Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Things that catch my geeky interests that don’t fall into a more specific tag.
For some reason, Apple doesn’t include a preference to default to plain text in Mail, the bundled e-mail application. The preference is there, though, just not in the interface.
Quit Mail, then type this into the command line:
defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE
(via MacOSXHints)
I just had someone ask me what I thought about TabletPCs. Honestly, I haven’t given a whole lot of thought to them. I have, though, been a fairly regular reader of Robert Scoble‘s for a while now, and he’s big into the TabletPC thing, so I just pointed them to his site. Too bad Radio doesn’t categorize, though — he’s mentioned TabletPCs so many times in so many different contexts, that it’s difficult to narrow down any single post about the various pros and cons of TabletPCs. The first two I came up with were both from last December. I’m sure that Robert himself could come up with better links, but those were a good start.
Why is it that when using a desktop blogging client (I’ve noticed this behavior in three so far: Userspace, Kung-Log, and NetNewsWire), pings don’t seem to be sent when a post is published? The URLs to be pinged are saved with the post, but the actual ping doesn’t seem to take place. Is this a limitation of the XML-RPC implementation, or is it possibly a bug within TypePad (cringes, and looks around wildly for the gods of the NDA to strike me dead)?
Something I just discovered, thanks to a comment at Etherfarm. If you’re running Windows XP, on-screen text legibility can be drastically improved by switching on ClearType.
To do so: Start Menu > Control Panel > Display > Appearance tab > Effects… button > Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts option > ClearType menu choice > Apply.
Observe:
Without ClearType
With ClearType
Of course, text under OS X looks like ClearType-enabled text under XP from the getgo, without having to drill down through dialogs and menu choices to find the option, if you even know that it’s there. But, admittedly, at least the option is there, and it does help.
All of a sudden, the right-hand sidebar, rather than displaying on the right side of the page, is being shoved underneath the left-hand sidebar, after all the main content — at least, that’s what’s going on in IE6 on the PC.
Grrrr.
I have no idea why.
Found the offending post, and removed it for the time being. Haven’t figured out what the issue was, though. Hrm.
There’s been something of a ruckus in the geek/tech side of the blogosphere for a few weeks now that I’ve been loosely following, but not involving myself in (primarily because much of the tech bits go far beyond what my lil’ brain can handle).
To give a very loose summary:
And that, more or less, brings us up to where we are now. If you’re curious about any of the details (and haven’t already been either watching from the sidelines or caught in the crossfire), a few Google, Feedster, or Technorati searches for various combinations of ‘dave’, ‘winer’, ‘rss’, ‘pie’, ‘echo’ and/or ‘necho’ should give you far more information than you would probably want in the first place.
Anyway. The Necho (as I believe it’s currently called) project is coming along steadily, and while it’s still being hammered together, Necho feeds are currently starting to pop up around the ‘net. I even have one here.
What surprised me while going through my newsfeeds tonight is that Dave, while he may come across as an ass at times, is certainly not one to sit on his ass while some new technological goodie comes across his screen (even if it’s one he’s not entirely thrilled with). He announced today the ~~first~~ second aggregator that supports Necho feeds (Fredik Lundh beat him to being the first). I have to say, I’m impressed.
The ~~war~~ ~~drama~~ disagreements may very well continue for a while, but Necho does seem to be picking up steam, and whether or not Dave approves, at least he’s lending his support. Even if it’s just “for bragging rights”, the support is there, and in the end, that’s a good thing.
Robert Scoble switches Kool-Aid brands, if only for a moment. ;)
The ubiquity of technology in the lives of executives, other businesspeople and consumers has created a subculture of the Always On — and a brewing tension between productivity and freneticism. For all the efficiency gains that it seemingly provides, the constant stream of data can interrupt not just dinner and family time, but also meetings and creative time, and it can prove very tough to turn off.
