Psystar: My First Visit

Back on 4-20 I was thinking about visiting Psystar's offices to discuss the Mac clone. Psystar is a short drive from my house. I'm sure they're scammers, but I want to see for myself. So today, I figured I'd drive by.

First a few words. Their claims have been met by skepticism on all fronts. They claim to be a company that has just moved. Their new address was wrong. Many people claimed the new address doesn't exist on mapping software. I'll get to that in a moment.

Everything about them is suspicious and I'll skip all of that because it's documented everywhere. First, they are in a nice building -- many photos are on the web. Today's Sunday and most companies are closed. Psystar's lot was full of crappy-looking cars -- not the sign of a successful company -- but their neighbour company was open: cottonImages, so perhaps the cars were theirs. The main doors were closed and the company did not appear to be open for business and the door is silk-screened "not open to the public."

I mention this only because it is a shared building. One building, two tenants. Their door graphics were done by the same company, obviously. And it looks like despite Psystar's claims, they've been there awhile. On the Psystar side, the bay doors were closed. A blue ocean container was blocking one of the doors.

This brief visit did not instill confidence. However the address is valid and has been valid for years. Some map software may not show it because it's a gated complex. That means by shutting a gate, the entire complex is closed off and there is no public access. Those criticizing because the address is invalid are just blowing smoke.

I'll report more, but sometimes you just have a bad feeling. This is one such time. (This is my opinion and perhaps my facts are wrong.)

4-28-08 Update: I've got some links of interest. This link from ZDNet has photos of the Psystar offices and some commentary that is semi-positive. More upsetting is this link from Gizmodo which shows some of the old "offices" but what concerns me is the last paragraph. If you want to see the registration for Psystar on the state's website, it's here.

Lost Explained, Plumbers, Travertine Marble, and Macs

There have been so many theories on LOST, I've lost track. This one which I found via Stumble-Upon today is absolutely stellar. It works. Makes sense. It's a very long post so make sure you have time to read and think. It's got some holes but I really, really, like this one.

Today, the plumber came to fix the ballcock on my guest bathroom toilet. Actually he replaced the whole mechanism because it had a small leak. I only mention this because it's not often you get to say ballcock when there's not a dirty joke involved. I wish I could work in a badminton reference and say shuttlecock. I can't. So I won't say shuttlecock.

My shower work is done. My three day semi-expensive job turned into a ten day long ordeal. However, the old shower was ripped out. The leaky shower-pan was replaced -- and a good thing because it was developing a mould collection. The new shower has authentic travertine marble tiling. I like it except for the light fixture (which I'll replace) and the door (too short for my tastes). I am pleased, though. I missed being in my bathroom because it was just weird being the guest bathroom for so long.

My new Mac is chugging along nicely except for the firewire issue. What firewire issue you may ask. Well let me tell you then :) An edited version of what I sent to Apple's Engineering Department:

I thought it was just me having problems but then I've since had other friends with similar problems. We have a technology provider that deals directly with Apple an I spoke the Apple Rep. A few days later they called back and confirmed there ARE problems on a wide scale and they're "checking into the cause but are leaning towards the monitor having faulty hardware."

Now, on to the nitty-gritty. This bug manifests itself as follows.

To rule out other issues, ALL OTHER EXTERNAL DEVICES BOTH USB AND FIREWIRE (except mouse and keyboard obviously) were removed from the chain: CPU, Monitor, Hubs, everything.

This problem is specifically related to the 23" new cinema display and the firewire port/hub built in to the new Intel 2x4core3.2ghz. This machine is about a week old as is the monitor. Hot off the press. All external devices were previously plugged into a dual-core G5 with similar specifications and functioned normally.

What happened is that if you plug the monitor into the rear firewire ports an external firewire HD (800 or 400) will eventually overload the system and disable the entire firewire bus on ALL ports. I tried two different external firewire drives (on the 400 and 800 ports in front and back of the machine with NOTHING plugged into the monitor but the monitor plugged into the machine's rear port (tried both ports). I also tried various cables.

