When I first got a Mac, I stumbled across a program that strings up Christmas lights all around the outside of your desktop. And for the last 4 or 5 years, I’ve turned on the program at Christmas-time to help with the spirit of the season.

This year is no different. So if you too want to rock some Christmas lights: MacLamps is it. I haven’t tried it in Snow Leopard, but hopefully it has no issues. (Actually, I’m running v1.2, not even the newest 2.0. Shows what I know.)

I didn’t grow up in a house with tons of lights up, but there is certainly something comforting to me about them; maybe it’s the short days that the lights help combat in my head.

As a bonus:
I just found another program called “Sno” that drops snowflakes on your desktop (in case you want something less tacky.) The link to download it seems dead/down, so I’m mirroring the file here, as I found a copy from a messageboard circa 2002. So here that is: linky for Sno.

And now my desktop makes me look like the crazy cat woman that you work with. I’m not quite as into Christmas as perhaps the combination of these two programs might imply. Ah well.

Tis the season.

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random, yes. but does anyone know of any good mac software for file organization?

i’ve got zillions of files and would love to find a quick way to get them sorted. in my head, an interface like itunes would rock: i define a handful of tags for a file or group of files and it put them in the right places based on that criteria. ideally, i am viewing the files as a flat group — like itunes, where the path is just another metadata item, rather than having to dig through each folder to find files.

i can’t find anything of the sort. there are 100 billion tagging programs for the mac, but none that will move files based the tags. and i can’t find anything like i described above. in fact, i can’t find anything that even claims to help with file organization.

any of you ever seen anything like this?

UPDATE: digging around more (and installing some demos), it looks like leap does what i want/need. sadly, it’s 60 bucks, which is about twice what i’d like to pay for this functionality. i’ll have to play with the demo more to make sure its worth that much money before shelling out. (thought you can pay another 10 bucks and get yep as well — if i had enough pdfs to really matter.)

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Dear Apple,

My work computer changed recently, from an older MacBook to the new MacBook Pro machine. The one with the spiffy new black buttoned keyboard.

Right, the one where you changed the layout of the function keys across the top, so that volume controls no longer are on the left by the screen intensity, but are over on the right now, by the eject button. The same keyboard where you also removed the ‘enter’ key (though I might be the only person who used it). Oh and the same one where you got rid of the number keypad (though I’m not the guy who used that so I don’t really care).

But could you please please have a stern talking to with the person who laid out the USB ports on the side? Cause it sucks. There are 2 and they are next to each other. Right next to each other. So next to each other that I can’t use both at the same time with 90% of my USB items. I actually had to go to Fry’s and buy a USB extender cord. Which sucks and barely solves the problem because it is almost too wide itself.

I don’t mean to complain, but since I have this site here, I might as well. And if you are buying one of these machines, either get some sort of extender/hub or make sure you only own 1 USB device.

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i think i want to found the church of alan moore – be a moorist.  his notion of afterlife is extremely comforting to me: 

we might get this life forever — you’ll have to read the book to get the whole thing, but I tend to think that it’s a pretty watertight theory: That you don’t get reincarnated as somebody else, but that you get reincarnated as yourself, over and over again. You have the same thoughts, and you never know you’ve done this [before], except for those little moments of déjà vu.

—

i’m a little addicted to the website freerice.  it’s a really basic vocabulary type quiz, but for every word you get right, the site donates 20 grains of rice to an underprivileged country through the UN world food program.  how cool is that?

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This man has robot girlfriends.

Where to begin?

1. I need to set him up with this girl.
2. Eric and I have been texting for weeks about him being a pleasurebot. Don’t ask. But yes, more robot sex.
3. Someone, perhaps my boss several months ago, and I were discussing teledildonics. Which might be one of the most fun words to say. Seriously. Try it. Anyway, this article discusses it with a straight face. Sweet!
   

   It has a chatbot which controls the speech. It also has a teledildonic device. Teledildonic devices were invented in the ’90s so that people could have sex through an internet connection. If you plug that into a lifesize doll it makes the doll able to feel what is going on. In this way you have the first sex doll that can consent in English to what you are doing to it.

(via fimoculous)

Update: mightygodking posts about dilton doiley (a minor Archie comics character) having a sex doll. It’s on the brain today, clearly.

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My last computer purchase was in 2000. Yes, it’s time. This Dell has held up well with only one rebuild in the last 8 years (that is, once I got rid of that awful, awful beast called WindowsME and moved to XP), but it will soon be time to move along to something new. So, I wanted to pick your brains out there (figuratively speaking, of course):

Do I go Mac or PC?

As some background, I use Photoshop A LOT, and I’d also like to be able to put together home movies and burn them out to DVDs and at some point scan really ancient negatives from the 1940s. I also build the occasional website. Also, I last used a Mac back in 2000, and have flitted back and forth between platforms since I started using computers back in ‘91.

 I have read that Macs can run your old PC software. I was curious how useful/practical this is in reality. Will my existing peripherals (USB printer, SCSI negative scanner, modems) work with a Mac? I have to say, I’m somewhat unenthusiastic about the PC prospect in that it can’t be good when manufacturers start offering the OLD operating system as an alternative to the latest and greatest. Does Vista suck that bad?

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Seriously, how can the new macbook air:
a. be 1800 dollars
b. not be a tablet
c. not have a touch screen

Is it really too much to want/expect it to be closer to a tablet, closer to a very large iPhone? I want something nice to rival a Kindle, something I can read comics or books on without it being clunky or having a keyboard.

Perhaps the market will prove me wrong, but I can’t see anyone buying this machine at that price.

Also, 2.99 for a movie rental that
a. gives you 24 hours to finish watching it once you start
b. is only offered for rental 30 days after the DVD comes out?

Really? Why would I ever use this?

Color me sadly disappointed with this batch of releases. I will not even discuss the pathetic appleTV “upgrade.” I can’t decide if Apple is purposefully screwing up their living room plans to stay friends with the media companies or if they simply really don’t understand what these boxes need to deliver.

I look forward to the Air becoming a tablet. And dropping in price by about half. Then let’s talk.

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