AT&T offering free trade of a 3200, 3100, or Siemens C56 for your 3650

I just received a snail-mail from AT&T about trading in my 3650 for FREE in exchange for a Nokia 3200, a Nokia 3100, or a Siemens C56, so that I can "take advantage of our network enhancements." The letter goes on to point out:

These dual band Next Generation phones provide better connections for both voice and data services, and offer advanced wireless features such as Internet browsing, polyphonic ring tones, messaging capabilities, and more. We've enhanced our network to improve our service, so make sure you upgrade your phone now in order to enjoy these improvements.

*Scratches head* Uh, erm, where are the upgrades? All of these features have been available and are compatible with my 3650, and from the looks of it, all three of the phones offered are full-fledged bluetoothless downgrades. I really hope they don't sucker many people into this "deal."

Salling Clicker version 2.1 now supports the 3650

Salling Clicker version 2.1 now supports the 3650 as well as various other Symbian based smartphones. From the site:

Welcome, Symbian-lovers! We heard you! Salling Clicker now supports Symbian-based smartphones, and in a big way. Salling Clicker v.2.1 takes advantage of this platform's unique capabilities, so iTunes artwork is displayed in color, and your computer's mouse pointer can be moved in a new innovative fashion with pen-based smartphones.

I've been a beta-tester for this over the past couple of weeks (I've been DYING to post about it, but of course, could not) and have to say that it works very nicely. Check it out! I'm trying to get a version of the Share2Blue2th scripts to work as a Salling Clicker plug-in. This will end the need for users to edit the script to place their MAC address in the script, and as soon as it is working well and is available, I'll let you know about it.

PDF Browser 2.0

I've been using version 1.0 of this for quite some time and love it. PDF Browser 2.0 turns pdfs into integrated parts of the web:

PDF Browser Plugin turns your web browser into the best PDF viewer available. With the help of PDF Browser Plugin you can view PDF documents directly in your web browser, print them, and save them to disk if you'd like to keep them.

It's free (for individuals). It's cool. Get it.

Cocktail 3.4.4

Go here to download Cocktail 3.4.4:

Among many improvements and fixes, Cocktail 3.4.4 allows you to easily view and manage log files, modify hidden Login Window settings and browse an entire file system. New preferences settings make it possible to check status of SMART compatible hard drives and automatically notify you of new updates.

This is one software product that is worth the $$$. Get it now.

Getting Share2Blue2th to work with non-3650 phones...

Hello, everyone. I've been receiving lots of emails recently asking how to make my Share2Blue2th scripts work with phones other than the 3650. I must point out that I myself, only owning a 3650, have never used my scripts with any other phone. That being said, I have seen mention on different discussion boards that have linked to this site in the past about people getting them to work with the P800/900 by adding -p800 before the -v in the first bit of terminal command-line code in the scripts, and mention of people making it work with the T610. Unfortunately, the majority of these comments that I could easily locate were in the Apple board discussion linked to in my read me file, which has since disappeared. I hope to explore supporting other phones in the near future (the 6600 and the T610 specifically). If anyone is successfully using my scripts with these phones and you happen to read this, please email me with the "how-to" of it, so I can update the Read Me. In the meantime, here's some useful links where you might be able to locate the information you need to make these scripts work with your phone:

• http://www.esato.com/board/
• http://forum.talk-mobile.com/
• http://discussions.info.apple.com/

Also, you might want to look into this link, which offers alternate scripts that might work with your phone. Good luck and please email me if you have any success!

TaxCut 2003...

Just a quick mention: I used H&R Block's TaxCut Premium to file my federal and state taxes this year. Everything is e-filed and I just received my confirmation today. I opted to avoid Quicken's offerings this year, due to the spyware concerns that have floated around their products. For the most part I was pleased with TaxCut, although it is still a bit buggy. It crashed on me a few times, as I noted previously, whenever the product would check for updates it was generally all around buggy (as it wouldn't recognize that an update that had just been downloaded and installed had been actually downloaded and installed and would recommend that I download it again; which in turn made me doubt whether it was ever really applied), and removing unnecessary forms during error check was not the most intuitive process in the universe. There was some totally empty form that somewhere along the interview process was attached to my tax return and I kept getting multiple errors stating that I had to fill in all its blanks or delete the form, but the delete form function was buried three more clicks deep into looking at the problem. It would've made more sense had it been linked to right at the beginning when it states the problem. So that took 15 minutes of frustration to figure out, but besides that, I'm relatively pleased with the whole process. (Or as pleased as one can be with taxes...) So, in any case, if you haven't filed yet and want a program to do so, give TaxCut a try. And remember, you can deduct the price of the software on next year's return. ;-)

Take that Music Industry!

Thank you, Mr. Spitzer! I got me a check. I think I'll buy some music with this money... x-posted on my iPod blog...

PresentMovie version 1.43

Check out PresentMovie:

PresentMovie version 1.43—Display full-screen QuickTime compatible movies (.mov, .mpg or VCDs) quickly and efficiently, without having to go through any of the multiple steps required in QuickTime Pro. Mac OS 8/9 and OS X savvy.

Nice, easy to use solution.

Kernel Panics

MacFixit reports:

Mac OS X 10.3.x: Kernel panics upon...
Mac OS X 10.3.x: Kernel panics upon location change [MacFixIt]

I've had this occur several times as of late, and it always seems to happen when I switch locations and then plug an ethernet cable into my 12-inch. As soon as the ethernet cable clicks in, the kernel panic screen comes up and I have to force a restart. If I switch locations, then put the machine to sleep, then plug in the ethernet cable, and then wake the 12-inch from sleep, the problem is avoided. Odd bug that I think is related to certain power over ethernet problems that I have read about elsewhere...

FOR SALE

Rather than going through ebay, I thought I'd post the equipment I'm currently looking to sell here first. If you are interested in any of the following email me with an offer. I'll wait a week before resorting to ebay:

• Epson 860C Color Inkjet printer with about 5 replacement cartridges.
• MyTV USB Television—allows you to watch and / or record Television on your Mac.
• PowerMac G4 Quicksilver 867mhz Single Processor with Superdrive, 896MB of RAM installed, an internal 30GB Hard Drive (b/c the original 60GB HD failed), an ULTRA ATA PCI card installed, and an ULTRA SCSI PCI card installed, Airport card installed, OS X 10.3.2 installed and fully updated, Apple Pro Optical Mouse, White Apple Pro Keyboard, as well as all original software and documentation included. Technically, this sucker is still under Apple Care, as I purchased it when I bought it about 2 years ago, but my guess is that installing my own hard drive might have voided that warranty.
• Apple Studio 17-inch CRT Monitor
• Connectix Virtual PC 4 with Windows 98
• Fully functional LCIII with Word 6.0.1 installed. Needs a cord to connect the keyboard to the machine.
• Powermac 7500 running OS 9 with IP Netshare installed as well as a variety of other pieces of software.
• Applevision monitor that came with the 7500.

