Apparently some of the guys from For All The Drifters (well known to all of you GC folks) have started a new project called Paper Route and have an EP out. This is probably old news, but it is new to me!

Eclipse has become a decent PHP editor since the last time I tried it for that purpose. Install the PDT project and its dependencies within Eclipse. PDT features code completion for both PHP functions and all user defined classes/variables/functions contained in the project (or defined on the “include path”). It also provides and easy one-click method of uploading all of your changes to a synchronized directory on your webserver via FTP.

Last December I posted about the NHL not offering free, live NHL video coverage on the internet. Well, this season it appears that Yahoo! has come to the rescue. Yahoo! Sports is offering is offering free game coverage for various games. I can’t figure out how they decide which games to cover, but at least they ar showing some. Hopefully they will be showing some Avs games before too long…in the meantime I’ll be enjoying the games they are showing.

I was watching the news this morning and heard a piece on cell phone “bling.” Upscale brands are customizing phones for people who want (and can afford) to show off with their cell phones to the highest degree. One cell phone company representative stated “What fun is it to be rich if you don’t have a way to show it off?” That seems to be the epitome of American culture today… Appear richer, smarter, and more popular and enjoy the thought that everyone is jealous. I guess that is what “the pursuit of happiness” has become.

I like to sort my CDs alphabetically by artist, then chronologically with the newest album by that artist first. Prior to iTunes 7 the closest I could come was to sort by artist, which would leave the albums to be sorted alphabetically. In iTunes 7 you can click on the album column header and switch between album, album by artist, and album by year. You can also click on the arrow to switch between ascending and descending order. Unfortunately it doesn’t remember the sort direction when going back to Artist as my primary sort. So the closest I can come is alphabetically by artist, then ascending chronological order within artist.

Also, iTunes finally has gapless playback!

Yep, it has finally come to market albeit without the SpaceBalls branding. And you can choose from a variety of flavors including “Original” which “tastes like air.” I might try “Big Ox” if it weren’t for the surplus of air all around me.

If you notice that the trackpad does not respond to you when you make short sudden movements, turn off “Accidental Input detection.” It can be frustrating when playing Starcraft or working in Photoshop if you don’t.

The MacBook (or any of the Intel Macs) in combination with Parallels Desktop is the ultimate web development machine. Now when creating a website, it is possible to preview it in every major browser (IE, Mozilla/Firefox/Camino, and Safari). In addition, if developing for a Windows server you can run it locally. With the MacBook you can take your development on the road without giving up anything except maybe some screen real-estate.

It appears that you can run IE 6 through WINE on OS X as well, although it is a bit buggy at the moment according to reports. That could be a good option for folks who don’t want to spend the money for Parallels and/or Windows.

I have my MacBook (1.83Ghz Core Duo). I am already putting it through its paces, installing Windows in Parallels Desktop, all of the OS updates, listening to shared music from my tower, and browsing the web. It acted a little choppy while the windows installer was copying files (at the same time as OS X was updating itself). It is very fast otherwise. I’ll try to post more info in the next couple days.

after surviving 5 years of constant usage, 4 years of college classes, various travels (including across the pond to England), and a few falls, my trusty PowerBook G4 (500 Mhz) has finally succumbed to all of the use and abuse. The infamous “Spinning Beach Ball” appeared and froze completely. It managed to reboot to the point of claiming a “DMA Failure” (Direct Memory Access). Replacing the hard drive cable (suggested on the MacNN forum) was not able to revive it. Tomorrow a new MacBook will head my way… More details on the MacBook in the near future.