I'm like King Midas

Well, maybe more like his 2nd cousin, the guy whose touch turns things into broken. I managed to fry not just one but 2 computers over the weekend! Yes, yes, I'm sure you're all wondering, how did he do it? How did me make this magic happen? Well let me tell you, it was easy. I fried my new experimental IBM ThinkPad 390E after I took out the processor and reapplied thermal paste. It kept rebooting randomly and overheating was deemed the culprit. Well that won't be much of a problem now as it won't even start. Nice. Then my PC gave up the ghost. I installed two case fans to keep things running cooler and one of them was kind of old. When my wife started to smell a burning odor I told her to ignore it as I figured it was dust burning off the fun. No no, that's the musky odor of a motherboard. Ah yes, the wonderful scent of burning ozone. HMMM. Take it in, yes it's rich, hearty aroma. I guess it makes sense. It was running kind of slow, especially at startup, and the CPU fan would intermittently start late. I think it may also be the culprit of the mysterious DVD drive that wouldn't connect. But I don't think it's the motherboard's fault. I blame the power supply. This is the second board I've fried and I think my el cheapo diablotek junker is the culprit. To be safe I'll buy a new one...and a new motherboard.
That's what I like about Macs, they use quality parts. I often curse them for their proprietary parts ways but I guess here's an instance where it makes sense. If you guarantee the machines have good parts and you make them incompatible with others you're getting more reliability. More reliability equals better reputation which makes satisfied customers that evangelize your product. Makes sense to me. Not that Macs don't have hardware issues. Oh they do. Just far fewer.

I wish....

...I had an office like this. It's from the boys at RealMac, a small software company in England that puts out RapidWeaver, a really groovy website builder similar to iWeb. Way cool. I'm considering purchasing it. HMMM....

WiFi

So I've been living in the dark ages for almost 2 weeks now. Well, not really, just without wireless. Man, that sucks! Having only one computer with internet access totally blows. Not having wireless for the laptops? That's just cruel and unusual. So I bought myself a new router today, a fancy LinkSys WRTG54. Why do I bring this up? Apparently it's a good router for networking your Macs (ie accessing your desktop from your laptop within your home network). But there is a caveat, it's kind of hard to set up on a Mac desktop. Shouldn't be a problem for me, I'll just run it through my PC. My Ubuntu Studio experiment is going to have to wait a while longer. Those fuckers at Newegg.com rejected my debit card like 50 million times. Don't know what the issue is there but the bottom line is my nifty DVD-RW with Lightscribe will not be shipping. Maybe next month. I can't wait to have all of my Macs online again! I love them so. I dig my Linux experiments but nothing compares to the Mac. Random thought there.
I also made some headway on my IBM ThinkPad. Apparently the BIOS battery is dead. It kept crashing and then it was giving me a real time system clock error. Understandable I guess, it is 8 years old. I need to stop by radioshack tonight to pick up a new one.

Projects, Projects, Projects

Alright, it's been a while since I last posted. You know how it is, with the holidays and stuff. I've had lots of little projects going on so here's the skinny.
I still haven't loaded Ubuntu Studio (mentioned last post) on my PC. The old school DVD-RW I had would cause Windows to stall at startup when connected (Ubuntu Studio is only DVD installable, no live disc like other Linux distros). So I tried it with other drives (CD and DVD) I had laying around. No go. I finally got so frustrated I took it to the computer repair guys. They concluded the DVD drive wasn't compatible and then proceeded to play games on it for the 1.5 days they had it. I can't complain, they didn't charge me anything. So I ordered a new drive from newegg.com. It's even got lightscribe. I'm top shelf, it's who I am.

Although Ubuntu Studio has been going no where fast I have been able to test drive other Linux distributions aimed at the 'creative folk'. I've been using 64Studio, Dyne:Bolic, Musix, and the venerable Ubuntu/Xubuntu. My brother gave me his old ThinkPad so it's now my Linux machine. I haven't used the creative Linux versions too much but I have been feeling out Ubuntu. I like it! It's pretty cool. Although it keeps crashing for no reason. So I tried Xubuntu, it's like Ubuntu light for slow computers (with a Pentium II 300mhz I'd say it falls in that category). I don't like it as much. It's based on a different desktop version and it's not as fun. Plus it doesn't come with OpenOffice, just AbiWord.