Any takers?

3650 as a Scanner?

Interesting little tidbit over at /. about:

new technology developed by NEC and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, that lets people use their cellular phones with cameras as scanners. It says all you have to do is move your phone over the surface of the piece of paper while recording a movie, and the technology (some sort of software I presume) will construct a high resolution image from the individual frames of the video.

Now this would be a really cool evolution of the camera-phone. Having my 3650 work as a scanner would make all my trips to the library a lot more productive, too...

Security Update 2004-02-23

Security Update 2004-02-23 available via Software Update now:

Security Update 2004-02-23 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components:

• DiskArbitration
• IPSec
• Point-to-Point-Protocol
• tcpdump

NeoOffice®/J 0.8.1 released...

I'm currently downloading NeoOffice®/J 0.8.1, a bug-fix update to this free software port of OpenOffice.org to Mac OS X platform. Unlike Ooo, NeoOffice®/J does not require X11 to run, working in Java. It is a good free alternative to Micro$oft Office, but as the NeoOffice®/J site cautions:

As this is still a prototyping project, it is merely a proof of concept intended for software engineers to examine the methods used and hopefully provide a springboard for focusing our discussions and thoughts on the final, and arguably most complex, stages of this port.

I personally have had no problems whatsoever running NeoOffice®/J, but consider yourself warned...

384 MB

I just wanted to note what a difference 128MB of RAM makes on the 1Ghz 12-inch. When Kristin bought me this machine, I decided to leave her with the 512MB chip in my old Powerbook, keeping her maxed at 640MB, rather than downgrading her to 256MB and upgrading myself to 768MB, because mine is the faster machine after all and she did buy it for me. However, having only 256MB loaded in this machine meant frequent appearances of the-spinning-beachball-of-death. This was seriously impeding my normal über-user, multitasking environment, in which I would often keep 10 or more programs of alternating sizes running at once. Sometime over the weekend, while re-arranging our computer desk, I stumbled across the old 128MB chip that came with my first 12-inch and which I had removed to make room for the 512MB chip. At this exact moment, my little grinch brain grew three sizes and began to work once again! I realized that I could install this very chip into my new 1Ghz 12-inch! So I did it, and now, with 384MB locked and loaded the spinning-beachball-of-death has all but disappeared. This machine now screams along and I can tell a definite improvement in performance over my old 867mhz 12-inch. Still, someday in the future when I strike it big, I'm going to max out this sucker's ram(!!!)...

Go Symbian!

Symbian beats a million handsets a month
Mobile operating systems are go [The Register]

All your handsets are belong to us...

Share2Blue2th for the 6600?

Hello to all you 6600 users who cannot get my scripts to work! I've been in correspondence with one of you, and will be looking into the problem in more depth over the next couple of days. Hopefully, I will be able to get Share2Blue2th or a 6600-specific version of Share2Blue2th working with your phones. If any of you 6600 users have managed to get the scripts working with your phone, please email me at c k s 3 at mac dot com. Thanks!

Share2Blue2th version 3.0 up on Versiontracker and MacUpdate

Versiontracker and MacUpdate have both posted Share2Blue2th version 3.0. So far 275 downloads from VT, and 531 downloads from MU (although I'm not sure if the MU numbers are from this version or cumulative). Word. Just a side note: I am pretty sure now that the iSync 1.4 update is what broke the 2.0 version of the scripts, as they rely on the version of mrouter included in the SymbianConduit.bundle in the System folder that is associated with iSync's functionality.

Share2Blue2th version 3.0

I just posted Share2Blue2th version 3.0 (82.2KB), which brings compatibility on Panther with the new version of mrouter that was either bundled in Bluetooth 1.5 or iSync 1.4 (I'm not really sure which). This version has a much updated Read Me file and history. Version 2 for you Jaguar, pre-iSync 1.4 updaters is available here. From the Read Me:

These scripts allow you to share your Mac's internet connection out over bluetooth with your bluetooth capable phone. While they were designed solely for working with a Nokia 3650, theoretically they can push an internet connection over bluetooth to any device paired over bluetooth with your Mac. While this read me contains information on setting up the Nokia 3650 to access this connection, several readers of my site have reported being able to use the scripts with a variety of cellphones and even for sharing an internet connection between two Macs (although I myself have not as of yet tried this and do not know how they managed it). Note: For P800/P900 users, adding -p800 before the -v in the first bit of command line code should make these scripts work with your phone.

OK. Real Share2Blue2th fix...

This works better, and with the newer mrouter:

do shell script "sudo sh -c \"cd ~;nohup /System/Library/SyncServices/SymbianConduit.bundle/Contents/Resources/mRouter -a [YOUR PHONE'S MAC ADDRESS] -t 180 -btt 180 -p -v>~/mrouter.log 2>&1 &\"" with administrator privileges

HOOT! Now to update all the scripts and put up Share2Blue2th 3.0.

Share2Blue2th Fix...

Thought you all might want to know how to get things working temporarily until I've thoroughly tested it and post a new version of the scripts. Basically, I have it working (albeit slowly) by reverting to the Jaguar version of mrouter. Open your scripts and change the first part to the following:

do shell script "sudo sh -c \"cd ~;nohup /System/Library/SyncServices/SymbianConduit.bundle/Contents/Resources/mRouterJaguar -a [REPLACE WITH YOUR PHONE'S MAC ADDRESS] -t 180 -p -vv>~/mrouter.log 2>&1 &\"" with administrator privileges

If you have a P800/P900 add -p800 in there before the -vv. Anyway, you will also want to change the kill script by replacing mRouter with mRouterJaguar. I did all this and have managed to keep a connection for some time, although the signal seems to be coming through in bursts. Really slow. Going to fiddle with it some more and see if I can get it to work with the newer mrouter. Word.

OWC Mercury Elite FW Enclosure...

