Tuesday, March 02, 2004
D.T.P. by Lee Is Now Officially Retired
The domain: dtpbylee.com
Born: January 30, 1999
Reborn as a blog: January 26, 2003
Laid to rest: March 2, 2004
The successor to this blog is Second Initial. Consider this message as confirmation that dtpbylee.com’s RSS feeds will no longer be updated. Please join me at the Second Initial and, by all means, feel free to interact via comments and occasional polls.
My dear readers, let not your browsing patterns be troubled. Ye believe in blogs, believe also in my ability to continue blogging. In ICANN’s house, there are still many unregistered domains. If it were not so, I would have told you. I have gone and registered a new domain for you. And now that I have gone and prepared that domain for you, I will blog again to receive your mouse click unto myself, that where I blog, there ye may read, also.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Mental Note, the Word “Countless” Equals 2.5
I really hate when people carelessly use adjectives that aren’t appropriate. A recent MacNN listing starts off, “Safari Extender 1.0 Adds Countless Features.”
I’m no professor of mathematics, but I easily counted a maximum of 14 features—specific tasks, to be exact. I would only count “Go Back” and “Go Forward” as one feature, not two. Regardless, this number should actually be even less because, of those 14, most of them are things you could already do without Safari Extender. The utility’s “claim to fame,” as it were, is just to let you access those functions from a popup menu (right click or control click). To be sure, Safari Extender technically only adds two features that Safari can’t already do, and it makes one existing Safari preference settings a bit easier to manipulate.
So it seems the word “countless” is now defined as two and a half!
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Monday, February 23, 2004
A hundred and thirty frickin’ bucks for a piece of metal!?
Save yourself an even hundred and buy this instead. I personally vouch for it and use mine 95% of the time I’m using my laptop—even when it’s on my desk.
Update: Fellow ATPM Staffer Chris Lawson reviewed this piece of junk and it should appear in the March issue. (Note, this link will not work until next month when the issue is published.)
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Friday, February 20, 2004
What’s a Titanium PowerBook G4 doing on a Microsoft.com page for a security summit event? What is the message here?
(MS cronies are sure to strip this photo when someone points out to them that it’s a Mac with the glowing Apple logo digitally removed so I have, naturally, captured an image of it for when that day comes.)
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Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Friends and family who know of my interest in Star Trek will undoubtedly be surprised to learn that I agree with Matt Roush. It is time to give the franchise a respite.
Read the full article for the best understanding, but if you’re hitting this entry late, TV Guide will probably have replaced the page with a new article, and I didn’t find any archives. So, here are some of the relevant points:
“After nearly 600 episodes since the franchise returned to TV in 1987 with The Next Generation, it’s only fair to admit we’re suffering from battle fatigue.”
Enterprise’s season 3 improvement “seems too little, too late. Even when the scenarios pull out the stops…they tend to have a recycled feel.”
“UPN hasn’t yet renewed Enterprise for next season, and it’s looking iffy…a mercy killing might be just the ticket. Extinction now could preserve Trek’s freshness for later.”
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There is obviously something irrevocably wrong with a short lakeside street I frequently use. It undergoes massive construction almost bi-annually.
The first closure was for something I was very appreciative of. They straightened out a dumb curve that served no purpose whatsoever. Two years later, the far end of the road was dug up for what I assume was utilities work.
Then, stuff started getting ridiculous. Three years later, the neighboring mall was building a brand new movie theater—a nice one at that. In an effort to route traffic better, the curve that had been straightened didn’t just return—it was actually made into an intersection that forces me to stop and take a right turn to continue on the same road. Going straight leads to the back side of the theater and continuing around to eventually reach the main highway 436 exit.
Thus, we reach last week, not yet a year after the theater opened, and we find that the entire portion of Crane’s Roost Blvd. that borders the lake has been barricaded and, as of this writing, has been completely scoured of its asphalt. I have no idea what is being planned, but what really bothered me was a sign posted at the point the road was blocked. The sign informed me that the road would be closed until June! I can’t imagine I’m going to like the result of anything that’s going to take four months to do.
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“There are times when we’re doubly pleased our office (and home) runs on Apple Macs, not Windows computers….” Because Microsoft dominates the market, it has “a duty to be better than everybody else, and it is failing in that duty.” [Australian IT]
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Saturday, February 07, 2004
Hey Apple Webmasters—You’re Slipping
What is it with Apple.com and broken links lately? After I finally picked up iLife ’04, I went to download the Playlist to DVD Applescript I previously blogged about, only to find the page doesn’t exist any more.
Then today, I was checking out Apple’s FireWire page and wanted to peek at their “special message” linked at the top about using FW800 drives with OS X. As we all remember, many people reported data loss on their drives when Panther first came out. Well, that page is gone, too.
What gives?
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Sunday, February 01, 2004
Wow. Only four seconds away from the first-ever overtime during a Superbowl. Congratulations, New England. Now, go away and roll the Survivor All Stars premiere.
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Even though this blog’s first anniversary was last Monday, it was in preparation of last year’s Superbowl that I launched it. Consequently, today has some amount of significance to this blog’s history, too.
The only problem is, I’m not anywhere near being “into” this year’s game. I don’t really care about either team and I’m not currently at any Superbowl party like before. I’m at home, just me, relaxing, and happy for it. I hope it’s an exciting game.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Ironically, the CGI issues I described in the prior entry had a part in causing me to forget to post (and would have prevented me from posting, if I had remembered) about last Monday being the first anniversary of D.T.P. by Lee’s life as a weblog. There’s just something about having passed the one-year blogging milestone that gives me the feeling that I’m serious about blogging and it’s not just a passing distraction.
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Monday, January 26, 2004
I’d always wanted to visit Splendid China. Unfortunately, it closed last month—permanently, it seems. So the best I’ll ever have are some photos taken from over the wall. Some friends actually jumped over and got a few more photos, but I wasn’t down with that and I waited in the “getaway car.” Hah. We also toured Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge which has a savanna-like zoo within the resort, and the Coronado Springs Resort where I got some great dusk shots of the sky and lake.
Sunday, a group of friends took an Amtrak train down to Kissimmee (yes, short trip, but it was fun) and rollerbladed around town. We even stopped to observe a group playing battle games dressed in full knight’s armor! Our lunch was extremely late—after 3pm—but it was very tasty. If you’re ever in Kissimmee, I highly recommend visiting Azteca’s Mexican restaurant.
Unfortunately, I seem to have taken too much sun. I think I may have endured the effects of a tiny bit of heat exhaustion when I woke up this morning. I’m still feeling kind of nasty, so I’m taking it easy today.
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Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Finally Attacked by the Unleashed Panther
It’s happened. I finally got around to upgrading my PowerBook to OS X 10.3. So sweet. The bugger was just that I had planned all along to try and clear up some problems (I think I succeeded) by cloning my Jaguar installation, initializing the drive, installing a fresh copy of Panther, and pulling in my old data while installing as many applications freshly as I could. That, in and of itself, wouldn’t be so bad except that I got into it late Tuesday evening. I got so wrapped up in the process, the hours raced by. Before I knew it, I realized I’d been up all night long! I had exactly 25 minutes to take a shower, get dressed, and meet someone at work! (Yeah, I was late).
So here I am, sleepless for just under 40 hours, and I’m fading, so I’m cutting this post shorter than I’d originally intended.
Panther rocks!!
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Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Nearly a year ago, I pointed out that I’d been seeing an increase in unmarked police vehicles. Sightings sort of dropped after that, but it’s picking back up again—one yesterday and two this evening driving home from dinner.
Watch your speed!
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I don’t know that I remember the last Expo that didn’t announce speed bumps to the Macintosh lineup. Interesting.
Anyway, here’s a paraphrased blow by blow and some thoughts.
At the beginning, His Steveness announced there were more than 60,000 viewers connected to the webcast with broadband, coming from more than 100 countries. That’s pretty impressive. I was, of course, one of them. In addition, the quality was undeniably amazing. I dropped out twice, but it didn’t take me long to reconnect. In the past, splotchy video and maybe a steady audio signal was about as much you could hope for.
