Keeping Your Elements’ Kids in Line with Offspring by Alex Bischoff and published over at A List Apart is an excellent article introducing a Javascript library for mimicking CSS pseudo classes such as :first-child, :last-child, and so forth.
An excellent resource considering the number of browsers (including Firefox) that have spotty support for some of these selectors.
Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko (trans. Andrew Bromfield) is excellent. Buy it. Read it. Love it. I should have picked this book up months ago when I first noticed it, but I was leery because I keep getting burned by good-looking fantasy and urban fantasy that turns out to be total crap.
Bastard publishers have been dressing up some really cheap whores of books in diamond dresses. But Nightwatch is a classy Russian lady.
(By the way, I’m going to start using Amazon.com affiliate links for products; I hate the thought of ads on Beckism.com — it’s never had them — but hosting doesn’t pay for itself.)
The day after Thanksgiving, I stumbled across a deal that seemed too good to be true: Office 2004 had a $100 rebate that day only, and if you bought any version of Office 2004 you could get Office 2008 for the price of shipping. With Amazon markdowns and the student/home version of Office 2004, that came out to around $40 for Office 2008.
I only need Microsoft Office every now and again, so I couldn’t pass this up. My girlfriend has never owned Office for Mac (and also doesn’t need it very often), so I had someone to give the extraneous 2004 install to; life seemed perfect.
At the time, the promotional materials claimed that Office 2008 would arrive sometime in early February. I figured they wouldn’t be prioritizing these copies of Office (they’re certainly not getting any profit out of them), so this seemed reasonable.
But like all things having to do with ridiculously good deals and rebates, things haven’t been quite so easy.
The other day, I got an absolute jewel of an email (excerpted because for most of the email, you really shouldn’t care):
Thank you for your recent order. The product listed below is currently out of stock. […] The new expected ship date for your product is 2/25/2008.
If you still wish to receive this product, if available by the new expected ship date shown above, please let us know by responding to this e-mail and placing an X in front of option #1 below […] If you do not respond to this e-mail or contact our customer service department within 30 days, your order will be cancelled and a refund issued, if applicable.
If you wish to receive the product when it becomes available, even if after the expected ship date, you may update your order by responding to this e-mail and placing an X in front of option #2 below.
Delayed shipping date? Okay, I can handle that. I use Office maybe once a week, if that. It’s mostly future compatibility that I’m worried about, and so far no clients have been sending me .docx files that Pages can’t handle.
But the latter two paragraphs are real jewels. Although I have ordered the product, filed all the forms correctly, and paid them the cost of shipping, I still need to actively respond in order for them to actually send me my copy of Office 2008. Not only that, but if I’m in a hurry and just “check” the first option, they’ll only send the product to me if they meet the Feb. 25th shipping date.
When I asked my Magic 8 ball whether they’d make the Feb. 25th shipping date, it’s response was “Don’t be such a fucking idiot.”
I certainly don’t think I’m entitled to all that much in this particular transaction with Microsoft (after all, it’s practically theft; I’m not sure why they created the deal in the first place), but the underhanded ways corporations try to exploit people’s inattention to detail is still pretty sickening to me. What do they gain by this, anyway? A small amount of positive press when the deal was around, and then the hope that they can trick the people who took advantage of it into passively opting out by forgetting to respond to an email?
Microsoft, consider this a bit of bad press to try and offset anything you originally gained. If you’re going to delay the shipping date, fine. Regardless of whether the product is actually back-ordered, I can understand why you’d want to deliver it to the people who are forking over several hundred dollars first. But cheap tricks like the above email aren’t doing you any favors.
Then again, since when did Microsoft care about what people think? I really should stop expecting to be treated like a human when I’m interacting with Microsoft. It just brings me grief.
Update: it finally arrived! See my opinion of Office 2008 now that I’ve got it in my grubby little mitts.
