100GB Pocket-Rocket...

If you have $500 to spare, you might want to getthis 100GB rocket for your pocket with USB/Firewire 400/800 connectivity. And its brushed metal niceness matches your 12-inch!

This Warping Thing; A Rant: Why don't Apple Consumers Complain More?

Read MacFixIt's latest about the warping aluminum powerbooks. This is mind-boggling:

Not a show-stopper The good news is that despite all the reports we've received of "warping" with PowerBook G4 units, we have yet to receive a report of this "warping" being serious enough to adversely affect the functionality of the PowerBook (e.g., optical drives not accepting or ejecting discs, keyboards malfunctioning, etc.) In fact, some users even seem to be happy that this slight wobble on the desk is their only problem. Reader Aled B writes: "Doesn't bother me too much though, minor irritation - it's a great little machine otherwise! Used to suffer sleep of death issues with 1GHz TiBook until I decided to sell and get a G5 2GHz DP and this brilliant 12" PowerBook as a side-kick. It's the best PowerBook I've ever had. My brother has the 15" 1.5GHz PowerBook and that's just as good. Best range of PowerBooks ever! I'll settle for a little wobble over a random sleep of death any-day." That being said, a number of users have expressed dissatisfaction with such warping given the cost of these units.

Well, I for one think that the "number of users" remains too low and too quiet in their "expressed dissatisfaction." It is unconscionable to me that Apple continues to crank out defective machines (albeit very powerful and very nice in every other respect), which continue to exhibit these problems and continue to sell at their high prices and NO ONE is interrupting the entire process to say "Hang on a minute..." It seems to be a production flaw that affects a large percentage of the ALBooks. But, my current 12-inch doesn't wobble. It doesn't warp. It stays flat. When I had one that did wobble and warp, I walked into the Apple Store and complained and complained and complained as loudly and politely as possible until the manager replaced the machine (and then I made them open up the box and test the next one WHICH ALSO WOBBLED, so I demanded yet another). If everybody who suffered from this problem did what I did and complained and pushed Apple, then Apple would be forced to address this issue. Unfortunately, too many people out there are happy enough with their great new Powerbook and overlook this horrible problem, which means next time I update my machine, I may have to go through the several hours of complaining yet AGAIN to get my factory defective wobbling 'book, replaced with a nice, properly level model. //rant off...

AcidSearch

Jason points to a new Safari search tool, which would seem to trump Safari Keywords (my Safari search tool of choice) in the ease of use department: When you navigate to a new searchable site that you want to add to Safari's search bar, simply go to AcidSearch, Edit Search Channels, New Channel, and AcidSearch "automatically adds the correct search syntax to the URL field. Feel free to change the name of the Channel and its location on the list." Check it out...

Marathon!

Creative Bits is fast becoming one of my favorite new reads, as things like Marathon, one of my favorite pre-OS X Mac games, are constantly being mentioned, reminding me of free cool stuff that is out there that I can stuff in my Mac for a rainy day...

Bloglines...

So, in the spirit of less is more—or perhaps some other spirit of which I remain unawares—I've ditched my news reader, NetNewsWire Lite, in favor of Bloglines. This post made me think of it (although I arrived there from another link which I cannot remember... sorry, whoever!). In any case, now I'm all web-based, reading RSS feeds in Safari without bothering with Tiger, thanks to Bloglines. If I get sick of it and switch back, I'll let you know. As an added bonus, there's a nice long "Regular Reading" blogroll at the bottom of the sidebar now. Check it out to see the 96 blogs to which I am subscribed (it's identical to the OPML MySubscriptions file also linked in the sidebar). w0rd...

New Konfabulator with Konsposé Only Widget level...

Ripping back from Apple's Dashboard, Konfabulator 1.7.1 has these two little notable tweaks amidst a bunch of bug fixes:

Added Konsposé Only Widget level (see Release Notes), Added preference panel to gear menu with options for setting the Konsposé key and whether to use a simpler Konsposé for slower machines.

Coolness. Lock and load, everybody!

Make your iPod into a Universal Remote...

