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

Secondbar aims to duplicate your menubar from your main monitor to your external monitor so that each screen has the menubar.

This is something I’m excited to test out as I’ve been looking for a way of doing this for a while. I won’t get to test it out for a few days, but I know a lot of other Mac users are also trying to do this.

Lets hope it works as good as it sounds!

Add The Mac Menubar To Both Screens – Multiple Monitor Support originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The problem with New Year’s resolutions is people dive right into them and go full force only to find out it’s hard work.

Instead you should set smaller goals for yourself in order to build up to your final goal.

Lets take exercising as an example. A lot of people will sign up for gym memberships and go every day for a week or two and then they’ll give up because it’s hard.

Instead of starting off exercising every day, pick one day a week. Lets say we exercise every Tuesday in January. That’s it. 4 times for the first month. Then in February, lets go every Tuesday and Thursday. Gradually we’ll work up to 5 days a week. Since we took smaller steps to get there, it’ll seem more obtainable and easier to stay on track.

Maybe your resolution is to save money by not buying Starbucks everyday. I’m pretty sure most coffee addicts would freak out if they stopped cold turkey. Instead, cut back gradually.

Setting smaller goals will make them easier to obtain and easier to achieve the overall goal.

Who says your New Year’s resolution needs to be achieved in January? Why don’t you take a few months to work up to it and actually meet it this year.

How To Actually Keep Your New Year’s Resolution originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

They also have a number of desktops on Flickr to help promote the site and one in particular I thought was extremely nice.  So, with permission, I re-used the desktop picture as a Firefox persona.

If you’d like to grab a copy of the Appstorm persona, you can get it here. Firefox and the free Persona’s extension is required.

Enjoy!

Firefox Personas are cross platform so all Firefox users should be able to enjoy.

AppStorm Firefox Persona originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Looking back at my most popular posts in 2009, the #1 post is something that took only a few minutes to write up and was actually from 2005! It’s a post about how to open winmail.dat files on a Mac. This is proof that writing a blog post shouldn’t take hours, doesn’t need a ton of info, and just needs to be practical.

So my goal for 2010 is to write more posts, but keep those posts short and simple. People like solutions, they like posts they can quickly read ,and that’s what I want to get back to doing.

Hopefully you’ll be hearing more from me in the next year with helpful and easy to read posts.

Blog on a Stick in 2010 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Live as if you’ll die tomorrow. Dream as if you’ll live forever. Words to live by.

via Butterfingers

Live & Dream originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

We hope that your holiday season is happy and bright. May you enjoy your family, friends and all that life has to offer.

I know that this year is special for Christi and I as it’s Lily’s first Christmas. I think she has more gifts than the wife and I combined and it’ll be exciting come Christmas morning. Granted she won’t know what’s going on, but we’ll enjoy it for her!

As I look back on the year it’s hard to believe all that has happened. A baby changes a lot, and even though people tried to tell me, I don’t think it’s something you can tell a person. Lily is wonderful, Christi is fantastic and I’m thankful to have both in my life.

So from our family to yours, Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas From Our Family To Yours originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

These are a few of the many Christmas cookies that our friends and family are enjoying this holiday season. Don’t they look delicious?

Anyone Want a Christmas Cookie? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights With A Dark Glow

Christmas Lights With A Soft Glow

Merry Christmas Wrapping Paper With A Soft Glow

Silver Wrapping Paper

Red and Green Christmas Presents

Color Your Own Christmas Presents

All wallpapers are 1920×14000 and should scale down nicely if needed.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

Christmas Lights & Wrapping Wallpaper originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Tinseltown (click to enlarge)

Tinsteltown is a Christmas theme for Firefox that turns your browser into a winter wonderland of Christmas fun.

If you’ve already tried Tinsteltown, then check out the update that just came out. It fixes a few bugs and adds support for Firefox 3.6.

For more information on this theme, check out the Tinseltown page.

Christmas + Firefox = Tinseltown originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com