Fall season opener
This past Sunday, the 27th, we had the first softball game of the 2006 fall season. I am continuously amazed how we can go three months without seeing one another, except for those rare moments at church, and yet fall right back in to the same banter and camaraderie in the dugout. This first game was against the Renegades of First UMC in Lewisville, and we were behind from the first inning on. The banter and camaraderie may have returned, but our playing ability was lacking. Still, we fought on, keeping the score close throughout. I found myself at left center, where I had played only a couple of times before. We only had the minimum number of players show up, five of each gender, so there were no substitutions available. I don't mind the outfield, though I need to get my arm strength up, and it would help if I dropped some of my excess baggage--of which there is now ten less pounds--to make it easier to get around the grassy expanse beyond the baselines. I made one great catch; the ball hung up there forever, in the sun, but in the end, I barely had to move at all, just concentrating and not losing sight of that white sphere. I also had a bad error, not squaring myself in front of a hopper, and it bounced right over my glove, allowing an in-the-park home run. My time at the plate was pretty abysmal, especially considering I'd hit the cages the morning before. I went one for three at bat, but made it to first twice, thanks to a throwing error by the opposition shortstop. In the end, our team staged a fifth-inning comeback--home team advantage comes through again!--scoring three runs to win the game by one. We were pleased with our hanging in to the end, and hopefully this game cleared all of the cobwebs from our collective play. No games this coming weekend, due to the holiday, so we'll have to wait until the tenth to face our friends from Flower Mound UMC.
Miscellany
- For you baseball aficionados, Tiff has a great story on what happened when she gave tickets to some coworkers, and how they thanked her.
- Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit, affectionately known as the MacBU, has its own blog.Via The Iconfactory
- Someone took the house I, and I'm sure thousands of others, would love to live in--Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater--and put it in Half Life 2.Via del.icio.us
ATPM 12.09
The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. Wes examines the kerfluffle du jour in the Mac blogosphere, that of the supposed Airport wi-fi hack which, as more and more evidence is examined, appears to be a complete fake. It's a shame that this falsehood had to be propagated at the same time Apple's World Wide Developers Conference was going on. In the offering is another double dose from Mark, who looks at the power of the press when it comes to a conflict resolution, and the trickle-down effect of broadband access in the United Kingdom. Ted discusses new business models, as they pertain to the outlining community, holding up Hog Bay's Mori as an example, in this month's ATPO. Chuck takes a break from showing you how to get more out of FileMaker, and instead offers a roundup of what's new in the newly-released FileMaker Pro 8.5. Miraz Jordan continues her look at development tools that can make pages which meet basic standards for Web accessibility, this time giving RapidWeaver the what-for. If you're interested in running Classic Mac software on your Intel Mac, Chuck shows you how in this month's How To section. This month's desktop pictures are again brought to us courtesy of Robert Reis. These photos of the rolling German countryside were taken during Robert's recent trip to Deutschland for the World Cup. Matthew takes the PowerPC-only Guest PC for a spin, while Ellyn decided to talk to her computer this month. She was reviewing iListen after all. Lee examines the TVMax and TVMicro from Miglia, and Wes looks at the very interesting WriteRoom, which will be getting its own workout on phischbowl computing systems. As usual, you can read the latest issue of ATPM online, or in one of three other formats. We aim to please.
In case you thought optimism was dead
The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser--in case you thought optimism was dead. --Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1972- ) [Courtesy of today's AWAD.]
What Your Freshmen Don't Know
Every year, an updated list of things incoming college freshmen, or graduating high school seniors, know and don't know circulate the Internet. Hugh points to the latest from Beloit College.
I won't rehash the list here, but thought I would share some of my favorite points:
+ There has always been only one Germany.
Whenever I think about this historic event, I am always reminded of Dennis Miller's (and there's a personality a lot of these kids may be wholly unaware of) commentary on SNL's "Weekend Update", when he said, and I'm paraphrasing, except for the last line: "Today, East and West Germany announced their plans for unification. France has already announced its formal surrender."
