Additionally, I am trying out layout changes once again. There are sidebar issues with the currently nightly of K2 that I’m using – r1044. I not sure about dueling sidebars or 2 on the right. A single sidebar just doesn’t work for all the stuff I want to display. Time will tell.

I am not a big musical fan. In fact I can not remember the last time I saw one of the handful I have seen in my life. Possibly 20 years ago.
Wicked was fascinating, an excellent performance! with an engaging story.
The costumes, make-up, and set design were well done, not overly extreme but enough to grab and keep your attention through out the performance. There was not too much singing and only a few entire cast numbers. Wicked had a suitable blend of acting and singing to keep my full attention and enjoyment.

I went with my mother, who was able to get very good seats, row F.

If anyone is looking for an entertaining marvelous performance see Wicked, it has it all. The story, acting, singing, costumes, make-up, and set design are all first rate.

The bedroom cable box has been trouble. First time install with other cable box, following given instructions, got no signal. Call #1, tech support. They resent programming data. No change. Call #2, reset power, resent programming data. Again no signal. Call #3, reset power, again no signal. It was determined that the cable box was bad. I went to the local Comcast office and got a new cable box. Connected new cable box initial no signal. The next day I was receiving a few stations, 2-13, 37 (TNT), 41 (TBS). Later that day lost all stations, no signal. Call #4, reset power, resent programming data. Tech support told me to call back later because that rep I had could not help me and he could not get additional help. A full day or two later Call #5, reset power, resent programming data. I could not fully understanding the tech due to language accent problem, but I believe it was determined that if the resent programming data did not take effect this time I have another bad cable box. I have not dealt with this any further yet.

During the entire process the family room TV is working with ALL stations. The bedroom TV works ok without the cable box but I only get SciFi (73) and Discovery (29) channels plus 2-13.

Comcast Customer Service rates a 2/5 only due the pleasant manner of the representatives, otherwise they have been completely unhelpful. They do not listen to the stated problem. They are unwilling to listen to any additional support information. For example, the fact that I have a currently working TV. The above problem seems to be beyond their understanding, so I have to wait even longer as they ask for assistance. The language accent issue can be frustrating.

Thank God for Hulu.

In a day or so I will check with my local Comcast office about getting a 3rd cable box and call customer service. The physical cable is new and there are no devices of any kind connected between the cable to cable box to TV. Except for a splitter that feeds the other TV and the bedroom one.

Typing on the virtual keyboard is a bit time consuming. Twitter is the only app that works for this type of posting. Keep it short and specfic.

I have learned from the past two Mac OS X updates to NOT use ‘Software Update’. Instead I just download the Combo update. Then after first repairing permissions, I install the update. There was no major noticeable difference after restart in performance or appearance.

Get the Combo update from Apple’s downloads page > here < or these two great software sites.
Just search 'Apple Mac OS X – 10.5.8'

MacUpdate – specific page > here <

VersionTracker – specific page > here <

I searched last night to find out when the 3.0 software will be available. The only time mentioned on a few sites was 6 a.m. Cupertino time. At 6 a.m. PST the 3.0 software was not yet available through iTunes. Back to sleep.

Tried again at 3 p.m. PST with my iPod Touch. It took over an hour to get connected to the iTunes store in order to download the update. I kept press the update button like a irate monkey until I got through. Eventually, I got to the license agreement page. After accepting the agreement it took another 15 minutes to get to the actual downloading function with continual pressing of the update button or accept agreement button after first getting ‘can not connect try again later warning’.

Everything went o.k. updating my iPod Touch and iPhone 3G. All the apps that I use frequently seem to work.

After downloading the Combo update (729 MB), everything went smoothly. Additionally I have always repaired permissions after any software installation. My favorite maintenance program include Onyx and MainMenu, both free.

For as often as I post, does this matter? A little. Time for some experimentation.

2 new iMacs
2 modified G4s
1 modified G3 + 1 HP laptop

Everything works great as expected. I stopped using the K2 Sidebar Manager (SBM), since it was being phased out. I prefer the SBM. The widgets manager does not give you enough options or settings for displaying individual widgets. Mainly, the lack of options with the Pages widget compared to the K2 SBM version.

There is supposed to be a K2 SBM to widget importer in the works. It will be interesting to see how they handle the reduced options.