Building The Perfect Beast

Do you really want to know what dragging Tim Cook up to Washington was about? Definitely not getting Apple to pay more in corporate taxes. Rather, getting Apple to pay into the “private” tax system. The one that fuels the hell-like abyss of Washington power mongering.

Tim Carney:

And that’s just the problem. The grilling of Apple is best understood as a shakedown by politicians upset with Apple for not playing the Washington game that yields contributions, power, and personal wealth for congressmen and their aides.

Distraction and noise, folks. Distraction and noise…

| via Washington Examiner, via DaringFireball.net

My review of PDF Editor Pro is now up (as of yesterday, actually) on the Macworld website.

PDF Editor Pro is a wannabe replacement for Preview that has some features unavailable in Apple’s built-in all purpose image editing app, but it lacks the depth, versatility, and simplicity of Preview at a price that’s significantly higher than free.

Macworld has just posted my Status Board review, which also includes a nice video review by the lovely Leah Yamshon.

Status board is a pretty cool app and one that fit a need that one of my consulting customers had recently. In fact, I had been looking long and hard for something like this, but couldn’t find ANYTHING like it.

Not for everyone, but for those in need of something like Status Board, I’m betting you won’t find anything better.

Blood boiling, Williamson says he then asked her, sarcastically, “whether there had been a special exemption for her about not using her phone during the play. She told me to mind my own business, and so I took the phone out of her hands. I meant to throw it out the side door, but it hit some curtains instead. I guess my aim’s not as good as it should be.”

The headline is a little hyperbolic, but the story and Kevin’s Williamson’s actions were spot on. I DO NOT understand why anyone needs to be on their phone for any reason during any kind of performance.

Seriously, WTF?

Kudos to Kevin Williamson. And Thank you!

Heroic Theatre Goer Smashes Cell Phone | via Gothamist.com

From Dennis Lehane’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times today:

Trust me, we won’t be giving up any civil liberties to keep ourselves safe because of this. We won’t cancel next year’s marathon. We won’t drive to New Hampshire and stockpile weapons. When the authorities find the weak and terminally maladjusted culprit or culprits, we’ll roll our eyes at whatever backward ideology they embrace and move on with our lives.

Go… read.

My review of Leister Productions Reunion 10 is now live at Macworld.com.

As has been the case with nearly every iteration of this, Reunion 10 improves in ways that will make it easier for you to catalog your family history.

Still my favorite app of this sort for your Mac.

Roger Ebert, who died yesterday at age 70 from cancer, tried many times to win the New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest.

Today, the New Yorker offered up a selection of entries that Ebert did not win with.

The last entry in this series made me laugh so hard I cried.

If you don’t, I suspect there is something wrong with you.