Yes, I have safely stored away the “enhanced” 1984 ad. I’m not going to give away what they did, and I promise you it’s more fun if you look at it yourself and not just read about it from the plethora of news outlets that have told.
I’ve been reading reports that the Microsoft segment was the most boring part of the keynote, and this is probably true. But make no mistake, anyone who has to use spreadsheets is probably going to be very happy about Office 2004, and you don’t have to wait. Go ahead and pick up v.X now, and you’ll get the new version for free when it ships.
I wonder if Virginia Tech people are kicking themselves for not waiting to use G5 Xserves. Regardless, what they’ve accomplished is pretty damned impressive—third-fastest supercomputer for only a bit above $5 million.
Xserve Raid. 3.5 terabytes at $3.14 per gigabyte. ‘Nuff said!
Top iTunes customer has spent $29,500 and a 100,000 gift certificates have been sold since October. Any bets that this big spender bought the majority of those gift certificates and sold them to people who don’t have U.S. credit cards?
Billboard charts in iTunes—1949 to present. Hate me if you want, but I was totally deprived of 80s music. Looks like I’ll finally be able to build an 80s hit playlist pretty easily.
Regarding the 100 million songs being given away by Pepsi and Apple (look for the yellow-capped bottles), all I have to say is a repeat of how Steve left it. “Start drinkin’.”
I may have to give iPhoto another look. I’m a type that likes to know exactly what’s happening to my original files when I am cataloging them. I know that iTunes may rename my music files and organize them into artist and album name folders (yes, I like this setting), but the actual data in the file doesn’t get changed. For my pictures, I’ve thus far been content to simply create a folder in my Pictures folder, name that folder to match a subject, and copy my digital camera’s pictures in there. I create iView Media (free with Roxio Toast Titanium) indexes for each folder which I know only index the images and never actually changes them. Now then, iPhoto probably leaves the originals alone, too. Somehow, I managed to get the impression that there were cases where the original files might get resaved, and we all know you never want to open a JPG and resave it as a new JPG, replacing the file—especially if it’s your original copy. No, I don’t need anyone to chime in saying this or that. I’m just going to install the new iPhoto when I get my hands on it and give it a shot.
iMovie is just getting better and better. Finally, some decent-looking title effects. You can scrub audio on the timeline and trim clips nondestructively. You can import video directly from an iSight! Guess I don’t need GCam any more.
Twenty more free iDVD themes. Now, up to two hours of content per DVD!
What I perceive to have been the best-received announcement was the new iLife addition, GarageBand. While I, personally, am not likely to have much use for this application (I’m not a musician), it may be somewhat helpful if there are audio loops unique to GarageBand that aren’t found in Soundtrack. However, one of my best friends is coming along pretty well with his band, Ádamas. He desperately needs to purchase his own guitar and amp instead of using one that belongs to a colleague of his. I seriously wonder if a PowerBook with GarageBand and the Jam Pack addition (along with, of course, various needed audio/MIDI interfaces) might be something he should really consider. Sure, he could get an amp with speaker for less, But imagine the versatility of using GarageBand. The only worry I would have is whether it could be set up to be powerful enough. Ádamas has a pretty heavy sound.
Watch out, though, people like John Gruber are going to have a heydey with GarageBand. Not only has Apple rubbed against their own Human Interface Guidelines again by using a much darker brushed metal interface for GarageBand’s windows, but the sides of the main window sport a woodgrain look. Personally, I don’t complain much about HIG adherence or violations, and the effect is pretty cool on screen.
Steve’s One More Thing™ was, of course, the iPod Mini. I’m siding with Chris Breen on this one. “…the iPod Mini hints that much of Apple was on lunch break when the ‘Power Mac G4 Cube: Lessons Learned’ memo circulated.” I simply don’t get it. Sure, it’s smaller, but not that much smaller, and it’s only 4 gigabytes. Breen continues, “Let’s see, for $50 more, I can pack 3.7 times more music on my iPod and have access to a boatload of accessories compatible with the original iPod? Hmm, let me think about that…”
I thought the iPod Mini used flash ROM instead of a hard drive, but such is not the case. The $249 price tag might have been warranted if it was for something you didn’t have to worry about if it fell to a carpeted floor or you went jogging with it every day. But ATPM colleagues reminded me today that they were pretty sure the theoretical limit (sorry, I don’t remember the number, but it wasn’t astronomical) on how many times you could rewrite a flash ROM was still a barrier.
If that wasn’t enough, there was one more One More Thing™ to announce. It comes in colors. Again. I think this little perk would go over better if you could swap out the face covers like you can on many cell phones.
So there you have it. I’ll close by echoing Gruber’s question. What happened to iPhoto 3?
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Michael Tsai -- January 6, 2004 08:44 PMI don't think iPhoto recompresses your JPEGs (just as iTunes doesn't recompress your music), but neither does it let you choose the folder structure.
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Friday, January 02, 2004
Does anyone have a clue what this “Schwartz Settlement Refund” is all about? I’ve Googled all sorts of results of people saying they either received a check or a credit on their Citibank credit card statement for this or that amount—totaling well below a dollar for most individuals. Indeed, I received a 15¢ refund!
Comments: 9 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Jason Baker -- January 5, 2004 12:01 AMI too was in the dark about this (I received $.33). Here's a link about the class action lawsuit:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/09/national/printable548446.shtml
Posted by jennifer -- January 7, 2004 12:56 AMI am responding because I just received a credit on my citibank statement. I am doing a search at this very moment and will call citibank as well to investigate this.
Posted by Babe Somebody -- January 11, 2004 11:16 PMDon't bother, or don't believe them They don't tell the truth nor are they in compliance of the law. They are above it.
Posted by Iyone -- January 14, 2004 04:19 PMI have recieved the check for a settlement of $.15 with Citibank, I called citi and they said it wasn't anything. I asked a family member about it she said to call the people that gave me a settlement because they lie,(Citibank). They would lie to get extra money.
Posted by Steve -- January 17, 2004 08:17 AMI ws so excited about my $0.83 settlement I just received as a credit my my credit card bill. Now, my family can take that much needed and deserved family vacation. Heck, we just might go all out and go and see that big mouse down in Orlando. On a more serious note, I am glad someone is looking after those of us who are "paying the bills" in this country.
Posted by kindra -- January 18, 2004 04:01 AMIn the letter it states: "We estimate that the average finance charge refund would be less than $1.00 for each eligible cardmember. That estimate proved correct." but I bet out of the "cash" payment of approximately $9 million for attorneys fees and costs, their share was a bet more than my $0.24.
Posted by fioricet online -- February 17, 2004 10:57 AMblue plastic coffee
Posted by monie -- February 19, 2004 08:10 PMIt's a shame that Citibank was not fined more. I say they should have been made to clear every customer's account affected by the lawsuit. We should all have a zero balance with at least $1,000 dollars cash for our trouble! These large coporations make me sick! The nerve to send someone a fifteen cent check!
Posted by Milan -- February 23, 2004 03:50 PMHow many of you have actually received the refund? My wife’s account had (and still has) a $0.00 balance in November 2003 when she was notified that she was receiving a tiny refund. Subsequently, she was notified that on January 5, 2004 her refund was processed and she would be receiving a check for the amount. To date, no check has been received and two phone calls to Citibank (Feb. 11 and today) merely result in a runaround from them. Methinks Citibank is stealing back its ordered refunds through this non-activity regarding checks for refunds. In all likelihood, this is in violation of the court’s order.
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Thursday, December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas!!!
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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
A Little Advice for Windows Users
Winamp developers say, “It’s so fine, we skipped a number!” This, of course, is referring to today’s release of Winamp 5.0. It would probably be more realistic if they said, “Apple’s iTunes is at version 4 and we wanted to be ahead.”
The basic version of Winamp is free, but to rip a CD and burn at up to 48x will require shelling out $14.95 for the pro version. AAC encoding is touted as a feature of Winamp. The “pro” feature specifically refers to ripping MP3s, but I can’t believe ripping MP3s requires buying the pro version and ripping AACs would be free, so I’m assuming any and all ripping requires the pro version.
