Ever since the release of Leopard people have been taking the initiative to hack their Docks so that they were not using the same old dock that everyone else has been.  With the release of CandyBar 3 they have made it very easy to change the look & feel of your dock but it also allows you to change other system icons.  CandyBar 3 is not free however it has a $29 price tag.  With CandyBar you can download tons of icons and docks from the repository that they have created. Today I read about a program called Dock Library which I have not tried.  It looks like this is only for customizing your Dock so CandyBar has the upper hand with me so far.

In the same article that I found the link to Dock Library I also found a link to a site called Leopard Docks.  There are a ton of different docks for you to choose from.  You can use these docks in both applications that I have stated above.  In CandyBar you just click on the Change Dock Appearance tab and start dragging the images from finder into the appropriate spots in CandyBar.  Once you are done you can save the set as an iContainer to share with other CandyBar users.  I have created the iContainer for the Garden theme which you can download from here if you so choose.  I have to say that the best theme I have seen so far would be the Litho theme by Anthony Piraino.  You can grab Litho System from this page along with all of the extras which make it even nicer.

Leopard Docks has some nice Dock themes and Icon Factory has some nice themes to choose from.  The one thing I really wish was that there was a very large repository of full blown themes for Leopard.  Even if they were just images in a zip file I could create iContainers to use with CandyBar.  I would like to see a theme where the wallpaper, system icons, dock etc were all rolled into a theme that looked good together.  Anyone know of such a repository on the web?

Over the last few days I have had several kernel panics on OS X 10.5.2.  The only thing that has changed since this all started happening was a new job.  I have been working from home using the Cisco client for the first few days and all was going well.  I found it tedious to continuously enter my password into the Cisco client and it was recommended that I use a utility called Shimo which is a more feature rich front end for the Cisco backend.

All of these kernel panics started happening shortly after I started to use Shimo, I am wondering if it could be the cause?  Have any of you readers had this issue?  It seems to only happen sometimes and not every time I connect or disconnect.  It even happens after I have been connected for a while.  I think I will have to discontinue use of Shimo and go back to the Cisco client.  If this solves the kernel panics I will be sure to let you know. 

A few of the NYPHP mailing list members decided to create a new website for  rewarding achievement, strengthening relationships, and getting cool stuff.  The website is called Kerbeaz.com, the idea behind the site is very unique however it will require a lot of work on the users end to actually take-off.  The site is a place where you can go to set a goal.  The goal can be anything you wish from getting your homework done on time or learning to cook something new.

Once you setup the task and you become the performer the real work kicks in.  You have to find someone to sponsor that task.  Sponsoring the task means that when you accomplish the task they will reward you with points called Beazels.  Finding people to sponsor you might seem tough when you first think about it.  If you are a kid why not try to get your grandparents to sponsor you?  Maybe your parents?  If you are an adult maybe it’s time to talk to your boss maybe they could reward you for some things.  How about rewarding your students if you are a teacher?  The ideas on how this tool can be used are endless

Ok so you have built up a collection of Beazels now what do you do?  You can redeem them for cool stuff on the site, currently they have gift cards for several different vendors.  You might be asking why they only have a hand-full of gift cards to choose from and why they don’t offer anything other than gift cards.  Well give them time, they did just start the site recently.  Maybe in the future they will expand on their rewards.

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When you are working with remote data feeds it will definatly impact the load time of your site.  For instance if you are using multiple curl calls to reach out to Google and Yahoo to get search results and Google takes 1 second but Yahoo takes 3 seconds it takes your application 4 seconds to load.  Now this can add up very quickly if you are making several connections.  The load time for your site becomes the total load time of all sites you are reaching out to.

What about simultaneous requests?  Well this would make sense because the load time of your application would be as long as the call that takes the longest.  In the example above the load time would be 3 seconds as opposed to 4 seconds.

Stoyan Stefanov wrote a nice article with example code showing just how to accomplish thi.  I cannot wait to give it a shot and boost the performance of my apps.  Thanks for pointing this out Stoyan.

If you are a geek like me then you must have watched TechTV’s Call For Help.  This is where I first heard the name Chris Pirillo.  Chris has been known as a Windows expert and has helped a lot of people through the TV show.  On Valentines evening Chris posted an article that states 50 reasons to switch from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS X. 

One of his best points is the fact that the cost comparison for Mac vs. PC is about the same.

A Mac costs about the same as a comparable Windows PC - for hardware and (for argument’s sake for those who don’t believe me) bundled software. And for those who still claim that Macs are still more expensive, they obviously have never seen or priced a gaming rig. Price / cost is relative. If you want a cheap machine, that’s your prerogative. The resell value on Macs has always been higher than that of an equivalent “Windows” machine.



Everyone always seems to think that the Mac costs more and at one point I did too until I priced a PC with the same hardware as my mac pro. Granted you could opt for cheaper hardware but you will not get the same performance.

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Google revealed Wednsday that it has had 50 times more requests come from the iPhone than any other mobile handset.  When they first saw the figures they thought this can’t be right and had the engineers parse the logs again.  To their amazement it was correct.

This is nice to see as I plan on getting an iPhone in the future, I have just been waiting out all of the bugs to be found by those who could not wait to have the handset.  I am also hoping that you will be able to use the handset on any carrier and not only AT & T in the future.

I have seen and used the iPhone and must say that it is a great piece of hardware, very intuitive and works like a charm. 

As most of you know I broke my arm about a month ago.  Last week I had to have surgery because it was not healing properly.  Today I went in for my 1 week visit and had the splint removed.  My arm is so bruised it’s all yellow and even the palm of my hand is bruised.  All of this is par for the course according to the orthopedic surgeon I had (who reminds me of Doogie Howser) as he looks like he is in his late 20’s but is actually in his 30’s.  Anyway I have posted a picture at the tail end of this but I warn it is not for the faint hearted.  It is a picture of my incision so if you do not want to see it, do not click the read more link.

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