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Question: Is software designed for men?

My Answer: No. Software is designed for a user - period. Someone told me that Apple's predilection for "metal" is indicative of their favorable stance towards manly users, but what then of their pulsing "OK" buttons and soft fades and whizzy effects? Absolutely nothing, as none of it has anything to do with gender.

Software is software, and good software is meant to be used by as many people as possible with as many different perspectives as possible. If you were redesigning "Safari" to be gay-friendly, or more friendly towards American Indians, what would you change? Nothing. Same is true for "designed for women." What are you gonna do, make the Safari icon pink instead of blue? Gimme a break.

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

Yet another article at stillers.com points out why Bill Cowher should get his ass out of Pittsburgh:

Bill Cowher's major positive impact on any team has been his motivating factor. But from the looks of the Monday Night Massacre at the hands of Indy and now getting stomped on at our home field from the Bengals… He seems to have lost the one positive asset of his coaching - motivation. He is a distant shadow of his former self - and so are the Stillers. Without Cowher being able to fire up the troops… he is left to nothing more than slobbering all over himself. We all knew Bill Cowher was poor game planner, X's and O's guy. But he used to be able to overcome those problems most of the time with sheer motivation.

Yep.

Question: Have you attended or will you be attending any "office Christmas parties" this year?

My Answer: I will be tonight. Hopefully it will turn out better than "The Office" Christmas party. 🙂

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

This is pretty nifty. If only I had a use for it… but then again, it could be used for font sizes, etc.:
iPhoto-like image resizing using Javascript.

I really should rename the "Blogging" category to something that encapsulates all Web technologies. Hmmm…

This may come in handy for getting past those stupid automated voice prompts when you call… any company these days.

In the game room, I'd like to have an audio system of some sort. Ideally, I imagine four speakers in the corners of the (roughly square) room should suffice, as I plan to have nothing but AM/FM, CD, and iTunes (via an AirPort Express) playing through the speakers.

Unfortunately, most boom boxes seem to come with two big speakers, and I don't feel like I need to put a receiver in the room - that'd be overkill (and not offer the CD playback). A DVD player, likewise, is overkill (and would likely lack audio input and AM/FM).

What options do I have? Should I be content with a two-speaker boom box? Should I be forced to buy speakers separately and use a boom box? I don't want to buy a product produced by someone I've never heard of, nor do I want to go hog-wild and spend a lot of money, but something in the Aiwa range (a name I've heard of, but not expensive like Pioneer or Bose) would be good.

What do you recommend?

"Underpromise, Overdeliver" is something I try to do. If I say something will be done in two weeks, I try to get it done in one week. And so forth.

The concept seems lost on some of the custom builders we've asked to look at our game room project and to provide an estimate. I made the calls two weeks ago, and just today one of the builders I called got back to me. Of the four we invited to look at the room to create an estimate, none have come through with an estimate this week as they promised, and two have revised their approximate delivery time to "sometime next week." They did so only after I called and asked "how's the quote coming?"

Seriously, what the heck?

From a playlist 4000 songs long, is this really random or is this that "less random" thing Steve Jobs talked about in iTunes 5 or 4 or whatever it was?

In my car the other day, "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel came on, followed by "Cecilia" by Ace of Bass. The latter is, naturally, a song about the (girl in the) former.

Question: Do you believe the reports?

My Answer: I hope with all of my might that PowerPage, as usual, is wrong, but at the same time I wouldn't put it past Apple to do something stupid like this.

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

Question: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

My Answer: "If you want something done right, do it yourself." 🙂

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

I'm just linking to this so I can remember how to uninstall it all when I'm done goofing around with Front Row on my G5 tower.

Business Plan:

1. Make inferior product
2. Don't turn a profit
3. Sue maker of better product

Looks like a sound plan to me! 😛

Question: Do you believe public schools should have uniforms?

My Answer: I do. Studies (look 'em up) have shown that public schools that have uniforms have less violence and better behaved students. The cool kids will still be cool but at least the dorks will have one less thing to be worried about. Money isn't an issue - it costs less to have five school uniforms (something simple - khaki pants and Oxford shirts for the guys) than it does a closetful of clothes. A t-shirt saying "Fuck Jesus" (I've seen them) is not "free speech" if the student doesn't know what they're saying. Just as we don't allow the "rights" of adults to everyone, I don't necessarily believe that the freedom of speech extends to the mini-skirt and midriff-baring baby-T on a 14-year-old girl. Students shouldn't necessarily have the right to express themselves through their clothing because, quite frankly, all they wind up saying is "I'm a gangsta" or "I'm a slut" or "I'm rich, see my Chanel?"

That all being said, I wouldn't mind if every Friday was a casual day without uniforms. Or perhaps tie casual days into a rewards system (grades, behavior, whatever).

Edit: Clarified initial position; added note about studies.

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

Question: If you were running for President (or any public office, really), what would your campaign slogan be?

My Answer: "No bullshit." I wouldn't get elected regardless of whether I honored it or not.

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

Something I've yet to get into as my "learn my camera" phase has been put on hold by the immediate need to "use my camera" is white balance. Some day I will read this article on white balance. I know the basics. I just have to develop confidence in applying them, and that will come with more knowledge.