April 2009

Since my usual M.O. is to mention all of the bundles of Mac software I am aware of, I guess it is high time that I mention this one. For anyone I haven’t contacted directly or who saw over Twitter, there is a new MacHeist bundle available. The third annual in fact, and unlike most or all of the others, MacHeist donates a portion of the sales to charity. In this case, 25% of the sales, and so far over $400,000 has been raised. The trick to the bundle is that the more they sell, the more extra software becomes available. And periodically throughout the life of the promotion, they will add additional apps to maintain interest.

So if you haven’t, you have a little less than 2 days to head over and pick up $800+ worth of software for only $39. You would spend that at one nice meal out. And almost $10 goes to charity (you can choose which from a list, or split it evenly).

I will admit that some of the apps in that list won’t appeal to everyone. There is a $300 3D animation application for example. There is also an app which is used with iPhones and iPod touches, so if you don’t have one and have no intention, then that isn’t useful. Likewise for iSale, the eBay application.

However, if you haven’t purchased a bundle before, this might be a good time to start. There are a couple of great apps for editing photos (something that most people find themselves needing to do). There is also a program call SousChef, which is used to organize and share recipes. Or more important for people like me with no culinary experience, you can search and download recipes from a large, growing collection online. And it will generate a shopping list for you.

There are also a couple of games included, such as the surprisingly fun and addicting World of Goo. However, perhaps my favourite application that I’ve had a chance to try out is Times. This one was just added as a bonus application just yesterday. Simply put, it is a news reader. Not that there aren’t other options, even free ones, available, but this one strikes a balance between function and fun and ends up with a fantastic result. This is one which I will continue to use. Basically, instead of an email like interface of feeds and headlines and a display pane, Times looks and behaves like a newspaper. Really it needs to be seen for full effect, so check out the screen shots, or better yet, own it yourself when you buy the bundle.

But hurry, there isn’t much time left.

Last night was the first practice of the Bermuda Rookie league baseball team that I am assistant coaching. It is the 6 to 9 age range and so can be quite an interesting and rewarding experience. I learned (or was reminded of) a couple of things in the process.

The first is that it has been a long time since I last coached baseball. I was trying to think of when it was and it was definitely at least ten years ago, maybe more like twelve or thirteen. I certainly wasn’t much older than the players at the time and was really just assistant coaching with my father. I also trained and received my umpire certification around that time as well. And I’ve come a long way in forgetting as many of those rules and techniques as I possibly could have. Or so I thought, but last night I was pleasantly surprised when much of it started coming back when I got back on the field.

Young children everywhere are very similar. At least the ones who are likely to sign up for a baseball league. Full of energy (way more than I have, or maybe ever had) which in turn translates into a loss of focus. Not all kids are like this, I wasn’t for example, but some of the kids on my team are and it is a double edged sword. Lots of energy can mean good hustle, good base running and even good fielding. On the other hand, lots of energy can mean distraction, bad base running and bad fielding. It really depends on how that energy is manifested.

And perhaps most telling for me, is that I definitely need to get out an do more on a regular basis. I really enjoyed the evening practice and hopefully the games will be the same. I do need to get a hold of some baseball clothes, as I really don’t have much that is appropriate for the ball diamond. And hopefully, after my brothers visit in May, I will have my own glove again. I will let you know how the season goes.