So, I just received via UPS the OWC Mercury Elite FireWire Case Kit that I ordered yesterday. It didn't come with any instructions, but being a self-proclaimed tech pro, I dove into disassembling the casing to install the 200GB hard drive that used to reside in my G4 Tower at home. Unfortunately, after I reassembled everything, I discovered that I just could not get the darn thing to mount. So I called OWC's tech-support, while pouring through their website looking for a possible solution. I soon found the online assembly manual for my unit (if anyone at OWC reads this, please start including the link to the online manual in your packages; thank you), and just as the tech support person was picking up, I read the following in bold: "Make sure that your drive mechanism is set to MASTER postition or Cable Select." Of course, I had not done this, thinking to myself: "Self, the drive should remain in the slave position like it was in the G4 Tower, right? Because after all, the internal drive of the 12-inch is the Master, right?" Not according to their chipset! So, I apologized to the tech guy for bothering him, explained that I thought I had found the problem, he said "That would do it," and I hung up the phone and got back to disassembling, changing to Master, and reassembling. Plugged it in to the wall. Plugged it into the 'puter. Flipped the "on" switch, and immediately "Scratcher" and "File Cabinet" my two 100GB partitions popped up on my desktop. So, anyway, color me pleased. Nice little sleek drive to sit on the desk for whenever Kristin or myself need to plug in our 12-inchers to backup or archive or whatever... HOOT!

Share2Blue2th not working...

Well, it appears that the recent updates from Apple have disabled my Share2Blue2th Scripts (or at least I am having trouble getting them working on the new 12-inch). I'm going to look into it in more depth and hopefully post an update to the scripts after the weekend. This probably explains why Apple removed the discussion that explained the command line code that I based Share2Blue2th on from their site: it no longer is relevant. Grrr...

Bluetooth Dead. Who knew?

According to this article, Bluetooth is dead. Now, let's forget for a moment that nearly everyone has been saying this since the birth of Bluetooth. Let's ignore the fact that the author of the article is jumping on the Bluetooth-is-dead-bandwagon a little late in the game. Here's the intro paragraph to Rob Enderle's article:

"At the Intel Developer Forum on Wednesday Intel announced the company was giving up on the deadlocked Ultrawideband IEEE task group and going it alone with a derivative offering they are calling Wireless USB. This initiative, for them, does everything that Bluetooth does and, effectively means that for PCs Bluetooth is all but dead."

Now, the problem and the big blind spot in his assessment of this situation is easily visible in the above quoted section. His focus is on the PC, more specifically on Intel and what technologies they intend to support. However, Bluetooth is bigger than that, it is a mobile and device driven technology, that has just recently been taking leaps and strides. As long as all the crazy Bluetooth-capable devices continue to flood the market, even if Intel stops supporting Bluetooth, it merely would mean that more people would be buying bluetooth dongles or adaptors for their computers (if they even need their devices to communicate with their computers). I mean, they have Bluetooth-capable cars now . . . Do you really think that in America, land of the cars, that that means that Bluetooth is dead?! Anyway, saw the above article on /. and just felt like ranting a bit...

iSight Update 1.0.2 (920KB)

iSight Update 1.0.2 (920KB) available now via Software Update. Here's the vital info:

The iSight 1.0.2 update provides improved auto exposure and auto white balance functionality, enhanced IIDC compliance and better overall performance. The iSight 1.0.2 update is recommended for all iSight users.

Word.

AppleCare: An Editorial

A reader wrote to me today about this post with some good advice for most users:

sorry about your compusa luck. to the salespersons credit, apple requires resellers to "attach" a certain % of applecare with their units sold or risk losing reseller pricing. working for a shop that does warranty repair for apple, i would actually suggest getting the extended protection. if your superdrive goes out, apple's cost for a new one (with trade-in of your old drive) is $259 (without trade-in, the superdrive is $379).

I realized this was the issue, as most of the people we dealt with at CompUSA were pushing the warranty on us. This kid was just way out of control about it. To a certain degree, I am anti-warranty. I keep thinking of that Chris Farley movie where he's trying to be the salesman his dad always wanted him to be, and he says something like, "Well, sure, I can stick a piece of s--- in a box and slap a warranty on it, but all you've got is a guaranteed piece of s---!" I don't want my expensive Apple computer which I love to be a "guaranteed piece of s---." I want Apple to make good products. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that Apple needs quite a bit more quality control in their pipeline than they currently have (see this), and I don't think me paying a 6th the price of the computer I just bought from them to warranty said-computer is going to persuade them to start producing better quality computers. I've bought AppleCare in the past, but always felt like I've lost my money. Most of the things that have gone wrong with my computers happen within the first year of ownership, or aren't covered (things like dropping an iBook while walking and accidentally kicking it across the room in one fell swoop). Also, for the most part, I can fix the basic things like hard-drive failure or memory replacement, etc, and have my computer back in working condition much faster than Apple can. And in the rare cases where I haven't been able to fix it myself or haven't been covered by Apple Care, there is this wonderful place called ebay, where you can sell damaged units as parts and make more money than you could from the used unit on its own. Pretty good deal. Besides, why buy a 3-year warranty when I will most likely upgrade to a newer machine within a year to two years (due to my status as a gadget-crazed tech-addict)?

TaxCut Crash...

So, I've been working on doing my taxes over the past couple of weeks using TaxCut, trying to squeeze every last penny out of the deal. Strange behavior started last week when it got to the "Check for program updates" part of the interview and I ran the check for updates and it downloads and installs them (supposedly) but then still reports that it was in need of updating. Grrr... So, anyway, I decided to stop pouring over my taxes for a while and work on filing Kristin's return as it should be a straight forward 1040EZ process. About a third of the way through entering all her info everything freezes except for my mouse pointer. I mean everything. Apple+Option+Escape did nothing. So I waited a while to see if it would suddenly pop out of it, but no luck. Was forced to force a reboot. Checked the console logs to see what happened and there's no records of anything going on at the time it crashed. Not a kernel panic, just a refusal to work. After relaunch the program had "forgotten" that her file was the last one open, and had lost half of her information. Not good...

.Mac mail not working...

My .mac mail account just went offline. No idea why. Really annoying. I wish Apple would get it together with their email services... UPDATE: Suddenly, came back up.

