Adam's Blog

This is what's wrong with Microsoft. I saw that Microsoft Expression beta was released for Mac. I thought to myself, "which one is Expression again?" So I checked it out. After checking out the website, you tell me -- WTF does this program do? click on the pic for an enlarged view This is terrible web design. Not only do I not know what the product does, I'm supposed to know which edition to click on to find out. Instead, I said "screw it" and I'm not going to bother with this thing. Microsoft is so out of touch with technologists it's crazy.

Last night I saw Rush in concert. More to come on that, but they played a song from their 1981 album, "Moving Pictures," called Witch Hunt. Witch Hunt is one of my favorite songs and has not appeared live in many years. Last night I had a chance to re-listen to Neil Peart's lyrics that I've had memorized for so long I stopped hearing their meaning. Read them now and see how appropriate they are in 2007 America. The night is black, without a moon. The air is thick and still. The vigilantes gather on the lonely torchlit hill. Features distorted in the flickering light, faces are twisted and grotesque. Silent and stern in the sweltering night, the mob moves like demons possesed. Quiet in conscience, calm in their right, confident their ways are best. The righteous rise with burning eyes of hatred and ill-will. Madmen fed on fear and lies to beat and burn and kill. They say there are strangers who threaten us: our immigrants and infidels. They say there is strangeness to danger us in our theatres and bookstore shelves. Those who know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves! Quick to judge,...

I've written and currently maintain several websites, each of which has a different following and a different size readership. But lately, I've been thinking about a new project I have in mind. Of the big "tech" websites that I visit each day, chiefly amongst them Reddit, Digg, OSNews, and Slashdot, I feel each is flawed in its design. Digg and Reddit are completely community controlled. While this is a great idea in general, it rarely works out the way intended. Like so many user generated content sites, Digg and Reddit are filled with nonsense comments, inside jokes, and are completely overrun by groupthink. So, on any given day, lately at least, you'll find the same tone: pro-Apple, pro-Ron Paul and Mike Gravel, pro-Atheist, pro-Ubuntu, anti-Republican, anti-Religion, anti-Microsoft, and lately, anti-Israel. And as these topics continue to appear, the opposers leave as new members are encouraged and recruited creating a vicious circle. The groupthink becomes worse and it becomes a community massively stroking itself. I'm not even saying I disagree with those stances, but I don't think there is any point whatsoever to a group of like-minded nimrods modding each other up over and over for comments like "Happy cat says...

I've been watching this show "America's Got Talent, which is the stateside version of "Britain's Got Talent," which spawned this cute little entertainer, Connie, who sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow and this guy, who sings opera. "Cocky" seems to be the prevailing "cool" attitude these days, but while most find it a merely a turn-off, some will regret their cockiness forever, like this idiot bicyclist. Every heard of this band "The Wrong Trousers?" Here's their gem cover of Video Killed the Radio Star and a short concert that includes a great Flaming Lips cover. Two dudes play the theme to Beverly Hills 90210 on the same guitar, which is kinda cool. And lastly, the vanishing doorway, which is a fantastic prank.

If you browser around the internet, particularly on tech sites, you'll find person after person praising Apple for releasing Safari 3.0.1 a mere 3 days after releasing the first public beta on Monday. At first, I thought - here we go! First off, it's a BETA release, and I *expect* it to be updated. Secondly, people are going crazy about Apple's fast reaction time, but I wondered if it were Microsoft, would the reaction be the same, or would it be "They release a product and it takes less than 24 hours to find a major vulnerability!?" But alas, I ran Software Update and updated my Safari/Win install at work to 3.0.1. Whereas 3.0 was a major disappointment at work - fonts were a mess, pages had major problems with rendering, and the browser would crash randomly - a few minutes after install I can tell you that 3.0.1, on my computer at least, is a HUGE leap forward. The browser hasn't crashed on me outside of one bug that existed before (maximizing on the slave screen of a dual-monitor setup), the thing is SO much better! Safari is far from usable as my main browser. The thing is feature-barren,...

Several months ago, I posted an article suggesting that Apple should port Safari to Windows. Many disagreed with me, and I was lambasted on OSNews for the same. A few months later, here are are, and lo and behold, we are using Safari on Windows. I was partly right, my logic was mostly sound. I suggested that Safari should exist for two reasons: firstly, that web developers could test their apps in Safari, and secondly, to lure more users into comfort with the Mac UI and Mac apps. So, score me 50%. There is one reason and one reason only for Safari on Windows - so developers can test their stuff in Safari. Now, it turns out it's less for web sites and web apps than it is for iPhone development, but nonetheless, iPhone apps are, in fact, Safari apps. Thus, web developers can now test their sites in Safari, whether for iPhone or not. The interesting thing here is that Apple is in a very unique position, and I hope they don't pull a Microsoft. Apple can now introduce new proprietary hooks into their iPhone. Let's say they "extend" javascript or CSS or even HTML itself. What if they...

Last night was the final episode of The Sopranos. Unlike many, I actually watched the Sopranos since the very first episode in 1999, when I lived with my fraternity brother Max. Here is my review, do not read on if you haven't seen it, this review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

Many of you know that my browser of choice on OS X is Camino. Camino is the Gecko rendering engine (the same base as Firefox, Seamonkey, and others) aqua-fied to run as a antive Mac app. While Firefox runs well on Mac, it still uses XUL to draw its widgets, so it doesn't really fit in with the look and feel of real Mac apps. Enter Camino, which not only looks and feels like Mac, but tastes like it too by behaving like a real Mac app. Aqua widgets, proper alert boxes, a prefs panel that fits the theme. Camino is a fantastic browser and runs extremely well and is very stable. And today they release 1.5 - a pretty major milestone - and reveal their new website. Congrats to the Camino team.

It's very rare that a single picture speaks to me profoundly. This is one.

For those of you subscribed via RSS, you're going to find a surprise very shortly. I integrated the "sethadam1.com link blog" into the feedburner RSS feed for sethadam1.com. If you are using a locally hosted copy of my RSS, you will still get only sethadam1.com items. So just to review, here are your options: sethadam1.com main RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/firsttube sethadam1.com blog only: http://feeds.feedburner.com/firsttubedotcom sethadam1.com link blog only: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ftlinks I highly recommend the main feed - I don't add too many links on a daily basis and I try to be very particular about the ones I do add. I will be updating the local RSS to redirect to the feedburner feeds within the next few weeks.