I’m really happy at how iAqua has grown in the hands of another developer. One of the downsides to letting go is worrying about what someone else will do.

You can grab iAqua 3.5 from the Mozilla Addon’s site for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Also, the same developer is working on extero and taking it in a different direction. I have not tried out that one yet though.

iAqua Has a New Home & Firefox 3 Compatibility originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Blogger FAIL - How can I be over 100% done and how can we have published more files that we have available?

Dreamweaver FAIL - If everything is complete, why do I have a progress bar?

Microsoft Office 2008 FAIL - I'm sure the issue is due to a floppy too. Wait, didn't those go out of style in the 90s?

Spotlight FAIL - Only 494,642 hours remaining!

Battery WIN? Nope FAIL. It says I have 53 hours but it's lying to me.

When Software FAILs Me. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

So, if you’d like to take the files, update them, and release them, you are free to. If you’d like to take the files and create your own theme, you can do that as well.

Below are the files for each theme that work with Firefox 2. Combine those graphic elements with the code from the iPox Remix set of tutorials and you should have enough to get started.

Good luck and I hope someone takes the time to update iAqua and extero because they are really nice themes with a lot of fans and both deserve to get updated.

iAqua Theme Files

extero Theme Files

iAqua and extero Themes Need Your Help originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here are some skydiving photos my wife took along with some photos the skydiving video/photo guy took.

Skydiving Photos! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The whole experience was great. I think I was more nervous thinking about it than I was actually in the air and falling to the ground. It was a lot of fun and I’d definitely do it again.

My father in-law, Mike Soldan, also wanted to go skydiving so we invited him along. He was a bit more scared with the experience but had fun too.

Skydiving Videos! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think all Garth Brooks fans are waiting on Garth. Waiting for new music, waiting for a tour, waiting to see if he’ll return. Lets hope so!

Garth Must Be Busy Music Video originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Apple just introduced Safari 4. It has ‘remarkable’ new features as is the world’s fastest web browser according to Apple.

Firefox 3.5 will be here soon, and it’s shaping up to be by far the fastest Firefox yet: more than twice as fast as Firefox 3 and 10 times as fast as Firefox 2. That’s some serious speed.

Opera 10 Beta sports a surprising array of new features, a fresh look and feel, and enhanced speed and performance.

Google Chrome (alpha) is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Not yet perfected on the Mac, but fun to play with none the less.

Camino 2.0 Beta is out too. No talk about speed enhancements, but I’m sure that’s implied.

As you can see, we not only have upgraded browsers coming out all across the board, but they are also all faster.

So which one is fastest? Well that’s up to speculation. I think each machine is different and speed tests are not very accurate. Try them all and see what you think. Then let us know below what you think is the fastest Mac browser.

5 Mac Browsers, Racing To Be The Fastest originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

There are no major issues, but there are some minor ones. Like the bottom part of the scrollbar is missing and secure pages don’t render the secure part of the URL bar.  I consider these to be pretty minor overall, but do hope to fix the annoyances.

Since Firefox 3.5 is well on its way to being released in June, I thought it was high time I get a few updates in.

I have a lot more to talk about when it comes to my themes and Firefox, but those posts will be coming in the months ahead.

Also, if you use MidnightFox or MidnightFoxy, new versions have been uploaded to Mozilla’s Addon site to fix some status bar and form field bugs. Look for them coming your way via Firefox’s addon updates soon.

My Themes and Firefox 3.5 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The good news here is that Google Chromium works pretty well. I’ve been running it for a few days with no crashes. It seems speedy, renders pages well and really impressed me for a pre-alpha browser.

The bad news is it’s still largely in development. There are a lot of missing and incomplete items. It’s no where near ready for prime time, but it is fun to play with and works well with Ajax heavy sites.

Here are a few Google Chromium features and incomplete items; as of today.