Apparently the internals of the machine have one shared bus and even though the system is powered it can't handle an external drive. The drive in question is one of the 1-TB Western Digitals (I'm not using their drivers -- just the default Apple stuff).

When you access the external drive and open it, you get the root directory for that drive, but then when you open a folder the drive over-spins and then powers down. Checking in System Profiler shows that the Firewire Bus cannot be read. All firewire devices stop working. You must POWER DOWN THE SYSTEM to recover. Moving down to 400 didn't help.

I tried this with two different Firewire Drives. Happily the data was not too badly damaged by the unexpected power down. DiskWarrior to the rescue.

At first I thought I had an isolated incident with my specific machine or monitor being bad which is when I slowly begin trying to isolate it by removing equipment from the equation. (I have firewire external Sony AIT, iOmega ZIP, Memorex DVD+RW drives in addition to the HD. Since USB is unaffected I left those out of the equation and unplugged).

So after narrowing it down to the monitor and hard drive, I went to Google (gotta love Google because it knows everything) and typed the error message about the bus being unreadable. There are *TONS* of matches and everyone is having firewire bus problems but nobody has apparently isolated it yet. But it's my observation and gut feeling that there is an endemic problem with the monitor's firewire using too much power from the machine *OR* the machine's firewire bus is insufficiently powered. The fact that it powered down the drive and rendered the bus dead supports this hypothesis. (Or, more likely, a combination of an issue between the Mac and the monitor.)

This information is VERY good and solid and tested carefully. It's not perfectly tested but Apple ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY has an issue. The hard drive worked fine on my G5 Mac (2x2ghz) in the same FW800 port with ALL the above devices attached. That rules out the machine handily.

Continued testing causes repeated bus power downs and will continue to damage my hard drive which is why I don't want to keep testing my drive.

It's some sport of an electrical issue with bus power over your firewire chain. I suspect that with all those ports on the machine plus the monitor added in, the stress is too much and it gives up.

I will, shortly, have a lot more Mac hardware for sale including (possibly) a Cinema Display, a Dual Processor G5, and more. Contact me for details.

Eight Cores of Bliss

I have on my desk a 3.2ghz dual quad core Xeon MacPro running Leopard* 10.5.1 with 2gb of RAM and a total of 2TB of hard drive space (around 1/2 full already, thanks) plus dual SuperDrives and Airport and Bluetooth.

The switch has been painful as all hell. I didn't realize I could boot back into 10.4.11 which was my original plan. That created some issues with stuff that doesn't work with 10.5. I'm slowly working around them. My lack of access to Claris Resolve files will continue to be a pain because 10.5 cannot access OS9 and neither can Intel Machines. I am working on a solution.

The upgrade from Adobe CS2 to CS3 was a real chore since the transfer process didn't go smoothly. Three freaking hours, dammit. It gave me something to do whilst the contractors tore apart my shower (which will continue for the next week) to fix the shower pan.

Tomorrow I shall probably put one hard drive back in the original Mac so it works. That dual 2ghz G5 shall be on sale soon for interested parties. Still pretty damned fast.

Had dinner with Erin. Called Jose who was distracted and Tom after that. Discussed new mobile phone purchase that is pending. Just trying to get the iSync stuff up to date before I do that.







* Blech

The Near Death of My Mac

Okay, it didn't really die, but I got quite the scare. Actually, I got the first EVER hard crash of my Mac. I've never even seen this happen before on ANY of my Macs. It's more impressive than the chimes of death (which I have seen on an old Mac in the shop many years ago).

The Mac's been on all day -- since about nine this morning. Unusual but not unprecedented for my Mac. I was sitting there burning CD-Rs of our new catalogue for people at work to check, before I declare it a Golden Master and send it off for 1000 copies. Suddenly, the screen went from normal to half brightness over a 2 to 3 second interval and the mouse and keyboard locked. In the dead center of the screen, an indented non-modal dialogue box -- it wasn't really a dialogue box but that's my best description -- appeared in dark grey with white letters. It said "Your Mac must be restarted" which was repeated in about 8 languages. The instructions said to hold the power button for 3 seconds or press the reset key*.

