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I do not understand people who still smoke in 2010.

I get that it's an "addiction" and I can't say that I've ever truly understood "addiction," but isn't smoking one of the most easily cured addictions out there?

How any reasonably smart person can ever smoke is beyond me. How can they, in light of ALL the facts about smoking, continue to smoke?

Do you know any intelligent people - particularly those under the age of about 50 or so - who smoke? Fortunately, I can't think of many.

My wife turns 33 today. I'll say happy birthday to her in our own way later today (and it was the first thing I said - thankfully :D) this morning when she awoke, but here's the public "happy birthday" most would expect.

I did not know that opal was one her birthstones until Nat and I visited the mall a few weeks ago to get her hair cut. We wandered over to Kay Jewelers to look for something and Nat picked out a nice opal necklace.

This morning we made a "treasure hunt" like we've done for her with rhyming clues hidden in various places around the house. Carey will have to decipher the clues and keep going up and down the stairs to find the next clue until she's finally led to the location of her present.

And then - I think - we're off to Max & Erma's. Carey likes the free dessert they give you on or around your birthday. 😉

Ben Crane is one of the slowest golfers on the PGA Tour. But at least he's got a sense of humor…

I'm all caught up now. If you're interested in golf in particular, scroll back through the past month or so of backdated posts.

There are a few non-golf related posts thrown in there as well, so scroll back through those too if you'd like.

I just realized that I have more devices in my house capable of playing content from Netflix (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, two iPhones, four computers) than I have:

• Working keyboards (ADB or USB).
• Firewire devices attached to any and all Macs.
• Books I'm currently in the middle of reading (around six).
• Eggs in the refrigerator.
• TV shows I have to watch weekly.
• Colors of pants (brown, black, blue, and… oh yes, one olive pair of pants).
• Fingernail clippers (~three).
• "To Do" items on my current list.
• Unread email in my inbox.

In case you missed the earlier post, Netflix is really good even over 3G on the iPhone.

I've got a "pierogie hookup" that I've yet to use. Apparently, in Erie, there's an older woman who makes and sells pierogies to a few of the local restaurants, but will also sell batches of them to individuals.

I've got her name, her number, and a friend who can act as a reference. I'm also, in this case, blessed with a last name ending in "-ski." That should help.

Mmmmmmm…

P.S. Jennie from high school is supposed to be bringing some good pierogies up from Pittsburgh, too.

Andrew Rice broke down Sean Foley's student's stats.

Parker McLachlin declined in every category. Badly.

Hunter Mahan drove it better but had worse iron play in 2010.

Sean O'Hair has gotten worse, despite a few flashes here and there.

Justin Rose can attribute much of his success to being a much improved putter, it seems.

And Stephen Ames has not really improved much.

Not a great track record, but I still think that the things he's going to teach Tiger Woods will help Tiger.

For years - it seems like 20 but is probably closer to 10 - I've used a Logitech wireless mouse with my desktop computers ((Before that, it was a Kensington mouse and/or trackball.)) I was using a Logitech MX-1000, but that broke down and it was replaced by a Logitech MX Revolution. Now it's breaking down in the same fashion: the left mouse button isn't staying "clicked" (though it remains physically clicked) during some drag operations.

Currently Logitech's top of the line model is the Logitech Performance Mouse MX, but it gives up the thumb scroll wheel I like to set to page up/page down. I also click that scroll wheel for command-click in Safari to open links in new tabs.

So now they have the Performance Mouse MX, and the side scroll wheel is gone. It's $79 at Amazon, but dangit, I don't want to keep adjusting to these things. I'll probably end up getting this thing, though.

Unless someone knows of another company making pro-level mice… anyone?

P.S. It's interesting. My Logitech MX-700 lasted three years: early 2003 to early 2005. I replaced it with an MX-1000 and replaced it with the Revolution in late 2007. Now it's late 2010, and the mouse is failing again. Looks like a pretty reliable schedule of every 30 to 36 months, I need a new mouse.

P.P.S. Kensington's mouse lineup still sucks. Too bad.

In a few months we'll be shipping an application called "Analyzr" in two versions: Home for about $49 and Pro for about $495. The website (has just a simple signup form for now) is at http://analyzrgolf.com.

It's a niche product of sorts (golf swing video analysis software), so I'm looking at the Mac App store Apple's recently announced from this perspective. My ideas will apply to varying degrees less when you consider "mass market" type software.

