Techtool Protege Q's

Micromat today announced the TechTool Protégé. It's now on my list of must-see items at Macworld Expo next week — not just because it's cool (it looks like it is), but because I don't see how they can actually deliver what they're promising at that price:

This tiny FireWire-based device contains 1 gigabyte of memory and comes complete with the latest version of Mac OS X, the latest version of TechTool Pro and our latest drive utility DiskStudio.

Blank 1 GB FireWire flash drive: $150
Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger: $115
Micromat TechTool Pro 4: $85
Micromat DiskStudio: $49

Total for all the above: $399 — and those aren't list prices, either; that's street price. But somehow, Micromat says that they can sell all the above for $229 list price. This, I want to see.

Feminists and other Snobs

Over on her blog, Shelley wrote Feminists and other Snobs about the so-called Women's Media Center and their claims. I could say several very rude and unprintable things, but I won't. Instead, go read Shelley.

Okay, one thing: they at least ought to be linking to Wise-Women. Sheesh.

Dreamweaver 8 Visual QuickStart: Go Get It!

We're happy to announce that our latest book, Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide, is now available for immediate shipment through Amazon. For some reason, even though we've had our author copies for a couple of weeks, Amazon still had not shown it as shipping within 24 hours. Now it is. You can also find it at Barnes & Noble's site (listed as being from Dori only; gotta get that fixed). Let the online selling begin!

Gadget time!

It's time for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and though I can't be there, I'll be following the onslaught of new gadgets with avid and greedy interest. There's too much for any one site to cover, but I'll be checking Gizmodo's CES page, as well as the threads on the AV Science Forum.

Dashboard on KDE

According to Zack Rusin, a lead developer of KDE, their next rev (KDE 4) will have support for Dashboard Widgets. Suwheet!

The News From Here

We're getting pings asking us how we're holding up through the flooding, and luckily, we're able to say, "What floods?" Thankfully, we're in the part of Sonoma County that managed to stay almost entirely above water. It's currently pouring, and a lot more rain is predicted for the next day or so, but my understanding is that the river level is dropping anyway.

If you want to see what things are like here, these are the pages I've been following:

• Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service — or in other words, the current and predicted flooding. It's not updated anywhere near as often as I'd like, but at least the current news is good.

• More useful info about the current status of the river is at Paul's River Page. He's got the same info as the previous link (and a lot more), but it includes a line saying, "The Department of Water Resources believes this sensor is not accurately showing the correct level". That's not good news.

• If you're wondering where this area is, there's a good map at Russian River Maps. We're just north of where the Russian River crosses the 101.

• Other local bloggers talking about the flooding: The Eastside View, The Cellar Rat, and Page of Moss.

• If you want to see what it looks like around here, there are some great pictures at Mother of Groom's photos posted to Flickr, esselnyc's photos posted to Flickr, and 2005/2006 Russian River Flood - Healdsburg gallery.

• And a final tourist plug ('cause we'll need it): Healdsburg emerges as a quintessential wine country town. Oh, not another one of those articles, you think… until you realize that it was in the Napa Valley Register. Napa got hit considerably harder than we did, so if you want flood news, that's a good place to look. For Sonoma County, the best place is the Santa Rosa Press Democrat's local news page.

In short: we're fine and everyone we know is fine, although people in other towns and other counties got hit hard. Our thoughts go out to them, and we thank everyone who's contacted us for their kind thoughts about us.