When the Mac restarted it informed me "OS-X unexpectedly quit, forcing the Mac to re-start" and a Report to Apple button -- which I clicked this time. Are you impressed? I am. I Googled this error and found only ONE match. The Mac appears to be running fine now.

Here's the Log for the geeks among you:

Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 1): 0x300 - Data access DAR=0x0000000026427F68 PC=0x000000000093D020
Latest crash info for cpu 1:
Exception state (sv=0x48260280)
PC=0x0093D020; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x26427F68; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x00940A04; R1=0x17ADB9F0; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x00940A04 0x00921014 0x002E9A80 0x002EB94C 0x0008C248 0x00029234
0x000233F8 0x000ABEAC 0xFFFFFFFF
backtrace terminated - frame not mapped or invalid: 0xBFFFD650

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.ATIRadeon9700(4.1.8)@0x919000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(1.7)@0x4cf000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.4.2)@0x8df000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.4.2)@0x903000
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x48260280)
previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
Exception state (sv=0x2F9CC280)
PC=0x9000B348; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x09D3B006; DSISR=0x42000000; LR=0x9000B29C; R1=0xBFFFD650; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.11.0: Wed Oct 10 18:26:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.24.17~1/RELEASE_PPC
panic(cpu 1 caller 0xFFFF0003): 0x300 - Data access
Latest stack backtrace for cpu 1:
Backtrace:
0x000954F8 0x00095A10 0x00026898 0x000A8204 0x000ABB80
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x48260280)
PC=0x0093D020; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x26427F68; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x00940A04; R1=0x17ADB9F0; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x00940A04 0x00921014 0x002E9A80 0x002EB94C 0x0008C248 0x00029234
0x000233F8 0x000ABEAC 0xFFFFFFFF
backtrace terminated - frame not mapped or invalid: 0xBFFFD650

Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.ATIRadeon9700(4.1.8)@0x919000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(1.7)@0x4cf000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.4.2)@0x8df000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.4.2)@0x903000
Exception state (sv=0x2F9CC280)
PC=0x9000B348; MSR=0x0200F030; DAR=0x09D3B006; DSISR=0x42000000; LR=0x9000B29C; R1=0xBFFFD650; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)

Kernel version:
Darwin KepModel: PowerMac7,3, BootROM 5.1.8f7, 2 processors, PowerPC G5 (3.0), 2.5 GHz, 1 GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon 9600 XT, ATY,RV360, AGP, 128 MB
Memory Module: DIMM0/J11, 512 MB, DDR SDRAM, PC3200U-30330
Memory Module: DIMM1/J12, 512 MB, DDR SDRAM, PC3200U-30330
AirPort: AirPort Extreme, 405.1 (3.90.34.0.p18)
Modem: Jump, V.92, Version 1.0
Bluetooth: Version 1.9.5f4, 2 service, 0 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Built-in Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Serial ATA Device: Maxtor 6Y160M0, 152.67 GB
Serial ATA Device: ST3160023AS, 149.05 GB
Parallel ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-108, 486.31 MB
USB Device: Hub, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: STRONG MAN KBD HUB, ALCOR, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Microsoft IntelliMouse® Optical, Microsoft, Up to 1.5 Mb/sec, 100 mA
USB Device: STRONG MAN KBD HUB, ALCOR, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 200 mA
USB Device: USB Monitor, LG Electronics Inc., Up to 1.5 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: SoundSticks, harman/kardon, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, Apple, Inc., Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
USB Device: Hub, Up to 12 Mb/sec, 500 mA
FireWire Device: My Book Device, WD, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: Zip Ultra, Iomega, Up to 400 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: unknown_device, unknown_value, Up to 400 Mb/sec

From what I gather in reading this, it appears from all this that CPU#1 blew up with a problem between the ATI Radeon driver and the Apple IOKit with an unresolved kernel trap -- frame not mapped or invalid. I have no idea what the means. I mean, I have a basic idea but no idea how that relates to what I was doing.

