That’s bad. Because inevitably, I’ll be just in the middle of a thought when the computer shuts off, ten minutes later. I don’t actually lose anything, of course, because MacBooks are usually smart about keeping enough power to stay alive. (Note: haven’t used anything else for a while; other platforms may do just as well. YMMV.)

Still. It happened so much that I decided to do something about it:

I made a new text file, named it "batterywarning" and threw it in /Applications/Scripts/ with the following contents:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

`pmset -g batt` =~ /discharging; (\d+:(\d+)) remaining/;
if $1 && $1 < '0:10' then
  nums = %w{ zero one two three four five six seven eight nine ten }
  mins = nums[$2.to_i] ? (nums[$2.to_i] +" minute"+ ($2=='01' ? '' : 's')) : $1
  exec "osascript -e 'tell application \"AppleScript Runner\" to "+
    "display alert \"Seriously, go plug in your computer.\" "+
    "message \"There&rsquo;s only about "+ mins + " left! "+
    "How many times do you need to be told?\" as warning'"
end

The gist: when run, the script checks the current estimated remaining time on the battery. If it’s below 10 minutes (the point at which the native warning appears), it displays its own alert box warning the user of their procrastinatory folly. If there is more than 10 minutes remaining, it does nothing.

I made the script executable (chmod +x /path/to/script), and configured launchd to run it every minute by creating a plist named "com.dbergey.batterywarning.plist" in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ thusly:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.dbergey.batterywarning</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Applications/Scripts/batterywarning</string>
    </array>
    <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>60</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Then, from the command line, I did this to tell launchd about it:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dbergey.batterywarning.plist 

And it worked! Hopefully I will be more proactive about plugging in when warned up to 10 times before shutoff.

I can’t find any nice desktop pictures, though … all the dual-display desktops are for side-by-side configurations. There are “vertical” desktop pictures, too, but they are designed for when you have your display turned 90°.

Has anyone ever seen desktop pictures designed for stacked displays?

Now Reggy is on Bodega, your new corner store for Mac apps. Check ‘em both out.

Tim’s previous Mac, an iBook G4, had an unpleasant habit of exhibiting display anomalies and freezing about 5 minutes after booting, and the conclusion Steve and I came to was that the fan had stopped spinning (confirmed by iStat Pro, very quickly before it froze again).

Unsure of whether the fan or the logic board was the problem, I decided to fix up the old PowerBook for Tim instead of repairing the iBook just now. I also got my first experience putting thermal paste on a heat sink. Kinda weird.

After the PowerBook was all back together, I had to figure a way to get Tim’s data off the iBook—difficult, since it wouldn’t run for more than 5 minutes at a time. I would have to at least remove the hard drive from the iBook (a host upon which to be decided later).

I had no idea how hard it was to get a hard drive out of an iBook. NOT USER SERVICEABLE. I had to take a million screws out, and remove both sides of the case (front and back). Much more difficult than a PowerBook (and, I assume, a pre-unibody MacBook Pro).

Once the hard drive was out (and the various innards of the iBook spread all over the kitchen table), my first idea was to just stick it in my MacBook temporarily, since it’s INSANELY easy to swap the hard drive in a MacBook. Turns out Ultra ATA drives don’t work in a Serial ATA MacBook.

The second idea (after verifying it on EveryMac.com) was to put the drive in my old Power Mac G4. For some reason that didn’t work, even though it’s also Ultra ATA. Different spacing on the pins or something (puzzling). By this point Tim and Dani were fidgeting about, wanting to get on the road, since they had a 3-hour drive to Mt. Vernon.

I explored various other solutions, such as booting the iBook with exposed logic board and hoping the improved air circulation kept it going sans fans long enough to copy stuff off. I also suggested to myself that I could connect various computers (and/or external hard drives) together in FireWire Target Disk Mode, but only the Power Mac had enough FireWire ports to handle it, and all my FireWire cables were in the closet in the bedroom, in front of which Drew was sleeping, on a cot (since Company had taken over his room for the weekend).

Also briefly reflected upon the fact that either a) a working FireWire hub, or b) one of these would have solved everything.