But in addition to my Linux adventures I've been keeping up with my Mac projects. My QuickSilver 733mhz processor finally arrived from ebay. After winning the auction I realized it wouldn't work on my AGP G4 due to voltage differences. I found instructions on how to provide the needed additional 12v but after I made all my preparations to install it last night I found out it wouldn't fit. The instructional I found online show the project on a Gigabit board, not an AGP. Damn. So I thought about putting it into my pristine Gigabit dual processor and put the Gigabit's DP into the AGP. But that seems wrong. So I guess I'll try and sell it back on ebay. Unless I find another use for it. HMMMM.....

My stupid media server project is in a similar state; the stalled kind. I've made a little (underline LITTLE) progress on transferring all of my music onto it. So far so good, it's just slow going. Several weeks ago I traded the Mac repair guy a PNY nVidia 6200 for an Mac card with S-video out that he was going to obtain somehow. I plopped one on my desk yesterday but it has no S-video out, and it's a flashed PC card. ARGH. But he did locate a video transfer thing on ebay that I bid on. Only problem is it hasn't been tested, could be DOA.

And to top it all off I was freaking out about my MacBook Pro. My wireless router died and when I tried to hook up the ethernet cable to the MB Pro it wouldn't recognize a signal. It also wouldn't read a USB card on the same side. DEAD MOTHERBOARD I feared. But after having the same network problem on my other machines I wonder if it's the modem. You have to restart the stupid thing every time you want to connect. HMMM. I'll have to call Time Warner. I brought the MB Pro to work today to try and connect. I think I still might have the repair guys replace the one speaker while it's under warranty. It kind of rattles.

So there's the project status for the moment. Lots going on and lots of fun. Although I did cut my finger on my PC's cooling fan last night. Ouch. Keep your fingers clear when it's on. Seriously.

This is Sweet!

My wife is really into graphic design as a hobby so I was poking around to see how much an old license of Adobe CS3 would go for. Too much is the answer. So I started looking for freeware alternatives and there are some cool ones! Then I found this version of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Studio (www.ubuntustudio.org). It's a Linux distribution for people who are into music, video, and graphic design. And it's free! It looks great but we'll see how it works. I need to figure out how to get my PC to boot it like a dual operating system. That could be hard. I was all excited to install it on my old G4 but it looks like that might not be possible. What I've found so far indicates it's pretty much for intel processors only. HMMMM....

Are you kidding me?

Our servers at work have been really struggling. Our main one was down for a morning, our FTP has been down for a while (the port died). I talked to our IT guy about it and apparently the Windows updates from last week crashed all of the servers on campus. Nice. Here, download this file, it will help your computer. CRASH. Funny.

Beautiful on the outside but...

Man, G5/Mac Pros are BEAUTIFUL computers. I really love the way they look with the swiss cheesed front and back, beautiful aluminum skin, and neatly painted logos. The inside is equally as beautiful in a technical view, cooling fans everywhere with well thought out air flow. But man, have you ever tried working on one? Ouch! One of our G5's at work was low on hard drive space so I pulled an unused hard drive from another computer to put in the G5. GEEZ! Getting the stupid SATA and power connectors from the tight spot in the case was kind of hard. Sliding the drives in was a little tricky too. I guess I'm used to the ease of my old G4 Graphite. You open the case with ease and everything is at your disposal. Regardless, I was able to get everything working. I formatted the drive into the HFS format, set up a partition (or lack there of I guess) and installed it. Nice! Say hello to 149 GB of extra storage space. What really amazed me was how easy the computer recognized it. No pins were necessary, the computer didn't get confused over which drive to use, it just worked. I love it! The computer I took the drive out of, a Dell, threw a fit when I removed the drive. It kept asking where drive 1 was. I actually had to change the BIOS to make it stop. Not like that was a big deal but it's a lot more work than the G5 install/removal.

Choices

As everyone knows, there's no such thing as a perfect product. The Mac is no exception. One thing that gripes me is the lack of availability of 3rd party parts. I'm not sure why this is, probably because of profitability issues, but there just isn't much out there for upgrades. I've been scrounging around lately trying to find a video card with s-video out for my media server project. You'd be surprised how difficult it is! Sure, there's stuff out there but a lot of it is REALLY expensive. Sure, you can buy a cheap PC card and flash the ROM but then you've got issues with reliability. Jump on tigerdirect.com or another computer supply store and you'll see that NONE of the cards say they're Mac compatible. I'm sure I'll resolve my lack of video card situation but I find it odd that it's so hard (that's what she said).