I also wonder if this is related to the fact that when I try and install Leopard it tells me my drives must be formatted in "HFS Extended, Journaled" even though they are already formatted in just that way. I tried to install it on my second internal and my external drive, but in both cases Leopard first tried, then failed, and on the second attempt said the drives were not formatted properly. Screw Leopard.

* I don't have one.

Another Mac In The Wall

(Apologies to Pink Floyd for the title)

I normally just write about what's on my mind and don't take requests as it were. However because the topic was so appropriate for me and because the person who sent it to me is as cute as a button (Erin), I've got no other choice than to throw it on my blog for all the world to see -- or at least the 500+ visitors I still get every week. I've written on this topic before.

So many people are switching to the Mac, hence the rising sales of their computers (Yay) it almost isn't worth of note. I could name many famous Mac users who are recent converts, though I think people would be hard pressed to find anyone who recently switched away from a Mac.

But this case amuses me greatly because it's none other than billionaire Marc Cuban. Mark says I had gotten to the point where I was embarrassed to be a PC owner. So a few months ago I made the executive decision to buy a MacBook to replace my laptop. I haven't looked back. Like most honest people he's got complaints with the Mac. One of which, I might add isn't valid. I have no idea why he can't left click. That's been available to Mac users for ages. Maybe he's got it turned off.

Remember: changing the world, one person at a time. Do your part. Save the world from the Microsoft.

Appleism (Apple Becomes a Religion)

I use StumpleUpon regularly, and it dropped me into a blog which has a fascinating post. I'm sorry it took me so long to blog it, but here it is. David Kuo writes a rather interesting piece entitled "Welcome to Appleism – the religion that is Apple." I don't want to spoil it all here without encouraging you to read it first.

He starts with this statement: Apple isn’t a cult anymore, it has become a full blown religion with scores of millions of followers. The frenzy around the iPhone brings to mind the clamoring throngs that greeted Jesus at the height of his ministry. And it's a telling statement because he's right, there is a frenzy. Though, I daresay, it's more consumerism than anything resembling religion. The frenzy is no different than that surrounding the Nintendo Wii or any other über-hot item.

Lest you think I am disagreeing with Mr. Kuo, I am not. Apple has certainly become a religion of sorts, but a proper one that has developed over time. Its members are fiercely loyal, even when they shouldn't be. The evangelize their religion by trying to convert all their friends. I do that very thing, but I will not recommend one of Apple's "bad" products, though happily they are few and far between.

Mr. Kuo also states "Appleism espouses a liberal worldview that challenges conventional morality and norms and encourages creativity. It was clearly seen in the famed 'Think Different' ad campaign." And that is a key point because Think Different embodied the spirit of Apple. Mr. Kuo missed the very most important point of all, though. You either get it, or you don't.

I have friends and relatives that will never get it, and I don't even bother trying to convert them anymore. Not to put down my friends/relatives, but those who have converted have seen the light and realize the bliss of being righteous and knowing you've done the right thing. I'd love to insult the unconverted lot and say the intelligent ones have converted and the less-than-sharp have not, but that's a generalization and wholly untrue. There is no quantifiable measurement of get it, but anyone who is an Appleist, certainly gets it. There is research that does quantify the fact Apple users are statistically smarter than PC users (see previous blog entry) but I don't feel the pressing need to rub it in your face*.

It's no secret that I think different. That's probably why I get it.

(* Besides, all Mac vs PC arguments can be won by uttering the phrase Windows ME which will shut up even the most virulent Microsoft supporter).

Mac v PC: South Park Style

Okay, I'm not fond of posting YouTube links, and this one's priceless -- if you prefer to zip over to YouTube directly, here's a direct link. Or just click "Play" below.


The volume's a bit low, so you may want to crank it up. This is an unbiased video too so it matters not if you're pro-PC or pro-Mac, this is guaranteed to piss you off just a little. It really will make you laugh, and if you're a South Park fan, so much the better!

Another Pundit, Another Kudos for Apple

Why is the Mac crowd often called zealots? Well, I do have to agree, the answer is because we are. But more importantly, it's because Apple rocks. This is not a case of blind loyalty by minions with the IQ of a cinder-block* but rather a loyalty based on years of trust and (mostly) mutual understanding.

