blog.mignault.net

When I was figuring out my route to work via bike, I used Google Maps. I ended up having to do a lot of blue-line dragging, though, because, even with Avoid Highways turned on, i still wasn’t easy to plot a bike-friendly route. There’s a online petition asking Google to add a “Bike There” button to Google Maps, and if you’re at all for sustainable transportation, I hope you’d take a minute to go sign it. It’s at:

http://googlemapsbikethere.org/

Thanks.

Technorati Tags:
cycling, bicycling, bike+commuting, sustainable+transport, google, google+maps

A little play this morning:

Man, System 7 rocked. Anyone got a copy of HyperCard somewhere?
I was creating a system disk to use with miniVMac and dragging and dropping floppy image files on the emulator window. Virtual floppy swapping. Weird.

Technorati Tags:
apple, mac, minivmac, emulator

Since I’ve been less than complimentary about NetNewsWire in the past, I thought it only fair to say that I’ve returned to using it as my primary newsreader. I decided to take yet another look because of all the stories on Newsgator’s making it free; since I’ve had a paid license since somewhere back around version 1.0, this wasn’t my primary reason for trying it again.

As to my biggest gripe with the software, the absolutely horrible syncing with NewsGator online, I solved that problem by opening a new Newsgator online account and simply importing my Google reader subs into that new account. So far it has worked well. I’m not entirely happy that the only way to get it to work right was to start completely afresh, but it is what it is. Overall, though, I’m glad to be using NetNewsWire again.

Technorati Tags:
apple, mac, rss, netnewswire, nnw, feedreaders, newsgator

Screen capture of Wired News feed item in NNW:


I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at.

Kent’s Bike Blog: One Watt Planet Bike Blaze (and some other lights) Reviewed:

“Back in the early days of personal computers, Byte magazine was the magazine for computer nerds. A guy named Jerry Pournelle (yeah the same Jerry Pournelle who writes science fiction novels) wrote this column that was supposed to represent the ‘normal’ user’s view of computers. But his column became popular, people sent him stuff and when he’d have a problem, he could make phone calls that ‘normal’ people couldn’t. I remember one instance where he had a problem with some Microsoft product and Jerry’s solution was something like ’so I called up my buddy Bill Gates and he flew a couple of techs down from Redmond to look at my system…’ OK, maybe it wasn’t quite that extreme, but it was close.”

Pretty damn close. I can remember reading those Pournelle columns with a good deal of outrage. He was sort of the original A-list blogger, now that I think of it. Pournelle, though, did usually attempt to figure out problems with the Frankenputers he used to accrete, rather than the modern blogger waiting all of 5 seconds before throwing the problem onto the mercy of the LazyIntarWeb.

(Via novia.)

Technorati Tags:
blogging, geek

I was looking at the OmniFocus forums yesterday, trying to figure out a way I could sync the app between my work and home machine (I spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of thing) and there was a post from Tom Negrino on how he does it:

I’d like to sync OF between my MacPro up in my office (where the app and its database lives) and my MacBook down in the house, but I’m not going to try to figure out rsync to do it. I don’t even have OF installed on the MacBook, but I still use the laptop to enter and edit info in OF when I’m not in my office.

How, you ask? Both machines are running Leopard, and I use Leopard’s Screen Sharing to view and work with the MacPro’s screen from the MacBook. It works great.

I used some of the tips from Macworld’s Screen Sharing article to improve the sharing experience.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1310…harepower.html

This works easily for me because my house and office are on the same LAN, but I think it will work over the Internet, too, though you may have to fiddle with router settings.

Until the Omni folks deliver their own sync features, screen sharing does it for me.

And I sort of like this idea, with 2 exceptions:

1. I don’t actually use OmniFocus on the iMac, the only machine I have running Leopard, and
2. I find it kind of clumsy to have to switch to that damn window every time I want to use the app.

And then it hit me, thinking about that recent post about NYPL and Mac virtualization, is that what I really want is Unity for Screen Sharing! Wouldn’t it be great if I could run an app on another machine but have it be just another window? X11 does this, right?

Well, VMWare guys, are you listening?

Technorati Tags:
apple, geek, mac, vmware+fusion

Kevin Kelly — The Technium: “As Clay Shirky puts it: here comes everybody! “

Yeah, he’s something, that James JoyceClay Shirky.

(Via no via.)

Technorati Tags:
libraries, web, writing, literachoor, james+joyce

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall | The Ticking Time Bomb: ”
The six men could be executed if they are convicted, and if a Bush administration official approves their trial as a death-penalty case.”

Shouldn’t that sentence be written:

“The six men will be executed when they are convicted, and after a Bush administration official approves their trial as a death-penalty case.”

I mean, do we really think the legal process has any bearing on this case?

(Via Miami Herald via TPM.)

Technorati Tags:
politics, gwot, bush

Starbucks Ditches T-Mobile and Brings in AT&T as Exclusive Wi-Fi Provider | Epicenter from Wired.com:

If you’re an iPhone owner and are wondering how the new deal affects you, apparently the answer is not at all. In September Apple announced a new partnership with Starbucks and T-Mobile to let iPhone and iPod touch users to access T-Mobile’s HotSpots for free in order to download and listen to music via the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. That iTunes Wi-Fi Store partnership is still in effect, but will contiue under under AT&T’s Wi-Fi service.
Other than that, iPhone owners shouldn’t expect any other preferential treatment or special access at Starbucks in the near term.
‘This offer is for AT&T broadband customers who can access Wi-Fi in the stores over a Wi-Fi-enabled device. [iPhone users] who are not broadband subscribers can’t access for free at this time,’ AT&T spokesperson Brad Mays told Ars Technica.

Well, that bites. At least this was finally a clear explanation - I’ve seen several posts claiming that iPhone users would get free service at Starbucks as a result of this deal. Didn’t make sense. The iTunes store was the only thing I ever checked at Starbucks anyway.

(Via Wired News.)

Technorati Tags:
iphone, starbucks, apple

WNYC is running a pledge drive this week. I have 2 comments:

1. We still haven’t received the Springsteen CD they promised us for pledging back in November sometime.

2. The way they handled the Macbook Air giveaway was less than ideal. I heard about this driving in to work on Thursday. I several times heard that I could enter either by calling or via their website. I got to work, looked all over the website, and couldn’t find an online entry form. Forgot about it, heard them talking about it again yesterday, found the page, and discovered that I’d missed the Sunday deadline for entering the contest.

Anyone surprised that I’m not pledging anything this time? FMU gets all my public radio dough from now on.

Technorati Tags:
public+radio, wfmu, wnyc