NSLog();

Ecto and TypeIt4Me haven't always gotten along. In fact, every crash ecto ever has is related to TypeIt4Me, though I can't figure out why. I went to MacUpdate today to get an update for TypeIt4Me (I had 2.2.2, 2.3 has been out for awhile) to see if it solved some problems and saw that others were talking about Textpander.

I installed Textpander and imported my TI4M shortcuts. Textpander offers the ability to include pictures and formatted text, but I've never had much need for that. It's also implemented as a preference pane, which I like.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 242); »

The kiddo is a smart one. She's in three-year-old pre-school right now which, while not terribly strenuous academically, is great for developing her relationship and social skills.

However, the school does some things we're not too keen on. First, they watch a lot more TV than Carey or I are comfortable with. The afternoon shift lady seems very passive and we've been reprimanded for daring to send a Swiss cake roll (a Ho Ho) as a dessert for lunch.

In looking around the various pre-schools, one at the elementary school she would attend has stuck out. It comes highly regarded and has good teachers, and going to school there would ease the transition she would undergo when she moved into kindergarten.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 470); »

I'm unlikely to buy either the iPod Hi-Fi or the Mac Mini. Why?

First off, I don't often use my TV/Stereo system for much beyond my TiVo, the DVD player, or some games. I have an AirPort Express hooked up if I really want to play my music downstairs, and I can't see wanting to view movies or photos on the TV. If I really want to, after all, we can hook the 12" PowerBook up to the TV and watch videos that way.

The iPod Hi-Fi suffers from the same problem any set of speakers that hooks to an iPod does: it requires an iPod. My iPod stays in my car, my computer in its office, and my pool table sure as heck isn't moving. Perhaps I should buy a Mac Mini for the pool room, but $599 is a heck of a lot to spend just to get music from one room to another with a screen and a remote for control. Plus then I'm still without speakers and an LCD.

So, as of right now, I don't think either of these devices fits my iLife. It's still early - the event is still going on as I write this - but I don't think my opinion is likely to change.

I recently had reason to do two things:

1. clear my entire ~/Library/Cache folder
2. convert my day-to-day user to a non-admin user (and to create a new admin)

I also switched to a backup partition due to a hard disk failure, and renamed mdimport "mdimport.bak" temporarily so that it wouldn't fire up and "use" the disk I was trying to repair.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 549); »

Yes, GMail, that's exactly what I want to see: a few hundred different links to sites that will show me how to cook actual spam while deleting the spam in my Spam folder. Uh huh. You read my mind.

P.S. Sure wish there was a way to just empty my entire spam folder in one click. I looked around for a few minutes, and deleting 2700+ spams 50 at a time took two whole minutes. But hey, I learned about over 50 recipes for spam!

A friend of mine is in need of a web-based PHP/MySQL inventory management software package. The requirements are listed below. Ideally, any software packages (open source, commercial, etc.) would either meet most or all of the requirements or be easily hacked (open source stuff only, I suppose) to allow for the addition of some features.

So, if you know of a package that does this, please post a comment and let me know what it is. I'll be doing my own search today, but I'll likely miss some good ones out there.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 454); »

Question: In sum total, how much Olympics coverage did you watch?

My Answer: No more than 30 minutes.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Question: What was the last good movie you've seen, at home or in a theater?

My Answer: Alfie. And that was about two or three months ago. Ouch!

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Just a personal bookmark: Live Thumbnails: Watch 'em Grow.

Just an update from my previous post on the new (if nearly a year old is still "new") owner of Freshly Squeezed Software.

In addition to some legal issues between he and a former partner, Don became ill and had a few other things all go wrong at the same time. I was able to reach him on his cell phone today (the number to which he's authorized me to give out to those who need to speak with him) and had a five-minute conversation.

He'll be resuming full development duties shortly. Brad and I were just about ready to start hacking away at PulpFiction again for our own needs (namely, Atom 1.0 support and a memory leak introduced in 1.2.2).

Update: The "legal issues" I referred to above should not be construed as "problems." Don's (former?) partner in illumineX, Gary Longsine, responds in a comment below. Don used the phrase "legal issues" in my conversation with him, so I'm loosely quoting him above.

Update Two: I believe the "legal issues" Don referred to were related to the sale of FSS from illumineX to Don himself.

Returning from Turning Stone Resort & Casino on Sunday, Carey and I saw a Smart "ForTwo" car. It's tiny and looks like a death trap, but it apparently gets about 60 miles to the gallon.

I thought the car cost about $12,000 - and I told Carey that at that price, it'd almost be worth buying for quick trips here and there - but it turns out they're quite a bit more than that and you can't really buy them anyway.

This article mentions a "ForMore" car, a four-passenger SUV-like Smart car called the ForFour. But the darn thing would probably have to cost no more than $25k to sell 30,000 like they hope.

You too can download the free pilot episode (and some other promo stuff) of NBC's new show Conviction. While I don't think I am going to watch the show, it's nice to have a free episode, and I think this is a great way to promote the show. After all, I'd never heard of it before today, and now I've got (and will likely watch) an episode at some point.

For some reason, etc, tmp, and var are showing up in the root directory of my hard disk. I attempted to set the invisible bit on them (with SetFile). It didn't work because it attempted - I believe - to set the invisible bit on the directory they're linked to. What gives?

rwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Oct 18 13:26 etc@ -> private/etc
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Oct 18 13:26 tmp@ -> private/tmp
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Oct 18 13:28 var@ -> private/var

% GetFileInfo var
directory: "/private/var"
attributes: avbstclinmedz
created: 03/28/2005 01:39:10
modified: 02/20/2006 18:48:28

How can I hide these darn puppies again?

Question: How much storage space does your computer have in its most-used setup?

My Answer: My G5 has two 250 GB hard drives, one of which I think I'm replacing soon. I really only use one of them while the other serves as a nightly backup.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

Well, the guy I wanted to win the tournament didn't win. The trip to and fro was nice, the hotel was great, and there was nothing to do but gamble and watch pool, so the weekend really wasn't as great as I was hoping for. Oh well.

P.S. The post title refers to the antics of one of the players, and no, I'd rather not get into it.