Carl Howe of Blackfriars Communications writes this piece, which sums it up nicely using the iPod v Zune and Dell/HP vs Mac product lines as a basis for discussion.

I've made many posts on this here (see my Apple tag). As Mr Howe points out, "Apple's loyalists are no more than very happy, deeply satisfied customers, and their competitors should learn from that." (Emphasis mine).






* Windows Users

Another Mac Story, of a sort....

Yes, I'm always going on about why PCs suck. It's true. Or more accurately, at least PCs that are running Microsoft Windows.

Sometimes I blog about people who switch away from the PC to the Mac -- I am, after all, on a mission to convert the world one person at a time.

Well here's the story of someone who switched away from the Mac and to the PC. I'm sure you're anxious to read his story. And you'll see why all the smart people are switching to the Mac and not away. I'm confident this person has already plotted his return to Apple.


(He's actually running an X-Server unit so the OS is really irrelevant from an operational standpoint. This is after all a security issue: something Microsoft doesn't much care about.)

And as a special side bonus today Forbes Magazine reports that in an Apples-to-Apples* comparison that, a Mac Pro Beats Dell on Price! Yes, it's true -- and in Forbes, a magazine that has long been hostile towards the Macintosh.

8-28-06 Addendum not warranting a new post: There's some more on Macintosh superiority. Read this from David Pogue's NY Times commentary.


* What a great way to use that phrase ;)

Another PC Users Bites the Dust

As everyone knows, I am slowly changing the world one person at a time. How? By convincing the intelligent ones to use Macintosh instead of PCs with Windows. The intelligent ones just get it. They may not switch right away, but with an open mind and after trying it they switch. I've converted a number of people (Ernie, Jan) and convinced any number of people to choose wisely before buying their first computer (Josh). Yeah, there are more but this is just a sampling. It's frustrating changing the world one person at a time, but then the people you change, well they start too. It's called evangelizing, something that Guy Kawasaki espouses and has since his days at Apple.

David sent me this blog post from a writer, who also tried it and got it. Not everyone gets it, either. Those people should keep using PCs with Windows because, quite frankly, they deserve them. I'm not trying to belittle them or make fun of their intellect, because I do know some intelligent PC users -- of course they're almost all running Linux and not Windows -- however on the whole I do find as a group Mac users are more intelligent, more creative, and more open to thinking better. PC Windows users just tend to think they're all of those things without really being all of those things.

Oh, and the biggest character flaw in a Mac user according to most PC users: We're all smugly self-satisfied and self-righteous :) I guess they never stopped to wonder why....

Guy Kawasaki

Hey, I just wanted to give you all a smile and a laugh and a good life lesson. Guy Kawasaki (he the evangelizing author of Macintosh Way) has this on his site. It's his speech to a graduating high school class. It should be required reading. Not only is it amusing, it's damned fine. Have at it.

Guy's a great writer, a brilliant mind, and he deserves all the kudos he gets. And, the best part is he's a Machead just like me. I bet he sometimes secretly gets pissed off at Apple's stupidity just like me too :)

Apple Is Not Perfect

I don't say it often, but this blog shows some of the bloopers from Apple's famous Keynote addresses over the years. It's always fun to watch Steve Jobs fail because as much as I like Apple, he creeps me out sometimes.

Go Apple, but I'm laughing at you and not with you this once :)

I love my Mac

I refer to this cool link for all the MacHeads out there. It's an awesome song about, well, Macs. Props to my friend Ernie (I stole it from his blog) for this awesome link.

I should say something perverted and ask exactly how he loves his Mac, but I'm afraid he might answer :)

(12-29: Information Week Magazine called me at work today to interview me about the use of Macs at our office. I am sure they won't publish most of it, but I gave them some very choice comments about Microsoft just in case.... [They ended up publishing a great deal of it])

Installing Mac OS-X on a Dell

[This post updated 6-7-05 with additional information and citations]

Yes, it's true. Sometime in 2007, you will likely be able to install OS-X 10.5 on your crappy-ass Dell.

