At the beginning of my trip to this year's WWDC, my third-generation iPod suffered a severe failure, apparently leaving me music-free for the entire week. Luckily, someone pointed me to Senuti, and I detailed how it helped save the week (from a musical perspective, that is).
This morning, while doing a bit of cleaning and recycling in the computer room, I came across something that I'd totally forgotten I had. So I thought I'd have a bit of fun with it, and see if anyone can figure out exactly what it is. Here's what it looks like:
Based on the visual, here are some clues...
So the standing question is: exactly what is printed on that long roll of expensive thermal paper? If there's no progress in guessing an answer over the next day or so, I'll post some more clues. (Peter, James, and Pat aren't allowed to comment, as they already know the answer. If you're reading this, guys, keep your mouths shut! :) )
-rob.
From the local news:
...an Isuzu Rodeo SUV was headed east...when it made an illegal right turn and ran into a Tri-Met bus. The impact threw the Isuzu into a Ford Focus and a Chrysler minivan. The force of the impact with the minivan threw a passenger in Rodeo, 36-year-old Hoang Do, through the windshield and into the street.
Police say as Do lay bleeding on the street, a passerby, 66-year-old Marvin Lewis, stole his wallet from his pocket. But police were arriving on the scene, spotted the crime, and apprehended Lewis.
Lewis told KOIN News Six that he didn't really mean to take Do's wallet, and would have given it back to him if police hadn't interfered. Lewis was back in his North Portland home Sunday night.
Amazing. The police "interfered" with his plans to return the wallet? (The ejected passenger, by the way, is expected to fully recover from serious head injuries. Seat belts...they're not just for decoration!)
As I'm getting ready to head home this afternoon, and with the events of yesterday, I started to wonder where this was all heading...
Air travel, circa 2008
Good morning, Mr. Smith, and thank you for choosing Luxo Air. Please place your checked baggage on the conveyor, and head to gate 23. You're all checked in.
'Thanks for the help!'
You're quite welcome, enjoy the trip!
A couple nights ago, a major hurricane (Hurricane Kylie; she's been around for about three years now) blew through Sodor, destroying all of the town's rail lines--the Thomas the Tank Engine railway system was going to be out of commission until time could be secured for a "from the ground up" rebuilding. I finally found the time yesterday, after Hurricane Kylie was asleep for the night, to tackle the project.
As with any good rebuilding project, this one started with more destruction (tearing down the remaining track) and organization (sorting the track pieces by size and shape). It was while sorting that I noticed I had some magical pieces of track. I had placed two curved segments side-by-side, and noticed that they were different lengths:
The magic bit was that the track segments' lengths changed if I simply moved the pieces around, as you can see in this movie. Notice that when the top piece is moved to the bottom, it magically lengthens, and then shortens again when returned to its original position. I found this quite astonishing, and so set out to investigate further...
Update: It's identified! Thanks to the commenters who quickly identified the font as Textile. This was a font Apple distributed with OS 9, but never OS X. When I last upgraded my machine, I didn't bother to reinstall Classic, since I never used it. However, I did keep a disk image of Classic around on a backup, so I'm now set once again with Textile--thanks again for the fast response!
About five years ago, I created a project for an event at my wife's employer. What started as something small and simple grew into (of course) something large and complex. But the event was a success, so the efforts were worth it.
Fast forward five years, and the company would love it if I could update the presentation to cover their latest five years. No problem, I think, as I've managed to keep all the project files intact over the years. But I can't say the same for my Macs. I believe I've upgraded twice since I originally created the project (in iMovie2, as a reference point). And whatever font it is I used in the project has long since vanished.
Now that I'm updating it, however, I need to know what font I used--I'm sure it's on a disk around here somewhere, but I have no idea what it might be called. Since I'm far from a font expert, I figured I'd ask for some assistance. How about it? Anyone have any thoughts on what font family I might have used?
Thanks!
After just under a month on the road (Portland to Austin to Memphis to Austin to Portland), my black MacBook is now back in my possession! The good news: so far, the power adapter isn't overheating. The bad news: it still makes more noise than I would consider "normal," though it's not audible from as great a distance as before.
What's truly strange is what they replaced:
I guess I understand the battery replacement...but why the screen and bezel? Perhaps the connection between the screen and the machine itself was somehow causing an issue? Or maybe a tech's screwdriver slipped and gouged the original screen :).
In any event, it's back, and based on the first hour or so of usage (downloading 2.52GB (well, it feels like that much!) of system updates), the overheating problem seems to be resolved. Hooray!
Update: After letting the machine run for a good two hours, I felt the power brick, and it seemed notably cooler than before the fixes. To confirm, I hooked up the USB temperature probe, and found that the temperature now maxes out around 94F. That's a good 30+ degrees cooler than before. So while it's still warm to the touch, I no longer fear a meltdown if I leave it too close to something made of plastic.
Given that everyone at Macworld is publicly reachable via a web email form, I get a lot of random questions in my inbox.
By a wide margin, the two most popular recent questions have been "which Mac should I buy," and "when should I buy it?" After answering the question about 2,500 times (or so it seems), I decided to write up my usual responses for easy future reference. There was some good conversation on the topic in the forums as well; this has become one of the threads to which I point those contemplating the switch.
The recently-released OS X 10.4.7 update included a not-announced Dashboard widget update feature which silently checks to make sure that your widgets are valid. I agreed with the need for such a feature, but wrote about how I think Apple could have implemented things a bit better.
Over the last week or so, I've been watching a fair bit of the Tour de France on OLN TV. When OLN launched a few years back, it was The Outdoor Life Network. As their programming expanded, they shortened that (thankfully) to OLN TV. But as of September, as they've seemingly been telling me every 10 minutes for several hours each morning, they're becoming Versus. Quoting from their press release:
Versus was the name that consistently rose to the top in focus group after focus group. Sports fans felt it was not only strong, but that it conveyed an idea and an energy that suggests a network experience centered on competition.
While I certainly don't disagree with the fact that the name suggests a network experience focused on competition, I'm not so sure that makes it a great name for a network. Personally, I think it just sounds silly, and it will make watercooler conversations more difficult. "Hey, did you catch that NHL game on Versus last night?"..."Is Versus going to show the Tour today?" Maybe it's just me, but Versus as a network name just seems wrong, somehow.
What's really sad is that they probably spent a fair bit of money on the research and focus groups to find their new identity. Add in the costs of rebranding all your merchandise, print ads, and online graphics, and we're talking about a huge investment of capital. And all of that for Versus? If we're going to use full English words, why not Compete or Battle or Strive or Match?
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I prefer network names that aren't full-on words. Give me ABC, NBC, ESPN, TNT, etc. over Discovery (though as words go, that one's pretty good), Lifetime, or Biography. Why? I'm not sure, other than they're easier to work into conversation without worrying about context, and they're much quicker to type :).
I guess I'll have to adjust, but Versus will always probably always be OLN around our home. And speaking of OLN, I have to get back to the time trial now!
