... that men will soon be wearing capri pants. They will call them "shorts". But we women will know what they really are.

(I've observed that men's shorts have recently breached the obstacle of the knee. Now there isn't anything to keep them from getting longer and longer until they are of capri length.)

...two button mice.

For a year or two, my most up to date web browser was on a laptop running Windows 98SE. Thus was my introduction to using a two button mouse. I hated it. I'm glad to be back on a Mac with a single button mouse.

Prior to my flirtation with Windows, I had used a single button mouse since the Mac XL was called the Lisa and Macintosh was but a product code name. Over the years, I heard lots of debate of one button vs two button mice.

There are certain technical advantages of a two button mouse. It wasn't until I used Windows extensively that I learned that Windows does not make use of those advantages! All the two button mouse does for Windows is to complicate and slow down the user interface.

...mouse rollovers.

Menus should not pop down just because I rolled the mouse pointer over them. The position of the mouse pointer is for my use only.

I read this on the discussion board:

It just disappears up under there somewhere, and then pops right out when needed.

There is a short skirt. ( It is a... )

I found a MacOSX bug. Sadly it is either endemic to the design of OSX, or the application is explicitly coded to have this bug.

Anyway. I was viewing several JPGs via the Preview application. I then switched to the Finder and renamed the folder containing those JPGs. At the next opportunity, Preview closed all the image windows.


What should happen in an ideal OS:

The images documents should remain open. After all, nothing happened to the documents. They are still on the hard drive. So what if if the user changed zir document arrangement.

What happened in Mac OS9 and earlier:

A properly written program referenced the documents by directory id and file name. Changing the folder (directory) name does not change the directory id. Hence the program doesn't even need to be aware of the change.

An improperly written program may have referenced the documents by full path name. Such a program might panic and close the windows when the old full path name no longer works.

OSX

I don't how badly OSX gutted the venerable File Manager API. I don't know if the directory id system is still around. Thus I don't know if Preview wad forced to use text based path names, or if it was poorly written, or if the programmer gratuitously decided to close windows who's paths change.

More about an ideal OS:

In an ideal OS, users should be able to change the file name of a document even if it is open. File and directory names are for a user's benefit. They should not be for the computer's benefit. (Actually, it is can be unsafe to internally rely upon user chosen names. For example, names may sort differently depending on the language the user is using at the moment.)

Sadly even the original Mac OS was partially infected by legacy operating systems' concept of referencing by name. A properly written old Mac OS program would need to keep files "open" (if just in read mode) so that the Finder could at least disallow renaming of the files that are in use.

Oooh! I just discovered a trackpad trick. Instead of sliding my finger around trying to make fine adjustments, it is possible to simply roll it left/right/up/down.

Today was one of the few days of the year when the sun passes right behind the satellite TV satellites. If one notes the position of the sun at the correct time of day, then one can know where to aim the satellite dish. Or more usefully, by noting the unshaded areas, one can note the locations where the dish will have an unobstructed view of the satellites.

At the appointed time, I checked the first (left) satellite. My dish has a totally clear unobstructed view of it. However, this is the satellite I cannot receive. I wonder if there is an equipment malfunction, or maybe my dish aiming has lost some elevation angle.

At the next appointed time, I checked the second (right) satellite. This is the primary satellite for my service. The dish has a mostly clear view of this satellite. However, a tree is growing taller and will soon block the signal. This is probably why I've lately had reception problems during rain. I'll probably have to move the dish within a year.

Due to the minimal open sky, I'll probably have to put up two dishes if I want to receive both satellites. This means buying a second early generate dish like I have. The later generation dishes have all the electronics in a single unit and thus can't be split.

A rising tide lifts all boats equally, but if you own future coastal property, you make out like a bandit.

I was jumping around, twisting this way and that, and some of my hair went into my mouth as I was inhaling. I almost started choking on it. I had to stop and carefully pull it out of my mouth.

I uploaded a new default avatar. I, um, liberated the Rosie the Riveter picture from a catalog.