iTunes and the Law of Software Envelopment

Thanks to Medley (see post below), I now know what I was looking for was Letts Law: "All programs evolve until they can send email." Or maybe it's Zawinski's Law, "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail."

This train of thought started thanks to iTunes 4.8. Version 4.7 took what had previously solely been a music-related application and made it also sync photos. Version 4.8 now adds "support for transferring contacts and calendars from your computer to your iPod."

I'm now taking bets as to when (date or version #) iTunes will begin supporting email. Place your best guess in the comments.

Looking for a reference

I once heard a quote that was something along the lines of

All applications grow in complexity until they can send email.

I'm trying to find any name for this law or at least a source, and I'm not having any luck. Anyone have a pointer for me? Thanks!

Too late

On April 22, Jesse James Garrett wrote:

I am looking for women (preferably in the San Francisco Bay Area) who have been working as managers, designers, or developers on Ajax applications. If you are one, or know one, please email me. Thanks.

Why did I only find out about this today? Crap.

If anyone reading this sees stuff like this in the future (and remembers this), could you please give me a timely heads-up? I'd appreciate it, as I can't read every blog every day.

Worthwhile reading

A couple of things that I've found worth reading:

A Technical Guide for Editing Gonzo by Robert Love. A better title might have been, "Can you even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be Hunter S. Thompson's editor?" Wow. I can't decide if this guy was the luckiest or unluckiest editor on earth.

Via Enoch Choi, here's Wine X Magazine's review of Healdsburg restaurants. I'm not generally a fan of the too cutesy "here's what the locals do" reviews (especially when, as a local, I can tell the author's full of crap), but it's a good roundup of places to eat that's not too badly out of date. She left several places off that she should have included, and one of the places included is out of business, but anyone reading it will still get an idea of just how many great places we have to eat in a town this small.

NNW 2 released

Ranchero Software has released NetNewsWire 2.0, and we're happy to see it. Congratulations, Brent and Sheila! We use it, and you should too.

What's your favorite Mac OS X utility?

As part of the book I'm writing now, Upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Visual QuickProject Guide, I'm doing a chapter that suggests utilities and other enhancements for Mac users. For example, I could barely consider living without Default Folder X. But I thought that our excellent readership (brilliant and good-looking, every one of you) would probably be able to come up with great add-ons that I don't happen to use. So what are your favorite Mac OS X utilities and other add-ons? What makes your life easier? All sorts of system enhancements are welcome, so if you have a favorite widget, font, or anything else what doesn't come stock with Mac OS X, please let me know about it in the comments.

Random Healdsburg Mentions

I have a search set up through Technorati that looks for weblogs posts that contain the word Healdsburg. Posts don't show up very often, but when they do they're almost always something fascinating: either someone who lives near me that I don't know, or someone visiting town briefly who lets me see my town through a tourist's eyes. Here are some of my recent faves:

Laughing Raven Vineyard is 15 miles north of town. With a motto of "If it is not fun it is not done," we'll have to check them out.

Travel Tips & Tales came through town as part of a wine country adventure. It sounds to me like they're having a great time.

A Wine Country Excursion from the Chunklite blog was probably my favorite. How can I resist a post that describes this town as "a charming community that has pushed its stoner, headbanger, and river-rat natives to the north end of town and beyond, making room for hordes of rich tourists"? Especially when you know that we live in, arguably, the northern-most house inside the city limits.

I suspect that this will become a regular feature of this blog.

Dashboard Widget (In)Security

If you've been reading here a while, you've seen our occasional statement about how this blog is the place where we put the stuff we've written that we can't sell to anyone. Here's a perfect example: Dashboard: Widget (In)Security.

My initial response to the original pieces (like this one) was to put something up here about the problem and workarounds. Tom, wisely, said something along the lines of, "You idiot! That's pay copy! Go sell it to someone!" Monday morning I did so, Monday afternoon, it's up. Not too shabby for my first sale to MacCentral, who made it nice and easy to work with them. I hope it's the first of many.

My Mother's Day

As a Mom's prerogative on Mother's Day, I'm going to brag about my kid. If that's a problem for you, tough; go somewhere else.

He made it very easy for me to brag about him today, as his most recent report card came in the mail yesterday:

Honors Pre-Calc: A+
3^rd year French: A+
Honors English: A-
PE: A
AP Biology: A
AP US History: A-

When I was in high school, that was a 3.9. Nowadays, there's three different ways to calculate it: his unweighted GPA is a 4.0, his weighted GPA is a 4.67, and his UC GPA is a 4.8. But no matter the number, we're thrilled with what he's accomplished. Yay Sean!