+ A stained blue dress is as famous to their generation as a third-rate burglary was to their parents’.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it's much less so for them than their parents.
+ They have never had to distinguish between the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football teams.
This has been true for a long while now, for many incoming/outgoing classes.
+ Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.
Do they even know who Milli Vanilli were?
+ Reality shows have always been on television.
Unfortunately. Oh so unfortunately...
+ Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
I don't believe this is something that is new to this particular class.
+ Most of them have never had the chance to eat bad airline food.
Since when is there good airline food?
+ Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.
And that is a crying shame. It was something of a rite of passage in my childhood to stay up so late that you were still watching when the anthem came on. Though these days, it's mostly because there is no end to the broadcast day.
+ They have always “dissed” what they don’t like.
Do kids this age still use that word?
Miscellany
- The U.S. Army now has podcasts.
- Picture Framer is one of myriad non-productive widgets, but it's probably the first one of that category that I like.
- There are new Get a Mac ads, and in "Trust Mac", I swear Justin Long is about to truly crack up every time he has to look at John Hodgman wearing the glasses and fake mustache.
[Via Paul.]
And Sony wonders why they're losing to Samsung and Apple
We have a Sony DirecTV/Tivo unit my mother-in-law gave as a Christmas gift to us several years ago. In techno-age, it's ready to retire and move to Florida, but it still does the job, and the TiVo interface is still light-years ahead of DirecTV's own DVR receivers, of which we have two. Some of the buttons on the Sony remote have stopped working, however, and it's finally gotten to the point where we need a new remote. A trip to Sony's web site reveals they no longer sell the remote (shocker, I know), but there is an online form with which you can inquire as to parts. So I fill it out, noting we have the DirecTV receiver/TiVo DVR combo unit, as well as putting in the only part numbers I'm able to find any where on the remote itself. This was a month ago. Today, I receive a reply from Sony. Therein, I'm told:
I think you might have model SVR2000. If this is it, the remote is rmtv303 (147603612) which is nla. Please go on www.yahoo.com and type in either the part number of the model number of the remote and do a search. There still should be internet distribuors that carry it. Fine and dandy, this was along the lines of what I was expecting. Except the genius got the model number wrong, and the part number for the remote wrong. I only discovered this after doing exactly what is suggested above, running a Yahoo search. On one page which listed several remotes, I discovered another part number for a Sony TiVo remote, and it turned out to be the correct one. For the record, the SVR2000 is the Sony TiVo DVR; it is not the DirecTV receiver/TiVo combo. That is model SAT-T60. The remote part number for the SAT-T60 is RM-Y809. I found a new one for $55, with a 30-day, money-back guarantee (yay, Yahoo!). This is future reference for myself, as well as help for anyone else who may find themselves in a similar situation. I just think it shows very bad form for a Sony employee to, (a) take a month to respond, and (b) when finally responding, providing the wrong information. I was very explicit in noting that we had the DirecTV receiver/TiVo combo, and not the TiVo-only SVR2000. Sony has rested on its laurels, and formerly well-deserved reputation, for too long, and it continues to result in products no one are buying, and poor customer service after the fact.
Do you know what sucks?
Having a quarter bottle of picante sauce in the fridge, plus an unopened bottle in the pantry, and not a single tortilla chip any where in the house.
Miscellany
- Thanks to the folks at Xerox, with help from Layer 8 Group, you can send a postcard, with original artwork by a child, to a member of the armed forces serving abroad: Let's Say Thanks. I sent one, how about you?
[Via Susan via e-mail.] - About.com has some good advice in its Back to School section concerning backpack selection for students. The first tip they offer, to get a bag with two straps instead of just one, to help balance the load across the body better, is why I'm a dedicated backpack guy.
- My new addiction is Armagetron Advanced, an open source 3D game of the lightcycle contest from Tron.
"I can feel it, coming in the air tonight..."
