From the moment I purchased the new iPad, I’ve found almost every other display in my life to be disappointing. Even my 27″ Thunderbolt Display can’t compare in terms of quality. I can see the pixels!
My roommate, Mikey, heard my complaints about my obsolete Thunderbolt Display and came to the rescue. Last night, he replaced my Thunderbolt Display with a display whose pixels I can’t see!
As you can see, this is a clear upgrade in terms of image quality from my usual setup:
I graduate from Tufts in May, and sometime in July, I start working at Apple. In May and June, I’d like to travel a little bit. Growing up in a relatively low-income family, I haven’t had the opportunity to until now. I’ve been putting aside money for a long time, and I’m finally comfortable spending some of it.
My current idea for the trip is an Intro to Europe. My friend Seth’s going to help me plan the trip, but I’ve realized that it will likely be a lot more enjoyable if I traveled with someone. I’m not married to the Intro to Europe idea — I’d just like to go somewhere.
If you’re even vaguely interested in taking all or some of a trip with me, no matter where it is, I’d like to hear from you. Email, call, text, or tweet me.
Update (July 17, 2012): PandoraJam can now use Google Chrome’s Flash plugin. In Preferences > General, select, “If Chrome installed, link to Flash plug-in, on launch”. This option completely solves the problem this post tried to address.
PandoraJam is a Mac application that turns Pandora.com into a desktop app without the awkwardness of Pandora’s first-party Adobe Air application. It does all sorts of nifty things, like responding to the system’s media keys, streaming to an Airport Express, and scrobbling tracks to Last.fm. Although Pandora somewhat recently rolled out an updated, HTML5 interface out to its customers, it still depends on the Adobe Flash plugin to playback audio.
For some time now, I’ve been running my system without the Flash plugin installed. This decision makes Safari more stable, keeps my MacBook Air’s battery lasting longer, and keeps its fan quieter. Whenever a website requires Flash, I open the site up in Google Chrome, which bundles its own version; when I’m done with that site, I quit Chrome.
That works great for general browsing, but it leaves other browsers and third-party applications, like PandoraJam, without a copy of the Flash plugin to use. Since abandoning Flash, I thought I had to give up on using PandoraJam.
I emailed the developer of PandoraJam, asking if there was a way to specify an external path to load the Flash plugin or anything else I could do to avoid installing the for my user (~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins) or globally (/Library/Internet Plug-Ins). Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware of anything I could do to solve my problem.
The last time I searched for an answer to this problem was late August. This evening, after a quick chat with my friend David, whose Google-fu is stronger than mine, we found a solution. A quick read of Daniel Jalkut’s answer to a question on Stack Overflow about WebKit’s plugin search path and Wikipedia’s page about Application Bundles revealed that a small modification to PandoraJam.app would solve my problem without any compromise in my stance on Flash.
PandoraJam’s primary interface is a WebView that loads Pandora’s HTML5 player. Here’s what Daniel Jalkut had to say about OS X applications, WebViews, and how they locate plugins:
By defauilt (sic), it appears the search path goes in this order:
- ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
- /Library/Internet Plug-Ins
- App Bundle’s plug-ins folder
So by design, any plugin you include in your app’s bundle will, by default be superseded by a version found in the user or system library folder.
Bingo! We have a solution.
Flash Player.plugin. If you don’t have one sitting around, install Flash, and move the plugin out of /Library/Internet Plus-Ins.cd into PandoraJam.app.Contents.Plugins directory (folder) with mkdir or Right Click > New Folder.Flash Player.plugin into the Plugins directory.If I abandoned PandoraJam for several months due to my stubbornness about Flash, it’s likely someone else did, too. Now, we can fight the good fight with a great soundtrack.
I’ve been a fan of OverClocked ReMix for as long as I’ve had a computer to type on. I have a script on GitHub that automates keeping one’s music library up-to-date with the latest remixes. If that’s the sort of thing that’d make you happy, go check it out.
I’m not entirely sure why, but I find nonsensical English and harmless typos pretty funny. Enjoy these finds from a restaurant menu in Dutchess County, New York.
It’s been a week of firsts for me. I’m writing this post from the comfort of my grandparents’ home in Florida. It’s the first time I’ve visited them since they moved down here many years ago. After finally working up the motivation to pay them a visit, to get myself down here, I took my first flight on an airplane!
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel when I finally took my first flight. Despite delays in taking off, the security theater of the TSA, and the trial of sitting in front of loud children, I absolutely loved the experience.
I starred out the window admiring the sky for about an hour before I felt the need to even think about doing anything else. During that hour, I would not stop smiling and laughing. After years of relegating myself to the Northeast, I finally gave myself permission to go on a vacation, and it started with an experience I couldn’t have imagined.
My description may sound ridiculous to veteran fliers. One day, I may take the rush of a takeoff, the subsequent arial sightseeing, and the warmth of the sun on my face for granted. That day isn’t today, and while I’m still excited about it, I’m capturing that joy. Perhaps years from now, this post will help me remember the novelty of what then seems mundane.
As I work hard to become skilled and savvy enough to permanently break out of the Northeast, I’m going to be able to do all sorts of things I wasn’t able to do as a child. This summer, I’m proud to say I’ll be interning at Apple in Cupertino, California — a longtime dream of mine. In conjunction with the daily excitement of running a successful business, I’m never bored and always reaching new heights.
Recently, in describing these circumstances to a friend I hadn’t seen in years, I got excited and let this slip:
Honestly, I couldn’t be any happier.
In the week and a half since I said that, I’ve been desperately searching for grounds to retract that statement. If I’m going to drop words like those, I really have to mean them.
Despite my best efforts, my search turned up empty. I’m in a great place right now, and I’d like to thank you for your help getting here.