unless you count the moderate amount of people as intense). This Powermac has handled all the other games I\u0026rsquo;ve played on it (Halo, Medal of Honor series, Call of Duty) expertly. I was so disappointed that I decided to put the game away for a little while and go back to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.\nAfter a couple days, I decided it was time that I investigate the problem and see if there was some kind of fix. Inside Mac Games\u0026rsquo; review of KOTOR made no mention of any problems. However, the reader reviews did. The commonality seemed to be that G4\u0026rsquo;s didn\u0026rsquo;t handle the game well. I decided it was time that I got more information.\nI sent a message to Mac game guru Peter Cohen, asking how he rated the game and if he ran it on a G4. He gave it a high rating and it performed well on his Powerbook. The G4 obviously wasn\u0026rsquo;t the problem. I did a little digging on my own and it seems that the Radeon 9000 Pro (and cards with related chipsets) have problems with vertex shaders, which KOTOR uses heavily. I ask Peter about this and he agreed that could be the issue (as his Powerbook uses an Radeon 9600 chipset). Aspyr is aware of the problem (which is also related to some weak OpenGL code in OS X 10.3.6). Mac OS X 10.3.7 should remedy some of these issues and Aspyr may come out with a fix.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s well and good, but what was I to do? I copied the game to my firewire drive and fired it up on my Powerbook (12″, 1.33 GHz G4, 1.25 GB RAM, and NVIDIA Geforce FX Go5200 video card). The game ran much smoother. This is especially odd as Call of Duty never played very well on it at all. However, with this realization, I was able to start playing the game again in a comfortable way. It\u0026rsquo;s rather disappointing that the Radeon 9000 Pro seems to handle the game so poorly, but hopefully this will be resolved. In the mean time, Aspyr should consider warnings for users that might be using that video card or a card with a similar chipset. It was a nasty surprise for me and I imagine a less investigative user might just give up and return the game. That\u0026rsquo;s something I doubt they want.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/12/01/knights-of-the-old-republic-performance-problems/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s no secret that my birthday was last weekend. My parents were nice enough to get me several gifts. I got a \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbags.com/PRODUCTS/SC_INFO/sc.htm\"\u003eWaterfield Powerbook sleeve\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/mohaab/\"\u003eMedal of Honor: Breakthrough\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/kotor/\"\u003eStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic\u003c/a\u003e. You can look forward to a full length review of the bag and a short review of Breakthrough. In the mean time, you can get a review of Breakthrough from \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=493\"\u003eInside Mac Games\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, I soon discovered to my own displeasure that Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) ran rather poorly on my Dual 1 GHz Powermac G4 with 1.25 GB RAM and Radeon 9000 Pro video card. The very first scene (which is a simple tutorial) stuttered. If the game weren\u0026rsquo;t turn based, I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t have been able to play it effectively. The problem only worse when I got to the game\u0026rsquo;s first cantina. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a very intense scene (unless you count the moderate amount of people as intense). This Powermac has handled all the other games I\u0026rsquo;ve played on it (Halo, Medal of Honor series, Call of Duty) expertly. I was so disappointed that I decided to put the game away for a little while and go back to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Knights of the Old Republic Performance Problems"},{"content":"Seeing as I haven\u0026rsquo;t written anything meaningful since I started my pseudo vacation last week, I thought I might get right back into the swing of things with something near and dear to my heart: a rant.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s no secret that I spend a lot of time posting in and reading forums. Like any public forum, it attracts idiots who feel the need to unload things that are either totally uninteresting or useless. One of the more obnoxious types is the “leaper” as I am going to refer to this type of individual. Much like people who climb to the highest stories of the tallest buildings to stand on the edge and threaten to jump, these morons explain how they\u0026rsquo;ve come to stand on their very own ledge.\nThe difference is that their dilemma is far more trivial. In the forums I participate in, it\u0026rsquo;s the usual threat of “I swear I\u0026rsquo;ll do it! I\u0026rsquo;ll buy a PC!” It\u0026rsquo;s a simple attention-grabbing tactic (which I sometimes fall for). The general formula of such a post is the following:\nStart with the number of years you\u0026rsquo;ve used Macs and how you were loyal. For example, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using Macs for 18 years, even during period x. Write about the jealousy you\u0026rsquo;ve had over the machines your coworkers/friends/relatives/spouse own and use. For example, I\u0026rsquo;ve watched for years as my friends have gotten PCs for half what I spent. Write about the low cost of PC hardware and software. Ignore the fact that the majority of PC hardware can be used in today\u0026rsquo;s Macs. Ignore compatibility and driver issues. Ignore how crappy most Windows software is. Write about software selection and how Windows has many more software packages available. Ignore that 2,000 versions of Barbie\u0026rsquo;s Playhouse aren\u0026rsquo;t going to do anything for you. Discuss how fast PC hardware is and then compare a fully loaded G5\u0026rsquo;s price to the bargain basement Dell\u0026rsquo;s price. Don\u0026rsquo;t mention the amount of time you\u0026rsquo;ll be spending dealing with spyware, adware, and viruses. Add in several other validations of why you\u0026rsquo;re buying a Windows PC. Delude yourself into thinking that you\u0026rsquo;re trying to convince others of why you\u0026rsquo;re taking the smart course of action and keep from realizing that you\u0026rsquo;re trying to convince yourself. Offer a few petty parting shots. Feel free to use the following list of common myths: Macs are status symbols, Macs are for elitist snobs, Macs are for idiots that can\u0026rsquo;t operate real computers, Macs are toys, etc. Most importantly, once you\u0026rsquo;ve formulated this cry for help, post it onto Mac discussion forums. Post it into unrelated threads. Do anything you can to get as many people as possible to read it. Make sure you phrase things to make it seem as if you\u0026rsquo;ve already made your decision and you\u0026rsquo;re absolutely ecstatic about it, swearing off the Mac platform forever. Ignore the fact that it\u0026rsquo;s completely contradictory to be leaving the Mac platform and continuing to post into Mac forums. If someone points this out, attack that person and tell them that they can\u0026rsquo;t handle the truth. Then justify the posting as education for other “deluded” Mac users. Ignore the fact that these same people have already thought about those very same issues.\nLeapers really get their jollies off people trying to pull them back into the fold. They like to see people argue against these obviously fallacious points. They exhibit some of the most perplexing behavior. Could someone please explain the mentality to me? I don\u0026rsquo;t get it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/30/ill-do-it-i-swear/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSeeing as I haven\u0026rsquo;t written anything meaningful since I started my pseudo vacation last week, I thought I might get right back into the swing of things with something near and dear to my heart: a rant.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s no secret that I spend a lot of time posting in and reading forums. Like any public forum, it attracts idiots who feel the need to unload things that are either totally uninteresting or useless. One of the more obnoxious types is the “leaper” as I am going to refer to this type of individual. Much like people who climb to the highest stories of the tallest buildings to stand on the edge and threaten to jump, these morons explain how they\u0026rsquo;ve come to stand on their very own ledge.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'll Do It; I Swear!"},{"content":"I turned 23 as of midnight (EST). I\u0026rsquo;m a year older, a year wiser, and a year closer to being able to rent a car (the last major milestone in a person\u0026rsquo;s life as far as I can figure).\nI had a few drinks at a local watering hole, so I\u0026rsquo;ll be cutting this entry short.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/28/happy-birthday-to-me/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI turned 23 as of midnight (EST). I\u0026rsquo;m a year older, a year wiser, and a year closer to being able to rent a car (the last major milestone in a person\u0026rsquo;s life as far as I can figure).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had a few drinks at a local watering hole, so I\u0026rsquo;ll be cutting this entry short.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Happy Birthday to Me"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve had it with AOL\u0026rsquo;s mobile device feature. I come online and I don\u0026rsquo;t inspect all my buddies to see if they are regular AOL or mobile. Certain users are always forwarding their IMs. I send a message expecting to get back a meaningful message and instead I\u0026rsquo;m greeted with the standard forwarding response.\nNow, that wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be so bad if I then got back an IM from them while they were on their phone, but most often I get nothing. What\u0026rsquo;s the point? Is having a phone number not enough? Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m just getting old.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/27/aol-mobile-devices/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve had it with AOL\u0026rsquo;s mobile device feature. I come online and I don\u0026rsquo;t inspect all my buddies to see if they are regular AOL or mobile. Certain users are always forwarding their IMs. I send a message expecting to get back a meaningful message and instead I\u0026rsquo;m greeted with the standard forwarding response.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, that wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be so bad if I then got back an IM from them while they were on their phone, but most often I get nothing. What\u0026rsquo;s the point? Is having a phone number not enough? Maybe I\u0026rsquo;m just getting old.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"AOL Mobile Devices"},{"content":"After struggling with Bloglines rather limited blog interface (which did make linking fairly easy), I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to give it up and go to del.icio.us to host those links and data. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t pull the list directly into the main site with direct links to the real things I was linking to. To top it off, they never even responded to my questions about fixing their blogroll publishing (which features completely incorrect structure.\nOh well. I guess being the best just isn\u0026rsquo;t a priority for them. Del.icio.us seems to do it right.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/26/the-supplement-is-now-del.icio.us-powered/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter struggling with \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e rather limited blog interface (which did make linking fairly easy), I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to give it up and go to \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us\"\u003edel.icio.us\u003c/a\u003e to host those links and data. I couldn\u0026rsquo;t pull the list directly into the main site with direct links to the real things I was linking to. To top it off, they never even responded to my questions about fixing their blogroll publishing (which features completely incorrect structure.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Supplement is now Del.icio.us Powered"},{"content":"Enjoy your turkey, stuffing, football and pumpkin pie!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/25/happy-thanksgiving/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEnjoy your turkey, stuffing, football and pumpkin pie!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Happy Thanksgiving!"},{"content":"I almost forgot there are games tomorrow.\nIndianapolis vs. Detroit Chicago vs. Dallas Tampa Bay vs. Carolina Cleveland vs. Cincinnati Tennessee vs. Houston San Diego vs. Kansas City Jacksonville vs. Minnesota Philadelphia vs. NY Giants Washington vs. Pittsburgh New Orleans vs. Atlanta Baltimore vs. New England NY Jets vs. Arizona Miami vs. San Francisco Buffalo vs. Seattle Oakland vs. Denver St. Louis vs. Green Bay ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/24/football-picks-week-12/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI almost forgot there are games tomorrow.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Detroit\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChicago\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Dallas\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCincinnati\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTennessee vs. \u003cstrong\u003eHouston\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Kansas City\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJacksonville vs. \u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. NY Giants\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWashington vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew Orleans vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaltimore vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Arizona\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMiami vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSan Francisco\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBuffalo vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOakland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSt. Louis vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 12"},{"content":"Call me a terrible person, a monster if you will. I just couldn\u0026rsquo;t stop once it started.\n13:40:37 amos282002: Hello Derik!\n13:40:45 amos282002: how r u doing?\n13:40:59 amos282002: I\u0026rsquo;m Amos Michel\n13:41:12 dirkdelong: uh ohk\n13:41:15 amos282002: I\u0026rsquo;m from Jacmel City\n13:41:26 dirkdelong: oh\n13:42:23 amos282002: and I met your profil online and I see that it\u0026rsquo;s very important to keep in a good touch with you\n13:43:10 dirkdelong: I see\n13:43:37 amos282002: have you ever visited Haiti country?\n13:43:59 amos282002: that ‘s where i\u0026rsquo;m from\n13:44:16 dirkdelong: no, I\u0026rsquo;ve never been to the Carribean\n13:44:23 dirkdelong: though I hear it\u0026rsquo;s very nice\n13:44:42 amos282002: yeah it is and I\u0026rsquo;m Haitian\n13:44:59 amos282002: tell me what do you do?\n13:45:27 dirkdelong: I\u0026rsquo;m a software engineer\n13:45:29 dirkdelong: you?\n13:46:40 amos282002: I\u0026rsquo;m done with school this year not yet having a profesion\n13:47:10 amos282002: but lack of money here I can not go to a college\n13:47:50 dirkdelong: yeah, it\u0026rsquo;s rough\n13:48:11 amos282002: yeah it is\n13:48:57 amos282002: so I would dearly love also to study Electronical Engineer\n13:49:35 dirkdelong: cool, like computer hardware?\n13:50:08 amos282002: yeah, I do love it\n13:51:22 amos282002: could you please help me?\n13:51:50 dirkdelong: how?\n13:52:22 amos282002: To help me reach my vision\n13:53:51 amos282002: that will be a bigest step for me for my futur I would be so grateful\n13:54:03 dirkdelong: are you asking for money?\n13:54:44 amos282002: yeah,\n13:56:10 amos282002: and whatever you\u0026rsquo;ll give me will be a big start for me so I could start to go to study it\n13:56:26 dirkdelong: I wish I could, but I don\u0026rsquo;t have any to spare unfortunately]\n14:01:35 amos282002: I understand what you mean, I live with my parents here they are not in work and they are really very sick, I have five brothers and five sisters and I\u0026rsquo;m the Oldest in my family, then what I wondered, I would dearly love to learn something so that will be the bigest step in my life so I could make money to take care of my family\n14:03:33 amos282002: certainly here in Haiti there are many misery no work and for you to attend a colege you have to get alot of money\n14:04:15 amos282002: And I have no other people could help me meet my vision\n14:05:45 dirkdelong: in that case, the check is in the mail\n14:05:51 dirkdelong: $1000\n14:05:57 dirkdelong: go check your mailbox\n14:07:00 amos282002: really you send me a check of $1000 dollars?\n14:07:20 dirkdelong: yeah, go check right now\n14:08:15 amos282002: Ok I go to check it now\n14:14:16 amos282002: I don\u0026rsquo;t find it\n14:14:37 dirkdelong: oh\n14:14:42 dirkdelong: it must have gotten lost\n14:14:43 amos282002: may I give you my mailling adress?\n14:14:47 dirkdelong: I\u0026rsquo;ll send another\n14:15:49 amos282002: here my mailling adress\n14:16:04 amos282002: Amos Michel\n14:16:23 amos282002: Rue Saint Philippe # 35\n14:16:56 amos282002: HT 9110 Jacmel-Haiti(W.I)\n14:17:35 amos282002: do I have to hope it?\n14:17:56 dirkdelong: what do you think?\n14:18:29 amos282002: about the money\n14:18:57 amos282002: $1000\n14:20:21 dirkdelong: yes\n14:21:29 amos282002: thanks a lot in adavnce for it and when will you send it to me?\n14:24:05 amos282002: hello\n14:24:37 dirkdelong: I want you to guess\n14:25:30 amos282002: tomorrow will be ok for me\nBegan receiving Amos 1.jpg (14:26:52)\n14:27:47 amos282002: do u get a picture of me that I send you\namos282002 canceled the transfer of Amos 1.jpg (14:28:07)\n14:28:22 dirkdelong: didn\u0026rsquo;t seem to go through\n14:28:48 dirkdelong: so, when do I get my mail-order bride?\n14:29:26 amos282002: ok\n14:31:11 amos282002: yeah, may I reach the $ 1000 tomorrow or at the end of this week?\n14:32:00 amos282002: may you please send it to me by WESTERN UNION?\n14:32:21 dirkdelong: I\u0026rsquo;ll send the money when I get my bride\n14:33:14 amos282002: oh I see what you mean\n14:33:28 amos282002: so tell me when will you get her?\n14:34:32 dirkdelong: I don\u0026rsquo;t know, when are you sending her to me?\n14:36:39 amos282002: that would better if you come here in Jacmel because there are alot of beautiful single ladies here there are waiting for a broom\n14:37:30 amos282002: you can come and make yourself choice and you\u0026rsquo;ll have to get a bride\n14:38:55 amos282002: hello\n14:40:05 amos282002: tell me when will be the best time for you so you can come\n14:40:53 dirkdelong: I don\u0026rsquo;t know, I\u0026rsquo;ll check my calendar and get back to you\n14:40:59 dirkdelong: I have to go now\n14:41:07 dirkdelong: bye\n14:43:33 amos282002: ok that was a big pleasure for me to make this aquaintance with you and I would dearly love to meet you soon and I do thanks you in advance for the $ 1000 dollars which will be a bigest step to help me in my futur life\n14:44:15 amos282002: here my email amoshaiti@hotmail.com\n14:44:38 amos282002: so we can keep in touch\n14:45:13 dirkdelong: ok\n14:45:27 amos282002: please pass along my best regards and greeting for everyone\n14:45:48 amos282002: take a good care\n14:46:02 amos282002: bye\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/24/it-started-so-innocently/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eCall me a terrible person, a monster if you will. I just couldn\u0026rsquo;t stop once it started.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e13:40:37 amos282002: Hello Derik!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e13:40:45 amos282002: how r u doing?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e13:40:59 amos282002: I\u0026rsquo;m Amos Michel\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It Started so Innocently"},{"content":"Katie posted another quiz from the same site as the last. Seeing as the question was “What part of Thanksgiving are you?” and that it\u0026rsquo;s a mere few days away, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t resist.\nYou Are the Stuffing You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together.\nPeople miss you if you're gone \u0026#8211; but they're not sure why. What Part of Thanksgiving Are You? ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/21/mmmmm-stuffing/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eKatie posted \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com/users/kayteebird/33345.html\"\u003eanother quiz\u003c/a\u003e from the same site as the last. Seeing as the question was “What part of Thanksgiving are you?” and that it\u0026rsquo;s a mere few days away, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t resist.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable width=\"400\" align=\"center\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\"\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd bgcolor=\"#66CCFF\" align=\"center\"\u003e\n      \u003cfont face=\"Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif\" style='color:black; font-size: 14pt;'\u003e\u003cb\u003eYou Are the Stuffing\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/font\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\"\u003e\n      \u003cimg src=\"http://www.quizdiva.net/bt/stuffing.jpg\" alt=\"Stuffing\" /\u003e\u003cfont color=\"#000000\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eYou're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together.\u003cbr /\u003ePeople miss you if you're gone \u0026#8211; but they're not sure why.\u003c/font\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cdiv align=\"center\"\u003e\n  \u003ca href=\"http://www.blogthings.com/thanksgivingquiz.html\"\u003eWhat Part of Thanksgiving Are You?\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e","title":"Mmmmm, Stuffing"},{"content":"An online quiz just confirmed what I already knew. Fuck the two parties!\nYou Are a \u0026#8220;Don't Tread On Me\u0026#8221; Libertarian You distrust the government, are fiercely independent, and don't belong in either party.\nReligion and politics should never mix, in your opinion\u0026#8230; and you feel opressed by both.\nYou don't want the government to cramp your self made style. Or anyone else's for that matter. You're proud to say that you're pro-choice on absolutely everything! What political persuasion are you? ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/20/libertarian-for-life/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAn online quiz just confirmed what I already knew. Fuck the two parties!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable width=\"400\" align=\"center\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\"\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd bgcolor=\"#66CCFF\" align=\"center\"\u003e\n      \u003cfont face=\"Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif\" style='color:black; font-size: 14pt;'\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYou Are a \u0026#8220;Don't Tread On Me\u0026#8221; Libertarian\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/font\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\"\u003e\n      \u003cimg src=\"http://www.quizdiva.net/bt/libertarian.jpg\" alt=\"Libertarian Image\" /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cfont color=\"#000000\"\u003eYou distrust the government, are fiercely independent, and don't belong in either party.\u003cbr /\u003eReligion and politics should never mix, in your opinion\u0026#8230; and you feel opressed by both.\u003cbr /\u003e You don't want the government to cramp your self made style. Or anyone else's for that matter. You're proud to say that you're pro-choice on absolutely everything!\u003c/font\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\u003cdiv align=\"center\"\u003e\n  \u003ca href=\"http://www.blogthings.com/political-persuasion.html\"\u003eWhat political persuasion are you?\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e","title":"Libertarian for Life"},{"content":"Some of my friends (Katie and Dana) use free blogging services, namely, LiveJournal and Blogger/Blogspot respectively. I personally went straight to Movable Type and then WordPress hosted on my own domain.\nOf those two choices I\u0026rsquo;d tend to go with Blogger. It\u0026rsquo;s owned by Google now, so there\u0026rsquo;s plenty of growth potential. Probably the main reason would be that I actually dislike LiveJournal because: it\u0026rsquo;s slow, its themes are applied only to the front page (comment pages are the horrendous style of the rest of the site), it\u0026rsquo;s slow, you are forced into a long address (even blogspot gives you a subdomain), it\u0026rsquo;s slow, everyone and their brother has an account there so you\u0026rsquo;re forced into an obscure AIM screename-ish username, and did I mention it\u0026rsquo;s slow? Yeah. I don\u0026rsquo;t like LiveJournal… at all… in any way… shape… or form.\nI\u0026rsquo;m curious though, what do y\u0026rsquo;all use and why?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/20/what-is-the-best-free-hosted-blogging-service/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSome of my friends (\u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com/users/kayteebird/\"\u003eKatie\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://xandriamd87.blogspot.com\"\u003eDana\u003c/a\u003e) use free blogging services, namely, \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com\"\u003eLiveJournal\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.blogger.com\"\u003eBlogger/Blogspot\u003c/a\u003e respectively. I personally went straight to Movable Type and then WordPress hosted on my own domain.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf those two choices I\u0026rsquo;d tend to go with Blogger. It\u0026rsquo;s owned by Google now, so there\u0026rsquo;s plenty of growth potential. Probably the main reason would be that I actually dislike LiveJournal because: it\u0026rsquo;s slow, its themes are applied only to the front page (comment pages are the horrendous style of the rest of the site), it\u0026rsquo;s slow, you are forced into a long address (even blogspot gives you a subdomain), it\u0026rsquo;s slow, everyone and their brother has an account there so you\u0026rsquo;re forced into an obscure AIM screename-ish username, and did I mention it\u0026rsquo;s slow? Yeah. I don\u0026rsquo;t like LiveJournal… at all… in any way… shape… or form.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What is the Best Free Hosted Blogging Service?"},{"content":"I love when I get mentioned in other people\u0026rsquo;s blogs. In particular, when it\u0026rsquo;s a sexy context as at Dana\u0026rsquo;s blog.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/18/my-favorite-subject/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI love when I get mentioned in other people\u0026rsquo;s blogs. In particular, when it\u0026rsquo;s a sexy context as at \u003ca href=\"http://xandriamd87.blogspot.com/2004/11/sounds-to-me-like-derik-started-air.html\"\u003eDana\u0026rsquo;s blog\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Favorite Subject"},{"content":"The WordPress Development Blog has been updated with information about WordPress 1.3. It looks like they\u0026rsquo;ve been making some great strides and good improvements, but consipicuously absent from their goal list is per-post formatting support. This makes me very sad.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/18/wordpress-1.3-closes-in/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org/development/\"\u003eWordPress Development Blog\u003c/a\u003e has \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org/development/2004/11/whats-going-on/\"\u003ebeen updated with information about WordPress 1.3\u003c/a\u003e. It looks like they\u0026rsquo;ve been making some great strides and good improvements, but consipicuously absent from \u003ca href=\"http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_1.3\"\u003etheir goal list\u003c/a\u003e is per-post formatting support. This makes me very sad.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WordPress 1.3 Closes In"},{"content":"Some may have noticed the Blog Change Bot button I added to the sidebar some time ago. It was part of an experiment to see how well it worked. Until recently, it simply didn\u0026rsquo;t work at all. Sure, I could IM it at blogchangebot. I could even send commands. It even seemed to recognize my subscriptions and list their last modification.\nThe problem was that it never notified me of changes (and I\u0026rsquo;m online more often than not). I was just about to remove the button and link when, this morning I actually got an update notification from blogchangebot8. Recently, I noticed that the bot had gone down frequently and I\u0026rsquo;m guessing that the developer was having scalability issues (though you couldn\u0026rsquo;t tell this from the website).\nAt any rate, it\u0026rsquo;s now working. This is great news for you that want to monitor this site, or any other site that pings weblogs.com (which generally means they have an RSS feed as well). Simply IM blogchangebot and let it know. It will IM you when there are updates (again, I haven\u0026rsquo;t gotten reliable service out of it yet). You can stay up to date without needing an RSS reader (though I think they are preferable).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/18/blog-change-bot/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSome may have noticed the \u003ca href=\"http://www.neuronwave.com/bcb/\"\u003eBlog Change Bot\u003c/a\u003e button I added to the sidebar some time ago. It was part of an experiment to see how well it worked. Until recently, it simply didn\u0026rsquo;t work at all. Sure, I could IM it at blogchangebot. I could even send commands. It even seemed to recognize my subscriptions and list their last modification.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem was that it \u003cstrong\u003enever\u003c/strong\u003e notified me of changes (and I\u0026rsquo;m online more often than not). I was just about to remove the button and link when, this morning I actually got an update notification from blogchangebot8. Recently, I noticed that the bot had gone down frequently and I\u0026rsquo;m guessing that the developer was having scalability issues (though you couldn\u0026rsquo;t tell this from the website).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Blog Change Bot"},{"content":"Brent Simmon\u0026rsquo;s, developer the excellent MarsEdit, has asked a very important question. Isn\u0026rsquo;t it time that a common weblog system feature set was agreed upon?\nThis is related to my earlier entry about the fact that WordPress doesn\u0026rsquo;t entire support Movable Type\u0026rsquo;s API. For the record, it is very close. This isn\u0026rsquo;t horseshoes and computers are far less forgiving than any person I know. By leaving something as “minor” as post specific text formatting, it becomes impossible for external editing software to determine how to format posts, particularly for preview purposes.\nEfforts have been made to standardize weblog editing APIs (see the MetaWeblogAPI). Unfortunately, it\u0026rsquo;s not complete enough to satisfy most major weblog systems, whom to this end, have most adopted Movable Type\u0026rsquo;s API. It\u0026rsquo;s superset of the MetaWeblogAPI is certainly more complete, but it\u0026rsquo;s not quite as extensible as some would like, forcing abuse of certain attributes in order to achieve the desired effect.\nBrent spoke not so much about the API, but the feature set supported by weblog systems. However, it is these feature sets that generally dictate the nature of the APIs. In fact, incomplete API implementation is usually the result of different feature sets. WordPress doesn\u0026rsquo;t implement mt.supportedTextFilters because it has no notion of post specific formatting. Movable Type lacks custom fields.\nThis was not previously a problem as most blog users were either uber geeks or were normal people that were content with rather limited options (LiveJournal is the prime example of this with its virtually otherwise inexplicable popularity). Now that every body and their brother has a blog and uses previously advanced features such as trackbacks and pings, it\u0026rsquo;s become center stage. When the web came to center stage, the same thing happened, with different browsers supporting different technologies. We eventually ended up with standards (which is wonderfully described by Jeffrey Zeldman in his book, Designing with Web Standards).\nI think it\u0026rsquo;s time that the same was done for weblog systems. The question is though, who will step up and will the big players (Six Apart in particular) sign on for such an effort?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/17/is-it-time-for-a-blog-system-standard/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBrent Simmon\u0026rsquo;s, developer the excellent MarsEdit, has \u003ca href=\"http://inessential.com/?comments=1\u0026amp;postid=2984\"\u003easked a very important question\u003c/a\u003e. Isn\u0026rsquo;t it time that a common weblog system feature set was agreed upon?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is related to \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/09/wordpress-and-the-lack-of-mtsupportedtextfilters/\"\u003emy earlier entry\u003c/a\u003e about the fact that WordPress doesn\u0026rsquo;t entire support Movable Type\u0026rsquo;s API. For the record, it is \u003cem\u003every\u003c/em\u003e close. This isn\u0026rsquo;t horseshoes and computers are far less forgiving than any person I know. By leaving something as “minor” as post specific text formatting, it becomes impossible for external editing software to determine how to format posts, particularly for preview purposes.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Is It Time for a Blog System Standard?"},{"content":"Phishing (which is explained at Wikipedia) has become very commonplace, particularly on the Internet. It even happens over the phone.\nUp until this morning, I thought only morons became the victims of these scams because they were so obvious. However, this has changed somewhat. Not only has it become much more common (hell, more than half of my spam is phishing attempts), but they\u0026rsquo;ve hidden themselves very well.\nMy father received an email this morning from Amazon.com supposedly asking to verify his credit card information. Yesterday, he had placed an order for him. The email even had an “@amazon.com” return address. It contained a link that was of the structure: {http://www.amazon.com@service02.com//exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/102-9382243-7140932}. Looks like Amazon, right? Wrong. Everything preceding the “@” is considered a username for the domain that follows, which is our scammer.\nWell, after entering his credit card at a site that looks like a perfect replica of Amazon\u0026rsquo;s site, my father noticed that the number it spit back was wrong (these scumbags of the earth aren\u0026rsquo;t quite perfect yet). I took a look and immediately surmised that it was bogus. Canceling of the credit card followed.\nNow, dad is older, but he\u0026rsquo;s not technologically inept or stupid. This message was timed really well and cleverly disguised. Luckily, Firefox will warn if a username precedes a domain name. Safari does not (hopefully they\u0026rsquo;ll take a page out of Firefox\u0026rsquo;s book). At any rate, be careful and read policy statements for your online retailers. If in doubt, ask someone.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/14/phishing-can-happen-to-you/","summary":"\u003cp\u003ePhishing (which is \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing\"\u003eexplained at Wikipedia\u003c/a\u003e) has become very commonplace, particularly on the Internet. It even happens over the phone.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUp until this morning, I thought only morons became the victims of these scams because they were so obvious. However, this has changed somewhat. Not only has it become much more common (hell, more than half of my spam is phishing attempts), but they\u0026rsquo;ve hidden themselves very well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy father received an email this morning from Amazon.com supposedly asking to verify his credit card information. Yesterday, he had placed an order for him. The email even had an “@amazon.com” return address. It contained a link that was of the structure: {http://www.amazon.com@service02.com//exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/102-9382243-7140932}. Looks like Amazon, right? Wrong. Everything preceding the “@” is considered a username for the domain that follows, which is our scammer.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Phishing Can Happen to You"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m getting progressively worse, but here we go:\nTampa Bay vs. Atlanta Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland Houston vs. Indianapolis Detroit vs. Jacksonville Kansas City vs. New Orleans Baltimore vs. NY Jets Seattle vs. St. Louis Chicago vs. Tennessee Cincinnati vs. Washington NY Giants vs. Arizona Minnesota vs. Green Bay Carolina vs. San Fransisco Buffalo vs. New England Philadelphia vs. Dallas ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/14/football-picks-week-10/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m getting progressively worse, but here we go:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Cleveland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHouston vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDetroit vs. \u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKansas City\u003c/strong\u003e vs. New Orleans\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e vs. NY Jets\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e vs. St. Louis\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChicago vs. \u003cstrong\u003eTennessee\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs. \u003cstrong\u003eWashington\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNY Giants\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Arizona\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMinnesota vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Fransisco\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBuffalo vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Dallas\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 10"},{"content":"WCVB, here in Massachusetts, has decided not to show Saving Private Ryan, the award winning film. I\u0026rsquo;d list the awards, but honestly, they would make this post huge. That is how many awards we are talking about.\nWhat is there reasoning and excuse? There\u0026rsquo;s too much violence and profanity in the film. Too many kids might watch it in the 8PM time slot originally allotted. What kind of society do we live in when children watching an award winning film with genuine social value is a problem? It\u0026rsquo;s absurd!\nRealizing that this excuse is weak, they made some more excuses, this time to blame the FCC for more stringent enforcement of their rules (following the now infamous Janet Jackson nipple incident). They claim that they may lose their license for showing this award winning film.\nThey even had the gall to suggest that they are not afraid of fines. The reason they pulled the film is out of respect for their viewers. I take this as a personal insult. Thankfully, some ABC affiliates still have the moral fiber to stand up and show the film, such as ABC6 in Rhode Island. I salute you, ABC6!\nAs a result of these developments, I will not be watching WCVB. I suggest that any of my readers within range of this station either watch another ABC affiliate or not watch at all. Also use their feedback form and let them know that you will not be watching. I personally added that I hoped that they would be passing the message along to their advertisers. This kind of chicken shit behavior should not be rewarded, but instead punished.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/11/shame-on-you-wcvb/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWCVB, here in Massachusetts, has \u003ca href=\"http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3910568/detail.html\"\u003edecided not to show\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/\"\u003eSaving Private Ryan\u003c/a\u003e, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/awards\"\u003eaward winning film\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;d list the awards, but honestly, they would make this post huge. \u003cem\u003eThat\u003c/em\u003e is how many awards we are talking about.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is there reasoning and excuse? There\u0026rsquo;s too much violence and profanity in the film. Too many kids might watch it in the 8PM time slot originally allotted. What kind of society do we live in when children watching an award winning film with genuine social value is a \u003cstrong\u003eproblem\u003c/strong\u003e? It\u0026rsquo;s absurd!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Shame on you WCVB"},{"content":"Because nearly every business gives Veteran\u0026rsquo;s Day off (save for Raytheon obviously), my entire commute took only 40 minutes, as compared with the normal hour and ten minutes to two hours. People left space, one could change lanes to pass someone if they wished, and I didn\u0026rsquo;t have the urge to jump out of my car and clobber anyone.\nAmazing.\nI know my ride home will be nice and I\u0026rsquo;m just glad that I\u0026rsquo;m not working tomorrow because I couldn\u0026rsquo;t take dealing with the normal traffic again so soon after my best ride in to Woburn ever.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/11/can-every-day-be-veterans-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBecause nearly every business gives Veteran\u0026rsquo;s Day off (save for Raytheon obviously), my entire commute took only 40 minutes, as compared with the normal hour and ten minutes to two hours. People left space, one could change lanes to pass someone if they wished, and I didn\u0026rsquo;t have the urge to jump out of my car and clobber anyone.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAmazing.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI know my ride home will be nice and I\u0026rsquo;m just glad that I\u0026rsquo;m not working tomorrow because I couldn\u0026rsquo;t take dealing with the normal traffic again so soon after my best ride in to Woburn ever.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Can Every Day be Veteran's Day?"},{"content":"From a Keyspan Press Release for its Keyspan Express Remote:\nKeyspan, America\u0026rsquo;s number 1 brand of USB connectivity products, announced that its new USB infrared remote control includes support for Apple\u0026rsquo;s groundbreaking Airport Express.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t have an Airport Express, but nonetheless, this sounds compelling. Perhaps the most heavily wanted feature as part of the Airport Express and Airtunes was the inclusion of a remote (and apparently being able to walk around with your laptop doesn\u0026rsquo;t count). I still maintain that Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t do this because it would destroy the absolute simplicity of the current design and require expensive modifications to it.\nWhen I read this, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d have to eat my words and admit I was wrong. Thankfully, I can maintain my pride and continue with my position. This remote is nothing new. In fact, Keyspan has long had a remote that performed nearly the same function with the same form factor in their Digital Media Remote. Like ATi\u0026rsquo;s Remote Wonder, it\u0026rsquo;s simply a remote control that interfaces through a base station connected to the computer through USB. There\u0026rsquo;s some driver software to control various applications like DVD Player, iTunes, VLC, etc. These things have been around for years. In fact, their “Airport Express compatibility” consists of the ability to control iTunes:\nNow with Keyspan\u0026rsquo;s Express Remote users have a way to remotely control their iTunes\nI\u0026rsquo;m sorry. I thought my Remote Wonder already did that. To make this an even more blatant (and insulting) marketing tactic, the Express Remote doesn\u0026rsquo;t even look different (save for some minor coloring differences). Witness pictures of the Express Remote and the Digital Media Remote respectively. This is the same product with a new name to suck off the attention that Apple\u0026rsquo;s Airport Express has gotten. If I were in charge of Apple\u0026rsquo;s legal department, this would be a prime target for some quick cash (if they haven\u0026rsquo;t already gotten a kickback). As for consumers like you and me, I\u0026rsquo;d steer clear of this product to send a clear message: We\u0026rsquo;re not idiots.\nUpdate 1: Oh and it costs $10 more than the Digital Media Remote.\nUpdate 2: According to MacCentral, the Express Remote allows one to plug straight into the Airport Express and directly control any copy of iTunes playing on the Airport Express. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to admit I was wrong. I am perplexed about how this is accomplished because as far as I knew, that USB port works for printer sharing only and AirTunes is passive on the Airport Express\u0026rsquo;s part with no notion of what computer is connected. Some kind of firmware update must be in the works.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/10/keyspans-remote-control-for-airport-express-not-quite/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFrom \u003ca href=\"http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/11/emw170749.htm\"\u003ea Keyspan Press Release\u003c/a\u003e for its Keyspan Express Remote:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKeyspan, America\u0026rsquo;s number 1 brand of USB connectivity products, announced that its new USB infrared remote control includes support for Apple\u0026rsquo;s groundbreaking Airport Express.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t have an Airport Express, but nonetheless, this sounds compelling. Perhaps the most heavily wanted feature as part of the Airport Express and Airtunes was the inclusion of a remote (and apparently being able to walk around with your laptop doesn\u0026rsquo;t count). I still maintain that Apple didn\u0026rsquo;t do this because it would destroy the absolute simplicity of the current design and require expensive modifications to it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Keyspan's Remote Control for Airport Express: Not Quite"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve adopted the excellent Markdown to format my blog entries. It\u0026rsquo;s makes it much easier to write and maintain entries. However, because WordPress has to filter each post every time, it slows down my homepage considerably.\nThat is something I\u0026rsquo;ve come to live with and accept.\nWhat is not acceptable is that WordPress still doesn\u0026rsquo;t support mt.supportedTextFilters. This is what tells external editing apps like MarsEdit know what formatting is being used so it can properly preview entries for you. As a result, Brent had to put in a custom preference (that one must manually add in) to force preview of Markdown formatting for all posts. This is rather unacceptable, but not Brent\u0026rsquo;s fault.\nI\u0026rsquo;m feeling a pull to MovableType which I\u0026rsquo;ve been resisting because I didn\u0026rsquo;t want to shell out the cash. I fear I may have no choice soon unless this is fixed in WordPress (like in 1.3) or someone can suggest an alternative package.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/09/wordpress-and-the-lack-of-mt.supportedtextfilters/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve adopted the excellent \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\"\u003eMarkdown\u003c/a\u003e to format my blog entries. It\u0026rsquo;s makes it much easier to write and maintain entries. However, because \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e has to filter each post every time, it slows down my homepage considerably.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is something I\u0026rsquo;ve come to live with and accept.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is not acceptable is that WordPress \u003cstrong\u003estill\u003c/strong\u003e doesn\u0026rsquo;t support mt.supportedTextFilters. This is what tells external editing apps like \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/marsedit/\"\u003eMarsEdit\u003c/a\u003e know what formatting is being used so it can properly preview entries for you. As a result, Brent had to put in a custom preference (that one must manually add in) to force preview of Markdown formatting for all posts. This is rather unacceptable, but not Brent\u0026rsquo;s fault.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WordPress and the Lack of mt.supportedTextFilters"},{"content":"I don\u0026rsquo;t care what you are doing tomorrow. You\u0026rsquo;re going to make the time to get Firefox 1.0. Places that will most likely have download links:\nMozilla Mozillazine Spread Firefox Get Firefox Slashdot It\u0026rsquo;s likely to be a bandwidth bonanza, so be sure to find a mirror or BitTorrent feed.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/08/firefox-1.0-tomorrow/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t care what you are doing tomorrow. You\u0026rsquo;re going to make the time to get Firefox 1.0. Places that will most likely have download links:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://mozilla.org\"\u003eMozilla\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://mozillazine.org\"\u003eMozillazine\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates\u0026amp;id=1747\"\u003eSpread Firefox\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://getfirefox.com\"\u003eGet Firefox\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://slashdot.org\"\u003eSlashdot\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s likely to be a bandwidth bonanza, so be sure to find a mirror or BitTorrent feed.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firefox 1.0 Tomorrow"},{"content":"As reported on MacCentral, MacGameSeed is starting to distribute Mac game files via BitTorrent. Blizzard has been doing this a little while now (primarily with the upcoming World of Warcraft beta).\nIt\u0026rsquo;s good to see more companies embracing this content distribution model (with 35% of the traffic on the Internet coming from BitTorrent). What I am surprised by is the lack of attention companies like Akamai have paid to it. Instead of paying these companies for mirrors for new files, they can simply set up a BitTorrent feed with a few seeds and let it rip. It may be that because BitTorrent is still a little rough around the edges for novice users (who don\u0026rsquo;t know about opening up ports to facilitate greater speeds, etc.) gives them reassurance. However, this will change (and already is, as Azureus has made some incredible strides into diagnosing performance problems for newbie users).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/08/bittorrent-finally-getting-used/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs reported on \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/11/08/macgameseed/index.php/?lsrc=mcrss-1104\"\u003eMacCentral\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.macgameseed.com\"\u003eMacGameSeed\u003c/a\u003e is starting to distribute Mac game files via BitTorrent. \u003ca href=\"http://www.blizzard.com\"\u003eBlizzard\u003c/a\u003e has been doing this a little while now (primarily with the upcoming World of Warcraft beta).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s good to see more companies embracing this content distribution model (with \u003ca href=\"http://in.tech.yahoo.com/041103/137/2ho4i.html\"\u003e35% of the traffic on the Internet\u003c/a\u003e coming from BitTorrent). What I am surprised by is the lack of attention companies like \u003ca href=\"http://www.akamai.com\"\u003eAkamai\u003c/a\u003e have paid to it. Instead of paying these companies for mirrors for new files, they can simply set up a BitTorrent feed with a few seeds and let it rip. It may be that because BitTorrent is still a little rough around the edges for novice users (who don\u0026rsquo;t know about opening up ports to facilitate greater speeds, etc.) gives them reassurance. However, this will change (and already is, as \u003ca href=\"http://azureus.sourceforge.net\"\u003eAzureus\u003c/a\u003e has made some incredible strides into diagnosing performance problems for newbie users).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"BitTorrent Finally Getting Used"},{"content":"Here we go again.\nNY Jets vs. Buffalo Oakland vs. Carolina Dallas vs. Cincinnati Washington vs. Detroit Arizona vs. Miami Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh Kansas City vs. Tampa Bay Chicago vs. NY Giants New Orleans vs. San Diego Seattle vs. San Fransisco Houston vs. Denver New England vs. St. Louis Cleveland vs. Baltimore Minnesota vs. Indianapolis ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/06/football-picks-week-9/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHere we go again.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Buffalo\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOakland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDallas\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Cincinnati\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWashington vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDetroit\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArizona\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Miami\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Pittsburgh\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKansas City\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tampa Bay\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChicago vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNY Giants\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew Orleans vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Fransisco\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHouston\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Denver\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. St. Louis\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Indianapolis\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 9"},{"content":"Apple released Mac OS X 10.3.6 just a little while ago. Fire up Software Update or visit the technote page for the update, which includes links to Combo and Delta updaters. Below are the enhancements listed by Apple.\nInternet and .Mac Resovles an issue in which Safari might not load webpages correctly when the hard drive name included a non-ASCII character such as a symbol, diacritical, or two-byte character. Safari no longer times out after 60 seconds when attempting to connect to a webpage or to submit form data. With this update, Safari will keep trying indefinitely (or until you cancel the attempt). With this update, a synchronized iDisk correctly resizes .Mac storage after its allocation changes. Addresses a kernel panic issue that could occur when using an external, wireless USB broadband modem with Mac OS X 10.3.5. Networking Improves AFP service performance. Addresses a situation in which a file name change that occured on a server while a client was running Terminal resulted in the client Terminal\u0026rsquo;s failure to recognize the change. Addresses an issue that could prevent login via a network user account. Resolves an issue for Mac OS X 10.3.5 in which, sometimes, network-based applications could not open an application from an automounted AFP volume, such as /Network/Applications/. SMB/CIFS servers in /Network no longer suddenly disappear and reappear after the network changes. Applications Addresses an issue that could occur when using some scholastic information management applications with Mac OS X 10.3.5; this alert could appear: “Another module has ‘locked\u0026rsquo; the MS Tx file. You will gain access when their task is completed.” Addresses an issue in which “zooming” in Halo 1.0.5 could lead to blurry video when using certain Nvidia video cards. Many calculating and conversion features within Calculator are improved by this update. Addresses an issue in which TextEdit could unexpectedly quit when changing text from Euphermia regular to italic. Addresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.3.5 in which Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 could unexpectedly quit. Other Improves ColorSync calibrating for Apple Cinema HD Display (23-inch DVI) displays. Resolves an issue in which the display could sometimes remain dark when waking from display sleep (the mouse pointer might appear, but normal function could not be restored) if using Screen Saver password on a portable computer. Adds WMC connectivity capability for Nokia 7610 phones. Addresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.3.5 in which some glyph fonts, certain “Expert” or “dingbat” fonts, would no longer appear in some applications. Resolves a situation in which incorrect characters could show up for some fonts. Addresses some issues that could cause Classic to unexpectedly quit when starting up. This update makes it easier to scroll through a long list of user names in the login window. Includes recent Security Updates. ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/05/mac-os-x-10.3.6-released/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple released \u003ca href=\"http://www.igroupmac.org/tag/mac-os\"\u003eMac OS\u003c/a\u003e X 10.3.6 just a little while ago. Fire up Software Update or visit \u003ca href=\"http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300080\"\u003ethe technote page for the update\u003c/a\u003e, which includes links to Combo and Delta updaters. Below are the enhancements listed by Apple.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"internet-and-mac\"\u003eInternet and .Mac\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResovles an issue in which Safari might not load webpages correctly when the hard drive name included a non-ASCII character such as a symbol, diacritical, or two-byte character.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSafari no longer times out after 60 seconds when attempting to connect to a webpage or to submit form data. With this update, Safari will keep trying indefinitely (or until you cancel the attempt).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWith this update, a synchronized iDisk correctly resizes .Mac storage after its allocation changes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses a kernel panic issue that could occur when using an external, wireless USB broadband modem with Mac OS X 10.3.5.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"networking\"\u003eNetworking\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eImproves AFP service performance.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses a situation in which a file name change that occured on a server while a client was running Terminal resulted in the client Terminal\u0026rsquo;s failure to recognize the change.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue that could prevent login via a network user account.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue for Mac OS X 10.3.5 in which, sometimes, network-based applications could not open an application from an automounted AFP volume, such as /Network/Applications/.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSMB/CIFS servers in /Network no longer suddenly disappear and reappear after the network changes.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"applications\"\u003eApplications\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue that could occur when using some scholastic information management applications with Mac OS X 10.3.5; this alert could appear: “Another module has ‘locked\u0026rsquo; the MS Tx file. You will gain access when their task is completed.”\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which “zooming” in Halo 1.0.5 could lead to blurry video when using certain Nvidia video cards.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMany calculating and conversion features within Calculator are improved by this update.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue in which TextEdit could unexpectedly quit when changing text from Euphermia regular to italic.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.3.5 in which Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 could unexpectedly quit.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"other\"\u003eOther\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eImproves ColorSync calibrating for Apple Cinema HD Display (23-inch DVI) displays.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves an issue in which the display could sometimes remain dark when waking from display sleep (the mouse pointer might appear, but normal function could not be restored) if using Screen Saver password on a portable computer.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdds WMC connectivity capability for Nokia 7610 phones.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.3.5 in which some glyph fonts, certain “Expert” or “dingbat” fonts, would no longer appear in some applications.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResolves a situation in which incorrect characters could show up for some fonts.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAddresses some issues that could cause Classic to unexpectedly quit when starting up.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThis update makes it easier to scroll through a long list of user names in the login window.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIncludes recent Security Updates.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Mac OS X 10.3.6 Released"},{"content":"The most significant Mac news lately was the discovery of the Opener malware. Antivirus makers scrambled to protect against this “virus” which as I said, isn\u0026rsquo;t really a virus. It\u0026rsquo;s malware showing what one can do once they\u0026rsquo;ve compromised a machine.\nI was reading the Cult of Mac Blog and they had an entry about a novel idea. Use NetNewsWire‘s new ability to read scripts as feeds to make a feed that will notify you upon new items being added to the /System/Library/Startup Items folder.\nThis is slick. Really slick. In fact, it gives one ideas. I think I might make a script that will give the last ten or twenty lines of a log (I\u0026rsquo;m sure it\u0026rsquo;s already implemented by someone using tail and some parsing). With that, I could dump Geektool.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/05/using-netnewswire-to-monitor-for-opener/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe most significant Mac news lately was the discovery of the \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2004/10/26/opener-malware-the-straight-deal/\"\u003eOpener malware\u003c/a\u003e. Antivirus makers scrambled to protect against this “virus” which as I said, \u003ca href=\"http://www.macminute.com/2004/11/01/opener/\"\u003eisn\u0026rsquo;t really a virus\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s malware showing what one can do once they\u0026rsquo;ve compromised a machine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was reading \u003ca href=\"http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/\"\u003ethe Cult of Mac Blog\u003c/a\u003e and they had \u003ca href=\"http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=506894\"\u003ean entry\u003c/a\u003e about a novel idea. Use \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/\"\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e‘s new ability to \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/features/scriptSubscriptions.php\"\u003eread scripts as feeds\u003c/a\u003e to make a feed that will notify you upon new items being added to the /System/Library/Startup Items folder.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Using NetNewsWire to monitor for Opener"},{"content":"Just like everyone else, I\u0026rsquo;m going to encourage everyone to go vote. It\u0026rsquo;s too late for all of you in MA (not that it matters anyway).\nI hope you all made your presence felt in the polls. I personally made mine felt by writing in Scott Daugherty for all unopposed candidates. Good times.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/02/late-unless-youre-on-the-left-coast/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJust like everyone else, I\u0026rsquo;m going to encourage everyone to go vote. It\u0026rsquo;s too late for all of you in MA (not that it matters anyway).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hope you all made your presence felt in the polls. I personally made mine felt by writing in \u003ca href=\"/scott\"\u003eScott Daugherty\u003c/a\u003e for all unopposed candidates. Good times.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Late Unless You're on the Left Coast"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve set my good friend up with a blog on this site. Keep an eye out for exciting changes. He\u0026rsquo;s always got something going.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/01/robs-blog-debuts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve set my good friend up with \u003ca href=\"/rob\"\u003ea blog on this site\u003c/a\u003e. Keep an eye out for exciting changes. He\u0026rsquo;s always got something going.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rob's Blog Debuts"},{"content":"I figure a lot more people will visit if they can do more than just comment on my babbling.\nSo go do it up in the forums. I even made a politics forum for people to fight. If you have anymore ideas, drop me a line.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/11/01/now-presenting-the-d00dism-forums/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI figure a lot more people will visit if they can do more than just comment on my babbling.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo go do it up \u003ca href=\"/v-web/bulletin/bb/\"\u003ein the forums\u003c/a\u003e. I even made a politics forum for people to fight. If you have anymore ideas, drop me a line.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Now Presenting: The d00dism Forums"},{"content":"I tried calling on Thursday about my order of GTA: San Andreas. The customer service representative had just talked to another person that ordered it from them.\nFrom the way he talked about it, a lot of people had. They had almost 700 outstanding orders and only 290 copies coming in that they knew of. He was so frustrated with people calling and checking that he almost had a speech for me and it was extremely impatiently said. It\u0026rsquo;s not that I was getting belligerent (as I have been known to do).\nLuckily, by ordering on the 25th of July, I guaranteed an early spot in their queue. I also got in on a sub $40 price (which has recently skyrocketed back up to approximately $50, the same as other retailers). I got a nice surprise on Friday to see that it had shipped. Starting Wednesday, I may not be posting as much, or at least nothing of length. Enjoy it for now.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/31/gta-san-andreas-comes-wednesday/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI tried calling on Thursday about my order of GTA: San Andreas. The customer service representative had just talked to another person that ordered it from them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the way he talked about it, a lot of people had. They had almost 700 outstanding orders and only 290 copies coming in that they knew of. He was so frustrated with people calling and checking that he almost had a speech for me and it was extremely impatiently said. It\u0026rsquo;s not that I was getting belligerent (as I have been known to do).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"GTA: San Andreas Comes Wednesday"},{"content":"Brought to my attention by Wizbang, a LiveJournal user got visited by the secret service following an entry about wanting the president dead. Luckily for her, she has (as of the writing of this entry) about 86 pages of comments, the majority of which are in support.\nShock This is just reinforcement of the idea that my generation refuses to take responsibility for what they do and say. She wished Bush dead, Cheney dead, and everyone in the administration dead.\nWho would have thunk it? Wishing a horrible death upon the president gets the attention of the Secret Service? Wow. I mean, really shocking. According to Annie though, it\u0026rsquo;s perfectly all right to do this. The Secret Service should ignore all of these threats. Well, let me revise that. They should ignore all of these, but the real ones. But wait, how should the Secret Service figure out which ones are real? Oh, that\u0026rsquo;s right, by visiting these people exactly like they did.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s fine to say whatever you want. That\u0026rsquo;s guaranteed under the first amendment. It does not give you free license to say anything without consequences. If you say something that wishes death upon the president, whether it be in a letter to the president, a speech to a militant group, a terrorist tape made by Osama himself, or even in a LiveJournal, you can expect to be investigated.\nLet me explain this a little bit slower for those that don\u0026rsquo;t understand. Part of the problem when dealing with terrorist (or political) threats, is that it is hard to tell when someone is being serious. There are thousands of nut jobs who get their jollies by writing these letters, calling in bomb threats, and even issuing serious acts like the events of 9/11. It becomes incredibly hard to sift the real threats from the fake ones. Suggesting that this LiveJournal entry was obviously a joke is infantile. The moment such a threat isn\u0026rsquo;t followed up with at least a light investigation is the moment that threat is actually followed through. Guess who gets blamed in that case? The Secret Service for not investigating. Either they\u0026rsquo;re taking threats too seriously (as they supposedly were in this case), or not enough (in the case of 9/11). You can\u0026rsquo;t win.\nMaturity Now we must broach whether what she said was constructive in any way, shape, or form. The fact is, no, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t original. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t point out some new fact that should have some kind of bearing on how people vote. It didn\u0026rsquo;t give a fresh new perspective. It didn\u0026rsquo;t present a new opinion. It didn\u0026rsquo;t reinforce an existing opinion. It did nothing to contribute to what is supposed to be nation-wide, collective, political discussion.\nI shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be all too surprised considering this comes from a LiveJournal account dedicated to Harry Potter. It is tough being 10. I used to lash out at people and public figures that frustrated me. I lacked all verbal and mental ability to lash back in a meaningful way or even articulate my feelings in a mature way. I was forced to resort to “I wish you\u0026rsquo;d die.” The sad thing is that she is a little less than a month older than me. It\u0026rsquo;s just more proof that some people mature faster than others.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/30/an-afternoon-with-the-secret-service/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBrought to my attention by \u003ca href=\"http://wizbangblog.com/archives/004123.php\"\u003eWizbang\u003c/a\u003e, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com\"\u003eLiveJournal\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com/users/anniesj/\"\u003euser\u003c/a\u003e got \u003ca href=\"http://www.livejournal.com/users/anniesj/331112.html\"\u003evisited by the secret service\u003c/a\u003e following \u003ca href=\"/images/ljanniesj3.jpg\"\u003ean entry about wanting the president dead\u003c/a\u003e. Luckily for her, she has (as of the writing of this entry) about 86 pages of comments, the majority of which are in support.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"shock\"\u003eShock\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is just reinforcement of the idea that my generation refuses to take responsibility for what they do and say. She wished Bush dead, Cheney dead, and everyone in the administration dead.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Afternoon with the Secret Service"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m back after a hiatus last week. I forgot to write down my picks because I was going to my friend\u0026rsquo;s apartment for game one. The good news is that I\u0026rsquo;m going to remember for this week. Without further ado, they are:\nArizona vs. Buffalo Detroit vs. Dallas Jacksonville vs. Houston Indianapolis vs. Kansas City NY Giants vs. Minnesota Cincinnati vs Tennessee Green Bay vs. Washington Baltimore vs. Philadelphia Atlanta vs. Denver Carolina vs. Seattle New England vs. Pittsburgh Oakland vs. San Diego San Fransisco vs. Chicago Miami vs. NY Jets If you\u0026rsquo;ll notice, I actually picked the two undefeated teams to win again this week. The odds are against them, but the Eagles and Patriots are my two favorites for the Superbowl at this point. However, if another NFC team starts to pick up the slack, I will pick them over the Eagles simply because the Eagles always suck in the post season.\nDue to the fact that this is becoming fairly popular on the web, I think I may make a PHP software package to manage football picks. If you feel like helping out or getting involved, drop me a line. It may be the motivation I need to actually do it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/29/football-picks-week-8/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m back after a hiatus last week. I forgot to write down my picks because I was going to \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/v-web/gallery/AndyWorldSeries\"\u003emy friend\u0026rsquo;s apartment for game one\u003c/a\u003e. The good news is that I\u0026rsquo;m going to remember for this week. Without further ado, they are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eArizona vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBuffalo\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDetroit\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Dallas\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Houston\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Kansas City\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Giants vs. \u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs \u003cstrong\u003eTennessee\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Washington\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaltimore vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAtlanta vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCarolina vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Pittsburgh\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOakland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSan Diego\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Fransisco vs. \u003cstrong\u003eChicago\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMiami vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you\u0026rsquo;ll notice, I actually picked the two undefeated teams to win again this week. The odds are against them, but the Eagles and Patriots are my two favorites for the Superbowl at this point. However, if another NFC team starts to pick up the slack, I will pick them over the Eagles simply because the Eagles always suck in the post season.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 8"},{"content":"Curt Schilling is one of the most popular players in Red Sox Nation. His last two performances showed gritty determination and incredible ability.\nThe Magic Sock Or did it? According to Laura Vecsey at the Baltimore Sun, it was a ruse. It\u0026rsquo;s good to know that Laura knows where the real news is. She\u0026rsquo;s getting down to the real issues. We can only hope that Bud Selig notices and forms an investigation team, a la the 9/11 Commission. This is important stuff. Forget that it\u0026rsquo;s wild speculation and the fact that the only evidence she seems to have comes out of New York:\nEven factoring in the sour grapes, word out of New York is that some Yankees players wouldn\u0026rsquo;t put it past Schilling to dab his sock with red magic marker, or apply generous amounts of Mercurochrome – anything to amplify the Red Sox\u0026rsquo;s amazing postseason run and, of course, to hoist his stature.\nGood lead. I also heard that A-Rod was also a robot.\nWord out of Boston is that some Red Sox players wouldn\u0026rsquo;t put it past A-Rod to be mechanical, or engineered in a factory – anything to amplify Steinbrenner\u0026rsquo;s ego and, of course, to hoist his paycheck.\nIs that good journalism? I know I\u0026rsquo;m still new to this whole writing thing, but I was under the impression that having some good backup to my articles was necessary. I thought that wild speculation was a bad thing. I guess I was wrong.\nProof? Who needs proof? Speaking of wild speculation, we now have the Associated Press (AP) publishing a story that despite Schilling\u0026rsquo;s endorsement of President Bush, Schilling will not be able to make the appearance.\nIt seems like fairly vanilla news at first. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty logical that Schilling wouldn\u0026rsquo;t be able to travel due to his ankle. The problem is that the source is an email to a fan site. It\u0026rsquo;s written as if it\u0026rsquo;s from Schilling. He even goes on to apologize for expressing his political views.\nWhile I am a Bush supporter, and I did vote for him with an absentee ballot, speaking as I did the other day was wrong. While I hope to see him re-elected, it\u0026rsquo;s not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinions unsolicited.\nI certainly think it\u0026rsquo;s certainly kosher to do (especially when complete idiots Hollywood actors feel the need to do the same). Isn\u0026rsquo;t it a little suspicious that this was released as an email (by itself), breaks his commitment to the President, and then retracts his statement? Well, it is, but apparently not enough for the AP.\nSchilling, who contributes frequently to online fan forums, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.\nSo confirmation isn\u0026rsquo;t necessary either? We can just publish things we read online? Cool! I want to be the first to publish that Kerry eats babies for breakfast and that Bush smokes weed. You heard it here first folks.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not saying it isn\u0026rsquo;t true. It might very well be. News organizations are supposed to have the integrity to check up on the stories. The AP admittedly had no proof of this story and went ahead with it anyway. It makes you wonder about its other articles. I think they should change their acronym to SAP (speculative association of the press).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/29/integrity-in-journalism-whats-that/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eCurt Schilling is one of the most popular players in Red Sox Nation. His last two performances showed gritty determination and incredible ability.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"the-magic-sock\"\u003eThe Magic Sock\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOr did it? According to \u003ca href=\"http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-sp.vecsey25oct25,0,4149490.column?coll=bal-sports-columnists\"\u003eLaura Vecsey at the Baltimore Sun\u003c/a\u003e, it was a ruse. It\u0026rsquo;s good to know that Laura knows where the real news is. She\u0026rsquo;s getting down to the real issues. We can only hope that Bud Selig notices and forms an investigation team, a la the 9/11 Commission. This is important stuff. Forget that it\u0026rsquo;s wild speculation and the fact that the only evidence she seems to have comes out of New York:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Integrity in Journalism: What's That?"},{"content":"No sooner than Peter Cohen mentions getting more than 11,000 comment spams than I realize that I had been hit. I previously had less than five spam comments. I now had about 50. Ugh.\nLuckily, setting WordPress to moderate comments with more than 3 links in it did the trick. Considering the success he had with MT-Blacklist and MovableType, I thought it was time I got WPBlacklist which is the equivalent for WordPress. Installation was quick and easy.\nNow I just have to wait and see if it works.\nUpdate: Two spam comments have been caught already. Seems to be working fine.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/28/comment-spam-gone-bezerk/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNo sooner than Peter Cohen \u003ca href=\"http://www.tikkabik.com/archives/001195.html\"\u003ementions getting more than 11,000 comment spams\u003c/a\u003e than I realize that I had been hit. I previously had less than five spam comments. I now had about 50. \u003cem\u003eUgh.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLuckily, setting WordPress to moderate comments with more than 3 links in it did the trick. Considering the success he had with \u003ca href=\"http://www.jayallen.org/projects/mt-blacklist/\"\u003eMT-Blacklist\u003c/a\u003e and MovableType, I thought it was time I got \u003ca href=\"http://sm.farook.org/WPBlacklist.htm#wpblacklist\"\u003eWPBlacklist\u003c/a\u003e which is the equivalent for WordPress. Installation was quick and easy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Comment Spam Gone Bezerk"},{"content":"I recently dumped Safari on my Macs in favor of Firefox. Nearly everything worked as I wanted, but one very important function was still misbehaving (at least as far as I was concerned). Every, and I mean every, link I clicked on in an external program would open a new window. This was slightly annoying at work with Windows, but it was a genuine PITA on my Macs because Firefox would attempt to offset the new window, inevitably resulting in part of the window being off screen.\nI\u0026rsquo;m very particular about my web browser. I want a single window with tabs. That\u0026rsquo;s all. Safari handled this superbly. Now, before you jump all over me to point out that there were extensions to add this functionality, the fact is, they don\u0026rsquo;t count. This is for two reasons. The first is that none of them ever worked on OS X right. Most essentially killed the browser and the one that didn\u0026rsquo;t made it nearly impossible to open a tab. Great.\nThankfully, some of the Mozilla folks saw that the inability to force external links to open in a new tab instead of a window or internal links that attempt to opena new window open in a new tab instead, was a mistake. It translated into a half-assed adoption of tabbed browsing. It had the meat, but left out the dressing.\nRelease Candidate 1 (now available on Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s servers) has controls in the preferences to set behavior for external links (new window, current tab/window, new tab in current window) as well as a preference to force new window links to open in either the current window or a new tab. Finally.\nThis will appear in the final 1.0 version of Firefox (due on Novermber 9th). If you don\u0026rsquo;t desperately want these freatures, you can simply wait. Can you stand the excitement?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/28/firefox-1.0-rc1-tabs-done-right/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI recently dumped Safari on my Macs in favor of Firefox. Nearly everything worked as I wanted, but one very important function was still misbehaving (at least as far as I was concerned). Every, and I mean every, link I clicked on in an external program would open a new window. This was slightly annoying at work with Windows, but it was a genuine PITA on my Macs because Firefox would attempt to offset the new window, inevitably resulting in part of the window being off screen.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firefox 1.0 RC1: Tabs Done Right"},{"content":"Check out the new styles. I\u0026rsquo;ve made “blue” the default, but I\u0026rsquo;m partial to orange myself.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/27/new-themes/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eCheck out the new styles. I\u0026rsquo;ve made “blue” the default, but I\u0026rsquo;m partial to orange myself.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New Themes"},{"content":"That\u0026rsquo;s right. It was the year!\nAll you naysayers can put that in your hash pipe and smoke it!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/27/what-curse/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s right. It \u003cstrong\u003ewas\u003c/strong\u003e the year!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll you naysayers can put that in your hash pipe and smoke it!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What Curse?"},{"content":"Just for fun, I decided that I would check Bloglines related feeds feature on my weblog. The results were rather surprising. Every single “related” feed was “en espanol.”\nFor the life of me, I can not figure this out. What exactly about my site makes it similar to these sites? I certainly don\u0026rsquo;t use any spanish.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/27/call-me-your-latin-lover/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJust for fun, I decided that I would check \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e related feeds feature on my weblog. \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com/relatedfeeds?siteid=584982\"\u003eThe results\u003c/a\u003e were rather surprising. Every single “related” feed was “en espanol.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the life of me, I can not figure this out. What exactly about my site makes it similar to these sites? I certainly don\u0026rsquo;t use any spanish.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Call Me Your Latin Lover"},{"content":"After days of reporting about this story, I\u0026rsquo;m still rather disappointed by the coverage. Most writers have been pouring out pages of worthless hyperbole. Of most note and worthy of the most criticism are Cnet with Mac users face rare threat and ZDnet with Destructive OS X malware spies on Apple users. Leave sensationalism to the tabloids, boys.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s get down to what Opener, or as Sophos calls it, SH/Renepo-A, is. First notice that Sophos reversed its name. Clever. Anyway, as linked to from the MacInTouch article, the script itself can be viewed at the Macintosh Underground Forum. The current latest version known is 2.3.8. Let\u0026rsquo;s lay out exactly what it does:\nCopies itself into /System/Library/StartupItems forcing it to run at startup as root Copies itself into the same directory for any bootable disk mounted (this includes Carbon Copy Cloner backups) Installs ohphoneX and runs it at startup silently Disables built-in firewall Disables Software Update\u0026rsquo;s automatic schedule Kills LittleSnitch Installs krec (keystroke recorder) (disabled in latest version because of visibility) Turns on SSH Turns on FileSharing Turns on Windows File Sharing (disabled by default) Turns on Apache (disabled by default) Creates .info directory to store data gathered Gets the name of the computer Gets private and public IP addresses (in case behind router) Gets OpenFirmware password Gets OSXvnc password if installed Gets a series of files with passwords and user information Gets serials for several commercial software packages Copies .info directory (full of information) to every Public user folder Modifies Limewire settings Creates admin user named “LDAP-daemon” for login Attempts to grab password from virtual memory files (known exploit) Uses John the Ripper to decode passwords Installs dsniff Sounds scary. For the most part it is. However, all of these things are individually acceptable when running them as root. None of this is a security exploit. Also note that nowhere in there is a way for it to initially install itself on other machines. In fact, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t even copy itself to the .info directory! It keeps itself in StartupItems. Therefore, you would have to install this onto your machine yourself (or run a malicious installer and give it permission to install it).\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s totally absurd about this situation is that Sophos, supposed virus experts, have classified this as a worm! Wikipedia defines a computer worm as:\nA computer worm is a self-replicating computer program, similar to a computer virus. A virus attaches itself to, and becomes part of, another executable program; however, a worm is self-contained and does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself. They are often designed to exploit the file transmission capabilities found on many computers.\nWell, we\u0026rsquo;ve already established that Opener doesn\u0026rsquo;t attach itself to anything as it is a simple shell script (nothing more). The next aspect is that it propagates itself. The only time it replicates itself is in the first two steps. The first step is local. The second copies itself to the StartupItems directory of a mounted volume. As we are assuming root, any local hard disks would be automatically be infected. However, these are still local disks, and therefore, this is not worm behavior as it is still contained within the same machine.\nWe finally discover the only way one could possibly construe this piece of malware as a worm when we think about what else a mounted volume can be. It can also be a network share. This is where we run the danger of wild speculation and try to force the title of worm upon this script. We need two things in a network share in order for it to be installed onto that remote filesystem. First, it must be a full boot disk (which is not a typical share to be using anyway). Second, the user that you log in as must have permissions to /System on that remote file system. This means you must be an admin or root on that remote machine. The natural reaction is to jump all over this and immediately conclude that is not important because the script is already running as root. This is wrong. Having root power in the local filesystem does not bestow root privileges in the remote share. You are still constrained by the username you mounted that share with. This does not qualify this as a worm.\nThe problem with the reporting of this malware is that it ignores the real lesson to be learned from the software. That is simply that once your computer is compromised and you\u0026rsquo;ve given root permissions to an errant program, the game is over. You\u0026rsquo;ve lost. What this script lacks is a strong propogation vector. Without that, this script is simply a reminder of what may happen if you are compromised.\nUsers can protect themselves by staying up to date with security fixes (coming through Software Update) and by being careful about what they give administrative power to (when the system probes you for your password). Don\u0026rsquo;t use shares that are entire boot disks. Finally, and this is how most users get bit, get your software from reputable sources such as software retailers and use version tracking services to get user feedback before you install it yourself. Do not use Limewire or any other P2P service to download your software. That\u0026rsquo;s how the last trojan (the Microsoft Office 2004 installer trojan) was spread. Trying to get software without paying for it is bad karma. Let this be another reason to not even try it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/26/opener-malware-the-straight-deal/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter days of reporting about this story, I\u0026rsquo;m still rather disappointed by the coverage. Most writers have been pouring out pages of worthless hyperbole. Of most note and worthy of the most criticism are Cnet with \u003ca href=\"http://news.com.com/Mac+users+face+rare+virus/2100-7349_3-5424883.html?tag=nefd.top\"\u003eMac users face rare threat\u003c/a\u003e and ZDnet with \u003ca href=\"\"\u003eDestructive OS X malware spies on Apple users\u003c/a\u003e. Leave sensationalism to the tabloids, boys.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet\u0026rsquo;s get down to what Opener, or as Sophos calls it, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/shrenepoa.html\"\u003eSH/Renepo-A\u003c/a\u003e, is. First notice that Sophos reversed its name. Clever. Anyway, as linked to from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html\"\u003eMacInTouch article\u003c/a\u003e, the script itself can be viewed at the \u003ca href=\"http://freaky.staticusers.net/\"\u003eMacintosh Underground Forum\u003c/a\u003e. The current latest version known is 2.3.8. Let\u0026rsquo;s lay out exactly what it does:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Opener Malware: The Straight Deal"},{"content":"Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas today. I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this game since I pre-ordered at eCost on July 25th earlier this year. They were offering the game for $38.95 at the time (with a $3.95 handling charge) which has since gone up to $41.49 (shopping cart special).\nYes, I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting a long time. If you count the time since I completed GTA: Vice City, it\u0026rsquo;s been even longer. Now I must wait for eCost to deliver it (which will feel like an eternity especially because they\u0026rsquo;re still estimating 10/28).\nSo go get yours! Amazon.com has it for $49.99. I tried to check Best Buy, but because they require cookies I can\u0026rsquo;t access it at work (and for that, they can go screw).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/26/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas-released-today/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.rockstargames.com\"\u003eRockstar Games\u003c/a\u003e released \u003ca href=\"http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/\"\u003eGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas\u003c/a\u003e today. I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this game since I pre-ordered at \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecost.com\"\u003eeCost\u003c/a\u003e on July 25th earlier this year. They were offering the game for $38.95 at the time (with a $3.95 handling charge) which has since gone up to \u003ca href=\"http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?dpno=400404\"\u003e$41.49\u003c/a\u003e (shopping cart special).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes, I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting a long time. If you count the time since I completed GTA: Vice City, it\u0026rsquo;s been even longer. Now I must wait for eCost to deliver it (which will feel like an eternity especially because they\u0026rsquo;re still estimating 10/28).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Released Today"},{"content":"I think I may finally get satisfaction from my webhost.\nThere are some problems currently being experienced by the apache servers at this time. Our admins are working on upgrading them to avoid these problems in the future. We apologize for the inconveniences caused by this and your site should be working shortly.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll know that they\u0026rsquo;ll finished these upgrades when the upper right hand corner of my web page stops giving the fsockopen error message (which I had to implant). Hopefully the upgrade will also improve some speed issues as my page takes well over a second to be generated now (just a little sluggish).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/25/satisfaction/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI think I may finally get satisfaction from my webhost.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are some problems currently being experienced by the apache servers at this time. Our admins are working on upgrading them to avoid these problems in the future. We apologize for the inconveniences caused by this and your site should be working shortly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll know that they\u0026rsquo;ll finished these upgrades when the upper right hand corner of my web page stops giving the fsockopen error message (which I had to implant). Hopefully the upgrade will also improve some speed issues as my page takes well over a second to be generated now (just a little sluggish).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Satisfaction"},{"content":"My server is acting wonky again. I\u0026rsquo;ve sent my fourth request for service to my webhost. This is a downward spiral. If anyone knows of a good cheap host with support for PHP, MySQL, Perl scripts, Python scripts, etc. (basically the works), please drop me a line. This is getting out of hand.\nOn a happier note, unbeknownst to me, my website has been linked to by MacSurfer. In particular, my entry on Jef Raskin has been picked out (which I did not expect when I wrote it). That would explain the exceedingly large number of comments I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting (including some rather angry/vengeful ones, go me). If I can get this kind of response simply by saying I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t want someone at a party, I might pass out if I try to think about how many hits I\u0026rsquo;ll get by actually criticizing someone in a meaningful way.\nI\u0026rsquo;m also uploading some pictures to the photo gallery tonight. Pictures of hanging out at my friend Andy\u0026rsquo;s place. Sweet. They should be ready later tonight.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/24/site-breakage-link-from-macsurfer-and-pictures/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy server is acting wonky again. I\u0026rsquo;ve sent my fourth request for service to my webhost. This is a downward spiral. If anyone knows of a good cheap host with support for PHP, MySQL, Perl scripts, Python scripts, etc. (basically the works), please drop me a line. This is getting out of hand.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn a happier note, unbeknownst to me, my website has been linked to by \u003ca href=\"http://www.macsurfer.com\"\u003eMacSurfer\u003c/a\u003e. In particular, \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/22/jef-raskin-not-a-guy-you-invite-to-parties/\"\u003emy entry on Jef Raskin\u003c/a\u003e has been picked out (which I did not expect when I wrote it). That would explain the exceedingly large number of comments I\u0026rsquo;ve been getting (including some rather angry/vengeful ones, go me). If I can get this kind of response simply by saying I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t want someone at a party, I might pass out if I try to think about how many hits I\u0026rsquo;ll get by actually criticizing someone in a meaningful way.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Site Breakage, Link from Macsurfer, and Pictures!"},{"content":"To be honest, I don\u0026rsquo;t use Shapeshifter, but I figure some of you might might be interested in a theme system for OS X. Especially recent converts, like you Katie (I did it again). Unsanity does some great work with their haxies, despite what anyone says. I\u0026rsquo;m a big fan of FruitMenu personally.\nThe reason I mainly bring it up is that the image in a recent blog entry changes (you have to force the image to reload by holding shift and clicking the reload button). So far it just changes color, but who knows what tomorrow will bring! Besides, maybe the new 2.0 version will have features that will draw me in.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/22/shapeshifter-its-magic/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTo be honest, I don\u0026rsquo;t use \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/shapeshifter\"\u003eShapeshifter\u003c/a\u003e, but I figure some of you might might be interested in a theme system for OS X. Especially recent converts, like you Katie (I did it again). \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.com\"\u003eUnsanity\u003c/a\u003e does some great work with their haxies, despite what anyone says. I\u0026rsquo;m a big fan of \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/fruitmenu\"\u003eFruitMenu\u003c/a\u003e personally.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reason I mainly bring it up is that the image in a \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000372.php\"\u003erecent blog entry\u003c/a\u003e changes (you have to force the image to reload by holding shift and clicking the reload button). So far it just changes color, but who knows what tomorrow will bring! Besides, maybe the new 2.0 version will have features that will draw me in.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Shapeshifter: It's Magic"},{"content":"I wrote an entry about how our society and, I\u0026rsquo;m ashamed to say, my generation treats the current state of privilege. In particular, I remarked upon how privileges are now being confused with rights. This, I can safely say, is the cause for the recent riots at U-Mass and in Boston. The vast majority of rioters were either college students or of that age. In other words, they are part of my generation.\nShame After the recent death of an Emerson student at the most recent Boston riot, I can safely say that I\u0026rsquo;m embarrassed. Sure, U-Mass now has a history of rioting following a major sporting event, but it has never escalated to the point that police were forced into an action that resulted in the death of an innocent bystander. That\u0026rsquo;s a line that once broken, will give students even out in Amherst some extra pause when they\u0026rsquo;re about ready to pile outside (to of course chant Yankees suck).\nWhen in doubt, blame the police Boston police have already taken responsibility and promised an investigation. This is an empty promise, but that\u0026rsquo;s not a criticism on my part. Rather, I don\u0026rsquo;t think there needs to be an investigation. In a situation such as a riot, this is bound to happen. A riot by its very nature is violent and holding police to an impossibly high standard while 80,000 people break the simplest, most basic standards in a society is utterly ridiculous. The police officer obviously wasn\u0026rsquo;t trying to kill anyone. He was trying to maintain his and everybody else\u0026rsquo;s safety in an incredibly chaotic atmosphere.\nResponsibility Further, I\u0026rsquo;m not going to outright blame the poor student, but I do have to make a commentary about people that are present at these riots. Everyone knows that following a major sporting event, U-Mass has a riot. Likewise, everyone knew that following game seven of the ALCS, regardless of the outcome, there was going to be a riot at Fenway. That was a given.\nThis trend has been gaining steam, as far as I can tell, starting with the 2001 Superbowl win by the Patriots. U-Mass had its perhaps most spectacular riot ever. Thousands gathered. Every window face the center of the gathering was filled with yet more. Bonfires were started. Scores of drunken women sat on the shoulders of male friends and showed their breasts. Fireworks were set off (and considering that they were amateur, they were spectacular). Videos of the riot began surfacing on the campus network. The students gathered so suddenly and unexpectedly that the police weren\u0026rsquo;t prepared. They were fairly overwhelmed. The punchline was that it was a huge party and practically no one got in trouble for it.\nThis sent a message to the student body: You are not responsible for your actions. My privilege-without-responsibility generation compatriots got the message loud and clear. Rioting had no consequences. Every sporting event became an excuse to riot. It was no longer a spontaneous event. It wasn\u0026rsquo;t a snap decision shared by thousands as it had been after the Superbowl. It was a given. The following year\u0026rsquo;s division playoffs and ALCS was a reason to riot nearly every day for two weeks.\nThis reputation naturally was spread as the media reported the event. Boston college students couldn\u0026rsquo;t be outdone. Even Westfield, a school dominated by future law enforcement officers and teachers, was infected with this fever, ruining police vehicles. The Pariot\u0026rsquo;s victory earlier this year set the stage for some awful riots in Boston. U-Mass was expecting something to happen and due to plenty of practice, developed a system involving cameras, lights, and scores of police in riot gear to disperse the crowd if even a hint of violence was shown.\nMany U-Mass students still like to visit Southwest to witness the insanity of it all, but few feel the same way about it now that they did at the first riot. Threats of legal action as well as academic sanctions have become an effective deterrant. However, this has yet to be felt in Boston, which is why it was so volatile there. Too many apathetic, disaffected students feel that what they do has no consequence. It\u0026rsquo;s not a riot born of some real outrage; they are parties.\nThis is why people still gather, despite the fact that they are putting themselves in a dangerous situation. They think that solely because they are not actively breaking any laws, they are safe from anything happening. The Hobart Hoedown incident of 2003 [2] did not send the message to student in Boston that it did in Amherst. Students that went to Hobart Lane, knowing what would happen, got hurt and then blamed the police for being too reactionary but not discriminating enough. This is exactly like what happened in Boston, only in Boston, someone died.\nGoing to a riot like these is tantamount to putting yourself in the path of a speeding car. Eventually, one of those cars is going to hit you. This is why I have a hard time absolving Victoria Snelgrove of all guilt. Every time I thought about going down to a riot, I thought about the fact that I might be putting myself in danger. In the heat of the moment, I could be confused for a violent participant and a non-violent one. Hell, I ran the risk of being accosted by one of those violent protestors.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s time that college students started acting like the adults that they supposedly are. That includes taking all responsibility for the actions you take. Even the ones that put you in danger and possibly get you killed. It\u0026rsquo;s time that collegiates are held accountable for breaking things, lighting things on fire, assaulting police officers, and even ignoring officers attempts to get things under control by clearing an area.\nProhibition Mayor Menino\u0026rsquo;s proposed solution is a typical knee-jerk reaction that will effectively do nothing about the problem. Prohibiting local bars from serving alcoholic drinks will not keep this from happening again. In fact, the only thing it will really accomplish is to drain profit from those bars that he is blocking from running their business as usual.\nI\u0026rsquo;d like to see a profile of the age of participants of this past riots. A large portion, if not the majority, were underage I bet, not the bar crowd. Rather, I believe that most of the people involved got drunk at home. Shutting down the bars in the area will not even make a dent in the number of intoxicated individuals in Boston following the World Series games. This is of course assuming that alcohol is the reason that riots take place to begin with.\nInstead, you\u0026rsquo;re more likely to see those bar-goers either being displaced to another establishment farther out (forcing them to travel farther to get to Fenway) or to drink at home (which most due already I suspect). Drinking at home exacerbates the problem by making it cheaper to drink as well as easier to get drunk really fast.\nI know the mayor wants to do something about this, if for no other reason, to maintain his reputation, but his idea will not have an effect. I can only hope that the death from the last riot will have enough of a chilling effect to keep it from happening again.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/22/riots-r-us/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI wrote \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2004/07/29/entitlement-and-the-lack-of-responsibility/\"\u003ean entry\u003c/a\u003e about how our society and, I\u0026rsquo;m ashamed to say, my generation treats the current state of privilege. In particular, I remarked upon how privileges are now being confused with rights. This, I can safely say, is the cause for the recent riots at U-Mass and in Boston. The vast majority of rioters were either college students or of that age. In other words, they are part of my generation.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Riots ‘R Us"},{"content":"In a recent story at Macminute Jef Raskin pans Mac OS X: Unfortunately, the Mac is now a mess. It seems that Jef is now suffering from crotchity-old-man syndrome.\nThe Guardian article is full of vague criticisms of both the current state of the Mac and computers in general.\nThere has been immense progress, primarily in the richness of applications. But all this power is lost on many people, and impedes the utility of it for the rest, because of the unnecessary complexity of using computers. The quest for CPU power has been largely defeated by bloated software in applications and operating systems. Some programs I wrote in Basic on an Apple II ran faster than when written in a modern language on a G4 Dual-processor Mac with hardware 1,000 times sharper.\nWhich modern programming language? What was the function of the software? My point is that every job has a proper tool to accomplish it with. Making vague accusations such as Jef has here, is at best, a worthless statement. It\u0026rsquo;s like me saying: Some meals I made with a dull butter knife were on the table faster than when I made the same meal with a Samurai sword 1,000 times sharper.\nI\u0026rsquo;d pick his comments apart sentence by sentence, but I think they are so easily summarized by earlier assertion that he\u0026rsquo;s just crotchity that I don\u0026rsquo;t think it\u0026rsquo;s worth the effort. I will, however, highlight a quote pulled from an old Wired article that was in a recent Cult of Mac entry.\nAs the creator of the Macintosh project, and the guy who named it ‘Macintosh\u0026rsquo; after his beloved McIntosh apples, I can firmly say that pot had nothing to do with it. Unlike our previous president, I have never even brought a reefer to lip, much less inhaled it. I also do not use alcohol, tobacco or any other recreational drugs, and never have.\nThe guy must be a real riot to hang out with, life of the party. I personally don\u0026rsquo;t see anyone wanting to watch a baseball game with him and his 15″ black and white television, drinking a couple glasses of tap water.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/22/jef-raskin-not-a-guy-you-invite-to-parties/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn a \u003ca href=\"http://www.macminute.com/2004/10/22/raskin/\"\u003erecent story\u003c/a\u003e at \u003ca href=\"http://www.macminute.com\"\u003eMacminute\u003c/a\u003e Jef Raskin \u003ca href=\"http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1331536,00.html\"\u003epans Mac OS X\u003c/a\u003e: \u003cem\u003eUnfortunately, the Mac is now a mess\u003c/em\u003e. It seems that Jef is now suffering from crotchity-old-man syndrome.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1331536,00.html\"\u003eGuardian article\u003c/a\u003e is full of vague criticisms of both the current state of the Mac and computers in general.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere has been immense progress, primarily in the richness of applications. But all this power is lost on many people, and impedes the utility of it for the rest, because of the unnecessary complexity of using computers. The quest for CPU power has been largely defeated by bloated software in applications and operating systems. Some programs I wrote in Basic on an Apple II ran faster than when written in a modern language on a G4 Dual-processor Mac with hardware 1,000 times sharper.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Jef Raskin: Not a Guy You Invite to Parties"},{"content":"A nasty little script has appeared on someone\u0026rsquo;s machine. I suggest reading the entire page about it, though some sections are a little more technical than others.\nThis script does not exploit a known security hole in OS X. Rather, it does things that are all possible as an administrator and should be taken more as a warning about being careful about what you download and install. Not downloading software from services like LimeWire would be a good start. This is essentially a Trojan horse attack (like the Microsoft Office Installer Trojan). However, it\u0026rsquo;s more insidious in that its effects are not immediately visible, opting instead to facilitate things like allowing remote control and indentity theft.\nI suspect that most likely, the original victim was downloading warez and just didn\u0026rsquo;t want to own up to getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Until the source is discovered, heed a warning that has always been true: be careful with what you install.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/22/important-mac-security-advisory/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA \u003ca href=\"http://www.macintouch.com/opener.html\"\u003enasty little script\u003c/a\u003e has appeared on someone\u0026rsquo;s machine. I suggest reading the entire page about it, though some sections are a little more technical than others.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis script does not exploit a known security hole in OS X. Rather, it does things that are all possible as an administrator and should be taken more as a warning about being careful about what you download and install. Not downloading software from services like LimeWire would be a good start. This is essentially a Trojan horse attack (like the \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2004/05/12/the-second-mac-os-x-trojan/\"\u003eMicrosoft Office Installer Trojan\u003c/a\u003e). However, it\u0026rsquo;s more insidious in that its effects are not immediately visible, opting instead to facilitate things like allowing remote control and indentity theft.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Important Mac Security Advisory"},{"content":"Red Sox rock so hard! Yankees suck! Woooo, we overcame a 3 game deficit to win the ALCS.