This is a very cool hack. Turns your iPod into a universal remote. Although, I must say, I really like the Phillips Universal Remote that I bought from Best Buy not that long ago. It actually controls EVERYTHING I have in my collection....

This Warping thing: The Return of the Warp...

MacFixIt is reporting on yet more warping 12-inchers coming out of the newest line of the machines. Class-action lawsuit anyone? How many production lines of the 12-inchers have been plagued with this problem now? My first ALbook was severely warped. I continue to see postings over at 12inchPowerbooks Yahoo!Groups about this issue. Apple, would you fix this already? I wouldn't mind a few ounces of a reinforced steel rod added to the design if it meant these machines would be guaranteed wobble-free, would you?

RadTek Cases for your 12-inch

Ted Leung mentioned these MacTruck cases from RadTech this morning, which look to be pretty cool. I mentioned them to Jason, and he said he had just bought one, along with one of these. Pretty cool...if you're into cases... Also, two side notes: one, sorry for the sparseness in my OCD posting as of late. We're painting the bedroom at the apartment and it is eating up much of my former blog time. Two: I misspelled Motorola on purpose in the below post.

Why Motorolla?

In case you hadn't heard:

We had no idea: Getting iTunes onto Motorola cellphones
They definitely pulled this rabbit out of the hat: yesterday, the news leaked of the V3, then Motorola  announced that their upcoming phones with USB and Bluetooth will be able to pull music off of iTunes. It’s a bit of a blow to the iPod’n’Tunes pundits defending Apple’s hardware-first business model, but hey, they’re going where the money is. And besides, a $700 cellphone is so their style.[Via Phone Scoop]

[engadget.com]

Ok. But why moto? What happened to the SE partnership of Macworld Keynote 2 years past? I bet they release an updated iSync later today...(actually, this was jason's observation, but I agree...)

Secure Email

I just wanted to note that my .mac email is secure. If the email comes from me, it will be signed with a THAWTE sig and include the HABEAS headers. I am only pointing this out, because I myself have been receiving both spam with my email as the masked sender address and bounced emails notifying me that spam and or viruses are being sent out from my worm infested PC (only thing is that I am only ever running a squeaky clean worm-free Mac). So, in any case, if you ever receive an email from my address without a sig / HABEAS headers, chances are it isn't from me...

FreeiPod.com Pyramid scheme...REPORT...

Well, it's been about a week and so far 13 people have signed up from my link, but none of them have completed any of the offers *cough HINT HINT cough*, so I still don't know if I this free iPod is a real deal or a gimmick...

PowerPage brainstorm: Powerbook Power over Firewire...

This is brilliant:

Power Your 'Book With FireWire
How about this for the next PowerBook: Apple replaces the traditional power port with a FireWire port and allows charging of the PowerBook over FireWire.

Then include an Airport Express with Firewire port for charging with every 12-inch sold. Great. Do it, Apple. Now!

I'm testing MacJournal (no relation to the magazine) as a possible means of posting to this site...

Gentoo Linux 12-inch...installed...

So I just installed Gentoo Mac OS X. Time to play...

Well, wake him up then!

The Gimp.app has been updated. Go wake him up.

Get a handle on your 12-inch...

Check out these carbon fiber handles for your 12-inch. I'm tempted to get one of these, just so the muggers will be better able to spot me walking down the street...

iPod Update available via Software Update...

Sure, yesterday a bunch of people reported that this was available, but did you really think I was going to manually navigate somewhere and click and wait for a download? Heck, no! In any case, the newest iPod Update is available via Software Update:

Read Before You Install iPod Updater iPod Updater 2004-07-15 includes iPod Software 3.0 for use with iPods with a Click Wheel. iPod Updater 2004-07-15 also includes the latest software versions for iPod mini and the third generation iPod. With iPod Software 3.0, you can:

• Shuffle Songs with one click (using the Shuffle Songs item in the main menu)
• Create multiple On-The-Go playlists
• Delete songs from On-The-Go playlists
• Select reading playback speed for audiobooks
• Hear audible click user interface feedback in headphones
• Charge via USB connection
• Enjoy improved playback performance

For more information about iPod, go to http://www.apple.com/support/ipod. iPod Updater 2004-07-15 contains the same software versions as iPod Updater 2004-04-28 for all other iPod models. iPod 3.0 Software is not compatible with other models of iPod, including original scroll wheel and touch wheel iPods, and iPod mini. iPod Software 2.2 and iPod Software 1.2 should not be used with iPod with Click Wheel.

