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Retrophisch turns phour
Four years ago today, the first post appeared, and a new blog was born. I moved my blogging efforts from my first site to this one, and I've been here ever since. Well, this and another place or two. My thanks to my small--very small--but loyal band of readers. You all should comment more!
I'm just a hunk of, hunk of burning feed
If you read this blog mainly through my news feed, please note that I'm now using FeedBurner to supply the site's RSS feed. The old feed is still operational, and will remain so for a while, but I would like to discontinue it in the near future. So in your news reader of choice, please update the Retrophisch news feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/retrophisch. You can also click on the feed link on the main page, or the RSS button in Safari's address bar, or that of your auto feed-detecting browser of choice.
Miscellany
Michael has announced that C-Command now has forums for all of its products. I helped him do some testing with the forum boards--which means we spent about ten minutes on it--and if you're a SpamSieve or DropDMG user, I hope to see you around the virtual water cooler.
Messy networks. Dear God in Heaven. [Via Firewheel Design.]
Just when I thought there was never going to be anything interesting on Yahoo's corporate blog, they have races with toy babies triggered by the licking of lollipops.
Six years
It wasn't much of a first post, just kind of a "Hello, world, this is me..." sort of thing. Really feeble, looking back on it now. But it's been six years; the blogging portion of my self is now a first grader. Though, given how rapidly the pace moves in the blogosphere, I'm sure we have something akin to dog-years multiplication to determine the "true" age of our blog-selves. A lot changes in six years. Since that first post on August 1, 2000, there have been four national elections, including two presidential elections. The first was bitterly contested, though even so, still showed the world how the rule of law can prevail and the change of power in a nation can be handled without violence and bloodshed. Our nation was brutally attacked on September 11, 2001, and a vast majority of our citizens finally realized the fact that we had been at war with radical Islam for more than two decades. I pray we continue to realize that fact, and what it means to maintain resolve for the next two decades. Six years ago, not too many people had heard of Google, now officially a verb as well as a proper noun. Now, it has supplanted Yahoo as the number-one search destination on the Internet, though the latter still reigns as the top portal site. Microsoft has managed to ship only one new version of its flagship operating system. In six years. One. Steve Jobs' return to Apple has reversed the company's fortune. Though our favorite fruit company may not be shipping any more Macintosh units now than it was prior to Jobs coming back, it has changed the face of the computing and music industries. The iMac. The G4. The G5. iTunes. The iPod. Six years ago, the words "Macintosh" and "Intel" would never be found in the same sentence together, except for a Mac zealot excoriating the chip maker, or vice versa. Even more outlandish would have been the notion of a dual-boot Macintosh: one that can run the Mac OS or Windows. Pull that off, Michael Dell. The weblog has become a serious element of what is called "New Media", the power of the blog leading to, among other things, the exposure of Jayson Blair as a fraud, the ouster of Trent Lott as Senate Majority Leader, and, ultimately, the end of Dan Rather's career as a major network news anchor. Web designers and programmers are able to do things now they could only dream about six years ago, as we witness the rise of "Web 2.0". Six years ago, RSS (define it however you will) wasn't a blip on anyone's radar, and Atom wasn't even a seed in the minds of its creators, yet today "feeds" are an integral part of the online experience. Six years ago, I had one site. Today, besides this one, I maintain two others. Six years ago, my wife and I hadn't really been on a vacation in the previous five years. Since then, we've been to the Hawaiian Islands three times, Santa Fe, San Francisco, New York, the mountains of Arkansas, New England, and Wyoming. Six years ago, I was beginning to renew a love with photography, thanks to my first digital camera. My father planted the seed of this love, giving me his old 35mm camera when I went on the yearbook staff my senior year in high school. I was looking through my senior year book a month or so ago, and was fascinated by the number of photographs therein that were mine. Now, I don't have to wait for photos to be printed to display them. Six years ago, I was still in the beginnings of online friendships that are now deeper than I thought could be, having met, in person, these guys only a few times. Lee, Michael, Rob: my life is richer because of your being in it. I have invested in new friendships, and hope to grow some more. Six years ago, a guy at the office was just a coworker who happened to be a fellow Christian. Today, he is a close friend, who helped me come in from the cold, get grounded and real about my faith. He helped me rediscover a love for baseball I had left behind in college, and has been a steady confidant. FranX, you embody the principal of iron sharpening iron, and I cannot tell you how much I value our friendship. Six years ago we were in one house, in another city within the DFW metroplex. Today, we're in a bigger house, in a slightly smaller town next to the city we used to live in. Six years ago, close friends from college were a fifteen-minute drive from our old house; today, they're a two-minute walk away. We have new friends, who have changed our lives in profound ways, as we have witnessed the births of children, the failures in marriage, and the changing of jobs, both for them as well as ourselves. Six years ago, my wife was on the road to partnership in a major Dallas law firm. Now, she's working for the subsidiary of a Fortune 500, an in-house counsel with better