New 1Ghz 12-inch with Superdrive

Just went and picked up the new 1Ghz 12-inch with Superdrive over my lunch break from CompUSA. It's nice and I am currently starting the process of setting it up and transfering files from the old 12-inch to this one. I should be ecstatic about all this, but unfortunately some pushy kid at CompUSA really was working on the buzzkill. He would not stop trying to push the $350 AppleCare warranty on us. He was like, "Have you ever owned a Mac before?" Yes. "Oh, yeah, well what model?" Actually, I have one of these. "Well, how long have you had it for?" Over 6 months now. "Well did you know that the batteries in these only last a year..." Well, a battery is less expensive than this warranty... "Yes, but you need to buy a new one every year. If you don't, you are going against what the manufacturer, Apple, recommends..." I mean, he just kept going with this shtick. Is this really what you recommend, Apple? A new battery every year? If not, I'd contact the White Plains CompUSA store and tell them to tell the skinny kid with the long sideburns that he needs to stop spreading lies about your company and generally harrassing the customers, or, even better yet, fire him. I was so steamed I yelled at the kid, "Listen, you are about to lose this sale for you and all your teammates if you do not stop harrassing us immediately." Ugh. Okay, rant over for now. I'll write a letter to CompUSA when I get the chance, but for right now I have a new machine to configure...

New 12-inch on its way...

Kristin and I have been discussing our computer situation as of late. At home, we have a Powermac G4, which has become her computer, and my 12-inch, which is my computer, of course. However, as of late, I have found her typing away on my laptop or playing Snood on my laptop, or doing some such thing on my laptop at the precise moment when I need/want to use it for something. Suddenly, she says she wants a laptop and that she wants to get rid of the Powermac G4 that is taking up too much room in our one-bedroom apartment. (I had suggested such a move when I initially went to buy my 12-inch, pointing out that two laptops would take up much less space than the tower and a laptop, but at the time she was very anti-laptop.) So, last night we were discussing this, and eyeing CompUSA's current President's Week promotion where you can buy a laptop with no payments / no interest for 18 months, same as cash, and Kristin decided that she will buy me a brand new top-of-the-line 12-inch with Superdrive, a firewire enclosure for the 200GB drive that is in the tower with all our music, and she will inherit my current 12-inch, and we will sell the tower. Once everything is solidified, I will post details about the G4 Tower with a link to the ebay auction of said item for anyone who is interested in purchasing it from me. Word. Is there any question in any of your minds why it is that I love Kristin? She's buying me a new 12-inch. BEST GIRL EVER!

Campaign with ME!

I just wanted to point any presidential candidates who might read 3650 and a 12-inch to the following article:

Blogs Pump Bucks Into Campaigns
A Democratic candidate buys $2,000 of advertising on a blog and gets $80,000 in campaign donations in two weeks. Was it a fluke, or the beginning of a new campaign cash cow? By Chris Ulbrich. [Wired News]

Draw your own conclusions. There is ad-space through BlogAds available in the lefthand collumn of this particular blog. ;-)

Speedy Response from iTunes Music Store

I already received a reply from the iTunes Music Store about the problem I reported earlier:

Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store. We have manually deauthorized your registered systems from the Music Store. You can now reauthorize the computers that you intend to use. To protect our customers' privacy this is not a service that is generally performed. However, given the nature of your situation we have made an exception. If you're selling a computer or plan to no longer use it, make sure you've deauthorized it before you no longer have access to it.

Coolness. Thanks for making an exception, Apple.

DVArchive Virtual ReplayTV for your Mac

If you have a ReplayTV, rather than a TiVo2, and you want it to play nicely with your Mac, you might want to check out this:

DVArchive allows your computer to act like a "Virtual ReplayTV".  You can download shows from your ReplayTV to burn to DVD/VCD, play shows from your ReplayTV right on your desktop and play shows that are stored on your computer right from your ReplayTV/TV screen.

My brother's friend, Lance, emailed me about this as he is going to try to get this working this week and wanted my advice with the networking end of things. I'll keep everyone posted as to how it goes...

iSync 1.4 via Software Update

iSync Version 1.4 (6.6MB) is available via Software Update.

Evermore Integrated Office 2004

Evermore Software, L.L.C., hailing from China is offering an alternative to Microsoft Office, Evermore Integrated Office 2004, which they are touting as "the first REAL Office." It's not a free option, like Ooo or NeoOffice/J, but it is java-based and a Mac OS X version is in the works. Looks like it is just as pricey as Micro$oft, weighing in at $99 per year subscription or 3-years for $249. Let's just hope it's less buggy...

Apple iTMS Deauthorization...

So I just sent a message to the iTunes Music Store Support page about this issue. I have a brand new G5 (which works this time) at my work desk. I want to authorize it to play my iTunes Music Store purchased music. One problem: my home computer is authorized, as is my 12-inch. That's only 2 so there should be a 3rd one open. Here's the problem: my hard-drive on the G4 at home crashed this summer, and when I installed a new hard-drive and re-authorized the computer, it never deleted the old authorization. Let's see how long it takes before they remove that one dead computer, or deauthorize all my computers so that I can reauthorize the 3 I need authorized. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Share2Blue2th with a 6600 and a USB Bluetooth Dongle

Hello, all. Just wanted to post a question for everyone that reads this site. Has anyone been able to get my Share2Blue2th scripts working with a 6600 over a connection through a bluetooth dongle. I've been trying to help Guido troubleshoot this issue over the weekend. Everything appears to be connecting correctly, however Guido reports:

the ip number bound to port 3004 is 169.254.1.68 and it looks like its the ip of my bluetooth adapter, not my phone. my phone is probably 169.254.1.5 (see below) Type State Local Remote Parameter TCP LISTEN 169.254.1.68:53 (DNS) TCP ESTABLISHED 169.254.1.68:3004 169.254.1.5:40978 TCP LISTEN 0.0.0.0:3004 this explains probably why i cannot connect to my local network servers (ssh, http or ftp) because im not in the same subnet; which in my case is 192.168.1.x

If anybody has any ideas to a solution to this issue, please email me at cks3 at mac dot com. Thanks! Also, in the process of trying to find a solution to this problem, we discovered that Apple has moved the discussion linked to in my read me file where I originally gathered together all the info for these scripts. When I find where they've moved to (I'm hoping they've only moved and not been deleted), I'll update the Read Me file and note the link here. If anyone knows what's going on with Apple moving discussion boards, please let me know. Thanks...

Top 10 Number 10

Anybody know anything about BloggerForum?

testing with ecco again... hopefully the titles will work this time... for some reason it won't publish the title and in advanced settings it sees all my other posts as being untitled. what the heck is going on? oh, well, guess I won't be using ecto...

The Return of the G5

So, if you are a regular reader, you probably remember this whole aggravation with the G5 I received at work. In short: the logic board was failing, causing all 9 fans to run at full speed 24/7, so they declared it DOA. I returned it and they sent me a new one. The new one arrived yesterday and it is whisper quiet. I mean, even more quiet than my 12-inch. That is crazy.

