Everyone needs a compliment every now and then
Posted on May 20, 2005
Filed Under Misc. | Leave a Comment
I’m beyond overwhelmed these days. I have 11 projects in various degrees of “active.” The girls have both taken turns being sick this week. Eric started his consulting gig so he’s almost as busy during the day as I am. The movers are coming tomorrow to do a preliminary pack-up (and take furniture to my sister-in-law in Washington, DC, a couch to my mother and pick up a dining room hutch that my friend in Weston is giving us). I’m nowhere near ready. Eric is out getting dinner at Boston Market because we’ve already gotten rid of so much in our freezer and I’m not in the mood to cook anything that’s in there.
So it brought a smile to my face when I read the comment on [this entry](http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/macintosh/apple_store_wes.php):
>It is great to see that their stores are doing well. I hope that you enjoy the new store in Menlo Park. Thanks for the news, good post.
It wasn’t the comment that got me, it was the URL: [The Complimenting Commenter.](http://www.momathome.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?__mode=red;id=2366) The site is exactly what it proclaims: “I am going around the blogosphere leaving Complimentary Comments. For Kindness sake.” It’s not spam, the comments are all legitimate and nothing is being sold. If Paula Abdul had a blog, this might be it.
Finding someone who’s nice just for the sake of being nice doesn’t happen all that often. Thanks. 
Apple Store Westchester
Posted on May 19, 2005
Filed Under Macintosh | 1 Comment
Caught this at [AppleInsider](http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1080) this morning:
>The company currently categorizes its existing stores into five distinct footprints: mini-small, mini-large, 30-foot, 45-foot, and flagship. The 30 and 45-foot designations pertain to the approximate width of the storefronts, while flagships are the largest of stores and minis, well, the smallest. However, in about a month Apple will launch a completely new Apple store footprint at the Westchester Mall in White Plains, New York.
>For nearly three years, the Westchester Mall — arguably one of the highest class shopping centers in the US — has housed an Apple retail store. But the ordinary 30-foot second-floor location, Apple Store #37 (or R061), often ranks amongst the top 10 US-based Apple store locations in terms of volume sales; it will soon give way to a store double its size.
Sure, figures, just as we’re leaving.
This is the Apple Store that’s currently closest to us, about 20 minutes away. (It will be the [Menlo Park one](http://www.apple.com/retail/menlopark/map/) after we move). It doesn’t surprise me that the Westchester store does very well in sales. It isn’t about the class of the shoppers, it’s about the class of the people who work at that store. I’ve been to many Apple Stores in the past few years and the ones who work at the Westchester store are among the most knowledgeable, friendly and helpful of any that I’ve experienced. Apple Store employees are nice in general, but the ones in that store deliver that little extra that has made every shopping/repair visit I’ve made a pleasant one.
Passing the musical baton
Posted on May 17, 2005
Filed Under Misc. | 2 Comments
[Erik](http://www.nslog.com) [has passed me](http://nslog.com/archives/2005/05/17/passing_the_musical_baton.php) the “musical baton” that’s going around, so here goes.
**Total size of music files on my computer:** 10.27 GB
**The last CD I bought was:** I asked Erik if this meant last physical CD or last full album download (legal, of course). He didn’t know, so I’ll give both answers:
* Last “real” CD purchased: “Rent (1996 Original Broadway Cast)” (Amazon link, not found on iTMS)
* Last complete downloaded album (had to scroll down a bit in “Purchased Music” to find it): [“The Spirit Room” by Michelle Branch](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1093087)
**Song playing right now in iTunes:** Judi is listening to [“Borrowed Angels”](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=53102136&selectedItemId=53102209) by [Kristin Chenoweth](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=53102136&selectedItemId=53102209) from the album [“As I Am”](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=53102136) (2005). Bought it earlier this evening. $5.91 left in the gift certificate [Eric](http://www.9to5andotherwise.com) got me for Mother’s Day. Considering going for the new [Cold Play](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPreorder?id=63212508) album pre-order with bonus songs. Maybe.
**Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me.** Yes, my music tastes are mostly mellow…drives Eric nuts. I have a lot of rock in my collection, mostly classic stuff, but these are the ones that touch me and therefore get a lot of play:
* [Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5132693&selectedItemId=5132645) by [Green Day](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5132693&selectedItemId=5132645) from [“Nimrod”](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=5132693&selectedItemId=5132645)
* [Haven't We Been Here Before?](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=94143&selectedItemId=94139) by [Styx](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=94143&selectedItemId=94139) from [“Kilroy Was Here”](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=94143&selectedItemId=94139)
* [Close Your Eyes by Christophe Beck from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Album”](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00001R3O1/momathomedesi-20) (via Amazon)
* [Dance with My Father](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1536417&selectedItemId=1505208) by [Luther Vandross](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1536417&selectedItemId=1505208) from [“Dance with My Father”](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=1536417&selectedItemId=1505208) (like, duh!)
* [On My Own](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=2955411&selectedItemId=2955374) by [Frances Ruffelle](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=2955411&selectedItemId=2955374) from [“Les Miserables (Original Broadway Cast)”](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=2955411&selectedItemId=2955374)
**Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:**
* [Eric Sohn](http://www.9to5andotherwise.com)
* [Eric Albert](http://www.outofcheese.org)
* [Wendy](http://www.livejournal.com/users/ww1614/)
* [Phillip Zannini](http://macphilly.com/wordpress/index.php?cat=1)
* [Pam Kock](http://wayswriter.com/waysblog.html)
FontMatch
Posted on May 17, 2005
Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments
I picked up a copy of the new [Layers Magazine](http://www.layersmagazine.com) today. It’s the new magazine that replaces *Mac Design*. Same magazine, but now they can have screen shots from the Mac and PC, concentrating on the industry-standard applications rather than the operating system. Hmmm…sounds like a good idea. Wonder why I didn’t think of that? 
