Dashcode Developer Beta is officially out

The UNEASYsilence blog says that the Dashcode Developer Beta is now officially out:

Apple has officially launched its Dashcode Developer Beta for, you guessed it, Dashboard widget developers. The 19.4 MB disk image can be downloaded direct through the Developer Connection. You'll need to register your Apple ID if you want to download this beta.

Simply quoting someone else's blog post shouldn't count as breaking the ADC confidentiality agreement, right? Right?

Entourage Newsreader error

This is frustrating me, and I figured I'd throw it open to the world to see if someone else has an easy answer:

I'm trying to use Entourage 2004 to read a private newsgroup that requires SSL and a log in. I created a new newsgroup account with their news server, checked "This server requires me to log on," entered my account ID and password, and checked "This news server requires a secure connection (SSL)."

I am able to download the names of and display the groups on that server, which I understand to mean that my account ID and password are correct.

However, when I try to get messages for any of those groups, I get the error "Connection to the server failed or was dropped. Could not retrieve mail. Error: -17895". It appears that Entourage is trying to log me in (based on the "Logging on as dorismith" message in the Progress window) until it eventually times out.

I can view the messages just fine if I use Thunderbird, but I don't really want to have to use another app to do something when I'm perfectly happy with Entourage for everything else.

Any ideas for things to try? Google has been no help so far, so I figured I'd throw it out to the world.

Amazon credit where it's due

Two people just asked me for a quick way to credit a friend or a blog for an Amazon purchase — that is, they want the friend to get Amazon affiliate compensation for the item even though they didn't follow a direct link from the friend to the item.

This is straightforward with bookmarklets, so here you go: Amazon Credit.

To install: drag that link to your bookmark/favorites bar.

To use: find the item you want on Amazon. When you're on the item page, click the bookmarklet, and the page should reload, giving the friend credit for the recommendation. That's all there is to it.

If you have a problem with this bookmarklet, just let me know. It'll be easier for me to fix, though, if you give me as much information as possible (your browser/version, your OS, what item you were looking at, what you expected to happen, what did happen, etc.).

Want to provide this bookmarklet to others, personalized for your blog? See where the code starts with amazonID='chalcedonyconsulA'? Just change the value in quotes to be your associate ID instead, and place the bookmarklet (the whole thing, not just that snippet!) as a link on your blog with these same instructions (a link back to here would be appreciated as well).

Running late with your holiday shopping? Remember that an Amazon Gift Certificate can be sent via email, and is always the right size…