Apple highlighted how in mid-2006 they eliminated CRT monitors, which each contain 3 pounds of lead, from their entire product line. In a rare candid moment, they expressed the intent to begin shipping computers with LED-backlit displays by the end of this year*. These will replace the fluorescent backlighting currently used, which requires the use of mercury. They also expressed the intent to remove arsenic (used to make the display glass smooth) and PVCs from their products by the end of 2008. Apple’s commitment to recycling was also discussed, including the 10% discount you get on a new iPod if you bring back your old one to be safely disposed of.

Apple has called out the other computer makers by showing how it has already done more and by adopting more aggressive timelines for future progress. If this open letter provokes as much discussion and action as the previous letter on DRM did, then I expect we will soon see responses from all across the industry.

*As a side note: I believe that all home and industrial lighting is (eventually) going to be provided by LED’s. They are cheap, use almost no power, and do not contain any toxic chemicals. Unfortunately, their light output is small compared to traditional incandescents and fluorescents, but researchers are working on this.

When I think about this more, it makes sense. The Macintosh is not the platform of choice for hardware designers, who are probably using UNIX or Linux. The VHDL simulation software that we use in school only runs on Windows, but there are some command-line simulation tools such as GHDL that have been ported to run on Mac OS X.

I’m considering writing my own bundle, which would be a good excuse to buy that new TextMate book that I’ve been wanting. Syntax highlighting and commonly used snippets/declarations would be the main priority, followed in the future by GHDL integration. Of course, I would add the bundle to the Macromates SVN repository once it was in a useful state.

If you got here from Google, what functionality would you like to see in a TextMate VHDL bundle?

I kept putting it off, however, and it wasn’t until today that I realized that I was so worried about not getting a job there that I hadn’t done anything to try to get the job. The same thing happened to me earlier this year. I really wanted to work for the Admissions Office at school as a tour guide, but I was quite nervous about what I had heard was a grueling application process. Yes, the process was awful, especially during final exams, but I came away from it more experienced with interviews and public speaking, and I got the job.

I’ve never been a person to give up on great opportunities just because there is risk of failure. However, I have had such a string of successes in my life, most recently with scholarships and college applications, that I feel like at some point I’m going to lose out on a big one. But this is no reason to stop trying.

There are so many reasons I want to work at Apple, first and foremost because I love their products, but also because I want a new experience. I’ve been in Burlington the past two summers working at IBM, and I want a chance to explore California and meet some new people.

So let me announce it publicly. (deep breath) I’m applying for an internship at Apple this summer. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve been using iTunesVolume for a few days now and it works well, always changing the artwork within seconds of changing tracks on iTunes. The display preferences are numerous – the three components can made transparent and not all of them need to be shown. I only have the volume controller and the artwork running, as seen in the screen capture below:

One caveat: activity monitor shows that this program seems to utilize the CPU more than it should. I didn’t notice any significant speed issues while I was using it, but bear that in mind if your Mac seems slower after installing it.

The author’s website is currently down due to overusage of bandwidth, but the program can be downloaded at this mirror until the site is fixed.

P.S. Jokes relating to Coldplay and The 40-Year Old Virgin will not be appreciated

Choose the year you want to review from the source list. The years are found under “Library” which should be the first item on the list. After adjusting the pictures to an appropriate size using the slider in the lower right hand corner, click on the scroll button and drag it at any speed down the scroll bar. As you do this, the months of the year will overlay the photos so that you can see everything that happened that month. You will only see the overlay if you are using iLife ‘06.

Last year brought me my 19th birthday, many track meets, my 5th Vermont City Marathon relay team, jaw surgery, my first lobster, a Dave Matthews Band roadtrip, a week of camping in Deering, New Hampshire, many visits to friends and family, a Ben Folds Concert, and a fine Christmas. I hope 2006 was good to you as well.

Enable Fullscreen: This tip comes from Macworld. The easiest way to get fullscreen in QuickTime without buying the Pro version is with a simple AppleScript. Open up Script Editor, located at /Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app, and copy and paste these next few lines into a new script.

tell application "QuickTime Player"
present front movie scale screen
end tell

Save the script as an application (File Format: application), and put it in your applications folder. Now, whenever you are watching a movie in QuickTime, simply run this application to have the movie appear fullscreen.

Fullscreen Preferences: First, find your Quicktime Player preferences file. It is located in the Library/Preferences directory of your home folder, and it is called com.apple.quicktimeplayer.plist. The .plist extension may or may not show up in the Finder. Then, open it using Apple’s Property List Editor. To do this, you must have the developer tools installed. If you do not have the developer tools installed, you can edit this file with a simple text editor, such as TextEdit, but be careful of what you change!

Here we notice, after expanding the root node, that there are a number of preferences with the prefix “Fullscreen.” These preferences are not available through the GUI to users without Quicktime Pro. The preference we are most interested in is FullscreenPreferenceScreenNumber. This may have a very large value, but you should be able to change it to 1 or 2 to enable either your main or auxiliary monitor. Those on a text editor, change the value between the <integer> and </integer> tags under the line <key>FullscreenPreferenceScreenNumber</key>. Save the file, and reopen QuickTime.

This step is important: Drag the movie window to the monitor on which you want it to play in fullscreen. Then run the fullscreen script. If the monitor on which the movie is played in fullscreen is not the right one, try running the script a few more times. If this doesn’t work, you can try experimenting with the value of the preference. Each time you change it, you must reopen QuickTime. If anything does go horribly wrong, just delete the preference file and QuickTime will make a new one for you the next time it is opened.

There are other preferences that can be experimented with:

• FullscreenPreferenceEnableHUD – determines whether the movie controls show up in Fullscreen
• FullscreenPreferenceHUDFadeOutTime – determines how long before the movie controls fade out
• FullscreenPreferenceCaptureAllDisplays – determines whether the background color (usually black) is displayed on every display

Feel free to experiment with the other preferences. Always make sure to restart QuickTime Player after any changes are made, and if anything goes wrong, just delete the preference file. I cannot be held responsible if you manage to irreversibly alter your system (but I can’t imagine an instance in which that would happen).

I can’t really believe that I just paid for a browser, as I’ve never done that before in my life, but OmniWeb so impressed me that I bought it within the first five minutes of using it. The feature list is extensive – live previews of tabs, multiple workspaces, ability to set viewing preferences by site, an integrated HTML editor/viewer of sorts, and an absolutely gorgeous interface. Its also extremely intuitive; every button is exactly where you’d expect it to be. Don’t pass this one up!