Happy 5th Birthday to Mac OS X!

Fellow Macolytes,

Today, March 24, 2006, is an annivesary for our platform of choice. For it was five years ago today that the operating system that replaced the venerable OS 9 on the Mac debuted, it was called Mac OS X, and it was good.

Finally bringing the stability of the UNIX world to its underpinnings, protected memory areas for applications, and too many more to list, it revolutionized Macs forever, and paved the way for other important changes in software and hardware design and implementation.

John Siracusa of arstechnica.com, who by his own admission has arguably written the most words on the subject of OS X, gives us a interesting read on the auspicious occasion.

Five Years of Mac OS X

Welcome Kaboodlers!

I just wanted to say "hello" and a big "welcome" to viewers to this blog from the Kaboodle site. Checking my logs, I've seen an influx of new visitors since I reviewed Kaboodle here. Take a look around, and please come back! Hopefully a few of you will be Mac fans, and will find something here to pique your interest. And hey, how about someone Kaboodling this site, and letting me know where to find your page? ;)

Camino 1.0 Mac Web Browser Released

For all you Mac-lovers out there...the Mozilla organization released v1.0 of their Camino web browser this past week. The Tech Tails newsletter I receive from Small Dog Electronics does a better job explaining it:

Many of you are probably familiar with Mozilla FireFox. It is one of the best browsers around for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Well, Mozilla also has a browser for OS X only, Camino, which is a bit more lightweight then FireFox.

Camino has been in beta for quite some time. This past week they finally released version 1.0. The new version includes an updated download manager and better built-in ad-blocking. Camino also works with other OS X applications such as Address Book, Keychain, Finder, and Bonjour. Like FireFox, it supports tabbed browsing so you don't need to have ten windows open when you're surfing the web.

Camino is an open source project, meaning users all over the world can work on this project and help make Camino a better web browser. Camino is a universal binary, so it will work nice and fast on the new Intel Macs.

I've downloaded it on my Mac, and it has been smooth as silk so far. Give it a try!

Camino 1.0

Cranky Customers Unite!

I have been a fan of Randy Cassingham's writing for some time now -- years, in fact. What, you don't know him? You may have run across his work if you ever received an email forward with a list of 'funny lawsuits' or 'really true stories', because the person who sent them to you is sending on, many times without attribution, Randy's work.

The two mailing lists I mention are actually the Stella Awards, for "any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits", and This Is True, which "reports on bizarre-but-true news items from legitimate newspapers from around the world (never "tabloids")". Randy is a syndicated Colorado humorist, and his commentaries on this stuff are priceless, as well.

I mention his past work to really push his latest effort, Cranky Customer, True Tales of Customer Service Incompetence. My day job deals with customer service, and if yours does as well, then you know how it is when you try to be the best at dealing with people day in and out, then find awful customer service people dealing with you. We all have horror stories about bad CS reps and companies, don't we? Well, now Mr. Cunningham has taken on the topic with his newest website, and the topics have already been drawing some good responses. Companies that won't stop calling, packaging you can't break into, bad phone etiquette -- you get the picture. Head on over to these sites to enjoy, or signup for the email lists - you won't be disappointed.

This Is True
The TRUE Stella Awards
Cranky Customer

First Mac Virus/Trojan Ever? Negatory...

I just had to get my two cents in on all the furor over what was supposedly reported as "the first new virus or trojan horse" to hit the Mac OS X platform. As I suspected, all the alarmists were up in arms about something that turned out to be quite the disappointment for them in the end.

I subscribe to a wonderful email newsletter from a company called Small Dog Electronics, that has supported Macs for many years. I am not associated with them in any way, except as a satisfied customer. Anyhow, the newsletter I want to quote from is called "Kibbles & Bytes #453", and they explain the whole brouhaha better than I could:

Oompa Loompa Trojans?

The blogs were abuzz with news of what some called the first "virus"
for Mac OS X, which masks itself as the latest pictures of the next
version of Mac OS X, Leopard. If you download the file
"lastestpics.tgz" and enter your password to uncompress and run it,
it would attempt to send the file to everyone in your iChat buddy list.