And this leads me to my advice—why pay fifteen bucks for a music manager when iTunes for Windows is free and lets you rip MP3 and AAC and lets you burn CDs at full speed? iTunes will also play Shoutcast broadcasts. Sure, maybe iTunes doesn’t deal with video like Winamp does, but that’s what Quicktime is for.
So, I put forth the question, pretending I was using a Windows machine (hah), why would I want Winamp instead of iTunes? (And don’t come back with an answer of skins and visualizations. Big whup!)
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Sunday, December 14, 2003
Have you ever once observed someone actually use a stack of napkins or a pile of condiment packets left behind by a previous customer in a fast food restaurant? Neither have I. So why do people leave them?
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Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Wow, has it really been a week since I’ve made an entry? Shameful. So, what’s been going on lately? I suppose much of the reason I’ve been less active on the blog is because I’ve been more active with my photo albums.
I was off work Thursday and Friday. Thursday, I and several friends did the Disney park-hopping thing and, yes, the photos are in the album.
The bigger news from the weekend pertains to my vehicle. You may remember in a prior blog entry and its follow up when I mentioned I had rented a Pontiac Vibe and hoped to soon own one. That day has come. I got mine this past weekend and I love it! I think the 2004 models corrected a couple of the minor issues I had with it. It’s pretty well loaded, too—sunroof (well, technically it’s called a moonroof), aluminum wheels, power everything except the seats, 4-wheel ABS, etc. I ended up with the same dark blue color I had rented before. I’ll put photos of it in the album when I get time to give it a proper photo session!
I do have another piece of news, but it’s still in the making and I should probably remain tight-lipped about it for now. I’ve already told a few of you who may be reading this, but I’ll say more about it here at a later time.
Anyway, if several days go by between posts you might do well to hop over to the photo albums and see if there’s anything new there. I usually spend the time to write fairly detailed captions for most photos, so it’s almost like a photoblog.
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Wednesday, December 03, 2003
TV censors apparently aren’t perfect. Not to imply that Christina Aguilera prancing around a stage on prime time television wearing her usual performance outfits is wholesome family viewing, but when she sang Fighter during the November 30 “Stripped in London” program on the WB network, did anyone else hear her say, “I remember all the shit you put me through…” without getting bleeped or muted?
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Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Some News Photo Editor Was Sloppy
I’m not generally inclined to blog something like one of Jay Leno’s “Headlines” bits, but one of ‘em struck a nerve, I guess.
The article was talking about how the new $20 bill redesign is causing some problems in automated machines that aren’t programmed to recognize them. Now then, we know good and well that either an older stock image from the newspaper’s library was pulled, or an underpaid and undercaring photographer was sent out with the assignment to get a shot of someone feeding a change machine with a $20 bill. In either case, I wouldn’t directly blame the photographer, but this goof was inexcusable for an editor.
The goof? The reasonably large (for a newspaper) color photo that showed the change machine also showed a placard on the machine that prominently reads: “$1, $5, and $10 bills only.”
I might have even forgiven this screw-up if it had happened 10 or more years ago, but we’re living in a time where an amateur Photoshop user could’ve remedied the error in about 60 seconds.
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Eric Blair -- November 25, 2003 12:46 AMI'd rather see if a goof like that then have stuff Photoshopped before it gets printed in a newspaper. It's a slippery slope between what's acceptable and what's not.
A few months ago a photographer taking pictures over in Iraq got whacked because it was discovered he "customized" a photo because he couldn't get the soldier and the refugees to line up "just right."
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Tuesday, November 11, 2003
Saying My Name Is Considered Secure!?
Am I the only one who thinks Walgreens’ Express Pay is a disaster waiting to happen? Suffice to say, if I ever fill a prescription at Walgreens (and I probably won’t, anyway), I’ll be paying with cash.
“Express Pay, the fastest way to pay. Walgreens can keep your credit card information on file at the pharmacy and will automatically charge it when you pick up your prescription. It’s especially convenient for parents of college students who are away from home or the elderly who have caretakers managing their medication.”What this short blurp from their web site fails to say actually is mentioned on the TV commercial—that you just give your name at the Rx counter, and you’re automatically charged for your prescription. Someone tell me exactly what prevents a desperate druggie (assuming he or she can walk in looking cool and collected) from walking in, saying they’re so-and-so, and walking out with someone else’s prescription without having spent a penny?
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Jon Gales -- November 11, 2003 02:00 PMThis is why you don't let druggies know where and when you get your prescriptions. It's marginally easier than stealing a credit card. And I woulnd't be surprised if you have to show ID.
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Sunday, November 02, 2003
Several people have made either audible or silent acknowledgments of my MAC-USER license plate. Until now, the remarks were pretty much either from friends who know me well enough, or from people around my apartment or in parking lots, asking what a Mac user is.
Saturday afternoon, I got what I believe was my first acknowledgment of a new variety. I was at a stop light and a car pulls up behind me. I don’t make a habit of staring back at trailing cars in my rear-view mirror, so it was a few seconds before my peripheral vision realized the occupants were making various motions with their arms. I looked in the mirror straight on and the driver was pointing down at the back of my car, grinning, then giving me the thumbs-up sign. I up-thumbed him back as the light turned green, and I continued home, enjoying that I have a new friend whose name I’ll never know, nor will I likely ever see again.
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Sunday, October 26, 2003
So what are you planning to do with the extra hour we gain tonight?
Comments: 2 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Jon Gales -- October 26, 2003 10:55 AMAn extra hour of work!
Posted by Raena -- October 27, 2003 04:25 PMHey, you took our extra hour!
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Friday, October 24, 2003
The organization I work for is currently combating a pretty significant financial crunch. It was brought about through no fault of any bad planning. It is completely a matter of several circumstances all happening at the same time. Each of the circumstances, individually, were predictable, but it was unfathomable that all of them would occur the same year.
I’m not awfully concerned. A very good plan of action is in effect. Things will, ultimately, be fine.
I’m seeing a huge point of irony, however. One of the points that came up to deal with the situation is that 50 full-time equivalents need to be cut. This, in no way, means they’re going to start laying people off. I am confident that won’t be happening. Instead, these cuts are intended to happen by attrition—in other words, as people transfer or retire or whatever, that position will be evaluated so as to either be taken up by an existing employee, or to determine if the functions handled by the former employee can be suspended for a few years.
What’s the irony? Our past president recently announced that he was not interested in continuing as president for another term (three years—and the stop/start point of that term occurred a few weeks ago). Yet, he wasn’t going anywhere, not retiring, not entertaining job offers from other places, etc. So what happens? A new VP position is created and he fills it—and we get a new president who actually came from Pennsylvania!
Don’t misunderstand me, the function of the past president’s new role is legitimate, and I can already tell that I really like our new president. However, it sure seems like a horrible example to set to tell all the employees that we intend to reduce our workforce by 50 FTEs while simultaneously adding a new position—a VP position, no less.
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Monday, October 20, 2003
I previously blogged that I was keeping an eye out for a desktop Macintosh to act as a local server and be a permanent home of my iTunes library. I’m pleased to announce that a 450MHz G4 will soon be in my hands.
Evan is ’da man. We were chatting the other night and I was telling him about my desire. He mentioned he had this tower that he’d planned to give his to his dad, but it would be kind of overkill for his needs, plus he’d need to buy a monitor/keyboard/mouse for it—all currently missing. We realized that I could buy his tower (I can use my existing peripherals via my KVM switch) and the price we agreed on we only be a little bit shy of the price for a new eMac that’ll be perfect for his dad.
In preparation, I’ve already transferred DNS management of my domain to No-IP.com. It’s been 24 hours and it should be pretty much in place now. Web, FTP, and mail functions still route back to my web/domain hosting service, and I defined a subdomain host for occasional use locally on my PowerBook, though I’m not yet running the IP auto-update client. Additionally, my digital photo album is currently using http://photos.dtpbylee.com/ even though the prior dtpbylee.redirectme.net still works. I’m still trying to come up with a clever, yet easy-to-verbally-give-out, new domain which will become my new blog (Daily Tales and Punditry will be retired), my new e-mail address for personal use (dtpbylee.com will remain for registrations, work-related stuff, etc.), and the address from which I’ll define a host for local file sharing purposes on the G4 tower that’s coming and will be the machine I run No-IP’s client to auto-update the DNS when my dynamic IP changes. Drop me a line if you have any domain suggestions.
