So I'm a shareware software developer, since I wrote a program last summer when I was unemployed that at least three people have paid me $5 for. It is a Gmail notifier for Mac OS X, much like the Windows 'Gmail Notifier' made available by Google. Since it had the same function but a different platform I gave it the same name - or, more accurately, 'Gmail Notifier for Mac OS X.'

At this point in history, most or all of the Mac Gmail notifiers were defunct or inoperable, and Google had not exactly thrown us Mac users a bone.

Until, that is, a couple months after mine hit the 'net. I got about ten emails that day saying 'uh hey, somebody stole your program's name, and you won't guess who it is.' Well, I knew who it was and I admit it was kind of an assy thing of me to bogart their name, so I don't begrudge them that. Their program had about the same feature set as mine, the main difference being that mine lives in the dock while theirs lives in the menu bar. Also the icons were different.

Ah yes, the icons. Funny, you don't really give icons much thought. Mine was kind of a weird ugly red 'mvelope' with your typical Mac OS X candy-coating:


Theirs was an admittedly better-executed blue mvelope, rotated slightly:


But today I got two emails saying, hey, how come Gmail Notifier is in my menu bar rather than the dock where I like it? And I said, ehm, it's always been in the dock; you're thinking of the Official Gmail Notifier, which is in the menu bar. And he said, no, I'm pretty sure this is yours, because it's got the same icon. So I grabbed a copy of the Official Gmail Notifier and holy shit:


What the Hell?!

Furthermore, they've confused a number of software-tracking websites who are now convinced that I am a Google developer and theirs is actually a continuation of mine - and confused those sites' users in the process. I had always planned to name the 1.0 release something else like 'Dave's Gmail Notifier' or something dumb like that, but I'm seriously considering renaming it 'The Google Asshats Can Suck It.'

- Z

This is the last week to vote. Every vote counts! [But please please please be sure to fill out at least thirty categories.]

Furthermore, be wary of certain unsavory establishments who would rather make a couple bucks than to give a hand to dying people. I think I've only ever been there once, and their drinks sucked as bad as the band they had playing, and my feet stuck to the floor. Also I hear the owner can only have an orgasm if he's kicking a puppy - but you didn't hear it from me.

- Z

If you are in on the Doc Platinum mythos, my userpic is self-explanatory. If you are not, do read on:

Doc Platinum was a very high-concept band for whom I was the drummer, on and off, from 1997 onwards [depending on whose accounts you're reading]. High-concept, in that we were international superstars before we could carry a tune. I know this happens with all garage bands, but keep in mind that all garage bands don't usually write their own fanfiction.

By consensus our #1 hit song was 'Chuckwagon,' and by that I mean, the only one anyone outside the band could listen to more than once. Chuckwagon was one of the very few songs that I wrote. I came up with this real ballsy guitar riff in Precalculus class one day but the only lyric I could make fit was the word 'chuckwagon,' and I think we all know where this is going so I'll just get on with the lyrics. We have a few recordings of it so posting an mp3 of it sometime in the future not entirely out of the question.

Chuckwagon
don't bogart these licks 'cause it's (c) 1997 Doc Platinum, beeyotch

['Jow' refers to the guitar. I am a drummer and am thus unconcerned with all your fancy 'chords.' Besides, getting the chords right is less important than the attitude with which you play the song - emote 'Richie Sambora joins the Scorpions.']

Verse 1
Jow jow jow jowww...
Jow ja jow - chuckwagon!
Jow ja jow - chuckwagon!
Jow ja jow - chuckwagon!
Jow ja jow - aaaaaahhh!

Bridge
Chuuuuuuckwaaaaaagoooooon - aaaaaahhh!
Chuuuuuuckwaaaaaagoooooon - aaaaaahhh!

Verse 2
[Continues in 4:4, but the backing vocals are in 3:4. Why not?]
Chuckwagon yeah! [Chuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagon!]
Chuckwagon yeah! [Chuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagon!]
Chuckwagon yeah! [Chuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagon!]
Chuckwagon yeah! [Chuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagonchuckwagon!]

[Then some damn fool* goes:] Everybody solo! [and everybody solos together, yet apart.]

[And then some damn fool** goes:] Second verse! Same as the first!

[Repeat ad nauseam. The song ends abruptly when some Philistine neighbors call the cops.]

- Z

_______________

• That would be me.
  
• That would be me, again.

Bridget asks on her Livejournal : what do you think about as you're drifting to sleep?

When I go to bed I find myself inventing solutions to invented problems. But not normal problems, oh no. I once spent two weeks of naptime deciding my answer to the question:

If this mattress were a piece of bread in a toaster, and these sheets were slices of cheese, which kind of cheese would be most comfortable once it melted?

I finally decided on baby Swiss, but I'm starting to think that maybe Gruyère was a better choice.

- Z

I admit to being on a huge Stevie Wonder kick right now. For the last two days I have cranked the factory stereo on my Toyota subcompact and dialed my iPod into 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered' on the way to work and 'Superstition' on the way home. These are the only two Stevie Wonder songs that I own, and they are both excellent for their respective commutes.

Yesterday I was on the phone with Apple tech support. Apparently there are two different levels of service according to how much you paid for your maintenance contract. Initially I had called Proletarian Tech Support where they read to you from the back pages of the user's manual and there is no on-hold music; when they determined I was apparently made of money I was transferred to Bourgeois Tech Support where they really know their shit and the on-hold music is .. oh yeah .. 'Higher Ground.'

Which, oddly enough, put me in a much better humor when the technician told me I would have to back up my terabyte of data and reformat our video server. Because let me tell you, if he laid that on me after making me listen to James Taylor I woulda reached right through the telephone and strangled him.

- Z