Contrary to some reports, this is not a virus. It requires user
action to download, decompress, and launch the program. I don't know
about you, but I don't think I would ever download a file with the
".tgz" extension. That screams WATCH OUT! You cannot be infected
with this malicious software unless you intentionally download the
file (or get it via email or iChat direct transfer). Then you would
have to double-click on the generic icon to decompress it and then
double-click on the resulting file. Depending on how you have your
system preferences set up, you would probably have to enter your
admin password,too.

You can't "catch" this virus — you have to go through all those
steps. Always remember that it is important to understand what you
are downloading. Be cautious about running applications if you are
unsure of their origins. It is easy to make a file that would erase
your hard drive if you answer "yes" when Mac OS X asks you if you
want to erase your hard drive.

Symantec, which has a vested interest in discovering security issues
so they can sell you some software, has classified this Oompa Loompa
Trojan as a category 1 threat (on at 5-point scale with 5 being the
most serious threat).

So, rest safe, Mac fans...your platfrom is as safe as ever, and can still leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Small Dog Electronics
Small Dog Electronics - Mailing Lists

Writing Tips For Non-Writers

I happen to be from a family that really knows how to write. I have a sister who is a published author, and my wife has the next, great romance novel under wraps, and just needs to spill the words out on paper. But, all of us siblings (six total) seem to have been comfortable with writing, whether cards, letters, assignments, or e-mails. I believe that we were all influenced by my mother, who not only liked to write notes, cards and letters (as she still does today), but occasionally kept little travel journals on our family trips. I also claim her as my direct influence on doodling when I talk to someone on the phone. But, I digress.

For those among us who could use a few tips to straighten up our writing style from time to time, I present this wonderful site I came across from a blog called "Whatever". The post is titled, "Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing", and it is excellent. As the author notes, even for-real writers will glean some tips here.

Whatever: Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don't Want to Work at Writing

Fastr - A Flickr Game

Most of you already know about Flickr, a website where you can create an account and share photos with the world. Well, as you might expect, Flickr has amassed quite a collection of photos over time. What else can you do with these photos besides view them? Play a game with them, of course!

Fastr is a game that bases itself on the fact that, when you save a photo to Flickr, you can also add one or more 'tags' to describe the image, so a picture you upload of your tuxedo cat could be tagged 'cat', 'tux', 'tuxedo cat', 'black and white', etc. In this game, Fastr will present a series of ten photos. Each photo is presented about 5 seconds apart. Your job (after typing a name for yourself), is to enter a guess for what word you think all the images shown were tagged with. If you type a word and it is correct, you get points (from 1 - 10) based on how quickly you identified the tag (got it right after the first photo? 10 points. 2nd photo? 9 points, etc.). If not, type another guess. Keep typing until either all ten photos are shown, or you guess correctly. You'll know when you get it right; you immediately win the points you were entitled to. Then it starts with a new series of photos. You see your score, with other players, on the left of the screen. After a set number of rounds, the game ends, then starts a fresh round and clears the scores.

It took me much longer to describe it here than it takes to just jump in and start playing. Good luck, and have fun! If you see a player called 'Kachup', you're up against me!

Fastr - A Flickr Game
Flickr - Store, Search, Sort and Share Your Photos

Tour Walt Disney's Home at Disneyland

Fascinating. Via The Orange County Register, you can take an interactive tour of the apartment home of Walt Disney within Disneyland in California. As you take the tour, Disney historian Tim O'Day shares tidbits of information about select artifacts. Requires Flash 7 player.

Walt Disney's Apartment via The Orange County Register

Kaboodle: Saving and Commenting on Websites

I just came across Kaboodle this week. It makes use of the idea of "social" sites on the 'net, where not only can you get something out of the site, but you can invite others to share their opinions as well.

With Kaboodle, you add a toolbar to your browser window, with two buttons: Add to Kaboodle , and My Kaboodle. Then you're ready to start Kaboodling! OK, ummm...what's that? OK, check it out...

