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I have a feeling that the reason I’m enjoying this article on the creative mind from a psychologists perspective is because it is a bit ego stroking (if you consider yourself a creative, which I generally do.) (via kottke, via 43Folders)

This will (hopefully) be a mute point when Intrepid Ibez is out, but you can easily fix audio problems that apparently result from issues between Adobe’s Flash player and and PulseAudio sound server. Install a single package that should already be in your sources.list and you’ll be good to go:
sudo apt-get install libflashsupport
You can tell me thank you later.

Edit:One of the things that I didn’t expect would happen is that this has fixed the long standing issue of Hulu not working (for me).

Yeah, that guy would be me.

So, as is my typical modus operandi, I’ve started running again on a whim very late at night. I had a few problems, and I’d love some feedback from the folks I know that are much better at this sort of thing than I am. Please, if you have a moment, fill out this form on WuFoo so that I can gather some of the response and sort out some solutions.

Hooray sweat! Hooray health!

I just lost about 3 hours of my life. Hardy apparently has great, but poorly integrated bluetooth support. Here are the steps I had to take to get my bluetooth keyboard working:

1. Right click on the bluetooth icon in the notification area of the default Hardy desktop and select preferences
2. In the prefenes window select “Visable and connectable for other devices” from the list
3. Click the discoverable button on your keyboard, when it shows up in the prefernces window you have open, click on it and click the trust button. You can now close the preferences window.
4. Right click on the bluetooth icon a second time, this time selecting browse device.
5. Select your keyboard from the list, and click connect.
6. When the error pops up about not being able to connect, notice the mac address (perhaps something like 00:1e:52:fc:87:ea) and leave the error message open so you can type it into the terminal.
7. From the terminal run the following command without the quotes: sudo hidd --connect "the mac address from the error message"
8. Be really happy that you found these instructions instead of pouring through dozens of forum posts with people complaining about their keyboard not working

So yesterday Google showed us how they would do a web browser. As I’ve said previously, I’m a Safari guy, so with that in mind: here are a few thoughts on Google Chrome.

Awesomeness: 

• I will go into detail later, but the “blank state” for new tabs is beautiful and functional.
• The standard “status bar” at the bottom of most browsers is now a there-when-you-need it popup on the bottom of the screen that disappears when unused. Very thoughtful in regard to screen real-estate. 
• Speaking of screen size, Google has seeming take Safari’s minimalist approach to the next level by removing even the standard File / Edit / etc fields from the Windows version of Chrome. This probably will not work the same way in OS X considering the constantly available menu bar, but it certainly saves some space in Vista / XP.
• The first thing I noticed when testing the browser from within Windows Vista was that Google, by default respects the users preset preference of search engine. Vista comes set (inside of IE7) to default to Live Search and when I launched Chrome for the first time, I a messaging confirming that similar to what you would see in IE7 when first launching. I would have thought Google would just default to it’s own search engine and allow the user to change, so this was a welcome indication of how Google (might) treat their users. 
• Chrome is smoking fast in javascript performance and feels pretty zippy just about everywhere else (launching, opening tabs, etc)
• Chrome uses Webkit, the rendering engine formerly that Apple extracted (and kept open) from KHTML of KDE fame, and used within Safari. This seems like a much more bold decision than Google’s decision to use Webkit inside of the upcoming Android mobile operating system, considering their relationship with the Mozilla organization, but we’ll see as Chrome goes public. 

Lameness:

• The fisher price interface that is on display is really painful. Here’s hoping that when the OS X and Linux versions come out they will be substantially different. 
• Did I mention that Google launched Chrome with just Windows support? Seems a bit unnatural for Google considering most Googlers probably run a variety of Linux or OS X. 
• There are some really terrible rendering issues due to what looks like Chrome’s use of a adjusted version of Webkit. 

Overall, I’m feeling very positive about this beta release of Google’s new web browser. There are a few things that I’d love to see get fixed, but enough positive that easily makes up for the bat bits. Congratulations to the Android team, and feel free to report bugs via Chrome’s Launchpad page!

This is the interface for the Mac Last.fm client: 

It’s very nicely put together, fits into OS X very well, and is overall a pleasure to use. One thing you can do is listen to various musical stations streamed according to your likes and dislikes previously registered to your Last.fm account (see my account for an example)

My one problem with this app is the button in the top right, which reveals the sidebar seen in the image below: 

Why is this button in the top left named “My Profile” ? This seems like a terrible choice considering the ability to play the previously mentioned streaming music is hiding until the “My Profile” button is clicked. My first thought was to rename it “View Stations & Profile” but I’m sure that just about anything indicating the hidden functionality would be better than “My Profile.

Luckily the kind folks at Last.fm have made most of their stuff open source. I just downloaded the app and will be spending the rest of the weekend sorting out how to fix this application.

 “But, if you’re here to actually read things and to enjoy the thoughts, photos, and opinions of actual people who have good and bad streaks, it wouldn’t hurt to have an easy way to hit “snooze” for a while.” - Merlin Mann on 43Folders

If you have wi-fi (pay or free) please provide a few easily accessible power outlets. I’m constantly feeling like a roaming hobo just so that I can continue to work. If this is not an option, feel free to pool your collective financial and intellectual power to create 24++ hour batteries for standard laptops that don’t weigh 9,000 lbs. 

Thanks!

- Joshua Blount

I was recently driving a friend to the airport when I received a call from a number that wasn’t in my iPhone’s contact list. Generally speaking I would ignore the call, but I thought it might be someone I had met recently, so I picked it up. Here’s a reasonably accurate transcript of the conversation:

“Hi, This is ***** from Robert Half Technology, ”
“Is this a headhunting call”
“Well, yes it is”
“I’m sorry, I’m very happily employed.”
*click*

This wouldn’t be so frustrating if I didn’t get (at least) 3 calls from recruiters a day, but I do. I understand that finding smart people to do geeky things is difficult, but what I don’t understand is why recruiters, and recruitment companies, this this is the best way to go about finding solid employees.

Kyle Neath has a writeup about some of his thoughts on recruitment that you may want to check out. My advice? Find a way to be interesting and please don’t waste my time.

A design problem is not something to be overcome, but an opportunity to be embraced. The best design solutions do not make a problem go away, but accept the problem as a necessary state of the world. Frequently they are little more then an eloquent restatement of the problem.

Nathan Borror’s note on 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School