Lock and load (although you might want to check this out first.)

Salling Clicker 2.2

Clicker 2.2 has been released. Check it out.

9-11 Hearings on iTMS

Here's something cool: the iTMS is hosting the 9-11 hearings and they are free for downloading to your computer / your iPod (although they are still DRM'ed, so you cannot play them on your 3650).

Whip Antenna for 12-inch

Macminute reports on the Whip Antenna from QuickerTek:

By adding this 5dbi Whip Antenna to your 12-inch PowerBook, increase the signal strength up to 50%, and increase the line-of-sight distance by an average of 250 yards. This new antenna is a user-installable kit - although it can be tricky working within the small spaces of the 12-inch PowerBook. Give yourself plenty of time and you'll get it done.

I'd like to give one of these suckers a test run...

James Duncan Davidson on the Airport Express...

Hear hear! This is spot on:

Very nice. And it's a nice touch for those of us that are going to be lugging these things all over the world with us. Now, there's only one more thing that the Airport Express needs... a plug in for a laptop. That way road warriors only have to carry one brick with them.

Or even better yet, wouldn't it be cool if every laptop power supply just happened to be a base station? I don't know how possible it would be to squish a Airport Base Station into a 65W power supply, but it'd be damn cool. After all, a Powerbook power supply is US$79. The Airport Express is US$129. Hrmmm... Give it a year or so and it might just be feasible.

Anyway, click here for the full hands-on report. I wonder if the Apple Store up near work has these in stock yet...

In case you hadn't heard...

New iPods tomorrow. Don't see the evidence in the article itself? Well, how about this picture:

Is it just me, or does Steve look CRAZY in this pic?

FreeiPod.com Pyramid scheme...

Hey, everyone! If you are interested in getting a free iPod (and helping me to get a free iPod mini for Kristin), follow this link to FreeiPods.com and participate in one of the items / services linked to there. Since I have a pet parrot, I bought him some toys on the Pet Meds link on the page. Now I just have to get 5 other people to participate to get my free iPod and every person who participates only needs to get 5 more people to participate to get themselves a free iPod. Spread the word, word...

FreeiPod.com Pyramid scheme...

Hey, everyone! If you are interested in getting a free iPod (and helping me to get a free iPod mini for Kristin), follow this link to FreeiPods.com and participate in one of the items / services linked to there. Since I have a pet parrot, I bought him some toys on the Pet Meds link on the page. Now I just have to get 5 other people to participate to get my free iPod and every person who participates only needs to get 5 more people to participate to get themselves a free iPod. Spread the word, word...

Back in the saddle..

Testing. How do I do this? This is Google. I think the blogger folks may have fixed the Safari incompatibility. Huzzah! I can post again!

Does it work with Firefox?

Can I post via Firefox with the new, crappier, less compatible Blogger interface? Update: Ahsa, it works in Firefox at least, but still, why is Safari support broken and why does every report I try to make via the Blogger support page fail? In any case, in all earnestness, Blogger, please fix this. I just realized that the NEW AND IMPROVED spell check function doesn't work in Firefox. Please, give us a choice between the old system and the new system, for compatibility and start providing us with warning of these traumatic changes. If you do not, then I will no longer be one of the ones powering Blogger. I will be moving on to other waters...

Dear Blogger: You stink. I cannot post anything with HTML because you changed your format without any warning and it no longer works with Safari...

Testing the "New" Blogger System today...

Something screwy in blogger land...

Education

This is very off topic, but I just agreed to teach an intro English class at a nearby college starting this Fall. It will be good to get back into the classroom and I am excited. Now, do I go a traditional route, or do I make it a paperless classroom with online discussion, collaboration, office hours, and course materials?