By the way, I find no small amount of fascination in the fact that Evan, who has sold me his G4 tower, was also the one who sold his 500MHz G3 PowerBook (Pismo) to me three or so years ago—a machine which, as far as I know, is being used by a pastor for word processing, internet access, and PowerPoint presentations.
So, I’m looking forward to having what will essentially amount to my version of an iDisk with a space limitation of whatever size of hard drives I install, running my digital photo album locally rather than relying on a server run by a friend of mine, and having a slightly safer location for my permanent iTunes library that can be easily backed up to DVD-RAM discs and be played on my living room stereo at any time since I’ll be running a permanent audio cable from the tower to my sound system.
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Saturday, October 18, 2003
Comments: 2 (Comments are now closed.)
Posted by David Ozab -- October 19, 2003 01:33 AMAlmost as scary! Check out my new monitor:
http://www.ozab.net/mt/archives/000075.html (open in new window)
But it's hooked up to a G4 so . . . whew :o)
Posted by Raena -- October 19, 2003 02:55 AMMe: "Oy! What's with the beard? Oh hey, he's using a Dell."
HP produce nice monitors, david, you're absolved. ;)
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Thursday, October 16, 2003
Selling Sugar Water—But Not For Life
John Gruber suggests Steve Jobs isn’t remembering his own woo to John Sculley. What Gruber fails to point out, though, is that even though Steve is, in effect, pushing “sugar water,” he isn’t doing it “for the rest of his life.” There’s no harm in helping sales of someone else’s product to encourage more people to take a look at yours.
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Yeah, I know I’m stealing Apple’s message for my headline. Sue me.
Yes, I immediately downloaded Quicktime 6.4, iTunes 4.1, and the iPod Software Update v2.1. Honestly, I’m not currently seeing a whole lot different in iTunes 4.1, but I want to stay up to date. Many of the new features listed for iTunes were accessible with version 4.0.1.
The iPod Software Update, however, is a different matter. Of course, it includes the software to utilize Belkin’s new voice recorder accessory. I’m considering whether it would be useful to me. I can think of some times it would, but not sure if it’s often enough. What I’m more interested in is a stereo line level record module. I’d use that a lot. Better yet, how about a module with both a line level input and a mono mic combined into one unit? Then, of course, there’s also Belkin’s media reader accessory. I’ve read reports from people who think this device stole the show. I’m not so sure. The way you connect an iPod to it looks unwieldily. It would have made more sense if it were something that cradled the iPod a little better. Also, I have a 256mb picture card which I would be very hard-pressed to fill before I could offload the pictures to my computer—especially since my laptop accompanies me often times on my trips and vacations.
The iPod Software Update also included some functional changes that I am able to use now. First of all, the boot-up screen now sports a progress bar. You no longer have to wonder whether the reboot got hung up on the Apple logo screen. The battery/charge indicator has also been enhanced. Originally, there were just three bars that technically only indicated if the battery was nearly (or completely) full, somewhere between perhaps 1/4 and 3/4 full, or nearly drained. Now, the indicator can apparently show the amount of charge in LCD pixel increments. It may only be accurate to 10% increments or so, but this is a huge improvement. A new game has also been added—Music Quiz. You get a list a several songs that are on your iPod and then a clip from somewhere in the middle of one of the songs is played. You then have to select which song is playing. The faster you select, the more points for that round. Obviously, being intimately familiar with all your music is a big help to play this game.
Naturally, the biggest news was that iTunes 4.1 is also available for Windows 2000 and XP. According to what I read, Apple had commanded about 70% of the legal music download market up to today. To hell with what nay-sayers think about Apple coming up with a Windows version too late and that competitors have had their service out for a little while—Apple is going to own the digital music market. Period. That 70% was built from only the tiny number of Mac users compared to PC users. Even if only a fraction of Windows users latch solidly onto iTunes, I can’t see that any other service has a prayer of catching up.
In related news, Apple has allied with AOL. This means that all 25 million AOL members now automatically have iTunes Music Store accounts. Their credit/payment information is already on file with AOL, so all they have to do is log in. Make no mistake, I abhor AOL. But even I admit—this is big. Very big.
Also big is the promotion Apple got into with Pepsi. Hey, if you drink Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, or Sierra Mist and don’t care much about this music stuff, be sure to peek at your bottle caps. 300 million caps are part of the promotion and 100 million of them are worth a free iTunes download. That means, if you get a bottle that’s among those which are part of the promotion, there’s a 1 in 3 chance it’s a winner. You can’t get odds that good anywhere else. If a winning cap doesn’t do you any good, I’ll gladly accept it on your behalf! :-p
It makes perfect sense that iTunes Music Store customers should be able to access and purchase audiobooks without having to set up a separate Audible.com account. Unless you want to use the monthly subscription service, you can now buy audiobooks a la carte with your existing iTunes Music Store account.
That pretty well wraps it up. I’ll sign out by mentioning that Apple has sold 13 million tracks and, unless I’m mistaken, were hoping to sell 100 million songs within one year—which will be April 2004. Steve, keep adding new music and don’t piss off those Windows and AOL users, and I think you’ll reach your goal well before April!UPDATE: I forgot to mention two other new features of the Music Store—gift certificates and parental allowances. Gift certificates are self explanatory. Allowances is a great concept. Parents can create an account for their children with, of course, control of how much is spent. At any time, they can decide when and how much their child can spend to buy music. Once they set it up, the child logs in and has a credit on their account and can buy music up until that credit is gone.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Thursday, October 09, 2003
You’re right. There hasn’t been much blog activity the past little while. I’ve done massive amounts of overtime in the last two weeks.
Things I’ve recently taken notice of include the following:
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)
- The Adobe Creative Suite, meaning that I’ll probably finally be making the jump from Pagemaker to InDesign, as well as no longer having to migrate my distilled PDFs over to the PC to finish them. Heretofore, I’ve only had a PC version of the full Acrobat software (now known as Acrobat Pro) at work. The best part is the cost—upgrading to Adobe CS Premium is only $750, something my office’s treasurer will be happy about.
- Speaking of the treasurer, he showed no signs of being nonplussed over the $1,300 price tag I estimated to upgrade my machine to OS X, upgrade to the latest Adobe software, and acquire a smattering of other items I’d need to make the permanent transition from OS 9 to OS X.
- MacRumors reported a feature that was described on Apple’s web site, but has since been removed. At first, I was very intrigued, but I think, now, that it wouldn’t be a huge deal to me. Sure, knowing FileVault is there when I upgrade to Panther sounds great. The feature to be able to sync my entire ~/Home/ folder to an iPod sounded like it would be very handy. That was before I remembered I keep a pretty full Home folder. Indeed, mine’s 25 gigabytes right now, and I have 9.25 gigabytes of music on my 30 gigabyte iPod. Besides, I use a PowerBook instead of a desktop. My Home folder is frequently within easy access anyway.
- Say hello to California’s governor-elect, “Ah-nold” Schwarzenegger. Please, curb your enthusiasm.
- I’m thinking I’d like to acquire a used Power Mac tower—as inexpensively as possible, of course. Something like a 500MHz G4 would be cool, but a 400 or 450MHz Blue & White G3 would get the job done. Anyone have any leads? Here’s what I want it for:
- Local web/FTP/Apple file sharing/etc. server I can leave running 24/7.
- New home for iTunes library. I’d like to free the space on my laptop and I would have a nice big hard drive in the tower to house my music. Naturally, I’ll run its sound out to my stereo. Besides, being often that both my iPod and my laptop travel with me, it seems kind of redundant (and less safe) to have my only two copies of all my music frequently in close proximity.
- A place to perform a quickie e-mail check or web page lookup when my laptop is packed up and I’m not inclined to dig it out.
• • •
Sunday, October 05, 2003
My, my, where the time goes. I’ve been at my office kinda late most days this week trying to finish a newsletter. I’m liable to be late tomorrow night, too. I hope my blog doesn’t turn into a weekend-only update thing!
