One of my favourite apps for MacOS X is "Omnigraffle" made by The Omni Group (the makers of Omniweb). Omnigraffle is simply a fantastic program. It'll help you create great looking flowcharts, diagrams, family trees, org charts, layouts etc. It's so easy to use and with very little effort you'll be able to create really cool charts and diagrams. I'm by no means any good at doing graphical work on my mac, but I still managed to create this diagram for my dissertation on ecotoxicology using Omnigraffle,- you'll most likely be able to create something waaay cooler..:-)

Omnigraffle has earned itself a 4.8 rating (out of 5) on MacUpdate.com, -a well-deserved rating. You can download a demoversion of Omnigraffle here,- if you decide to buy Omnigraffle AND you're a student, you can get a discount. It's only 41.99$,-and that's a bargain. Check it out!!!

I thought about this post for a looong time. I've been surfing the net for some time now to find some answers. Is it illegal to link to a site that in turn links to places where you can download bootlegs for free? It proved to be a difficult question to answer. It turns out that as long I'm not using "deep links" to the download sources, I'm not violating any laws. Is it illegal for you to download the bootlegs? I don't know to be honest, but i don't think it is. Most recording artists and record companies, don't mind fans sharing bootlegs,- as long as there's no money involved. The last part is important! As a general guide, authorities tend to turn a blind eye to bootlegging as a hobby, usually only targeting those who do it as a business. The sound quality of bootlegs is often (but certainly not always) quite poor and it's only "die-hard" fans that will appreciate the recordings,- I guess that's why noncommercial bootlegs are tolerated. Some of the links are actually posted on the artists fanpage forums, so I really don't think they mind. Some artists even endorse the noncommercial trading of bootlegs. Most known is The Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam and U2....

Anyway...here's the link to "Bootlegs"...

Here are some of the artists featured on the site,- in total there's something like 300 links!

Tori Amos
Audioslave
Blur
David Bowie
Butthole Surfers
Cardigans
Coldplay
The Cure
Depeche Mode
Bob Dylan
Foo Figthers
Kate Bush
.
.
.

The sound quality of some of the bootlegs are superb!!

Enjoy :-)

When I "discovered" the deviantART site I thought I had found the "creme de la creme" of graphic design,- well, I was wrong. The two small pics above are taken from www.raph.com and are both created on computers. I have never seen anything like it,- it's unbelievable!!! Some of the artwork is so realistic, it's almost impossible to tell wether it's a photography or made on a computer. Do yourself a favour and check out the site,- select "sort by thumbnail". You're in for a treat!!!! You'll even find some tutorials on how to create these incredible images...

UPDATE Here's another great site with 3D graphics: www.SplutterFish.com

Some facts: The number of people in prison, in jail, on parole, and on probation in the U.S. increased threefold between 1980 and 2000, to more than 6 million, and the number of people in prison increased from 319,598 to almost 2 million in the same period (a study showed that 1 in 37 US adults have prison experience). This buildup has targeted the poor, and especially Blacks. In 1999, though Blacks were only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they were half of all prison inmates. In 2000, one out of three young Black men was either locked up, on probation, or on parole. Why are there so many people imprisoned in the US? Well, the welfare system is not as comprehensive as it is in many other western contries and the laws are also tougher. California's "Three-Strikes-and-You're-Out" policy, which generally prescribe that felons found guilty of a third serious crime be locked up for 25 years to life, is a good example of this. Third serious crime? Yeah right!! Last year a man was given not one but two sentences of 25 years to life - not for committing a rape or a murder but for stealing nine children's videotapes including "Snow White," "Cinderella" and "Free Willy."!!! Why isn't there a Three-Strikes-and-You're-Out for Corporate Criminals?

360 degrees is a group of people dedicated to reduce crime and strengthen US communities without continuing the unprecedented rate of incarceration. You'll find stories from the US justice system and an interesting timeline that gives you an idea of how the judicial system has developed through time..