Kerry: Mac user...

Check it:

John Kerry Uses A PowerBookIn a photo taken by Diana Walker, for Time magazine, John Kerry is seen using an Apple PowerBook. It looks to be a 15-inch Titanium model. The caption says "From his study in the family's Pittsburgh, Pa., home, Kerry phones Edwards to officially invite the North Carolina Senator to be his running mate."

Read more...

Support Powerpage.org by shopping at Amazon.com!

[PowerPage.org]

FuzzyClock

A while back, someone mentioned FuzzyClock to me, and I was fuzzy on why on earth someone would want it. But then the other day, something persuaded me to install it and actually play around with it. I just removed the default clock from my menu bar and FuzzyClock is in full swing. I especially like that "Hacker" is one of the supported languages. ;-)

The only thing more boringly slow than running Windoze Update on a PeeCee...

...is running Windoze Update on a Virtual PeeCee running on a 12-inch Powerbook with only 384MB of RAM and fifteen or so different multitasking jobs going on at the same time... ugh.

DisplayWatcher...

If you regularly plug your 12-inch into an external monitor, you might want to check out DisplayWatcher, which I saw mentioned by Ted Leung. Looks pretty cool. I never use an external monitor, but am wondering if I could trick this into working with Desktop Manager to automatically set up my virtual monitors the way I want every time I launch Desktop Manager. That would be the hotness! Also, as a side note, a new version of Desktop Manager was just released which supports sticky windows (setting a window to travel with you to whatever desktop you want). Very cool for tracking that iChat convo across multiple screens and tasks...

SIPphone: My search for a viable VOIP option continues...

I just downloaded the new Mac OS X client for SIPphone. I'd tried the beta in the past and it continually crashed on me. This one is up and working and I just placed a test call on it. The network is a bit sluggish today, so that may be the reason for these difficulties, but my test call had a slight delay (much like talking on a digital cellphone a year or so ago), and slight break up. I'll test it again when I get home. I also went ahead and purchased $10 worth of talk time for VOIP to actual phone line connectivity. I might have to give Jason a call in London later to test it out. I wonder if this will work nicely with my bluetooth headset and my 12-inch. If the performance is at all better than iChatAV, then it is worth playing around with. If not, eh, at least I only blew $10 on the deal... Note: The softphone used by SIPphone is the same used by Vonage, so it should give me an idea of what that service would be like on the 12-inch as well...

Tracking Hard Drive Hogs...

O'Grady's PowerPage has a cool write up about OmniDiskSweeper and Disk Inventory X. I just downloaded Disk Inventory X (which is free under GPL) and am running a scan now to see what space wasters are crowding my drive.

Why is Mac OS X better?

Well, here's a really good answer.

Fair use = free speech

Another good one from BoingBoing today: Fair use = free speech. Read it if you have been scratching your head at all whenever I have mentioned fair use in any of my longish rants about DRM and why it is evil and unlawful.

12" Lemons; Pass it on...

I saw this at BoingBoing, and as I myself received a wobbling first gen Powerbook which was only replaced after much too much time spent arguing with a manager at the White Plains Apple Store, I thought I'd pass this along:

Apple sells Matt Webb a lemon, then treats him like crap
Matt Webb bought a 12" Powerbook and got a lemon. He's spent over a month calling Apple, trying to get it fixed, getting ignored, getting promises broken, not having his calls returned, getting the machine returned still broken, sending it back again. This is outrageous: Apple UK needs to do a better job if it plans on retaining customers.

It's happened again. Same problems as last time. mutt can't make temporary files, the computer won't shut down cleanly, then it won't boot (stays at the grey Apple screen) DiskWarrior can't repair it (and it freezes in Target Disk mode). If I go into verbose mode on book, the errors are:

Load of /sbin/mach_init, errno 2, trying /etc/mach_init Load of /etc/mach_init failed, errno 2

The hardware check, on the original CDs, comes back fine.

Coincidentally, it's after about 11 days of usage (again), and after the hard drive has got 45Gb of data on it (again).

