Author: Lee Bennett
Long live Texas Instruments
In which I explain why I have never in my life needed to purchase a calculator.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Chips (and salsa)
In which I describe what I expect to be my very last experience at Moe’s restaurant.
A titillating tale of tech troubleshooting
In which I recount the tale of PDFs that come from Canva.com (no other source) not giving customers a proper preview when submitting their job for print.
Subway subscription silliness
Careful. Here comes my train of thought on restaurant subscription programs. Don’t get stuck on the tracks!
She called me her Mercedes Man
In which I attempt to wax eloquent about a dear woman who fell asleep on 2/2/22.
Content conundrum
There are some communication venues where certain kinds of information patently do not belong.
2020—your absence is required
In which I choose to not let an entire calendar year pass without a single post.
Thoughts on the 2019 Mac Pro pricing
What you think about the 2019 Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR pricing is probably dead wrong.
Isn’t It Ironic?
In which I add my two cents to the nebulous discussion on the actual definition of “irony.”
ALBj.net is 10 years old today
In celebration of ALBj.net’s 10th anniversary, I summarize my 20-year history of maintaining various personal web sites.
Star Trek II 35th Anniversary Movie Experience
The story written, but never used, for the Big Fat Geek Podcast about my experience with participating in a 35th anniversary viewing of Star Trek II, transformed into this blog post.
I suppose you could say ALBj.net is now at v2.5
Last April, I rolled out a whole new theme for this web site as part of its eighth anniversary. Today, although I’m just a bit less than two months away from the ninth anniversary,...
Help me choose a case color
Pictured above are all available colors of a Spigen case I plan to get for my matte black iPhone 7. Which do you think suits me best? (Color answers below match the cases in...
Thoughts on pronouncing GIF and JPEG
Before I get into the meat of this blog post, I wish to firmly establish something. I do not believe it makes any difference whether someone pronounces “GIF” with a hard or soft G....
Anniversary with a side of redesign
I’m celebrating ALBj.net’s eighth anniversary by rolling out a complete facelift of the site—something of an ALBj.net v2.0. Turns out I liked the theme I used for my new custom photo album site so...
Blog anniversary post
Today’s the 13th anniversary of my having maintained a blog site. Although I retired the original DTPbyLee site, started and retired SecondInitial, and am now using ALBj.net for blog posts only sporadically, this blog...
Mophie Juice Pack Plus seeks home
Having upgraded to an iPhone 6s and selling my 5s to Gazelle, I have a two-year-old (Product)RED-colored Mophie Juice Pack Plus that I no longer need. Fair disclosure—there’s a fair bit of cosmetic wear...
I ate an olive
Many of you who read this post will look at the title and not realize its significance. You probably eat olives all the time and are thinking, “So you ate an olive—big deal.” And...
Freebies you didn’t know you already had
This blog post is something of a how-to for doing something that may be a little unethical, so proceed duly warned. For obvious reasons, I won’t divulge exactly which iOS app I’m referring to....
Instaflash before and after
If you follow me on social media, you’re probably aware that Instaflash is, almost certainly, my very favorite iOS app. Every time the developer puts it on sale or, on rare occasion, gives it...
Safari best practices: shortcut your bookmark favorites
Although ATPM.com is no more, every once in a while I get a hankering to write something that would have been well suited to the late e-zine. That hankering hit me recently when a...
Forty-four
It didn’t happen when I turned 18. It didn’t happen when I turned 21. It wasn’t when I reached age 30, or even 40. Nope. It happened this week. This very week, leading up...
The number game
Let me describe a phenomenon I experience sporadically. I’m an avid user of Tweetbot on my iOS devices, although I heartily recommend Twitterrific to most of my friends and colleagues for its splendid interface....
Current thoughts on photography
This past weekend, I attended the 60th anniversary reunion for staff who have worked at Camp Kulaqua in High Springs (I worked one summer in 1989). With the help of my wife, I was...
Hard or soft?
Although I’m somewhat leery about doing so, I’ve decided to chime in my 2¢ about the hard-G/soft-G pronunciation debate for GIF files. But if you’re looking to either praise me or flame me for...
Blogging = typing
I realized something this week. The frequency at which I composed blog entries reduced rather significantly when I bought my first iPhone, and it reduced even more dramatically when I bought my iPad. The...
How to permanently solve privacy issues on Facebook et al
One can hardly go more than a few days without seeing someone post about doing this or that to protect your privacy online, or about some supposedly gross abuse of privacy. From my point...
My position on new Apple hardware
Since a few people have already inquired (assumed?) as to whether I’d be upgrading to the iPhone 5, I’m composing this boilerplate reply. No, I’m not planning on it, considering I don’t really have...
Twenty years
I have reached what I consider to be a rather significant milestone, especially when you consider the gauntlet through which the American economy has been. Today, I celebrate 20 years of working at the...
Printed QR codes vs. digital QR codes
Many who know me are fully aware of my disdain of QR codes. Yes, I can think of at least one use for them: embedding a lot of contact information into one, printed on...