New addition

Guess who just scored a vintage Powerbook 170? This guy! A vintage laptop has just been added to my collection. It's awesome, everything works on it and it really takes me back to the heyday of early laptops. System 7 is pretty fun to play with. It has a surprising amount of software on it for such a small hard drive. Funny thing is most of the programs are publishing type programs. It even has NetScape on it! My goal is to get it on the internet. My secondary goal will be to rebuild the battery. It looks easy enough online so I'll try it. It would be so sweet to bring that thing into a ritzy Starbucks location and start working on it. Sweet.

Blue

I had to go for some training at work yesterday and boy were there some technical difficulties. The training room is set up with 16 individual monitor, mouse and keyboard stations that all feed into a computer in the room. Each station receives its own access like a normal computer so everyone can follow along without have an individual computer. Great idea...in theory. The computer was running Windows Server '03 and first wouldn't let us log on. Then it wouldn't let me open Firefox (to be fair, this was probably a Firefox program). Given that the training was internet based I had to bit the bullet and use Internet Explorer. OUCH. Man was it SLOW. And I mean SLOW. Took forever to do things. The IT guy that was sitting in was able to get Firefox running on another machine and offered it to me. He said it was running at 3x the speed of IE. So to have 2 people trained they needed an IT guy to sit in just to babysit the Windows kid. How unfortunate is it that you need to waste resources like that?
In other news the media project is a no go for the moment. Stupid MyView doesn't work with OS X, AT ALL. I even tried downloading drivers for some of their other products. Didn't work. Oh well. I've been eyeing various video cards with S-Video out. We'll see what I can come up with.

Media server project....completed?

So I think my little media project is about done. Maybe... I now have the audio cables I need to hook my old G4 to my tv but I need a video card or some other way to get the picture out of the computer and onto my tv. I just picked up an old Eskape Labs My View unit that might do the trick. Supposedly this hooks into your Mac via a USB cable and miraculously spits out your display on the other end via RCA cable or S Video. huh. Great concept but we'll see if it works. Problem is I'm not sure if it will work in OS X. The guys at the computer shop said it's been sitting in their store room for 7 years so they were more than willing to let me borrow it just to see if it works. It will work in OS 9 so maybe I'll just have to boot into OS 9. At any rate it will be a great weekend project. Now I just need a Bluetooth adapter for a wireless keyboard and mouse and a wireless card for network access, and...

Deal breaker

Now I'm really unsure if I'll get Leopard, no special academic pricing! Well there is if you count $13 off retail. If you work at a university like I do that's one of the only perks! Although I did find a new feature through .mac that is appealing: follow my mac. Allows you to remote access your mac. Smoooth. That's what I've been attempting to do with my server project. Which will be done...sometime.....soon?

Leopard? yay or nay to the new tiger?

Who's ready for Leopard? To ease the nail biting anticipation Apple has released a full list of the 316 new features. See here. Honestly, I'm not too stoked about it. I don't think I need any of the new features. I might consider the upgrade next year but that's a maybe. I want to see how the release pans out, really find out if it's worth it. If I do make the upgrade it will only be on my MacBook Pro. I don't think my G4 would be too happy running it. Tiger is stretching it for the old beast, Leopard might kill it. But then I'll have the problem of 2 OS versions running on my equipment. I'm not a big fan of that idea. There will inevitably be some issue that I can't resolve that will just piss me off to no end. We'll see. Maybe I'll change my mind later but as of now, I don't have much reason to.

Late birthday gift

What do you get when you pair one of these with one of these? Sheer awesome, that's what! Who's the owner of a PowerMac G4 500mhz dual processor Gigabit Ethernet model? THIS GUY! I totally stumbled onto the deal of the century. I went over to ask my Mac repair friend about buying a 500mhz dual processor upgrade for my PowerMac G4 AGP. I found one on ebay for $66 (delivered) but I wasn't sure if it was a good deal and if it would even fit in my motherboard. After a brief discussion he said he'd get back to me. A minute later he comes and finds me with a G4 in hand. Apparently he had a personal one he wanted to sell with the dual proc., 1GB RAM, and an ATI Radeon 7000 video card. I won't even write the price because it was obscenely CHEAP but needless to say I snapped it up in a hurry! So last night I got to work setting it up. I was FINALLY able to pair the Studio Display (CRT) monitor I bought at an auction 2 years ago for $10 with a computer!! I was so stoked. The computer runs AWESOME, very fast, especially on the internet. I love it. Now the only question is, what to do with the old G4? HMMMM. What an awesome surprise for my Wednesday.

