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I paid $449 for my iPhone something like 17 days ago. D'oh! I'm just outside of the 14-day (or 10-day) window to get a refund.

I don't really care. It's a bit of a bummer that my timing was a tad off, but that's all.

The iPhone was worth $449 to me then, and the $399 pricing introduced today doesn't change that value proposition.

I've already seen a number of complaints. They remind me of something Carey told me about recently. Some guy in a mall kiosk was selling a package of nail-care products he said had an MSRP of $100. He asked Carey what the package would be worth to her, and she said $30 ((They sell for $29.95 on Amazon, so Carey had good sensibilities on this one.)). "We have a deal," he said and sold it to her for $30. The next woman in line - who clearly didn't hear what Carey had said - bought two for $55 apiece.

Carey was willing to spend $30, the other woman $55.

Some people were willing to spend $599. A whole lot more are going to be willing to spend $399.

It's supply and demand. Nobody's been screwed, nobody's been robbed, and nobody's been forced to spend money they didn't want to spend.

First off, I bought my iPhone something like 17 days ago, at $449. Now the 8 GB model is $399 without the discount. Wow. Bummer for me. Has Apple ever cut a product's price by 33% just over two months after its introduction? I mean, Wow!

And a 160 GB iPod ("Classic") that holds 40,000 songs is $349? WOW! I'm not getting one - my 80GB just sits in my Touareg's glove box - but it's good to know they're cheap and hold so much these days.

$0.99 for a ringtone is too much. I'll continue to spend a few minutes to edit my own stuff. It's unclear to me, too, but it seems like you only get the 30 seconds you edit and create with no possibility to later change your mind.

I'd be even happier if, today, I could unlock my iPhone prior to the AT&T buyout of Cellular One is complete in late December or early 2008.

Cyndicate 1.0.3 is now available for download from either Cyncial Peak's website or running Cyndicate's updater. As with all our point releases, this is a free update for all Cyndicate users.

• Fixed a crash that could occur if the feed contains an unknown entity.
• Fixed editing the feed's url in the subscription managager.
• Fixed the AppleScript issue when accessing articles that are in subfolders.
• Improved performance on several operations.
• Sorting can now be based on non-visible columns.
• Links can now be loaded into the preview pane when clicked.

Today is a busy day, and because I've been semi-diligent about applying good ratings to a few articles per day, my "Must Read!" folder (4- and 5-star articles) has come in handy today. No other feed reader really does ratings like Cyndicate.

The final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship (a PGA Tour event) is being played today. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson play in the penultimate group and NBC is providing coverage at 2pm… except on WPXI out of Pittsburgh. Yesterday, a chiron ticker informed viewers that they should check channels 3, 11, 14, or 21 on Comcast for coverage of the golf tournament as WPXI would be showing the Jerry Lewis Telethon instead.

What DirecTV viewers are supposed to do is beyond me. We don't get channels 3, 14, or 21 - we get only channel 11 (both in high-def and standard). Perhaps they'll show golf on the high-def channel and the telethon on the standard channel.

I tried calling WPXI but was only able to get someone's voicemail. DirecTV can't send the generic NBCE feed to me (channel 82) because I don't have a waiver (because I've really got no need for one and can receive local programming just fine). So… 😛

Update: It's going to be shown on WBGN, apparently, which I don't get.

P.S. See, others weren't happy either.

NBC, in their counter-counter-press-release on the $4.99 iTunes videos, has again alleged that most content on iPods is stolen (("…since it is estimated that the typical iPod contains a significant amount of illegally downloaded material" they say.)). It's an offensive claim first made, I believe, by Microsoft. None of the content on my iPods is stolen. None. So, here's the question to you all:

Incidentally, NBC, good luck selling your wares elsewhere. iTunes isn't just the dominant player in the marketplace, iTunes is the marketplace.

IIRC, two iPhone software unlocks were supposed to be available today (and I'm not counting that UniquePhones.com one). iPhoneSIMFree.com was one, but they've yet to release anything. The other was likely a hoax and/or virus.

I'm getting bored here, people! I can only look at Mac 128k manuals for so long.

1) The Help Menu

2) Preview in Order
Preview finally opens images in the proper order. No longer will "image04.jpg" be shown after "image21.jpg."

3) Screenshot Coordinates
When you press shift-cmd-4, the crosshairs appear with screenshot coordinates. If you just want to quickly approximate the size of an image or take a properly sized screenshot, this is a great help.

I wasn't brought up to necessarily be "courteous" to people. Manners weren't beat into my head or anything; they were simply expected. Awareness and thoughtfulness weren't mandates, but rather part of "standard operating procedure."

I used to think the lack of common courtesy and manners was a younger generation issue, but lately I'm not so sure. Holding doors for people entering a store, hugging the left side of a lane at an intersection so someone can make a right turn on red, walking a bit more quickly when crossing from a store to the parking lot while a car waits… those sorts of things.

No, the people not doing these things are my peers, so it's not a generational thing as I thought before. People simply seem to be less thoughtful now than they were 20 years ago… less aware of their surroundings and their literal place in the world and its impact on those immediately around them.

I admit to not knowing the most proper way to send a thank you letter (is scented paper wise or just tacky?), but I try to be aware of people around me. I hold doors, I don't cut people off in traffic, I don't jump to the new open line at the supermarket if I'm fourth in my current line, etc.

</vent>

The megamatch at Whispering Woods (McDowell's home course) is coming up soon. It's going to be tough. I figure the over-under on average score is about 90 and the average number of lost balls per golfer is probably 3.1.

I'll take the over. Good luck, guys.

Remember a long time ago, in the early days of Mac OS X, when people went so far as to hold contests to see what people thought was written on the TextEdit icon?

Well, I guess we will be guessing no longer:

Now everyone will simply wonder: who's Kate?

Can't say much about this except, uhm, wow?

P.S. This is a good response.

I'm working on an upload script for WordPress and MarsEdit (which I imagine will work pretty smoothly with ecto once I'm done). It's coming along pretty well, but since I can make assumptions about my blog(s) that I can't make about others, I don't know how functional it will be for everyone. I will release it publicly, though, soon.

Update: Here you go.

Only in Pittsburgh:

But in Pittsburgh, he has achieved celebrity status. When movie star Will Smith accompanied Tomlin to dinner at a local restaurant, fans mobbed their table — to meet Tomlin. According to Hammons, Smith told Tomlin it was the first time in 20 years he had eaten in a restaurant and hadn't been asked for his autograph.

"The irony is, Mike had been to the restaurant once before but couldn't enjoy it because fans kept interrupting him," Hammons says. "He figured if he took Will Smith, he'd have a peaceful meal."

From USA Today.

Hardy Har…

British woman goes for weeks without showering, skincare products as an experiment. When asked how she felt, she replied "Je me sens très bien. Un peu graisseux, mais rien trop mauvais."

I'm going to spend some time today playing with iUI. Ideally, some of the plugins which show a different theme for even WordPress blogs would work well with the cache software, but they don't. If someone happens to request a Wii version of my blog, that version is cached and regular Web surfers see that version too.

I haven't heard anything more on the AT&T buyout of Cellular One. Back in June, it was said the buyout would be completed around December or January.

Our last contract (of the three phones we have with CellOne) ends in mid-November, so the timing works out nicely if so. Ideally, I could begin using my iPhone, my wife could perhaps get one for herself, and her parents could simply get a new phone.

Local Cellular One employees don't seem to know anything, and various Web searches haven't turned up anything either. So, are there updates, and if so, where might I find them, dangit?!?!