To be honest, I love my WordPress and I don’t know why I’d want to create more content elsewhere.

I can see the advantage from ease of use, but the lack of features and the lack of owning/controlling the software that runs my site concerns me.

Are you a Posterous or Tumblr fan? What makes you love them so much?

Just trying to find out if I’m missing something here.

Are you a Posterous fan? What about Tumblr? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

If you’re a web designer, than you know that browser testing can be difficult. But is it more difficult than beating Bowser? That’s a tough one!

What’s easier? Bowser or Browser Testing? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

It’s that time of year again when over a million people head out to the Great Minnesota Get-Together aka the Minnesota State Fair!

There are more than 450 foods available and over 60 of them come on a stick. Most of those are probably deep-fried as well.

From deep-fried candy bars and cheeseburger sliders, to pork chops on a stick and Sweet Martha’s cookies, there is no shortage of food that will pack on the pounds.

But, then there is all that walking!

The MN State Fair grounds cover 320 acres of land and just the walk from the car to the entrance can be enough to work up an appetite.

When it comes down to it, walking is great exercise as it’s low-impact and comes with numerous health benefits. It can lower the bad cholesterol, raise the good cholesterol, lower blood pressure, manage weight and improve your mood.

Plus, it’s usually in the 80s or 90s at state fair time. Add in the heat with all that walking, and the pounds should be sweating off! Right?

Unfortunately, probably not. One deep-fried on-a-stick food item probably doesn’t get worked off in an hour. And all that walking only makes most people more hungry. Chances are, you’ll eat more than one item and you’ll end up packing on a few pounds.

Hey, look at the bright side. You’re outside, enjoying life, eating great food and exercising. I’d call that a win even if you do come home with a few extra pounds.

No matter how you look at it, the Minnesota State Fair is great and I’m excited to head on out with the wife, eat some food and enjoy the day. Can’t wait!

See you there.

The Minnesota State Fair, a great way to exercise and get fat. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. Dr. Seuss

You Have Brains In Your Head… originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The Office Team

This one goes out to all my friends who constantly talk about The Office and how good of a show it is. You were right, I was wrong.

Christi and I have tried watching The Office in the past and just found it stupid. We couldn’t stand to watch it.

Then we started catching re-runs. A few shows here or there because there was nothing better on. Then we kinda got hooked.

Turns out, you can stream all seasons to Netflix on Wii so it was extremely easy to start the show from the beginning.

We just started season 4 and Pam and Jim are now dating. Yea! Ohh and we always feel bad for Toby.

I think we watched the first three seasons in a month or two. It’s just so easy with Netflix and Wii. We can’t stop ourselves. We’ll be through season 4 next week probably, depending on what we do this weekend.

Just as a FYI: Dwight rocks. Most of the time.

Clip: Faxes from the Future

Clip: Jim Imitates Dwight (it’s kind of quiet)

You were right, The Office is good. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I think we need to do everyone a favor and share the source.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of big sites out there that collect and re-post great information. Sites like TechCrunch, CrunchGear, TUAW, LifeHacker, Gizmodo and so many more do a good job of giving the smaller sites added exposure, but they are also stealing it away.

Next time you’re at one of these sites, and decide to share a story, click-through to the source website and re-tweet or like that URL; not the TechCrunch one.

Not only will you be giving the content publishers additional exposure, you’ll also be giving your users a direct link to the content you’re promoting.

I think that’s called win win.

Do Everyone A Favor And Share The Source originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The biggest Twitter app was Tweetie, which then turned into Twitter and has a ton of fans. However, it’s still absent on the iPad.

While we await Twitter, Twitterrific is quickly raking in the money as its by far the best Twitter app on the iPad. Its price tag of $4.99 may be a bit much for some, but it beats waiting for Twitter to release their version.

Then there is Facebook. Isn’t Facebook the biggest social network? And yet they don’t have an iPad app either. Granted, the web version works just fine, but the push notifications, optimized layout and an all around better designed iPad app would be much nicer.

What about FourSquare? Everyone is on FourSquare and it’s growing quite fast. And yet, there is no iPad app. I guess, it takes only seconds to make a check-in, so using the iPhone version isn’t terrible, but an iPad version would be ideal.

Possibly the biggest iPhone game ever has yet to be updated too. Doodle Jump took the iPhone by storm and sold millions of copies. So why hasn’t that been updated to take advantage of the additional screen real estate? Heck, for 99 cents, I’d buy the exact same game if it were just optimized for the iPad.