• Each tab is a separate process, however the activity viewer says they are all ‘not responding’ when they actually are.  Just ignore Google Chromium in the activity viewer for now.
• Spell check works for text fields, but not single line input boxes.
• You can bookmark pages, but you can’t un-bookmark them.
• No plug-ins work.  This includes Flash, however I think that makes the browsing experience better at times.
• It can download files, but shows no download window or progress bar.
• The find bar works well, but scrolls badly.
• Pages load pretty fast, except for every now and again when it get stuck waiting to connect to a site.  Not sure why that’s happening.
• It looks very pretty.  I love the Google take on the browser.  The tabs even animate when you open a new tab.
• Has a great built in source code viewer with color coded HTML and line numbers.
• Comes with a handy debug feature much like Firebug or Safari’s web inspector.  Actually I think it’s exactly like Safari’s.
• You can drag and drop tabs.
• Incognito, or private browsing, works, but lacks the cool little incognito icon.
• You can search Google from the address bar.  It also gives you Google search results and browsing history in the address bar which are very handy.
• Your history is saved and displayed beautifully in the browser.  It’s separated by date and shows favicons to help jog your memory.
• Has the cool Google Chrome start page with bookmarks, search history, recently closed tabs and most visited sites.

There are a lot of cool features in Google Chromium and I can’t wait for a beta to come out.  However, that could be months away if not longer.  I’d love to say it’s coming at WWDC, but I highly doubt that based on the development builds.

With that said, the development builds of Google Chromium are coming along very nicely.  You can download yours here (scroll down to the last folder in the list) and take it for a test drive yourself.  New builds are being added almost hourly it seems which means that Google is working hard on getting Google Chrome for Mac ready for the public.

Hello Google Chromium for Mac originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Hypercolor clothing was around in the late 80s to early 90s and was quite popular. The shirts were one solid color, but when heat was applied, it changed to another color. So things like hugs or other people touching your shirt would bring out a new color.

It was a fun idea, but flawed. It seems that if you were nervous you could change the color of your shirt by sweating. You could also improperly wash the shirt rending it no longer color changing. A bit touchy if you ask me. There are quite a few times where you didn’t want your clothing changing colors but it would anyway.

Either way, Hypercolor shirts are hard to come by these days, but not impossible. Your best bet is grabbing one of eBay or looking for them at garage sales.

Did you own a Hypercolor t-shirt? Do you still?

Hypercolor T-shirts – Flashback Fun originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Since the bathroom is small, it’s hard to get before and after picts, but here are a few.

I also shot video afterwords. I should have shot one before, but I didn’t think of that.

Anthony helped us pick out everything and gave great opinions. For example, we had picked a cool designed shower door but never thought about if it’d fit or not; which it didn’t. Instead we got a clear one and it makes the shower feel bigger. Great idea!

Throughout the whole process Anthony Raduenz Specialty kept us informed and educated. We were very happy with Anthony and will definitely call him for future projects. If you are in the Minneapolis, or west metro, and need some work done on your house, I’d recommend Anthony Raduenz Specialty 612.462.4428.

Bathroom Remodel – From Ok to WOW! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

No, I don’t work for Google, but it’s a promotional item for Google’s profile pages. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Ohh and you can see my Google profile here.

My Google Business Cards originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Step 1. Get Aptana Studio – It’s free. http://www.aptana.com

Get Aptana Studio

Step 2. Get the Adobe AIR plug-in for Aptana Studio. http://www.aptana.com/air

Step 3. Create a new project in Aptana by going to File -> New and choosing Adobe AIR Project.

Step 3 - New Project

Step 4. Give your project a name and click Next.

Step 4 - Project Name

Step 5. Ensure the ID, and file names, have no spaces in them. Fill in the version number, description, and copyright if you’d like, however it’s not required at this time. Click Next.

Step 5 - No Spaces

Step 6. Change the window options as you please. You can choose to show or hide the systems toolbar, set the height & width, maximum height & width and resizing options. For my example, I’m choosing 300×500 and resizable. It’s good to ensure that your minimum height or width is not larger than your window width or height. Click Next.

Step 6 - Window Properties

Step 7. I’m not up on my Ajax, so I skip this step. If you know your Ajax, then choose what you like here. Click Finish.

Step 7 - Ajax

Congratulations! You’re basic Adobe AIR application has been created. Lets customize it now.

Step 8. Click on the projects tab and click the arrow next to your project folder. Inside you’ll see all the files that make up your project. You can double click on any file to edit it.

Step 8 - Your Project

Step 9. Your application’s icons are stored in the icons folder. You’ll want to replace them with new creations of your own. You can right click on the folder and go to Explore Icons to see where they are saved on your computer and replace the images with your own creation. Transparent PNGs work the best.

Step 9 - Icon Images

Step 10. The HTML file that has your project name on it is your index page. This is the default page that shows when the Adobe AIR app opens. It’s basic HTML so edit it as you please. The code that is auto generated can be replaced with that of your own creation.

