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Buford T Justice Quotes

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Jackie Gleason did a remarkable job playing Buford T Justice. I laughed out loud watching these quotes.

CW McCall: Convoy

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Talk about telling stories—CW McCall did it with this classic song. I can sing all of the lyrics of “Convoy,” including the CB parts.

It’s Metal Month at Toontrack

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Superior Drummer and EZDrummer are two of the best products on the market for people that want production-level drums in their songs. And Toontrack loves Metal!

Jim Croce: Rapid Roy

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Jim Croce is one of the great storytellers of our time. This is one of my favorites.

Office goes free on phones and tablets: What you get, and what you don’t

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Macworld:

With the news that Microsoft is making all of its mobile Office apps free—the iPad and upcoming Android tablet versions—you knew there had to be some caveats.

I’m glad I don’t have to use Office any more but for those of you who do, my sympathies and this article will help you figure out this news.

‘Sports Night’: An oral history, starring Aaron Sorkin and his cast

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EW:

Set in the high-stakes world of a live sports news program, the Aaron Sorkin-scribed dramedy followed the behind-the-scenes exploits of fictional “Sports Night” coanchors Casey (Peter Krause) and Dan (Josh Charles), their brilliant producer Dana (Felicity Huffman), harried associate producer Natalie (Sabrina Lloyd), gruff executive Isaac (Robert Guillaume), and whip-smart researcher Jeremy (Josh Malina).

Such a shame this show wasn’t a hit. While set in a sports world, it wasn’t specifically about sports but about the workplace and relationships much like Sorkin’s other shows. It also had amazing actors and Sorkin’s typical great writing.

Green army men, Rubik’s Cube make “Toy Hall of Fame”

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Yahoo! News:

It’s mission accomplished for little green army men.

The molded plastic must-haves for generations of pretend soldiers were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday, along with the 1980s stumper Rubik’s Cube, and soap bubbles.

Hard to argue with these choices. I loved my little green army men as a kid and still enjoy popping bubble wrap (although, I wouldn’t call it a “toy”). And even though I hated the Rubik’s Cube (I was never smart enough to solve it), it is undoubtedly a classic toy.

UAD-2 Satellite Thunderbolt

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I have one of the older Satellite units and love it. I use it all the time, along with Universal Audio’s plug-ins when I record music.

Amplified: Goofballs!

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Jim and Shawn talk Tim Cook, Surface Tablets as iPad stands, Dave Grohl and indie music

Sponsored by lynda.com (Start learning something new by visiting lynda.com/thebeard and get a FREE 7-day trial where you can access all of their 2,400+ courses).

Download the “Complete Sherlock Holmes”, Arthur Conan Doyle’s masterpiece

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Open Culture:

I still remember the thrill I felt when I happened upon a set of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories at an antique store. For a mere ten dollars, I acquired handsomely bound, suitably patina-of-age-bearing editions of each and every one of the sleuth of 221B Baker Street’s adventures that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever wrote.

These days, especially given the recent ruling (just re-affirmed by the Supreme Court) that Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories “are no longer covered by United States copyright law and can be freely used by creators without paying any licensing fee to the Conan Doyle estate,” you can download the complete Sherlock Holmes canon in a variety of ebook formats, from PDF to ePub to ASCII to MOBI for Kindle.

At age 11, I received the complete works as a Christmas present from my grandmother. I devoured the stories before New Years and read them over and over again for years. I’m downloading this as we speak.

Pixelmator for iPad [Sponsor]

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Pixelmator for iPad is a powerful image editor that gives you everything you need to create, edit, and enhance your images. It lets you work seamlessly between Mac and iPad and even work effortlessly with Photoshop images. Packed with powerful creative tools and engineered to harness the full iOS and 64-bit architecture power, Pixelmator for iPad is a real image editor right at your fingertips.

Space oddity

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Chris Hadfield:

When David Bowie wrote and recorded Space Oddity in 1969, I wonder if he ever imagined it being played in orbit? Even more so, would he have imagined (or worried about) the legal concerns of extra-planetary music?

When the original video was pulled, there was a lot of complaining and misunderstanding of the reasons. Hadfield does a great job of explaining the story.