Knowing when to quit
I’m breaking from a few months of silence on my blog to set my cannon sights on a few Social Media services and blasting them. Specifically, Gowalla, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I simply do not...
Meg has me pegged
Some time last year, my wife’s two daughters observed me retrieving a can of walnuts from a kitchen shelf. About 15-20 minutes later, I was presented with a piece of paper with drawings by...
Why you need to stop complaining about Facebook’s redesign (hint: it’s a big improvement)
Absolutely true story: an acquaintance of mine was in a water cooler conversation and overheard someone comment that Facebook had undergone a new round of changes. His immediate response: “I HATE when Facebook does...
The forecast: mostly cloudy
I am really excited about Apple’s new iCloud service, and insanely impressed that it’ll be free. It’s perfect for me because the ability to synchronize my calendars and contacts instantly across my devices is...
Constant conundrums
If you’re one to glance at cutesy sayings that float around social media, you’ve probably seen this one: All generalizations are false, including this one. It’s actually a very insightful statement. Each of us—myself...
Not all iPhone autocorrect stories are embarrassing
This morning, my wife texted a picture to me of her youngest daughter. It was adorable. I went to text back “awwww,” but the autocorrect feature on my iPhone wanted to change it to...
Companion Language
I’ll say right up front that I have an inclination to be politically correct in my actions and speech. I think it’s important to be sensitive to other people’s feelings and experiences. But I’ll...
Is Lee going to buy an iPad 2?
I’ll get asked this plenty of times, so I’ll just answer pre-emptively. I’m not saying I would turn it down if someone handed me one and said, “This is for you.” But for myself,...
Tyche is really far out
This afternoon, I caught a news item about a possible new giant planet orbiting our sun, and that the reason no one had ever really seen it before is because of how far away...
I Dreamed a Dream
I don’t commonly have dreams that are vivid enough for me to remember when I wake up, so I’m thinking from now on, when I do remember them, I want to describe them for...
Bright House needs to reverse one of the HD viewing modes
Bright House HD cable boxes have a button that toggles three viewing modes. Normal, zoom, and stretch. Zoom mode is helpful when a station broadcasting 4:3 shows widescreen content in letterboxed format. I can...
Stuff I’m Selling
I’ve got a number of items set up on Craigslist that I really need to unload soon because I’m trying to get my old condo cleared out and ready to rent. I’ve decided to...
How to convert Stroke masks to transparency in Adobe Illustrator
Make no mistake that I am not fond of my office’s current logo. However, I’m setting that fact aside for the purposes of this post. And permit me to warn you, the reader, that...
Fade to/from black on iMovie for iPhone
I’ve been asked once or twice how I pulled off a fade to or from black in the little videos I’ve edited with the iMovie for iPhone app since the app lacks the native...
Gift card tomfoolery
I have a theory and wonder if anyone knows anything about this. I’m sensing that gift card vendors are doing an end-run around the rules, and unfortunately what I think they’re doing is probably...
Understanding Ingredients
While at Subway for lunch yesterday, I noticed that there was a new flavor of Sun Chips: Monterey Jack and Sundried Tomato. I can’t help but to find this newcomer to be a bag...
Et tu, Blog?
This blog thing is quite the intriguing beast. I look at the prolificacy of posts on my two prior blogs (D.T.P. by Lee and Second Initial) and, in some ways, kind of miss doing...
The Agency
I’m sitting in a McDonald’s Playplace watching Meagan and Adrienne on their little adventures, and was informed that the Playplace is The Agency. The purpose of The Agency is to guard against fighting, and...
Lens repair saga
Earlier this year, the Nikon D90 owned by my office took a tumble off a shelf and traversed nearly three feet of air before greeting the floor. The only significant casualty appears to have...
AppZapper seems devious to me
Sometimes, you really just need to bite the bullet and admit the truth. Unfortunately, AppZapper isn’t going to do that. For many years, my practice has been to create a unique e-mail alias for...
Hey Subway—wanna make more money?
Dear Subway restaurants: you sell a product that is 99.999999% profit. You take a few pennies worth of herb leaves and sugar, dump them into several gallons of hot water, and sell this elixir...
Seven-year blogging anniversary
Today marks seven years since I posted my very first blog entry on dtpbylee.com. Even though I used and phased out both that blog and secondinitial.com, and I don’t frequently post here, the fact...
Eight years ago…
On 9/11/01, I was in Washington State visiting my brother, his wife, and nephew who had been born just five days earlier. My cell phone rang about 7:00am Pacific Time (more than an hour...
Six letters
Vowels by Christian Bök loveless vessels we vow solo love we see love solve loss else we see love sow woe selves we woo we lose losses we levee we owe we sell loose...
User registrations
That’s it. I’m disabling the ability for anyone to register for a user account on this blog. I doubt this will concern anyone since there have been only two others besides myself to sign...
