It's fairly easy to make QuickTime Player go full screen, even if you don't want to pay for "QuickTime Pro". You can do it with a small AppleScript and the Script Menu. (This was inspired by QuikTimeFS, but that requires running an extra little application every time you want to go full screen ( Read more... )

Meanwhile, I'm way, way behind in my filing. I wanted to catch up a bit, and discovered that my Dymo LabelWriter 330 Turbo (which prints my folder labels) is dead. If I want to get it fixed under warranty, I need to find the receipt. To find the receipt, I need to file my huge backlog of documents. To file my huge backlog of documents, I need ( Read more... )

I've been so spoiled by the Dell 2405FPW on my desk at work that I just ordered one for home (about $780 before tax thanks to a 35% deal that expires today). Now I have to decide whether to sell my 2001FP (20.1" 1600x1200 LCD) or buy a PCMCIA video card so I can connect both to the Powerbook simultaneously ( Read more... )

Ultimate Spider-Man: Disappointing. I was hoping for a game that would improve on the Spider-Man 2 experience. This didn't. The graphics are fine - I like toon shading. The story is very short, and not nearly as good as Spider-Man 2's. The controls and the fighting are vastly simplified from Spider-Man 2. There is almost nothing in the way of ( Read more... )

If you have a Dell product with no service tag, and you need support, expect to spend a long time on the phone ( Read more... )

I finally gave up waiting for T-Mobile to release a Treo 650 and got one from Verizon. I was spurred to do so because I also wanted to get a Verizon EVDO card and the EVDO monthly rate is $20 less if you have a Verizon phone ( Read more... )

Put this in a file named pdb in your $PATH and make it executable:

#!/bin/bash
exec python "$(python -c 'import pdb; print pdb.__file__')" "$@"

Now if you want to run some Python script under the debugger, run pdb on it. For example, if you have a script named reverse.py that you want to run under the debugger:

$ pdb reverse.py
> (1 ( Read more... )

Remember the good old days, when you'd rent a video tape, put it in the VCR, and fast forward through the FBI idiocy and the trailers to the movie? Now you get a DVD from Netflix but you can't skip the FBI idiocy, and sometimes they even throw in some non-skippable ads. Then you have to watch a menu animate onto the screen, select "Play Movie", ( Read more... )

In Revenge of the Nerds, Paul Graham defines the accumulator generator problem. Solving it requires using a programming language that has, or can simulate, closures and a polymorphic add function. He presents solutions in a number of languages, submitted by various people ( Read more... )

At my office I've been connecting a Sony 20" 1600x1200 LCD monitor to my Powerbook. However, this only lets me put two 80-column Terminal windows side-by-side. There's more horizontal space, but not enough for a third 80-column terminal. (Not at my preferred font size, anyway). So I ordered a Dell 2405FPW, which is 24" and 1920x1200. It has ( Read more... )