Merry Christmas everyone! Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas today. I hope everyone has a good one, and just so you guys don't forget the really meaning of this wonder holiday, here is the Christmas story.

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

- Luke 2:1-20

Just in case anyone is interested, here is what I've received this year:

• White Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics pad (it's really awesome, and small so it can fit nicely in my Brenthaven MacBook case)
• True Power battery for my MacBook (it's currently charging at the moment, and is a nice match to the original MacBook battery)
• Griffin iMic
• PGR4
• Money for some fog lights for my truck
• a catalog to pick out a tool box for my truck
• and various gift cards for Starbucks and Sonic

Merry Christmas everyone!

netPong is an awesome little Pong app. But you are probably thinking, "why is 'net' in the name?" Well, with netPong you can automatically link up with a friend on your local network or play alone. However, the coolest feature is how you control your paddle. netPong uses the built in Sudden Motion Sensor in your MacBook or MacBook Pro. Simply tilt your MacBook (Pro) left or right to move the paddle. It takes a little getting used to, but once you get it down, it's awesome. As always, you can always find netPong on the Games page in Macish.

Senuti and VLC are both two great apps and both do totally different things. That's why I've added them to the media section of the Mac Apps. Senuti is a great little app for pulling music off of your iPod (or a friends;) and putting it on your Mac. VLC is one of the best media players available for any platform whether that be OS X, Linux, or even Windows.

I'm also trying out a new little Featured Links section in the sidebar of the blog. Basically it'll have have links to stuff on the site that has been recently updated or links to other sites that I think are pretty cool. Most of the links will stay up for about a week. It's just not going to work out the way I hoped.

I got a new LG Venus today. So far I am liking it. The bluetooth isn't crippled like most of Verizon's phones, so I can transfer pictures and videos to and fro and supposedly music as well, but the first time I tried it didn't see the song I added. So far I am enjoying it.

I apologize to anyone who does not want this little insight to my personal life, but I just have to get this out of my system, so be prepared when reading this I am in full on rant mode at this point in time. I HATE BEING THE TECH GUY!!! There, I said it, I hate being the tech guy. Everyone wants you to do crap for them and it just gets to be annoying as hell.

At my high school, the majority of the administration and even some of my teachers know that I am good with computers, and technology all around, therefore I'm always being asked to do crap for them. I was sucked into running MediaShout during chapel. And guess, what, I do run it and I really hate it for many reasons.

One reason I hate it is because I'm always being asked to do a three hour task in Photoshop about five minutes before chapel starts. I'd be fine with it if I could have know what they wanted done on Monday (chapel is on Wednesday), but when someone wants me to do something for them in Photoshop five minutes before the whole school piles into the gym it just pisses me off.

Another reason I hate being know as the tech guy at school is that the administration feels that it's just fine and dandy to pull me out of my study hall when i am happily reading comments on Slashdot to do a task that a trained frickin' monkey could do. For some reason there are only a select few that know how to pull a cart with a computer on it out of a closet, roll it to the other side of the gym, turn on a projector, press a button to put the screen down and plug the computer into the wall, and run a 100 foot VGA cable 3 feet. I guess I'm the tech guy and they feel that I should do this stuff, either that or the administration is just too darn lazy to learn how to do that.

A third reason I hate being the tech guy at school is that for some odd reason the administration (once again) feels it is just fine and dandy to ask me to attend an event so I can run the computer. I guess it's just soo hard to press the arrow key to advance a PowerPoint presentation or hit the space bar to go to the next cue in MediaShout that they have to have me do it.

Things may be a little different if my parents weren't paying through the nose for me to go to a private Christian high school. And things would definitely be different if I were being paid for doing what I do. Hell, even a simple "Thank you for all you've done Justin" would be nice to hear every now and then.

When I'm doing tech at church (usually running the sound board and getting the band all wired) it is just totally different. It feels that people have more respect for what I do there, and they know that if they didn't have me they couldn't get anything done.

I am sorry for anyone that read that and didn't need to know about my personal life, but I just had to get that rant out of my system.

I am the proud owner of the MacUpdate bundle that had a bunch of good apps in it worth over $650 for $50. A pretty good deal if you ask me, even if I'm not going to use all of those apps.

I've added a new section in Mac Apps called Deep Tweaking. The apps in the Deep Tweaking section offer extended personalization that would normally not be possible without feeling comfortable in Terminal. These apps can dramatically simplify tasks that would otherwise take some time to do.

Enabling the root user in Leopard is quite easy. Why you may want to run as root is quite beyond me as it is quite dangerous to do so. But, if you must, enable the root user account do the following:

1. Open Directory Utility located in Applications/Utilities.
2. Unlock Directory Utility by clicking the the lock icon and entering your password.
3. Once it's unlocked go Edit » Enable Root User and type in a password, make sure it is secure and memorable.

You have now enabled the root user account in Leopard. A word of caution: Do not use this account as your normal account. It is very dangerous to run as the root user. You can easily render your Mac inoperable if your are mucking about in the file system. This how-to will remain eternally* organized in the tips and tricks section of macish.

*or until I quit paying for hosting