In my search for a cool wallpaper I came across this site some time ago. This is what they write about themselves:"deviantART is an online art community for artists and art lovers to interact in a variety of ways, ranging from the submission of art to conversations on a number of topics. In its purest form, deviantART is a means for expressing ones-self in a variety of ways."
Some of the submissions are really cool, so go check it out!
This is some of the stuff you'll find on deviantART:

Designs, Flash, Fonts, Icons, Indy Art, Interfaces, Photography, Pixel Art, Poetry, Prose, Screenshots, Stock Photos, Textures, Themes, Tutorials, Visualization, Wallpapers...

Signing up is free, but if you decide to subscribe to the site you'll get some extra advantages: no banners (e.g. faster surfing), exclusive content, private forums...it's 3.95 a month. I haven't signed up though, but maybe I should,- just to support their effort :-)

Macattorney is THE place to go if you're having problems with OS X! Don't miss it!!!
You'll most likely be able to solve 90% of all OS X problems by following the tips and tricks listed on this page...

Last night I installed Apple's new version of OS X named Panther on two of my three macs. I decided to start with my old iBook SE (366 mHz G3, 6 GB HD and 320 mb ram), to see if Panther really was stable and fast. I went for a "Archive and install" to avoid reinstalling all of my applications. At first everything was fine. Panther was very very slick to look at and it had certainly increased the overall performance of my old iBook. Out of the blue my dock started to behave really really wierd. The whole dock bounced up and down repeatedly, and it apparently didn't respond to changes in the dock settings. I trashed the dock.plist and Finder.plist files to see if that helped,- unfortunately it didn't. I then repaired the permissions, ran every possible script in Cocktail, fsck -y and lots of other things, but all with no success. Eventually I grew tired of all the troubleshooting and decided to do a clean install. The installation went smooth, I rebooted and this time the dock didn't give me any problems. The speedimprovement on my iBook is certainly significant. It's probably 30-40% faster than on Jaguar. By the way: The music that plays during the final set-up is "Eple" by Röyksopp...

When I saw things were fine on my iBook, I went for my (noiseless) iMac DV SE (500 mHz G3, 80 GB HD, 640 mb ram), which is my "main" computer. I use it every day and it's a must to me that it's stable and doesn't f...up. I write my master degree dissertation on it and I have a lot of importent files and apps. on the hd, - so I was obviosly a bit nervous installling a brand new OS on it. Since I don't have a way to back-up the whole hd, I couldn't do a clean install, without losing all my files. First I backed up the most important files such as the "Documents" folder, settings and such. I then removed all items in the login panel, repaired the permissions and rebooted. After the reboot I inserted installation CD no.1, but instead of "Archive and install" I went for the "Upgrade to 10.3 from previous OS" option. The installation went smooth, but after the reboot I, once again, had a wierd dock in Panther with the same symptoms seen on the iBook. I then realized I'd forgotten to remove "ShowDesktop" from the Login-items panel, and it was therefore running in the background. After I removed "ShowDesktop" from the login-items panel, thrashed it and rebooted, the dock was back to normal. With Exposé I don't need it anyway...
The speedimprovement after installing Panther is just as significant on the iMac DV SE as it is on the iBook. Once again around 30-40% faster. It's like getting a new computer!!! Websurfing among other things is much faster than in Jaguar. PDF's in PreView, scroll times, everything is quicker and smoother. Exposé has already become indispensable, and, belive it or not, Mail is almost twice as fast as it were in Jaguar,- at least on my mac's. I'm very impressed by Panther so far. Apparently Panther it's just as stable as Jaguar, but since I've only just installed it I really haven't pushed the system hard yet....Time will tell wether it's stable or not.

