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First real gripe about my iMac

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:28:23 GMT

Apple really should make the HDD in the iMac more accessible. Just put it behind a panel, similar to the RAM. Replacement becomes “Open slot, replace drive, close slot”.

As it stands, if the internal disk in an iMac goes (and it will…), and you’re under Applecare, there’s a good chance you’ll be without the machine for at least a week.

I’ve read the disassembly guides, and I’ve done complex teardowns before. This one honestly isn’t too bad. I have a compatible (identical, actually) drive I’m currently booting in an external enclosure. I have the tools necessary to get it open. , The entire process would probably take me a half hour. A little longer if I’m *really* being careful.

However, Apple Support can’t give me a straight answer as to whether doing so (as it involves opening the machine) would void the remaining two years of Applecare on the entire machine. The new drive I could understand not being covered – that’s perfectly reasonable – but to lose coverage on the LCD, PSU, or motherboard?

The only “safe” option to preserve the warranty is to hand the machine off to Apple for however long they feel necessary to perform the drive replacement. Logic board replacement was a week. If they want that long for a HDD, it would seem fairly excessive to me.

This entire scenario would be unnecessary had Apple recognized that replacing the HDD is something that’s bound to be required, and somehting the end-user should be able to do easily. Just put it under an access panel, and be done with it.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

SteerMouse

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:26:57 GMT

As some of you may know, I have a Logitech MX Revolution. It’s a great mouse, particularly for those of us with larger than average hands. However, there’s one little problem: Logitech’s OSX drivers leave a lot to be desired.

They’ve always done something…weird…to scrolling. I’m not really sure how to describe it – it’s almost like you’re scrolling in jello – like there’s a bit of lag between when you move the wheel and when the page actually scrolls. And when it does scroll, it either scrolls a little further than you expected, or a little less.

The movement of the mouse feels similar, although the effect is much less pronounced.

Neither of these issues affects the mouse until you install Logitech’s drivers. Under the stock drivers, the mouse “feels” just fine. You just can’t map all of the buttons, and can’t configure the “microgear” scroll wheel to do anything but switch back and forth from free-wheel mode.

It’s been a pain, but I’ve been managing. Until now.

I was alerted to a third party driver called “SteerMouse“. I believe the language that was used was:

“It makes the MX Revolution work like it should – this is what Logitech’s Control Center should be.”

That’s high praise. I decided to check it out.

Holy crap. They’re right. It works perfectly. There’s no lag. Scrolling feels right. The scrollwheel not only functions as the middle mouse button (a big deal for us former linux geeks), but auto-switches to free-wheel mode when you give it a hard flick.

That little tiny button just over the scroll wheel? It’s mappable. As are all of the buttons. Every single one.

It’s like using a completely different mouse. One that’s worth the price I paid. One that works the way it said it would on the box.

The UI is a little rough, but certainly usable. To see which logical button a physical button maps to, you hover over the big mouse graphic and press it. The entry for the button gets highlighted, and you choose what you want it to do.

The other tabs allow you to customize how the scroll wheel works (”Acceleration scroll” seems to be the one to use with the MX to make the free-wheel-on-demand work), how tilt-scrolling works, and whether you want the cursor to auto-move to the default button in dialog boxes (I find this annoying, so I turned it off).

I’m so impressed, I’m going to add my own quotable soundbyte:

SteerMouse makes the MX Revolution work as advertised under Mac OSX.</a>

Logitech needs to hire these people.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Ars reviews Mac OS X 10.6

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:02:28 GMT

Ars has their review of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard up. It’s a very comprehensive review, tackling everything from the UI polish to the big changes under-the-hood. The real gem, however, is the list of links at the end of the article, to reviews of every past version of OSX. Huge amount of history there. It’s fascinating to read through some of the oldest ones and see how things evolved.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

How AT&T has killed my interest in this year’s iPhone

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:58:35 GMT

(This is a bit of a rant)

Yesterday, Apple announced the iPhone 3GS - essentially a hardware speed-boost to last year’s iPhone 3G. More memory, faster processor, better battery life, better camera, video, digital compass, etc… Overall a damn nice looking piece of kit, and a decent, if incremental, upgrade to the existing iPhone 3G.

