In the course of writing my email un-attachment plugin for Mail.app (and subsequently updating it for Leopard), I found that Apple has a capable, but entirely undocumented, plugin API. I’m providing this update to my previous tutorial in the hopes that it may be useful to anyone else considering implementing a plugin for Apple Mail.
I’ve released a new version of my missing attachment plugin for Apple’s Mail program. This new version works on both Tiger and Leopard, all from a single plugin. It also simiplifies the install process. Now you can just double-click the Install script to copy the plugin to the appropriate folder and enable Mail’s plugin support.
There is now a beta version of the AttachmentScannerPlugin for Mail.app on Leopard. This version has received only limited testing, which is to say that it works for me, but it might not for you. If you encounter any troubles using it, please post them in the comments.
If you haven’t installed any other plugins in Mail under Leopard, you’ll need to run the following commands in Terminal:
% defaults write com.apple.mail BundleCompatibilityVersion 3 % defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles -bool yes
Then put the ASPLeopard.mailbundle file in ~/Library/Mail/Bundles (you might need to create that folder if it does not already exist).
As a part of my research, I’ve developed a tool, called The Buzz, to help people to keep aware of a wide variety of information sources. You can download it here.
The Buzz runs on an extra monitor or as the desktop background on a Mac. Every minute or so, it cycles through a different collage, automatically generated from some information source. 
For example, you might see a collage of news headlines from the BBC or stories from Boing Boing. You could keep up with your favorite baseball team or webcams from exotic (or not-so-exotic places).
You can subscribe to different information channels to customize what you see, or create your own. Please give it a try and let me know what you think. I’m particularly interested in what kinds of channel people like you want to see. Don’t see one you want? Feel free to create it yourself, or ask me for help in the comments below!
In life, we must constantly make tradeoffs. In entering into “civilized” society, we sacrifice absolute control over ourselves for security. For example, one cannot kill another in our society. 
Should we allow one to kill another, it would become impossible to maintain security. So, we give up the ability to kill those who aggrieve us in order to gain the security it provides.
Of course, not all examples are so exciting as death and murder, and not all tradeoffs are so balanced. In the legal setting, this balance is referred to as proportionality. With respect to privacy, the concept of proportionality addresses the relative intrusion on an individual’s privacy to the advantages gained by such an intrusion. For example, it might be acceptable to allow a surveillance system capable of reading license plates at a customs control checkpoint, but not on normal freeways. At a customs control checkpoint, the intrusion of privacy may be an acceptable cost of ensuring an effective border security and customs operation. Using the very same system on normal freeways to improve traffic flow, by contrast, may be entirely unacceptable. The relative gains of having fewer traffic jams are far outweighed by the same privacy risk. In this way, the same loss of privacy, but in a different context, becomes more or less acceptable.
This is where paranoia comes into play. If you can somehow raise people’s fears so as to make them perceive a greater threat, then the value of an intrusion will be perceived to be greater. When people are afraid, they are more likely to sacrifice their freedoms and their privacy, so long as it can boost their perceived security.
The CEDIA awards for the Best Dressed 
Wiring Installations were referenced recently by Slashdot. They depict some really beautiful wiring installations, but they are horribly un-maintainable.
My work-study job in college involved wiring up the dorms for ethernet. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about wiring. Amongst them was the fact that these systems are constantly changing.
As network installations are made in new locations, or as faults are found in the networking infrastructure, the physical wires or terminations need to be changed. If everything is neatly tied down and bundled with such care, replacing a single cable involves unbundling the entire installation.
A useful installation needs to be orderly, but still support a rapid exchange of cabling. Just a couple of velcro straps will do much more nicely than a zip-tie for each and every port in the patch panel!
I’ve been using Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS) for over two and a half years, in which time I have amassed a sizable music library. The interface of the iTMS offers the ability to browse and explore music in a way that the brick and mortar stores simply cannot compare with. I can quickly preview albums and artists that I’d have never discovered had it not been for the way the interface affords browsing. The iTMS has completely changed the way I search for music.
But, here’s the rub: every time I purchase music from Apple, I feel guilty. That’s right. When I legally purchase music, I feel guilty. Not out of guilt at having broken a law, but a guilt out of having been a poor consumer. The guilt of knowing that I have betrayed the interests of all of my fellow music consumers. How have I betrayed you, my fellow music enthusiast? I have contributed to a business model that is fundamentally bad for you and for me.
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Peru Day 11: Paracas–This entry was written on May 18, 2006
We got up early for our boat ride to the Ballestas islands today. Unfortunately, there was no water in the room, so the hotel gave us the key to another bungalow so we could shower.