Apple, please stop removing pre-existing functionality
I’ve just learned the heavy price we’re paying for the new functionality in the Snow Leopard variant of QuickTime. For all that was added, a lot was removed. Before I get into it, I’ll...
WordPress 2.8
WordPress’ auto-upgrade didn’t even require me to think. Once click and I’m now up to version 2.8. Sweet. Not entirely sure what all is new, though. Guess I ought to head over to the...
Iconfactory missed the point
The other day, I sent the following e-mail to support about Twitterrific 2.0 for iPhone: I seem to recall this bug in Twitterrific 1.x for iPhone, and then it was fixed, and now it’s back...
A soapbox moment about HTML (rich text) formatted e-mail
Someone is probably gonna try to rip me for having published this blog entry. Before you do, let me affirm solidly that this is an opinion and I’m not setting out on a crusade. I’m...
Gallery upgrade
My photo albums at http://photos.dtpbylee.com/ have been running under the aging Gallery version 1 web engine for several years, and I’m very much ready to make a change. A few weeks ago, I purchased...
WordPress 2.7.1
I just updated this WordPress installation to 2.7.1—finally. I was all prepared to carefully follow the instructions until I remembered that my web host uses Fantastico, so I decided to try it that way....
A soapbox moment about text messaging
I’m having a bit of cognitive dissonances about text messaging. I’m not adding anything the debate which has already been dragged through the coals. Just hammering out some thoughts, and ultimately explaining the facts...
A cool idea to help with Australia bushfire relief
***Addendum: As indicated in a the comment below, the actual sale hasn’t started yet. This entry will be updated again when it has.*** A friend and fellow ATPM colleague, Raena, sent an e-mail outlining...
Finally got the iPhone WordPress app working
There’s not much to this blog entry other than to confirm I finally figured out why I couldn’t make the WordPress iPhone app work. This entry is being typed from my iPhone and I...
Dealing with negative people
This is something to think about when negative people are doing their best to rain on your parade. So remember this story the next time someone who knows nothing, and cares less, tries to...
Celebrating six years of blogging
I meant to type this post much earlier today, but it was a busy day at work and I simply never got around to it. Today marked my 6th anniversary of blogging. Okay, you...
ZÜCA Pro mini review
http://www.zuca.com/zuca_pro/ Before I start talking about the case itself, I’ll share a brief tale. I ordered a ZÜCA Pro bag via Amazon.com in mid-December. Ace Photo Digital was to fulfill the order and the...
I’m at Macworld 2009!
As I type this entry, I’m sitting in the official media room for Macworld, located in Moscone South. Yes, that means that I was approved for a media registration and will be admitted to...
Did we really need a full press release on this?
ATPM friends Chris and Eric and I were discussing which is worse, the fact that someone wrote the app, or the fact that someone wrote a full-blown press release. Believe me, this is hilarious!...
Want some floppy disks?
I have old (and I mean OLD) software on Mac floppy that’s destined for the trash unless someone can recommend a good home. Seven disks that comprise Aldus (yes Aldus, not Adobe) Pagemaker 5.0 with a...
Bright House essentially removed features—not added
Bright House Networks has been performing firmware updates on all digital navigator cable boxes. The update happened to my box last Thursday. The only bits of good news I’ve discovered are: 1) settings that we...
Grammar quandary (your response welcome)
I welcome input on this. I have a photo caption (edited slightly to remove people’s names from this public post) that currently reads: John Doe participates in the latest health screening which includes measuring...
How will you use your spoon?
One of my friends sent this to me. Even though I am truly not in the habit of throwing around stories through e-mail and blog posts, I liked the message in this. Even if...
Why are logic board replacements always a source of grief?
Just what is it, anyway, with the times when you have to get a logic board in a computer replaced? Is it only an Apple Macintosh thing? Every single encounter I’ve had with the...
Delicious Library improvements forthcoming
Back in late May, I wrote to Delicious Monster the following: Good job with DL2. Two comments: *Please* consider putting the information pane back on the right side, or give the option to do so....
Feelin’ like some Chicago
The horror! Somehow, as I realized yesterday, neither my iTunes library nor my CD collection contains a single track of Chicago. Admittedly, I was never a huge follower, but there are many songs they...
This is only a test
I was diagnosing an issue where MarsEdit couldn’t interact with my new blog because of a server-level block on the xmlrpc file from outside sources. I found a recommendation to make an addition to...
Are you here yet?
I fully admit this is completely a vanity post. I am interested to get a sense of how many people deem my blog posts worthy to spend time following. And, just as importantly, how...
Checking out Twitpress
The overbearing reason that I’m still maintaining any kind of blog engine is for the occasional topic I want to type about that does not fit in a tweet. With that mentality, it stands...
Why the switch?
For someone who is usually happy with the status quo and resistant to change, it sure seems like I’ve migrated to new web sites and e-mail addresses a lot. Okay, maybe not as much...
ALBj.net’s First Entry
Maybe I should have been more insightful for this blog’s very first entry. But, the fact that it’s not is probably the best indicator of what’s to come. Most everything you’ll find posted to...