Those of you that I talk to daily already know why I’m ordering a new D-Link DCM-202. Please don’t mention it in the comments. I’m going to be all superstitious about it and write a big post about it later. {.float-right}Anyway, at about $40 with mail-in rebate at Amazon with DOCSIS 2.0, this was the modem to get. I won’t be posting a review for a while, but I’ll do all kinds of testing when I do. I’ll use Skype, Gizmo, Vonage (as I’ll likely be getting that too), Bittorrent, and so on. There won’t be anything too formal (as switching between a couple cable modems isn’t really an option, nor something I want to do), but I will be able to definitively say whether I think it sucks.

Apple released the iPhoto 5.0.3 update yesterday. Normally, iApp updates aren’t particularly exciting. In fact, the details are excruciatingly boring. Here are the changes according to Apple: On 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’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’s referred to as the iPhoto color shifting bug. The linked article is probably the best documentation of the bug I’ve seen (complete with animation). At any rate, it means I can start editing photos again.

I’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). Apple 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. The 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’t gone mainstream yet, so reliance on NightShift, SafariOnAcid, or your own builds will have to continue. ...

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. You need to make sure that you have XCode installed and be comfortable with running Terminal commands. You don’t need to really understand them, just be able to type them in. If you’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’s worth checking out not only for standards compliance, but speed. ...

Fire up your TiVo (or EyeTV in my case). Monk is back. I love the show, but not the way in which they’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. They 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’t bring myself to). I was afraid that the replacement of Monk’s nurse had been the death knell for the show. It wasn’t. ...

London has been attacked. Four bombs have been set off in their public transportation systems. My thoughts go out to them.

I recently added a 43 Places page to the site. 43 Places is yet another website that’s under the Robot Co-op umbrella. You can track where you’ve been and where you want to be, something that many people were doing with 43 Things. However, as it wasn’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). ...

I’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. Now, after I noticed that another show never made it self available, I did a little digging and found out that they didn’t because they made all their money on Audible, charging just about $4 a show, or $45 for a year’s subscription. Saying that he didn’t want to change their business model is a fine justification. That’s cool. ...

I stick up for Apple in most cases. This time, they’re on their own. I’m going to bash them for a couple mistakes Right Here, Right Now I must admit after having used NetNewsWire so long, I’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. ...

Looking through my del.icio.us inbox I came across a link to the Gizmo Project. Basically, it’s a nice face for the SIP protocol, similar to Skype (though Skype doesn’t use SIP). Skype has always served me well (though I’ve admittedly only played with it). It’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’t have to with Gizmo (an interim name). Gizmo has both a Mac and Windows version. A Linux version is in the works. ...