njr 3.0

This is definitely the most targeted spam I've ever received.

Dear Sir,                                                                       
   My name is ChenHua, and I'm writing on behalf of the                         
China-Lutong mechanical company. Located in the south east                      
of China, we specialize in hydraulic heads for the VE                           
distributor pump.                                                               
                                                                                
   We can supply standard, good quality units at a very                         
competitive price. The following types are available:                           
Engine model VE PUMS code   NO     UNIT PRICE(EX WORKS)                         
ISUZU)   NP-VE4/11L    096400-1600          $USD40                              
                                 (NIPPON DENSO)                                 
ISUZU    NP-VE4/11R    146402-0820(zexel)   $USD45                              
[...]

Imagine if the whole world worked this way: everyone got everything. We'd be sifting through garbage for our entire lives. (Although I feel somewhat like that with the huge stack of papers on my desk.)

11:20 PM | Radio
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I was checking the weather today and heard that the NOAA is switching their speech synthesis program. Samples of the old and new voices are here. Even the old one sounds better than what I listen to every morning… perhaps it's not in place all over the country?

10:45 PM | Radio
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Got an email today that ICeCoffEE had been entered in Apple's Macintosh Products Guide. Neat.

Also, last week MWJ had some really nice things to say about my software, unfortunately I can't link to them because you have to pay for a subscription. (Which I highly recommend, BTW. It's the only computer-related periodical I subscribe to any more, and I learn many things in MWJ that I don't anywhere else.)

6:21 AM | Radio
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MT-NewsWatcher 3.2 is Mac OS X native, and still free. Simon, you rock. Having worked on some free apps for distribution recently, I don't even want to think how many hours you have poured into MT-NW, all without compensation (and John Norstad before that), but I really appreciate it. MT-NW is one of my favorite Mac applications, precisely because it comes so close to my ideal of a wonderful Mac application.

5:53 AM | Radio
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I took a break from reading to make some changes to the template…

• Now the RSS and email links aren't stranded at the bottom of the page.
• The calendar is at the top of the page, eliminating the right sidebar with its huge amount of wasted space. This area is used for a good purpose on the Desktop Website Home Page, but not on the public pages. And now people with less than gigantic monitors should be able to read the entire width of the page without scrolling.
• The last updated date is gone from the weblog pages because it doesn't seem to change (it read February 6, when I had obviously been changing both the template and content many times since then). In its place is a hint to look at the calendar, since I've discovered not everyone knows what it means.
• And I killed the vertical bar that appeared on the story pages; it looks a bit cramped now, but mostly not.

I wish Radio was clearer about its upstreaming activity; it just needs to say “done” when it's finished with your request, instead of leaving you hanging.

5:28 AM | Radio
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