Also announced was iPhone OS 3.0 - with such features as tethering (IE: using your phone’s ‘net connection to give your computer ‘net access via USB or bluetooth), MMS messaging (multimedia), and more.

AT&T won’t be supporting MMS at launch. Why not? Because they need to manually remove a *block* they put in place to prevent folks who got early copies of 3.0 from using it. That’s right - they intentionally crippled MMS for beta users, and now *all* users have to wait until they get around to re-enabling it.

AT&T was also not amongst the list of carriers supporting tethering (a feature I would get a bit of use out of). It’s been rumored that they will eventually support tethering, but may charge $70/month for it. That’s of course on top of the normal data plan, and the SMS plan, and nearly doubles the monthly price for folks who want to use it. Can you say “gouge”? I knew you could.

Additionally, unlike last year’s iPhone 3G launch, owners of last year’s model won’t be getting the announced price. Instead, an “early upgrade” (which includes a 2-year contract extension) will cost iPhone 3G users $399 for the 16GB model - double the price for new subscribers. If you’re unlucky enough not to qualify for an “early upgrade”, AT&T will charge you $599 for the same phone.

All of this is due to subsidies. The original iPhone wasn’t subsidized at all. The 3G was. So, AT&T’s subsidized phone policy comes into play, which only allows the full discount after 18 months. For example, based on my AT&T account’s page, they will declare me “eligible” for full upgrade pricing ($199) in December. That’s 6 months into the 3GS’ release - or in terms of a yearly hardware cycle, half it’s lifespan. And, were I to upgrade then, I would need to completely miss next year’s hardware upgrade, as I wouldn’t “qualify” for another full year.

What’s even more telling is that cancelling your account and eating the early termination fee ($130), then purchasing an iPhone 3GS as a now-new-customer is *cheaper* by about $70 for existing iPhone 3G owners.

This. Is. Stupid.

AT&T’s 18-month “upgrade” eligibility terms simply don’t mesh with Apple’s yearly hardware refreshes. It’s the flagship phone in AT&T’s fleet, and they’re treating customers like dirt. They’re costing Apple money, in the form of folks like me, who would have considered an upgrade, but now won’t due to AT&T’s terms.

It’s also been rumored that AT&T is right now in negotiations to extend its exclusivity agreement on the iPhone, which ends next year. I can’t imagine that making their existing customers upset is helping their position much.

Apple’s put out the goods. AT&T is failing them. It’s time for Apple to jump ship and find a new partner. In all actuality, finding 2-3 partners would be better. Competition tends to keep companies honest, and puts providing *service* to *customers* at the forefront. That’s likely what needs to happen to pull AT&Ts head out of its behind.

In short - why I won’t be upgrading:

AT&T won’t support tethering, and may charge outrageous fees for it once they do get around to it
AT&T won’t support MMS (until they get around to it)
AT&T treats existing customers like dirt, makes it more affordable to stop being a customer, eat an early termination fee, then re-sign than to simply re-sign.
Current experience with AT&T’s coverage, particularly 3G, is spotty at best, fails at worst.
AT&T still charges me double to text my wife, who is on the same family plan. Calling her is free, texting costs 2 texts per message - one for me sending, the other for her receiving.

You’ll note nothing in there deals with Apple’s hardware. While there are things I’d like to have seen (forward-facing camera for video-calling, 4MP or better camera, etc…), it’s a solid upgrade all around, and one I’d likely have been willing to pay for, had AT&T not killed my interest by choosing not to support features I’d use, crippling others, and punishing me because I chose to buy their upgrade last year.

At this point, I’ll wait out this next year (as well as my contract), and perhaps jump ship to a competitor when the exclusivity runs out. I hear Verizon’s coverage around here is pretty good, and their 3G works well. I bet they’ll be willing to cut me a deal too.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Emalon the Stone Watcher - First Impression

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:30:32 GMT

So we took our first look at the new raid content tonight. We’d planned on hitting up 10-man Ulduar, but that was a bust, as some folks couldn’t make it, and others were saved.

But we had Wintergrasp, so we figured we’d take a look at the new boss - Emalon the Stone Watcher.

