Here and There

Or more like millions.

On this date in 1972, ladies and gentleman, Pong.

I’ve noticed that, with apps running, sometimes my Dock is slow to pop up. (I use the “Hiding feature,” which means my Dock is only visible when moused over.)

What’s up with that? The only other times I’ve experienced that (on previous builds of OS X) was when Finder was restarting itself for whatever reason.

Yes, I’m unabashedly brand loyal, but it’s because of items like this that I love the Google.

Forgot to mention it a few weeks ago when I finally installed Leopard, but tonight for the first time, I used the Finder’s new Cover Flow viewing option.

Wow, the operating system can actually go far enough into .doc and .jpg files, among others, in order to give a clear presentation of what you’ll get if you decide to open the file. One slightly annoying fact is that, for example, a .jpg originally opened in PhotoShop opens in iPhoto or Preview. Can’t figure out the rhyme or reason to that.

Oh well, off to discover more Leopard treats.

Barack Obama will give Hillary Clinton a run for her money, if not win the nomination outright.

Editing and weeding out photos from a 10-day vacation is a job in itself. I want to call in sick …

An updated version of the “counties I’ve been to” map:

While the 793 images and movies are being updated and made ready weblication, just thought I’d say hi. Argentina and Uruguay were amazing. Buenos Aires has to be the calmest, cleanest, nicest, most wonderful big city in the world. For now anyway.

More travelblogue posts to come, for the foreseeable future.

Leaving in about five hours for Buenos Aires, via, of all places, Houston.

Expect much by way of blogging and pictures when I get back in 10 days.

Something I already knew, but not to the degree which I know it now.

That is, that the good people of San Francisco harbor an unparalleled hatred for parking enforcement officers (aka, DPT).

I learned this because I dressed up as one of their vehicles and my lovely companion was one of them, bike helmet, cheesy sunglasses, chalk stick, and all.

I was verbally abused the minute I set foot outside my place. A lot of it was faux contempt, but some I wonder about. Most striking was the many children who spewed hateful comments like, “I HATE YOU!” or, “YOU SUCK!!!” I felt I had to reassure some people that I was not real, or, if that didn’t work, that i was the only nice DPT in town.

Maybe that’s a way the Bush Administration could get pacific San Franciscans on board with this grandiose megalomaniacal so-called war on terror: tell them the U.S. is fighting meter maids.

Just a quick quip (read: gripe) about a common construction in both written and spoken English: When people include “why” following “the reason.”

It’s just not necessary. And I’d honestly enjoy being pointed to a contradictory example.

“The reason why the sun rises in the east …”

I noticed something slightly off in my gmail today when I got to work. The left navigation seemed to be wider. I also noticed that it had logged me into google talk from the browser, a feature I never use and turned off forever. I didn’t work Wednesday, so I thought maybe someone had used my (Windows-based) machine and something got effed up.

Then I noticed a link at the top right that said “older version.” I clicked it and it looked once again like it did yesterday.

Then slowly I started seeing more changes. When a user mouses over other recipients’ names in the message, more options are now available, such as contact info, recent conversations, and more. I also noticed when composing a new message, next to the “attach a file” link is an “add an event” button with a google calendar icon. Hmmm …

The most significant change, though, was a very sped-up interface. Adding labels, composing new messages, and just general navigation are all faster.

The fishiest part of it all was the fact that my girlfriend (who’s had a gmail account longer than i have) wasn’t seeing any of these changes. Nor was she given the link to the “newer version” of gmail.

I poked around the site looking for some sort of announcement, a “new features” link, but found nothing.

Then I came across this on Wired. “Some users”?

I’m not seeing the feature mentioned in the article, “an option to import photos directly from Picasa,” but I’m always curious when smart companies improve on already awesome products.