Jeffrey Wooten

The Benefits of Chopsticks

A friend of mine posted this article on FB and the initial take is that it poses a question that it fails to definitively resolve.  It simply posits three theories.  So if an answer to a question is your cup of tea, you’ll be disappointed.

When I was reading this article, I could hardly keep a straight face. There’s just something humorous about this:

In Korea, however, the main topic of discourse on metal chopsticks concerns not the history of the implements but their contemporary benefits for the manual dexterity of Koreans.

Hmmmm, how can you not start to giggle when someone says, “Koreans are very good with their hands?”   Who doesn’t know that Horn Dog who says such things.  Yes it is a little childish and it is absolutely an inaccurate stereotyping to say the least.  But trying to read a serious article and then imagining Timmy Tim McDouche nodding in agreement is just too funny.

And there you have it…

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A curious article from a Lion of the past century who may or may not comprehend the new century.

Re-inventor in Chief?

Murdoch plans a digital newspaper for the iPad.

While no rational person disagrees that content should have some economic value, it seems a daunting task to put the cat back in the bag at this juncture.  The irony is that CNN is technically reposting this story from WWD.  Click here for original link.

What do you think?  Are we on the precipice of an economic paradigm shift?  Who owns information that is so readily communicated?  Replicated? Would you subscribe to this service?  Or are you okay with the news aggregator via Google News?  Or would you possibly pay for a Google News aggregator?  Or is news just news that should be subsidized by Ad revenue?

If you’ve ever tried to delete photos from your Mac, you probably know that it is a process in triplicate. Having overcome my ingrained tendency to be a hoarder in the real world, I still have a tendency to be a digital hoarder. Deleting data clutter is still emotionally taxing.  So once that hurdle is cleared, you must search your hard drive for “All Images.” And then you painstakingly one by one review and delete. [Apple + Delete] Every so often a bulk clearing of the trash can reveals the progress of hard drive space being cleared. And that crunching sound is like the Wilhelm Scream (video below) of pixels that will never press photons towards your retinas in the same combination…

But wait. All those pictures are still in my iPhoto. WTF? How cruel. You mean iPhoto makes a copy of each photo and builds an entirely separate database on the hard drive?  Yes.

Here we go again…

So drilling down through the file tree reveals an iPhoto Library folder called “Originals.” And yes, painstakingly, one by one, the process repeats. Cue the Wilhelm Scream.

But some of these photos refuse to die! Zombie files!!

Here we go for round three… drill down again through the file tree reveals an iPhoto Library folder called “Modified” and the little stragglers will be waiting to be picked off once more.

It's gone baby!

Next time you open your iPhoto, there will likely be thumbnail scars of your digital carnage… and when you click on the vestigial images you will be treated to this image:

It should be noted that when you “delete” pictures from your iPhoto, your Mac doesn’t really delete the data.  It’s still there.  So if any of you happen to have photos you wished gone for whatever reason – relationships, lawsuits, the Feds… etc. – realize that you have to really drill down to delete the files.  Otherwise, it’s still there.  Like a bad memory you can’t drink away.

So in review:

1. It’s okay, memories can be stored in your mind, not cluttering up your hard drive.

2. It’s the emotional battle that can be won, and that we must win – three times!

3. It’s the quirky file storage mechanism of the Mac OS that will make us feel like Sisyphus.

4. The Exclamation Point of Success!  And room for new files… maybe that novel you’ve always promised to write.

Delete Delete Delete!!!