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/21/go-red-sox/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"red-sox-rock-so-hard-yankees-suck\"\u003eRed Sox rock so hard! Yankees suck!\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWoooo, we overcame a 3 game deficit to win the ALCS.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Go Red Sox!!"},{"content":"In response to the Red Sox victory in game six, thousands of University of Massachusetts gathered in Southwest, only to have 35 arrested.\nWho says we don\u0026rsquo;t still got it? Tonight will be incredible. I\u0026rsquo;d expect thousands more to gather at the conclusion of the game. I hope my brother and the rest of the U-Mass police are ready.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/20/u-mass-makes-me-proud/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn response to the Red Sox victory in game six, thousands of University of Massachusetts \u003ca href=\"http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-alcs-umass\u0026amp;prov=ap\u0026amp;type=lgns\"\u003egathered in Southwest, only to have 35 arrested\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWho says we don\u0026rsquo;t still got it? Tonight will be incredible. I\u0026rsquo;d expect thousands more to gather at the conclusion of the game. I hope my brother and the rest of the U-Mass police are ready.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"U-Mass Makes Me Proud"},{"content":"Ha ha. I love it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/20/kerry-stem-cell-research-may-hold-cure-to-ailing-campaign/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4042\u0026amp;n=1\"\u003eHa ha. I love it.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Kerry: Stem-Cell Research May Hold Cure to Ailing Campaign"},{"content":"You\u0026rsquo;re Fired In a bonehead maneuver, A-Rod\u0026rsquo;s swipe at Arroyo\u0026rsquo;s hand (and attempt at cheating) probably just cost the Yankees game six and possibly the ALCS.\nI couldn\u0026rsquo;t have written it better myself.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/20/steinbrenner-to-a-rod/","summary":"\u003ch1 id=\"youre-fired\"\u003eYou\u0026rsquo;re Fired\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a bonehead maneuver, A-Rod\u0026rsquo;s swipe at Arroyo\u0026rsquo;s hand (and attempt at cheating) probably just cost the Yankees game six and possibly the ALCS.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI couldn\u0026rsquo;t have written it better myself.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Steinbrenner to A-Rod…"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been a big fan of Adium for some time now (ever since its very first release so long ago). It was the first and only Instant Message client to properly use the dock. With a quick glance, you could tell who just signed on or off, who was messaging. Because it was in the dock, you didn\u0026rsquo;t need to switch out of your current application to see notifications. The effect was also minimal, causing little distraction or taking up any screen space.\nAlas, it was not without its failings, most prominently its lack of file transfer support and the ability to read away messages. The latter was nearly impossible to go without. It was an unfortunate side effect of the protocol being used. I was forced to move to iChat until this was addressed.\nThat brings us to Adium 2 (whose current number is less than 1, which I agree is confusing in many ways). Adam Iser, the author of the original program, made Adium into a Sourceforge project. This doesn\u0026rsquo;t work for all projects, as some just get neglected. However, after a slow start, their team started making headway, allowing users to download and compile their own copy off the development CVS. They now churn out regular milestone builds like any good open source project.\nThe most recent milestone (0.7) which is available at their website has some impressive features and though they may not agree, I think is ready for primetime and general use. The level of customization is unparalleled in any other product and save for audio/video and file transfers, is feature complete.\nTo go along with this customization, Adium has an excellent “Xtras” site to host them all. I personally have my own preferences, which I will post screenshots of once I get home.\nThese customizations include: * Dock Icons * Emoticons (Smileys) * Contact (Buddy) List Styles * Message View (Chat Window) Styles * Sound Sets * Of course, AppleScripts\nAdium isn\u0026rsquo;t just an AOL Instant Message client either. It also supports: * MSN Messenger * Yahoo Messenger * Jabber (which according to rumor will be added to iChat) * Gadu-Gadu * Rendezvous * .Mac * and more\nIt also supports plugins, including one for the previously mentioned Growl. The possibilities are truly endless.\nHonestly, this is the single project I\u0026rsquo;d like most to get involved with if I could only motivate myself enough to get Cocoa and Objective-C down pat.\nKeep reading for pictures.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/19/adium-0.7-ready-for-general-consumption/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been a big fan of \u003ca href=\"http://www.adiumx.com\"\u003eAdium\u003c/a\u003e for some time now (ever since its very first release so long ago). It was the first and only Instant Message client to properly use the dock. With a quick glance, you could tell who just signed on or off, who was messaging. Because it was in the dock, you didn\u0026rsquo;t need to switch out of your current application to see notifications. The effect was also minimal, causing little distraction or taking up any screen space.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlas, it was not without its failings, most prominently its lack of file transfer support and the ability to read away messages. The latter was nearly impossible to go without. It was an unfortunate side effect of the protocol being used. I was forced to move to iChat until this was addressed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat brings us to Adium 2 (whose current number is less than 1, which I agree is confusing in many ways). Adam Iser, the author of the original program, made Adium into a \u003ca href=\"http://sf.net\"\u003eSourceforge\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://sourceforge.net/projects/adium/\"\u003eproject\u003c/a\u003e. This doesn\u0026rsquo;t work for all projects, as \u003ca href=\"http://fire.sf.net\"\u003esome just get neglected\u003c/a\u003e. However, after a slow start, their team started making headway, allowing users to download and compile their own copy off the development CVS. They now churn out regular milestone builds like any good open source project.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe most recent milestone (0.7) which is available at \u003ca href=\"http://www.adiumx.com\"\u003etheir website\u003c/a\u003e has some impressive features and though they may not agree, I think is ready for primetime and general use. The level of customization is unparalleled in any other product and save for audio/video and file transfers, is feature complete.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo go along with this customization, Adium has an excellent \u003ca href=\"http://www.adiumxtras.com\"\u003e“Xtras” site\u003c/a\u003e to host them all. I personally have my own preferences, which I will post screenshots of once I get home.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese customizations include: * Dock Icons * Emoticons (Smileys) * Contact (Buddy) List Styles * Message View (Chat Window) Styles * Sound Sets * Of course, AppleScripts\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdium isn\u0026rsquo;t just an AOL Instant Message client either. It also supports: * MSN Messenger * Yahoo Messenger * Jabber (which according to rumor will be added to iChat) * Gadu-Gadu * Rendezvous * .Mac * \u003cem\u003eand more\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt also supports plugins, including one for the previously mentioned \u003ca href=\"http://growl.info\"\u003eGrowl\u003c/a\u003e. The possibilities are truly endless.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHonestly, this is the single project I\u0026rsquo;d like most to get involved with if I could only motivate myself enough to get Cocoa and Objective-C down pat.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKeep reading for pictures.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Adium 0.7 Ready for General Consumption"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been preaching about Firefox for some time now. Most everyone I know has switched from Internet Explorer and loved the change.\nWith the Firefox 1.0 release fast approaching, Spreadfirefox.com (caution, it\u0026rsquo;s currently being slashdotted, so you may not be able to get the page) is raising money for a full page advertisement in the New York Times to gain even more users. $30 will get your name in the ad (only $10 for students; I\u0026rsquo;m looking at you Dana, Katie, and Scott). Donate here.\nI encourage everyone who uses and loves this browser to contribute something. With your help and support, Firefox can become the predominant browser on the web.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/19/help-firefox-get-a-full-page-ad-in-the-new-york-times/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been preaching about \u003ca href=\"http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates\u0026amp;id=1747\"\u003eFirefox\u003c/a\u003e for some time now. Most everyone I know has switched from Internet Explorer and loved the change.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the Firefox 1.0 release fast approaching, \u003ca href=\"http://www.spreadfirefox.com\"\u003eSpreadfirefox.com\u003c/a\u003e (caution, it\u0026rsquo;s currently being slashdotted, so you may not be able to get the page) is raising money for a full page advertisement in the New York Times to gain even more users. $30 will get your name in the ad (only $10 for students; I\u0026rsquo;m looking at you Dana, Katie, and Scott). \u003ca href=\"https://mozillastore.com/donations/?campaign=newspaper\u0026amp;user=1747\"\u003eDonate here\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Help Firefox Get a Full Page Ad in the New York Times"},{"content":"I know you\u0026rsquo;re all very excited boys and girls. Apple has bumped their iBook computers.\nWe now have: * A 1.2GHz 12″ iBook with 30GB hard drive and a combo drive * A 1.33GHz 14″ iBook with 60GB hard drive and your choice of combo or super drive\nAll three models sport: * 512KB of Level 2 Cache * 133MHz system bus * 256MB of PC2100 RAM built-in (with a single slot free, allowing for 1.25GB total) * ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of SDRAM * One Firewire 400 port * Two USB 2.0 ports * Video mirroring (no spanning) * V.92 56Kbps modem * 10/100Base-T Ethernet port * Airport Extreme on all models * Optional Bluetooth * Display supporting 1024×768 resolution\nMore details are available at Apple.\nPricing is $999 for the 12″, and $1,299 and $1,499 for the 14″ version with combo drive and superdrive respectively.\nThe 12″ isn\u0026rsquo;t a bad deal, but for the prices of the 14″ iBooks, I\u0026rsquo;d move on up to the 12″ Powerbook. The screen may be bigger on the 14″, but again, the actual pixel space is the same, so things will only be bigger on the 14″ screen. It\u0026rsquo;s good to see Airport Extreme on all laptops that Apple now offers (though this should have happened earlier). The small amount of RAM is disappointing again.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to predict that one of the first things that nay-sayers will harp on is the lack of Firewire 800. Get over it, this is a consumer machine and it\u0026rsquo;s entirely inappropriate to have.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/19/apple-releases-new-ibooks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI know you\u0026rsquo;re all very excited boys and girls. Apple has bumped their iBook computers.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe now have: * A 1.2GHz 12″ iBook with 30GB hard drive and a combo drive * A 1.33GHz 14″ iBook with 60GB hard drive and your choice of combo or super drive\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll three models sport: * 512KB of Level 2 Cache * 133MHz system bus * 256MB of PC2100 RAM built-in (with a single slot free, allowing for 1.25GB total) * ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of SDRAM * One Firewire 400 port * Two USB 2.0 ports * Video mirroring (no spanning) * V.92 56Kbps modem * 10/100Base-T Ethernet port * \u003cstrong\u003eAirport Extreme on all models\u003c/strong\u003e * \u003cem\u003eOptional\u003c/em\u003e Bluetooth * Display supporting 1024×768 resolution\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple Releases New iBooks"},{"content":"I figure I might as well take my lumps now while I\u0026rsquo;m riding high on this past weekends picks.\nI had the horrible misfortune of have a 6-8 record during week five. Sad. Week six thus far has been much better. So far, it\u0026rsquo;s 11-2. Houston always surprises me and I\u0026rsquo;m glad to see Green Bay on the road to recovery.\nI now have a 37-18 record for the season.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/18/updated-football-prediction-record/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI figure I might as well take my lumps now while I\u0026rsquo;m riding high on this past weekends picks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had the horrible misfortune of have a 6-8 record during week five. Sad. Week six thus far has been much better. So far, it\u0026rsquo;s 11-2. Houston always surprises me and I\u0026rsquo;m glad to see Green Bay on the road to recovery.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI now have a \u003cstrong\u003e37-18\u003c/strong\u003e record for the season.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Updated Football Prediction Record"},{"content":"In what is becoming a bi-weekly tradition for this site, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten my website fixed again.\nThe real question is how long will it hold up. It\u0026rsquo;s rather frustrating for me as this website has become my main hobby and any time I think I\u0026rsquo;m beginning to make headway in some kind of readership, the site goes down. What\u0026rsquo;s worse is that I\u0026rsquo;m paying for this service. This is the first time that I actually went out and bought hosting for this purpose and I\u0026rsquo;m getting worse results than I got on free hosts. It\u0026rsquo;s unacceptable.\nI\u0026rsquo;m going to have to find some solution to avoid this week in and out. Considering the software I\u0026rsquo;m using is perfectly stable in other environments, I\u0026rsquo;m leaning towards a new host. It seems that anything trying to access outside resources eventually breaks (with, as of yet, no explanation from my host). Unfortunately for me, I bought in for a year of service with these people but pretty soon I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to start taking drastic measures.\nI don\u0026rsquo;t think I\u0026rsquo;d be half as frustrated if they simply took me seriously. I have to exchange half a dozen emails with random people until I finally find one that realizes I know what I\u0026rsquo;m talking about. Further, I do half the work for them by setting up simple test case reductions in order to point out that there is nothing wrong with WordPress or the plugins I\u0026rsquo;m using. Again, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using WordPress for months now without problems, then a month or two ago, I started getting this transient problem.\nIf this problem happens again and I\u0026rsquo;m not taken seriously, I\u0026rsquo;m going to go on a one-man crusade to make their lives hell because I\u0026rsquo;m the god damn customer in this situation and I demand satisfaction.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/18/fixed-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIn what is becoming a bi-weekly tradition for this site, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten my website fixed again.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe real question is how long will it hold up. It\u0026rsquo;s rather frustrating for me as this website has become my main hobby and any time I think I\u0026rsquo;m beginning to make headway in some kind of readership, the site goes down. What\u0026rsquo;s worse is that I\u0026rsquo;m paying for this service. This is the first time that I actually went out and bought hosting for this purpose and I\u0026rsquo;m getting worse results than I got on free hosts. It\u0026rsquo;s unacceptable.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fixed Again"},{"content":"I give up.\nI tried to check my football picks to see how I\u0026rsquo;m doing this week, only to be greeted with the “No data” error. Super.\nI tried to get my host to do what they did last time to fix it and instead, I got the brilliant response that my website was working and that pinging it worked. This is after I referenced the old incident number where they actually figured out the problem.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/17/website-broken-third-time-is-the-charm/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI give up.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI tried to check my football picks to see how I\u0026rsquo;m doing this week, only to be greeted with the “No data” error. Super.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI tried to get my host to do what they did last time to fix it and instead, I got the brilliant response that my website was working and that pinging it worked. This is after I referenced the old incident number where they actually figured out the problem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Website Broken: Third Time is the Charm?"},{"content":"Jon Stewart recently appeared on CNN‘s Crossfire. As someone who\u0026rsquo;s been disgusted with essentially all of this year\u0026rsquo;s presidential campaign season, it was the single most refreshing appearance on TV. He challenges the hosts to answer why they are “hurting America”. They naturally dodged the question (political commentating hosts are politicians too apparently).\nIf you want to see it for yourself, you\u0026rsquo;ll need a BitTorrent client such as my personal favorite Azureus. Once you have one, you can download it in either WMV or AVI formats at bitflood.\nThis interview alone, along with Jon Stewart\u0026rsquo;s message has prompted me to buy his latest book, which I suggest you do as well. It\u0026rsquo;s only $15 and if you spend about $10 more, you can get free shipping. It\u0026rsquo;s a small price to pay to get a great book and support someone who is an actual straight political shooter.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/16/jon-stewart-my-hero/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJon Stewart recently appeared on \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com\"\u003eCNN\u003c/a\u003e‘s \u003ca href=\"http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/crossfire/\"\u003eCrossfire\u003c/a\u003e. As someone who\u0026rsquo;s been disgusted with essentially all of this year\u0026rsquo;s presidential campaign season, it was the single most refreshing appearance on TV. He challenges the hosts to answer why they are “hurting America”. They naturally dodged the question (political commentating hosts are politicians too apparently).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to see it for yourself, you\u0026rsquo;ll need a \u003ca href=\"http://bittorrent.com\"\u003eBitTorrent\u003c/a\u003e client such as my personal favorite \u003ca href=\"http://azureus.sourceforge.net\"\u003eAzureus\u003c/a\u003e. Once you have one, you can download it in either WMV or AVI formats at \u003ca href=\"http://bitflood.org:8080/?file=791b2f5d95a54d1381b85f271b51f71e73964185\"\u003ebitflood\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Jon Stewart: My Hero"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m not going to comment upon my picks from last week. They were bad.\nThis week\u0026rsquo;s picks:\nSan Diego vs. Atlanta Miami vs. Buffalo Washinton vs. Chicago Cincinnati vs. Cleveland Green Bay vs. Detroit Kansas City vs. Jacksonville Seattle vs. New England San Francisco vs. NY Jets Carolina vs. Philadelphia Houston vs. Tennessee Denver vs. Oakland Pittsburgh vs. Dallas Minnesota vs. New Orleans Tampa Bay vs. St. Louis I\u0026rsquo;ll update my record next week.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/16/football-picks-week-6/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m not going to comment upon my picks from last week. They were bad.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis week\u0026rsquo;s picks:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Diego vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMiami vs. \u003cstrong\u003eBuffalo\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWashinton\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Chicago\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCleveland\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGreen Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDetroit\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKansas City vs. \u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeattle vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Francisco vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCarolina vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHouston vs. \u003cstrong\u003eTennessee\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Oakland\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Dallas\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e vs. New Orleans\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSt. Louis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll update my record next week.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 6"},{"content":"I was recently told this lately by someone I knew in high school. Let\u0026rsquo;s for a moment, ignore the fact they couldn\u0026rsquo;t be bothered to capitalize “i”, spell out “u”, or use an apostrophe. The complete and utter arrogance in this statement infuriated me to levels that I should have let it. It\u0026rsquo;s not worth getting my blood pressure up over. Still, I feel the need to vent on why I got so angry.\nFirst, some setup: I was trying to strike up a cordial conversation with someone whom I knew and liked in high school (which was a long time ago). I asked her why, so late on a Friday night, she wasn\u0026rsquo;t out partying. She is still in college after all (this is important and will come up later in my diatribe).\nShe then explained to me that it allowed her get everything done that she wanted/needed to. She felt that drinking was a waste of time. I brought up the idea that drinking was a good way to unwind and meet people (which it still is, at least when you\u0026rsquo;re young and in college, a good way to do those things). She then explained that she preferred alternative ways to do that. I acknowledged that without comment.\nShe decided to follow that with:\ni dont expect u to understand She doesn\u0026rsquo;t expect me to understand? I asked her why. She explained that people at this age like to party, implying of course that I was all about partying (as all my friends know *end sarcasm*) and that I was so immature that I couldn\u0026rsquo;t understand the idea that there are other ways to unwind and meet people.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s review, shall we? I never partied that much in college. I still don\u0026rsquo;t. I like to have the occasional drink (as the overwhelming majority of adults do). In college, I was on the Dean\u0026rsquo;s List every semester. I had a perfect attendance record (just try to find another college student that has done this). I was taking some graduate level courses by the time I finished. I graduated with honors. I was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. I think I can comprehend a simple idea like the one she proposed. I\u0026rsquo;ve already started my career. I\u0026rsquo;ve started saving into my 401k. I\u0026rsquo;m thinking about buying a house next year. She hasn\u0026rsquo;t even graduated from college yet.\nWhen I tried to explain that I didn\u0026rsquo;t party all the time, choosing instead to do it in moderation, she didn\u0026rsquo;t respond. It\u0026rsquo;s not that she didn\u0026rsquo;t give a substantive response. She simply said nothing. Then after an extended silence, she simply told me good night and signed off. I\u0026rsquo;m glad she\u0026rsquo;s not one of my core friends so I can feel fine saying this:\nScrew you too.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/16/i-dont-expect-u-to-understand/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI was recently told this lately by someone I knew in high school. Let\u0026rsquo;s for a moment, ignore the fact they couldn\u0026rsquo;t be bothered to capitalize “i”, spell out “u”, or use an apostrophe. The complete and utter arrogance in this statement infuriated me to levels that I should have let it. It\u0026rsquo;s not worth getting my blood pressure up over. Still, I feel the need to vent on why I got so angry.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"“i dont expect u to understand”"},{"content":"Picasa and Hello! are cool!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/15/more-google-stuff/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://insidegoogle.blogspot.com/2004/10/hello-whats-this-its-googles-most.html\"\u003ePicasa and Hello! are cool!\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"More Google Stuff"},{"content":"The author of PithHelmet recently wrote a short piece on shareware fees and software update site feedback. It\u0026rsquo;s disheartening to think that this is becoming increasingly common. Mike worked very hard on PithHelmet 2 to make it far suprior to the open-source, free PithHelmet 0.7.3. He added quality features like Machete (which allows you to filter web pages through a perl or Python script) which I have not seen on any other browser. He continues to distribute 0.7.3 for free, but apparently that\u0026rsquo;s not good enough for some users.\nFurther, one “reviewer” at Macupdate demanded that Mike go to Macupdate to answer his questions. That has to be the single most infantile act I\u0026rsquo;ve seen at a software version tracking site (and I\u0026rsquo;ve seen some pretty dumb things).\nThis type of idiotic behavior is commonplace on these sites. At one point, I heeded reviews on these sites. They were fair, balanced, and in-depth. Now it\u0026rsquo;s filled with 1 and 5 star reviews, no in between. Wonderful. The 1 start reviews are filled with such intellectual gems as:\nAnd if an author wants to persuade you of its harmlessness, kick off his balls! Here\u0026rsquo;s to hoping that Net Monitor dies the slow, painful death that all suckerware deserves. Just another POS from Alpha Omega. Especially when one spent two years by nothing else than scratching his sphincter. GIVE US BACK SOUNDJAM, you ignorant Apple idiots! What else from people who are permanently to stupid and ignorant to even fill in a “What\u0026rsquo;s new”? Avoid this piece of bullsh1t Once again, the prevalence of the Internet is starting to bite us in the ass. People who can\u0026rsquo;t tie their shoes or put together a coherent sentence are offering their “expert” advice.\nHere\u0026rsquo;s to hoping that the Internet community will fight back against these “scholars”.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/14/pithhelmet-shareware-fees-and-update-site-backlash/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe author of PithHelmet recently \u003ca href=\"http://www.culater.net/thc/index.php?entry=/Development/registration_project.txt\"\u003ewrote a short piece on shareware fees and software update site feedback\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s disheartening to think that this is becoming increasingly common. Mike worked very hard on PithHelmet 2 to make it far suprior to the open-source, free PithHelmet 0.7.3. He added quality features like Machete (which allows you to filter web pages through a perl or Python script) which I have not seen on any other browser. He continues to distribute 0.7.3 for free, but apparently that\u0026rsquo;s not good enough for some users.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"PithHelmet, Shareware Fees, and Update Site Backlash"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m big into Firefox right now, but I\u0026rsquo;m still a fan of Safari (if only they\u0026rsquo;d speed it up). I still miss (among other things) the reload/stop button. Apple was so clever as to realize that they were mutually exclusive (you can\u0026rsquo;t choose both at the same time at any time). That reduced them to a single button.\nMy prayers were answered with the Stop-or-Reload Button extension. Do it up.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/13/my-new-favorite-firefox-extension/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m big into Firefox right now, but I\u0026rsquo;m still a fan of Safari (if only they\u0026rsquo;d speed it up). I still miss (among other things) the reload/stop button. Apple was so clever as to realize that they were mutually exclusive (you can\u0026rsquo;t choose both at the same time at any time). That reduced them to a single button.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy prayers were answered with the \u003ca href=\"http://v2studio.com/k/moz/\"\u003eStop-or-Reload Button extension\u003c/a\u003e. Do it up.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My New Favorite Firefox Extension"},{"content":"I can\u0026rsquo;t quite explain how excited I am, but Brent Simmons likes my NetNewsWire theme and will be including it with NetNewsWire. I\u0026rsquo;m quite thrilled and didn\u0026rsquo;t expect it to be worthy of that honor. At any rate, I\u0026rsquo;ll be referring to it as Autumn from now on.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/13/my-theme-will-be-bundled-with-netnewswire/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t quite explain how excited I am, but \u003ca href=\"http://www.inessential.com\"\u003eBrent Simmons\u003c/a\u003e likes \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/09/my-netnewswire-style/\"\u003emy NetNewsWire theme\u003c/a\u003e and will be including it with \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/\"\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m quite thrilled and didn\u0026rsquo;t expect it to be worthy of that honor. At any rate, I\u0026rsquo;ll be referring to it as Autumn from now on.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Theme Will Be Bundled with NetNewsWire"},{"content":" Trackback Ethics But this isn\u0026rsquo;t about squabbling between bloggers. I\u0026rsquo;m more interested in the question, “What is trackback for?” or “What is ethical Trackback?” I\u0026rsquo;m not sure. From what I\u0026rsquo;ve read, Trackback is just a ping to tell someone that you\u0026rsquo;ve written / blogged / quoted something similar or on the same topic (Wikipedia). I was continuing Scoble\u0026rsquo;s discussion of blog promotion. I tracked back discussions of it. Was that wrong? Elliott Back asks some interesting questions about trackbacks. I think the concept and its appropriateness is all too often not explained well. I\u0026rsquo;m new to the blogging game so I won\u0026rsquo;t pretend to know everything. I will say that this problem is likely to get much worse as blogging packages are becoming increasingly accessible to laymen. It might be time for blogging package makers to take a little responsibility to explain these concepts better to new users.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/13/trackback-ethics/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.elliottback.com/blog/?postid=127\"\u003eTrackback Ethics\u003c/a\u003e But this isn\u0026rsquo;t about squabbling between bloggers. I\u0026rsquo;m more interested in the question, “What is trackback for?” or “What is ethical Trackback?” I\u0026rsquo;m not sure. From what I\u0026rsquo;ve read, Trackback is just a ping to tell someone that you\u0026rsquo;ve written / blogged / quoted something similar or on the same topic (Wikipedia). I was continuing Scoble\u0026rsquo;s discussion of blog promotion. I tracked back discussions of it. Was that wrong?\nElliott Back asks some interesting questions about trackbacks. I think the concept and its appropriateness is all too often not explained well. I\u0026rsquo;m new to the blogging game so I won\u0026rsquo;t pretend to know everything. I will say that this problem is likely to get much worse as blogging packages are becoming increasingly accessible to laymen. It might be time for blogging package makers to take a little responsibility to explain these concepts better to new users.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Trackback Ethics"},{"content":" The Onion | Cheney Vows To Attack U.S. If Kerry Elected\nGREENSBORO, NC%u2014In an announcement that has alarmed voters across the nation, Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he will personally attack the U.S. if Sen. John Kerry wins the next election. Ha ha. I needed this.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/13/the-onion-cheney-vows-to-attack-u.s.-if-kerry-elected/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4041\"\u003eThe Onion | Cheney Vows To Attack U.S. If Kerry Elected\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGREENSBORO, NC%u2014In an announcement that has alarmed voters across the nation, Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he will personally attack the U.S. if Sen. John Kerry wins the next election.\nHa ha. I needed this.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e","title":"The Onion | Cheney Vows To Attack U.S. If Kerry Elected"},{"content":" mozparty2: It\u0026rsquo;s 1.0 time… again! Remember the Mozilla 1.0 Release? Mozilla supporters were partying all over the world! But now, it\u0026rsquo;s 1.0 time again – for Firefox and Thunderbird! Join the parties and help making the next browser statistics way different 🙂 Needless to say, I find the impending Firefox 1.0 release very exciting. What\u0026rsquo;s even more exciting is the number of people I\u0026rsquo;ve turned on to it and can no longer stand Internet Explorer. Take that, subspace.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s only a single party planned in the US currently (in Indiana), but I\u0026rsquo;m sure more will be planned soon enough. I\u0026rsquo;d think about hosting one, but one, I\u0026rsquo;m no good at planning parties and two, that\u0026rsquo;s too geeky.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/13/mozparty2-its-1.0-time-again/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.openforce.at/mozparty2/\"\u003emozparty2: It\u0026rsquo;s 1.0 time… again!\u003c/a\u003e Remember the Mozilla 1.0 Release? Mozilla supporters were partying all over the world! But now, it\u0026rsquo;s 1.0 time again – for Firefox and Thunderbird! Join the parties and help making the next browser statistics way different 🙂\nNeedless to say, I find the impending Firefox 1.0 release very exciting. What\u0026rsquo;s even more exciting is the number of people I\u0026rsquo;ve turned on to it and can no longer stand Internet Explorer. Take \u003cem\u003ethat\u003c/em\u003e, subspace.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"mozparty2: It's 1.0 time… again!"},{"content":"The current Internet buzz is about CherryOS (Cheerios?). They claim to have a Mac on x86 hardware emulator that runs at 80% of the speed of the host processor with full hardware support.\nI was almost tempted to make a new category to file this under: Bullshit.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/12/hoax-or-reality/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe current Internet buzz is about \u003ca href=\"http://www.cherryos.com\"\u003eCherryOS\u003c/a\u003e (Cheerios?). They claim to have a Mac on x86 hardware emulator that runs at 80% of the speed of the host processor with full hardware support.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was almost tempted to make a new category to file this under: Bullshit.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hoax or Reality?"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ll admit it. I read about del.icio.us several times, but I largely ignored it because it wasn\u0026rsquo;t immediately obvious what it was. Explanation by others and even the site itself left me even more confused than I was already.\nI had largely given up on figuring it out before scriptygoddess mentioned it in her blog. It was enough to prompt me to give it another shot.\nI finally figured out what it was, despite the impossibly vague description on their site, which reads “a social bookmarks manager”. What the hell does that mean? The “social” part of it threw me. It simply means your bookmarks are public and processed by their system. You categorize them with tags (which are simply labels) and their servers compile lists of who linked to what, the top references for a tag (category), supplies RSS feeds of your bookmarks, basically all kinds of neat stuff.\nThe big question is why would one want to do this. If you\u0026rsquo;re a blog developer, you might want to offer a selection of your links in your blog. If you use WordPress, you can get a plugin for it. If you\u0026rsquo;re a normal end user, you can use it as a bookmarks list you can access anywhere. Firefox has an extension to access it. Cocoal.icio.us offers a beautiful OS X interface for it. Then there\u0026rsquo;s the website itself.\nThe best advice I can offer is to try it out for yourself. Just sign up and play with it. That\u0026rsquo;s the only way I could get a real handle on it. I\u0026rsquo;ll be adding my bookmarks to my site shortly. In the mean time, you can check them out at the site.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/11/late-to-the-del.icio.us-party/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll admit it. I read about \u003ca href=\"http://del.icio.us\"\u003edel.icio.us\u003c/a\u003e several times, but I largely ignored it because it wasn\u0026rsquo;t immediately obvious what it was. Explanation by others and even the site itself left me even more confused than I was already.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI had largely given up on figuring it out before \u003ca href=\"http://www.scriptygoddess.com/archives/2004/10/08/delicious/\"\u003escriptygoddess\u003c/a\u003e mentioned it in her blog. It was enough to prompt me to give it another shot.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI finally figured out what it was, despite the impossibly vague description on their site, which reads “a social bookmarks manager”. What the hell does that mean? The “social” part of it threw me. It simply means your bookmarks are public and processed by their system. You categorize them with tags (which are simply labels) and their servers compile lists of who linked to what, the top references for a tag (category), supplies RSS feeds of your bookmarks, basically all kinds of neat stuff.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Late to the del.icio.us Party"},{"content":"The Patriots wrapped up their 19th straight win today while playing the Miami Dolphins (Yahoo! Sports story).\nGo Pats!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/10/pats-win-19th-straight/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe Patriots wrapped up their 19th straight win today while playing the Miami Dolphins (\u003ca href=\"http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/recap;_ylc=X3oDMTBpcTFhbmEwBF9TAzk1ODYxMDU5BHNlYwN0bQ--?gid=20041010017\"\u003eYahoo! Sports story\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo Pats!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pats Win 19th Straight"},{"content":"The new NetNewsWire 2.0 (currently in beta) allows for definition of your own style sheets to define how news is displayed. I made my own (which was mean to be a fall styled theme, but ended up looking more like a Southwestern theme).\nInstall the expanded archive at ~/Library/StyleSheets/. Enjoy my theme.\nUnfortunately, in order to connect and download from my FTP server, you need to attach “@godlikenerd.com” to “anonymous”. The password is your email address (or any email address). My webhost seems to have missed the entire point of anonymous FTP (every browser assumes just “anonymous” as the username). I\u0026rsquo;ll deal.\nAddendum 1: Apparently Brent Simmons found this post. Color me flattered. Someone requested that I post a screenshot and considering that I now have high visibility on this item, I\u0026rsquo;m definitely going to have to. I should also warn that I haven\u0026rsquo;t cleaned this up for the combined view. I\u0026rsquo;m also going revise it for that today.\nAddendum 2: I\u0026rsquo;ve updated my theme to 1.1. Below is a screenshot. I\u0026rsquo;ve moved the picture to the extended entry to keep homepage load time light.\nAddendum 3 10/13/2004: Changed the name to Autumn for inclusion with NetNewsWire.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/09/my-netnewswire-style/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe new NetNewsWire 2.0 (currently in beta) allows for definition of your own style sheets to define how news is displayed. I made my own (which was mean to be a fall styled theme, but ended up looking more like a Southwestern theme).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInstall the expanded archive at ~/Library/StyleSheets/. Enjoy \u003ca href=\"ftp://anonymous%40godlikenerd%2Ecom:foo%40foo%2Ecom@ftp.godlikenerd.com/deriknnwstyle.gz\"\u003emy theme\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnfortunately, in order to connect and download from my FTP server, you need to attach “@godlikenerd.com” to “anonymous”. The password is your email address (or any email address). My webhost seems to have missed the entire point of anonymous FTP (every browser assumes just “anonymous” as the username). I\u0026rsquo;ll deal.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAddendum 1:\u003c/strong\u003e Apparently \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/?comments=1\u0026amp;postid=929\"\u003eBrent Simmons\u003c/a\u003e found this post. Color me flattered. Someone requested that I post a screenshot and considering that I now have high visibility on this item, I\u0026rsquo;m definitely going to have to. I should also warn that I haven\u0026rsquo;t cleaned this up for the combined view. I\u0026rsquo;m also going revise it for that today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAddendum 2:\u003c/strong\u003e I\u0026rsquo;ve updated my theme to 1.1. Below is a screenshot. I\u0026rsquo;ve moved the picture to the extended entry to keep homepage load time light.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAddendum 3\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003e10/13/2004\u003c/em\u003e: Changed the name to Autumn for \u003ca href=\"http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/13/my-theme-will-be-bundled-with-netnewswire/\"\u003einclusion with NetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My NetNewsWire Style"},{"content":"Like RSS/Atom feeds? Have Gmail? Let\u0026rsquo;s combine the two!\nFire up your RSS reader and plug this URL into it: https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom\nIf your RSS reader is done right, it should probe you for a username and password. Plug _username_@gmail.com (the entire thing) into the username field and your password in the, no surprise, password field.\nPlease note that any changes you make in your RSS reader will not be reflected in your Gmail inbox. This feed is simply a listing of the currently unread contents of your inbox.\nNow we get to see some of the benefits of the Google Blogger acquisition.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/09/gmail-atom-feed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLike RSS/Atom feeds? Have Gmail? Let\u0026rsquo;s combine the two!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFire up your RSS reader and plug this URL into it: \u003ca href=\"https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom\"\u003ehttps://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf your RSS reader is done right, it should probe you for a username and password. Plug _\u003ca href=\"mailto:username_@gmail.com\"\u003eusername_@gmail.com\u003c/a\u003e (the entire thing) into the username field and your password in the, no surprise, password field.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease note that any changes you make in your RSS reader will not be reflected in your Gmail inbox. This feed is simply a listing of the currently unread contents of your inbox.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gmail Atom Feed"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ll admit it. I screwed up a bit with last week\u0026rsquo;s picks. 9-5 is not good. This makes me 20-8 overall.\nHopefully this week is better.\nDetroit vs. Atlanta NY Giants vs. Dallas Minnesota vs. Houston Oakland vs. Indianapolis Miami vs. New England Tampa Bay vs. New Orleans Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh Buffalo vs. NY Jets Jacksonville vs. San Diego Caroline vs. Denver Arizona vs. San Fransisco St. Louis vs. Seattle Baltimore vs. Washington Tennessee vs. Green Bay ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/08/football-picks-week-5/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll admit it. I screwed up a bit with last week\u0026rsquo;s picks. 9-5 is not good. This makes me 20-8 overall.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHopefully this week is better.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDetroit vs. \u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Giants vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDallas\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Houston\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOakland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMiami vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNew Orleans\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBuffalo vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJacksonville\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Diego\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCaroline\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Denver\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArizona\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Fransisco\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSt. Louis vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Washington\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTennessee vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 5"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m using my Bloglines account to host a supplemental blog which is going to be clippings that aren\u0026rsquo;t worthy of the front page.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/08/d00dism-supplement/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m using my \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e account to host a \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com/blog/derik\"\u003esupplemental blog\u003c/a\u003e which is going to be clippings that aren\u0026rsquo;t worthy of the front page.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"d00dism Supplement"},{"content":"I had to link to Votergasm. How sad is it when you have to withhold sex in order to get someone to vote?\nAnd ladies, I will be voting on November 2nd….\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/08/votergasm/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI had to link to \u003ca href=\"http://www.votergasm.org/about.php\"\u003eVotergasm\u003c/a\u003e. How sad is it when you have to withhold sex in order to get someone to vote?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd ladies, I will be voting on November 2nd….\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Votergasm"},{"content":"Thanks to my continued participation in Macworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to know some of the Macworld writers. One of them is, of course, Dan Frakes.\nHe\u0026rsquo;s done me the favor of sending me a copy of his latest book, Mac OS X Power Tools. It arrived in the mail to today. The sheer size of it surprised me, but I am no less determined to read it cover to cover.\nOnce I do, you can look forward to a thorough review.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/07/mac-os-x-power-tools/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThanks to my continued participation in \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/\"\u003eMacworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums\u003c/a\u003e, I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten to know some of the Macworld writers. One of them is, of course, \u003ca href=\"http://www.danfrakes.com\"\u003eDan Frakes\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe\u0026rsquo;s done me the favor of sending me a copy of his latest book, \u003ca href=\"http://www.macosxpowertools.com\"\u003eMac OS X Power Tools\u003c/a\u003e. It arrived in the mail to today. The sheer size of it surprised me, but I am no less determined to read it cover to cover.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce I do, you can look forward to a thorough review.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X Power Tools"},{"content":"The wonderful people over at WordPress have updated the latest version to 1.2.1 to address some security concerns among other things.\nMy upgrade seems to have been successful.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/07/upgraded-to-wordpress-1.2.1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe wonderful people over at \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e have \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org/development/2004/10/wp-121/\"\u003eupdated the latest version to 1.2.1\u003c/a\u003e to address some security concerns among other things.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy upgrade seems to have been successful.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Upgraded to WordPress 1.2.1"},{"content":"As I have only been to U-Mass once this school year, I haven\u0026rsquo;t had a good chance to get all the fabulous local delicacies. Yesterday, Sheila, my coworker, had wings.\nThat was enough to spark an intense craving for a big tray of honey barbeque wings from Wings in Amherst. I\u0026rsquo;m going out there Friday to get a huge tray of wings dripping in sauce that I can gorge myself on.\nMmmmmmm.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/07/give-me-wings/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs I have only been to U-Mass once this school year, I haven\u0026rsquo;t had a good chance to get all the fabulous local delicacies. Yesterday, Sheila, my coworker, had wings.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat was enough to spark an intense craving for a big tray of honey barbeque wings from Wings in Amherst. I\u0026rsquo;m going out there Friday to get a huge tray of wings dripping in sauce that I can gorge myself on.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Give Me Wings"},{"content":"My obsession as of late has been RSS and blogging in general. To that end, I\u0026rsquo;ve been preaching about getting an RSS reader, etc. For most people, that\u0026rsquo;s a bit daunting. I think I may have found the solution. Check out Bloglines. There are other websites that give web access to RSS/Atom feeds, such as Blo.gs.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s face it though, Blo.gs\u0026rsquo; interface Blo.ws. It\u0026rsquo;s ugly, slow, and hard to deal with. It also assumes, for the most part, that users are already familiar with RSS and how it works. It also relies on the authors of those feeds pinging those services (though Ping-o-Matic has made this easy for conscious bloggers).\nBloglines not only looks better and is faster, but it allows for any feed to be added to your list, makes adding common feeds easier, and polls those feeds for you periodically. It also gives you a free blog. Livejournal and Blogger have already made inroads into this, but Livejournal is slow and obtuse. Blogger, well, it\u0026rsquo;s ok.\nIn addition to all these selling points, it\u0026rsquo;s free. Major RSS readers are also adding support for it. Feeddemon already has a beta to this end, and NetNewsWire (the best RSS reader ever, as far as I\u0026rsquo;m concerned) will be adding support soon.\nSo what are you waiting for? Go get an account!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/06/a-beginners-introduction-to-blogs/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy obsession as of late has been RSS and blogging in general. To that end, I\u0026rsquo;ve been preaching about getting an RSS reader, etc. For most people, that\u0026rsquo;s a bit daunting. I think I may have found the solution. Check out \u003ca href=\"http://www.bloglines.com\"\u003eBloglines\u003c/a\u003e. There are other websites that give web access to RSS/Atom feeds, such as \u003ca href=\"http://blo.gs\"\u003eBlo.gs\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet\u0026rsquo;s face it though, Blo.gs\u0026rsquo; interface Blo.ws. It\u0026rsquo;s ugly, slow, and hard to deal with. It also assumes, for the most part, that users are already familiar with RSS and how it works. It also relies on the authors of those feeds pinging those services (though \u003ca href=\"http://www.pingomatic.com\"\u003ePing-o-Matic\u003c/a\u003e has made this easy for conscious bloggers).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Beginner's Introduction to Blogs"},{"content":"Following a lambasting on the web normally reserved for politicians, Steve Ballmer has conveniently forgotten what he said. Nevermind the fact that his comments are recorded in nearly every iPod, Mac, and computer based new source, or the fact that they are also in perhaps hundreds of blogs, he just can\u0026rsquo;t remember what exactly was said.\nThis says two things:\nHe knows he was wrong. He doesn\u0026rsquo;t have the balls to stand up and admit that he said it. “I don\u0026rsquo;t recall” doesn\u0026rsquo;t hold up in court and it certainly doesn\u0026rsquo;t hold up in the media. Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s public relations people should tackle and wrestle him to the ground before he makes another colossal blunder.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/06/ballmer-i-dont-know-what-i-said-exactly-but-it-was-bad/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing a lambasting on the web normally reserved for politicians, Steve Ballmer has \u003ca href=\"http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/0,39024649,39124702,00.htm\"\u003econveniently forgotten what he said\u003c/a\u003e. Nevermind the fact that his comments are recorded in nearly every iPod, Mac, and computer based new source, or the fact that they are also in perhaps hundreds of blogs, he just can\u0026rsquo;t remember what exactly was said.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis says two things:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe knows he was wrong.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHe doesn\u0026rsquo;t have the balls to stand up and admit that he said it.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I don\u0026rsquo;t recall” doesn\u0026rsquo;t hold up in court and it certainly doesn\u0026rsquo;t hold up in the media. Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s public relations people should tackle and wrestle him to the ground before he makes another colossal blunder.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ballmer: “I don't know what I said exactly, but it was bad”"},{"content":"This is admittedly geeky and probably only 1 out of 10,000 people will get any real enjoyment out of it, but I bet almost everyone will take this quiz anyway. Just because.\nThus, I pose the question, which blogging tool are you?\nYou are a very conservative and introverted person. You live in your own world and you're not very easy to approach.\nWhich Blogging Tool Are You? ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/05/which-blogging-tool-are-you/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is admittedly geeky and probably only 1 out of 10,000 people will get any real enjoyment out of it, but I bet almost everyone will take this quiz anyway. Just because.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThus, I pose the question, \u003ca href=\"http://www.wannabegirl.org/quiz/tool/\"\u003ewhich blogging tool are you?\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable width=\"200\" style=\"font: 11px verdana; color: #666; border: 3px dashed #eef; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd valign=\"middle\"\u003e\n      \u003ca href=\"http://manila.userland.com/\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"http://wannabegirl.org/quiz/tool/manila.gif\" width=\"88\" height=\"31\" border=\"0\" alt=\"manila\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd\u003e\n      You are a very conservative and introverted person. You live in your own world and you're not very easy to approach.\u003cbr /\u003e \u003cbr /\u003e \u003ca href=\"http://wannabegirl.org/quiz/tool/\"\u003eWhich Blogging Tool Are You?\u003c/a\u003e\n    \u003c/td\u003e\n  \u003c/tr\u003e\n\u003c/table\u003e","title":"Which Blogging Tool Are You?"