Emalon is located in the same instance as Archavon. At the circular room, there’s now a right-hand wing available. At the end, beyond a couple of trash mobs is the boss. Once again like Archavon, getting there is straightforward.

The fight requires two tanks. One tanks Emalon near the rear wall, and the other takes the four adds up the stairs. Two healers keep the two tanks up. There’s no raid damage to speak of, assuming folks pay attention.

And that’s the crux of the fight - paying attention.

Emalon himself has a lightning nova, similar to Loken in Halls of Lightning. Melee will want to run out of it. He also has a chain lightning, so ranged will need to spread out to avoid damage.

As for the adds, that’s where the gadget for this fight lies. Every 30 seconds, Emalon will “charge” an add. Once the charge is up, DPS has 10 seconds to down the add, or the resulting explosion will wipe the raid. In 10-man, the adds have ~200k HP.

The key lies in locating the charged add quickly. The longer it takes your DPS to focus, the harder this boss will be. On average it took us 2-4 seconds to get focused. The times we got it in 2, we were fine. The times it took us 4 seconds, we wiped. Simple as that.

Whereas Archavon had a tank switch, and was essentially a DPS race, this one is all about DPS being fast at focusing.

With gear from Ulduar, he’ll become easier, but right now, he’s quite unforgiving. I have a feeling we’ll take him down next time, but with a mishmash of Naxx10/25 gear, he’s a challenge for us, with little room for error.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Safari 4 Beta thoughts

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:11:48 GMT

So, about the Safari 4 beta…

They’ve added an Opera/Chrome-alike “top sites” page, which replaces the default “home” page. I like the concept, but there’s things I’d like to be able to do - ought to be able to do.

Right now the only way to add a site to the page is to go into Edit mode (click the “Edit” button on the lower left), and keep clicking the “X” on an entry, allowing a new one to show up. Then you have to keep clicking an “X” until the one you want shows up.

I should be able to drag links onto this page - either from their tabs or from hyperlinks on another page - and have them placed.

Update: Opening Bookmarks in a separate window, then dragging from that window *does* work, however, so there’s at least that much.

In Edit mode, you can drag pages around the grid. This is good, but I should also, outside of Edit mode, be able to drag a page off the grid and have it come into a new window.

It would be nice to be able to hold Option and get the “X”/”Pin” control buttons outside of Edit mode, in a similar manner to Dashboard widgets.

As for the new “Top tabs”, I’m not sure I like it. It’s yet another diversion from UI standards. The only way to drag a tab around is by something that looks like a resize handle in the upper right - which doesn’t actually resize anything, it just gives you the same drag options you used to get anywhere on the tab itself. I understand they did this because otherwise how’d you drag the whole window about? Still, it’s annoying.

The un-removable “New Tab” button, which now occupies the upper-right hand corner of the window is another annoyance. This is the location that *should* contain the “Hide Toolbar” button. Cmd-T for new tab is ingrained in me, and very natural. I don’t need an omnipresent button for this function. Cmd-| (which hides/unhides the toolbar) is *not* automatic or ingrained. Admittedly it’s not something I use often, but the button to do it is on nearly every other window in OSX. Safari should be no different.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Frostfire 101

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:39:58 GMT

Just a quick primer for folks unfamiliar with Frostfire and how it plays.

TLDR: Living Bomb, Scorchx2, FFB spam, Pyro on Hot Streak. Refresh as necessary. Stack cooldowns, use Mirror Image to even out your threat early.

You can check out my version of the spec. It’s not quite cookie-cutter, as I drop a couple points in Fire to pick up one in Improved Blizzard, and one in Shatter. In the normal spec, one of those points would go into World in Flames to improve Pyroblast’s crit rate by a couple of percentage points, and the other into Impact for a greater chance to stun. Basically I swap a tiny bit of single-target DPS for a bit more AoE. The core build remains the same, however.

Glyphs I use: Frostfire Bolt, Improved Scorch, Molten Armor.

There are three “main” spells you’ll use in your general rotation.

Start off by casting Living Bomb, normally during the pull. Since it works like a DoT, it doesn’t deal any damage up-front, giving the tank 3 seconds to build up some aggro before it ticks. It doesn’t tick for much at a time, but it does add up. The explosion at the end is quite nice as well.

