If you see me smiling for no apparent reason...

I'm likely thinking of something amusing or amazing that my 7 year old has said at some point. People who don't have children just don't understand this. It's okay.

He's an only child, like I was. That too is okay. I converse with family and friends who have more than one child and there are days when I'm thankful we had him when we did and that we only have one child. He can be a real scamp at times. I have utter respect for friends and family who are managing multiple children. Knowing how much love and effort one child can pull out of me I can't imagine doing this with more than one.

A friend, who knows me well, said that I'd do fine. She's just had her second, a daughter. Children are absolutely amazing and I'm positive she will be a wonderful mother to her son and daughter. I'm sure I'd do fine as well but I love the interaction and direct attention I can provide to shape this wonderful creature.

I've gone and done it. Another Mac App blog...

But, can you blame me? There is such a wide selection of software available out there I thought it might be at least slightly useful to pass on what I and some friends find to be most useful applications. Ones we use on a regular basis, were willing to search out and possibly even pay for! ;)

The ongoing discussions about MacHeist

Discussions. Is that the correct word? I'm not so sure. Blatant flinging of opinions may be more accurate.

Those of us not on the inside would do well to stop flinging opinion and accusations at the crew that started and currently manage MacHeist. At least there are a few more people who are calmly making posts about it now. That's refreshing after fora, blog and podcasting flame wars that ensued in the first two years of the event. To be sure, MacHeist still has it's share of detractors.Among them this time around is Marco Arment, who is certainly entitled to his opinion. One response to Mr. Arment's posted opinion is from a dev who is involved directly with MacHeist.

Here is some additional opinion from a developer at M Cubed Software and Buzz Andersen's Sci-Fi Hi-Fi blog post.


So, what more can I seek to add to all of this discussion that gets exhumed and rehashed with each iteration of MacHeist?

I'm the consumer. I've purchased all three bundles that have been offered. I've participated in all but the very first "heist", only because I didn't get invited until just as that one ended and didn't have time.Overall, it's been delightfully entertaining and a great core community has grown up around the annual bundle releases. By far, as the consumer, I'm more annoyed by whiners and complainers who think every step should be picture perfect with no hiccups or issues than with anything I've had to deal directly with the MacHeist team about.

The MacHeist folk are treading new ground in many instances, pushing the envelope and bringing us interesting puzzles, free software to try — or to ignore or delete if it isn't useful to us — and a bundle of software that is so reasonably priced that it really is hard to pass up.

What I think a lot of the naysayers and supporters alike are missing is the ongoing community aspect that sprung up without originally being intended by the creators. That community is acknowledged now, within the MacHeist team but, originally, the forum was an afterthought. To be sure, in the thick of activity building to a bundle there are a lot of fluff posts. It got even fluffier with the advent of teams and points that none of us knew how to really earn other than myriad speculated methods. We still don't have an explanation as to what points are all about or how we gain and lose them. Meh, big deal.

I took a quick, and silly, quiz. I got assigned to the Green Team (my husband gave nearly identical answers and ended up my opponent on the Orange Team but he's not really into it anyway). I've now made a group of friends via our Team Chat. A super core of people on the team with whom I interact regularly. We are Mac users. We help each other find apps of use, hardware recommendations and a variety of other things including sharing our musical tastes via Blip.fm.

Oh, and did I mention, as a consumer I've been willing to check out independent software developer's wares much more since I did my first heist. I've gotten some great software from MacUpdate's mupromo and macZOT, both of which are ongoing, year-round.

We even have an enterprising MacHeist community member who is digging up deals for us and posting them in the fora for all to take advantage of on a regular basis. I've gotten in on two of those so far was well. Folks are certainly entitled to their own opinions. It's akin to people who complain about the posts of people they are following on twitter being annoying... Unfollow! If you as a dev don't think you will get a good deal out of participating in MacHeist... Don't! If you can't afford the bundle, even with the ridiculously low price for what is included or you don't see software in it you want... Don't Buy It!

Oh, and if you don't like the FREE software you got for solving the puzzles don't whine to the rest of us who are quite happy to give them a try or just ignore ones we don't want. No one is being forced to do any of these things against their will. Gee whiz, they were FREE.

