NSLog();

Photoshop CS3 beta can't resize images (yeah, that's what "interpolation on image resize is not working" means).

And "pmTool" - the app run by Activity Monitor to update the info window - leaks like a sieve on Intel Macs. Since removing it from my dock, the morning routine of heavy disk thrashing for ten minutes has all but ceased to exist. Previously, pmTool would force most other apps to page out all their data as Activity Monitor sat quietly in the dock doing its work. You can watch the darn thing count its way up. Running leaks produces some results:

[9:01am iacas@Bunny:~] % sudo leaks pmTool
Process 8475: 9398 nodes malloced for 1444 KB
Process 8475: 24 leaks for 118784 total leaked bytes.
Leak: 0x01816800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01814000  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01812c00  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01811800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01820800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01810400  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0180dc00  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0180c800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0180a000  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01808c00  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01806e00  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0181e000  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0181cc00  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0181b800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0181a400  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01819000  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01823000  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01824400  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01825800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01826c00  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01829400  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x0182a800  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01815400  size=5120     string '´'
Leak: 0x01808800  size=1024     string '!'

An article on TechCrunch has me re-evaluating my NetFlix subscription.

I've never switched to Blockbuster's online delivery service because, frankly, we've never had reason to. We're happy with NetFlix. Still, the quest for a better bargain has forced us to at least ask the question from time to time.

Carey and I pay $17.99/month (which comes out to less than $20 after taxes, etc.) for three-at-a-time rentals. We average about 10 movies per month (roughly half our optimal rate of 19 or so). We each have our own queue - Carey is allowed one movie out at a time and I two - and we maintain them with NetFlix Freak and online, both of which present enjoyable experiences.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 468); »

Merry Christmas!

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 22); »

I'm torn: while I want the Steelers to beat the Bengals next week to knock them out of the playoffs, I'm fairly convinced that a 7-9 season will prompt Bill Cowher to retire early while an 8-8 season would probably bring him back for another year. Cowher's expression all year - even while receiving ass-beatings of monstrous proportion - has been one of glazed content and disinterest. The man once known as "The Chin" has not sent a single spittle flying since the Troy Polamalu non-interception interception in last year's playoffs.

Judi tagged me, so here goes nothin'.

Five Things you might not know about me:

1. I have a degree in medicinal chemistry (and computer science and French), but I've never been a professional chemist. I like to think that college afforded me the time I needed to learn what I needed to learn. I picked up my degree in computer science in what amounted to my free time - I kept taking CS classes until finally I was three credits away from a degree, so I finished it out with an independent study (iChem).
2. I cried when I read Where the Red Fern Grows in first grade. I cried again when I re-read it in third grade. So sad. Poor Old Dan and Little Ann.
3. I used to run an e-zine called Apple Wizards. Several famous people subscribed to the magazine, we achieved a circulation of around 250,000 downloads per issue. Despite that, I never made any money on the site, and when I finally sold it the profits simply paid off some debt the hosting had accumulated. Bandwidth used to cost a bit more than it does these days.
4. I really miss Florida. I don't miss the prices, I don't miss the über-heat, and I don't miss the people. I do miss kayak fishing (for something larger than bass), year-round golf, the ocean, taking Flint to the dog park, the wide availability of both culture and technology, and a few friends (some of whom have moved anyway). Still, I wouldn't trade what I had then for what I have now.
5. I don't read anywhere near as much as I'd like. I attribute this to the fact that almost every job I have requires reading - of code, HTML, content for The Sand Trap. The last book I finished was a book about a cell phone company (RF Micro Devices), and that was about three months ago. I haven't begun another book yet (though I have several in my Amazon wishlist).

I'm going to tag Justin, Jeff, Jason, and Jeff #2.

HandBrake ((Current version as of this post: 0.7.1.)) hasn't been updated in ten months ((February 23, 2006)). The blog and SVN repository haven't seen action since April. The original developer seems to have vanished, leaving a hole for others to attempt to fill.

Is HandBrake dead? Copy-protected DVDs have begun to make their way onto the market (presenting problems which a beta version of MacTheRipper 3.0 ((You can apparently download this if you register for the forum and donate some cash to the developer.)) appears to solve) and HandBrake is desperately in need for a UI makeover ("preferences," anyone?).

So what's up?

&I haven't been following the "slot casino" news in Pittsburgh as closely as I wanted to, but it appears there may be a good chance the Penguins will move to Kansas City.

Of course, there's always the chance that Mark Cuban will realize his mistake and buy the Penguins. I've hoped Cuban would buy the Pirates in the past, and as a fan of all three Pittsburgh sports teams - two of which have absolutely sucked for a long time ((But, of the two, the Penguins clearly show the most promise for the future with the young stars they have on the roster.)) - I'm hopeful he'll buy one or both. Do you think he could get a volume discount?

