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Here's an email I sent to the makers of Business Plan Pro:

I have Business Plan Pro on a relatively inexpensive PC running Windows XP Home. I have a Mac with the latest version of Office. The Mac is my primary machine.

I would like to export from Business Plan Pro to Microsoft Word format, yet each time I attempt to do this I'm told that I cannot because I do not have Word installed on the PC.

I have it on the Mac, and it's quite easy to transfer a file from one computer to the other.

Why then does your product fail to let me export my business plan to Word format? It's ridiculous to require Word in order to export to Word and quite possible that a customer may own Word and simply have it installed on another computer.

I appreciate that the product "interfaces" with Word, but I'd just like to create something that can be edited elsewhere. Is RTF really an option? I don't think so… Still a nice big hole in the Mac software market.

Has anyone given Downsize for iPhoto a look? What did you think? $20 seems a tad steep, but then again I don't find myself exporting a whole lot from iPhoto.

It seems to me it should be an iPhoto plugin that makes itself available when I choose to export, not a separate application.

Question: Shania Twain's "Up" album: red disc or green? Or, sadly, none of the above?

My Answer: Red. That's the pop one, right? Red. (A reader suggested this question, or a variation: which version of "Party for Two" do you like most [red for me]. Thanks, Ruby!)

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

The fact that Photon is now free leads me to believe one of two things:

1. That a significant update (which I was told a month or two ago was in development) is coming out soon.
2. That work has been stopped entirely, and Photon is now a dead product.

The former would be great, the latter rather tragic. If it is dead, well, I can only hope the code is passed along so that someone else can continue to develop the product into something that realizes the promise Photon 1.0 displayed.

I haven't gotten a rebate yet, either.

Question: What are your Super Bowl XXXIX predictions? How about your Super Bowl XL predictions?

My Answer: Patriots 27, Eagles 17. Steelers 27, Falcons 10. It's appalling the quality of play in the NFC - I can't see anyone pulling out a winning season except the Eagles and Falcons. It will obviously happen, but I think another year of maturity and a wide receiver or two, and the Falcons topple the Eagles. Two quarterbacks failed miserably on Sunday and their teams lost.

Incidentally, I think it'd be awesome to play in "Super Bowl XL." Roman numerals are sometimes very cool for marketing folks. 🙂

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

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Macintosh
Happy birthday to you…

…and maaaaaany mooooooooore!

Today is the Mac's 21st birthday. Why, our boy is old enough to drink now!. As I sit here staring at my 23" LCD attached to a dual 2 GHz G5 with 2.5 GB RAM about 18 peripherals, all running on a Unix-based OS for which I am developing, I am thankful. This is, after all, one of the few birthdays in which the birthday boy is the one giving all the gifts.

And yes, I wrote nearly the same thing last year and the year before.

Hmmm, wait, I have the same hardware as last year…

A tale of two quarterbacks, one a two-time Super Bowl MVP, the other a record-setting rookie. The difference?

               Tom              Ben
Att/Comp      14/21            14/24
Yards          207              226
TD/INT         2/0              2/3

Rushing yards? Pittsburgh 163, New England 126. Corey Dillon broke a 25-yarder on a play the Patriots should not have been able to make, but for a stupid holding penalty on Aaron Smith. Holding by a lineman on 3rd and 17? Silly Aaron Smith.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 276); »

Question: What's your most memorable snow day? For those who live in areas without snow, what's the most memorable school cancellation?

My Answer: Can't say. We never had one, not a single one of 'em. One time, in high school, we had three feet of snow dumped on us overnight. I was sure we'd have no school. Every other school in the area was cancelled. My school? 2-hour delay. Took me 45 minutes to walk to school… ¼ mile from my house. In college we never cancelled school either, but the town my college was located in cancelled the entire month of January one year because it was too cold. Sissies!

I just shoveled Carey's car out of the driveway. Anyone wants a good workout? Shovel snow. Whooooey!

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

The Bond Aston Martin Vanquish, only $255,000.

Really quite inexpensive if you ask me.

Question: What is your middle name? Do you care to change it?

My Answer: Joseph. And no, not really… Goodness knows I use the "J." enough.

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

Question: Should Apple offer colored Mac minis?

My Answer: Sure, why not. But something tells me they're going to have a hard enough time keeping up with production here with just one case option. As someone who watched the iPod mini rush first-hand, I can say that color complicates things. People "settling" for their second-choice color because the first choice was sold out, that sort of thing. So, I say wait until you can comfortably meet demand, then offer colors.

It does seem to be a bit of a break for the company. The iPod is white, the mini is colored. The iBook and iMac are white, the PowerBook and G5 are metallic. Oh well.

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

Question: Stamps: how many do you use per month?

My Answer: About five. Crappy QotD, but today was a busy day. Get PulpFiction 1.2, mmmmk? 🙂

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

PulpFiction 1.2 is now available. PulpFiction Lite 1.2 will be available later today or tomorrow.

Over the past ten days, we've been counting down some of PulpFiction's new features. A quick recap of the ones I like most:

• Smart Folders
• Enclosures support
• Wide view
• Local feed support
• NetNewsWire Stylesheet support
• Authenticated feeds
• More control over list preferences
• More, more, more…

Yes, "More, more, more…" is indeed one of my favorite features. 🙂 Things we didn't even bother to mention in the manual include more ways to sort the Feeds View (alphabetical, by unread articles, etc.) and so on. We've added local feeds, and MacGeekery already has an article up about using (and creating) those.

For a somewhat more complete on what new features we've got - and how to use them - check PulpFiction's Help, available online or via the "Help" menu item in PulpFiction.

Tomorrow, we'll be releasing PulpFiction 1.2. On each of the past ten days, I've discussed one of PulpFiction's new features. Today's is the last one prior to its release, and it is my favorite.

Today's feature: smart folders. If you can filter by something, you can likely create a smart folder by it as well. Additional options include the unread state of items, and drag and drop support is fully supported: drag a subscription to the folder area and a smart folder will be created (for those who miss "Filterize"). Drag a subscription onto an existing smart folder and its criteria will be added.

I don't have to tell you what smart folders let you do - you've got ideas (or will come up with some) without my help. My smart folders include one called "Developer Topics" that lists articles that discuss Cocoa, WebObjects, Carbon, and other Mac OS X development topics. Another smart folder is called "Interesting People" which displays articles containing words like "Steve Jobs" and "Tiger Woods."

Quick Recap:
Day 2: enclosures support.
Day 3: wide view.
Day 4: Support for local feeds.
Day 5: Support for "that other aggregator"'s stylesheets.
Day 6: Support for authenticated feeds.
Day 7: "Add to Filter" added to QuickSubscribe sheet.
Day 8: Export selected subscriptions.
Day 9: Preference to disable alternating blue/white background.
Day 10: "Google This," "Fwd: article title," page up/down, "category" is now "^y."

Question: Will the 'rel="nofollow"' idea work?

My Answer: It's a step in the right direction, but I've gotta agree with Chuq: I don't think it's going to be economically damning enough to comment spammers. Furthermore, it hurts authentic commenters who leave their URL on my blog. If they're contributing, why shouldn't they benefit from some Google juice on a particular topic?

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