→ Spitting Preacher
Scott Hodge tells it like it is. Hilarious.
Quick Tip: Unsaved Documents In OS X
Just discovered this nice little tip the other day while working with multiple documents in Coda. Whenever you are editing a document using a program such as TextEdit, Photoshop or Coda, if the document has changes that have not been saved you will notice a small dark dot in the middle of the red document close button / bubble in the upper left of the window. As soon as you save that document the dot vanishes.
After noticing this it quickly becomes part of your sub-conscious workflow - yet another one of those tiny little visual reminder clues that you never really notice until that split second where you wonder if you’ve saved the latest version or not.
I’m not sure if this feature is new to Leopard or has always been a part of OS X, but I’ve been using macs for years and just noticed it for the first time.
Another quick tip from Sean Sperte, for a quick new tab in Safari:
To create a new, blank tab: Double-click in the tab area.
Grungy Gateway Arch.
Original photo taken by Jesse J. Anderson in St. Louis, MO - May, 2008.
→ Patterns for Designing a Reputation System
A short article with some nice diagrams concerning the different levels of social competition in a network.
Though it seems to be aimed at social sites such as digg.com, it actually reminds me a lot of how Xbox Live for Xbox 360 works - with its achievement system, leaderboards, ranked gameplay, reputation and gamerscore.
Greatness is not glory, which clearly belongs to God. Think of greatness as reflected glory: just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, a man who achieves something for God’s kingdom is simply reflecting God’s glory to the world. When we follow the example of Jesus, we reflect his glory to all.
We Christians must stop treating the pursuit of greatness as an affliction.
iPhone 2.0 Software Update
Some of the changes you will see between current iPhone software and the big iPhone 2.0 software update due out early July (most likely prior to the iPhone 3G release date - July 11).
Mass email move and delete, thank you thank you thank you. Every once in awhile my home Comcast connection craps out and kills my spam-filtering solution - the fantastic SpamSieve running on my home Mac Mini. Over the course of the day my iPhone fills up with spam and I have to delete each stinking message one at a time. So, freaking, annoying. This is a feature welcomed with open arms.
In addition, you will now be able to view all Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, and now Powerpoint) and iWork documents (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). Image attachment will now be able to be downloaded local to your iPhone into your photo gallery. In fact…
Contacts Searching
Not something that I will use much, I find scrolling with the letters in the sidebar works just fine, but for business type with hundreds upon hundreds of contacts may find this to be helpful, simply begin typing their name in the top search box to quickly narrow down your contact.
Download Image
Not only will you be able to download images from email attachments, but you will also be able to download images from the web to your iPhone. How this will be accomplished is not completely clear, but I imagine it only works if you have an image as the url (i.e. http://www.website.com/image1.jpg) and using the + icon already in Safari.
Calculator
Most notable is the addition of the scientific calculator, which is displayed with a simple landscape rotation of the phone. Though this is not something I have any sort of interest in, I have seen and heard a lot of people who have really wanted this and it’s great to see Apple respond to that.
In addition to the scientific calculator, the calculator itself (as well as the icon) have gotten a facelift. Gone are the cute bubbly round buttons and the aqua blue faceplate, now replaced with a more mature look with squared buttons (though with rounded edges) and neutral colors.
App Store
Finally - real games for the iPhone! And not the crappy lot you see on most cell phones, easily a contender with DS and PSP.
I cannot wait to get my hands on some of these apps… Gruber said it best:
The physical phone is not the story. A year from now, the iPhone 3G will be replaced by another new model. The platform is the story. Platforms have staying power, and, once entrenched, are very hard to displace
iPhone 3G Only Software Features
Some of the new software features will only be available with the new iPhone 3G.
Talk And Download At The Same Time
With the 3G network you will be able to receive phone calls and even talk on the phone at the same time as downloading emails, browsing the web, or watching YouTube videos. One of my biggest current iPhone annoyances is missing calls from someone (usually my wife) because I was messing around on Hahlo or something.
Geo Tag Your Photos
Obviously the GPS integrates really nicely with the gorgeous Google Maps and gives you pinpoint accurate directions, but one of the under-mentioned additions of GPS is geo-tagging. One growing trend among photographers today is the ability to geo-tag their photos with pinpoint accuracy - with iPhone 3G all photos take will be automatically geo-tagged.
I hope there is also a way to have it store data for syncing up with another camera later - perhaps there will be an application for this in the new App Store?
Ahh, the infinite possibilities of the App Store…
Beware of kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 302
Still not sure what happened, but after some Google research I believe it had something to do with the Leopard OS X 10.5.3 update, my echofaith.com .htaccess file, and some bad luck.