For whatever reason my girlfriend was a big anime fan growing up, and the other day she decided to revisit her formative years by watching Sailor Moon. Sometime during college she had obtained a season or two of Sailor Moon that weren’t aired in the U.S. (some guy in Canada evidently translated them and then sold them on the sly), so she pops one in and starts watching. Since my desk is right next to the TV, I’ve been halfway watching some of them, too.
I knew that anime could get pretty strange, but I wasn’t prepared. This is my favorite part:
Feminine-looking man (part of a trio of rock stars) wanders onto the scene of a teacher-cum-villain trying to discipline his erstwhile student. Rock star is justifiably pissed off, and decides to do something about it. Fortunately, he has the ability to turn into a Sailor Soldier.
I don’t know how familiar you are with the series, but from what I can gather, Sailor Soldiers are all female. So the dude transforms into a lady. A rather skimpily clad lady. Whatever, I can dig it.
And then he performs his (that is, her) super-power:
If you’re not sure you’re reading that subtitle right, feel free to click the image for a bigger look. And it’s not a funny translation, either. All the super-powers are English words, subtitled because the Japanese don’t really have the same sounds in their repetoire (“Sta Gentarue Utaras!”).
That Sailor Moon follows this up with a Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss seems like a bit of an anticlimax. Once you’ve been hit in the teeth by the gentle uterus, a honeymoon therapy kiss is a walk in the park.
Beckism.com has gone a long time without regular updates. Why? Because it was bloated and bored me. This needed to change. And now it has.
I thought I’d just remove the cruft from the navigation, but it wasn’t enough. Beckism.com needed a bit more attitude. A better layout. The word “gallimaufry” in the sidebar. In short, the design equivalent of a defibrillation.
I invite you to explore the newly revitalized Beckism.com, and keep an eye on this space for opinions, web design tips/tricks/rants, Mac software commentary, short fiction, Dirt Man, and all other things Ian Beck. Hey, you could even subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s good for the soul.
Enjoy the new design, and please let me know if you find anything that doesn’t quite work! This was a big update, so I may well have broken things without realizing it.
A little while ago Freelance Switch posted an article with what they consider to be the 35 absolutely essential Mac apps list. There’s some good apps in the list, but I’ve got a lot of problems with it. For one thing, some of the software they list hasn’t even been released (in fact, Things doesn’t even have a beta version available yet), so how can they rank it as essential? For another, some of it actually isn’t very good (Sticky Windows, I’m looking at you). Then there’s the fact that they completely missed some of the standbys that freelancers might find useful, failed to note which apps have the same functionality, and the list completely lacks any sort of useful organization. Party foul, Freelance Switch.
Personally, I think the list could be a lot better. For instance, it could look more like this:
Categories: Blogosphere, General Computing, Images, Internet, Web Design, Workflow, Writing, Extraneous, and Runners Up
ecto –or– MarsEdit
If you’re going to edit a blog using desktop software, there’s only really two games in town. Ecto is better for WYSIWYG; MarsEdit is more streamlined. I used to use ecto a lot, but lately I switched to MarsEdit (this post was written in MarsEdit).
NewFire
A lot of people swear by NetNewsWire, but I’ve long been a fan of NewsFire. An RSS reader doesn’t need to give me everything and the kitchen sink; I’d prefer it to give me the my RSS feeds, preferably with style and flair. NewsFire does so.
DragThing
If you want something with more power and usefulness than the Dock, but aren’t into keyboard launchers, then DragThing is the thing for you. It’s a beautiful app with a long and glorious history. Go download and enjoy.
MenuCalendarClock for iCal
An amazingly useful little replacement for the system clock. Even if you don’t register it, the free features will make your life quite a lot happier when it comes to dates and times.
PathFinder
A far better file browser than the Finder could ever dream of being. This would be the second item on the list if it were organized from most to least essential. Although not everyone will use the extra features PathFinder offers, you owe it to yourself to try it.