The problems as I see with the Mac App Store are not insurmountable, but they are real.

In no particular order:

• There's no evidence that you'll get more customers. The store will likely be one of many places people will look, including Google. This is particularly true of niche software and most likely incredibly wrong for the mass market apps.
• Apple's current terms are incredibly restrictive. Past Apple Design Award winning software is ineligible. I don't even know if Analyzr would qualify - but there are enough other problems that I'm not even going to look right now.
• There's a lot of added work to build and submit congruent "demo-only" versions of apps alongside real ones. They're not actual demos, as people prefer on the desktop - they're actually "Lite" versions. Desktop consumers (and, I could argue, iPhone/iPod Touch users) like demo software. And Apple says "no thanks" to that. This problem is solvable, but how sweet would it be if Apple allowed developers to offer time-limited demos of 7-, 15-, or 30-days?
• You get no customer data. None. We can't verify that someone purchased a copy, follow up with them, or get their information should we ever leave the App Store. This makes support a real pain and severely inhibits customer interaction.
• You can't sell bulk licenses, educational discounts, create your own coupon codes, etc. We like to do these kinds of things for our customers.
• In-App purchases are a lot more work and don't really run parallel to the idea of "2.0" type functionality at all. In other words, it's really much more difficult to sell "upgrades" to people.
• 30% of $49 and $495 is $14.70 and $148.50. No way I'm willing to give up $150 per sale, and $14.70 is a big stretch too. What works at $2.99 or $4.99 or even $9.99 may not work very well at prices as low as $19.99.
• The App Store licensing process doesn't prevent cracking, hacking, and pirating. It'd be one thing if it did, but unfortunately, it doesn't.
• Offering your app for sale on your site AND through the App Store may not work very well either. There's no code to read Apple's licensing schemes and so if someone bought Analyzr from the App Store and ever tried to update it with a download from our site, they'd fall into a messy spot, and we'd get a support email or an unhappy customer at least.
• Apple can't issue refunds. In some cases, a refund is the best thing you can do for a customer.

Again, some of the problems are solvable, but unlike the iPhone, there's already a well established way to get apps for the Mac.

P.S. App Store Economics isn't painting a positive picture.

I've bought my copy. Family pack. Looking forward to it.

Will have more to say about the Mac App store tomorrow. Sneak peek: not really looking forward to it. 😉

There's no doubt - none at all - that Tiger Woods is going to a much more "Stack and Tilt" type golf swing. After all, the biggest change he's working on making is to keep his head centered more on the backswing (S&T explains how) and the second biggest change he's making is to take his hands inward, on plane, during the backswing - also S&T.

Did Sean Foley put his foot in his mouth and insult some guys who spent a lot of time helping him with his "5%" comment? You bet. Did he learn 50, 75, or even 90+% of what he knows from Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer?

Probably not. The real answer undoubtedly lies somewhere between 5% and 50%. Doesn't change the fact that Sean was a bit of a jerk for treating so poorly two people who'd treated him so well.

P.S. Perhaps the biggest fear among the Stack and Tilt community? That Sean Foley doesn't understand the downswing as well as he should.

P.P.S. Sean O'Hair is a bit of a turd as well. But he's probably only parroting what Foley's told him.

P.P.P.S. More here.

Wonderful. Perhaps one of the best videos I've got.

Peter Kostis is, well, he's not the first guy I'd choose to analyze anyone's swing. Let's put it that way.

We've gotten away with hits almost that bad in our no-checking D League hockey.

Lame. Let's not go so far to protecting the head that we get stupid now, ok NHL?

Update: The NHL properly reversed the call the next day. Letang won't be on the hook should he actually get a game misconduct later on in the season.

97% at Rotten Tomatoes? 92% Audience rating? Seriously?

I liked it, but 97%?! That's astronomically high.

On a pure percentage scale, I give it a 70% or so, meaning I like it more than about 70% of the movies I've ever chosen to watch. 🙂

The most interesting part of the movie was almost trying to figure out whether Christy was from the kiddo's Disney shows (she is - Suite Life on Deck specifically).

I would have loved to hear more about how Saverin was screwed out of his 30%, but that part was glossed over.

Had Aaron Sorkin not written the movie, it probably would have gotten a 25%. The best thing in the movie was the dialogue, which was true Sorkin.

P.S. How is it that facemash.com wasn't bought up for this movie?