This past weekend I built a new shed in my backyard. Now this wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do on one of the hottest weekends this year in Orange County but nonetheless there I was handling sheets of hot steel, balancing the drill, and generally doing a series of unsafe acts at the top of my ladder. There was a ray of sunshine though. I downloaded the latest MacBreak Tech podcast where John and the gang talked about maximizing the use of the Finder. This podcast is excellent for the geeks among us. There was so much good information I actually listened to it twice. The common sense advice included a discussion of using the bar on the side instead of the bottom to save valuable laptop pixels, the different paradigms for file organization and other techy topics that kept my mind off the heat. If you haven’t already, you should add MacBreak Tech to your iPod.

Okay, so I know certain news agencies and web sites are reporting that Fake Steve Jobs is not, in fact, Steve Jobs. Sure. That is what they all want us to think. In fact (at least in my mind) fake Steve IS Steve. That is all I’m going to say on that subject. Now I’ll be getting back to my own nerdy self delusion.

My good friend, Darren Rolfe, did a brilliant job of making a logo for the MacSparky web site and podcast feed. In addition to being an excellent graphic artist, Darren is also a fellow Mac geek and runs a great website at MacWingnut.com. I really like his site. It is an eclectic mix of Mac news and first hand reports of how he uses his MacBook for fun and profit. If you haven’t already, check it out.

My geekiness doesn’t end at the Apple Store.
A few years ago I picked up the first Harry Potter book to just see what all the fuss was about and perfectly ready to dismiss the children’s books as so much pulp fiction. Well I got hooked in the first chapter and a few weeks later I had read all of the published books at that time (which was the first four). So I found myself in the local supermarket friday night at midnight with a few other of the Potter faithful lining up to buy my copy of book 7 Friday night. I planned on taking my time reading it but there are so many Potter fans in my life along with that thing they call the internet and I was afraid it would get spoiled. This fear combined with my inability to put the damn thing down led to me finishing it today. I am very pleased that several of my guesses about what would happen came true but I can’t say any more. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. If you finished it and want to geek out on HP, send me a note.

I’m sure many of you have read The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs where fake Steve rambles on about a litany of subjects, a few of which relate to Apple. In addition to being very humorous, the writing is very smart. I discovered it awhile back and now it is on my very short RSS list. I like fake Steve because he pokes fun at all things holy for just about everyone including Apple fans such as myself. I like it the same way I like the Mac/PC commercials and life is just too darn short not to have a few giggles every day.
Well, recently some scoundrels have been trying to unearth the true identity of fake Steve and I must say I am very much against this. I don’t want to know who fake Steve is because in so many ways he is the real Steve in my life. He shares his thoughts, entertains, and occasionally disturbs me which is all good. Besides, the true identity doesn’t nearly matter as much as the value of the myth. Doesn’t anyone read Joseph Campbell anymore?