A Plethora of Palabras

Wow. This will be a busy post. I have a lot to say.

First, this YouTube Video has me highly stressed. I've got a very low opinions of all politicians, but is this little clip (verified, thanks) a racist rant from Hillary Clinton? It's her but is what she saying racist? Interesting thing to wonder about. I have to wonder why you'd repeatedly point out why you're white thus drawing attention to the fact your opponent is black. I hereby officially throw my hat in the Obama ring -- my first public statement of support for any candidate (none of whom I am overly thrilled with). This hat contingent upon whatever fool he picks as VP.

Second, the evil empire, AKA Microsoft, has come public about COFEE. Yeah, the same company that sells many of you guys your operating system software and recommends and installs all sorts of security updates has given an all-access pass to your local law-enforcement agency. No joke. This is just absurd. And if there's such a simple back-door to get around your operating system protections, how long for the terrorists to figure it out? The USB thumb drive contains 150 Microsoft programmed special commands to allow the user to decrypt passwords, recover all of the computer's data stores, and read a complete log of the computer's Internet activities. It works on-site with any Windows-loaded computer, including PDAs. That means not only your desktop but your mobile device too. I'm glad I'm not using their programs -- the question is why are you?

3. Jesus Made Me Puke is the title of a Rolling Stone article. David Higgins gets credit on this. While I subscribe to Rolling Stone, I hadn't yet read this issue. Why should you read it? You want to know what evangelicals do behind closed doors? Actually, you probably don't want to know. But you should. You might just lose a little sleep at night after reading this.

4. Tina Turner is coming out of retirement. She'll be here November 2nd and I'm excited. I've put in for the ticket lottery and hope to score some. The tickets go on sale Monday. Oh PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. I wish the International Tina Turner Fan Club was still around and giving us the good seats. Damn. I love Tina. See my review of her final Florida concert here.

5. Cal Rugby once again dominates the Rugby universe.The California Golden Bears blasted out to a 40-0 half-time lead and never looked back against Brigham Young University, taking the 2008 national collegiate championship, 59-7, this past Saturday at Stanford’s Steuber Rugby Stadium. It was the fifth straight title for the Bears and 24th in the history of the Cal rugby program making them the most dominating team in any Division One college sport.

6. I've got Neil Diamond tickets for 10-26-08, which I am also excited about. Nobody cares but me, but, yes, I love Neil Diamond and am greatly looking forward to his concert. I am going with the Mann family.

7. Last, but not least, a brief review of a quirky book called "The Somnambulist" by Jonathan Barnes. This books is unusual. Very much so. I rather enjoyed it. It's set in London -- the Victorian one. It's got humour of the driest sort, often black at that. It's got adventure. If the title frightens you, this book isn't for you. It's got lots of big $50 words, all used properly and without any effort by the author. It's quite the entertaining piece, and if you're in need of something different, this book is for you. I mostly recommend this to readers who would enjoy light fantasy and light science-fiction. Others will not appreciate its charms.

8. Don't forget to read Little Brother. I'm serious. Read this book.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Book Review)

This part is spoiler free. I was with Adrian at Barnes & Nobles a few weeks ago while helooked for a copy of the new Vladimir Tod novel. when I saw a book sitting there. I wasn't going to pick it up because it just didn't seem interesting. But, on the cover was a very large blurb by Neil Gaiman. Now, if he says he'd recommend it over anything else he's read this year (which he did), then I am obligated to look at it. I needed a "plane book" so I bought it for my trip to the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas (see next blog post for that write-up).

The book in question is "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow. I read it, and I recommend this book to anyone with the mind to grasp it. It's a very interesting book set in approximately present-day San Francisco. The story revolves around W1n5t0n a cyber-hacker who happens to be a teenager in a local high-school. It's tech-heavy; so although you probably don't need to understand too much to enjoy the book, it certainly would help. It doesn't drift far-off reality and it's not really even science-fiction except for the detail that it isn't a true story. It's frighteningly close to reality and there's not much separating it from truth. It's hard to pinpoint it to a specific genre -- though the Tor imprint pretty much implies sci-fi.

Before I get to the review with spoilers, I must say this book is FANTASTIC. And it's IMPORTANT. You need to read this book. Seriously. It blurs the line between fiction and reality so strongly, you'll begin to wonder. Forget the conspiracy nuts, this book will actually make you wonder how nuts those theorists really are.

