kirabug’s idea files

First, an awesome shirt about roundhouse kicks.

I had a great time out at lunch with two friends who are black belts (one’s a m\Master) in Tang Soo Do today. One of the great benefits of this new activity is that I now have a point of connection with incredible people I might have otherwise lost touch with. That by itself is worth the price of admission.

I’ve also learned through a clothing shopping trip yesterday that my fluffy body has already started to reorganize. I haven’t lost any weight, but certain pockets of fat are starting to disappear. Benefits: less fat. Consequences: now I don’t wear the same style of pants I did 3 months ago and had to move to a different rack at the fat girls’ store. Can’t say that’s a bad thing.

And finally, here’s a skill I didn’t think would be involved in martial arts: sewing. I bought a sewing machine this week because my fat ass takes a size 6 do bokh (uniform) and that’s the same size that my friend the six-foot-four Master wears. Or to put it another way, I had to hem almost 8 inches of fabric off the bottom.

I just might make my fortune by commissioning someone to create Tang Soo Do do bokhs in patterns designed for women. That is, after I do the other eight hundred things I was going to do to conquer the world.

Unrelated aside:
The awesome folks at the Apple Store managed to take apart the monolith, clean her up, and call me to pick her up already by this afternoon. So we’re back on the iMac and life is good. I’m a happy camper.

Apple - Pro - Tips - Tame Your Tabs With Key Commands

Useful stuff I hadn’t realized was hiding in the contextual menus.

Apple’s design process is a great process, obviously, or their products wouldn’t be so excellent. It turns out it all involves pairs — paired design, two meetings a week, etc. to make sure that great ideas are always flowing without sacrificing a rigorous process.

The Apple Product Cycle pretty much nails it right on the head.

The Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos shows the evolution of Nokia, Apple, and Lucky Goldstar’s logos, among others, with a bit of history.

The original title of this article doesn’t make much sense coming from me since I’m a chick but the message is the same.

I am the kind of computer gearhead who’s not afraid to gut her Pismo to replace a broken screen, or gut her iBook to put in a bigger drive…. and believe you me, it’s a gutting. When there are more parts on the table than still attached to the machine, then you’ve successfully gutted the laptop.

But I also regularly troubleshoot computers for friends, family, co-workers, clients, just about anyone who finds out I have a Mac. And I don’t want these people, who obviously aren’t computer gearheads, worrying about how to replace their hard drive. And I sure as hell don’t want them asking me to do it, because if I mess it up, it costs everyone money. Let Apple take that chance, or their authorized tech people.

In the meantime, the Macbook Air, for the people interested in a computer for doing work looks like a very capable machine. The whole lack of an optical drive is still kind of weird, but on the other hand, so was the lack of a floppy drive when the iMac came out, and we all got over it. I’m willing to bet it’ll work out… and if it doesn’t work out for you, you gearhead you, don’t buy it.

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For those who are interested, the articles above are:

• Apple Sued for Antitrust (a nutcase whining and suing because the only portable music player that will play the music she bought through the iTunes Music Store is the iPod, something Apple makes perfectly clear everywhere….)
• Cisco sues Apple over its use of iPhone name (which this article indicates will fail because Cisco abandoned the trademark in 2005, but it’ll be an interesting fight anyway…)
• Apple swipes Visual Voicemail from Citrix which is interesting because Citrix hasn’t sued yet.

Oh, and for those who don’t know the story of the sosumi system sound on the Mac, the most definitive version is here.