dsandler.org

Oh, my poor, stupid TiVo. Apparently some time between Friday night and Saturday morning, it forgot how to capture video from coax or RCA in. [Yes, it detected that there was connected video (i.e. no blue screen complaining of a busted cable); yes, there was real video on the wire (tested it with the TV); it was just coming out black through the TiVo.] It required a reboot to clear up.

David Watanabe is exploring new Mac software business models:

I wanted to see if donation-ware could work in the Mac world. The unforunate conclusion has been that it does not. I do not want to make the same mistake with Inquisitor 2.0. Absent any other alternatives, I have decided that Inquisitor 2.0 will experimentally released under a pay-per-download model. That is, users will have to pay a trivial $1 or $2 levy to download the software, in an attempt to recover the development expenses and time that have gone into this.

Update: Coincidentally (or not?) John Gruber has an article today about the life of small-time Macintosh software developers.

Apparently there are a lot of amateur (perhaps even professional) linguists out there who are really interested in cataloging Internet slang. [To which I say, r0x0r, ladies and gentlemen, r0x0r. I am particularly piqued by the detailed dissection of current leetspeak, including such esoterica as the evolution of the !!→11→oneone parody.]

The most ingenious ideas seem obvious after the fact: Apple is using the new iMac’s display to illuminate the subject when snapping pictures in the new PhotoBooth app.

Damn that’s clever. Instead of integrating a flash into the new iMac, they said “hey, the screen is a flash!” So, before it takes your picture it flashes the screen white. How about that.

Note: this is not the first time that the full illuminative potential of the iMac has been realized.

Update 10/23: Manuel writes:

The first piece of software I recall using the monitor as a lamp was “Quaid Analyzer” in the eighties. Given that it was using mainly for some midnight hacking (it was a monitor for tracing any DOS/BIOS calls, single stepping thru any code, etc) the UI had a “light bulb” option just in case you needed to check some hardcopy docs in the middle of the night.

I’ve been wondering lately why the doodle of my Scion in the rain has been cropping up all over the Internet in blog entries and forum posts. Finally, I decided to run a Google Image search for “rain”; sure enough, dsandler.org makes the front page.

Update: Collecting occurrences in the comments.

On recommendation from the distant North, here comes The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. Like each of us, he knows Batman … in his heart.

I was poking around Crucial’s web site to see if I could use my iBook G3’s RAM (PC133 SODIMM) in my iMac (which freston is always telling me is an iBook in a different costume).

The answer appears to be yes. But can anyone tell me what the difference between these three products is (besides a dollar or two)?

I’ve noticed this with other RAM vendors too: market segmentation (differentiated pricing for the same product) based on how you discover the product. Mac users are usually charged more; at Crucial the prices seem to be semi-random.

Apple’s marketing hasn’t been this suggestive since the SE/30.

From: toddt@…
To: …@dsandler.org
Subject: I love it when Apple talks dirty to me

Seen at http://www.apple.com/imac/design.html:

“Adventure in Every Port”

TT

How does the new iMac’s remote control thingy work? I’d have guessed BlueTooth, but it has a slab of shiny black plastic on one end, which screams IR. Where’s the IR transceiver on the iMac base unit? (Did Apple somehow use the iSight, now built in to the iMac’s bezel, to detect IR pulses?) And how soon before Front Row becomes the Apple TiVo? (With the ability to buy TV shows from the iTunes Music Store, it arguably already is.)

Nobody was surprised about the Video iPod and the availability of music videos for purchase on iTunes. What surprises me is that Apple negotiated with Disney to sell episodes (and, yes, entire seasons) of ABC shows on the iTunes video store. Apple’s website is slammed at the moment—

Gateway Timeout

The following error occurred:

[code=GATEWAY_TIMEOUT] A gateway timeout occurred. The server is unreachable. Retry the request.

---

Please contact the administrator.

—so it’s hard to see exactly what the offerings are (just last season’s Lost? this season as well? tonight’s episode?). Time will tell. (Update: Looks like so far they only have Season 2, through last week: pic. Update 2: they have all of Season 1.) I’d love it if other networks would sign on; that way I wouldn’t have to fork over a huge amount of cash for a second TiVo to watch conflicting shows, but instead spend a couple bucks per episode of (for example) Everybody Hates Chris.

Kevin Burton makes me feel better for not being a part of this Web 2.0 stuff: Dot Bomb All Over Again?

A lot of the recent news around Web 2.0 is starting to frighten me. There is just too much money flying around with too much hype and too little value. Take the Web 2.0 conference for example. This thing was way over hyped. It was fun and all but worth $2800? I don’t think so. Mostly suits from my vantage point.

Heck for $2800 you can buy two database servers for your website.

Google has snuck del.icio.us-like features into their My Search History feature:

Google has silently added a Bookmarks feature to My Search History, enabling you to quickly tag and comment any web page you’ve visited.

Over at the Chronicle: Where were you for Burke’s HR?

Certain games, you remember where you were, with whom you were watching, sometimes even what you were drinking or eating. […] Over the years since then, I’ve been fortunate to be in stadiums when memorable moments occurr … so where were you Sunday afternoon? And does this trump all the others in Astros and Houston sports history?

Where was I for the longest playoff game on record? In my apartment, forgetting it was even going on, minding my own business, when I heard our downstairs neighbor through the floor:

“OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT! OH MY GOD! FUCKING FUCK! SHIT!”

It was at that point that Erin and I looked at each other and wondered if there was some sort of sporting event going on. We turned on the TV in time to see Burke cross the plate. Since we hadn’t been watching for all six hours, we certainly didn’t earn the moment, but it was nice to see it live.

Jason has posted photos from his recon trip back to NOLA.

Today I’m hating on Mail.app (10.4). Why can I suddenly not delete messages anymore? Instead of disappearing, they turn gray (first message in the screenshot below):

If I go over to the IMAP server in question, the message is flagged deleted; expunging it and then refreshing Mail.app causes the gray message to disappear. It certainly didn’t always work this way.

Over the weekend I released a minor FeedTree proxy update, fixing longstanding bugs with WebDAV (e.g. iCal calendar publication) and some Web file-upload forms. [Direct download link: feedtree-0.5.1.zip.]

Yes, Madonna has gone bonkers. However:

Rabbis […] are unimpressed with Madonna’s musical tribute and see the inclusion of the song about Luria on the album as an attempt by the pop star to profit from his name.

Ah, yes, right. Madonna, the unknown pop singer, will be vaulted to fame and fortune by playing on the internationally famous name of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria.

Also:

Rabbi Rafael Cohen, head of a seminary named after Luria, suggested Madonna’s actions could lead to divine retribution. “Jewish law forbids the use of the name of the holy rabbi for profit.”

You know, I never noticed it before, but there’s the GPL, sandwiched between Deuteronomy and Numbers.

Ugh. Overnight someone sent about 400 spam messages with a forged SquirrelMail Received: header to make it look legitimate, and a return address @dsandler.org, so now I have 400 bounce messages clogging my inbox. Joy.

Well, it’s finally here—Google Reader, for all your RSS/Atom feeds. (The existence of such a project at Google has been the subject of some speculation.) It seems like their UI is flashy but needs some polish to knock over venerable apps like Bloglines (the old standard) and My Yahoo! (the juggernaut).

Note, however, that Google Reader isn’t as up-to-date as FeedTree:

Figure 1. Google Reader (at right), not even aware of its own announcement on Slashdot yet. (FeedTree, at left, has the skinny.)