In case you missed it, the MacHeist 3 bundle has been released. It’s really great this year; I’ve already purchased mine.

There are 12 apps in the bundle (three of them have not been unlocked, since the number of bundles sold has not reached the required number; but based on past years, it is all but certain that all apps will be unlocked). Even without the unlocked apps, it’s a great deal.

For a mere $39, you get:

• iSale ($40 retail), for creating eBay ad pages
• Picturesque ($35 retail) for quick photo effects
• SousChef ($30 retail) for managing recipes
• PhoneView ($20 retail) for manipulating/accessing your iPhone/iPod Touch data
• LittleSnapper ($40 retail) for managing screen captures
• Acorn ($50 retail) for simple photo editing
• Kinemac ($299 retail!) for 3D design and animation
• WireTap Studio ($69 detail) for advanced audio recording/capture
• World of Goo ($20 retail) for fun

If/when all the apps are unlocked, you will also get (at no extra charge):

• BoinxTV ($199 retail) for easy “TV studio” production
• The Hit List ($50 retail) for to-do list management
• Espresso ($80 retail) for web design

There are videos and descriptions for all these apps on the MacHeist website.

The most interesting apps in the list, in my view, are Picturesque, PhoneView, Kinemac, WireTap Studio, and BoinxTV. These five apps alone have a combined retail value of about $622. All for $39!

You also get a free app called EventBox just for visiting the page. It’s an interesting little app that pulls updates from various social networking sites.

I already have apps equivalent to iSale (GarageSale), Acorn (Photoshop/Pixelmator), The Hit List (OmniFocus), and Espresso (Coda). I’m not sure what I will do with those licenses. But even considering that I may not use all the apps, the bundle is a steal.

Unfortunately, Time Machine does not include any settings to control the frequency of backup. Fortunately, changing how often backups occur is not hard to do. There are basically three routes you can take; they all do precisely the same thing (change a particular configuration file):

• Use a freeware application called Time Machine Editor
• Use a freeware application called Lingon to edit the necessary file (this is the way I did it; however, Lingon is a powerful program that, used improperly, can totally trash your system, so beware; this is similar to using regedit in Windows)
• Navigate to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto.plist and edit the file manually according to instructions here

This is truly so characteristic of Microsoft, it hurts.

If you are reading this in an email or RSS feed, and don’t see the video, visit my website.

I don’t HATE Microsoft — even though my repeating “Microsoft is Dead” makes me smile and laugh involuntarily. I used to be very supportive of them (especially in opposition to Mac OS 7, 8, and 9), but lately they have become so inept and mired in the past that I cannot enjoy their OS anymore. Mac OS X is so much better, which I’ve been using ever since shortly after it was released a number of years ago. I’ve tried Linux, but it left me unimpressed, and I haven’t tried any of the more recent Linux distributions such as Ubuntu. OS X works very well. And while it’s not perfect, I say it’s the best OS available for general users.