OK, this one's really dumb, but it's strangely addicting. Less than 24 hours after one of the most bizarre mental gaffes I've ever seen in any sport (when you consider the caliber of the player, the meaning of the game, and point of the game in which they were at) comes the Zidane Headbutt Game. Just roll your mouse and click to hit. After about 10 hits or so, the game ends with a couple of poignant snapshots.

Enjoy!!

So I had no idea that there was a name for people like me who are making the switch from Windows to Mac OS X. Apparently, we're called "Switchers." That's cool...Lord knows I've been called worse! Anyway, that's not why I'm writing this entry.

I was surfing through Digg last night and noticed an article entitled A Guide to OS X Software for Switchers. Now, even though I had to send my MacBook Pro back for a new one (grrrrrrr) and am still waiting for it, this "guide" is exactly the sort of resource I am looking for. The one area where I've had some issues getting used to the switch is how to get the "little things" done that were second nature to me in the Windows world. There are lots of resources for using "big ticket" items like web browsers and Eclipse, but I'm talking more about things like unzipping SIT files (seemingly the preferred zipping method for the Mac community), FTP-ing files to my web site, capturing screen shots, etc. Well, this "Guide" has all those answers and more. If you are a recent Switcher or even if you are a long time Mac user, there are tips, tricks, and references for everybody that are extremely useful.

Now if I only had that replacement machine to apply these tips... ;)

OK, after much deliberation (and intentionally waiting in the hopes that Intel would release the Merom chips early enough to warrant holding off for the Core 2 Duo), I got my (financial) act together and bought my first Mac! It's on its way from Shanghai, China, as I write this.

Holy cow was it scary. Seriously. You have to understand, I don't own a home, car, or other "big ticket" item where dropping a couple thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket. (Incidentally, for those who don't know, I live in New York City, hence the lack of owning those things...I'm not homeless!) Sure, I bought a Dell about 5 years ago out of college, but I was a bit more reckless with money then, so I tended to rationalize things in terms of "this costs 3 nights of drinking." Plus, it was the Internet boom, when everybody in our line of work thought they were going to be millionaires in no time. But there are a few reasons why I was "scared."

First, as much as Apple has become en vogue again, I have to be practical and keep in mind that I will rely heavily on this machine for work. This isn't a vanity purchase by any stretch. So it's important for me to be productive as soon as I receive the machine. Enter the new Apple store on 5th Avenue here in Manhattan (which is the most beautiful piece of architecture I've ever seen for a retail store) and Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Why the Apple store? Well, on Monday after work, I decided to walk up to the store and check out the difference between the 15.4" and 17" MacBook Pro. I spent one solid hour using each machine to get a feel for each. Never once was I told by any of the employees that I was hogging the machine (there were about 10 of each on display, so it's not I had the only one, but still...). Further, when I finally got all my questions in order, I peppered two employees who not only never sighed or gave any indication that I was a pain, but they got incredibly excited that I was looking to switch and spent another half an hour walking me through the OS and pointing out keys things a developer would need to know. I was blown away. I was very up front that I wasn't going to be purchasing from them at that moment and they couldn't have cared less. There were hundreds of other customers they could have easily gone on to them, but they didn't. Great stuff.

As for Parallels, well, they're my life boat. With their Desktop for Mac product, I can still fall back to Windows when I need to. Since Flex Builder 2 doesn't exist for the Mac (yet), I know I'll need to be in there for some things, and it's great to know that one machine can handle both of my needs.

OK, so what did I get? I went with the 15.4" MacBook Pro with 1 GB of RAM and the 100 GB hard drive at 7200 RPM. I also ordered an additional 1 GB of RAM from NewEgg, who is selling it for literally almost half of what Apple wanted for the same amount ($160 USD vs. $300 USD). I chose the 15.4" over the 17" because the 17", while sleek and beautiful was a bit too much machine for me. I was telling somebody yesterday that using the 17" MacBook Pro reminded of a line from the movie Starsky and Hutch towards the end when Ben Stiller is telling Owen Wilson that his mom never "thought he could handle the V8. It was too much car for him." Well, that's how I felt about the 17" model. It was monstrous and noticeably heavier (about 1.5 pounds). If you're looking for a desktop replacement, it's a no-brainer, but not if you truly need a portable machine.

