Dumbo Has Never Been Cuter

How can you argue with that? Although Mommy says Aiden isn’t to thrilled with the whole suit. Maybe he just doesn’t like big ears?

October 31st, 2003

The Great Pumpkin

(Autumn’s on the left, Mommy’s Autumn’s also on the right)

We’ve been craving pumpkins for the last week as the ones we craved earlier this week rotted already probably because it’s been damn hot until now. Heck, the biggest one we picked up from “Cardoza’s”:http://www.snapturtle.com/archives/2003/10/19/21.36.10/ rotted before we could even crave it (tip: don’t leave pumpkins near sunny windows). More photos of us “attempting to crave”:/gallery/album34 are inside.

Tonight we’ll be doing the trick or treat thing, Autmn going as Minnie Mouse and Aiden attempting to fly as a mini Dumbo. Not sure how late Aiden is going to be able to handle hanging out in his stroller while freezing his little elephant tail off.

Happy Halloween!

2 comments October 31st, 2003

LeBron Is Not MJ

I admit it, “I talked about LeBron”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/10/30/fool250.DTL. Being a long time basketball fan how couldn’t I. I did happen to watch his debut game last night, mainly due to the fact that it was against my Sacramento Kings.

He looked good, sometimes trying to not act like a rookie 18 year old, while other times he was. But I’m siding with the “Betting Fool”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/10/30/fool250.DTL on LeBron, I was quite sick of hearing just how great he looked or the fact that his new Nike shoes will be available soon for a cheap $110 (MJs were $125 back in the day).

I also couldn’t stand to watch when the refs would call some fairly cheap fouls in favor of LeBron. I thought NBA veterans got those calls not 18 year old, Hummer driving kids but I guess not when the NBA hype machine is rolling and rolling it is.

I’m not sure I’m going to be able to withstand the onslaught that is LeBron for the whole season, as every night ESPN will make some mention of him.

MJ, are you sure you don’t want to come back once more? Please…

October 30th, 2003

BofA Offshores Customer Data

Do you bank at Bank of America? Maybe you should read the “latest article”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/29/BUGL42L7N91.DTL from David Lazarus.

bq. “Now comes word that BofA will establish a 1,000-employee subsidiary in India to significantly expand its presence in the country. The bank has yet to say where the facility will be located or what specific functions it will oversee, only that it will be up and running by April.”

Still don’t know why this stuff isn’t being covered in the main stream media. First “medical records”:http://www.snapturtle.com/archives/2003/10/22/19.40.00/, then “your tax information”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/24/BUG6U2I81K1.DTL and now this. What next? Does BofA really have their customers best interests in mind or are they more concerned about their bottom line? I’m guessing the later and I’m also guessing they aren’t the only ones doing this with your customer data or financial information.

October 29th, 2003

Sacked By The Borg

Microshaft has “sacked a temp employee”:http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/of_blogging_and.html over a “blog post”:http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/even_microsoft_.html that frankly doesn’t say much other than:

bq. Three palettes of Dual 2.0Ghz G5’s on their way in to somewhere deep in the bowels of Redmond.

Hmm. Is Microsoft trying to hide the fact that they actually use Macs? We all know that they do, who could blame them. How else do they steal Apple’s UI designs?
I’ve always tried to stay away from office topics and things of that nature but that may not be enough. I’m guessing the freedom of speech isn’t included in any “at will employer” legal statements.

Blogging can be hazardous to one’s livelihood as pointed out by “Michael”:http://www.michaelhanscom.com/eclecticism/2003/10/thank_you.html and “Dooce”:http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/02_26_2002.html. This is not the first time someone has been “sacked over their blog”:http://jimtreacher.com/archives/000486.html and it surely won’t be the last.

October 29th, 2003

Memo: Cry Babies Aren’t Fun

One of the more useful features that I use daily while working under the Windows stranglehold is the alt-tab application switching. I freaking love it. Normally I have like 20+ applications/windows open at once and alt-tab is the fastest way to get to the window I just used previously or haven’t used since I last rebooted my machine two weeks ago. Add in shift-alt-tab and various other combinations and you have an awesome keyboard shortcut. Heck, it even works within applications like “Homesite”:http://www.macromedia.com/software/homesite/ (alt-tab-control, I think) for switching between open documents.