},{"content":"For some time now, I\u0026rsquo;ve been dealing with Boston commuter traffic, relying on TV and radio traffic reports. For the life of me, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t find a website that gave up to the minute status information. Well, I found one. Sweet.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/05/boston-traffic/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFor some time now, I\u0026rsquo;ve been dealing with Boston commuter traffic, relying on TV and radio traffic reports. For the life of me, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t find a website that gave up to the minute status information. Well, I found \u003ca href=\"http://www.boston.com/news/traffic/\"\u003eone\u003c/a\u003e. Sweet.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Boston Traffic"},{"content":"This is a strictly opinion piece and I have no inside knowledge as to Google\u0026rsquo;s plans.\nI think Google may have hit on a great idea when they designed Gmail and the way in which their “beta” distributes Gmail addresses. It may be too short lived because of attempts to circumvent the system.\nPerhaps one of the most prevalent problems with free email addresses is that it takes minimal effort to get that account. As a result, we get AOL syndrome. There are too few string combinations to go around. Instead of getting simply “derik” as one\u0026rsquo;s login, you\u0026rsquo;re forced to come up with an obfuscated version, with the most obvious one being attachment of numbers to the end of it (such as one\u0026rsquo;s birthday). So, instead of “derik” you\u0026rsquo;d end up with “derik112881” (please send presents).\nWithout buddylists, could you remember even half of the names on your own AIM buddylist? I know I couldn\u0026rsquo;t. I personally avoid numbers at all costs, but not everyone is so clever. Names degenerate into indecipherable, incoherent jumbles of letters and numbers, defeating the entire purpose of customizable logins (recognizability).\nInstead, Gmail seeded a small number of users with accounts (reducing the chance of people overlapping in chosen username). Next, they gave those users “invites” which allow them to choose who gets an account. With the amount of buzz that Google managed to generate by being the first to promise 1 GB email, the demand is incredibly high. Those with real motivation to get an account end up getting those few precious invites. That\u0026rsquo;s an effective measure against “love \u0026rsquo;em and leave \u0026rsquo;em” users (whom get an account, with a good username, just because they can and then just stop using it all together, precluding its use by an actually interested party).\nNot only does this reduce wasted logins, but it allows Google to keep tight control on the number of users. This eliminates the possibility of an overloaded system, and ensures the speed that is part of what makes Gmail so great.\nAs a side effect, Gmail invites are a type of currency (they are sold on eBay, which had 377 Gmail invite auctions at press time, and even traded on GmailSwap). I even offered them up for help with this website.\nI think the longer Google maintains the current system, the better off they will be, but only time will tell what they will do. Personally, I think it\u0026rsquo;s a brilliant way of running things.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/05/gmail-may-never-go-public/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis is a strictly opinion piece and I have no inside knowledge as to Google\u0026rsquo;s plans.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI think \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e may have hit on a great idea when they designed \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003eGmail\u003c/a\u003e and the way in which their “beta” distributes Gmail addresses. It may be too short lived because of \u003ca href=\"http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/1443\"\u003eattempts to circumvent the system\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps one of the most prevalent problems with free email addresses is that it takes minimal effort to get that account. As a result, we get AOL syndrome. There are too few string combinations to go around. Instead of getting simply “derik” as one\u0026rsquo;s login, you\u0026rsquo;re forced to come up with an obfuscated version, with the most obvious one being attachment of numbers to the end of it (such as one\u0026rsquo;s birthday). So, instead of “derik” you\u0026rsquo;d end up with “derik112881” (please send presents).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Gmail May Never Go Public"},{"content":"This site has successfully reached the number two slot in Google\u0026rsquo;s search engine when looking for “Derik“.\nOf course, this still makes me a girly man in comparison to Derik Farnsworth – IFBB Professional Bodybuilder (who is #1 sadly).\nSome day my muscle bound friend….\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/04/im-%232/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis site has successfully reached the number two slot in Google\u0026rsquo;s search engine when looking for “\u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/search?q=Derik\u0026amp;start=0\u0026amp;start=0\u0026amp;ie=utf-8\u0026amp;oe=utf-8\"\u003eDerik\u003c/a\u003e“.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf course, this still makes me a girly man in comparison to \u003ca href=\"http://www.derikfarnsworth.com\"\u003eDerik Farnsworth – IFBB Professional Bodybuilder\u003c/a\u003e (who is #1 \u003cstrike\u003esadly\u003c/strike\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSome day my muscle bound friend….\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm #2!"},{"content":"Another good way to waste one\u0026rsquo;s time is to play with Googlefight. Type two things, and using Google, it will proclaim the winner.\nNeat, now how does it do that?\nGoogle spits out approximate matches for any query (you know, 1-10 of about some number). One method would be to parse this from Google\u0026rsquo;s pages. That\u0026rsquo;s a kludge though which may break.\nA better idea? Use Google\u0026rsquo;s SOAP interface once again (just as I did for my Google cache utility, and as I will use for my custom search interface). One of the results fields is this value. This can be captured quickly and compared. Part of Google\u0026rsquo;s appeal for now and some time to come is the fact that it not only has a great and accurate engine, but it supplies all imaginable information to third-parties. That may be it\u0026rsquo;s saving grace as monsters such as Yahoo! come charging like a bull.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/04/google-fight-how-does-it-work/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAnother good way to waste one\u0026rsquo;s time is to play with \u003ca href=\"http://www.googlefight.com\"\u003eGooglefight\u003c/a\u003e. Type two things, and using \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e, it will proclaim the winner.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNeat, now how does it do that?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoogle spits out approximate matches for any query (you know, 1-10 of about \u003cem\u003esome number\u003c/em\u003e). One method would be to parse this from Google\u0026rsquo;s pages. That\u0026rsquo;s a kludge though which may break.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA better idea? Use \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com/apis/\"\u003eGoogle\u0026rsquo;s SOAP interface\u003c/a\u003e once again (just as I did for my Google cache utility, and as I will use for my custom search interface). One of the results fields is this value. This can be captured quickly and compared. Part of Google\u0026rsquo;s appeal for now and some time to come is the fact that it not only has a great and accurate engine, but it supplies all imaginable information to third-parties. That may be it\u0026rsquo;s saving grace as monsters such as \u003ca href=\"http://www.yahoo.com\"\u003eYahoo!\u003c/a\u003e come charging like a bull.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Google Fight: How does it work?"},{"content":"I found some neat optical illusions (via Slashdot). Good for a few minutes of entertainment.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/04/whoa-thats-good-squishee/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI found some neat \u003ca href=\"http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html\"\u003eoptical illusions\u003c/a\u003e (via Slashdot). Good for a few minutes of entertainment.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Whoa, that's Good Squishee"},{"content":"Slashdot | Ballmer Says iPod users are Thieves\nI think this speaks for itself. Ballmer is crying that the iPod and iTunes Music Store are doing so well. boohoo\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/04/slashdot-ballmer-says-ipod-users-are-thieves/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/04/1248201\"\u003eSlashdot | Ballmer Says iPod users are Thieves\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI think this speaks for itself. Ballmer is crying that the iPod and iTunes Music Store are doing so well. \u003cem\u003eboohoo\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Slashdot | Ballmer Says iPod users are Thieves"},{"content":"I can\u0026rsquo;t really elaborate on this any more. Hopefully the person this is meant for will see it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/02/im-a-jerk/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t really elaborate on this any more. Hopefully the person this is meant for will see it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"I'm a Jerk"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s week four of the football season and the Patriots are back from their bye-week. Here are my predictions:\nNew England vs. Buffalo Philadelphia vs. Chicago Washington vs. Cleveland NY Giants vs. Green Bay Oakland vs. Houston Indianapolis vs. Jacksonville Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh New Orleans vs. Arizona Atlanta vs. Carolina NY Jets vs. Miami Tennessee vs. San Diego Denver vs. Tampa Bay St. Louis vs. San Fransisco Kansis City vs. Baltimore So far, my record is 11-3.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/02/football-picks-week-4/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s week four of the football season and the Patriots are back from their bye-week. Here are my predictions:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew England\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Buffalo\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Chicago\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWashington vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCleveland\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNY Giants vs. \u003cstrong\u003eGreen Bay\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOakland\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Houston\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Jacksonville\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCincinnati vs. \u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew Orleans\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Arizona\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAtlanta vs. \u003cstrong\u003eCarolina\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNY Jets\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Miami\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTennessee\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Diego\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Tampa Bay\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSt. Louis\u003c/strong\u003e vs. San Fransisco\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKansis City\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Baltimore\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo far, my record is 11-3.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Football Picks Week 4"},{"content":"I haven\u0026rsquo;t been posting too much lately because I\u0026rsquo;ve been spending nearly all my time for the past two weeks serving as a juror in Worcester. It\u0026rsquo;s over (finally).\nI thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but let me make this clear, after two weeks of it, I can safely say I\u0026rsquo;m ready for the guaranteed three years off. I\u0026rsquo;d be a little more verbose about the experience, but I feel like it\u0026rsquo;s not entirely appropriate to post all the details onto the web.\nI will be more than happy to discuss the details privately though. Email or IM me if this strikes your fancy.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/10/01/jury-duty-done-for-three-years/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI haven\u0026rsquo;t been posting too much lately because I\u0026rsquo;ve been spending nearly all my time for the past two weeks serving as a juror in Worcester. It\u0026rsquo;s over (finally).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but let me make this clear, after two weeks of it, I can safely say I\u0026rsquo;m ready for the guaranteed three years off. I\u0026rsquo;d be a little more verbose about the experience, but I feel like it\u0026rsquo;s not entirely appropriate to post all the details onto the web.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Jury Duty, Done for Three Years"},{"content":"After months of being derided for a relatively small amount of space (100 MB of iDisk space, 15 MB of mail space), Apple has finally bumped up the space for .Mac to 250 MB combined (which you can allocate in any way you see fit).\nI\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this for some time now. I use a .Mac address as my main one and some other services for other stuff. The main reason for this was that 15 MB wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough to keep all my mail for all time on the server. As a result, I use Gmail for all my mailing lists. Now I can rethink this and maybe use one address for everything.\nAt any rate, with the increased space, integration with OS X and Apple applications (such as iPhoto), free goodies and discounts, and of course new features coming in Tiger (such as preference syncing), .Mac is finally coming into its own as a well-priced, full-featured service.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/29/.mac-now-sports-250-mb-of-goodness/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter months of being derided for a relatively small amount of space (100 MB of iDisk space, 15 MB of mail space), \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e has finally bumped up the space for \u003ca href=\"http://www.mac.com\"\u003e.Mac\u003c/a\u003e to 250 MB combined (which you can allocate in any way you see fit).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting for this for some time now. I use a .Mac address as my main one and some other services for other stuff. The main reason for this was that 15 MB wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough to keep all my mail for all time on the server. As a result, I use \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003eGmail\u003c/a\u003e for all my mailing lists. Now I can rethink this and maybe use one address for everything.\u003c/p\u003e","title":".Mac Now Sports 250 MB of Goodness"},{"content":"Thanks to Python and Google supplied SOAP API\u0026rsquo;s, you can now access the Google cache for any site here. I\u0026rsquo;m only allowed a thousand access per day, so if this gets popular, it may stop working later in the day.\nEnjoy!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/28/get-yo-google-cache/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThanks to Python and Google supplied SOAP API\u0026rsquo;s, you can now access the Google cache for any site \u003ca href=\"/cgi-bin/googlecache.py\"\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e. I\u0026rsquo;m only allowed a thousand access per day, so if this gets popular, it may stop working later in the day.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnjoy!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Get Yo Google Cache"},{"content":"I love keeping track of my favorite news sources in NetNewsWire by using RSS feeds. However, a lot of stuff I read is still distributed via email. This isn\u0026rsquo;t too much of pain with a mail client that does threading or Gmail.\nThat said, it\u0026rsquo;s not nearly as convenient as using NetNewsWire (or your favorite RSS reader). The solution? It\u0026rsquo;s a neat, new, novel, free idea called dodgeit. There are no passwords or setup involved, but it\u0026rsquo;s easy to sign up and you instantly have RSS access to email there. This is perfect for mailing lists whose content can be publicly accessed by anyone. It can even be used by mailing list administrators to instantly add RSS access. Nifty!\nThe service was originally designed to be used for throwaway addresses, but I think this use is even better.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/27/make-any-mailing-list-into-an-rss-feed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI love keeping track of my favorite news sources in \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/\"\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e by using RSS feeds. However, a lot of stuff I read is still distributed via email. This isn\u0026rsquo;t too much of pain with a mail client that does threading or \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003eGmail\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat said, it\u0026rsquo;s not nearly as convenient as using NetNewsWire (or your favorite RSS reader). The solution? It\u0026rsquo;s a neat, new, novel, free idea called \u003ca href=\"http://www.dodgeit.com\"\u003edodgeit\u003c/a\u003e. There are no passwords or setup involved, but it\u0026rsquo;s easy to sign up and you instantly have RSS access to email there. This is perfect for mailing lists whose content can be publicly accessed by anyone. It can even be used by mailing list administrators to instantly add RSS access. Nifty!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Make Any Mailing List into an RSS Feed"},{"content":"We\u0026rsquo;ve now reached a time where most people are fairly computer savvy. However, despite knowing how most of the parts of a computer interact and work, the units are still seemingly impossible to master. Let\u0026rsquo;s review shall we?\nHard drives and memory are measured in storage units. They based upon the unit byte (which is in turn 8 bits). A long, long, long (did I mention long?) time ago, hard drives were measured in MB (megabytes). Once they reached one thousand megabytes (or 1,024 depending on how anal you are), they started measuring them in GB (gigabytes). This has been true for the better part of a decade. It\u0026rsquo;s time to force yourself to type GB. As for memory, most people don\u0026rsquo;t get this wrong yet. Most users still have less than 1 GB and as such, will refer to it in MBs.\nCPU speed is measured in cycles per second, or hertz. Formerly, hertz were measured in mega units, or MHz. Again, once computers reached a thousand hertz, the units were gigahertz (GHz). When you compare your old 500 MHz computer and your new “1 MHz” computer, you sound like a complete moron. Get it right.\nFinally, bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps). This can be preceded by K (kilo) or M (mega). Read a guide on unit prefixes to figure this out.\nThe whole thrust of this rant is that units are not hard. Don\u0026rsquo;t write down specifications if you can\u0026rsquo;t be bothered to know what the units involved are, because if you can\u0026rsquo;t manage those, then you probably don\u0026rsquo;t have a handle on their significance.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/26/units-units-units/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWe\u0026rsquo;ve now reached a time where most people are fairly computer savvy. However, despite knowing how most of the parts of a computer interact and work, the units are still seemingly impossible to master. Let\u0026rsquo;s review shall we?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHard drives and memory are measured in storage units. They based upon the unit byte (which is in turn 8 bits). A long, long, long (did I mention long?) time ago, hard drives were measured in MB (megabytes). Once they reached one thousand megabytes (or 1,024 depending on how anal you are), they started measuring them in GB (gigabytes). This has been true for the better part of a decade. It\u0026rsquo;s time to force yourself to type GB. As for memory, most people don\u0026rsquo;t get this wrong yet. Most users still have less than 1 GB and as such, will refer to it in MBs.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Units, Units, Units"},{"content":"Lately Google has been really generous with invitations to their free email service. I keep getting back up to maximum six invites, almost as fast as I can give them out. If you are interested, leave a comment.\nPlease make some kind of case for it if I don\u0026rsquo;t already know you. Saying “Please stranger, I really want one” is not a way to endear yourself to me.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/25/who-wants-gmail/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLately Google has been really generous with invitations to their free email service. I keep getting back up to maximum six invites, almost as fast as I can give them out. If you are interested, leave a comment.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlease make some kind of case for it if I don\u0026rsquo;t already know you. Saying “Please stranger, I really want one” is not a way to endear yourself to me.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Who Wants Gmail?"},{"content":"Here are my picks for week 3. Bob, etc. post yours in the comments.\nAtlanta vs. Arizona Baltimore vs. Cincinnati Philadelphia vs. Detroit Houston vs. Kansis City Pittsburgh vs. Miami Chicago vs. Minnesota Cleveland vs. NY Giants New Orleans vs. St. Louis Jacksonville vs. Tennessee San Diego vs. Denver Green Bay vs. Indianapolis San Fransisco vs. Seattle Tampa Bay vs. Oakland Dallas vs. Washington ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/25/my-football-picks-week-3/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eHere are my picks for week 3. Bob, etc. post yours in the comments.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAtlanta\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Arizona\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaltimore\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Cincinnati\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhiladelphia\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Detroit\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHouston vs. \u003cstrong\u003eKansis City\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePittsburgh\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Miami\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChicago vs. \u003cstrong\u003eMinnesota\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCleveland vs. \u003cstrong\u003eNY Giants\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew Orleans vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSt. Louis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJacksonville vs. \u003cstrong\u003eTennessee\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Diego vs. \u003cstrong\u003eDenver\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGreen Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eIndianapolis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSan Fransisco vs. \u003cstrong\u003eSeattle\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTampa Bay vs. \u003cstrong\u003eOakland\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDallas\u003c/strong\u003e vs. Washington\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e","title":"My Football Picks – Week 3"},{"content":"After all these months of political rhetoric (a quarter of each President\u0026rsquo;s term being taken up with this is a bit much), I\u0026rsquo;m ready for it to be over. There\u0026rsquo;s still a month left. Doesn\u0026rsquo;t anyone else feel the same way?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/25/wake-me-up-when-its-over/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter all these months of political rhetoric (a quarter of each President\u0026rsquo;s term being taken up with this is a bit much), I\u0026rsquo;m ready for it to be over. There\u0026rsquo;s still a month left. Doesn\u0026rsquo;t anyone else feel the same way?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Wake Me Up When It's Over"},{"content":"This is probably going to invalidate my site as far as xhtml goes, but oh well. At least I got my favorite color.\n\u0026nbsp; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;30\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;table border=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot; cellpadding=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;table cellpadding=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#339900\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot; height=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td nowrap=\u0026quot;nowrap\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;30\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;table border=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot; cellpadding=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;table cellpadding=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#66CC33\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot; height=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td nowrap=\u0026quot;nowrap\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;30\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;table border=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot; cellpadding=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;table cellpadding=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#33FF00\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot; height=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td nowrap=\u0026quot;nowrap\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026amp;nbsp; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt; \u0026lt;font face=\u0026quot;arial,helvetica\u0026quot; size=\u0026quot;4\u0026quot; color=\u0026quot;#66CC33\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u0026lt;b\u0026gt;Green\u0026lt;/b\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/font\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;br /\u0026gt; \u0026lt;font face=\u0026quot;arial,helvetica\u0026quot; size=\u0026quot;2\u0026quot; color=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot;\u0026gt;You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature.\u0026lt;/font\u0026gt; \u0026lt;center\u0026gt; \u0026lt;a href=\u0026quot;http://quizme.stvlive.com/color/quiz.php\u0026quot; target=\u0026quot;_blank\u0026quot; style=\u0026quot;text-decoration:none; color:#66CC33;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u0026lt;font face=\u0026quot;verdana,arial,helvetica\u0026quot; size=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u0026lt;b\u0026gt;Find out your color at Quiz Me!\u0026lt;/b\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/font\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/a\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/center\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;p\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/p\u0026gt; ","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/25/stupid-quiz/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThis is probably going to invalidate my site as far as xhtml goes, but oh well. At least I got my favorite color.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" align=\"center\"\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n    \u003ctd valign=\"center\" align=\"center\"\u003e\n      \u003ctable cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#CCCCCC\" width=\"300\"\u003e\n        \u003ctr\u003e\n          \u003ctd\u003e\n            \u003ctable border=\"0\"\u003e\n              \u003ctr\u003e\n                \u003ctd valign=\"center\" align=\"center\" width=\"30\"\u003e\n                  \u003ctable border=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" cellpadding=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\"\u003e\n                    \u003ctr\u003e\n                      \u003ctd valign=\"center\" align=\"center\"\u003e\n                        \u003ctable cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#006633\" width=\"15\" height=\"15\"\u003e\n                          \u003ctr\u003e\n                            \u003ctd nowrap=\"nowrap\"\u003e\n                              \u0026nbsp;\n                            \u003c/td\u003e\n                          \u003c/tr\u003e\n                        \u003c/table\u003e\n                      \u003c/td\u003e\n                    \u003c/tr\u003e\n                  \u003c/table\u003e\n                \u003c/td\u003e\n\u003cpre\u003e\u003ccode\u003e            \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;30\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;table border=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot; cellpadding=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt;\n                  \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                    \u0026lt;table cellpadding=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#339900\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot; height=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                      \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt;\n                        \u0026lt;td nowrap=\u0026quot;nowrap\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                          \u0026amp;nbsp;\n                        \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n                      \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n                    \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n                  \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n                \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n            \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n            \n            \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;30\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;table border=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot; cellpadding=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt;\n                  \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                    \u0026lt;table cellpadding=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#66CC33\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot; height=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                      \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt;\n                        \u0026lt;td nowrap=\u0026quot;nowrap\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                          \u0026amp;nbsp;\n                        \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n                      \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n                    \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n                  \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n                \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n            \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n            \n            \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;30\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;table border=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot; cellpadding=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt;\n                  \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                    \u0026lt;table cellpadding=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; cellspacing=\u0026quot;0\u0026quot; bgcolor=\u0026quot;#33FF00\u0026quot; width=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot; height=\u0026quot;15\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                      \u0026lt;tr\u0026gt;\n                        \u0026lt;td nowrap=\u0026quot;nowrap\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n                          \u0026amp;nbsp;\n                        \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n                      \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n                    \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n                  \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n                \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n            \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n            \n            \u0026lt;td valign=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot; align=\u0026quot;center\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\n              \u0026lt;font face=\u0026quot;arial,helvetica\u0026quot; size=\u0026quot;4\u0026quot; color=\u0026quot;#66CC33\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u0026lt;b\u0026gt;Green\u0026lt;/b\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/font\u0026gt;\n            \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n          \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n        \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n        \n        \u0026lt;br /\u0026gt; \u0026lt;font face=\u0026quot;arial,helvetica\u0026quot; size=\u0026quot;2\u0026quot; color=\u0026quot;#000000\u0026quot;\u0026gt;You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature.\u0026lt;/font\u0026gt; \n        \n        \u0026lt;center\u0026gt;\n          \u0026lt;a href=\u0026quot;http://quizme.stvlive.com/color/quiz.php\u0026quot; target=\u0026quot;_blank\u0026quot; style=\u0026quot;text-decoration:none; color:#66CC33;\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u0026lt;font face=\u0026quot;verdana,arial,helvetica\u0026quot; size=\u0026quot;1\u0026quot;\u0026gt;\u0026lt;b\u0026gt;Find out your color at Quiz Me!\u0026lt;/b\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/font\u0026gt;\u0026lt;/a\u0026gt;\n        \u0026lt;/center\u0026gt;\n      \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt;\n    \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt;\n  \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n  \n  \u0026lt;p\u0026gt;\n    \u0026lt;/td\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/tr\u0026gt; \u0026lt;/table\u0026gt;\n  \u0026lt;/p\u0026gt;\n\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/pre\u003e","title":"Stupid Quiz"},{"content":"From my webhost:\n It is an error that we are working on and fixing. But the current fix out be to restart apache. This error is rare and shouldn\u0026rsquo;t rear it\u0026rsquo;s head again. Thanks for patience. There you have it. If you are having trouble with WordPress sending back zero-sized replies/no data/connection reset by peer, then you may need to restart Apache. I\u0026rsquo;ll write more when I find out more.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/24/how-the-site-was-fixed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFrom my webhost:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e It is an error that we are working on and fixing. But the current fix out be to restart apache. This error is rare and shouldn\u0026rsquo;t rear it\u0026rsquo;s head again. Thanks for patience.\nThere you have it. If you are having trouble with WordPress sending back zero-sized replies/no data/connection reset by peer, then you may need to restart Apache. I\u0026rsquo;ll write more when I find out more.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"How the Site Was Fixed"},{"content":"WFXT (aka Channel 25, the local Fox channel) has cut back on the number of times it shows the Simpsons. It formerly aired reruns at both 6:30 and 7:30 (about which no one complained). In fact, nearly all my friends watched both airings, because, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, you just can\u0026rsquo;t get enough Simpsons (and with more than 13 seasons, it\u0026rsquo;s likely you haven\u0026rsquo;t seen them all either).\nLike they did with Sunday nights (canceling my beloved Futurama), they decided to fix something that wasn\u0026rsquo;t broken. They\u0026rsquo;ve shoved Malcolm in the Middle into the 6:30 slot. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I like Malcolm. Only in small doses though. Every Sunday is almost too much already.\nSure, I\u0026rsquo;m not going to do anything about it, but I refuse to watch Malcom in the Middle every night. I\u0026rsquo;ll be watching something else.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/24/boo-to-wfxt/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.wfxt.com/\"\u003eWFXT\u003c/a\u003e (aka Channel 25, the local Fox channel) has cut back on the number of times it shows the Simpsons. It formerly aired reruns at both 6:30 and 7:30 (about which no one complained). In fact, nearly all my friends watched both airings, because, let\u0026rsquo;s face it, you just can\u0026rsquo;t get enough Simpsons (and with more than 13 seasons, it\u0026rsquo;s likely you haven\u0026rsquo;t seen them all either).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike they did with Sunday nights (canceling my beloved Futurama), they decided to fix something that wasn\u0026rsquo;t broken. They\u0026rsquo;ve shoved Malcolm in the Middle into the 6:30 slot. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I like Malcolm. Only in small doses though. Every Sunday is almost too much already.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Boo to WFXT!"},{"content":"I just thought I\u0026rsquo;d mention a play from tonight\u0026rsquo;s Red Sox game that was really inspiring. David “Big Papi” Ortiz managed to run all the way home from first base on a single.\nWay to move that big caboose of yours, big boy!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/23/david-ortiz-olympic-sprinter/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just thought I\u0026rsquo;d mention a play from tonight\u0026rsquo;s Red Sox game that was really inspiring. \u003ca href=\"http://bigleaguers.yahoo.com/mlbpa/players/5909\"\u003eDavid “Big Papi” Ortiz\u003c/a\u003e managed to run all the way home from first base on a \u003cstrong\u003esingle\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWay to move that big caboose of yours, big boy!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"David Ortiz: Olympic Sprinter?"},{"content":"While it has mostly gone unnoticed until this point, Growl is some of the coolest new software around. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t do much on its own right now, but it won\u0026rsquo;t be long before lots of your software utilizes it.\nGrowl provides a notification system for all your applications. All a developer need do is send notifications to it. Current applications that you can use with it are:\nAdium Fire iTunes Mail gCount …and more Growl has been around for a little, but only recently was a build offered to the public. Some warnings need be said. gCount will need an update to use the newly released build. You\u0026rsquo;ll need a version of Adium 0.7 (currently in beta).\nI personally like to use Synergy for iTunes stuff and Mail Appetizer for Mail notifications, but I like having this universal system in place. We can expect to see a lot more use for it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/21/the-next-great-mac-software/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhile it has mostly gone unnoticed until this point, \u003ca href=\"http://growl.info\"\u003eGrowl\u003c/a\u003e is some of the coolest new software around. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t do much on its own right now, but it won\u0026rsquo;t be long before lots of your software utilizes it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowl provides a notification system for all your applications. All a developer need do is send notifications to it. Current applications that you can use with it are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.adiumx.com\"\u003eAdium\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://fire.sf.net\"\u003eFire\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiTunes\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMail\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~natan/gcount/\"\u003egCount\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003e…and more\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowl has been around for a little, but only recently was a build offered to the public. Some warnings need be said. gCount will need an update to use the newly released build. You\u0026rsquo;ll need a version of \u003ca href=\"http://www.adiumx.com/beta.html\"\u003eAdium 0.7\u003c/a\u003e (currently in beta).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Next Great Mac Software"},{"content":"For some time now, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using MarsEdit to post to my weblog. It\u0026rsquo;s the standalone version of the blog editing capabilities that were part of NetNewsWire (Pro). I didn\u0026rsquo;t get to talk about this because it was private. With the now public beta releases I am freed of that obligation.\nYou can see more information on Brent Simmon\u0026rsquo;s Blog (which should be part of your RSS subscriptions by now). Simply said, it\u0026rsquo;s pure perfection. You can use it with any of a number of blogging software packages. This includes:\nBlogger Blogware Blosxom Conversant Drupal LiveJournal Manila (News Items) Moveable Type PHPosxom pMachine Radio UserLand SnipSnap TypePad WordPress Other Blogger-compatible systems Other Blosxom-compatible systems Other MetaWeblog-compatible systems My emphasis was added because obviously, WordPress is what I use. Until I got a crack at MarsEdit, I had to use one the other types. There\u0026rsquo;s nothing necessarily all that wrong with that, but the behavior isn\u0026rsquo;t quite what you\u0026rsquo;d expect and you had to be a little more adept to set it up.\nDrupal is also the system being used by Spreadfirefox.com which means yet another free place to set up your weblog.\nAt any rate, check out NetNewsWire 2.0 beta and MarsEdit beta. You may just buy a license. Imagine that. If you\u0026rsquo;re really cheap and don\u0026rsquo;t need a weblog editor, check out NetNewsWire Lite, perhaps the best free RSS reader on any platform.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/21/marsedit-and-netnewswire-2.0-public-betas/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFor some time now, I\u0026rsquo;ve been using MarsEdit to post to my weblog. It\u0026rsquo;s the standalone version of the blog editing capabilities that were part of NetNewsWire (Pro). I didn\u0026rsquo;t get to talk about this because it was private. With the now public beta releases I am freed of that obligation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can see more information on \u003ca href=\"http://www.inessential.com/?comments=1\u0026amp;postid=2901\"\u003eBrent Simmon\u0026rsquo;s Blog\u003c/a\u003e (which should be part of your RSS subscriptions by now). Simply said, it\u0026rsquo;s pure perfection. You can use it with any of a number of blogging software packages. This includes:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MarsEdit and NetNewsWire 2.0 Public Betas"},{"content":"The real question is for how long. I am noting this because again, it\u0026rsquo;s proof that WordPress works fine and great.\nNow I\u0026rsquo;m waiting for the explanation.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/21/fixed-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe real question is for how long. I am noting this because again, it\u0026rsquo;s proof that WordPress works fine and great.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow I\u0026rsquo;m waiting for the explanation.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Fixed!  Again!"},{"content":"After another series of exchanges with my webhost, I\u0026rsquo;ve reduced one of the problems I\u0026rsquo;ve been having to a single PHP command.\nThis should connect to NOAA, disconnect, print a success statement, and finish gracefully. The source can be seen here although you may need to use your browser\u0026rsquo;s “view source” command.\nPHP or Apache hangs on this simple code. If anyone has seen this before, please comment.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/21/want-proof-that-im-not-crazy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter another series of exchanges with my webhost, I\u0026rsquo;ve reduced one of the problems I\u0026rsquo;ve been having to a single PHP command.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/troubleshooting/fsockopentest.php\"\u003eThis\u003c/a\u003e should connect to \u003ca href=\"http://weather.noaa.gov\"\u003eNOAA\u003c/a\u003e, disconnect, print a success statement, and finish gracefully. The source can be seen \u003ca href=\"/troubleshooting/fsockopentest.txt\"\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e although you may need to use your browser\u0026rsquo;s “view source” command.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePHP or Apache hangs on this simple code. If anyone has seen this before, please comment.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Want Proof That I'm Not Crazy?"},{"content":"Jon, if you\u0026rsquo;re still reading my site, I seem to still need your help. Please comment or email me directly at ddelong !at! gmail dot com.\nI will take any and all help. One very small section of WordPress\u0026rsquo;s PHP code seems to be messing up and I can\u0026rsquo;t diagnose why.\nThank you.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/20/help-me-im-losing-my-mind/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eJon, if you\u0026rsquo;re still reading my site, I seem to still need your help. Please comment or email me directly at ddelong !at! gmail dot com.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI will take any and all help. One very small section of WordPress\u0026rsquo;s PHP code seems to be messing up and I can\u0026rsquo;t diagnose why.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThank you.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Help Me, I'm Losing My Mind"},{"content":"After days of troubleshooting a couple weeks ago, I got my Blog fixed. Apparently, my host is having a relapse. I won\u0026rsquo;t be able to do much until I get it fixed, so stand by.\nsigh\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/19/my-blog-was-broken-again/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter days of troubleshooting a couple weeks ago, I got my Blog fixed. Apparently, my host is having a relapse. I won\u0026rsquo;t be able to do much until I get it fixed, so stand by.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003esigh\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Blog Was Broken Again"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ll be visiting Ithaca this weekend so I may not post until Sunday (unless I have something super important to post). I\u0026rsquo;ll see you all then.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/17/going-on-a-trip/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll be visiting Ithaca this weekend so I may not post until Sunday (unless I have something super important to post). I\u0026rsquo;ll see you all then.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Going on a Trip"},{"content":"Slashdot | Google\u0026rsquo;s Math Puzzle It\u0026rsquo;s too bad I already have a job. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to keep this in mind for a few years down the road though.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/16/looking-for-a-job-at-google/","summary":"\u003ch4 id=\"slashdot--google\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/16/139232\"\u003eSlashdot | Google\u0026rsquo;s Math Puzzle\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s too bad I already have a job. I\u0026rsquo;ll have to keep this in mind for a few years down the road though.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Looking for a Job at Google?"},{"content":"Katie revealed a bug in Windows Internet Explorer that WordPress exposes. The comment box following articles will span the entire length of the page instead of the box, and as such, the sidebar covers over part of it.\nThe solution is either to wait for Microsoft to fix it (*snicker* *snicker*) or get pretty much any other browser. Safari and Firefox both render it correctly.\nThe funny part is that even Internet Explorer for Mac handles it correctly. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty amazing how Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s Mac Business Unit got so many things right when writing that browser that didn\u0026rsquo;t get passed along to the Windows version.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/16/windows-internet-explorer-bug/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eKatie revealed a bug in Windows Internet Explorer that WordPress exposes. The comment box following articles will span the entire length of the page instead of the box, and as such, the sidebar covers over part of it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe solution is either to wait for Microsoft to fix it (*snicker* *snicker*) or get pretty much \u003cstrong\u003eany\u003c/strong\u003e other browser. Safari and Firefox both render it correctly.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe funny part is that even Internet Explorer for Mac handles it correctly. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty amazing how Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s Mac Business Unit got so many things right when writing that browser that didn\u0026rsquo;t get passed along to the Windows version.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Windows Internet Explorer Bug"},{"content":"With Lockout Official, Both Sides Hunker Down (Via The New York Times.)\nWell, it happened, as predicted for months. Whom the blame should be placed upon is not clear. What is clear that both the owners and players have their own respective share of the blame at this point.\nI was really looking to forward to hockey this year as I didn\u0026rsquo;t have time to follow last year with all my senior year responsibilities. Now I\u0026rsquo;ll be reduced to following the U-Mass Hockey Team with almost stalker level obsession. That\u0026rsquo;s not what anyone wants.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/15/hockey-lockout-starts/","summary":"\u003ch4 id=\"with-lockout-official-both-sides-hunker-down\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/16/sports/hockey/16hockey.html\"\u003eWith Lockout Official, Both Sides Hunker Down\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e(Via \u003ca href=\"http://nytimes.com\"\u003eThe New York Times\u003c/a\u003e.)\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, it happened, as predicted for months. Whom the blame should be placed upon is not clear. What is clear that both the owners and players have their own respective share of the blame at this point.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was really looking to forward to hockey this year as I didn\u0026rsquo;t have time to follow last year with all my senior year responsibilities. Now I\u0026rsquo;ll be reduced to following the U-Mass Hockey Team with almost stalker level obsession. That\u0026rsquo;s not what anyone wants.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Hockey Lockout Starts"},{"content":"Mozilla has once again updated its software offerings. The new Firefox Preview Release (PR) gives us a taste of what we can expect in the fourth quarter when the full version is released.\nNew features include:\nRSS Sensing If the page you are visiting has set the right tags, an RSS button will appear in the status bar, listing available feeds (RSS 0.92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3). Live Bookmarks Once an RSS feed is found, it is captured as a Live Bookmark. The bookmark then looks like a folder with the contents being that of the feed. Slick! Improved TypeAhead Find which now shows an unobtrusive search bar at the bottom to help control your searching. Slight UI Improvements Although the changes are slight, overall they much improve the experience of using Firefox. The URL slot turning beige when at a secure site is a nice touch. Thunderbird also sports some great new features. In particular, it adds RSS feed support. You may think: So what? You just told me about Firefox\u0026rsquo;s Live Bookmarks. Well, hold on a second. While it\u0026rsquo;s a nice new feature, it still doesn\u0026rsquo;t address the problem of managing many feeds and keeping track of what you\u0026rsquo;ve read. Thunderbird lets you treat them like email, with each article being a message. You can make them read, move them, copy them, and even delete them. Sweet.\nImportant: Be sure to upgrade to these versions if you already use them. They aren\u0026rsquo;t susceptible to an exploit recently announced.\nAs I\u0026rsquo;ve said elsewhere, I\u0026rsquo;ll be sticking with Safar, Mail, and NetNewsWire on my Mac. However, on PC\u0026rsquo;s (Windows and Linux) I\u0026rsquo;ll be using the Firefox/Thunderbird combo.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/15/firefox-1.0-pr-and-thunderbird-0.8/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.mozilla.org\"\u003eMozilla\u003c/a\u003e has once again updated its software offerings. The new Firefox Preview Release (PR) gives us a taste of what we can expect in the fourth quarter when the full version is released.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew features include:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRSS Sensing\u003c/strong\u003e If the page you are visiting has set the right tags, an RSS button will appear in the status bar, listing available feeds (RSS 0.92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLive Bookmarks\u003c/strong\u003e Once an RSS feed is found, it is captured as a Live Bookmark. The bookmark then looks like a folder with the contents being that of the feed. Slick!\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eImproved TypeAhead Find\u003c/strong\u003e which now shows an unobtrusive search bar at the bottom to help control your searching.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSlight UI Improvements\u003c/strong\u003e Although the changes are slight, overall they much improve the experience of using Firefox. The URL slot turning beige when at a secure site is a nice touch.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThunderbird also sports some great new features. In particular, it adds RSS feed support. You may think: \u003cem\u003eSo what? You just told me about Firefox\u0026rsquo;s Live Bookmarks.\u003c/em\u003e Well, hold on a second. While it\u0026rsquo;s a nice new feature, it still doesn\u0026rsquo;t address the problem of managing many feeds and keeping track of what you\u0026rsquo;ve read. Thunderbird lets you treat them like email, with each article being a message. You can make them read, move them, copy them, and even delete them. \u003cem\u003eSweet.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Firefox 1.0 PR and Thunderbird 0.8"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ll give a Gmail invite to the person with the best idea on how to improve my site here. In the case that there are several really great ideas, I may give out a couple.\nValid types of ideas are:\nAdding a WordPress plugin of some sort to my blog here. Adding a new section of content. Something original. And… Go.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/14/contest-how-to-improve-this-site/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll give a Gmail invite to the person with the best idea on how to improve my site here. In the case that there are several really great ideas, I may give out a couple.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eValid types of ideas are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdding a WordPress plugin of some sort to my blog here.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdding a new section of content.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSomething original.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd… Go.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Contest: How to Improve This Site"},{"content":"The Unsanity blog recently featured an entry on a shareware author that took a slightly more aggressive stance on software piracy.\nSlightly might be the wrong adverb for this case as the mechanism employed had the ability to wipe out the offending user\u0026rsquo;s entire home directory. The author reportedly decided this was too harsh and removed the code a few hours later.\nWhy do I bring this up? Well, Unsanity wanted to keep quiet what the product and who the author was, but Slashdot ran a story today revealing the identity. The cat is out of the bag, as they say.\nPersonally, I don\u0026rsquo;t have any sympathy for any of the “victims” of this code. It\u0026rsquo;s a controversial topic to be sure. I personally felt my blood boil over while reading some threads at Mac Serial Junkie. The audacity of the software pirates blew my mind. The “people” (or ghouls as I like to think of them) over there spend the majority of their time at a site dedicated to software piracy, leeching off the efforts of software developers. They then speak with what they believe to be righteous indignation about the topic, getting upset at the idea of software developers fighting back. It\u0026rsquo;s preposterous.