The Opinionated Amphibian Diatribes
SuperToad has redesigned the Pond, giving up his home-baked PHP model for a site generated by PostNuke. At least this way, his PHP knowledge doesn't go to waste. Now if I could just talk him in to another font for his logo... ;-)
SpamSieve 2.0
Being the bad friend that I am, I failed to note Michael's release of SpamSieve 2.0 last week. At least I have the excuse of a new son. :D SpamSieve is an awesome app that is effectively killing 90-95% of my daily email spam, and I have had 0--that's zero--false positives for a good three months or more. Version 2.0 only makes a great product better. Outside of Apple's Mail.app, it supports practically every major email client for Mac OS X, and tightly integrates with my and Michael's client of choice, Mailsmith. SpamSieve is well worth the $25 registration fee, so support a shareware developer who will save you more than $25 of your time each and every day of your online life. (Too obvious that I'm bucking for an unprecedented 3d quote at C-Command?)
Infuriating
So while the gloom of layoffs settled over the IT groups at VIS for the better part of a year, Chuck Lee, the former GTE CEO who sold us out to Bell Atlantic, is still picking up the perks: bq. Verizon Communication's former chairman and co-CEO, Charles Lee, became a "consultant" for the firm when he retired last year. In addition to the standard goodies, like office space, a staff, and use of an aircraft, he's receiving a consulting fee of $250,000 per month. (That's not a typo.) You'd think after getting paid $4 to $5 million in salary plus bonus over the past few years, and $27 million in options in 2002 alone, he'd have enough to retire on. Guess not. So I may lose my job, but heaven forbid that Chuck Lee not get to ride around in the corporate jet while he "consults" on where the company can make cuts...
Thoughts on War on Terror intelligence
"If we do not have human-intelligence assets in the field, then it's hard for us to get any kind of warning, unless the bad guys are really loose on how they use their cell phones. But the news media likes to tell people how we track the bad guys, and the bad guys learn from that. The White House staffers, too--they like to tell reporters how smart they are, and they leak data on signals intelligence. You sometimes wonder if they're stringers for the terrorists, the way they give away code-word-sensitive information." In reality, the staff pukes were just showing off to the reporters, of course, which was about the only thing they knew how to do. "So, the rest of the day the newsies will be screaming about 'another intelligence failure,' right?" "Bet on it. The same people who trash the intelligence community will now complain that it can't do the job--but without acknowledging their own role in crippling it every chance they get. Same thing from Congress, of course..." --The Teeth of the Tiger (emphasis added)
Texas Voter Guide 2003
If you are a Texas resident seeking more information on the proposed constitutional amendments we will be voting on come 13 September, point your browser to the Free Market Foundation. They have made available a free PDF or Word document voter guide which gives a brief summary of each proposed amendment, as well as a pro and con for each. Don't forget to vote! Early vote if you can so you don't miss out!
ATPM 9.09
The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is fresh from the oven. Two new staffers join up this month; Mary Tyler begins a series of articles focused on SOHO users, and Ted Goranson delivers a knockout on outliner application history. The usual accoutrements abound.
But where are the Bluetooth versions?
So Microsoft announced six new wireless optical desktop components, but none of them utilize Bluetooth for connectivity. Rather, one of your USB ports will still be eaten up by the RF receiver. Don't get me wrong, I love the freedom from clutter that the older Wireless Desktop Optical Pro keyboard and mouse give me at the office. I would prefer Bluetooth versions of the same for use at home, however.
Tigers on TBS
LSU is ranked #13 in the nation after stomping UL-Monroe 49-7 in their gimme-game season opener in Baton Rouge. So now TBS is carrying college games on Saturday nights, and they kick off their coverage with LSU taking on Arizona in the desert the night of the 6th. This is good and bad for the Tigers; good that LSU is playing at night, bad that it's on national television. I suppose in this case it's a wash, and hopefully the Tigers can take down Arizona in Tuscon. Geaux Tigers!
Skin your PowerBook
Speaking of the 12-inch PowerBook G4, the folks at MacSkinz now have skinz available for the smallest PowerBook. I first saw the MacSkinz guys at Macworld Expo, when they had the side panels for desktop G3s and G4s. Looking through the skinz available for the PowerBook 12" (yeah, like I still need to get one of those, right?), my favorites include: American Flag, Urban Camouflage, Flames Blue/White, Silver on Blue Flames, and Hibiscus Green. Of the latter, how about some other colors, MacSkinners? I'm partial to blue, in case you couldn't guess from my other choices. :)
12-inch PowerBook can go to a gig
Thanks to the fine folks at Trans Intl., the PowerBook G4 12" can now have more than 1 GB of RAM. This clears up one of the few misgivings I have about the smallest PowerBook. Unfortunately, going beyond 1 GB in a 12" PowerBook is going to be a somewhat exclusive club, at least in the beginning: price for the 1 GB DDR memory module is $499. Now if Apple will just throw in a minimum of a 1 GHz processor, and bump up that video chip and video RAM, I'd be one happy camper... (via MacMinute)
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.
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.
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..."
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...