The Tony Blair You (Probably) Didn’t Know

From the September 2006 issue of Spin:

“…in [Tony Blair’s] early 20s he was a long-haired London rock promoter fond of fur coats and, as he put it, “the honeys.” Later, as a law student at St. John’s College, Oxford, he became the frontman for a band called the Ugly Rumours (after a hidden message on a Grateful Dead album sleave). A Mick Jagger fanatic, Blair would sweep onstage in elephant flares and a belly shirt, hand on hip, belting out the Rolling Stones’ ‘Live With Me’: ‘Don’tcha think there’s a place for you/In between the sheets?’…”

Basic Mac Apps

A friend of mine is the proud new owner of a MacBook. This friend is a PC user and wants me to give him a crash list of software he should snag for the MacBook. I thought the list would be useful to more than just him, and be relevant to my previous post on switching to a Mac.

These picks are aimed at an advanced user. Advanced means he’s not helpless like a lot of people somehow still are, but he’s no poweruser.

I assume you can use Google to find the latest and most appropriate version of the software, so I only list the app, it’s purpose, and any quick thoughts I have.

Handbrake: Great for backing up/ripping DVDs.

Max: I haven’t tried this yet, but will be using it for backing up/ripping CDs. Alternative is to find the LAME plug in for iTunes.

VLC: Best video app out there. Tons of codecs included.

Vienna: Fairly good and free RSS reader for Mac. One of the few RSS readers that doesn’t make me hate RSS.

Adium: Fantastic IM client. No video, though.

Firefox: If you don’t use, shame.

MailUnread: A plugin for Apple Mail that shows, in your menu bar, when you have new e-mail.

Widgets: Find Apple’s site and go through it and DL all the ones you want.

Menufela: Shareware I actually paid for. Autohides the menubar.

Flip4MacWMV: Play WMV on Macs.

There’s probably more but that’s what I found in a quick search.

Career Paths?

How do people get into a career of document forgery or document forgery analysis? And what about cartography? Is this a major at State U?

Note: This is both a question to the blogosphere and a reminder for me to look into these things.