NSLog();

I hate multiple TrackBacks. They're like spam: the burden of time and effort is on the recipient, and besides turning TrackBacks for an entry off, there's nothing you can really do to prevent multiple TrackBacks from the same article from being attached to your entries. Once a day I have to delete a duplicate TrackBack.

MovableType should notice a TrackBack from the same remote URL on the pinged URL and reply with an "OK" but not add it to the database. Grrrr… >:-o

Just got an email: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/msn/ just went up. Speaketh Andy: "who in their right mind uses msn?" I don't know.

Codepoet at Codepoetry.net has some funny subtitles right now. A few of them that I've seen lately:

• Press button to test. Release to detonate.
• I want what money can't buy: more money.
• This message is shareware. If you read it, send me $5.00
• Drugs may lead to nowhere, but at least it's the scenic route.

I've considered putting in funny quotes instead of the subtitle thing I have up there right now. I might. Some day. Maybe.

I want one of these. Unfortunately, I don't know if it's worth $25 to me. Any chance those people will send me one? I'd post again later saying how much I liked it, I promise I would… 🙂

Actually, I just mentioned to Matt that we're probably not too far off from this. After all, I used to run Apple Wizards, have reviewed in MacAddict, etc. In short, when will blogging begin to become more commercialized? We're very, very close.

In fact, just as a test, I'm going to email the URL of this entry to the iSkin folks to see if there's something they want to do about it. After all, the amount of press they'll gather is bound to be worth it, right? I'd like the lime one. 😉

P.S. Originally found the link to the skins things from Judi. The laptop skins are new. I have a frosted skin for my iPod, but I don't think it's one of theirs: I got it at WWDC 2002 from a Japanese company.

Eric-with-a-C has some commentary on my previous article on interviewing programmers. I also had a conversation with Jeff after I posted my article. I want to refine my point of view.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 889); »

So today I played a bit more Quake 3. As I have the Cinema, I have to play it in a window to get a resolution other than 640 x 480. 1152 x whatever with the all the effects set to the highest quality is still silky smooth on this dual 800. I used my 12" AlBook as the server.

You'll notice (barely) in the screenshot to the right that I've not bothered to quit any of my applications. I've got Quake going, Adium, Entourage (checking 10 accounts), iTunes, Kung-Tunes, NetNewsWire, Safari, CPU Monitor, etc.

Two years ago, doing this would have been absolutely unthinkable.

I should have written a bit more clearly in my previous article on this "bug" (note the quotes), but having failed to do so previously, I'll do so now.

This behavior (allowing you to replace a folder with a file) is not a bug, but the dialog could be worded better. Flat out not allowing me to replace something when I have explicitly instructed the Finder to do so - by dragging and dropping something to a different location - is in fact the bug, and it existed in Mac OS < X. Thus, I consider 9's behavior to be the annoying - and buggy - one, not X's. Again I agree, however, that 9's dialogs on this were better worded.

Jon lists two possible reasons why you could not do this in 9, but I'll add a third: the Finder 9 engineers went overboard in their efforts to protect the user from themselves. That doesn't make them idiots as Jon's first idea states (as a possibility to explain this behavior).

I've updated my RSS 1.0 feed per the instructions on O'ReillyNet. Actually, I only implemented the errorReportsTo thing, but I'm blogging this so that if I ever want to list comments and TrackBacks in my feeds, I can more easily do so.

For your eyes only: animated sexual positions, courtesy of a condom maker. Wow, it doesn't get much kinkier than these pixellized pornos… with sound effects! 🙂

Looking for a quick AppleScript to update your blogroll? Look no further than the script posted in the comments to Jeremy Zawodny's Blogroll Updates and… Scripting NNW. I've got a longer entry on AppleScript planned for later, but this example illustrates some of my points nicely. Quite nice, quite useful, quite Mac. B-)

A few years ago I interviewed with Microsoft and was asked to generate code on the spot - on paper - to solve some problems. It had been a few years since my last C++ class, and I was deeper into Objective-C at that point, so I found it a frustrating activity. I didn't have any of the code I'd written previously to copy and paste, I didn't have the Net, I didn't have documentation. I didn't even have a compiler to warn me of a silly mistake (missing semicolons, etc.).

I walked away thinking "why didn't they just let me use my PowerBook to write code?" or "why couldn't I just show them my existing code?" I'd printed out a bunch of it - and brought several of my projects - for that purpose. No programmer is ever asked to generate code on paper except in an interview, and so asking for someone to demonstrate that skill is, it follows, not a very good indication of real-world ability.

NSLog(@"Finish Reading %d Words", 602); »

Why would I buy Weblog Hacks. Everything about it is available online, for free, because bloggers like to share. At least on the MovableType platform, I guess. Witness, for example, http://mt-plugins.org/.

I'm honestly asking: why would I buy this? I'm not opposed to sp money if I get something out of it, but a book falls out of date so quickly, and the Web is so much more vast, and I can narrow searches on the Web to MovableType, that I'm not sure I see much value for my $20 (or whatever it'll cost).

I'm blogging this link, which links to pop2blog because I may some day want to implement it, and I'm sure the first place I'll search is on my blog, probably by typing in http://nslog.com/pop2blog. 🙂

I'm giving a new mouse a go: the Logitech MX-700. It's an eight-button (or more if you want to count click-scrolling) wireless rechargeable mouse. It feels about the right weight, and slides effortlessly on my desk. It's (temporarily at least) replacing a Kensington Optical Elite, a five button mouse.

I'm a big fan of having lots of easily reached buttons on my mouse. I've set the one above and below the scroll wheel to page up/down, I've got one button for command-` (window cycling). The back/forward buttons will scroll me through lists (in my email app they'll delete as they go, for my many mailing lists). I've long set the scroll button to cmd-click (for opening browser links in new windows).

Basically, while I consider myself a keyboard person, if I must use the mouse, I may as well keep my hand there, because the biggest time penalty comes in moving between the keyboard and the mouse.

One quick note: I'm using USB Overdrive for the control of the mouse. Logitech's own drivers don't allow per-application settings.

From the "Give me a Freakin' Break" department:

Going by the numbers, Apple Computer Inc. appears headed for trouble again. While CEO Steven P. Jobs engineered a remarkable comeback after retaking the helm in 1997, one-time expenses, such as plant closures, have pushed the company into the red for two quarters running.

Originally found at OSNews.com. The rest of the article is more upbeat than the above quote - and more accurate - but it just goes to show that the "journalists" these days haven't raised the bar any in the past decade.