Refresh
Some may call it a Reboot - but I prefer to call this our refresh.
Yes, I realize that it isn’t quite May 1st yet. But on May 1st I plan to be fully immersed in Tiger that not even I will know what day or time it is.
Speaking of Tiger, Chris and I are really looking forward to its release. We were talking last night and were evaluating the amount of time we spent in front of our Macintoshes. He and I both spend pretty much every waking hour at our Macs. How much more so will we be glued to the LCD when Tiger is installed.
So, a new TUG.n and a new Mac OS X. Delicious to the max!
Throttle your RSS
Lately I’ve been messing with feeds, feeds and more feeds. Doing so has led me to thinking somewhat differently about how feeds are created, distributed and used. I’ll have gobs of goodies to write up on this topic on the 9rules network blog, but for now I have a request to make of all blog authors that choose to use RSS (or Atom).
Yesterday was a terribly busy day for me. I had tons of work to get done, and X-cart was giving me some major issues for reasons still not known. That being said I was unable to open NetNewsWire at all yesterday to read my “dailies”. Opening NNW today I was greeted with roughly 550 unread items to peruse. Upon further examination I figured out that, even with 550 new items to read, I missed out on a few posts. How can this be?
Most blog authors have their RSS items set to feed 10 or 20 of the latest posts on their blog. If, though, you post more than 10 or 20 articles to your Weblog in between the time I have to open my feed reader of choice, I’m up-the-creek. In other words I will miss those posts which are no longer available in the feed.
How can we correct this issue? Providing an RSS feed of all of your posts would do the trick, but that just isn’t feasible. Technically there is no way for you, as a blog author, to know how often your readers will check your feed for new items. However, you can make a pretty good guess at how best to serve your readers by knowing how many posts you typically post to your blog. On TUG.n, we try to post at least a few times a week, so having our RSS feed show the last 10 post would keep you up-to-date for at least 5 weeks worth of posts. So you will now need to decide how big of a time span you will offer your readers between updates. Almost all CMSs (WordPress, Moveabletype, Typepad) give you the ability to change this in your preferences/options somewhere.
So “throttle your RSS” feed according to the frequency of your posts. This will allow busy people like me to keep up-to-date with everything you write. Thanks in advance.
Halo 2 update and maps
I finally got a few minutes last night to explore 2 out of the 4 new Halo 2 maps that Bungie release this last Monday. If you haven’t logged into Halo 2 on Xbox Live in the last 2 weeks or so, you have missed 2 milestones in the saga that is Halo 2.
Halo 2.1 (err 1.1)
Did anyone else find the fact that they called the point release for Halo 2 1.1? I mean, I get it - but using 2.1 would have seemed much more fitting. Oh well.
First, on the 18th of April was a point-release update to the core of Halo 2. This update contained some major changes in the weaponry. No, there are no new weapons, but many of the weapons have been tweaked to perform more like their real world counterparts. For instance, the guns which you may have thought were too powerful, have now been throttled back slightly. Some of the guns, like the Battlerifle, were not powerful enough - so they got a much needed boost in power.
Melee attacks also were restructured, in that it now only takes a few well placed blows to kill your opponent. Further tweaking for melees can be seen by the weapon that you hold while striking your opponent. For instance, if you are wielding a Brute shot, a melee means almost certain death for your opponent - do to the size of the “butt” of the gun.
On April 25th, 4 maps were released - 2 of which being free. The cheap skate that I am, I only downloaded 2 out of the 4 maps. The 2 free maps are called Containment and Warlock.
Containment
Containment is a rather large map. If I’m not mistaken, its the biggest Halo 2 map yet (please consider the fact that I have no seen the 2 pay-maps). This level is great for capture the flag, assault, juggernaut and snipers.
I had only played this map for about 30 minutes when one of the guys I was playing with figured out how to get “on top” of the level. Bungie still making the same “mistakes” it appears.
Warlock
Warlock is extremely small, but dark. This can be compared to Midship. Great for Fast Assault and Multi-flag CTF. I have yet to play this map in a matchmaking game though - for some reason the new maps do not seem to come up in rotation too much yet.
Overall, the update and maps are a welcomed upgrade from the original Halo 2 released in November 2004. Can you believe that Halo 2 was released in November of last year?
The 2 maps, which are now $5.99 to download - will be available for free starting June 28th 2005. I’ll wait till then to get them.
Tshirt status
The Riiise tshirt campaign has been a huge success. I will be closing the ability to purchase this tshirt at 12-noon EST on April 26th 2005 (aka tomorrow). So please get your orders in prior to that.
Are you waiting in line?
If you are waiting in line for the very first showing of Star Wars: Episode III - please jot down what you’re planning to do in the comments. Or, if you have a Flickr account, you can join the “In line for Star Wars” group which I just started the other day. Post your photos, suggest fun things to do in line, or even jot down stories of how you were one of the first people in line for Star Wars Episode IV in 1977. We’d love to hear it all.