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/13/software-piracy-fighting-back/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.org\"\u003eUnsanity blog\u003c/a\u003e recently featured \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000361.php\"\u003ean entry\u003c/a\u003e on a shareware author that took a slightly more aggressive stance on software piracy.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSlightly might be the wrong adverb for this case as the mechanism employed had the ability to wipe out the offending user\u0026rsquo;s entire home directory. The author reportedly decided this was too harsh and removed the code a few hours later.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhy do I bring this up? Well, Unsanity wanted to keep quiet what the product and who the author was, but \u003ca href=\"http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/04/09/13/1357202.shtml?tid=156\u0026amp;tid=98\u0026amp;tid=8\"\u003eSlashdot ran a story today\u003c/a\u003e revealing the identity. The cat is out of the bag, as they say.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Software Piracy: Fighting Back"},{"content":"Living in Massachusetts makes my vote largely impotent (thanks to our electoral college system). This year I think I\u0026rsquo;ll be voting Libertarian because ideally, that\u0026rsquo;s how I\u0026rsquo;d want to vote anyway.\nSlashdot has a story on asking the Libertarian candidate some questions. This should be fairly interesting and anyone that has been entertaining thoughts of voting Libertarian should probably take a swing and ask a question.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/13/ask-the-libertarian-presidential-candidate-a-question/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLiving in Massachusetts makes my vote largely impotent (thanks to our electoral college system). This year I think I\u0026rsquo;ll be voting Libertarian because ideally, that\u0026rsquo;s how I\u0026rsquo;d want to vote anyway.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSlashdot has a story on \u003ca href=\"http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/13/1249231\"\u003easking the Libertarian candidate some questions\u003c/a\u003e. This should be fairly interesting and anyone that has been entertaining thoughts of voting Libertarian should probably take a swing and ask a question.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ask the Libertarian Presidential Candidate a Question"},{"content":"I visited Amherst to spend some time with Scott and to see bob\u0026rsquo;s new apartment. Friday night\u0026rsquo;s plan was to do a little drinking in the dorms and reminisce. Well, one beer begot two, two begot three, and so on until I finally finished all twelve beers I had. I was feeling great at that point, but that didn\u0026rsquo;t last.\nI woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick, but I was barely awake and still quite intoxicated. Because of my recent troubles with my blog here and the fact that my host suggested it was the PHP code, I was having a dream about dealing with some troublesome PHP code.\nI had no idea I was no longer in the dream, so when I crawled to the end of Scott\u0026rsquo;s bed and things came back up, I thought it was because of the PHP code. I woke Scott up and he asked if I was all right. I naturally said “PHP code shouldn\u0026rsquo;t make me puke. I don\u0026rsquo;t understand.” This confused Scott to no end (and rightly so).\nI\u0026rsquo;ve learned my lesson. Alcohol and programming languages don\u0026rsquo;t mix.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/12/12-beers-and-some-php-later/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI visited Amherst to spend some time with Scott and to see bob\u0026rsquo;s new apartment. Friday night\u0026rsquo;s plan was to do a little drinking in the dorms and reminisce. Well, one beer begot two, two begot three, and so on until I finally finished all twelve beers I had. I was feeling great at that point, but that didn\u0026rsquo;t last.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick, but I was barely awake and still quite intoxicated. Because of my recent troubles with my blog here and the fact that my host suggested it was the PHP code, I was having a dream about dealing with some troublesome PHP code.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"12 Beers and Some PHP Later"},{"content":"After a nail-biting three hours, the Patriots pulled out a win against the Indianapolis Colts.\nIt was nail-biting, of course, only because of some sloppy play near the end by both teams. A couple fumbles and a botched punt return put Indianopolis in good position to score with a first down. After a couple weak downs, Indianapolis tried once more on their third down to jockey for better position. To Manning\u0026rsquo;s chagrin, McGinest sacked him for a huge loss.\nIt pushed them back so far that it put them out of effective range for a field goal and their kicker missed, resulting in a three point margin of victory for the Patriots.\nSounds all good, right? Wrong. In typical sports commentator style, they awarded Tom Brady with the MVP award for the game. Apparently McGinest saving the game for the Patriots just wasn\u0026rsquo;t enough.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/10/partriots-win-season-opener/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter a nail-biting three hours, the Patriots pulled out a win against the Indianapolis Colts.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was nail-biting, of course, only because of some sloppy play near the end by both teams. A couple fumbles and a botched punt return put Indianopolis in good position to score with a first down. After a couple weak downs, Indianapolis tried once more on their third down to jockey for better position. To Manning\u0026rsquo;s chagrin, McGinest sacked him for a huge loss.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Partriots Win Season Opener"},{"content":"At least, I hope this is.\nAfter finding a couple test entries successfully entered in my test installation, I tried it on my own and I confirmed posting works again. Well, that to me said that the problem was fixed. I added my weather plugin back and guess what. That\u0026rsquo;s right, it worked and it didn\u0026rsquo;t break the site.\nRemember this day, because this is normal operation and proof positive that WordPress works and the code isn\u0026rsquo;t broken.\nJon, I appreciated your offer even though it wasn\u0026rsquo;t needed. Send me that email. I have a couple GMail invites kicking around if you want it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/09/the-last-broken-site-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAt least, I hope this is.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter finding a couple test entries successfully entered in my test installation, I tried it on my own and I confirmed posting works again. Well, that to me said that the problem was fixed. I added my weather plugin back and guess what. That\u0026rsquo;s right, it worked and it didn\u0026rsquo;t break the site.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRemember this day, because this is normal operation and proof positive that WordPress works and the code isn\u0026rsquo;t broken.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Last Broken Site Update"},{"content":"I just tried posting with the web interface and it looks like things are back to normal.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/09/its-fixed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI just tried posting with the web interface and it looks like things are back to normal.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"It's Fixed?"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m trying to track down the problem with my weblog that recently cropped up. My host\u0026rsquo;s support staff have largely pointed the finger back at me. I\u0026rsquo;d love to isolate the problem myself either to fix it or have a firm place to point my own finger. If you know PHP and how to debug, send me an email or comment (as long as the comments are still working).\nUpdate: Now attempts to post result in thirty copies. I can\u0026rsquo;t win. At least I can still post with my external editor.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/08/experienced-php-programmer-needed/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m trying to track down the problem with my weblog that recently cropped up. My host\u0026rsquo;s support staff have largely pointed the finger back at me. I\u0026rsquo;d love to isolate the problem myself either to fix it or have a firm place to point my own finger. If you know PHP and how to debug, send me an email or comment (as long as the comments are still working).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e Now attempts to post result in thirty copies. I can\u0026rsquo;t win. At least I can still post with my external editor.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Experienced PHP Programmer Needed"},{"content":"Last night, I put in a completely isolated new installation of WordPress in. I made a new database, didn\u0026rsquo;t change anything but the configuration files necessary to point at the database. WordPress still shit the bed when trying to post new entries. All I can say is, at least they still go through.\nI\u0026rsquo;m waiting help from my host and hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll get things back in working order soon (especially since I\u0026rsquo;d like to put my weather plug in back).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/08/the-long-road-to-recovery/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLast night, I put in a completely isolated new installation of WordPress in. I made a new database, didn\u0026rsquo;t change anything but the configuration files necessary to point at the database. WordPress still shit the bed when trying to post new entries. All I can say is, at least they still go through.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m waiting help from my host and hopefully I\u0026rsquo;ll get things back in working order soon (especially since I\u0026rsquo;d like to put my weather plug in back).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Long Road to Recovery"},{"content":"Earlier today, the weather plugin (which told you the weather in nearby Worcester) broke my blog earlier today. As of yet, I don\u0026rsquo;t know how or why, but needless to say, hunting it down wasn\u0026rsquo;t easy or fun. I nearly gave my host some crap which wasn\u0026rsquo;t their fault. Arg!\nUpdate: Apparently more is going on than just with the weather plugin because attempting to post this returned document empty errors. Why must things break on me?\nUpdate2: I got my rewrite rules back (they got renamed to .htaccess1, hmmm). Now to see if I can post and edit posts without incident.\nUpdate3: Nope, now I\u0026rsquo;m getting zero size replies when trying to edit or post. At least the changes seem to go through.\nUpdate4: It is now my opinion that my host changed something on their end, effectively breaking WordPress for me. I can\u0026rsquo;t confirm this until later when I put in a brand spanking new installation and it shits the bed. Stay tuned!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/07/weather-plugin-broke-the-site/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eEarlier today, the weather plugin (which told you the weather in nearby Worcester) broke my blog earlier today. As of yet, I don\u0026rsquo;t know how or why, but needless to say, hunting it down wasn\u0026rsquo;t easy or fun. I nearly gave my host some crap which wasn\u0026rsquo;t their fault. Arg!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUpdate:\u003c/strong\u003e Apparently more is going on than just with the weather plugin because attempting to post this returned document empty errors. Why must things break on me?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Weather Plugin Broke The Site"},{"content":"Following a lengthy search for a good Bluetooth mouse (see entries one and two), someone mentioned the Macally BTMouseJr and the fact that it recently was released. I decided to check it out.\nI hadn\u0026rsquo;t heard much about it, which seems like a marketing blunder considering the demand being generated by new Powerbooks with Bluetooth built-in. Wireless has become an attractive option for laptop users because the surfaces users may work on may not allow for cords. Cords also tangle and are a pain to put away repeatedly. This prompted some companies to come up with solutions for travelers. For example, Kensington made the PocketMouse Pro which features a mechanism to wind the cord within the mouse. The also made a wireless mouse with a compartment to put the USB dongle. Why not use the wireless already built into many laptops, including Windows-based ones? In addition to others, Macally has.\nKeep It Simple Stupid I like to use a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer with my Powermac, but with its extra buttons, it needs to be a bit larger. Larger is bad when you\u0026rsquo;re looking for portability. Having to carry around a large heavy mouse with lots of buttons defeats the purpose of a laptop. Therefore, I\u0026rsquo;m willing deal with less buttons. The BTMouseJr has three buttons: the regular left and right as well as a clickable scroll wheel. The scroll wheel was not negotiable. That, combined with price, made Apple\u0026rsquo;s Wireless Mouse out of the question. being optical was necessary and at this point should go without saying.\nTo go along with it\u0026rsquo;s simplicity, the packaging for the BTMouseJr is very simple. In the box are the mouse, some batteries (yes, batteries are included), and some simple instructions.\nGood Things Come in Small Packages Physically, the mouse is very small.\nDimensions: (W) 2″ x (L) 3.7″ x (H) 1.3″ Net Weight: 2.6oz These dimensions are pretty much par for any portable mouse. As you can see below, the Kensington Pocketmouse Pro is just about the same size as the BTMouseJr.\nSnap! Installation was easy in OS X, using OS X\u0026rsquo;s built-in Bluetooth device setup assistant. If you\u0026rsquo;ve used it before, you know how easy it is. If not, Macally\u0026rsquo;s instructions walk you through it (though it\u0026rsquo;s self-explanatory enough to be used without). To initiate connection, you simply turn on Bluetooth in your computer and press the “Connect Button” underneath the mouse. Yes, yes, I know I said only three buttons, but this isn\u0026rsquo;t used other than connecting for the first time.\nThe scroll wheel glows blue indicating that it\u0026rsquo;s broadcasting its existence to nearby devices. This blue light holds a double function which I will explain later. During this connecting sequence, it also emits an audible high pitched squeal. This worried me, but thankfully, once the mouse was paired with my computer, the noise stopped. For any potential owners, don\u0026rsquo;t be worried about this sound.\nBatteries Included Battery usage is particularly important when using a wireless mouse. You don\u0026rsquo;t want to constantly replace batteries or have them run out at an inopportune time. While most wireless mice rely upon driver software to give you battery status on the computer screen, the BTMouseJr doesn\u0026rsquo;t. In fact, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t use any special software. This means that you configure the mouse button action with Apple\u0026rsquo;s software. By default, the middle button will open new tabs in Safari.\nThis is where we come full-circle with the scroll wheel. When the batteries start to get low, the light will blink. It will be infrequently at first, then it will become more frequent as time goes on. I went several days with it blinking, so the blinking will give you plenty of time to replace the batteries. The stock batteries were put in July 12th and ran out August 14th. That\u0026rsquo;s over a month of normal usage on generic batteries (I haven\u0026rsquo;t figured out how long Energizer or Duracell batteries will last).\nTo keep battery use at a minimum, the mouse will go to sleep after a certain amount of inactivity (I don\u0026rsquo;t know how long this is, I\u0026rsquo;ve never measured it). This poses an interesting question. How does one know when the mouse disconnects and whether it is connected or not without special software. Apple\u0026rsquo;s Bluetooth software takes care of this. An event bezel will show up (think volume control notification) to indicate the connection is lost. If you don\u0026rsquo;t see that, you can also use the Bluetooth menu extra to tell. If it is the normal black Bluetooth symbol, then it is disconnected and off. If it\u0026rsquo;s gray with a dotted black line through it, it\u0026rsquo;s connected. If the mouse is sleeping, clicking one of the buttons will bring it back to life. Be aware though, that initial click is not ignored, so make sure the pointer is over something that when clicked won\u0026rsquo;t hinder your work.\nConclusions I\u0026rsquo;m thoroughly satisfied with this mouse. At an MSRP of $50 (I found it for $42.20 at Page Computers), it\u0026rsquo;s much cheaper than Apple\u0026rsquo;s Wireless mouse.\nPros:\nOnly $50 MSRP. Silver color perfect for Powerbooks Good battery life Simple installation Small and light Sleeps to conserve batteries Cons:\nNo manual on/off switch for travel Waking clicks get passed to OS If you\u0026rsquo;re looking for a good complement for a Powerbook, the Macally BTMouseJr is a winner.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/06/review-macally-btmousejr/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing a lengthy search for a good Bluetooth mouse (see entries \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2004/07/01/a-trip-to-the-dentist-or-a-mouse-of-a-different-color/\"\u003eone\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/weblog/2004/07/03/odd-and-ends/\"\u003etwo\u003c/a\u003e), someone mentioned the Macally BTMouseJr and the fact that it recently was released. I decided to check it out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hadn\u0026rsquo;t heard much about it, which seems like a marketing blunder considering the demand being generated by new Powerbooks with Bluetooth built-in. Wireless has become an attractive option for laptop users because the surfaces users may work on may not allow for cords. Cords also tangle and are a pain to put away repeatedly. This prompted some companies to come up with solutions for travelers. For example, Kensington made the PocketMouse Pro which features a mechanism to wind the cord within the mouse. The also made a wireless mouse with a compartment to put the USB dongle. Why not use the wireless already built into many laptops, including Windows-based ones? In addition to others, Macally has.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Review: Macally BTMouseJr"},{"content":"Dog Bites Politician On Campaign Trail\n(Via TheBostonChannel.com .)\nAfter being subjected to a million signs and bumper stickers for both candidates involved, this brought a smile to my face. Call me sadistic.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/06/thebostonchannel.com-news-dog-bites-politician-on-campaign-trail/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3708864/detail.html\"\u003eDog Bites Politician On Campaign Trail\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(Via  \u003ca href=\"http://www.thebostonchannel.com\"\u003eTheBostonChannel.com\u003c/a\u003e .)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter being subjected to a million signs and bumper stickers for both candidates involved, this brought a smile to my face. Call me sadistic.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"TheBostonChannel.com – News – Dog Bites Politician On Campaign Trail"},{"content":"After an extended break, I\u0026rsquo;m adding a second installment into my Terminal Tutorial. This time I\u0026rsquo;ll be going into the structure of Unix commands.\nDoing Something with Files Now that you know how to move around in the filesystem, you\u0026rsquo;ll want to do something with files. For a simple example until I get to text editors, save the source of this web page to your home directory (you just want the HTML source, which is currently Safari\u0026rsquo;s default and only option when you choose Save As). Alternatively, use your favorite text editor (BBEdit, TextEdit, SubEthaEdit, Smultron, etc.) and save a text file with some text in it to your home directory (refrain from using spaces in the file name for now).\nOpen up your terminal application. Navigate to your home directory if it\u0026rsquo;s not your current working directory. Use the ls to list the contents of your home directory. Either the source of the page or your text file should be there. We\u0026rsquo;re going to use the cat command now. Type cat \u0026lt;em\u0026gt;filename\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt; where filename is the name of your file. You should see the text of that file be displayed.\nWhat is this cat command do and what does it have to do with your kitty Fluffy? Well, it has nothing to do with fluffy. Cat, like all good Unix commands, is short for something. In this case, it stands for “concatenate and print files”. You can see this for yourself by typing man cat into the terminal. You\u0026rsquo;ll see that under name what I\u0026rsquo;ve said is true. Now before the rest of what is output makes any sense, I\u0026rsquo;ll have to introduce you to how Unix commands are formed. For now, press q to exit the man command. This will return you to the prompt.\nSome Structured Education Unix commands are archaic, hard to understand, complicated, and for programmers only. Right? Wrong! Once you get to know them a little bit, they\u0026rsquo;re not so bad. Unix commands are made up of several parts. Once you get them down, you\u0026rsquo;ll start to understand the Unix commands you\u0026rsquo;ve dutifully pasted into the terminal window at someone\u0026rsquo;s suggestion. You\u0026rsquo;ll start using your own commands. You\u0026rsquo;ll start to understand man pages. Amaze your friends!\nThe first part of a command is the program being executed. Some examples are cat, ls, etc. There are many built-in commands. For now, we\u0026rsquo;ll just use the ones I\u0026rsquo;ve introduced. Next, we have what are called flags. Like those things we burn? No, no, not those flags. These flags are like preferences or options, they tell the command how to behave. For example, use the ls command. Now use ls -l. Suddenly, there\u0026rsquo;s a lot more crap being displayed. What does it all mean? You don\u0026rsquo;t care. Let\u0026rsquo;s move on. The “l” after the dash is what you are interested in here. That\u0026rsquo;s a flag. The dash is your clue that it is a flag. Characters after a dash are interpreted as a flag. Try ls -al. Note that more files are listed, including “.” and “..” which we encountered in the last lesson.\nThese flags tell the ls command to a couple things. The “a” tells ls to list all files. The “a” does stand for something! It\u0026rsquo;s not just an obscure thing scientists know. Likewise, “l” stands for long. There is a way to look these up, but we\u0026rsquo;ll leave that to the next section.\nNext in a command, we have the arguments which can define a sub-command of the command or a file to act upon. In the cat command you just used, the filename was an argument. Sometimes arguments following a flag are used by the flag. How these arguments are used are defined by the command. For cat, it will list all the files that you list in a row. This usage is defined by the man pages.\nMeet the Man Man, or manual, pages define the origins, functionality, and usage of commands. They\u0026rsquo;re useful for figuring out what a command does and formulating your own commands.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s break it down a little. The first section is the Name, which generally tells you the name and a quick description of the command. Next we have the Synopsis which describes the general structure of the command. Things enclosed in brackets [] are optional. Almost all flags are optional. Sometimes arguments are optional as well. Ellipses indicate multiple arguments of a certain type (for example in cat).\nThis was a big chunk and not everyone who uses Unix properly understands how commands are set up (to them, Unix is like a cookbook). By understanding how these commands work, you have a leg up.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/05/os-x-terminal-tutorial-part-2/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter an extended break, I\u0026rsquo;m adding a second installment into my Terminal Tutorial. This time I\u0026rsquo;ll be going into the structure of Unix commands.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"OS X Terminal Tutorial: Part 2"},{"content":"The last few days, I\u0026rsquo;ve been playing with the CSS that renders the site for me. I\u0026rsquo;ve now given the weblog a page-like look (notice the border on all sides). Normally, that bugs the crap out of me on websites, but I\u0026rsquo;ve tried to keep it a small border to make things look nicer. I\u0026rsquo;ve also removed the numbering of the comments and gave them dashed line separators.\nNext up is to add a logo of some kind (and a favicon because I\u0026rsquo;m sure all of you are tired at looking at the generic icon for this site). I\u0026rsquo;ll have to try my hand at designing them both myself as no one offered to help this artistically stupid programmer.\nLet me know what you think of the changes.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/04/notice-any-changes/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe last few days, I\u0026rsquo;ve been playing with the CSS that renders the site for me. I\u0026rsquo;ve now given the weblog a page-like look (notice the border on all sides). Normally, that bugs the crap out of me on websites, but I\u0026rsquo;ve tried to keep it a small border to make things look nicer. I\u0026rsquo;ve also removed the numbering of the comments and gave them dashed line separators.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNext up is to add a logo of some kind (and a favicon because I\u0026rsquo;m sure all of you are tired at looking at the generic icon for this site). I\u0026rsquo;ll have to try my hand at designing them both myself as no one offered to help this artistically stupid programmer.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Notice Any Changes?"},{"content":"My friend Scott (yes, I know his blog is empty, I\u0026rsquo;m trying to get him to change that) moved into his new room at U-Mass today. He\u0026rsquo;s staying in the same building, Field, but he\u0026rsquo;s moved down to the second floor.\nThat, first of all, made moving him in ten times easier than normal. In fact, we spent most of the day wandering around Amherst. We even had time for a stop at Amherst Brewing Company (ABC), which is a great place to stop if you\u0026rsquo;re ever in the area. They even have sampler packs so you can try a variety of their beers. I\u0026rsquo;m going to stop now because I could go on all day about beer.\nThe question that everyone I know has for me is, “Was that weird?” Well, no, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t. I had a buffer year of Southwest which was enough for me to disassociate Orchard Hill from living at college. (Southwest and Orchard Hill are two very different areas of U-Mass Amherst\u0026rsquo;s dorm network.)\nSo the continuing experiment of whether having friends still going to school while I\u0026rsquo;m working will be weird continues.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/03/move-in-day-for-the-old-roommie/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy friend \u003ca href=\"/scott/\"\u003eScott\u003c/a\u003e (yes, I know his blog is empty, I\u0026rsquo;m trying to get him to change that) moved into his new room at \u003ca href=\"http://www.umass.edu\"\u003eU-Mass\u003c/a\u003e today. He\u0026rsquo;s staying in the same building, Field, but he\u0026rsquo;s moved down to the second floor.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat, first of all, made moving him in ten times easier than normal. In fact, we spent most of the day wandering around Amherst. We even had time for a stop at \u003ca href=\"http://www.amherstbrewing.com\"\u003eAmherst Brewing Company\u003c/a\u003e (ABC), which is a great place to stop if you\u0026rsquo;re ever in the area. They even have sampler packs so you can try a variety of their beers. I\u0026rsquo;m going to stop now because I could go on all day about beer.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Move-in Day for the Old Roommie"},{"content":"Many of you may be familiar with the uber text editor, BBEdit. I recently upgraded to the 8.0 version of this fine utility.\nMy verdict? Well, it\u0026rsquo;s pretty similar to 7.0. There are a few key new things that made it worth the upgrade price to me. The first is the document sidebar. Instead of having a few dozen windows open, you can have just one and switch between them. This is a big win for small screen users (like those of us with 12″ Powerbooks). It also highlights the current line, which seems minor, but is amazingly useful. Hunting down the cursor can be a real chore, so this is a real time-saver. It also lets you the system spell-checker (which I\u0026rsquo;ve become addicted to.\nUnix buffs will also like the improved “bbedit” command (which lets you pipe text into it). Also very useful is the new “bbdiff” command, which lets you compare two files from the terminal with BBEdit. Cool!\nThere are other features which aren\u0026rsquo;t quite as important to me, but may be of interest to some. So check it out! You may find it\u0026rsquo;s worth the $49 upgrade fee.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/01/bbedit-8.0-evolutionary/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMany of you may be familiar with the uber text editor, \u003ca href=\"http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.shtml\"\u003eBBEdit\u003c/a\u003e. I recently upgraded to the 8.0 version of this fine utility.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy verdict? Well, it\u0026rsquo;s pretty similar to 7.0. There are a few key new things that made it worth the upgrade price to me. The first is the document sidebar. Instead of having a few dozen windows open, you can have just one and switch between them. This is a big win for small screen users (like those of us with 12″ Powerbooks). It also highlights the current line, which seems minor, but is amazingly useful. Hunting down the cursor can be a real chore, so this is a real time-saver. It also lets you the system spell-checker (which I\u0026rsquo;ve become addicted to.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"BBEdit 8.0: Evolutionary"},{"content":"For the first time in my life, I will not be going back to school at the end of the summer. My parents asked me if it felt weird. As of yet, no, it feels perfectly natural going to work every morning and come home every evening. Perhaps it\u0026rsquo;s too early to judge how I will feel, but I\u0026rsquo;ll say this: I\u0026rsquo;m feeling fine.\nI won\u0026rsquo;t have to return to the world of academia, with its self-imposed sense of importance, lack of real world relevance, and absurd idealism. I can finally interact with other people in a real way. I\u0026rsquo;m not saying I hate school. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably start on a graduate degree sometime soon. It\u0026rsquo;s just that after 16+ years of education, every little bugaboo about its culture has turned into frustration. They become all you focus on. I\u0026rsquo;m sure the “real world” will be the same way after some time, but I\u0026rsquo;m hopeful that its downfalls will cause less friction with my personality.\nGone are the all night homework sessions. I can show up at 8, leave at 5, and not think about work again until I show up at 8 the next morning. It\u0026rsquo;s truly liberating to do something on the weekend without some kind of assignment (or senior thesis) hanging over your head.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/09/01/september-arrives/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFor the first time in my life, I will not be going back to school at the end of the summer. My parents asked me if it felt weird. As of yet, no, it feels perfectly natural going to work every morning and come home every evening. Perhaps it\u0026rsquo;s too early to judge how I will feel, but I\u0026rsquo;ll say this: I\u0026rsquo;m feeling fine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI won\u0026rsquo;t have to return to the world of academia, with its self-imposed sense of importance, lack of real world relevance, and absurd idealism. I can finally interact with other people in a real way. I\u0026rsquo;m not saying I hate school. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably start on a graduate degree sometime soon. It\u0026rsquo;s just that after 16+ years of education, every little bugaboo about its culture has turned into frustration. They become all you focus on. I\u0026rsquo;m sure the “real world” will be the same way after some time, but I\u0026rsquo;m hopeful that its downfalls will cause less friction with my personality.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"September Arrives"},{"content":"I recently criticized Watson for removing EyeTV functionality from Watson\u0026rsquo;s TV Pane. Dan Wood has restored this and the iCal functionality (with caveats). I must applaud him for this. I think most Watson users would have taken the TV pane as was and thought nothing more of it. It\u0026rsquo;s great to see such dedication.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/31/watson-updates-tv-pane-and-restores-eyetv-functionality/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI recently criticized \u003ca href=\"http://www.karelia.com/watson/\"\u003eWatson\u003c/a\u003e for removing EyeTV functionality from Watson\u0026rsquo;s TV Pane. Dan Wood has restored this and the iCal functionality (\u003ca href=\"http://weblog.karelia.com/Watson/Watson_updates_toda.html\"\u003ewith caveats\u003c/a\u003e). I must applaud him for this. I think most Watson users would have taken the TV pane as was and thought nothing more of it. It\u0026rsquo;s great to see such dedication.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Watson Updates TV Pane and Restores EyeTV Functionality"},{"content":"After a long iMac-less summer, Apple has announced the new iMacs with full specs and pictures.\nI\u0026rsquo;d list them here, but I figure there\u0026rsquo;s not much point. You can all read. Of note is the fact that the iMacs are using a system bus that is a third of the processor speed. This is a first for G5\u0026rsquo;s, but probably won\u0026rsquo;t have a large effect upon performance. They\u0026rsquo;ve also adopted a new form factor that has essentially moved the entire guts of the machine into the LCD frame. This begs the question, why couldn\u0026rsquo;t they make a G5 Powerbook again? I won\u0026rsquo;t go off on a rant about misplaced priorities at Apple again. I\u0026rsquo;m sure that can come back another day.\nGone is the 15″ iMac. 17″ and 20″ are the only two sizes. They are widescreen, keeping with Apple style, but to contain all the computer parts, there is a rather large white (unsightly) border below the screen. I\u0026rsquo;m not saying I don\u0026rsquo;t like the new iMac. It seems like a very nice computer. It didn\u0026rsquo;t wow me like the original flat panel iMac did though. The iMac G4 made me question whether I wanted a Powermac. That\u0026rsquo;s not the case this time around.\nI do see this as a great machine for many consumer users. The iMac is back to being a really tight integrated machine again. While the swivel arm was great and functional, it did make the iMac a little less all-in-one like. I\u0026rsquo;d also like to note how it resembles the 20th Anniversary Mac. I can think of one person this computer is perfect for already, mother dearest. She spends most of her time at home in the kitchen. It\u0026rsquo;s hard enough getting her to touch a computer, nevermind dragging her upstairs into my father\u0026rsquo;s study to sit her down at his old frankenstein of a Mac. Putting this on the kitchen counter would give her instantaneous access to a new world of things.\nAt any rate, check it out. It may have been what you were waiting for.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/31/g5-imacs-arrive/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter a long iMac-less summer, \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e has announced the \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/imac/\"\u003enew iMacs\u003c/a\u003e with full specs and pictures.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;d list them here, but I figure there\u0026rsquo;s not much point. You can all read. Of note is the fact that the iMacs are using a system bus that is a third of the processor speed. This is a first for G5\u0026rsquo;s, but probably won\u0026rsquo;t have a large effect upon performance. They\u0026rsquo;ve also adopted a new form factor that has essentially moved the entire guts of the machine into the LCD frame. This begs the question, why couldn\u0026rsquo;t they make a G5 Powerbook again? I won\u0026rsquo;t go off on a rant about misplaced priorities at Apple again. I\u0026rsquo;m sure that can come back another day.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"G5 iMacs Arrive"},{"content":"Months after the announcement that they would do so, HP has begun selling the iPod. Different faceplates can be gotten through HP (thought I believe they are actually sticker; I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get a picture of them because I refused to wade through their flash based iPod site).\nThis is a win-win situation for Apple and HP. Apple spreads its market dominence while increasing public visibility. HP gets to sell an existing product (meaning no reasearch and development costs) that\u0026rsquo;s already dominating the market. This allows them to sell the iPod at lower prices as well as bundle it with their own systems.\nI\u0026rsquo;m not sure that there is much else to be said about it for now, but it will make the debut of Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s service a little more interesting.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/30/hp-begins-selling-the-ipod/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMonths after the announcement that they would do so, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hp.com\"\u003eHP\u003c/a\u003e has begun selling the iPod. Different faceplates can be gotten through HP (thought I believe they are actually sticker; I couldn\u0026rsquo;t get a picture of them because I refused to wade through their flash based iPod site).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a win-win situation for Apple and HP. Apple spreads its market dominence while increasing public visibility. HP gets to sell an existing product (meaning no reasearch and development costs) that\u0026rsquo;s already dominating the market. This allows them to sell the iPod at lower prices as well as bundle it with their own systems.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"HP Begins Selling the iPod"},{"content":"As probably nearly all readers of this site know, I am a volunteer moderator over at Macworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums. Macworld recently revamped their website and accompanying website, MacCentral, which a new design. It\u0026rsquo;s a radical change for sure, but uses CSS heavily to improve portability and loading speed.\nIt has also moved Macworld\u0026rsquo;s news site into the main site and pointed the comment system for those stories into Macworld\u0026rsquo;s existing forums. This had couple changes that went along with it. The first being that existing MacCentral users had to get new usernames at Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums (resulting in 0 post counts). It also meant that existing discussions were in a different forum system.\nBefore I give my personal spin, let me give a warning that this is my own personal spin. It has nothing to do with Macworld, so if you don\u0026rsquo;t like it, you have a problem with me, not Macworld.\nInstead of carefully examining the situation and seeing what the actual changes were, most users jumped to a series of rash conclusions which was joined with a lot of crass comments and childlike threats. It was fairly obvious what happened, at least to me. Macworld had two forum systems and migrated people from one to the other for the purpose of commenting on stories. Macworld left MacCentral\u0026rsquo;s forums in place, but they are no longer in use for story commenting. They did not “delete user accounts” as a few users suggested. Due to the number of overlapping users, merging the two forum systems wasn\u0026rsquo;t possible. I had logins for both sites, which was common. Additionally, some users that weren\u0026rsquo;t the same on MacCentral, registered on Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums. Those logins couldn\u0026rsquo;t and shouldn\u0026rsquo;t have been wiped to be replaced by MacCentral users. That\u0026rsquo;s not fair. Instead, users are given a new account at Macworld. Avatars and image signatures are not allowed at Macworld. They make pages load slower and I for one applaud Macworld for never enabling those features. If you don\u0026rsquo;t like that, you can read the next point. MacCentral\u0026rsquo;s existing forum system is alive and well. It\u0026rsquo;s still accessible through a link available in Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums. Use it. Being crass and making threats helps no one. It only aggravates those running Macworld. This goes for any business or institution. It\u0026rsquo;s like the old saying goes, you\u0026rsquo;ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. If you don\u0026rsquo;t like something about the way things have changed, specify them. Don\u0026rsquo;t just reiterate the moronic “it sucks”. Describe them very specifically and be extremely clear about what you mean. Posting “I can\u0026rsquo;t make new topics” isn\u0026rsquo;t clear. Explain that you\u0026rsquo;re talking about creating a new thread about a particular story. Also, offer suggestions. “Go back to the old site” is not a suggestion. If the type is too big in your opinion, suggest smaller type. I think you can get the idea. That said, there has been, in my opinion, excellent feedback on the new design. There are a few users in particular that I can think of. They did all the things above I suggested. more importantly, they are going to wait to see how things play out for the next couple weeks. Others have not, opting for immature threats. I\u0026rsquo;d like to see Macworld utilize the ability of different CSS style-sheets to be used. That way, they could offer a “Classic” style sheet that closely emulates the original style. Users could choose which style sheets to use. (For those of you didn\u0026rsquo;t pick up on it, that\u0026rsquo;s an example of constructive feedback.) The possibilities are many and certainly too early to pass final judgment on.\nAddendum: I forgot to mention that post counts are not a functional thing at all. It\u0026rsquo;s completely for vanity. If your points are salient, post counts are unnecessary to back them up.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/29/maccentral-undergoes-re-design/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs probably nearly all readers of this site know, I am a volunteer moderator over at \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/\"\u003eMacworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com\"\u003eMacworld\u003c/a\u003e recently revamped their website and accompanying website, \u003ca href=\"http://www.maccentral.com\"\u003eMacCentral\u003c/a\u003e, which a new design. It\u0026rsquo;s a radical change for sure, but uses CSS heavily to improve portability and loading speed.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt has also moved Macworld\u0026rsquo;s news site into the main site and pointed the comment system for those stories into Macworld\u0026rsquo;s existing forums. This had couple changes that went along with it. The first being that existing MacCentral users had to get new usernames at Macworld\u0026rsquo;s forums (resulting in 0 post counts). It also meant that existing discussions were in a different forum system.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"MacCentral Undergoes Re-Design"},{"content":"Following a Paul Hamm\u0026rsquo;s dramatic recovery from a mistake during the overall gymnastics competition at the Olympics, we all learned of a scoring error that would have meant only second place for him, giving the bronze medalist the gold.\nNaturally, it\u0026rsquo;s a sad turn of events for the South Korean, but the Federation of International Gymnasts (FIG) has refused to step up to the plate to rectify their mistake. Instead of giving Yang Tae-young another gold or telling the world that they made a mistake and that it is final, they are calling upon Paul Hamm to turn his medal in and “do the right thing.” Suddenly, the competitor who has no hand in the scoring, is being asked to rectify the situation? He is being called upon to fix things. It\u0026rsquo;s absurd!\nI wish I could be like that. What if criminals did this? George steals Frank\u0026rsquo;s car and sell it to Peter. George gets caught and instead of setting things right, says “All sales are final. Peter, do the right thing and give Frank his car back.” It doesn\u0026rsquo;t work like that.\nFurther, it\u0026rsquo;s not like it\u0026rsquo;s a huge deal if FIG gave out another gold medal in this isolated case. If they are afraid of setting precedent that might result in this happening frequently, then they need to revisit their judges and their apparent lack of judging ability. It\u0026rsquo;s like the use of the red flag in football. It should be unlimited use as long as you are right. It\u0026rsquo;s use is limited to twice because of a misplaced fear that it might slow down the game. That is only a concern if the officiating is so awful that they continue to screw up. In that case, the NFL would have much larger problems than the game getting delayed. The same goes for FIG.\nShould the IOC give out another gold medal? I don\u0026rsquo;t know. Should Paul Hamm give his back? Hell no.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/27/leggo-my-medal/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing a Paul Hamm\u0026rsquo;s dramatic recovery from a mistake during the overall gymnastics competition at the Olympics, we all learned of a scoring error that would have meant only second place for him, giving the bronze medalist the gold.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNaturally, it\u0026rsquo;s a sad turn of events for the South Korean, but the Federation of International Gymnasts (FIG) has refused to step up to the plate to rectify their mistake. Instead of giving Yang Tae-young another gold or telling the world that they made a mistake and that it is final, they are calling upon Paul Hamm to turn his medal in and “do the right thing.” Suddenly, the competitor who has no hand in the scoring, is being asked to rectify the situation? He is being called upon to fix things. It\u0026rsquo;s absurd!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Leggo my Medal!"},{"content":"The week after next I\u0026rsquo;ll be working in Woburn instead of Bedford. This makes for a longer commute from my home. My parents will also be selling this house and moving up to Maine.\nThis adds up to me needing a new apartment of my very own. I\u0026rsquo;ve never gotten an apartment before so this will be a new experience. My friends that have gotten an apartment have done so through people they knew at school.\nDoes anyone have any recommendations as to where to start? Maybe someone living in MA already knows of a good place in the Woburn area.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/27/finding-an-apartment/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe week after next I\u0026rsquo;ll be working in Woburn instead of Bedford. This makes for a longer commute from my home. My parents will also be selling this house and moving up to Maine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis adds up to me needing a new apartment of my very own. I\u0026rsquo;ve never gotten an apartment before so this will be a new experience. My friends that have gotten an apartment have done so through people they knew at school.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Finding an Apartment"},{"content":"Building up hours to prepare for some mandatory vacation time next week is sucking up my time this week. Working 10 hours a day sucks up most of my free time and drains any energy I have to post anything. Making matters worse, today was a slow news day in the Mac world. We probably won\u0026rsquo;t see anything too major until September when the new iMac is introduced.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/24/busy-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBuilding up hours to prepare for some mandatory vacation time next week is sucking up my time this week. Working 10 hours a day sucks up most of my free time and drains any energy I have to post anything. Making matters worse, today was a slow news day in the Mac world. We probably won\u0026rsquo;t see anything too major until September when the new iMac is introduced.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Busy Day"},{"content":" .Mac users get Virex 7.5: “Following McAfee Inc.\u0026rsquo;s July announcement that its Macintosh anti-virus software utility Virex would be updated to version 7.5 and released in August, the new version of the software is now available for download for subscribers of Apple\u0026rsquo;s .Mac online service. .Mac has offered previous versions of Virex as part of its basic service. Virex 7.5 incorporates new features including a background scanner, an “active” scanner that maintains connections to the local network and the Internet, new tracking and reporting capabilities, a schedule editor that lets you automate scans and updates and more.” (Via MacCentral.)\nParity has once again been restored between the .Mac and the retail version of Virex. .Mac subscribers, pick up your copy, even if you\u0026rsquo;re not going to use it. You never know when you might need it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/23/from-maccentral-.mac-users-get-virex-7.5/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/08/23/virex/?lsrc=mcrss-0804\"\u003e.Mac users get Virex 7.5\u003c/a\u003e: “Following McAfee Inc.\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/07/19/virex/\"\u003eJuly announcement\u003c/a\u003e that its Macintosh anti-virus software utility Virex would be updated to version 7.5 and released in August, the new version of the software is now available for download for subscribers of Apple\u0026rsquo;s \u003ca href=\"http://www.mac.com\"\u003e.Mac\u003c/a\u003e online service. .Mac has offered previous versions of Virex as part of its basic service. Virex 7.5 incorporates new features including a background scanner, an “active” scanner that maintains connections to the local network and the Internet, new tracking and reporting capabilities, a schedule editor that lets you automate scans and updates and more.”\n(Via \u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/\"\u003eMacCentral\u003c/a\u003e.)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From MacCentral: .Mac users get Virex 7.5"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m feeling particularly saucy today, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d start in on a series of entries about how to do things with OS X\u0026rsquo;s Terminal application. This is the first lesson.\nTerminal.app is not the only game in town I\u0026rsquo;ll begin by telling users that although the application that Apple includes for command line access is probably the most commonly used (and my personal preference at the moment), it is not the only way to use it.\nOne can also download the freeware iTerm. For those of you that love tabbed interfaces (a la Mozilla or Safari), this may be for you. From what I\u0026rsquo;ve read, it also outputs text much faster than Apple\u0026rsquo;s Terminal.app. I personally had some trouble getting it to behave like I wanted and rather than fight with it, I decided to use Apple\u0026rsquo;s.\nAnother option is to use xterm within Apple\u0026rsquo;s X11 application. By default, it should show up when you start X11 (keep in mind, you may have to install X11). It\u0026rsquo;s also invoked in X11 by selecting Terminal from the Applications menu. You can also press command-n to open a new window of it. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t have scroll bars though, which may be a real hinderance.\nFinally, thanks to X11, you have access to wide range of terminal applications developed for other versions of Unix. A Google search will yield a large number of alternatives.\nNavigating the File System A good place to start when working in the Terminal is to explain the file system because everything in Unix is a file. That\u0026rsquo;s particularly important later.\nFirst, we want to know where we are in the file system. To do this, we use the pwd (print working directory) command. Type pwd and press return. It should print /Users/\u0026lt;em\u0026gt;yourusername\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt;/ to the screen and present you with a fresh prompt. The prompt is the text presented where you enter the commands. By default, it should read computername:yourcurrentlocation yourusername$ .\nWait a minute though, I just said /Users/yourusername/ should be the current location. In you prompt it reads ~. What is this tilde and what does it mean? That\u0026rsquo;s a symbol for your home directory. This is /Users/\u0026lt;em\u0026gt;yourusername\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt;/ on OS X. On many Unix systems, this is /home/\u0026lt;em\u0026gt;yourusername\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt;/ instead of the before mentioned path (location).\nKnowing where you are is good, but it\u0026rsquo;s not everything. Now you\u0026rsquo;ll want to see the files and directories where you are. We use the ls (list) command. Windows users may know this command as dir. This will list the visible files in that directory. You should see your Documents folder as well as anything else in your home directory.\nNext we\u0026rsquo;ll want to move into the Documents folder. For this we use the cd (change directory) command. Type cd Documents and press return. Your prompt should now indicate the change of directory and now read ~/Documents. Use the pwd command. It should now read /Users/\u0026lt;em\u0026gt;yourusername\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt;/Documents/. This is not the only way we could have gotten to this directory. Type cd and press return. This will always bring you back to your home directory. If you ever get lost, cd by itself will return you home. Now type cd /Users/\u0026lt;em\u0026gt;yourusername\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt;/Documents/. It should be exactly as before. What does this mean?\nA Rose by Any Other Name You\u0026rsquo;ve just met relative and absolute addressing. What does that mean exactly? Relative means you change your location based upon where you currently are. That is to say, you move relative to your current location. Absolute addressing is regardless of where you are and absolutely indicates the location. These addresses always start with / which indicates the root of your filesystem (which is your boot drive).\nLet\u0026rsquo;s say one wants to get back to the home directory. We already know we can do this with the cd command. Instead, we\u0026rsquo;re going apply what you just learned. Go back to your home directory using absolute addressing. Try it and then read the next paragraph.\nYou should have typed cd /Users/\u0026lt;em\u0026gt;yourusername\u0026lt;/em\u0026gt;/ and your prompt should have the tilde. We have a special case for your home directory that allows for short hand. You can substitute the absolute path of your home directory by the tilde. Go back to the Documents folder (you can choose relative or absolute). How do you get back to your home directory using relative addressing? We have two more special symbols we can use: \u0026quot;.\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;..\u0026quot;. \u0026quot;.\u0026quot; refers to the current directory. \u0026quot;..\u0026quot; refers to the parent directory. Type cd .. and press return. You should be back your home directory. Neat, eh?\nThat concludes this lesson. Post any questions into the comments.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/22/os-x-terminal-tutorial-part-1/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m feeling particularly saucy today, so I thought I\u0026rsquo;d start in on a series of entries about how to do things with OS X\u0026rsquo;s Terminal application. This is the first lesson.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"OS X Terminal Tutorial: Part 1"},{"content":"Many Mac users are familiar with Omniweb, the web browser. When I first started using OS X, Omniweb was the best game in town. Looking back, that was a rather sad state of affairs, but then again, Mac OS X 10.0 was pretty sad in terms of software support.