jeffhottinger.com/blog

Category: Technology

  • Leopard’s Preview No Longer has Creepy Icon

    The Preview application in OS X never rouses a lot of fanfare as it’s functionality is pretty basic, but it’s one of my favorite programs. As a PDF viewer, it’s thousands of time faster than Adobe Reader and that alone makes it priceless. But the icon has always been sorta creepy. In most aspects it…

  • The Original Hacker

    Recent comments about “the hacker” character in modern movies and TV has lead me to a potentially uncomfortable realization. Penny Arcade posted a comic strip Monday on the matter. A couple weeks before goldenfiddle posted a chat transcript on the same idea. I think they were both inspired by Die Hard 4, which I haven’t…

  • Where are the US's High Speed Trains?

    David Wolman, writing for wired: Hey America, Make With the !@~$ High-Speed Rail Already!

  • Changed my mind about the CS3 icons

    In response to my Dad’s curiousity about some people talking about the new CS3 icons (one didn’t like them and linked to Adam Betts’s replacements: Betts CS3) I wrote this: Good question. Icons are a passionate topic for many Mac users. Mac icons have always been better than Windows icons, with the capability of being…

  • Hold your AAPL stock

    Here’s the deal, though I’ve not had the personal confidence to follow it: Apple’s stock continues to be primed for future growth regardless of iPods or any new product releases. Don’t sell it yet, no matter how high it gets. No one is talking about computers anymore; with all the iPods, iTunes, iTunes Store, TV,…

  • Fresh Scout Widget (and test)

    This little guy is not quite done yet, but I made a widget for Tonia’s Fresh Scout website. I should probably tell her exactly how to post it too, so that’s half the reason I am putting it here instead of with my other Widget in the downloads area … if that’s even still there.

  • Welcome to missing the point

    As we approach the Zune launch Tuesday and I see more and more of Microsoft’s marketing material, it gets more and more disturbing to me that they apparently do not see how big of a failure this will be. The Zune is inferior to the iPod in almost every way but one, so I can…

  • Learn to Program (finally!)

    Most of the nerds I hang around with are obsessed with computers but can’t code at all past a webpage. Yesterday I found a free PDF at CocoaLab about programing for OS X that doesn’t assume you already know how to program. They’ve also started up a Wiki on the topic.

  • At least someone is paying attention

    It’s hard to beat John Gruber’s opening clause here: I’ve been up to my ears in jackassery lately, -> but it’s nice to see someone in the media effectively acting like a watchdog these days. It’s not just Gruber, either. Lately there seems to be a lot of independent but popular writers in the Mac…

  • Zunerific

    I can’t decide which is better: I also think that this zune logo is almost cool, but it doesn’t make sense in three dimensional space. What are those vertical lines right down the center? Are they supposed to be diagonal cross bars on the top and bottom horizontal planes, or are they vertical supports on…