KeyCard Travelock for your 12-inch

O'Grady's Powerpage has a short review of the new Roadwired Keycard Travelock:

You are probably already familiar with a similar device from Kensington. The problem with the Kensington Micro Lock is that I invariable lose the keys. What makes the Roadwired Keycard Travelock different is that is uses mechanically-encoded cards in place of tiny, easily-lost metal keys or easily-forgotten numeric combinations.

$16 for mobile security...

Zipped "Bombs" for your 3650?

Russell Beattie mentions the possibility of sending a zipped file that will expand from 64kb to 40MB:

However, the thing that piqued my interest is the idea of what would happen if you Bluetoothed that bad boy to someone with a Series 60 phone - especially one like the 6600 with ZipMan built in. I'm not even going to *think* about trying it... maybe the zip implementation on the S60 is smart and won't be affected. Maybe the phone will blow up in a puff of pink smoke. I'm not sure...

So, throwing caution and common sense to the wind, I tried sending the file to my 3650. It would appear that the 3650 thought it was a java app needing to be installed, and kicked back the error: "Unable to install!" in red. I don't have any sort of decompression software installed however. Some crazy person like me needs to try this on their phone packing ZipMan....

Convert Mac iPod to a PC iPod...

This is a pretty useful little hint, courtesy of utilware. Tells you how to convert a Mac iPod to a PC iPod. Why?

Pros: can use iPod as both a music device and an external cross-platform hard drive.  Cons: seems to be a bit slower, and can no longer be used as a bootable Apple disk.

He has no permalinks set up on his site, so in case you have trouble locating the entry (it is dated December 18th, 2003), I'll link to my reposting on my iPod blog of his post. This could be a useful means of getting data to and from my 12-inch in a cross-platform environment....now, the question is, will I ever need to boot from my iPod... *scratches head*

GarageBand 1.0.1

GarageBand Update released today. Get GarageBand 1.0.1 here: "This update clarifies specific alert dialogs regarding system performance." Does that mean that GarageBand will no longer hog my system whenever I run it?

Anodized 12-inch?

The latest discussion on the 12inchPowerBooks group at Yahoo! Groups involves exploring the possibility of anodizing the 12-inch. Jim Younkin, the founder of the Yahoo! Group, emailed Ron Newman who says:

I can do it BUT, it would need to be stripped down to bare aluminum with no other metal pressed in or attached to it. Plastic would fare OK but steel or brass would be destroyed during the anodizing process. Also it must be individual aluminum parts not assembles attached to one another. Cracks between attached parts trap small amounts of chemicals between steps and can mess up the coloration at the attached portions. I wonder what the alloy is? as long as it is not cast aluminum with a lot of silicon content it would anodize fine. I would have to strip the existing anodized layer off before it could be reanodized a different color. I charge $80 min per run /one color. What ever fits in the tank for $80. Stripping is an additional $10 fee. So you would be looking at $90 plus return shipping. However a couple could be done at a time, that is once it is proven to turn out well.

This sounds really cool and I'm eager to see how this all develops, but it really sounds like the safer (albeit more expensive) option would be to ship your 12-inch to ColorWarePC.

GeoURL

This site is now GeoURL aware. Click the picture to go check out the GeoURL site. Click the icon in the sidebar to see other sites close to me in meat-space. Coolness...

Atom comes to NNWBeta...

Ranchero Software just released 1.0.8 plus beta versions of NetNewsWire and NetNewsWire Lite:

NetNewsWire special Atom beta
Yesterday Sheila posted on ranchero.com that it was NetNewsWire’s first birthday—and now today we have a small present for you. But first, a note about birthdays: the first beta of NetNewsWire Lite appeared going on two years ago. So if it seems like you’ve been using NetNewsWire for more than a year, it’s probably because you have. Anyway, today we’ve posted a special Atom beta for testing NetNewsWire’s Atom parser. Atom support is part of NetNewsWire 1.1—but this build is not a build of 1.1, it’s really 1.0.8-plus-Atom. NetNewsWire 1.1 will have a bunch of new features, but this build is just for testing the Atom parser. [inessential.com]

Now I can finally compare the Blogger-generated Atom feeds of my sites alongside the RSS feeds in my newsreader of choice!

News from Nokia

Here's the audio of Nokia CTO Pertti Korhonen's keynote at ETech yesterday. Found the link over at Russell Beattie's Notebook. More discussion of what's going on with Python on Series 60 phones at MobileWhack. "Enabling Life"—Pretty cool stuff all around. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will run on the 3650. So far, all talk I have seen of it discusses the 6600 and family. Python runs on the 12-inch fine. I wonder if there is a developer emulator for the 6600...

Halo Bluetooth Headset

I wrote to Solteras, Inc., the makers of the Halo Bluetooth Headset, which I mentioned in my last post and they are going to send me some literature and one of their headsets for review, when they are available. At that time, I'll put up a detailed review of the product alongside a comparison with the Jabra FreeSpeak. Pretty cool!

Thinking about the future...

Something about wearing a Jabra FreeSpeak for several days makes you feel futuristic, slightly ahead of the curve. However, it also makes you realize the short-comings of the current technology in stark contrast with your ideas of the future, what the FreeSpeak, or headsets like it, should someday be. The first thing, which I have already mentioned, is that it should interface with a variety of different technologies (which it does) and switch between working with these technologies automatically and seamlessly from the head set (which it does not do): the defacto microphone and headset for all my gear. In order to make such an idea a reality, the battery life of the headset has to be dramatically improved. Even more than the 15 hours of talk time claimed by newer products like this one. Ideally, these products should be self-charging, like some Rolex self-charging Quartz watches. Movement from your head should activate a mini-gyro mechanism within the earpiece that helps charge it, or solar energy, or transfered heat energy from the body. Also, today on the way to work, glancing in the rear-view mirror and seeing my right ear, complete with futuristic-looking FreeSpeak, I thought, this should be waterproof for rainy days, and stylish ear-piercing, wearable versions should be made and marketed to the piercing culture crowd.

More on the Jabra FreeSpeak

I ran a slew of tests on my Jabra FreeSpeak this morning on the way to work. Unfortunately, though I spent a lot of time last night setting up voice-dial on my 3650 using the Jabra, per the instruction book's recommendation, the ambient noise in my car was too much for any attempts to dial anyone to be successful; even when I cupped my hand over the mic, attempting to direct my voice to it. It did work before I got into the car, though (even though it took about 3 attempts for recognition to be achieved). I listened to iTunes over the Jabra, too. Mono with a crackle. Sounds like an old A.M. radio, or the dying, rusty speaker embedded in the ceiling of the waiting room in a dentist office. Retro-cool like the circular keypad on the 3650. Also, I had a thought about the next model: dual-bluetooth chips. That way, you could pair one of the chips to the 12-inch and the other to the 3650 and switch between phone conversations and chats via the Jabra. That would rule! All in all though, really cool. Let's just hope I don't get bluesnarfed.