\nSoon Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s browser started shaping up as it approached 1.0. IE got a little better when it hit 5.2. Then Apple released Safari. We finally had a full array of viable alternatives. Mozilla lured me away from Omniweb\u0026rsquo;s substandard javascript support. Apple lured me away from Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s non-standard interface.\nIn order to respond to Safari, Omnigroup revised Omniweb to 4.5 using Safari\u0026rsquo;s rendering engine. It, however, still lacked the single most important web browser interface feature: tabs.\nOmniweb 5.0 is here and its features are compelling. Workspaces, maintaining state across runs, built-in ad-blocking, full featured contextual menus (Safari\u0026rsquo;s are mighty sparse), type ahead finding of links, amazing bookmark and RSS feed management, etc. It does have its weak points in its ad-blocking lacking the ability to actually remove ads (blank space is just as annoying as the ad itself) and its tabs.\nQuite simply, they are thumbnail versions of the pages themselves. Sounds good right? Not really. I identify pages by the title. Thumbnails take longer to decipher because many websites look the same and I often open tabs of many pages from the same site. Some people may find value in this, but I don\u0026rsquo;t. Text is just as good at identifying a page. I don\u0026rsquo;t need thumbnail bookmarks, do I? You can turn off the pictures, but this isn\u0026rsquo;t a total solution.\nInstead of lining them up horizontally like is done in other browsers, they are lined up vertically. This makes it virtually impossible to view a page correctly on my Powerbook 12″. Additionally, I don\u0026rsquo;t use a wide-screen monitor on my Powermac, so the “advantage” of this is completely lost on me. My eyes scan side to side, not up and down (this is why menus are arranged horizontally).\nGive me the option of traditional tabs! I don\u0026rsquo;t like this space-wasting interpretation. If I could use traditional tabs and ad-blocking removed blocked elements, I would probably buy a license. I\u0026rsquo;d even overlook the use of an obsolete version of WebCore for now. I highly doubt this will happen, so for now, I\u0026rsquo;ll be filing in my “That\u0026rsquo;s nice but…” drawer.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/21/omniweb-tabs-its-a-love/hate-thing/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMany Mac users are familiar with Omniweb, the web browser. When I first started using OS X, Omniweb was the best game in town. Looking back, that was a rather sad state of affairs, but then again, Mac OS X 10.0 was pretty sad in terms of software support.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSoon Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s browser started shaping up as it approached 1.0. IE got a little better when it hit 5.2. Then Apple released Safari. We finally had a full array of viable alternatives. Mozilla lured me away from Omniweb\u0026rsquo;s substandard javascript support. Apple lured me away from Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s non-standard interface.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Omniweb Tabs, It's a Love/Hate Thing"},{"content":"My work requires me to work on a Unix box for a good part of my time. For some of you, that may sound daunting, hard, or archaic, but really it isn\u0026rsquo;t. It sure beats trying to develop things on Windows every hour of every day.\nIt actually makes working with others exceedingly easy. We all look at essentially the same filesystem thanks to the wonders of NFS. One can log into another machine if their machine is loaded, or even into much larger computers that have no physical terminal. Very handy.\nYou can log into any machine and immediately have access to your home directory and all your files. I\u0026rsquo;m beginning to ramble, but what I\u0026rsquo;m getting at is that Unix is ideal for a large scale system and also for its development.\nBecause I\u0026rsquo;ve been using OS X so long (over three years now), I had a lot more experience with Unix than many of the other new hires and even some more senior engineers. It gave me a good start, but it made me realize something. I hadn\u0026rsquo;t even broken the surface.\nI knew how to get around the file system. I had an decent idea of where things were located. I even knew about pipes. What I didn\u0026rsquo;t know was about shell scripting and perl (which is at its core, a scripting language).\nThis is by far one of Unix\u0026rsquo;s (and OS X\u0026rsquo;s) most powerful attributes. Repetitive tasks can be broken down into single commands and allow one to perform them faster and more accurately. But Derik, you may say, the Mac has had scripting for a long time in the form of AppleScript.\nOne word: ugh. Other than its capability to work in harmony with essentially GUI only applications, AppleScript is boring and hard to work with. Oh sure, it seems nice because it uses nearly natural language, but to me, that makes it much harder to work with because it becomes ambiguous and full of modifiers that are essentially filler. The syntax is large and complicated in order to accommodate the easier language. Those are the main reasons I didn\u0026rsquo;t invest any time into really learning it.\nThe worst part is, people try to use for things like file manipulation. An example question include “How do I write an AppleScript to manipulate files of a certain age?” The answer is to not use AppleScript at all! Perl and shell scripting can do this much faster and with half the code (as well as half the bugs). Shell scripts can even manipulate remote systems to run commands. They can be placed straight into cron jobs. Simple commands can even be used to do things like join MP3 tracks into a single one.\nWhile learning some Unix commands and how to use them in scripts may be a little much for many Mac users, any user interested in doing things faster should be already learning it. There are more resources on the net than any person can count and most of them are very explicit and easy to follow. If you\u0026rsquo;ve needed an excuse, this is it. I might just start posting little tutorials to show certain commands, but like all things, I may just forget about it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/20/perl-and-shell-scripting-more-than-just-for-geeks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMy work requires me to work on a Unix box for a good part of my time. For some of you, that may sound daunting, hard, or archaic, but really it isn\u0026rsquo;t. It sure beats trying to develop things on Windows every hour of every day.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt actually makes working with others exceedingly easy. We all look at essentially the same filesystem thanks to the wonders of NFS. One can log into another machine if their machine is loaded, or even into much larger computers that have no physical terminal. Very handy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Perl and Shell Scripting: More than just for geeks"},{"content":"For some time now, I was using Watson to look through TV listings, look at show descriptions, change the channel on my EyeTV, and schedule recordings.\nDue to changes at TVGuide.com, all those features have been lost. I originally bought Watson solely for those features. I\u0026rsquo;ll be surprised if the EyeTV support is kept for the product that is succeeding Watson due to its cross-platform and Java nature.\nI know the changes to TVGuide.com are outside of Mr. Wood\u0026rsquo;s hands, but the sudden disappearance of the EyeTV features just smacks of the lack of support that I expected to come after he announced the end of support in October.\nI understand that transitioning to another source for TV listings is a lot of work, but I just expected support until October to be full support until October. I guess I\u0026rsquo;ll have to start using TitanTV and deal with their mess of a site.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/19/no-more-eyetv-functionality-with-watson/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFor some time now, I was using \u003ca href=\"http://www.karelia.com/watson/\"\u003eWatson\u003c/a\u003e to look through TV listings, look at show descriptions, change the channel on my \u003ca href=\"http://www.elgato.com\"\u003eEyeTV\u003c/a\u003e, and schedule recordings.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDue to changes at \u003ca href=\"http://www.tvguide.com\"\u003eTVGuide.com\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://weblog.karelia.com/Watson/TV_Listings_updated.html\"\u003eall those features have been lost\u003c/a\u003e. I originally bought Watson solely for those features. I\u0026rsquo;ll be surprised if the EyeTV support is kept for the product that is succeeding Watson due to its cross-platform and Java nature.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI know the changes to TVGuide.com are outside of Mr. Wood\u0026rsquo;s hands, but the sudden disappearance of the EyeTV features just smacks of the lack of support that I expected to come after he announced \u003ca href=\"http://weblog.karelia.com/Watson/Future_Of_Watson.html\"\u003ethe end of support in October\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"No More EyeTV Functionality with Watson"},{"content":"A large part of my time is spent reading and responding to posts at Macworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums. I enjoy learning new things, helping others, and generally raising the level of knowledge. It\u0026rsquo;s all very fulfilling.\nAll except a few select kinds of posts. Some of my personal pet peeves are fairly evident, cross-posting, repeatedly posting “It\u0026rsquo;s not working” and nothing else, calling a (forward) slash a backslash, etc.\nMuch less evident and I don\u0026rsquo;t mention because most people would interpret it incorrectly. That is the fabled “Windows does this” line. To give a little perspective, let me give an example:\nHow do I perform task X or change behavior Y with my Mac? Windows or my PC does this. Let me make this clear. That\u0026rsquo;s not helpful or relevant for the purposes of the question. The fact that Windows does it has no effect upon whether you can do it with your Mac. Seriously. Even if you describe in excruciating detail how you do it in Windows, which is something posters many times do, it\u0026rsquo;s not helpful. In fact, that doesn\u0026rsquo;t help at all. It\u0026rsquo;s also not relevant because even if Windows does or does not have the ability to do something, it has no effect upon whether your Mac can do it. Is the thinking that if you tell your Mac that Windows can do something, it will suddenly display a dialog box reading, “Would you like me to add feature X?”\nIt\u0026rsquo;s analogous to calling a help number for your microwave and saying, “Can I make toast with my microwave oven? My toaster does it.” It doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter what your toaster can do if you\u0026rsquo;re talking about what your microwave can do. The support representative would probably laugh.\nOne can\u0026rsquo;t do this when trying to help with a Mac. If you mention that it\u0026rsquo;s irrelevant, it\u0026rsquo;s considered an insult and met with the retaliatory “Fine, I\u0026rsquo;ll go back to Windows.”\nIt\u0026rsquo;s fine to reference another product when describing a feature that one would like verify the existence of. However, if it\u0026rsquo;s possible to describe the feature without the reference, don\u0026rsquo;t use it. Appending “Windows can do it.” is useless.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/19/rant-how-do-i-do-this-x-does-it./","summary":"\u003cp\u003eA large part of my time is spent reading and responding to posts at \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=\"\u003eMacworld\u0026rsquo;s Forums\u003c/a\u003e. I enjoy learning new things, helping others, and generally raising the level of knowledge. It\u0026rsquo;s all very fulfilling.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll except a few select kinds of posts. Some of my personal pet peeves are fairly evident, cross-posting, \u003ca href=\"http://www.macworld.com/forums/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=\u0026amp;Board=UBB13\u0026amp;Number=224379\u0026amp;page=\u0026amp;view=\u0026amp;sb=\u0026amp;o=\u0026amp;vc=1\"\u003erepeatedly posting “It\u0026rsquo;s not working” and nothing else\u003c/a\u003e, calling a (forward) slash a backslash, etc.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMuch less evident and I don\u0026rsquo;t mention because most people would interpret it incorrectly. That is the fabled “Windows does this” line. To give a little perspective, let me give an example:\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Rant: How do I do this? X does it."},{"content":" Backstage: 42% report 4G iPod audio problems: “Exclusively for Backstage readers: This is an advance version of a news story that will appear on the main iPodlounge web site tomorrow morning. Having problems with your fourth-generation (4G) iPod? You\u0026rsquo;re not alone. Three weeks after the release of Apple\u0026rsquo;s newest iPods, iPodlounge readers have reported that approximately 42% of their 4G units have manifested an audio defect identified by iPodlounge, while others have complained of receiving soiled or physically damaged hardware….” (Via iPodlounge.)\nNormally I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t call attention to this, but considering a recent post by a Macworld editor, I fear this problem really is common. I\u0026rsquo;m still using my 3G iPod which has been serving me wonderfully.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/18/from-ipodlounge-backstage-42-report-4g-ipod-audio-problems/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://backstage.ipodlounge.com/index.php?id=P4753\"\u003eBackstage: 42% report 4G iPod audio problems\u003c/a\u003e: “Exclusively for Backstage readers: This is an advance version of a news story that will appear on the main iPodlounge web site tomorrow morning. Having problems with your fourth-generation (4G) iPod? You\u0026rsquo;re not alone. Three weeks after the release of Apple\u0026rsquo;s newest iPods, iPodlounge readers have reported that approximately 42% of their 4G units have manifested an audio defect identified by iPodlounge, while others have complained of receiving soiled or physically damaged hardware….”\n(Via \u003ca href=\"http://www.ipodlounge.com/\"\u003eiPodlounge\u003c/a\u003e.)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From iPodlounge: Backstage: 42% report 4G iPod audio problems"},{"content":"Apple news lately has been dominated by recent interactions with Real and in particular, concerning their new Harmony technology (note: that link won\u0026rsquo;t work on a Mac) which threatens to penetrate the “closed” iPod (one can read more at Daring Fireball as to why calling the iPod closed is silly).\nUp until this point, Apple and Real have sounded like two playground kids arguing over who is the “doody-head”.\nReal: I\u0026rsquo;m going to play on the iPod. Apple: No, you\u0026rsquo;re not. Real: Yes, I am. You\u0026rsquo;re a jerk. Apple: Am not. Real: Are too. Apple: Not. Real: Too. Repeat as necessary. Up until this point, this has just been a lot of posturing done through press releases.\nReal finally acted… foolishly. In order to tap into the “fight the power” segment of the population, it announced and set up its Freedom of Music Choice website. They\u0026rsquo;ve even gone as far as to give it a “blog” feel by running the server with PostNuke.\nApparently, they\u0026rsquo;re even into the open source movement as the make clear through the footer:\nThis web site was made with PostNuke, a web portal system written in PHP. PostNuke is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL license. My hero. Next they\u0026rsquo;ll say that wasn\u0026rsquo;t intentional.\nAlthough they mention the website is “sponsored” by Real, they try to avoid showing that in fact, the website is hosted and maintained by Real. It\u0026rsquo;s entirely their site. It\u0026rsquo;s not some third-party that they are simply helping financially. Again, they\u0026rsquo;re trying to keep the corporate glow away from the website in order to tap into a market that they believe is susceptible to transparent manipulation. They\u0026rsquo;re trying to look like the little guy.\nMy favorite part? Well, the part of the site that strokes the ego of Real\u0026rsquo;s CEO of course:\nRock o­n Rob! Rob Glaser, CEO and founder of RealNetworks, pioneered music and video to the web. Starting Thursday, he\u0026rsquo;ll answer your questions about music choice and why consumers must be heard. Submit your questions here… As part of this new tact, they also published an online petition asking Apple to not “Break My iPod!” Again, they\u0026rsquo;ve tried to hide their corporate identity to make it seem as if they can\u0026rsquo;t afford to make and run their own petition software. Instead, they have to rely on Petition Online.\nTheir first attempt at a petition failed with the majority of respondents telling Real the story of the pot that called the kettle black. I\u0026rsquo;m referring of course to the fact that their music store has 0 Mac support. As others have said, apparently choice means using Windows and only Windows.\nReal apparently learned its lesson very quickly, pulling the link to the original petition, posting a new petition, this time without comments. Take a look at the address for the second petition (“4real2”). Again, while the petition text is completely devoid of any reference to Real, it\u0026rsquo;s blatantly obvious that they posted it. Smooth.\nNow the original site\u0026rsquo;s comment system is overridden with comments to the effect of “take a flying leap.” I suppose that\u0026rsquo;s what happens when a corporation tries to engineer a grass roots movement. It\u0026rsquo;s too bad we\u0026rsquo;ll never get to see the entire plan come to fruition. I\u0026rsquo;m sure the rest of the plan went like this:\nCountless suckers fall for Real\u0026rsquo;s scam. Apple is swayed by these countless suckers into backing down in order to avoid any more negative press. Real\u0026rsquo;s music store takes off. In later interviews following the media\u0026rsquo;s proclamation of Real as the DRM King, Real executives credit the grass roots movement that started it all without any prodding by them. They then credit consumers with being able to make decisions for themselves. It\u0026rsquo;s too bad that we won\u0026rsquo;t get to see this because I think it would be yet another milestone in our society, just showing how gullible people are. Alas, the Internet population is just a little more skeptical.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/17/when-a-grass-roots-movement-goes-horribly-wrong/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple news lately has been dominated by recent interactions with \u003ca href=\"http://www.real.com\"\u003eReal\u003c/a\u003e and in particular, concerning their new \u003ca href=\"http://www.real.com/harmony\"\u003eHarmony technology\u003c/a\u003e (\u003cem\u003enote:\u003c/em\u003e that link won\u0026rsquo;t work on a Mac) which threatens to penetrate the “closed” iPod (one can \u003ca href=\"http://daringfireball.net/2004/08/2004_wont_be_like_1984\"\u003eread more at Daring Fireball\u003c/a\u003e as to why calling the iPod closed is silly).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUp until this point, Apple and Real have sounded like two playground kids arguing over who is the “doody-head”.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReal:\u003c/strong\u003e I\u0026rsquo;m going to play on the iPod.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eApple:\u003c/strong\u003e No, you\u0026rsquo;re not.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReal:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, I am. You\u0026rsquo;re a jerk.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eApple:\u003c/strong\u003e Am not.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReal:\u003c/strong\u003e Are too.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eApple:\u003c/strong\u003e Not.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReal:\u003c/strong\u003e Too.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cem\u003eRepeat as necessary.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUp until this point, this has just been a lot of posturing done through press releases.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"When a “Grass Roots Movement” Goes Horribly Wrong"},{"content":" Netscape 7.2 improves pop-up controls, security: “Netscape Communications released on Tuesday Netscape 7.2, an upgrade to the company\u0026rsquo;s Web browser that improves control over pop-up windows and adds security enhancements. This is a free download for all users; you can also order it on CD, with a guidebook, for US$14.95. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.1.x or higher, a G3 running at 400MHz, 256MB RAM and 60MB free hard drive space.” (Via MacCentral.)\nRegardless of your feelings about Netscape or AOL, it\u0026rsquo;s good to see new versions of this browser being released. It\u0026rsquo;s also a shining example of how open-source software can used to build a commercial product.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/17/from-maccentral-netscape-7.2-improves-pop-up-controls-security/","summary":"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/08/17/netscape/?lsrc=mcrss-0804\"\u003eNetscape 7.2 improves pop-up controls, security\u003c/a\u003e: “Netscape Communications released on Tuesday \u003ca href=\"http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp\"\u003eNetscape 7.2\u003c/a\u003e, an upgrade to the company\u0026rsquo;s Web browser that improves control over pop-up windows and adds security enhancements. This is a free download for all users; you can also order it on CD, with a guidebook, for US$14.95. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.1.x or higher, a G3 running at 400MHz, 256MB RAM and 60MB free hard drive space.”\n(Via \u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/\"\u003eMacCentral\u003c/a\u003e.)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From Maccentral: Netscape 7.2 improves pop-up controls, security"},{"content":"For any of you using an EyeTV, be wary of its automatic recording checking. This feature will check your TitanTV account for any remote scheduling you\u0026rsquo;ve done. That sounds well and good. It even works as advertised.\nThe problem is how persistent it is in trying connect to the site. Current EyeTV users are familiar with a feature that allows one to wake or start up the computer to record a show. Unfortunately, the TitanTV account checking function also uses this mechanism. You may wonder why I would warn about such a thing. Well, if you turn it on to do it hourly, it will start up every hour if it is off. My computer has been keeping me up at night, freaking me out for several nights now.\nAny sane, normal person would not consider this correct behavior. Further, even if you set the checking to daily, the time it chooses to check is random, translating into another startup in the middle of the night, even if it was on all day. Obnoxious to say the least.\nI wanted to use this feature. I even wrote about it before. Now I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to turn it on manually when I really want the computer on and checking, turning it off again after, instead of being able to leave it on all the time simply check when I purposely left the computer on. Very poor El Gato! Very poor!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/16/ghost-in-the-machine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFor any of you using an EyeTV, be wary of its automatic recording checking. This feature will check your TitanTV account for any remote scheduling you\u0026rsquo;ve done. That sounds well and good. It even works as advertised.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe problem is how persistent it is in trying connect to the site. Current EyeTV users are familiar with a feature that allows one to wake or start up the computer to record a show. Unfortunately, the TitanTV account checking function also uses this mechanism. You may wonder why I would warn about such a thing. Well, if you turn it on to do it hourly, it will start up every hour if it is off. My computer has been keeping me up at night, freaking me out for several nights now.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Ghost in the Machine"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve recently started using Firefox instead of Safari. My two leading problems are spell-checking and the fact that Firefox insists upon opening external links in a new window.\nI finally a solution for spell-checking. Although it\u0026rsquo;s not nearly as nice as OS X\u0026rsquo;s system spell checker (which checks on the fly), this is an acceptable stop-gap solution. Long term I think I may have to go back to Safari though (if only PithHelmet would accept new rules from me, damnit).\nAs for external links opening in new windows, none of the existing solutions work in OS X. All tab manipulation extensions screw up bookmarks in OS X. Very disappointing.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/15/spell-checking-with-firefox/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve recently started using Firefox instead of Safari. My two leading problems are spell-checking and the fact that Firefox insists upon opening external links in a new window.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI finally a solution for \u003ca href=\"http://www.exchangecode.com/spellbound/\"\u003espell-checking\u003c/a\u003e. Although it\u0026rsquo;s not nearly as nice as OS X\u0026rsquo;s system spell checker (which checks on the fly), this is an acceptable stop-gap solution. Long term I think I may have to go back to Safari though (if only PithHelmet would accept new rules from me, damnit).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Spell Checking with Firefox"},{"content":"I went to this movie with high hopes of something original, something unexpected.\nI was let down. This movie was fairly predictable. Once you watch the first couple minutes, you can guess the rest of what happens. As much as Alien Resurrection was berated for being a weak sequel to the other Aliens movies, I feel it was a piece of art compared to this film.\nThe only saving grace of the film was Lance Henriksen of original Alien fame. He\u0026rsquo;s captivating to watch no matter his role (and yes, I still miss Millenium). I\u0026rsquo;d say more about how I\u0026rsquo;m disappointed with his use, but that would spoil the (small) plot for any of you wanting to see the film. Let\u0026rsquo;s just say that they didn\u0026rsquo;t use him or his character to their fullest.\nAs for the rest of the characters, they are flat and unimpressive. The screenplay was centrally built around the action contained within. The action was fairly good (at parts) but left one totally unfulfilled. It seems to be yet another showcase for today\u0026rsquo;s special effects wizards.\nThe end of the movie is also very disappointing. Anyone familiar with the end of the original Predator movies will be completely unsurprised and bored with the ending of this film (as it is something they have seen before). What\u0026rsquo;s worse is that despite the numerous opportunities to explain the history of Aliens, Predators, or their struggle, it\u0026rsquo;s never done. They make allusions to the beginning of the Predators to be sure. In fact, the film seems to concentrate upon them despite the real lack of information. One gets jerked around as the movie suggests the revelation of certain aspects of Predators and then simply informs the watchers of things that are shown in other movies.\nI give the move 3 out of 5 stars. Weak plot severely degrade the movie, but the action is good and looks real enough with little obvious computer animation. Aliens or Predators fans should probably check this out, but others should probably hold off and wait for it on DVD.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/15/review-aliens-vs.-predator/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI went to this movie with high hopes of something original, something unexpected.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was let down. This movie was fairly predictable. Once you watch the first couple minutes, you can guess the rest of what happens. As much as \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118583/\"\u003eAlien Resurrection\u003c/a\u003e was berated for being a weak sequel to the other Aliens movies, I feel it was a piece of art compared to this film.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe only saving grace of the film was \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000448/\"\u003eLance Henriksen\u003c/a\u003e of original Alien fame. He\u0026rsquo;s captivating to watch no matter his role (and yes, I still miss Millenium). I\u0026rsquo;d say more about how I\u0026rsquo;m disappointed with his use, but that would spoil the (small) plot for any of you wanting to see the film. Let\u0026rsquo;s just say that they didn\u0026rsquo;t use him or his character to their fullest.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Review: Aliens vs. Predator"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m going to show my inner geek tonight and see AvP tonight. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably post a review later on tonight if I\u0026rsquo;m feeling up to it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/14/aliens-vs.-predator-tonight/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m going to show my inner geek tonight and see \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avp/\"\u003eAvP\u003c/a\u003e tonight. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably post a review later on tonight if I\u0026rsquo;m feeling up to it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Aliens vs. Predator Tonight!"},{"content":"After continued use of NetNewsWire, one thing has become painfully clear to me. I need a logo for my site. This isn\u0026rsquo;t just for the front page, but so I have a favicon because until I do, my site is going to look second rate.\nI have zero artistic talent, nor do I have any idea what would look good for my site. I need help. I\u0026rsquo;m begging. Any artists or graphic designers interested? Leave a comment or send me an email at webmaster [at] godlikenerd [dot] com.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/13/calling-all-artists/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter continued use of NetNewsWire, one thing has become painfully clear to me. I need a logo for my site. This isn\u0026rsquo;t just for the front page, but so I have a favicon because until I do, my site is going to look second rate.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have zero artistic talent, nor do I have any idea what would look good for my site. I need help. I\u0026rsquo;m begging. Any artists or graphic designers interested? Leave a comment or send me an email at webmaster [at] godlikenerd [dot] com.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Calling all Artists"},{"content":"After another week of work and 5 hour nights, I got to sleep in this morning. I woke up at the early hour of 11 AM, but went back to sleep another 3 hours.\nI can\u0026rsquo;t articulate how wonderful this is (well, except essentially losing the entire day). I had dreams I could remember for the first time this week.\nMaybe it\u0026rsquo;s because I still have the collegiate habit of staying up too late, but weekends are better than peanut butter and fluff.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/13/sleeping-until-2-pm-is-a-wonderful-thing/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter another week of work and 5 hour nights, I got to sleep in this morning. I woke up at the early hour of 11 AM, but went back to sleep another 3 hours.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t articulate how wonderful this is (well, except essentially losing the entire day). I had dreams I could remember for the first time this week.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaybe it\u0026rsquo;s because I still have the collegiate habit of staying up too late, but weekends are better than peanut butter and fluff.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Sleeping until 2 PM is a Wonderful Thing"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve added several key improvements to my blog. The first is the set-up of permalinks. Now instead of http://godlikenerd.com/index.php?some=arguments\u0026amp;here=1\u0026amp;etc=2, URL\u0026rsquo;s for the articles follow this format http://godlikenerd.com/weblog/year/month/day/article-name/ which is certainly much more readble. It should also be a very transparent change for users.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve also added a local (to me) weather indicator to the right (which I thought was a nice addition). This was made possible through WordPress\u0026rsquo;s plug-in system. Readers may have also noticed the acronym plug-in which makes common acronyms such as USB and CSS show their full text in a tooltip (hover your pointer over the dash-underlined word). I\u0026rsquo;ve also added a plugin which will automatically turn URL\u0026rsquo;s into links.\nI may add some more plug-ins, such as a polling mechanism.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/12/various-improvements-to-the-blog/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve added several key improvements to my blog. The first is the set-up of permalinks. Now instead of \u003ccode\u003ehttp://godlikenerd.com/index.php?some=arguments\u0026amp;here=1\u0026amp;etc=2\u003c/code\u003e, URL\u0026rsquo;s for the articles follow this format \u003ccode\u003ehttp://godlikenerd.com/weblog/year/month/day/article-name/\u003c/code\u003e which is certainly much more readble. It should also be a very transparent change for users.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve also added a local (to me) weather indicator to the right (which I thought was a nice addition). This was made possible through WordPress\u0026rsquo;s plug-in system. Readers may have also noticed the acronym plug-in which makes common acronyms such as USB and CSS show their full text in a tooltip (hover your pointer over the dash-underlined word). I\u0026rsquo;ve also added a plugin which will automatically turn URL\u0026rsquo;s into links.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Various Improvements to the Blog"},{"content":"While apparently scores of children are crying about his departure, I\u0026rsquo;m glad Nomar is gone. Not only did he have a bad attitude (as teammates revealed), but he was frequently hurt and really didn\u0026rsquo;t want to be here (as is evidenced by his refusal of a $60 million 3 year deal while hurt).\nHis bat may have finally started to return just before his trade, but I don\u0026rsquo;t care. His errors hurt the Red Sox efforts more than his batting helped. Cabrera may not be the best hitter (currently floating just above a .200 batting average) but his fielding skills are excellent and is the key difference between the Red Sox winning and losing.\nWith that, I say goodbye to Nomar. I wish him good luck with the rest of career; he\u0026rsquo;s going to need it if he thinks he\u0026rsquo;s getting a deal half as good as the Red Sox offered.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/11/who-needs-nomar-not-me/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eWhile apparently \u003ca href=\"http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-redsox-garciaparrafans\u0026amp;prov=ap\u0026amp;type=lgns\"\u003escores of children are crying\u003c/a\u003e about his departure, I\u0026rsquo;m glad Nomar is gone. Not only did he have a bad attitude (as teammates revealed), but he was frequently hurt and really didn\u0026rsquo;t want to be here (as is evidenced by his refusal of a $60 million 3 year deal while hurt).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis bat may have finally started to return just before his trade, but I don\u0026rsquo;t care. His errors hurt the Red Sox efforts more than his batting helped. Cabrera may not be the best hitter (currently floating just above a .200 batting average) but his fielding skills are excellent and is the key difference between the Red Sox winning and losing.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Who Needs Nomar? Not Me"},{"content":"Apple has not only released an OS update for Panther and a security update for Jaguar, but they\u0026rsquo;ve also included several other key updates:\niPhoto 2.0.1 Java 1.4.2 Update 1 iSync 1.5 I don\u0026rsquo;t feel like linking them up, so hit Software Update or your favorite software update site (like Versiontracker).\niSync 1.5 brings support for new devices, including the Motorola V710 (Verizon\u0026rsquo;s first Bluetooth phone). The bad news is that Verizon will be crippling the V710 to promote sales in their own ring-tone service. That means that syncing will take place over a USB cable only. While this is better than nothing, it means I\u0026rsquo;ll either be waiting to see if a Nokia Bluetooth phone will grace Verizon\u0026rsquo;s lineup with fully functional Bluetooth or get a cheaper Motorola with USB syncing (like the V60s). It\u0026rsquo;s disappointing to say the least.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/10/apple-update-frenzy-and-verizon-can-lick-my-nuts/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple has not only released an OS update for Panther and a security update for Jaguar, but they\u0026rsquo;ve also included several other key updates:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiPhoto 2.0.1\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJava 1.4.2 Update 1\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eiSync 1.5\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don\u0026rsquo;t feel like linking them up, so hit Software Update or your favorite software update site (like Versiontracker).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eiSync 1.5 brings support for new devices, including the Motorola V710 (Verizon\u0026rsquo;s first Bluetooth phone). The bad news is that Verizon will be crippling the V710 to promote sales in their own ring-tone service. That means that syncing will take place over a USB cable only. While this is better than nothing, it means I\u0026rsquo;ll either be waiting to see if a Nokia Bluetooth phone will grace Verizon\u0026rsquo;s lineup with fully functional Bluetooth or get a cheaper Motorola with USB syncing (like the V60s). It\u0026rsquo;s disappointing to say the least.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple Update Frenzy and Verizon Can Lick My Nuts"},{"content":"You know the deal. Hit up Software Update.\nMore information is available here.\nFor those of you using 10.2 or want to stick with 10.3.4, Apple has also issued security updates, available here.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/09/obligatory-os-x-10.3.5-update-notice/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYou know the deal. Hit up Software Update.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore information is available \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxupdate_10_3_5_.html\"\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor those of you using 10.2 or want to stick with 10.3.4, Apple has also issued security updates, available \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/\"\u003ehere\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Obligatory OS X 10.3.5 Update Notice"},{"content":"Other than continuing to play with CSS some, I have nothing new to report today.\nI think I may write up a guide to using CyTV later, which is by far, one of the most useful pieces of software out there today (if you have an EyeTV).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/09/slow-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOther than continuing to play with CSS some, I have nothing new to report today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI think I may write up a guide to using \u003ca href=\"http://www.lucid-cake.net/cytv/index_en.html\"\u003eCyTV\u003c/a\u003e later, which is by far, one of the most useful pieces of software out there today (if you have an EyeTV).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Slow Day"},{"content":"I wanted to add some neat appearance effects to my resume\u0026rsquo;s page without having to make images and use tables, etc. Instead, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d try my hand at CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as it seemed to do a good job with both this blog and the FAQ.\nIt turns out CSS is a lot easier than I\u0026rsquo;d originally thought. Using objects and inheritance to propagate style changes, it\u0026rsquo;s a natural language (and I use that term loosely in this case) to pick up for an OO programmer.\nYou\u0026rsquo;ve probably noticed I\u0026rsquo;ve changed the color scheme for the blog itself. It was child\u0026rsquo;s play, especially using BBEdit, which gives access to pretty much anything in CSS very easily. Consider it a work in progress as I\u0026rsquo;m not exactly the best at picking color schemes.\nI also need to make a logo, but, again, I\u0026rsquo;m not terribly artistic. If any more graphically inclined people read this, feel free to comment if you\u0026rsquo;d like to help out.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/08/css-is-cool/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI wanted to add some neat appearance effects to \u003ca href=\"/resume\"\u003emy resume\u0026rsquo;s page\u003c/a\u003e without having to make images and use tables, etc. Instead, I thought I\u0026rsquo;d try my hand at CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as it seemed to do a good job with both this blog and \u003ca href=\"/osxforumfaq\"\u003ethe FAQ\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt turns out CSS is a lot easier than I\u0026rsquo;d originally thought. Using objects and inheritance to propagate style changes, it\u0026rsquo;s a natural language (and I use that term loosely in this case) to pick up for an OO programmer.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"CSS is Cool!"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve gotten into a habit of periodically reducing the number of emails I keep on the server with my IMAP addresses because, unfortunately, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a huge amount of space with them.\nThis is a relatively simple task. You create a local email folder (in the “On My Mac” section) and drag all your messages there. This will create a .mbox file (a very standard format) in ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes.\nTake those files and back them up to a stable medium like CDs and you\u0026rsquo;re done. It\u0026rsquo;s quick and easy. Entourage does have the advantage of allowing you to drag straight from its windows to somewhere in the Finder, but I find this one extra step insignificant.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/07/archiving-your-imap-mail-using-mail.app/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve gotten into a habit of periodically reducing the number of emails I keep on the server with my IMAP addresses because, unfortunately, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a huge amount of space with them.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a relatively simple task. You create a local email folder (in the “On My Mac” section) and drag all your messages there. This will create a .mbox file (a very standard format) in ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTake those files and back them up to a stable medium like CDs and you\u0026rsquo;re done. It\u0026rsquo;s quick and easy. Entourage does have the advantage of allowing you to drag straight from its windows to somewhere in the Finder, but I find this one extra step insignificant.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Archiving Your IMAP Mail using Mail.app"},{"content":"After seeing how strong the muliple users feature of WordPress is and how easily it can make it for users to post, I think I\u0026rsquo;ll be turning the OS X Forum FAQ into a blog. This will have the advantages of being easily updated (even without my attention), allow for individual posting, keep the pages small and fast loading, as well as add a search engine.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll be posting a notice onto Macworld\u0026rsquo;s site calling attention to this entry. I want comments, lots of them. All opinions are important to me.\nAddendum: I\u0026rsquo;ve opted to use phpMyFAQ instead of WordPress to maintain the FAQ. It is a professional package expressly for FAQ maintenance.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/06/wordpressing-the-faq/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter seeing how strong the muliple users feature of WordPress is and how easily it can make it for users to post, I think I\u0026rsquo;ll be turning the OS X Forum FAQ into a blog. This will have the advantages of being easily updated (even without my attention), allow for individual posting, keep the pages small and fast loading, as well as add a search engine.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll be posting a notice onto Macworld\u0026rsquo;s site calling attention to this entry. I want comments, lots of them. All opinions are important to me.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"WordPressing the FAQ"},{"content":"Apple posts iPhoto 4.0.3 update\nFollowing a short lived release of iPhoto 4.0.2 (which was posted and then revoked a few short hours later), Apple has released iPhoto 4.0.3. The difference? No one knows but Apple, which is becoming a very strong trend.\nMost users are assuming that it has something to do with extended start up and shut down times associated with the previous update, but in typical Apple style, this new update\u0026rsquo;s notes exactly match those of the old one. Is it so terrible to admit a mistake and delineate what has changed? If they truly are the same, why not use the same version number?\nIt\u0026rsquo;s becoming increasingly difficult to defend Apple when they don\u0026rsquo;t give you a leg to stand on. Why keep us in the dark? Shouldn\u0026rsquo;t we be allowed to update based on what the update brings and whether those changes are useful to us?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/06/apple-posts-iphoto-4.0.3-update/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/08/05/iphoto/?lsrc=mcrss-0804\"\u003eApple posts iPhoto 4.0.3 update\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing a short lived release of iPhoto 4.0.2 (which was posted and then revoked a few short hours later), Apple has released iPhoto 4.0.3. The difference? No one knows but Apple, which is becoming a very strong trend.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost users are assuming that it has something to do with extended start up and shut down times associated with the previous update, but in typical Apple style, this new update\u0026rsquo;s notes exactly match those of the old one. Is it so terrible to admit a mistake and delineate what has changed? If they truly are the same, why not use the same version number?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Apple posts iPhoto 4.0.3 update"},{"content":"Linux on the Rise\nMacminute has a couple stories on Linux in relation to Macs.\nThe first is that Linux has surpassed the Mac as the second most prevalent desktop OS. It\u0026rsquo;s not entirely surprising as Linux combines the low price of x86 hardware, the low cost of the Linux OS, and the hard stability and functionality of a *nix operating system. It\u0026rsquo;s ideal for many corporate and software development settings. Despite looking like a loss for Apple, this is actually a win. Increased use of Linux will lead to the necessity of all businesses needing a cross-platform solution. It will also decrease the amount of web pages that are Windows IE only as more and more customers will not have that as an option. Additionally, most software being developed for Linux is also being made available for OS X through the terminal and X11. This is a major win for Apple.\nIBM has also been pushing the G5 as an excellent computer to run Linux upon due to high end performance and components in a cost effective package. When being compared to high end x86 workstations, the G5 looks like quite a bargain. This is an important fact that Apple needs to not only embrace, but investigate further. If Apple can make a case for their use in software development environments, that may lead to not only increased sales, but a Trojan horse method to get Macs back into a corporate setting. As users begin to realize that OS X can be easily used as both a Unix workstation and a personal computer, we can expect to see increased popularity. I know I\u0026rsquo;d like to use Apex on a Mac.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/05/from-macminute-linux-on-the-rise/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.macminute.com/2004/08/04/linux\"\u003eLinux on the Rise\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMacminute has a couple stories on Linux in relation to Macs.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first is that Linux has surpassed the Mac as the second most prevalent desktop OS. It\u0026rsquo;s not entirely surprising as Linux combines the low price of x86 hardware, the low cost of the Linux OS, and the hard stability and functionality of a *nix operating system. It\u0026rsquo;s ideal for many corporate and software development settings. Despite looking like a loss for Apple, this is actually a win. Increased use of Linux will lead to the necessity of all businesses needing a cross-platform solution. It will also decrease the amount of web pages that are Windows IE only as more and more customers will not have that as an option. Additionally, most software being developed for Linux is also being made available for OS X through the terminal and X11. This is a major win for Apple.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From MacMinute: Linux on the Rise"},{"content":"I hope that no one falls for this classic pyramid scheme, but in case you were thinking about it, please take five minutes, calm yourself down and realize that it is too good to be true. Please do not fall for this scam, nor should you let any of your friends do the same. It\u0026rsquo;s worse than falling for the $1000 Microsoft tracking email scam because you are willingly giving your address to spammers and you will receive nothing in return.\nTake a look at their terms and conditions. The most important section to note is:\n(a) FreeiPods.com is a free service and does not guarantee receipt of any product regardless of offers completed or points accumulated There you have it.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/04/scam-of-the-week-freeipods.com/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI hope that no one falls for \u003ca href=\"http://www.freeipods.com\"\u003ethis\u003c/a\u003e classic pyramid scheme, but in case you were thinking about it, please take five minutes, calm yourself down and realize that it is too good to be true. Please do not fall for this scam, nor should you let any of your friends do the same. It\u0026rsquo;s worse than falling for the $1000 Microsoft tracking email scam because you are willingly giving your address to spammers and you will receive \u003cstrong\u003enothing\u003c/strong\u003e in return.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Scam of the Week: FreeiPods.com"},{"content":"Most .Mac users may not have noticed, but mail aliases are available for use through .Mac\u0026rsquo;s webmail interface. You choose another email address (_yourchoice_@mac.com) and all mail to that address goes to your existing account.\nThe primary purpose for this feature is fairly obvious. It allows you to have “throw away” addresses to use in situations in which you don\u0026rsquo;t trust the entity you are giving your email to. If you begin to receive a lot of spam through that address, you simply disable it. Other services have had this for a while, but it\u0026rsquo;s a welcome addition to .Mac\u0026rsquo;s existing tools. .Mac\u0026rsquo;s web-mail also color codes incoming email according to the alias address they came in through (very nice). It\u0026rsquo;s finally being exposed by websites like MacFixit. I actually discovered this gem several weeks back and never thought to tell anyone about it. .Mac\u0026rsquo;s documentation actually makes no reference to it.\nThis is also a way for you to get an address you wish you had chosen when picking out your .Mac username (as long as another user hasn\u0026rsquo;t already chosen it). The less popular .Mac is, the more aliases are available for use, so personally I don\u0026rsquo;t care if other people don\u0026rsquo;t find it too expensive.\nThe only gripe I have left for .Mac (and the email component in particular) is the amount of space allotted. Given, 15 MB is plenty, but I\u0026rsquo;d like to have the capacity to continue to store all my mail on the server without periodically archiving old mail. I certainly wouldn\u0026rsquo;t complain if they bumped it to 100 or 50 MB.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/04/.mac-mail-aliases/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMost .Mac users may not have noticed, but mail aliases are available for use through .Mac\u0026rsquo;s webmail interface. You choose another email address (_\u003ca href=\"mailto:yourchoice_@mac.com\"\u003eyourchoice_@mac.com\u003c/a\u003e) and all mail to that address goes to your existing account.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe primary purpose for this feature is fairly obvious. It allows you to have “throw away” addresses to use in situations in which you don\u0026rsquo;t trust the entity you are giving your email to. If you begin to receive a lot of spam through that address, you simply disable it. Other services have had this for a while, but it\u0026rsquo;s a welcome addition to .Mac\u0026rsquo;s existing tools. .Mac\u0026rsquo;s web-mail also color codes incoming email according to the alias address they came in through (very nice). It\u0026rsquo;s finally being exposed by websites like \u003ca href=\"http://www.macfixit.com\"\u003eMacFixit\u003c/a\u003e. I actually discovered this gem several weeks back and never thought to tell anyone about it. .Mac\u0026rsquo;s documentation actually makes no reference to it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":".Mac Mail Aliases"},{"content":"Apple versus RealNetworks: A lawyer\u0026rsquo;s perspective\nMy interpretation of this whole situation? Apple should let Real do whatever it is planning, but use of those files will be completely unsupported by Apple. Users are on their own if they decide to use them (or Real can do the support work). Additionally, Apple doesn\u0026rsquo;t make any guarantees about future firmware working, so if the files stop playing, Apple can say “Talk to Real”.\nSeems like a fair compromise to me.\nEdit: I entered this under the admin name. Ugh.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/03/from-maccentral-apple-versus-realnetworks-a-lawyers-perspective/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/08/03/legal/\"\u003eApple versus RealNetworks: A lawyer\u0026rsquo;s perspective\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy interpretation of this whole situation? Apple should let Real do whatever it is planning, but use of those files will be completely unsupported by Apple. Users are on their own if they decide to use them (or Real can do the support work). Additionally, Apple doesn\u0026rsquo;t make any guarantees about future firmware working, so if the files stop playing, Apple can say “Talk to Real”.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From Maccentral: Apple versus RealNetworks: A lawyer's perspective"},{"content":"The good new is that WordPress is a million times easier to install than MovableType. I also like its interface much better. The bad news is that its documentation, or at least the organization of the documentation is lacking.\nAt any rate, I also moved my weblog to the root of the domain, so I\u0026rsquo;ve made a pointer from the old directory. I just hope that users that were using an RSS client to read my site will notice that the feed has moved as well (it\u0026rsquo;s linked on this page).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/03/migration-complete/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe good new is that WordPress is a million times easier to install than MovableType. I also like its interface much better. The bad news is that its documentation, or at least the organization of the documentation is lacking.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt any rate, I also moved my weblog to the root of the domain, so I\u0026rsquo;ve made a pointer from the old directory. I just hope that users that were using an RSS client to read my site will notice that the feed has moved as well (it\u0026rsquo;s linked on this page).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Migration complete!"},{"content":"Following confirmation from Ranchero software that NetNewsWire does indeed work with WordPress, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to move to it. Partly was to keep current and partly because of some of its features are compelling.