ExpanDrive

Shell Script Mistakes
“While there are lots of shell programming pitfalls, at least the interpreter will tell you immediately about them. The mistakes I describe below, generally mean that your script will run fine now, but if the data changes or you move your script to another system, then you may have problems.”

Robert Muraine Audition – SYTYCD 4
Robert Muraine is now my second favorite dancer in the universe, behind Michael Jackson (obviously).

“Chasing José”
“Over the last few years, Rob has negotiated prospective deals for Jose worth almost $2 million. Rob got Taco Bell to ante up $25,000, plus residuals, for Jose to star in a TV commercial in which Jose would hold up a huge burrito and say, ‘This thing’s gotta be on something.’ Jose demanded $50,000 instead and Taco Bell walked. Rob also got Jose an offer of $100,000 from GoldenPalace.com, which would require Jose simply to wear that company’s t-shirt and cap whenever he was on TV. Jose demanded $200,000 and Golden Palace walked. Then, Rob got Jose an offer of $75,000 from a reality TV show that wanted to film Jose in a wheelchair for thirty days. Jose demanded more, and the TV show vanished. Finally, Rob got Jose an offer of $500,000 for a movie based on his life, but Jose demanded $1.5 million and the offer vanished.”

Twitter bucks
I wonder if they’ll let you buy twitterbucks with flooz. John Gruber suggests a more realistic business model for twitter.

On Language: Emoticons
“The trouble is that the stylized drawings of iconography (rooted in the Greek eikenai, ‘to seem like,’ and graphein, ‘to write’) are threatening to take over the precise communication of words.”

Hoax: 13 Year Old Steals Dad’s Credit Card to Buy Hookers
We don’t issue retractions here at Magnanimous. We silently delete misguided posts, and then link to their expose as if we never fell for it in the first place.

“Dear American Airlines”
“‘Dear American Airlines,’ the 180-page letter begins. ‘My name is Benjamin R. Ford and I am writing to request a refund in the amount of $392.68.’ But ‘request,’ he decides, is a word ‘too mincy & polite, I think, too officious & Britishy.’ He demands a refund.”

The situation with Address Book / Google Contacts sync is completely bizarre. The Google Mac Blog says that OS X 10.5.3 “now lets iPhone users sync their Address Book with Google Contacts.”

Awesome, but what’s up with iPhone requirement? Is there some special technology in the iPhone, a technology that doesn’t exist in full-sized computers, that makes the sync possible? Is this a business ploy to attract gmail users to the iPhone who might otherwise use a Google -> Address Book -> iSync double-bridge to get their gmail contacts on their Razr?

But then you can enable sync, without an iPhone or iPod touch, if you’re willing to brave a simple .plist hack? I’m very confused about what the logic is behind all of this.

Since graduating college, I’ve been a fairly happy Bank of America checking account holder. There are an absurd number of BofA ATMs in Boston and a reasonable number of branches. However, there is a $750 minimum balance requirement that sort of grinds on me – mostly because the account makes no interest. New checks cost a ridiculous $25, which I am forced to pay nearly every year as I move around.

A few months ago I saw an ad for Schwab High-Yield Investor Checking. It advertised 3% interest, no minimum balance, all ATM fees [domestic and international] refunded. It seemed too good to be true – but Schwab is a respectable name, so I gave it a good look and opened an account.

This is a great deal. It’s not too good to be true, and there isn’t a catch.

• 2.01% variable APY – [about 5x the national average]
• No minimum balance requirement
• All ATM fees are refunded [both domestic and international]
• Free bill pay
• Free checks
• Overdraft protection
• Built in brokerage account [with reasonable trading fees]

The major downside is that you won’t be able to interact with a real person at a local branch, although they have 270 investment branches you can supposedly go to for service. Apart from that, it’s pretty nice. The website isn’t quite as pretty as the BofA site, but is certainly just as functional.

For an even higher interest rate, Jon keeps all of his money in the the [dubiously named] Bank of Internet USA, which is currently yielding 3% on a $1,000 minimum balance. I’m not too sure about that one.

If you haven’t tried some good Oregon Pinot Noir, you’re really missing out. This was only $19 at Martinetti’s in Boston. Incredible.

Whether iTunes or VMWare Fusion v1.0 is the culprit, I’m not sure. I’ve been getting high CPU usage while my guest OS is idle in VMWare Fusion 1.0 final. The solution, noted elsewhere, is to disable ituneshelper.exe using autoruns or msconfig.exe. vmware-vmx CPU usage with an idle guest OS went from 38% to 8%