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Length of Time != Good

Erik J. Barzeski — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:36:25 +0000

It's a common logical fallacy that the length of time a person spends doing something is directly proportional to their abilities at that thing.

For example, from a decade or so ago, "I've been training weimaraners for 40+ years." I'm sorry, but that doesn't mean you've been doing it well.

Pebble Watch

Erik J. Barzeski — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:07:30 +0000

I've joined as a backer for the Kickstarter Pebble. I like my iPod Nano watch a TON, but this looks far and away like the next level.

Update (04/22): It's now reached $6M and shows no signs of stopping.

The Newsroom

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:56:08 +0000

Sorkin. I'm in.

Might even order HBO for it.

Speaking of Spelling…

Erik J. Barzeski — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:49:32 +0000

I'm tired of people spelling my name "Eric." If you're a professional, and you're sending me an email, you look like a moron when you type "Eric" given that my name probably appears about four times within a few inches of the place where you type "Eric."

I double-check when sending email to "John"s to make sure it's not "Jon" or "Johnn" or something.

Spelling and Intelligence

Erik J. Barzeski — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:30:10 +0000

I've never met a super-intelligent person who doesn't spell well and who doesn't have a disability like dyslexia. I realize that they're out there, and that perhaps I've simply not met them yet, but most super-intelligent people read a lot, and I think that helps them to become better spellers, along with a sort of perfectionistic streak or tendency.

Kill the Penny!!!

Erik J. Barzeski — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:41:18 +0000

Canada Kills Its Penny; Can We Please Be Next?

Pretty please?

April 1 on a Sunday

Erik J. Barzeski — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:14:01 +0000

Does this mean we can escape the normal boringness of various sites having pranks? Pretty please? Have any of them ever actually been funny?

Sports Blackouts

Erik J. Barzeski — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:38:02 +0000

Good piece by Gedeon called "Why Won't TV Sports Blackouts Just Die Already?"

I haven't had a game I've wanted to see blacked out in years, but I only care about Pittsburgh sports (no basketball) and rarely get the chance - or have the interest for the past 20 years - in watching the Pirates.

CopyPastePro Bugs the Crap Outta Me

Erik J. Barzeski — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:19:31 +0000

While looking for an alternative to ClipMenu I found CopyPastePro.

Unfortunately, I hate three things about it that almost make it a deal breaker:

Inability to use a separate keyboard shortcut (like ctrl-cmd-v). CopyPastePro forces cmd-opt-ctrl-v, which is 10x as difficult as ctrl-cmd-v.
It misses or prevents the occasional copy. I'll copy a URL, for example, and close the browser window. The "Edit" menu will flash and everything (cmd-C) so I know I copied it, but the copied URL is not on my clipboard or in CopyPastePro. I may have closed my browser window, making retrieval difficult. This happens A LOT. Around 33-50% of the time a lot.
I hate the clip browser. I loved the way ClipMenu would show a menu in place and let me choose the one I wanted. So much more straightforward than the stupid clip browser.

CopyPastePro offers Clip Palettes, but I don't like them floating around on screen nor do I like accidentally displaying them. I prefer ClipMenu's method - a menu appears right beneath your mouse pointer. The keyboard or your mouse pointer may be used to navigate. CopyPastePro can move the mouse pointer TO the clip menu but that's awkward.

Why did I stop using ClipMenu? Because after awhile it seems to stop adding items copied to the clipboard to its menu. I don't notice it until it's too late, and development stopped quite a few years ago. The author's last post to Twitter was ~680 days ago.

In short: CopyPastePro does 10x what I need and is thus 10x as annoying and fraught with problems and bugs.

Power of Keynote for Web Design

Erik J. Barzeski — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 03:07:31 +0000

People apparently use Keynote as a design/mockup tool for web development (and other things).

Cool.

Me, I'm just hoping Keynote, Pages, and Numbers get an update for 10.8. They're feeling a bit long in the tooth. Still the best, but let's see what the next iteration gives us.