Warning for all you VPC users out there...

If you use Virtual PC to run Windows on your Mac, the Register today reports that, in addition to the recent slew of vulnerabilities on Windoze machines in dire need of patching, there is "a flaw in Virtual PC for Mac which might allow privilege elevation." If I understand this correctly, it simply means that if you have a Guest user or some other user than yourself defined within Windoze, someone could execute malicious code that would elevate that user to administrator status and then wreak havoc within your emulator (shouldn't leak out onto your Mac). No mention of this over at Micro$oft's Mactopia site, so you might have to dig around a bit before you find the solution. My guess is that you need to run Windoze Update under the Start menu within the running VPC emulator. Sit back and enjoy the time wasted as VPC hogs your processor to fix a flaw in Windoze!

MacNN Forums on Powerbook Heat Issue...

People are complaining again / concerned once again about the massive amounts of heat our little 12-inchers radiate. One writer comments that s/he has cooked eggs on the bottom of his/her 12-inch. Yeah, uh-huh, sure...

More on the new Safari

Surfin' Safari today notes a list of regressions from Safari 1.1. Check it.

iChat AV 2.1 Beta Supports One-Way Video

I haven't tested this myself yet, but this article over at O'Grady's PowerPage claims that the new iChat AV 2.1 Beta supports one-way video. It makes sense to enable this feature for people who don't have an iSight or comparable web cam yet. Good self-advertising of the iSight and useful for web communications. Although it has to be a bit awkward to be seen, but not be able to see the person with whom you are talking. Now only if they'd implement multiple videos in conference chat...

Jabbering on the Jabra...

So I have had a chance to play around with the Jabra FreeSpeak now. Really cool. I talked to my brother via the Jabra paired with the 3650 for about 15 minutes walking around the apartment. The 3650 remained on the coffee table in the living room. Clear as could be in the majority of the apartment until I tried to grab something out of the bedroom in the back. Then it got kind of crackly sounding, like your cordless phone gets when there is channel interference, but no disconnect. I also spoke to my friend Jay over iChat briefly with the Jabra paired with the 12-inch. This was a bit more difficult, as I had to pair the devices, then change the sound control panel in preferences to default to the Jabra for both in-coming and out-going sounds, and THEN I had to change the preferences in iChat AV 2.1 (Beta) to use the Jabra for audio out (it recognized it off the bat as a microphone, but not as a speaker). Once that was done, the chat went okay, although much more staticky sounding than the cellphone call. Not sure if that is a Jabra issue or an iChat issue though. Have to have more convos on iChat with more people to check it out thoroughly. Bottom line: cool. One drawback: there is no automated switching between the 12-inch and 3650 for pairings. I have to disconnect from one to the other. Ideally, this type of technology should evolve so that if someone tries to iChat me, I can put the cellphone call on hold and switch over to the chat, all from the mobile headset. That's what I want.

3650 and a 12-inch and a Jabra FreeSpeak

There's always something good to be found... Since some hooligan smashed in my car window and snatched my 3650's headset and car-charger last week, I decided to do without the charger, but that I needed a new headset (especially with NY's hands-free laws). So, today after work, I took the money that would have gone to a headset and a car-charger and swung by CompUSA, who matched Amazon.com's price on the Jabra FreeSpeak. I haven't used it at all yet. Plugged it in and am now waiting for the blue charging light to go out. I've read through the manual twice in anticipation. Once I get it all going, I'll test it with the 3650 and then with the 12-inch. I wonder if it can automatically be used with both. I'll report back later... Oh, yeah, and: HOOT!

Nostalgia...

I inherited a 7500 complete with AppleVision display this week from a friend who was throwing it out. Today, I also rescued a LaserWriter and an LC III , running 7.1 and Word 6.1 (oof!), from the trash. I'm currently working on a trade with an acquaintance who wants the 7500 so that he can install Yellow Dog Linux on it. I hope he goes for it, because if so, I will get his Powerbook 3400C running OS 9 and weighing in at 240mhz. His friend is telling him it is a bad trade, but if he wants to run Yellow Dog Linux on a machine, good luck configuring it for a portable. If this happens, I will take these instructions, an old Orinoco card I have laying around the house, and set up the 3400C for my fiance, who has been eyeing the portability of my 12-inch as of late. Wish me luck. And after booting up and playing around with the LC III for a while, I kind of want to use it as a word processor. I could write my dissertation on it.... and use floppies!!!

WINKsites for your 3650

Found WINKsite via this BoingBoing post:

New mobile short stories for your WAP -- Warren Ellis Portable -- phone.
"Warren Ellis Portable" -- Thirteen ultrashort stories in permanent installation, from author/blogger/geek-mentor Warren Ellis, "For those long train/bus trips, extended visits to the toilet, whatever."

I like to read while on the go, and clicked on the link to find out what it was all about. A little virtual cellphone display popped up in a window previewing the Warren Ellis Portable site. Nice! More importantly, perhaps, this was the first I had heard of WINKsites:

Join the WINKsite Mobile Community. It's fast. It's fun. It's free. And it will forever change how you use your mobile phone or PDA. Text chat with people from New York to Manila to London. Blog from the streets of San Francisco to the fjords in Scandinavia. Read syndicated feeds on the train to work in Tokyo or on a bus in Houston. Organize a gathering and spread the word on the where, when and why. Hide a geocache then provide a moblogging site to connect everyone on the hunt. Build a mobile site or start a community. All from one place - WINKsite.

This sounds interesting. Anybody have any experience with using the services the WINKsite community has to offer?

List of all that's new in Safari 1.2

Dave Hyatt over at Surfin' Safari has posted a detailed list of all that's new in Safari 1.2. Check it out.

Willow Designs cases for your 12-inch on the cheap...

Willow Designs are having a final close out sale of their bags, as they are going out of business:

So this sale is your last chance to get the quality, protection and durability of one of our cases at huge savings. The quality is to the same standard that we have always prided ourselves on since 1988. The following list is what we have available and will be reduced as we run out of colors and models.

So, if you've been holding off on getting a nice case for your 12-inch, jump over there and see if you can find a deal.

Taking Web Design Mobile...

O'Reilly has Creating Web Content for Mobile Phone Browsers, Part 1 by Robert Jones up for any of you who want to customize your websites for viewing on your 3650. Cool.

