Helpful tip (with AppleScript) from Daniel Bogan for working around the way iTunes automatically checks the “Skip when shuffling” option for podcasts.

Marcin Wichary has unearthed an adorable Apple commercial from 1983 featuring the not-yet-famous Kevin Costner using a Lisa.

Similar to the chintzy sleeve that ships with the new iPods. (Via Digg.)

Update to Apple’s free developer tools, includes a new version of GCC and a bunch of new features. See also: Chris Espinosa’s list of known issues with the new version.

This is nuts: ZDNet UK published a review of a bootleg copy of Mac OS X for Intel they installed on a Toshiba laptop.

John Leyden reporting for The Register:

Virus writers have begun taking advantage of Sony-BMG’s use of rootkit technology in DRM software bundled with its music CDs.

Could Sony have any less respect for its customers?

Excellent Automator introduction, excerpted in Macworld from Matt Neuburg’s Take Control of Customizing Tiger.

Thanks to Sebastian Reidel for packaging this together for me. I should have done this a year ago, at least.

Regarding the recent theonion.com redesign.

Good Cringely column. He touches on something I’ve been thinking ever since “Linux” hit industry radars as a potential threat: if Microsoft ever truly felt cornered, they could release Windows for free, cutting off open source’s single most significant perceived value.

Pixar’s quarterly statement included the news that they’d sold 125,000 short films through ITMS already.

Scott Stevenson:

Several media outlets have compared Comcast’s $1 fee to the $2 price at iTunes, but practically no one has mentioned that you actually get to keep the videos you download from iTunes.

Thomas Hesse, President of Sony’s Global Digital Business, in an interview on NPR: “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”

CBS is selling episodes through Comcast video-on-demand services, but only in markets that aren’t served by CBS affiliates; NBC is selling episodes through DirectTV. Neither will reach as many people as ABC does through ITMS.

Freeware (donations accepted) video conversion app for iPods. (Via 2lmc Spool.)

Documentary about four interns given 12 weeks to design, implement, and ship Fog Creek Copilot, a new product for Joel Spolsky’s company. Paul Graham and my friend Aaron Swartz make guest appearances.

This seems to work better, especially with Safari, than any other WYSIWYG-style browser-based editor I’ve seen. Impressive.

Clever design: wireless headset without any actual wireless technology.

Samuel Sidler:

This is by far the finest Camino release ever. It’s so great, we’re calling it our stable release and replacing the download link on the main page with it.

In light of the Yahoo Mail statue fiasco, Rich Siegel asks how such a stupid idea could see the light of day.