NSLog();

Last week I bought a Smartcast watch and an extra radar beacon. José and I tested it in my apartment complex pond, and it worked pretty well. Early tests in saltwater were simply frustrating, and didn't work as expected. The thing will get another test on Lake Ida tomorrow morning when I try to catch some bass with some plastic worms and crankbaits. Yeah, we'll see.

The primary reason I picked this thing up is not for the same reasons Humminbird likes to advertise - that you can cast to exactly where you want to fish and get a reading. Instead, I got it because a fishfinder on a kayak would take up entirely too much room. This thing is a watch and a small floating beacon - very compact.

Others seem to like it.

I've still yet to take the G5 out of its box (been busy, really) since I got it on Friday, but I've now got the names for its hard drives: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. These names fit perfectly, I think, and it was a stroke of brilliance for Gabe to suggest them by asking "what's your favorite movie?"

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 250 GB SATA drives, will replace my current G4's 120 GB ATA drives, "Gaia" and "Monde" as the main holding tanks for the crap I require to function day in and day out.

Hmm, now I've got to find an appropriate icon (and only one, since I psync one drive to the other nightly). Any suggestions?

Perhaps I could eat cheesburger fries (use the user/pass "macnn") while looking over these free Cocoa frameworks from the author of Path Finder (an app I've never really liked much).

Question: The two-point conversion in the NFL: good or bad?

My Answer: I was glad that they finally brought it back. It's a good thing, and unlike the DH in the AL, I hope that it remains for quite a long time.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Football is a game of numbers, and this one can be summarized pretty easily:

                Tenn      Pitt
  First Downs:  9         25
 Time of Poss:  24:10     35:50
        Plays:  39        75
Rushing Yards:  40        69
Passing Yards:  158       307

I've left one off, and it's the most important:

Interceptions:  0         2

Tommy Maddox was off today. Amos Zereoue needs to learn to run straight ahead and stop trying to juke before he's made yards. The defense played pretty well (though I'd beat some sense into Chad Scott if I could right about now). Two interceptions? That was the game. That and the safety.

P.S. At least I got to watch the Steelers go to 2 and 2, unlike Rick.

Question: What is the most important feature in your car?

My Answer: The most important is that it "goes" of course, but that's not in the spirit of the question. The most important feature - the one that I like the most - is the stereo. I could not stand to have a car without a stereo (and a good one at that).

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: What was your first computer?

My Answer: An Apple ][e that my mom brought home from school. I was about, oh, two years old or so.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

I have seen the enemy, and man is he ugly. I'm used to Wintellian ripoffs being ugly, clunky, cumbersome, and non-intuitive, but this one has catapulted itself to the top of the "worst of the worst" list.

"The question is, how much and how far Dell can go with it?" says Dell President Kevin Rollins. "How many new products can Dell add to its portfolio? Where does it end? We think there's a somewhat limitless number of products and services we could get into."

A friend of mine joked:

Soon they'll have their own OS: "Deldows."

Where can I get a Dell electric toothbrush with Bluetooth? Ah, never mind that, I'm still trying to figure out what "somewhat limitless" means. Either way, Dell's potential to continue developing ugly, clunky, cumbersome, and non-intuitive ripoffs is… how should I put it… "somewhat infinite."

Since the 2.0 release, SpamSieve's stats on my system are:

Good Messages.......655
Spam Messages.......2317
False Positives.....25
False Negatives.....3
Correct.............99.1%

Not bad. The highest I got on the previous version was about 93%, which still meant I had to deal with a lot of spam. The false positives number is disconcerting, but I started with a blank whitelist, and as that grows to allow messages from various folks, the accuracy will tend upwards.

Question: How did you learn to type, and how do you type now?

My Answer: I type "properly" - fingers on the home keys and all. My wrists usually rest on the table, though, and I don't care - I type just fine this way. It's the lazy way, I know. I took a class as early as I could - eighth grade, I think - because I knew I'd be typing a lot (reports, essays, homework, etc.). I got up to about 120 words per minute with acceptable error tolerance (one typo every 100 words) in class, though I'd put my casual typing closer to about 90 wpm. Before class, I was a skilled hunt-and-pecker. Hmm, I seem to have just called myself a pecker… 😛

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

It has shipped! I should have it in two days (does Airborne deliver on Saturdays?). Incidentally, 1 GB PC3200 modules from RAMJet come with little heat sinks clipped onto them (this should explain why I got "only" 512 MB in the config below).

Z07K       POWER MAC G5 2.0GHZDP CTO                   1         x,xxx.xx
           With the following configuration:

              Processor                 065-4227  Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
              Memory                    065-4356  512MB DDR400 (PC3200) - 2x256
              Hard Drive                065-4287  2x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
              Optical Drive             065-4168  Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
              Graphics Support          065-4288  ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
              Fibre Chl PCI             065-4491  None
              Modem                     065-4166  56k V.92 Internal Modem
              BlueTooth                 065-4292  BlueTooth Module
              Airport                   065-4293  Airport Extreme Card
              Keyboard Language         065-4161  Apple Keyboard & Mouse
              Mac OS Language           065-4160  Mac OS X
              Country Kit               065-4159  Country Kit

Now I just have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with my dual 800 (2x120 GB, 1.5 GB, Zip, SuperDrive). Hmmm. Any ideas?

Easily the most ridiculous thing I've heard this month:

There is no sense in letting kids get accustomed to easier-to-use, more reliable machines that are less prone to viruses when they will have to grow up and survive in the modern workplace.

Quote courtesy of Pinellas County superintendent Howard Hinesley on his decision to replace the existing (and admittedly aged) Macs with PCs. (See first comment.) 2/3 of the county's current computers have a fruit logo on them.

Where oh where is MovableType Pro? Announced February 13, the thing has yet to materialize. TypePad is off and running.

This one is certainly worth watching. It's funny and contains more than a shred of truth, which only makes it funnier. I'll try not to spoil anything, but I will say that my favorite part was when he walked past the fat stick figure.

P.S. Please note that .asf files will play just fine in VLC.

P.P.S. Thanks, Aaron.

Ed and The West Wing premiered this evening. I didn't like either. Ed - what are they going to do now that Ed and Carol are together? The whole damn show was about how they were meant to be together but couldn't be. Now (next week) they're throwing potato chip bags at each other and finding out what each others annoying habits are? C'mon! The show could tank. And The West Wing - yes, it's a drama, but I like the show for one reason above all others: the fast-paced humor. The season premiere had exactly none of that.

Maybe I just had a bad day, or maybe I expected too much. Maybe I should watch Friends to try to bolster my confidence in season premieres. Ha, yeah, like that'd do it. Yawwwwn.

Any other Ed or West Wing fans out there have a different opinion? Or the same one put in better words? Please share.