https://www.macheist.com/buy/invite/94211
The latest MacHeist bundle: $50 for 12 apps, the most notable being Pixelmator, CSSEdit and Snapz Pro X. I picked up the 3-pack bundle for $100 and a total of 36 license key. 4 days left. w00ties!
The RRoD 360 repair process has been straightforward so far. (After all, Microsoft has certainly had an ample volume of opportunities to improve it.) The online repair form was straightforward, and my empty pre-paid shipping box arrived yesterday.
Everything needed to package the console for return was included: a plastic bag for the console, padded foam, large strip of packaging tape, shipping label, small form (in English and Spanish) and clearly written photographic instructions. Paying for door pickup would have been nice, but that’s not a big deal. I’m off to drop it off at UPS right now.
I received this little note from my Mac today.
This made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside despite the interruption of my work because it satisfies my general criteria for displaying error messages to users.
The dialog is in stark contrast to this nifty gem constantly pooping out of my Solaris kernel..
“Pin widgit 27 is EAPD capable.”
WTF??? What the heck is a “pin widgit” and why do I care if it’s “EAPD capable”? Is this even a bad thing? Do I need to do something here? What happens if I ignore this, which I most definitely will since I have clue what it’s talking about? Why does it tell me this every time I start the machine?
Criteria failure on all counts. Bad computer!
Attention IPEVO: Go ahead and bill me for one of these Skype conference phones as soon as you meet this feature set.
You may charge me up to $250 for one unit (plus extras), which includes all cables neatly packagable in a box that can be used for transport. Thanks!
I started MBA 590 tonight; the next stepping stone to my next degree, which I should complete at University of Phoenix early next year. Considering I couldn’t even start on the coursework until 9PM, it’s going to be a busy year. 😐
We‘ve recently started using Skype hardware by little-known vendor IPEVO. SOLO models for the desktop (pictured) and FREE.2 USB handsets for the road. The SOLO plugs straight into your ethernet network, and also functions as a tiny ethernet switch, providing a port for your computer if you only have one RJ-45 jack at your desk. It took me less than 5 minutes to get running with no “Quick Start Guide” crap or drivers required. Since I already had a fully juiced Skype account, the SOLO logged in flawlessly with no hassle. Happiness ensued.
The full-color screen is easy to read and the angle can be adjusted. Unlike more “enterprisey” phones, there is no excess buttonage, and the unit in general is very easy to figure out and use. Despite a couple minor nitpicky items (could be easier to access voicemail, not enough speed-dial stuff, needs conferencing built in), the SOLO is a solid practical phone at less than $200 (USD) per seat.
I’m less fond of the FREE.2. I suppose it works well for what it is, but I don’t like having to think about starting special software to take advantage of all the features. Everything should Just Work without having to worry about additional moving parts. (Oh, and everything should integrate flawlessly with Address Book too.) The hardware itself seems to work well enough, but until the software side is more streamlined and polished I’ll likely stick to headphones and the MacBook Pros built-in microphone.
IPEVO also offers a dedicated conference unit named XING which we may pick up in the future, but have not played with so far.
We never spent a ton of time on the OpenRain homepage, so we decided to shake it up today in response to user feedback. I wanted to make our proposition clearer while keeping the existing brief one-page style, and add some awesome sauce yet stay business friendly. Check it.
As usual, a significant percentage of the development time was spent figuring out a combination of hacks to make IE6/7 render as close to “normal” as possible. Below is a screenshot of how FireFox, Safari and IE6 (from left to right) lay out the floating divs and images after a couple hours of IE-specific work. Three stupidity points are awarded to IE for the following reasons..
Here’s Marc on his new OLPC laptop, which he received for a generous donation. It has a surprising amount of functionality packed inside that adorable green exterior, and found all the local WiFi hotspots immediately. Mega philanthropic props to Marc and all involved. Full resolution shots are available on Flickr.
I powered on the ol’ Xbox 360 this weekend to finish Mass Effect, a feat which I was especially pumped about since I’ve been told I’m extremely close. Much to my surprise, Microsoft had left a super special, albeit slightly belated Christmas surprise up in my tubes.
Awesome!! Thanks, Redmond!!
Marc just checked in a nifty little Rails 2.0 plugin to the OpenRain public subversion repository which encapsulates the voodoo required to use a Gmail SMTP server with an otherwise ordinary ActionMailer configuration. Gmail requires TLS security, which is why this is useful. Grab the plugin for your Gmail-mooching Rails 2.0 site, here.
Note: I previously wrote about how to do this for Rails 1.2.x here.
Update (2008.06.25): Broken download link fixed!