Follow that up with 2 applications of Scorch. With the glyph, this will give you a full 5-stack of the Improved Scorch debuff (for 10% extra crit). Note that if you have a Frost mage along, you can generally skip Scorching, as Winter’s Chill (applied with every frost spell they cast) carries the same crit buff, and doesn’t stack.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, we can start spamming our main nuke - Frostfire Bolt. Watch your timers and procs while you do this.

You want to refresh your Scorch stack before it runs out, and you want to apply Living Bomb after it detonates.

When you crit twice in a row, Hot Streak will proc. At the earliest convenient time, you want to throw your now-instant Pyro. Don’t stop a cast in progress to do this, and certainly don’t let your Scorch stack drop to weave it in. You have a few seconds of lee-way, just don’t miss it, it’s essentially free damage.

(Deep Fire mages may recognize this rotation, as it’s exactly the same, switching Fireball for Frostfire Bolt.)

On raid bosses, you also need to manage your cooldowns wisely. There are two big times you want your cooldowns ready: At the start of the fight, and at 20% boss health. Most raid bosses will last long enough you can use your cooldowns at both times - however if you’re running with an overgeared or extremely proficient group, you may only get one shot. If that’s the case, you want to save everything but Mirror Image for 20%, when Molten Fury kicks in.

Cooldowns you should be looking to stack include: Icy Veins, Combustion, an on-use trinket, Mana Gem (if you have 2 pieces of T7 for the bonus, and need the mana), and (if off cooldown) Mirror Image.

Mirror Image is a little special. It doesn’t increase your damage. Instead, it takes you off the threat table for 30 seconds. After those 30 seconds, you grab all that threat back. Generally the optimum time I’ve found to use it is near the beginning of the fight, just after you’ve loaded Living Bomb and a Scorch stack, but before you start nuking. It gives the tank a full 30 seconds to out-threat you before things become a problem. And they can become a problem quickly if you’re blessed with an early string of crits. Normally that 30 second reprieve will even things out, and you’ll be safe when you come out. If it doesn’t look like you will be (watch Omen), pop Invisibility 3 seconds before Mirror Image ends. You’ll Invis just as you come out, dropping all your threat, and leaving you in a good position for the rest of the fight. Mirror Image isn’t really as important later on in the fight, but it can certainly help even out some of the burst-threat you’ll cause popping cooldowns at 20%.

Gear-wise, you’re looking primarily for Spellpower and Crit. Haste is useful, but not something you should be specifically gearing for. Hit is important (as always) up to the cap. Unfortunately, really good crit gear is hard to come by until you’re doing Heroics and 10-mans, so you’ll very likely get stuck using a couple pieces of PVP gear before then. That’s fine, if sub-optimal.

The lack of really appropriate SP/Crit gear means that there’s a very uncomfortable and awkward phase before you get Heroic-level gear where you’ll be easily out-damaged by any class that can DPS. This is frustrating as all heck, but normal. Stick with it, learn the rotation, work on your LB and Scorch uptime, and eventually the gear will come, and those all-important DPS numbers will start to go up.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

RIP AP-POM-Pyro

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:54:01 GMT

Blizzard’s latest patch to World of Warcraft (3.0.9) hit the Arcane tree with the nerf-bat a few times. This was arguably necessary due to 3.0.8 making Arcane a bit more powerful than intended, particularly in PVP. However, one of the changes - specifically putting Arcane Power (AP) and Presence of Mind (PoM) on the same cooldown - has an unforeseen, and quite frankly saddening side effect:

The classic Fire/Arcane spec is dead.

This goes back to Classic WoW (IE: before expansions). Mages specced Fire, then took enough points in Arcane to get Arcane Power and Presence of Mind. The idea was to use these two abilities in tandem, to throw a buffed, instant Pyroblast (that would do a heckuva lot of damage). Normally, Pyroblast wasn’t used in a rotation, as its 6 second cast time and higher mana cost wasn’t worth the slightly better damage it did over Fireball. However, given its higher coefficient (based on its much higher casting time), it gained a lot more from Arcane Power than Fireball, and with Presence of Mind making it instant-cast (once every few minutes), it was a great addition to Fire’s burst.