Anyway, there was a blurb in there, may have been an ad, about [FontMatch](http://www.stretchedout.com/products/fontmatch.php). This software looks great in theory:
>How many times have you been searching for a font, looking through the font books one page at a time, or just knowing that it’s on your computer somewhere, but you cannot remember its name? Maybe a customer gave you a business card and asked you to match it, or maybe you saw a sample of the perfect typeface somewhere and wanted to create something similar… it’s time consuming, isn’t it? Not to mention frustrating.
Amen. I have quite a collection of fonts and often I can “see” the font I want in my head but can’t remember the name. Or I have to match a particular font and I can’t remember the name. Or I want to use a font that “feels like” another font and I don’t own the inspiration font. Even though I have my fonts organized by style sets in [Font Agent Pro](http://www.insidersoftware.com) it still takes a while to go through over 8000 fonts (yes, I’m a font packrat) and find the right one.
First ouch…I can’t stand software pages that don’t have the price on the main information page. Don’t make me click the “buy now” button to see that your software is $49.95. Yikes! That’s pretty steep for a one-trick pony. But I like the premise so I go against personal policy and download the demo for software I likely won’t buy.
Second ouch…demos should be functional.
They’re kidding, right? I’m supposed to try out software to see if identifies a font accurately and the demo won’t tell me what the top results are? What is the point? The demo should work perfectly a few times and not be crippled in this way. At worst, the demo should *limit* results to the top 10 matches. I guess they know it’s a one-trick pony too and if it worked completely, folks would use it for one project, get their answer and never come back. Thems the chance you take when you price your software at $49.95, half the price of a pro font manager alone which serves a far greater purpose. This software is also available for Windows and I *know* most XP users won’t go for $49.95 font matching software. $30 seems to be threshold for utilities like this, and even that’s pushing it.
To see what happens anyway, ([Eric](http://www.9to5andotherwise.com) calls this “blogger fodder”) I went to [MyFonts](http://www.myfonts.com) and found a font I know I own. I took a screen shot of a letter, saved it as a GIF and then dropped it on FontMatch. I’m skeptical that it can find an exact match based on a single letter. No matter what’s in the image you feed it, it expects a single character only. Certain letters are characteristic of a font, others aren’t. [What The Font](http://www.whatthefont.com) performs a similar service but its results are best when you give it a few letters to examine (I get best results when I sent it 3 or 4 letters to look at). FontMatch took about 15 minutes to load all my fonts, then another 30 or so minutes on my dual G5 to compare the sample to my collection. I hope the loading is a one-time thing. *(later update: When I quit the application, an “unloading fonts…” box came up and as long as it took to load the fonts it’s now taking to unload them…and it’s taking 70% CPU to do it! Give me a break. I can’t get this dog to the trash fast enough.)*
So does it work? Not sure, since as promised, it doesn’t reveal the top 10 choices. However, the correct font was listed at choice #21, with 85.9% probability. The top choice, whatever it is, was only 87%. This was a screen shot of a font right off a font site, not a lot of confidence in how it would identify the font in a logo scanned off a business card. Guess I’ll never find out at $49.95.
Banning hate?
Posted on May 17, 2005
Filed Under Life | 4 Comments
From [Blog Herald](http://www.blogherald.com/2005/05/16/sixapart-attacked-over-hate-speech/):
>Blog company SixApart is under fire following attempts by a Jewish blogger to have a user banned from TypePad after posting anti-semetic remarks on his blog.
A blogger [asked](http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2005/05/typepad_condone.html) Six Apart (developers and hosts of his blog at [TypePad](http://www.typepad.com)) to globally ban a commenter who had made multiple vile, anti-semetic comment entries on his blog.
I read and re-read his post, and the comments. And I have to be honest here…I agree with 6A. As a Jew and a human being, it’s painful. I don’t like reading what the commenter has to say. But 6A is right when they say “These types of things are taken care of at a site-level, that’s why we give you the tools to make that happen.” The commenter never made a specific threat (that I could assertain). There’s a difference between saying, “I wish you were dead” and “I will kill you.” One is the expression of an opinion, the other is a threat.
If you write on a controversial topic (such as religion or politics), you have to expect some thorns thrown your way. I see it coming when I post about gay marriage (which I support) or NCLB (which I don’t). If the opposition writes in such a way that it’s difficult for you to read and you don’t want to be a platform to spread their message, you have the option to turn comments off or edit comments on a post by post basis. You can even take your toys and go play somewhere else. That’s the beauty of blogs…your house, your rules. 6A is walking a slippery slope if they start banning based on content. What if I post about NCLB and someone who strongly believes that Bush’s education policy is the greatest thing? Should I be banned from posting on all blogs based on my opinion, however offensive it may be to some? Remember, I’m not talking about threats or statements of illegal action. Someone can have the opinion that genocide is a good thing. I may disagree, I may shout at the top of my voice against what they are saying and what they believe. I certainly wouldn’t let this blog serve as a platform for that person to spread their opinion. But I wouldn’t ask for or expect a global ban.
This all goes back to why I think “moral values” [is a scary](http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/life/why_am_i_scared.php) platform to hang a country’s politics on. It’s not easy to stand your ground while at the same time allowing everything that turns your stomach to stand their ground too. What if the authority figure that you think you trust to do the right thing decides that *you’re* the one that has to go based on your opinion? Better to never give them that power to begin with.