I've spent money to upgrade some of the free apps that I found useful. I've spent money to upgrade bundle apps as well. I'll echo others when I say that I likely would not have sought out some of the apps that came in the bundles. Those very apps for which I've paid upgrade fees to the devs. I've bought other apps from some of the devs I'd possibly not have found otherwise. My exposure to MacHeist has certainly produced a positive for developers of software that I make use of on a regular basis.

Participate in the community a bit before accusing, whining or denigrating it. It would be refreshing to see people do some real research before spouting off.

Dear Bankers...

Our family has tried to be pretty responsible with our finances over the years. We have a few too many Legos, some stuff we could live without if we had to. But overall, we've been careful with our earnings.

Our mortgage lender thinks so too. So, what do they do to indicate that? They send us a nice piece of mail with two plastic cards that have our mortgage loan number on it, telling us how wonderful we are and that we now have Preferred Status. Hooray for us!

Why did my bank need to spend money on two useless pieces of plastic, an oversized envelope and the postage to tell me this? Look at your records, Dear bankers. I'm sure you can easily see... every payment on this loan has been done electronically.

I'm set up for email notifications. I've asked you to stop sending me other paper stuff. WHY would I want these stupid plastic cards? There are so many other effective ways you can market to me, your targeted consumer, that don't use paper or plastic. I respectfully ask you to please STOP producing junk I'm going to cut up and add to a landfill somewhere.

If I want to contact you I am not going to go rooting around for a card that sort of looks like a credit card but isn't. You should be watching your budgets as you try to do the right things to stay in business. Cut out the junk!

When was the last time I was actually transacted business inside one of your banks? This is trackable. You actually bill people for doing this. Stop spending money on this useless stuff, pay employees a decent wage to be there when I do need the help of a human being! Not everything you offer can be done online or at an ATM. We both know this. Can't we somehow get back to doing smart business with each other? I'll be contacting you, my bank, directly about this. I want to encourage others to do so as well when they encounter wasteful or stupid marketing!

Veronica Belmont to host the MacHeist 3 bundle reveal show!

It's time again for the annual MacHeist bundle and this year they're doing a live video show to reveal all the apps in it. Hosting the show will be Tekzilla's Veronica Belmont, Lisa Bettany, and Chris Pirillo.

read more | digg story

MacHeist 3 finally begins! Go get your free apps

The first mission is now live for Mac users interested in grabbing free software. Head on over and you can get ShoveBox and KavaTunes for free!

read more | digg story

Heist time again for the Mac Community?

We had a teaser during the holidays. A nice little batch of loot to whet our appetite.

I'll be keeping an eye out for the actual MacHeist III. Say what you will, I've managed to get some rock solid apps at reasonable prices through these events. It's a nice community on the forums as well. If you stop by and sign up now you can get your hands on Jumsoft's Process just for signing up.

Yellow Pepper Soup insomnia...

My sleeping patterns have been all out of whack since the holiday break. Of course, it doesn't help to start a project of yellow pepper soup at 8:30 PM on a Saturday night.

The broiling and peeling of the peppers takes a bit of time. Luckily, the end result is mighty tasty. I did a dumb thing though, I decided to do a really large batch. One blender-full the last time just wasn't enough. I should have counted, but I didn't, so I don't know how many peppers I had total. It was more than 25 though. 

I started with a recipe I'd found on a search in Google. The recipe I used to use is archived away on a hard drive in an old 386 PC. No idea at all where that's gotten to. It used to be in my kitchen in our previous house but I haven't seen it in years. I kept all my favorite, tried-and-true recipes on it. Ah well. So, the internet age to the rescue. I like this recipe better, actually. Though I must admit I didn't follow it exactly. I didn't have some of the ingredients so I substituted.

I'm making use of a great piece of software now, MacGourmet, on a much newer computer (a MacBook Pro). It's leaps and bounds ahead of the old software I made use of years ago to keep my favorite recipes.

I did have yellow peppers and potatoes but the rest varied a little. The original recipe made far too little soup for the effort and most recipes that call for "salt and pepper to taste" never receive the salt in my kitchen. I have found a great vegetable stock mix that has enough sodium to suit me and I don't add more.

Don't let a lack of the listed ingredients put you off from trying a recipe if you have stuff that might be "close enough". The recipe I found called for 1/2 a small yellow onion. I didn't have it and I don't generally cook frequently enough to only use 1/2 of an onion. I messed pretty heavily with the recipe but it came out quite well.