The boat ride was quite calm, but the stench of the birds made all of our stomachs a bit sour. Ick! There were a great many birds on the islands–Humboldt penguins, Incan Terns, Heron, Turkey Vultures, and some other birds I don’t recall. They were quite impressive. The whole top face of one of the islands looked like it was composed of loose, black, rock, but on closer inspection, the surface was moving. There were so many birds so closely packed in the colony that they defined the surface of the island.
We also saw a bunch of sea lions. At this time of year, there were a lot of pups, just a few months old, frolicking in the water and on the shores. I hope I managed to get some nice pictures, but I tried to concentrate more on the experience itself than on getting good pictures.
After we got back, we relaxed a bit around the bungalow, listening to the sounds of the waves lap at the shore of the Paracas Bay, reading a book beneath the palm trees, and generally enjoying our vacation. But we didn’t sit around long–we then went to another part of the reserve, in the middle of the desert.
Peru is a land of contrasts. Just a couple of minutes from the green grass and palm trees of our oceanside paradise is the desert. Just sand and rocks as far as the eyer can see. What water there is is the saltwater of the sea, washing up against a vast, barren sea of sand.
Although the desert itself was void of any vegetation, there were some animals. The flamingos had started to come down from the Andes for their winter. They were too far away from the lookout tower for me to get any devent pictures, but I could see them fairly clearly through the binoculars. Apparently they really do stand on just one leg! 
These flamingos were also a bit different from the Florida variety–they had white feathers with just a band of pink. Apparently they don’t eat all the shrimp that the Floridians get, so their coats don’t turn the same color.
As we were watching the flamingos, we got a special treat. We saw a shadow pass us on the ground, and as we looked up, we saw a condor circling overhead. As we looked closer, we discovered that there were actually three of them, just gliding on the air currents. They were close enough that we were able to make a positive identification, but by the time I thought to get out my camera, the wind currents had pushed them so high up that they were mere specks in the bright midday sky.
The condor is so close to extinction that I doubt I’ll ever have the chance to see one in the wild again, even if I should return to Peru. But there is some hope–these three birds were small enough that they were probably fairly young. Let’s hope the population can rise again, just as have so many of the endangered species in Peru. Everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve seen such a serious conservation effort that I wouldn’t have expected in a country with so much poverty. But the people here seem to genuinely care.
Finally, we went to Cathedral Rock, a natural formation along the coast that resembles a steeple and flying buttress. Geologists estimate that the structure has been formed over the past 30-40 million years by the natural erosion of the wind, water, and sand against the rock. Pretty cool. With that, we returned to Lima, where well spend the rest of our time in Peru, before flying back home.
Peru Day 10: The Nazca Lines–This entry was written on May 17, 2006
We got an early start this morning and drove from Lima to Ica for a chartered flight over the Nazca Lines. These are 500 year-old drawings in the sand that are so large that you have to fly over them to see them! It’s really quite impressive.
We don’t really know what they were built for, but some speculate that they were messages to their gods and had to be so big that they could be seen from up on high. 
The designs are so perfect, but the Naza couldn’t have gotten high enough to see them as they were being created. They must have had a refined enough measuring and mathematics system to design these patterns at a tractable size and scale them up to the final product! Each of hte symbold is made with a channel about 11 inches deep or so, as if people just walked the patter for days on end until the trails were made.
The flyover itself was also a lot of fun. We flew in a six-seater Cessna, which was remarkably smooth. But when the pilot lowered the flaps and dropped the throttle, banking tightly around so we could see the lines on the ground, thousands of feet below, 
I could feel my stomach performing its own gymnastics routines. It wasn’t bad, but I can definitely see how people get sick on these flights.
Afterwards, we went to the Oasis at Huacachina, a resort that is popular amongst many of the Peruvian tourists. It was an amazing paradise amidst the vast barren desert. It was also a welcome place to settle down after the flight, enjoy a nice, simple lunch, and relax. One of Peru’s larger crops is asparagus, so I ordered the asparagus salad for lunch. It was fantastic–I don’t think I’ve ever tasted asparagus so fresh and so delicious!
Tonight, we head to the Paracas Nature Reserve, where we’ll have our tour tomorrow I’ll have to be sure and take lots of pictures!
Peru Day 9–This entry was written on May 16, 2006
Today was fairly uneventful. We traveled back from Cusco to Lima without much trouble. We mostly just wandered around going to little shops and cafés around town. We found a neat little art studio that was operated by an artist and his wife. They had some very nice original artwork at reasonable prices. I think I may have to go back when we’re back in Lima on Friday. Tomorrow morning, we head down to Ica and Paracas.