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Some people who are persistently wired say it is not uncommon for them to be sitting in a meeting and using a hand-held device to exchange instant messages surreptitiously — with someone in the same meeting. Others may be sitting at a desk and engaging in conversation on two phones, one at each ear. At social events, or in the grandstand at their children’s soccer games, they read news feeds on mobile devices instead of chatting with actual human beings.
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These speed demons say they will fall behind if they disconnect, but they also acknowledge feeling something much more powerful: they are compulsively drawn to the constant stimulation provided by incoming data. Call it O.C.D. — online compulsive disorder.
The New York Times article The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive? describes perfectly something I’ve been noticing all over the place, creeping up for a few years now — and something that I hope I’ll never fall prey to.
This actually ties in to some of my earlier rants about cell phone usage (and rudeness). Everywhere I go, people are constantly so obsessed with being in touch at all times with everyone and everything possible, that the real world practically ceases to exist for them. At the very least, it becomes far less important to them than any of their gadgets, which is my primary frustration. Conversations with someone standing right in front of you are suddenly interrupted for a cell phone’s ring, or a PDA’s beep, or any number of other electronic distractions, and suddenly the person who’s right there becomes secondary to checking the gadget to see what the beep is for.
When did it become so easy to blatantly shrug off real people for e-mail, pager beeps, or any number of other online distractions? And why do so many people accept it so easily? It drives me up the ever-loving wall when I’m being set aside for some gadget, and I make a concerted effort never to do that to others.
Six Log pointed out a desktop MT posting application called Zempt that I’m checking out right now. Currently it’s Windows-only, but according to their roadmap, Mac support is planned for two or so revisions down the line.
Looks like Userspace might have some competition down the line! As it stands right now, Zempt looks good for the Windows side of things, and Userspace has my vote for the Mac side of the equation.
I haven’t been following the story too closely, but there’s been a small amount of ruckus lately because the CEO of Userland Software, John Robb, abruptly left the company, and when he did, his entire weblog disappeared from the web.
Nobody seems to be too sure just why his entire archive of posts disappeared. Did John take them down? Did Dave Winer (founder of Userland)? Were they just deleted because they lived on Userland’s server, and as an ex-employee, John wasn’t allowed to use Userland’s hosting anymore? Lots of questions, as as yet, few answers.
Rick Klau is concerned about the situation (rightly so), and ends his post with the following advice:
Final lesson from this situation: never, ever blog at a domain that’s not owned by you. Don’t blog on your employer’s site, don’t blog on your blogging application’s site — make sure your blog lives (and stays!) on your own domain.
This comes at an interesting time for me. Part of my motivation for applying for the TypePad beta program was that, after running my website off of my own server under my desk for years, I’m considering finally relinquishing that amount of control and moving to a hosted solution. Should I do so, I’d be doing exactly what Rick advises against, and, admittedly, there is a small amount of risk in that. Should Six Apart (creators of MovableType and TypePad) fold, my site and all of it’s pages could go up in smoke (for what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s a very high probability of that).
However, it seems to me there’s a very simple solution to this, that, for me, outweighs any risk of my web-based life disappearing into the great bit bucket in the sky, and that’s simply this: back up your files. I know that MovableType has an export feature that allows you to save a local copy of every post on your weblog, and I would assume (though I don’t know) that the other blogging systems have a similar feature. It’s useful both as an importing mechanism when changing sites or weblogs, but it also makes a great backup mechanism. Ever since I suffered the loss of my last webserver, I’ve been making sure to export my site on a regular basis. If anything goes all aflooey (a technical term, to be sure), I’m covered.
It may very well be that John has done just this, and, once he’s settled in at wherever he’s going, his entire website will reappear on the web at a new address. From the number of posts I’ve seen about his ‘disappearance’, I’d say that there are a fair amount of people hoping for that to be the case. Hopefully it’s not too long before we find out.
In the end, then, I’d worry less about relinquishing control of your archives to an employer or to your blogging host company, than I would about making sure you have a current backup so that, should disaster strike, recovery is just a few clicks away.
(via Erik)