I linked to this from Facebook and posted it to Redit but thought I'd put it here for posterity as well since it's so good.  (And if I'm serious about a "Sentimental Sunday" recurring post feature, this fits right in!)

Gratitude.

(via Cathie From Canada)

State of the Art: Apple's Sleek Upgrade
- The New York Times raves about Snow Leopard, the new update to the core Apple operating system, Leopard.  The most amazing thing?  After years of features wars that turned OS's and various applications into larger and larger messes, this upgrade may be the first time in history that a software program has significantly reduced its footprint - by eliminating unnecessary files (instead of having GB of printer drivers "just in case" even though most people use one or maybe two at most) and tightening up the existing programs.  The tagline "A snow leopard is just like a leopard but faster and with a smaller footprint" definitely applies!

Three iPhone Apps with Augmented Reality Support
- "Augmented Reality" is adding information to a display of a real event to supplement what you are seeing.  A common example is the yellow first down line overlaid on most football game broadcasts today.  Here's a YouTube video demonstrating how this works for the London bus app.

I'd recently read another article about "10 Ways to Improve the iPhone" or something like that but can't find it again [Edit: Found it.].  One point the article made made which I agree with strongly is that they need a better way to organize your apps.  Right now, I have about ten different tabs with anywhere from a couple to a full dock of apps on them.  They're grouped roughly as "Apps I Use Regularly", "News Sites", "Games", "More Games", "Book-Related", "Reference Services", "Pace Games", "Camera Related", "Social Networking", "Music" and "Utilities".  (Sounds anal but I'm a librarian - what can I say?")  The problem is that when a tab fills up, I have to either figure out a way to reorganize things one app at a time or create a new "category" out of things I already have grouped together (I used to have all my "Social Networking" apps on the same tab as my "News" apps but split them apart when I got more than the 16 total apps you're allowed to have on any one tab.

Anyhow, since I can't find that exact article again, instead, I'll give you a link to all Ask.MetaFilter questions tagged with "iPhone".  Lots of good reading there!

Well, it's been five days with the iPhone and I'd say that it's a tie between the camera and the Apps for what I'm enjoying the most on the new gizmo.  I've downloaded a whackload of apps in the last few days - even paid for a couple!     

Here are the ones I currently have installed, roughly categorized by type:

Apps I Actually Use on a Daily Basis
Cribbage - paid $0.99 for this one and it's a great, quick time waster.  I hadn't played for a long time but the strategies came back to me.  I do miss a "hint" option when I'm too lazy to do the math on which cards I should toss in the crib.
Bloom - Brian Eno's ambient music generator.  Paid a whopping $3.99 for this and worth every penny.  Pace loves it too.  
NewsCanada - news headlines from major and local newspapers
Remote - allows you to use your iPhone as a remote control for your laptop's iTunes library

Camera
B&W - allows you to take B&W photos
Flickr Sendr - basic Flickr uploader

Fun
BubbleWrap - you know how you can spend hours popping bubble wrap from packaging?  The virtual version lacks the tactile sensation but is still kinda fun for awhile.
CowbellFever - "More Cowbell!" comes to the iPhone
DrumKit Lite - see a theme developing here with my "Fun" apps?  I like noisy ones!
Google Earth - probably one of the coolest apps I've seen just to look at - you literally can hold the world in the palm of your hand! 
iBrate - turns your iPhone into a vibrating massager. (I had a joke about vibrators here - took it out - then stuck this explanation afterwards since I know everybody was thinking it anyhow! )
iGlowStick - Turns your iPhone into a glow stick (you literally "break" the stick with your fingers then shake the iPhone to make it glow!)
Koi Pond - the fish pond app - feed the fish then chase them away with a poke of your finger.  Another $0.99 purchase that was worth it. 
MyPaintFree - a paint program mostly for Pace to fool around with
PhotoKast Lite - allows you to upload photos and vote on those uploaded by others.  Every vote sends the photo further away from the original sender so you can see how far your photos go over time on a Google map mash-up. 
Shazam - point your iPhone at any playing music - on TV, on the radio, etc - and have it determine very accurately what song it is you're hearing. 