Converting

Here's a great article on why windows users are hesitant to switch. In my opinion there are two big ones that the article doesn't highlight enough, price and compatibility. First off, it's a hard sell to get someone to pay over $1k for a laptop when they get get a Windows craptop for less than $.5K. What does a person get for the extra money? Well a computer savvy person understands the higher quality components, the extra software, the usability issues, and the reliability. Although you can find a laptop for half the price it will last 1/2 as long. It's true. Average lifespan of a windows pc is 2 years. It's almost 5 for a Mac. My graphite G4 that's still in use today is a testament to that (it's from 1999). And what about compatibility? That's the clincher for many people. I can't run the programs I need on it, say the naysayers. And you know what? Many times it's true. Take my job, for example. I work in a research lab where we do lots of numbers crunching and database shit. Guess what? Our main data analysis tool, SAS, isn't available for Mac. Neither is Access, our main database organization program. So, as you can see Macs don't fit in EVERYWHERE for EVERYONE. And that's fine. Oddly enough, though, all of our EEG data collection equipment runs on Macs. Food for thought I guess. Think about, why do you use a Mac? For me it's the reliability and cool stuff you can do with them. Working on a Mac is just stress free, even fun. System restart headaches? Almost never. Even if a program crashes the OS just keeps on ticking. Another reason I love them is the freeware that's available. Tons of free stuff out there to keep you occupied. Why are you on a Mac?

Virus

Dudes, I have got me a virus. Been sick since about the time of my last post. But I'm on the mend and I think I'll pull through. But being sick has given me the opportunity to do some cool stuff since I can't get out too much. I've really been spending some time on Pages (the '06 version mind you. guy at the computer shop failed to mention the new version would be out in 2 weeks!) and I love it. The trial version I used was really sluggish and had a lot of hiccups but not so with the real version. Fun stuff. I also did some performance tests with my AGP G4 with Speed Freak. Believe it or not, it makes a measurable difference! I'll have to post more on that later. I also had some fun with old hardware parts. Ever wonder what the inside of a hard drive looks like? Let me tell you, it's pretty sweet. The actual disk surface is brilliantly reflective. Makes for a great mirror. Really cool to see the innards. I'm a huge fan of learning through disassembly.

Cheater!

And I had pity on this guy for having to wait for an iPhone. Turns out he did better than everyone. I had cheaters. If you can't get one from your old pal Steve Jobs don't cut in line with John Q. Public to get one. Not cool.

Touche

Touche, Touche. It's true, this article
is totally true. Very good argument.

Oh Steve. People are royally pissed at him over the whole iPhone price cut. But you know what? That happens, much more than you think. Take new cars. When they first come out the price is high and stays high for a while. GM is the worst at this. They introduce a vehicle and the price starts out high. Then, after the manufacturing and set-up costs are recouped to some degree, the price drops. The same goes for lots of products, not just cars and computers. Can you go back and return your car because someone else got a better price? No. Regardless of it being 'just business' it's still a dick move, especially when the iPhone was over priced to begin with. Way over priced. The iPhone advertising campaign was a truly successful exercise in the gullibility of people. Did they not think Apple would make changes? Typically the Apple method is to release a product 8x better to get you to buy UP for more money because it's a must-have. Here's an interesting analysis of Steve's rationale for dropping the price. It's kind of a feasible argument on why the price drop happened. The important thing to remember, though, is that Jobs wasn't the sole person who made the decision. He alone can't control the prices. There are many people behind the scenes that are in on the decision. Regardless, Jobs is a control freak with an ego the size of Texas. But he does deliver and he's passionate as anyone about what he does. Although this may be true, he's not the only one to blame in this fiasco, he's just the most visible perpetrator.

New Kit and Shit

It's been a while since I posted but as long as my last post was I figured I'd give everyone a chance to digest my words.
What's up with blogger? I can't post a picture. Sorry. It wouldn't let me do links or pictures last night either but I was using Safari. No one loves Safari I guess, not even blogger.
So the new iPods are out. I have to say the Touch iPod has won me over. It's everything the iPhone is but sans phone. I love it. What grabs me is the wi-fi. I love wi-fi, especially in small devices. Fucking stellar. Plus it has the iPhone interface? I'm sold. Where do I sign? I have to say the new Nanos are kind of weird. Jury's still out on that one. Same with the new Shuffle colors. yuck. What kills me is that the touch version won't even be out until the end of the month. The nano won't even be here until the weekend. I guess the anticipation gets the sales. Check out Fake Steve Jobs, he's got some funny shit about it.

