iStockphoto praise

iStockphoto saves the day for Eric. Though I haven’t had much use for it lately, I have been a registered member since late last year and think it’s a wonderful service.
I have even thought about contributing photos myself, though I don’t believe a majority of mine are at a high enough resolution to warrant inclusion.
(via Michael)

FTP in Macworld

Michael has a run down on his FTP app usage over the past few years. Transmit is what I use when I want visual feedback, or to do some things, like setting permissions, that I’m not as comfortable doing from the command line. (I even beta-test new versions, though I’m not much of a FTP heavy-lifter.) Otherwise, it’s ftp or sftp in Terminal for me.

weblog, not web log

Kottke has the 411 and an open letter to certain news entities.

Safari quits fix

Thanks to Ric for pointing to the new Apple KB article on unexpected Safari quits. This has suddenly started happening for me within the past week on both my TiBook and my Cube. Reading through the KB article, I believe my problems with each are solved in section II of the article, regarding QuickTime preferences. Yay!
Last night, Safari died on my Cube after I watched the Matrix Revolutions international trailer (rocks!), and I noticed Safari died on my TiBook a couple of days ago after listening to a QuickTime-encoded MP3 on a web site.

Font fights cancer

Speaking of Dan, he has hooked up with one of my favorite cartoonists, and all-around nice guy (have met him twice now!), Michael Jantze, creator of The Norm, to produce the Jantze font. The font is the handwriting Michael uses in The Norm comics.

Jantze font graphic

Not only is it a great font, but Dan & Michael have decreed that all royalties earned from this font’s sales will go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which “provides financial grants to researchers working to improve our odds against the disease, individuals stricken with cancer, and survivors of the disease that are advocates for survivorship issues in their communities.”

The Man Comes Around…and then some

Dan notes what we can expect from The Man in Black later this year. Very cool!

Regarding those intolerant, narrow-minded Christians…

“Being a lover of freedom, when the (Nazi) revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks.
“…Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.” –Albert Einstein, from Kampi und Zeugnis der bekennenden Kirche

East, West, Texas

“Now see here…you gotcher East power grid–you know, the one that danged near blew up yesterday–and you gotcher West power grid–you know, the one with all them rollin’ blackouts and brownouts–and then you gotcher Texas grid, which has been hummin’ along since we went on our own after our energy crisis in the ’80s…”

U.S. power grid graphic

“And you people think we’re just jokin’ when we say Texas is like a whole ‘nother country. Heck, we did it twice before…”

CVN 76 online

Don’t know why I didn’t come across it sooner, but the official Navy web site for the USS Ronald Reagan is online. Very thorough, full of info, including the construction process of a vessel longer than the Empire State Building is tall. The christening and commissioning ceremonies are both covered, as are the latest sea and flight deck trials. Lots of pictures abound. The Reagan will go on active duty next year, and should see its first deployment some time in 2005.

Hurricane, Himicane, Deshawnacane

I know the Toad has to be ticked off at the latest antics of one of our beloved Congresscritters, People’s Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. She insists that the names assigned to hurricanes by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are too “lily white,” and they should use African-American names as well. She even offered a few examples; none of which are African in origin, and some of which have been completely made up by black Americans. This reader’s response puts it all in perspective:
bq. “You can be sure if there were too many ‘black’ names assigned to hurricanes, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee would instead be complaining that this practice unfairly stereotypes blacks as violent. Let’s hope this silly storm blows over!”
And to think that this is our most pressing problem with racism and discrimination…