Maybe not one of the biggest apps, but one of my favorites is I Can Haz Cheezeburger and I’d love to see updated so I could see the LOLs in higher quality.

Granted, all the apps above do work on the iPad, they just aren’t optimized for the iPad. And, unless you like pixley, fuzzy or small images, you’re probably eagerly awaiting updates too.

There are lots of great iPad apps out there, but it does surprise me that, after 5 months, some of the most successful iPhone apps have yet to create iPad versions.

What’s the hold up?

Where are the iPad Apps? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here are 10 great apps I’ve found for the iPad so far that are worth checking out.

Simplenote
Forget Apple’s Notes application, Simplenote is a note pad that will sync your iPad to the web, to your computer and to your iPhone. It is simple, free and syncs. What more can you ask for?

AccuWeather
With big beautiful images, AccuWeather is one of those apps you just have to show your friends. The weather never looked so good.

WeatherBug
AccuWeather may look better, but WeatherBug makes it easy to see what’s happening outside. It’s focus is mainly on the radar but also includes the current conditions and forecast.

Yahoo Entertainment
Yahoo has a pretty nice application for checking out what’s on TV, entertainment news and watching the latest headlines. Plus it’s very well designed.

Netflix
Netflix makes it easy to manage your queue right from the couch with the Netflix app. You can even watch movies and TV shows instantly! Now I just have to figure out how to get the picture on my TV.

FeeddlerRSS
Google Reader isn’t exactly optimized for the iPad, but FeedlerRSS is. It’s the best free feed reader that I know of and syncs directly with your Google Reader account.

Doodle Buddy
Let your creativity come out and play with Doodle Buddy. You get a blank screen where you can draw, paint, glitter, smudge, and stamp whatever you want. You can also import pictures from your picture library and doctor them up. Once finished, save or email your masterpieces to friends.

Toy Story
Disney has made a few interactive books for the iPad, but Toy Story is the only free one. You can read along, have it read to you, record audio, paint, listen to music, and play games. It’s really nice and your kids will love it.

PCalc Lite
Not sure why the iPad doesn’t come with a calculator, but PCalc Lite is a good alternative with big buttons and plenty of calculator functions.

ABC Player
Why aren’t other networks jumping on the iPad bandwagon? ABC is and they are doing a great job. You can watch all your favorite ABC shows anywhere you’re connected to the internet. Now, about getting that to my TV…

Betty Crocker Cookbook
It’s a cookbook that has beautiful, and yummy, pictures. It’s organized by type of meal or ingredient or you can click the “surprise me” button and see what it suggests. Put your iPad on a stand in the kitchen and you’re all set!

Those are some of the best free iPad applications I’ve found so far.

These applications are free for now, but I can’t guarantee they’ll be free forever so go download them now if you want them.

What have you found? What should I be downloading?

11 Free iPad Apps – You Should Check These Out originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The first thing I tried was setting her up with her own profile. Facebook does say “anyone can join” but that’s not true. It turns out that you have to be at least 13 years old.

Then I created her a page. I thought this was perfect as it was just like a profile but I didn’t have to specify age. Plus I could post as Lily and I could manage it all in my profile. Then I found out that the page is either completely public or no one can see anything. There’s no privacy or no access, no in-between option.

Then I created a group. It had the privacy I wanted, but I can’t post as Lily so it kind of defeats the purpose.

Then I checked out apps like Babybook which is ok, but shows a lot of ads, and My Babybook which seems nice but doesn’t completely feel like Facebook. Both are a decent solution.

Then I thought I’d just lie and get her own profile by telling Facebook she was born in the 70s or 80s. Shh no one needs to know. The downside here is that I have to manage two profiles.

So far the best option I’ve found is pages, but the lack of privacy settings is a huge disappointment.

I’m not quite sure what I’ll do yet, but what I wish would happen is that Facebook would create a family & pets area where parents could set their kids, and cats, up with Facebook profiles and oversee their activities. Until then, we have to work the system to find a way to get our babies Facebook profiles.

Any suggestions on better solutions to getting Lily on Facebook?

