Gold streets, milk, honey, and cheap chicken

Jeff Harrell, on his recent move to the DC area:

They have Chick-fil-a here, which is good. But the sandwiches are like three bucks each or something equally absurd. I mean, I knew Texas was the land of milk and honey where the streets are paved with gold. I didn’t realize that it was also the land of cheap chicken sandwiches. Apparently it’s both.

The Twinkie is an affront to Life itself?

Dan said it, not me.

Niceness

Fraser Speirs:

I have this theory that there is an ineffable quality to certain attractive consumer products, and I can only term it niceness. It’s the MSG of consumerism – you don’t know what it tastes like by itself but you know when it’s present and you know when it’s not.

[…]

It’s somewhere in the confluence of size, shape, materials, texture and that pleasant weightiness that lesser products don’t have. I said it was the MSG of consumerism. Sometimes I wonder if it isn’t more like consumerism’s crack cocaine. Jonathan Ive is my dealer.

Note to self re: Command- and Option- commands

Command-Tab switches between applications.
Command-tick (`) switches between windows within an application.
Option-Tab, via Witch, switches between windows and applications.

Clocky go crashy

Welch wants one, but I think if that thing was in my house, it would end up in pieces once I hunted it down.

SpamSieve 2.4.2

My favorite spam-killing application has been updated, and now kills spam better than ever. Michael has been rocking on SpamSieve’s efficiency with each update; I see very, very few false negatives, and no false positives with the app.
One updated feature which should be noted is the improved phish detection. That’s phish, not phisch, got it? We phisch are more sneaky…

Leap-A tutorials

Rob Griffiths has an excellent piece on Macworld regarding the Leap-A malware which could infect your Tiger-based Mac, if, well, if you’re either not paying attention or are just stupid. Mark Allan has what should be the obvious, common-sense approach to not getting infected:

  1. Are somehow sent (via email, iChat, etc.) or download the “latestpics.tgz” file
  2. Double-click on the file to decompress it
  3. Double-click on the resulting file to “open” it

…and even then, most users must also enter their Admin password.

You cannot simply “catch” the virus. Even if someone does send you the “latestpics.tgz” file, you cannot be infected unless you decompress the file, and then open it.

Developers needed for Intel updates

Mark Allan is seeking a Mac developer with an Intel Mac to help with an update to ClamXav so it will run on the the new Intel-based Macintosh systems.
The one utility it seems I cannot live without on my new iMac Core Duo is James Walker’s AutoPairs. A preference pane, AutoPairs will not run on an Intel Mac. I contacted James, and he doesn’t have access to an Intel Mac to do further development and testing. I’ve offered my services as a tester, but if any developers with Intel Macs would like to give James a hand, please contact him.
(From a totally selfish standpoint, if anyone knows of a replacement for AutoPairs that works on Intel Macs, drop me a note.)

The Return of Lemonade Stand

When I was in seventh grade, I began computer programming classes. First it was BASIC, on Radio Shack TRS-80 systems (affectionately known as “Trash-80s”). Then it was more BASIC and Turbo Pascal on Apple II computers. Lemonade Stand was a game, along with Oregon Trail, we spent our free time at the end of class goofing around with.
When my parents bought a used Apple IIe from one of my high school teachers, Lemonade Stand and Oregon Trail came with it, and much joy was had playing them again, as well as in seeing my younger sister happily plugging along on them. Now, Lemonade Stand is back, and ported to Mac OS X.
[Via Erik.]

Mr. Franklin, if you only knew

One of things you have to love about Benjamin Franklin was his optimism with regard to those who hold public office.

They are of the People, and return again to mix with the People, having no more durable preeminence than the different Grains of Sand in an Hourglass. Such an Assembly cannot easily become dangerous to Liberty. They are the Servants of the People, sent together to do the People’s Business, and promote the public Welfare; their Powers must be sufficient, or their Duties cannot be performed. They have no profitable Appointments, but a mere Payment of daily Wages, such as are scarcely equivalent to their Expences; so that, having no Chance for great Places, and enormous Salaries or Pensions, as in some Countries, there is no triguing or bribing for Elections.
–letter to George Whatley, 23 May 1785
Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1108.
[Via the Patriot Post.]