Me and my Mac

Posts Tagged ‘new’

So i bought a Netbook 10″ today…

And returned it…

This one. I bought it from a colleague for a mere 150 euros. And was really happy about it. Reason for selling: “We melted the control key on the right and it’s too small”. No big deal i thought. So i forked over the 150 euros almost instantly after seeing it boot.
The happiness continued for a while but lessened when i noticed the “backspace” and “1″ keys didn’t respond. At first i blamed Ubuntu for picking the wrong keyboard layout. But no… It appears that some keys just didn’t work. I blame the melting of the control key since the keyboard connector i directly under it. Yes i took apart the laptop to fix it. And so did a colleague who tried the same.

To no avail. So, i need to save a bunch more money to buy me another .

Secrets 0.3 (0.3.2)

New secrets have been added, head over to the plugin page for more information.

More information:
http://meandmymac.net/plugins/secrets/

Download:
http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/secrets.0.3.2.zip

A small update:
A bug preventing the plugin updates to disable is now fixed. Also the explanations on the dashboard have been improved.

Randimage 0.4

On popular request images can no optionally be linked to the post they’re in. Instead of linking to the image itself.

More information:
http://meandmymac.net/plugins/randimage/

Download:
http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/randimage.0.4.zip

So Wordpress silently approved my plugin after all!

Usually when you submit a new plugin to the repositories you get an email after a few days telling you it’s either approved and thus added or not.

If it’s approved they also send the required information to me to upload the thing and where to stick the files. I never got such an email for the last plugin, Secrets, and since it silently was removed from the “add your plugin” page i assumed it had been denied.

I saw no reason for denying my plugin so i went on to re-submit it. But got an error it was already in use… Looking up the name told me there was indeed a Secrets plugin and it bore my name…
Why didn’t they tell me!!

Anyway, without further ado, here is Secrets:
http://meandmymac.net/plugins/secrets/

A plugin to remove certain filters and actions from Wordpress or add them to it.

Currently there are only 2 “secrets” but you can submit usefull additions:
http://forum.at.meandmymac.net/forum/secrets
And with that make the plugin completely awesome.

Ha!, now everyone can see i’m not a fanboy!

Lately, starting with january 2007, it seems that i have made a 180 degrees turn from Microsoft, and Linux for that matter) to Apple.
And so should everyone at some point and level. My strong preference for Apple products has some people led to believe i turned into an biased fanboy…

None of that from now on! BEHOLD!

So, there you have it! Ultimate proof of my non-biasedness! An Ubuntu fleece jacket.
It’s warm, seems of good quality, it’s sexy and is really cheap compared to other coats/jackets.
And ofcourse it looks spiffy and not nerdy at all.

Genius is not so Brilliant… Or so it seems.

So today i was happy yo install iTunes 8. Try out the new stuff and found the new music browser a bit of a cheap knockoff from iPhoto. But otherwise a nice sight. I still prefer the list view though.

And another “huge” new thing is iTunes Genius.
Basically what it does it matching songs together based on various things and behaviours. Which all have to be uploaded to the iTunes store. Then when it is done stealing your private data and settings it compiles random lists of tunes which supposedly “sound great together”. Seemed like fun, so i went on to have my library indexed and sent that profile to the iTunes store. This took like 10 minutes.

Then i tried to make a few Genius playlists only to find out this feature seems only to work with iTunes bought tunes. Most of my music comes from imported CD’s and other sources. Thus Genius kinda didn’t work for me… Bummer!
Why can’t it index everything? THe logical explanation would be that iTunes store does assign meta data to each song and thus if it doesn’t come from the store it has no meta data to match songs to. But i think this is more of a dirty trick to lure people to buy more songs, obviously… If the system really would be as good as Steve so proudly told us it would be able to assign meta data on the fly and thus index every song submitted. But that’s just my logical thinking…

Now i’m gonna eat my pie!

A new plugin secretly arrives

It’s called secrets and is loosely based on Mac OSX’s prefpane Secrets by blacktree.
Hidden stuff in Leopard is revealed and altered with it.
My Secrets plugin does that for Wordpress.

More information:
http://meandmymac.net/plugins/secrets/

If you know of any “secrets” that would fit this plugin. Send them in on the forum! I’ll review all of them and maybe add them.

Events 1.5.3

So finally after a few days of tampering with some new features which i removed again because i sucked at concentrating… *sigh* A lot is on my mind.

Anyway, some fixes, some changes, check it out:
[new] Language field for ‘past events’ message
[change] Post event message only shows AFTER the event, not during the event
[new] For the events_list function you can now optionally specify one event
[change] the function events_page() is now events_list()
[change] Improved date setting for adding/editing events
[update] Improved MySQL queries on several parts and functions
[change] Message after event is now a textarea
[fix] Duration now shows the actual duration as expected

More information:
http://meandmymac.net/plugins/events/

Download:
http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/wp-events.1.5.3.zip

I haz bluetooth mouse!

Yes, i found a decent one! After a 3 day search. The “kensington Si670m Bluetooth Wireless Notebook Mouse”. Ha! It’s a 1000dpi thing with a rubber grip. And it looks kinda spiffy.
All be it a small mouse… it’s nice. Responsive and no connection time. Woohoo.
No dongle, no hassle. It just works. Even Steermouse detects it so i can set it’s buttons. And it works really well. But like i said it’s a small mouse so it’s not all good… Look:

As you see, it barely fits my hand, if at all. But for “not-so-much” use it’s quite alright i guess…

i can haz blootooth mouze?

Why are they extinct? It’s so unfair! i don’t want a RF dongle on my precious laptop!!
Give me back my Logitech MX1000 Bluetooth!

GRRRR!

so yea… The damn thing finally broke last night. I tossed it of the table and wouldn’t lit it’s led or charge. That combined with the lousy charger which almost never worked i decided not even to bother and throw the mouse away, it was aging anyway. And went on to buy a new Bluetooth mouse today. No such luck would come to me.

People seem to be obsessed with RF and it’s stupid sluggish slow way of working. RF is sooooo 1991. Why not use a proper Bluetooth connection. Something a computer actually has built-in these days, well macs anyway, and some PC laptops do, sometimes…

The only bluetooth mouse i found was one from Trust. A cheap brand i won’t even touch the packaging of. It was a whopping 29 euros and has “laser technology with precision pointing array for extra high definition positioning” or some other high tech rubbish. Also it was very small, not even covering the palm of my hand…

All other mice were just “wireless” which practically means RF on “fast 2.4Ghz frequencies for noise free connections”. I don’t know about you, but 2.4Ghz is bound the be trouble… Wifi uses it, DECT phones do too, Wireless TV receivers and even Microwaves all mess about with that frequency and thus most likely will interfere with each other at some point. Especially since everyone uses it…

My search continues!
Any “formed-to-your-hand” Bluetooth mouse that is larger than average. Like the Logitech MX1000 or MX510 is good to consider i guess.