3650SCP-5400 and a 12-inch...

I just received a Sanyo SCP-5400 from work. We're switching over to Sprint today and are supposed to have the new Sprint Ready-Link service in effect. The phone is a nice little flip phone, 3G CDMA, with two clear color displays, one on the outside shell and one larger one on the inside. Very light and sleek metal looking. Goes nicely with my 12-inch. Unfortunately, no bluetooth so no way to sync information. Once everything is hooked up and running I'll report a bit on the walkie-talkie functionality of the phone and its 3G capabilities. Don't worry. I'm stickin' with the 3650 as my main-stay...

Protecting your 3650 and your 12-inch while on the go...

Wired just put a short Reuters article called "Foiling Laptop Data Thieves" up on their site:

When the thrill of being unplugged outweighs the danger of losing essential data, a number of technologies can make it easier to back up those files, keep them hidden and even track down the missing computer itself. It starts with that techno-mantra: back-up, back-up, back-up.

For the most part, the article goes on to focus on different options for backing up the info on your laptop. It then switches gears and goes through a list of about 5 different options to protect that data from being used. What caught my eye in the article was the sentence where it switches gears:

After that, it's a question of protecting the data and rendering the computer useless in case someone walks off with it while your back is turned at Starbucks. [emphasis mine]

The little embedded and unmentioned truth in all this techno-gadgetry-laden discussion of protecting your data is user error. Turning away from your computer while at Starbucks is a moment of user error, just as not backing up your data is user error. While there may be a need for some of the things discussed in the article (namely, backing-up your data), the rest of it is overkill solutions for a problem that exists in the user and the usage rather than in the software or the technology. Also, unless you are a government operative with hostile interests tailing you, most people who would nick your laptop or mobile aren't interested in your data. They are interested in selling the hardware to the highest bidder. Not even on ebay. On the street. So, moral of the story: sync your 3650 regularly, backup your 12-inch, and keep them both near and dear under your watchful eye. sort of cross-posted on MobileWhack

One Good Thing about Bluetooth 1.5...

I've seen some complaints over at MacFixIt about some people having trouble with the Bluetooth 1.5 update. I haven't had any such problems, and I have noticed one definite point of improvement: the Bluetooth Status icon in the menu bar actually remains in place since the update. Before updating to 1.5 it kept popping in and out of the menu bar; I would check the "Show Bluetooth Status in the menu bar..." box in System preferences only to have it uncheck itself moments later. It was rather frustrating to say the least. In any case, it's fixed now. Thanks, Apple... now if they would only fix that pesky only-one-user-can-run-iTunes-at-any-given-moment bug...

iSkin ProTouch PB in the Flesh: A Week of Usage...

Well, I've been using the iSkin ProTouch PB for a little over a week now, and I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised. See here for my initial review of this product. The first and most disgusting thing I learned while using this product is that my hands are absolutely filthy 90% of the time. But this also is a great strength for the iSkin ProTouch PB. It does what it claims to do. It effectively protects your keyboard from the filth of everyday typing without getting in the way of that typing. And it is easy to clean. I like it. My only complaint about it has to do with my own stupidity: I often forget to remove the iSkin ProTouch PB from my computer before closing the lid. This doesn't harm the ProTouch or your computer, but all that filth that was collecting on the ProTouch gets the opportunity to kiss my 12-inch's screen every time I do this. Also, when I do remember to remove it, I often forget to put it back on immediately. Like I said, both of these problems have to do with me as a user not being conditioned to take these extra steps. When I want to get at / put away my 12-inch, I want to do it now and be done with it. Bottom Line: If you like to maintain cleanliness and order, you will enjoy the iSkin ProTouch PB. If you are a complete slob, you probably really need to get the iSkin ProTouch PB. It's a good product.

iChat AV 2.1 Public Beta

iChat AV 2.1 Public Beta has just been released by Apple. It offers AV-chat compatibility with Windoze machines running the newest AIM. iChat just became a lot more useful...

Bluetooth 1.5 via Software Update

Run Software Update now to update your 12-inch's Bluetooth to 1.5. Check out why:

Bluetooth 1.5 Supports Headsets and Printers
Apple released Bluetooth 1.5 via Software Update today:

Bluetooth 1.5 for Mac OS X provides support for Bluetooth enabled headsets and printers.

NOTE: Headsets must support the Bluetooth headset profile and printers must support the Bluetooth HCRP profile. In order to configure and use a Bluetooth headset, the Bluetooth module must have the latest Bluetooth firmware from the Bluetooth Firmware Updater application version 1.0.2 or later.

For information about using Bluetooth 1.5 or about making your Macintosh Bluetooth-enabled, visit the Apple Web site.

Read more... [PowerPage.org]

Coolness! Now to start shopping around for a bluetooth headset that will work with my 3650 and my 12-inch...

DEVONthink PE 1.8

DEVONthink PE 1.8 has just been released. This is without a doubt the most valuable and useful piece of software I have ever owned. It is a virtual memory for me, an archive, an outliner, and a notebook. Its greatest feature, however, is the support offered by the DEVONtechnologies team, who are quick to help you troubleshoot any problems you may have and very open to suggestions for improvement. I highly recommend it. Best $35 I ever spent.

A Brief Bit on Free Word Processors...

Hello, all. As regular readers probably know, I do not like Micro$oft bloatware, and I try to avoid working in M$ Office, except for when I have to for work. However, I have been working quite fervently on my dissertation proposal over the past several months. What free software have I been using to do this? Well, I am glad you asked: TextEdit: This one isn't really free, because it comes with Panther, which carries a nice little price tag. However, for quite some time I was using it, because it was Word compatible and its spellcheck works like a charm off the default system spellcheck, unlike my copy of Word, which has somehow become corrupted and won't spellcheck any longer. TextEdit is nice, but it is not too powerful. And when it comes to formatting it is horrible. It will read Word format files, but unfortunately if you work regularly on Word files in Word format in TextEdit the formatting tends to go all screwy. Not good. Also, and this is a huge aggravation point for me, WHY did Apple design TextEdit to open Word files, but not Appleworks files? I mean, Word opens Appleworks files... OpenOffice: OpenOffice is a good, albeit ugly looking, Word alternative. Three drawbacks: you have to run it in X11, you cannot always copy and paste nicely into and out of X11 to your regular programs, and at times there would be strange screen re-drawing problems when I resized the window. The solution: NeoOfficeJ: Just about a week ago, I downloaded NeoOfficeJ, and it works like a charm. It's a slightly more beautiful version of OpenOffice that doesn't need X11 to run and solves all the problems I had been having with Ooo. Get it. It rules. The possible future solution: TeXShop: Read this O'Reilly article over at MacDevCenter. Although the setup is more demanding than NeoOfficeJ, the whole theory behind using a TeX-based system appeals to the little typesetter embedded somewhere deep in my soul. I'm looking forward to the next installment of this article... and btw, I just finished a full draft of my dissertation proposal. Tonight I proof it one last time and tomorrow I send it off to my advisor. yay me!

