NSLog();

Like Vinay, my site (you're reading it right now, so no, I'm not going to make it a link) is accessible to the colorblind inhabitants of the earth. In fact, some of those color schemes gave me some interesting ideas for the next redesign… B-)

Apple's non-announcement of the non-service they'll perhaps not be providing to music listeners (can you tell I'm trying to say it has not been announced or confirmed?) has once again riled up the stupid and whiny:

I pay 100 bucks a year for .Mac. I expect Apple to offer either first 30 songs for free to .Mac users or some type of 20 songs a month for free deal (somthing along those lines). I believe it is part of the 100 dollars I pay every year for this currently underfeatured service.

Anyone with an IQ higher than, well, higher than a stalk of celery (this leaves out the poster of this comment, from a MacNN message board) understands a few simple things:

• Nobody forced this "specimen" to sign up for .Mac.
• Since its introduction, Apple has given .Mac subscribers 100 free 4x6 prints, two free games, $30 off StuffIt Deluxe and free DropStuff, free webmail/Address Book synchronization, and more.
• I give up…

I'm still waiting for the magical Safari plug-in that prevents crap like the above from ever reaching my eyes. Heck, with that I might even read Slashdot again.

This made me laugh. Some people just don't get it. Heads up to those about to click on the link: the author gets it. The person who wrote the argument he dismantles does not.

I've long joked that I wanted to start an organization named "PETA" for "People Eating Tasty Animals." After all, if you're not supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat? I'm not opposed to vegetarians - I'm just not one of 'em.

I am, however, against PeTA. They are so blatantly aggressive, and so often disrespect the rights of humans in their "cause" that it's downright illegal and despicable. I think on March 15 I'll eat a nice big steak on their behalf. Feel free to join me in celebrating International Eat an Animal for PeTA Day.

I must say that I agree with Judi on this one. Blogging is attractive because it's not canned, it's not "professional," and it's, for lack of a better word, more "personal."

The distinction between "Pro" and "Amateur" can not be made based on how well someone writes. It can't be made based on how well someone does something, in almost any arena (sports included). I've worked both professionally (see: some old copies of MacAddict or a Cocoa book jacket or two, or old issues of Apple Wizards) and "amateurly" (see: this site). In either case, the only rule for success is not "write well." Instead, it's "connect with your audience."

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 613); »

Rentzsch should have asked him about that fabulous "white paper" of a year or two ago. Y'know, the one that gave the reasons why REALbasic, using Carbon, was soooo much better than Cocoa. The one that was a laughingstock in the developer arena for many months (and still is).

Oh well. Some day I'll write up a little bit on REAL Software. I should note that Lorin Rivers is the PR or ads guy for MacTech now. The guy didn't even know what Cocoa Dev Central was. I'll give him a week to look it up… 😛

Details are just beginning to come in, but here are the rough bits as I know them right now.

• Apple is beginning its own music service (perhaps)
• At least 4 of the 5 major record companies are with Apple on this (maybe)
• That'd be freakin' awesome! (could be)

The LA Times, Railhead, and MacCentral have more. So does Ars Technica. And Slashdot. And the San Jose Mercury News (I find it odd that a music service that doesn't exist yet can "win kudos" already). Here's a good Slashdot comment from last December.

I'm not discounting this as a wild rumor at all. The involvement of the LA Times signals something unusual, here, but it wouldn't be the first time a formerly respectable site got sucked in by believing something on ThinkSecret or whatnot. I have some reading to do… :-O

P.S. Those who don't want to register to read the L.A. Times article will just have to view this page's source and scroll a bit…

Calling Brent Simmons. Paging Brent Smmons. Judi has uncovered a bug I believe I can confirm: feeds in NNW show up 4:55 off.

Some examples (the NNW-displayed time is a link to the article in question):

<dc:date>2003-03-03T17:35:17-05:00</dc:date> shows up as 12:40 PM

<dc:date>2003-03-03T18:00:19-05:00</dc:date> shows up as 1:05 PM

<dc:date>2003-03-03T17:44:09-05:00</dc:date> is shown as 12:49 PM

Any comments, anyone?

I was thinking of making some additions to my DVD collection, and I figured I'd check out the current offers offers at Columbia House. Turns out I can get five DVDs for $0.49 if I buy four in the next two years at regular pricing. Great! Sign me up.

But first, let's do the math…

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The Services menu in Mac OS X suffers from two main problems:

• It's not customizable
• Nobody knows where it is

It seems to me that if the Service Menu were put in the top-right corner of the menu bar (à la the Scripts menu) and it were configurable to remove services from applications I never want to use, that it'd be immensely more useful. For bonus points, enabled items could appear in a "Services" submenu in a contextual menu. A bit more can be found here.

Where oh where is 10.3? 🙂

The Florida heat has claimed another victim: my rearview mirror. I went to deposit some checks and pick up some McDonald's for lunch (they didn't get my order right again - I'm done with Mickey D's) and it was hanging by the electrical cords used to power the lights.

Driving without a rearview mirror is an experience. An odd feeling crept over me every time I looked at the place where the mirror should be. Instead of seeing a little picture of what's behind me, I saw a dangling cord. Deep down in my psyche this didn't seem to make sense: there's an odd disconnect between the fact that you're viewing a reflection of what's behind you and actually having a nearly borderless image floating in the sky visible through your windshield. Turning around to look is impractical, and even so, your sense of right and left is flipped from the way you normally perceive it (in your mirrors). And this happens several times per minute: like the times you forget your watch and keep looking at your wrist, I couldn't stop looking at the place where the mirror used to be.

I suppose that's a good thing. Better that than never checking my mirrors, right? I'll get it repaired tomorrow. It's not like it's not under warranty.

Happy 03/03/03. I've always liked days like this. They're fun, they're quirky, they only happen once per year at the most (though 01/02/03 happened this year too), and often only every 11 years (3/3/33).

Far be it from me to ignore a woman in distress. She's quite clearly calling out for links!

i got a vibrator for my birthday! and just what i wanted! (i lied about the trampoline.) double w00t! you're probably wondering if you'll ever hear from me again. i know, i know. don't worry, though, the batteries will wear out eventually...right?

The entry is titled "how to increase traffic #47." It worked. (I am going to point this out, from Vinay: masturbateforpeace.com.)

5:56pm:     Feanor: didn't Stuart Cheshire write Bolo?
5:56pm:       Toad: up
5:56pm:       Toad: yup
5:56pm:    mikeash: indeed
5:56pm:     Feanor: he wrote Rendezvous
5:56pm:    mikeash: all hail King Stuart

Thank you for visiting the site of the foremost expert on Joe Millionaire "winners" Zora and Evan. Yes, that's correct: I am the world's foremost authority on Zora and Evan.

According to Google, anyway. My previous entry on Zora and Evan has put me at the top of Google's search results for this topic.

Interesting. It's amazing how quickly this happens. I rank quite highly on the topic of "Trista and Ryan" (same entry as the Zora and Evan one). This is the third entry in which I've ever used the word "Zora," for what that's worth. Google is weird. Fun, but weird.

At least I'm not the first link in "FedEx Sucks."