I called tech support. Very helpful guy in the Danish tech support call centre. He says the next thing they'll ask me to do is reinstall.

Hang on, I've been here before.

I'm not going through this again.

I know this story. This is the one where I spend days doing what tech support ask, send my computer off, Apple hang onto it for months and send it back, still broken.

Link(via Plasticbag) [Boing Boing Blog]

Spread the word. Maybe we'll actually be able to shame Apple into helping this guy out (and maybe in the process get them to be a little more responsive overall to these types of complaints and be more careful about eradicating the production line problems which tend to plague their portables: warped 12-inchers, spotty screened 15-inchers, cracking boards on iBooks, etc, etc).

Color Coding Mail.app Email

Cool tip:

Mail app: Color code your messages

If you want to color code your messages in the Mail app just press Apple-Shift-C to bring up the color palette. Select any color and you're done.

[Creative Bits]

Release your inner organize-ator with color-coded goodness!

Hacked Site Redux: SPAM...

Yesterday, I thought someone might have hacked my site, until my brain kicked in and I realized that somebody's random SPAM machine simply deciphered my mail to post email address for the site. At least that is my current guess. SPAM is the devil.

AddressBookToCSV

AddressBookToCSV allows you to export your Mac's Address Book into the proper format for importing to Gmail. Friggin' cool! Found it mentioned here.

Hacked Site?

What the hell? Look at this:

Cecilia Cheung

Cecilia Cheung2>
Cecilia Cheung [3650 and a 12-inch]

Just got this in my RSS feed for my site and never posted it and I have no idea where it came from. I just changed my password in case, but I am hoping it is some sort of Blogger error and not a security hole. Anybody have any ideas what this could be? ANYONE AT BLOGGER PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT! I tried to send a message regarding this issue, but your web form wouldn't post citing an internal error.

getTunes

Hack to download music form any shared iTunes playlist:

iTunes 4.6 MP3 Sharing
You can now use iTunes 4.6's sharing abilities to download music from anyone's shared iTunes playlist. getTunes is a Mac OS X application that can download music from Windows or Mac Rendezvous-shared music libraries. Simply incredible.Read more...

Support Powerpage.org by shopping at Amazon.com!

[PowerPage.org]

Wonder how long this will last before Apple smashes it to teeny little bits...

Psst! Pass it on...

Check it:

Get the vote out!
No, not for November.

For Firefox. The Mozilla.org folks have started a campaign to increase the visibility of Firefox. I think that this will be an interesting experiment on expanding the reach of an open source project via "marketing volunteers".

Even if you don't care about open source anything, at least go vote so that we can start ignoring all the IE related security alerts. And tell your friends and family, too. [Ted Leung on the air]

It's a good cause. Firefox is the hotness...

Tigerize Panther

I just wrote a short article called "Tigerize Panther" for AppleMatters and it is up on their site. Here's the direct link to the article (actually, it is a link to the comments page as there doesn't seem to be any permalink option on the post). Here's a snippet:

I'm going to quickly run you through some online freeware / shareware / donationware, that you can load up on your current Mac running Panther to replicate some of the functionality, albeit not the full look and feel, of Tiger. I'll organize the list so that it corresponds to the features list on Apple's Tiger Preview page, and keep in mind this is my list. It is not meant to be comprehensive. It's just what I know to be best, no matter what you say. ;-b

Check it out.

PalmOne Shows Mac love...

PalmOne has a Mac-oriented page on their site now, for all you Palmers out there...

btchat

Rael has a find over at MobileWhack: btChat, a bluetooth-based instant messaging system. Pretty cool, although I don't really see the need. One use I can think of is for chatting at conferences, but as most have WiFI, I'd rather type it out on my 12-inch's keyboard. Otherwise, it kind of reminds me of passing notes in class and I could easily do that just by writing a Note on my 3650 and then sending that via bluetooth to a friend. I guess it does help you chat with people whose handle you don't know tho... Although for everybody to be using this, it would have to be one MEGA-G33K conference. w0rd.

pollas.dk losing the love for the 3650...

