Hardware refresh.


I just updated my computer. The previous primary cpu was a 12" laptop, 1.5 ghz PPC chip. 1.25 gig of RAM. 80 gig drive. All plugged into a 23" Cinema Display. I got all that  at a great deal when I was working for Apple three years ago. Right before the first time I tried to quit that job.

The new guy is a MacBook. Specs are to the right. I got the biggest built-in drive I could (from Apple),  250 gig. The built-in display is 13". One noteworthy thing that I've not seen mentioned elsewhere is that there's no non-Apple software bundled, aside from a demo version of Mac Office. The old laptop came with some serious software free-love. These days, not so much. I'm not sure who changed their minds, I'd guess it was Apple.

I've used a laptop as my primary computer for at least 10 years. I like the flexibility of having everything in one place, all the time. I've always backed up my data in a way to protect against laptop loss. I've never had a laptop die on me. (knocking on wood...)

The biggest change as I moved from the old system is the new MacOS - Leopard. I wrote about it a bit, after upgrading Molly's MacBook. (not quite so juiced, thank you very much.)

Leopard is great. The combination of a faster computer and and an OS written to take better advantage of that power is a joy to experience. A lot of the time you'll find yourself with software that is a little ahead of the hardware. i.e., it's pokey. (and I'm Gumby). So far, that's not the case with Leopard.  Everything is  just faster. And so far, everything works. (I'm keeping the previous laptop around.  It's the Mac I'll use when I need to run a Classic app.)

There are (literally) hundreds of new features or enhancements. I'm using Time Machine for backup. Haven't tried to restore yet, but so far it looks painless. Spotlight is finally useful. In the old mac I'd get the spod almost every time I used Spotlight. Now it's fast enough to use as a launcher, so I can retire the interesting, but always flaky, QuickSilver.

iChat is improved, allowing me to retire the amusing, but flaky Adium. (Open a Console window with Adium running...)

So far, so good. I'm liking the new setup. Now, all I have to do is quit exploring and start working and I'll benefit from the productivity boost.

New Blog

It should be obvious why I'm reading this guy.
The Red LeBaron
You know those stick figures that people glue to the back windows of their cars, showing their family? Dad, Mom, Little Bobby, Scruffy and Bubbles?

They’re much less saccharine if you think of them as “kills.”

Gimme more hits

The single largest source of hits to any of my domains, from Google, is from this search: Pippi Longstocking. My niece is the 9th image.

In a gratuitous effort to drive more traffic to this site, here's the image, again.



Shameless, I know.

Update: Hah, with Safe Search off, Pippi and I are #1. :-) I need to add ads; we could put the dear girl through college.

Why the transparent menu bar in Leopard was a bad idea.

I got Molly the Leopard update Friday night. It wasn't the most stress-free update, but it worked on the 2nd attempt. That a four month old MacBook would require two attempts to update reflects rather poorly on software that was gestating two years. It should have been painless. But that's another post.

The thing that some folks seem to dislike is the transparent menu bar. In my brief run with it, it doesn't bother me that much, but it does present one of those 'what where they thinking' moments that you get used to with Apple. (Closing the iPhone to developers was the previous WWTT moment, and like that one, I think the menus will get fixed).

Molly, inadvertently, gave me a nice test case, to make the point, that transparent menu bars can lead to goofyness. I say inadvertent, because Molly was just being Molly. She finds cute desktop graphics in the tubesphere.

Here's her desktop:


Notice the black borders? When she was running Tiger, the menu bar was the end of the picture. Now, under Leopard, she gets this goofy look:


It just looks sloppy.

Can something be both new and improved?

Just found this grammar blog:
Imagine, if you will, that I am a purveyor of tasty snacks. Tasty as they are, I decide to improve the recipe with which my snacks are created. When I sit down to design the packaging I decide to put the phrase "NEW, IMPROVED RECIPE!" all over it.

Aside from the glaring error of using capitalised type, I find myself with another quandary: can my recipe be both new and improved at the same time?

Hardee Har

I was writing a blog post about how I hate to fly. During a web search for how stupid the TSA is I ran across Stephen Colbert filling in for Maureen Dowd on the NYTimes site. He's funny, I'm not, so go read it. Sample:
Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

News From The Home Front

For those of you who haven't heard, which is basically the non-family-member readers of this blog, my eldest sister has been diagnosed with a serious case of lung cancer. She began treatment last Thursday. She gets to do the whole cycle, radiation and chemo. The oncologist is confident in his tools, explaining that drugs are getting better almost daily. The center whose team she is using seems to be on top of things.

For those of you developing an anecdotal statistical analysis of lung cancer, my sister never smoked.

While clearly aware of the gravity of things, my sister continues to use the word "awesome" to describe much her life. She's an active member of a church community and they are rallying. There's a mailing list to keep family and friends in the loop. I'm hopeful she'll be able to focus on being well and will be able to count on her friends for the day-to-day stuff.

I'm glad I'm self-employed; it's given me the flexibility to go to some of her appointments.

In the life goes on category, I'm in Memphis next week for the 4D conference. At this point, it'll be a pleasant distraction.