A new version of AppleScript Studio appears to be available for developers at the Apple Developer Connection (register free). Still in beta, but it appears to address some really significant issues, including native support for the User Defaults framework in Cocoa and some other stuff…
Author: Tim Jarrett
Someone made a derivative work from MY script!!!
Saw this via mac.scripting.com: Will Wade has released a new AppleScript based on my iTunes2Blog
that posts the currently playing iTunes track to Blogger. I’m flattered and happy that my early script was helpful to someone. Interestingly, I don’t seem to be able to find Will’s blog anywhere, or I’d point to it…
Today’s CSS learnings
Working on the redesign in earnest today. I’m teaching myself CSS from trial and error and the specs, so I don’t have a lot of authority, but I thought I’d share what I’m learning anyway.
CSS Learning #1: When trying to display a border around a <div>, you must specify the border color, size, and style (or have specified them as a default somewhere) or the border will not display.
CSS Learning #2: CSS allows you to specify dimensions of elements in a number of ways, including ems (an em is approximately equal to the width of a capital letter M in the font being used). Distance measurements in ems are great when you’re just working with type. However, when mixing images (fixed size in pixels) and type, ems may cause problems. The cause: slightly differing type dimensions across platforms, or different fonts installed in the user’s system.
CSS Learning #3: Float is your friend. The float attribute of a <div> around an image allows you to wrap text around that image.
Adam is blogging…
Adam is the guy who introduced himself on Friday as having read my blog. His blog page, when he gets content on it, is here. Glad to see there’s a fair amount of content!!! Hope that he catches up with Jenny’s blogging soon!
CSS for Print
evolt.org: Kissing Print Versions of Pages Goodbye. CSS syntax for creating a special print style sheet. Interesting to see what level of browser support there is for this. (From mac.scripting.com.)
New department: WebDesign
I’m breaking out the Internet department of the site as it’s gotten too crowded. First new department: WebDesign. I will post things I learn as I work on the site redesign here (no, I haven’t abandoned it, especially not now that my dad is on a CSS-compliant browser and off Netscape 4).
Mergers no cure for Enron/Andersen nightmare
Infoworld: Troubled Andersen close to finding a buyer. Bad news for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. What are they hoping to get out of this, anyway? “Economies of scale?” I like the random quotation from Larry Lipsher of Lipsher Accountancy Corp, based in China: “The larger and larger the accounting firms get, the more they’re going to come up with the sort of esoteric tripe that caused things like this.” A-yup.
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Newspapers and syndication
New story tonight: Newspapers, advertising, and syndication. What’s the business model for syndication? Why should newspapers be interested?
Welcome aboard, George
Welcome to my friend George, who is just starting his blog. George, welcome to the blogging life. It’s more fun and more engrossing than you think.
Confession: I found George’s blog by looking at my referral logs. OK, so I’m happy with my writing again and looking at my referers. But I’m not obsessive about it. I’m only obsessive about my news page on Radio.
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Fun with the Great Big Sea
Our out of town friends took Lisa and me to see the next big musical sensation from Newfoundland, Great Big Sea, last night at the Avalon. It was fun, although Lisa confirmed her dislike for going to rock concerts. Claustrophobia is hard to overcome when you don’t like the music that much.
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Other people’s water, and new readers
Just finished a gig with the Sloan E-52s for admitted MBAs at a lunch at MIT Sloan. I sing harmony with the soloist on one of the songs, REM’s “Superman,” and I got a chance today to do something I’ve always wanted to do. There’s a section in the song where the soloist is by himself for four measures while I lay out after hitting a couple high notes in a row. Today, after the second high note I leaned over to the table to my left, asked “Is anyone drinking this?”, took a big sip, and got back in time to make my next entrance. Look on the soloist’s face: Priceless.
After the gig, I had my first face to face meeting with a new reader to whom I’m not related. One of the admits introduced himself and said he found my site while searching for weblogs by Sloan students. (As far as I know, I’m the only one.) He’s a Seattleite who’s “99.9% sure” he’ll be at Sloan in the fall. He’s also introduced his fiancée to blogging, but his own blog is currently in design paralysis and he hasn’t written anything yet. Well, here’s your public push: Get writing! A weblog isn’t a weblog without content!!
Progress with Manila Envelope — and a hold up
I’ve made more progress on the next version of Manila Envelope. It will now cache department names retrieved from a Manila site.
There’s one lingering issue — the problem with spaces in department names. If I can get that fixed I’ll be home free.
You can avoid Congress, but not the civil service
New York Times: Landscapes Under Siege. The administrative review board for the Interior Department has halted oil exploration in Utah’s Dome Plateau, and “suggested that the bureau had ‘capriciously’ ignored environmental reviews mandated by federal law.” The editorial concludes:
Nobody expects the administration to retreat from its basic theology that aggressive exploration of the public domain is necessary to achieve independence from the energy-producing nations of the Persian Gulf. Perhaps, though, as part of the larger debate over a national energy strategy, the Senate will force the administration to proceed with much greater care.
Yeah, somehow I doubt that the administration that doesn’t even invite the Democratic leadership of Congress to national security meetings will pay much heed to the Senate. I think that the best chance we have for protection against the strong-arm anti-environmental tactics of the Bush administration is the civil servants who have to carry out the policy. Based on this action, they have shown they can do the job.
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Doc: “March on Washington” against DMCA
Doc writes about the latest boneheaded DMCA-related move. The issue: the recent ruling from the copyright office about rates for webcasting music will bankrupt many Internet radio stations, except (as Doc says) for “the huge corporations which never gave a shit about it anyway.” What I find interesting is the KEXP stream is still on (though they’re doing fundraising right now).
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Feeling like death warmed over
I’m in pretty bad shape this morning for no apparent reason. I didn’t sleep at all last night, I couldn’t breathe well this morning, and I think I’m feverish. So naturally I decided to go to school. After all, what fun is being sick if you can’t get anyone else sick with you? 🙁
It’s been a rough morning otherwise too. On the way to the T, I saw the wings of a pigeon, feathers intact but separated from their owner, lying on the sidewalk. And I got a lovely email from an old college friend tipping me off about one of our stranger classmates’ arrest record. The story gave me another visual I didn’t really need. Unfortunate kid, this Ilya. He was all of 14 when he started at Virginia, and apparently had a few screws loose….
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