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Christmas Decor for Macs
Note Pad 2.6 Query
Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals
Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals - Rodney Lain
Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals - other factors
Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals - Oregon




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Christmas Decor for Macs

From Cathy

Hi Charles,

I seem to remember you writing something last year about what's available in the way of Christmas desktops and screensavers for the Mac operating system and wondered if you're going to be doing something similar this holiday season. At Christmastime last year, I hadn't yet switched to Mac. I had a Windows laptop and I found a gorgeous screensaver of a 3-D Christmas tree whose lights twinkled as snow built up on the branches and the scene moved around the tree. It was created by http://www.3dfairytale.com , but it apparently is only available for Windows; there's no Mac support.

Do you know of any company that offers a similar kind of screensaver for the Mac?

Thanks,
Cathy

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Hi Cathy;

Yes indeed, I posted the first installment of the "Festive Mac 2007" series on Tuesday, covering Advent calendars.

Hey, those are really cool screensaver. Too bad they're Windows-only.

I don't know of any exactly similar for the Mac, but there are Mac Christmas screensavers, and I'll slot that article for next topic covered in the series, going up today.

It's also possible to combine "snow" utilities with a Christmas screensaver or wallpaper for a nice effect.

Charles

Note Pad 2.6 Query

From Dorothy

I read your description of the newer Note Pad for OS X. I had the old one and used it in OS X, but lost a lot when installing Leopard. I downloaded 2.6d and don't know where to put it. Does it go in the Application folder? In the library folder?? I also can't seem to get the info from my old 2.5 version. I unfortunately put lots of important info on it. I have it in an external disk, but it won't import using the new Note Pad 2.6d.

Can you help me?

thank you.

Dorothy

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Hi Dorothy;

I hope so. I had still been using version 2.5 myself, and it seems to work fine with Leopard on my PowerBook.

I keep the application in my Applications Folder, althoug you can par it anywhere convenient on your hard drive (I would keep it out of the Library Folder).

Speaking of which, your NotePad data is stored in a file in your Home Folder>Library>Preferences in a file called:

NotePadData.ntp

I'm not sure why the newer version of NotePad is not detecting the old data file. Since receiving your note, I installed version 2.6b2, and it recognizes the existing data file just fine. Make sure that the NotePadData.ntp file is in the Preferences folder in your Home Folder Library on the drive you;re booted from. You can just drag it in from wherever it's stored elsewhere. You'll need to quit and restart the program after moving it.

Charles






Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals

From skribbler

Charlie! I always thought you were a middle of the road guy, at the very least, or maybe a leftie, like me (and hence sensible, correct-thinking, reasonable etc., etc.).

You know, this argument that Macs are Liberals' computers is just silly. This country (the USA, now) has become so polarized and, yes, hateful in its political expression that we eat Freedom Fries and abhor people who think differently from us. I can remember a time when I respected conservatives and Republicans... but then, I can remember a time when I respected Democrats, too, but I can't respect them any longer because they appease all those right wing nuts...

You see? It's so easy to divide people into 'us' and 'them'. The Mac issue is the same thing. Because I use a Mac, it must espouse all of my beliefs and concerns. But really, it's just a good computer.

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Yo, skribbler;

Sorry if the revelation of my political persuasion is a shock.

I'm a conservative from way back, ie: predating "neo-conservatism" - a paleo-conservative if you will. A new acquaintance, who fancied himself something of a leftie back in the day once observed: "Now I've seen everything; a fascist hippie!" (I hasten to emphasize that I have never been a fascist, but such was the rhetorical excess of that particular era).

He didn't hold it against me, we subsequently shared a couple of apartments, and I was the Best Man at his wedding. We're still friends, and these days he's a conservative too. There is progress.....

I'm also a orthodox traditionalist Christian, so I guess that makes me a member of the "religious right," a categorization that I don't disavow.

What you and I do agree on is that the Mac is not a political symbol, but just a good computer.

Charles






Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals - Rodney Lain

From Robert Eye

Charles,

Thanks for the article. Most of the Mac folks I know in the area lean more conservative, though all parts of the spectrum seem to be covered to some degree. We usually seem to get along - usually by not talking politics.

