NSLog();

Spring is late in coming this year. I've played golf in March before… this year it's looking mid-April will be the earliest I'll really get out.

It's been nearly 50 days since Aperture 2.0 was released, yet we've still not heard much at all about the "image editing" plug-in capability that the software supposedly supports.

Has Apple shared the API with anyone? Are they waiting, iPhone-style, for version 2.1 or something? Is there still a chance that an image editing plugin might be non-destructive (and not simply keep a separate copy of a file)?

Aperture 2.0.1 still has enough little bugs that waiting to solidify the API may be best in the end, but for those folks who, like myself, hate spitting images out just to edit them in Photoshop, the promise of image editing plug-ins is becoming a sort of drawn-out tease. It's foreplay without any real guarantee of a satisfactory conclusion.

As impressed as I am with the engineers responsible for erecting buildings, I'm almost more impressed with the engineers in charge of bringing down buildings.

Two days ago the old St. Francis hospital in Pittsburgh was imploded so that construction on the new Penguins arena (set to open in, oh, about 47 years) could begin. Several videos can be found here. The building just falls in on itself as perfectly planned.

That being said, I'm 30 today. Technically, I'm not 30 until something like 9pm or so, but that's splitting hairs.

I'd love to say I'm in the best shape of my life, but I'm not. Being a geek tends to have that effect. However, I can say that I'm in better shape than most of my friends. Then again, they're all geeks too, and I golf and play hockey, among other things.

My 30th year on this earth looks to be a good one. I'm excited about the UDSLR prospects and think I'm very close to having my team in place. My family life has been going well and will continue to be a rock.

So, here's to the best decade ever.

I paid something like $70 for the HD-DVD player on my Xbox 360. I also got a free King Kong movie and five in the mail. Given the number of HD-DVDs I've rented from Netflix since owning the drive, it was a worthwhile investment. I'm not terribly peeved that Blu-Ray won and I'll probably pick up a PS3 (tax write-off!) sometime soon ((After they release the new models… 40 GB only? Not gonna cut it.)).

Thing is, I have these five free HD-DVDs ((Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Darkman, Firewall, Incredible Hulk, and The Italian Job and yes, duh, you picked them from a list.)) and I'm not sure what to do with them. Can I trade them in towards… something? Can I sell them on eBay (sure, for $1 apiece)? Can I give them away as gag gifts?

They're all unopened at this point. King Kong isn't, but it's #6. What should I do with them?

I haven't had credit card debt since… well, since I paid it off shortly before buying my house. It wasn't even that much back then.

Today I heard of someone who has $140,000 of credit card debt. I figure once you hit $60k, the urge to go as high as possible before declaring bankruptcy has to be tempting, huh? Sad.

This video is a chilling statement of the times: a man is harassed simply for taking video of people in a public place. The problem appears much worse in the U.K., but I suspect they're simply a few months ahead of the U.S. on their ass-backwards "no cameras/pictures/filming" policy.

I've just read a short essay by Bill Jay called "The Photographer as Aggressor" that talks about how, since the portable camera became common, photographers have been seen as an aggressor or predator - capturing public moments of people doing embarrassing things, women momentarily caught topless by a wave, etc. Though most of the paper talks about the early 1900s or late 1800s, the question still bubbles to the top: are photographers aggressors? Though the law may allow taking of pictures in certain places at certain times, what's the morality of doing so?

This Post-Gazette article points out that the Penguins have a better record without Sidney Crosby in the lineup than with him. Whaaaa???

One paragraph that stood out to me, part of a quote from Brooks Orpik:

"That being said, no one wants him out of the lineup. Maybe guys kind of sit back [when Crosby plays]. I don't want to say he makes other guys nervous, but they kind of look at him and know he's in the lineup and they don't have to play as hard."

If that's true, the Pens won't win the Stanley Cup this year or any year. Here's to hoping someone - the coach, Gary Roberts, or even Sidney Crosby step up and make certain that such an attitude doesn't continue. The Pens could win the Cup this year, but not with that attitude.

Rivet, Cynical Peak's software for connecting your Mac to your Xbox 360 to stream movies, music, and photos, is coming along well. We have one more beta to release (most likely) and then we'll begin selling it.

Cyndicate is going to be bumped to version 1.2 shortly. We've made a dramatic improvement to startup speed and added a few features. Quitting Cyndicate now results in some database optimization. It defaults to a time period that's a bit longer than I like, but if you want to set the key manually you can do so by setting "IROptimizePeriod" to whatever period you'd like (in seconds). Mine is defaults write com.CynicalPeak.Cyndicate IROptimizePeriod 3600.

Scorecard is selling well for both Windows and Mac OS X. We too were among the many given the "wait a bit longer" iPhone SDK response from Apple, but we're optimistic and will look to add iPhone scoring and syncing to Scorecard as soon as possible. For a limited time, you can save 20% by using the coupon code "SANDTRAP" at checkout.

I've remained mum about this for the longest time, but I just can't take it anymore. My copy of Photoshop CS3 ((CS2 did this too.)) seems incapable of writing files with a preview embedded in such a way that the Finder, Preview, Safari, etc. can see the darn files. Instead, I just get the message you see to the right (in English and three other languages).

Photoshop's help is not, and I've set the preferences the way that makes sense. So what am I doing wrong? Why won't the damn Finder show previews or, more likely, why won't Photoshop embed them?

Update: That trick always works. The instant you publish something to your blog, you remember you haven't checked Google yet and you find the answer. "Maximize Compatibility" must be turned ON. Derrr.

If you're into college basketball (no, and no for me personally) as well as some great Mac software (yes, duh!), then you might be interested in entering Cynical Peak's March Madness contest.

As for my entry, uhh, just give me the top seeds in every game with a few 13-over-5 type upsets. 🙂

I usually agree with Rotten Tomatoes. I Am Legend got a 68%. Perhaps their math library's not working and the decimal was misplaced, because that's all I can figure. The plot was horrible, disconnected, and incoherent (I'd list examples, but every time I think about it I come up with several new ones, so I'm afraid I might not be able to stop). The characters were poorly developed. The animation was wretched.

68%? More like 6.8%. Blech. I'm glad I spent only $1.25 to see the movie and am glad to remove it from my Netflix queue lest it take five days to receive, watch, and return.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 201); »

A few days ago I picked up my Airport International v2.0 from Think Tank. It's a medium-sized roller-case that meets international standards for carry-on luggage. I needed a bag that would carry the 300/2.8, the rest of my gear, and a few other things.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 246); »

This car remained parked in the same location for nearly an hour.

Behind it, an empty driveway. Further behind it, 200 feet of treelawn (and no intersections).

Rumors have been floating around for over a year re: the Canon 5D Mark II (see also: Canon 3D, 6D, and 7D). Earlier today, MacNN's generic electronics site and Gizmodo both published specs of the "forthcoming" Canon 5D Mark II. The source? Some bozo without a source or a real name on DP Review's forums.

C'mon. Some bozo on a forum isn't news.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 316); »