After the Episode III premier, we will have photos up of our entire crew wearing the Riiise Tshirts, as well as the activities we were able to pull off without getting arrested.
Also, if we can get things lined up correctly - Chris (co-Author of TUG.n) - will be posting photos live from “the line” with his cellphone camera which will post directly to his Flickr account. More on this as we nail the process down.
Automator
The suspense over Tiger is just killing me! Every day my Mac boots up in the morning at 8:30am sharp (scheduled). When that happens my email gets downloaded, the latest happenings on the Weblogs are also downloaded - and ultimately the daily news awaits my arrival to my desk not 5 minutes later. Lately though, I’ve been greeted with an added treat - multiple IMs from my fellow Mac enthusiasts stating the number of days until Tiger is released.
Its been asked, which feature am I most anticipating? And answer this question I shall. By far, I am looking forward to Automator. This isn’t to say that I’m nearly breaking into a sweat just thinking about Tiger’s other features such as Safari 2.0, Mail, Spotlight, Dashboard and iChat AV. The list of new features is staggering, but yet I await 1 with more excitement over all others. Why?
Its simple really. Out of all the new features scheduled for release on April 29th, Automator will change the way I work. Sure Spotlight is going to make it much easier to find things. Granted that Dashboard is going to give me instant app bliss at the touch of a hot key, and Safari 2.0 will make my browsing experience much better - but all of these apps combined will not be able to save me as much time as Automator.
Mac OS has had always had ways to automate various tasks. Why, just the simple fact that my computer boots up and starts up my most used applications, downloading the latest content, and awaiting my arrival should give you an idea that Mac OS is prone for automation. And that’s without even using a single Applescript.
Applescript is a fairly simple language which allows for easily scripting your OS for many tasks. In fact, with the Applescript menu installed - countless avenues for getting things accomplished open up. Currently I only use a modest amount of Apple-scripting to get my daily tasks completed - but I will tell you this - that will change.
The general purpose of Automator is very similar to any Apple application. Apple’s applications, generally, are constructed to make difficult tasks easy for even the novice user. Granted, there are some frills within Apple’s apps that make developers leap for joy - but overall the applications are just incredibly usable.
Automator will make Applescripting easy. It will also lead its way to more creative ways of using Applescript that you would have seen in the past.
Nearly every Applescript that I’ve come across has been simple in nature. There are iTunes Applescripts, iPhoto Applescripts and so on and so on. The scripts generally take mundane tasks and automate them. For example, there are Applescripts for iTunes specifically designed to take your iTunes playlist and create an HTML page with Artist, song title and Album information on it. A very good use of Applescript, and typing that information yourself would be extremely tedious.
However, as we can see from the very first demo of Automator - the very existance of this Application will lend itself to use Applescript for more than just mundane task automation. The demo, which was given by the King of Applescript Sal Soghoian, showed the way that Sal took family photos from his email, created an iPhoto library which then created a slideshow, which then exported that slideshow to DVD. To do this via Applescript today, might seem a little daunting. I know that I would never think to use Applescript for something as complex as Sal did on a demo right in front of our eyes with Automator.
Expect Automator to change the way you use your Mac, and the way you get your work done. Countless hours will be saved using this app, and hopefully a majority of them are my own.
Riiise
Update: These shirts are no longer available.
The excitement for the upcoming Star Wars finale (kinda) is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. I’m really quite amazed at how my brain has the ability to separate the excitement for Tiger, and the excitement for Star Wars. I have no idea how this works, but I marvel at this each and every day.
Anyways, my friends and I are starting to gather - in body and spirit - towards this last Star Wars film. Preparation has already begun for waiting in line to see the next film. Yeah, there are some true-bloods out there that are already in-line waiting for this movie. Heck, some of them were so excited they didn’t even line up at the right theatre!
Each year we try to wear something original to the premier. This year is no different. This year we’re getting Tshirts made as a tribute to the teaser trailer. If you watch the teaser trailer, you will hear Lord Sidious say: “Lord Vader”, “Yes Master?” Darth’s reply and utlimately: “Riiise!” by Sidious. When I first viewed the trailer on it’s day of release, that line sent chills down my spine.
The Tshirts look like this:
If you would like to purchase one of these shirts, I will have about 10 or 15 left over after my friends get done with picking out their shirts from our order. So, you will know that you will have a unique Tshirt for the Star Wars premier.
Unfortunately, since I am not making 200 of these things, the price per shirt is around $22.00. This will include shipping to your house via USPS. I will make sure that these shirts arrive at your door before the May 19th 12:01am showing.
If you want a shirt, send $22.00 plus the size you want via Paypal.
Update: Orders are coming in, and I just want to stress that you include your mailing address when paying with Paypal. You’d have to actually specify that you wouldn’t want to send it along, but I just want to make sure there are no hiccups getting these babies out. Thanks for all the orders so far!
Update 2: Some were asking for a way to denote size (duh!) and also to leave special shipping instructions. Both have been added to the links. Buy your custom tees now!
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