\nI won\u0026rsquo;t be making any more entries until the migration is complete. I\u0026rsquo;ll also be making my blog the front page for my domain. Stay tuned!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/02/goodbye-movabletype-hello-wordpress/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing confirmation from Ranchero software that NetNewsWire does indeed work with WordPress, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to move to it. Partly was to keep current and partly because of some of its features are compelling.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI won\u0026rsquo;t be making any more entries until the migration is complete. I\u0026rsquo;ll also be making my blog the front page for my domain. Stay tuned!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Goodbye MovableType, Hello WordPress!"},{"content":"Netscape fans will be thrilled to hear that reports of Netscape\u0026rsquo;s death have been greatly exaggerated. Netscape 7.2 will be making its debut very soon as reported by MacMinute.\nFrom what I had read earlier, this new version will be based on Mozilla 1.7, which is one of Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s most stable releases. In fact, I believe that was their priority issue for that milestone.\nThis doesn\u0026rsquo;t affect me so much as I use Safari on my Macs and Firefox on my work computer. It is a good thing for those that refuse to use anything but the big two (Internet Explorer and Netscape). It also means that modern Mozilla-based executables will begin gracing corporate desktops again as well (again, because support is generally restricted to the big two).\nI\u0026rsquo;ve already sold my friends on Firefox, but others will be excited by Netscape 7.2\u0026rsquo;s new speed and enhancements. Kudos to Netscape for continuing to use new Mozilla milestones instead of older releases as they did for Netscape 6.x and 7.0.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/02/netscape-back-from-the-dead/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNetscape fans will be thrilled to hear that reports of Netscape\u0026rsquo;s death have been greatly exaggerated. Netscape 7.2 will be making its debut very soon as reported by \u003ca href=\"http://www.macminute.com/2004/08/01/netscapeupdate\"\u003eMacMinute\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom what I had read earlier, this new version will be based on Mozilla 1.7, which is one of Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s most stable releases. In fact, I believe that was their priority issue for that milestone.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis doesn\u0026rsquo;t affect me so much as I use Safari on my Macs and Firefox on my work computer. It is a good thing for those that refuse to use anything but the big two (Internet Explorer and Netscape). It also means that modern Mozilla-based executables will begin gracing corporate desktops again as well (again, because support is generally restricted to the big two).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Netscape: Back from the Dead"},{"content":"As reported on every single Mac news site under the sun, Steve Jobs has undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. I wish him a complete and speedy recovery.\nYou can read more about it at Maccentral.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/02/get-well-steve/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAs reported on every single Mac news site under the sun, Steve Jobs has undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. I wish him a complete and speedy recovery.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can read more about it at \u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/08/01/jobs/?lsrc=mcrss-0804\"\u003eMaccentral\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Get Well Steve!"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been using MovableType to run my blog here and it\u0026rsquo;s been working great.\nHowever, MovableType 3.0 and up are no longer free. For now, the current version of MovableType I\u0026rsquo;m using is sufficient, but I\u0026rsquo;m concerned about long term viability.\nThe guys over at Unsanity have moved to WordPress, which seems pretty nice as well.\nDoes anyone have any recommendations for Blogging choices? Keep in mind, I\u0026rsquo;d like to continue to have the option to publish using NetNewsWire, which does limit the options a bit (WordPress may be out of the running because of this). My host does supply Blogger software as part of their package as well.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/08/02/blogging-software/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been using MovableType to run my blog here and it\u0026rsquo;s been working great.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHowever, MovableType 3.0 and up are no longer free. For now, the current version of MovableType I\u0026rsquo;m using is sufficient, but I\u0026rsquo;m concerned about long term viability.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe guys over at \u003ca href=\"http://www.unsanity.org/2004/07/29/moved-to-wordpress/\"\u003eUnsanity\u003c/a\u003e have moved to \u003ca href=\"http://wordpress.org\"\u003eWordPress\u003c/a\u003e, which seems pretty nice as well.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoes anyone have any recommendations for Blogging choices? Keep in mind, I\u0026rsquo;d like to continue to have the option to publish using \u003ca href=\"http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/\"\u003eNetNewsWire\u003c/a\u003e, which does limit the options a bit (WordPress may be out of the running because of this). My host does supply Blogger software as part of their package as well.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Blogging Software"},{"content":"It is my firm belief that our society\u0026rsquo;s high quality of life level has resulted in two things: an entitlement complex and a lack of responsibility complex. This is particularly easy to observe in teenage kids. You don\u0026rsquo;t even have to leave your home. Log onto the net and see their poorly spelled, grammatically incorrect, incoherent ramblings about everything!\nThis is evident in every aspect of life. “I bought a harmburger, so I\u0026rsquo;m entitled to fries. It\u0026rsquo;s my right.” It\u0026rsquo;s spread to software as well. Users are content to commit software piracy, downloading and using software with a clear conscience. To them, Microsoft Office and its thousands of features is a right. They need that software and as a human being, they deserve it. Some outright steal it, while others simply buy the academic version of Office (when neither a student or a teacher) and attempt to justify it with the fact that Microsoft Office is expensive. That is not justification, only a rationalization. Further, they have the audacity to claim that Microsoft actually wants users to abuse the fact retailers do not verify academic status when selling this software. Office is a product, a ubiquitous product yes, but a product nonetheless. Its common usage does not make it a right.\nMany teens make this mistake with cars. It\u0026rsquo;s become incredibly common for parents to buy their children automobiles. So common that children that are not give one yell and scream at their parents for trying to destroy their life. While that is more true in higher income areas, the same is true when kids are denied the car on the weekend to go out. “Why are you trying to control me?” “You can\u0026rsquo;t take the car away from me.” etc.\nFurther, if in an act of desperation to get something one really wants, one breaks the law, the blame is no longer squarely upon the shoulders of the perpetrator. For example, in the above case of Microsoft Office, if a person were to be prosecuted for pirating that software, I guarantee the first words from that person\u0026rsquo;s mouth would be “Microsoft made it too expensive.” There would be a ready admission of guilt with some kind of explanation that supposedly should exempt them from punishment. A rationalization or explanation for the action is not a defense. It\u0026rsquo;s just a different way to confess.\nI see it every day in every situation and I\u0026rsquo;m sick of it. There are a few very basic rights. Everything else is a privelege. Leading a priveleged life doesn\u0026rsquo;t entitle anyone to those priveleges.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/29/entitlement-and-the-lack-of-responsibility/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt is my firm belief that our society\u0026rsquo;s high quality of life level has resulted in two things: an entitlement complex and a lack of responsibility complex. This is particularly easy to observe in teenage kids. You don\u0026rsquo;t even have to leave your home. Log onto the net and see their poorly spelled, grammatically incorrect, incoherent ramblings about everything!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is evident in every aspect of life. “I bought a harmburger, so I\u0026rsquo;m entitled to fries. \u003cem\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s my right.\u003c/em\u003e” It\u0026rsquo;s spread to software as well. Users are content to commit software piracy, downloading and using software with a clear conscience. To them, Microsoft Office and its thousands of features is a right. They need that software and as a human being, they deserve it. Some outright steal it, while others simply buy the academic version of Office (when neither a student or a teacher) and attempt to justify it with the fact that Microsoft Office is expensive. That is not justification, only a rationalization. Further, they have the audacity to claim that Microsoft actually wants users to abuse the fact retailers do not verify academic status when selling this software. Office is a product, a ubiquitous product yes, but a product nonetheless. Its common usage does not make it a right.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Entitlement and the Lack of Responsibility"},{"content":"I can\u0026rsquo;t say too much about the two following links as they are fairly self-explanatory.\nI will say that they are worth the extremely long read.\nBy reading these stories you can also figure out common scammer tactics on eBay. Any experienced eBayer will already know all the do\u0026rsquo;s and don\u0026rsquo;ts, but it\u0026rsquo;s still worth the read.\nWithout further ado, they are:\nThe Sal Wise Fraud\nP-P-P-Powerbook\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/27/ebay-fraud-in-all-its-hilarity/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t say too much about the two following links as they are fairly self-explanatory.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI will say that they are worth the \u003cstrong\u003eextremely\u003c/strong\u003e long read.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy reading these stories you can also figure out common scammer tactics on eBay. Any experienced eBayer will already know all the do\u0026rsquo;s and don\u0026rsquo;ts, but it\u0026rsquo;s still worth the read.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWithout further ado, they are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://justinspence.com/SalWise.htm\"\u003eThe Sal Wise Fraud\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://p-p-p-powerbook.com\"\u003eP-P-P-Powerbook\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"eBay Fraud in All Its Hilarity"},{"content":"Once upon a time, someone thought to serve email through a web-based interface for easy access anywhere (that saved users the process of setting up an email client). HoTMaiL was one of the first of course, but is now owned by Microsoft. The number of services like these exploded and just as quickly collapsed (or got bought up like Rocketmail).\nWhen web search giant Google announced GMail, its 1 GB email service, the major (and minor) webmail provider\u0026rsquo;s realized that in order to retain any of its members, they would have to amp it up.\nThe first to respond was Spymac, formerly an Apple rumors site, it now aims to provide web services. They responded with 1 GB free web email that also could be accessed via POP (which the free versions of other services don\u0026rsquo;t offer). They now also offer a paid version of their email service, called MailPro. Not only is your service boosted to 3 GB, but it also sports IMAP access, which is essential for keeping all your mail on their servers. [1 GB web/POP service: free] [3 GB web/POP/IMAP service: $18.99/year]\nThe most notable big name in free email to respond was Yahoo!. They boosted the formerly 4 MB (or 6 MB if you had been with them long enough) to 100 MB for free members. They also now offer 2 GB paid service that also brings POP access. [100 MB web service: free] [2 GB web/POP service: $19.99/year]\nMicrosoft is taking a long time to prepare its new service, promising its availability “in fall”. Current service is a diminutive 2 MB, web access only. To add insult to injury, mail marked as spam still counts toward your quota.\nGMail brings 1 GB free web mail service to its users. Not only is it offering large storage for free, but a new way to think about email. Instead of filing mail into folders, you can label mail in various ways. This allows for flexible searching without stringent filing. You search your mail with Google\u0026rsquo;s search technology, making for fast, accurate searches. No paid plans are offered as yet.\nWith all these options, no one has an excuse to not have an email address anymore. The main problem is now, which one to use?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/25/free-email-is-back-in-a-big-way/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOnce upon a time, someone thought to serve email through a web-based interface for easy access anywhere (that saved users the process of setting up an email client). \u003ca href=\"http://www.hotmail.com\"\u003eHoTMaiL\u003c/a\u003e was one of the first of course, but is now owned by \u003ca href=\"http://www.microsoft.com\"\u003eMicrosoft\u003c/a\u003e. The number of services like these exploded and just as quickly collapsed (or got bought up like \u003ca href=\"http://www.rocketmail.com\"\u003eRocketmail\u003c/a\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen web search giant \u003ca href=\"http://www.google.com\"\u003eGoogle\u003c/a\u003e announced \u003ca href=\"http://www.gmail.com\"\u003eGMail\u003c/a\u003e, its 1 GB email service, the major (and minor) webmail provider\u0026rsquo;s realized that in order to retain any of its members, they would have to amp it up.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Free Email is Back, in a Big Way"},{"content":"Verizon Wireless is now selling the Motorola V710 cell phone, for August availability, featuring Bluetooth and a megapixel camera. [MacInTouch]\nThat\u0026rsquo;s right boys and girls! Verizon is finally going to offer a Bluetooth phone. It looks like it will cost $250 (subtract $70 with a two year agreement).\nI can\u0026rsquo;t wait until it\u0026rsquo;s released so that I can pump all that money into a new phone. My only problem is that due to its picture phone capability, I may not be able to bring it into work when I make the move to Woburn.\nAt any rate, this is good news for Verizon customers and hopefully will start the ball rolling with other manufacturers that make phones with CDMA compatibility.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/22/new-motorola-v710/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVerizon Wireless is now selling the Motorola V710 cell phone, for August availability, featuring Bluetooth and a megapixel camera. [\u003ca href=\"http://www.macintouch.com/\"\u003eMacInTouch\u003c/a\u003e]\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat\u0026rsquo;s right boys and girls! Verizon is finally going to offer a Bluetooth phone. It looks like it will cost $250 (subtract $70 with a two year agreement).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI can\u0026rsquo;t wait until it\u0026rsquo;s released so that I can pump all that money into a new phone. My only problem is that due to its picture phone capability, I may not be able to bring it into work when I make the move to Woburn.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New: Motorola V710"},{"content":"It\u0026rsquo;s hard to believe that in this day and age that any email client doesn\u0026rsquo;t support IMAP. For those of you who already know what IMAP is, you can skip down to the next paragraph. IMAP is a mail protocol, like POP, only more powerful. The POP protocol, while ubiquitous. is very simple. It stores messages on the server in a simple queue that one downloads and deletes from the server one at a time. That mail is then stored locally on your computer, accessible no where but that server. While this may work fine for many people, it\u0026rsquo;s limitations are impossible to ignore for power users. With IMAP, the messages are stored permanently on the server, including a complete directory structure to file messages. This allows one to access their mail at any time, load only messages you want to see instead of having to download them all, and allows mail providers to place a web interface on your mail.\nWith all the features of IMAP and its growing popularity, one would think that any modern email clients would support it. This isn\u0026rsquo;t so. Mailsmith, made by Bare Bones software, completely lacks IMAP support (as well as HTML formatted mail, but honestly, I find formatted mail repugnant anyway). Sure, it sports all kind of neat features like full AppleScriptability, BBEdit-like editing, lots of filtering, etc. but this is a core feature that makes their email client 100% useless to me. Revision after revision is released with full fanfare and the first response by half the tech community is “Where\u0026rsquo;s the beef (IMAP)?”\nTo make things worse, this email client costs money. It costs $99. Who in their right mind is going to pay $99 when perhaps the most developed email client, Entourage, is just about the same price (and has IMAP support). In fact, there are many free alternatives such as Apple\u0026rsquo;s Mail.app and Mozilla\u0026rsquo;s Thunderbird. Thunderbird should not be overlooked because it\u0026rsquo;s beginning to rival (and beat as far as Spam filtering goes) Entourage. Being open source means that it\u0026rsquo;s developing at an accelerated pace as well.\nI love Bare Bones and their text editor, BBEdit, in particular, but Mailsmith is a boneheaded blunder. I have no doubt they\u0026rsquo;ll rope in a few people, but ultimate success will elude them until they get with the program.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/21/an-email-client-without-imap/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s hard to believe that in this day and age that any email client doesn\u0026rsquo;t support IMAP. For those of you who already know what IMAP is, you can skip down to the next paragraph. IMAP is a mail protocol, like POP, only more powerful. The POP protocol, while ubiquitous. is very simple. It stores messages on the server in a simple queue that one downloads and deletes from the server one at a time. That mail is then stored locally on your computer, accessible no where but that server. While this may work fine for many people, it\u0026rsquo;s limitations are impossible to ignore for power users. With IMAP, the messages are stored permanently on the server, including a complete directory structure to file messages. This allows one to access their mail at any time, load only messages you want to see instead of having to download them all, and allows mail providers to place a web interface on your mail.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"An Email Client without IMAP?"},{"content":"Apple released new iPods officially yesterday. New features include multiple on-the-go playlists, the ability to delete songs from those playlists, a revised menu including a “Music” entry as will as shuffle within easy access.\nApple also released a firmware update for all iPods, or so it would seem at first. They actually did not release an update for any iPod other than the new ones.\nThis has actually left existing users out in the cold. I can understand if certain features simply weren\u0026rsquo;t possible with existing iPod hardware (the ability to slow or speed up Audible content), but shifting access to the shuffle function into the main menu should be brain dead easy. It\u0026rsquo;s already implemented and in place on existing iPods, all that remains for Apple is to implant a menu item to access that call.\nSurely that is easier to implement than say, adding support for their lossless audio codec to the original iPod. I fear that Apple, fearing decreased iPod sales is purposely keeping even the most superficial features from their existing base. That is, needless to say, a bad precedent.\nGiving us a few of these interface enhancements would require little development cost and would pay over time in continued brand loyalty. No person in their right mind is going to buy a whole new iPod just to get shuffle into their main menu. They will, however, remember how they didn\u0026rsquo;t get it when it\u0026rsquo;s time to get a new MP3 player. It\u0026rsquo;s time someone stepped up to the plate and remind us why we should continue buying iPods.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/20/new-ipods-no-new-menu-for-you/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com\"\u003eApple\u003c/a\u003e released \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/ipod/\"\u003enew iPods\u003c/a\u003e officially yesterday. New features include multiple on-the-go playlists, the ability to delete songs from those playlists, a revised menu including a “Music” entry as will as shuffle within easy access.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApple also released a firmware update for all iPods, or so it would seem at first. They actually did not release an update for any iPod other than the new ones.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis has actually left existing users out in the cold. I can understand if certain features simply weren\u0026rsquo;t possible with existing iPod hardware (the ability to slow or speed up Audible content), but shifting access to the shuffle function into the main menu should be brain dead easy. It\u0026rsquo;s already implemented and in place on existing iPods, all that remains for Apple is to implant a menu item to access that call.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New iPods, No New Menu for You!"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve added pictures to my review of Radtech\u0026rsquo;s ScreenSavRz as well as my entry about my new futon. I took the pictures a little bit high-res so I\u0026rsquo;ll have to scale them down. Unfortunately, adding the pictures as part of the extended entry seems to be only a half-way solution as looking at June archived will bring up every entry in its entirity, including those pictures.\nI wanted to avoid uploading the pictures using MovableType\u0026rsquo;s built-in web upload because it\u0026rsquo;s slow in pretty much every browser, but there seems to be no way to get MovableType to recognize pictures you\u0026rsquo;ve uploaded manually.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/19/pictures-added/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve added pictures to my review of Radtech\u0026rsquo;s ScreenSavRz as well as my entry about my new futon. I took the pictures a little bit high-res so I\u0026rsquo;ll have to scale them down. Unfortunately, adding the pictures as part of the extended entry seems to be only a half-way solution as looking at June archived will bring up every entry in its entirity, including those pictures.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI wanted to avoid uploading the pictures using MovableType\u0026rsquo;s built-in web upload because it\u0026rsquo;s slow in pretty much every browser, but there seems to be no way to get MovableType to recognize pictures you\u0026rsquo;ve uploaded manually.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pictures Added"},{"content":"From MacMinute, Newsweek has the new iPod on its cover. Other new sites are saying that Monday will bring the formal announcement on the net.\nNew features include a clickable scroll-wheel (a la iPod Mini) and smaller size (physically, not storage). It looks to be a rather incremental upgrade.\nThis is the second time Apple has made public new announcements in a major magazine before announcing them otherwise. The first time was of course when the iMac G4 graced the cover of Time magazine. It was in fact possible to find out about the new iMac in Time before reading it on the net (other than through sites that basically referenced the article in Time).\nApple may need to be more careful if they want to retain the same kind of splash announcements. Unfortunately, the net has made communication so instantaneous and anonymous, it\u0026rsquo;s nearly impossible to coordinate an announcement when print is involved. Inevitably, either people involved with the magazine will spill the beans first, or the net and radio/television will publicize an announcement before the print announcement reaches its audience.\nI believe it\u0026rsquo;s for this reason Apple has been sticking to Internet announcements mostly. It\u0026rsquo;s fast becoming the ubiquitous source for news. One can visit any newspaper\u0026rsquo;s website for free, or even Google News which aggregates news (and even provides email alerts). One can also fire up an RSS client and find out literally minutes after the announcement. It\u0026rsquo;s a rather rapid evolution in news. It\u0026rsquo;ll only be a matter of time before RSS (or some kind of successor) is used by the general public.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/18/new-ipods-monday/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFrom \u003ca href=\"http://www.macminute.com/2004/07/17/ipod\"\u003eMacMinute\u003c/a\u003e, Newsweek has the new iPod on its cover. Other new sites are saying that Monday will bring the formal announcement on the net.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew features include a clickable scroll-wheel (a la iPod Mini) and smaller size (physically, not storage). It looks to be a rather incremental upgrade.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the second time Apple has made public new announcements in a major magazine before announcing them otherwise. The first time was of course when the iMac G4 graced the cover of Time magazine. It was in fact possible to find out about the new iMac in Time before reading it on the net (other than through sites that basically referenced the article in Time).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New iPods Monday"},{"content":"Now that I have my own domain, it\u0026rsquo;s time I did something with it. While hosting the OS X Forum FAQ for Macworld and my blog are nice, I feel like I need more.\nI could have a forum, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure how much I really need one, especially since I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t host Mac topics.\nI could have polls, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if that\u0026rsquo;s real content on its own.\nI could have a semi-news site with RSS feeds, but that\u0026rsquo;s been done to death.\nDoes anyone have any recommendations?\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/16/what-content-do-you-look-for/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNow that I have my own domain, it\u0026rsquo;s time I did something with it. While hosting the OS X Forum FAQ for Macworld and my blog are nice, I feel like I need more.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI could have a forum, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure how much I really need one, especially since I wouldn\u0026rsquo;t host Mac topics.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI could have polls, but I\u0026rsquo;m not sure if that\u0026rsquo;s real content on its own.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"What Content Do You Look For?"},{"content":"Apple announced during a coneference call, that G5 iMacs are on the way. Here\u0026rsquo;s my spin:\nApple must make the G5 iMac an entirely new form factor. I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about simply changing how it looks. It has stop being an all-in-one with little upgrade possibilities. The best form factor I think they could adopt would be that of the late G4 Cube. Putting the G4 Cube\u0026rsquo;s failings aside, I believe we can all agree that it had a large target audience. Those that want moderate expandability, flexibility as far as the display goes, and an inexpensive price. We all know that the G4 Cube\u0026rsquo;s failing was its price. Nothing else was wrong with the machine. Most of its customers were happy with the level of performance and expandability (the lack of PCI ports, etc. was not troublesome). In fact, many people were crying for a headless iMac. This I can go along with.\nWhat I will not go along with is the little kids who insist that they need a G5 processor in their all-in-one, static video card iMac. It\u0026rsquo;s simply not necessary. It\u0026rsquo;s a waste of time and effort to put the G5 into the iMac as is. The only reason one might want a G5 in the iMac as is, would be for gaming, which makes no sense because of the video card included and the hard drive included. While the CPU is important during games, the video card is far more important, as is the amount of RAM. This brings up another point.\nThe same people screaming the loudest about a G5 in the iMac are the ones that don\u0026rsquo;t understand enough about their computer to properly diagnose the weak link. G5 is simply a buzzword to them and they have idea of the real advantages it supplies. Apple shouldn\u0026rsquo;t be catering to them and instead, should be focusing much more on getting the G5 into a Powerbook, whose customers are many fold more likely to require a G5 and know whether it is the source of their problems. Putting the G5 into a consumer machine for people that neither need or really know whether they really want a G5 while neglecting their bread and butter customers (Powerbook customers) will alienate their most loyal and profitable (because the Powerbooks bring in far more profit than iMacs) customers.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/15/g5-imacs-in-september/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eApple announced during a coneference call, that \u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/07/14/q3live/\"\u003eG5 iMacs are on the way\u003c/a\u003e. Here\u0026rsquo;s my spin:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApple \u003cstrong\u003emust\u003c/strong\u003e make the G5 iMac an entirely new form factor. I\u0026rsquo;m not talking about simply changing how it looks. It has stop being an all-in-one with little upgrade possibilities. The best form factor I think they could adopt would be that of the late G4 Cube. Putting the G4 Cube\u0026rsquo;s failings aside, I believe we can all agree that it had a large target audience. Those that want moderate expandability, flexibility as far as the display goes, and an inexpensive price. We all know that the G4 Cube\u0026rsquo;s failing was its price. Nothing else was wrong with the machine. Most of its customers were happy with the level of performance and expandability (the lack of PCI ports, etc. was not troublesome). In fact, many people were crying for a headless iMac. This I can go along with.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"G5 iMacs in September"},{"content":"Last night, I picked up my futon. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a cheap dorm room adornment. This is high quality baby (like $440 high quality).\nI bought it Saturday, so I had to wait a couple days for it. I was so anxious that even though we weren\u0026rsquo;t back and done with dinner until 10 PM, I still wanted to assemble it. My father and I had it assembled in less than an hour.\nNow all that\u0026rsquo;s left is to christen my self-proclaimed flip \u0026amp; fuck. Unfortunately, work absorbs nearly all of my time during the week. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty unbelievable until you actually start doing it for real.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll take some pictures and post them up, along with the other things I promised to photograph.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/13/who-doesnt-love-a-futon/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLast night, I picked up my futon. This isn\u0026rsquo;t a cheap dorm room adornment. This is high quality baby (like $440 high quality).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI bought it Saturday, so I had to wait a couple days for it. I was so anxious that even though we weren\u0026rsquo;t back and done with dinner until 10 PM, I still wanted to assemble it. My father and I had it assembled in less than an hour.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow all that\u0026rsquo;s left is to christen my self-proclaimed flip \u0026amp; fuck. Unfortunately, work absorbs nearly all of my time during the week. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty unbelievable until you actually start doing it for real.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll take some pictures and post them up, along with the other things I promised to photograph.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Who doesn't love a futon?"},{"content":"I went to see King Arthur late last night (10:15 PM, which is way too late when you get up at 6 AM). Was it worth the $9 and lost hours of sleep?\nYes and no. Keira Knightley is a complete babe, that is for sure. She is hot, with a capital *SIZZLE*. I think seeing her was alone with the price of admission.\nThe movie itself isn\u0026rsquo;t the typical King Arthur mythology. The movie claims the story is based upon recently unearthed evidence. I didn\u0026rsquo;t bother to check whether this claim is substantiated, but honestly, I think they simply wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the original myth because this movie had nothing to do with Arthur other than using the names we already know and love. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t detract from the movie I think, but instead was a cheap marketing technique. Maybe next they\u0026rsquo;ll do a real life Jesus Christ movie, about this black guy who had some whacked out ideas from smoking too much weed with his 12 buddies.\nI\u0026rsquo;m satisfied with the movie itself. I\u0026rsquo;m not sure it\u0026rsquo;s for everyone though. If you liked Braveheart and you\u0026rsquo;re willing to accept a much less epic story, you may enjoy this movie. However, many of the motivating factors of the movie are muddled by a fairly poor script. Certain things seem left out and as such, I spent half the movie wondering why anyone was doing anything.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/12/movie-review-king-arthur/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI went to see King Arthur late last night (10:15 PM, which is way too late when you get up at 6 AM). Was it worth the $9 and lost hours of sleep?\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYes and no. \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0461136/\"\u003eKeira Knightley\u003c/a\u003e is a complete babe, that is for sure. She is hot, with a capital *SIZZLE*. I think seeing her was alone with the price of admission.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe movie itself isn\u0026rsquo;t the typical King Arthur mythology. The movie claims the story is based upon recently unearthed evidence. I didn\u0026rsquo;t bother to check whether this claim is substantiated, but honestly, I think they simply wanted to capitalize on the popularity of the original myth because this movie had nothing to do with Arthur other than using the names we already know and love. That doesn\u0026rsquo;t detract from the movie I think, but instead was a cheap marketing technique. Maybe next they\u0026rsquo;ll do a real life Jesus Christ movie, about this black guy who had some whacked out ideas from smoking too much weed with his 12 buddies.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Movie Review: King Arthur"},{"content":"All right, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a good excuse. I didn\u0026rsquo;t write yesterday. To make up for it, I\u0026rsquo;ll post twice today.\nLast night, I finished Call of Duty. Ok, ok, I practically played through the entire game. My summary, which has already been mirrored by others like Peter Cohen of Macworld and Maccentral fame. Excellent game, great play, good levels, but too short. I want more! Essentially all the levels were interesting and fun. I\u0026rsquo;m glad there was no sniper level, a la Medal of Honor. Was it worth the $50? Yes, I believe so. I now have a lot of replay value through playing at greater difficulties and multi-player play.\nThe game itself is very similar to Medal of Honor, with several key differences. Allied Assault lacked the ability to melee. Spearhead changed this, but at the cost of a lot of speed. Call of Duty is fast. It seems to play smoother than any other game (save for old favorites like the first Aliens vs. Predator). This was rather surprising for me because its requirements are rather high. In fact, they seem to exceed my brother\u0026rsquo;s flap panel iMac, but from what I\u0026rsquo;ve read, it plays great on them.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re looking for a great game for your Mac (or PC *shiver*) look at Call of Duty, it\u0026rsquo;s worth at least a demo download.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/11/missing-a-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAll right, I don\u0026rsquo;t have a good excuse. I didn\u0026rsquo;t write yesterday. To make up for it, I\u0026rsquo;ll post twice today.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLast night, I finished \u003ca href=\"http://www.callofduty.com\"\u003eCall of Duty\u003c/a\u003e. Ok, ok, I practically played through the entire game. My summary, which has already been mirrored by others like Peter Cohen of Macworld and Maccentral fame. Excellent game, great play, good levels, but too short. I want more! Essentially all the levels were interesting and fun. I\u0026rsquo;m glad there was no sniper level, a la Medal of Honor. Was it worth the $50? Yes, I believe so. I now have a lot of replay value through playing at greater difficulties and multi-player play.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Missing a Day"},{"content":"The weekend is a few scant hours away, as is yet another Red Sox game. I must be setting some kind of record here. I\u0026rsquo;ve gone for over two decades without going to a Red Sox game while living in Massachusetts, and now I\u0026rsquo;m going to at least three this year. The season isn\u0026rsquo;t even half over yet.\nMy Macally BTMouseJr is on its way finally. I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting with baited breath for it, obsessively checking my order status over at Page Computers *ding*. It has since gone to backorder status there, so it appears that this mouse is in high demand. Now I can shift my attention to UPS and their web based package tracking system.\nSpeaking of tracking packages, that brings up my favorite Google trick ever. I don\u0026rsquo;t remember where I read about this gem, but I wish I could give them credit. At any rate, any time you get a tracking number for any package delivery company, plug it into Google. It will appropriately recognize that as a tracking number and produce a link to that package\u0026rsquo;s tracking page (in addition to any other pages it seems to be referenced in). Nifty. It\u0026rsquo;s far easier to get to the page that way, especially if you\u0026rsquo;re one of the enlightened few with some kind of Google bar in their browser.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/09/end-of-the-week-spectacular/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe weekend is a few scant hours away, as is yet another Red Sox game. I must be setting some kind of record here. I\u0026rsquo;ve gone for over two decades without going to a Red Sox game while living in Massachusetts, and now I\u0026rsquo;m going to at least three this year. The season isn\u0026rsquo;t even half over yet.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy Macally BTMouseJr is on its way finally. I\u0026rsquo;ve been waiting with baited breath for it, obsessively checking my order status over at \u003ca href=\"http://www.pagecomputers.com\"\u003ePage Computers\u003c/a\u003e *ding*. It has since gone to backorder status there, so it appears that this mouse is in high demand. Now I can shift my attention to \u003ca href=\"http://www.ups.com\"\u003eUPS\u003c/a\u003e and their web based package tracking system.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"End of the Week Spectacular"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve successfully given myself too much to do this weekend.\nI have to in no certain order: rotate my tires, change my oil, change the windshield wipers, go to Chestnut Hill to pick up some pants, and find a gym I like (as well as work out).\nThat may not sound like much, but getting father to do anything car related quickly is like wishing for the ability to fly, so I know I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to surrender the better part of 4 or 5 hours to the tire rotation alone. Add in the other couple tasks and there goes a whole day.\nTraveling to Chestnut Hill will take a couple hours as well. I also have to hunt down the receipt for the pants so I can pick them up. They way mother puts things away, that alone could take a couple hours.\nAlso note the lack of anything fun in there. I haven\u0026rsquo;t even gotten to Friday and I\u0026rsquo;m already feeling like my weekend is over.\nUpdate: I\u0026rsquo;ve now added seeing a Red Sox game on Friday night to my list of things to do. It\u0026rsquo;s something fun, but it\u0026rsquo;s killed any possibility of doing some of my errands on Friday. I\u0026rsquo;m just too popular.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/08/busy-weekend/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve successfully given myself too much to do this weekend.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have to in no certain order: rotate my tires, change my oil, change the windshield wipers, go to Chestnut Hill to pick up some pants, and find a gym I like (as well as work out).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat may not sound like much, but getting father to do anything car related quickly is like wishing for the ability to fly, so I know I\u0026rsquo;m going to have to surrender the better part of 4 or 5 hours to the tire rotation alone. Add in the other couple tasks and there goes a whole day.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Busy Weekend"},{"content":"The Red Sox finally seem to be on the road to recovery following a rough transition back to its first string starters, many of whom were injured. While Ortiz and Manny struggled with the Oakland Athletics, the rest of the team seemed to find a groove.\nThis includes defending batting champ, Bill Mueller (pronounced “Miller” which should be enough for any German to cringe). He knocked a ball out of the park early in the game to put the Red Sox ahead by 3. As any Sox fan knows though, that\u0026rsquo;s simply not enough.\nThe hits kept coming and certainly weren\u0026rsquo;t hindered by the A\u0026rsquo;s Barry Zito walking in several runs. They kept coming until the end with a score of 11-zip. An embarressing showing for Oakland to say the least.\nHowever, this seems to reinforce statistics lately showing that the Red Sox barely score a couple runs when they lose, but at least double digits when they win. It\u0026rsquo;s feast or famine the Sox offensively. Meanwhile, Derek Lowe continues to get shelled for inconsistent pitching. His lackluster performances of late certainly aren\u0026rsquo;t helping, but considering the lack of offense, I\u0026rsquo;m not sure he can totally be blamed. In many of his losses, if the Sox had simply scored 12 runs as they normally seem to do for wins, the Sox would have won. Not to take anything away from Schilling or Pedro, but I think their success has a lot to do with coincidential performance by the Sox offensively, not just their defensive skill.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/07/keeping-the-faith/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe Red Sox finally seem to be on the road to recovery following a rough transition back to its first string starters, many of whom were injured. While Ortiz and Manny struggled with the Oakland Athletics, the rest of the team seemed to find a groove.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis includes defending batting champ, Bill Mueller (pronounced “Miller” which should be enough for any German to cringe). He knocked a ball out of the park early in the game to put the Red Sox ahead by 3. As any Sox fan knows though, that\u0026rsquo;s simply not enough.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Keeping the Faith"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been saying it for months now, ever since John Kerry pulled ahead of John Edwards, that if Kerry is serious about winning, he will pick Edwards as his running mate. It appears now that Kerry is serious.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I\u0026rsquo;m not a Democrat, nor am I a Kerry supporter. Quite the opposite actually. I\u0026rsquo;m going to support our current president, George W. Bush. Let me nip this in the bud now, I don\u0026rsquo;t feel the need to debate that, at least not for the purposes of this entry. So please keep all comments relevant to Kerry\u0026rsquo;s choice of running mate.\nI do believe though that Kerry now poses a serious threat to Bush in the upcoming election. Kerry is the northern elder statesman with lots of experience and veteran status. Edwards is a young southerner with lots of energy needed to give Kerry\u0026rsquo;s campaign a big boost as well as get the younger voting contigent interested. They are a fearsome duo to be sure.\nIt also goes to show how poor the current president\u0026rsquo;s ticket looks for now and the future. Cheney draws nothing but heat from the media for this ties to major corporations, especially Halliburton. He brings nothing to the table as the vice president, bringing no votes from swing states. He\u0026rsquo;s also very old, has health problems, and has little or no interest in succeeding the president. In other words, he\u0026rsquo;s not a good choice from the party. His advice may be invaluable to the president, but he doesn\u0026rsquo;t need to be the vice to be an advisor.\nEdwards on the other hand looks to be the life blood of the Democratic party. He could very easily parlet his experience as vice into a big for presidency in the not so distant future. This, of course, scares no one more than Hillary Clinton whose presidential plans are already self-evident. Deep down, she wants nothing more than for Kerry to lose. Bush\u0026rsquo;s second term will undoubtedly infuriate a portion of the population, perhaps preparing the Democratic candidate for a landslide victory. Hillary wants to be that candidate. Bush\u0026rsquo;s lack of a good vice president will also further seal the deal. On the other hand, should Kerry win, Hillary would have to wait at least 8 years for a bid because running against an incumbent in one\u0026rsquo;s own party is near political suicide. If Kerry wins a second term, Hillary will then have to compete against Edwards as a two term vice president for a popular president (by virtue of his two terms). Again, not an exciting prospect. Even if Kerry lost after the first term, then Hillary would have two major roadblocks in 8 years. The first is going against an incumbent president. The second would be going up against a prior vice president whom already had strong success in the primaries. She won\u0026rsquo;t out and out say it, but she\u0026rsquo;s hoping for Kerry to lose.\nAll in all, this should make for an interesting election.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/06/kerry-edwards-in-04/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been saying it for months now, ever since John Kerry pulled ahead of John Edwards, that if Kerry is serious about winning, he will pick Edwards as his running mate. It appears now that \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/politics/campaign/06CND-KERR.html?ex=1089777600\u0026amp;en=3f1673f6aab836e1\u0026amp;ei=5062\u0026amp;partner=GOOGLE\"\u003eKerry is serious\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDon\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, I\u0026rsquo;m not a Democrat, nor am I a \u003ca href=\"http://www.johnkerry.com\"\u003eKerry\u003c/a\u003e supporter. Quite the opposite actually. I\u0026rsquo;m going to support our current president, \u003ca href=\"http://www.georgewbush.com\"\u003eGeorge W. Bush\u003c/a\u003e. Let me nip this in the bud now, I don\u0026rsquo;t feel the need to debate that, at least not for the purposes of this entry. So please keep all comments relevant to Kerry\u0026rsquo;s choice of running mate.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Kerry, Edwards in '04?"},{"content":"Last night I went into Boston to see the fireworks on the Charles River. I\u0026rsquo;d never gone before, so the best fireworks I\u0026rsquo;d seen up until that point were sparklers (and on the TV). Originally, I was thinking about going to see the Pops, sit in the esplanade, and watch the fireworks overhead. When I found out that I\u0026rsquo;d have to be there at 10 AM at the latest, I decided it wasn\u0026rsquo;t worth that much to me, at least for now.\nSome people had shown up as early as 10 PM the night before, prompting the question: “Do you have a life?” I\u0026rsquo;m not trying to trivialize the Pops and the show that they put on. The band itself is spectacular and I\u0026rsquo;m the show is great, but not sit outside all night great. Let\u0026rsquo;s be honest with ourselves here. It\u0026rsquo;s just a nice concert and honestly, I\u0026rsquo;m willing to shell out some money to see them in concert rather than sleep on the sidewalk like a homeless person.\nInstead, Dana and I opted to head down Mass Ave at around 9:15 (which was even a bit early). The bridge was covered with people and subsequently, the road was blocked off. We found a good spot and waited the half hour until 10 when we thought the fireworks were supposed to start. Well, right around 10, some fireworks did get set off, about thirty seconds of them. We then had to wait another half hour until the real fireworks started. By far, they were the best fireworks I\u0026rsquo;d ever seen. Definitely worth the wait. It was only today upon returning home that I found out why we had to wait a half hour. The Pops concert ran longer than expected.\nOf course, this can be expected when they do two encore songs (as they did when I went to see them for Celtic night). It\u0026rsquo;s a little cynical, but why don\u0026rsquo;t they just put the songs on the program they are going to play? They don\u0026rsquo;t play them spur of the moment. Those songs get just as much attention as the rest of the program and from the way the audience reacted, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t out of the ordinary to play a couple encore songs, defeating the purpose of them.\nThere were two things (or people rather) that detracted from my fireworks experience, the first being a guy with a camcorder who kept creeping into my field of vision. Normally, I would have let this slide, but his constant interference was irritating. I don\u0026rsquo;t know if he heard me, but at one point I said, “I think someone should tell that guy that they record this for the TV.” I mean really. There were dozens of people video-taping it. I can only surmise this was an excuse to use their video cameras, but the best thing to do would have been to just set up your VCR and record it. Not only do you get a professional grade recording (using real equipment) but you get the music to go along with it. Are they going to show it later and point out the heads of all the people that were in front of them that got in the way of the shot?\nThe other moron that irritated me was and is the original Captain Obvious. “I think they\u0026rsquo;re going to play the 1812 Overture.” “David Lee Roth is performing with the Pops.” Not only were those gems part of his obnoxiously loud dialogue, but so were “higher” and “louder” when they were shooting off the fireworks. Thanks buddy, I don\u0026rsquo;t think they thought of that. He would also raise his hands every time something shot up and describe the motion of the sparkles by waving his fingers and letting his hands drift sideways. Is there no shame left?\nImmediately following the fireworks, everyone started heading down Mass Ave in what can only be described as a tidal wave of people. Cars of all kinds (including Ambulances) were engulfed by people with no way to move. Constant swearing and honking became the standard greeting for pedestrians. This was of course returned by the international one-fingered greeting.\nIn short, it was something not to be missed.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/05/4th-of-july-fireworks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLast night I went into Boston to see the fireworks on the Charles River. I\u0026rsquo;d never gone before, so the best fireworks I\u0026rsquo;d seen up until that point were sparklers (and on the TV). Originally, I was thinking about going to see the Pops, sit in the esplanade, and watch the fireworks overhead. When I found out that I\u0026rsquo;d have to be there at 10 AM at the latest, I decided it wasn\u0026rsquo;t worth that much to me, at least for now.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"4th of July Fireworks"},{"content":"I use Verizon as my wireless provider. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, it\u0026rsquo;s great. The service is consistent. My phone never cuts out on me (while half the people I know have such intermittent service that I end up calling their landline once they get home). It\u0026rsquo;s fairly cheap for me because I\u0026rsquo;m on a family plan (though that may change soon, but then I\u0026rsquo;ll have all those minutes to myself *muahahahahaha*).\nHowever, I\u0026rsquo;m still using a Nokia 5185i (shut up). By today\u0026rsquo;s standards, it\u0026rsquo;s big, heavy, lacks any good features (it doesn\u0026rsquo;t even vibrate). Basically, I\u0026rsquo;m chomping at the bit for a new phone. I love SonyEricsson phones but none of them are available for Verizon.\nNow that I have a computer with Bluetooth, I\u0026rsquo;m going to use it to the fullest. That means I want a fancy Bluetooth phone. I want to use my phone as a remote using Sailing Clicker. I want to synchronize my phone book with iSync. However, Verizon doesn\u0026rsquo;t offer any Bluetooth phone.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s been so long since Bluetooth\u0026rsquo;s inception and there\u0026rsquo;s been so much demand that people have started a petition. At a recent conference, the Verizon CEO joked about the lack of Bluetooth in their lineup. Well, I (and other Verizon customers) aren\u0026rsquo;t laughing. It may be a big joke to him now, but when his customers start taking off for other carriers that are willing to seriously listen to their customers, it won\u0026rsquo;t be quite so funny.\nThe only saving grace is that there is speculation that the Motorola V710 will most likely be released soon as Verizon\u0026rsquo;s Bluetooth phone. If it is, I\u0026rsquo;ll probably buy it. However, if my contract with Verizon is up before they release it, I\u0026rsquo;ll be taking my business elsewhere.\nHaving a Bluetooth phone will not only be a great complement to my Powerbook (and Powermac when I get a Bluetooth adapter for it), but for the Toyota Prius I\u0026rsquo;m eyeing for my next car. Even if I don\u0026rsquo;t get the Prius, most cars (that I will be looking at) will have Bluetooth. Whether Verizon wants to come along is up to them.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/04/my-kingdom-for-a-bluetooth-phone/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI use \u003ca href=\"http://www.verizonwireless.com\"\u003eVerizon\u003c/a\u003e as my wireless provider. Don\u0026rsquo;t get me wrong, it\u0026rsquo;s great. The service is consistent. My phone never cuts out on me (while half the people I know have such intermittent service that I end up calling their landline once they get home). It\u0026rsquo;s fairly cheap for me because I\u0026rsquo;m on a family plan (though that may change soon, but then I\u0026rsquo;ll have all those minutes to myself *muahahahahaha*).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"My Kingdom for a Bluetooth Phone"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m a little late with this entry because, well, it is the weekend. I have a couple things to talk about tonight though.\nFirst off, Friday I saw Spider-man 2. Overall, I enjoyed it. I have three problems with it.\nFirst, as Dana said to me, there was entirely too much story. Every other scene was the dopey Tobey Maguire crying about something. Honestly, the more of him covered up, the happier I am. He just isn\u0026rsquo;t Peter Parker. He\u0026rsquo;s a decent actor, but wrong for the role. This does relate to both movies, but there was far less of him I felt.