iTunes 10 – Strange Buttons
I'm watching the keynote of the live Apple music event today and (other than the new iTunes 10 icon sucking hardcore) and noticed something funny about the new iTunes 10. Anybody else notice that Apple moved the typical 3-button control (red/yellow/green) to be vertical instead of horizontal?
What’s With The New iCal Icon?
So I upgraded my Macbook Pro to Mac OS 10.6.3 and noticed a peculiarity with the change in iCal's dock icon.
The date is offset higher than it used to be. It is no longer centered in the white part of the icon, but centered vertically on the whole icon.
So I started up iCal in hopes that it was a one-time issue and that it would correct itself when it launched. Too bad that didn't work.
What's up with that, Apple? It looks horrible!
UPDATE:
Thanks Brent. Turns out I had multiple versions of Helvetica Neue installed and they were conflicting with each other. The installation of these fonts just happened to coincide with my upgrade to 10.6.3.
I Sure Don’t Miss This!
And I'm glad it happened inside a virtual environment.
I literally haven't gotten the BSOD in over 3 years since I've switched to Mac. I use a PC every once in a while, usually in a virtual window like this.
If I'd been working on something important it would probably be lost. I'm so glad I only have to run windows in a window on my mac and don't have to use it 24-7.
Have I stated yet how much I love Macs?
Mac OS X Continually Amazes Me
One of our laser printers at work broke today (Error: 79.00FE) and a co-worker has about 20 documents in her queue to print to it.
Being that it's the day before Thanksgiving and there's only two Interactive/IT guys here I have to put on my IT hat and help out.
I installed a different printer onto her Mac and opened up the new printer's queue. On a whim and a prayer (I never in a million years expected this to work), I clicked a document from the broken printer's queue and dragged it to the new printer's window.
I think my heart skipped a beat when the new printer's window highlighted its border in blue, the way Mac windows react when things can be dragged to that space. I dropped the item into the new queue and the newly installed printer down the hall spun into action.
After a select-all and another drag/drop, all the printer items going to the broken printer were in line to print on the new one.
I'm really impressed because I didn't think that the printer windows would allow that.
Apple, you continue to impress me.
Bonus points to the first commenter to point out how many times the word "queue" is in this post! 
That’s Consistency for Ya!
Chris hates Apple products so much because of the restrictive DRM! They "lock you in" to their proprietary format.
So much for consistency.
The New Apple iAquarium
What to do if you've got an old iMac sitting around?
Take all metal off of it and put it in a 100 gallon fish tank, that's what!
Symbols.com – Symbol 25:18
Symbols.com has an interesting look at the "Apple Symbol" as it is known in the computer world:
In Germanic countries this structure is called St. Hans' cross or the cross of St John. In Scandinavia it is a magic ideogram from the Viking era, or even older. It seems also to have been used in Cabbalistic mysticism. Today, it is used as a cartographic and traffic sign to denote ancient remains or an ancient monument.
Here's a source from the horse's mouth:
It's difficult to come up with a small icon that means "command", and we didn't think of anything right away. Our bitmap artist Susan Kare had a comprehensive international symbol dictionary and she leafed through it, looking for an appropriate symbol that was distinctive, attractive and had at least something to do with the concept of a menu command.
Finally she came across a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground. She rendered a 16 x 16 bitmap of the little symbol and showed it to the rest of the team, and everybody liked it. Twenty years later, even in OS X, the Macintosh still has a little bit of a Swedish campground in it.
The 10 Commandments of Mac Optimization
The 10 Commandments of Mac Optimization
All Macs are ready out of the box, but what happens after they're removed from the cardboard cocoon? Lethargy. Torpor. They get slower, too.
Like all computers, you'll find gunk is gradually--and quite literally--accumulating inside your Mac. It needn't be that way. For the sake of your Mac's soul, I present the 15... oy... 10 commandments of keeping your Mac fresh - Cupertino fresh.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's new Mac.
- Thou shalt not bear false security.
- Thou shalt not steal. From developers.
- Thou shalt not commit peripheral adultery.
- Thou shalt not murder thine files. (But if thou doest, be of thankful heart for thine merciful backups)
- Honour thy startup and thy reboot, that thy days may be long upon thine Mac.
- Remember the Stevenote day and keep it holy.
- Do not use the Mac's brain in vain.
- Thou shalt not worship graven icons.
- Thou shalt have no extra apps before me.
Recommended Reading
- Free Demo Version of Epic Citadel
- General Web Content: CAPTCHArt
- I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This…
- Steve Jobs was right, Flash fails on Android
- Things are About to Get Awkward on the Enterprise
Nike+ Running Stats
- Total runs: 175
- Total distance: 305.50mi
- Total time: 89hr 23min 36sec
- Total calories: 40,864
- Avg pace per mi: 17'33"
- Avg distance per run: 1.75mi
- Avg calories per run: 233.51
My Records
- Farthest Run: 6.43mi
- Fastest Mile: 8'40"
- Fastest 5K: 32'10"
- Fastest 10K:2hr 16min 12sec
My Recent Runs
- August 25, 2010, 11:06pm
- Distance: 0.46mi
- Duration: 31' 22"
- Calories: 61
- August 25, 2010, 6:02pm
- Distance: 1.20mi
- Duration: 21' 6"
- Calories: 159
- August 24, 2010, 4:39pm
- Distance: 1.12mi
- Duration: 19' 58"
- Calories: 148
