This is a really good point:

However, in building my Smart Folder I discovered that an annoying Apple design trend from iTunes has made its way into Spotlight as well: an oversimplified search interface that prevents you from doing even somewhat complicated searches.

Want to create a Smart Folder that contains all Microsoft Word files modified in the past 14 days with either a name that contains “22″ or “23″ but not “21″? You can’t do it, just as you can’t (without faking it via using other playlists as intermediaries) create an iTunes playlist that isn’t either all “and” or “or” operations.

I will admit that some users won’t even think of making these kind of searches. But they’re also very powerful — and many users would appreciate having that power at their fingertips. It’s past time for Apple to design an easy-to-use interface that also lets users harness the power of or and not.

I’m listening right now to an iTunes “Smart Playlist” called “Irish/Folk.” It’s an “or” playlist; the criteria are that at least 1 of the following 7 things must be true:

* Artist contains “Clancy”
* Artist contains “Makem”
* Artist contains “Chieftains”
* Artist contains “Irish”
* Genre contains “Irish”
* Genre contains “Celtic”
* Genre contains “Folk”

The problem is, these crtieria result in the inclusion of various songs I don’t want in this particular playlist. For example, Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco songs are labeled as “Folk,” but as much as I love Ani and the Girls, they clearly they do not fit into the theme I’m going for. Also, there are some cheesy “Irish” songs by Bing Crosby, like “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling,” but I don’t really want those, either. I could solve this problems very easily, with minimal effort (which is the whole point of Smart Playlists, after all), if only I could add some “and not” crteria to my “or” search, like:

* Artist does not contain “DiFranco”
* Artist does not contain “Indigo”
* Artist does not contain “Crosby”

I can do this sort of serach on Google, for heaven’s sake; why can’t I do it in a “Smart Playlist” (or a “Smart Folder” for that matter) in my glorious, advanced “Tiger” operating system? Argh.

I’m looking at you, Apple. How does putting these features in iTunes 4.9 and OS 10.4.2 sound? :)

Investigators Blame Stupidity In Area Death

“We’re fairly positive the deceased was operating under the influence of being an unbelievable dumbass,” forensic investigator Evan Lawrence told reporters at the scene… “I mean, we’re not saying alcohol, fatigue, poor vehicle maintenance, and driver error didn’t play their parts—but mainly, that driver was a goddamn dipshit.”

LOL! Read the whole thing, and don’t miss the last sentence.

Apparently, there’s no need for separation of church and state in Indiana.

I’d just like to thank Toni for misspelling American Idol runner-up Bo Bice’s name as “Bo Brice” in her worshipful posts about him earlier this year. Her spelling error has seriously boosted my web traffic.

You see, I’ve been getting a lot of hits from people looking for information about Bo… and although there are undoubtedly more search-engine queries for “Bo Bice” than for “Bo Brice,” there are also far more websites featuring the correct spelling… so I get a much higher percentage of the “Bo Brice” search-engine traffic than I would have gotten from the “Bo Bice” traffic if Toni had spelled it right. :)

Indeed, I’m at the top of the heap for “Bo Brice” searches! And it seems there are plenty of people out there who think that’s his name, because I’ve gotten 1,159 hits since February from search-engine queries involving the word “Brice”! LOL!

That 1,159 total includes 954 searches for the exact phrase “bo brice,” which is easily the top search-engine phrase of the year so far, beating out “matt leinart” (394), “brady quinn” (327), “brendan loy” (283), “norm chow” (246), “tsunami videos” (216), “irish trojan” (213), “iraq women” (212), and of course, “big dick” (205). Hehe. (Thanks for your interest, ladies, but sorry, I’m already spoken for. :)

If, under the “extraordinary circumstances” that could still produce a filibuster, the Republicans force the Dems to actually filibuster (instead of this “virtual” crap), I wonder if I could bribe a Democratic senator to read the entire archives of BrendanLoy.com aloud on C-SPAN? And how much would it cost? And how much would it increase my traffic? :)

Well I kept putting it off cause I knew its gonna take time to write, but since I’m typing out bits and pieces of it in various comments I might as well just spell it all out anyway. So here goes:

One of the complaints often leveled against the Pro-Life crowd by the Pro-Abortion camp is that we base our arguments on our religious beliefs. I certainly think its true that the religious convictions of those of us who are against abortion certainly contribute, but I think one can explain why abortion on demand should not be legal without referring to the Almighty.

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Guns don’t kill people… kitchen knives kill people.

FYI - Professor Garnett’s Property grades are online.

I realize that 90° may not sound like much to all you USC alums but for May 26th in Seattle its a record. The previous record high was in 1947 at 87°. Average temps are around 66°. Seriously this global warming thing needs to chill out :D

My God, they’re everywhere…

AAAAHHH!!! NeoCons!!! Run for your lives!!!

:)

More pictures from my recent trips to Chicago here, including one of Adrienne with the Penske truck in which she is presently driving across the country:

She hates that picture. :) I think it’s cute.