Sticky Notes
Sticky Notes is a lot like Apple’s Stickies program, except that it doesn’t suck. It’s just as useful for jotting down quick notes, but what I mainly use the program for is its ability to attach sticky notes to any application so that you only see the sticky when that application is running and active.
Acorn –or– Pixelmator
Both Acorn and Pixelmator are cheap and efficient image editors. Personally, I prefer Acorn because its interface is by far the best I’ve found in image editing software, but if you need more power but without the cost of Photoshop, then Pixelmator may serve you better.
Lineform
Lineform is vector illustration for people who don’t have boatloads of cash lying around to blow on Adobe Illustrator. I highly recommend it.
ViewIt
When you need to find the perfect photo from a huge selection, ViewIt is an excellent solution. Efficient and streamlined, ViewIt is exactly the software to turn to when you need to dig through any number of photos or images.
xScope
xScope shows you exactly what is going on on-screen. Measure, align, zoom in; xScope gives you instant access to the pixels that make it all happen. Indispensable if you are doing any sort of design work for the screen.
1Passwd
1Passwd manages passwords and auto-fills forms across all the major browsers. If you work in multiple browsers (for example, doing web design), 1Passwd can save you crazy amounts of time and brainspace.
Adium
When you get over the bubbles in iChat and want to sit down and do some actual chatting, Adium is ready for you. One of the best pieces of open source software for Mac. (Although if you do have a long-term relationship with the bubbles, you may enjoy Chax instead.)
Linkinus
If you need or want to use IRC, then you need Linkinus. There’s simply no better IRC client for the Mac. If you don’t use IRC, then it’s a lot less essential.
OmniWeb
Safari is alright, but if you want the speed and sleekness of Safari with some of the advanced features you can get from the larger and more unwieldy Firefox, then OmniWeb is the answer. And once you’ve tasted snapshot tabs, there’s no turning back.
Color Schemer Studio
Color Schemer Studio is a must-have if you ever have to deal with color schemes. Whether you need to sample on-screen color, take a quick spin on the color wheel, or just export a color scheme as HTML for a client to approve, you’ll find that Color Schemer Studio makes it all incredibly simple.
CSSEdit
If you do web design, then you need CSSEdit. There is no excuse for not leveraging the fantastic power of this program. Its live previews and ability to override remote style sheets with local ones (allowing live editing/previewing) alone make it worth the cost of admission; add groups and the quality of its interface design and you’ll soon realize why this is one of the best applications available on the Mac today.
TextMate –or– skEdit
If you do any coding, you need a good text editor. TextMate is by far the most powerful text editor on the market, but skEdit shines when it comes to web work. Personally, I switched from skEdit to TextMate some time ago, but am eagerly awaiting skEdit 4.0, which is shaping up to be a very competitive editor. Although there are certainly many other fine text editors, these two are the creme of the crop in my experience.
Yummy FTP
Although Cyberduck is free and Transmit is more popular, Yummy FTP is easily the best FTP program on OS X. Yummy’s interface is not quite as friendly as Transmit, but if you need an FTP program that is stable, powerful, and speedy then Yummy is the way to go.
LaunchBar –or– Quicksilver
LaunchBar was the first launcher to hit the scene, and it’s still amazingly well designed. I’ve only been using it for a few months, but I’ve loved every minute. Quicksilver is really the only other decent option. It’s an amazing app, as well (I used it for quite some time before jumping ship to LaunchBar), and well worth looking into. If I had organized this list based on which app was most essential rather than thematically, these two would be the top of the list.
MailTags
MailTags adds several much-needed features to Apple’s Mail.app email client, including keyword tagging (and searching), notes, to dos, iCal integration, and much, much more. If Mail.app is part of your work, then MailTags is a necessary investment. As an added bonus, MailTags integrates with many other Mail.app compatible programs (such as iGTD and MailSteward).
