You see, my iMac screen decided that a yellow vertical line was cool and I didn’t agree. So I called Apple and my screen was on recall so they’re fixing it for free. The downside is that it’ll take 5-7 days. So I’m living without it.

I guess it’s not to hard to survive when I have an iPod Touch and my wife has a Mac Mini; so it’s not like I’m computer less. But I am without my computer which I thought would be an issue.

Instead, I’m using Chrome on my wife’s computer and everything I really need is on the internet. All my email is in the cloud, Facebook, Twitter and Remember the Milk are just clicks away. It’s amazing how well I can survive without my iMac. Even all my files, if I need them, are easily accessible via BackBlaze.

I do have to say one thing though, my wife’s computer seems to run better than mine! She’s got the same processor and I think I have more memory, yet hers seems to do things effortlessly. It could be because she doesn’t have tons of things installed and running, or it could be that I need to do a re-install of mine. She also doesn’t have a partitioned drive or Snow Leopard. Hummm…

Either way, being without my iMac hasn’t been the end of the world. I’m kind of enjoying it as I have less distractions on this one and end up spending less time on the computer.

It will be nice to have my iMac back though in a few days.

Surviving Without My iMac originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I’m a big Muppet fan and here is a great example of Jim Henson’s work on Sesame Street.

All Cookie Monster has to do is guess what’s in the box and he gets a cookie. Can’t be that hard… right?

What’s In The Box? Is It A Cookie? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

And to make it worse, it’s not obvous to me that I’m doing it until months later

So if you’ve had issues in the past with images on my site, I apologize. Hopefully all is fixed now.

If you continue to find or have issues, let me know!

Thanks

The .htaccess File Is Pretty Powerful Stuff originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Ok, so it wasn’t love at first sight. Something about it wasn’t right when I first tested it out. I didn’t give it a chance. Lucky for me, I gave it a second chance a few months later and realized how powerful it really is.

ClipMenu is more than just an app that remembers your clipboard history. There are four things it does, and it does them well.

First off, it remembers your clipboard history. From text to images to HTML or whatever you copy. You set the number of items, you set the layout, and you are in control of quite a bit of how this application looks and works.

The second thing it does is snippets. You can add chunks of text to ClipMenu to ensure that they are not far away when you need them. Very handy when you re-use the same content, or code, over and over again.

Third is the keyboard shortcuts. Mastering these really makes the program shine. I have Shift+Apple+V setup to bring up ClipMenu; and it does, right where my curser is. I can then select from my history or access my snippets. Everything comes to me. Granted, it also has a menu bar icon if you’d rather go to it.

Fourth is the actions. This is one area I’m still exploring but the actions allow you to do more with the text. For example, you can right click on any clipboard history item and paste it as plain text, change the case, or do pretty much anything with the text.

And you get all of this for free!

ClipMenu is a fantastic clipboard application for the Mac and one you should check out if one clipboard just isn’t enough for you.

Master Multiple Clipboards & More with ClipMenu originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

This Is Truly Great Advertising. Seat Belts Save Lives. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily & Dad

I was originally going to title this post ‘Do you think that a daddy blogger could survive amongst all the mommy bloggers’ until I did a little Googling and it seems that there are more results for ‘daddy blogger’ than ‘mommy blogger.’

Can that be right? Are there more daddy bloggers than mommy bloggers?

All I ever hear about are mommy bloggers and how they are taking over the blogosphere and causing issues. (I think some of the moms just need to chill a little.)

But what about all these daddy bloggers? How come I never hear of them? I thought I was going to be relatively alone when creating a daddy blog but maybe not.

That’s right, I started a daddy blog.

My daddy blog is a journal of what’s happening in my baby girls life. It’s all from dads perspective (obviously) and hopefully it’s not all the same things that everyone already knows. I hope it to be slightly entertaining too.

So why didn’t I just post all my daddy posts here? Well, I thought of that, but felt that the current audience didn’t want to be flooded with posts on baby clothes sizes, dirty diapers, and things like that. Instead I decided to start up a new site.

Now I don’t think I’ll ever become one of those crazy parenting blogger types, but it will be great to look back after a year or two and read what was going on see how our baby girl Lily has grown.

If you want to keep up, share your advice, or just check it out, feel free. It’s online at http://fluiddad.com/.

Daddy Bloggers vs Mommy Bloggers originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

For free, I’m able to get an overview of my schedule for today, for this month, and the ability to add new events. Plus it works on Mac and Windows.

What You’ll Need

An application that can create stand alone web applications.
Fluid – If you are on a Mac.
Google Chrome – If you are on Windows.
Prism will also work, but it’s not as pretty as it doesn’t use WebKit.

