brett's logjam

• jwz - PSA: backups
  “The universe tends toward maximum irony. Don’t push it.”
  (tags: backups)
• OS X Security
  Good introduction for new users from Princeton.
  (tags: Macintosh macosx security)

• 9/11 Is Over - New York Times
  The “9/11 has made us stupid” essay. Read it now, if you haven’t already.
  (tags: politics 9/11)

• Great Gray Owl Yellowstone N.P. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  “To be in the forest with no other distraction around and see the Great Gray hunt is an experience one always remembers.”
  (tags: owl photography)

Doing it the the old-fashioned way takes time. Lots of time.

At the evening concert in downtown Williamsburg.

• Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses and Content vs. Context, a Presentation for Some Music Industry Friends at FISTFULAYEN
  “If you don’t get a 404, you’ll get a Save As… dialog or the SAME GOD DAMN QUICKTIME BAR FROM 1995. OMFG. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS IS ALL WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED IN 15 YEARS ON THE WEB? It makes me insane.”
  (tags: Music online drm itunes yahoo)

• Speak Up > The Powerbook! The Powerbook! The Powerbook’s on Fire!
  Why not to leave the laptop on carpet.
  (tags: flaming laptops)
• Catalog Choice - Eliminate unwanted catalog you receive in the mail
  Non-profit to stop pesky catalogs.
  (tags: catalogs)

• Becoming Adolf: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com
  “The Toothbrush mustache was first introduced in Germany by Americans, who turned up with it at the end of the 19th century the way Americans would turn up with ducktails in the 1950s. It was a bit of modern efficiency, an answer to the ornate mustaches of the royal class.”
  (tags: moustaches hair styles)
• TNR Online | What the F***?
  “Yet “adverb” is the one grammatical category that Ose forgot to include in his list! As it happens, most expletives aren’t genuine adverbs, either.”
  (tags: swearing)
• ZFS Hater Redux
  On the impending use of ZFS in OS X.
  (tags: ZFS HFS+ macosx mac filesystem)
• Right Brain v Left Brain | Herald Sun
  I see the dancer going clockwise. I have to look away and watch in my peripheral vision to make her go counter-clockwise.
  (tags: psychology)

You should probably go read ICEing Your iPhone over at Nobody Wants a Styl.us, even if you don’t have an iPhone.

My Mark IV Jetta, YAH, parked at a pumpkin patch across the James river in Surry, VA.
The sky was overcast — it would later spit rain — but my son really enjoyed tromping around the fields, occasionally examining a pumpkin but often more interested in the gestalt of the field. (I quite enjoyed it, too.)

Good memories are imprecise; details fade into the blur of an event.

(Sometimes, one must throw Realism out for Impressionism.)

• The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Dear Al: Now you must run
  “Run. Run, damn you.”
  (tags: politics)

• The Grief That Made ‘Peanuts’ Good - WSJ.com
  Bill Waterston on Charles Schultz.
  (tags: comics biography)

• Logo Software
  Site of various free and non-free LOGO downloads.
  (tags: logo programming)
• Rands In Repose: The Gel Dilemma
  Someone who loves his pens as much as I do. (Pity my handwriting continues to deteriorate.)
  (tags: writing pens is-penophilia-a-word?)

Yep, it’s time to inventory the Mac OS X apps I have running on Hithlum again. (Parts I, II.) I’ve added a few new programs to the mix.

• I’ve used Chicken of the VNC a bit to control some Windows boxes, but generally find Remote Desktop Connection or Fog Creek’s Copilot to be superior for desktop support.

• I tried out EtherPEG and think it’s an eye-opener. Literally.

• I’ve started using iMediaBrowser to find things quickly, but suspect this will go in the Utilities folder soon enough.

• NetNewsWire Lite has replaced Google Reader as my RSS feed reader of choice. Google Reader was just so slow.

• I’d already changed many of these system preferences via the Terminal, but TinkerTool provides a nice interface.

• I occasionally have Twitterific up and running, though I honestly don’t use Twitter enough to make it an essential app. (Usually I post through a Quicksilver+Applescript hack.)

• I’ve started using WriteRoom as a composing tool instead of JDarkRoom, and am generally happier with it.

• Visor is a quick half-screen Terminal window that I’m trying out. It’s faster on the command line than invoking through Quicksilver, but may require some adjustments.

• I’ve tried out the excellent DEFCON Globe Screensaver from Ambrosia Software, and it’s a keeper.

