The latest addition to my Mac’s system folder is ProgramSwitcher, which adds a Windows-style process-switching palette to the Mac OS. Once you start using the key strokes command-tab to switch between running applications, you’re hooked.

My friend at Eshibui.com turned me on to TheFutureofSoftware.net, a site with an awful name but a smattering of decent “Expert Insights” on where software is headed. There are some big names there, including Alan Cooper and Bruce Tognazzini — though hardcore geeks may be disappointed by the lack of depth in these pieces. Worth a peek nevertheless.

I was sitting in my apartment working on my computer at two in the morning when I smelled smoke. When I went to trace its source, I discovered that some asshole had lit the trash can out in front of my building on fire. Here’s a picture that I snapped quickly. I swear, sometimes I have to really wonder why I live in New York City.

Wireless infrastructure player Seven got a great mention in The New York Times Magazine two weeks ago, in a fluff article about “inventing a brand name”. What’s more, their Web site is beautifully designed, making clever, pleasing usage of the eBoy style of pixel-happy illustration. And their logo is probably the best IT startup logo I’ve seen in recent memory. Tip of the hat to their communications team.

“The end result of adding XML throughout the Internet will be a change in Web infrastructure. We’ll put much more effort into maintaining and updating data and much less effort into presenting it…Tomorrow your computer, whether it is on your desk or your wrist, will directly query XML data sources to generate dynamically not the Web page as its authors want you to see it, but exactly the Web page you want to see. ”.
— Robert X. Cringley offers a primer on XML in his latest column, “Data, Know Thyself.”

In honor of the Easter Bunny’s special day, I thought it appropriate to point out the Easter Eggs site.

I’m working on becoming more quotable. Dropping pithy, semi-humorous observations seems to be one way to survive the selective amnesia of modern society.

The cable modem is here. Two Time Warner Road Runner service people visited me today. The first installed the physical cable modem and activated it. When he left, I managed to almost instantly get my PowerBook online. The second service person set me up with my user name, password and mail servers — a job so simple, I probably knew more about how to do it than he did. As soon as he left, I broke out my Linksys EtherFast Cable/DSL Router, and now I’ve got both my PowerBook and Sony VAIO up and running, sharing the one connection. Wheee!

Okay, so The National Review isn’t exactly a bastion of enlightened thinking. But just read Jonah Goldberg’s ridiculous column on the recent US/China infraction, which freely drops stereotypes like nobody’s business. I think it’s hilarious too that “America’s Premier Conservative Website” so shamelessly apes the look and feel of America’s most infamous liberal Web site, Salon.com.

If Microsoft added Macintosh functionality to their PocketPC line of PDAs, it’s almost a sure bet I’d make the switch from the steadily declining Palm OS platform. Despite all of my patience with their dimwitted take on serving their customers, Palm Computing’s Mac OS support continues to be abysmal. Their USB implementations are screwy and unpredictable and result in terrible synching performance — I’m fed up with the frustration of trying to get my Palm Vx to talk to my Power Macintosh G4. It’s all nearly enough to make me want to chuck in the whole PDA thing for a DayRunner.

Media Unbound is at the forefront of a new kind of personalization, according to Salon.com, but the traffic resulting from that article has their system maxed out. It sounds promising though: a recommendation engine that actually refers you to obscure music that you like and that you might not have heard about otherwise. Speaking of which, it’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve heard any new music that’s really gotten me excited.

This coming Friday, my excruciating exile from the land of home connectivity is scheduled to end when Time Warner Cable finally installs my cable modem. Knowing that broadband installations are fraught with mishaps and aborted attempts, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my expectations low. All the same, I ordered myself a Linksys BEFSR41 4-Port Etherfast Cable/DSL router a few days ago, and if everything goes well, I should have a nifty little home network by the weekend.

This is handy: eight rules to help you upgrade your coach air ticket to first class. Speaking of flying, the major airlines are gearing up Orbitz, a possibly-anti-competitive competitor to Expedia and Travelocity.

It’s possible to shoehorn just about anything into an ASP model. That includes brand asset management, I guess, as evidenced by Artmachine.

Developing Schemas for the Location of Common Web Objects” is a pretty enlightening bit of user research. Michael Bernard polled a group of novices (less than one year of Web experience) and experts (three or more years of Web experience) and asked them to indicate where on a blank Web page they would expect to find some common interface elements (or “Web objects”), e.g. home page link, internal links, search box etc. The diagrams are pretty telling.

I can explain my poor blogging habits of late. See, having just returned to New York City, I’ve spent most of my time looking for and moving into my new apartment. At this moment, you could say that’s all still in progress, and I’ve been preoccupied with loading up on housewares. It’s not just that, either. Until Time Warner Cable installs my cable modem next Friday, I’m also without Internet access from home. Believe me, it’s hard for me to explain exactly how I’m getting by.

The Internet consulting industry’s incredibly awkward puberty continues. Megabig advertising group Omnicom Group announced today that it will form a “holding company” with Pegasus Partners II L.P. in order to consolidate their fast-detriorating Internet properties. Which means they’re going to try and fuse together Agency.com Ltd., Organic Online and Razorfish — three major Internet consulting companies. Everyone duck.

Jeez, has it been over a week since I last posted already? Things have been crazy for me. I landed a new apartment in New York. The company I work for went through another round of excruciating layoffs. Whatever… I’m back.