You're on the web. You come across a page you think is particularly nifty. You click on your 'Add to Kaboodle' button. Kaboodle then creates a sumamry of the page. You can then come back to it at any time by clicking on the 'My Kaboodle' button. Also, at the time the page summary is created, you can add notes. Finally, on the Kaboodle site, there is a Share Page option that allows you to share what pages you're Kaboodling with the world. Then, I could see that page, add my own comments, and so on. That's the "social" part of the process.

My brief run-down doesn't do justice to the nice intro they give to the site. The link below will take you to the 'How It Works' section of the site. Click on the links for how it works step-by-step, and for the FAQ. Happy Kaboodling!

Kaboodle: How It Works
Kaboodle Home Page

Atari 2600 Tank Combat Rides Again

Ahh, the good old days...remember back in the 70's, when the coolest videogame console around was the Atari 2600? ...um...or am I really dating myself now? In any case, the console shipped initially with the iconic game "Combat". Using tanks and airplanes, you tried to take out your opponent before they did the same to you. The tank option was always my favorite. You'd each start at opposite corners of a maze, then make your way to a strategic spot where you could rain turret fire down on your opponent...

Sorry, got lost there in the moment. Anyway, my point is this...some kind soul has brought back the Atari 2600 Combat game, programmed in Java, and renamed as TurboTanks. You can now play against a computer opponent using your browser. Game on!

TurboTanks

Happy 22nd Birthday, Macintosh!

Yep...it was this very day, 22 years ago, when we learned why "1984 won't be like 1984". The now-mythic Super Bowl ad that introduced the Mac also introduced us to the idea of commercials during the big game as an event unto themselves. But, at the core of it all, was this new computer. Small. Personal. And with some new pointing device called a "mouse". MacDailyNews has a great article on the commemoration, with links to the "1984" commercial and a true rarity -- a movie where a very young Steve Jobs introduces the Mac at Cupertino's Flint Center.

So, happy birthday, Mac...and many more!

MacDailyNews - Happy 22nd Birthday, Apple Macintosh!

Post-Its Meets the Web

Do you find using sticky notes useful in your everyday life? How about on your computer? OK, take it another step -- how about on the Web itself? Enter Mystickies...from their intro page:

To put it simply, Mystickies allows you to place little yellow squares of digital paper anywhere and everywhere you feel like in the whole wide web. Along with the ability to put sticky notes on webpages mystickies offers a powerful interface to browse, search, sort, edit and generally have a wonderfull time with your sticky notes from any computer that has internet access.

Sounds good...stickies that come up whenever you load the page. Now you can load it up, then set it as your browser's default home page. Cool!

Mystickies - Sticky Notes for the Web

Puzzling Art

I know sometimes we look at art and say, "What motivated the artist? Why this canvas? What does it all mean?" Well, here's a website lovingly and intricately created to show that art can provide the platform for an engaging puzzle of logic. Spend a few minutes here and see if you can solve the puzzle of the Treasure Box. Fun!

Treasure Box

Wired News: The Web Will Read You a Story

One of the things that is so nice that comes with owning an iPod is that, when you get tired of listening to music, you can listen to podcasts or audio books instead. Wired News picks up this thread thusly:

This summer, Hugh McGuire was searching for free audio books online from his home in Montreal. He didn't find very much.

So McGuire launched LibriVox by recruiting amateur readers to create audio files of works of literature. The project now includes almost two dozen complete works, including Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, Jack London's The Call of the Wild and other classic novels and poems.

Read more about it...or listen more, as the case may be. Free audiobooks? Cool! I've been known to do some freelance recording in my time...I may just have to volunteer.

The Web Will Read You A Story

Misheard *Holiday* Song Lyrics

Over the years, something I've found humorous are the various collections of misheard song lyrics put together in book form (The "'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy" collection), and all over the internet (just Google 'misheard song lyrics' sometime).

The fine folks at Snopes.com present their collection each year, something they call "Mondegreens" (for an explanation, see the page) of misheard song lyrics relating to holiday traditional carols and songs. There's even a link to send in your own misheard lyrics. I like Snopes because, in my day job working at a help desk, I am frequently sent emails on our company listserv from users wondering if a certain email they received is legit. I refer them to snopes.com and invariably the scam is there. Bookmark their site yourself for easy reference, if you haven't already.