Say it ain't so... Anders Pollas of pollas.dk uses both a 3650 and a 12-inch, but:

While I’m still in newfound love with my 12” Powerbook, I’m starting to get sick and tired of my Nokia 3650. It’s butt-ugly but that I knew when I bought it. What I didn’t know was that even though it takes a 128MB card, once you store more than 2MB of data on it, the phone goes slo-mo. Saving images from the camera takes a good 30 seconds, it often needs rebooting (these phones are _not_ computers, damnit) and quite often strange error messages pop up for no apparent reason. I guess it could benefit from a firmware upgrade, but I don’t really feel like paying to get my phone to do what it was supposed to do in the first place… On top of that, I’ll lose my settings.

Okay, these are legitimate concerns, which have, of late, had me lusting after P800s and 900s and mysterious things called "SideKicks." In any case, here's some pointers to avoid these difficulties (and to help recuperate from a memory weak 3650):

1. This one is preventative: Install everything that you can on the removable MMC card. The phone's sparse megabytes of onboard memory is all it has for thinking and if it has too much there, it starts to slow down and turn dumb.
2. If you've already made the mistake of sticking too much on the phone's internal memory, install Fexplorer on the memory card, and use this to move everything you can over to the MMC card. Alternately, un-install (via Menu-->Tools-->Manager-->Options-->Remove)and reinstall everything to the MMC.
3. If you have done all of this and still are having problems, you are going to need to update the Firmware. However, if you first go to Menu-->Extras-->Memory, and then choose Options-->Backup phone mem., you can backup everything to your MMC card, then run the firmware update and then restore for this backup to retain all your old settings. h00t!

Hopefully, this will help whoever it was that was cursing me in the comments for recommending Frozen Bubble. (My comments have been wonky recently and won't let me access them, even tho they show up in my email's inbox). Good luck.

PDF and Word Browser Plugins...

This is the coolest! For the longest time, I have used and loved Shubert-it's PDF Browser Plugin, which has just been updated and allows you to seamlessly integrate PDFs in your web browsing experience (if you're on broadband that is); today, I come to find that along with the PDF Browser update, there is also a Word Browser Plugin that "displays a text only preview of Word documents within your web browser." And, they are both free. Get 'em while they're hot!

Drool... I want this handheld scanner...

Check out this NYTimes article (free reg required; use this to avoid the hassle). I hope it works with a Mac. This would make research SO much easier... UPDATE: Actually bothered to look up the DocuPen's site and read the FAQ:

• Is the DocuPen compatible with MACs? The DocuPen handheld scanner is currently hardware compatible with MACs, However, the current version of the bundled software does not include the MAC driver support. We are currently working to developing the MAC drivers. Once released, current PC users will have access to the new MAC drivers free of cost. Also, please sign up for Planon's E-newsletter to receive news of when the MAC version will be released first hand.

If anybody out there has any real world experience with this on their Mac, please comment below or shoot me an email. I want to know the details...

Hack #55: Share Your Mac's Net Connection with a Bluetooth Phone

I was checking my referrer logs and tripped across this: Hack #55: Share Your Mac's Net Connection with a Bluetooth Phone, a walk through of how my Share2Blue2th scripts came about, written by yours truly. Don't forget to pick up your copy of Mac OS X Panther Hacks for more hackable goodness...

Get Your London On!

I normally think that screensavers are the devil, but as London is my favorite city in the world (if only it cost less and were located in the USA), I thought I'd point out this new free London Screensaver, consisting of 10 high resolution B&W photos of the magical place.

iChatAV vs. PithHelmet

I love PithHelmet! However, I just discovered that it is the reason my iSight hasn't been sending a signal as of late. Not really PithHelmet so much as the SIMBL installation that PithHelmet requires. Fortunately, there is a solution:

iChat AV conflict with PithHelmet
MacFixIt reader John Stansbury has found that this SIMBL file can also conflict with iChat AV, interfering with video chats: "It wasn't until I went to the Apple Discussions that I found the solution in this post. It goes on to detail how to remove the SIMBL Folder from /Library/InputManagers/ (or ~/Library/InputManagers/) and replace it with the new SIMBL at http://culater.net/dl/files/SIMBL-0.4.tbz. That way, PithHelmet version 0.7.3 (http://culater.net/software/PithHelmet/PithHelmet.php) now works and so does iChat AV." [MacFixIt]

Foofbags for your 12-inch...

