EntriesMy state has a primary coming up next month, so today I decided to be a responsible voter and look at the candidates’ web pages to find out the real differences between them. Of course, one cannot expect the press and media to report such stuff; they’re too busy keeping us informed of all the name-calling and meaningless slips of the tongue that are part of every campaign. So I turned to their web sites, and boy was I surprised.
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Recent articles
14 April 2008 | No Comments
Hillary and Barack, chapter 1: The Economy
10 April 2008 | No Comments
Inadmissible on religious grounds
From an AP story in today’s paper regarding the Texas polygamy sect:
Lawyers for the sect had wanted to cut off the wide-ranging search as it dragged on but agreed in court Wednesday to the appointment of a special master who will vet what is expected to be hundreds of boxes of records, computers and even family Bibles for records that should not become evidence for legal or religious reasons.
22 March 2008 | No Comments
Tooltips are now temporary attributes
I just noticed this Leopard goodie. In Tiger, the documentation for the NSLayoutManager method -(void)addTemporaryAttributes:forCharacterRange: said, “Currently the only temporary attributes that will be recognized are those related to colors and underlines.”
In Leopard it reads, “Currently the only temporary attributes recognized are those that do not affect layout (colors, underlines, and so on).”
That “and so on” points to a nice enhancement: you can now specify tooltips as a temporary attribute. This means you can have the typesetter add a tooltip in the middle of typesetting; the NSTextStorage doesn’t need to know anything about it.
As a bonus, there’s a new method - (void)addTemporaryAttribute:value:forCharacterRange:.
Thanks, Douglas Davidson.
22 March 2008 | No Comments
Say it ain’t so: Safari 3.1 support CSS animations
Seems like everyone is gushing that Safari 3.1, bless its little heart, is the first browser to support CSS animations. Whoop-de-doo—web developers can now add animation with a simple CSS tag. JavaScript not necessary! (Swoon!)
Personally, I think this development is dreadful.
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20 March 2008 | No Comments
How fast is my cable connection? Who knows?
I just switched from DSL to cable. DSL speed has been stuck at 1.5 mbps with no upgrade in sight, while cable is at 10 mbps with an optional upgrade to 20. Or so they say.
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20 March 2008 | No Comments
How to crack down on escort services
From today’s local paper:
Cracking down on services that are prostitution fronts can be difficult and require a lot of manpower.
Can’t argue with that.
18 March 2008 | No Comments
Who came up with that interface? A Windows programmer?
Today’s local paper, describing a vote fraud prosecution in Clay County, Kentucky:
The county had new voting machines for the May 2006 election. The machines had a “Vote” button that allowed people to review their choices, but they had another button marked “Cast” to actually record the selections and finish voting.
17 March 2008 | No Comments
Why I love Richard Dawkins
Opening line of The Selfish Gene, Chapter 13:
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10 March 2008 | No Comments
Why AppleTV won’t have a Blu-Ray drive
Lately I’ve seen some wishful thinking about AppleTV sporting a Blu-Ray drive. I say, it ain’t gonna happen.
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US Law Requires That Ceiling Fans Waste Energy, 26 October 2008:
While we have found CFLs with compact Caldelabra bases, the LARGEST amount of light available is 60 Watts. We NEED a fan with FOUR 100 Watt equalivent lighting. We will be replacing a fixture which has FOUR 4 foot, 40 Watt florescent tubes.
There is NO WAY to get the same light from four candelabra CFLs.
Apple's lack of iPhone app standards: maybe not such a bad thing, 8 September 2008:
Great post!
I couldn’t agree more and it is exactly this sort of unique perspective that allows our society to continue to function.
Very insightful!
Keep up the good work.
US Law Requires That Ceiling Fans Waste Energy, 27 August 2008:
I have to recently purchased ceiling fans that are still in the boxes. I could not believe the sales person could be correct in telling me I could no longer purchase a fan with regular sized bulb fixtures. The fact that it was supposedly due to a new “energy requirement” made absolutely no sense to me since i would no longer be able to use my energy efficient bulbs. Now I see that the real reason I’m now forced to use non efficient bulbs is because those that wrote this bill did not know enough to write it in such a way that manufacturers wouldn’t sidestep the spirit of it and thus, creating more energy waste. And to think we vote in and pay these bungling idiots to find ways to waste even more of our $$$ and resources.
US Law Requires That Ceiling Fans Waste Energy, 11 August 2008:
I just ran into this issue. I was about to buy a fan for my new home and decided against it (going to move a superior technology fan I bought 6 years ago in current home). At least I can plug in a medium base compact florescent in my old fan.
Not only do I not want to use a high energy Candelabra-base incandescent bulb in a room we are always in (kitchen), the candelabra-base do not last long in ceiling fans. They break much more easily than the medium bases from vibration.
Even if I could find a candelabra-base compact fluorescent that could fit in the fan I like (which does not exist because they do not make them small enough), they are very expensive and the small base would make them dangerous if it did break.
To the above poster, I do not have an Ikea anywhere close to me, and they still do not sell bulbs online. The cheapest ones I could find online that might fit (4.1 inches in length), were almost $8.00 each (no S&H included).
This law is retarded and obviously made with the intention for us to burn more energy. What moron would believe a corporation would not take the easy way out? They are either morons or crooks, take your pick.
St Petersburg pics, 26 June 2008:
Hi Danby and Ross,
I”m glad to know how to access this incredible website. I’ll travel vicariously with you!! (ha). It looks like you guys are having a great time. But we sure do miss you.
Have a great rest of your trip.
Leopard Stacks and the Applications folder, 20 February 2008:
Geoff, you’ve installed the 10.5.2 update, which restores the functionality we lost in 10.5.0. Solutions like DockAppsMenu were intended to provide some relief until Apple fixed the situation, as they have now done.
Leopard Stacks and the Applications folder, 20 February 2008:
Im a new mac user so forgive me if this is dumb but if you drag the applications folder to the dock then right click it and select “list” it produces the applications in a list like your screenshot.