‘Genius Bar at the Southpoint Apple Store’ that is…
My Airport card has been acting funky. It started out a few months ago where the card would just randomly stop and then randomly pick up service again. Then about 2 or 3 weeks ago, it would pretty much stay dead all the time. So, now I am using a test card to see if I lose service at all. So far, all is good and I will probably just get a new card while I am here.
Went ahead and decided to take a look at the iSight as well… Quite impressive. It is very small and very impressive as far as accessories go.
So, up until Monday I was very happy with Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) with the occasional minor annoyance. Well, now that I have seen the WWDC keynote, it is just an exercise in frustration knowing what I am missing that will be in Panther (10.3).
I know it shouldn’t be. The OS didn’t get any less useful overnight, but I just so want those new features 
Mail.app threading and Fast User Switching top my list. Hopefully I can keep myself occupied and forget that I only have 6 months or less 
Where to start when considering this year’s WWDC? There were some amazing announcements this afternoon. Unfortunately, I was unable to see the broadcast of the keynote at the Southpoint Apple Store and had to watch live text updates through web pages and an iChat group chat. Between the G5, Panther, iSight, XCode, etc. I don’t even know where to start. So, I am going to do a simple little list:
- G5: Can I ‘woohoo’? This thing looks amazing both inside and out and it isn’t that horrible considering the fact that it is a 64-bit CPU, 1 Gigahertz Front Side Bus, 8GB Max Memory, and so on
- Panther: There has been a lot of discussion about whether this update is worth $129. I personally can’t see any reason NOT to buy it with the incremental UI changes, the likely under the hood improvements, and the fact that it has ‘Fast User Switching’ which I think will be a godsend in my household
- iSight and iChat AV: Really cool, but not exactly what I wanted. I was really hoping for the ability to use iChat with a Jabber server, but I guess that is really only a geek thing. I have tried out audio conferencing and it was quite smooth and easy, but that was on a lan. I am already planning on buying an iSight and would love to try out audio conferencing with someone over the internet. If you want to chat, e-mail me.
- XCode: I wasn’t originally that impressed by the mention of XCode, but now that I have gotten a chance to see the demo on the webcast, I have changed my tune. I love the on the fly compiling and the
real-time relinking of code so that changes can be test on the fly. Now if I can ever take the time to learn native Objective C/Cocoa development on the Mac
Anyway, just my brief thoughts…
Published on
June 22, 2003 in
Music.
Tags: rant.
No, not the band Garbage, who I am quite fond of…
I am referring to the fact that some bands are refusing to sell their music online with iTunes Music Service due to the fact that purchasing of individual songs is allowed. The Billboard article gives a little more detail, but in the end the bands say they are worried that their artistic work built in the form of an album will become history…
I can understand their concern, but like it or not they are in the business of selling themselves, their music, their art. From an artistic standpoint, I would not want my creation ripped apart either. Each song can be a piece of art and the way in which they flow on an album could be considered a collective piece of art. However, from the consumer perspective, I don’t particularly care if they like the fact that I can buy a single or not. Unfortunately, many musical acts today may have one or two good songs and then the rest of the album is crap. This is the business of the music industry today. Hook the customer, get them to buy a CD only to find out that they just got a one-hit wonder.
Many bands don’t come out with great music, they simply hit on one really good song in their career. After all, coming up with memorable, well written, well played music is truly an art and should be revered as such. Everyone else is either struggling to get to that point or just trying to stuff their pockets as fast as they can…
NetNewsWire has a new release out and it just keeps getting better and better. There is now a combined view that allows you to see headlines and excerpts within the same window and LiveJournal support has been added.
I use NetNewsWire for posting to my blog and the Live Preview feature really makes for a nice feature. If you aren’t at least using NetNewsWire Lite, you really should give it a try.
For the rest of June, NetNewsWire is on sale for $29.95. That is what I paid and I do consider it money well spent. Brent really has done a great job writing this app.
Heather and I went to see the Hulk tonight after a nice dinner at Crazy Fire.
The Hulk – 3 out of 4 stars
I really enjoyed this movie. It was a little long and some scenes seemed to drag a little, but it really was fun. Interestingly enough I enjoyed the first 3/4 of the film the best and the final action sequences the least. Ang Lee used a lot of transitions that many will say were overdone, but really gave the movie the feel of watching a filmed real life comic book. If you’re really cost conscious and only like to pay for the best films then see this one at a matinee or the dollar movies, but if you want a fun popcorn movie that actually has somewhat of a brain beneath the surface then it is definitely enjoyable.
On to a negative note, there were a few groups of teenagers that kept roaming in and out of the theater and making quite a bit of noise. Numerous people in the theater would complain to them without any change. The staff tried to make them stop, but never asked them to leave which I see as a mistake. I know I am an old fuddy-duddy, but if you have a group that is ruining the theater experience for the rest of us then KICK THEM OUT
T-R-O-G-D-O-R … … the Burninator … …
Some M.I.T. students created a tribute to Trogdor at the MIT List Visual Arts Center on April Fools Day 2003. The included link has pictures of the exhibit which was constructed of Post-It Notes and includes a poster entitled “Trogdor in the Raw – A Post-It Tribute”.
Gotta love people with a good sense of humor and too much time on their hands 
If you read my previous post about Sprint PCS and my new Sanyo 8100, then you probably are wondering, is Bill really still happy with his new phone or has the wonder worn off? All I can say is yes, the phone still rocks. However, I do have a dilemma…
For those of you who don’t know me personally, I guess I could be considered cautious, paranoid, uhm… I’m sure there are some less kind terms I could use I realize this and have grown to accept my own personal foibles. I have gone through four, maybe 5 cases for my new phone in the following order:
- Sprint OEM Sanyo Holster
- Radio Shack Leather Case
- Body Glove Scuba Cellsuit
- Sprint OEM Leather Case
From this experience, I have learned that all cases that enclose the phone while you use it simply suck… They aren’t comfortable for me. Now, the Holster was perfect if you are willing to put aside a single flaw. The phone could occasionally pop out of the holster if you turned the wrong way while bending down, getting out of a low riding car, etc. However, it functioned great for the most part. I had it for 2 weeks and 2 falls to the floor before returning it and beginning my buying odyssey. Now, I have come full circle and decided that even with it’s flaws, it’s worth it.
I have been looking at Sprint Insurance Replacement to guard against future damage and that presents an interesting choice:
$4 per month + $35 deductible + Functionally similar replacement phone (usually a refurb).
For a single fully destructive fall after one year would cost $83 and I might not even get a Sanyo 8100, but that is unlikely. Sucks, when the phone only costs $200 to begin with If any of you have any suggestions outside of “get over it!”, I would love to hear them
I finally have fully gotten rid of my Verizon Wireless cell service. Not that it was all bad… The coverage in this area was fairly good and the customer service reps were quite nice. However, after having quite a few months in the last 2 years filled with billing errors, I just couldn’t stick around.
As I mentioned previously, I have now switched back to Sprint PCS and have gotten on their Vision plan. For an ‘net junkie like me this really fits the bill…
So, you may notice that I have been making some changes to the layout of my little blog. I am toying with color schemes and other exciting things behind the scenes, but I really am not sure what I want to do yet. I do like having the content on the left as people notice information on the left hand side of the screen more readily, but I don’t know about any other visual changes.
If you have any thoughts, please let me know, but I would like to keep things simple and clean. However, the all white layout is starting to get on my nerves
