What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning there was another update to Skitch - this time to Beta 8.1. The release notes say that it's related to PPC issues on 10.4 and the ability to snap X11 windows and the DVD Player application. Good enough for me. Gotta update Skitch - it's one of my favorite apps.

My favorite image editor was updated today - Acorn is at 1.5.2 and has a spiffy new icon to boot. The release fixed a few brush issues, and a few crashing bugs, but nothing that seemed to impact me - save the icon. Still... always nice to get the latest goodies.

Excellent work.

One of my favorite apps - MarsEdit, has just been updated to 2.3 with Tumblr support, that I'm really not that hyped about, but others will be, and a much improved media manager when loading lots of pictures. Doesn't sound like much, but I know Daniel was working on it for a long time.

Glad to see the update.

This morning I noticed that VoodooPad Pro 4.1.1 is out with some nice changes for the iPhone sync capabilities. There's a few other things there, but it looks to be really focused on this aspect for the release. Good enough, I'm not syncing to an iPhone now, but good news for my friends that are.

I'm not a big peer-to-peer downloader, in fact, I think I've downloaded just two things - a couple of Eddie Izzard tracks that we owned the DVDs for, but I wanted just the soundtrack. But when I needed to get that, I got Acquisition, and it's done a fine job for the limited used I've had for it. Today, I saw that they have released v2.1, and it includes Sparkle support and a few design tweaks and connectivity improvements.

So if you need something like this, I can say it works, but can't say it's all that much better than the other things out there. I just haven't had the need to look around that much.

My kids are good kids. I mean they are all smart, healthy, clever, athletic, and at the same time they can be the biggest pain in my butt that I've ever had. It's true - no one can hurt you like those closest to you. And kids are a constant source of happiness and grief. I love them, and because I love them, they are able to frustrate me like no other human beings on earth.

Case in point: Joseph this morning. He wants to wear his (curly) hair plastered down with a (large) handful of mousse. Why? "Because it looks good." Ask anyone else and it looks like 1970's 'AfroSheen' - constantly wet and when you touch it it's actually brittle. Amazing. But try and tell him that softer and natural looks better and you are the one being unreasonable.

So Liza tries to talk to him, and gets very frustrated in the process. He's always splitting hairs, trying to make it seem like he's the injured party. So she comes back into the bathroom to take a shower, and she's furious with him. I decide that since I'm not yet upset, my chances of staying calm for him are pretty good.

Silly Daddy!

I try to talk to him, and everything is about how his Mom is trying to "control his entire life." Yeah, like I haven't heard that before. So I point out all the freedoms he has, and he responds with "Yeah, but she's trying to control my hair, and after that, it'll be the rest of my life." Paranoid much? So I'm trying to point things out, and I don't realize that there's no talking to a 15 yr. old boy that's convinced his mother is out to control his entire life - starting with the amount of mousse he puts on his hair in the morning.

In about 8 years, I'm going to show him this post, and he's going to apologize to me and his Mother, and then in about another 20 after that, he's going to call us up and thank us for not killing him at the age of 15. For his new 15 yr old son will be saying the same things to him, and he'll be ready to drop him off at the orphanage. It's the same way for every kid. It's called maturity.

I wish he had more of it now, but that, too, is the point, now isn't it? It's my turn to call my Mom and tell her I'm glad she didn't kill me at the age of 15. Of course, this isn't the first time I've called my Mom and thanked her for letting me live... it's just the latest.

So I'm writing this down because some day I'm going to look back on this and laugh. But today is not (yet) that day.

Skitch is just about one of the handiest little apps I use, and today they released a new version - 1.0b8 (v821) available via auto-updating from within Skitch. The release notes included updates for the Unibody MacBook's camera grab as well as better compatibility with Spaces. In general, there were a ton of updates to the program. Sure wish they'd have the release notes available on their web site, but I guess we can't have everything.

So get it, you won't be sorry.

It passed this year with no fanfare at school, but it was Pi Day nonetheless. I still think how funny it was the first time I heard about this with Marie's math class. What a hoot.

Well... here's to Pi! (Nina would say "Pie!")

The guest wireless access provided at work is nice, it's fast, but to use it I can't use Adium to get access to my instant message systems. They need to log all chat/IM on their networks - guest or no, and because of that, they aren't currently allowing IM on the 'guest' part of the network. Seems very reasonable - it's regulations, after all. So I was thinking more about the V740 EVDO card from Verizon. It's up to 1.4Mb down, and 800kb up... not fantastic speed, but it's completely wireless, and that's interesting for a lot of reasons.

If we went on a trip to Dad's house, then we'd have the internet. Not bad. If we went on vacation in the US, I'd be online. Not bad. The Metra - nice. I'd really be able to do some work just about anywhere.

But it's $60/mo, and with the new job and going from hourly to 'base + bonus' it's not something I was sure we wanted to add to the monthly load. When I asked Liza about it she said I should do it to be able to talk to Jeremy and Troy, but she was very unhappy with Comcast's Extreme 50 service. She's been saying since we upgraded that it was, in fact, slower than the older service which I think was 12MB down, 2MB up. In theory, that should be impossible. But Liza uses her box a lot and from her point of view, the extra $80/month was making things worse, not better.

So it was clear what we needed to do: Move back to the Comcast Ultra - 30MB down, 5 MB up, and save the $80 a month (they had upgraded the speeds on every price point) and then take some of that and get the Verizon service. That way, I can use the Shop's guest wireless if I need to download some massive file - like an update to Xcode, or something, but for the most part, use that and not the guest wireless and get back to Adium.

So I told Liza to do the Comcast move - as she also wanted to remove some sports package we have that we don't need, and when she tells me that it's done, I'll order the Verizon card from Amazon where it's only a penny ($0.01) with the required 2 year service contract. That's about $129 cheaper than going to the Verizon store. Why? No idea, but it is.

In the end, I'll be able to use Adium as I want without any problems, and still have the speed when I need it, and be mobile if I really want it. Not bad.

[3/14] UPDATE: I'm pretty miffed at Amazon and Verizon. Here's what happened: I ordered the V740 card from Amazon for $0.01. They said that Verizon rejected my credit application and that I needed to call Verizon and clear it up. So I did. They explained that they don't allow a second account on the same SSN as an existing account - I said that's OK, I want it on my primary account anyway. They said I'd have to have Amazon re-send it and they'd take care of it. So I called Amazon, and after four people, I got to someone that finally said I'd hear from someone in 24 hrs. What?! This is Amazon - I could have ordered a book and had it in hand in that time. What's up with that?

So I waited, and a little later today I heard from them that the reason I can't have the V740 card is because I'm not a new customer. The discounts are only for new customers. Fine. So I can't get it from Amazon. Pitty, they didn't say anything about that in the order form, but that's life. So I decided that I'd just go to the Verizon store in Bolingbrook today and get the card there.

Not so fast, me bucko! The Verizon store doesn't carry them! There's one in the case, but none to be sold. I can't believe that they can't carry at least one! But they didn't. So now I'm waiting for this Tuesday when one will arrive in the mail and I'll be able to activate it and then I'll be able to get access from work without using the guest wireless account. What an endeavor.

When I started using the Safari 4 Public Beta, the changes in the NSAttributedString caused VoodooPad Pro to not render text properly all the time. So when a new version was available, I upgraded and the problem went away. Now the guys at Flying Meat Inc, have released the official update to VoodooPad and I got it.

There are a few additional changes in the package, but the vast majority were in the pre-release I was using for the last week or so. It's a great place to put all those little notes, etc. that might otherwise find their way to post-its that could get lost, etc. Great tool for organization.