You're Fat This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

You're fat**. That's what so many people feel, myself included. Obesity is on the rise in the developed world and that's no secret nor is it even in dispute. The reasons, on the other hand, are. Many people have long suspected the introduction of high-fructose corn syrup is the leading cause of girth. I'm not a medical professional but I would tend to agree.

Let it be said, I hate high-fructose corn syrup. It doesn't taste the same, and the recent re-issue of Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Doctor Pepper in throwback forms (ie: made with sugar like they used to be) proves it. For years, as a kid, I was a book worm, drank tons of soda and was not fat. I exercise more as an adult than I did as a kid, drink less soda and now, I'm not-so-pleasingly plump.

I also admit to being one of those freaks that can easily tell the difference between Coke, Pepsi, and RC with a blindfold and tell you if it's made with sugar or corn syrup. It's not hard in the US formulations because Coke and Pepsi you can tell the difference with your tongue because of the bubble size and density, and RC has a different 'bite' to it. Me, I can tell by the taste and am shocked many people say they can't. Pepsi tastes like malted battery acid* and RC makes you have a primal urge for a banana Moon-Pie.

High-fructose corn syrup has an aftertaste that sugar doesn't, and it rolls differently off your tongue because it doesn't mix with the bubbles the same way. There's a demand for these throwback sodas and not just for Passover so I am not alone in my derision of the 'new' sugar-free formulae.

Oh, wait, I got off track. Anyway, high-fructose corn syrup tastes like shite. This article discusses the rise of obesity and ties it to the obsession with fat content to the exclusion of all else. As even my own doctor says FAT IS NOT INHERENTLY BAD.

Thanks to my friend Scott for this URL. As a kid I was into video games -- being older I refer to those in the arcade which took quarters and not the kind you plug into your television. Two of my favourites were Missile Command which I was pretty awesome at in the day and Marble Madness. When it comes to the latter game, it actually had a planned ending. I never knew that until I saw the video Scott sent. More importantly, the guy beat the entire game in 3m 15s. Seriously. I used to play for 5 or 6 minutes and only once did I even make it to the 'reverse' level. 

A tip o' the Pork Pie to Josh who I spent some time with Sunday. It was nice after so long. A pair of photos are posted over at Flickr. I'm glad he's my friend.

A Mac item for you desktop users. For years I used a Matias Tactile Pro 2 keyboard until it decided to type between 3 and 5 of everything and otherwise randomly be possessed by the devil. They had no more to replace it, so they gave me a partial refund -- still feel it should have been a full refund, but that's past history. I pre-ordered the new Tactile Pro 3 version and it arrived about ten days ago. Sadly, it was DOA due a faulty solder leaving me quite discouraged. The 3/E/D/C keys didn't work and as you can see, they're in a straight line and there's a circuit board trace right under it. I spoke to them and they sent a replacement right off and I returned the old one to Canada (and I received a refund check for the shipping). So I've been using the new one all day and I think I'm in love. My favourite keyboard of all time was the original IBM PC keyboard (3151 terminal keyboard basically) where every single key has a mechanical switch and goes "click" as you type. They're pretty indestructible. This one's just awesome. If you have Mac I would encourage you to check this out even though it's expensive. They have free PC drivers too if you want to use it with a *gasp* Windoze machine.

Lastly, our Exalted Leader is now issuing spiffy membership certificates to those who belong to the Umbrella Hat Society. Free. Do it.

* Thanks to Berkeley Breathed's Milo and Binkley for that.
** That's YOU'RE (you are) and not YOUR FAT. Moron. DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE.

Insert Title Here This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

The NHL's Florida Panthers continue to defy all expectations and have now lost eight of the last nine in spectacularly bad fashion. I could rip the team a new one because they deserve it. The players don't care -- anyone watching the game can see that. Okay, some do, but this is a team sport. The management clearly didn't care for many years. Maybe that will change, maybe not. I'm not seeing it so far. I am a natural pessimist, or a "realist" as I call it, but this team has turned my game days into a not-so-fun ordeal instead of a fun experience. I realize the only reason I'm even going still is to be with my awesome group of friends, and the random visit from folks in other parts of the arena (Corrie!) who decide to try a game in our section (aka The Bitter And Cynical Section). You know, for years I was like the legendary Murph and was full of optimism until this team took it, stomped on it, spit on it, shat on it, and crushed my spirit. They want me back, they have to earn it. And they're not doing it.

