NSLog();

Apple released Aperture 3.0 today. I'll update this post after I have a chance to read through the full list of updates, watch some videos, and play with the demo (I've already ordered my license but that will arrive later - why can't they give me a license now?).

One thing that makes me somewhat concerned: that Apple seems to view Aperture as an upgrade from iPhoto and is actively trying to push people that way. Simplicity is good, but I also don't necessarily need a "dumber" Aperture, so I hope that's not what we've got.

I also don't see myself using Faces or Places very much at all. But that's me, and the types of things I shoot are limited, and I tend to organize and name the albums and photos fairly simply and to remember those names, too.

Update: in no particular order, some thoughts…

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 701); »

The clubhouse at Whispering Woods is in what might be called "rough blueprint" stage. It's sketched up, and by an architect, but things are still very much at play and there are a bunch of things to shift around.

The clubhouse will be 6500 square feet or so and will have a smallish Pro Shop, two indoor eating areas, a large outdoor eating area facing the 18th green. Downstairs golfers will find club storage, a small locker room with showers for men and women, and cart storage with separate entry/exit ramps.

I look forward to groundbreaking and the eventual opening of the clubhouse in 2011, and I know the people who work there are excited as well.

More details tk.

Carey and I watched the Super Bowl. It was on in the background while we did other things, but I was glad that Peyton choked like the girly man that he is. I think Indianapolis and Peyton (and Eli) and Tom Brady have gotten far more hype than they deserve, and frankly, I'm sick of Peyton Manning appearing in every other commercial on TV.

Peyton's got one whole Super Bowl win now. Whoopty doo.

Top five QBs in the league? Sure. Brady and Peyton belong there, but I'll still take Ben Roethlisberger every day of the week and twice on Sundays, as they say. But you had to know that… More on that here.

OK, I hadn't intended to post on QBs, so forget that. I think the commercials were - as usual - stupid again this year. Frankly, the funniest one to me might have been the Miller High Life commercial where four "local businesses" were given time.

Carey was rooting for the Saints because someone has been obnoxious - for months - about the Colts in a professional setting where they should just say nothing or keep it short. So she was delighted. She was happier than I was when Peyton threw that pick that sealed his fate.

Carey was talked into getting a "MyFrogz" case for her iPhone awhile back, and I liked it, so I picked up a yellow/black (Let's Go Pens!) recently as well. It does what I need - protects the back of the case from scratches and provides a bit of grip as well.

I used to have a leather DLO hip holster, but the leather wore through the metal belt clip and I didn't replace it because, most of the time, the iPhone was out of the case anyway and unprotected.

Carey and I also have an anti-glare plastic sticky thing (screen cover?) on our iPhones. It's a weird feeling at first, but it virtually eliminates glare AND fingerprints, and the feeling is better than sliding across the glass itself. They're only $12 or so for three¹, and I consider them a great buy.

What cases (and/or screen covers) have y'all bought for your iPhone?

Goodness gracious. Or whatever that phrase is.

Spam is not a huge deal for me. I only get 50 or so a day (and most of those come through servers I don't control and thus don't have SpamAssassin on). Hundreds or thousands of emails are blocked and deleted at my server(s) every day.

But sometimes, for curiosity's sake, I hop into my Junk mail folder and look at some of the messages.

WHO CLICKS ON THIS SHIT?!?! STOP DOING IT!!!!

If nobody clicked on spam and bought Viagra or tried to make their penises larger or whatever people are selling these days, nobody would get spam anymore.

It's almost like a kid can stop another kid from bullying him: he either beats the crap out of the other kid or he doesn't react. The latter option works wonders - just ignore the spam, don't click it, and they'll go away.

What percentage of people out there click on these things? 10%? 50%? I'm curious, because whatever percent it is, they're really mucking it up for the rest of the world.

The wife and I have decided that we'd like to buy a recliner. Currently, I sit on the couch and Carey sits on the love seat for reading. I'll slide down and sit on the floor to use my computer, or use the couch table lamps for reading. She'll do everything on the love seat.

We'd like to add a recliner. I imagine I'll be using it primarily and Carey will move over to the couch on occasion. We'd like something that's incredibly comfortable - particularly for reading.

I've read some articles (like this one and ).

Budget is $600 to $1000 (fairly firm at the top of course). The couch and love seat are a microfiber/faux suede, and neither of us are dead set on any particular fabric or finish except that we're pretty sure we don't want vinyl. The recliner won't go against a wall and there's room behind it, so we don't need a wall-saver type. A rocker type that spins might be nice, and I think we'll want a footrest included so we don't have an ottoman.

It'll be a little while before we really get into it, but if you have any opinions or insight, please share.

