NSLog();

I watched the The O.C. season finale today (while I was without internet access for seven hours) and at the end they played a song which had previously been in West Wing when Mark Harmon's character was shot. Like a Tori Amos song I've written about before this song, the cinematography, and the story combined perfectly (in West Wing - much much less so in The O.C.) to cause such a feeling in me that I replayed the scene several times.

The iTunes Music Store is of little help when searching for a term as vague as "Hellelujah," especially when you're not even sure that this is the title of the song. Google, however, is quite helpful. I searched for "West Wing Hallelujah" and the first result led me to my gold.

I've purchased the song now and I've got goosebumps again. Music is powerful. Combined with video and a storyline in the right person's hands, it's downright deadly. We don't celebrate the artistry of actual artists much anymore - we're very synthetic-pop-oriented these days. Britney Spears isn't an artist. Aaron Sorkin, and in a brief moment and to a lesser extent, whoever put together the scenes in The O.C., I salute you.

P.S. West Wing Season 2 DVDs ship on May 18. I've got my order in.

I brought home my Motorola v600 last night and attempted to set it up with my Mac. I've waited quite a while for this phone, so I was quite eager. Unfortunately, Mac OS X 10.3.3 and iSync 1.4 greeted my eagerness with this chilling reminder that not all is always well:

Hrmph. Scott pointed me towards the Unofficial Apple Weblog and that led to OnSync's Web page (and a useful PDF). I bought and paid for OnSync, but it turns out I'd rather enter my contacts manually than use an app as slow as OnSync (most of which is probably not its fault).

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 396); »

Question: Why should marriage be a legal issue at all?

My Answer: The only reason I can appreciate is that there has to be some way to legalize and enforce the health benefits of spouses. It seems to me, however, that if that could be worked out, reverting marriage to a purely religious undertaking may wash away a lot of the crap we stare at day to day: gay marriage, etc. The legality of marriage seems to protect women - they get all the goods in most divorces. I'm not in favor of that either. I'm not talking about children - alimony isn't the same as child support.

It's a much bigger topic than I have time for now, but really: why is marriage a legal issue at all? Why can't people who love each other commit themselves to each other and live their lives? I suppose people do, but even then they might eventually be married by "common law."

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

Oddly, I've found a problem with TypeIt4Me today. A lot of our software display a "join our eList" dialog at launch time. If TypeIt4Me is installed and active and you click "Cancel" or press escape, this nearly always results in a crash.

Switching back to "U.S." or another language as your input method yields proper results (no crash). I'm going to try to work up a test case and send it to Riccardo, but that may take me awhile.

Question: Did you watch the final episode of Friends?

My Answer: Shamefully, I admit that I did. The gal wanted to see it, and I obliged. But it was put on the TiVo and we skipped the commercials, dammit. I wonder how much NBC was able to to get for those slots…

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

Women's lib took a gigantic step forward today: the Playmate of the Year:

• has naturally brown hair
• didn't bleach it blonde
• has natural breasts!

Sadly, the "has an IQ over 100" may have been left off the list once again, but three out of four ain't bad!

P.S. She's smokin'. And I wouldn't have to look at anything besides this to know that much:

Question: Is it safe to say that, if you've been good friends with someone for three years (maybe even slept with them a time or two), that your other friends are aware of this first friend's existence?

My Answer: Seems like the way it should be to me. Guess that's not how it works for everyone, though…

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

Question: Have you replaced the tires on your car?

My Answer: I will be now. After 36,000 miles, the left rear tire shredded itself and is now down to the belt in one large section. I guess I'm buying new tires soon!

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

In Mail, when you drag a message one way, the drawer opens on that side, and vice versa. There's a bit of a "dead zone" in the middle where a drawer doesn't open at all, but clearly that depends on the initial location of the click-down: towards the side of the window and the dead zone is smaller or you'd be off the window before the drawer opened.

I was nearly certain that this was a "for free" behavior in Cocoa, but as we look to add and refine this feature (it's added, but it only works on one side) to PulpFiction, we realize it's not. A search of the Apple docs (and Example applications) yields nothing, as does a search of cocoa.mamasam.com (to which I've contributed - and to which you should as well).

Anyone got any input here? We're stuck. Not wanting to roll our own if we don't have to, but unable to find a pre-rolled solution.

I'm going to Georgia to visit my friend Kate Tuesday through Friday of this week. I haven't seen her in two years, and I owe it to her not to check email, go online, or in any way be "connected." I will be calling Brad daily to check in on PulpFiction, but our bug count is going to dip under 30 (total) tonight, so those calls should be no more than "we've knocked off another nine, have fun, bye."

PulpFiction will be seeded to some "prominent" types on May 8. We'll be featuring a "Developer Blog" at that time too. We'll have demo limitations in place and registration codes will be working. Final beta testing for crashes or other "easy fixes" (language in menus, etc.) will take place, as will packaging and documentation-editing.

So, this Georgia trip is really the calm before the storm for me. Andy, Nick, Brad: their calm comes from about May 16-May 23 or so. But then again, they won't be visiting Kate during their vacations… 😉

Question: What's the furthest you've travelled by car to be with someone?

My Answer: Six hours. Tomorrow that'll be seven.

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

Just a quick note, given that I'm getting TrackBacks like this:

Still no word on the beta of the new rss reader for OS X, PulpFiction.

I never said there'd be a public beta. PulpFiction entered beta testing a few days early, in fact, and we've got less than 40 bugs remaining in our bug database. Most are pretty minor.

Geek Patrol has finished its review of Rock Star. The verdict? 9/10. I'd like to say we couldn't be happier, but we did only get a 9! 🙂

Too good not to keep for posterity, this one:

me: i removed the accounts of anyone i deemed unfit to continue beta testing
me: if you'd like to file a complaint, you may do so with our board of advisors
me: which includes and is chaired by me, the only member.
betatester: and how do I file said complaint?

I'll never tell anyone this person's name, but I will say that the last line is very indicative of the behavior warranting the first.

Question: Should euthanasia be legal?

My Answer: As I watched men beat themselves senseless in an "ultimate fighting" tournament last night, I reaffirmed my belief that euthanasia should be legal. If it's legal to sign a waiver and let yourself get beaten, then it should be legal to end a suffering that will simply end eventually anyway.

Of course, that isn't really a reason - just the thought that stuck in my head. There are any number of reasons to legalize euthanasia. I don't advocate the Jack Kevorkian types - I've heard that in Sweden or somewhere, your case is heard by a five-person board that tries to protect people from, among other things, relatives looking to cash in earlier on an inheritance than later. Such measures would be important. Knowing this country, however, we'd go overboard with the red tape.

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