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You know, the pictures posted to Photo Friday would be a lot easier to look at if: camera phone pictures - you know, those crappy 320 x 240 ones - were not allowed. Oh, and people should stick to the freakin' theme. This week's theme is "Hot" and there are so many entries that seem to have so little (i.e. "nothing") to do with the theme at all.

Pictures of fire? Fine. Pictures of the desert? OK. Pictures of a cute girl or a barbecue? Sure. Candle pictures may be stretching it a little. Even this is ok.

But snowblowing? Yeah, I get the irony, but that ain't the point. And how many lame pictures of campfires are people going to submit? And y'know what? I'm sorry, but this doesn't cut it.

As a source of inspiration, Photo Friday sucks. That's not the reason it exists - I get that. I'm just sayin'… </rant>

I like AAC files. I import 192kpbs AAC files. Why, then, must I change my import settings, convert AAC files to MP3, and then burn an MP3 CD? Attempting to burn an MP3 CD with a playlist full of AAC files results in an error dialog stating that none of the items can be burned.

Pain in the butt. C'mon, Apple: convert the darn things to MP3s on the fly and burn them to a disc. These aren't .m4p files, but regular old .m4a files.

Cars have MP3 CD players, not AAC CD players.

Question: What's your favorite flavor of juice?

My Answer: Cherry when I can find it. Not the fake kind, either. Strawberry/Kiwi is good. A good white grape juice. Cranberry. Pineapple. Orange. Apple. Banana. Mango. It's funy, but my least favorite flavor of juice is fruit punch - a mixture of lots of fruits.

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

Question: No income tax, 23% sales tax on all purchases. Love it or leave it?

My Answer: Sounds like an idea that should be explored but is also an idea that, undoubtedly, has some pretty serious holes. But, as a general rule, I'd pay 20% more for everything if I didn't have to worry about income taxes.

How much would the United States save simply by eliminating the IRS?

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

A Freshly Squeezed Software customer sent me an email inquiring as to whether we could do something. I'm not sure it's possible, but I did tell him I'd inquire with the world at large by posting here on my blog:

Inquiry: I would like a badge (at least half-dollar size) to float (in a corner?) ontop of my screen saver. This badge should tell how many emails I have. Possibly like the badge that goes on the Mail icon???

The reason is my screen saver is password protected and I hate having to log in to see if I received any emails or not.

I "think" there use to be something like this out but I could not find it and am not sure it would be compatible with OS X anyway.

Any ideas? I realize one could create a specific screensaver to tell you these kinds of things, but the customer is really looking for something that can be done in any screen saver. Can windows be placed above screensaver level in OS X? If so, a simple little app could do this.

I have an iCal alarm for "Pay Rent" on the last day of every month. My April notice (March 31) just came up. I'm about to go to bed (to read, actually) as it's midnight now.

Where the heck is the option "Remind me later…" or "Remind me in 12 hours" or "Remind me in the morning"?

Yes, I realize I could change "Pay Rent" to have a time (9am) instead of being an "all-day event." But that's just silly. (Also, for whatever reason, the "all-day" checkbox is dimmed when I select the April 10 event, so, moot point.)

Stupid iCal.

I had no problem with the intent of the original plan: to out a plagiarist, to scare her a little, to get her in trouble. She did a bad thing. I do have a problem with the outcome. By publicly posting a gal's name and university, "A Week of Kindness" member Nate Kushner took on the role of complete friggin' asshole.

There was a way to give the girl what was coming to her - a failing class, suspension, or expulsion - without giving her more than that: harassing calls and emails to her college and to her parents.

The URL still contains her real name! "Krishna" may have been find/replaced, but the URL still contains the name. I've not bothered to check to see whether the gal is real. I'm hoping it's a hoax, because it's tough for me to believe that someone could be such an asshole. Whether it's a hoax or not, "A Week of Kindness" will never get my business.

P.S. April Fool's is in two days. If it is a hoax, Nate must suffer from premature contrivation.

Question: What's your favorite database?

My Answer: A loaded question, I admit. MySQL, SQLite, PosgreSQL, even FileMaker all have their niches. Answer however you'd like, make fun of other databases - whatever you want. But at least answer the question. 🙂

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

Question: When - aside from this post - was the last time you heard anything about AIDS?

My Answer: It's been at least three months. HIV and AIDS seems to have completely vanished from the public consciousness. Every once in awhile - like today - someone will mention Michael Jordan or Larry Bird and I'll think to myself "hey, speaking of basketball stars, why isn't Magic Johnson dead yet? Didn't they only give him 5-8 years? I guess money does buy you quite a bit."

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

A few quick links for my own purposes on creating good digital B&W images:

• Excellent B&W conversion
• B&W Conversion
• Santorini in black & white

So there's that. The first primarily summarizes and links to the second and third.

I'm looking into getting some new glasses. My current set - a pair of Esprit rimless glasses - are constantly "coming apart." You see, the nose bridge that is secured to the glasses with a threaded post and a nut on the other side. The nut is constantly coming loose (the nut is loose, the nut is loose!) and the glasses then wobble. I find myself tightening the nut every few hours. In other words, they're not very "rugged."

I like the "no frame" look, and I'm confident someone else has managed to make a rimless set of glasses that won't fall apart every 4-6 hours.

Now, my conundrum: I last went to an eye doctor June 27, 2003 - almost two years ago. I suppose I should get a new eye exam, and LensCrafters eye exams cost $50. I'd also like to get new frames - and perhaps prescription sunglasses. So we'll see. I could have skipped the exam if I knew how to contact the old doctor in FL, but, well, whatever.

Question: Which "iTune" have you listened to most?

My Answer: I've listened to "Up!" by Shania Twain and from the album "Up! (Red Disc)" (2002) 36 times. The next closest song comes in at 23 plays. I last listened to "Up!" (if you don't count that I'm playing it right now) on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 2:01:00am.

I think at one point I put this song on repeat and then forgot about it while I muted the computer and talked to Carey.

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

It would seem so: Photoshop CS 2 is due in April. I'm not so happy about that - Photoshop CS isn't that old, and Adobe seems to love to get people in that upgrade cycle.

Heck, I'm still waiting for Adobe's Camera RAW to support the RAW files from my Rebel XT.

We shall see…

P.S. Make that "shipping in May." But the announcement will come in April. Supposedly…

Question: Do you celebrate Easter?

My Answer: I don't celebrate the religious aspects, but I try to celebrate the theme: rebirth. My life has undergone a lot of rebirth lately - rebirth of a passion I'd forgotten about for a few years (golf), rebirth of a relationship I long since thought was over (with Carey), rebirth of some friendships and careers. Rebirth of my interest in getting a home of my own (my sister beat me to it!).

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

Question: When's the last time you had to help someone move?

My Answer: Today, if you can count it. Otherwise, the last time was when I moved back to PA in October.

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