Yes, I ordered these. Yes, you want one. Every web developer should not be without one.
At Symbol (@) Paperweight: 
At Symbol (@) Bookend: 
In the Barnes & Noble brick and mortar, I noticed that they also had ampersand symbols (&). So cool!
Popularity: 8% [?]
Djangos was my online music recyclery of choice, bearing excellent selection, pricing, and customer service. However, mid to late 2007, I ordered some CDs, received no notification of shipment (quite unlike their normal demeanor), and noted a billing on my credit card statement. I contacted their customer service, only to be informed that “It shipped Media Mail and it takes forever and a day to get to you, be patient on your sorry self” (not a direct quote, but the direct meaning).
So I waited forever and a day, and received nothing. I recontacted customer service, informing them that I would like either (a) a refund (b) my music. They say, hey, we’ll send you the music. I rejoice.
I wait forever and a day. I receive no music. I cease rejoicing and I contact customer service. They refund my credit card.
Now I see that the company is closing its doors. Is there a correlation between botched customer service toward the end and this closing of doors? Perhaps. Might it have been something to do with the terrible ASP coding and mystery navigation on the site? Maybe. No one will ever know.
Now I seek a new online music recyclery, as my local brick and mortar used CD store does not always carry my desired selection. Spun appears on the exterior to be an acceptable alternative, although I have not yet committed a transaction through them. Anyone worked with Spun.com before?
Popularity: 24% [?]
In search of the best Sudoku widget for Tiger OS 10.4, I stumbled across Handpicked Software’s article on Playing Sudoku on Your Mac.
The article and I both agree that Sudoku Widget by bdb’s world of fun is the best Sudoku widget for the Mac. Version 1.5 – formerly 2.0 Beta – features 4 difficulty levels, a timer, high scores, pencil markings for notes, and a “solve” feature in case you’re stuck.
Other Sudoku widgets may offer different features, but this week’s highlighted widget offers the best dashboard Sudoku-ing experience. The Sudoku iPod game offered by Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which is one of the best implementations of a sudoku application that I have seen, highly mimics this widget. For a full-fledged application to mimic the functionality of a widget definitely adds merit to the widget. This dashboard sudoku will not bring you the frustration that many other present.
Additionally, version 1.5 features a pretty whale in the corner, yay, green earth.
Popularity: 9% [?]
If you’ve been under a rock and haven’t heard, Ratatouille is Pixar’s newest flick. The past few films from Pixar (The Incredibles, Cars) appeared positively banal and to this day I have not viewed them. Ratatouille features an innovative storyline – a rodent chef working on the sly in a Parisian restaurant, only in cahoots with the kitchen boy. I am anxious for its release date on June 29.
Download the (free!) 9 minute preview (iTMS link) and subscribe to the video podcast.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Poking along, I close iTunes. Not more than one minute later, it relaunches itself.
“Hmm,” I mumble. I close iTunes again. Again, it relaunches itself.
Benjamin Franklin defined insanity as the repitition of acts without variation in expectation of different results. I am certifiable: I close her a third time; to my shock, iTunes relaunches a third time.
It turns out, running the Apple iTunes Controller widget will sometimes result in this behavior. I disabled the iTunes widget, closed iTunes, and the beast did not relaunch itself. There was much rejoicing.
Popularity: 13% [?]
I switched from an HTML self-hosted blogging solution to WordPress in mid-July of 2006. My site on the HTML blogging system disappeared in August (although not being updated, it was still receiving hits until August).
It amuses me how drastically my traffic dropped. I had been blogging with iBlog for three years and evidently had built up some solid traffic (mainly through search engines). I can see that, although starting small, continued posts of substance increase site traffic; the traffic has been gradually building since that nosedive in August.
I took this screenshot and realized that I had no way to highlight the lowpoint. iPhoto doesn’t let you just draw on images, nor does Aperture. I do not have PhotoShop. Gimp for OS X requires additional X11 features that I never got around to installing. What to do? Seashore to the rescue! Built with Cocoa, it runs natively in OS X without any help from X11. It is still a work in progress, but it is a definite download for those users who do not desire to install X11.
Using products like GIMP and Seashore encourages a world of free open source software. You can sell the products of the software (i.e., your photos or drawings), but you cannot sell the software itself. The entire world can improve the software rather than a group of people hired for the task.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Non-arbitrary link: Pandora, I love you. I built a station with “Jack Johnson”, “Ray LaMontagne”, “Gary Jules”, and “Brett Dennen” for some folky goodness and W-O-W. This is coming to be an incredible list.
I’m really into modern folk right now and pandora is perfect for just chilling and finding new stuff.
I’m working on a neo-classical station (oxy-moron?), starting with “Perpetuum Mobile” by Penguin Café Orchestra. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops.
Popularity: 6% [?]
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