People come up to me sometimes, including last game, and say they read my blog posts, Facebook notes, and message board posts (the real board, not the new official disaster they try to pass off as a message board) and totally agree. To those people I say, stop being silent. Write a blog and say what you feel. E-mail or fax management. Post on my message board (or the official one). Link to the complaints of your fellow fans. At some point they're going to have to realize we're not a small group. Guys, today they said they're working on the marketing plan for next year's renewal package. I ask you: don't they have more critical things to worry about than renewal packages? (I am not making this up. Indeed, this is true. See today's message board post entitled STAB.) Your silence is self-defeating. Speak up for God's sake. Enough of this for today.

Sue asks, "Are you planning to try Google Chrome? If so, I'll wait for your review." I answered her and realized maybe some of you might care: I've been using it for damn near 8 weeks -- since 6 October 2009, in fact. It's slow, stalling for no reason at all. It's very clunky, and I dislike the alien user interface a great deal. On the Mac, at least, it's not ready for prime time. Try it and see if you don't believe me. But these claims of "speed" -- it must be on sites that I don't visit, because outside of Google.com it's worthless. Sorry, Google, I love you, but Chrome is a fail.

While I'd love to vote with my wallet like most people, I have to vote in a way that lets me sleep at night. That tends to rule out a lot of people who'd protect my wallet at the expense of people who don't deserve to have people treat them as sub-human. When I wasn't sure who I thought should be president, I was seriously considering McCain because he's a pretty moderate Republican. Then he picked Sarah Palin: the soulless bitch from hell. Yeah, I don't like her. If there was an election between Bush and Palin, I'd vote for Bush. That's how much I dislike her. She makes him look like a Rhodes scholar, and he's an idiot. I mean that literally. He's stupid. Dumb. I'm calling him names. Palin, she's worse. I will thank the person who sent me this link which reinforces everything I think about this abomination named Sarah Palin. Read it, watch the videos, and then tell me why you think she should be in politics. There are plenty of good Republicans -- she's just not one of them.

Speaking of the GOP, we have an article here about what some of them do in their spare time. Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton is facing assault charges for allegedly beating the shit out of his mistress while having sex. His ladyfriend had not uttered the “safe word,” probably because Jetton was beating her unconscious. That's just sad.

I continue to laugh at lamebook -- which posts real Facebook entries that are just hysterical and/or scary. If you want LOL go visit. The first sign of the apocalypse is when I use SMS speak in a post.

Asset 1039 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

Last night I took home company asset 1039. I know it's number 1039 because it's got a sticker that says so. All of our hi-tech equipment have these stickers. I configured it, set it up, and went through the short learning curve. Asset 1039 is the new laptop computer. Yes, it's a 15" MacBook Pro and happily the asset sticker is on the bottom so I don't really have to see it. It's a standard unit with only an anti-glare screen added (plus the world travel kit). I've installed Firefox, OpenOffice, and Adium. Adium is technically against the rules because it's a chat client, but it's my primary means of communication with the office when I'm in Asia and with my Asian vendors when I'm here, so as the one who sets the policies I'm making an exception. I also installed some shareware (Graphic Converter, Tex-Edit, iAntiVirus, AppFresh) which will be paid for next Monday. I may install Onyx or something similar soon.

Once all that was done, I went to our key sites (webmail, etc) and configured that. Then I set a user password for my account. As a company laptop, others can use it as well. However since we've got wireless at work more and more employees are bringing their personal laptops in which will probably reduce the demand. A side effect of that, is our network is really slowing down with the traffic.

Some cool new (yet old) pictures were put up on Flickr earlier today. My eyesight is officially shot and I need glasses to read anything now and even with them, sometimes I need a magnifying glass. Not fun.

I got a rare visit at work from a friend. Jason who I don't see very often (the one from high school and not the other two I know) came by and we went to the Hitchin' Post for lunch. Nice visit and glad we did it.