Before closing the entry out, I do want to give a huge shout-out to Adam Wayne Lehman. I met Adam last year at the CFUNITED conference and we've kept in sporadic touch over the last year. Out of nowhere, Adam offered to sponsor my purchase so that I could receive 10% off the price. Apple has this cool program where if you work for the federal government, you can sponsor up to 6 friends and/or family to buy products from the Federal Employee store. This unsolicited gesture saved me almost $500 USD off the total price! This is yet another reason why I can't recommend the CFUNITED conference enough if you're a ColdFusion developer. Thanks again Adam!

So a few days ago I gushed about the availability of the Adobe Messenger Bag from the MEDIUM Design Group. I promised a review of the bag, and here it is...

Ordering Process and Delivery

OK, so this part isn't about the physical aspects of the bag, but customer service is as important to me as the product itself, so I feel like it's worth noting. The order process was the standard "shopping cart" format we've come to know and love. However, I went back to the site a few hours later to check the Order Status (like I said, I was antsy), but figuring out where to log back in was a chore in and of itself. In short, I'm not a fan of their store layout.

Anyway, I don't want to get off-topic by critiquing their site. However, I do want to compliment MEDIUM on one thing. I selected two-day delivery as my shipping option, and they overnighted it to me instead at no extra charge. A seemingly small enhancement to my order, but great customer service.

The Bag Itself

OK, so I had no way of physically seeing the bag before placing the order. I had to rely on the Flash demo of the product for my information because I am apparently the first one on the internet to have bought the bag! Upon arrival, I ripped the box open and saw this beautiful black leather bag wrapped in plastic. After taking it out of the plastic and removing the 768 mini sacs of desiccant (I swear, I thought somebody was messing with me), I noticed it was a bit wider than I thought it was going to be. That's not a bad thing, but just something I noticed. Then I opened the bag up.

Opening the bag... that's an interesting "feature." The flap with the Adobe logo is standard, and there is a slot for a name/address tag on the inside of it. Curiously, there was no tag provided. There is a swath of fabric that you roll up and down to open and close the inner compartment. When rolled up, you secure it by pulling down on straps on either side of the bag. The straps don't buckle and unbuckle, they just tighten and loosen. This rollup fabric is part of the "water-proof your contents" feature, and it's not bad. In the rain, the inside will definitely stay dry. However, I'm curious as to why there would be a need for it when you have the "rain hood" built in to the bag to cover the bag in the bad weather anyway. This thing is made of good-quality leather, so I'm definitely going to be using the hood if it's ugly outside.

After unrolling the fabric, I noticed that the bag didn't open as wide as I had hoped it would. At first I just thought that maybe the new leather was a little tight, but I came to realize it just doesn't open that wide. There are a ton of pockets and pouches in there, but since the bag doesn't open that wide, it's hard to get to any but the ones at the top. (I also found about another ten sacs of desiccant while perusing the pockets. This is crazy.)

Now, the big test... How does the bag handle a standard size laptop with a couple of books that I am reading. The laptop pocket in slightly "elevated" from the outer lining of the bag, so there's an extra cushion to protect your machine. But herein lies my biggest complaint about the bag. Remember how I said the bag didn't open that wide? Well, the natural side-effect of this is that you can't put a whole lot in the bag because that means the outer flap then won't close. I had my laptop, my new Pragmatic Ajax book and another amazing book I just finished entitled The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. Neither book is very thick at all (a couple hundred pages each), but the combination of the three made it very tight to close the bag. There's no way the thick Ben Forta books would ever make it into the bag while still being able to properly close the flap. That being said, I thought about how much I really carry with me on a daily basis. I occasionally carry my laptop, but always carry a book with me. With that sort of load, this bag is perfectly adequate. However, if you're a "road warrior," I think the "tightness" of the compartment might be a showstopper.

The strap that comes with the bag is a bit of a mixed review as well. On the one hand, the strap itself is made out of the fabric that airplane seat belts are made from. It's smooth and it's sturdy. The padded part of the strap is great. It's a very good size and with all the aforementioned contents, it didn't bother my shoulder at all while walking to and from work over the last couple of days. That's the good part. The downside to the strap is that they don't give you a whole lot of slack. I like carrying my bag across my shoulder diagonally. In that position, I have the strap length max-ed out and I still find that I would like for it to be a little longer. It's not that big of a deal, but I do notice it. If you're a taller person (I'm 5 feet, 10 inches...178 cm for the non-Americans), I don't know how the bag would feel if carrying it cross-shoulder; it might be a bit snug. Also, the clips on the shoulder pad for streamlining your headphone cord isn't really useful if you're not carrying the bag on one shoulder.