Also, take a look inside the coolest Apple Store on earth:

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A major earthquake on the Puente Hills fault, which runs directly underneath USC, could be an epic catastrophe, scientists say:

A [7.2 to 7.5 magnitude] earthquake there today could cause 3,000 to 18,000 deaths, 60,000 to 260,000 injuries and $250 billion in total damages… Between 142,000 and 735,000 people could be displaced if such a temblor hits.

Such quakes on that particular fault are believed to occur every 3,000 years or so.

Here’s the clip from that "Brendan, I am your father" Burger King commercial, kindly provided to me by Andrew Leyden.

source file

You can download that clip here or the whole ad here.

This would seem to fly in the face of all the rampant speculation among my NDLS friends that my dad is a pirate. It appears that, instead, he is a sith lord. :)

P.S. What’s a sith pirate’s favorite weapon? The Death Starrrrrr.

…and the winner is CARRIE UNDERWOOD!!!

Thats right, the 21-year-old girl with a country touch beat out the 29-year-old rocker with a mic-stand obsession.

Kudos to America for picking the better of the two.

And is it just me, or does Bo remind anyone else of a creepy serial killer? Just sayin… :D

[Photo added by the webmaster. -ed.]

The evil green fog of doom is finally lifting!

Our pesky microalgae bloom is subsiding at last (after a week and a half); visibility in our aquarium has increased to the point where you can actually see things that are more than three inches away from the side of the tank. Woohoo! :)

When I get around to it, I’ll re-position FishCam 2 for a more interesting view, possibly including some corals and such.

UPDATE: As promised, I’ve moved FishCam 2. It is now located at the far left end of the tank, looking lengthwise down the center of the aquarium, with live rock and corals on the left, and fish (sometimes) on the right. You can see the current live view at left; here’s an image from earlier tonight, with two damselfish swimming by:

I also moved FishCam 1 off of Patriot and onto the saltwater aquarium. FishCam 1 (the iSight) is the more “mobile” cam; I can easily move it around to show whatever’s interesting at the moment, like passing snails:

P.S. Here’s a picture of the webcam & aquarium setup, excessively captioned for your convenience:

Here are two closer-up views of the cams. Note the sandwich bag on the iSight and the modified shower curtain on the monitor, designed to protect them from splashing and dripping when Becky or I reach into the tank, refill it, etc. :) You may also notice that the G3 is on cinderblocks, so it won’t be sitting directly on the wet floor in the event of a flood.

Okay, y’all know I love Apple, but this really pisses me off.

In November 2003, I paid $29.99 for QuickTime Pro, an upgrade to the basic QuickTime Player that allows you to, among other things, edit sound files. It was a good upgrade and well worth the money.

Then, last month, Apple introduced QuickTime 7, a new-and-improved version of the QuickTime Player. The problem? Serial numbers for QuickTime Pro 6 don’t work with version 7 — you have to upgrade again. And there is no discount whatsoever for people who had previously upgraded (not even for people who did so much more recently, e.g. earlier this year). Everyone who wants QuickTime Pro 7 has to pay the same $29.99, regardless of whether they already paid that same amount for the prior version. Apple explains in the FAQ:

Will my QuickTime 6 Pro key work with QuickTime 7?
Because QuickTime 7 includes royalty-bearing technologies, a new QuickTime Pro key is required to unlock Pro functionality in QuickTime 7. If your key no longer works, visit the Apple Store to purchase a new one.

That’s not much of an explanation, and it certainly doesn’t justify failing to at least offer a discount for recent upgraders, but oh well.

“Well,” you might say, “you don’t have to upgrade to version 7. Just keep using QuickTime 6.” Ah, but that’s where it gets really good: QuickTime 6 doesn’t work with Tiger! Again from the FAQ:

Is QuickTime 6.x supported with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger?
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger includes QuickTime 7. Earlier versions of QuickTime and QuickTime Pro are not supported with Mac OS X 10.4.

That’s right, Apple’s new operating system forces you to use QuickTime 7, and you do not have the option of “downgrading” to the older version. So if you bought a license for QuickTime Pro before version 7 was introduced, and then you bought Tiger, your license is now worthless!

In my case, at least I can say that I got a year-and-a-half’s worth of use out of that now-useless QuickTime Pro 6 license. But imagine how you’d feel if you had bought QuickTime Pro a couple of months ago, before the notoriously secretive Apple innovators had announced their planned upgrade to version 7. Unless you’re willing to keep using an outdated operating system in order to preserve your QuickTime purchase, you basically paid $29.99 for nothing!!!

This is downright unconscionable. Such money-grubbing tactics would make Bill Gates blush. Apple should be ashamed of itself.

Does anyone know of any good, Tiger-compatible alternatives to QuickTime Pro that will allow me to crop sound files and do other basic editing tasks? I need the functionality of QuickTime Pro, but I don’t particularly want to let Apple rip me off again. Fool me once…