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Of the first 50 of 100 things on this list, I particularly like the following¹:

7. Do not announce your name. No jokes, no flirting, no cuteness.

8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.

10. Do not inject your personal favorites when explaining the specials.

15. Never say "I don't know" to any question without following with, "I'll find out."

18. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, "Who's having the shrimp?"

20. Never refuse to substitute one vegetable for another.

32. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.

34. Do not have a personal conversation with another server within earshot of customers.

41. Saying, "No problem" is a problem. It has a tone of insincerity or sarcasm. "My pleasure" or "You're welcome" will do.

43. Never mention what your favorite dessert is. It's irrelevant.

48. Do not ask what someone is eating or drinking when they ask for more; remember or consult the order.

JPG is back (Issue 20 is now available). They're going all digital with print-on-demand for an extra fee.

The stupid site now lists me as a "Subscriber since October 2009," which isn't right at all, but I don't care enough to bother their support people to have it corrected.

I took advantage of a special to buy a year (now four issues) for $6 with four issues added free, but I was already paid up through issue 31. Fortunately, my account status says I have 20 issues left, so that seems to be right.

I gave a gift subscription to someone - I hope he got it as well.

I still haven't uploaded any photos since I removed them all when they supposedly went out of business. I didn't want my rights potentially sold to another company. That said, I still plan to take my time uploading photos and considering their "Plus" option.

I read the other day that Obama has played as much golf in eight months in office as George W. Bush played in eight years.

Remember how Bush was forced to give up the game by the media because there was a war going on and it looked silly to play "so much" golf?

And now what do we hear? How great it is to have a President who enjoys staying active?

Hypocrisy much?

It's bad enough that the QuickTime X player is crap, but there's a work-around: use QuickTime Player 7 when you don't want to deal with QuickTime X.

Unfortunately, on the Web, there's no such choice. You can't advance frame by frame, you can't control the volume, and there's a useless "rewind 30 seconds" button where more useful controls belong.

And you can't replace that plugin with a more useful one.

Grrr!

I've heard good things about AppleTV 3.0 software.

Something I need to do: check to see if an AppleTV can share its Internet connection with, say, a DirecTV receiver (via ethernet).

If so, I'll strongly consider getting one for the bedroom. The living room TV has the Xbox 360 (with Rivet), so I don't need an AppleTV there. The bedroom TV has only a DirecTV receiver that's currently using an old domed (snow) AirPort Extreme Base Station.

If I can replace the Base Station with an AppleTV, I may be buying. If not, then I still have no need for an AppleTV.

Page to check eventually: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html¹.

• Palmer course has fairways that are too narrow with elevation changes that are too severe.
• How does water not drain off these slopes? It doesn't.
• Got sick and tired of swinging at golf balls at belt or knee level.
• Jones course has dumb greens starting at about the eighth hole. At least SOME of the holes are flatter.
• Then again some, like the fifth, feature a 45° NASCAR style fairway.
• The rooms are nice enough.
• Only one dining option is lame.
• They're already preparing for Christmas.

At least I scored reasonably well.

Is it normal for the Kindle edition of a book to be pricier than the hardcover version? That doesn't make any sense.

I'd pre-order, but I don't want to spend more to get a DRMed book. I imagine this will be fixed, but November 12 is soon.

If you like to check your WordPress stats from your iPhone, you may like Statistics for WordPress, an iPhone app by Ben Barnett.

He sent a copy to me for free. I added this blog quickly and then waited for the stats to download. They did, and they proved interesting, with a few different views of data I hadn't really seen before.

Only two problems. First, the thing was slow. I'm not sure what the holdup was, but it took about a minute for stats to load (on WiFi). Second, the app crashes on me now while it's trying to get the newest data. Every time.

It's $2.99 if you'd like to give it a try yourself… but I'd hold off for a version that's faster and doesn't crash. Then again, maybe it's just me. My site does have a (); in the title.

On a day when I hear that Aperture 3 will not ship until May, 2010¹, Adobe offers up Lightroom 3.0 Public Beta. The download is here.

Features:

• Redesigned Importing - I like Aperture just fine here, and particularly like how it manages my images.
• Drag and Drop Publishing to the Web - I can do this too, but it might be nice on occasion to have it be simpler than relying on plugins (as with Aperture).
• Pro-Level Noise Reduction - Depending on how it works, either "eh" or "yes, please!"
• Built-in Film Grain Feature - Cuz you'll use this feature, what, twice, ever?
• Better Vignetting - "Eh."
• Export a Slideshow with Music - "Eh deux."
• Real Watermarking - Aperture's watermarking always leaves me guessing so much I simply opt not to watermark, so this might be good.
• Create Print Layouts Everywhere - I don't print.
• Change Background Color for Prints - I still don't print.
• Collections Panel is now in Develop Module - I'm still not entirely sure I like the idea of having "modules" to begin with.

I'll download it, but I'm not even sure I'll install it.

What are your thoughts?

Oh, and where the heck is Aperture 3.0? Or even any chatter about it? Why can't Apple do something public like this²?

P.S. 68.1 MB for Mac OS X, 120 MB for Windows, both as .zip files?

Alternative title: "Everything Wrong with Microsoft":

Seriously?

P.S. Microsoft even poached store managers: Lisa at Apple, Lisa at MSFT (thanks ap).

So the wisdom teeth I said I needed to have removed? They came out today.

I went with nitrous because it seemed like one of those decisions that you can regret later on… after it's too late. Turned out I really wouldn't have needed it at all.

Both teeth popped out in about thirty seconds. They pried into the "inter-ligamental space" (or something like that), wiggled them a little, and popped them right out.

I took 400 mg of Advil already (this may be enough I'm told), but if I want to live out any Greg House fantasies I have a vicodin prescription ready and waiting.

The fridge and freezer are stocked with puddings and ice creams. I have gauze soaking up any remaining blood, and I should be good to go. I'm going to take it easy over the next few days, and perhaps I'll update this post if anything strikes me. But right now, things seem fine (knock on wood).

P.S. I really have having gauze in my mouth. I have a hard time resisting the urge to swallow.

I like the recommendations. I've always used SoundTrack Pro, but I may look at getting a boom, an XLR mic, and the M-Audio stuff eventually.

On the bright side, my wireless mic finally shipped. It should be here Monday.

Let's see…

I don't need an iMac. We have three laptops and one Power Mac already.

I use my Xbox 360 and Rivet to stream movies and music and things to my TV, so I don't need a Mac Mini.

We just got a MacBook, so we don't need that.

A new remote? I can count on zero fingers the number of times I've used the one I have.

Magic Mouse? I need buttons, like the 10 or so my Logitech has.

Guess my wallet stays in my pocket this time around.

If you are a Flash developer looking for a project, please get in touch with me.

If you know a Flash developer looking for a project, please get in touch with me.

Thanks.

They're everywhere, I know. I wrote about some earlier ones here and today I discovered a new case in Preview.

Dragging a proxy icon to the trash did nothing. But opening the trash and dragging the proxy icon to the trash can's window properly moved the file to the trash.

Perhaps now that things like the Finder are re-written and, presumably, up-to-date, and Snow Leopard in general was a "fine-tuning" type of release, Apple engineers can focus on the little things that drive some people nuts. Proxy icons would make that list, I'd have to think.