Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

I just did a bunch of app updates in iTunes and was presented with the confirmation dialog box so that I could reassure Apple that I’m an adult. I wonder if I was confirming I was 17 or over for the BlackJack app update or the complete works of William Shakespeare app…

From Yahoo’s Odd News File:
“French commuters ran head-on into a local political stand-off after feuding towns redirected road markings to leave two busy one-way streets facing off against each other.” I think this is a brilliant ploy – everyone work from home and save the planet! (And let their clever political machinations fall flat.)

Astrolabe for iPhone:
Yes, you can now get a fully functional astrolabe app for your iPhone. Need to navigate at sea using only the stars? There’s an app for that. Need to do complex astrology computations quickly? There’s an app for that.

Knitty Bag:
There’s also an app for keeping track of which knitting needles (and crochet hooks) in what sizes you have. (It also includes a handy glossary of knitting abbreviations.) While I don’t need an astrolabe, I think I might need this app.

Perfectly Clear:
I’m curious to try this app out though the $2.99 price tag makes me a little hesitant. The purpose of this app is to clear up and brighten up photos taken by your iPhone right on your iPhone. This is a great idea! However, the photos from my iPhone don’t actually come out as dark as the example shots shown on their website. Perhaps they’re just using dark examples for emphasis. Has anyone else tried this app?

Postman:
I bought Postman before Pennsic and had a great deal of fun using it to send digital postcards to people. It lets you share via e-mail or a variety of photo sharing and social networking sites. I found it incredibly easy to use and a deal at 99¢. I do wish it saved the postcards by default when you sent them (you have to actually tell it to save a copy to your iPhone’s photo roll). There’s one example of a Postman postcard I made to the left and another here. You can add text to the photo part of the postcard as well… not to mention play with a bunch of themes.

ShakeItPhoto:
My next fun iPhone app will probably be ShakeItPhoto – the digital Polaroid simulator. Nisaa has been taking some fabulous shots with it (see her flickr set). I am looking forward to playing with it – totally 99¢ worth of fun!

apps, astrolabe, french politics, iphone, knitty bag, miscellaneous, perfectly clear, postman, shakeitphoto

Happy First Day of AUTUMN! Welcome Fall! YAY! (I got 6 million mosquito bites while taking that photo.)

Endangered Words ALERT! Dictionary compilers are discriminating against obscure words! The TimesOnline has a list of words due to be culled from the next edition of the Collins dictionary and I’m sure there are other dictionary editors feeling the crunch. What I find counterintuitive is that editors are inclined to remove the most obscure words – these are the very words for which we find ourselves going to the dictionary!

Apple has recalled the iPhone 3G UltraCompact adapter. According to the recall notice, the prongs may break off in an outlet.

According to the Consumerist, there are 10 critical skills to have now that the economy has tanked. #10 is Food Preservation, which was on my list next anyway. I like #8 as well (Learn a Second Language). #4 is Cooperation, another key skill we all should have learned in kindergarten but seem to have forgotten sometime during the dot-com boom. It’s a very practical list – check it out.

dPS has an awesome tutorial up explaining how to make digital photos look like Lomo photography. I need to find time to follow the instructions.

My congestion is finally starting to let go. My voice is still a bit off. I feel like I have most of my brain cells back. After a week of congestion, sniffles, sneezing and general unhappiness with my head and sinuses, I’m rather happy to be feeling so well.

apple, economy, english, iphone, language, photography, random, recall, technology, writing

We visited the Apple store last night. I bought the latest Apple Keyboard. It’s going to take some getting used to. The keys are smaller but spaced the same as a standard keyboard. This gives the keyboard a sleek look as each key is framed with shiny aluminum – the frame is not quite flush with the top of the key but it’s close enough that typing is definitely a different experience. It also means there’s less room for sloppy typing, in my case at least. I’m also noticing that my fingernails are a little long as they glance off keys. I like the action of the keys and it’s a quiet keyboard as well so I’ll definitely adjust. It’s nice to have my volume and iTunes commands back on my keyboard. As an added bonus the “help” key has been replaced with a “function” key so I can accidentally hit it all I want without invoking the stupid little “helpful” creatures.

I got an iPhone earlier this month too. It’s fun though rather anticlimactic since they’ve been around over a year now. I did not wait in line for it, which was of course a requirement. I didn’t wait in a line last year to buy Will’s, I wasn’t interested in queuing up for my own. I like the little apps. I particularly like that it serves as both cell phone and iPod on short trips at least. We’ll see if the battery can manage longer trips. The screen is lovely, the headset that came standard in the box is good enough for me, and it’s a pretty cool toy. 3G was definitely worth waiting for. Edge is doable, but 3G is tangibly faster and very usable. I am a patch behind because the next update requires iTunes 8.0 and I’m not quite willing to do that yet. I need to rearrange some files first. My primary hard drive is nearly out of space. Again. Big video files are not helping my cause apparently.

apple, iPhone, keyboards, technology, toys

This photo is from my mother’s garden taken on my road trip last week.