Games
BatterUp Lite - home run derby game
BlackJack - it's Vegas, baby! 
FS5 Hockey - air hockey simulator
iShoot Lite - very similar to a game I played all the time a million years ago in undergrad, Scorched Earth.  Pick your weapon type, your angle and your shot strength then fire away against computer opponents in randomized mountain terrain. 

Reference
AllRecipes - recipe site with fun "spinner" options which allows you to chooose random meal based on ingredient, cooking time and cuisine type.  You can "lock" any combination of these three options to narrow your choices. 
Breastfeed - two guesses who downloaded this reference work? 
Concerts - display upcoming local concerts
Dictionary
Google for Mobile
MobileAtheist - $0.99 for an e-book of atheism quotes?  Sure, why not. 
Oblique Strategies - who would've known that Brian Eno would play such a a big role in my little iPhone?
ScoreMobile - sports scores from Canadian sports network (eg. has CFL scores)
Stanza - e-book reader - it'll be interested to try to read the new Cory Doctorow on it. 
UrbanSpoon - restaurant guide which works like AllRecipes above except "spinner" options are cuisine/price point/city. 
Wikipanion - simplies use of Wikipedia on a iPhone
YP.ca - Canadian yellow pages

Social Networking
Facebook
iReddit Free - simplifies surfing of popular site
TweetDeck & TwitterFon - I hardly ever use Twitter and I have two apps for it - huh? 

Tools (Literal)
HandyLevel

Tools (Virtual)
Assistant - helps track various online accounts

Bonus: Two Cool Sounding Apps I Can't Use By Virtue of Being Canadian
Both Pandora Streaming Customized Radio and Loopt, which allows you to find other nearby mobile phone holders aren't available in Canada yet.

If Jeff Bezos was smart, he'd have incorporated a stylus right into the design of the Kindle so authors could "sign" their digital books.  (Of course, maybe they feared this would make getting a signed book no more special than getting a package from UPS.)

Technology site TechCrunch is expanding beyond being one of the best sources for news about Web 2.0-type companies and have been driving development of an inexpensive, touchpad computer they've dubbed the "CrunchPad".

When launched, it will likely have WiFi, a camera, flash memory (instead of a hard drive), a full Linux install and retail for somewhere between $200-300 USD.  Here's an introductory video and the second part is included in the entry I linked to in the last paragraph.

If you visit this blog in person (and why would you in the age of RSS?), you'll see that I've installed the Mac-daddy version of last.fm so you can once again track when I am listening to embarrassing music from my high school days.

I admit that the learning curve on the Mac is a bit larger than I expected - this is partly due to lack of time to just straight out devote to learning stuff (As an example, Pace just filled his dump truck with some rice puff snacks.  And has now dumped it all over our living room floor.) 

So here are some of the latest questions I need to resolve:
- is it possible to cut & paste files on a Mac or can you only copy them then delete the original?
- where does iPhoto store the photos you download?  Are they stored in a proprietary format so that you can't go in and muck about with the originals (ie. renaming the files and directories they're in)?  Is it true that iPhoto makes a copy of every single photo for its index or did I mis-read something somewhere?
- how do you create the equivalent of a Windows shortcut to a specific directory or file? 
- does anyone know a program that will open password protected WordPerfect 8.0 files?  (Didn't think so...)

I've still got a desktop Windows XP machine I bought for cheap from Southeast Regional Library when they were clearing out some old machines so I can still get at those old WP files and still play EA NHL 2000.  So it's not like I'm totally cut-off.  Anybody have any experience with Parallels or any other software to run Windows programs on a Mac?  Recommendations?

Anyhow, that's it for now.  Later...

Okay, more questions for whoever it is providing such good answers in my last post (they're signing their posts as "K" but I think of them as "Sweet Apple Angel of Knowledge".

The software updates didn't fix my inability to see my full control console when doing blog posts. On my PC, I'd see buttons that could do things like add quick links to images, spellcheck (which I never used but nice to know it was there!), changing font, change the font size, etc. Now, all I see are buttons for Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Add Link and Blockquote. I doubt this is one for whoever's reading - I'll have to ask my blog provider if they have suggestions. Perhaps a setting that I'd previously adjusted in my download of Firefox 3.0 on my PC needs to be flipped on the Mac version as well?