Yesterday was quite eventful. I was out on the trail with a friend of mine. He was rollerblading and I was biking. On the way back, he decided to be energetic and jump over this metal grate-like plate in the sidewalk—probably covering some utilities access. Mind you, he’s an excellent rollerblader. He has skills. He has never fallen before when it wasn’t someone else’s fault.
Those skills were temporarily absent for this particular stunt. He didn’t land it right, at all. At first, it just seemed as though he fell backwards and landed sitting down. He got right back up and we kept going around a corner. That’s when he decided to check out his arm which was hurting. He took off his wrist brace and…woo…there was absolutely no question his arm had broken. The guard sort of did it’s job and protected his wrist. The break was basically right where the top edge of the guard stopped.
Ouch.
He managed to make it back to the car and I drove him to the ER, then went to his house to grab a change of clothes for him so he could get out of the sweaty stuff he was wearing. After that, there was little use of me hanging around, so I did some errands, got dinner, and came home. He finally called around 10pm (mind you, the accident happened maybe around 6 or so) to say they were just then giving him a painkiller shot so they could set the bone back into place. I came over to keep company, and it was midnight or later before the doctor had done his job and put on a temporary splint. We figured I could take him home shortly after, but the painkiller was causing nausea and we were told it likely wouldn’t wear off for another couple hours. So he stayed there and napped and I went home and slept ‘til 6am when he called and was able to walk.
A bit more driving and a trip to CVS to fill his prescriptions, and it’s 7:30am, I got back home, and went back to bed, only to be called 2.5 hours later in regard to equipment needs (which I’m responsible for) at an event next weekend. One hour, and a couple e-mails later, here I am typing an entry, and I need to wrap it up because I have to drive to south Orlando to pick up a few items once some meetings get finished there at noon. I suppose this afternoon is just going to be hanging out with friends—perhaps a movie.
Yep, this entry is very live-journal-ish. Sue me.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Friday, September 26, 2003
I’m relatively lucky that weekends are, more often than not, mine to do with as I please.
Thus, it feels quite disruptive to be realizing the full scope of the series of weekends I’m in the middle of now.
9-14-03—freelance desktop publishing for a job similar to one I did for the same person last year and will make a sincere effort to not agree to do again.
9-21-03—more of the prior weekend, and I haven’t even quantified the amount of weekday evenings I’ve also spent on it.
9-27-03—my brother is on a work trip over here in Florida. He has some down time and I may drive to Cocoa to meet up with him and perhaps go through the Kennedy Space Center.
9-28-03—will be responsible for audio/visual at huge business meeting (which happens only every three years) and involves, uhm, I’m going to use the words “customers” and “clients” so as not to violate my separation-of-work-and-blog rule. At least the auditorium has Wi-Fi.
10-2-03 through 10-5-03—more audio/visual responsibilities at yet another work-related event. I nearly had to take photos at still another event going on this same weekend up above Gainesville (or, even worse, do both of these, but I nipped the north Florida trip in the bud).
10-10-03 through 10-12-03—annual convention related to my field of work. The event is in a different part of the U.S. every year, but is, thankfully, here in Orlando this time.
10-19-03—finally a bit of a break and hopefully will be with friends at one or more of the Disney parks.
10-25-03—monthly sound board obligation in Tampa (though I my day last month was taken by someone else…bless him).
So, if anyone ends up with any cognitive dissonance about what I’m spending my normally free time doing, just read this post again and then go to your room!
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Friday, September 19, 2003
Has anyone else noticed that, in some cases, the original version of songs are not available on the iTunes Music Store—only the “radio/clean” versions? Take Missy Elliott’s “Under Construction” album, for example. You can purchase the entire clean version or any individual track. But the original (a.k.a. explicit) version only has some of the tracks available. “Work It” has a text message that says “Album Only” instead of the “Buy Now” button, which I don’t understand because I don’t see an option to purchase the entire album. Additionally, the equally popular “Gossip Folks” isn’t even on the list.
I have to believe that we have the record label to thank and not Apple, since the Music Store has not, shown a tendency to not make the unedited versions of songs available…hence the fact that you even see “Explicit” and “Clean” tags on tracks.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Monday, September 15, 2003
Dumb dumb dumb.
Why my gang chose to go to one of the Pointe Orlando night life venues on a Sunday evening to play pool and (for a couple people—not me!) dance ’til after midnight is completely beyond me. I’m at work today, but I’m dragging—big time.
It’s been kind of a whirlwind since Thursday night. Originally thinking Survivor 7 started last week, I was at my friends’ house anyway and we watched The Core. We were just chillin’ so late, it was nearly 3am before I went to bed.
I overslept Friday (big surprise) and just did some work Friday afternoon after our office had closed (yeah, we’re out at noon on Fridays) but most of the afternoon was spent in my apartment complex pool with several of my pals. I hate going there by myself, so I always try to encourage them to come over. It’s more fun—especially when we decide to do something wacky like grabbing a disposable camera for some wild and goofy shots underwater. If you’re ever looking for a good long laugh and have some friends who aren’t camera shy, this is one way to do it. (I’m still debating whether to put the pictures online—my gang may not like me too much! *laff* We all look like nerds! So, maybe I could just say, you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine! Fair enough?) Anyhow, the day finished with a trip to see Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
Saturday was pretty lazy. After some of the ladies of the gang went to see a college football game, all of us hooked up at Friday’s for dinner.
The majority of my Sunday was spent on a personal project I’m doing for a colleague—all the while missing the day at the beach my friends spent. :-( And that brings us to the dumb (but fun) late night last night.
What a weekend, huh?
Anyhow, during that weekend, an image burned into my retinas and it stings! Naturally, I have to share. While pulling into a parking space at home, I observed a man pulling items out of the back of a U-Haul trailer. He was a very heavy-set man. It was a fairly warm day. The man was bending over at the waist to reach whatever he was trying to retrieve, revealing a long sweat line—right down the seam of his pants over his butt crack! ACK! It gets better—he then took a step back and revealed the dampness branched off in both directions down both legs! Nastiness.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
I’ve known of lots of people offering punditry about the fact that they share the same name as a popular road. I even have a friend whose mother and aunt have streets named after them because my friend’s grandfather was a general contractor for the houses built along those two streets and he named them after his daughters.
Even though I didn’t have a thing to do with the coincidence, how cool is it that I have a street corner sporting both my given and my family name? Yes, I know this photo is a bit icky. It was taken a long time ago and saved as a poor quality GIF file. Eventually I’ll go there and take a new photo.
Because I know I have some skeptic readers and because of the quality of the picture, I’ll cater to anyone who wants proof by suggesting they simply go to MapQuest and type “bennett ave at lee road” in the street name search box, “winter park” in the city, and “fl” as the state.
Oops, I just realized MapQuest shows Lee Road only as the State Road number—423. Fine then, here’s a Florida D.O.T. page showing the revised interstate exit numbers. Down near the bottom of this I-4 page, next to old exit 46/new exit 88, you’ll see SR 423 identified as Lee Road.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Sunday, August 31, 2003
So I’m now on my trip to Washington state and got checked into our hotel last night. Fully prepared to plug into the phone line to get online, I quickly realized that I was getting a good quality signal from someone’s wireless access point! I don’t know where it’s coming from, but the only guess my friend, Jeff, and I have is that it’s the hotel office. My room is practically next door to the office and the signal is full strength. Jeff’s room is at the opposite end of the wing and he can’t pick it up at all.
Suffice to say, I’m pretty happy.
We’ll be taking day trips this week and I’ll get pictures on my album soon. Stay tuned.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Friday, August 29, 2003
It’s nearly 1:30am. I’m waiting for my dryer to finish so I can complete my packing. I’m headed to Washington state for a while. Yes, the PowerBook is coming along.
For some odd reason, I clicked to this MacSlash posting which was somewhat interesting, but not especially so.
What I did find amusing was the two comments (the second was a follow-up by the same person).
