Make a typeface (font) sampler with AppleScript

Every wanted to find just the right ampersand? Or question mark? Checking it against every font in your system manually would be a pain. Font Book doesn't have the font sampler feature you need to do this. But the problem can be solved with ... AppleScript: tell application "TextEdit"   make new document at the …

A car rental experience gone well

Shocking, isn’t it? The folks at Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Nashville (BNA) were so polite and efficient, I wrote them a nice thank-you letter. My coworker Pete suggested I have a little fun: give them a copy of the Hertz letter to laugh over. So I did. I also gave Hertz a copy of the Enterprise …

Hertz Chicago O’Hare (ORD) staffer gives shitty service, threatens to sue

Last fall, when I was in Chicago, I was treated incredibly rudely at the Hertz location at O’Hare. (This is not the first time I’ve had a poor rental experience.) As soon as I walked up to the counter, the agent said “Don’t give me any attitude.” Before I had said anything. He had taken …

HOWTO set up an SOCKS proxy via an SSH tunnel on Mac OS X

Recently, I came across some streaming video that was only available to Canadians. Being a Canadian in the US, I felt somewhat entitled. Yes: I wanted to watch a hockey game. I knew I could do this with an SSH tunnel. I just wasn’t sure how. There are lots of pages explaining how to set …