Status-Q

Picasa 2 looks as if it may be competing with Flickr to be the e-shoebox of choice....

The dangers of buying a PC from WalMart...

Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.

So said the American philosopher George Santayana about 100 years ago. But hang on - did he? Actually, this is one of those oft-misquoted sayings - a Google search will turn up several versions, in particular using "...are doomed to repeat it".

In The Life of Reason (1905-1906), the actual quote is:

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

which is an interesting but subtle difference; the 'forget' version implies a careless abandon whereas 'not to remember' implies, perhaps, an unfortunate mistake. Of course, he may not have intended any such distinction and he may also have used several versions himself, but it does prompt me to write my own little homage to Santayana:

Those who forget the quote are condemned to reword it!

The world's first shoe with active suspension?

This is fun, but considering the power that goes through the sole of your running shoe, it's sad that you still have to fit it with a couple of watch batteries...

Sir Bill Gates. In recognition of his "outstanding contribution to enterprise".

(That's his enterprise, presumably)

Why isn't the opposite of a backup called a frontdown?

Navigating the file system.

You may know that the icon in the title bar of a document or Finder window represents the file or folder itself. You can drag a document straight to the trash by dragging this icon, for example, or drop it on another app in your dock.

What I hadn't realised was that another trick I've used in the Finder also works in document windows. Cmd-Click on the icon, and it shows you its position in the folder hierarchy.

You can select one of those folders and it will open in the finder for you. This is really handy if you're working in a document and want a quick way to jump to something in the same directory.

A thing I sometimes miss when I'm working in the Finder is the ability quickly to create a new file of a particular type. In Windows you right-click and select "New>Word document" or similar. I don't know why the Mac doesn't do this, but one way to add it is using this handy Applescript in the Finder toolbar. (It was written by someone whose name I can't find but who goes under the pseudonym of PCheese.)

For Mac users: Finder windows normally show you an accurate view of what's in your folders, but occasionally, if something happens behind its back, the Finder doesn't update the window immediately. This is most common on network shares, and happens on Windows as well. Windows has the F5 key to refresh the current view, though, and there isn't a Finder equivalent.

Rainer Brockerhoff's Nudge utility will do the same thing for Mac users.