“Exxon Profit Is Shy of New Record”
Sounds like Exxon Profit needs to be more assertive, and not such a wallflower.
“IBM to Offer Smaller Mainframe”
Now only taking up half of the typical family home!
Remind me to never travel to Losses.
“Does France really need its own search engine?”
Does the world really need France? Better wine in California, better cheese in Wisconsin…
Ballmer’s insurance expired, has to get cash for repairs from Bill.
“YMCA office under attack by Muslims in West Bank”
No word on the status of the construction worker or the biker.
“Chad Pressured to Postpone Election”
Meanwhile, Jacob and Britney can hold elections as planned.
“AT&T Shareholders Reject Resolutions”
AT&T shareholders are idiots.
“Government Takes Over Aloha Air Pension”
Aloha Air pensioners see money flushed down toilet. U.S. taxpayers now responsible for the bailout, likewise.
I so want a Nintendo DS just so I can play Brain Age. This would be great when I hit writers’ block or my ADD tendencies creep up, not to mention trips like our upcoming one to the Granite State. I could honestly care less about the other games. Think my beloved will go for it?
About this time, sixteen years ago today, I was at an after-party with a girl. It was our first date, and she had accompanied me to the annual Military Ball held by the combined ROTC detachment at LSU. The after-party was a small affair, at the apartment of one of the older cadets, who just happened to be my former flight leader and was a big sister-type to me.
The girl who was my date? She’s upstairs right now, getting ready for bed.
My hot tip for fathers (and mothers, too) is a simple one: Spend time one-on-one with your children, and if possible, for a few days in a row. I realize that some of my readers aren’t in a place to do this, because you don’t have children, or your children are grown, or… . But if your children are in a place where they can get time away with you, then by all means take advantage of this timely opportunity.
I’m very blessed in this regard. My son is home with me two days a week, so we get a lot of buddy time while my wife is at work. I know our friends Michael and Heather get similar opportunities with their son. I can’t wait until the little phisch is older and we can go on trips like the one Mark describes in his post. This one is at the top of my list; I love the Tetons/Jackson Hole area.
“Prosecutors Get First Shot at Lay”
Too easy. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy…
“Microsoft to Buy Chinese Hardware”
This is news? Isn’t it all Chinese hardware?
“Songbirds May Be Able to Learn Grammar”
We can’t teach grammar to kids graduating from high school, so we’re going to try birds? Those teacher unions can get away with anything.
“NYC Firefighter Begins Sentence in Brawl”
Is that a regional dialect of braille?
“Dog burns down owner’s kitchen”
“Since when does a medium-rare steak come in a bag marked ‘Purina’?!?!?!?!?”
“Police Arrest Nude Man Stuck in Chimney”
It’s a real shame the lengths some guys will go in some misguided quest for hot sex.
“‘Deep Throat’ Saw Himself As ‘Lone Ranger’”
So who’s Tonto, Woodward or Bernstein?
For once, John Dvorak rants on a company other than Apple:
I think it can now be safely said, in hindsight, that Microsoft’s entry into the browser business and its subsequent linking of the browser into the Windows operating system looks to be the worst decision — and perhaps the biggest, most costly gaffe — the company ever made.
I call it the Great Microsoft Blunder.
His solution is for Microsoft to halt any Internet Explorer development, throw some cash to Mozilla, and invest in Opera. Works for me.
I haven’t blogged yet about the spring softball season, and given how today’s game was the best one this season for me personally, I thought an update in order.
The league expanded to eight teams this season, so we will have a four-team playoff at the end. Currently, we’re the number two team, with not much hope of catching number one. That spot is held by one of the new teams, and they’re good. You’re doing really well against that team if you lose by less than double digits. They’re pounding everybody. My fervent hope is after a couple of seasons they’ll get bored and move on.
Today’s game was against the other new team. We got off to a slow start, and fell behind early. We slowly battled back, and I went in to the game in the fourth inning, at third base. I didn’t see much action, fielding-wise, but was able to make it count when I did. We had a bases loaded situation, with one out, where the line drive came to me, I threw it home for the second out, and we held the runners at all three bases again. The next batter popped out to center-right, getting us out of the inning.