Attack of the clones

Who remembers the Mac clones of the mid-90's? Oh those were the days. Here's a link to a history of one of the clone makers. Pretty interesting stuff. Apple begrudgingly make the call to license the OS as a last ditch effort to help save itself. It worked out OK as it gained them more market share but at the same time it diluted the brand (especially it's image) and confused consumers. What's interesting to note is Apple's market share in those days was about what it is today but it's coffers were nearly empty. The company nearly went under. The clone makers got the rug pulled out from under them as soon as Jobs returned as iCeo (that i is for interim) in '97. The first thing he did was pull the plug on the licensing deal. He was kind of sneaky about it, too. The clone makers were licensed only for System 7 versions of the OS. He used this loop hole to make the revised OS System 8 and that kind of took care of that. The licensing of the OS is always an issue with Apple fans. Some people believe that Apple did the right think by not licensing the OS early on, that it maintained the integrity of the brand and kept the quality of the products high. Others think it was a dumb mistake that let Windows come in and sweep up enough market share to become the standard. I go both ways on this. I do believe they kept product quality high by always being involved in the hardware step. That marriage of hardware and software makes sense and creates greater reliability. Apple's roots are in hardware so this all makes sense in terms of their philosophy.

However, the clone program was very successful. The clone mfrs. sold a lot of units and helped get more Macs, well Mac running computers, to the masses. Apple was careful to monitor the hardware end and everything seemed to work. Had Apple instigated a similar policy early on I think we would all be using Mac OS based computers instead of Windows. Microsoft saw the opportunity to make it big in software while Apple was stuck on hardware + software, thinking that's were the future would be. What Microsoft seized on, in a rather brilliant way in terms of marketing, was the need for unification and standards. This certainly led to some rather large compromises in the quality of the software and the PCs that it was married to. But Apple stuck to it's guns and continued making higher quality products that went against this grain. I think this was a great idea that resulted in fantastic products but the problem was they were charging way to much for them. Their profit margins hovered around 50% and that greed hurt when it came time to ship computers to the masses. Once Windows starting gaining huge volumes of market share with a Mac knockoff OS Apple sued declaring copyright infringement. A loophole in a contract made between John Sculley, Apples' early CEO, and Gates let Microsoft win that battle. What Apple should have done at that time was look at the reality of things. Microsoft is winning because they're using our ideas but putting them into cheaper machines. This is letting them become the standard as even the cheapest computer during this time is pretty expensive. So why not ramp up the same computers, or create a 'consumer computer' that is of the same quality as your lineup, and get millions out the door? Had Apple focused on this rather than being misguided on projects like the Newton and mismanaged by laurel resting attitudes we would all be using Macs and be far happier. And more productive.

YES!! I love Macs. I had to upgrade some software on our two G5's at work and after some initial problems (the company sent me the wrong FTP address) I got things all straightened out. I also needed to connect the two G5's so they could share files directly without a third computer (server) in the middle. Done and done. What a good feeling. Everything just worked. I think I'll go home and do the same so I can share my porn, I mean business files between my Macs. Maybe my server plan is closer than I thought.

Perspective

Here's a very interesting take on Apple's new Numbers program. From someone at Microsoft of all places! I guess it's from the Microsoft Business unit, the folks that make Office for Mac, so it's kind of expected that they have a more open mind. Man, I really want to get iWork '08!! If I hadn't blown all my money at Ikea this weekend I would. Stupid Ikea.

The author really hits on something I've believed for a very long time: Compatibility is what makes great software. The more compatible, the more useful and versatile. I think this really extends into the Mac vs. PC debate. If you can use it on both platforms then the real issues, such as reliability and hardware preference, can come out and that's really where the Mac wins. The two chief complaints of PC users are not being able to use a program on the Mac platform and the high cost of Mac hardware. If you eliminate the lack of use issue then the price premium for the hardware might be more appealing to people because you're not paying the high price plus the 'handicap' of not having all the software you want. Apple's definitely on track with the Intel chips because that's a start to cross platform compatibility. I don't expect Apple to be licensing their OS in the near future but I imagine that there will be more programs that can go between Mac and Windows platforms.

R.I.P AppleWorks

Appleworks has died. It's true. But with the new iWork offerings it's not surprising, especially with Numbers being added. I kind of like Appleworks still. It's something far different from Word but still does the same things. What I love most about it is the look. Since it hasn't been updated for like 10 years it feels like the old school Macs. Sweet. Even with all it's shortcomings it's better than it used to be. I remember the FIRST version. It fit on a 5.25" floppy. Oh those were the days. Godspeed AppleWorks. Enjoy your retirement in software heaven. You're still on my desktop.