The built-in rain hood is pretty cool actually, and even unexpectedly give you an outer pocket to put a book in without having to actually open the bag. It full covers the front and bottom of the back, but the back is exposed. That's not really such a big deal though because that's the part that would be hugging your body, which is (hopefully) covered by an umbrella.

Overall

Overall, I don't regret buying the bag at all. Heck, even the iPod has design flaws, even though nobody likes to mention them! The last big question is whether or not the bag was "worth" the $250 USD I spent on it. In a word, "no." (And again, other than the "cool" factor, are iPods worth their current prices? Not sure about that.) If the price point was around the $185 USD range, I think this would be a great buy. It is made of top-shelf leather and has all the fixings of a solid bag, but the space constraints on it don't really warrant the higher price tag, and can even be a showstopper in certain cases.

But I also realize this is a "boutique" bag as well. You can't walk in to a store and purchase it. Living in New York City, it's all about keeping your own identity. I now have a bag that I am happy with and is also unique to me. I won't get on the jam-packed subway in the morning and see others with it and that's kind of a cool feeling. To that end, if you're looking for a higher-end bag for work that exudes professionalism, it should definitely be on your list of candidates.

*** Updated: I just pulled the trigger and bought one. I'll let you know how it is in a few days (I got antsy and did 2-day delivery)! ***

I've been using the same bag for work for about 6 years now. In fact, it's the freebie bag that was given out at the Allaire DevCon 2000 conference in Washington, DC! While durable and sufficient, it has sort of outgrown my "early career" needs and I have been passively looking for a new all-purpose work bag.

While reading Stephen Collins' blog entry entitled "The quest for the ultimate PowerBook bag", he made mention of a bag designed by MEDIUM Design Group in collaboration with Adobe called the Adobe messenger bag. All I can say is: Wow. I'm floored. Seriously. How has this not been more publicly advertised, particularly in the blogoshere? It looks as if it's been around since the fall of last year, so it's certainly not new.

At a high level, here's what you get:

• Fits almost any 10"-17" notebook, both Mac and PC
• Full-grain leather (including a built-in pull-out rain shield for bad weather)
• Routing clips to keep cables out of the way
• External cable routing, allowing you to access internal electronic stuff (i.e., your iPod) while the bag is closed
• Tons of stretch internal pockets and pouches for organizing everything from pens to cell phones to PDAs

The only real "gotcha" is the price tag. At $250 USD, it's certainly not cheap, and it's only available through the MEDIUM site, so you can't "bargain hunt." However, if I get a couple of years of use out of it, then it's more than paid for itself (I tend to break larger expenses like this down into cost per day of use so that I can sleep better at night).

One last thing I took note of is that the entire design process used Adobe products (Illustrator, Photoshop). They have put up a slick flash-based overview of the bag and the design process.

Hey Adobe-ans, have any of you seen this or own one? If so, why are you holding out on us!

I'm taking a quick breather on a busy project and I thought I'd send a reminder for all you Americans out there (except those in Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas) to fast forward your clocks one hour this Sunday morning at 2 am for daylight saving time. Yes, we lose an hour of sleep, but I love that on Monday I'll be leaving work when it's light out. Running in Central Park after work is a personal favorite!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! As I sit here in my mid-town Manhattan office, I have a combination of the Marine Corps Marching Band warming up with the "United States Marine Corps Anthem" and the New York Fire Department warming up some song I should probably know on the bagpipes in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day Parade (have I mentioned how much I love this city!). Since concentration simply isn't happening, I figure'd I'd do another edition of "Fun Fact Friday" in honor of the holiday (plus, I'm half Irish, so I probably should do this anyway!).

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and the world celebrate's him on March 17th, the day of his death in 461 AD. The irony of the Irish holiday is that St. Patrick, whose real name was actually Maewyn, was Welsh by birth, not Irish. He was sold into slavery in by bandits, which took him to Ireland. For several years, he lived in isolation as a shepherd, and it was during this time that he became a devout Christian. Believing that God wanted him to escape his isolation, he walked about 200 miles to the coast and sailed his way to freedom. He then studied for 15 years to become a missionary.

