Paperback Writer: The Last Samurai Agent
“My master says that the perfect manuscript is a rare thing,” Natsu translated. “He says that you could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.”
Very funny little encounter with a ninja agent. I need to get one of those…
WrongRoom [dive into mark]
Here’s the basic problem: you’re writing a text editor. Stop doing that. It’s 2007. Saying to yourself “I’m gonna build my own text editor” is as silly as saying “I’m gonna build my own build system” or “I’m gonna build my own amusement park.”
He doesn’t touch on Writer.app, and I think he kind of misses the point. Well, or maybe WriteRoom does, if Mark is right.
What we’re trying to do with Writer.app is focus. It’s a *drafting* tool. Get that first draft done. Stop procrastinating. Get writing.
At any rate, it’s a rant, and it tangentially touches on something near and dear to my heart. I don’t necessarily agree with him and his annoying condescension, but I guess that’s Mark.
Please, Joe Sullivan, for the love of all that’s holy and good, please STOP. LETTING. DAN. F**&(ING. SHAUGHNESSY. WRITE. ABOUT. THE. PATRIOTS.
You have much more qualified writers back there (Jackie MacMullan springs to mind). Please, I’m sick to the back teeth of him, I think he’s a lazy, self-important blowhard who probably needs new pastures.
The last couple blurts of Writer.app have been focused on fixing some user bugs reported; like broken printing (characters were being chopped off), problems creating new documents if you didn’t have Courier New enabled for some reason.
The latest work was done to try and support languages that use two-byte characters (Korean, Japanese, Chinese…) and is currently out in a beta form… it’s not working perfectly, and we have a few things to work around, but it’s getting there. It’d be interesting to see how the alternate, more modern word processing mode fares with two-byte characters, I’m pretty sure it’ll be better than the more restrictive mode. At any rate, we have a minor beta out, which isn’t exactly public, but nor is it completely private. In fact, to you, now, it’s public. Because you know where to get it now. Well, not now, but in about fifteen seconds, if you keep reading.
Go on and download it (or the beta (listed as 1.2.3)), check it out.
At any rate, go on and check it out, and drop us a line at bugreports@supertart.com or software@supertart.com, and let us know what you think is missing… after all, that’s been our driving force for the last few releases. While I can’t guarantee your favorite feature will get in there, at least we’ll know about it, and possibly even get around to fixing it or improving on something.
Colbert on the iPhone – Engadget
Very funny little double wag of the finger for Apple for the old iPhone and name change.
Writer 1.2 – 100% CLEAN – certified by Softpedia – Softpedia
Umm… well, I guess that’s a good thing. Though why do I feel an undue pressure to put in a nasty little AppleScript that’ll pop up from time to time to announce that it’s still 100% malware free? Maybe I’ll get written up by an annoying-ware site (after all, there is that preference to turn on the keyboard sound while you type).
Writer.app 1.2 – Mac OS X – VersionTracker
From a comment in response to someone else on VersionTracker.:
“I still wish this had the use of the delete button and a spell check. I would even pay real money for this.”
Darn. I *knew* I should have released a pay version. 😉
With 1.2, you can now move the mouse to the top of the screen, go to the Preferences menu item, and turn the option to have “more modern text editing features.” It’ll take effect right away.
(You can’t use the standard command-, shortcut to reach the preferences because I figured that might be more inclined to be (mis)used when you should just be writing away.)
The Spelling menu is still in a hidden menu, but if you enable the more modern text editing features you can use the standard command-: and command-; to go to the next possibly misspelled word.
Go on and download your copy from Q.I. Software.
stevenberlinjohnson.com: The iPhone
Funny quote Steven uses to put the iPhone in a little bit of extra context.
Must be cool, working for a company like that. 😉
Go figure:
| What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Northeast
Judging by how you talk you are probably from north Jersey, New York City, Connecticut or Rhode Island. Chances are, if you are from New York City (and not those other places) people would probably be able to tell if they actually heard you speak. |
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| Philadelphia |
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| The Inland North |
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| The Midland |
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| Boston |
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| The South |
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| The West |
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| North Central |
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| What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
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On the train this morning I got stuck into the part where Slothrop gets let back out into London, and runs into Darlene and goes with her to visit with old widow Quoad (In this edition of the book, it starts on page 116). The description of him in the sitting room with the widow, eating her horrific wartime candies is one of the brilliant scenes Pynchon has a knack for—the absolute horror of this foreign and frightening experience of eating chocolate, hiding their multitudinous delights (?) is so well conveyed… it’s one of those Pynchon-esque passages you wish you’d written, yourself.
This falls shortly after the incident in which the Dutchman is writing back about his time exterminating the dodoes, and the reasoning for doing so, which is a great little sidestep… this isn’t so much of a story about this book, more of an endorsement, I suppose.
You might be put off the by the sheer weight, or its weighty reputation, or any number of things related to how heavy a thing might be, but it is well, well, well worth it.
In a time when people shell out good money for a Neal Stephenson (thick) pile of excrement about the 17th century (Hello, Quicksilver), you’d be much better off investing in Mason & Dixon and Gravity’s Rainbow by this fella.