Check it out:

Crafty laptop sleeves
Foofbags are Powerbook/iBook sleeves handsewn out of fun-fur and fleece. Link(Thanks, Dirtymouse!)
[Boing Boing Blog]

I'm more into the solid black formal case, but these bags might interest some of you.

FairKeys

Jon Lech Johansen has just released FairKeys: "...a tool which lets you retrieve your FairPlay keys from Apple's servers." It requires MonoFramework to be installed, but easy to follow instructions for OS X users are provided. This will help with the multiple keys on multiple machines dilemma that can occur.

Cecilia Cheung2> Cecilia Cheung

Hacking Quartz and Desktop Manager...

I saw this over at /., which mentions this rather interesting interview with Rich Wareham of Desktop Manager. I then went to check out Desktop Manager, and after running it for 5 minutes, I am hooked. This thing is great for my itty-bitty 12" screen. I have the Desktop Manager window set to auto-hide under the upper right hand corner of my menu bar, and the Desktop Manager menu and pager hidden. In any case, download it now and check it out. Also, read the interview for some interesting developer goodness...

WiFi VOIP Phone...

This VOIP WiFi phone sounds really cool. If Vonage or my current cable company comes out with a branded version of this that I can move my current number to, then I'm sold. This would solve the problem I currently have that prevents me from hooking Vonage into my apartment's home system (the cable runs on one side of the apartment, whereas the phone lines run on the other with no meeting place between the two).

More on Konfab vs. Dashboard...

On today's Daring Fireball, John Gruber takes some time off from posting about membership drives to somewhat back off from his earlier rather harsh treatment of the Konfabulator and Dashboard "controversy." He still retains the unwarranted and condescending tone towards the "post-WWDC peanut gallery," which smacks of contradiction, considering that he isn't part of Apple, nor part of Konfabulator group, and his opinion on this matter is being linked to all over the place, so in essence he is one of the loudest members of the "peanut gallery." The controversy itself, hype or not, is evidence in itself for Apple's PR people (and Steve Jobs) handling the Dashboard announcement poorly. How could they have avoided it? Dunno. I agree that their product is not the same as Konfabulator and therefore buying Konfabulator makes no real sense. But there has to be some sort of happy medium between that extreme and the extreme we were all presented with, a rather blatant non-mention of Konfabulator alongside an equally blatant use of the term "widget," all the while describing the Dashboard platform's functionality in the following manner: "Widgets are mini-applications written in JavaScript that are designed for fun as well as function", which then necessitated the following clearing-of-the-murky-waters by Hyatt:

They are Web pages, plain and simple (with extra features thrown in for added measure). Apple's own web site says "build your own widgets using the JavaScript language", but that's sort of misleading. The widgets are HTML+CSS+JS. They are not some JS-only thing.

And Apple still hasn't corrected this 'misleading" comment on their Dashboard page. Misleading? Yes. Made to sound exactly like Konfabulator's widget platform? Yes. Why? Either to stir up the current "controversy" in the spirit of any press is good press (stupid) or to gun directly for and appeal to Konfabulator's current user base (stupid and evil*). Bad PR either way. *note that this isn't evil because it is trying to outshoot the competition. That's good business. It is evil because of the way Apple touts itself as the hero of the independent developer and then pulls this big fish little fish act whenever they damn well please. Contradiction of the Apple image. Bad PR.

Powerbook KBarticle...

This KBarticle is pretty tightly packed with links and it's only part one. Check it out.

Panther via PearPC on an Athlon laptop...