So with my spouse not all that interested in seeing it, I took in Miami Vice this afternoon. I went in with preconceived notions, thanks to hearing about/reading reviews and opinions from a couple of friends. I knew to not expect much character development, I knew to expect to not be able to understand every single word from the actors (they mumble a bit, especially in the early parts of the film), and I expected some decent action and good cinematography. After all, it's a Michael Mann film. Possible spoilers ahead. Do not click through to continue if you don't want to know anything regarding the plot.
The Patriot Post at 10
One of my favorite online publications turns ten years old this month, The Patriot Post. (Formerly known as The Federalist Patriot, and for a long time before that, simply The Federalist.) Publisher Mark Alexander has overseen a redesign of the publication's web site, and it's a big improvement over the previous design. You can now get notices of each new issue via RSS, and all issues since 2003 are archived online, with prior years to come. A subscription to The Patriot Post is free, and the publication is solely supported through reader donations.
"I love public transportation."
500 points to the member of the Stevenson family who can correctly identify the movie from which the above quote comes, and the character/actor who said it. I ususally don't go for Internet memes, and Tom didn't ping me with this one, but I thought it pretty cool nonetheless. How many public transportation systems have you ridden? Below are mine:
Update, 11:00 PM: My wife notes that New Orleans' RTA isn't on the list. I thought maybe because RTA didn't include some form of light rail that it failed to qualify, but then she reminded me that it has the trolleys, like San Fran's MUNI. So even though there's no icon for it, you can add New Orleans to my list.
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.
A Talledega night and a real type-cast film
Last evening, my bride and I had a date night, which included a viewing of Will Ferrell's Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Two enthusiastic thumbs-up, a Retrophisch™ Recommends. I laughed so hard at certain points, I cried. The out takes/"alternative scenes" at the end were worth the price of admission alone. My wife was right; the movie is so ridiculous, it's funny. Too often, comedy films are just outright ridiculous, and you're lucky to let loose with a few chuckles. Pure ridiculousness will only get you so far with the movie-viewing public. Pure ridiculousness in the hands of a master like Ferrell, however, will garner you big laughs. Such is the case with Talledega Nights, which even includes an exceptionally brief homage to the late Dale Earnhardt. (If you blink, you'll miss it; it's that fast. Fittingly appropriate, given the subject matter.) There's a lot to worry about in our world: Israel under attack in the Middle East; Iran and North Korea with nuclear power; Islamofascist terrorism; oil prices still way too high; our jobs; our families. Sometimes, we just need a good laugh, to forget about all the troubles for a couple of hours, and Talledega Nights fills the bill. Go see it.
In what may be the ultimate example of type-casting, there is a documentary under way about Helvetica. (It's a font, for those of you who don't know. Microsoft's Arial is a blatant rip-off wanna-be of it.) I am very tempted to nab a shirt. Director Gary Hustwit:
Why make a film about a typeface, let alone a feature documentary film about Helvetica? Because it's all around us. You've probably already seen Helvetica several times today. It might have told you which subway platform you needed, or tried to sell you investment services or vacation getaways in the ads in your morning paper. Maybe it gave you the latest headlines on television, or let you know whether to 'push' or 'pull' to open your office door.
Since millions of people see and use Helvetica every day, I guess I just wondered, "Why?" How did a typeface drawn by a little-known Swiss designer in 1957 become one of the most popular ways for us to communicate our words fifty years later? And what are the repercussions of that popularity, has it resulted in the globalization of our visual culture? Does a storefront today look the same in Minneapolis, Melbourne and Munich? How do we interact with type on a daily basis? And what about the effects of technology on type and graphic design, and the ways we consume it? Look for the film in 2007. [Via the Iconfactory.]
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.
The Anti-Semitism Story No One's Talking About
Jeff Jacoby has a great piece on he disparity in reporting regarding Mel Gibson's drunken racial slurs, and Naveed Haq's murderous rampage at a Jewish center in Seattle. The latter is yet another example, as Jacoby points out, noting other such type attacks which have taken place over the past few years, of members of the "Religion of Peace" suddenly developing "Sudden Jihad Syndrome". A Christian, who is such a rabid anti-abortionist that he begins killing doctors who perform the operation, is news fodder for weeks. But if a Muslim walks up to the counter of the Israeli-owned airline El Al, killing two people as he sprays the ticket area with bullets, it's quickly swept under the proverbial rug. What is the media's reluctance to point out what we know to be true: that the so-called "Religion of Peace" shows, day in and day out by the behavior of its adherents, that it is anything but.
