Dogs!
I love dogs. That’s why we don’t have one. We live in an apartment, and spend long hours away from home. It wouldn’t be humane to have one. Meanwhile, we have my brother’s dog, Churchill (a boxer) 
If you have a dog, or are thinking of getting one, here’s good info about it. On the last page of the article there are some links to guides on choosing which kind of dog is the best for your lifestyle. And don’t forget, be it a dog or a cat, before buying one, why don’t you go by your local animal shelter? Millions of dogs and cats die each year because there aren’t enough people wanting them.
The Great Focus Heist
All programmers and developers, repeat slowly after me: – The USER chooses which window or program has the focus, not the system, or any application.
There’s nothing more annoying than being in the middle of something, click here, click there, and suddenly a window (or whole program) comes up, and you end up clicking what you shouldn’t, and many times you have to find out what you did.
This happens all the time, both in Mac OS X and in Windows XP. On the Mac, some programs do the right thing by bouncing the application icon, stating “There’s something you need to attend to!” and on Windows some applications do the same by flashing the application button on the task bar.
But you only need one bad apple (no pun intended) to ruin your whole experience.
Many times is the system itself that throws windows and requesters into focus. In Mac OS X, for instance, if you were connected to a network drive, and then lose the connection, a pop-up will, erm, pop-up asking you if you want to disconnect the volume in question, which is very annoying. In Windows, although things are getting better, there are still lots of applications (and the system itself) that steal your focus from you.
It should be illegal for your focus to be stolen!!
Other uses for your iPod
If you’re like me, and don’t have a zillion songs on your iPod, with the newer 30GB and 60GB models there’s lot of space left. Instead of wasting that space, I bought a nifty little backup program, called Synchronize! X Plus, from Qdea. For $29.90 it’s cheap for the peace of mind it brings.
If you think about it, your iPod (or another DAP) is a perfect place for your backup. It’s always with you, and you usually don’t pack it in the same suitcase/bag as your laptop, so if one gets stolen you have the other.
There are several things I like about Synchronize! X Plus:
- It’s very simple, you just choose if you want to backup or synchronize a certain folder (and sub-folders)
- It’s very fast
- It creates an accessible copy of your files, not archived, that you can just copy back to another computer without any special software
They have a Pro version that creates a bootable copy of your disk, which in my case isn’t necessary, I rather just have a copy of my home directory.
Finding Serenity
If the cancelation of the Joss Whedon show Firefly left a hollow space in your heart (or at least in your TV schedule), Finding Serenity might be of some help. It’s a collection of essays written by all kinds of people on the various aspects of the show, including the interplay of characters, the cultural backdrop, basically dissecting the whole Firefly ‘verse. As it was written before the Serenity movie came out it deals with the show only.
If you are (were?) a fan of the Firefly/Serenity universe, it does give you a good insight into what was intelligent adult television, and why Fox decided to cancel it. It includes a pick of the favorite moments (and behind the scenes) by actress Jewel Staite, who played Kaylee on the show and on the movie.
