This morning I was checking and it turns out that DrawIt 3.7.5 is out. The Sparkle notes say only:
Big improvements to the vector tool; better mouse-over effects, consistency and working at high zoom factors
so that means good things to me. I'll have to check it out soon and see what the differences are. I can already tell, there are some interesting UI changes so it's shaping up to be something interesting.
Good enough.
After a significant chunk of time, Dropbox released an update to it's multi-platform client: 0.6.507. The release notes say that there are a few issues fixed with Mac OS X, but I haven't run into any yet, and I've used it to keep three machines in sync. It's really quite simple, and at the same time, quite impressive. It's the way software should function - do something well and stay out of the way.
If you want to keep a folder in sync across multiple machines and platforms, give this a try, it's really quite amazing.
This morning VelaClock 2.1.12 was out and I picked it up - not that I need it as much as I used to, but it's still nice to be able to know for certainty what time it is in the other time zones. Back in my days at O'Connor, I needed to know London and Hong Kong without fail, but now it's not that big an issue. Still, if I need to know DST rules for Gaza, it's in there now.
OK, a little silly, but nice to have.
Got out and voted and I have to say I'm more than a little disappointed in the quality of the polling staff these days. The name is spelled B-E-A-T-Y, and it's on the voter registration card right there, yet still, I had to point out Liza's sheet in the rolls, and mine as well. Amazing.
But I have to say, it's great to strike a blow against what appears to be 'old time' Chicago politics in Bolingbrook. This article points out the incredible unfairness built into the system in this town. But I'm sure, if you look at any one of the rules, it is there for a reason - don't want to have cheating, do we? But the upshot of these rules enforced by a corrupt system is nothing less than... well... corrupt.
So I wrote in BONNIE ALICEA for mayor and I'm hoping she gets enough other folks as well. But even if she didn't, it's the process that's essential, and next time, maybe she'll be on the ballot for sure.
This morning I saw that OsiriX, the medical image viewer, released a new version, so I had to go get it. There's nothing quite like getting your images (x-rays, MRI, etc) and being able to look at them at home. Not that we're doctors and can read them, but it's fun to look at your guts and wonder Hey, is that a tumor?
If you have medical images, give it a try.
This evening the episode of House, M.D. had one of the main characters commit suicide. In their trying to understand the reasons, the remaining characters searched for a reason that he'd do this. Point was, there was no reason. None at all. And while I appreciate showing that suicide is not glamorous as some might want it to appear, I have to wonder why do it to this particular character? Why have it make no sense whatsoever.
In the show, this character wasn't depressed. He thought life was worth living. Looked on the bright side of things. In general, he was the "hopeful" one in the crowd. The others are cynics. One with a genetic disease and less than a decade to live. All morose. So why pick this one happy person to kill himself? Clearly, it would be completely unexpected.
But that's possible in fiction. Portray a person as happy, full of life, enjoying life, and then have him be a closet mass murderer. It's possible. Totally illogical, but possible. If he'd been killing people and stuffing them in his fridge, I'm guessing there are a few tell-tale signs that people he worked with 60+ hours a week with would have spotted. Like a grim sense of humor, or signs of multiple personalities. Something.
So this wonderful character that my family has come to really like is gone. And what does this show my kids? Well... that the can't depend on TV for justice. Thanks, TV, but I think the real world will teach them that. Next? Oh... it shows them that even their best friends can be suicide cases. Thanks, TV, but my kids don't need to wonder if their friends are going to off themselves, they have enough of a tough time just being kids these days.
In the end, I'm disappointed in the writers. They could have done this to a patient on the show. A member of family of one character. Something. They didn't have to do it to the one person that never would have killed themselves in real life.
It's some literary vehicle, I'm sure. Someone new is coming on the show, or the actor wanted off to pursue movies, etc. But it's not anything close to a lesson learned. This was the writer's idea of a sucker punch. Nothing more.
UPDATE: there have been a few articles indicating that this was handled badly. But the reason: Kal Penn, the actor, wanted to work in the Obama administration, so he wanted out. Out he is. I'm now a little disappointed in him, as well. Finish the season, make a commitment and stick to it. Alas, this is not the case, it seems.
This morning I noticed that Camino 1.6.7 was out so I upgraded. The release notes say that in addition to the latest version of the Gecko rendering engine, there are several fixes and upgrades to the Flash block animations. Interesting, but again, Camino is third-tier web browser for me - Safari, Firefox and then Camino. Still... it's nice to see what it's doing and have the option to check things out with that rendering system. So I keep upgrading.
This morning I was finally able to get a good download of OmniGraphSketcher Beta 2 and have a little look. The two demo videos are exceptionally impressive, and being a sucker for data visualization tools, I just had to get it. The license is only $30, and for that, it's a deal. The visual way they allow the user to interact with the data and the graph is exactly the kind of tool I like. While DataGraph is nice and precise, this is more, well, of a sketcher. It seems to be focused on getting the data down on the graph - no matter what the form, and then embellishing it. Nice.
Not sure which one I'll use more, but it'll be interesting to see how they evolve in the coming months, years.
Miro is an odd fish, in my book. I'm not sure exactly what the source of the videos are, but I like the idea, and the tool is really quite nicely put together. This morning I noticed that they have a new release - 2.0.4, and it supposedly fixes a few issues. Again, since I haven't been using it a lot, I can't speak to the real problems solved, but I like to keep it current in the event that they have the kind of content that I'd like to see.
Specifically, episodes of House.
But I'll have to give it a little more time and see if they show up in the client. For now, it's an update and then back to work.
Daniel tweeted that he found a much faster way of browsing the flickr picture stream for the media manager, and so this morning I saw that MarsEdit 2.3.1 is out with this enhancement. Nice to see.
I'm not that big of a flickr fan, but I can understand that there are tons of folks that are, and for them, this is a real boon. Good enough.