When trying to load echofaith.com I got a blank page in Firefox and in Safari I received this error message:
Safari can’t open the page.
Safari can’t open the page “http://echofaith.com/”. The error was: “Operation could not be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 302.)” (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork:302) Please choose Report Bugs to Apple from the Safari menu, note the error number, and describe what you did before you saw this message.
My .htaccess file had a couple of different entries in it, one for pushing all of my old Wordpress styled permalinks to my new Expression Engine styled permalinks, and the other was my Class B No-WWW certification code - which I hope to be able to fix soon.
Hopefully, it’s fixed for good now.
Amazing Christian Musician - Noah Gundersen
My brother David plays backup bass for several different local bands and just gave me a link for a musician he’s been playing a few shows with. I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to hear.
I took a listen to Moss On A Rolling Stone, Winter, and The Current State Of Things and was completely blown away. The level carried through every song I listened to - introspective but with a completely new voice and perspective. The quality of song-writing is phenomenal, I’m amazed that he is still unsigned.
Noah Gunderson (myspace.com)
The christian music scene has exploded in the past decade which has been awesome, but also has led to a lot of cookie cutter bands. Noah Gundersen bucks that trend with a voice of truth and honest, heartfelt lyrics. If you live in the Seattle area I highly recommend you check out one of his shows to support him.
The Current State Of Things:
Because all that I’ve been living for is a better way to make it
And all that I’ve been living for is a dreamWith the magazines and television calling out my name
All that I want lately is a change.
Upcoming New Releases In June 2008
There’s a lot of great stuff coming out this next month so I thought I would highlight all the upcoming releases that I find noteworthy or otherwise interesting. I’m thinking of possibly making this a regular monthly feature, but time will tell on that one if I can continue to keep up.
Movie Release Dates
Kung Fu Panda
June 6 — Looks pretty funny, it’s not going to be an instant classic or anything, but it does look pretty funny. Jack black for the win.
You Don’t Mess With Zohan
June 6 — The more I see previews for this the more I want to actually see it. Stupid? Yes. Hilarious? Absolutely.
The Happening
June 13 — The latest film from the master, M. Night Shyamalan. Team him up with Marky Mark (Wahlberg) and you shoot have one heck of a movie.
The Incredible Hulk
June 13 — The next film in the Marvel universe, setting up for The Avengers. If Ironman is any sort of indication on what this studio can put out there, this is going to be one heck of a sweet film. Which really needs to be, so we can forget about that horrible abomination of a film the original Hulk was. And with Edward Norton, how can you go wrong?
Get Smart
June 20 — Steve Carell was made for this movie, Anne Hathaway and The Rock also look they are going to be a good fit for this summer comedy.
The Love Guru
June 20 — The whole idea sounds incredibly stupid (much like Zohan), but I must admit - I laughed my butt off watching the latest trailer.
Wall-E
June 27 — Pixar’s latest soon-to-be-classic. R2-D2 meets Short Circuit’s “Johnny 5” all alone in space.
Wanted
June 27 — Slingshotting bullets into a curve with a whip of your pistol? Oh heck yes. Has the potential to re-invent gun combat the way the Matrix and Gun-Kata from Equilibrium have. Bring it on.
Music Release Dates
The Sound, The Steel EP by The Wedding
June 1 — I’m a big fan of The Wedding’s first album and I’m hoping their latest release can bring back some of the magic that made them great in the first place.
Summer by Jon Foreman
June 10 — I’ve listened to bits and pieces of all 4 of the EPs and I’m excited to hear the final installment. I’ve held off buying them so I can get all 4 in a super discounted pack somewhere =) (penny-pincher)
The Devil, You + Me by The Notwist
June 17 — I absolutely love their Neon Golden album which I found randomly when looking for more Postal Service type music.
Video Game Release Date
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Xbox 360 & Wii)
June 3 — I’m a big fan of the LEGO Star Wars games and I’m very excited to see this winning formula applied to another classic trilogy I grew up with. If anything this might be a game I can get my wife to play with me.
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People (Wii)
June 9 — Will this be a good game? I do not know. But I do know my wife and I will laugh the entire time we play it.
Consider this: Apple’s retail market share is 14 percent, and two-thirds for PCs costing $1,000 or more.
Should I repeat those numbers? The share data is for first-quarter brick-and-mortar stores, as tabulated by the NPD Group. Apple’s market share is but one measure of success. Sales growth is way up, while Windows desktop PC sales are way down.