Yellow Pepper Soup 

the big batch with what I had available

3 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 small carrots (or in my case 40-45 baby carrots ;-), peeled and diced
4 medium baking potatoes, peeled and diced
6 green onions and 1 leek chopped (hey, it's what I had. I wanted to use all leeks but someone beat me to them at WholeFoods that day, literally right as I went to get the leeks - she had 4 in her basket and there was only one left)
Approx 5.25 pounds yellow peppers - broiled and peeled
3 teaspoons Seitenbacher powdered vegetable broth with seasonings (thank you Amazon case pricing Seitenbacher Vegetarian Vegetable Broth and Seasoning, 5-Ounce Canisters (Pack of 6))
4 cups water
Parsley or other garnish

Cut peppers into quarters, clean seeds out and place on cookie sheet skin side up. Broil until skin starts to crisp — don't be afraid to let it burn. It will peel so much easier if you do. Allow to cool a bit (don't burn your fingers!) then peel.

If you use baby carrots, no peeling necessary just dice and set aside until you have the vegetable stock started. Otherwise, peel and dice your small carrots. Chop the green onions and shallots. Go as far up the stems as you like. This will all be cooked down and puréed but too much green does potentially make the yellow soup look odd (little tiny flecks in the soup). (-;

In a stock pot, combine the olive oil, water and powdered vegetable broth, add the carrots, green onion and shallots to simmer while you peel and dice potatoes to add to the stock. Slice the peeled peppers into strips, add to stock pot. Simmer until potatoes are thoroughly cooked (fall apart when you stab 'em with a fork).

Purée in a blender or food processor. Garnish if you'd like or just serve it up hot, as is.

My method was to peel some peppers, work on the other veggies for the stock and then go back to the peppers. Once you have the peppers peeled they are a little like handling slippery yellow fillets.

I had 3 cookie sheets of peppers to roast under the broiler. I started out with the peppers just in half, that didn't allow the sides to broil well enough and peeling was a pain. By quartering the peppers the skin came off much more easily. The last pan of peppers was a snap — I'd finally gotten the hang of it by then. 'bout time, it was nearly 1AM and I still had to simmer and purée the darned soup!! (-;

The iPhone works pretty well for quick snaps, even over a steamy pot of soup, no? Not the most perfect, foodie magazine quality shots, but serviceable when I can't find a better camera while I'm cooking.

Bailouts...

Just a quick thought... we've been "basic" cable users. Don't actually watch that much, record a little for the 7 year old in the house. How about a government bailout for those of us being forced to switch from perfectly usable analog cable to digital for at least 3x the cost due to the new Federal law coming up in February 2009. Bleh!

Edit: Well, there you go. Just opened the cable bill and there is a possibility of a "subsidized" converter box for non-cable users. I'm seeing converter boxes for as low as $39.99 with a quick online search.

The lowest priced Digital Cable plan is still 3x what we're currently paying — or $39.95 a MONTH. But I can't tell if that's a promotional rate for what they are calling the base package of channels (can't get any stripped down local package?). d-;

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking forward to getting on the road momentarily to partake of a delicious dinner cooked by my Mom! It always tastes better when it comes from someone else's kitchen and especially from my Mom's kitchen.

I so want to get the fireplaces workable in our house. When we return tonight and spend the weekend here (yay, no work on Friday) it's perfect weather for a roaring fire. Ah well, perhaps by next Thanksgiving. I'll have to be content with trying to complete some commission work I'm behind on and catching up on answering and clearing out some email. (-:

Happy Thanksgiving!

These are just hilarious

Actual LOL producing... not just grinning or loti (laughing on the inside)... well, at least if you are from the generation that has the 6 random "offer you can't pass up" cards or actual stacks of these types of cards around the house (recipes, crafts, etc.).

Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974. Gotta agree with PittGirl: "Funnier than the cards are the author’s remarks."

Found by way of a reference on The Burgh Blog on Oct 7, 2008.

Dear Mr. Driver of the White Cadillac...

You are probably having a bad morning, like mine. So, that's what I'll chalk it up to, okay?

Really, your shiny white Cadillac doesn't look anything like an 18-wheel vehicle that requires a very wide turning radius. Perhaps you just don't quite know how to make a turn without swinging into the oncoming lane? I'm sorry that my moving up to the intersection, after I stopped fully at the "Stop Here on Red" line, to make a legal "right turn on red" disturbed you so much. Your repeated vehement pointing at a non existent sign made such a difference in my day.

