Photoshop 7 tip

I’m a complete Photoshop novice, often getting FranX or Lee to walk me through stuff. One observation I thought I would share about Photoshop 7 running in OS X: when working on a JPG (and maybe any file), be sure to not have that file selected in the Finder.
I had clicked on the JPG in question in the Finder (column view), and the Finder was previewing the pic. Photoshop no likee this. As soon as I clicked to another pic in the Finder, Photoshop saved my changes to the JPG.

Baker Bros. redux

So, on my own for lunch again. Three bucks in my pocket. Sure, it’s enough for fast food–McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s–but I’m not eating at the first two, and I don’t want fast food. Need some place to use the debit card.
So I figured, back to Baker Bros. This go-around, I had the Texas Star and black bean soup. The soup was good, but nothing spectacular. I’ve had lots of black bean soups that tasted just as good. Some worse, and few that tasted better. Of the two, I think I prefer their baked potato soup. The Texas Star sandwich was also good, but messy. Of the two, I’ll stick with the Kentucky Club.
Ok, no more Baker Bros. this week! Really.

Slide show screensavers

Looking for a little help from the retrophisch readership (all 3 of you): I’d like to create a slide show-style screensaver, like those that come pre-installed with OS X, but I don’t want to use the .Mac Slides Publisher to do it. I know I can just point the Screen Effects pane to a folder of pics, but it tends to limit the number of pics to five. And I’d like to provide the screen saver as a download to other OS X users.
Of course, I’m looking to do this cheap and easy, so recommendation on products such as iScreensaver Designer, PhotoCircus, or any others would be appreciated.

USB 2.0 already on new Macs?

Hyok Ki Chung thinks so. Quoted on Macintouch, Chung analyzes a Korean news article:

While browsing a Korean Mac magazine site, I found this interesting article. It’s about the USB 2.0 controller chipset on [Power Mac] MDD 1.25 and 1.4 motherboards. According to this article, the controller is made by NEC, model number uPD720101.
The article is in Korean, but basically what it describes is the NEC USB 2.0 controller. It also mentions the driver, saying that Mac version is not available yet.
It looks like we already have USB 2.0 built-in. I guess it’s just matter of time. Hopefully Apple will add the driver to an updater soon.

Obviously, Apple doesn’t want to really push USB 2.0 right now, not when its own FireWire technology is picking up more steam, and the second iteration of that technology, FireWire 800, has hit the market on just-released systems.
Perhaps I have just bought the Apple line, but USB for me is for small peripheral usage: keyboards, mice, my CF card reader, my little Canon scanner that barely gets used. For the “heavy lifting”–my external drives, tape backup, iPod–FireWire is the way to go. Not to mention that you can’t use USB, 1.1 or 2.0, to boot a Mac as an external drive to another Mac, better known as FireWire Target Disk Mode.
UPDATE, 9:50 pm: Ric updated with follow-up from Kevin Purcell:

But examining the Apple Hardware Developer notes [Power Mac G4 Developer Note], you can see that these PowerMacs only expose two USB ports which means the USB 2.0 port in the chip is not connected to any PHY or external connector on the Power Macs. Only the low-speed/full-speed ports are connected. I don’t expect to see a software update. Apple probably just bought these because they meet their spec (an OHCI controller) and they needed a 2 or 3 port USB solution.

So, maybe wishful thinking…

Preschool Pacifism

“Welcome to the new preschool curriculum: play dough, finger painting and pacifism 101.”

Macintouch does XML

Ric Ford notes that he is experimenting with a XML feed for his renowned Macintouch site. Plug this in to NNW, boys and girls:

http://www.macintouch.com/rss.xml

Aw, no more Saddam money for Palestinian terrorism

Saddam Hussein was providing about US $1.5 million a month to various Palestinian agents and supporters, and now that money channel is cut off. And none too soon.
Let’s get this straight:
1. The PLO began as a terrorist organization, and continues to be a terrorist organization, directly or indirectly threatening the security of the state of Israel.
2. Israel is not “occupying” any piece of land it did not rightfully gain as the result of the wars launched against it since the modern Israeli state came in to existence in 1948. Wars Israel did not provoke, did not seek out, but wars Israel won nonetheless. If you have a problem with the fact that Israel owns the Gaza Strip and other areas, then point your questions to Jordan, Syria, Egypt, the PLO, Hamas, et al.
I’m not saying the Israelis are blameless in all of this, and their overall treatment of the Palestinians could be better. But the fact you have to remember is that the Palestinians, as well as most other Arab nations, are not interested in an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. They have wanted, since 1948, and to this day, the utter annihilation of the state of Israel and the Jewish people. That’s their idea of peace in the Middle East.

Still no Saddam/terrorism ties, right?

It may have taken 18 years, but the U.S. has captured Abu Abbas, the mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking. Abbas is wanted for the murder of wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer, who was dumped overboard still in his chair.
U.S. troops and the intelligence community are also seeking out Abdul Rahman Yasin, wanted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Yasin is yet one more terrorist known to have gained “asylum” in Saddam’s Iraq.

New York Office Space

I don’t live in New York. Don’t work in New York. Plan to never, ever live or work in New York.
Yet I found this article by Joel Spolsky, on searching for office space in NYC, fascinating. (via Glenn)

Tax Day Desktop

Not sure what compelled me to suddenly share what my desktop looks like, but here it is:

desktop thumbnail

Click on the above pic for a full-size image.
That’s Zane, atop one of his former favorite napping places: my 20″ CRT, now replaced by a 15″ Apple LCD. That shot is about two years old. The PowerBook has four partitions, appropriately named for an avowed Star Wars nut. iTunes is ripping The Elms’ latest to MP3.
The one thing I miss about that incredibly massive Radius CRT, was Zane plopping down on top when I was in the room.