hours and quality of life. Six years ago, I was employed by a Fortune 100 telecommunications company. Now, I'm three years past being laid off from that same company, the skill sets I thrived on there deteriorating as I struggle within myself to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I left behind coworkers who had become more than that, they were friends, and I thank God I am still able to keep in touch with them, even if for the most part it is through instant messages and e-mail. Six years ago, my wife and I were beginning the long, hard road to become parents. Three years ago, we were handed a little miracle, and I mean that in every sense of the word: born nine weeks early, you would never know it to look at our son today. We are truly blessed. Six years ago, we were still wandering in the wilderness of faith. We did not have a church home, and my walk with God consisted mainly of reading Christian literature and listening to Christian-branded music. Thanks to some of those new friends mentioned above, we now have a place to call home, and my own walk has been deepened as a result. Six years ago, I was not as happy as I am now. I like to think I was pretty happy then, but in six years I've grown in many ways (while staying pretty juvenile in others). I am closer to my Lord, I am closer to my wife--my best friend and love, who puts up with and accepts me--and I am closer to friends, of which there are more today than before. I have this beautiful little boy in my life whom I love more than I ever thought was possible to love another human being. Jobs come and jobs go. One career is left for one in another field. Scenery changes. Technology changes. The majority of the people in your life will pass before your eyes as if vapor. Six years ago, I didn't have as clear of a focus on the really important things of life, and today I do. A lot changes in six years. I'm so looking forward to the next six.
Miscellany
The iPod cases from ifrogz look very nice. I like the customizable aspects of the design, but would love to be able to upload my own image for the Screenz. A Retrophisch-branded iPod case in "Gun Metal" Wrapz and "Thick Black" Bandz would rock.
Amazon Grocery is now out of beta after more than 200,000 people have used it to shop for food staples.
One of the recent winners of a Flickr Pro account speaks to my childhood.
Stuff a calendar into your Backpack
So the calendar feature for Backpack launched today. I like how easy it is to add items to the calendar, and I realize this is a 1.0 release (Note to Google: it's not a beta.), but I'm greatly disappointed it didn't roll out with repeating events as part of the feature set. I was looking forward to using iCal solely as the desktop conduit between an online calendar I can access anywhere, and my mobile devices with which I would like to sync calendar events.
Sure, I can do that with Google Calendar, but I'm already in Backpack so much, and I like 37signals' implementation and interface better. Besides repeating events, other features I'd like to see added in a future update, ranked in order of personal importance:
+ Events added to Backpack's Calendar do not show the scheduled time within the calendar. Mark Gallagher notes this in the announcement's comments, because to see an event's time, you have to click on the event, instead of just being able to glance at the calendar and seeing all of the times in context.
+ The ability to toggle the time on the reminder. For some events, I need more than 30 minutes notice, my parents' anniversary, for instance, which I need a few days notice so I can buy a card and put it in the mail to them. Yes, I know I can use Backpack's Reminders feature for this, but it would be more productive to have this built in to the Calendar side of the house. It seems like overkill, and double work, for me to enter the event of my parents' anniversary in to the calendar, then have to switch over and enter a separate reminder to buy a card days in advance.
Commenter "D" notes: "Quick hack to get repeating events: enter them as reminders and then subscribe to your reminder feed within calendar." This is working well for me, so far, but then you'll get in to the situation of all of your reminders being in a single calendar, when you would like to have reminders in different calendars: Personal, Work, Pet, and so on.
In the Backpack Calendar forums, 37signals' own Jason Friedman notes that they weren't happy with the repeating events implementation, and decided not to include it the 1.0 release. So at least for now, the best way to get this function is D's suggestion, but it's nice to know it is being worked on, and we can expect it in the future. I hope this upcoming implementation allows for the setting of a time other than thirty minutes before.
+ Single, all-day events should be displayed in the same way as multiple-day events. This was a suggestion by Ryan Christensen in the announcement's comments. This would distinguish the all-day event, like my aforementioned parents' anniversary, from a time-specific event, like "Give the dog his heartworm pill at noon".
+ To-do list implementation for the calendar. Again, from the comments to the announcement, Jeff Croft asks about this, specifically that supported by the iCalendar format. Probably ninety-five percent of what I personally use Backpack for is some sort of to-do list. For short-term stuff, I would love to see this implemented in the Calendar, but have lived without it this far. I would much rather see 37signals devote developer time to repeating events and print styles, something they still need for Backpack's regular pages.
All in all, the Calendar function in Backpack is simple and elegant, and on par with what I would expect from 37signals. It took them two and a half months to arrive at this point; I hope the next two and a half months result in usability improvements which put the Backpack Calendar over the top.
And we're back
Mucho gracias to sysadmin extraordinaire Jim, who was up late last night with the server transition. There is nothing like a fast server on a fast pipe to give you the warm fuzzies in your little geek heart.