Pittsburgh is a football city, but with a great baseball stadium (you did watch the 2006 All-Star game, right?) and a lot of history, it would be a shame for the Pirates or Penguins to leave. After all, the Pirates and Penguins were very well supported when they were winning, and making good money too, so a return to winning is the key to a return to profitability. Mark Cuban, if nothing else, creates excitement and has the ability to turn a perennial basement dweller into a winner.

The joke is now well-known, but thanks to Dan Wood, it's a bit easier to see yourself as Time's Person of the Year.

I guess that means Gruber I was wrong about the recent security update.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 158); »

WordPress 2.0.6 RC1 is now available with a few changes and improvements. Word on the street is that WordPress 2.1 is going to be out in early January.

I hope most of my installed plugins survive. They don't appear to be doing too many "bad" things, so I think I should be okay.

The (dv)3 plan is supposed to roll out today at MediaTemple, so I'm looking at moving The Sand Trap over very soon to WP 2.0.x, then to 2.1 perhaps before we even resume publication on January 8!

PulpFiction used the term "subscriptions" to refer to things. I got into a conversation with someone recently about whether or not "Feed" would have been a better choice. While "Feed" is certainly shorter, I see it as both better and worse than "Subscription."

Pros for "Feed" / Cons for "Subscription"

• Shorter name would fit more easily in toolbars menu items, etc.
• A lot of websites seem to prefer calling these things "feeds" over "subscriptions."
• feedicons.com isn't called "subscriptionicons.com." 🙂

Cons for "Feed" / Pros for "Subscription"

• "Subscribe" and "subscription" go together. You don't "feed" on anything, nor do you munch, nibble, eat, or snack.
• Technically, "Edit Feed" is incorrect. The publisher does that. You're editing your settings that relate to a feed to which you've subscribed.
• "Subscribing" fit the mental model PulpFiction used: that feeds were like mailing lists to which you were subscribed and the individual articles like individual emails from a number of mailing lists.

What do you think? Which do you prefer? Please give it some thought - don't just say "I call them feeds" or "I like subscriptions." Perhaps you'll change your own mind if you give it some thought. I may be on the verge of changing my mind. The answers you provide may help.

I've neglected to mention that Cynical Peak is participating in MacSanta. You can save 20% off Scorecard now through December 25, really benefit independent Mac developers, and pick up some good software at a good price.

Perhaps next year the app currently known as "Iris" will participate in MacSanta 2K7. It remains to be seen.

As to those who have emailed me recently asking for an Iris update, suffice to say the application is roughly 50% done. Remember the 80/20 rule, though: 80% of our time will be spent doing the last 20% of the work. So, 50% is more like, uhhh, well less than halfway there. Still, we hope to release the application - at least in (private) beta form - by Valentine's Day, 2007. In fact, the icons are being developed now.

Using Daniel Jalkut's modifications to WP-Cache, I unfortunately found that my results were nowhere near as good as his:

<!-- Dynamic Page Served (once) in 0.191 seconds -->
<!-- Cached page served by WP-Cache in 0.198077 seconds -->

Troubleshooting was a two-step process. First, I disabled the two dynamic portions of this site: the random images in the header and sidebar. I cleared the cache, loaded some pages, and checked the results. No improvement.

Next I disabled all the plugins (even admin-area only plugins) except WP-Cache. Still no improvement.

Cached pages are being served, but very slowly. As the example above indicates - slower than actually fetching and building the page the first time! What's up with that? So far as I know, everything is properly installed. Why is this taking so long? The contents of my wp-content/cache folder appear fine.

Any suggestions or ideas?

I haven't applied for a concealed weapons permit here in Pennsylvania because I work from home. My gun is thirty feet from where I sit in my office (albeit across a hallway). Still, I've been thinking about getting one again simply for the times my wife and I venture to Pittsburgh (where getting lost and finding yourself in a bad neighborhood is quite an easy thing to do). This morning, Google's search-turned-RSS-feed (for articles that link to this blog) turned up this article.

I'm happy to say that I live in a state where the Pittsburgh local news runs a special news segment prior to deer season on choosing the best rifle. When I visited my grandma in Bedford, PA, I noticed a billboard advertising "Hunting for good real estate deals?" The image showed a female realtor, dressed in light camo, holding a rifle and peering into the distance.

But hey, according to the first commenter in the article linked above, people who carry handguns are just about the same as convicted sex criminals. Uh huh. 😛

I woke up and saw that my Wii was flashing. Turns out Nintendo released a system update that enables the Weather channel. Carey and I had a grand old time grabbing the globe and whipping it around. We zoomed in on the North Pole to see if we could see Santa (he was napping, we figure) and on Australia to look for kangaroos. But, alas, all we saw was weather.

P.S. Seems a beta Opera will be available on Friday.

I must be magical, for I can make things go "poof" like you wouldn't believe!