How Do You Create a Facebook Profile Page For Babies? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

When the iPad first came out, a lot of people said it was just a big iPod Touch. Sure, it’s similar, but it’s so much more. The screen size alone makes a huge difference. You have no idea how small an iPhone or iPod Touch really is until you play with an iPad. It makes me look at my iPod Touch and think ‘how can I even use this?’

iPad Size vs iPod Touch

Another great thing about the screen size is that everything look so good. Upon firing up AccuWeather, the icons are beautiful and the presentation is fantastic. Apps can become so much more than they are on the iPhone as more screen real estate makes a big difference.

AccuWeather

The iPad also makes me feel as if I’m Tom Cruise from the Minority Report. You know, when he’s swiping screens left and right and clicking on things all in the air. I walk by my desk, swipe the screen and click on an app and it makes me feel like I’m from the future.

There are some downsides, as with any gadget. The virtual keyboard is great, but you’ll still type with your thumbs. If you want to write a paper, or long blog post, I’d suggest getting a bluetooth keyboard or the USB adapter.

Strangely enough, the F and J keys on the iPad keyboard have the little lines on them just like regular keyboards so your fingers know where to be, except you can’t feel them. Odd.

Also iPhone apps run, but run in iPhone size. So Tweetie Twitter works, but you don’t get to take advantage of the whole iPad screen. Sure, you can enlarge the app to 2x the size, but the quality is less as it just stretches the app bigger. More companies need to create iPad versions of their apps as the iPhone versions just don’t do the iPad justice.

2x Scale Up Sample (click to see detail)

Then there is charging. I’m not sure how new your Mac has to be, but I haven’t found one yet that will charge my iPad when plugged into USB. Instead, it must be plugged into the wall.

Overall I love the iPad. It’s fast, does pretty much everything I want, and works great as a little laptop. Especially when my iPod Touch was a first generation so just having sound built into the device is a huge feature for me. It’d be even better if it had a camera, but I think it’d feel awkward taking pictures with the iPad.

I think the iPad will only get better and more and more apps get created for it. There are lots of iPad apps out there, but there are also a lot of publishers that haven’t updated their iPhone apps to take full advantage of the iPad screen.

To me, the iPad is an entertainment system. I can play games, watch movies, go online and stay connected with everyone and I just love it.

My iPad Review – It’s Fast, Fun & So Pretty originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Turns out, you can get a 10.2 inch netbook sleeve that fits the iPad pretty well. It’s a tad bit big, but sometimes the added space is nice as it’s easy to get the iPad in and out. The one I got was $19 which wasn’t to bad. There might have been cheaper ones, but I really liked the basic black neoprene one.

Netbook / iPad Case

I also picked up a $3.99 photo easel. It’s small, black, wooden and fits the iPad extremely well in landscape or portrait mode. Plus there is no chance of it slipping out. It works well when the iPad is plugged in and it folds up nicely so I can take it with me. Actually it’ll fit in my iPad sleeve quite nicely. I’m very happy with that little purchase.

Photo Easel / iPad Stand

Photo Easel Empty / iPad Stand

Now I know that an official iPad case or stand could be even better, but for $23 I got myself a case and stand that work very nicely.

I Got an iPad Case & Stand for $23 at Target originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Lily On My Credit Card

The process is pretty easy, however you may need some graphic skills if you want to get creative. If you just want to upload an image, you shouldn’t have any issues.

To create your own custom Wells Fargo check card, login to WellsFargo.com go to Account Services then Access Card Design Studio, select an account, select Customize Your Background and then get creative.

It’s pretty easy and fun. Plus, how cool is my card!?

Customize Your Wells Fargo Check Card Any Way You Want originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Google Chrome however has a good work around as you can use private browsing to login to multiple accounts without ever having to log out of your current account.

Basically, when you start a new incognito (private) window in Google Chrome, you get a fresh start. You’re not logged into anything which is very handy. You can then log into a different Google, Twitter, Facebook or whatever account you want to.

This also works in Opera the same as it does in Chrome. Firefox can do it too, however it hides your main window until you are done with your private session which isn’t as nice. Safari on the other hand is unable to do this as it continues to use all your cookies from non-private session.

If you are on a Mac, Stainless allows for multiple single session tabs and does it much nicer than the other browsers. However, the Stainless browser is still in development and a little rough around the edges.

Single session windows are a very handy feature and can be quite a time saver as compared to logging out and into multiple accounts.

What are you waiting for? Give it a try.

Use Google Chrome’s Private Browsing To Login To Multiple Accounts originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here is what WordPress plugins developers can do to help us all out:

1. Set the Height and Width of Images
I know this is an easy one not to do, and it’s one of the most common issues that Google reported, but it’s so easy. Please set the height and width of all images in your plugin.