Maewyn was eventually sent to Ireland because he already knew the language, where his mission was to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. Over time, he became known to the Irish as "Patrick," hence the holiday's name. He used common pagan symbols such as the sun to help teach Christianity to the Irish. Further, he used shamrocks (the central symbol of the holiday even though the Celtic harp is the Irish national symbol) to explain the Holy Trinity -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost -- as a single entity. His life's dedication to converting people to Christianity ultimately earned him Sainthood, and we celebrate his life even 1,600 years later (though let's be honest, it's more an excuse to drink than pray!).

Now that the "history" part is out of the way, here's some common myths about the holiday, as originally published at this site:

• St. Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland. They probably never had snakes on the Emerald Isle in the first place.
• "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" isn't a popular Irish ballad. It was composed by an American.
• The shamrock isn't a real plant. Rather, the plant is a type of clover that grows in Ireland.
• Leprechauns aren't cute little sprites. They're evil, mean-spirited little creatures that perform treacherous deceptions to keep you away from that pot of gold.
• Corned beef and cabbage is not a favorite St. Patrick's Day dish in Ireland. It's an American dish. The Irish prefer ham or bacon.

The parade outside my window is by far the largest in the world. According to the AP, over two million people will watch the parade today, and I have front row seats! It was started around 1760 to show solidarity among the New York Irish, and believe me, it's still going strong. There's a sea of people outside right now...

So I'm working through the Flex 2 Quick Start Tutorials available on the Labs site, and I'm following the instructions in the "Design: Use Behaviors" chapter on page 48 (136 in the actual PDF). The exercise is one where you invoke an effect from a different component. Here's step 1:

1. In the editor's Design mode, drag a Label control from the Components panel into the layout below the button, and then set the following Label properties in the Properties view:

• ID: myLabel
• Text: 4 8 15 16 23 42
• X: 40
• Y: 100

Do the "Text" numbers look familiar? They're the mysterious numbers from the TV show "Lost"!!!!

I'm in between Flex 2 tutorials right now, so I thought I'd put this thought down on virtual paper...

A lot of times when I meet people who haven't been to New York, I'm asked why New York is called "the Big Apple." When I was in England last October, I think about 8 people asked me. I never knew there was so much curiosity surrounding the nickname! Well, here's the official answer, courtesy of Ask Yahoo!:

Morris cites a noted slang historian who managed to track the phrase to a colorful 1920s horse-racing columnist named John Fitzgerald. Apparently, Fitzgerald heard the term from stable hands in New Orleans who lovingly referred to New York City's racetracks as "...the dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York." In the 1930s, the term was adopted by jazz musicians, when Harlem was the site of all the choicest gigs.

In 1971 "Big Apple" became the catch phrase of the city's official tourism campaign. Its aim was to improve Manhattan's image as a fun and wholesome place to visit, rather than a dark and dangerous city of crime.

Incidentally, in that same answer, the author notes that New Orleans' popular nickname, "the Big Easy," took its name from an old New Orleans dance hall from the beginning of the 20th century.

And there ya have it.

My dad, who is a retired physican, sent me this heads-up. After reading through the FDA recommendation (I thought this was some sort of spam e-mail, to be honest) and realizing the products potentially effected, I felt like this is important enough to get out into the blogosphere, even if it doesn't keep with my usual tech-related postings.

In summary, all drugs containing phenylpropanolamine (PPA) are being recalled. PPA is commonly found in nasal decongestants and weight loss drugs. It has been linked to increased hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain or in tissue surrounding the brain) among women ages 18-49 three days after starting use of effected medications. Problems were not found in men, but the FDA recommended that everyone, including children, seek alternative medicines.

The FDA is not maintaining a formal list of medications effected because the manufacturers are reformulating their drugs without PPA. (Personally, I think it's because they don't want to cause a major public scare or offend the pharmaceutical companies, but that's another story.) Below is a partial list of medications that contain PPA. PLEASE READ THE ACTUAL LABELS BEFORE ASSUMING ALL PRODUCTS BELOW ARE STILL EFFECTED.

