Tommy Peters' Bicycles

Tommy's iMac drive cluster (Click on image for larger view) Following an earlier post , allow me to explain the cluster of icons, which represent the drives, on my iMac's desktop (if necessary, click on the image for a larger view):- The Guitar icon is a Western Digital Studio holding a terabyte of iTunes data through a FireWire 800. iTunes is the 'brain' of the Mac Experience and therefore, the icon is appropriately placed at the centre of the apple. The Umbrella is a Western Digital Home and a clone of the Studio, wired through a FireWire 400 running a SmartUpdate schedule in real-time by SuperDuper. Being a backup drive, the U mbrella was purposefully chosen and placed, suggesting support, at the bottom of the Guitar. The Leopard is the iMac’s hardrive, chosen to represent the operating system and appropriately placed as if the animal is entering into the apple through its bitten part . The wireless Time Capsule appears behind the Leopard from ti...

Fatimid 'Hubal' pendant Preamble: Civilians have no business, let alone capacity, debating a programmed Juramentado. None. They have capacity for reason, commonsense and perhaps, points of law. The Allah issue in Malaysia is simmering and Juramentado is poised at the blocks. Stage 1 - A period (of centuries apparently) when the term was not an issue. Stage 2 - The Executive Order banning the term. Stage 3 - The Judicial Application to set aside the Executive Order. Stage 4 - The Judicial Order upholding the Executive Order. Stage 5 - The Appeal setting aside the Judicial Order, allowing use of the term. At what stage did Juramentado go postal? Five stages are in the equation but on hindsight, identifying the stage it charged is now academic. It gunned off the blocks at Stage 2 while most believe Stage 5 invoked its frenzy. To identify triggers, one must study its environment, ideology and text suffused in its tabula rasa . Embracing...

Finished workflow (click on image for larger view) Automator is a Mac application. As the name implies, it ‘automates’ a given task via pre-set workflows. There are enough workflows in the Automator Library to piece a given task. Text To Audio is one. It involves four individual workflows that starts with ‘Get Contents of Clipboard’ and ends with ‘Add Songs To (iTunes) Playlist’. A fifth action saves the program as a Script or Application. A student asked me to piece a Text To Audio workflow to deal with her ‘dead time’ in traffic. Her objective was to ‘hear’ her assignments rather than ‘read’ them. The screen-cast depicts the evolution of the workflow saved as a Script, which runs from the Finder bar. A workflow saved as an Application runs just as effectively from the dock. The second part of the screen-cast is the Speech converted from this blog post. Alex, the Mac’s digital commentator, is the presenter. Cheers, Tommy Credits: Ben Waldie is the author of...

compassionate • methodological • carefree "The courage of this amazing girl reflects the courage of her father and loving family" A reason I write is to craft logical narratives based on logical foundations. I assemble evidence and seek opinion. Much alike living from day to day - so I thought. Tayalan rang. I was, as always, upbeat at the prospect of engaging my dear friend - until he mentioned his daughter. A drive to the sea-front over Christmas brought life into perspective. From the awe of nature, I sought an answer - a 'teaching moment' . I was downcast, just thinking of her and the 'cracking' of her father's heart. When I met her yesterday, she was exactly as she was several years ago, notwithstanding the transcendent moment of her life. Kisha is still a happy little thing, despite the pain she obviously bears. In masking her grief, she applies the Talmudic concept to the letter. Her loving father is in the process of crafti...

Click on image for a larger view I asked Mollie, a dear friend, of the movie that had the biggest impact on her. She replied ‘ The Killing Fields’ . It was an emotional experience, she said. I asked her if she heard of Roland Joffe or Bruce Robinson, she said ‘no’ . I said, then Joffe and Robinson did what they intended to - primarily to evoke her emotions rather than be recognized, because if they were at the popcorn stall outside the cinema hall, she probably would have by-passed them. Joffe directed the blockbuster and Robinson wrote the script. In essence, they were instrumental in her emotional experience. Ever since the launch of Delicious Library last year, this amazing Mac program has been winning awards and receiving rave reviews and accolades, but scant mention is made of William Jon Shipley, the creative genius behind the software. Recently, I introduced it to a couple of friends and they have been sloshing with it since, extolling its features every chance they get....

Kseniya Simonova, Ukrainian sand artist, exposes Hitler, during the coward's brutal occupation of Ukraine. Watch her as she touches the psyche of her audience. As an aside, the young lady underscores the distinction between 'popularity' and ' significance', the latter a diminishing component in the contemporary art world. Cheers, Tommy "Dear Tom, Mollie and Lesley will appreciate this video - It's in their ballpark" - Jan Peters Video (from Yahoo) is used without permission. Image: markhumphrys.com

Preamble: This post is lengthy. I apologize. Two analogies • three questions • two deductions • The general science is that Windows users are a 'Tolerating' bunch for accepting malware-ridden platforms from the maker willingly. I suggest they are not 'Tolerating' anything, but doing quite well in an all-encompassing religion. I suggest the Windows user is the proverbial fundamentalist applying quirks of his doctrine to full effect, and that his form and practice, deemed awkward and at times hilarious, appear quite normal to him. He is numbed into treating the issue of malware-breach as a 'sidebar' rather than an 'emergency' . I suggest he is at peace with his platform. Analogy. Two houses are on the market. Both models bear common features of a typical home, but one has a major flaw. Its foundation is not termite-treated. The other model is sound and comes with a termite-proof guarantee. Question! Why do majority of home owners prefer the termit...