Thursday the rabbi rebooted

At morning services the rabbi asked me if I could help him fix a problem with his Mac. From his not-very-technical description it sounded to me as if he had somehow corrupted a shortcut on his desktop. I decided it would be easier to pay a house call than talk him through it on the phone, so I stopped by after work.

Now I'm not a Mac person. Tried 'em when they came out in 1984, had one on my desk at work a few years later (1989?), even ported an application from X-Windows to Mac once (1990), but I don't really know how to use them, never looked again when they became more mature, and never became one with the UI philosophy. I figured I could puzzle it out on my own, but with him looking over my shoulder while I did so I feared leading him down too many bad search paths that he might internalize.

So I chatted briefly with a co-worker who uses a Mac. He showed me how to get a file browser and that what windows calls a shortcut the Mac calls an alias. Most of my instincts were correct. In an oh-by-the-way manner, he said that if the mouse has one button rather than two, you get right-click by control-clicking.

I am so glad he made that off-hand comment! The Mac in question does in fact have a one-button mouse, and the odds that I would have guessed that key combination are low. I would have instead concluded that Macs only have one mouse menu.

So fixing his problem was in fact trivial; I deleted the old shortcut (not gonna try to fix what I can easily recreate), found the application, and created a new shortcut. I watched him reboot and then use it successfully. Mission accomplished in just a few minutes. I explained what I was doing at each step (and he didn't know about control-click either); I wonder how much he'll internalize. (His kids convinced him to get the Mac, from what I understand. But they're all away for the summer.)

I realized on the way out that I missed an opportunity: I should have told him that the price of computer consulting is rabbinic consulting, and gotten him to give me pointers to some responsa I've been wondering about. Ah well; maybe later. :-)

short takes

I'm losing my quasi-cantorial job, except in emergencies or perhaps the dead of winter. They went and actually hired a cantor. Disppointing, but I certainly don't begrudge them a professional. Still, I'm going to really miss that. At least it's coming at a time when I have increased opportunities to chant Torah at my own congregation; that's something I've been wanting to do, and gets me into more of a leadership role there.

I first got this from chaiya: go to Google, type in the query "weapons of mass destruction", and hit "I feel lucky". Don't be too quick to dismiss the results; actually read some. :-)

Interesting article on group dynamics by Clay Shirky (link from ralphmelton).

Update: Man fakes own death to get off Harvard's mailing list, courtesy of browngirl.

Last night Dani and I attmpted to see A Mighty Wind, but we were done in by an out-of-date theatre listing on the web. Pity. Looks like it's gone now, so we'll have to wait for the DVD release. But at least we had a nice dinner with lefkowitzga and tangerinpenguin first. We came home and watched the last episode of West Wing available on DVD; now we wait (supposedly not too long) for the next batch.

Tuesday night's D&D game was much fun. I've been updating the game journal some lately, though it doesn't yet reflect Tuesday's session.

I've been getting spam lately from what purports to be a couple watchdogs of the state government, but are actually just partisan publishers in disguise. I seem to be getting spam from both the Dems and the Republicans. If my cease-and-desist requests aren't honored soon, I think I'll report 'em both to the state spam tracker. Serves 'em right if I do.

I forget who it was on my friends list who recommended preachermanfeed a month or two ago, but thank you. I probably never would have poked my head in at "Real Live Preacher" otherwise, and he writes interestingly and articulately. He writes about his religion with no apologies and no pulled punches but in a way that does not alienate or demean those who do not share his beliefs. That's hard to do, and he's doing it well.