When I started my mage, this was the spec I played. Sure, Frost was undeniably the “better” leveling spec - but I had a soft spot for Fire (and I love seeing big numbers ;P ). It was fun, and part of the reason I loved playing my mage. I’m sad to see the classic Fire spec die as a side-effect of a PVP nerf.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

WoW Battlechest for $15

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:09:36 GMT

If you’ve somehow managed to avoid World of Warcraft for the past 4 years, or are looking to make a second account for dual-boxing, DealMac has a pointer to a heckuva deal from Circuit City on the first Battlechest (which contains the original game and the first expansion, plus a couple of strategy guides to collect dust in the corner).

Sure, they’re going under, closing stores around the country, and probably won’t be around much longer, but hey - at least you can get some cheap stuff out of ‘em before they go =)

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Wrath of the Lich King

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:06:35 GMT

Last week, Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to World of Warcraft. And I have to say, it’s good. Damn good.

I’ve decided to make my mage my main this time around, rather than my warlock. There are a few reasons behind this, not the least of which being the rather heavy-handed nerfing of warlocks in 3.x. But, it’s not all about nerfs, at least not directly. For me, it’s about fun. Affliction is now so cumbersome with timers and pet management that it’s simply not fun. To do comparable DPS with my mage is *much* less stressful.

Northrend is gorgeous. Between the attention to detail, the higher view distance, and Blizzard’s outstanding art direction, it’s a huge step in the right direction for an engine that’s starting to show its age.

Quests are fun, and varied, although most are still your generic combination of fetch, kill, or collection. There seem to be a few more party-friendly quests this time around, but there are still an annoyingly high number of rare-drop quests.

Breaking things up into two starting zones has helped the lag factor tremendously. Finishing quests that require specific mobs to be killed is still a pain, though. There are a LOT of folks in each zone, and you’re all competing for those same mobs. It’s annoyingly frustrating to wait 10 minutes for a spawn, only to have it taken fom you by someone who just ran in a few seconds ago. But, as always, leveling beings out the absolute worst in people, so I suppose it’s to be expected.

The two instances I’ve done thusfar - Utgarde Keep and The Nexus - are both outstanding. Although the difficulty of these starter dungeons isn’t much higher than the level 70 instances in Outland, they seem to be a lot more fun.

My mage is a little over halfway to 72 - I’m not pushing all that hard right now for the levels (there are several 80s already), although I’d have liked to have made 72 by the end of the weekend. The ride is enjoyable, and I’ve no doubt that it’ll continue to be so. Replacing hard-won epics with blues/greens is rather painful, but I’ll get used to it.

A word on Death Knights: There’s a *lot* of them, as expected. Their starting zone is fantastic, and leads them directly to level 58 and being Outland-ready. They’re also pretty much the only class you’ll find in Outland right now. A few people in my guild were having fun running Ramparts with 5 DKs, no healer, so it’s certainly possible. Should be fun to see how long that lasts.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Yes We Can!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:19:18 GMT

Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama!

Stayed up very late last night to watch the speeches. Both were excellent.

McCain seemed…relieved? It was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Gone was angry, sarcastic, slightly goofy McCain, and here was a gracious, eloquent, likable man. Given how negative his campaign was, this speech seemed delivered by an entirely different person.

Jeffrey Zeldman via Twitter perhaps said it best:

McCain’s concession speech was eloquent, noble, patriotic. In short, the real John McCain. Gandalf has cast out Wormtongue. Hail, Theoden!

Obama has one hell of a presence. I’d wager he’s probably the best speaker we’ve had since JFK. Clinton had the charisma, and was an excellent speaker, but wasn’t at that level. Obama simply owned that stage. It was inspiring, positive, and uplifting. I don’t think it’ll go down as one of the great speeches of history - however, I believe Obama will make an entry on that list at some point. He’s that good.

So we’ve done our part. Now it’s up to Obama to do his. He can certainly talk the talk. Now (well…next year when he’s sworn in…) it’s time for him to walk the walk.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Skype plugin for Adium

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:15:25 GMT

Although you still have to have Skype installed and running in the background, this plugin allows Adium to display Skype’s contact list, and control most, if not all of Skype’s functions.