Step 11. Start customizing! It’s just HTML so go ahead and code away. You can create new documents by going to File -> New HTML file. Linking to other files is all relative to your index page, just like on the web. You can also link to URLs and images to the web if you’d like. Your CSS file is called sample.css.

Step 11 - Customize HTML

If you’re not a huge fan of Aptana’s editor, locate the files on your hard drive and use your favorite HTML editor.

Step 12. application.xml is the file that has all your application’s identifying information in it. The application name, version number, description and more. Feel free to edit that as need be.

Step 13. Now lets create and test our Adobe AIR application. Simply click the AIR folder in the toolbar and hit finish.

Step 13 - AIR App Creation

Step 14. There will now be an Adobe AIR application in your project folder. Double click on this to install and launch your application.

Step 14 - AIR App

That’s it! You now have a very basic Adobe AIR application that works on Mac, Windows or Linux. You can continue to edit and configure your project files as much as you want. To re-package and test the application, simply follow steps 13 and 14 again.

TwisterMc's Basic Example

To share this application, you can email someone the .air file or use the Adobe Air Badge Builder app to allow one click installs from a web page.

Something I’ve found handy is to use iFrames and mobile versions of a website to create desktop versions of web apps. Below, I put in the iPhone version of Weather Underground and it works quite well.

Weather Underground Application Example

It’s now up to you to use your talents to create the next great Adobe AIR application.  As you create applications, come back and share yours.  I’d love to see what you come up with!

Adobe Air Application Tutorial for Web Developers originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Check out this Sun Chips bag that will decompose on its own!

After about 14 weeks, Sun Chips bags will disappear. Can you imagine?! I look at the ditches along the road and there is so much trash. Wouldn’t it be great if it would all just disappear on its own? Maybe someday it will. This is a big step in the right direction and I hope all food makers hop on board.

Granted it’s still a year away, but it’s exciting to see companies becoming more earth friendly.

Aquafina also recently released a new bottle design that uses 50% less plastic than it did in 2002. With that, along with flavored water coming in powder packs, we can cut down on the number of bottles, and amount of plastic, thrown out or recycled.

Lets not forget about the compact fluorescent light bulbs that use 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than the ‘old’ style light bulbs. And, Hybrid cars getting 40+ miles per gallon! Being green actually saves us money!

Stores are doing their part too by providing re-usable grocery bags as opposed to paper or plastic. I’ve also heard of some stores charging for plastic now. Our Target store even has all the freezer lights on motion detectors. That way, when no one is around, they turn off to save electricity.

It seems that everyone is coming together to do something to be more Earth friendly. We can all change the world by changing small things. Whether you’re doing it to save money, to save the environment, or just because, every little bit helps.

And for that, Thanks!

Thank You For Making Earth a Little Bit Greener originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

First of all, do not follow everyone who follows you. Some are legit, some are automated, some are spam, and not all of them are worth connecting up with. You get the most out of Twitter if you choose to follow only those who you are really interested in.

Here is what I look at.

1. The profile picture. Most of the time the picture doesn’t matter, but if it’s the default picture, a picture of money, or I’ve even seen a naked man, then there is a chance that they are not worth following. We’re going to be looking at this picture all day long, so I hope it’s decent.

Default Twitter Profile Picture

2. The Twitter page design. Again not huge, but if it has at least changed it from the default, or better yet have a custom background, it shows someone cares. Sometimes it’s the little things.

My Twitter Custom Background

3. Profile name. Who are you? Money_Shack? GetRickQuik? Girlz4Fun? There are lots of spammy Twitter accounts out there and sometimes they are really easy to spot. You can’t judge every book by its name, but it’s something to think about.

Bad Twitter Username

4. The profile description. Do you have something in common with me? The description says a lot and is the probably one of the best places to get a feel for the person who you are determining to follow.

Twitter Profile Description

5. Location. Where are you? I tend to give additional credit to those in Minnesota as I am in Minnesota too and it may give us additional things to talk about. However this is the internet, location is not that important.

Twitter Location.

6. The profile URL. I love to look at peoples sites and see what they are like. You can really find out a lot about a person and their interests by their site. However, I’ve had some Twitter profiles send me to dating sites, strange websites and pre-sell pages before and that’s just not fun.