“Al Gore is on the Board of Directors for Apple. The U.S. Military just switched Army.mil to Mac OS X for security reasons. The various recent Windows worms have caused an estimated loss of 1 billion dollars in business revenue. Windows has been acknowledged to be full of security holes and “wide open” default configurations. Need I go on? It just occurred to me that one of Al Gore’s ‘accomplishments’ in office was to improve the U.S. government’s purchasing system—primarily in regard to technology purchases. Maybe hiring Al wasn’t such a bad idea.”
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Has anyone named the phenomenon where, the day or two before you leave for a vacation, you get rushed by people at work with all sorts of quickie requests to do this or that—people who swear they didn’t know you were leaving?
I left the office at 8pm today. Tomorrow is technically my first day of vacation and I planned to spend it packing and doing laundry, yet I already know I’ve got to spend about an hour at the office. You can rest assured, though, that it won’t be before 11am.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
“They Paved Paradise, and Put Up a Parking Lot”
Back when I was attending Andrews Univeristy, the student newspaper once carried someone’s cartoon poking fun at the plethora of sidewalks that snake across the campus. One character is seen telling another character that these sidewalks make it easier to get from place to place. The second character has a drop-jaw expression as he gazes at all the sidewalks that twist before him.
Obviously, the drawings of the sidewalks were an exaggeration, and I completely understood the joke at the time. I did not, however, completely understand the scope of the joke until last night, when I found myself looking at an aerial photo of the AU campus from MapQuest.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Sunday, August 24, 2003
What an utterly lazy day.
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Saturday, August 23, 2003
…a Sling Pack and an i-Trac.
UPDATE: w00t! A Sling Pack is on its way to me! I’d love to share the events leading to my acquisition, but it’s probably in the best interest to sit on that information for the moment. I mean, it probably doesn’t matter, but I’m leaning on the side of caution. I’ll tell you all about it when the dust settles.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Friday, August 22, 2003
Wow—central Florida is probably seeing just about the most intense thunderstorm I’ve seen in a long time. It’s pretty wicked.
With my various heavy-duty UPS devices, I’m not really inclined to unplug stuff yet, though I don’t have very many items turned on right now. My PowerBook is, of course, what I’m most concerned about.
It’s wonderful to simply unplug the power cable and keep on doing my thing using a Wi-Fi connection, knowing it’s 100% impossible for the lightning to damage my computer right now.
HAH—as if in total defiance, a huge bolt just struck nearby right after I typed the previous sentence!
Bring it on, mother nature!!!
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Another Reason Why I Hate Windows
“None of us are infected/sending the messages. I think it’s about time to call a few friends still knee-deep in tech support and brag about the Mac :).” [I ♥ Mena]
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
President Arnold Schwarzenegger?
“As Arnold Schwarzenegger launches his political career, it’s worth recalling a scene from the film Demolition Man, which takes place in the year 2026. As Sandra Bullock[’s character] attempts to bring Sylvester Stallone[’s character] up to speed on what has happened in the world in the last 30 years, she refers to the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library.”
Stallone: “Hold it! The Schwarzenegger Library?”
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Bullock: “Yes, the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Wasn’t he an actor?”
Stallone: “Stop! He was President?”
Bullock: “Yes. Even though he was not born in this country, his popularity at the time caused the 61st Amendment.”• • •
Sunday, August 17, 2003
To follow up my entry about seeing Mission: Space at EPCOT, never mind on the pictures. there honestly wasn’t much to take pictures of. The web site shows the exterior, the waiting area had a moon rover (who hasn’t seen that) and a full-size mockup of a rotating space habitat that generates artificial gravity. If you want to see that in action, just watch 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As for the spoilers—what the ride consists of is a surprisingly large mechanism in a circular room. The whole thing has, I believe, 10 simulator pods on arms which all spin around the center section. When it gets going fast enough, you get the sensation of a couple of Gs pressing on you. The illusion that you are experiencing a vertical take off is pretty neat. There is the slight sensation that you are spinning, but it is slight. You’ve seen or been inside those rides that put you in a big cabin on hydraulics that lean the cabin back and forth and point the cabin as far upward as it can to simulate acceleration? EPCOT’s new ride simulates the acceleration with substantially more realism.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
“I think Macs threaten the livelihood of IT staffs. If you recommend purchasing a computer that requires only half the support of the machine it is replacing, aren’t you putting your job in danger?” [I, Cringely | The Pulpit]
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Saturday, August 16, 2003
I’m headed to EPCOT tomorrow with a friend of mine to check out the brand-new Mission: Space pavilion that opened yesterday. It’s nice to be able to choose to whiz off to a Ratland park, making use of a seasonal pass. I’ll have photos and spoilers posted later. Stay tuned.
(Not that you really care, but yes, I’ve intentionally backtimed this post to 10:30pm Saturday, even though I’m actually typing it after 1am on Sunday. That’s because I’d fully intended to make this entry at 10:30 and couldn’t because my web host was completely DOA for about 2 hours—web, e-mail, everything.)
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Interesting Idea. Would It Work?
Suppose—just suppose—a conglomerate like Sony or Disney (anyone but Time Warner!) bought Apple and did for it what BMW did for the Mini.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
I officially dislike Persian food served at such establishments as Ali Baba’s Exotic Cuisine Gallery (yes, that’s its name).
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
C’mon, MS—Make Existing Customers Happy
(A bonus, faintly related topic is included at the end of this post.)
“[Microsoft] is cutting the price of the standard version of Office for the Mac by $100, to $399. In addition, the company is introducing a ‘professional’ version of Mac Office v.X that sells for $499 and includes the company’s Virtual PC software for running Windows programs as well as the needed license for Windows XP professional. Microsoft acquired Virtual PC when it bought the assets of Connectix earlier this year.” [News.com]
Okay, naturally I don’t expect Microsoft to send VPC to existing Mac Office users who paid $499 for the product—even if they bought it very recently. But suppose there was a discounted price for VPC offered to current Office v.X owners? Say, $100? Tell me that wouldn’t convince a lot of people who’ve been “thinking about” buying VPC to go ahead and do it. I probably would. It certainly would translate to a lot more sales of VPC and, in the end, would probably mean more profit for MS. Maybe not. I’m clueless on how all that works. Supply and demand. If a product is cheaper, you generally sell more of it. If balanced properly, you can make more money by selling a product for less.
Now for the bonus topic. Microsoft’s web search engine bites the BIG one.
I went to look up the current price of VPC 6 for Mac ($219 for XP Home and $249 for XP Pro) and typed “virtual pc” in the search box on MS’s front page. I was presented with a generic search page with absolutely no indication any search was performed. Indeed, further tests revealed that it doesn’t matter what the hell you type in there. You get the same “let’s do a search” page every time—even leaving the box on the front page blank.
Undaunted, I typed “virtual pc” again on the “real” search page and actually got a list of links. Below the small section of related hits for “Downloads” was the larger “Product Information” section I wanted. The very first hit was “Virtual PC for Mac Information Page.” So, I click it. “Sorry, there is no Microsoft.com web page matching your request.”
??!!!??!!????
Feeling rather daunted at this point, I finally realized that Virtual PC is right there, easily accessible, directly off the Mactopia site and I got the information I wanted.
But jeez!!
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by chris -- August 13, 2003 12:41 PMAnd this shocks you that something from Microsoft really sucks?
;-)• • •
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Free Advertising Opportunity Lost
I think someone at Apple legal dropped the ball.
I’m sitting here tonight watching the Travel Channel’s Anatomy of a Shark Bite program. One hour and 45 minutes into the 2-hour program and I’ve seen Apple’s G5 commercial four times. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I saw it one more time in the last round of commercials.
But I’m getting an extreme sense of irony that some scientists are using what is obviously an Apple iBook to play back DVDs of footage to several shark bite victims. One shot blatantly revealed the use of OS X and Apple’s DVD Player application. The iBook logo is even visible at the bottom of the display. Yet, when the camera swung around for a shot from the back of the computer to see the faces of the people, the glowing Apple logo was very conspicuously covered with a piece of black gaffer’s tape.
If Apple is spending the money to run their G5 ad several times during a show, it seems like it would’ve made sense to bolster the value with a little freebie advertising by not making the producers cover their trademark logo! In today’s age of commercial-skipping features, product placement is key!