In more amusing news (thanks Razzie), Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has officially dropped the "F" bomb in Official correspondence to the State Assembly, only he did it very sneakily. I'm proud of him for being petty.  The first URL is Wired, a reputable source. They got it from another reputable source, the Bay Guardian. The comments at the second URL worth it. But the ultimate fact check is the real letter is here on the State's own website. I am amused because they had it coming, but not so amused because it was an important bill. Then again, all politicians are suspect, n'est ce pas?

Another amusing piece comes from J. Carney who shared this Mental Floss link which is about eight things Disney has banned some of which you might not suspect. Under it are more links and the WalMart one is also worth a follow.

Over on my message board, we're rapidly closing in on the collection for the Yormark 666 jersey. You can read, but only members can post.

I skipped dinner, instead opting to eat half of my semi-furry raspberries and throwing the nasty ones away. I had some grapes too.

In other news, I found out the Oakland Bay Bridge has been closed since Tuesday after a repair failed. Not mentioned in the news or anything. I'm shocked because, well, I pay attention to Bay Area news. On the plus side, BART has blown away their ridership records.

Special shout outs to Jace who's feeling down, and Erin too.

Some new Flickr photos are available today.

SheepSaver This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

First, a repeat of something from some time ago. If you're a Mac user and running OS-X you may find the random need to run an OS-9 application. If you're running Intel architecture instead of PPC architecture that is, technically, not possible (or PPC with an OS greater than 10.4). However, it can be done. Even on my eight core machine, it's pretty slow. But if you have an old application you just have to run, this is the way. It's the only way I've found to get my Claris Resolve documents converted. I have to run it, open them, and save them as Excel 1995 format, then load Excel and convert them into a modern Excel. But it works. (If you have WordPerfect Mac, please note that NeoOffice will open the documents with most formatting intact. OpenOffice, however, doesn't work so well.) Conveniently, if you want to double platform jump, AppleWorks -- the old version before it was named ClarisWorks and then changed back to AppleWorks -- will read AppleWorks GS, then you can save it in a more modern, readable format. See this URL for downloads and such.

I want to give a special shout out to my friend Tim who is a pretty cool guy. I'm glad I know him. As soon as I figure out why, I'll let you know :) 

Special thanks to John for turning me on to the Pogues. I am listening to their Very Best Of album right now and will soon move on to the individual albums he suggested. I found them quite by accident on Sirius when I heard the Sunday morning Celtic Rock show. There was a song called Dirty Old Town which I fell in love with. John has way better taste in music than me -- except he thinks Lamb of God is better than Limp Bizkit. That's some horrific character flaw he's got in spite of the fact we both agree neither one is worth a pile of hot shit on a cold day in the arctic circle.

I ate dinner at Chik-Fil-A because I had nobody to eat with tonight. At least it was free courtesy of a coupon I had, so that was nice. Free food tastes better than food your pay for.

So we have new insurance (AvMed) at work. I have encountered my first difficulty. They have declined my prescription and wish to speak to my doctor. Now, on the plus side I actually got a live human on a weekend. On the minus side, they could do nothing. This means, of course, I will once again file a formal complaint with the state's insurance commissioner asking why they continue to allow an insurance company clerk to override a licensed medical doctor. I will say the nice lady on the phone promised to call me Tuesday to see what she could do to speed up the three week process. I am not holding my breath and I will call my doctor Tuesday if she doesn't call with good news.

Mom, have fun in Canada, land of Maple things. Maple, yummmmmm.

When It Rains.... This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

First, if you're going to use Snow Leopard here's a compatibility chart you'll find useful. Make sure your critical applications are updated and make sure you know what won't work. Be especially careful with disk utilities that may cause more harm than good when used with an operating system they aren't tested with. Also both before and after installation be sure you repair permissions to avoid random oddities. So far things are going okay except the buttons on my HP printer (scan, etc) don't work and I have to control everything from the software. Screen savers do not work from any previous OS version because they were all 32 bit and they are now required to be 64 bit. (Seti@Home works but there's no screen saver for now.)

Despite many reports that the Beatles are coming to iTunes tomorrow, it looks very unlikely from everything I've read. Crushed once again. However, I'm still excited about my eventual delivery of Rock Band and the new Box set. Reports when they arrive in a week or so. Almost done book three of the Brent Weeks book I mentioned before and will post a review when done.