Mr. Doctorow is a former director of the EFF, so his facts are tight. Apart from an unhealthy love of the evil X-box, he's blown me away with Little Brother. And if the recommendation by Neil Gaiman isn't enough, how about Mitch Kapor, Ray Ozzie, or Tim O'Reilly? This book is amazing. And the even the giants of technology agree -- the list of kudos is impressive.

The book is a quick read, tightly packed, well edited (I only found two typos), and fascinatingly entrapping. A good mental exercise and a release at the same time. Buy it. Read it. Then tell your friends. This book should go viral.

This italicized part is NOT spoiler free. Specifically, Marcus (W1n5t0n) lives his life as a cyber-geek and cyber-genius. Unrelated to that, a terrorist attack hits San Francisco. This is the story of Marcus and his girlfriend in their quest to reclaim San Francisco when the Department of Homeland Security takes over. They turn San Francisco into a mini-Gitmo and while they never impose marital law, rights are slowly taken away just like is happening in real life. Alone that would make the book possibly interesting. But that's not all.

The book explains, in detail, why all those little RFID devices everyone carries aren't such a good idea. RFID? They're in your SunPass (toll booth transponder), Passport, and so forth. They couple that with data in the traffic camera, and data mined from government records. All of a sudden they know more about you than you care to think. Might sound like science fiction but it isn't. This part is all current, working, installed technology.

W1n5t0n goes into hiding and his ultimate goal is to survive his imprisonment, torture (yes), and take back what is slowly being taken away. He could be a hero if he can only succeed. Nothing I write here will do this book justice. You need to read this book. If you think you're living in a free America, you probably should read this work of fiction. Because although it's fiction, that story is delivering a message. Freedom is not free. What would you pay for yours?

Please buy this book. I really can't reiterate this enough: buy this book. BUY IT NOW.

As for my friends: you're all getting this for Christmas if you don't write me and tell me you've read it before then. You don't want to wait. Trust me. You're going to have thoughts after you read this book. Be afraid. Very afraid.

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.

Firefox Continues To Cause Grief at Microsoft

In an ongoing, amazing development, Firefox is clobbering Internet Explorer. It's far from the end, but there are signs all is not well in the browser department in Redmond.

Information Week's 7 April 2008 issue has the market share report for Internet Explorer.

Month	% Share
Jan 2007	88.7
March 2007	86.0
October 2007	80.1
December 2007	77.7

This just pleases me to no end. Granted, it's not just Firefox but other browsers such as Opera and Safari. But any dent in Microsoft's armour is a good thing. Every time Bill gates has stress, I lose a little of mine. When he has a bad day, I have a good one. Between Firefox and the EU, perhaps he's developing an ulcer.... :)

Oh and let's not forget Open Office. I have no idea why it won't hit critical mass: it does everything Office does and more and it can read/write Office documents just fine. We've installed it at work with no issues. Though I will admit we use Word/Excel type documents only and haven't tried the other modules except to play some Powerpoint training slides. Try it at your company. It comes in all flavours Mac, PC, UNIX, etc.

The article makes some special points "... IT departments are moving to support [Firefox] in the enterprise Web apps. That should be less than reassuring to Redmond."

The article also talks about how IE8, forthcoming soon, will break a number of web applications even though it is supposedly more standards friendly. Many non-commercial sites, such as mine, don't even test to IE specifications because they simply aren't standards. Web standards are just that: standards. IE is a collection of crap that makes writing a site to be compliant a pain. I've made sure my corporate site works with IE -- that is you can view it -- but it looks and works much better in Firefox. It makes me angry I have to do even that.

In other amusing news, Microsoft is already readying the replacement to Vista. So despite their claims, it's obviously not going as well as they'd like. No spin can fix that except to a true moron.

WikiLeaks Shuttered but NOT gone

A federal judge has shut down the entire site "WikiLeaks" over one single post of over 10,000 and their ISP has complied. This is wrong on several levels. In an effort to help them out, I have two alternate links via IP address and a mirror site that still allow access to the site.

I rather think this is an idiot judge who has his head shoved too far up his ass. But, in the spirit of the Internet, I thought it would be appropriate to help spread the word until the regular site comes on-line. I am certain you will see some anonymous hero hijack the DNS entry and redirect it soon. Until then use the links above.

If you want to read more, here's a short excerpt from the AP article:

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has set off a free speech tempest after shutting down a U.S. Web site for posting internal documents accusing a Cayman Islands' bank branch of money laundering and tax evasion schemes. The Bank Julius Baer & Co. said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that a disgruntled executive fired for "misconduct" stole the documents and illegally posted them on http://wikileaks.org. The bank also said a number of the documents have been altered, but it didn't provide details. The bank, based in Zurich, sued Wikileaks and its San Mateo hosting company Dynadot on Feb. 6, alleging the Web site had posted stolen and confidential financial data.

