Balrob

The "Spaces" virtual desktop feature of Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard, is great - but far from perfect. Have you ever played "hunt the dialog" ? This game is played upon you when you use Spaces. Here's what happens: An application, that is in a different Space than the one you are currently using, alerts you by bouncing in the dock. You click it, and are whisked away to the right space. However, the app looks kind of odd - you can't detect why immediately but it soon becomes clear that the app doesn't have focus. Somewhere else is a dialog, from this app, that should be on top, but is in a different Space. Well, where is it? If you are really unlucky it is behind another app in a different space - finding these really sucks. If you are lucky it will be visible in another space. Usually, as soon as you click it, you automatically switch back to the correct Space (the one that the originating App is in) - and can then interact with it. Spaces needs some polish

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0836117620080508 The US government needs to procure health care for it's elderly and disabled citizens. In actual fact, the US government can't procure health care per se, it can only procure health care insurance - and I presume it's fairly basic cover which is why folks can choose to upgrade (at their expense) to Medicare Advantage. What is immediately clear, is that Health Care delivery is first and foremost a for-profit system with all of the middle men a large multi-tier commercial system needs. There are salesmen knocking on doors seeking to sell you Health Care, and these guys want to get paid. The insurance companies need to make a profit, so do Hospitals and local clinics. How much of the actual Health Care budget (from all payers; individuals, companies & government agencies) actually buys a health care service or product ? Is it even 50% ? So, we pay a premium for Health Care (in order to create profits for provider

I have a Mazda CX-9 which I am mostly pretty happy with. The following constitute "niggles" which just kind of annoy me ... The Cruise Control disengages if you use the turn indicator. Clearly, this misguided "safety feature" was designed by someone who has either never used an Interstate freeway, or perhaps was an intern at Mazda and was subsequently transferred into the Accounts department. The lock for the rear electric window-controls also locks out the driver. Perhaps Mazda doesn't realize that this is a "child safety feature" and not a "driver safety feature". I should be able to lock-out my kids from operating the rear windows - but still be able to operate them myself. The rear window controls, if operated, prevent the driver control (for the same window) from working - even if the lock is engaged. Scenario: My 5 year old daughter wants me to leave the window down - and she knows that if she just leaves her finger on the button, I ca

Have you ever wanted to create an iTunes Smart Playlist that included the boolean OR operator ? Well it’s easy right? You just have the rule “Match any of the following rules...”. But this isn’t what I want at all. This simplistic approach only works for simple unions. What if you want do do something a wee bit more complex - like a playlist that contains music that is rated between 1 and 5 stars from both the Rock and Alternative genres ? Unfortunately, the only way I know to achieve this requires two playlists. Playlist one creates the union, call this playlist “Rock & Alternative”: Match any of the following rules ... Genre contains Rock Genre contains Alternative Playlist two operates on playlist 1: Match all of the following rules ... Playlist is “Rock & Alternative” Rating is in the range 1 to 5 Easy eh?