Anyway, the final solution (which worked) was to throw the drive in Jennifer’s PowerBook for a bit while SuperDuper copied everything perfectly over to the new computer, impressing Tim.

I’ll finally say it: I’m disappointed with Apple.

Since before it was cool, I’ve wanted a device that consolidated all my pocket gadgets: iPod, phone, PDA, etc. More than a year and a half ago, Apple finally introduced the long-rumored iPhone: everyone’s dream device, promising convergence, productivity, and the sheer joy users and developers have come to expect from using an Apple-designed user interface.

I didn’t buy one when they were first announced, in large part because of the wallet-busting $600 price tag, and in small part because there was no official way to develop or install my own applications and games on it. When I had my Palm, I’d become rather attached to SimCity and Pocket Quicken, and the thought of being able to carry Real Software with me wherever I went was very exciting.

When the SDK was announced nearly a year ago, the stage was set, and with the 3G iPhone came subsidization. Finally, an iPhone was nearly within my financial grasp.

Then this mess happened. First, Apple inexplicably kept all developers under an NDA, which had the (however unintended) effect of stifling collaboration and developer assistance, traditionally very important processes when writing software for a new platform.

Second, Apple has now decided that not only will their App Store be the sole source of iPhone software, but that they reserve the right to bar any software from the store they see fit. The gist of it is that a prospective developer (let’s call him, oh, I don’t know, Daniel) can conceive an idea, spend six months of his free time pouring his creative energy into it, submit his software for distribution, and be denied the fruit of his labors without any warning or real explanation.

I usually try to give Apple the the benefit of the doubt. But I was excited about using and possibly developing for (should I find any holes to fill) the iPhone. This doesn’t exactly make it sound like fun.

• I always make sure the paper coffee cup’s seam (and sleeve fold if there is one) is directly below the sipping hole so I can drink it without looking. This produces a helpless feeling if the cup is made without a seam.
• I always wet my toothbrush before after applying toothpaste. Sometimes that makes the toothpaste fall off.
• When I was a kid, I kept track of how many clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations accumulated while moving around in a room, and always made sure to unwind them by spinning that number of times in the proper direction when leaving. Or, I tried NOT to accumulate any rotations.
• I can’t step on sidewalk cracks. If I do, I have to step on another one, with the opposite foot.
• When I didn’t have a rotary volume dial on my car radio, I always made sure to press the volume up and down buttons in multiples of five. Now I just make sure the digital marker is perfectly centered between digital ticks on the display.
• It bugs me if my Mac’s application windows aren’t all tiled or lined up, with no overlaps and no spaces (or a 1 pixel space, but it depends).
• I always use my turn signal, even when I’m pulling into a parking space or the driveway off our shared driveway. My reasoning is that if I neglect it even once, it could destroy my habit forever and I won’t be able to rely on it. Only slightly tongue-in-cheek.

I think there may be others that I’ve grown out of, or can’t think of right now. Outside observers may know of more.

Update: Today Jennifer caught me using my turn signal in the Wendy’s drive-thru. Yes, I was just following the the drive-thru around the building.

Inline CSS Editing

This is the biggest new feature of the Inspector. You can now edit CSS styles simply by double-clicking them in the Inspector’s Styles sidebar. This is really handy for tweaking the look of your site live in the browser.

It’s referred to again in the Safari 3.1 release notes, but I can’t get it to work in the final downloaded version, though it still works in the WebKit nightlies. Perhaps the feature was deemed yet too unpolished for official release — there are still a lot of bugs reported on it, and FireBug’s CSS editor is arguably better (and MacRabbit’s CSSEdit even more so!).

P.S.: The future of the Web Inspector looks even better.

Closed:

Open:

• iChat supports IRC-style status updates. You can type “/me is installing Leopard” into an IM window, and it will display it in a style similar to iTunes track notification messages, or away message changes, substituting your name for “/me”. (thanks, Andy)

• GOOD: iChat now has a profile editor, catching up with the official AIM client. From 1998. BAD: Lime green and/or white italic underlined text on hot pink backgrounds.