Not that I’m any more of an advertising fan than most people—I just found the juxtaposition (or lack, thereof) amusing.
Comments: 2 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Eric Blair -- August 11, 2003 12:32 AMAre you sure it was Apple who made them cover up the logo on the iBook? My understanding is the logos on products used in TV shows are typically covered unless the maker of said product pays for a product placement.
I assume this is laregely to keep from pissing off those who actually did pay for a placement - in the age of ad skipping, networks are always looking for ways to make more money.
Posted by Lee Bennett -- August 11, 2003 12:42 AMYeah, I know this is probably the case. I was just commenting on the irony.
• • •
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
All right, all right, I finally got around to writing mine. If you’re completely nongeek, a decoder is available.
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GCC/O d-(++) s: a C++(+++) U@ P+ L E(----) W+++>$ N+ o? K? w(---) O- M+>++>$ V? PS(+) PE? Y+(-) PGP- t+(++) 5++ X-() R-(*) tv++@ b-(+) DI++ D G>++ e++ h(+) r->++ !y+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------This entry reveals my code at this particular point in history. The code block is also found on my About Me page and that will be the one I update, as needed.
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Seems like every time something good happens or I find out some good information, something else later in the day always offsets it.
While it’s been on the calendar since the beginning of the year, it just occurred to me today that my office is closed both Friday and Monday surrounding the Labor Day weekend—not just Monday. This means I can start the vacation I’d already planned a day sooner, plus count two fewer days against my vacation bank. I sort of let that perk carry me through the day (with my work load, yes, stuff like that is a perk).
It would not, however, carry me all day. Even though I basically never cook, I still try to find reasonably healthy stuff. Sometimes, though, I’m just too rushed or needing something too convenient and tonight (for the first time in more than two weeks, I promise) I went through McDonald’s. After having to wait 4-5 minutes because they’d just started cooking a new batch of fries (at least they tasted good when I finally got them), I got out on the street and looked at the hamburger. Not only was the bun almost hard as a rock, but one pickle that was poking out the side of it had turned into about the same texture as a potato chip!
That I had to go back and get an order fixed wasn’t what pissed me. That some brain-dead employee actually served the thing, did.
Anyway, completely off topic—seen as I was typing this—Apple sighting: kid with iPod in an Ethan Allen Kids commercial. (Too bad the Yahoo! site I just linked here only generically refers to it as “an MP3 player.”
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Sue -- August 6, 2003 10:29 AMI drove through a McD's once, got all the way home, opened the wrapping on the burger - moldy bun, cold burger. So I went all the way back and made the manager look at it. The immediately gave me another one. I opened it up at the counter - again MOLDY. I asked for the bag of buns to be thrown out, - DUH! - a whole NEW order (fries were cold at this point), and my money back. They obliged and then gave me the wrong size fries. Again, I was back at the counter. They were so happy to see me leave that night! I just couldn't believe the obsurdity of the whole thing. McDonald's was never my favorite anyway, so I haven't gone back to one since.
• • •
Taco Bell has sort of a contest like thing going on. Its tagline is “Drink Big, Win Gas.”
Naturally, we all know it means that game pieces to win a supply of gasoline are found on large and extra large drinks, but we’re talking about (usually) carbonated beverages very often joined by pinto beans swirling around in your stomach.
I’m thinking “Drink Big, Get Gas” is more accurate.
Hey! That means everyone will be a winner!
Comments: 0 (Comments are now closed.)• • •
Sunday, August 03, 2003
“Wired has the scoop on a prototype fridge from a Swedish company that includes the ability for cell phone users to request an image of its contents via MMS. No matter how lazy you think we are, don’t expect this to make it to market soon.” [MobileTracker]
Even if this doesn’t reach the market at all, just the notion that someone thought of it proves humans are getting way too lazy.
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Saturday, August 02, 2003
Ever notice when you ask for a couple packets of ketchup or some other condiment at a restaurant, you’ve given about a gazillion of them, but when you ask for napkins, you get one—two if you’re lucky?
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Jon Gales -- August 2, 2003 09:22 PMYou wouldn't need more than 2 if they didn't give you so many of those damn packets :P
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Monday, July 28, 2003
After some short research (trust me, not much was necessary) on other PVR devices like the TiVo and ReplayTV, this afternoon I stopped by my Brighthouse cable TV office and swapped my digital cable box for the new one that does digital recording. Since I’m a Bright House customer, I didn’t have to buy a multi-hundred-dollar piece of hardware and, at just $6/month, the monthly charge is considerably less expensive than the other services.
I love it! I thought the feature was just recently introduced, but it’s apparently been available for some months. Its dual tuner allows recording of two shows simultaneously. A caveat is that I can’t record two things and watch a third without recording, but at least I can watch something I previously recorded while still recording two other programs. And I can even start watching something I’m recording before it’s finished!
Almost as if it were a bonus, the newer cable box has been improved from the prior one. I couldn’t guess whether it’s hardware- or software-related, but the on-screen navigation is much snappier. Plus, when I scan far enough ahead in future programs that it has to take a moment to load the data, not only is that data available sooner, but it no longer blacks out the reduced-size picture and sound of what’s currently on air during that time.
I’ve looked at other PVRs longingly but the cost just kept turning me off.
I’m truly going to enjoy this one!
UPDATE 1: Cool! When a digital recording is paused, you can advance it frame by frame by pressing the forward skip button.
UPDATE 2: More coolness. While looking up more information about the actual box (it’s made by Scientific Atlanta), I found this FAQ item about dumping a digital recording to a VCR:
The best solution is coming soon via a future software release. The option to copy a DVR recording to VCR tape will be added to the Recorded Program Options screen, the Playback Status screen, and the Playback Ended screen. The second set of composite outputs labeled VCR OUT 2 on the Explorer 8000 back panel will be activated for this feature. You will then be able to copy a DVR recording to a VCR at any time without affecting what the two tuners are doing. In other words, if both tuners are recording or time-shifting a program, you will be able to copy a recording to VCR at the same time. You’ll also be able to copy a recording to VCR while playing back another DVR recording. This software release is due out later in the year.Continuing down the same FAQ list, I also discovered something Bright House didn’t tell me (not that I really expected them to), nor is it found in the “barely a manual” manual. I can program the remote to turn on several of my AV devices with just one button. Yes, unlike the prior digital cable boxes that Time Warner advised is best to just leave turned on, these PVR boxes are best turned off when not in use. I suspect this has something to do with not wearing out stuff to record live TV for time shifting while you’re away. The developers were even intelligent enough to allow the user a choice of which devices are turned on. For example, I programmed mine to only power on/off the cable box, the television, and my DVD/audio amplifier component. I don’t imagine I’ll be using my VCR very often any more, so I left it on an individual on/off setting.
Since this isn’t in the manual, and I may or may not be able to find the info online someday down the road if I ever have to change it again, I’m reprinting it here—not because I think you (the reader) cares, but for my own archival purposes.
On the remote, press 9 9 8. The CBL key blinks twice. Then, press a digit for the power button to affect the corresponding devices:
- Cable box and TV.
- Cable box, TV, and VCR.
- Cable box, TV, VCR, and auxiliary device.
- Cable box, TV, and auxiliary device.
- Restore independent power control.
Still more neat functionality I just discovered while typing this entry (which is in the remote’s manual) is the ability to set the default device the volume and mute buttons control when the remote is targeting the cable box. It’s defaulted to the TV, but my TV is only used as a monitor—not for sound. I have a Sony mini home theater device that integrates my DVD player and is also the audio amplifier and surround sound decoder. So, I’m quite happy that I no longer have to hit the AUX button to change the volume.
Comments: 1 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Sean -- September 30, 2003 11:34 PMIt only adds 6 dollars to your Brighthouse bill if you're an existing customer? If so, I'm on my way there tomorrow.
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At least he’s using the right hardware.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2003
“All I want is a couple days off!”
And, thankfully, I’m getting ’em. A much needed break is headed my way Monday and Tuesday. Note that I’m not calling it a long weekend because I do have to be at a workshop my department is putting on this Sunday. It’ll be about four hours plus some setup and tear-down time.