My first trip to the plate proved fruitful. I had yet to collect any RBIs in the previous five games; it seemed I was always coming up to the plate with a runner on first or no runners on at all, and when you’re pretty much a singles hitter, and in those situations, it doesn’t lend itself toward scoring opportunities. Today, Tiffany had just cranked a two-out double to score a run and she was at second.
First pitch, I swing and connect. Wow. Did that feel ever so good coming off the bat. Deep to center-left field, over the heads of the outfielders. A triple, with a run scored. The second-best hit I’ve had since I began playing on this team two-and-a-half years ago. (Number one would be the other triple I hit in another season, which was nearly an in-the-park home run and scored more runs.) I would score when Jennifer, our coach, knocked a single up the middle.
My second and final at-bat was a single, right up the middle in to shallow center, and it, too, scored a run. I would advance to second when the opposing pitcher walked Jen, then head from second to home when Chris D. put one in to deep center-right. The only downer was that I pulled my left quad a bit rounding third, limping to the plate.
So it takes six games for me to get a single RBI, and batting 1.000 today, I get two. The team improves to 4-2, and we remain in second place with two more games to go. I won’t play next week; we have tickets to the Stars’ playoff game, provided they don’t get swept by Colorado after a disastrous opener.
The elements of the “crisis” Mitchell describes are twofold: (1) Iraq isn’t Vietnam—i.e., a war the press helps lose for America; and (2) the Bush administration hasn’t produced a Watergate—i.e., a corruption scandal in which the press helps bring down an administration. This isn’t a crisis for America. For most Americans, Vietnam and Watergate were tragedies, and we’d rather not repeat them, thank you very much.
But it is a crisis for the press. For journalists of a certain age, Vietnam and Watergate were triumphs that they are eager to repeat. It doesn’t look as though that’s going to happen. Our advice to newsmen? Pray. “Lord, grant me the courage to change what I can, the serenity to accept what I cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Amen. Now stop crusading and report the damn news.
“30,000 Elvis impersonators may be out of work”
Please, God, please, God, please, God…
“Rise in Revenue Helps Cingular Wireless to a Profit”
In other news, rain makes things wet, and the sun gives off light.
“Colombian Police Train Rats to Find Mines”
Because apparently finding cocaine is just too easy.
“Ohio Restaurant Wins Best Restroom Award”
With floors so clean you could…no, we won’t go there.
“Indonesians Evacuate As Volcano Rumbles”
I wonder if Volcano fights fair, or does he use brass knuckles, chains, and knives?
“Astros Replace Miller With Borkowski”
Borkowski? Is that a Polish beer?
“Biffle: Girlfriend’s Spat No Big Deal”
“Heck, you should see it when she sneezes!”
“Teen Gets Boot Camp for Angering Judge”
Does this judge dislike Mac users or something?
“Hamas Government Strapped for Funds”
In the bomb department, however, they’re running a surplus.
“Will Smith Crashes Bar Mitzvah”
I wonder if he has to take a class to get that off his record.
“Scientists Observe the Brain ‘Shutting Off’”
Was Al Gore speaking?
Dan Benjamin’s cats have the best expressions. I need to take more photos of our pride.
Because white guys lip syncing rap is funny.
[Via the aforementioned Mr. Benjamin.]
Thank God the NHL playoffs are here.
I’ve enjoyed the new rules this season, but has anyone else felt like this first, post-lockout season has taken forever?
Why do celebrities feel compelled to give their children names said children will be complaining about to their therapists decades from now?
Word is that Air France is going to experiment with the use of cell phones at 30,000 feet. Leave it to the stereotypically rude French to encourage rude behavior.
One of the many reasons smoking was banned on most airplanes was that it was quite simply rude to your non-smoking neighbor seated two inches to your left or right. Talking on your mobile phone falls in to the same realm of common courtesy. It’s annoying enough that people are already on the phone while the plane is taxiing, much less popping them open the second the aircraft stops at the gate. I certainly don’t want to hear about the business deal you’re on your way to transact (and I’m quite certain your employer and/or client wouldn’t appreciate others knowing about it, either), and I definitely don’t want to hear about Uncle Rosco’s mole removal.