Tolerance

Why is it that we set our standards so low for our computers? I was talking with a coworker and he just bought a laptop with Vista. He likes the laptop and the speed and went on about it. Then, almost as a side note, he tells me that Vista isn't so great, it randomly reboots once it's finished updating itself. Without warning. It just decides on it's own to close whatever you're working on and reboot. That's not a good feature. But it didn't seem to bother him. Or take the crazy errors we get from XP. I've been getting a VB script runtime error every time I log in for the last week. But we just go about our business, thinking it's normal. I tell you. But really we're kind of stuck because that's what the rest of the world uses. Kind of frustrating but what can you do? Oh I know, run a Mac! The only thing that prevents me from doing that at work is my need for Access. All of our research database stuff goes there and I can't get to it with a Mac. Otherwise I'd be all over it. I think Apple is needs to move towards more integration with Windows, only then will they gain more marketshare. They're on the right path with Boot Camp but I don't think running Windows on a Mac is the answer. Creating programs that are better than what Microsoft offers, that are 100% compatible will lead to greater sales. Only then will the common man see the premium price tag that Apple charges as worth it. In my opinion...

Hopefully the Free Software Foundation doesn't mind that I borrowed this pic from them. They want all digital things to be free, right? hehe. I guess that's why you can BUY their free software. Yes, you can BUY free software from them. Oh, I guess it's free in the open source sense, not price. But then why are they such proponents of 'free as in freedom'? Doesn't that mean without out price? Such contradictions. Check them out here.

iWork Upgrade is not happening

So I'm a little behind the times and just picked up a copy of iWork '06 2 weeks ago. Little did I know the new version was coming out!! Doh. I was at the university computer shop complaining about it to the guy who sold it to me and one of his cronies thought I could get a free upgrade if I purchased it in the last 30 days. Cool! I thought. So I called Apple and you can't get an upgrade from iWork '06 to '08. I have a feeling it's because it includes a new app, something they don't want to give away will nilly. But the good news is you CAN get an upgrade form iLife '06 to '08 if you bought it recently (2 weeks or 30 days depending on who you ask). So that's something you've got going for you.

Santa Claus is dead

Earlier this week the Fake Steve Jobs was unmasked as an editor at Forbes. This has completely ruined my enjoyment of the FSJ blog. It was funny thinking about some 30 something hipster impersonating Steve Jobs with his witty repertoire. Now we found out FSJ is some stuffy middle-aged fool. I've tried all week to enjoy the blog but now it's just not as fun. The writing doesn't seem as witty or free, especially now that the blog is published regularly in Forbes. That kills it right there. It's easy to fling insults and be funny when you're anonymous, there are no consequences. But now that he's outed and he has a 'sponsoring' publisher he needs to be more reserved. I can already see the change in the most recent posts. Above all I don't see why he had to admit who he was. Why not continue with the game? That would have been more fun. Oh well. I guess it is what it is. I just feel like someone pissed in my cheerios.

Dude, it's totally new and rad...Kind of

Well here it is in all it's glory. Not as substantial of a redesign as I expected but it's still pretty cool. Basically it's just a new skin, aluminum, instead of the clean room white plastic. There are technical improvements, faster processor, graphics card, more RAM capacity, but the look was what I expected to change the most. I have to say I'm slightly disappointed. It's more like a modification rather than a redesign. Oh well. The keyboard is way sweet! I can't wait to find out how much that costs. Hopefully not more thanthe $30 they charge for the pretty white one. I think the keyboard design was more substantial than the computer redesign New iLife and iWork too? Looks like I'll be blowing my load on new software this fall. I just bought iWork '06!!! I tell you. Speaking of iWork '06 I'll be posting my thoughts on that a little later. For now enjoy the new iMac.

iMac dujour

Tomorrow we should be seeing the new imacs. I bet the mini gets axed. It's just like a good soap opera, who will live, who will die, and who will be reinvented? There's a lot of speculation that they'll look like this but I don' t think so. It doesn't look hip and stylized enough. I'm guessing they start departing from the refrigerator white. I doubt they'll put an aluminum shell on it like the mac pro. That seems to be they're big distinction across groups. Maybe back to colors again? As long as it's not Bondi Blue I think we'll be OK. We'll see.

Mac Village

Here you go, make your own origami Mac. A good weekend project for those with nothing better to do. Also good for a friday afternoon work project if you know what I mean.