• Acutrim Diet Gum Appetite Suppressant
• Acutrim Plus Dietary Supplements
• Acutrim Maximum Strength Appetite Control
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Children's Cold Medicine Effervescent
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold medicine (cherry or or ange)
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine Original
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough Medicine Effervescent
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Flu Medicine
• Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Sinus Effervescent
• Alka Seltzer Plus Night-Time Cold Medicine
• BC Allergy Sinus Cold Powder
• BC Sinus Cold Powder
• Comtrex Flu Therapy & Fever Relief
• Day & Night Contac 12-Hour Cold Capsules
• Contac 12 Hour Caplets
• Coricidin D Cold, Flu & Sinus
• Dexatrim Caffeine Free
• Dexatrim Extended Duration
• Dexatrim Gelcaps
• Dexatrim Vitamin C/Caffeine Free
• Dimetapp Cold & Allergy Chewable Tablets
• Dimetapp Cold & Cough Liqui-Gels
• Dimetapp DM Cold & Cough Elixir
• Dimetapp Elixir
• Dimetapp 4 Hour Liquid Gels
• Dimetapp 4 Hour Tablets
• Dimetapp 12 Hour Extentabs Tablets
• Naldecon DX Pediatric Drops
• Permathene Mega-16
• Robitussin CF
• Tavist-D 12 Hour Relief of Sinus & Nasal Congestion
• Triaminic DM Cough Relief
• Triaminic Expectorant Chest & Head
• Triaminic Syrup Cold & Allergy
• Triaminic Triaminicol Cold & Cough

Again, I can't emphasize enough that this is neither a full list nor a 100% accurate list (due to reformulations). So please make sure that you read the drug labels before passing judgement.

Yeah, a little bit spammy with the title, but I just thought I'd pass on this goldmine. For years now, virtually every time I've needed to buy a technical book, I've been amazed that Bookpool.com has been able to noticeably undercut the competition with their pricing. I'm not talking 5% or 10% ... I'm talking about 30% or more on most books. They are a phenomenal service for what they do.

They are currently having a sale on all MS Press titles (up to 46% off), and I thought that some of the MS software users/admins (i.e., SQL Server) might want to grab a resource. Even if you don't use MS software, they have almost every major book title you can imagine (including all of Ben's books). Further, they run massive discount promos like this for almost all publishers at some point, so this is not a one-time deal.

I know there are online services like Safari Bookshelf by O'Reilly, but I personally have some sort of mental block with large quantities of online reading. If I'm dabbling with something, these services are great. But if I'm serious about the subject, I need to have the book in my hand. Strange, but hey, that's me.

Yes, you read that correctly. axosoft, a maker of project management software, is running a cool marketing test to promote their software. They are offering their OnTime 2006 Small Team Edition Project Management software, usually retailing for $495 USD for only $5 USD as a test of pure grassroots marketing (Offer expires on 2/24). They are not publicly linking to the promo page in any manner, shape, or form. They are simply waiting for bloggers and other community forums to link to it. It's Windows-only, unfortunately, but it could still help out a lot of users looking for PM software. Threads with this subject come up all too often on cf-talk and other mailing lists. I want to underscore the point that this is in no way a benfit to me. I am not masked in the referral URL or anything. It's a pure social experiment on axosoft's part to see how viral marketing can work for them.

Oh, the coolest part about the $5 USD? Every penny goes to the American Red Cross. They are not pocketing anything. Their promo page has a frequent update of the donation total, and they're approaching $1200 USD! Check it out!

Robert Scoble, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist, has a good set of tips he believes you should follow if you're interested in increasing traffic to your blog.

Robert, if you're not familiar with him, reads somewhere over 800 blogs per day and is well-known in the blogging community. He makes some interesting points about how numerous tags (aka your categories) per post and networking (offline) with other bloggers can really make a mark on your traffic. Overall, a good, quick read that has given me some food for thought.

This is one of those nitpicky things, but, to me, it's the difference between a site that is a little more polished and professional and one that isn't.

Most sites have some sort of sign-up/registration/checkout process that requires the user to enter an address. Invariably on these forms is a field for the ZIP code. Note that I typed "ZIP" code and not "Zip" code. A US postal code, also known as a ZIP code, is an acronym for "Zone Improvement Plan" and, as such, all letters should be capitalized. Granted, any site that expects international users should probably call the field "Postal Code," which is more universal, but that's just not the case on a lot of sites I go to.

Anything referring to "Zip" is either a compressed file, a synonym for the word "fast," or what you do with your jacket before going out in cold weather!