Twitterific is a great little Twitter client for Mac OS X. I use it for most of the day, almost all day. It makes my one-man-office here at Macrobyte feel a bit like I'm working in a big room full of friends and other developers.

The software is free if you don't mind seeing an ad once an hour. They show up in the same space as the "tweets" and can be skipped or ignored very easily. If you don't like the ads, you can register the software for $15. It's a good deal all around.

Some idiot unhappy person, however, has posted a hack that strips out the ads. People who use this hack are stealing money from the Icon Factory: they didn't pay for the software, and they're not showing the ads.

In response, I just registered my copy. They now have my $15.

The idiot gentleman who posted the hack is defending himself, as if he didn't do anything wrong. Here's how we (all Twitterific users, especially software developers) should respond:

1. Register your copy of Twitterific for $15
2. Post a note somewhere to let everybody know you've just registered your copy. (I put mine here, but that was probably overkill.)
3. Post something on your own weblog. Either point here, or reproduce something like these instructions.

Let's see if we can drum up at least a few hundred registrations for them, to show our support. Turn the idiot's bad behavior into something good for the Icon Factory.

Update 1: Some people think the hack never worked, and that it's just link bait for the idiot. Would be great if that's true, but it lets the air out of this particular challenge. ::shrug:: Oh well. At least our friends at the Icon Factory have seen that we will stand up for them. :-)

Update 2: He's definitely a nut. Some people report the hack never worked anyway. Others say it did.

Update 3 (final?): Sheesh, he's a scary nut. With a banana. Now I'm sorry I called him an idiot. Wouldn't have done that if I had known.

Update 4: Here's a MUCH SHORTER version of this story/challenge. Funny!

An Entirely Other Day - Wide vs. Deep

So here’s my theory: Managers must work shallow and wide, while programmers must work narrow and deep. People who are naturally tuned to one particular method of work will not only enjoy their jobs a lot more, but be better at them. I’m a deep guy, I should be doing deep work.

This article and his theory remind me of something (er, someone) which seems to be completely unrelated: Michael Jordan. When he retired from the Bulls for the first time (shortly after his Dad died) to see if he could play Major League Baseball, he found it very difficult to hit those legendary pitches.

What's the connection? The pitching coach (of either the White Sox or the AA team where he played... the Barons?) said his problem was one of focus. When you play basketball, you have to be aware of everything going on around you all the time. Peripheral vision is key. When you're trying to hit a 90-mile-per-hour baseball, you need absolute tunnel vision, total focus on that one task.

That's the difference between managing and programming.

Like the author of "Wide vs. Deep," I've done both and I prefer programming. (Managing my crew at Macrobyte during its heyday was fine, but I'm referring to my time at RR Donnelley in the mid-90's.)

(Thanks to DF for the original link.)

Today was supposed to be my "birthday century". Couldn't do it Sunday, but today should have worked out perfectly.

Unfortunately, I'm behind on work (mostly due to this stuff). I know I *could* take the day off anyway, but I felt guilty about it last night. By the time I went to bed, I'd made the decision to put it off for next week. Probably Monday.

It's too bad, because the weather today is going to be perfect for a long ride. Now, I'm not sure that any weather is good enough to make 135 miles (century plus my age) an easy ride, other than a really strong tail wind that follows me through the whole course, but 74°, sunny, with almost no wind and 50% humidity is really the best I could ever hope for.

I'll ride today, but it'll be just a regular 50.

The first PMC Software Auction is FINALLY live!

There are twenty-one apps in the bundle (a few more than I listed last night). Very low opening price, and the reserve is a lot less than I'm hoping for, too.

It's hard to say for sure, but I would guess that this bundle would appeal to anyone who runs their own small business. Self-employed "contract" workers (people like me, for example).

As a reminder: all of these apps (and over 100 more) were donated by their authors for these auction. There's some award winning software in there, and lots of just generally-useful stuff.

As this is for charity, I tried to find a balance between promoting the bundle (on eBay) and saving money. The more I save, the more will go to the PMC. But if it doesn't sell for a good price, that will have been a mistake.

Psst. Spread the Word. Pass It Around

So, I need your help (dear reader). Please tell everybody about these auctions. You could send them to my home page, or to this weblog which only talks about the auctions (and will list each of them as they go live). If you use NetNewWire or GoogleReader, you could even subscribe to the news feed (RSS) for the auctions blog. Update: Send them here, please.

Now that the first one is up, it will be a lot easier for me to do the rest. I plan to run 3-4 auctions at once, with different software in each auction. The successful auctions will be repeated.

This will only work if people find out about it. If I have to put money into promoting the auctions, the charity gets less.

Steve Jobs wrote an essay about why he thinks the music industry should drop DRM (the 'feature' that prevents you from using music you've purchased at the iTunes music store on more than a few machines).

This greedy clown at Macrovision, Fred Amoroso, responded.

John Gruber translated Macrovision's response from “PR speak" to English. John's a funny guy.

Now Pudge, on /., has translated John's story from "Pundit-speak" to English. It's funny enough to have me laughing out loud most of the way through it.

Macrovision has been in the content protection industry for more than 20 years, working closely with content owners of many types, including the major Hollywood studios, to help navigate the transition from physical to digital distribution.

We've been helping and encouraging the entertainment industry to annoy its paying customers for more than 20 years.

I have an amazing power to state the obvious.

Very funny stuff. I'm glad that John linked to it himself, too.

(There's a lot more if you follow the link, that quote is just one part.)