Twitter Profile URL

7. Recent tweets. Scrolling through the most recent tweets I should be able to get a little feel for what they talk about. If it’s nothing but links to their own site, overly promotional, or I can tell it’s automated, they fail. Twitter is about communicating and I want to talk to you. Their recent tweets should be of interest to you.

Recent Tweets

8. Number of people they follow. How many people can someone really keep up with at once? If their follower number is something like 21,701 then they are following everyone and I’m just some number. They will probably not be interested in anything I say.

High Following Number

9. Number of people who follow them. If they are following a ton of people and only a few are following them back, then there is a huge disconnect. Does that mean that they are not worth following? Maybe.

Following Disconnect

Granted, every profile is unique. You need to look at a few factors before making your decision. Sometimes following celebrities will have a ton of followers but not many that they are following. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow them though if you are a fan of them. Also brands on Twitter can very promotional, but that’s not bad in their case. Whatever you do, pick and choose who you follow and don’t be afraid to un-follow people too.

When starting Twitter, start slow. Create your profile, customize your Twitter page and then grow the number of people you follow slowly. Twitter is not a popularity contest, and you’ll enjoy it much more, and get more out of it, if you pick and choose who you follow.

How To Decide Who To Follow On Twitter – 9 Tips originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Bluebird
Simple and pretty, this app has the ability to be one of the nicest looking Twitter apps.  It also comes with three built in themes which are very nice and supports multiple accounts.  This one is one I haven’t played with much, but am loving it the more I use it.  Only downside so far is no way to distinguish between read and un-read tweets.

Canary
Still in beta, Canary is said to be the sexiest Twitter client out there.  It’s a nice start and will be one to watch.  No support for multiple accounts but has all the other features you’d need.

EventBox
Not only for Twitter, EventBox also integrates Facebook, Flickr, RSS and Google Reader.  More services on the way too they say.  It’s a bit big for me, but yet I really like it.  Would love to see it get multiple Twitter account support.

Lounge
Lounge made quite an entrance recently.  It looks good, has nice features and supports multiple accounts.  It’ll be a good one to watch as it grows.  Also available for the iPhone.

Nambu
Nambu is my favorite Twitter client right now.  It’s visually appealing, has the ability to clear out read tweets, a menu bar icon for easy access, and makes managing multiple accounts extremely easy.  Even comes with three different ways to view your timeline.  Nambu also plans to add Facebook support.  Highly recommended.  Also available for the iPhone.

NatsuLion
Nice Twitter client with the necessary features.  Makes keeping track of read and unread tweets easy by just mousing over the tweets.  I don’t see a way to re-tweet though.  Humm… Also available for the iPhone.

Pwitter
Pwitter has a nice simple interface.  It reminds me of Twitterrific only with a lot more features.  Has a nice menu bar icon for hiding and showing the main window which is always nice.  Missing the ability for multiple accounts though. If you use Twitterrific, this would be a great step up.

Syrnix
Nice Twitter client but lacks re-tweet capabilities.  You can bookmark your last read message so when you come back, you know what you’ve read and what you haven’t.

Tototl
Don’t know a lot about this one.  Tototl looks like a simplistic Twitter client but is not one I’ve tried.

Twitterrific
Probably the most popular Mac Twitter client.  Works under 10.4 and 10.5 and comes in a very small footprint with a menu bar icon for easy access.  Downsides are that it doesn’t segment out direct messages and replies into their own area and doesn’t have a re-tweet option. It doesn’t work with multiple accounts either. Also available for the iPhone.

TwitterPod
TwitterPod seems to have had a great start, but development has stalled.  Missing are quite a few options, but it’s still a nice basic client.  Would love to see it advance a bit more.

Twucket
I think Twucket is a different take on Twitter clients. It doesn’t seem to have a lot of options, just the basics.  Not having used it, I don’t know a lot about it.

Bonus Round! Twitter apps that are coming soon.

Beak
This one is not out yet, but I signed up for the beta and hope to try it out soon.

Adium
Again, not out yet but eagerly anticipating.  Adium rocks at IM, can it do the same for Twitter?

Those are the 14 Mac Twitter applications that I’ve looked into.  There are probably more out there as I discover new ones all the time.

There are also additional Adobe Air based Twitter apps, Firefox extensions and Dashboard widgets that work on the Mac too.

Which one is your favorite?  What did I miss?