I have the latest version of Adobe Photoshop. I have the latest version of Mac OS X. And yet I can't copy and paste an image with transparency into Photoshop.

I often come across this problem after I "copy image" from Safari or when I hold down the control key when taking a screenshot to put the image on the clipboard.

Pasting into Photoshop turns this image:

Into this pile of garbage:

The only way around this is to take an actual screenshot and open the actual PNG file in Photoshop.

This bug has existed for quite some time - perhaps since 10.6 - and unfortunately I've yet to see anyone talking about fixing it. Is Adobe even aware of the issue? They should be. Searches reveal plenty of others complaining about it.

The only reason the last choice even exists is so that I could choose it.

You see, I hadn't planned to buy an iPad because, frankly, I had absolutely no need for it. None. I'm quite content to use my iPhone, laptop, and desktop and don't feel inconvenienced or put out in doing so, so I won't "invent" a need.

But Brad's going to buy me an iPad because we're going to release Cyndicate 2.0 for the Mac with syncing support for an iPad version of Cyndicate. Reading feeds on the iPad would be nice.

And since a good portion of what I do at night is to read some web articles I couldn't read during the day and to cruise the forum, an iPad with Cyndicate, the built-in Safari, and Tapatalk¹, perhaps I'll find myself using the iPad for more than development, bug testing, and feature suggestions.

I still hope magazines comes out, though, and in a big way. I want to stop getting paper magazines in the mail.

As I just said on mailing list: Magazines could be the "killer app" for the iPad. I'd buy one if that's all it did. I'm not buying one now.

Me, earlier today. But hey, I've been saying the same thing for a whole week now.

There's also this and my friend Don's take on it.

I launched Adobe Photoshop and was told - for the umpteenth time in the past few weeks - that Adobe Updater wanted to update Adobe Reader.

Instead, I deleted everything with "adobe" and "reader" in the filename. Let's see what problems that causes…

It's truly horrifying how accurate this is.

Y'know, I think I wish there was a setting.

The raw MP4 file uploaded to YouTube for this video is 9.2 MB.

The raw video as pulled from my iPhone via the sync cable is 71.2 MB.

That's just a wee bit more compression than I'm happy with… I think that, in the future, I'll pull videos off of my iPhone and upload them from the computer rather than this.

Oh, and I was using my home's WiFi, not AT&T's 3G. How about a variable compression setting based on your connection method?

P.S. YouTube needs a "replace video" feature. Vimeo has it.

Some quotes followed by brief commentary.

My Box of Cruft:

Remember way back to January 2007, when the iPhone was announced? Oh Internets, you wailed and gnashed your teeth endlessly. No 3G network? No MMS? No apps on the iPhone? No replaceable battery? Oh, your complaints were endless. You were sure that the iPhone was doomed because it didn’t meet all your requirements.

And what happened? Well, Apple has sold 40 million iPhones. FORTY MILLION. They have become the largest mobile device company in the world.

So today, you moan on and on about all the features you expected and demand in the iPad. What no Verizon? No two-way camera? It’s not weightless? A full half inch thick? Only 10 hours of battery life? You make tons of predictions on the success and failure with scant details and without ever actually trying one.

Well, I am lucky enough to have been at the Apple Event today. Deep within the Reality Distortion Field. I saw the demo live, not snap shots on a web site. I got to use the iPad and see how it worked in person. I talked with other people that had tried it.

And you know what, just like Steve Jobs said, you need to hold it for yourself. It’s a different computing experience. It’s intuitive and simple. The device is blazingly fast and obvious how to use. It is a third kind of computing between a smartphone and a laptop.

3G, MMS, and apps came. That doesn't render the gnashing of teeth irrelevant. In fact, it does more to prove the opposite - that they were necessary features. And now that we have them, it seems silly to roll out an iPad that lacks some key features.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 976); »

I like to host little group chats using the AIM network. Today's was in the "AppleTablet" room. If I had known what was to come I'd have told everyone to join the "ZzzzzzzzzzPad" room or something.

The full entry contains the text from the chat.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 17019); »

If you'd like to sign up to be considered for inclusion in the semi-public DSLRU beta period, which will begin on February 15, 2010, please head on over to http://udslr.com/ to sign up.

The official site is and will be at dslru.com, but for now udslr.com - the old name for the site - has a simple sign-up page.

We're working hard on this and think it's shaping up quite nicely.

Users in this beta will not only get a sneak peek at the site, but we'll ask three things of them primarily: a) point out any bugs you find, b) suggest possible feature enhancements, and c) seed and use the forum with some good topics and discussions.

We don't have well defined plans in place for any sort of "prizes" or "compensation" right now, but we'd like to take care of our "early adopters." It may not be in February or March, but sometime we'd like to thank them - particularly the good ones.