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?