I think the current regulations regarding mobile phone use are fair and reasonable. Sometimes, it pays to have common courtesy enforced, and air travel is one of those times.
[Wave of the phin to inFlightHQ.]
While I think it’s probably the third-best browser for Mac OS X, I would have to say Firefox is the best browser for those who insist on using Windows. Some of the more rabid Firefox fans are making their own commercials for the browser. Give Me The Soap is my favorite.
[With a wave of the phin to dealnews.]
Dan Wade has too much time on his hands.
If I were Sony, or Toshiba, or HP, I’d be freaking out right now.
I cannot begin to express how broken up I am over the fact that Michael Jackson has to restructure his debt. Oh, look, something shiny…
It’s about time. Pooh is certainly more deserving than most of the blithering glitterati that populate the Walk.
Since leaving yesterday at 6:40 AM, and arriving back home today at 3:40 PM CST, I’ve driven 1,122 miles, spent 17 hours in a vehicle, and spent $106 on gas for the minivan. Whew.
I knew about Dress for Success, because my wife’s donated some of her business clothing to them before. Now, for men, there is Career Gear. If you have business suits still in good shape you no longer wear, consider donating them to these non-profits, and help low-income men and women move up the ladder. Who knows, you may see your suit again, on someone else!
It’s too bad I have no design experience nor web programming skills. The guys at Firewheel Design sound fun to work with, and they’re about fifteen minutes away in Southlake.
Dan needs some of this furniture in his pad.
Cableyoyo’s new Pop is a good idea, but most folks I know with iPods keep them in some sort of case.
What happens when you shove an iPod Shuffle in to a NES controller?
[With waves of the phin to the Firewheel Design blog, and Macsimum News.]
Look, I’m just as much of a word nerd as Jim, Erik, or John, but gentlemen, with all due respect, this has to be the dumbest idea for a boycott I’ve heard in a while.
Besides, I get better customer service from Walgreens than I do from CVS, so I’ll pass on this particular boycott.
You know, if it weren’t Lee, and it wasn’t about history, I’d ignore this meme. For one, I don’t utilize Wikipedia, and two, I don’t usually go in for Internet memes. However, since it did come from Lee, and it is about history, on December 3d:
Events
Births
Deaths
Due to the facts that (1) as previously mentioned, I don’t like Internet memes, and perhaps more importantly, (2) Lee and Lawson have already tagged pretty much anyone I would, I’m going to be a nice guy and let this die here.
When I was in ROTC, our drill instructor told us…
Sorry, wrong boot camp. And we didn’t really have a drill instructor, since the drilling was done by the uppperclassmen. And there was never something called “boot camp” for ROTC. Anyway…
The web is ablaze with the news of Apple’s Boot Camp. (Not to mention Wall Street.) When I first heard the news—from my non-geeky wife, no less—I admit feeling a little sour. It’s one thing for hackers to find a workaround because Apple’s now using the same underlying hardware as the latest and greatest Windows machines, but to actually support it?
Blessedly, reason soon took hold. As I went about my day, mulling this over in the back of my mind, I came to look at this development as a good thing. Yesterday afternoon, looking through some of my feeds in NetNewsWire, I saw I reached conclusions similar to those of people I know and trust.
Michael sums it up perfectly:
[P]eople would have found a way anyway, so it’s better for Apple to make it work right and take the credit than to pretend it isn’t happening.
Amen. This is no third-party hack that could wipe out your entire system. This is a straight-from-the-source solution. (That could wipe out your entire system; but the odds are more in your favor with Boot Camp.)
Tom has a couple of theoretical examples of how the dual-boot nature of Intel Macs can benefit Apple.
I would have to agree with Erik, however, in that if I were to run Windows on my Mac, I would rather have it in the vein of Virtual PC, where I can switch in and out of the different OS environments with a keystroke. As Welch noted on the MacJournals-Talk list, having to quit everything in one environment and boot in to the other one gets old if you have to do it more than two or three times a day. Even then…
As for me, I have a XP box five feet away, on my wife’s desk in our study. It’s the PC I built for her, and I have my own account on it. The reason I have this iMac is so I don’t have to put up with such nonsense such as the USB driver we wrestled with earlier tonight on her machine for an IR receiver. Then again, why would I want to pass up the chance at something like seeing the blue screen of death on my iMac? That’s just aces.
