I complained here about the JavaScript error at Crazy Apple Rumors, and hey! now it's fixed. So, this may be worth a try: could you, you, you, and you fix your sites, please? The first has JavaScript errors, and the latter three have width problems (what can I say--I like narrow browser windows). I also can't read this site, but I think that in that case it's just me and my eyes at fault. Hey, it's worth a try.

Here's another reason why the Mac OS X browser OmniWeb isn't ready for prime time: you can't use Movable Type's bookmarklets to post blog entries, because OmniWeb's JavaScript implementation is broken. We also noticed that because its CSS support is still vastly messed up, features of this blog, like the font change and background image buttons, just don't work. I'm rolling my eyes; CSS has been a Web standard since, what, 1998?

I rarely link to personality tests, because I think that they're just silly. This Personality Disorder Test, actually tests your personality, not just what flavor Lifesaver (or whatever) you are. My results (and yes, I tried to answer each question truthfully):

Paranoid: High
Schizoid: High
Schizotypal: High
Antisocial: High
Borderline: Very High
Histrionic: High
Narcissistic: Very High
Avoidant: Very High
Dependent: High
Obsessive-Compulsive: High

The good news, I guess, is that it sorta/kinda works out to a balanced personality when everything is out of whack. What can I say, except that inside my head is an interesting place to be?

This article, Holding Cell, from The New Republic dissects the moral bankruptcy of the recommendation for a four-year moratorium on research cloning, made recently by the president's Council on Bioethics. How many people will suffer and die in the meantime because the religious right wants to stop scientific progress, and because Bush wants their votes?

I meant to write about members of Congress refusing to take FBI polygraphs earlier today, but Josh Marshall did a better job than I would have. Go read it.

Political junkie alert: After the 1998 and 2000 elections, several good political sites closed down. I've been waiting for new ones to appear for this election cycle, and they are right on schedule. If you're not already reading it, you should be reading ABCNEWS.com's daily The Note, which is almost too exhaustive for me. Free, quick registration is required.

From the terrific Crazy Apple Rumors Site, a parody of those annoying business analysis pieces that show up in the media with depressing regularity: Apple Seen Standing Around In The Parking Lot, Smoking. But dude, you mispelled "buoyed."

The GOP candidate for govenor here in California, a rich guy named Bill Simon, has never served in public office before. He says that his big qualification to run the state is that he's a successful businessman (though his money was made by his daddy). But he's been evasive about his business dealings, and refused to release his tax returns. He finally staged a BS opportunity for reporters, where he allowed access to the three-inch-thick returns for two hours, with no recording devices, accountants or laptops allowed in the room, and the only notes reporters could take were by hand on campaign-supplied notepads. Today, Simon got more good news; this NYT story, California Verdict Weighs on Campaign for Governor details how one of Simon's businesses lost a civil trial today, and was ordered to pay $78 million for defrauding a former partner. Wait, it gets better: the partner is a convicted drug smuggler. Way to go, Bill! There's nothing like putting $78 million bucks into a drug lord's pocket to cement your tough-on-crime credentials! Ride that train to victory!

Yes, I know that this is too geeky. But we were watching last week's Sex In The City and there's the familiar scene where Carrie is writing on her G3 PowerBook (get a TiBook, girl!) and they show the close up on what she's typing. Usually she's typing in Word or Simple Text. But this week she's typing her column in the AppleScript Script Editor. Obviously an error of frightful proportions (or she's fallen under Sal Soghoian's spell).

OK, so I was looking at Amazon today, with Dori looking over my shoulder. I said, "Hey, let's see what stupid things are in my Amazon Gold Box!" Because it's always filled with things I don't want (yesterday, it had a diaper pail and other baby stuff). Here's what came up: Animal Planet Radio Control Wooly Mammoth. Oh yeah, I'm whipping out the credit card now.

When we made the decision to move to the boondocks three years ago, one of the things I particularly liked about this particular town in the boondocks was that there was a small local airport. Yeah, flights from there only went to SFO and LAX, but it was easy to catch a flight from those airports to where ever I wanted to go. Unsurprisingly, it shut down last fall, which means that our nearest airports are now nearly 100 miles away.

