This here blogger script now has a "preview" button instead of a "post" button.  I generalized the SpellCheck feature into a full-fledged preview feature, which includes spellchecking.  It also formats your post the way it’ll be formatted on the site, including links, etc, which is handy since a few people have had trouble figuring out how to make that work.

And now you can complete the post from the preview page -- no need to go Back and uncheck any box, like before, which was highly annoying.  You can also make changes to your post right on the preview page, in a new posting form.

Does peanut butter go bad?  I have a container of Jif in my cupboard, and I have no idea when I bought it.  It looks and smells fine, but I can’t find a datestamp anywhere on the container.

But first, two things:

I didn’t take this amazing photo of luna, but I wish I did.  (Alas, I don’t have access to that kind of equipment.)

Second, my blog is now table-free; it’s formatted entirely with CSS.  If you’re viewing my site in the "simple" theme, then there isn’t a single table on the whole homepage.  (If none of that means anything to you, don’t worry: that just means you aren’t a geek.)

[Update: I forgot to say that the reason this matters is, when I was using tables, the text of posts would sometimes spill out the right side of the page.  I don’t know if that’s a browser bug, or if I was doing something wrong when formatting my tables’ widths etc, but without the tables it doesn’t happen.]

Finally, a poll, and I’d really appreciate every one of you responding to this.  It’s simple and takes only 3.7 seconds.  I have two different computers running here, and the box on this page is a completely different color on the two different systems.  What color is it on your computer?

Perl is man’s best friend.  Well, maybe not, but it’s my best friend, anyway.  Using Perl, I’ve been able to:

♠ make a computer-based car stereo that has all my CDs copied onto its hard drive, so every song, band, and album is instantly available all the time.  (Well, I don’t quite have all my CDs copied onto it yet -- only about 250 or 300 so far.  It takes time, you know...)

♣ make the scripts that run this website, like the blogger/messageboard script you’re reading right now, along with a login script, a mailinglist script, my visitorlog/stats scripts, and various others.

♥ make an interface for creating webpages from photos that’s easy enough for my mom to use, along with the scripts to display those photos as a slideshow or in frames (and the blog/msgboard script fits in to allow user comments on the photos).

And now, I just started a job using Perl (along with other web-development concepts like CGI programming, CSS design, mysql databases, etc) to help design/maintain a database and website system in one of the bio labs here on campus.  Professors and grad students here are collaborating with people at Cornell and the U of Florida on a project to sequence flower genomes, and Perl plays a big role in enabling the project.

Most of the bio is mostly over my head, but I’m learning it as I go.  Genomics is certainly interesting stuff, especially with stories about the supposed successful creation of a human clone making the news nowadays.  And while I’m working, I get to hear the researchers make jokes about the "millions of years of evolution" these plants have gone through (well, they don’t know that they are jokes... but they’re funny).

Quiznos has two crazy commercials that are hilarious and brilliant.  Go watch them on the Quiznos site.

Every single one of you should go and see The Passion of Christ in theatres within the first two weeks that it is out. In fact you should take anyone you can think of and then after you see it once go and see it again with different people and tell them to do the same. We need more movies like this in the theatres of America, this is a chance to make that happen more often and we can do this by supporting the few good movies that do comeout.

From the description of Apple’s new GarageBand software:

GarageBand turns your Mac into an anytime, anywhere recording studio packed with hundreds of instruments and a recording engineer or two for good measure.  It’s the easiest way to create, perform and record your own music whether you’re an accomplished player or just wish you were a rock star.  And GarageBand is the newest member of the iLife family, so you can add your original music to your slideshows, your DVD menus, burn it to CDs or score your iMovie projects.

iLife ?  OK, I’m starting to think that Steve Jobs is the anti-Christ.

Anyway... I’m reading about this new software, and I come upon a messageboard on the Apple site.  One guy made an angry post about how it’s "Deceptive & Misleading" that in the advertising for GarageBand, Apple doesn’t mention that you need a DVD player to install it.

But the interesting part is the replies from the Mac community.  Some of them are really brutal:

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
i’m sorry you feel cheated but come on bud, if you your mac is so "new" then it will have a dvd drive.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
I guess I’d be mad too if I didn’t have a DVD player, but Tim (and everyone else for that matter) should learn to accept his own mistakes.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
Lots of solutions by bringing it in by other Macs with Superdrives or Combos, but (and don’t take this as criticism) your best bet is to take advantage of current low prices on eMacs and upgrade... Small Dog Electronics has new Superdrive eMacs with 1GB RAM and 80GB HD that will boot into OS 9 for (ta-da!) $999. Then eBay out your old Mac and you’re good.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
First off - the only thing deceptive and misleading is this post. How dare you come here and slam Apple the way you just because YOU don’t have a DVD player! And it is obvious that YOU didn’t read the requirements. Don’’t blame your obvious shortcomings on Apple. Go buy a DVD player and start reading software boxes.

People like you amaze me.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
Take 10 deep breaths, then buy a new Mac.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
It’s not my fault that some of you don’t want to invest in your machines like you should.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
Tim, I hope you have benefitted from all of this GREAT feedback on your post. Everyone - I think the point has been made. I see no further use in discussing this topic further. If there is anyone monitoring this discussion board, maybe this post should be locked and then - discarded.

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
I can’t believe people are still adding replies to this thread either. What can they be thinking of ?

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
SHORT DESCIPTIVE HERE..... If your not happy with MAC and all you can do is whine HAHHAH you have one choice Go over to the PC world .. now then enjoy that hell..... Grass is so much Greener on this side

RE: Deceptive & Misleading
lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,lol,

I barely know where to start here...

First, the people tormenting the guy because he doesn’t have a DVD drive, telling him he should "accept his own mistakes" and stop "blaming his obvious shortcomings on Apple."  Ha!

Then, recommending that the best solution would be to just buy a whole new machine at $1000 -- yeah, great solution for a guy whose entire point was that he shouldn’t have to buy a DVD drive to use software that has nothing to do with DVDs.

And the best part is the end, when the thought police drop by and decide that someone needs to lock the post, to forcibly prevent people from continuing the discussion!

Then, for good measure, another person replies to say that replying is a bad idea.

And... a post which consists only of "lol" repeated 252 times... ugh, no comment.  One "lol" is terrible enough.

Then there’s this reply:

Apple’s smart. Why would they offer great software for $49....So you have to buy the machine with the Superdrive! Why wait to release this stuff until after Christmas when everyone is broke? Best believe apple is getting theirs as they’ll be debt free in Feb.!!!! GO APPLE!

...which is just sad.

I took some new photos.