• Because iChat officially supports invisibility now, it no longer displays the ‘This person is not online.’ alert when you try to message an offline contact (since it has no way of knowing if they’re offline or just invisible). Instead, AOL seems to be queueing messages for the next time they log on. That’s cool, because now you can leave a message for someone, instead of setting up an alert to notify you when they do log on, in hopes that you’ll still remember whatever it was you wanted to say.

• GOOD: iChat can log into multiple AIM/Jabber accounts simultaneously. BAD: Five simultaneous accounts means five separate buddy lists. Still, slowly catching up to Adium.

• Spaces is awesome, especially on an untethered laptop (meaning: away from additional 20” display). I never “got” virtual desktops before I used this implementation.

• Screen Sharing is nice to have in the OS, but I was very disappointed that it doesn’t go all full screen and swoopy when used outside of iChat. It also doesn’t work out-of-the-box with Ubuntu’s built-in VNC server (Gutsy Gibbon). (Update: It works using instructions found here.)

• Stacks are ugly. Which folder is that, anyway? Also, you have to mouse around with the contextual menu just to actually open the folder. No amount of clicking, double-clicking, or mashing modifier keys helps.

Some issues that it would be wonderful if plugin developers could address:

• Time Machine should issue a Growl notification when a backup finishes (because it gives me a fuzzy feeling to know that the last hour or two of work is now safe)

• Time Machine needs a Dashboard widget displaying its current status, which is currently only viewable in the system preferences pane.

• Quick Look needs to report on the contents of archives: .zip, .gz, .tar, .dmg, etc. A nice little list of the files’ names and sizes would be extremely helpful (I shall arrogantly assume Aladdin Allume SmithMicro is already working on one for .sit). Also, CSS files’ previews should render as text, like .txt and .php files do.

• iChat should employ some sort of Quick Look-like view for inline images. Once you’re used to Quick Look in the Finder, it’s frustrating to hit the space bar and have nothing happen, then remember you have to launch Preview to see that image at a comprehensible size.

And, as is tradition, I’ve already got my installation hacked up with a bunch of plugins, some Alpha-quality, some not:

• Chax 2.0 — Adds the features Apple forgot

• WidescreenMailPlugin — Makes your Mail window extremely narrow

• MiniMail — Like the mini iTunes window, but for Mail

• Saft for Leopard — Essentials like type-to-find, double-click-for-new-tab, and undo-tab-closing

• PlugSuit — Plugin enabler and manager prefpane. Lets you use many regular old InputManagers on Leopard.

So off we trekked to the closest Apple store. I once tried to make my whole setup as wireless as possible (including sound), but found it impractical with the technology of that time. I thought I might start heading that direction again, so I used the opportunity to pick up a wireless version of the Mighty Mouse.

Either I completely forgot my prior experience with MacMice’ The Mouse BT, or else I figured Apple’s quality would be better. The Mouse BT was (and presumably still is, since I still have it somewhere) a two-button alternative to Apple’s then-current Apple Wireless Pro Mouse, it suffered from a slight, annoying lag which I suspect affects all Bluetooth mice to some degree. Plus, it ate batteries.

Back to the present: I was initially impressed with Apple’s new wireless mouse. It looks and works just like the wired version (which is still my favorite mouse, second only to my MacAlly iOptiNet). Except for the lag. The stupid, unpredictable Bluetooth lag. Like, when I move the Bluetooth mouse in small, tight circles, I don’t even get a consistent circle from the cursor. In my opinion, a wired mouse just feels Snappier™.

So I’m selling it, of all places, on Craigslist. It’s sort of an experiment. If you live in Upstate SC, or if you want to pay for postage to where you are, feel free to send me $60 for it —- which is a $10 savings over buying it new, I might add. Enjoy.

Oh, and if anyone wants my old The Mouse BT, you can have that for like $30 ($70 retail in 2004). Same deal with the postage.

Update: As Doug points out, it could be my hardware. This time, I’m using a Belkin Bluetooth adapter, since my internal Bluetooth module is fried. However, I was using the built-in Bluetooth with my The Mouse BT back in the day. Coincidence? Maybe. Either way, I can’t use the mouse now.