Still in use:

• Quicksilver
• MacGPG and GPGMail
• SignatureProfiler
• jUploader
• xscreensaver
• Backlight
• Adium X
• Mac The Ripper / HandBrake
• DynDNS Updater
• Excel
• X11 + The Gimp
• GLTerminal
• iTunes XHTML Playlist
• MarsEdit — I liked this one enough to buy the license.
• OTR Proxy

Rarely used, but still useful:

• Audacity and the LAME codec
• Colloquy
• Crack Attack
• Facebook Exporter for iPhoto
• ImageWell
• iStat
• MonoLingual
• Nocturne
• Stuffit
• Telekinesis

The following were installed, but have recently been ploinked:

• Apple Backup
• Camino
• Cocoalicious
• Entourage
• Firefox
• Flip4Mac
• Google Earth
• JDarkRoom
• Keyword Assistant (which I really liked, but was replaced by iPhoto 7.)
• Mail Stamps
• MailFollowup
• Mail Tags
• MacSaber
• pearLyrics
• Stellarium
• Think
• VLC

Colonial Williamsburg’s "Prelude To Victory" weekend celebrates the march of the American and French armies through Williamsburg on their way to besiege the British forces in Yorktown in October, 1781.

More photos are available in my Flickr set .

• DNA Lounge: Webcasting Legality
  “Today’s word is “labyrinthine.” Keep it in mind.” JWZ on how to legally put music online.
  (tags: music media law)
• jwz mixtapes
  “I’ve decided to start putting together a weekly mixtape: a cassette-tape-sized chunk of music that I enjoy, and that you should enjoy too. Some will be new, some old.”
  (tags: jwz streaming music)
• Kung Fu Monkey: Farm Fetish
  There are more World of Warcraft players in the US than farmers. I must go lie down now.
  (tags: WoW statistics)

• The House Next Door: Close-Up Blog-a-thon: Khaaaaan!
  An appreciation of the Shatnerian genius.
  (tags: shatner startrek)
• Wunder Blog : Weather Underground
  Incredible pictures of the Black Lake tornado.
  (tags: weather tornados)
• Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean
  On the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
  (tags: garbage pollution)
• Comcast traffic blocking: even more apps, groupware clients affected
  They’re blocking Lotus Notes. LOTUS NOTES. Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
  (tags: notes netneutrality)
• Kissing Suzy Kolber: Boss toss to Moss
  “Randy Moss’ elbow by itself is better 75% of the receivers in the league. Right now, the Jaguars are trying to put together a trade offer for the elbow.”
  (tags: football)

• Top 10 Reasons the Apple Dock Sucks
  As the 10.5 Leopard release looms, a reminder that no matter where you put it, the Dock sucks. (Once you go Quicksilver, you never go back.)
  (tags: dock apple ui quicksilver)

• JCC may get new cell towers — dailypress.com
  “AT&T Wireless filed paperwork on Wednesday to erect a 120-foot cell tower at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post site on Jesters Lane in the Five Forks area.” It may be too far away to do much good, but it might take some of the strain off the tower that
  (tags: cell towers)
• Cell Phone Towers - Williamsburg, VA - Cell Phone Tower Search
  Google maps of the local towers.
  (tags: cell towers)

Well, there goes my plans for a productive weekend.

• TidBITS Blog Post: The Best (and Worst) of Leopard
  Good look at what’s to come with Leopard.
  (tags: macosx leopard)
• Get the Hell Out of Here, James Lipton | MamaPop
  “Let me get this straight. You were a French pimp?” “No. Absolutely not. I was an American pimp living in Paris.”

If you haven’t read it already, may I recommend the long (but well-done) rant regarding the state of the music industry: When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

• The Power of Charity
  Another great one from Mike Lee.
  (tags: charity business)
• Macworld: Review: Mac OS X Leopard
  Excellent overview of all the new features.
  (tags: mac osx leopard)

• HistoryShots Information Graphics - Prints
  Excellent prints. Not your usual office fare.
  (tags: history design)

• An unfolding astronomical event
  On the suddenly bright Comet Holmes.
  (tags: astronomy comets)

• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: the Ars Technica review: Page 4
  Contains the gem: “defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock” to make the Dock look nice.
  (tags: leopard review dock osx)

Busy again this year; 91 kids, one more than last year.

Trip was more interested in answering the door than collecting candy.
He’s a funny kid.