Apple is losing the big competitive difference they once had. Instead, they're becoming one of the pack. Apple's sales may go up, but what made us love Apple will go down precipitously .And ultimately, that could hurt Apple. The "Mac" as you know it will be no more.

You thought my opening line was a scare tactic, but just wait until they hack OS-X to run on any WinTel machine. Dells could, in theory, be running OS-X. Fucking wonderful. You can keep it.

I read this somewhere in the past week on-line, but I don't remember where or I'd cite the reference: Apple lost approximately 40% of their developers went they went from the 68000 platform to the PowerPC. They lost nearly 60% of their developers when they went from OS-9 to OS-X. So, out of 1,000** developers they lost 400 (40% of 1000) in the first big change leaving 600. Of the remaining 600 they lost 360 (60% of 600). That leaves 240 out of every 1000, or just 24% -- that's a 76% defection rate. Who, exactly, is going to WRITE software for OS-X 10.5*?

Another statistic: From the front page of the 6-7-05 Miami Herald business section: in the 1980s, Apple had just over 10% of the computer market share. When Apple switched to the PowerPC from the 68000, they dropped to 5% market share. That's a 50% drop in market share. When Apple switched from OS-9 to OS-X they dropped to 3% market share. A drop of 40% more. The Apple faithful stand behind Apple, but the real world runs away.

So guess what the trend is telling us? Apple and their lemming-like users are living in a fantasy world. I used to be one of this group, but as of today, I am not.

Apple is slowly killing itself. It will cease to be a computer maker one day -- probably sooner than later. It's going to be the iPod company. That's all great except that Apple Music is likely to win its lawsuit against Apple Computer. For those keeping tabs, Apple Computer in the 1980s settled out of court with Apple Music enjoining them from making computing devices with music capability (it started with the Ensoniq chip in the Apple IIgs) in perpetuity. Pretty much everyone who has read the actual agreement agrees: Apple Computer has no case. If they can't settle, Apple Computer is going to lose and lose in a huge way which will result in the closure of the company.

I fail to see why Apple jumped on the WinTel chipset when they did everything in their power to destroy clones. Now, they've virtually guaranteed the Return of the Clones -- a process which they will not be able to reverse this time. They've forsaken proprietary architecture for popular architecture. It will drive down prices, but with it will go legendary quality. The nice things about Macs is they don't crash. Welcome to the world of PCs where mediocrity is an acceptable state of being.

Worse, you can bet your sweet little ass, you will see a version on Windows for your Mac/WinTel machine. And the only way you can run future version of Microsoft Office for the "Mac" will be on that version of Windows.

A few of my Mac friends seem to think this is a good idea, but I'm assuming they were heavily medicated because I can't come up with any sane, rational reason why this would be a good thing. When Apple releases their last PowerPC system, buy one. It's going to be the last real Macintosh you ever own.

-- E


* or whatever you're going to call it
** My percentages are basically accurate, although I don't know the exact number of developers they started with -- just replace the number 1000 with the correct number ....

Emulation

Well, I upgraded my Mac to os 10.3.9 yesterday and it's running fine. For me, that's a miracle as every single upgrade I ever do ends in disaster. ::knock on wood::

So, after that I read on MacFixIt that Virtual PC doesn't work under OS-X 10.3.9 and you have to revert to 10.3.8 but it is working for me. So is OS-9 emulation (aka Classic) which many users have trouble with. Many users are even reporting Java issues.

In fact, I'm running Firefox on Virtual-PC on my Mac while also running Classic. So I am running double-emulation or even triple-emulation if you will. I am running OS 10.3.9 which is running OS-9 which is running Windows-XP (which is running Java to make this post). The sad (or cool) part is it's not appreciably slower than a real PC. Buahahahahaha....

In ongoing news, I still have lots of excess snot.

-- E of P

Computer Things That Vex Me

1. Firefox got rid of my favourite Mozilla feature. Mozilla had many flaws that Firefox does not, but it could give me a pop-up window when my favourite sites were updated. Many go months without a change. I miss that feature. Any way to make it happen on Firefox Mac?

