This damn problem is back again! Grrr!

Wordpress Calendar Borked

I had screwed around with the Wordpress files back in November and had it fixed. That was on Wordpress version 2.8.6. Then they came out with version 2.9 in December, and that reintroduced the bug, and I screwed around with the files some more and it fixed. Now 2.9.1 is out and it’s back again.

The infuriating thing is it’s not just the simple fix that I thought it was – I don’t know how or why, but just implementing the one-line repair doesn’t fix it. First you have to break it worse, then after that the one-line repair works.

It’s very annoying – I actually use that calendar a lot.

So it’s the morning of Dec. 25th. I got my big gift – a new iMac! (It was a present from myself. Thanks me!) and things are looking pretty good so far. Nice bright screen, wide format, very sharp resolution, everything very fast and snappy.

The Magic Mouse is actually pretty darn neat, if only they’d come out with a Magic Trackball then I’d be happy. Anyhow, it’s very cool and I’m going to keep it, even if I don’t use it. It’ll be the first Apple mouse I haven’t thrown out or given away.

Transfering my data and settings over from my previous iMac was as effortless and flawless as usual, albeit a bit time-consuming. Well I guess you can’t transfer 75GB in an instant.

The new iMac’s hardware is so far pretty good. 4GB RAM is the standard, and I got the one with a 1TB hard drive. While I had upgraded my previous iMac to these specs, the new one still seems faster – perhaps because of the faster processors, faster bus, and/or faster graphics processor.

The new iMac also has a built-in SD card slot, which is a great idea. I haven’t tried it yet, but with most digital cameras nowadays using SD it’s a perfect choice to facilitate the transfer of photos to iPhoto, Aperature, or whatever you use.  I’d love to see a Micro-SD slot on the next version of the iPhone, in fact – it would be a great way to boost the capacity of the iPhone, at least in terms of storage space for music, videos, and a good place to store photos taken with the built-in camera.

I haven’t had time to play around much with the new OS (Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6) but compared to 10.5 it seems so far pretty similar.

Outside of the good and the ambivilent, there has been one huge disappointment. For reasons known only to Jobs, Apple has decided to change the external display adaptor yet again. I didn’t realize that they had changed this, so my “Mini DVI” cable that worked with my previous iMac is not compatible with the “Mini Displayport” on the new iMac. Had I known of this, I’d have ordered the adaptor when I ordered the computer. Now I’m stuck until I can get to an Apple Store, during the busiest shopping week of the year. Thanks Apple.

See, I run my computer with ‘dual heads’. That is, you have the built-in screen on the iMac itself, then I have a second screen next to it. This lets me use the smaller (21.5″) iMac but end up with more space than the 27″. My secondary display is a 19″ all-digital monitor. It was a great monitor in its time, but nowadays it serves admirably as a secondary display. Running dual-heads means I can edit / view things in full size on one screen, while having my tools, palettes, etc. all open on the other. So I can edit, tweak, change, etc. without having to page back and forth between windows or panes. It is glorious – once you’ve gone dual-head you can’t go back.

However, for the next day or two or three, I’m stuck with the single display.  Grrrr.

It never seems to fail. Stuff gets me all frustrated and angry and it builds up and builds up and builds up until finaly I snap (technical term is “Twang”, as in, the sound a piano string makes when it is wound too tight and finaly breaks).

So yesterday I cut loose with a big ranting rage-a-thon, my ire directed at Canada Post. They keep not delivering some stuff I ordered weeks ago.

Well what do I find out now? The folks who I ordered it from, the folks who last week told me it was shipped and the delay was probaby with Canada Customs…they tell me in fact they haven’t shipped it, it’s on backorder, they don’t know when it will ship, they can’t even tell me when they will know, for another week!

Some new ranting rage building there. Anyhow, so it’s not Canada Post’s fault (this time) and now I feel bad about the big explody ranttastic post, so I’ve removed it. Maybe later I’ll have a big explody rant-a-thon about lying liars who lie about shipments.

My Thingamagoop finaly arrived!

It’s just as bleeping, chirping, zapping, bixxerfouping, and blinking as Dr. Bleep said it would be!

And, it’s cute as a button! Let the noises commence!

Bleep Labs

A week or so ago, I was all excited about the Thingamagoop from Bleep Labs. So excited, I put in an order for one, in fact.

Well, seems a lot of people saw that article on Music Thing and Dr. Bleep is overloaded with orders, so it’ll be a few weeks before my Thingama arrives. Unfortunately, patience is a virtue of which I am not always in posession.

I’m still excited though, and eager to play and make noise. So, after a bit of thought, a bit of time spent poking around on the internet, and a bit of experimentation, I have built my own noise-making box. It is neither as cute or as cool as a Thingama, but it will let me annoy everyone within earshot, until my real Thingama arrives.

It’s actually really simple inside, I’ve just used a pair of 556 dual-timer chips, with variable resistors to control some of the oscilators, and switches to set whether the oscillators are mixed at the speaker, or if they switch each other on and off. I’ve only got 3 of the 4 oscillators running, and only 3 of the four knobs are wired right now. It makes some cool (annoying) noises. I think I’ll call it Ah-Noise-Ing.

Dr. Bleep says “…there are not nearly enough beeping, zapping, bixxerfouping, anthropomorphic synthesizer monsters in the world.”

I wholeheartedly agree, so I just ordered one for myself.

Check them out at:

Bleep Labs

Photo from Bleep Labs