Now, imagine my surprise when I started using Mac OS X and there wasn’t a very functional application switcher (using command-tab, Macs don’t have an ALT key… yay!). One did exist mind you but it only popped up the already annoying dock with the application icon at attention, not very cool or fast in my opinion.

Enter LiteSwitchX. LiteSwitchX was a great little application switcher built by once loyal Mac fans. You can hide certain apps from even showing up in the switcher, change icons sizes, and bring up a contextual menu inside the switcher among other things. Imagine my surprise when reading “Erik’s post”:http://nslog.com/archives/2003/10/26/developing.php about Proteron’s “Sam Caughron flaming Apple”:http://www.proteron.com/liteswitchx/openmemo.php for not giving his company credit for coming up with the application switcher idea that is now much improved in Panther (although it still needs some work).

bq. Memo to Sam:
Piss off pal. You didn’t invent jack squat. You improved an existing idea, yes, but you can’t claim a single patent on application switching. Instead of just creating something better that works in Panther (which you did), you fire off some historically miss guided rant about how you need to get credit for something you didn’t even do. What you’ve done now is not only piss off Apple but you’ve pissed me off and I won’t be buying jack from your company ever again, regardless of how good a product you may develop. Now, go cry in the corner.

I can’t even believe that this guy would even attempt to claim anything to do with creating the idea of application switching. Furthermore, as a former developer of shareware applications, I certainly wouldn’t go on record stating that I want credit for something I didn’t even do yet integrate into my own product. Unbelievable.

For more commentary on this topic, including discussion about other “claims of invention”, visit the “Daring Fireball”:http://daringfireball.net/2003/10/commandtab.

2 comments October 28th, 2003

The Upgrade Blues

I can’t bring myself to upgrade to Panther on my G3 iBook. I keep reading “horror stories”:http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?14@64.NWxwaXrUjsp.12@.599b4a59 about “unsuccessful upgrades”:http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@64.NWxwaXrUjsp.32@.599b4c8b/8, so I’m a little hesitate to upgrade my primary machine. Sure, I’ve backup everything to a Firewire drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, but I’m still not so sure I want to proceed down the upgrade path.

I’m tired so I don’t want to be up all night trying to make shit work when it breaks (oh, something will break). Although I really want to use Panther on the iBook as I know I’m going to get a pretty big speed boost but damn, it’s going to be painful. Maybe I’ll try this weekend… or not.

October 28th, 2003

New Version Of MT-Blacklist

“Jay Allen”:http://www.jayallen.org/ has released the latest version of his comment spam blacklist plugin for Moveable Type, “MT-Blacklist (MT-Blacklist - Moveable Type Plugin)”:http://www.jayallen.org/journey/2003/10/mtblacklist_version_15_released.

New features include faster spam filtering when posting comments, en-masse search and de-spam functionality, activity logging of blocked comments, and various other nifty enhancements.

Since I’ve implemented Jay’s plugin I’ve only received two comment spams which I quickly deleted and added their offending urls to the blacklist. Haven’t seen those losers back yet.

October 28th, 2003

Cya Bum

The “49ers”:http://www.49ers.com “tossed aside”:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/10/27/SPGH92JTUD1.DTL their starting kicker today, not soon after “hiring him”:http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/SF/6646414 to replace Jeff Chandler who started the season. What could a lowly kicker do to be fired? How about miss 8 of 15 field goals and cost the 49ers at minimum two games they could have won.

Cya bum.

2 comments October 27th, 2003

Mario’s Pipe Grows Windows

The “Warp Pipe Project”:http://www.warppipe.com/ has recently “released their alpha Windows”:http://www.warppipe.com/archives/000020.html client for use with Kirby’s Air Ride and the soon to be released Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Speeds are reported to be a little slow and require a good upload speed of at least 256kbps.

They expect to have a beta Mac OS X client in time for the Mario Kart release which is Nov. 19th. Keeping my fingers crossed for some internet multiplayer Mario Kart goodness.

October 27th, 2003