The Tolkien Estate and New Line Cinema have settled their lawsuit and production of the Hobbit movie with Peter Jackson producing but not directing may now commence. Then again with the luck they've had this will change a few more times too. And if you can't believe it, someone's more of a subway nut than I am. Here's someone who wants to run a bunch of old tube stations as tourist attractions. I'd go, for sure but I can't imagine any scenario in which that would even be a break-even operation.

The Panthers are mailing season tickets out in the next few weeks and the first (and only) pre-season game is later this month. Congratulations to the University of Miami for whomping the dreaded Florida State Seminoles. The only time you'd ever catch me rooting for the Seminoles is if they were playing Notre Dame (which is my least favourite college sports team of all time.)

I remain very anxious about my incipient doctor's visit on the 11th. I probably won't have results right away but I'm nervous.

I am miffed at Delta. Bureaucracy is a bad thing. I flew CO some time ago and for some reason my miles didn't post to my DL account right away. I sent in my boarding pass (and stupidly didn't keep a copy) for proof. They claim they didn't get it. It's not that I care about the tiny-ass amount of miles, but  am trying to keep my miles from expiring at the end of the year. I keep getting bounced back and forth. I told them to give me credit for one stinking mile just to extend my expiration date. No dice. With all the miles I have at stake, this isn't a minor detail.

And, for fun, I have from 1993 a Northwest statement with 4000 miles on it. They didn't expire back then. I'm going to send that to Delta (they bought NWA) and ask for those miles. I'll do that next month because I don't want to confuse them. It's a long shot for sure, but what the hell.

I am sweating profusely for no good reason. I know you care. My whiplash has been acting up badly these past two days, but until my heart test I am not recommended to go to therapy for that. Which reminds me, I remain very anxious about my incipient heart doctor's visit on the 11th. I probably won't have results right away but I'm nervous. I promise a public update as soon as I have results and bit of other health news. I've been quiet lately but things really aren't all that much changed -- don't take silence as good or bad news: it's just silence.

In one last bit of stress, we switched insurance companies on the first of the month. We still have no cards for the new company. So I've been paying out of pocket for my prescriptions. And I'll have to do the same at the cardiologist. If I was healthier there would be hell to pay but I don't have the physical strength or mental energy to do it.

And I had to buy a new forklift at work spending money we don't have. *screams*

So many things to report.... This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

First, a big thank you to John and Liz for their hospitality last night. There was BBQ and music and fun all around. I'm glad I went. Tasty. A bit spicy and my acid reflux didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I did. Oh well, sometimes you gotta' live a little.

Now on to the rest. Today was a skating day and we went to La Caretta for breakfast and then went off to skating. And, to our horror, saw a school bus unloading kids outside. Lots of them. We decided to cancel skating due to the overwhelming number of children. So we went off to Barnes and Nobles for a bit, then went to the mall to try and Pre-Order the special edition Beatles Rock Band. Why? Well Liz informed me that I was having a Beatles Rock Band Party whether or not I wanted to. They were all sold out but Amazon had some available so I ordered it there. It'll show up eventually.

Speaking of Amazon, they cancelled my Beatles Box Set pre-order saying they had oversold (or likely their allotment was smaller than anticipated). Pretty much everywhere I checked was sold out, but I did find it at Tower.Com (they're out of the mono) so I ordered it there and will pray I get something for my money.

Congratulations to Steve K who broke 1,500,000 credits on Seti@Home. I'm just past 800,000.

Health wise everything is about the same so there will be no report here. I will post a report for sure after I see the cardiologist on the 11th. Before then likely as not depending on having anything to report.

My HP PhotoSmart C6180 will not print because it has determined "one or more of your ink cartridges are expired" -- that's a joke. They were working fine Friday and now just because some arbitrary date has passed it won't print. That's inexcusable. Hey, HP, you suck. Seriously. So I'm off to get ink before everything closes. That sucks.

I was sitting here sweating when I realized my AC's programmable thermostat is on the weekday schedule so it's going to be hot until 5pm. I guess I'll override it.