2. Minify CSS and JS
Minifying just means condensing. This can be done by removing any blank lines and even line breaks when you publish your plugin code.

3. Put Code in Footer, Not Header
If at all possible, please put JavaScript into the footer of our sites. I know some things need to be in the header, but not everything has to be. Lets let the page load and then worry about all the additional JavaScript.

4. Use CSS Sprites
This one is for those plugins that show multiple images in my content; like social icons. Instead of having many images, only have one. Then use CSS code to determine what image shows where. It’s pretty slick actually. You can learn more about CSS Sprites here: http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites/

5. Allow Me To Host The Assets
You’ve got me to install a plugin, which required me to upload files to my site, so why does the plugin now link out to a different site to get the images, CSS or JavaScript? Why can’t it all live locally?

6. Setup Caching on Your Site
If you’re going to load images from your site, make sure to set up your server to specify how long the images are cached. This one is a bit more technical, but if you can build a plugin, you can set up cache control. Here’s how to do it on Apache.

7. Serve Content From a Cookieless Domain
Again, if you’re going to load images and files from your site, how about you serve it up from a cookieless domain? Why? Because cookies and requests get complicated and it slows down loading time. Learn more about it here.

8. Compress Images
Sometimes a JPG at 80% can look really nice. Compare that file size to a PNG, or JPG at 90%, and the difference can be 3x smaller. Compression isn’t a bad thing, it’s just about getting the settings right. And when you do, images can download much faster.

9. Simplify
Whether it’s JavaScript, PHP or HTML code, chances are it can be reduced to do the same amount of work with less code. The less code your extension executes, the better it should run.

10. Share Assets
I’m not sure if it’s possible or not, but WordPress comes with jQuery, feed parsing and lots of other scripting built-in. So why not use their code instead of re-bundling it with your extension? Can we share scripts to cut down on the amount of redundant code?

Now I’m no expert on WordPress plugins as I haven’t created more than a few basic ones, but I think that plugins are key to speeding up thousands of WordPress powered blogs around the internet. Faster blogs makes for happier site owners, better blog usability, and possibly better search performance.

Speeding Up WordPress Starts With Plugin Developers originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here are my 10 CSS tips that web developers should know.

Start off with a CSS reset.

A CSS reset is a way of defining the default settings for your HTML document. There are different ways you can do a CSS reset, but most are to extreme for me. What I like to do is set the margin & padding to 0 and set the default font.

* {
margin: 0; padding:0; font: 12px "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif
}

A CSS reset has really helped cut down on the number of issues that come from different browsers.

Use one style sheet.

A CSS file should be one global file. There shouldn’t be a need to create a different CSS file for each section of your site. I’ve come across developers before who had 8 style sheets for one site and it was a nightmare to make updates as I had to dig through every file.

If you do use multiple style sheets, there should be one global and a secondary one that provides additional code for a special area of the site.

Use external CSS.

Putting CSS inline or in the source of a document kind of defeats the purpose. It’s a global styling that should sit in an external file and be linked in each document. This makes it extremely simple when you need to make site wide changes.

It’s also beneficial to SEO to keep the CSS styles externally.

Use CSS Shorthand.

CSS shorthand is a way of condensing the code and making it easier to interact with.

p {
font-family: "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif;
font-size: 12px;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 18px;
}

p {
font: bold 12px/18px "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif;
}

Don’t re-declare the same things over and over.

Once you have your font set as part of the CSS reset, there is no need to re-declare it in the P tag or DIV tags.

Same goes for other elements on your site. If it was previously declared that X was going to be styled a certain way, you don’t need to re-declare the same styles for each child element.

p {
font: 12px/18px "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif;
}
strong {
font: bold 12px/18px "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
}
strong a {
font: bold 12px/18px "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif;
font-weight: bold;
color: blue;
}

Bundle styles.

You can define the same styles for multiple elements by separating them with a comma.

small, .comment date, .footer {
font: 10px "Lucida Grande", Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif; color: #ccc;
}

Clear your floats.

Floating blocks of content is really handy, however it can get very annoying if you forget to clear your floats.

.block1 {
float: left;
}
.block2 {
float: right;
}
.footer {
clear: both;
}

Avoid !important.

Any style marked with !important will be taken into use regardless if there’s an overwriting rule after it.

