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It was recently discovered that iPhones and iPads track your location (or perhaps, the locations of cell towers & wifi points near you, to split hairs), and store it in a file that is backed up to your computer upon syncing. This generated much tut-tutting and fretting about the potential danger of that (i.e., none, unless someone takes possession of your phone and/or computer, and then you likely have other problems).

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I got a new black MacBook last week. However, this will not be one of those photo tours of the first unboxing and ritual bowing before the new Apple product. Heck, I’ve owned it five days and have yet to take one photo of it.

I am not one of those MacPeople.

You know, the ones who believe Apple can do no wrong … until they slightly change the appearance of the Dock or Menubar in Leopard, and then, well, you’d think The End Is Near.

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Dear Gmail,

I’m sorry to have to write you publicly like this, but you have left me little choice, and I have a couple of bones to pick with you.

1. Look in the bottom right corner of your logo. It says “BETA.” We won’t get into the argument that being in “BETA” since April of 2004 represents an underlying fear of commitment. We’ll just say that an app that presents itself as in “BETA,” even for 3.5 years, ought to have clear and simple ways for their “BETA” users to provide feedback about problems with the “BETA” application. You do not. I looked and looked, clicked and clicked. The closest thing I could find was a form for “Got a feature suggestion for Gmail?” So I suggested several things, including get out of “BETA” in less than one presidential term, or have an “easy to find” form for submitting problems.

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This is a remixing of a template set, Web Writer, that began quite some time ago. In September of 2004, there were very few templates available for Textpattern, which was on Release Candidate 1 back then. I made a few available, including Web Writer v1 and Web Writer v2. Later Alexandra used it as the basis for an updated Textpattern 4.0.x template named Coffee Bar [demo].

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I’ve had the new computer a little over a month, and I told you it’s Not Your Daddy’s Dell, as well as wrote about loading it up with My Essential Software, 2007. And since then, judging by this site, I went away for a while.

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I woke up today, walked into the living room, and proceeded to laugh non-stop for about five minutes. Quite literally.

On my desk was a box with a note on top from Susan that said: “Bitch and Ye Shall Receive.” The box was from Macromedia, delivered overnight and at my door at 8:30am, one would assume as a result of my little rant yesterday about the missing manual.

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Gosh, was it only 3 months ago that I wondered “if there’s any way software manufacturers could possibly give me less physical product for my hard earned dollars”? Yes, it was. And it has happened again, magnified by about a factor of four.

I finally got around to ordering the upgrade to Macromedia Studio 8. Download it? No thanks, I like to get the whole hard copy package, so I plopped down my $447.50 to have it brought to my door. Yeah, it’s a steep upgrade.

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I know I’m fighting a trend here, and in some ways, a good one, but I’m wondering if there’s any way software manufacturers could possibly give me less physical product for my hard earned dollars. You know, real physical things I can wrap my fingers around or lay my eyes upon. Given recent experience, I don’t think they can, but they’ve surprised me before.

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As Dean says, “What’s in a number?” For several months now, interest has been heightened and poking sticks have been wielded over the offical release of Textpattern. But it turns out there will be no Textpattern 1.0.

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It sounds a bit clichéd to ask “what did we do before Google?” But recent events caused me to pause and wonder … how did they ooze into my life as much as they have?

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