Author: Tim Probst

Early adopting super geek, musician, father, resident tech guru.

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Well, it’s finally come down to this. I have been trying to motivate myself to write more in my blog about everything that is going on around me, but my posts continue to be few and far between. Now I am putting my intentions out here for all to see. I plan to write at least 31 posts in July. That’s one post a day, and I’m already a few days behind. Now, I may not post every single day, but I expect myself to have added 31 new posts by the end of the month. The reason I’m writing this is so people out there can keep me honest. If you see me slipping, send me a comment and let me know about it. I’m going to need your help to make this happen. Maybe by the end of the month, I will have hit my groove with this writing thing. Wish me luck!

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My wife surprised me with a nice evening out for dinner and a movie for Father’s Day Saturday night. It was fun just hanging out and having a good time without the kids.

We saw Knocked Up, and let me tell you; it was a great movie. We’ll probably have to add it to our collection when it comes out on DVD. A lot of the same people that were in Anchorman and 40 Year Old Virgin were in this movie so if you found those two movies entertaining, you’ll really like Knocked Up.

If you have the means, check it out before it leaves the theaters.

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Jeff Rocks

While reading TechCrunch earlier today, I was reminded that Yahoo was closing down Yahoo Photos in favor of Flickr. I personally like Flickr so much that I paid for the pro account and try to post photos as time permits.

Just for kicks, I logged into Yahoo Photos to see if I had ever posted anything in there, and sure enough, I found a great photo of my brother playing guitar back in 2001. Jeff was an incredible musician and played guitar and tenor sax from a very early age all the way through his 20s. Just like me, he’s kind of gotten away from playing as other priorities have taken over, but I’m hoping we’ll play together again some day. There’s nothing quite like jamming with your brother on stage while the crowd goes crazy. Good times!

Anyway, when I logged into Yahoo Photos, I was asked to transition my photos to Flickr or another service, and the whole process went very smoothly. Of course, I only had one photo to move so I guess it would be tough to mess that up. Now that Yahoo has finally decided that having two photo services doesn’t make a lot of sense, I hope they continue to put resources into Flickr to improve an already great service.

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OneTrip

OneTrip is a great little shopping list application written by Neven Mrgan. It works great in Safari on my Mac, and will presumably work on the iPhone when it comes out at the end of this month. It is a very good example of what is possible when you combine the latest web standards with high quality visual design. If OneTrip is the start of things to come, I’m going to need to figure out how to justify to my wife that I need an iPhone. Great job Neven!

From Digg.

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I’ve been meaning to blog about this video I first saw early last week.

This has to be one of the coolest offices ever. I’d love to work there, but I’m afraid these guys would think I was an old fart at the ripe old age of 33. From all of the comments on CrunchNotes, these guys work for a company called Connected Ventures in NYC. If I were 20 something and in New York, I’d be busting down the door to work for this company. Enjoy!

From CrunchNotes and Internet Business Daily.

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Safari

For anyone who has read my blog for a while, you know I usually write about how great Apple’s latest and greatest hardware and software are because in most cases, they usually are truly great.

Yesterday’s release of the Safari 3 Public Beta made me take a step back and really think about the quality of Apple’s Windows applications. I installed it on my Windows XP and Windows Vista machines with no problems, but the performance is sluggish at best, and there clearly needs to be some performance tuning before Safari is officially released in the fall.

The thing that really bothered me about Safari was the blatant disregard for Windows development standards. The user interface matches the Mac version of Safari instead of taking advantage of the look and feel of Windows XP and Windows Vista. Apple did the same thing when they released iTunes for Windows. If they truly want to create the best Windows programs available, they need to embrace and take advantage of the underlying technologies in the platforms in which they develop. Just imagine the uproar that would occur if Microsoft released Office for Mac using the Windows Vista look and feel. The Mac community would go crazy for good reason. Oh wait, this happened already with Office 6.0, and the Mac community did go crazy.

I am lucky enough to have both Mac and Windows machines at home to play with, but if I were purely a Windows user, I would be confused and frustrated by the iTunes and Safari user interfaces. They would seem foreign and sluggish to me. The applications clearly take a performance hit by trying to look like a Mac program in Windows.

It is time for Apple to recognize that if they really want to be in the Windows applications business, they need to embrace the platform and make the best looking, easiest to use, and fastest applications that take advantage of the foundation that Microsoft provides. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Apple needs to create Windows applications that look and feel like Windows applications.

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RapidWeaver is a great web design tool for Mac OS X. I have been using it a long time for my personal websites and will continue to do so because it is, by far, the best web design software I have ever used. The only thing that I don’t like all that much is the blog functionality. After much debate, I finally switched over to WordPress so I could take advantage of the latest and greatest blogging technology. I did this in spite of my desire to keep the look and feel of my site consistent. I know I could always create a template in WordPress that would match my RapidWeaver site, but quite frankly, I don’t have the time to spend on something like that.

Now, it looks like Dan Counsell and crew over at Realmac Software are working on a nice update to the blog features in RapidWeaver. Just looking at the image posted on their blog, I can’t wait to check out the new version. The only bummer is that you can’t post to the blog remotely. That is a big thing for me because I use multiple computers and I have to travel for work.

What I would really like to see is some kind of integration with a mainstream blogging application. It would be cool if Realmac would integrate WordPress in some way. What might be even more impressive is if they would integrate Blogger by using the Blogger API. Users could take advantage of the great look and feel of RapidWeaver while still having the opportunity to use Blogger to post remotely. Now, that would be the best of both worlds. Dan, if you’re listening, put this on your list of things to do.

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Now, this hasn’t happened in a long time. Both the Cubs and the Bulls are riding high on 3 game winning streaks at the same time. What’s great is that the Cubs have been beating the pants off of the Cardinals this weekend, and the Bulls have been putting Shaq and the rest of the Miami Heat in their place. It hasn’t been this much fun to watch both teams since 1998. Really, how long has it been since both teams have been going for a sweep of a series on the same day? If I were more into sports history, I would go back and check, but at this point, I’m just excited about the possibility of what could happen today. Can’t wait to watch!

Update: There will be no Cubs sweep tonight. Cardinals pitcher, Josh Hancock, was killed in a car accident early this morning, and the game has been respectfully postponed.

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For those of you who know me well, you know I do a little beat box from time to time. Having played trumpet for a bazillion years, I can make some fairly strange noises with my mouth. A couple weeks ago, my buddy, Paul, hipped me on to this video on YouTube. It’s Rahzel from The Roots doing some crazy cool beat box. He breaks into Iron Man towards the end. Now, this is must see TV.

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Our New Dog
Originally uploaded by Tim Probst.

Just in time for Opening Day, Wrigley has joined the family. He’s a 3 1/2 year old beagle with the best attitude and personality we could have ever hoped for. He’s quickly made himself at home and seems to be comfortable here, and best of all, he’s a Cubs fan. Check out my Flickr page for more pictures.