2. I use MacLink Plus to convert WordPerfect Mac (OS-9) to MS Word for OS-X. For many documents the printed results are, well, just wrong. It's no secret that MS Word blows chunks, but there's no other alternative. I know it's not the conversion process because MS Word in OS-9 could read WP files and it couldn't print them correctly either. (The bug occurs in documents with columns or mixed justifications on one line).

3. I still can't convert my Claris Resolve documents to any OS-X spreadsheet easily. I can load them one at a time, save them in a very, very old Excel format and then load them into the new Excel and re-save them. The resulting document does preserve my formulae, but the formatting is mostly lost. Claris Resolve rocks. The thing is, AppleWorks spreadsheet is a stripped down version of Resolve (which is actually Informix Wingz* in disguise). So it should be easy, but it isn't.

4. I couldn't print from OS-9 and my driver wouldn't install in OS-9 because you have to boot in OS-9 to install the OS-9 version. Well, I got pissed today and found that if you do a "get info" on the file hidden inside the package, there's a check-box to force the program to boot in OS-9. It intalled and I can print again.

I claim another victory in the "one person at a time campaign" -- my friend Jan is very happy with his new Mac and is dumping his last remaining PC. He has thanked me numerous times and is wondering why he didn't listen to me years ago. Now, he's just converted his parents to the world of the Mac. Make a difference: find some one, and convert them. Save another soul from the dark side.

Lastly, if anyone has solutions to any of the computer issues above that vex me, I'd appreciate them.

-- E


* And Informix Wingz is a version of a very, very old PC program called "Smart" and while we're at it, Excel is derived from an old Apple II program called Microsoft Multiplan. True fact. Little known.

Cult of Mac

ISBN 1-886411-83-2

This is such a kick-ass book, I would encourage all my MacHead friends to go and buy it. If you're one of those "other" people who use that Windows trash, perhaps reading this book will help you understand why we MacHeads are so fanatical and loyal. Maybe we should call ourselves MacQuaeda?

"The Macintosh is more than a computer. It's a way of life." -- Steve Wozniak

-- Eric

iSight Camera

Damn. I finally hooked up and used my iSight. It's awesome. Everybody run out and get one right now. I tested it with my friend Tom ::waves:: for a few minutes but he had to go do homework. Eeeeewwww.

Just as I was getting ready to sign off, I get an IM from Josh who also has an iSight. Wow. Josh, who I haven't seen in over two years, and really haven't had any meaningful communication in at least three years. It was interesting, that's for sure. We showed off each other's pussies* and played around -- showing off things around the room, papers, flyers, computer parts, etc. It was kind of fun, even though it probably sounds silly. It made me realize how much I miss him. Or, as he would say, cool beans.

I still hate OS-X because Apple has sacrificed form over function. Sure, it's beautiful to look at it but it's not nearly as intuitive as it used to be. The Mac's single best feature has always been if you wanted to do something, you just did what came naturally (drag, drop, click, etc) and Apple, in one evil, fell swoop has taken away a lot of that. Things just don't work they way you expect any more. OS-X is also unspeakably sluggish with some applications, and this machine I have is blisteringly fast. Other applications don't behave that way so I'm not sure what that's about.

By Tuesday evening, I will be making a very special post about the Florida Panthers to my mailing list. Normally, I only post to my mailing list but I'm going to post a little teaser here as well as the appropriate Usenet group. It's being posted solely for your amusement.

I still think Rob Barry's got a cool blog. Him and Wil Wheaton keep me entertained with their blogs. I know there are many blogs, and I've peeked around but there's nothing to top the visceral excitement of being part of someone else's life when you feel like you know the person albeit from afar.

-- Eric



* Get your mind out of the gutter, that's our CATS dammit :)

Blogging on a new computer....

I have a brand new G5. Yay! Now I've got a G4 I'm going to have to sell on e-bay. Anybody want a G4 at a great price?

In other news, I have some news that I am dying to share but can't just yet. It could be sooner or it could be later. We'll see what happens. I am so psyched if it really happens.

-- E