Helpful Tip

Everyone loves Macs but the problem is they're freakin' expensive. But if you're willing to live with a slightly older machine you can score one for fairly cheap at university/state surplus auctions. I went to one last weekend and I saw old graphite G4's going for less than $50. Granted, they were pretty stripped but that's still not a bad deal. I was able to score one (graphite G4) about 6 months ago and after putting a new hard drive in it, a video card, and some RAM I had lying around I was good to go. I think the machine was about $50, the hard drive $70 and the rest of the parts were free. So for $130 I've got a solid working Mac. Not bad at all. If you're into more vintage Apples you can go CRAZY. PowerPCs like the one pictured were flying out the door at the auction for $5-10. Old G3 Blue and Whites were going for like $20. I even saw an old Quadra server go for about the same. Also check out university computer shops. They typically sell Macs at the student discount price to the general public.

You get what you pay for

Well I had an interesting experience last night. I love iWeb and I was contemplating taking this blog in that direction. For those of you familiar with iWeb you'll know that's impossible as iWeb only allows you to do one site. But wait! This nifty freeware application, iWebsites, let's you run multiple iWeb sites. Nifty, huh? Well it turns out it's not so nifty. Or at least not so clear on how it works. Long story short, I ended up losing my entire website. You see, when you start up iWebsites it lists your new project and your old project. The only problem is it doesn't label your original project correctly (it says New or something). Since the panel came up with two new projects I deleted one as I didn't want to run two new projects, just one new one and my old one. Oops. That did it. So it looks like I'll be rebuilding my site from scratch. I'm also looking into other freeware web designing programs like nVu. I'll let you know how that goes. On the topic of freeware, another app that I found super useful is Speed Freak. If you run an older Mac with a PowerPC chip I highly recommend this app. It allows you to increase the amount of processor resources to the application running at the front (basically reprioritze your processor resources). I found it didn't run too well on my Mac Book Pro with Core Duo processor. It seemed like it just got confused and slowed it down. I'm guessing Speed Freak doesn't address both cores so you get a hang-up. I definitely notice a difference in my old AGP G4. Give it a shot!
PLEASE NOTE: No one asked me to post these programs, I did it on my own free will based on my personal experience.

Can I touch it?

No Steve, I was talking about the iPhone. Yes, I have seen the iPhone and it is good. It's much thinner and lighter than I thought it would be. The interface is just awesome. The finger touch scrolling is entertaining enough to keep you just running through all your options and applications rather than actually using them. The image quality of the screen is INCREDIBLE. Really like a high quality mini-lcd. I even watched some You Tube clips and it works great. The only problem I had was trying to type in web addresses. That wasn't so great. I can see why people have such a hard-on for this little thing but to be honest it's not something I really NEED. But here's a testament to Apple's marketing and design execution: My wife thinks we need one! That speaks volumes to the coolness of the product and design when someone who could care less about electronic toys wants one.

Hey Steve, what do you think about the iPhone?

What do you think of your iphone, Steve?
See what Woz has to say about the iPhone. On a previous post I said it was unfair he had to wait like everyone else. He co-founded Apple for crying out loud! This article clarifies that he CHOSE to get his own, waiting in line for hours and hours.
I just finished is biography. It wasn't bad but you could tell he had more motivation to do the project at the beginning. The first half is filled with long, detailed stories but after the halfway point he kind of hurries along and broadens the brush strokes. So much so that the ending was just completely thrown together in random order. But still good.

Job Satisfaction

This poor guy at the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit sounds pretty disgusted with the way things are going.
Is Microsoft that insecure about it's products? It has a chokehold of 95% of the market on operating systems, probably even higher for office productivity, and they're scared? That just sounds weird to me. They should be gloating and celebrating. Slaughtering fatted calves and goats. You know, getting happy. I guess it just goes to show that money, or in this case market share, doesn't make happiness.

The Old Days

Oh man! Who remembers the old Apple IIc? Sweet! I remember my family bought one, circa 1986. I thought it was so sweet. The case was really elegant and looked so high tech. I loved the sound of the 5.25" disk drive and it's startup chime. We pretty much just played games on it but man it was cool. We even had the color monitor. Not like this poor fucker with the monochrome. My parents still used that computer through 1999 or so. It was still working when they put it in the basement and it still works today. I pulled it out 2 months ago and it started right up!! Most of the disks still work but not all of them. Amazing. We even had the optional mouse. I remember going with my Dad to buy the whole package. I think it was like $1600 for the computer, color monitor, and mouse. The mouse was only good for Mouse Paint but that was worth it. I was captivated by that program. When I ran it again recently I thought the resolution was total crap. But considering how small the program was and the speed of the processor (a blazing 1 Mhz!!) it wasn't bad. The only downside to that machine growing up was that we didn't have a printer. We bought an ancient used Imagewriter from the local university computer store. It was pretty beat up but it worked. Sweet vintage technology. I always considered the IIc to be much superior to the IIe. I based that mostly on looks because the IIc looked so much classier. The IIgs was much better though. Cool.

