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It is back! Hooray!

In iTunes 4.6, you could request the currently playing song with an AppleScript on loop. Every ten seconds or so, you could say "hey, what's the current tune?" This is how Recent Tunes worked, in fact.

When iTunes 4.7 (I think it was 4.7.1 specifically) came out, it pushed out notifications on its own. You no longer had to ask iTunes every x seconds what the current song was. iChat in Tiger takes advantage of this, I believe.

The trouble is this: I can't find information about this change anywhere. Has anyone seen a web page detailing this change? How can an application get notifications and "tap in" to the current song?

I'd like to add "current tune" functionality to Adium and perhaps some other freeware products, and Recent Tunes is overdue for this update.

I am supposed to be cleaning right now. Instead, I'm cleaning my email. I'm re-organizing some folders, closing out some things, and getting rid of the mess. The next target: my address book.

Then, tonight, I must get some writing done, despite the fact that Carey's here for the next few days. Oh boy.

I'm pretty "delete happy" with my email, but even still, I'm surprised how much stuff I've kept. I've easily deleted a few thousand emails, I've backed up several hundred more, and I'm probably half done.

Some of my address book contacts are five years old and date back to some of the earliest versions of Mac OS X. It's time for a change. Why not? Everything else in my life is in upheaval right now! 🙂

I sent a BCC to everyone with my new phone number and snail mail address. If you missed it, well, you weren't in my address book.

Question: Who do you believe is in the right: Apple or the KHTML folks?

My Answer: Here's the nickel summary. Apple forked KHTML to create WebCore because KHTML relies on the KDE windowing/display environment. Apple has been supplying a ton of fixes and patches to WebCore (the fork), but the KDE/KHTML folks think that the patches should be easily applied to KHTML itself and that the documentation of those patches is weak. (Someone at) Apple suggested the KHTML folks move on to WebCore, and now the KHTML people are all up in arms. Sources: One and Two.

My take: the KHTML people should quit their yappin'. They're free to keep working on the original trunk, and Apple is abiding by all the rules and regulations of the open-source project. A fork is a fork. Deal with it, KHTML weenies.

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

In addition to the Dyson DC15 we bought today, Carey and I spent a bit of money in some other stores.

We went to Home Depot first, despite not having a 10% off coupon. Having read Consumer Reports, we were there to get a Lawn Boy or a Toro lawnmower. CR recommended a $399 Toro or a $360 Lawn Boy. The Toro had an electric start, and one without electric start cost the same as the Lawn Boy, so we got it. The Toro 20017 "Recycler" is a "personal pace" rear-wheel drive mower with a "guaranteed to start" engine, three cutting options (mulch, side, rear/bag), 6.5 horsepower, and an extra year warranty to extend it to three. Whoopty doo. We'll mulch or side discharge, and half the lawn at the new home is actually covered over in rocks or wood chips. This mower should last a loooong time.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 444); »

I got a Dyson DC15 today. It's nicknamed "The Ball" because, like AC/DC, it has big balls. Well, one of 'em anyway.

Normally, of course, I wouldn't spend $635 on a stupid vacuum cleaner. I'd live with sawdust floors before I'd spend more than a month's rent on something that sucks. Fortunately, I paid only $381.59 (including the 6% sales tax). It's brand new, and I used the combination of a price match and a percent off coupon (even though the coupon specifically excluded Dyson products) to get the deal.

Carey's making me keep it in the box. If this thing works half as well as some people say it does, ladies, pay attention. If you want your husband to vacuum for you, try to get a good deal on a Dyson. I can't wait to give it a spin. Or a roll.

Woohoo, Taboo!

This not only fixes the issue of closing Safari windows with tabs open, but it also fixes the issue of that stupid, annoying warning.

Question: Did you take the SAT or the ACT? Why?

My Answer: I took both. Most schools east of the Mississippi River seem to like the SAT, but the school I ended up going to liked the ACT, and I'd heard they scored better for math/science people anyway.

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

Question: What day is today? How long did it take you to think of it, and what made you sure you knew the day?

My Answer: Wednesday, about two seconds, and I knew it was Wednesday because I played in my golf league yesterday.

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

Anyone who knows me and needs my new cell phone number, please AIM or email me. The area code is 814, and I'm testing this one out to see how the coverage is in my area with the new service provider, Cellular One.

The phone is a Motorola V555. I guess a slightly cheaper version of the V600 - my old phone - which I gave to Carey. The V555 does not work with iSync, and currently, Cellular One doesn't seem to work with text messages sent via AOL Instant Messenger. This may be a potentially serious issue.

Update: Apparently, Cellular One uses both an "inside" and an "outside" email address to send text messages, and AOL thinks that the messages are spam. This according to a customer service rep with Cellular One. This may be a major kink in operations: I use my cell phone to communicate with those on AIM fairly regularly.

If you didn't know this, you can type "+1##########" (where the #s are the ten-digit phone number) to send text messages to cell phones. Just send a short message to the username "+10123456789" (for the phone number 012-345-6789). Try it on your cell phone if you'd like.

P.S. AOL's Mobile Tech Support unit can be reached at (866) 265-3019.

Is it too much to ask that I be given the article title (local and/or remote) instead of the ID?

Heck if I know which entry 686 is without looking, and sometimes you can't look because it's hidden underneath the sheet.

Screw Cingular. They did it again. Despite promises that for this last month, they would bump me up as necessary to a higher plan. $350 later, I'm calling bullshit on them.

If Cingular can't offer me an awesome deal, I'm basically going to be cell-phone-less. I may even have to use Cellular One of all folks, cuz Verizon sure as hell ain't gonna get my business.

Question: What do you want to see from a big company blog?

My Answer: I may be doing some consulting work for a company soon, and while I've brainstormed quite a few ideas, I'm looking for some more.

The company for whom I may be consulting is, in a lot of ways, like Apple Computer. They're large, multinational, and have kept a tight lid on upcoming products. Not much is known about their internal operations, and there's a bit of mystique. They're an artistic company that has been able to blend mass production to become quite successful. In fact, unlike Apple, they're the market leader in a few categories and a strong competitor in others. Also unlike Apple, their prototypes are used in fairly plain sight every week, yet there are very few "rumor sites" about this company (or its peers). Celebrities use this company's products and are available for comment, human interest type stuff, and more.

What would you, as a consumer of this company's products or perhaps even just an interested industry watcher like to see from an "official" company blog? As I said, I've got my own ideas, and I don't want to steer any responses by listing them here.

Any and all attempts to guess at the company will be removed. Don't bother - just try to answer the question.

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

Hey look, it's something Apple should have done itself: Widget Manager!

Mac OS X 10.4's widget management process is, in a poor word, "bad." Widgets are automatically installed in ~/Library/Widgets (if you've allowed Safari to do so), but you have to quit the Dock or double-click the widget to get the widget to appear. Want to remove a widget? You've gotta find the thing, delete it, and then quit the dock (or try to use the widget you just deleted - don't worry, the Dock will crash and re-launch).

"Widget World" would have been a great place to implement a version-checking system available to third parties. Is there an update to your Google widget search tool or your Porn-Pic-A-Day widget? Don't worry - your Mac will tell you when they're available and automatically replace the old ones (or do so after you click a button or two). You know, in fantasy land where Apple actually puts some thought into its OS before shoving it on an unsuspecting public.

The Dashboard: Tiger's half-aborted, half-stillborn, half-assed technology of the day.