OfficeTime
I’ve tried most of the time tracking and invoicing software for Mac OS X at one time or another, but have never found anything to rival OfficeTime. OfficeTime provides simple yet powerful time tracking and invoicing features without the horrific interfaces or feature bloat that mar so many similar applications.
shadowClipboard
The Mac OS X clipboard is clearly not sufficient if you work with text at all regularly. Of all the clipboard managers that I’ve tried, shadowClipboard is the one that was the easiest to use while remaining completely invisible. It also offers a very large selection of features that puts most of its competitors to shame.
Avenir –or– Scrivener
There’s a fair amount of software out there intended to help your writing, but Avenir and Scrivener are the only two in my experience that are worth using. I strongly recommend Avenir, whose annotations alone make it a fantastically helpful writing tool, but some people prefer Scrivener’s more open-ended corkboard metaphor.
Journler
Journler is, predictably enough, journaling software, but it’s also a whole lot more. Journler allows you to attach just about anything to an entry, including songs, pictures, movies, and more. I use Journler’s smart folder-based organization for storing random ideas and writing fragments.
Nisus Writer Pro
Nisus Writer Pro (and its less feature-rich cousin Nisus Writer Express) is the best word processor that I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. Fast, powerful, and with the best interface of any word processor on the market, Nisus is definitely a great way to go if you don’t need the monstrosity that is Word.
OmniOutliner
No matter what kind of work you do, you probably could benefit from the occasional list or outline, and OmniOutliner is a great tool to turn to. Omni always turns out high quality software, and OmniOutliner is probably the most universally useful of all of Omni’s software.
TextSoap
TextSoap is a unique little utility that allows you to process and modify text. Although it was originally intended mainly for cleaning up quote marks and so forth from emails, its true power lies in the ability to create regular expression-driven custom cleaners. I mainly use TextSoap to convert text into internet-friendly text (whether this means converting simple rich text styling to HTML or cleaning ugly HTML into XHTML compliant code), but thanks to its flexibility it is useful for far more than internet cleaning.
VoodooPad
VoodooPad is one of those programs that is difficult to describe but whose usefulness is evident within a few minutes of use. It stores all manner of items (text, images, PDFs, and more) in a wiki-like document, allowing you to quickly and effortlessly cross-index your thoughts and ideas.
DeskShade
From the makers of the fabulous CSSEdit comes DeskShade. DeskShade mainly covers your cluttered desktop, but also provides the ability to quickly lock your computer, play movies as desktops, and otherwise make your computer beautiful. I use DeskShade along with the fabulous Blurburger desktops to transform my desktop from hideous clutter to colorful artwork. (There is also free software that masks your desktop; I’ve never tried it because I love DeskShade too much.)
ShapeShifter
It might not be essential to everybody, but for those who aren’t such fans of Aqua for fostering their creativity (or just like to make their computer look a little more unique), ShapeShifter and its Mac theming abilities are absolutely necessary.
Some apps just weren’t going to fit on the list, but are still worth looking into. Here are the runners up:
AppZapper (and its brethren, free or otherwise)
Software that uses Spotlight to help uninstall all files related to a given application; your mileage may vary.
FileSpot
Indispensable Spotlight interface; makes complex Spotlight searches a breeze.
KeyCue
Handy program that shows you all menu shortcuts in whatever program you’re running.
SubEthaEdit
Collaborative text editing. Nowhere near as good a text editor as TextMate or skEdit, but the collaborative thing is very cool when you need it.
SuperDuper –or– CarbonCopyCloner
Excellent backup utilities that created bootable copies of your hard drive.
Xslimmer
Cleans the bloat caused by Universal programs and extra language files.
Beckism.com always seems to be the site that gets the least love from me when life gets busy. I’ve been mulling over a minor redesign of the site (which will also give me a chance to bring WordPress up to date and remove some plugins that are making managing the site difficult). Tagamac and my new job have been taking up a lot of my time, but I’m ever hopeful that making Beckism.com easier to maintain will improve things on the updating-more-frequently front. And I swear that I will write the final two episodes of the first season of Dirt Man if it kills me.