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Sincere Flattery In the Form of Imitation Is Well and Good, but This Is Ridiculous
I’m so glad to see a lot of people pooh-poohing BuyMusic.com. It’s far too obvious that it’s an iTunes Music Store rip off and, like the all-in-one Gateway computers that took on the LCD iMac, the copycats got the concept right but totally missed the boat in spirit and implementation.
Jon has a great list of (counter)points. Included in his punditry are things like errors in the site’s HTML coding, the 79-cent price tag apparently is only the cost of tracks by lesser-known artists, cover art images are 404ing, nebulous DRM, the television ads that are completely begging for a suit from Apple Computer, Inc., and the really scary choice of Windows Media Player format instead of a codec written by a less monopolistic company.
Spymac has pointed to a few sites that are also badmouthing BuyMusic.com. “Ten Reasons Why BuyMusic.com Sucks, [TheMacMind], The Good, the Bad, the Stupid of BuyMusic.com, [LowEndMac], and Latest Music Download Developments, [Applelinks].”
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Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Okay, I’m very confused. PC Magazine said:
“Manufacturers are trying to push ever-larger LCD monitors into the mainstream, and it looks as if 21 inches is the next frontier. Samsung is preparing to roll out the Samsung SyncMaster 213T, which will deliver a 21.3-inch viewing area, 1,600-by-1,200 native resolution, dual analog and digital inputs, an ultranarrow bezel design, and pivot technology for both portrait and landscape viewing.”Maybe the “push…into the mainstream” is the key phrase here. Admittedly, large LCDs aren’t mainstream, but this blurb sort of reads as if Samsung is leading out in the production of this size flat panel. Exqueeze me, but Apple’s been hawking its most excellent 23" Cinema Display for a while, and there are large LCD displays offered by other companies, too, such as BenQ and ViewSonic.
The blurb, above, feels a bit misleading.
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Tuesday, July 15, 2003
As If Admitting It Makes It All Better?
Pptttt! Hey Phillip Morris corporate buttmunches—we’ll believe you when you put your money where your mouth is. Close down your tobacco production sites for good and perhaps we can take your admissions seriously.
“We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers. Smokers are far more likely to develop serious diseases, like lung cancer, than non-smokers. There is no ‘safe’ cigarette.
“We agree with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking is addictive. It can be very difficult to quit smoking, but this should not deter smokers who want to quit from trying to do so.” [Phillip Morris]
Comments: 2 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by Thomas Noe -- July 15, 2003 09:19 PMJust curious if you want alcohol companies to shutdown as well?
Or any other company that makes something bad for your health.
Tobacco companies have been scummy, no doubt, but they are not alone in making products that can kill. People know what they're getting into (now).
Posted by Jon Gales -- July 15, 2003 10:39 PMIt's as American as you can get. As long as they aren't lying about it and saying it's good for you, there is no problem.
Red meat and fat is bad for you too.
I think it's horrible that the gov't is making them run ads against their own business. That is NOT American. Do the beef people run ads for Tofu? Oreos for salad? Nuclear energy for hydrogen? Nah. We all know smoking is bad. Enough with the ads.
</libertarian>
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Monday, July 14, 2003
So just as I’m starting to think I should just jump ship and start using QuarkXPress now that it’s OS X-native, a colleague stands in my office today singing InDesign’s praises. The biggest clincher—native support for layered Photoshop files! I’d die to have this capability. Thus, I guess I’m back to holding out for InDesign 3.
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Friday, July 11, 2003
All comments beleaguering me about turning another year older today will be summarily ignored.
However, exemptions will be granted to the owners of those comments that are accompanied by something fun to play with. This, of course, means the exemptions are limited to those who have a means of delivering a physical object to me!
Comments: 3 (Comments are now closed.)Posted by chris -- July 11, 2003 02:58 PM:P
Happy Birthday, bro. I'll join you in the 33 line in 4 months, 22 days...
Posted by Michael -- July 11, 2003 07:39 PMHappy birthday, Lee.
Posted by Jon Gales -- July 11, 2003 07:59 PMHey look at the bright side... You're not twice my age. Enjoy all the wisdom age brings :).
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Wednesday, July 09, 2003
A PocketDock looks to be the perfect solution for the proprietary FireWire connector on the bottom of the latest iPods. But wait a tic. $16.95?? Sure, this thing enables you to use all your old accessories with 6-pin connectors, but I’m thinking about what is possibly a large number of people who’d simply like to use the standard 6-pin to 6-pin cables they already have. Why pay 17 bucks for an adapter when Apple’s own cable with the proper connector is just three bucks more—and you won’t have potential issues with making proper contact. Everyone knows that even though adapters are important, the fewer you use, the better (and, think about it, a cable itself technically is an adapter).
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Tuesday, July 08, 2003
My Adobe Admiration Is Fading, Along With Premiere for Mac
Good gravy train; could it actually be that I’m starting to lose my respect for Adobe? Granted, Photoshop is a killer application and will remain to be so for a long time. I’ve gotten glimpses of Photoshop 8 which is going to be a boon for video editors. (I was going to include links to various sites’ screen shots, but Adobe’s legal department has been busy demanding removal.) Regardless, let’s recap a little of Adobe’s most recent history.
Pagemaker was repositioned as a business tool instead of a professional page layout tool. No, they didn’t strip features—they just “said so.” I imagine Pagemaker users, like myself, who thought they had embraced a professional product, started feeling pretty insulted to be using a tool that was suddenly reclassified as just a business product.
Thus, to use Adobe’s “professional” tool, you now have to use InDesign. But “Indy” has, so far, failed to attract the straggling QuarkXPress users. These users were so great in number that Apple Computer was actually feeling some pressure to rescind/delay its decision last year that all new Mac models released starting January this year would not be able to boot up in OS 9.
Indeed, I’ve been holding out for version 3 of “Indy,” which has yet to receive much press coverage. However, after having had to actually work a few pages in QuarkXPress 4 a couple months ago, and with version 6 now available and finally OS X-native, I’m terribly tempted to switch over.
Additionally, there is a lot of mixed opinion whether Illustrator or FreeHand is the better illustration tool. Admittedly, I’m biased to FreeHand because I learned it in school, so it’s the one I prefer. “Illy” always frustrates me every time I have to do something with it and I’m glad to see there’s a sufficiently large camp who, like me, prefer FreeHand.
Then, there’s Premiere. The latest news about Adobe’s video editing package is what prompted this blog entry in the first place. This week’s issue of TidBITS reported that Adobe’s latest version of the 12-year-old application, Premiere Pro, will be shipping in August, but that it will not be available for Macintosh!
After having just barely cut my teeth on higher end video editing two years ago on Premiere for Windows (I didn’t have the Mac version at that time) and even more so last year (both Windows and Mac), I had made the decision to use Final Cut Pro 3 for this year’s round of video vignettes thanks to some heavy-duty (and appreciated) coaxing by my friend, Andy. If you’ve been reading my blog a while, you already know how glad I am to be using Final Cut instead of Premiere and that I’ll never go back.
Well, with the Mac version of Premiere apparently being officially killed off, my response is, “good riddance.”
The TidBITS blurb says, “Presumably, Adobe has decided it’s no longer worth their time and effort to compete with Apple’s extensive line of digital video applications (primarily the recently revamped Final Cut Pro [4], but also Final Cut Express, iMovie, iDVD, and iDVD Studio Pro) on a platform also controlled by Apple.”
By the way, I didn’t make the typo, above. TidBITS either goofed or they chose not to correct (nor point out) Adobe’s error in referring to DVD Studio Pro as iDVD Studio Pro.
But that quote isn’t the kicker. TidBITS’ final sentence is what had me laughing my ass off. “Current Premiere users may wish to migrate to the Windows platform, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Apple were to offer a competitive upgrade to Final Cut Pro.”
:-D
The reason I’m laughing is not so much that TidBITS and/or Adobe would tout platform migration as a solution, but because it is not possible (unless the capability was added to Premiere Pro) to convert Premiere projects from one platform to another—at least not easily. Trust me, before I started using Final Cut Pro and was still using Premiere 6 on my Mac while a coworker had the same version on his XP machine, we attempted some sample project conversions—
Go you!