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WWDC 2008 starts tomorrow with The Steve's keynote. What will Mac users far and wide be spending their money on this year?

I don't have any predictions. I've gotten out of the game. I simply wait to see what's come out and make my decisions then. I won't even be watching the keynote or following along live anywhere this year because I've volunteered to help at Field Day ((Though if it's 90°, I wonder if they'll cancel.)).

Our yard work is done. The boxwoods are in place, the grass is growing, the mulch is thrown down. Here's to using it (in about three weeks or a month). Woo!

They say it's not the heat, but the humidity that gets you. Could we have less of both, please?

It's going to be around 90° for the next few days in Erie. I mowed the lawn, an activity that lasts all of 20 minutes, and was drenched in sweat. Ick.

The Stanley Cup finals are over and the Penguins came up on the short end. They simply couldn't score enough goals or defeat the "I thought that type of hockey was made illegal after the lockout" obstruction thrown up by the wrinkly, grey-haired Detroit Red Wings.

Hossa wants to stay, and a lot of other players have voiced similar sentiments. Sidney Crosby has already taken less money than he could have gotten to help the Penguins out - will others do the same to keep the team together? The Penguins were, by far, the best team in the Eastern Conference this year, and could return to the Cup finals next year if the team remains largely intact.

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I watch a bit less television than the average American over the fall/winter/spring months. Very little of it is reality (except Amazing Race) television - I tend to go for shows like How I Met Your Mother (comedy) or the occasional drama (House). The wife's usually asleep by 9pm anyway, so I read and watch TV. Having a DVR helps, of course: one hour of programming in 40 minutes!

But during the summer, and aside from watching the occasional golf tournament, what the heck do people watch? Seriously. There's nothing on.

Erie Golf Course has now sat idle, being mowed once a week or so by one city employee to keep it a grassy area, for about a year.

If I were Millcreek and I were given Erie Golf Course, I would turn the course into a nine hole course, build a range, a short-game area, and perhaps even a par three course.

I'd keep holes 10 and 11 and make them 1 and 2. Holes 1-6 would serve as holes 3-8. The existing 18th would stay for the ninth.

This leaves the entire left-hand side of the course (as viewed from the clubhouse), which I'd use for a driving range. The middle areas (between the range and the "new course") could be turned into a series of short-game practice greens. One for putting, one for chipping, one for pitching, and one for bunker play. Some of the existing deeper holes way back in the woods (like the current seventh and eighth) could be turned into sod farms or something - they're garbage already.

The lack of iTunes+ songs in addition to Amazon's somewhat more flexible pricing (sometimes cheaper, almost never more expensive) hurts. Unfortunately, so too does the AmazonMP3.com buying experience.

I recently checked out a few songs from American Top 40 ((Yeah yeah, I don't have time to listen to the radio and just want a few new diversion songs. I still follow the bands I grew up liking. The ones that are still together, anyway. My time for "new musical interests" has passed.)) and built a chart comparing the two services. Of the songs I wanted that were available, it shook out like this:

iTunes     Amazon
------     ------
.99         .89
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99         .99
.99+        .89
.99         .99
.99         .89
.99         .89
.99         .99
.99+        .89
------     ------
$18.81     $17.91

One song was offered on iTunes ($0.99) that wasn't available on Amazon, and John Mayer's entire "Continuum" album ($12.99 on iTunes) wasn't available at Amazon. So those two songs - and the two "iTunes Plus" songs - I bought at iTunes. The Rest? I saved nearly a dollar buying them from Amazon, tolerating the horrid user experience the whole way.

Rabbits, when confronted by a possible predator ((Like, you know, a person walking onto their deck while the rabbits munch on the yard.)), often simply sit still. If they don't move, they must figure, they won't be spotted.

It works against a tree. It works in brush or wooded areas.

Clue to the rabbits: it doesn't work in the yard. The grass is green, and you're a big brown splotch. It ain't workin'.

As of right now, Cynical Peak has no plans to add a mobile version of Scorecard even for the simple task of entering in round statistics while you're on the golf course.

Why? Apple still has not provided a way to sync via the one method every iPhone and iPod Touch user is guaranteed to use: via the dock/USB cable.

We could build a whole network sync deal, but iPod Touch owners without wifi wouldn't be too happy. And maybe they're only 5% of the market, but coding up a "sync over a network" is probably about 10x harder than anything that could be done over the wire.

And again, we're not even after true sync - we simply need to copy one XML file to the iP* and one XML file from the iP*. We don't need system privileges or anything of the sort - simply a file copy. We wouldn't even care if iTunes checked for XML validity before copying either file.

Scorecard 1.3 is now available for download for both Mac and Windows! The main star of this release is the new "Best vs Worst" table in the stats window. The new table presents a comparison of key performance indicators which allow you to quickly and easily see what part of your game goes wrong when you don't score well. You can then focus on improving that portion of your game to improve your overall game play.

The update is free, of course.

Suffice to say, Ian Poulter lost at least one fan today, if not tens or hundreds.

Oh well - I got a funny story out of it.

From Adriaan in the ecto support forums:

The official announcement will be made soon (once we've moved and set up the infrastructure), but yes, I've sold ecto to illumineX for a variety of reasons I will explain in a blog post accompanying the official announcement. It's a move that's definitely for the best. I'm also still involved with ecto on a consultation basis.

More later with the official announcement.

illumineX was once Gary Longsine and Don Yacktman. I believe right now it's just Gary Longsine (and associates). I'm not entirely sure what happened, but Don Yacktman was largely responsible for the FSS products at illumineX, that he left or was removed from illumineX several months after acquiring Freshly Squeezed Software, and that ecto likely will not suffer the same fate as FSS.

As an ecto user, I hope Adriaan is making the right decision, and I believe he is. To fans of Freshly Squeezed Software who have written to me and asked for details, I can't provide them, but I think things with ecto should work out okay in the end.

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As of today, I've been married for three years. Here's to three more! 😉

Not much to say today, so instead I'll remind you to check out the Photo Battle Blog every day.

Also, I'll soon have the opportunity to give the 300/2.8L a workout.

Oh come on. How about we just make home run fences that aren't so ambiguous? Either a ball leaves the field of play or it doesn't Eliminate these stupid lines painted on things. Eliminate the "shelves" that some home run fences have. Move the fans back a few feet so they can't interfere.

Instant replay in baseball? Fuggit.