Thanks to Stan for this funny and sad YouTube video. This guys spent two weeks building a building block replica of the leaning tower of Pisa that's six feet tall. He was waiting for the Guinness Book of World Records to come inspect and certify it. Watch what the reporter does. You'll laugh but still feel really bad for the guy.

And last, but not least, I installed Snow Leopard today. I bought it yesterday because I didn't want to keep waiting for my CD to come from Apple. The install (an upgrade not a clean install) took about 45 minutes. A few things if you're going to do it. Have the latest version of Flash. Apple installs a version that isn't current and has some security holes without checking to see if you have a newer version. If you have QuickTime 7 Pro (not regular) it's going to be deleted. You then click on "optional installs" and re-install QT7P and it will find and use your old serial number. But when you open an application designed for QT, it will open QTX by default. The second QT (QT7) is installed in your utilities folder.

Flip4Mac doesn't work properly with Snow Leopard so be sure and disable it -- it'll keep telling you QT is not installed because it doesn't recognize QTX but I'm sure that'll be fixed eventually. Vuze's toolbar doesn't work and will crash (it's in the library/input method folder -- delete it). Spell Catcher partially works but you'll have to go to Rainmaker's website for all the gory details. Boinc doesn't work properly until you reinstall it but the screen saver is broken. They're working on a new version. There's also a new version of X-code on the disk if you use that.

My HP printer and Snow Leopard don't play all that well together. See HP's website for details on Snow Leopard compatibility. In your "login items" you will find the old HP login items aren't removed. You should do that.

I did a repair permissions when done (always a good idea). I'm sure I'll find more, but right now SpellCatcher is giving me the most headaches because it keeps turning off every time I use a Finder function and despite claims on their website, their little App doesn't always turn it back one. Also, I recommend you update all your applications (especially utilitie) to the current version before the upgrade.

I did my laundry. I know you care. I also finished book two of the trilogy I previously mentioned. Still good but I'm holding my review until I finish the third book. So give me awhile longer.

One last link, BTW, if you want a FREE font in your own handwriting, go here!

Stuff and Stuff This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

If you're not watching Skins on BBC America (Thursdays 9pm) you're missing one of the best shows BBC has turned out. My original review is in this blog post. This is just really good. I was worried because for series three (now in progress) they replaced the entire cast and went with new kids. The old ones graduated. An adult show for adults, yet it's just oddly riveting and fascinating.

The lip has almost entirely healed over. It's probably going to need some reconstruction. It's not healed properly on the inside and is the wrong shape. This is not a good thing. I'll add this to the long list of things to worry about later. There's some major scar tissue formed on the inside as well as that damned messed up vermillion barrier. I'll eventually get around to seeing an oral surgeon (or whatever sort of doctor will tear it apart and fix it properly.) There are no other medical news being posted here until there are developments suitable for public consumption, though I do hope to have some of those soon.

I am unusually excited about Snow Leopard, the new optimized Mac OS. I am waiting for my developer pack from Apple which should include a copy. I'd download it from the Apple Developer website where I assume it's posted but that's a lot of bandwidth. I've heard so many good things about this that I am looking forward to leading the charge as opposed to following months or years later after all the kinks are worked out.

Boeing still plans to fly the 787 later this year. I was a big supporter of this plane until in early tests the wings separated from the fuselage. That worries me. Greatly. They've fixed it, but I really wonder what sort of stress these new composite materials will be subjected to and if they'll fall apart mid-air. I mean the wings fell off before the damn thing flew: that should bother you. It bothers me.

Tomorrow will be a long and busy day. I'd love to tell you all how much I'm looking forward to it. But I can't.

I'm tired. Bed. Maybe I'll get lucky and sleep for a change.  Or not.

Good Customer Service: AT&T and Staples This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

You may remember a previous post about AT&T U-verse service. In the comments, I praised Nancy the tech who called to try and help. She ultimately failed but took notes on some of the things I discovered.

Turns out, one of the theories that the problem lies between BellSouth and AT&T (actually being run by Yahoo) and the authentication process. Why? I connect to the BellSouth server, it shows 94 groups there to update, then it gives an authentication error regardless of whether or not you use the BellSouth or AT&T passwords. Nancy even (on the first call) unblocked all ports for my IP to try and make it work. Same problem.

