Author: Jason Doucette

The new OS X.2 mail app’s junk mail filter continues to mystify me. It’s the kind of thing that makes me glad I don’t have an assistant to screen my calls and mail at work, because I’d keep having meetings with wealthy but down on their luck relatives of Nigerian diplomats and my project team would get original electric scooters (which I’m told is the best gift this year, after Omaha steaks) in response to their urgent concerns about release dates. If I listen carefully, I can almost hear the coin flip before the app decides if a message is junk or not. It’s entertaining, but I don’t see myself taking it out of training mode any time soon.

The other thing that’s bugging me about mail isn’t really mail’s fault, although the filtering is contributing. I used to share the same mail program with AngelA, and I used to check my mail from work. Since that time, I’ve migrated my mail to the new (still unnamed) G4, with a dedicated user account, and I’ve 100% stopped using the internet at work for my sordid personal uses, but I used to have my mail excluded from the automatic check, so I only got mail when I asked for it. With the new setup, I get my mail every five minutes, which I like, because I often get messages from my home telling me that the kitchen’s on fire, but it’s like every time I see I have a message, I check it out, it’s spam, I delete it, and 10.3 seconds after I get back to work, I have another message waiting. Let’s say I wait a while before checking it. No other messages will arrive until I check the last one, go back to work, and wait 10.3 seconds. It’s like the spammers know I’m there. I have images turned off, so I suspect they have an X10 camera in my home.

You may think this is paranoia, but that’s reserved for my dreams. Last night I was arrested by the military in Kingston, Ontario for using my wireless office phone. They put me on the Kingston subway (two cars long!) and took me to military prison, where I got an internet connection and instructions to take 5 anti-motion sickness pills a day, with promises of severe beatings if I didn’t comply. I was very upset about this, because I’d miss the Led Zepplin concert. Huh? The dream I had before that was much more violent.

To fuel your own strange and wonderful imagination, charter a jet and get to the here + now gallery tonight for the Belief System opening. AngelA’s got some animal rights art up. Details here.

Here’s an analogy of how work went today:

Someone: There’s something wrong with the air freshener you made for my car. I put it in and now the car doesn’t go anywhere.

Me: Ok, let’s take a look.

(many minutes of investigation)

Me: Dude, you have four flat tires and you filled the gas tank with mushroom soup.

Someone: No I didn’t. That’s not true.

(many more minutes of explaining exactly what a flat tire is and why it’s bad, ditto for the soup)

Someone: Ok, I’ll fix that.

(more minutes…)

Someone: Ok, it’s working now.

Me: Hold on, the car’s running, but it looks like there’s fire blasting out of the tail pipe.

Someone: No, the odometer’s going forward. It’s ok.

Me: No, really, there’s something else going on. We need to take a look, but I have to take care of something. I’ll be back.

Someone: (sends mass email announcing that the car is in tip top condition.)

I really really wish CTI developers were in as much demand as video games are, so I could be like Gord and say what’s really on my mind.

This wouldn’t be HT if I didn’t rant about copyright law once in awhile. This article talks about how retailers are planning on dealing with the upcoming increased levy on recordable media:

In an attempt to create more awareness retailers in the CCFDA will inform consumers how much levy they paid on their bills, with in-store displays and on their Web sites.

“Our job is to tell customers where their money is going. If we can bring the price of these products down we will do it. It is in our best interest to have the best prices in town,” said Kevin Layden, president of Best Buy/Future Shop Canada.

Sounds kind of cool, but I don’t imagine they’ll mention in their displays that this levy gives Canadians the right to make as many copies as they like of CDs (provided they’re not for distribution), which happen to be for sale in aisle 10. One way or another, we’re getting screwed, and not in a Wrigglesworth Crescent kind of way.