The iPhone Google Calendar URL

Regular Google Calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar/gp

Google Apps for Your Domain
http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/gp/twistermc.com?hl=en
! Don’t forget to change twistermc.com to your domain.

The Setup

Fluid
1. Open Fluid and put in the Google Calendar URL.
2. Give it a cool name; like gCal.
3. Create & Launch the app.
4. In the new app’s preferences, go to ‘Advanced’, click the + sign and add *google.com* to ensure that there are no login issues.
5. Enjoy!

Bonus 1: You can also convert the app to a menu bar application if you want to keep it off your desktop.

Bonus 2: Create a more compact style by going into the app’s preferences, then ‘Userstyles’, click the + sign, set the URL pattern to * and check the box, then add the following lines of code:
* { font-size:11px !important; }
.footer {display:none !important; }

Google Chrome
1. Browse to the Google Calendar URL.
2. Click on the page icon in Google Chrome’s toolbar.
3. Select ‘Create application shortcuts…’
4. Select ‘Desktop’ or whatever you want.
5. Enjoy!

That’s it, you now have a nice little desktop application that gives you an overview for what you have on your calendar today. You can even add events as they come up.

There is one downside though, it doesn’t auto refresh. You’ll either need to manually hit the refresh button or find a way of auto refreshing the window. Minor, but it can be annoying.

See Today’s Schedule In A Small Google Calendar Desktop Application originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Advertised Pizza

Actual Pizza Before Baking

Actual Pizza After Baking

Not sure what happened to the heart, but it’s not in the pizza.

Cool idea, bad execution.

Papa Murphy’s Not So Heart Shaped Pizza originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Their reasoning?

1. It’s cross platform. – But so is Safari, Firefox and Opera.
2. Web Inspector – Which Safari also has.
3. Extensions – Which Firefox has many more of, and better ones too.

It’s a nice article, but nothing too convincing unless you’ve never checked out the same features in Firefox and Safari.

I’m sticking with Firefox as my Firebug extension is indispensable and Firebug light just doesn’t cut it.

I think Chrome is nice, but it’s still  under development big time on the Mac and I think they are still working out a lot of bugs on all platforms.

Should Web Developers Switch To Google Chrome? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The theme song was written by the Barenaked Ladies and can be downloaded from iTunes or Amazon.

Want to hear the whole thing? Here is the entire Big Bang Theory theme song.

Doesn’t it just make you crave Chinese food?

Grab The Chinese Food, Here Is The Whole Big Bang Theory Theme Song originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

It’s been quiet, to quiet.

Ecto still works, mostly. The Flickr and Amazon support are broken, but the posting to blogs still works.

I would love to see updates come out that fixed Flickr & Amazon, added support for new services such as Tumblr & Posterous, and some sort of Twitter & Facebook integration. But I’m not sure if that will ever happen.

With Ecto on the decline, what do you use for desktop blogging software on the Mac? Blogo, MarsEdit, something else?

What Happened to Ecto? The Best Mac Desktop Blogging Tool. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Only 18 episodes of LOST remain before all our questions are answered. Is it Ben or Lock who is in charge? Will they ever get their life back? Do they want it? Did Juliet really die? Who is Richard? What does the Dharma Initiative have to do with all this? And so many more.

With the time travel, black smoke, and all around random oddness over the years, it makes me question how this could all end. I’m a little skeptical that LOST can have a satisfying ending, but that’s J.J. Abrams job. To be honest, I didn’t think I’d still be this addicted to the show either but I am. So maybe it’ll have that amazing ending we are all looking for.

So many questions and, hopefully, so many answers coming soon. This is the last season of LOST and I’m ready to know what’s going on!

LOST – The Final Chapter originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lets start with Twitterrific, if you’ve used it, you know that it doesn’t even have a re-tweet option. I’m not talking about the new fancy one either, I’m talking about just re-posting someone elses tweet with an re: in the front of it. It hasn’t been updated in years and lacks many features. It’d also be nice to separate into tabs DMs, RTs, and have an area for search.

Echofon and Tweetie are better. Both have support for multiple accounts, separate tabs for mentions and direct messages, but both lack lists; which is one of my favorite new features. Tweetie has also yet to add the new re-tweet feature and Echofon is missing saved searches. Again, they’re better, but the iPhone versions are so much better.

Now I still have faith in the desktop version of Tweetie and Echofon coming out with new versions with all the latest features, but I’m thinking Twitterrific is unfortunately as good as it’s going to get.

Update: Less than 24 hours after I wrote this post, Echofon updated with list support! It also includes an updated icon.

Ohh and then there is TweetDeck. The desktop version does have all the same features, but the iPhone version is just so much nicer. I’m not sure if it’s the layout, the unified look, or iPhone technology, but rocks on the iPhone.