She promised she'd kick up to some top-line techs and get back to me. I had all but given up, and last night she called me. She agrees it should be made to work -- their website clearly advertises it works and gives operating instructions. However they can't get it to work. She agrees (and so do her techs) that I am absolutely correct in my analysis of the situation but nobody knows what to do, so she'll try and escalate it. I actually believe she may call me back one day. The real issue is very few people use NNTP anymore (fake NNTP is available on GoogleGroups but there are a number of issues involving completeness of groups, available groups, and everyone knows what you're looking at. Not that I care since I gave AT&T the list of groups I care about. But it's the principle, mind you.)

I think AT&T should give me a credit of $14.95 a month so I can sign up for NewsRazor until they fix it -- this way I can post to alt.fan.dave_barry again :)

Also, special kudos to Staples for their customer support. Although it took them longer than it should have, Karen did call me back with the answer and follow through in a stellar fashion when my sales rep dropped the ball and nobody in any of their stores had a clue. A+ to her as well.

Both of those companies deserve special recognition for actually trying to make a customer happy. That's rare.

Also kudos to Virgin Atlantic because they definitely care about their customers trying hard on every contact to do things right.

I burnt my tongue on my hot beverage. I got some Keurig K-cups with decaf Earl Grey tea by Twinings. It is apparent that tea can't be made well in this machine. It's not quite right, though I can't possibly tell you why. I invite all friends over for a sample k-cup in a wide variety of flavours. Some of the coffees are great, there are a number of teas, and also hot chocolate which -- as JohhnyB's parents warned me -- is way too thin.

I also changed my FaceBook profile picture for the first time since I got it. My new novel isn't moving forward at a very good rate of speed. And my right big toe is still swollen though it's no longer bleeding. Yay.

AT&T's U-Verse Service This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

A number of my friends have this and seem to be pleased. U-verse is vDSL -- even though when I ordered it they told me it was FibreOptic -- and has speeds up to 18MBPS. It's not been available in my neighbourhood until this month, though the product itself is a few years old. Normally they sell it as a package including TV, DVR, VOD, etc. They do offer an Internet Only variety, which is what I got. I won't give up my DirecTV.

Today was installation day. From 8am to 10am window. The first tech showed up at 815 and told me to remove the DSL router. I did. He disconnected my existing aDSL and connected the vDSL and as he was finishing the second crew of two arrived to do the install. They were pleased to see it was Internet only because it shouldn't take long. How wrong they were.

I asked if we could use my existing router (N wireless) with their modem (G wireless) and they said yes. So they did their voodoo magic and got signal to my computer room (yay) and it was strong too: maxing out at just over 14MBPS during trials. We hooked up my router, disabled the wireless on theirs, and.... NOTHING. No connection. Every attempt to make my router and theirs play nice failed.

That left the arduous task of reprogramming every connection in the house to the new network. That's a PS3, Wii, DirecTV DVR, Guest Room computer, work laptop, and my PC. Sounds easy but with a G signal we were having range issues. It all works except the Wii which probably works but we never tested it.

They prepared to leave and I said to wait, let's make sure e-mail works. Fail. We can receive e-mail but not send it. First error: the instructions on the u-verse page for the Mac have a serious typo. They have the SMTP and POP instructions reversed. We caught this after a little while (doh!) ourselves. It just wouldn't work. The tech called into support and was transferred all over hell and back (India, Texas, and so on). They subject their own employees to this crap: not a good sign.

Finally we got a good tech who was able (after over ONE HOUR) figure out what the problem was. But first, I wish to point out that the tech could NOT understand that I was using my server (darsys.net) to receive and theirs to send. This was over his head. Seriously. Anyway, neither here nor there. Finally he figured it out. The instructions on their website (the faulty ones) are for AT&T/BellSouth addresses only. Seriously. If you have another address, you have to use their webpanel, authorize that individual address you want to send from, enter a key into the webpanel in an email they send, and then you can send using totally different instructions. That was a long, long process. This isn't the optimal solution, but at least I'm not isolated.