Anyway....If you plan to install Panther:

Before installing:

1. Back-up important files (documents, settings, contacts, favourites, adresses etc.)!!!
2. Remove third-party system extensions and inhancers eg. ShadowKiller, KeyXing, ShowDesktop from the login items panel and trash the apps. You most likely wont need them in Panther anyway.
3. Make sure Apple's iApps (iTunes, iChat etc) are placed freely in the "Applications" folder,-NOT hidden away in a folder placed in the "Applications" folder.
4. Repair permissions

After installing:

1. Repair permissions
2. Do not install third-party system extensions and inhancers if you're not 100% sure they're optimized for Panther.

If you want to see a list of all the new features in Panther go to this page

If you're having problems with Adobe Indesign for Mac OS X, it could be related to one of the following two issues:

1.Chances are it's because you're also running Extensis Suitcase. Adobe Indesign is apparently caused to unexpectedly quit by some kind of incompatibility issue related to Extensis Suitcase.

So how do you fix this problem? Well at the time being there's only one solution: Use another app. to handle your fonts!!!

2. Adobe InDesign software can enter a buffer overrun state when the Open a File dialog box is accessed. This state may cause InDesign to unexpectedly quit, and you may receive the error "The application InDesign has unexpectedly quit." The InDesign 2.0.2 Unexpected Quit fix resolves this issue.

So Siris was the brighest human who have ever excisted on this planet. Who were the dumbest then? The Darvin Awards has a great list of candidates.
The Darvin Awards is a site that (quote):"...honor those who improve our gene pool... by removing themselves from it. We commemorate the men and women who gave their "all" in an effort to improve the human species. Of necessity, the honor is generally bestowed posthumously...The Darwin Awards salute the improvement ofthe human genome by honoring those who accidentally kill themselves in really stupid ways."

Ever heard of William James Sidis? William James Sidis is arguably the brightest human who ever existed on our planet Earth.

Here is a partial list of William James Sidis' extraordinary capabilities and accomplishments:

1. Infant Billy listened to Greek myths read to him by Sarah (mother) as bedtime stories.
2. Started feeding himself with a spoon at eight months (after two months of trial and error).
3. Cajoled by Boris (father), Billy learned to pronounce alphabetic syllables from blocks hanging in his crib.
4. At six months, Billy said, "Door." A couple months later he told Mom he liked things, doors and people, that move.
5. At seven months he pointed to Earth's moon and called it, "moon." He wanted a 'moon' of his own.
6. Mastered higher mathematics and planetary revolutions by age 11.
7. Learned to spell efficiently by one year old.
8. Started reading The New York Times at 18 months.
9. Started typing at three. Used his high chair to reach a typewriter. First composed letter was an order for toys from Macy's.
10. Read Caesar's Gallic Wars, in Latin (self-taught), as a birthday present to his Father in Billy's fourth year.
11. Learned Greek alphabet and read Homer in Greek in his fourth year.
12. Learned Aristotelian logic in his sixth year.
13. At six, Billy learned Russian, French, German, and Hebrew, and soon after, Turkish and Armenian.
14. Calculated mentally a day any date in history would fall at age six. Absolutely fascinated by calendars.
15. Learned Gray's Anatomy at six. Could pass a student medical examination.
16. Billy started grammar school at six, in 3 days 3rd grade, graduated grammar school in 7 months.
17. At age 8, Billy surpassed his father (a genius) in mathematics.
18. Corrected E. V. Huntington's mathematics text galleys at age of eight.
19. Total recall of everything he read.
20. Wrote four books between ages of four and eight. Two on anatomy and astronomy, lost.
21. Passed Harvard Medical School anatomy exam at age seven.
22. Passed MIT entrance exam at age eight.
23. Intellect surpassed best secondary school teachers.
24. At age 10, in one evening, corrected Harvard logic professor Josiah Royce's book manuscript: citing, "wrong paragraphs."
25. Attempted to enroll in Harvard at nine.
26. In 1909, became youngest student to ever enroll at Harvard at age 11.
27. In 1910, at age 11, lectured Harvard Mathematical Club on 'Four-Dimensional Bodies.'