GPRS and Address Book over Bluetooth Simultaneously

Mac OS X Hints has a very useful tip today that tells how to enable both GPRS and Address Book over Bluetooth simultaneously. The results:

And now it works, because it uses RFCOMM Channel ID: 5 now. When typing this, I received some SMSes and a phone call and they popped up! I also tried iSync (which uses channel 11) and first I got some error messages. However, I believe it was because I was downloading a large file at the same time as for the second and third tries, everything was okay.

Nice!

Grrrrr....

Some bastard busted in the passenger side window of my car last night and stole my 3650's car-charger and hands-free headset, along with about 3 or 4 CDs. So I spent a lot of time this morning on the 3650 speaking to the insurance company, the police, and the police again, and then again, b/c they kept me waiting in the cold for an hour and 25. I'm not a happy camper today...

Want something to read on your 12-inch or 3650?

Cory Doctorow new novel, Eastern Standard Tribe is out in bookstores and available for free download on the net. Here's what Cory has to say if you choose to download it:

A note for downloaders: download this book. Enjoy it. If you feel so motivated, drop me a note and tell me how you used it and what you thought (and forgive me if I don't get back to you!). If you want to, go ahead and buy a copy and I'll get my royalty. But there's no obligation on you to buy it if you've read -- you're not ripping me off -- and forgive me, but I'm not interested in "tipjar" payments -- I'm not in competition with my publisher here. Thanks for understanding, and I hope you enjoy the book.

When Cory released Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, I downloaded it, read it, then later when I saw it in the bookstore, I bought it and donated it to my local library (per Cory's recommendation on his site). In any case, there's some good sci-fi portable reading for your 12-inch or 3650.

Google ~Guide: An Interactive Tutorial

Are you a search freak? If so, you should check out Google ~Guide. From the site:

Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a fraction of Google's features and services. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.

Saw this on BoingBoing.

.Mac Mail still buggy after all these years...

Check out this MacNN story:

Be warned that incoming mail to your .mac account may have been lost during this period.

So if anyone has emailed me recently and I haven't gotten back to you, please resend the email.

New PithHelmet for Safari 1.2

If you downloaded Safari 1.2 yesterday via Software Update, you might want to go here and download the newest version of PithHelmet, which is fully compatible with the new Safari. If you don't know about PithHelmet, it is a free ad blocker for Safari. From the website:

PithHelmet adds some some basic but powerful content filtering to Apple's Safari browser. The basic purpose is to block ad images, but there are other potential uses as well (blocking Flash, Shockwave or horrible midi loops). This is just a series of hacks on top of Apple's WebKit framework, but it seems to work rather effectively. Due to the manner in which PithHelmet blocks ad content, most types of advertising content can be caught in the filter - this includes images, javascript, css, text, iframes, popups and popunders.

I highly recommend it. Speeds up a great deal of surfing on ad-heavy sites.

AXIO by Harodesign Hardpack for your 12-inch

Check out the AXIO by Harodesign Hardpack. It looks to be a fully-functional backpack and portable solution for your 12-inch and all its peripherals, coming in 4 different layouts to suit your needs. Here's a snippet from their product page:

The AXIO by Harodesign Hardpack is a perfect companion for the person on the move. All AXIO Hardpacks are made of a lightweight plastic hardshell and are designed to protect the backpack's contents from normal everyday wear and tear. Each AXIO Hardpack is specifically designed to accommodate your PowerBook or PC laptop, iPod, PDA, CD & MP3 Players and other electronic and digital devices. All come standard with zippered pockets, laptop interior straps, headphone port, keyring clip and a removable cell phone carrying case. Available in a variety of smart colors to suit your digital lifestyle.

I don't know about you, but my portable digital lifestyle lusts for the Chicane in Metallic Gray. However, at $159.95, I'm going to have to hope that I get a really nice tax refund this year before I can splurge on this luxury bag.

Java 1.4.2 and Safari 1.2

Java 1.4.2 (29.4MB) and Safari 1.2 (7.7MB) are available via Software Update now. According to Software Update:

Safari 1.2 improves compatibility with websites and web applications by providing increased support for standards, adds support for personal certificate authentication, and works with Java 1.4.2 to enable websites that rely on LiveConnect for communication between JavaScript and Java applets. This update also provides improved application stability, full keyboard access for navigating web pages, and the ability to resume interrupted downloads.

.Mac Woes...

My friend Jason just finished a 3 month ordeal with the .mac people. Here's the link. And here's a brief snippet:

My .Mac iSync account has been broken for the past THREE MONTHS. Finally, one of the monitors decided to contact me via email and solved the problem in a few days. Which is what is supposed to happen- that's the point of "Service and Support". The problem was at APPLE'S end, and was not my fault.

OmniWeb 5 Preview

OmniWeb 5 is out in beta for preview. The final version will cost $29.95 or $9.95 for an upgrade from 4.5. I liked the way the tabbed browsing works on the side and with full page views. Looks cool, but a bit of a screen hog for us 12-inchers. Rob at MacNetJournal reports that although he didn't like the idea at first, "after using it on an external 17-inch LCD connected to my 12-inch PowerBook G4, I have changed my mind. This really works on a larger monitor." Check it out.

TuneRecycler: I just want to note...

If you haven't heard about TuneRecylcer, check this out:

TuneRecycler takes unwanted winning iTunes/Pepsi codes
When the big iTunes/Pepsi promo kicks off on Sunday during the Super Bowl, indie music advocacy group Downhill Battle will launch a promotion of their own, one aimed at taking some of Pepsi's dollars away from the major music labels. They're calling it Tune Recycler; Downhill Battle will use it to take some of the unwanted winning codes from among the 100 million being given away and use them to buy "quality music from honest independent labels," according to group member Holmes Wilson. [MacCentral]

I just want to note that I too will accept any unused / unwanted winning iTunes/Pepsi codes. This will benefit no artists. It will benefit me and my fiance. Our music collection could use some additions. Feel free to email codes to c k s 3 at mac dot com. Cheers! Cross posted on my iPod blog...