John Gruber interviews Brent Simmons. NetNewsFireball? ;) In any case, a cool interview.

Brent Simmons is the author of NetNewsWire, the runaway smash-hit RSS news aggregator for Mac OS X, and the founder of Ranchero Software, which he runs in partnership with his wife, Sheila. Brent’s personal weblog is inessential.com. I interviewed Brent via email, and our extensive discussion covered a wide range of topics, including: Apple’s treatment of small Mac developers; deciding which features would separate the Pro and Lite versions of NetNewsWire; Brent’s previous experience working for UserLand Software; and much more.

From But I Really Want To Be A Dentist:

….I slid over a crisp dollar bill as my initial deposit, and signed the papers. I read them over, of course. I noticed that under “Occupation” she had put down “Writer.” Good, good; many of the people who’ve read or edited my stuff vehemently challenge this title, so it’s good to know that if push came to shove and lawyers got involved, there’s a respected and venerable institution willing to corroborate my claim.

But under “Employer” she’d accidentally typed “elf-Employed.” “No, no, don’t touch it,” I said, after I explained why I was laughing. “Leave it just as it is.”….

Stereographs of Russia in 1902

I did some antique shopping and discovered a little cache of stereograph views of Russia in 1902, of all things. They’re just beautiful. (via remainder)

Tom Bridge started a very interesting discussion on Monday with his A New(s) Lens on how Keynote’s XML capabilities might be utilized in the context of news aggregation (e.g. NetNewsWire) and followed it up, after some dialogue on the NNW mailing list, with today’s Some More Thoughts. Go Tom! This is what we need more of: re-thinking the familiar into new patterns.

books.guardian.co.uk review

By the mid-1810s, as deafness encroached, the performing was all over. Visitors found his pianos had strings shredded by his frantic pounding in a desperation to hear. He removed the legs from one piano, so he could sit on the floor and feel the vibrations. Yet to the end he would improvise for hours, though he could not hear a note he played. The image is heartbreaking, and revealing. He still needed the instrument. Improvisation at the keyboard was wedded to his inspiration. And this was one of the secrets of how Beethoven managed to compose when he was all but stone deaf. As he played his pianos, which were wildly out of tune and with missing strings, he heard the music through his fingers.