Miscellany
Photo mosaics have become popular; I have one of Darth Vader, made up of different scenes from Episodes 4-6. There are many tutorials online for making your own photo mosaics, but John Tolva has one where you create your mosaic with LEGOs. You'll need Photoshop, and a healthy bank account for all those LEGO pieces you'll be buying. [Via Photojojo.]
How close to you and yours does a convicted sex offender live? Find out, thanks to Family Watchdog. [Via Daily Dose.]
Happy Birthday to the United States Coast Guard, which turns 216 years old today.
ATPM 12.08
The August issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Wes kicks things off by noting in this month's Bloggable that we still really don't have much to discuss in the Mac blogosphere but the departure of Pilgrim and Doctorow from the Mac-using citizenry. My hunch is that Apple's World Wide Developers Conference is going to change that very shortly. The plenteous Mark Tennent is tired of all the beeping in the world, and wishes Apple would turn its interface design skills loose on washers, dryers, and car radios. He'd also like to see a new sort of computer expo, where systems could be tested, real world-style, much like the test drive of an automobile before purchase. Publisher, editor-in-chief, developer, hiker, and all-around nice guy Michael Tsai returns to the pages of ATPM with a look at Mac OS X's increasing stability. Miraz Jordan continues her series on web accessiblity, this time putting Sandvox under the microscope. Sylvester is making good use of the summertime, cannonballing in to the world of Automator. Angus Wong ponders the new Zune music player from Microsoft, and the notion of corporate character. Sylvester uses all of that Automator learning to send automated birthday greetings. ATPM reader Robert Reis traveled to Germany to cheer on Trinidad & Tobago in the FIFA World Cup, and was kind enough to share some of his shots with us for this month's desktop pictures selection. Lee spends a good deal of time in InDesign, so he was a shoo-in for the review of O'Reilly's Adobe InDesign CS2 One On One. Paul upgrades his home entertainment center with the addition of Elgato's EyeTV 250, and, fittingly enough, the Sylvester Roque edition of ATPM closes with his review of the how-to book, Keep It Simple With GarageBand. We have several open positions on the ATPM staff, and we're looking to add regular reviewers to our stable of writers. If you're interested, please [drop us a line](mailto:editor@atpm.com?subject=Reviews Writer).
Grieving
There are some people in this world who have no concept of grieving over the death of a pet. "What's the big deal?" they ask. "It was just a cat/dog/bird/hamster." On some level, these people do have a point. They are "just" animals. Animals do not experience emotions the way humans do. Every reaction you see from an animal is conditioned, instinctual, or in-bred. A cat does not love. A dog does not love. Yet their domesticated behavior may, to our own emotions, look like expressions of love, and for that, we love them in return. We know in the back of our minds that when the cat plops itself down on our chest when we're trying to go to sleep, purring contentedly, it's not really saying, "I loooooooove you", but then we don't really care. We smile, give the cat a little rub on the head, maybe on the nose, and some long body strokes, and the purring only gets louder. It's a great way to fall asleep. We love the cat for this. (Especially when you're the only one in the house the cat does this with.) People who ask "What's the big deal?" when a pet like that dies will never get it. I'm so happy that Tom and Tiff are not among those people. I never had the opportunity to meet Guinness, though Tom and I shared many a conversation about him, and our other cats. Of all the photos of Guinness Tom has shared with me, and the rest of the world, this one is among my favorites:
There is something so very cat about it, and Guinness was a cat's cat. Kelly and I lost our first pet, our Pembroke Welch Corgi, Linus, in April 2002, having had our little pup for ten wonderful years. We know the heartbreak the Bridges are going through, because while Guinness was not a human, he was not a baby, a child, he was also not "just" a cat. He was a member of the family.