It's comforting to think that you, in your shiny Cadillac, must always stop right at the sign at red lights. I'll bet you wait for the green light, never a turn on red. You also probably never speed, double park...

Oh, and while I'm at it — Lady on the phone in the SUV, end your call before you pull up to a parking gate you have no idea how to get through.

(Can this really be Friday? Sure feels like a Monday)

It's Saturn all over again... cell phone woes

In 1991 Saturn vehicles hit the scene. We bought a 92 model sedan in late 1991. Shortly after we bought it the headlines, front page, pointed out the new car brand doing something like it's 3rd recall since hitting the market. Don't bother to read further back in the paper! There were recalls from at least 4 other car makers, some with far worse defects than the wire Saturn was voluntarily replacing.

2007, enter another new product — the iPhone. My husband and I bought the second "model year" again, in 2008. We're back to that blasted popularity contest I lamented in a letter to the editor, lo those many years ago, about the Saturn recall. Pick on the new kid, the unknown, the different. In the interest of disclosure, we're on our 6th Saturn. We've not had a lemon, they've all been great cars. The dealership near us is superb.

Back to the iPhone. I had an interesting lunch at my office yesterday. I just listened to the conversation among my co-workers. Some of them know I have an iPhone, some don't. One of them put their phone on the table as we all sat down to eat. It went something like this:

co-worker 1, "Oh, is that your new phone?"
co-worker 2, "yeah" (sounding slightly disgruntled). "It's the 3rd one, they've replaced it 2x now and it still isn't quite right"

She described the various failures of her phone, sticking keys, other non-working features. The conversation continued with input like: "Yep, my husband has gone through 8 phones in 3 months. They are just junk. And these were $300 phones, mind you!!" And: "yeah, I know what you mean. Love those commercials but I definitely have dropped service on [carrier shall remain nameless but it wasn't AT&T]" (-;

Pick on the iPhone all you want. Apple's reputation for "just working" and causing a ruckus with not sticking with the status quo may cause them some media and marketing heartache from time to time but, with the number of phones they are going to need to churn out to meet demand they are bound to end up with a few hardware lemons.

And we've all experienced software that doesn't exactly play nice in certain mixes. Apple is being careful about what gets into the App Store for good reason but it's a double edged sword. Some devs complain about how long it takes to get an app in or people complaining they can't do any damned thing they want on the phone.

For many of us, the mostly non-vocal majority shall we say, the iPhone is a vast improvement over the other phones we've been using. It's not perfect. What the heck can you show me in hardware or software that is perfect? No matter who makes it? I'll stick with the iPhone and the myriad improvements it offers over the way I used to use a cell phone. Thanks Apple!

Count me among those who are quite happy with iPhone 3G, thank you.

Well, it's been over a month now that I've had the iPhone in my hands to work with. I managed to get this right before I needed to run a 5 day conference for 21 people. What a great tool this is. I'm getting better with the keyboard. That is definitely one thing that takes some work to get used to.

I haven't had the crashes, bricking, or other issues that some have complained about. I've also not really loaded it up with a ton of stuff either. I'm quite happy with the use of my older video iPod for music use (and still use it for videos for my 6 year old).

Of course, I wasn't looking for the iPhone to replace iPods, laptops or anything other than my aging Motorola flip phone that was getting quite long in the tooth. The bonus was, I set up email to forward to a gmail account and that served me quite well for the week of the conference. In addition, I absolutely believe they've got it right with the visual voicemail. THANK YOU!

I've never been so up to date with my contacts, ever. Adding a phone number to an existing contact is a snap. Making a new contact after listening to their voicemail is also a snap. I used to have 10 numbers in my phone that I *meant* to add a name to, but it was such a hassle to add that information I never did manage to get around to that. The phone only held the latest 10 incoming, unidentified numbers so I inevitably lost some I meant to identify too. Not anymore! (-:

Sadly, Apple may be a victim of it's own growing appeal among non-macheads (I'm an admitted and longtime machead -- not a fanboy! I do not believe Steve walks on water and that he and/or Apple can do no wrong). I know this hunk of hardware has some issues — as does some of the software. I tend to keep my 3G off even though we have fairly strong coverage. It's my phone. I need some battery life out of it if I'm going to make and receive calls.