Do you suppose that it could be that the iPhone versions make more money? Is that what this is all about? If so, then developers should think about lowering the price on the desktop version to encourage more people to purchase. At $3 for a desktop app, I wouldn’t think twice. But price it at $15 or $20 and I’m not so sure and can deal with a few ads.

Now don’t get me wrong, all four Twitter apps are great, but I find it surprising that they put so much time into the iPhone version and let the desktop version take a back seat. If the desktop version of Twitterrific was anything like the iPhone version, I’d be in love. Unfortunately, that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

Why Do Twitter Apps On The iPhone Rock, But Are Lacking On the Desktop? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Why?

• Firefox is pushing personas. They are now standard in Firefox 3.6.
• Themes are complex with lots of pieces to edit and are not easy for users to create.
• Getting them to work cross platform is tricky. Testing cross platform is even harder.
• Themes have to be tweaked often to work with Firefox updates. On major releases, possibly completely re-created.
• One wrong file, or line of code, and you can cause major Firefox display issues.
• It takes extra work to theme extensions; and there are way to many to keep up with.
• Users have to know how to install a theme and how to un-install, or deactivate, a theme.
• They can cause usability issues as one persons idea of beauty is a train wreck to the next.

So what’s next? Personas.

Personas are more like skins than themes. They are easy to create, easy to install, and Firefox 3.6 is ready to use them with no additional addons.

Yes, the customization is limited, but with limited customization, there is less likelihood of creating usability issues with Firefox or conflicts with extensions.

Overall, it takes very little knowledge to create and use personas which is why they may just become the standard way of theming Firefox in the future.

I’m hoping that either themes don’t die completely or that personas start to allow additional items to be customized, but either way, I think we’ll start seeing fewer and fewer full blown themes come out and the Personas community continue to grow.

Are Firefox Themes Dying? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The problem themes have been pulled from Mozilla’s site and new versions have been added. The new versions have been tested on Mac and Windows XP in Firefox 3.5.x and 3.6.

—-

A few days ago I pushed out updates to MidnightFox and MidnightFoxy that would work with Firefox 3.6 and they failed on Windows. I’ve since marked the themes as Mac only on the Mozilla site as they have no issues on a Mac.

I’m going  to research the issue as it seems that iPox is not having the same problems but it’ll take me time.

If you are now stuck in Firefox because of MidnightFox or MidnightFoxy screwing up your install, here is how you fix.

1. Quit Firefox. You may need to do a Control+Alt+Delete to end the program.
2. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Mozilla Firefox -> Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode) This will start Firefox without any addons enabled.
3. Once Fireofx opens, go to Tools -> Addons -> Themes and remove MidnightFox and/or MidnightFoxy.
4. Quite Firefox (Safe Mode) and restart Firefox normally and your issues should be solved.

If you are still running Firefox 3.5, you can grab a working version of MidnightFox and/or MidnightFoxy from their addons page by going to the versions section and grab the June 2009 version.

I’m sorry for the issues this has caused, but the good news is those issues are not permanent.

MidnightFox Apologies & Fixes originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Prince has released a new fight song just for the Minnesota Vikings! You can listen to a snippet of it above.

Full version here:

Not quite what I was expecting, but what do you think?

Purple and Gold Lyrics

the veil of the sky draws open
the roar of the chariots touch down
we r the ones who have now come again
and walk upon water like solid ground
as we approach the throne we won’t bow down
this time we won’t b denied

raise every voice and let it b known
in the name of the purple and gold

we come in the name of the purple and gold
all of the odds r in r favor
no prediction 2 bold
we r the truth if the truth can b told
long reign the purple and gold

the eyes say ready 4 battle
no need 4 sword in hand
we r all amped up like a rock n roll band
ready 2 celebrate every score
ready 2 fight the elegant war
ready 2 hear the crowd roar

that’s what we came 4
and so much more
in the name of the purple and gold

r spirits may b tired
r bodies may b worn
but since this day is r destiny
r history – that’s y we must b
4ever strong as the wind that blows the Vikings’ horn
in the name of the purple and gold

CHORUS

Listen To Prince’s Vikings Fight Song – Purple & Gold originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

1 – Create a new folder called chrome.
2 – Move browser, communicator, global and mozapps into chrome.
3 – Compress the four folders in chrome into one .jar file. Name it: themenamefiles.jar (all lowercase).
4 – Back out of the chrome folder.
5 – Create a new plain text file with TextEdit or Notepad and copy in the following lines of code:

skin browser ThemeName2 jar:chrome/themenamefiles.jar!/browser/
skin communicator ThemeName2 jar:chrome/themenamefiles.jar!/communicator/
skin global ThemeName2 jar:chrome/themenamefiles.jar!/global/
skin mozapps ThemeName2 jar:chrome/themenamefiles.jar!/mozapps/

7 – Replace themename with the name of your theme in steps 3 & 5.
8 – Replace ThemeName2 with the theme name (em:name) that is listed  in install.rdf.
9 – Save the file as chrome.manifest in the same directory as the install.rdf file.
10 – Don’t forget to bump the Firefox version number in install.rdf to 3.6.*

This is what the new file structure should look like. The green files are new.

