Here's the (Macintosh) software I purchased in 2008:

1) Adobe CS3 Master Collection. (I bought this with the educational discount). I was originally going to buy just the web developer pack, but decided I might as well spend a little more and get everything. Big waste of money. Soundbooth (soemthing I was interested in) has almost no features. Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Photoshop are the only apps I've used (primarily Fireworks). The UI is slow, painful, and non-standard -- not entirely their fault -- these are basically applications designed before OS X. On second thought, if you're charging $2500 or more, it is your fault. Adobe: you suck. Shit or get off the can.

2) Coda. Coda looks and feels like Apple's take on Dreamweaver. It lacks some of the features, but not enough for me to stop using Dreamweaver completely. If they did a Fireworks-type app I'd never use Adobe again.

3) SubEthaEdit. A nice little text editor (used by Coda). It's designed for real-time collaborative editing over the internet, though I haven't tried that. For some reason, it feels a little bit nicer than TextWrangler, though I don't know why.

4) Versions. A subversion browser. It's a little pricey (IMO), and yes, I know all the cool kids have switched to git. However, I still use svn for my repositories. Using a gui is easier (and more accurate) than typing out full pathnames, for tagging, etc.

5) Tax Cut 2007. Almost forgot about that, since I use it for a week and hopefully never again.

Don Reisinger opines on his cnet blog that Google should consider killing youtube.. Why? They overpaid, it costs a lot to run, produces virtually no revenue, attracts lawsuits, and the eyeballs/content can't be converted to cash. Google hasn't put a whole lot of effort to improving youtube, either.

Wired is reporting that Linux programmer/convicted murderer Hans Reiser may now admit to murdering (and revealing her location) his wife in exchange for a second degree murder charge, which would make him eligible for parole in 2023 or so. I wonder if they'd overlook his perjury.

Keyboards seem to be the sort of thing many slashdotters are over emotional about (and why not? You do spend a significant amount of time using one). I'm in the market for a new keyboard (for a Mac, but I can scrape off the window key). On the mac side, the best keyboard seems to be either a Apple Extended Keyboard (or II) plus an ADB/USB adapter or a Matias tactile pro.

On the other side, Unicomp makes buckling spring (IBM Model M) USB keyboards, and Das Keyboard is supposed to be fairly high quality (I like markings for rarely used keys, however). There seem to be a lot of people still using old IBM Model Ms with a PS/2-USB adapter.

Are there any other keyboards that aren't lowest common denominator material?

What do Albus Dumbledore and slashdotters have in common?

Homosexuality, so says J.K. Rowling. There were no details on whether he tops or bottoms, but I hope we can all provide support and encouragement during this difficult time.

With plans for low power x86 cpus to be used in mobile internet devices (their vision of awkwardly large internet capable cell phones), Intel may be trying to dethrone ARM. As someone who appreciates the elegance of the ARM instruction set, (and someone afraid of an intel heater anywhere near my nads), I was a little troubled by this announcement, but let the best processor win.

Intel has in interesting history with ARM: they received DEC's StrongARM as part of a lawsuit settlement, which was later replaced with the XScale. XScale was sold to Marvell last year, but intel still manufacturers their chips.

Earlier today, Apple announced an upgrade (and price cut) for Logic Studio nee Logic Pro. Logic Express has also been updated. Although it doesn't get nearly the attention of the iPod, the new release of Logic should be welcome news for professional and semi-pro musicians.

Apple, Inc. issued a press release with their side of the iTunes/NBC disagreement.

In short: iTunes will not sell any episodes for this season (they could sell new episodes through the end of the year). Additionally, NBC wanted $4.99 per episode, rather than the current $1.99. That's more than twice as expensive as buying a season on DVD.

I've decided to get a tattoo. I'd like for it to be open source, or as close to that as possible. I'm using a modified version of Tux (He'll be grabbing his crotch with one hand and flipping the bird with the other) and the banner "Don't fuck wid da penguin!" above him. Are there any open source directions for giving yourself a tattoo?

Also, I work in a windows shop (gotta pay the bills). Will this adversely affect my career potential?

GCC 4.2.1 was released 4 days ago. Although this minor update would otherwise be insignificant, it will be the final GPL v2 release; all future releases will be GPL v3. Some key contributors are grumbling over this change and have privately discussed a fork to stay as GPL v2. The last time GCC forked (EGCS), the FSF conceded defeat. How will the FSF/GNU handle the GPL 3 revolt?

Like many GNU/Linux users, I value my freedom. That's why it is important than GNU/Linux users only use GPL v3 licensed code to prevent companies from denying us our fundamental rights. Unfortunately, Linux Torvadles does not believe in this fundamental right. He has refusedt o relicense the Linux kernel with the GPL v3. Our only recourse is to create a new GPL v3 licensed kernel.

Current contenders are HURD and OpenSolaris. Both have drawbacks; HURD is, for all intents and purposes, vaporware. OpenSolaris is licensed under the CDDL, a non-GNU license. Sun has suggested they might relicense it as GPL v3, though this is not a given.

I have a better suggestion: Fork a copy of the FreeBSD kernel. This would give access to cool features like jail and ZFS which are not supported in linux.

The Drudge Report is reporting that Universal Music Group (the largest record company) will not be renewing their contract with iTMS. Universal, you may remember, is being paid a license fee for every Zune sold and was widely rumored to be demanding the same concession from Apple.

Assume you'd like a reasonably modern, reasonably fast, reasonably priced non x86 computer (for use with *BSD, linux, etc). Maybe you're a contrarian. Maybe you're sick of the errata. Maybe your job at intel got outsourced and your just a little resentful. What are the options? There are inexpensive used Sun Sparc machines. PPC macintoshes are still available, and the XBox 360/PS3 are a possibility. Are there any general purpose ARM computers which don't include the word "dev board" in their title? Any others?

Just like FOSS (Free Open Source Software) is killing proprietary software, the internet and amateur porn is affecting commercial pornography sales. From 2005 to 2006, DVD/video sales/rentals dropped from $4.3 billion to $3.6 billion. Amazingly, the article doesn't even mention loss of sales from p2p file sharing.

The Post Chronicle is reporting that Jennifer Garner cried when she thinks about global warming. I cry when I think about Ben Affleck leaving a cream pie in her stinky pink.

Correction: it's actually more like vomit.