Throb

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

The new version of Mac OS X is out. It's amazing to me that many of you prefer using Windows machines... you're really missing out. Do you realize that I can "undo" anything? Do you know what it's like to drag an object from a webpage you like to a folder on your desktop?

Anyway, that said, here's what the new version of the Mac OS is missing:

Drag and drop should improve: I want to be able to take a document from a folder and drop it to any text box in a smart way. Links and uploads aren't interesting to me. The Mac OS is already miles beyond Windows XP in this, I just want to take it further.

ActiveX controls: Somebody at Apple should figure out all the ways that Microsoft ActiveX is interacting with Windows and do some magic so that those apps work in OS X too. In fact, I don't know why these things aren't included in Firefox for Windows. ActiveX should either be "embraced and extended" or dropped off the face of the planet. ActiveX stuff (and RealNetwork's Rhapsody) is the only reason I still use my Windows machine. I'd prefer to let it die and move to a completely Mac-centered world.

Image/Video Tagging: We need an incredibly easy way to tag images and videos so Spotlight can see them.

Web page authoring: Web page creation should be made easier at the OS level. I want image and css linking to be automatic. I want my OS to put an image I've linked to into an images folder on my server and understand how to build a link to this on my site. Why is this so painful today?

Screen capture: In Jaguar (and presumably Tiger) default image capture is to pdf format. Even though it's better than anything available in Windows, it's still a pain in the neck to publish a screen capture to the web. I think that still and motion screen captures should be build in to the OS in a very simple way.

In Tiger widgets are only available by pressing F12. I think the Konfabulator model of making them appear on the desktop all the time is powerful, and important. Also F12 is how I see Dreamweaver docs in a browser. How are these things going to interact?

OpenGL on a Windows par: Mac machines still can't compare to Windows machines as far as gaming. Somebody at Apple should fix this. Certainly the processors and media APIs are there... how about creating some developer conversion tools to take advantage of the Mac platform?

Virtual PC: I should be able to use all Windows applications on my Mac, out of the box. I don't care how hard it is.

On rollerskates

Girls naked on rollerskates
Cups that overfloweth
Courtship nudes
I am their damn you man

Melting smooth you bare
Strawberry reality bruises
Empty judgement hurts
Pulse you cannot hear

Limber betrayal girl smarts
Make my friends wet
Leave me waiting
Bastard wallfighter

Peanut
Hello?

111

I love this guy's video for his niece. And I love his second one too.

The problem with Metafilter is that great links are often hidden in cryptic posts. But I'm cryptic too. Whatcha gonna do? Sometimes I think the best thing the first world could do for the third world would be to employ an army of metataggers for all of our funny funny content.

I don't know why this doesn't make me all warm and fuzzy, I may have a philosophical objection I can't identify at this juncture.

iPod mini pocket

I finally got around to making a protective leather case for my iPod mini. After the fiasco of getting it repaired the first time I want to treat this thing like a baby. It's got a belt loop, velcro closure on the bottom and Access Holes™.

How to fake fingerprints

This site contains detailed instructions for how to fake your fingerprints. I'm not sure if this works, because the final fake fingerprint doesn't seem to give off the same natural fats and oils that a real finger would, but it's neat anyway.

I don't take responsibilty for what you do with this information, you naughty kids.

The Good

Note to self...

I am officially immediately going to stop being so lazy about updating Throb. I realized that I was still visiting this site about once a day, almost as if I expected it to be writing itself. Anyway, I'm back.

The problem, I think, is that over the last couple weeks I'd started 4 or 5 posts, only to realize that they were gigantic projects which are outside of my committment level on this thing. Some of these included: a post called Tit for Tat, suggesting tongue-in-cheek political tradeoffs between the left and right sides of the political spectrum; a post about the bizarre papal selection process; an epic poem and a short story. All will continue to languish in incompleteness, I'm moving on.

In other (unrelated) news, PodScope is a search tool which uses a proprietary voice analysis technology to trawl and index podcasts. Search for a word and it returns snippets of audio from podcasts containing that word as well as links to the entire podcast. Neat! My crystal ball expects that someday soon Google will use something like this to allow us to search audio and video news clips and entertainment. http://www.podscope.com/

Awww... poor bunny

Comic Life

Found a new Mac application called Comic Life, and started my first comic since high school. I was going for noir, got more dour, but it's fun and I'll keep it going...

Freedom of Speech

Image above is from the Onion, link goes to the blog of the guy who does Sally Forth, I think.

By the way, 200th post! Woohoo!