NSLog();

You know what I'd like? A Netflix streaming video app.

Version 1.0 might be nothing more than a WebKit view that automatically takes you to your streaming queue and resizes the window a bit or employs some CSS tricks to play with the positioning so that you get mostly video playback in your viewer window.

I hate using a browser because, with Spaces, my browser windows tend to be collected in one Space while other apps (like MarsEdit and Cyndicate) exist in another space. I'd want to set my "Netflix Viewer.app" to be viewable in all spaces.

Additionally, since I'd rarely switch to my Netflix viewer app while watching a show or movie, I couldn't accidentally hit cmd-w like I sometimes do to my Netflix-in-Safari viewer.

Later versions could use an API, if Netflix provided one (they must, as the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 all have their own controls and work with remotes, etc.), to provide a DVD Player-like experience or something. The media playback keys on my Mac keyboard could work with this version 2.0, too.

Anyone want to develop such an app? 🙂

Thanks to people here and elsewhere upgrading by using me as their referrer, I've gone up from 2 GB of free storage to 6.2 GB of free storage.

I'm currently using about 70% of the 6.2 GB I get for free ((1.5 GB or so are a collection of videos I've downloaded or recorded for evolvr.)), and I don't feel particularly cramped. That said, I'd like to upgrade, if for no other reason than to give Dropbox some money as I've used and loved their product - for free - for quite awhile.

But their pricing plans simply don't make sense to me. For $99/year I can get 50 GB of space - that's overkill and a bit pricy. Never mind that I can get 100 GB of syncing storage space for $199 ((Oddly, that's a dollar more per year than two 50 GB accounts, or a penny more per month ($9.99 vs. $19.99) if you opt for the monthly payment plan)) - 50 GB is too much.

Why not a 20 GB account? Why not an account with some added features, like the ability to share .html files? Dropbox works really well, but 50GB is a big step up from 6.2 GB. Or 6.5 if another person signs up using the referral code above. Or even double what I have now - 12.5 GB…

I recently had an application wipe the creation date from about 2000 files, but leave the modification date intact. I was able to create a quickie AppleScript that relies on SetFile and GetFileInfo, a pair of CLI tools installed with the Developer Tools.

It's mostly here for my own use later on. I find myself re-learning when to get files as files, when to get them as aliases, when to access them via the paths, etc. just about every time I launch AppleScript.

tell application "Finder"
  set theFiles to the selection
end tell

repeat with theFile in theFiles
  set theFile to POSIX path of (theFile as alias)
  set copyDate to do shell script "/usr/bin/GetFileInfo -m '" & (theFile as string) & "'"
  do shell script "/usr/bin/SetFile -d '" & copyDate & "' '" & (theFile as string) & "'"
end repeat

Lest it go unsaid, this summer has been the exact opposite of last year: it's warm, dry, and fairly quiet as far as wind goes. Last year was cold, rainy, and windy. This year, every day is a golf day, and the biggest problem is simply that everyone realizes it and you can't get a tee time.

Summer 2010: Best Weather EVAR (in the vernacular).

Let me just say - I hate hate hate when the "From" name does not match the "reply-to" address in an email.

For example, a friend of mine named "Bob" posts to a blog to which I've subscribed to the comments, or a forum.

I get an email that says "from: Bob" and I reply with an inside joke that Bob and I will find funny and nobody else will understand.

The message is addressed to "to: Bob" but with an actual email address that auto-posts my comment to the blog or forum.

Boooo.

I've never gotten into TextMate. In Xcode I use the editor included there and all other times, use BBEdit.

TextMate 2.0 is still not here while BBEdit has been updated a few times since 2.0 was first talked about, so I'm wondering if people are still as crazy for TextMate or if, due to the lack of updates, it's popularity has been diminished.

You know, as interesting as things like this are, I really wonder if there's any actual practical application for this.

I like math, and I think it's great… but I think I like applied math a lot more than the theoretical, and I'm not sure if this has too many actual applications.

I've just read this nice piece on David Morehouse, the new CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Yet another reason to be glad that Kerry lost that election. 🙂

In bash… for item in *; do zip -m "${item}.zip" "${item}"; done

The summer is just about to come to an end and the wife and kid will soon be going back to school.

I can't say I'm over the moon about it, but it's not the worst thing to happen, either. 🙂

I really recommend you check out one or both… And spread the word. If you'd like to publish an article for sale (or free!) on DSLRU, we'd be happy to talk to you about it!

Using Beauty Dishes
http://dslru.com/courses/S2003

While light modifiers like umbrella lights produce a soft light that can make anyone look good, beauty dishes produce a more directed light that accentuates angles and curves. Fashion photographers love the possibilities that this light provides! In this comprehensive course, celebrity photographer John Ricard covers how to shoot with a beauty dish. He’ll walk you through the basics of a beauty dish, including a comprehensive look at light falloff as you adjust the dish. Then, he’ll walk you through two different types of shoots with a beauty dish, letting you see both how he sets up his shoot and how he works with his models.

This course contains a 22-minute video.

Creating HDR Images with Photomatix
http://dslru.com/courses/D2004

In this course, Reed Mangino delves deep into the world of High Dynamic Range (HDR) images with Photomatix Pro. Reed discusses every processing mode and option from both a technical standpoint as well as real-world use cases. He also covers camera setup and shooting techniques. Furthermore, this course covers post-processing your HDR images. Most people think that your work is done once you close down Photomatix. In fact, the opposite is true; many of the best HDR photographers spend hours post-processing their HDR images, and this course will help you learn how to do that processing.

This course contains a 59-minute video.

The Sand Trap's golf forum is likely going to be switching to Huddler by about the end of the year.

Huddler is a "community" software package that's grown up quite a bit in the past year. It's a forum at its core, but it layers on a few more things like products pages and user reviews of equipment that are pretty nice.

One of the sites that's on Huddler is epicski.com, and they're similar to a golf forum in many ways.

I'm waiting for a number of features (including reputation) to be implemented before we consider actually making the switch, but when we do Huddler will be in charge of advertising and the sales thereof, freeing me to worry about the content.

I'll have more to say about Huddler once we actually get the ball rolling, I presume, but for now it's a waiting game. In the meantime, they're submitting some redesigns to me for comment, and I'm liking how things are looking.

I'm once again catching up on blog posts. I've got 2/3 of them written - I just have some holes I want to fill in as I go along.

Seriously, as a writer who presumably cares about his craft, you'd think he'd get this right. Next time I check in will he be talking about how "your not going to like" something or "what there trying to say" or something?

When discussing the first computer - the Mark I at Harvard - a funny exchange:

Letterman: How did you know so much about computers then?"
Hopper: I didn't. It was the first one.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 77); »