Waterfield Designs has a padded carrying case for the iPod Hi-Fi that allows the use of the system while remaining in the case.
Lost your iPod? Check craigslist to see if someone’s found it.
Further proof that RSS is everywhere.
To get back at phishers (as opposed to a phisch), use PhishFighting. It’s certainly a much better use of CPU cycles than looking for aliens that don’t exist.
[Via IM from Lawson.]
Lee has no sense of adventure.
Memo to Skip Bertman, Director of Athletics, Louisiana State University: in the future, Final Four-bound teams are not allowed to come back to Baton Rouge prior to the semi-final game. Apparently, there’s something in the water that results in “chucking”, better known as “the shooting of bricks”.
It was painful enough watching the men’s team lose the game last night due to their inability to put the ball in the basket (as opposed to UCLA’s winning by making it difficult for the Tigers to do so), but the ladies seemed to have the same problem tonight against Duke, a team which was making it difficult for the Tigers to put the ball in the basket.
Two shots at a championship, two shots blown. Kudos to UCLA and Duke. There’s always next year.
And it’s baseball season.
The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.
You’ll notice (hopefully) a new look to the publication this month. Simon Griffee put in time working on the design, and put in time with my and Michael’s tweaks. Thanks so much, Simon!
As Apple celebrates thirty years as a company, it seems more and more notable online personalities are joining the ranks of the Switchers, and Wes has a complete round-up. He also notes the booting-XP-on-Intel-Mac solutions running around the ‘net, but we’re not going to allow such blasphemy to darken our door, much less come inside for dinner with the family. Reader Heather Isaacson took advantage of an abundance of offline time to concentrate on her art, and now wants to build a web site to sell it from. Alas, her old Mac wasn’t up to the task, but she perseveres in a heartwarming tale of old Mac love lost, and new Mac love found.
We feature a double-shot of Mark Tennent this month, as he first delves in to how “Copyleft” software such as Firefox is changing the world’s perception of copyright, then does a little ego-surfing via Google.
We also have a double-shot farewell from Tom Bridge, who is stepping down as an ATPM Contributing Editor. This would be the part where I’d get all weepy and emotional over a staffer’s departure, but I talk to Tom practically every day, and I don’t see that changing, no matter how much he might like it to.
Tom likes the new calendar creation in iPhoto, and I believe I’ll be utilizing this later in the year for the annual family calendar featuring our little phisch. Tom also reviews the TV Mini HD, a ready-for-primetime (provided you get good antenna reception) “Mac TiVo”.
There are a pair of other reviews, with Paul weighing in on Password Retriever (not impressed), and yours truly getting my backup groove on with SuperDuper! (very much impressed). Consequently I have realized I’m not one of those guys who can really pull off a “getting my groove on” sort of line, but it’s late and I don’t feel like coming up with anything else, since my muse tucked itself in after a nightcap about two hours ago.
Cortland learns there’s no accounting for taste, as desperation sets in for Chad while Angie may find that love is even closer than she thinks. Finally, this month’s desktop pictures are of the English Lake District, courtesy of Mac user Andy Bannister. Andy’s work is remarkable; I spent hours on the site looking through photos. Thanks, Andy, for allowing us to showcase part of your portfolio.
As usual, the new and improved ATPM is available in three fruity flavors for your reading pleasure.
Late last night, I received an e-mail from AutoPairs developer James Walker. James and I had exchanged some messages previously regarding AutoPairs working on Intel Macs. Now, he has discovered a workaround.
If you have a PowerPC Mac, which I do in the form of my PowerBook G4, copy the System Preferences application from that Mac to your Intel Mac. In my case, I copied the AutoPairs pref pane from the PowerBook as well, putting it in ~/Library/PreferencePanes.
Rename the copied System Preferences application. I renamed my copied app to “SysPref PPC AP config”, so I would know at a glance what it’s sitting on my desktop for.
Launch the renamed application.
The AutoPairs pref pane showed up and I was able to click on it to activate it and open its configuration window.
Quitting, I switched to BBEdit, and tried out some parentheses and quotes, and it worked like a charm! Thanks, James!