And thanks for mentioning Rodney. I always liked his writings (on Apple and other things), even when I disagreed with him (which was not often), and I was very saddened by his death. I was just thinking about him the other day, as a matter of fact.

Keep up the fine work.

Regards,
Eye

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Hi Robert;

Thanks for your note.

Yes, I can get along famously with some liberals (I really do have a lot of liberal friends) so long as we steer clear of politics. The old rule of no politics or religion at the dinner table is probably a good one to follow (after grace is properly said, of course ).

Rodney Lain and I corresponded and debated a fair bit both on and off the Websites. We agreed on quite a bit, disagreed on some things. had similar tastes in computers, and both bought G4 Cubes. I was terribly shocked and saddened to hear of his death.

If you'd like to check out one of our last public exchanges, from April, 1991, see Rodney's "Weaning you off the Kool-Aid (tm): Fallacies of Christianity... and the Mac religion" here:
http://www.applelinks.com/macspirit/koolaid.shtml

and my "Testimony And Credo A reply to Rodney O. Lain" here:
http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/credo.shtml

Reviewing it, I wouldn't change anything substantial in my piece, but in respect of the mode of Rodney's passing, one of the points debated is very poignant.

Charles






Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals - other factors

From Jim Steward

Thanks for the alternate view and for mentioning the other factors that might be contributing. That's what responsible journalists are supposed to do and we don't get much of that theses days.

I too, match your description in both the political and religious areas. I came out of a printing and publishing background and the Mac was just the best fit for what I wanted to do. I've been a Mac fanboy since about 1987 and have never looked back.

I read the PC help columns in the newspaper and just shake my head at some of the hoops that PC users have to go through just to function at all and I'm amazed that they put up with it at all.

Great article.

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Hi Jim;

Glad you enjoyed the article. We seem to be on pretty much the same page across the board.

Yes, the Mac is a superb tool for getting stuff done efficiently and elegantly, and I too am mystified at how people put up with using Windows machines. The malware issue alone would be a deal-breaker for me.

Charles






Not All Mac-Heads Are Liberals - Oregon

From Ben;

My mom has a Mac and she is conservative. But the idea of what is conservative and liberal in America is odd at some points. Like the idea that unborn children should be saved but that it is ok to experiment on animals is bizarre. I can speak for Oregon and we do have an unusual number of schools here, but the bigger reason is that we are fiercely independent like we try to be ahead of other states in everything. Another reason is that we have a chain of Mac stores in most major cities in Oregon and Oregon is very strong in small businesses.

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Hi Ben;

In the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, there certainly has been a muddling of liberal/conservative terminology. In the contemporary North American political and economic context, both nominally "conservative" and nominally "liberal" beliefs are somewhat adulterated downstream products of the post-Enlightenment liberal ethos. While they disagree on a number of important nuances, neo-conservatives and neo-liberals share in common the essentially liberal notions that individual self-interest, material comfort and acquisition, and economic growth are the correct and self-sufficient ends of human endeavour. Both place their faith in science, technology, and industrial prosperity as the satisfactory means to achieving these ends. Their biggest disagreement is over who or what will be in control of the social agenda.

The late Canadian conservative philosopher George Grant observed that: "Americans who call themselves conservatives have the right to that title only in a particular sense. In fact they are old-fashioned liberals... Their concentration on freedom from governmental interference has more to do with 19th century liberalism than with traditional conservatism, which asserts the right of the community to restrain freedom in the name of common good."

As for your point about "the idea that unborn children should be saved but that it is ok to experiment on animals," Christianity, and for that matter Islam and Judaism as well, are all anthropocentric religions, maintaining that the essence of our humanity does not derive from a common evolutionary process with the creatures we share our biological essence with, but that humans are uniquely cast in the image and likeness of the Creator, possessing an immortal soul that other animals do not, so human life has intrinsically greater value than animal life. That doesn't excuse cruelty or callousness, but it does make a degree of exploitation of animal life for, say, medical research, or for food, morally and ethically acceptable and even commendable.

Charles




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Charles W. Moore


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