Good news! I got my desktop Mac back Sunday! (It took them 13 days to repair it. *sigh* The process for finding parts for older Macs is not a great one. Next time I’ll probably go through Small Dog instead to avoid the Apple corporate policy on repairs that extended the repair so significantly.)

Bad news! I’m falling apart and my weekend was somewhat consumed by a general malaise.

I still did get out to bbqs and such over the holiday. There were incredible fireworks Friday night at the Fop’s aunt’s house courtesy of her husband. (And I have to say his aunt puts on quite the bbq… she’s amazing!) I have never sat so close to such an awesome show. Rich choreographed his show to music, of course, and went through 4 or 5 songs. Let’s just say it was quite a display for a backyard professional. Unfortunately it started to rain so I have no good photos. Next year…

Saturday was a long, enjoyable afternoon and evening at Thomas and Marion‘s with many people of LJ and Tadcaster fame about as well as other random folks.

Sunday… well, Sunday I picked up my computer, did necessary grocery shopping then basically passed out for the rest of the day. (What can I say? My chair-and-a-half is incredibly comfortable, especially when paired with a bear for a footstool!)

Work today was rough, quite honestly – more of the usual amplified by being away for a week. I set up my desktop Mac again after work and it’s nice to have it back up and running.

random, work, weekend, bbqs, mac repair, fireworks, photographs

Happy Summer! This brings us one step closer to Winter again!

The plan for today was to draft a pattern on junk fabric for the viking apron dress I want to make for Pennsic.

Unfortunately, the video card in my desktop went kaput sometime over night. For the record, a Mac desktop tower is very heavy. Carrying it through the Mall was rather foolish and I have the bruises on my forearms to prove it. It turns out the Apple Store has a loading dock – I’ll use that next time, really. Anyway, so the Mac Genius confirmed my suspicions about the video card. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of cards still available for my Mac since it’s 3.5 years old. They’ve ordered one for me and expect to have my Mac all happy and fixed within the week, but probably later rather than earlier. *sigh* Luckily my laptop is almost as cool and I have back ups of most of my data so I can do almost everything on the laptop until I get the desktop back.

I admit, I almost didn’t repair it. I’m saving for a new desktop but, as with every major purchase in my life, I’d been having 2nd thoughts because my desktop really is chugging along nicely for what I do on it. I just can no longer do as much at once. I think if I slap another 2 gb of RAM in it though… and maybe another external hard drive… Much cheaper than any new Mac.

To console myself for the loss of my Mac and most of my afternoon, I came home and made a plate tomatoes and mozzarella with basil.

Alas, I do NOT have a backup of my photos for the past month. I need to take a lot of photos of Mr. Paw this weekend to ensure I have enough material for the next 5 or 6 episodes of Monster Cat. Luckily, I didn’t have any plans for adorable kitten flashbacks again until late summer.

I did plant a rosemary plant I’d picked up earlier this week. I also got to play with the hose and water the raised beds. And I cleaned my desk a bit and vacuumed my office. These things were technically in my plans for the weekend, so I guess the day isn’t a total loss.

powermac g5, repair, saturday derailed, video card, computers, apple, weekend, monster cat

UserFriendly provides today’s comic-to-share of the day. So very true. There’s such an addictive quality to Blackberries that sometimes it’s hard to let go.

Which is why I don’t have a Blackberry.

I did get a new phone last week though! I have a new Samsung a737 with orange racing stripes! (The racing stripes make it faster! Okay, the 3G network support makes it faster, not that I use it.) I blew through the last of my roll-over minutes in January and February making a new plan with more minutes necessary. Since this landed me with a new 2 year contract anyway, I took advantage of the opportunity to get a new, mostly-free phone. My old phone was starting to behave badly after almost 2 years of vaguely faithful service, so it was probably time anyway.

I like my new phone. It’s orange. It’s also a slider phone and locks itself (well its keys) appropriately. I think it’s slightly bigger than my old LG flip phone, but not so much that I’ll actually notice. It still fits in my little cell case so I’m happy.

Yes, my criteria for cell phones are very basic. I don’t care if it does six million cool things. I want it to work as a phone and fit in my pocket. The orange racing stripes are a great bonus though.

Eventually, I will get an iPhone. Probably when it has 3G support. (Because I don’t need my phone to surf the web but when I do surf the web from my overpowered phone, I’ll want it to be fast!) There’s no discount on the iPhone when you renew a contract, so I can keep waiting.

In other news, it was almost 70 degrees out today. With the sun hitting my windows and the door closed, it hit 78 degrees in my office this afternoon. Fun stuff for early March. I’m not going to get winter this winter, am I?

smartphones, iphone, user friendly, weather, heat, cell phones

Another fabulous Sinfest today.

The week is half over, more than that really. Thank goodness.