New File Structure

That’s it. Repackage your theme and it should work in Firefox 3.6!

This is just one installment into the iPox Remix set of tutorials that will help you learn how to create your own Firefox theme. Visit the main iPox Remix page for more details.

Re-Package Your Theme For Firefox 3.6 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The biggest features on the iPhone are the touch screen and the accelerometers. For years now, all Apple laptops have a touch pad, which works in the same way. They all have a motion sensor built it too, but I’m not sure if it’s as good as the accelerometer though.

Plus Apple recently released the Magic Mouse which is also touch sensitive just like the touch pads on laptops and the iPhone screen. So could this all be leading up to iPhone apps on the desktop?

Rumors are that developers were told to make their apps work on the big screen. Everyone assumes the tablet, which could be included, but why not make them work on the desktop as well? Create an iApp app that ran iPhone apps as desktop applications and Apple would see more app sales and more app developers.

To get the best appearance of iPhone apps on the desktop, Apple could use the technology in the latest Quicktime Player to hide window elements when the window is not active. That would keep apps looking consistent with the iPhone.

To make it even better, what if Apple made the iApp work in Windows too? They’d then be taking on Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight for cross platform apps. And with so many current iPhone users, they’d quickly dominate the space as the iPhone apps we love could run on our desktops too!

Granted this is all speculation on my part. But what if it were true? What if Tweetie 2, Facebook and other iPhone apps could run on your desktop?

iPhone Apps Coming To Your Desktop? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Unlocking the awesome potential of behavioral disorders.

Have you ever wondered the difference between Facebook, Twitter and MySpace?  Well Despair.com has just the answer for you. It seems that Facebook is a combo of narcissism and stalking where MySpace is narcissism and ADHD. Twitter on the other hand has all three! Go Twitter!

If you’d like, Despair.com makes this print available on a T-Shirt and laptop skin for your gift giving pleasure.

All You Need To Know About Social Media [pict] originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

One browser I’ve started really liking is Stainless. Stainless is a Mac browser that runs off of Safari’s rendering engine, but has its own personality.

Stainless features include:

Sidebar Bookmarks
The bookmarks are in a vertical bar on the left side of the screen and they are just favicons so they take up much less room. It’s a new approach to bookmarks that focuses on the favicon and I love it.

Private Browsing
All browsers seem to be hopping the private train lately and Stainless is right there with them. You can have private sessions where no tracks are left behind when you are done.

Single Session Tabs
This means you can login to the same site with multiple accounts in multiple tabs. Two Gmail accounts, multiple Twitter accounts, you name it. This is the only browser that has this ability as far as I’m aware and it’s one of my favorite features.

Individual Process Tabs
Meaning each tab is independent of other tabs. If one crashes, the others remain in working order. Chrome was the first to come out with this idea and most other browsers are still trying integrate this functionality.

Tabs at the Top
Safari tried to pull this off and failed, but Stainless seems to have it down without issues.

Cookie Management
Stainless has a nice cookie management option that allows the browser to toss out any cookies for sites that are not bookmarked. Still not as nice as picking and choosing what cookies to keep, but it’s better than all or none.

Search from Address Bar
I’m not a fan of having an additional search box when the address bar can do the same thing. Much like Google Chrome, Stainless allows a user to put keywords into the address bar and it’ll search Google instead of throwing an error.

Better Tab Management
Stainless has the ability to open new windows in tabs and opening child tabs next to the parent. This really helps keep your browser window organized.

Hidden Status Bar
The status bar shows you only what you need to see when you need to see it. It’s not always visible taking up screen real estate.

Themes
There are no themes yet, but it’s rumored that they are coming.

Colored Page Source With Line Numbers
For developers, it’s nice to see color coded source code and line numbers to help dig though code.  It also includes Safari’s web inspector which is also very valuable for reverse engineering HTML code.

Overall I’m a fan of Stainless. It’s got a lot of nice features and is adding more all the time.

Stainless is a free browser for the Mac and it’s definitely worth checking out. Visit http://www.stainlessapp.com/ to download.

Stainless – A Mac Browser With Unique Features originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com