.box1 {
margin-left: 50px !important;
margin-left: 35px;
}

This is usually best used when dealing with IE as they are the only browser that ignores !important. Where as I have found it very helpful in the past, I think that there are other coding issues that can be fixed to make IE work better with the code.

!important is more of a band aid than a solution to the problem.

Get a good CSS editor.

Don’t suffer with a bad CSS editor. Test out a few and find one that makes writing CSS easy and enjoyable.

I for one LOVE CSSEdit and think it’s worth every penny.

Test Test Test

No mater what you do on the web test it out and see how it renders in all browsers. It’s best to do this often throughout your design process. If you wait until the end, you’ll spend a lot more time troubleshooting and re-coding.

Now there are a lot of things to learn about CSS and it takes time and testing to figure them out. I’m still learning new things every day and I’m very interested to read CSS tips and tricks that other bloggers share. So if you come across something useful, do share!

10 Things You Should Know About CSS originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Then, late last week, my host somehow blocked Google bot from accessing the server I’m on and my traffic tanked; badly. Once I got that figured out, I realized that now was as good of time as ever to re-do all the URLs. Since my site was already screwed up in Google, why not?

Blog Traffic

The other major factor in my decision to change URL structure was that WordPress rocks. By default WordPress automatically 301 redirects all the old URLs to the new URLs. This saves hours of redirect mapping and makes it a bit less painful.

So now here we are. URLs are much simpler as I not only took out the month, day and year but also blog.  I like them a whole lot better, but now I have to wait and see what Google does.

Old URL: http://www.twistermc.com/blog/2010/04/21/bacon-twitter/
New URL: http://www.twistermc.com/2708/bacon-twitter/

More importantly, I need to find out what’s broken! Something tells me that this quick and easy transition will have side effects, I’m just not sure what.

So if you see an issue, do let me know. Otherwise I’ll just be freaking out over the loss of traffic due to the hosting issue and keeping an eye on Google Analytics and webmaster tools to see how things play out.

I’ve got other plans in mind for the site, nothing major, but re-thinking some of the layout. Change is hard, but change is good.

New URLs & Lots of Patients originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

Here are just some of the bacon chatter I picked up on Twitter recently.

RT @bacon Mr. Sus got a free Squealin’ Mary at @BeaversHouston for wearing his @rstevens “Bacon is a Vegetable” shirt: http://yfrog.com/ar118fzj

RT @cfarias: Dude, Where’s My Bacon? #bacon http://twitpic.com/1g0zrg

RT @marengoni: Bacon Instantâneo! http://twitpic.com/1g0ctr

RT @MadLabM: #BaconQueen approved! RT @LouPeb: and of course there’s bacon beer for everyone! #carniepawty http://twitpic.com/1ge0yn

RT @imarielle: Bacon band-aids! @catitudeftw http://twitpic.com/1gehmg

RT @bacon RT @sassybritches: RT @Jablair51: http://twitpic.com/1gllwr – Hooray for bacon!

RT @bacon http://twitpic.com/1fuub8 #shakeoff no. 2: @HiltonHB’s Shades spicy Bloody Mary w/ bacon & blue cheese stuffed olive garnish via @Carolineon

RT @MiKayLaAsH: RT @danchezxxx: Everything should taste like bacon http://twitpic.com/1gjnku

RT @Bacon_Porn: Want that new car smell on ur old cluncker? Try the #bacon air refreshener! Mmm…bacon! #baconporn http://twitpic.com/1gk7py

RT @KingEyeball: @djeddieedge Nooooo… Love it but bacon… Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm http://yfrog.com/5d807cj

RT @RockumSockum: RT @Loupeb it is Bacon coke! it was bacon coke! It sure doesn’t look like ‘coke’ to me BOL BOL #carniepawty http://twitpic.com/1ggmoo

RT @mikerobert: You think bacon vodka would taste good? I can’t take credit for this @Fallback84 @wy11ie @BostonTweet. http://twitpic.com/1ggbn1

RT @Jugbo: Mmmmm … Everything taste better with a little bacon flavor. http://tweetphoto.com/18897193

RT @DrewTek: #bacon #prime112 #yum http://twitpic.com/1gflde

RT @Scott_Robb: RT @britl: – This is #bacon jam. I can’t even describe the smell…. http://twitpic.com/1ger3y

RT @bernieyee: Weaved bacon goodness. http://twitpic.com/1g68ce

Dinner. The old people are eating bacon-covered dates. Note how “be wrapped around dates” is not on this list… http://twitpic.com/1g48bj

