What makes you happy ?

I installed Little Snitch on the mini for amusement. It requires a restart. On that restart LS shows Mail.app wanting to make several outgoing connections.
I don’t use Mail, I’ve never used Mail, I’ve never run it, I would never run it. I have never given it permission to run, it’s not in my login items. So wtf is it doing running? Is this one of those ‘Apple knows best’ moments? I probably can’t install it – like so many other Apple apps it seems – but I’m certainly out now for a way to cripple it into submission – it will not connect.

NewsGator just let FeedDemon and NetNewsWire be free. No ‘lite’ versions, fully free.
There were a couple of programs I really missed from Windows and FeedDemon was one. I forget just why NNW did not appeal, but the cost was one aspect. I’d already bought FD so paying made my judgement harsher. But now it’s free.
The shared items bit in Google Reader I do not like. There is the whole privacy thing with Google. There is also the fact that this astronomically rich company provide absolutely useless support – like trying to make stone sweat blood. I use gmail and google reader. Having NNW free means I can move feed reading away from Google. It also means I have just one app for feeds and podcasts.
The data that Google take in return from this being free is what Newsgator now get. I trust them more.

I’m reinstalling and re-registering apps I’ve bought. So far so good. Marsedit I download but I can’t register it because I bought the version before the latest (which I can use / am allowed to use). After some hunting for my reg code I decide I’ll email red-sweater to see if there is something I can do.
I send the email at 11:36pm and SIX minutes later I get a reply and the reg code I need. 6 minutes. And it’s not automated – how do I know? I send a thank you email right back and I get a great response there too. If support is a factor when buying a product then Daniel Jalkut has both. Excellent.

Charging laptop while working, get distracted, leave laptop open and apps running.
Come back sometime later, see all is still running, close because I’m going out / working on the other machine.
Return a couple of hours later. Machine unresponsive, light off, it is really hot. Not localised underneath because it’s all of the underneath and even the keys are too warm. Hold power button down to restart. Fan kicks in when it starts and smc says the temp is 65.
This happened twice now. So:
- do not charge with apps running
- only charge when shut down or when actually being used
I’m sure someone will say this is nonsense, but that same person can describe exactly why this is doing it.

(And this isn’t anti-mac, it’s just saying what is happening)

So last night I repaired the OS using the original CD, I removed all those junk files which programs leave behind when you uninstall them, I reset various caches and “optimised” (defragged) the system. All those things I did on the mac because it’s getting slower. Funny, Mac users will tell Windows users that there is no registry to worry about, program uninstall completely, that defragging does not exist in the World Of Apple, that it stays fast. So why do programs like Cocktail and Onyx have daily weekly and monthly scripts? “Just works”. Yeah, right.
(So if this does not work I’ll reinstall Tiger)

Okay, so I know it’s all my fault for not using only Apple code on an Apple machine and I really should be just so damn happy because it looks so sleek and I can’t hold Apple to blame for anything at all because Steve Jobs is a GOD – but has anyone else using Tiger noticed that their machine too has gone to crap since the last update? I’m used to seeing the Beachball of Death often enough but it’s daily. Hourly even.
It feels like I’m running Windows ME. That’s how bad it is.

But hey, must be all my fault?

Sys prefs > Accounts > Login items > a connection to this domain.

It should open to a directory here so I can drag files to it.
Sometimes it works and I end up with a connection open on the desktop.
Sometimes it does not work- nothing happens.
Reboot/restart or power off / power on makes no difference – it appears random.

Given these things should “just work”, why doesn’t this? Anyone know?

“Glad I got a mac. No viruses and hardly any spam” – a commentor on this blog

Last night I finally bit the bullet that is iTunes. I’m working upstairs on the laptop in the evenings now as it’s quieter and with the girls being around I’m not needed to help J. Bored of TV I looked for a decent alternative to the blatantly commercial iTunes. Unfortunately no-one has made anything for the mac (isn’t Microsoft the big baddie in dominating markets?) so if I want music I have to have iTunes. So it’s in and I have some music playing right now.
Fortunately, tomorrow we go IKEA (Noooooooooooooooooo!) to get a large desk so I can work upstairs from 3:30pm each day. The computers will be coming upstairs too so I’ll be able to go back to the fab Winamp 5.5 (see the visualisations in the new version? very good). So a decent music player plus hopefully 3 monitors should see me being quite productive. It also means that as I have more space I can play more music so I’ve got the iScrobbler added to iTunes and will do for Winamp. Some last.fm goodness there. I debated importing what I had at /podz but my daughter still has it in her winamp so… no.

And over the next week I’ll hunt around to see if Leopard will allow several apps to run on a 1.83 2gb mini and at a decent speed. Given that the minis are apparently being phased out I have my doubts. Though having looked at it I can’t honestly see a reason to upgrade. Eye candy does not warrant cash.

Normal MBP temp here ~47/48 degrees.
I decided to get more VodPod videos and from there played a Youtube video. It was playing in Safari.
Youtube + MBP temp ~65 degrees.
That is an amazing jump. A video makes the mac work so much harder the temp goes up by what.. 40% ?
Inefficiency somewhere is the only explanation.