14 Mac Only Twitter Applications originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

This year, I decided to turn 29.1 instead of 30.  Now, it’s not that I’m afraid of 30, but I just felt like it sounds better if I stay in my 20’s a bit longer.

Yes, it’s true, I’m now 30.  Back when I was a kid there was not internet, no cell phones, no SUVs.  We had Intellivision, Garbage Pal Kids cards, and three channels on TV that you had to get up to change.  These whippersnappers today have it so easy.  Ha ha, there is my old man talk for the day.

To me, age is just a number. I still feel young and extremely blessed to have a great wife, a nice house and a young one on the way.  I’m ready for  my next 30 years!

Both songs are available on iTunes or Amazon.

Today I turn 30, or 29.1. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

What I have setup is Facebook mobile, Weather Underground mobile and Plurk mobile all loaded into one application and stored in my menu bar. When I click on the blue F, I not only see the weather conditions, but also any Facebook updates and Plurk updates.

You can customize Fluid and put in any URL you want into each of the three spaces. If you have more screen room, you can split the main window into as many windows as you want. You can eve split them on top or bottom or have free standing multi-window applications. Myself, I prefer the menu bar apps as they are out of the way, yet easily accessible.

Fluid’s main window user agent can also be set as iPhone so you can use iPhone optimized Google or Meebo. It’d be ever nicer if all the split windows could be set to iPhone user agents too.

Now I’m not saying that splitting up one window into four, or more, mini browsers works well, but for two or three sites it comes in very handy.

Fluid is a really cool piece of freeware for the Mac. I find myself creating individual apps for Facebook, Plurk and Ping.fm to name a few. Now that I figured out how to combine them, they take up less space in the menu bar and give me all the information I want.

Get Quick Updates On All Your Favorite Social Sites With Fluid originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I know what a lot of Mac users are thinking, what about Time Machine? Well, as great as Time Machine is, if my house were to burn down, so would all my backups. An off site backup solution is the only way to ensure that my files are safe. Time Machine works well for local backups, but really isn’t the best solution overall and that’s why I looked into other options.

Backblaze costs $5 month per computer and works for Mac and Windows machines. They give unlimited space and you always have access to your files via a web browser. Want a copy of your computer? Backblaze can send you a USB drive or a DVD with all your files for an additional cost.

So how does it work? Once you sign up, you install the application on your computer, put in your account information and let it go!

For those that haven’t backed up over the internet before, it takes a long time the first time. Why? Because you have a lot of files that need to be uploaded. It took days for my first backup to complete. Yes, the initial backup seems to take forever, but that’s based on how many files you have, your file sizes, your computer, your internet connection and a lot of other things. Chances are, any online backup system will take just as long. I found myself leaving my machine on 24/7 so it could work all night and all day long. However, once the initial backup is done, you never have to worry about it. It only backs up files that are new or have changed since the last backup and doesn’t slow down the machine.

There are a number of preferences to play with if you want too. I used these to control and prioritize my initial backup; plus make sure I’m not backing up stuff I don’t want or really need.

Throttle Preference

Throttle lets you control how many system resources Backblaze uses when backing up. I usually set this to Faster Network when I wanted to use my computer and then Faster Backups when I went to bed or to work. Backblaze might as well work as hard as it can when I’m not on my computer. After the initial backup, I just leave it somewhere in the middle and it’s all good.

Exclusions Preference

You can also filter out folders or file types that you don’t care to have backed up with the exclusions preference. For me, I had a bunch of old files and folders that I just hadn’t gotten around to removing and don’t really need. I also chose not to backup my Parallels drive and some random other folders. You can use this to prioritize backups too by adding the less important folders to the exclusions list so that everything else gets backed first. Then go back in and remove the exceptions.

All Backed Up!

I’m very happy with Backblaze and would recommend it to other users. I’ve had no issues and no complaints. I now don’t even have to think about backing up my computer as all my files are automatically backed up and safe!

Forget About Backing Up with Backblaze originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We don’t know if it’s a boy or girl yet, but will know before it’s born.  However we don’t plan on sharing it with anyone. 

Until the baby arrives, we have a lot of getting ready to do.  We already have the baby’s room painted, light yellow, and have started looking at strollers and cribs.

I’m also sure there are many things or me to learn.  Examples:

Images from: Safe Baby Handling Tips

All kidding aside, it’s an exciting announcement and we’re happy to share it with all our family and friends.

New Little McMahon This August originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com