\nBeyond that, they set up far too much future plot. They set up Hobgoblin (with Harry Osborn), the Lizard (with Doctor Connors), and Venom (with John Jameson). That\u0026rsquo;s enough for three movies. Hell, that\u0026rsquo;s enough for more than that, particularly with the Venom saga. However, the lack of reappearance of Eddie Brock makes me think they won\u0026rsquo;t even bother with Venom, which is a terrible shame because he\u0026rsquo;s probably the best villain in the Spiderman comic.\nFinally, I\u0026rsquo;ll show my geek side and point out that Spiderman never used impact webbing. I know there were other deviations from the comic, but this one stood out the most. The Scarlett Spider used impact webbing.\nOn to a different subject, I\u0026rsquo;ve been alerted to the existence of a small Bluetooth mouse made by Macally. It is the BTMouseJr. Honestly, I\u0026rsquo;ve always been a fan of Macally\u0026rsquo;s stuff, it\u0026rsquo;s cheaper than the Radtech Mouse, and it\u0026rsquo;s silver. I\u0026rsquo;ll probably buy the mouse.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/03/odd-and-ends/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m a little late with this entry because, well, it \u003cstrong\u003eis\u003c/strong\u003e the weekend. I have a couple things to talk about tonight though.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst off, Friday I saw Spider-man 2. Overall, I enjoyed it. I have three problems with it.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst, as Dana said to me, there was entirely too much story. Every other scene was the dopey Tobey Maguire crying about something. Honestly, the more of him covered up, the happier I am. He just isn\u0026rsquo;t Peter Parker. He\u0026rsquo;s a decent actor, but wrong for the role. This does relate to both movies, but there was far less of him I felt.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Odd and Ends"},{"content":"Due to using a Windows XP based computer at work, I have become very familiar with Firefox. By far, one of its vest features is an extension for it called “Ad Block.” This sweet little add-on lets you quickly and easily block ads or other content. It\u0026rsquo;s completely intuitive. Right click on something and it will give you an option to “Block Image” or “Block iFrame” dependent upon what the ad is contained within. It will then allow you to edit the URL to replace sections that are variable with an asterisk (*). Quick, easy, effective, and has a hugely significant effect upon load time.\nWhile on my Macs, I still prefer Safari (call me a purist for liking native widgets). I used PithHelmet to block ads. Its stock rules are fairly effective, but if they aren\u0026rsquo;t effective enough, you can write your own rules. However, they are significantly harder to write (but infinitely more flexible) because it uses regular expressions. Pith Helmet was hard to understand, add rules to, and generally didn\u0026rsquo;t speed up the page load times because it seemed to be doing post filtering (if you watched, all the ads would load, then quickly disappear). This obviously was not as good as Ad Block.\nVersiontracker still lists 0.7.2b as the lastest version. However, not only has it been updated to 0.7.3, but there is a 2.0 beta. 2.0 still makes it a bit hard for a layman to make new rules, but this new version has a dramatic effect on page load speed, as well as boasting Shiira compatibility. It\u0026rsquo;s worth a look.\nUpdate: Versiontracker now lists 0.7.3 as the current version.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/02/pith-helmet-2.0-beta/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eDue to using a Windows XP based computer at work, I have become very familiar with \u003ca href=\"http://www.mozilla.org\"\u003eFirefox\u003c/a\u003e. By far, one of its vest features is an extension for it called “Ad Block.” This sweet little add-on lets you quickly and easily block ads or other content. It\u0026rsquo;s completely intuitive. Right click on something and it will give you an option to “Block Image” or “Block iFrame” dependent upon what the ad is contained within. It will then allow you to edit the URL to replace sections that are variable with an asterisk (*). Quick, easy, effective, and has a hugely significant effect upon load time.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Pith Helmet 2.0 Beta"},{"content":"Bluetooth is still considered a hot technology and was meant as a cure all for wireless peripherals (such as Palm Pilots, mice, keyboards). Once Bluetooth hit the streets, we were supposed to see all kinds of new products, virtually eliminating products based on other wireless standards.\nThat didn\u0026rsquo;t quite happen. Apple released their Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, but again, the one button mouse hinders its utility for many users (including myself). Logitech released the MX900, Microsoft released a Bluetooth version of their venerable Intellimouse Explorer, and Belkin released one as well. However, Logitech\u0026rsquo;s lacks drivers for Mac OS X, making all but the main three buttons useless (at least until the next version of USB Overdrive is released, which promises Bluetooth support), the same goes for Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s (but add the fact it uses the old form factor without the tilt-wheel, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t compare with the RF version), and Belkin\u0026rsquo;s, well, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t need drivers, but it chews through batteries from what I\u0026rsquo;ve read in reviews.\nWhat happened to the plethora of Bluetooth mice that were going to be released? Why haven\u0026rsquo;t all mice become Bluetooth? Well, I don\u0026rsquo;t know. I do know I\u0026rsquo;m looking for a Bluetooth mouse, and I\u0026rsquo;ve narrowed it down to several choices (pending the release of the next version of USB Overdrive). They\u0026rsquo;re meant to compliment my 12″ Powerbook, in appearance and size.\nFirst up is Radtech\u0026rsquo;s BT-500 mouse. It\u0026rsquo;s small, light, inexpensive, has an on/off switch, and approval of Dan Frakes (whom also has used Logitech\u0026rsquo;s MX900, but has shelved it since getting this mouse). My problem? Neither color scheme seems to match the Powerbook well. Additionally, it\u0026rsquo;s really just a Bluetake Mouse rebranded by Radtech, meaning I might be able to get the same mouse elswhere in a better color scheme as well as for less cash.\nComing in September is MacMice\u0026rsquo;s the Mouse BT. This mouse certainly has the best styling I\u0026rsquo;ve seen, but at $70, being larger than the Radtech, and being a product of a company with a questionable past, it also gives me pause.\nWhat is a geek to do? Anyone with recommendations before I make a snap decision and buy one of them some night, leave them.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/07/01/a-trip-to-the-dentist-or-a-mouse-of-a-different-color/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBluetooth is still considered a hot technology and was meant as a cure all for wireless peripherals (such as Palm Pilots, mice, keyboards). Once Bluetooth hit the streets, we were supposed to see all kinds of new products, virtually eliminating products based on other wireless standards.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat didn\u0026rsquo;t quite happen. Apple released their Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, but again, the one button mouse hinders its utility for many users (including myself). \u003ca href=\"http://www.logitech.com\"\u003eLogitech\u003c/a\u003e released the \u003ca href=\"http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=7110\"\u003eMX900\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.microsoft.com\"\u003eMicrosoft\u003c/a\u003e released a \u003ca href=\"http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=001\"\u003eBluetooth version of their venerable Intellimouse Explorer\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.belkin.com\"\u003eBelkin\u003c/a\u003e released \u003ca href=\"http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=\u0026amp;Product_Id=157641\"\u003eone\u003c/a\u003e as well. However, Logitech\u0026rsquo;s lacks drivers for Mac OS X, making all but the main three buttons useless (at least until the next version of \u003ca href=\"http://www.usboverdrive.com\"\u003eUSB Overdrive\u003c/a\u003e is released, which promises Bluetooth support), the same goes for Microsoft\u0026rsquo;s (but add the fact it uses the old form factor without the tilt-wheel, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t compare with the RF version), and Belkin\u0026rsquo;s, well, it doesn\u0026rsquo;t need drivers, but it chews through batteries from what I\u0026rsquo;ve read in reviews.\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Trip to the Dentist (or, a Mouse of a Different Color)"},{"content":"Broadband Internet service has become commonplace across the United States. Whether it is a cable modem, dsl, satellite of some sort, or another kind of wireless high speed Internet access, increasing numbers of users are getting on the information superhighway with a Porsche instead of a moped.\nA couple years back (but following my departure for school), I finally convinced my father to get a cable modem. My argument for it wasn\u0026rsquo;t just speed or the services that become accessible when one migrates (such as streaming media). It was in a large part based upon a monetary argument. It was cheaper to get a cable modem.\nWell, that seems rather contradictory and wrong. You get more for less? What many people ignore are other costs involved with using a regular phone based modem. I am an Internet junkie (who me? couldn\u0026rsquo;t be. then who? yeah, I did it). I\u0026rsquo;d tie up the phone line for hours. What was and still is the answer for modem users? Get a separate phone line. This solution is very commonly used by modem users. It cost around $35 a month to have a second phone line in our house. Add in the cost of the service ($10), and we\u0026rsquo;re up to $45. The cost of high speed internet is $30 for DSL or cable (although, that price for DSL is contigent upon having at least one phone line in service and subscribing to some other services). High end cable costs $40. It\u0026rsquo;s cheaper and faster to have broadband.\nObviously, this isn\u0026rsquo;t the four fold speed increase I speak of. That was ten fold increase at the time. Well, up until last night, my family\u0026rsquo;s cable service was 768 Kbps. No slouch to be sure, but not nearly as fast as the 3 Mbps connection my brother had at his new apartment. I wanted the best on the block too. I looked at Charter\u0026rsquo;s web site and found that 3 Mbps service was available at our house for $40. I then examined our last bill and found out we were paying the exact same rate for 768 Kbps. This naturally prompted a phone call and within minutes, I was surfing at four times the speed.\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s the lesson to be learned here? If you don\u0026rsquo;t have broadband service and it\u0026rsquo;s availble in your area, consider it. It may not be as expensive as you think. If you already have broadband, check with your supplier to see if speeds and costs have changed. If you currently don\u0026rsquo;t have high end access, see if you can upgrade for free. You might assume that your supplier would automatically upgrade you, but this isn\u0026rsquo;t necessarily the case.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/30/four-times-the-speed-at-zero-cost/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBroadband Internet service has become commonplace across the United States. Whether it is a cable modem, dsl, satellite of some sort, or another kind of wireless high speed Internet access, increasing numbers of users are getting on the information superhighway with a Porsche instead of a moped.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA couple years back (but following my departure for school), I finally convinced my father to get a cable modem. My argument for it wasn\u0026rsquo;t just speed or the services that become accessible when one migrates (such as streaming media). It was in a large part based upon a monetary argument. It was cheaper to get a cable modem.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Four Times the Speed, At Zero Cost"},{"content":"Once of my favorite websites is RailHead Design. It\u0026rsquo;s become a daily stop because, well, it\u0026rsquo;s updated every day (at least during the week). I\u0026rsquo;m resolving myself to having the same discipline (though my entries tend to be a bit longer than Maury\u0026rsquo;s). Starting today and happening every day unless I go on vacation, I will be adding at least one new entry.\nI\u0026rsquo;ll probably borrow (ok, steal) from sources such as Obscure Store, Fark, and Maccentral to fill the void on days when I have nothing good or interesting to say.\nOh, and a quick reminder, there is an RSS feed for my blog over on the right side of the page. Be sure to fire up your favorite RSS reader (or get NetNewsWire (regular or lite) if you\u0026rsquo;re on a Mac, Feedreader if you\u0026rsquo;re on Windows (I\u0026rsquo;ll suggest another one if some can suggest a really good Windows RSS client; I haven\u0026rsquo;t had much luck), or get Firebird\u0026rsquo;s RSS Extension) and add it to your list.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/29/once-a-day/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eOnce of my favorite websites is \u003ca href=\"http://www.railheaddesign.com\"\u003eRailHead Design\u003c/a\u003e. It\u0026rsquo;s become a daily stop because, well, it\u0026rsquo;s updated every day (at least during the week). I\u0026rsquo;m resolving myself to having the same discipline (though my entries tend to be a bit longer than Maury\u0026rsquo;s). Starting today and happening every day unless I go on vacation, I will be adding at least one new entry.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ll probably borrow (ok, steal) from sources such as \u003ca href=\"http://www.obscurestore.com\"\u003eObscure Store\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.fark.com\"\u003eFark\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.maccentral.com\"\u003eMaccentral\u003c/a\u003e to fill the void on days when I have nothing good or interesting to say.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Once a Day"},{"content":"The first and most major news of this fine Monday is Apple\u0026rsquo;s preview of the next revision of Mac OS X, code-named Tiger. Apple\u0026rsquo;s introduced some very provocative new features, all of which are documented (albeit informally) at their Tiger preview site.\nThe first feature to catch my eye was Spotlight. Based upon Apple\u0026rsquo;s new Metadata-based search technology, Spotlight brings live search to not just the file system or Mail atomically, it allows for system wide searching of many services including Mail\u0026rsquo;s messages, contacts, calendar entries, the filesystem, etc. all at the same time. Very cool. However, following a disturbing trend that Apple is perpetuating, Spotlight also very closely resembles one of my favorite pieces of software, LaunchBar. Live searching across multiple data types is what LaunchBar excels at (especially the upcoming 4.0 version which has many, many file types and databases integrated into its own search engine).\nAnother interesting feature is Dashboard. I saw it and immediately thought, “This looks really familiar.” This is yet another instance of Apple\u0026rsquo;s new trend of ripping off developers, only this is even more blatant than Spotlight or say Watson. Spotlight has a resemblance to an existing product. Sherlock 3 was a rip-off of Watson, with a more flexible extensible implementation (using XML). Dashboard is a carbon copy, right down the fact that its components are called Widgets and are implemented in JavaScript, just like Konfabulator. This has incited Arlo Rose, one of its main developers to bash Apple for ripping him off. I feel this is completely justified and continued theft of shareware ideas will only completely alienate Mac OS X\u0026rsquo;s rich shareware community. There was a time when Apple integrated these products into the OS by hiring the developers (such as SuperClock\u0026rsquo;s developer). Apple set a dangerous precedent with Sherlock 3. It\u0026rsquo;s now just playing with fire.\nSpeaking of Watson, its creator, Dan Wood, has announced that Watson has been essentially bought out and all support will end October 5th. I hope the company offering the new product offer it with a huge discount (or possibly free) to existing Watson users because I bought Watson only a few months ago and getting less than a years with of maintenance support (Watson\u0026rsquo;s back end won\u0026rsquo;t be updated after Oct. 5th to reflect changes in source websites, effectively breaking modules) is beyond poor. It\u0026rsquo;s piss poor and unprofessional. Paid users deserve several years of support. Every major software company follows this practice and Dan Wood will remain small potatoes if he doesn\u0026rsquo;t follow suit.\nThat\u0026rsquo;s all for today!\nEdit: Adding link to debate at Maccentral about Konfabulator and Dashboard.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/28/mac-os-x-tiger-and-other-mac-news/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe first and most major news of this fine Monday is Apple\u0026rsquo;s preview of the next revision of Mac OS X, code-named Tiger. Apple\u0026rsquo;s introduced some very provocative new features, all of which are documented (albeit informally) at their \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/\"\u003eTiger preview site\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first feature to catch my eye was \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html\"\u003eSpotlight\u003c/a\u003e. Based upon Apple\u0026rsquo;s new \u003ca href=\"http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/searchtechnology.html\"\u003eMetadata-based search technology\u003c/a\u003e, Spotlight brings live search to not just the file system or Mail atomically, it allows for system wide searching of many services including Mail\u0026rsquo;s messages, contacts, calendar entries, the filesystem, etc. all at the same time. Very cool. However, following a disturbing trend that Apple is perpetuating, Spotlight also very closely resembles one of my favorite pieces of software, \u003ca href=\"http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/\"\u003eLaunchBar\u003c/a\u003e. Live searching across multiple data types is what LaunchBar excels at (especially the upcoming 4.0 version which has many, many file types and databases integrated into its own search engine).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Mac OS X Tiger and Other Mac News"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve always been a big fan of the TV show Sliders. It was immediate, starting with the debut on Friday night on Fox a long time ago. I tuned in as often as I could to watch their adventures (this was at a time in my life when I was still working until 9 every Friday and starting to develop a social life). Sure, it was geeky, but then again, if you look up at your location bar, there isn\u0026rsquo;t much denying.\nThe show quickly faded from view as most of Fox\u0026rsquo;s Friday night shows do. Does anyone else remember Millenium? The show resurfaced on the Sci-Fi channel some time later, with new episodes. Eventually, the show got canned.\nI wasn\u0026rsquo;t even aware of the Sci-Fi episodes as I didn\u0026rsquo;t get cable for a long time and at first, it wasn\u0026rsquo;t included with our cable package. This past school year, I became aware of the fact that Sliders was back on Sci-Fi in rerun form at 10AM every morning. I started watching every morning and realized how much I missed the show.\nNow that every show and its spinoff is going to DVD, I thought that I could get Sliders on DVD. Despite a lot of discussion and rumor about DVDs, none were actually for sale. I finally went back to check after a Macworld Forums thread reminded me. The first two seasons are available on DVD at Amazon.com for $62.99 (as of 6/28). Any respectable fan should be filling in their credit card information… now.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/23/sliders-dvd/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve always been a big fan of the TV show \u003ca href=\"http://www.scifi.com/sliders/\"\u003eSliders\u003c/a\u003e. It was immediate, starting with the debut on Friday night on Fox a long time ago. I tuned in as often as I could to watch their adventures (this was at a time in my life when I was still working until 9 every Friday and starting to develop a social life). Sure, it was geeky, but then again, if you look up at your location bar, there isn\u0026rsquo;t much denying.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Sliders DVD"},{"content":"After making a semi snap decision about screen protection for the 12″ Powerbook, I ordered a Notebook ScreensavRz from RadTech. Wanting to maintain the color scheme of the Powerbook, I ordered the Titanium color with the Powerbook logo on it. The other colors and designs are cool, but not my taste. I ordered last Friday (at 8:26 PM).\nMy first compliment (of my series of many that will follow in this review) is that they processed and shipped my order that day. Most businesses close up shop at 5, but not RadTech apparently. They diligently processed and shipped my order only a couple hours later. Not only that, but my order arrived on yesterday (Monday). I can\u0026rsquo;t entirely give them credit for it coming here so quick through the mail system, but I can give them credit for actually shipping my order when they said they did.\nThe ScreensavRz itself came in a neat little tube. I\u0026rsquo;ll attach pictures later on if I can figure out how and I still have the motivation. Inside was the ScreensavRz itself, and a one time use alcohol wipe. My laptop is new, so I said that pad for later (even though I already have an iKlear Power Klean Kit). The tube is nice enough to reuse either to store the ScreensavRz later (though it\u0026rsquo;ll be with the Powerbook about 99% of the time) or other little things.\nI pulled out the very soft ScreensavRz from the tube and, to be frank, it looked a bit smaller than I expected. Just to emphasize this point for potential buyers, it does not completely cover the surface of the Powerbook. It leaves a bit of a border (which again, I\u0026rsquo;ll take pictures of given time and motivation). However, this border is about the width of the border around the display or a little less, so your screen is, in fact, completely protected. I imagine this was done to avoid bending of the computer that would result from the cloth being pressed between the two sufaces (if it were larger). It is large enough to perform its task and stay put, so there are no worries there.\nThanks to the material RadTech decided to use (Optex), it doubles as a cleaning cloth. I can attest to this. I sneezed, getting some of my wonderful saliva on the screen, leaving some spots when it dried. I took the ScreensavRz and wiped the spots right off, even without wetting it. That won\u0026rsquo;t work for everything, and you can actually dampen it in order to get off more stubborn marks. The material is also washable, so using it to clean won\u0026rsquo;t permanently besmirch its appearance.\nAll in all, I\u0026rsquo;m wholly satisfied. For $13.95-$17.95 (dependent on size), you get quite a few things: an LCD cleaning cloth, LCD protection, a one-time use cleaning pad, a nice little carrying tube, and peace of mind. I\u0026rsquo;ve read testimonials about how it\u0026rsquo;s not possible for the keys to touch the screen and honestly, it\u0026rsquo;s not that I don\u0026rsquo;t believe them. Examining my own Powerbook has convinced me of that. However, with the extra functionality provided by the ScreensavRz, its low cost, and the reassurance that marks will never happen, I feel this is a worthy complement for any Powerbook and worth a look.\nContinue reading for pictures\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/22/review-radtech-notebook-screensavrz/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter making a semi snap decision about screen protection for the 12″ Powerbook, I ordered a \u003ca href=\"http://www.radtech.us/Products/LaptopScreensavrz.aspx\"\u003eNotebook ScreensavRz\u003c/a\u003e from \u003ca href=\"http://www.radtech.us\"\u003eRadTech\u003c/a\u003e. Wanting to maintain the color scheme of the Powerbook, I ordered the Titanium color with the Powerbook logo on it. The other colors and designs are cool, but not my taste. I ordered last Friday (at 8:26 PM).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy first compliment (of my series of many that will follow in this review) is that they processed and shipped my order that day. Most businesses close up shop at 5, but not RadTech apparently. They diligently processed and shipped my order only a couple hours later. Not only that, but my order arrived on yesterday (Monday). I can\u0026rsquo;t entirely give them credit for it coming here so quick through the mail system, but I can give them credit for actually shipping my order when they said they did.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ScreensavRz itself came in a neat little tube. I\u0026rsquo;ll attach pictures later on if I can figure out how and I still have the motivation. Inside was the ScreensavRz itself, and a one time use alcohol wipe. My laptop is new, so I said that pad for later (even though I already have an \u003ca href=\"http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=3588\u0026amp;Item=KLRKSPWK\"\u003eiKlear Power Klean Kit\u003c/a\u003e). The tube is nice enough to reuse either to store the ScreensavRz later (though it\u0026rsquo;ll be with the Powerbook about 99% of the time) or other little things.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pulled out the \u003cstrong\u003every\u003c/strong\u003e soft ScreensavRz from the tube and, to be frank, it looked a bit smaller than I expected. Just to emphasize this point for potential buyers, it does not completely cover the surface of the Powerbook. It leaves a bit of a border (which again, I\u0026rsquo;ll take pictures of given time and motivation). However, this border is about the width of the border around the display or a little less, so your screen is, in fact, completely protected. I imagine this was done to avoid bending of the computer that would result from the cloth being pressed between the two sufaces (if it were larger). It is large enough to perform its task and stay put, so there are no worries there.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to the material RadTech decided to use (Optex), it doubles as a cleaning cloth. I can attest to this. I sneezed, getting some of my wonderful saliva on the screen, leaving some spots when it dried. I took the ScreensavRz and wiped the spots right off, even without wetting it. That won\u0026rsquo;t work for everything, and you can actually dampen it in order to get off more stubborn marks. The material is also washable, so using it to clean won\u0026rsquo;t permanently besmirch its appearance.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll in all, I\u0026rsquo;m wholly satisfied. For $13.95-$17.95 (dependent on size), you get quite a few things: an LCD cleaning cloth, LCD protection, a one-time use cleaning pad, a nice little carrying tube, and peace of mind. I\u0026rsquo;ve read testimonials about how it\u0026rsquo;s not possible for the keys to touch the screen and honestly, it\u0026rsquo;s not that I don\u0026rsquo;t believe them. Examining my own Powerbook has convinced me of that. However, with the extra functionality provided by the ScreensavRz, its low cost, and the reassurance that marks will never happen, I feel this is a worthy complement for any Powerbook and worth a look.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContinue reading for pictures\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Review: RadTech Notebook ScreensavRz"},{"content":"You\u0026rsquo;re all very tired of hearing about my latest purchase. Well, I have a nice L.L. Bean briefcase-like laptop bag that I\u0026rsquo;ve been using for about 4 years now. It\u0026rsquo;s a great bag. It served me well all through college. What made it even better was that it\u0026rsquo;s computer compartment fit my old Powerbook (the Pismo) perfectly. It was tight and snug in its padded compartment. It even had it\u0026rsquo;s own sleeve type thing that fit it.\nWell, now I have a problem. The new Powerbook is much smaller. It flops around even in the sleeve thing that came with the bag. Being overly careful with my electronics, and this purchase in particular, I want to make sure it doesn\u0026rsquo;t flop around and possibly get scratched or damaged (not that I think it\u0026rsquo;s that sensitive).\nThere are lots of options, almost too many to count. I\u0026rsquo;m narrowing in on a sleeve from Waterfield Bags, as I\u0026rsquo;ve heard good things.\nAgain, comments, suggestions are always welcome.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/21/no-glove-no-love-part-2-or-i-need-a-seatbelt/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eYou\u0026rsquo;re all very tired of hearing about my latest purchase. Well, I have a nice L.L. Bean briefcase-like laptop bag that I\u0026rsquo;ve been using for about 4 years now. It\u0026rsquo;s a great bag. It served me well all through college. What made it even better was that it\u0026rsquo;s computer compartment fit my old Powerbook (the Pismo) perfectly. It was tight and snug in its padded compartment. It even had it\u0026rsquo;s own sleeve type thing that fit it.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"No Glove, No Love, Part 2 (or I Need a Seatbelt)"},{"content":"Now that I\u0026rsquo;ve had my Pismo for 4 years, I\u0026rsquo;ve noticed some marks on the screen that aren\u0026rsquo;t oils or dirt. They\u0026rsquo;re scuff marks from my keyboard rubbing up against the screen. This has gotten exponentially worse since I actually started carrying my laptop to class with me (mostly because of the prevalence of wireless Internet available at U-Mass).\nIt\u0026rsquo;s such a widespread problem that companies started selling screen protectors. This includes Other World Computing, Radtech, Shaggymac, Acme Made, and Marware. I know there are even more than that, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t feel like writing out URLs all day.\nWith such such a large market and demand for these products, one would expect clear favorites to emerge from the various vendors. Unfortunately, this isn\u0026rsquo;t the case. Radtech seems to get the most press, with the most options and excellent pricing. Personally I\u0026rsquo;m leaning that way, but I\u0026rsquo;m also a big fan of OWC.\nMaking the decision even harder is the fact that many people keep reiterating that no such product is needed and that there is no chance of the keyboard touching the screen. However, I don\u0026rsquo;t remember much hubbub about people having this scuffing problem when the Pismos were released either. It seems to be a problem that develops later in the laptop lifespan. Honestly, I don\u0026rsquo;t want to be the poor sucker with the scuffed 12″ like all the people who in their first months of owning an AlBook claim these products aren\u0026rsquo;t necessary. Am I being paranoid? Probably. But why not spend the measly $15 on a protecting cloth that doubles as a cleaning cloth? I\u0026rsquo;ll probably just get a Radtech cloth and be done with it.\nLeave comments if you have any opinions on this subject, including mini-reviews of products you\u0026rsquo;ve used.\nUpdate: I got myself the Radtech ScreenSavrz partly thanks to one member at Macworld Forums pushing me. It doubles as a cleaning cloth. I\u0026rsquo;ll have a mini-review when it arrives.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/18/no-glove-no-love/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eNow that I\u0026rsquo;ve had my Pismo for 4 years, I\u0026rsquo;ve noticed some marks on the screen that aren\u0026rsquo;t oils or dirt. They\u0026rsquo;re scuff marks from my keyboard rubbing up against the screen. This has gotten exponentially worse since I actually started carrying my laptop to class with me (mostly because of the prevalence of wireless Internet available at U-Mass).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt\u0026rsquo;s such a widespread problem that companies started selling screen protectors. This includes \u003ca href=\"http://www.macsales.com\"\u003eOther World Computing\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.radtech.us\"\u003eRadtech\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.shaggymac.com\"\u003eShaggymac\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.acmemade.com\"\u003eAcme Made\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.marware.com\"\u003eMarware\u003c/a\u003e. I know there are even more than that, but I didn\u0026rsquo;t feel like writing out URLs all day.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"No Glove, No Love"},{"content":"Labor Day weekend, the project that I\u0026rsquo;m working on at Raytheon will be migrated to Raytheon\u0026rsquo;s new facility in Woburn from the old one at Bedford. Now, it\u0026rsquo;s not that I dislike Bedford or anything about it, but the new building (which was originally Genuity\u0026rsquo;s) is simply amazing.\nNearly every surface is either glass or mirrors, which is actually a little disorienting. Every time I was waiting at the elevator, I\u0026rsquo;d think it was open because the reflection off the mirrored doors was so clean and clear, I swore I was seeing the inside of the compartment.\nOther than that, it\u0026rsquo;s superior to Bedford in nearly every way. All the parking spaces are in a garage and there\u0026rsquo;s a covered bridge into the building. The building essentially has its own exit off route 93, which will be convenient not only while still living in Northborough, but once I move out and get my own place. There\u0026rsquo;s even a Target and a train station within walking distance.\nMaybe this is just an indication that I get excited about mundane stuff though.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/17/the-big-move-to-woburn/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLabor Day weekend, the project that I\u0026rsquo;m working on at Raytheon will be migrated to Raytheon\u0026rsquo;s new facility in Woburn from the old one at Bedford. Now, it\u0026rsquo;s not that I dislike Bedford or anything about it, but the new building (which was originally Genuity\u0026rsquo;s) is simply amazing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNearly every surface is either glass or mirrors, which is actually a little disorienting. Every time I was waiting at the elevator, I\u0026rsquo;d think it was open because the reflection off the mirrored doors was so clean and clear, I swore I was seeing the inside of the compartment.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Big Move to Woburn"},{"content":"For my last birthday, I got an EyeTV from Elgato Systems. For those of you not familiar with the product, it\u0026rsquo;s essentially a TiVo type device for one\u0026rsquo;s computer. You can record TV shows to watch later, watch live TV (with a small time delay for encoding), and pause live TV (the feature I use most by far).\nIn order to efficiently use the EyeTV, it\u0026rsquo;s necessary to have access to some type of TV guide in your computer that allows for channel selection and selection of shows to be recorded. Elgato provided this with an account at TitanTV. This had two limitations: it\u0026rsquo;s a web based interface and you had to use IE with it. Both of which are something I\u0026rsquo;m not interested in.\nMy solution was to use Watson made by Karelia. Instead of some weak web interface, Watson provides a normal application interface to TV Guide. It works perfectly. Using TitanTV drifted from my mind.\nEnter EyeTV 1.3.7. This new version of Elgato\u0026rsquo;s software for the EyeTV adds support for scheduling through TitanTV. What does this mean? It means that you can set up EyeTV to check your set TV recording schedule at TitanTV (hourly, every couple hours, or daily) and record what you\u0026rsquo;ve chosen. You may wonder why that\u0026rsquo;s important, particularly because I\u0026rsquo;m so satisfied with Watson\u0026rsquo;s handling of this. The point is, TitanTV can be accessed anywhere because it\u0026rsquo;s got a web interface. You could be looking through the schedule at work, or at a friend\u0026rsquo;s house, see something you\u0026rsquo;re going to want to watch and set you EyeTV to record it for you, all without going home! You simply add it to your recording schedule in TitanTV, the EyeTV software will pull in this data, and set itself up to record it for you. Meanwhile, you\u0026rsquo;re still sitting at your desk. How cool is that?\nThis may seem completely unimportant for Windows users and for now it is. However, TitanTV\u0026rsquo;s compatability page makes it seem as though it may just be a matter of time before other PVR (personal video recorder) manufacturers begin to adopt “remote scheduling” and we can all make sure we get to watch the TV we want while still maintaining a healthy social life.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/17/eyetv-and-titantv/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eFor my last birthday, I got an EyeTV from \u003ca href=\"http://www.elgato.com\"\u003eElgato Systems\u003c/a\u003e. For those of you not familiar with the product, it\u0026rsquo;s essentially a TiVo type device for one\u0026rsquo;s computer. You can record TV shows to watch later, watch live TV (with a small time delay for encoding), and pause live TV (the feature I use most by far).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn order to efficiently use the EyeTV, it\u0026rsquo;s necessary to have access to some type of TV guide in your computer that allows for channel selection and selection of shows to be recorded. Elgato provided this with an account at \u003ca href=\"http://www.titantv.com\"\u003eTitanTV\u003c/a\u003e. This had two limitations: it\u0026rsquo;s a web based interface and you had to use IE with it. Both of which are something I\u0026rsquo;m not interested in.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"EyeTV and TitanTV"},{"content":"I finally broke down and bought Dragonball Z: Budokai 2. It was on sale for $20 and while I was at it, I got Budokai 1 (again for $20). I was looking forward to comparing the two games, but unfortunately, the first Budokai was out of stock (even though it was the one not on sale).\nSo, I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;re dying to know how it is. I\u0026rsquo;ll tell you. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty good. The game play is decent and the moves are pretty cool. What problems do I have with the game? It\u0026rsquo;s a little complicated for one. You get these cards describing new items. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s a new character, a new move, or a new arena. However, sometimes they\u0026rsquo;re items. If it\u0026rsquo;s an item or move, it shows up in your list of capsules (confused yet?). How you enable these capsules for characters isn\u0026rsquo;t obvious. Once you go to do this, sometimes you can\u0026rsquo;t enable them (but there is no explanation of why). Once you figure it out, it\u0026rsquo;s not so bad.\nAnother problem is the lack of characters at first. You can\u0026rsquo;t even play as Vegeta at first. Vegeta damnit!! Luckily this can be fixed by playing the narrative mode of the game, but knowing which characters to pick as allies and whom to fight in order to unlock these characters is not obvious. I personally looked online because I don\u0026rsquo;t have the patience to try out all the combinations (which would take forever because who you can fight is based upon the level you\u0026rsquo;re at and you can\u0026rsquo;t choose to arbitrarily fight them).\nOther than that, it\u0026rsquo;s a good game. I\u0026rsquo;ve unlocked Vegeta, so it won\u0026rsquo;t long before poor deluded Bob tries to beat me with him.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/16/kame-hame-ha/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI finally broke down and bought Dragonball Z: Budokai 2. It was on sale for $20 and while I was at it, I got Budokai 1 (again for $20). I was looking forward to comparing the two games, but unfortunately, the first Budokai was out of stock (even though it was the one not on sale).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSo, I\u0026rsquo;m sure you\u0026rsquo;re dying to know how it is. I\u0026rsquo;ll tell you. It\u0026rsquo;s pretty good. The game play is decent and the moves are pretty cool. What problems do I have with the game? It\u0026rsquo;s a little complicated for one. You get these cards describing new items. Sometimes it\u0026rsquo;s a new character, a new move, or a new arena. However, sometimes they\u0026rsquo;re items. If it\u0026rsquo;s an item or move, it shows up in your list of capsules (confused yet?). How you enable these capsules for characters isn\u0026rsquo;t obvious. Once you go to do this, sometimes you can\u0026rsquo;t enable them (but there is no explanation of why). Once you figure it out, it\u0026rsquo;s not so bad.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Kame Hame Ha!!"},{"content":"Bob dragged me to the gym in my junior year (as I had no excuse not to go). In the months that followed, my body finally got into shape and made me worthy of the title “Greek God.” Unfortunately, in the summer that followed, instead of the usual manual labor I did for a job, I got an internship at Raytheon, giving me a taste of office life.\nI got lazy. I stopped going to the gym because work took up so much of my time during the day. My girlfriend at the time didn\u0026rsquo;t care and neither did I. When I got back to school, I thought I could get back into working out. I did for a while, until senior year pressure got to me. Most of my time was focused on schoolwork and the little time I had left over I spent on the ‘puter.\nWell, now that I\u0026rsquo;m single again (no, that had nothing to do with no longer working out) and soft, I feel it\u0026rsquo;s time I took up the barbell again. Not only am I going to lift weights this time, but I\u0026rsquo;ve decided to run too. I started today by running about a mile and a half followed by half an hour of lifting weights. Given, my iPod made it a little more enjoyable, but working out alone is terrible. There\u0026rsquo;s no one there to motivate you. No one to get you started. Without that motivation, I don\u0026rsquo;t feel like doing it again, which is a bad thing.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/13/exercise-sucks/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eBob dragged me to the gym in my junior year (as I had no excuse not to go). In the months that followed, my body finally got into shape and made me worthy of the title “Greek God.” Unfortunately, in the summer that followed, instead of the usual manual labor I did for a job, I got an internship at Raytheon, giving me a taste of office life.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI got lazy. I stopped going to the gym because work took up so much of my time during the day. My girlfriend at the time didn\u0026rsquo;t care and neither did I. When I got back to school, I thought I could get back into working out. I did for a while, until senior year pressure got to me. Most of my time was focused on schoolwork and the little time I had left over I spent on the ‘puter.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Exercise Sucks"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m sure no one will believe this, but I predicted David Ortiz\u0026rsquo;s solo home run shot on Friday. I\u0026rsquo;m very proud of it. Of course, I also predicted that Manny would immediately follow him with another, but that\u0026rsquo;s not important.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/13/the-power-of-prediction/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m sure no one will believe this, but I predicted David Ortiz\u0026rsquo;s solo home run shot on Friday. I\u0026rsquo;m very proud of it. Of course, I also predicted that Manny would immediately follow him with another, but that\u0026rsquo;s not important.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Power of Prediction"},{"content":"Tonight, the Red Sox are playing the L.A. Dodgers at Fenway (the first time the Dodgers have ever been there; thank inter-league play) and I\u0026rsquo;m going to be there for it. This will be only the second time in my life going to Fenway and that\u0026rsquo;s saying a lot considering I\u0026rsquo;ve lived in Massachusetts my entire life. My first game was only a couple weeks ago too (a game against the Mariners).\nIs that overly sad? Well, thanks to Dana, a wonderful girl in Boston (within walking distance of Fenway) that\u0026rsquo;s far too nice to me, I\u0026rsquo;m seeing my second game. Derek Lowe will be pitching and hopefully he will turn things around and win this one (because we lost in the last one).\nPlay Ball!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/11/red-sox-fever/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eTonight, the Red Sox are playing the L.A. Dodgers at Fenway (the first time the Dodgers have ever been there; thank inter-league play) and I\u0026rsquo;m going to be there for it. This will be only the second time in my life going to Fenway and that\u0026rsquo;s saying a lot considering I\u0026rsquo;ve lived in Massachusetts my entire life. My first game was only a couple weeks ago too (a game against the Mariners).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Red Sox Fever!"},{"content":"After four great years with my Pismo, it\u0026rsquo;s time I moved on. I\u0026rsquo;ve been putting off replacing it because it\u0026rsquo;s no longer my primary computer (not since I bought a Powermac MDD a couple years back). Being a college student, beer soaked up most of my free funds and as such, a new Powerbook wasn\u0026rsquo;t a reality until now (with my fabulous software engineering job, take that outsourcing!).\nWell, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided that portability is the way to go. The new Powerbook 12″ looks to be a good move up from a 500 MHz G3 to a 1.33 GHz G4 (which is faster than both of the 1 GHz processors in my Powermac). With the better video card, better optical drive, Airport card, etc., it should keep me entertained (at least for 2 years). I know I\u0026rsquo;m probably buying the last Powerbook G4, but that\u0026rsquo;s ok. I made my peace with getting the last Powerbook G3 and next to last Powermac G4.\nSo once my Discover card rolls over next week, I\u0026rsquo;ll be ready to buy. My mother will be getting my old Pismo to play with (because my father refuses to replace the old Powermac 7600). What a son I am.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/10/countdown-to-a-new-powerbook-8-days/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAfter four great years with my Pismo, it\u0026rsquo;s time I moved on. I\u0026rsquo;ve been putting off replacing it because it\u0026rsquo;s no longer my primary computer (not since I bought a Powermac MDD a couple years back). Being a college student, beer soaked up most of my free funds and as such, a new Powerbook wasn\u0026rsquo;t a reality until now (with my fabulous software engineering job, take that outsourcing!).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, I\u0026rsquo;ve decided that portability is the way to go. The new Powerbook 12″ looks to be a good move up from a 500 MHz G3 to a 1.33 GHz G4 (which is faster than both of the 1 GHz processors in my Powermac). With the better video card, better optical drive, Airport card, etc., it should keep me entertained (at least for 2 years). I know I\u0026rsquo;m probably buying the last Powerbook G4, but that\u0026rsquo;s ok. I made my peace with getting the last Powerbook G3 and next to last Powermac G4.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Countdown to a New Powerbook (8 days)"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;ve been interested in Macs since early in my teens years while I played with my family\u0026rsquo;s Quadra 660av. I had to be satisfied with that for many years with the only major upgrade that I could get my father to go along with being a fancy new 56k modem (back when the two standards were duking it out). I was happy with that even though I watched the PowerPCs come out and climb to the hundreds of MHz. This is going to date me, but today\u0026rsquo;s teens have no respect or perception of reality. They even make me ashamed to be associated with them.\nI went to\nMacRumors to get coverage of the new release of the 2.5 GHz G5s (meanwhile I\u0026rsquo;m still thinking about the old Quadra 600av I had to use as a teen). Right now, I\u0026rsquo;m happy with my dual 1GHz G4 MDD (and my old Pismo as my laptop). Both are certainly adequate for my needs and the PowerMac exceeds them for sure (and I\u0026rsquo;m no casual user).\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s the first thing I see in the comments abou the release? “Apple dropped the ball.” “This is weak.” “I\u0026rsquo;m going to Alienware.” Sure, this has become standard fare for any Apple release but this time has pushed me over the edge. I\u0026rsquo;m tired of these whiny little kids with mommy and daddy\u0026rsquo;s pocketbook covering their purchases and no social lives, complaining about the stock video card in the G5s. It\u0026rsquo;s far more computer than they need or could use, but that\u0026rsquo;s not even good enough for them. I think these kids need a good hard slap up against their heads. Hard enough to break their jaw to get them to shut up.\nI have the money to consider buying one of these computers and honestly, it\u0026rsquo;s just not time for me to do so. That\u0026rsquo;s not because they\u0026rsquo;re weak. It\u0026rsquo;s because the computer I have is already more than I need. It\u0026rsquo;s twice what any of these little babies need too. I may be part of Generation X, but the new generation is Generation Y(ne) (read whine).\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/09/new-g5s-whining/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve been interested in Macs since early in my teens years while I played with my family\u0026rsquo;s Quadra 660av. I had to be satisfied with that for many years with the only major upgrade that I could get my father to go along with being a fancy new 56k modem (back when the two standards were duking it out). I was happy with that even though I watched the PowerPCs come out and climb to the hundreds of MHz. This is going to date me, but today\u0026rsquo;s teens have no respect or perception of reality. They even make me ashamed to be associated with them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"New G5s = Whining?"},{"content":"Most people don\u0026rsquo;t pay attention to their keyboard. I didn\u0026rsquo;t either for a long time. I actually loved the feel of my Pismo\u0026rsquo;s keyboard. The scissor key design made for keys that wore very well and pushing on any part of the key had equal resistance. When I started converting my Pismo into mutated desktop, I decided to get an external keyboard. That started my hunt for the perfect keyboard.\nAfter thorough research (as I do with every product I buy), I decided on an iKey4 keyboard made by Macally. It was a nice change of pace. It was a far more mechanical keyboard. It was louder and had more resistance. I actually liked the key action. What didn\u0026rsquo;t I like? The complete lack of volume keys on the keyboard itself. I kept using it and dealt without those keys, but boy, did I miss them.\nIt wasn\u0026rsquo;t long before I broke down and got an actual desktop, my MDD Powermac. That of course came with the Apple Pro Keyboard. The key action wasn\u0026rsquo;t as good as my iKey, but the volume and eject keys made up for it. I adopted that as my new keyboard.\nThat is until I spilled beer all over it. I freaked and remembered reading that one could dunk keyboards in water and they\u0026rsquo;d be all right. Well, I got the beer out, but my keyboard didn\u0026rsquo;t work. I had left my iKey several hours away at my home, but I needed a keyboard to do my work. This led to buying a Logitech Internet Navigator keyboard, which had a full array of keys. It had keys for almost everything. The key action was ok, comparable to Apple\u0026rsquo;s Pro Keyboard. The problem is that Logitech\u0026rsquo;s drivers aren\u0026rsquo;t that good and using the command and shift keys together on the right side would somehow make the keyboard think I was holding the control key and until I tapped it, it wouldn\u0026rsquo;t quit. My Apple Pro Keyboard dried out and became usable again, so I went back to it.\nThe left shift key became sticky (ok, ok, I spilled beer on it twice more). I thought I fix it using some silicon spray. That had an effect. The effect of making the key completely inoperable. I finally had motivation to get yet another keyboard. After careful research, I chose the Macally IceKey.\nWhat attracted me first was the scissor-key design, which is used in Apple laptops (including my Pismo, upon which I\u0026rsquo;m actually typing this). It also has the same exact keys as the Apple Pro Keyboard (which I found to be all the ones I actually used; I didn\u0026rsquo;t use like any of the extra keys on the Logitech). Finally, reviews indicated great key action and they weren\u0026rsquo;t lying. Key action may be a subjective thing (some prefer extra firm, some soft), but I found the IceKey to have a nice balance of soft, but firm, with a clear snap when a key is pressed. The keyboard itself is nice and thin, taking up little room. At a price of \u0026lt;$45, it\u0026rsquo;s a good investment and far more cost effective than the Matias keyboards that go for $100. I highly recommend it!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/06/01/macally-icekey-keyboarding-perfection/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eMost people don\u0026rsquo;t pay attention to their keyboard. I didn\u0026rsquo;t either for a long time. I actually loved the feel of my Pismo\u0026rsquo;s keyboard. The scissor key design made for keys that wore very well and pushing on any part of the key had equal resistance. When I started converting my Pismo into mutated desktop, I decided to get an external keyboard. That started my hunt for the perfect keyboard.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Macally IceKey: Keyboarding Perfection"},{"content":"Inside Mac Games has posted the third installment of their Dumb Letters to IMG feature. I had previously not read these columns on IMG, but after this one, I had to back to read the first and second parts. They are pure comic gold!\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/05/16/dumb-letters-hilarity/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"http://www.insidemacgames.com\"\u003eInside Mac Games\u003c/a\u003e has posted the \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=295\"\u003ethird installment\u003c/a\u003e of their Dumb Letters to IMG feature. I had previously not read these columns on IMG, but after this one, I had to back to read the \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=224\"\u003efirst\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=235\"\u003esecond\u003c/a\u003e parts. They are pure comic gold!\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Dumb Letters Hilarity"},{"content":"According to Maccentral, Intego is warning about another “trojan” virus for OS X. I use that in quotes because although it may match the technical definition, it\u0026rsquo;s hardly a threat, nor is it the result of some kind of security hole.\nAs others have said this is a “social engineering exploit”, preying on the stupidity of computer users. This Applescript is simply disguised with a custom icon, causing users to trust that it\u0026rsquo;s a Microsoft Office 2004 installer.\nThe reporting user explained that he downloaded the file through Limewire, thinking that it was a “beta” of Office. Yeah, and maybe burying Skittles will really yield a rainbow. Those who download this “trojan” and run it get what they deserve.\n","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/weblog/2004/05/12/the-second-mac-os-x-trojan/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eAccording to \u003ca href=\"http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/05/12/intego/\"\u003eMaccentral\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"http://www.intego.com\"\u003eIntego\u003c/a\u003e is warning about another “trojan” virus for OS X. I use that in quotes because although it may match the technical definition, it\u0026rsquo;s hardly a threat, nor is it the result of some kind of security hole.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs others have said this is a “social engineering exploit”, preying on the stupidity of computer users. This Applescript is simply disguised with a custom icon, causing users to trust that it\u0026rsquo;s a Microsoft Office 2004 installer.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Second Mac OS X “Trojan”"},{"content":"","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/category-archive/","summary":"","title":"Posts by Category"},{"content":"","permalink":"https://godlikenerd.com/tag-archive/","summary":"","title":"Posts by Tag"}]