My favorite iOS 8 features, big and small

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Dan Frakes:

Here are some of my favorite iOS 8 features, in no particular order, with an emphasis on things that haven’t been exhaustively covered elsewhere. I hope you discover something new and useful.

Dan has some great tidbits here. My favourite is the SMS relay feature.

A month in, the iPhone 6 Plus was the right choice

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Quartz:

It didn’t take long for me to get used to Apple’s large new iPhone 6 Plus. After more than a month of everyday use, it has become even more of the pocket computer I’ve always wanted. A few thoughts.

The article hits a lot of the points I was curious about. Anyone else have similar or dissimilar stories about using their iPhone 6/6 Plus for the past month?

RIP Mac OS X Hints, Nov 4 2000 – Nov 4 2014

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The Robservatory:

Dearly beloved…

On this, the occasion of its 14th birthday, we’re gathered here to mark the passing of Mac OS X Hints.

While it can be hard to tell exactly when a web site has died, the signs are fairly obvious. It’s been over 45 days since the last new hint appeared on the site. There is no way for new users to sign up for an account. There’s been one new comment posted in the last two days. A sidebar box proudly proclaims Latest Mountain Lion Hints. The site design, logo, and icons were last updated when I worked for Macworld, over four years ago. To paraphrase a Star Trek character, “it’s dead, Jim.”

While Rob, the originator of Mac OS X Hints, makes a clear case as to why the site is no longer as needed as it has been in the past, it’s dormancy is still a shame. It was a site many of us relied on in the early days of Mac OS X to try and figure out the ins and outs of the new operating system.

What am I entitled to when my flight goes wrong?

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Outside:

As airlines pack more passengers than ever onto each plane, a single storm can reverberate through the system—leaving flyers stranded as agents scramble to find ever-rarer empty seats on later flights. But you aren’t entirely at the mercy of the airlines. Should your itinerary be delayed, cancelled, or overbooked, knowing your rights can be the difference between a $300 voucher and a long night at the airport.

As air travel gets more and more onerous, it’s important to know what you are supposed to receive when the airline makes a mistake. As always, be firm but polite with any airline agents you speak to.

Tom Magliozzi, popular co-host of NPR’s ‘Car Talk,’ dies at 77

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NPR:

Tom Magliozzi, one of public radio’s most popular personalities, died on Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77 years old.

Tom and his brother, Ray, became famous as “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers” on the weekly NPR show Car Talk. They bantered, told jokes, laughed and sometimes even gave pretty good advice to listeners who called in with their car troubles.

I don’t know a thing about cars but listened to the show simply because Tom and Ray were so entertaining.

“The Insanely Great History of Apple 3.0” poster

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Pop Chart Lab:

Newly refreshed with a bevy of recent Apple products including the iPad Air 2, iMac with 5K Display, iPhone 6, and even next year’s Apple Watch, the world’s most comprehensive mapping of Apple products is back.

This classic gallery of proprietary gadgets displays every computer, handheld, peripheral, software, and operating system released by Apple from 1976 onward. Over 500 items in all, chronicling how Apple has invented—and reinvented—insanely great products.

We’ve mentioned this before but the update makes it even better. If you know “A True Apple Believer”, this would make a great Christmas gift!

Four acre spider web engulfs building

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Wired:

The Baltimore Wastewater Treatment Plant put out a call for “extreme spider” help in 2009, when a giant spiderweb covered almost 4 acres of their facility. Scientists eventually estimated over 107 million spiders were living in the structure, with densities of 35,176 spiders per m³ in spots.

In honour of Halloween, I’m going to leave this right here for you. Thanks to Brian Webster for the link.

Apple’s Jony Ive says smartwatch was design challenge

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Wall Street Journal:

Ive told an audience at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Thursday night that designing the smartwatch posed more challenges than the iPhone because of societal expectations around a wristwatch. The wrist, he said, is an ideal place for “lightweight interactions” and “casual glancing,” but not for heavy reading.

“Even though Apple Watch does so many things, there are cultural, historical implications and expectations,” Ive said. “That’s why it’s been such a difficult and humbling program.”

It’s obvious Apple has thought long and hard about that last sentence and maybe that’s why the Apple Watch will be more successful (although, that’s damning with faint praise) than other company’s offerings.