Presented here, though, is their homage to Christmas lyrics misheard -- enjoy!

The Red and the Mondegreen

Would You Care For A Game?

Here's a small holiday gift for you. If you're looking to spend a few minutes (or more) wasting some quality time online in a game, look no further. Mark Hurst has listed some of his favorite online games that, in his opinion:

[...]offer a "good experience" - good game design with an overall attention to quality. Unless otherwise noted, they're all free, online, and available right now.

Most use Flash, some are demos for download...so basically, most are cross-platform. All are free. Try some now -- you'll be amazed how good some of these are.

Good Experience Games
[Courtesy GoodExperience.com]

My Life As A Flake

Here in Ohio, snow is not just an occasional event in the winter; it's a way of life. If you live anywhere around the snow belt (Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, etc.), you see "lake effect" snow that is produced from cold air whipping south and east over the Great Lakes, the result of which is to produce snow by the bucketful as the winds pick up slightly warmer air from the lakes and convert it into snow. Lots of snow. If you're a snow fan, yippee! After 40 years living around it, ehhh -- not so much.

But, witness the beautiful snowflake. A perfect crystal structure. What we see for the brief moment on our gloves or coat is beautiful, if fleeting. Also very, very small. What do these structures look like close up? I'm glad you asked. SnowCrystals.com has the scoop on snowflakes, and the close-up views are fascinating. Plus, they even go the home-brew route and grow their own flakes in the lab!

NOAA Question of the Month: What is Lake Effect Snow?

Snowflakes and Snow Crystals

Apple Debuts iPod 101 Website

If you're one of the lucky folks out there that recently got a new iPod, you were probably overjoyed at first (who wouldn't be? I sure was when I got mine!), but then wondered exactly what the inside story on this little wonder was. Is there more to it than just getting my music onto it and playing some tunes? Well, Apple launched a new website to deal with questions from newbies and pros alike.

From the intro page:

Whether you're a Mac or Windows user, iPod 101 contains tons of information that'll help you enjoy your iPod to its fullest and guide you on your way to becoming iTunes savvy (we're using iTunes 6 in our course materials). Get ready to walk through the virtual aisles of the iTunes Music Store; learn how to sync your music, contacts, calendars, and more; admire your pretty pictures (and force others to do the same); watch TV shows and video; and find out what to do when things don't go as planned.

Sounds good to me! I'll see you there. For those of you who don't yet have one -- Santa's coming soon. Be good!

iPod 101 - Master Your Music And More

Wikipedia: The Dark Side

I've visited Wikipedia before, and even blogged about it, in my previous blog. The basic idea is that Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia about everything and anything, with the articles being written by the general public. The articles themselves are constantly editable, as new information is learned, or people with expertise in a topic show up to burnish the edges. But, the concept always suffered from one flaw, in my opinion -- how am I to ultimately know whether what I'm reading has been fact-checked, and is as unbiased as possible? Well, that flaw is exposed in a big way in the following USA Today article, about an assistant to Robert Kennedy, Attorney General in the '60s . Form your own opinions, but this points to why I think there needs to be better research and fact-checking involved, somehow.

A false Wikipedia 'biography'
[Courtesy of USATODAY.com]

Wikipedia.com

New Firefox v1.5 Available

Hey gang, sorry I'm a day or so off in posting this -- got busy at work. As you can see by the banners along the right side of my blog, I'm a Mozilla fan. Mozilla, creators of Firefox (stand-alone web broswer) and Thunderbird (stand-alone email client), have been my apps of choice for at least the last two years. They are fast, good with security, and cross-platform, too.

Well, the big news this week is that the latest release brings the Firefox browser to version 1.5. Go and grab it ASAP, especially if you use that security-poor, bug-ridden browser called I.E. for short (no bias here, LOL). And try out Thunderbird for your email, while you're at it. If you want it all, Mozilla ties web, email, IRC client and more all together in one app.

Firefox v1.5
[courtesy of Mozilla.com]