The biggest upshot of this for me is only haveing to find room for one contact list on my screen.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

MySpace has been around for a while

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:13:41 GMT

67 years?

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

WOTLK intro movie is up

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:27:11 GMT

Blizzard released the opening cinematic for the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Find it on ShackVideo

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

HBO airing most of Carlin’s specials this week

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:39:24 GMT

HBO will be airing most of Carlin’s stand-up specials tonight and tomorrow night.

The guy was hilarious.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

70 #2

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:53:44 GMT

Got my mage to 70 this weekend - woo! He joins my warlock in the “No XP bar until the expansion hits” club.

Unfortunately now he must start the arduous process of running BGs for marks and honor. It’s like fighting a bonfire with a paper bag.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Live-action Smurfs movie in the works

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:31:39 GMT

Via BBC News:

Studios Columbia and Sony have scooped the film rights to the original 1958 Belgian comic book series - which later became a TV show.

The as-yet-untitled film will combine live action and animation.

This fills me with utter horror and dread.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Testing LJ Crossposter

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:16:33 GMT

This is only a test. Had this been an actual post, it would undoubtedly have had some sort of content worth reading.

Originally published at brent.bourgoine.net. You can comment here or there.

Sandisk doubles flash memory density

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:51:12 GMT

Via Tom's:

Further proof that NAND flash will stay for several more years is Sandisk's announcement that it has developed memory devices using a 43 nm process technology, down from 56 nm, for the first time. These chips have twice the density of 56 nm units, suggesting that there is enough room to take CFII or SD memory cards to a capacity of at least 64 GB and mainstream SSDs easily to 128 and 256 GB.

Sandisk said that it will begin shipping the new memory in the second half of 2008 in 16 and 32 Gb configurations.

Mmmm...bigger USB keys means more portable data, and that's never a bad thing. Hopefully the prices will stay nice and low. I picked up my current 4Gb stick for $30 just a few months ago, and I still run into space issues on it. 32Gb would be awesome.

The Bender Brewer Project

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:25:09 GMT

Via Slashdot:

"The Beer Brewing Bender Project is finally completed. This is a fan built, full sized Bender from Futurama featuring a 6502 CPU powered brain to make him speak triggered by a prop remote control straight out of the show. Inside his body is a beer fermenter used to brew up a batch of real Benderbrau beer!"

The end product looks amazing for a fan-built replica (and probably moreso for fans of beer - but watch where the tap is o.O). Of course, it looks like this isn't the first labor of love these guys have undertaken. Check out page 3 for a suspiciously familiar looking MAME cabinet ;P

Motorcycle Helmet

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:30:28 GMT

Attn Xujof: Skull Helmet

...unfortunately, it's likely not entirely legal, judging by the comments.

Wii head tracking

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:58:18 GMT

This makes me want an update of Discs of Tron...

Free/OSS PDF Software

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:15:47 GMT

Nice listing of Free/OSS PDF Software.

MacOS 10.5.2 to fix docked directories

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:21:52 GMT

According to Macenstein, the upcoming MacOS 10.5.2 patch will restore "List View" functionality to docked directories.

When "Stacks" were introduced, this feature (which I as well as many other Mac users used rather extensively) was inexplicably removed. For anyone unfamiliar with this feature, dragging a directory to the right side of the Dock produced an icon, which when right-clicked produced a menu containing its contents. Subdirectories could be browsed easily. It was particularly useful for the Applications and Home directories. "Stacks" replaced this functionality with one of two options - an "arc" of icons, or a "grid" of icons. Neither allowing subdirectories to be browsed, both taking up much more space, and both annoyingly truncating longer filenames. (Additionally, the "Leaning Tower of Pisa"-esque "arc" is nearly completely useless)

I've switched over to using DragThing as a result. It's an excellent Dock replacement - but I'd certainly prefer to not need to run an additional application just to restore what I'd come to regard as basic functionality.

Excellent news.

OH NO WHY IS ANIMALS ON MY FACE?!

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:16:43 GMT

Best WoW Forum thread ever.