Easy Mac

OK, no dice on the HAL 9000 but I will take one of these. I'm hungry.

Open the pod bay door HAL

I want a HAL 9000. Seriously, that would be so cool.

Poor Guy

Speaking of the Woz...
How do you co-found a company and then not have any pull to get the company's new products? What a dick move by Apple. Maybe Woz chose to get one on his own. I've read articles where he said he always pays retail for Apple products. Let's hope. Had it not been for Woz and his designs Apple would not exist. The caption to this picture said he was having fun so I guess it's cool. I wonder what his number is. He goes on in great detail in his biography how he always wanted to have an all one digit number. He finally got it, 888.8888 but he kept getting calls with no one on the other end. He speculates babies were calling him. hehe.

Lord Woz

I started reading the biography of Steve Wozniak, iWoz last week. It's pretty entertaining. It's written as an easy read and basically just has Wozniak recount stories from his past. He seems to brag a bit about some stuff but overall it's good. It's hard to believe that a guy that didn't even have a degree was able to design such a sweet computer as the Apple II. It took IBM, the world's biggest computer company years to come up with a competing product, and that wasn't even very good! Amazing. I guess when you love to do something it shows up in the quality of the product.

Still no go on the iMac server project. I rewired the power supply adapter 2x and it still won't work. The Mac repair guy suggested shorting pins 1 and 4 on the motherboard, where the programmer's switch attaches. That didn't work either. HMMMM...

Who wants it?

I believe Microsoft is trying to keep me down. Yes, it's all Bill Gates' fault! Last night the G3 iMac - Mac S/E 30 project should have hit paydirt but it didn't. I checked the wiring on my hacked up, homemade power harness and it's good. Plugged in the power supply, hit the programmers button and....NOTHING. But never fear. I think the problem may lie in the power supply. I'll try and test those out later. I might just sell the old Mac. Anyone? Anyone? Maybe I'll fix it. I think the wife would be happier with option one. So if anyone has any advice on what to check that'd be great. Maybe I need to sacrifice a virgin goat to Steve Jobs or something. Nah, then it would work, he'd steal my idea and claim it as it's own.

Dude, I'm calling you from my new iPhone...

What's that? It sounds just like a normal phone? You can't tell at all that it's an iPhone. You're sure?

This is how many people's conversations have gone this week. So after all the standing in line the idiots have realized that it wasn't necessary. They still haven't sold out of the first batch of iPhones and the wait time from the Apple site is only 2-4 weeks. Wah wah wah. In all honesty people should hold off on buying one. Everyone knows how Apple works. They come out with a great product then they come out with a new one that has 3x the features and make you feel so dumb and inferior for having the old version that you get guilted into buying the new one. It's true.
A lot of people are speculating if Apple will release the iPhone to other companies. I don't think so. That's part of Apple's marketing gag, the exclusivity of it. How can you feel extra special and cool if you can pick one up anywhere? Believe me, Apple will churn these puppies out with At&t and ONLY At&t for as long as possible. And at only $500 who can resist?

Oops

Oh this is hilarious! Poor guys PC dies in the middle of a presentation. Doh!
http://www.thinkswedish.com/#ContentHolder:feed=blog&Content:0=entries+1=entry+2=779

I'm Steve Jobs, but not the Original.

Man, this week is dragging on and on. It's like a bad dream that just won't end. I haven't slept well all week and it's starting to catch up with me. Plus crap at work is grinding on me. It's incredible to me how many petty personal issues come up among employees. We're all adults. Or maybe we're not, and that's the problem. And to top it all off, I have a burning case of athlete's foot. OUCH.

I found this hilarious website that you should check out. It's actually a blog by 'Steve Jobs', the fake Steve Jobs. Pretty good stuff. http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/
There's tons of stuff on their about the freakin idiots waiting in line for a week for a stupid iPhone. Seriously. Reminds me of a segment of the Jim Rome show I heard. This guy finally gets on the phone with Rome after waiting for 3 hours and says "Rome, it's great to be on the show, I've been waiting three hours to talk" to which Rome promptly resonds "you should only wait that long to talk to the Pope" and hangs up. Hilarious.
Legend has it Steve Wozniak used a similar joke on his original dial a joke line he manned in the '70's. He'd say, "I bet I can hang up faster than you" and hang up before the person even could process what he said. Kind of funny. Well I hope that brightens your day.