My new favourite street in the world is Wrigglesworth Crescent. It’s in Mississauga somewhere. It sounds dirty, especially as a Crescent. You know those things where your porn star name is your first pet’s name and your mother’s maiden name (so your porn name would be something like “Spot Jones”)? What kind of name uses your street name? Just wondering…

From the Canon S450 driver for OS X readme:

BJ Printer Driver

• This printer driver cannot be shared with other printers by the network.
• This driver does not support the banner and custom paper printing supported by the Mac OS 9 printer driver.
• This driver does not support the Photo Optimizer PRO, Simulate Illustration, and Monochrome Effects functions supported by Mac OS 9.
• This driver does not display the low ink warning and BJ cartridge mismatch error that are displayed by the Mac OS 9 printer driver.
• The print queue button in Print Center malfunctions dpending on the click timing.
• The print position may deviate or the scaling function may malfunction depending on the type of application software.
• When an application that runs in the Classic environment is used, communication with the printer could fail. If this problem arises, cancel Classic in [Classic] in [System Configuration]. If the same problem persists, disconnect the USB cable and then reconnect it.
• When making settings in the [Page Setup] dialog box, be sure to select your BJ printer model from [Format for]. If you select any other printer model, printing could fail.

BJ Printer Utility

• When an application that runs in the Classic environment is used, the BJ printer utility does not run normally.
• If this problem arises, cancel Classic in [Classic] in [System Configuration]. The BJ printer utility will run normally.
• If the printer model is not displayed in the printer list even after Classic is canceled, power the printer off and on again or disconnect the USB cable and then reconnect it.

It’s almost like the team that wrote the OS 9 driver had to write the readme for the team that wrote the OS X driver. Not that I’d really call it much of a driver, if the readme is any indication… The original has trouble printing from Freehand (and apparently Word, but I haven’t tried), so if this will fix that, I’ll call it a win. I never print anyway, so it’s mostly academic. Still, bastards.

…And they didn’t even put the text in pretty HTML so I could just slap it in. Bastards.

I was almost ready to make vacation plans after reading this article which claims that “Washed-up thongs are common on Queensland [Australia] beaches, leading to other collections such as a thong tree at Cowley Beach and a thong pole on Yorke Island.“, but then I saw the photo on this page, and nevermind. I guess I can see why some people think they’re uncomfortable. And yeah, I search Google News for lots of things.

Today’s fortune cookie was “your emotional nature is strong and emotional”.

Since I only visit 6 or 7 sites regularly, I finally started putting them in the toolbar of my browser. I found myself listing them by the names of the people who run them. I guess it’s just because blogs have so much of the creator in them. I mean, you don’t say “I’m going to visit 138 Smith St.”, you say “I’m going to Bob’s place”. Then again, it could just be a bid to save space on the taskbar. I used to just type the links in, but some mornings I’m not too coherent. How do you organize your links?

On a semi but not really related note, does anyone know a web page that only works on Mac browsers, but not by design, just because it wasn’t tested? I don’t know if that can be done, and I hit a fair number of unintentially PC only sites yesterday, so I’m curious.

As with most things, I forgot to post this link the other day: Bigfoot was a hoax. Or maybe the voices wanted me to forget….

I’ve had two days in a row where I didn’t get to what I wanted to do, namely, finish the VP beta cycle. I need to bring it live on a day where I’ll be around to deal with problems, and with the holiday season, I’m running out of days like those. Hopefully soon, there’s lots of other stuff I’d like to do.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten a few neat technical issues resolved. I finally uploaded the firmware update for my Airport, and lo and behold, it can connect directly with Rogers Cable now. It was a semi-hunch that lead to surprise and elation. No more going through a second cable router (which doesn’t support AppleTalk). My wireless machines are on the same network as my wired machines, and everyone’s getting promiscuous. Or everything will, when I pick up a new hub. For now I’ve got a crossover cable hooking the G4 up, which leaves Sammy out in the cold. Now I’ll be pining for that gigabit Ethernet stuff…

I also fixed my Palm’s busted screen. I found a refurbished model for $100, which means I scored an extra cradle and some spare parts. I transplanted the screen to the old unit so I didn’t even have to transfer data, and now I’m pretty much set. I don’t see what the big deal is about iCal and iSync right now, but maybe they’ll come along eventually. Who knows.

I did a bit of reading during my slack time. I was looking for something different, so I picked up the first volumes of Transmetropolitan and The Invisibles. Both were ok, and I’ll probably try volume 2. By coincidence, Zed posted a link to a lengthy Grant Morrison interview, which had its ups and downs. It was worth slugging through to page 10 where he comments on how The Matrix was supposed to lead society to something bigger: “clothes should have gone tight – hair should have gone short. But all the kids are too obese.” That’s going to linger in my head. Did McDonald’s and Frito-Lay ruin everything?