NSLog();

For the hell of it, I've flipped my site's "sidebar" and my "content" areas. Why? For the hell of it! Weren't you paying attention? 🙂 Things should go back to normal soon… unless I decide that I like things this way. What do you think?

A spam slipped through my spam filter(s) today. You can see it to the right. What did I notice? No, not that "yourafuckingasshole.com" is probably not the correct TO: address, but rather that the domain name is grammatically poor.

Grrrrr. I'm not sure whether I'm more annoyed by the fact that it got through, the fact that I noticed the error, or the fact that someone made the error to begin with.

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

…and maaaaaany mooooooooore!

Today is the Mac's 20th birthday. The big TWO-OH. 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.

Question: Birthdays: just another day or cause to call off work (and call in sick the next day)?

My Answer: Just another day. But hey, I'll take any chance to get some presents that I can get, right? Nah, I usually don't make a big deal out of it.

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

My post on writing well received a TrackBack from another blog somewhere. Unfortunately, I can't see what was said about my post because the site is protected - a "members only" site. Since it (look at the URL) has "/executive/" in it, my guess is that it's a company site and you've gotta be an employee to see it.

Why, then, send a TrackBack ping to me?

I may have more thoughts on this later, but right now it seems rather silly. Why let me know you have a site I can't get to if it's so private? Not so private any more, is it? Given that it is "/executive/" perhaps the exec doesn't know what this whole blogging thing is or what a TrackBack actually does…

Just as AppleInsider leaks some information about some of Panic's upcoming apps, Slava pens a missive on becoming a successful Indieware Developer. Panic and Unsanity are two of a select group of successful indieware developers. Their opinions carry some weight.

Slava's got good advice, but one thought can't be stressed enough:

First thing to ask yourself is how useful your software would be? Would you use it? Some people I know are making software they don't use personally and try to sell that.

Good Mac developers have at least five years of active Mac use under their belt.^* (Folks coming from OpenStep can count their time as 50% or so, depending on how much they fight certain "Mac" things.) Think of the indieware developers you support and the apps you love. How many of them were written by developers new to the Mac? None.^*

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 418); »

Question: If your computer could do one thing more quickly, what would it be?

My Answer: Process the massive amounts of email (errr, spam) that I get when I wake up in the morning. I hit check mail, mail downloads, and then… zzzzzzzz… ah, SpamSieve is done filing 450 spams, I can read my 75 good emails now. It's not SpamSieve's fault - but it sure would be nice if it happened instantly. 🙂 A close second is "burn a disc," but I don't find myself burning many discs.

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

Danger, Will Robinson! The iTMS now has RSS feeds. Danger, danger!

Thanks to bbum for the pointer.

I am going to read this. It's an article. The article is actually writing well. Actually, it's mostly about not writing badly. Everyone should read it. You should read it. I will read it. In fact, I just finished reading it. Mostly, it's good.

If it's not violently obvious, the above is a fine example of the crap "Ten Mistakes Writers Don't See" smashes into teeny bits.

I may not (yet) be a good writer, but I can try.

I had a discussion today regarding Rock Star's pricing. It has only come up within FSS a few times, and we'd mostly decided that $19 was a fair price. After all, it's a multi-/single-player game with an Internet high scores board.

My friend said "how bout $9.99?" We don't like the odd "cents" at the end - it's a silly ploy that tries to trick people into thinking $9.99 is "less than ten bucks!" (Granted, it IS, but you know what I mean.) So, anyway, he thinks $9 or $10 is fair and accurate.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 318); »

Question: Who is your preferred registrar?

My Answer: Dotster. They're a bit pricy, but their service is nicely done, and I got in when they were offering a very good promotion (free transfers + renewal or something like that). I can easily transfer domains to other people, too, which has proven to be nice.

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

I have two domains with Dotster that I'm willing to sell or give away. They are "NETSCRIBBLE.COM" and "TECHSTRA.NET." They might make good domains for blogs, particularly the prior. THe latter was a play on the words "tech" and "extra" so it too could make a good blog, although perhaps only one "tech"-related.

The origins? The former was for a product we (FSS) never really finished, and the latter is for a project which was a success in some ways but not in others.

IM, comment (with email address), or email if you're interested.

Speaking of the FSS site…

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product                                     Created    Expires    Price
    Domain Name
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Year COM/NET/ORG Renewal                06-MAR-02  06-MAR-09    67.95
    FRESHLYSQUEEZEDSOFTWARE.COM
2 Year COM/NET/ORG Renewal                06-MAR-02  06-MAR-06    27.95
    FRESHLYSQUEEZEDSOFTWARE.NET
2 Year COM/NET/ORG Renewal                06-MAR-02  06-MAR-06    27.95
    FRESHLYSQUEEZEDSW.NET
2 Year COM/NET/ORG Renewal                06-MAR-02  06-MAR-06    27.95
    FRESHLYSQUEEZEDSW.COM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total (U.S. Dollars)                                             151.80

Our other domain, freshsqueeze.com, does not expire until sometime in 2006.

Today I received an email which I've summarized for you in five words: Your Site Sucks, Hire Me. Perhaps I am feeling particularly {bored, mean-spirited, prick-like, combative} (take your pick) today, but I responded, and not very nicely. Here for you is the entire email with any URLs or names removed and replaced with generics or "xxxxxx."

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 1406); »

One of the discussions making the rounds (again) is "feeds: full vs. summary?" It's a good discussion, and one I've had with myself a few times. The answer I always come to: summaries. The reasons:

• Summaries encourage conversation because you can't comment from NNW.
• Summaries encourage people to visit the site.

The site contains information not found in the feeds. It's a "fuller experience." It's got my AIM link, my email address, links to various RSS feeds (like the comments feed) and so on. Its design is important to me, but not nearly so important that I feel the need to push it on everyone. Really low on the list of reasons to have summary feeds is "less bandwidth."

I do agree with the first comment on the link above when he says this:

…I can no longer bear to read any weblogs who provide feeds that simply cut off the opening sentence of a post at an arbitrary point…

This blog currently uses as its summary everything you see on the main page. I can't see that changing anytime soon, and I'm annoyed that MT's default is so short (100 words or something, right?). I too despise blogs that cut sentences in their feeds.