MarsEdit 3.3.5 is out with a few small fixes, and a new feature to better support bloggers who write in right-to-left (RTL) languages. The update is available immediately from the MarsEdit home page and from the Mac App Store.

A new per-blog setting lets you specify whether the text in a post should tend towards RTL. When this is set, MarsEdit’s rich text editor will show paragraphs with a RTL orientation, without altering the underlying HTML markup. This is based on the assumption that RTL blogs use CSS rules in the blog theme to impose the RTL directionality by default.

I’ve beta-tested the directionality changes with a few native writers of RTL languages, and they seem satisfied with the solution as it avoids them having to manually change each paragraph’s direction while writing. If you are a RTL writer and you think I’ve done something wrong in the implementation, please be sure to let me know.

Complete change list for 3.3.5:

• Support a new per-blog setting for default writing direction, to benefit right-to-left language bloggers
• Change default keyboard shortcut for full screen toggle to cmd-ctrl-F, the standard for Mac OS X
• Prevent a crash that could occur with some systems like Sina.com that return empty string instead of expected array
• Fixes to make uploaded images target the desired blog more reliably
• Fix a bug that prevented “Send to Blog” button from being clickable after launching from bookmarklet

Since Steve Jobs passed away on Wednesday, the web has been overflowing with heartfelt tributes to the impact his work had on the technology world, and the world at large.

But a few people don’t respect or value the contributions that Jobs made. Richard Stallman, the famously anti-Apple, GPL protagonist, comes off borderline celebratory in his reaction:

Steve Jobs, the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom, has died. As Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said of the corrupt former Mayor Daley, “I’m not glad he’s dead, but I’m glad he’s gone.”

It’s dumbfounding to me that anybody who lives to any degree in the public’s eye could be this emotionally callous about the death of another person. He paints Jobs as a robber of freedoms, first and foremost, while neglecting to acknowledge the many liberties he brought, for example to those of us who can’t, or don’t want to build our own computing infrastructures.

I find it laughably easy to poke holes in the philosophy of “freedom” that Stallman and his acolytes passionately pursue. In this particular case, his metaphor of the computer as a jail brings to mind the beauty of constraints. Freedom from choice can be as liberating and empowering as freedom of choice.

Imagine a Steinway piano: each string is perfectly tuned so as to cast a unique, beautiful tone into the air with the gentle press of a key. I respect and value this instrument as a liberator of artistic expression. Many people find a lifetime’s pursuit of study in this device, extracting no end of joy from the limitless possibilities it offers.

But to Richard Stallman the piano must appear no less than “musical jail.” After all, the sound spectrum is made up of an infinite number of tuneable pitches, and this … instrument … this villainous oppressor of choice, limits its users to a paltry 88 tones.

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I was kept up late last night with the news from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings that the company would split into two. Of course, it didn’t take me long to deliver several of my own choice thoughts about the announcement, including:

This heartfelt apology and explanation from @Netflix sounded good until “Qwikster.” Serious branding failure. blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explan…

Netflix to customers: “We apologize for being so dense about how our decisions come off in public. BTW: WELCOME TO QWIKSTER!!!!!”

Usually a blog post that opens with an apology proceeds to explain how things are going to be better. I’d hate to read Netflix’s “bad news.”

I realized this morning that I was missing the point. Sure, Netflix’s actions appear stupid and short-sighted. Maybe. But if they are, it’s not very interesting, it’s just a drag. It would be more interesting to examine their “stupidity” for signs of intelligence.

My friend Jon Wight made a good, obvious in retrospect, point on Twitter:

Maybe Netflix dumped the DVD division to make them more attractive to a company that traditionally hates spinning media. #conspiracytheory

Of course! Dump the stagnant DVD-by-mail business, in anticipation of one of those perennial acquisition rumors coming true. Netflix’s brilliant streaming system would live on in the realm of some new corporate ownership, boosting the web streaming wing of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, or whoever. Spinning off the beloved DVD-by-mail program beforehand not only makes the streaming company more attractive to potential buyers, but ensures that the DVD business lives on, rather than becoming an unwanted side-asset for the new owners. In that light, Qwikster might be something of a genius move.

The main problem with this reasoning is it would most likely eliminate the Netflix brand.  Most potential buyers of the streaming business would be likely want to brand it with their own name. As would any potential buyer of the DVD-by-mail wing. That’s fine, we can live without the Netflix brand. But if either wing of Netflix will live on independently, the brand would be one of its most valuable assets. Here’s  another tweet I posted last night:

I just visited Blockbuster.com for the first time ever, so I guess Netflix’s announcement is not a total loss for the industry.

If Netflix wants to sell just the DVD half of the business, then there’s no strong impetus to come up with a perfect, lovable name. It just needs a name. Sure, it could be “Netflix by Mail” or something else strongly tied to the brand, but I suspect Netflix wants to start disassociating their brand from DVDs as qwiksly as possible. Renaming the DVD business to something stupid immediately starts to isolate it from the Netflix brand, so that when some company like Blockbuster comes along to buy it, it will feel less like they are “actually buying Netflix.” It’s nothing of core importance to Netflix. “Blockbuster didn’t win. That’s just some silly DVD business we happen to own.”

Qwikster is a burner name.

(Incidentally, do you think we’ll be able to rent Qix from Qwikster?)