Mac Net Journal

Since Apple has released a pair of updates today that are recommended for all Mac OS X users, I will be installing Security Update 2007-007 (Intel) and Airport Extreme Update 2007 along with the Pro Application Support update from yesterday. I guess it is reboot time...

Pro Application Support update from Apple
Monday, July 30, 2007, 7:52 PM

Apple has released an update for its pro applications today that is available through the Software Update panel in Mac OS X. The update, which weighs in at 8.3 MB for my 15-inch MacBook Pro, is accompanied with the following release note:

This update improves general user interface reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Final Cut Express HD, Soundtrack, Logic Pro and Logic Express.

I won't be installing this update on my MacBook, since I don't use any of the listed applications at this time...

UPDATE: A nice reminder from an MNJ reader below could make me think twice about whether I should install the pro applications update, even though I don't use Apple's pro applications:

Here is a dirty little secret, very often updates to the image i/o pipeline (used to read and write image) as well as core image, has updates wrapped in these 'pro' updates. So there could be fixes for things like reading raw images, saving things to jpeg or png or other things. I know they have wrapped some small fixes for these types of issues in the past and I would not be surprised if there are some things like that tucked in this update as well.

As I wrote back to the reader, it's a good point. Of course, it would sure be nice if Apple would divulge that kind of info up front so those who use pro applications from third parties aren't forced to install these things just in case there is something in there for people who are not completely sucking down the Apple cool aid.

Must view - Merlin Mann's 'Inbox Zero' talk at Google
Sunday, July 29, 2007, 11:55 AM

This morning I am enjoying a cup of tea and sitting back to watch the video of Merlin Mann's "Inbox Zero" talk from last week on the Google campus. If you deal with tons of e-mail and you need some tips and inspiration about how to tame your inbox, this is a worthwhile video to watch...

I am guilty of living out of my inbox at work and sometimes at home, which is why my work e-mail account is frequently pushing the ceiling on my account size limit.

Some of the tips that Merlin offers that just don't work for me:

Do e-mail less - In my career, e-mail is a lifeline, and being able to respond to incoming messages is critical.
Ditto for newsfeeds - Again, I need to know what people are saying within a short time period. But in general, especially at times that staying in touch with the latest murmurs on the Net is not critical, such as on weekends, I do let the RSS feeds sit.

Boston bound in a week
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 11:42 AM

I am tagging along with Natalie next week for a trip to Boston, and this weekend I am trying to figure out what I want to do while I am there. Natalie's itinerary for the National Congress of State Legislators (NCSL) conference has some good highlights - a night at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox and a concert with the Boston Pops, to name two - but we will be in the area both before and after the conference once we arrive on a redeye flight from Seattle. Other possibilities while we are there include a road trip to Providence, Rhode Island - a town that Natalie has grown enamored with over two other trips to the East Coast for work earlier this year.

Natalie and I visited Boston for about a week back in 2000, when we made a trip to the area to meet with long-distance online coworkers that we had never met before at the home offices of Lycos.com. That was back during my decade-long stint as a freelance and contract worker on the Internet. Once we were done with our meetings with Lycos folks in Waltham, Mass., we spent the rest of the week venturing out from a hotel in downtown Boston near the Commons. We did the Freedom Trail walk, took in a Tall Ships festival that floated into town that weekend, visited Concord, Salem, Walden Pond and a few other sites and museums. So, we've done the initial tourist version of Boston. This time we're looking for something a little more authentic. Any tips? Drop me a line...

Clearing tabs in Firefox
Saturday, July 21, 2007, 4:21 PM

This post is simply saving some links I have in tabs in Firefox:

iPhone sync hacks (Macworld)
The online mind map smackdown
How often do you e-mail and RSS (Lifehacker)
Digital Photography Tips from Around the Web (Digital Photography School)

DIY Planner - A Tinderbox Full of Notes
Thursday, July 19, 2007, 10:39 PM

Tinderbox gets a full review treatment on DIY Planner. As usual, the commenters for the article mention the documentation and the perceived need for a "Tinderbox for Dummies" kind of guide. But as the review notes, the folks at Eastgate are not too eager to define how you should use their program.

As a long-time Tinderbox user who still doesn't feel like his understanding about this tool goes deep enough, I can understand the trepidation. But I would urge anyone to take Tinderbox for a spin and just see how it can bend to your ways. I live in Tinderbox, blog in it, use it for work and information management. Just remember that flexibility is a virtue, and learning something new, even if it takes you years, can still be a worthwhile endeavor.

A useful iPhone tip - using Gmail as your SMTP server
Thursday, July 19, 2007, 10:21 PM

Today's MacOSXHints offers a good tip for ensuring that your e-mail will get out from your iPhone, no matter whether you have a wi-fi connection or are connecting through the EDGE network...

Doug Plummer: Photographer, Mac switcher, opinionator
Thursday, July 19, 2007, 10:08 PM

Seattle-area photographer and birder Doug Plummer has been posting a series of items over the last month or so, since he made the switch from Windows to a Mac for his photo workflow. Today he offers some opinions about the switch, including some of the annoyances that are inconsistent between his old workflow on a Windows machine vs. the new workflow on the Mac. I definitely agree with his comments about the need to go through multiple steps to eject flash drives under Mac OS X.

Like scratching an itch - a thread on e-mail clients
Thursday, July 5, 2007, 11:40 PM

Thanks, Brent. Just what I needed was another thread hitting on one of my biggest pet peeves about working on a Mac - the woeful excuses for e-mail applications. I have been using and living in Gmail since March, and it works pretty well as long as I trust that Google will play nice with my data and work reliably. So far it has only hiccuped a couple of times. But like Brent, I yearn for a more complete e-mail solution, and his post today has urged me to fire up PowerMail again, for the first time since March. It remains speedy and reliable...so why am I toying with Gmail?

Scoble's tips on getting photos from iPhone to Flickr
Sunday, July 1, 2007, 10:10 PM

Robert Scoble answers a question for his readers about how his son was able to send photos to Flickr for display while walking around today. I am posting this here as much for me as anyone else, since I could do the same thing using my Treo 650.

Happy Canada Day!
Sunday, July 1, 2007, 11:54 AM

To my neighbors just to the north, happy Canada Day! I have to remember to watch the national celebrations tonight on CBC.

Useful iPhone info begins to arrive
Sunday, July 1, 2007, 11:44 AM

Most of this weekend's posts about people and their new iPhones has been about the experience of standing in line and getting the lusted-after gadget. Then there was first reactions to actually using the iPhone, and today the shift goes a level deeper to what works and what doesn't, and how the iPhone is likely to change the way that we interact with information on the Net. Here are some of the threads I find most useful:

iPhone and iPod accessories: What works and what doesn't? - Engadget
Problem solved - readable websites on an iPhone - Dave Winer
iPhone Bulletin: CSS hover effects are about to get a lot less popular - Mark Bernstein