NSLog();

Question: Did you take many notes in school?

My Answer: No. I certainly as hell never took notes as well-organized as those at Cornell would have had me do. Cripes! I was lucky if a 45-minute lecture yielded a page of notes. More likely I paid attention and then reviewed things myself in the book. Chemistry was different - writing down chemical reactions on organic molecules took up a lot of space, but even then I'd struggle to move to a third page in lectures.

Lab notes are another matter. My lab notes were tediously detailed. They still are, except these days those notes occur in comments (in code).

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

You heard it here first. Or second. Or eighth.

I don't have any particular attachment to TiVo, but I do pay only $4.99/mo, the thing has been as reliable as a puppy, and I think the TiVo logo is cute. Sometimes things are a bit slow, though, so if the DirecTV receivers can fix that, and if they too have a secret "30-second" skip feature, I'd look to replace my TiVo. Of course, I'd also want a high-capacity recorder. My TiVo can hold 110 hours of video.

I doubt that this is possible, but does anyone have a vBulletin license they don't need (or are willing to get rid of cheaply)? I'd like to consider setting up a forum on the advertising- (and thus income-) free The Sand Trap, and don't really care for the limited features of the free stuff (like phpBB).

Nov 12, 2005 Update: Duh, The Sand Trap has had a forum for about a year now: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/.

If you would like to download 50 new themes for Delicious Library, head on over to MacThemes.net.

If you would like a method of easily setting custom themes for your shelves or for your overall application, fire up your email and bitch at delicious@delicious-monster.com. Because, after all, there's no real way to use themes except to install them inside the application's bundle. Launch, view theme, quit, replace with the next one, and try again. Repeat as necessary. Yes, some of the themes have an "installer" application. Still, the "quit/relaunch/run installer" thing can get pretty damn repetitious too.

Here's to hoping 1.1 adds theming "inside" the application (with a preview or "instant change" so you don't have to close the preferences to see the new theme). Themes should also be double-clickable bundles like Adium's.

Today, Carey and I saw a sign in the mall that had "Slipper Pillows" in big bold type. One of those little shops set up in the "hallways" of malls, a small vendor. They were selling slippers that were very well padded. Beneath "Slipper Pillows," the sign said this:

I'ts like pillows for your feet

Okay, not only is the plurality wrong ("They're like pillows" or "It's like a pillow"), but the fucking apostrophe was after the "I" and before the "t"!!!

The vendor should be glad they weren't selling bludgeoning devices or I'd have been tempted to use them on the person who created the sign. Right there, six-inch letters. "I'ts"

Grammar has reached an all-time low.

Jeezus. I have 57 shares bought at $16.20. Value then: $923.40. Value today: $3901.08. I'm waiting until at least January (new tax year) to sell 'em. Then, the money goes right into a house. So, I hope it hangs over $60 for at least another 45 days or so.

I find Tog's list of ten persistent design bugs interesting, if only for the reason that he puts the list's inception as "1 Dec 2004." Funny, my clock must be a bit behind…

1. Power Failure Crash - I don't agree that we need "automatic saving." Save early, save often. So much of what the people that don't know this do is on the Web, where no saving is really possible (or necessary). I do think computers could stand to have power supplies with built-in UPS capabilities.
2. The Macintosh Dock - Not a bug. "Works as intended." I like my Dock just fine.
3. Mysteriously Dimmed Menu Items - Tog's suggestion that greyed out items be clickable is stupid - it removes the ability to close a window by clicking in "dead space" and adds a "great, now I have to close the stupid explanation window" step. Perhaps this idea becomes feasible if computers support an "exploratory" mode that seasoned computer users could turn off.

More below the fold…

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 368); »

Question: What's the true cost of Mac OS X to you?

