steve cooley presents

Wow, I just put my hands on a Powerbook 5300cs. That thing was like 3 inches thick.

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Interview with Aaron Hillegass of Big Nerd Ranch: “OSNews.com interviews Aaron Hillegass: ‘The ranch is not as rustic as it sounds. The rooms are large with jacuzzi tubs and balconies. Yes, there are some horses, but we also have a swimming pool and miniature golf.’

The first edition of Aaron’s book Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X was our introduction to Cocoa.”

(Via Ranchero.)

Aaron’s great. He was there most of the time for my PHP class as a BNR supervisor. Oh, I can vouch for the “not as rustic as it sounds” part.

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Well, I’ve been real busy on the projector project. jono and I did one for him… learned a lot about 0.5mm pitch flat flex cable that time. I bought a couple of monitors. One didn’t work for this project, one did. Here’s the design I came up with for the CMV CT-529a 15″ LCD, stripped out for use over an overhead projector:

more angles here … This monitor was so great to work with, I’d recommend it if you’re going to do something similar. I got mine from Memory Labs in San Jose, and was able to pick it right up instead of waiting for shipment. Tell them Steve sent you if you buy one from them.

I was able to bandsaw out the on screen display (OSD) controls and slap them on the corner of the unit. I think the design is working pretty good. I may need to counterbalance the “glass end” as the “electronics end” is heavier and on certain projectors, I may not be able to orient the glass this way for the image to appear correctly. Also, heat doesn’t appear to be a problem on the projectors I’ve tested on, but I may need to figure out forced air ventilation… many things to think about.

Also, I’ve been prepping the extra 17 projectors I have for resale. They were filthy when i got them, so they require a good scrubbing to get the tape, stick on labels, packing slip pouches, saw dust, dirt, and general funk off of them. Some have damage from shipping, so, I’m trying to franken-fix the best ones from the parts I have. I’m learning a lot about front surface mirrors, balasts, optics, heat dissipation, lens throws, and doing a lot of fun problem-solving-fabriation.

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We all got promised one, and last week I got my shuffle. It’s really great. Dare I say… insanely great? It’s just shocking how your music is with you, but with some sort of ESP kind of power. Like your computer is beaming music to your head without needing to be tied to it. It’s virtually weightless, and hands free. Also, I’m noticing, it’s less figity than my big iPod.

Oh, sure, when I want to be specific about what I’m listening to, the big iPod is the way to go, but… throwing all your new music on the shuffle is fast and easy. I gave it to R, and she’s using it, yay … My parents checked it out last weekend, and they were both really impressed.

I noticed that it’s instantly recognizable when you see one in public. Great brand building stuff! I saw while at dinner out over the weekend that someone had gotten one… it’s so easy to spot if it’s out in view. I also noticed that when the shuffle is on the lanyard and it’s turned backwards, the green indication area looks like a smiling mouth

While it’s not a new concept, it brings the concept home into reality. Sure, there’s lots of MP3 players out there, but this is the one. Seamless integration of my music on my computer when I’m there, all my music on my iPod, my new music on a near weightless shuffle when I’m away from my computer, and the best music buying experience. We were talking about buying music the “old fashioned way”… I take the new way for granted now. Not having to buy a whole CD of crap for one good song… well.. DUH, why would you spend $15 for $0.99 worth of music??

When you go on the other side of the equation, to the music creation side, you’ve got GarageBand, which I’ve used somewhat extensively. It’s great. Dare I say again, insanely great?? Stepping up from there is Logic Express, which I’ve used less extensively, but the time I have spent with it has been pretty magical. The gain in control is shocking. It’s everything I need in a music composition tool. The final step up from there is Logic Pro. I tried out version 6 about a year ago and had a hard time getting my head around everything you can do with it. Logic Pro is just mind bendingly powerful and tweaky. I’m sure version 7 is just that much better with Apple Loops Format inclusion and the new instruments and pitch bending stuff (and all the other stuff I don’t even know about!)…

Apple is firing on all cylinders for music.

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Hey, do you wish Xcode had better piping to work with PHP? I know it’s *technically* possible, but what is the huge benefit? What I’d love to see is a tool like they have for WebObjects, where you point it at your MySQL database, and relate the tables visually, and then cough up all the code to do the basic things. Make it work with Xcode, and then you’re on to something great.

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Well, two things happened last night. One is that I’m launching headlong into getting mysql replication set up at work. Second is that I have a wordpress comment and trackback spam attack. Neither are fun. So, comments are off, and trackback, long suspected of first being non-functional, secondly suspected of being too kludgy to use, and now finally known to contribute to free advertising space for spam on blogs. Drop kick to the can, trackback… you’re fired.