Random free music. (US iTunes required.) And by “random” I mean really really random. I haven’t heard of most of these bands but it looks like the kind of randomness that could result in a new favorite or two. There’s quite a spectrum in terms of genre so it will be an entertaining mix to try out if nothing else. So far it’s entertaining.

If anyone knows how to keep iCal from crashing (which it has been doing within 60 seconds of starting up since I upgraded to iLife ’08 on Mac OS 10.4.11), please let me know. My Google-fu has provided no good leads. (But if you’re having this problem in 10.5, this seems to work for most people:
1. Open /user/Library/Caches/
2. Move /com.apple.iCal/ folder to your desktop
3. Launch iCal
Not that it works for me on Tiger… I’m not ready to move to Leopard on the desktop machine yet. That would mean giving up CivII forever!)

, comics, ical crashes, mac, music, random

For the second Saturday in a row I felt like crap and succeeded in not doing anything at all. I had a properly crappy day. Annoying to say the least. Well, I did successfully pack for my trip up to Connecticut. I was ready like a whole 24 hours before my flight. A new record, I believe. So now I’m in Connecticut, settled into my hotel for the week and stuff. I’m not all that excited about this trip for various non-work reasons, but it’s promising to be productive. I fly back home Thursday afternoon. As a side note, my new awesome bag of doom is not ideal for carrying two laptops. I’ll need to switch back to my backpack next trip. Or I need to buy a new MacBook Air. Air, baby, AIR. I think I’ll just swap to the backpack – much cheaper.

The Philly airport was about what I expected today – busy and populated by stupid people. The ID screeners have a new little tool – a blue light that confirms the legitimacy of your state photo ID. Kinda neat and faster than checking the other security features of most photo ID. The security line was long. There were a bunch of bag checks and carry-ons put back through the x-ray machine because apparently folks don’t understand that the signs pertain to them too. I don’t mind full flights or kids on the plane. I don’t even mind the fact that the plane ran half an hour late. It’s the stupidity that bugs me. Even when I’m prepared for it, get there early so the stupid people don’t make me stress about being late, and generally brace for the idiocy, stupid people can still be annoying.

Today’s oblivious moron award goes to the woman ahead of me in the security line who didn’t understand that everyone was taking off their shoes and coats because security had been announcing that we had to do that. The airport was not suddenly too hot when we arrived at the x-ray machine… No deafness to excuse her. She also didn’t seem to grasp that she needed to put all her liquids and gels in the quart-sized zip bag, not just the things that would have been in her toiletry case. The perfume, hand lotion and water bottle in her purse apparently slipped her mind. Hmm… because… when the security person asked you if you had any liquids or gels and if you had them all in your zip bag you forgot about the 32 oz bottle of water in your hideous faux lizard purse? See why she gets the oblivious moron award?

Airport security isn’t really all that secure, I know, but at least play along with them.

Speaking of the MacBook Air (because I can’t purely rant)… it looks awesome. I can’t wait to see it in person. So light, thin, tiny, cute… It’s not perfect, but it tries. *happy sigh* I don’t want one yet, but it’s a beautiful little package and will be my next laptop. Eventually. The desktop is next on the shopping list, but probably not for a while yet.

macbook air, apple, airports, airport security, oblivious morons, travel, work

I know… this is unprecedented! Three episodes of Monster Cat in ONE WEEK! My brain isn’t fried for the year yet, what can I say?

Many of you know I work from home. I have an (un)tidy little home office and an L-shaped desk that is home to my personal desktop, personal laptop and the pesky IBM laptop I use to access all the super-secure places for work. Or something like that. In the absence of his usual spot on my desk (due to a growing pile of “books to read” that won’t fit on my “books to read” shelves), Monster cat has taken over the tiny spot behind my work laptop as his home on the desk. He is larger than the spot. It’s quite amusing to watch him settle in, which of course I must watch because he’s doing it behind the laptop I’m trying to work on and bumping the screen a bit as he does it. He doesn’t quite fit but he makes due. I’m sure he also gets a lot out of the presentations up on screen while I’m on conference calls.

There are worse officemates to have. Sure, Tennyson sheds everywhere and wants his share of attention, but he’s pretty darned cute while he does it. At least he doesn’t have intensely personal phone calls in the office or play bad music or eat incredibly stinky lunches at his desk. (We’re a “No Wet Food” household, thank goodness!) He does occasionally try to steal my lunch and he’s quite vocal about getting the last bit of milk from my cereal bowl, but that’s about as bad as it gets.

Geek note: Featured in the center-left photo is a dearly loved 12″ Powerbook, now in the hands of one of my technology enablers… best Apple laptop format ever. I’m really hoping for that sub-compact Apple notebook rumored to be in the works. I love my newer, faster, cooler 15″ MacBook Pro, but it’s heavy and big compared to the wee little 12″ Powerbook.

All the Monster Cat episodes: The Chronicles of Monster Cat

apple, cats, comics, mac, monster cat, powerbook, tennyson, work, work at home

Too many interesting links this week… time to corral them into a neat list! They’re really really random this week. I blame the heat.