My Answer: Rosyna comes up with a number of about $300. I'd tend to agree, though I have added a few of my must-haves (none of which will be my own software. I'll go with MSRP, and not the prices I've paid for things, if I've even paid… The sum total:

Mac OS X                $129
iLife '04                 49
QuickTime Pro             30
.Mac                     100
LaunchBar                 20
TypeIt4Me                 27
Synergy                   10
----------------------------
Total                   $365

Yes, I use iPhoto and iMovie. Not so much iDVD. Yes, I use .Mac. And yes, I view enough movies and whatnot that I don't care for the splash screen in QT non-Pro. LaunchBar and Synergy keep my hands on the keyboard, and TypeIt4Me makes sure I don't have to type more than necessary.

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

Now you can generate RSS feeds for both Google News and Amazon. Just plug 'em in to PulpFiction and away you go.

PulpFiction 1.2 will be available in early January 2005 (we may release interstitial versions to those who ask politely in mid December). It will add several new features, including initial support for enclosures and .torrents, smart folders, improved sorting of the Feeds view, blogline support, local feeds, and more. Choose any two. 🙂 Just kidding: the above list is our intention. But we'll see how hard the holidays hit our productivity.

Question: Do you want a Nintendo DS?

My Answer: Ars gave it a 9, and I think that eventually I might like to pick up a Nintendo DS, but frankly $150 is far better spent elsewhere. I still enjoy console gaming (though I haven't done that in over a month). Hmmm… Perhaps I'm finally at the stage when video games simply don't matter. Anyone want to buy a Nintendo GameBoy SP? 😛

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

I don't remember sending myself this email…

Dear user of Barzeski.com e-mail server gateway,

Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper using in next three days, if you are still wishing to use it, please, resign your account information.

Further details can be obtained from attached file.

Have a good day,
The Barzeski.com team

… but I must have, since I'm the only member of "the barzeski.com team." Damn those sleepwalking episodes!

Duce Staley sat again, and again Jerome Bettis rushed for 100 yards in a win that ended up being even uglier than last week's win against Cincy. The Steelers - the #1 defense - and the Redskins - #2 - allowed only 25 total first downs and 363 yards of total offense combined.

A win is a win, and I'll take it. The Redskins managed only one valid drive - of 79 yards in Q3 - and were shut down most of the rest of the time. The Steelers are now 10-1 and fighting to stay on top of a conference and a division. Contrast that with the NFC, of course, where 5-6 at this point in the season puts you in a wild card spot!

Plaxico was out today, and Lee Mays didn't step up at all. Randle El did "ok" as a receiver and ran his heart out as a special teams returner. Ol #77 on the O-Line let in far too many rushers, and was single-handedly the cause of at least half of our sacks and short running plays.

Duce - and Plaxico - should be back next week against the Jaguars at 8:30 Sunday night.

Question: Pen or pencil?

My Answer: Gosh I don't like pencils. The scratching, the sharpening… give me a thick pen every time.

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

So Thursday was Thanksgiving. My sister and her husband (now about 18 months in) arrived just before 1 pm, and we sat around (with Carey) until 3 when we took off for my parents' house. The food, which was to have been ready at "3:30 or 4," was not actually ready until five, so we were quite hungry.

After dinner we played a rousing game of Pictionary (Carey and I think so much alike that we had no problems winning after we became comfortable with each other's style) and Trivial Pursuit, 90's edition. The questions in this version of Trivial Pursuit border on being insultingly easy. In the "Wired" category, for example:

Q: In 1993, this company delivered more mail messages than the USPS.
A: America Online

Well duh! I think that Carey and I got about 2/3 of the questions correct. My sister and her husband and my parents probably got about half. Carey and I landed on the center three separate times but couldn't get any of the questions right, though, and my sister and her husband pulled from being down six pieces to three to pull out a victory ("What browser company invented 'cookies'?" - real freakin' tough :-P).

Friday Carey and I met the foursome for dinner, then saw Friday Night Lights at the dollar (fifty) theater. Today Carey and I went ice skating (I need new ice skates - mine really cramp my feet, and I'm beyond the point where I just try to be macho about it). We'll be going shooting in a few minutes… And tomorrow, I don't know.

That's my holiday weekend. How was yours?

Question: What's the strangest thing you've ever heard a neighbor doing?

My Answer: My neighbor in Florida seemingly once tried - I emphasize tried - to sing opera. He was a 60-year old, beer-belly, balding white dude.

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