Matt Croydon has Panther running via PearPC on his Athlon XP 2500+ laptop. This is the first real-world example of someone I actually know about using this emulator, rather than just installing it and going NEAT and moving on. Really cool. Also, check out Matt's site. I used to be a regular reader, but somehow he slipped out of my RSS feedlist and I had incorrectly assumed that he had gone on blog-sabbatical. Anyway, the feed is back up and running, so I'll be relaying his cool finds, which he has on a regular basis. Like, for instance, this bit about Python for the Series 60. Cool stuff all around. Hi, Matt!

Mac OS X Panther Hacks: Got my Copy!

I received my copy of Mac OS X Panther Hacks this afternoon. Close to 600 pages of fun-filled hacking to play around with while we wait for Tiger. Congratulations to Rael Dornfest & James Duncan Davidson on putting this thing together, and thanks for letting me be a part of it. I contributed thirteen hacks to the book and it is cool to see the finished product: my work nicely edited and arranged amidst the work of so many others who worked hard to make this an interesting, useful, and good book. I sort of skimmed through the whole thing this afternoon, ego-browsing for all of my hacks, but along the way I found myself pausing at many of the other hacks with a "Wow!" and a "Cool!" and a surprised "I didn't know you could do that!", all the while making notes to myself to check these ideas out later. Really good stuff from a lot of good people that covers the gamut. However, I am an extremely vain person at heart and just want to point out for you all, my gentle readers, that that C.K.-goodness that you know so well can be found in Hacks #8, 11, 12, 27 (with the help of Hadley Stern), 28, 29, 31, 38, 42, 50 (with lots of help from Rael), 55, 79, and 85. ;-) Go get your copy now. UPDATE: MacDevCenter has three preview hacks from the book posted by Rael.

PithHelmet BETA report...

Just wanted to report back that I downgraded from the PithHelmet Beta that I installed earlier today. I'm running 0.7.3 now. For some reason, the beta was blocking cookies from Gmail and I couldn't access my Gmail account and I couldn't figure out how to disable the cookie blocking, so I had to ditch it. Other than that, it was pretty cool.

Safari Security Hole...

Actually, it isn't just Safari, it's almost every web browser out there worth its salt. MacFixIt has a breakdown of the situation. I wonder if Shiira is vulnerable?

PithHelmet Update...

PithHelmet 0.7.3 is fresh off the press. Ad-blocking and content filtering goodness for Safari. If you are feeling brave, there is a beta of version 2.0, which I am about to install on my machine. If you want to find out more about PithHelmet and other ad-blockers for your Mac, make sure you pick up a copy of Mac OS X Panther Hacks and read my article on the subject.

Warner/Chappell support stripping DRM?

This, if true, is awesome.

Six Degrees: A prettier Zoe...

My friend, Jason, recently pointed me toward Six Degrees 2.0 and said I should check it out. There is a free lite version of the software if you want to give it a test run. I've only been playing around with it for a little while, but for the most part, it is a cleaner, prettier version of Zoe, which I have been using for months now (I also wrote an article about Zoe for Mac OS X Panther Hacks). In addition to the "Google your email" functionality of Zoe, 6 Degrees 2.0 provides a to-do list and project management capabilities, although the lite version only allows one sample project. Looks interesting. Six Degrees is not open source, so I'd prefer that Zoe continue to develop with an improved user interface and "get prettier" along the way. But, for now anyway, I am going to switch to using Six Degrees 2.0 lite for a while. If it proves to be more functional than Zoe and not just easier to look at and use, then I may spring for the personal version and I'll post about it here. UPDATE: Ok. After tinkering some more I discovered that you cannot reply to all, reply, or forward your email directly from within Six Degrees 2.0 in the lite version. Also, the lite version only allows you to have 4 items in your to-do list. Not nearly enough for the next 5 minutes, let alone my entire day. And since the buy-in price is $99, you might want to go the Zoe route. It sure ain't as pretty, but there's nothing stopping you from designing a better style sheet for the Zoe web interface.

Rendezvous for everyone!

Ted Leung blogs about the new cross-platform availability of Rendezvous. I think that one of the best things that could come from this would be Windows and Linux variants of SubEthaEdit that are compatible with SubEthaEdit, so we can all start working more effectively together despite our platform differences...