Server migration
We're moving servers, thanks to the efforts of Jim, our sysadmin extraordinaire, so this site and its related entities will be unavailable for a while, beginning around 8 PM CST this evening. This includes e-mail, so if you try to send anything to my e-mail address at this domain after 8 PM, you may want to wait until tomorrow.
Israel Update
If you'd like a first-person account of the Hezbollah attacks on Israel, and the Israeli response, head over to David Dolan's site and subscribe to his e-mail list. David is a Christian pastor and author who has been resident in Israel for many years. Last year, David spoke at our church, and even for someone like me, who has followed the Mideast conflict, and the region's history, for many years, it was eye-opening.
Miscellany
I love the build names for Ubuntu Linux: "Breezy Badger", "Dapper Drake". Are they all alliteral? [Via Paul.]
Though I don't do nearly enough of either, I love hiking and camping, and could see myself as a flashpacker.
Stephen H. Wildstrom has the latest idiotic move by the recording industry, which is suing XM Satellite Radio over its Inno portable receiver/recorder. Even though there's no way to get the XM-specific music files off the Inno (yet), and despite the millions and millions of dollars in royalties XM already pays the music industry, the Inno is obviously a threat to the future of music as we know it and it must be stopped. In other news, consumers welcomed more artists as the latter left the major music labels...
Entrepreneurs should check out the WSJ's StartupJournal.
Jajah
Guy mentions the web telephony service Jajah, which looks interesting, especially when compared to Skype. Unlike the latter, Jajah doesn't require you to download any software, and you use your own phone. This is just about as dead-simple telephony as you can get. You enter your phone number, then the number you're calling, then hit the Call button. Your phone rings, you answer, then it rings the number you're calling. That's it. So, like Skype, you can call internationally really cheap. Unlike Skype, you can dial Guadalajara, then chat on your mobile with the golf pro who took three strokes off your game, all while you drive to your local course. Personally, I've never had much use for Skype. I haven't called internationally in ten years, easy. Calls within the borders of the U.S. are covered adequately by my mobile phone plan. And if I were calling internationally, I may not want to be tied to the computer when doing so. Should I have the need, I can certainly see myself favoring Jajah.
Weblogs, Pamphlets and Public Citizens: Changing Modern Media
Speaking of Tom, he's authored a great paper as part of the Master's program he's enrolled in. Titled "Weblogs, Pamphlets and Public Citizens: Changing Modern Media", in which he compares the citizen journalists of today's blogosphere to the pamphleteers of pre-Revolutionary War America. I got a sneak peek during the drafting and editing phase, and I think it's really good. Some choice quotes:
The effects of blogs in a new media environment are twofold: Weblogs cover stories that their mainstream media counterparts, for editorial reasons or other gatekeeping practices common in modern professional media, omit or miss entirely; and weblogs also bring to bear an ever-vigilant group of diverse problem solvers that fact-check the work of many reporters and journalists in the mass-media arena. This makes the blogosphere an excellent addendum to mass media, operating as both appendix and errata to the main compendium of stories that the mass media puts into the public sphere using trained reporters and journalists. and As technology had advanced further, producing Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a distribution method that allows for easy and automatic syndication of new additions to weblogs, it has become possible for a consumer of media to add weblogs to their daily news diet. This allows for readers to mix and match their media, creating a new media outlet that is personally tailored to their interests and to their pursuits. Using an RSS-reader application on a personal computer, a sports fan can have a forty-page sports section and a one page local section, or a political junkie can have page after page of differing commentary from a variety of sources. The reader becomes their own editor and gatekeeper, combining multiple weblogs and conventional media sources, which have also adopted RSS, into their own personal fountain of news and commentary. If you've read Dan Gillmor's We The Media and/or Hugh Hewitt's Blog, some of Tom's piece will sound familiar, especially in that he cites the former as a source, but I say the familiarity makes Tom's arguments stronger. Good work, my friend!
Miscellany
I know Lee will be interested in Anil's observations on web site comments.
Stop wandering aimlessly through that phone tree, and get a human on the line.
"This is hot." New fan-created Firefox ad that's really good.
Love coffee? Love cafes, but don't want to support the corporate monstrosity? Then use Delocator to find local shops near you. And please, if you know of a local cafe that's not listed on Delocator, add it!
[Waves of the phin to John, Paul, and John at FD.]
Firefox Flicks
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.]
Miscellany
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.]
Miscellany
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.
They're still around?
I'm sure some of you will respond to this revelation with a "Well, duh!", but CompuServe is still around. One of the ladies in our minichurch has a cs.com e-mail address, and suddenly curious as to what that domain was, I punched it in to Safari's address box. Lo and behold, it's CompuServe. Which is now owned by Netscape. Which is owned by AOL Time Warner. Weirdness.