NSLog();

Question: How well would you do on Survivor?

My Answer: I'd either last quite awhile or I'd leave very quickly - I don't think I'd be a piece player at all. I would have a tremendous problem eating what they eat for 39 days, though. And half of the rewards wouldn't help either - coffee? Pringles? Real nutritious… I'm a meat and potatoes kinda guy. Love fruits. Not so sure I could survive on just fruits though.

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

Consider a Cocoa application I'll call "EggLoop." EggLoop sounds an NSBeep(); every x seconds, where x is set by the user in the application with a slider (from 1 to 999).

This is easily done with a repeating NSTimer. Every x seconds, the NSTimer signals a "beep now" method and resets itself.

Imagine that the user (or the developer) wants to pause the timer. Unfortunately, the developer has to write this himself by keeping track of some number (an integer would be fine for whole seconds). When that int = x, beep and reset the integer to 0. This would require a timer running once per second and triggering a method that does little more than int++ and if(int == x) NSBeep();.

Solution? Apple should add these:

- (BOOL)pause:(id)sender;
- (BOOL)resume:(id)sender;

The BOOL could be used to return a NO if the timer was unable to be resumed or paused (perhaps something else invalidated it in the meantime). This is something I considered after titling this entry, as you can see. 🙂

Question: What's your favorite board game (things like Pictionary count).

My Answer: Trivial Pursuit - but I'm a fan of silly trivia. I like Pictionary quite a bit, but it's tough to find a fair match. I think Carey and I will give my parents and my sister and her husband a good run, though. We think too much alike…

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

It sure would be nice if Preview could be set to display facing pages. Or just two pages, side by side.

I regularly zoom to 130% - that fits a full page, with the toolbar (icons + text) on the height of my 23" display, but it leaves plenty of room. Hitting page down every page is annoying - why can't I view two pages side by side?

Preview isn't even scriptable, so I can't even open the same PDF twice, arrange the windows, set the left page to an odd numbered page and the right to an even number, and - via AppleScript and my programmable mouse, make them scroll down two pages apiece when I click my "page down" button.

Harumph.

This is the first free iTunes song I think I actually like:

Erik is listening to "Breathe (2AM)" by Anna Nalick from the album "Breathe (2AM) - Single" (2004). Erik has rated this song 4.0 stars and has never played this song to completion before.

Here's a link (affiliate-free) to it. It's free this week, so, you have a few more days. It's not super-duper great, but it's something I'll want to hear again.

The little "Erik is listening to" thing is part of an AppleScript I wrote about two years ago (I think) for iTunes. I use it for away messages in Adium and several other things. The script sources is in the extended entry.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 650); »

I continue to get questions like "is there a date set?" and "how did you propose?" and "did you book a band yet?" These questions come from friends who should know better. While I appreciate that they're asking, I don't appreciate that they've failed to remember things I told them only a month ago.

So, let me post here before I become so annoyed by having to answer the same questions many times. Many, many, many times. And then some. 🙂

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 400); »

Question: How do you think advertising will affect your use of syndicated content?

My Answer: Jeremy offers up his opinion - and I hope that advertisers implement his suggestions. I don't believe they will, though.

As I scan my subscriptions list, I find that only about 5% of my feeds are maintained by more than two or three people. In other words, 95% of my subscriptions are to personal blogs. Many of the others - things like Gizmodo and so on - are easily replaced by sites that publish similar content, so I don't expect them to go too hog-wild with advertising in feeds or they'll lose readers.

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

Someone sent me this. If you have thoughts, leave a comment:

Erik, do you think I could use a G5, hook it up to the internet, get some software, iChat, iSight cameras, etc. and set up as a video surveillance and security system in my warehouse in [some city]?

Personally I think that it may be cheaper to get a standard security system, but I don't know if those tie into "remote viewing" very inexpensively.

Are there more Apple blogs to come?

While I was an "Apple blogger," I was threatened with being fired if I didn't cease to comment on any and all things relating to Apple, despite the fact that I also develop software for Mac OS X and never (well, not really) divulged on my blog that I was an Apple employee.

I too know of about 30 Apple employees with blogs. Most don't even mention that they work for Apple. Those that do are far more likely to talk about their cats than their day jobs. So "Apple blogs" is a bit of a misnomer, usually - except when applied to blogs located at education.apple.com, that is!

I went to Bedford yesterday to do three things: accompany my mom, visit my grandmother, and stop in to see my uncle. My uncle is a jeweler, and so my reasons for seeing him were quite obvious. Carey and I had previously both visited my uncle, but this time I was going alone.

I managed to pick out my wedding band: titanium, 6mm, size 9, and "brushed" half-round. The closest I can find online is this with platinum instead of gold (choose the "White Gold" option to get a general idea). I also picked out Carey's wedding ring. On Sunday we'd picked out something like this: Diamond Channel Set Milgrain Band in 14k White Gold, but I found something I liked more, jazzed it up a little, spent a little more, and am happy with my choice. I won't say any more than that because she reads this stuff.

Funny how my wedding ring is 1/20th the cost of hers. 🙂 Oh well… once I get my uncle the right size (we think she's 5½, but we want to be sure), I'll have the rings. So, before Christmas - weird, exciting, etc. Apparently I wasn't supposed to pay for my ring, by custom. See? But theknot.com disagrees. I really don't care, truth be told, and am just happy to be moving in this direction.

Question: What do you listen to in the car?

My Answer: My iPod. Occasionally a CD… but almost never the radio.

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

NFL.com gets it wrong with this:

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger played like a rookie, so the 32-year-old running back and the old-style defense bailed him out in Pittsburgh's eighth straight win.

Carson Palmer played like a rookie - throwing into triple coverage and accepting a safety late in the game. Ben Roethlisberger, who turned the ball over once, didn't force a play all afternoon, was 15 for 21, and played a smart game. Rookies don't play smart games - rookies throw into triple coverage and walk back into the end zone late in the game.

Jerome Bettis chipped in with 129 on 29 carries, and though the Steelers - despite playing like boobs in the red zone - eked out an ugly win today against an always dangerous Bengals team. Time of Possession was again in the Steelers favor, about 39 to 21, and the defense stepped up when it had to.

Some telling stats today include:

                 Steelers    Bengals
First Downs          21         10
Punt Return Yds     181         90
T.O.P.            38:56      21:04
Net Rushing         151         62
Sacks                 3          7

In other words, an ugly game. Today's game may mark the something else, though, as Plaxico Burress left with a hammy injury and Kendrell Bell re-aggravated his groin. We'll see how those injuries mount up, and when Duce Staley can return. Next week: a Gibbs-coached (but sliding) Washington.

Question: Given that online petitions have what seems to be a 100% failure rate, has the Internet performed in a lackluster fashion in informing or persuading masses of people, and effecting change on the intended targets?

My Answer: In cases, it has been a failure. Petitions have a huge failure rate (I'm guessing it's near 100%, and I've never seen one work). However, as with the last election and Rathergate, etc. we have started to see some of the Internet's power realized. We're not there yet. If the city of Erie hatches some lame-brain plan, it'd take weeks for Google to find a site I might create to bring up my points without a few thousand dollars in marketing money, and who knows how many would find it. I'd still have to get news (TV, radio, print) coverage to be successful. Thus, I do feel the Internet has been a lackluster vehicle of persuasion. Getting better, again, but has not achieved what it's capable of achieving.

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

I'd like to support these Steelers fans, but after five minutes glancing around, reading their PDF, and so on: I'm not sure what they stand for. They can't watch the Steelers on TV because the NFL is… doing something else? I don't know.

Saturn is recalling 2004 IONs. I wonder if they were improperly charged.