So far my husband and I have indeed found Google maps to be quite useful, in the field, as it were. I've never been a turn-by-turn user and don't really bemoan that lack. If there's stuff you need that the iPhone doesn't do, obviously it's not for you. Forget the marketing hype, the fanboyism and all that muck. Ultimately you need to pick what's going to work for you and fit into your budget. Just so happens that, already being in the Mac camp for computing, the current iPhone suits me just fine.

Let the wait begin... iPhone orders are in

Well, my husband and I took the plunge and ordered iPhones. I was amused following all the hubbub and annoyance / amazement / cynicism regarding the lines, the phones, the hype (or lack thereof). We had pretty much decided this was going to be our anniversary gift to each other.

Now the waiting...

No Apple Store for us — we already have an AT&T Family Plan. We placed our orders on July 11 - release day. But, we didn't get to do that at our AT&T store until 15 minutes before they closed Friday (7:45 PM Eastern). We work, have a kid to get too and from school, all those usual fun daily activities. And it really wasn't critical that we have them in our hot little hands the instant we walked into the store. We'd waited this long, we could wait a little longer. Wait we will... many folks were lamenting that their AT&T store had only been allotted 40 phones. That's double what our little store got. Our store was sold out by 9:30 AM because it only had 20 iPhones!

So, sometime in the next 7-10 days we hope to see our newest Apple gadget. I really will try not to click on that "check the status of your order here" link too frequently in the next couple of days. (-;

Time Machine "just works" (-;

So, big presentation pending. Didn't like a change I made to a slide and I'd already saved the updated version of my file.

I decided to give Time Machine a whirl. Let me point out that I've gotten much better at keeping back-ups and taking advantage of back-up services available at work. I have clones of drives, I have back-ups of just data (docs, jpgs, etc.).

I just needed the file from approximately 2 hours earlier. Time Machine was utterly easy to open, scroll back 2 hours within my hourly backups, find the document and "pull" it forward. It was a little confusing at first because it wants to know if you want to keep the original file, the one you retreived or both. 

Since I didn't actually know which was which at the time I just selected both. That allowed me to look at the files and determine which one I wanted and which one to trash. Pretty darned easy, quick and painless. 

Did I mention...? I'm seriously lovin' Journler!

Wow, I've been mucking about with a massive amount of Mac software of late. I haven't managed to get my act together enough to continue comparisons tables for categories of stuff I'm looking at/using, but WOW!! I am seriously making use of Journler these days. What a phenomenal app it is.

If ever there were an app worth it's asking price — at least for my workflow of note taking, writing (for blogs or otherwise) and even some basic file organizing — this is it!

Check it out! It has a fully functional 60 day trial. That's one of the most generous around for testing an app before sinking your hard earned cash into it. It may not be for everyone but, I'd bet a fair number of folks would find this app to be finely crafted and highly useful. At $34.95 for a single license, $19.95 education (with proof), or $99 for a 5 license family pack, it's reasonably priced for all of the functionality it offers.

It's planning time for PodCamp

Keep an eye out... it's planning time for PodCamp Pittsburgh!

PCPGH3, the salient details:

WHEN: Saturday, October 18 through Sunday, October 19, from 9 AM to 4 PM each day

WHERE: The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, 420 Boulevard of the Allies, 15219

WHO: New media experts, new media creators, aspiring new media creators, communications and PR personnel, and you!

HOW MUCH: Free!

The MacHeist bundle is back for a limited time

The MacHeist bundle returns, with Awaken, Wallet, Xslimmer, WriteRoom, Overflow. It's over 80% off!

read more | digg story

A great bundle without the drama...

Okay, a little drama... referrals. (-:

Awaken
Cha-Ching
CoverSutra
DevonThink Personal
iClip
Overflow
Wallet
WriteRoom
Xslimmer
Enigmo
Bugdom 2
Nanosaur 2



MacHeist is at it again. They've released a retail bundle for all those folks who didn't manage to get in on the previous time-limited sales of Mac software. It's 12 great applications at over an 80% discount.

At this point, I have no idea what the referrals will earn anyone, nor do I have a hope in Hades of earning one. That said, I'm making use of a number of these apps myself from previous bundle deals and it's a great bundle at a super price. It's an especially nice deal if you haven't got much software for your Mac yet. If you click one of my referral links in this post I'll at least get a little credit for sending you there.

It's a great group of devs and an affordable way to support their continued development of great software for Mac users.