RT @Bacon_FTW: RT @mirroredpalm: – Would you like ice cream with your eggs & bacon madam? @VictoriaSmithVJ http://twitpic.com/1fsu4j

RT @Annymac1: @Amy_Brock I LOVE bacon! http://tweetphoto.com/18694654

RT @thevaguinho: SAlve o BACON!!!!!!!! http://twitpic.com/1g3gyn

RT @theyellowleaf: @gabosgab Pancakes n’ Bacon http://twitpic.com/1g28qx

RT @Bacon_FTW: RT @audreymcmanus: – More peanutbutter bacon cupcakes with MORE bacon! At the @Ssburlesque show http://twitpic.com/1fwp2p

RT @RossLaRocco RT @007Chester: RT @mel0nn: Holy shit it’s a bacon iPad case

RT @PEARLious_ASH: RT @AG_Beatz: Bacon on ya head n mustache??? #NeverGettinLaid http://tweetphoto.com/18619544

A Day In The Life Of Bacon on Twitter originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

I have WeatherDock which is decent. However, it  basically just shows the temp and forecast. No radar, and nothing special. It is however the one I use most.

WeatherDock

Meteorologist was cool back in the day but I haven’t checked it out lately. Seems like it’s back to life so that’s on my list of possibilities. It seems to have a good mix of the basics, some details and a radar.

Meteorologist

I also have Wx which shows quite a bit of detail. It’s probably the best weather app I’ve come across, but it’s not really visually appealing. I want it to be more polished and integrated into my Mac, but it’s not there yet.

WX

I’ve seen Home Weather Center too, but that’s way to much data, not enough visuals.

Home Weather Center

Then there are the weather widgets. Yes, some of them are nice, but I want a full-fledged weather app.

What I’d like a developer to create is a beautiful, integrated weather application for the Mac. Something that shows the temp in the menu bar along with the forecast, alerts me where there is severe weather, shows the radar and has the ability to get more details though the app.

There are dozens of weather apps for the iPhone, and I probably downloaded most, but weather apps seem to be lacking the Mac. The ones that are out there are to simple, or to complex.

What’s a Mac weather fan to do?

Are There Any Great Weather Apps For The Mac? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

iPox v3 has landed with some re-designed elements, bug fixes, and iPox Aqua mixed in.

So what’s new?

1. The scrollbars have been re-designed utilizing CSS. They are now a light grey with a nice mouse over effect.
2. The throbber has been reverted back to the Mac throbber.
3. The URL bar has been re-designed to *hopefully* work better with URL extensions. It’s now all CSS and even highlights when active.
4. Added a full screen button.
5. Also includes many fixes under the hood to incorporate a bunch of smaller, missing elements. Probably didn’t catch them all, but it’s better.

As a bonus, iPox Aqua was rolled into iPox. No longer will there be two separate themes. If you want to change the navigation buttons to blue, you’ll need Stylish and a few lines of code. Full details on the iPox page.

If you already have iPox installed in your Firefox, it should auto-update. If you’d like to download it, you can via the Mozilla Add-on site.

Hope you like the updates!

iPox Version 3 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

You see, my iMac screen decided that a yellow vertical line was cool and I didn’t agree. So I called Apple and my screen was on recall so they’re fixing it for free. The downside is that it’ll take 5-7 days. So I’m living without it.

I guess it’s not to hard to survive when I have an iPod Touch and my wife has a Mac Mini; so it’s not like I’m computer less. But I am without my computer which I thought would be an issue.

Instead, I’m using Chrome on my wife’s computer and everything I really need is on the internet. All my email is in the cloud, Facebook, Twitter and Remember the Milk are just clicks away. It’s amazing how well I can survive without my iMac. Even all my files, if I need them, are easily accessible via BackBlaze.

I do have to say one thing though, my wife’s computer seems to run better than mine! She’s got the same processor and I think I have more memory, yet hers seems to do things effortlessly. It could be because she doesn’t have tons of things installed and running, or it could be that I need to do a re-install of mine. She also doesn’t have a partitioned drive or Snow Leopard. Hummm…

Either way, being without my iMac hasn’t been the end of the world. I’m kind of enjoying it as I have less distractions on this one and end up spending less time on the computer.

It will be nice to have my iMac back though in a few days.

Surviving Without My iMac originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com