Software watch: FolderGlance

Browsing my Apple Downloads news feeds, I came across a software package that adds some very cool functionality to Finder. For those of you familiar with BeOS, it had hierarchical context menus that would allow you to travel over your filesystem amazingly fast, as well as copy and move files around. This feature was one of BeOS's that stuck with me, and I always felt was lacking from the other OSs. Now, FolderGlance changed that. Its still a bit rough around the edges, but it handles hierarchical menus beautifully. If you're looking for a bit more right-click power from Finder, this might help.

Podcasting

So I have joined the ranks of the many podcast listeners out there. I've listened to the mymac.com podcast successfully for the last 3 episodes. Its pretty good. Much better than some of the others I've tried to listen to in the past. Too many podcasts seem to be just some random people's observations of certain subjects. The mymac.com podcast has much more structure to it. They have regular features, sponsors, and two regular hosts. Much closer to what I think podcasts should be.
Most podcasts are opinion shows. Reviews of TV shows, music, and such. Which is all fine and dandy, but there's no sense in making more podcasts, reviewing the same shows, with different opinions. I don't expect high-quality radio shows, the lower-quality of podcasts are fine with me, but its content that I feel is simple and too repetitive.
One form of podcasting I feel would be very successful, but doesn't seem to be very common, is serialized fiction. The nature of podcasts is one-way communication. Having people on a show talking about certain subjects, doesn't work very well. Its a one-sided discussion. Fiction by nature is one-sided. So why not serialize stories into 30 or 60 minute segments, and distribute them as podcasts? You could even charge a subscription fee to appease the copyright junkies, $0.99 per podcast. Or $1.99 per podcast with a published version snail mailed to you. That'll keep the publishing companies happy.
These thoughts feel kinda disorganized, but I think that idea might have potential. I haven't checked the Podcasts section of the iTunes music store for anything similar though.

LG VX-4400 Review

These ratings are out of 5.
Sound quality: 1. I can hear the person on the other end, and they do sound slightly better than the old tin can & string, but not by much, so I figured I should at least give 1 point.
Durability: 1. The flip design of this phone makes it flimsy and weak. Does not withstand high amounts of hand-applied pressure, or teeth punctures.
Reception: 0. This phone drops more calls than a B-52 drops bombs.
Overall rating: -1. I'd recommend this to no one, and the designers at LG should be fired. And the QA people, for letting such a piece of junk out onto the market. And Verizon. All of Verizon should be fired too.

Mayhem in Henrico

On Tuesday morning, August 16, 2005, chaos broke loose in Henrico county, Virginia. I won't recap the story here, you can read it yourself. I will however, quote a few bits I find particularly horrendous.

A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.

Blandine Alexander, 33, said one woman standing in front of her was so desperate to retain her place in line that she urinated on herself.

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him. "They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said. [Incidentally, he was one of the lucky 1,000]

I'm not sure exactly how to respond to an event like this. Obviously the mob is to blame for the panicked stampeding. Though certainly the county should have changed their sale tactic once they saw that there were over 1,000 people in line. One article estimated the people count at 12,000. Twelve thousand! You'd think the county officials would've been able to reason this one through... "hmm, we've got 12,000 people, in a frenzy, waiting outside to squeeze through a narrow gate, and they all want these laptops, which we have 1,000 of." A bit of simple math will tell you that things will go horribly amiss unless you attempt to control this. Tickets, a raffle, any simple method of filtering people out based on a random selection process.
Now my punishment: all 1,000 people will have their laptops taken away. The $50,000 that the county took in from them will be used to pay off damages done to people like the old guy. Any remaining money will be donated to a local charity organization. The laptops will be donated to local under-funded school districts, where children who truly need the computers to aid in their learning process can use them. The woman who demanded two laptops because her stroller was destroyed should be tried and imprisoned for child neglect. And all 12,000 people who stood in line will be sent straight to bed without supper.

Do you serve coffee?

I think, that from now on, every time I enter a coffee shop, my first question will be "Hi, do you still serve coffee?". One day, I just know it, I'll get the answer I dread above anything else: "Oh, no sir, we don't serve coffee any more. We just serve { freddos OR frappaccinos OR frappes ) and carmel lattes." That will also be the day I will define "going postal" in a coffee context.
I am so incredibly sick and tired of all the stupid blended ice coffee smoothies... when will this god awful trend of liking-the-image-of-drinking-coffee-but-too-wimpy-to-actually-drink-coffee end? I'd say 75% of the people that walk into my store say something along these lines: "Hi, I want something cold. And sweet. I don't really like coffee." My gut reaction is "Sir or ma'am, do you realize you walked into a coffee shop? We sell coffee here. Coldstone is two stores down the way. They sell cold and sweet things. They even have a "coffee latte" flavor that tastes nothing like coffee." Of course, my reaction is one of bouncy pleasantness: "Well we have iced mochas and carmel lattes and freddos which are sweetened smoothie type things." Of course, every time I say this I die a little more.
I'm immensely offended that Peet's has jumped onto the high-sugar-injection-mask-the-coffee bandwagon. That's what stood it apart from Starbuck's, and now its just another wanna-be. Its a corporate chain, chasing after market share, busy alienating their hardcore customers in favor of those with a trend-sense and sweet tooth.
So much for working for a cool, small, local artisan coffee business. "Do you want whip cream on that?"

I hate summer

The last few weeks our A/C at work has been "on the fritz". Its a pretty weeny A/C; because if its been on for longer than a few hours at a time, it keeps on running, but doesn't really do much to cool down the air any more. We'd survive by turning the A/C off, and opening the front door of the store. That would allow the A/C unit to cool off, and we'd get some fresher air from outside, often with a breeze. It worked pretty well, we managed to keep the store at about 75, going up to 77 or so on hot days.
So we told the maintenance group about it, and their response was "oh well your employees are probably screwing around with it." They put a new thermostat on, because their oh-so-informed conclusion was that us employees (who have nothing better to do at work than fuck around with a stupid A/C control panel) broke the thermostat. And part of their conclusion was to lock the control panel so us ruffians won't touch it. Now that we can touch it, and the A/C unit is (obviously) still broken, we can't turn it off to help it cool off. So now it just sits there and runs all day, effectively doing nothing. So now the store temperature starts out at about 77 in the early morning, and slowly rises to a baking 87 - 88 degrees in the afternoon. And this is towards the back of the store. The bar, where the urns, the boiling water unit, and the espresso machine are, is probably in the low 90s. Obviously, not the best working conditions for people who are constantly moving and handling 160 degree+ beverages.
Great solution maintenance company. You've sure showed us ruffians who's in charge of the A/C. Now would you please fix the real problem, because I really think the employees are starting to slowly go insane.