After I installed Thunderbird, the icon is sitting waiting to be dragged to the Application folder. I had no problem doing this when I installed Firefox so can't figure out why Thunderbird is "hung up".

On a PC, the "delete" button erases characters ahead of your cursor and the "backspace" key deletes characters behind your cursor. On a Mac, it appears that delete erases characters behind your curso - yep - and I don't see a backspace key. Is there an equivalent?

The illuminated keyboard has come on a couple times - how does that get triggered? (Oh, I see - looks like a sensor on the caps lock key. I'll leave this question up even though I look like an idiot in case some future web searcher has the same question.)

Oh, and I should do a quick summary of my previous experiences with Macs just because...

In about grade eight or so, I remember that they got an AppleIIc in the public library in Indian Head and I spent hours there playing some really basic games - I don't remember exactly what they were but probably whatever the IIc's equivalent of Solitaire and Minesweeper were. Then, when I worked at the Saskatchewan Publishers Group, I was sent out to work with our various publisher members on mini-projects. One of these was doing some web design for the University of Saskatchewan's Extension Division putting together a web page with video clips for a documentary on Mad Cow Disease that one of their agricultural economists had produced. That page is long gone and a quick search didn't reveal any references to the video. But it was a great learning experience to spend a couple weeks at the University working on Macs when I think every other one of our publishers (with the exception of the graphic designer at a literary publisher who was a Macvangelist even back then) was on PC's. I think that's about it. Whew!

A great response by Bill Gate$ (finally) but too little too late...

After getting the word that they would not be able to bring my PC back to life for a reasonable cost (fried motherboard - mmm, tasty!), I went out today and took the plunge. I am now the proud (if slightly nervous) owner of a MacBook Pro.

Random thoughts and questions I'll be searching for answers to in the next day or two (answers greatly appreciated!)...

- did I need the Pro? I decided to go for it for the bigger monitor, the bigger HD (I know I could've special ordered a bigger HD in a regular MacBook but I've also been waiting for over two weeks for final word about my PC laptop so I just wanted to get the new machine and get rolling.)
- where are the "Home" and "End" keys?
- on a PC, you (should) use the "Safely Remove Hardware" button when removing USB drivers, cameras, etc. Is there something similar to be done on a Mac?
- I've downloaded Firefox and it mostly looks the same but for some reason, it's not showing me the full panel of controls for this blog so this post may be in Times instead of Arial. (I think I have to do a bunch of system updates to get everything up-to-date. I'll do that after I post this and see if it fixes things.)
- how do I get something off the dashboard?
- how do I see how much space I have on the hard drive? (And is there even a right-click on MacBooks?)

Oh, and completely unrelated to my MacBook purchase, my hosting package is due for renewal today and not letting me do it online for some reason. So this blog may be down tomorrow depending on what I can do tonight. (With the renewal looming and then, my other computing crashed, I gave some serious thought to whether I wanted to keep the blog going. I think I'll keep it going for the time being and maybe re-assess again next yar.)

Anyhow, so far, nothing insurmountable and man, I feel cooler and more creative already! ;-)

Because this is my current frame of mind...

"A new library in Casanera, Colombia shows us what humankind might have built with sticks and stones if they'd never discovered bricks, steel, and electricity. The Villanueva Public Library was built on a modest budget, designed by a bunch of university students in Bogota. And instead of importing fancy, expensive materials, builders used local timber and stones from nearby rivers to lower transportation costs. Then, instead of hiring experienced construction workers, they trained local people to build it."

(via Reddit)

On another topic, a question for all of you MacVangelists out there.  If you were to buy a new MacBook, which one would you go for?  Is the MacBook Pro worth what seems to be a substantial extra cost?  Do any of you run Parallels or other software to run Windows for PC-only apps?  Any other thoughts somebody looking to possibly convert should consider?  I'm just kicking tires here but with a new laptop in my near horizon, I want to check out all the options.