Today was spent taking the kid to the airport (SFO) to go spend a couple of weeks with Grandpa and Grandma. We left at 9:45 am and I got home at 5:30 pm. I didn't make any stops other than the airport, not even for gas. This is such a pain.

The good news is, of course, two child-free weeks--yee hah!

OK, so you sign a corporate fraud bill that's way stronger than you wanted, and tried for months to water down or kill. But you failed at that, so at the ceremony, you take credit for the bill, because it's politically expedient. Then just a few hours after the TV lights go off at the White House, one of your lackeys quietly announces that the executive branch's interpretation of how the law will be enforced will (wait for it...) weaken the new law. Yep, that's our President. At least he stays bought.

Maybe it's just because I work with Macs for a living, but I just don't understand the complaining and whining that's filling the Mac sites and mailing lists over Apple's pricing for Mac OS X 10.2 AKA Jaguar. These people should get a friggin' clue: Apple is a business, not a charity. Just because you bought a Mac does not mean that Apple owes you free OS upgrades in perpetuity. I don't care when you bought your Mac, either; Apple has to set some cutoff date, and some people will fall on the wrong side of that date.

If you haven't made the jump to Mac OS X yet, Jaguar will be a good place to start (and you've avoided the arrows in the back us early adopters of 10.0.x suffered; though I've found 10.1.x to be perfectly usable). If you're using Mac OS X 10.1.x now, and you want to continue using Mac OS X, believe me, you will be upgrading to Jaguar sooner or later, even if you're cranky about it now. Why? Because you will very quickly see programs that simply won't run on earlier versions. Jaguar includes a bunch of stuff under the hood that makes life easier for peripheral makers and software developers. Want some examples? OK, how about scanners? They basically don't work under 10.1 without a nice hack called Vuescan. Under Jaguar, with its built-in TWAIN support, scanner makers can write drivers much easier. Got a network print server for your Epson inkjet? We do, and it will work under Jaguar (once Epson finishes the drivers). Are you a musician? Write that check, because the forthcoming OS X versions of music software will rely on Jaguar's MIDI support. If you want to synchronize PIM data using iSync between your Mac, Palm, iPod, and cellphone, you'll need Jaguar. If you want to share calendars using iCal, you'll need Jaguar. Notice the subtle trend here?

If you've paid any attention to the tech market, you probably noticed that things aren't real good out there for anyone except Microsoft and Dell. Apple managed to post a profit in the latest quarter, but just barely. A quarterly loss would have meant dozens of "Can Apple survive?" stories that would further depress sales. Consequently, Apple's grasping at whatever revenue streams they can get. That explains the Jaguar pricing, and the .Mac pricing, and why there's going to be iPod for Windows. The first two are high-margin items, and the third can potentially bring in a huge volume of sales. All will bring in badly needed cash. And like any other computer company, Apple's looking to their installed base (with the exception of the Windows iPod buyers) to provide that cash. People who are surprised about that haven't been paying attention, want something for nothing, or both.

I called Apple today to cancel my order for Jaguar (re Dori's post of yesterday) and from what the guy I talked to said, it looks like a lot of people are doing the same and ordering Jaguar through Amazon. It's going to save us about $65, including savings on tax and shipping.

Hot tip (via Macintouch): Want to buy OS X 10.2 (aka Jaguar, aka Jagwire), but don't want to pay $129 + tax/shipping? Amazon is selling it for $79, no tax, no shipping. Pre-order now!

I'm having a tussle with the domain registrar for the negrino.com domain, so my incoming mail is bouncing. This will hopefully resolve itself over the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you need to send me mail, use my alternate address of negrino@bite-me-spammers-mac.com. I'm sure you can figure out what part of that address to get rid of in order to get the real address.

Remember Six Degrees? No, not that Six Degrees, that Six Degrees. Yeah, the now-dead one that was cool for about ten minutes a few years ago. Anyhow, Ryze is doing something similar; check 'em out.