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After getting Jono’s projector off the ground, I have… procured at no small expense… a quantity of reusable optical parts for an LCD projector. I just bought a jetway 15″ LCD from surplus computers… I have some photos of the back of the monitor with the RF shield off. I’m going to rip the rest of the junk off tonight when I get home.

from left to right, it appears like there’s the inverter board, the power input, video board, FFC connector screwed down, and the audio board for the internal speakers. Check out those crossed over FFC cables! wowow, this is going to be interesting when I get the rest of the plastic off.

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1. install iWork.
2. "command-I" (get info) on any .doc file
3. find "Open with:" in the "get info" window
4. change the default from "MS Word" to "Pages"
5. click "Change All..."
6. Remove Word icon from your dock!
7. Bask in the glow of participation in decreasing Microsoft's world domination.

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for $499, you can be free from viruses and hardware driver hassles. You also get around $400 in software loaded up on the box… iLife 05: iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, and iTunes. You also get AppleWorks, Quicken, Nanosaur, and of course Mac OS X Panther.

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Feature Request – Podcasts should expire like RSS items: “

I knew that news aggregators, like NetNewsWire, would add support for podcasts? In the case of NNW, it can be set up to automatically download a podcast, and import it into iTunes and my iPod.

Now I’d like to see NNW (et al) expire podcast content… that is, when the RSS item that contains the podcast drops out of my news aggregator, the podcast file would also be deleted from iTunes and my file system. In this way, I don’t need to worry about an ever-rising flood of podcast content in my iTunes/iPod. If I like a particular piece of podcast content, I can always flag the corresponding RSS item so that it doesn’t disappear. Brent?

“

(Via musings.)

Bingo… my iPod is only so big. No matter how big it is, pod casting is transient content. It should definitely expire.

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EFF defends bloggers’ rights to keep informants’ identities secret: “Cory Doctorow:
Apple is making legal threats against of bunch of rumors sites, demanding that these journalists disclose the identities of their sources. Bad, bad Apple. EFF is taking up the sites’ cause, defending their right to keep their sources’ identities a secret. Good, good EFF!

On December 13, Apple filed suit against ‘Does 1-20′ in a Santa Clara court. The company obtained a court order that allows it to issue subpoenas to AppleInsider and PowerPage for the names of the ‘Does’ who allegedly leaked the information in question. EFF is defending the publishers against these subpoenas, arguing that the anonymity of bloggers’ sources is protected by the same laws that protect sources providing information to journalists.

‘Bloggers break the news, just like journalists do. They must be able to promise confidentiality in order to maintain the free flow of information,’ said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. ‘Without legal protection, informants will refuse to talk to reporters, diminishing the power of the open press that is the cornerstone of a free society.’

‘I am very disappointed by Apple’s behavior and its new policy of issuing legal threats to its best customers,’ added Jason O’Grady, publisher of PowerPage. ‘Is corporate paranoia really more important than the First Amendment?’

Link“

(Via Boing Boing.)

Oh, I’m sorry, does the first amendment entitle you to steal and reveal confidential trade secrets? Would Coca-Cola mind if “the formula” was made public on your blog? What would Mrs. Fields say about the cookie recipe being made public on your blog? Would the US Government pat you on the back for revealing top secret weapons information on your blog? Are there first amendment privileges for that?

If you think that information wants to be free, and that Apple has no right to defend itself against the leaking of trade secrets, this basically amounts to you pushing a policy of big brother. Why not just post every single piece of financial data, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and the URLs to your unprotected home security cameras on your blog while you’re at it. Why should it be a secret that only you know? What if I posted that information on my blog and refused to reveal my source? It’s ludicrous to think that would be ok to do! You’d be pissed!!

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deeje.com/musings: Creative @ CES – The Zen Wireless Headset: “http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1639700″

(Via deeje.com.)

My main opposition to this is that Creative bears the forseeable burden of reinventing the wheel in the form of proprietary headphones. Proprietary headphones? Dude, if I have $200 cans, I’m gonna have to use my $200 cans. (I wish I had $200 cans, btw) Although, it’s nice to see someone doing something innovative aside from Apple.

I like how both photos of people have them looking somewhat nervously to their right. It looks like they are afraid their iPods will walk around the corner and catch them in the act or something.

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now, I know google has a crazy math processing thing.. but “∑” turns up nothing whatsoever. Unless it turned up this result when you searched for it? 0MG, 1 4m 50 ∑133t!1!!1!!1!!oneoneone!1!11!!!1

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ever wonder where all your disk space goes? I do. Check out this program: Disk Inventory X.

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