The easiest way to copy non-Apple videos to the iPod/iPhone on the Mac

This is just a "note to self" as I don't do this very often and end up having to google it every time.

1. Open the iMovie HD app (pre-installed with Mac OS X)
2. Drag & drop the video into iMovie HD
3. Open the File/Export.. menu and select iPod

That's it! iMovie HD will format the video correctly for the iPod/iPhone, send it to iTunes and place it in the iTunes library ready for the next sync.

(*non-Apple meaning avi, divx, etc. Mov and mp4 videos can be imported directly into iTunes)

Good programmer's editor for MacOS X?

Can anyone recommend a good programmer's editor for Mac OS X?

It must be free, that rules TextMate out.

It must have source code editing features (syntax highlighting etc.), and be able to cope with long files (GBytes).

So far I've been using JEdit which is otherwise quite good but its MacOS integration is quite flaky due to the fact that JEdit is written in Java and thus it depends on Apple's Cocoa-Java integration API which changes all the time. Also, JEdit is not very good with long files since it tries to load the whole file into memory (i.e. JVM heap).

I have tried TextWrangler but I didn't like it very much. I'm also not a big vi fan.

Any ideas?

PS. Obviously the GB long files are not source code ;-)

Who was The Strongest Chess Player of All Time?

Computers choose: Jose Raul Capablanca.

Refreshing to be reminded that my country has produced more than just dictators and popular music.

Software and the book metaphor

Done properly, "writing" software is more like writing a collection of short stories than like writing a novel.

If you follow this advice, your modules will be self-contained, smaller, easier to understand and to test ... And a pleasure to read!

Return to sender

Looks like the ClearCase Ant task I submitted to Apache a while ago has been scheduled for inclusion in Ant 1.8. Now that I don't use any of these tools anymore!

Regrettable Spring

Thanks to the otherwise well-intentioned and very talented folk at Spring Source (aka interface21), the software world has been blessed with yet another pointless certificate.

In the Middle Ages you could buy all sorts of permits from the catholic church that would "certify" you were apt and allowed to perform some activity. For example, you could buy a permit that allowed you to eat meat on fast days (rather than the otherwise ubiquitous salted fish). "Certified Friday Meat Muncher". Needless to say, it was quite a profitable business for the church.

My company is hiring. We don't believe in certificates. We believe in people with brains and the right attitude.

Zeitgeist

Hmm, the Ruby fad did not last very long.

It seems that not even JRuby can save it.

I wonder how long it will take till we get "Scala on Sails"? Oh wait, Google tells me it's already there!