I then ask how to make NNTP work (Usenet). This issue never resolved. All settings are correct and it even connects to their server. It shows "95 new messages" and then says 'authentication failed' -- so there's a problem. The thing is NNTP is simple. There's not a lot to change unlike email. We even created a new NNTP account and started over. Same result. If anyone has a Mac, Entourage, and can get NNTP to work over U-verse, tell me how. My U-verse friends are welcome to help me out here or anyone wise in the ways of NNTP. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. I hate to have to pay for a service that I get, but can't access.

Update: I have read-only NNTP access through a server. I am now happily reading rec.humor.funny and uk.transport.london again. I cannot post from this free server, but it does offer free read-only access for NON BINARY groups (ie: no photos and such) -- no attachments of any kind to any posts.

Worse, I have found out my DirecTV VideoOnDemand feature no longer works. I didn't even think about that. I'll try that tomorrow. ATT Uverse sucks more and more. They really need to survey their customers, get a list of equipment you expect to use and then make sure they're prepared to handle it.

The bottom line is the speeds are zippy but I would never wish this process on anyone. Ever. No matter what. I got to work well after 1pm.

(After they left, I re-did their router and changed it to match my old settings and then re-set my wireless points and all is well again albeit at G speeds instead of N speeds. Amazing Firefox conveniently remembered the password they used to access the internal router screens. Fancy that.)

Special kudos to Billy Elliot, the Broadway remake of the legendary West End show. It scored FIFTEEN Tony nominations. It's one of my favourite plays of all time, perhaps my favourite. While I haven't seen the New York version, I'm sure it's almost as brilliant as London. (Though looking at pictures of the cast, the kids don't look very much like Billy....)

Oh what a day.... This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

As if.

Anyway, last night I finally was able to fix a long-established irritant on my Mac. There's an ACL error that has always shown up in my monthly disk-check feature. All articles say it's harmless and just an irritant. However it makes DiskUtility take an hour to run instead of 3 or 4 minutes because I had over 4,000 files with that error and it ballooned my error log to 8.4MB! So, I keep thinking. A program I found called MacPilot came to the rescue: a new version has a repair ACL feature. You can ONLY use it on your directory -- never use this feature on a system directory. Anyway, I tested it on one directory and it appeared to work. I ran it on my entire ~/home folder and voila! Everything was fixed except QuickTime and DiskUtility. It now runs in normal time and life is good.

I got a haircut today in celebration of the Kwanzaa holiday. To hell with you if you don't believe me.

Scooter is back home in a small box. This is upsetting to me. I need to do something, but I can't. I thought I'd be able to put her somewhere but I can't quite do it. It came with a five stages of grief pamphlet designed for pet owners.

1. Denial. That's a river in Egypt. Sadly, there wasn't even time for me to have this stage.
2. Anger. I started here because the process took too long while she was suffering. And it talks about feeling of betrayal because some people are insensitive or don't show appropriate caring while you're suffering. Yeah, boy do I ever get that.
3. Guilt/Bargaining: Do I have some? Yes. Forever. When Scooter first got sick some time ago, maybe a year, if we had thought to take an MRI then we might have known and been able to do something. But everyone thought it was the thyroid -- though I kept asking why it was affecting her hindquarter. I'm mad I didn't fight harder but I'm not a doctor so how could I know.
4. Depression. Yes. Plenty of it.
5. Acceptance. I don't get this because I accepted it, knew it was coming, and all that rot. It doesn't mean I like it. But there's no way to not accept it. That's what number four is for.

It also goes on to council your friends and loved one who think they mean well to not try and get you to get another pet if you don't want one. Some people really don't want one.

I decided, today, who's going in our next round of layoffs at work. Sometimes you get lucky and some employee does something that makes your decision for you. We are still going to wait until mid-January to do it though. A batch of three is next. I'm also going to try and replace some of our other employees who think being lazy is okay when I'm not looking. Except I'm always looking and they just are too dumb to know.

Vacation in six days. I have a passport. I am not packed but will start packing based on a weather report on Monday.

I have to find entertainment for tomorrow. I have nothing to do. It was going to be a second day of Adrian but apparently he's grocery shopping. Perhaps I'll go to the mall. That should kill a few hours just looking for somewhere to park.

Psystar: My First Visit This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

(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) This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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.... This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

[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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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 This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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.... This blog has moved to http://quagmire.darsys.net

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