iTunes does a great job at this, but has gone from Don't Make Me Think, to Think for Me, regarding whether or not I really want to download podcasts that I'm subscribed to because it's been a while since I've listened to them.

That's a feature I could live without. If you're going to offer something to the user, like the option to subscribe to a feed, which to me means, "all newly found episodes will be downloaded", don't change the definition of the term "Subscribe" behind the scenes because you think you know me better than I know myself. Remember, I'm the one with the brain.

It was only this morning, after using iTunes for years, that I mistakenly clicked on the little gray circle next to the feed with an exclamation mark (I wish I had taken a screen shot)... that action is what brought up the above dialog box. I had always assumed that that was an indication that the feed URL was unavailable -- If too much time went by and the resource never became "available" again, I'd eventually unsubscribe. All this time I've been misguided.

Here's a tip software developers: If a dialog box's purpose is to ask a question (even if it's confirming what you told it months ago) do everyone a favor and put a flippn' question mark in the icon -- indicating that you have a question for me! Reserve that cute little exclamation mark for when either myself, or some external factor has caused the application to behave unexpectedly. When I've not changed anything related to a feed, and see an exclamation mark next to it, I think there's an error, but surely, it's the cause of something other than me -- Simply because I haven't done anything! Those are the sorts of errors that eventually fix themselves, or will never be fixed.

So Apple, don't think for me, and next time, give me a little more insight into what that mysterious circle means. If you have a question for me, show me a question mark, show me some indication that my action is requested, have it glow or do something. Bouncing icons in the doc is a wonderful example of where you've done it right!

As can be expected, the site was redesigned at some point in the past 3'ish years. The redesign broke my script as the image names/locations changed.

The newly modified perl script can be found here.

# squidfingers.pl - will willis - 05/28/2008
# a script to download groovy background images like:
# http://squidfingers.com/assets/patterns/pattern_028.gif

my $count = 1; # to iterate over images
my $error = 0; # count failed requests
my $give_up = 5; # when we've probably run out of images

while (1) {
download_bg($count) || $error++;
last if $error > $give_up;
$count++;
}

sub download_bg {
my $num = sprintf("%03d",shift);
my $url = "http://squidfingers.com/assets/patterns/pattern_$num.gif";
my $response = getstore($url,"$num.gif");
return ($response eq '200') ? 1 : 0;
}

I gave a talk at Supernova, a brief talk on the Perl programming language. I was pointing out that the Perl programming language, which has been an absolute mainstay of the web from the earliest days, is held together by love. It's not held together either by government intervention or by corporate investment. It's held together because a bunch of people love Perl, and more importantly, they love one another in the context of Perl. They like being part of a community that makes this language work, and work better.

Love is the key because this outward expression waters and nourishes the seeds of enthusiasm, discipline, and determination. Without it, progress is damned, or hampered at best. Only when these seeds are constantly nurtured will a cause flourish and grow to it's fullest potential.

source: The Worldchanging Interview: Clay Shirky

Those were the good 'ol days. This desktop represents nothing to you, but to me it encapsulates so much of what I loved about the web. There was something so intriguing to the web back then, it was a bit of a mystery, almost magical. Every day held something new, I went to work with anticipation.

Today the web is work, it's life.

The web is too predictable these days. I miss the days when Josh Davis, Gmunk, Mike Cina, and the other usual suspects of the era were churning out jaw-dropping designs or new flash techniques every other day, things that I couldn't have dreamed of.

I'm ready for something new, something fun. Or has our web grown up? Are those innocent, fearless years packed with excitement and ground-breaking firsts behind us? Maybe it's just my perspective, and the ear I speak of was my personal technological awakening.

I desperately want to believe that the web can return to what I once perceived it to be. I want the innovation to continue, I want to feel like I'm on the frontier again, looking at uncharted territory. Perhaps the key is in the belief; believing that the frontier is still there, and enjoying the journey of searching for it.

my /etc/motd

Days till...


        ThanksGiving:-15

         MyLastFinal:  1

          MyVacation:  3

          Graduation:  9

           Christmas: 18