On Thursday, Dynadot agreed to shut down the site and bar Wikileaks from transferring the domain name to another host. "This is akin to seizing all the copies of the New York Times, locking the doors and ordering the landlords not to let anyone back in the building," said Julie Turner, a Palo Alto Internet attorney.

Wikileaks said in a statement that shutting down the entire Web site - instead of narrowly ordering the removal of the disputed materials - amounts to unconstitutional "prior restraint" by the government of an entire publishing organization. "The order is clearly unconstitutional and exceeds its jurisdiction," Wikileaks spokesman Julian Assange said in the e-mail statement issued from Paris on Monday. "Wikileaks will keep on publishing."

David Ardia, an Internet speech expert at Harvard Law School, said a court has never before ordered an entire Web site shut down over a document dispute. He said it struck a nerve. "This is a prior restraint in the most extreme fashion," Ardia said. "This is a judge who doesn't have a good understanding of the Internet."

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.

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.

Iriomote Cats, English Teachers, Yellow Submarine, and Bush Declares Martial Law

Today we have another random group of eclectic posts.

1. Way back in December 2006, I wrote about the Baiji Dolphin become extinct. Truly a sad thing, indeed. Well it's about to happen again to another species. Now, Japan’s Iriomote Cat is Headed for Annihilation
according to the latest news. I am far more saddened about this because I love kitties of all kinds. This has been reported in National Geographic. It's a beautiful cat, too as you can see.

2. I am trying to locate Karen Goff; she was my eighth or ninth grade English teacher from McMillian Junior High School in Miami, Florida. It's an off chance, but she was one of the best teachers I ever had -- and in a subject I am rather fond of. I want to thank her. If anyone knows where she is, that would be great. The school was of no help whatsoever nor was the local school boards.

3. In other disturbing news: I am not a conspiracy theorist, and I often ridicule those who are. Let's be honest, most of them are utter and complete crackpots. However there's a new one making the rounds that even my regular "upstanding citizen" type friends are subscribing to. And, I think I do too. As you know Dubya's term is coming to an end -- and he's not happy, nor does he understand why he's the least popular president ever. There are more and more rumblings being made about Iran from inside the administration, but nowhere else. What happens when he uses some random event -- you know the odds are in favour of an event -- to declare martial law and take over and remain in power? Will anyone be able to stop him? Will the military say no? It's looking more and more real to me every day. Him and his cronies are looking for a way to stay -- just like the Kremlin in its heyday. It scares me.

4. Next Wednesday, I am still predicting a Yellow Submarine iPod pre-loaded with the Beatles oeuvre. It will look similar to the current iPhone without the actual phone functionality. Further, regardless of what comes next, I bet you get a Bluetooth iPod so people have no more wires. You'll also get some form of the iPhone touchscreen. Apple has ordered way more screens than it needs for phones. There's really no other conclusion to be had.

PS2 Most-Played Console in June according to Nielsen

Excerpt: NEW YORK (AP) - More than 68 million people played video games on a console last month, spending much of it on Sony Corp.'s older PlayStation 2, according to Nielsen research.

Seven years after its launch, Sony's PS2 was still the most-played console, accounting for 42 percent of video game use during the month. Microsoft's original Xbox took second place with 17 percent, followed by the Xbox 360 with 8 percent. Nintendo's GameCube ranked fourth with 5.8 percent. The numbers suggest that older machines remain popular despite last November's high-profile debut of Nintendo Co.'s Wii which had 4 percent and Sony's PlayStation 3, 1.5 percent.

What does this suggest? PS2 continues to dominate the market. The X-box pair together total 25% and Microsoft's Xbox Unit Posts $1.9 Billion Loss which is good news indeed. Nintendo Game Cube is the loser here, as it will slowly fade away. Wii is a strong contender and the only reason it's not more popular is that you just can't find one. Sure, it's not hardcore but it IS fun which is what really matters. PS3 is stagnant, and I fault the lack of any games whatsoever. It's great because I use mine as a BluRay player, but that's not going to sell units.

Speaking of the format wars, Target Corp. confirmed yesterday that it will promote the rival Blu-ray format for high-definition DVDs this holiday season. They join Blockbuster in taking sides. Microsoft is in the HD-DVD camp. Yay.

HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray: Strike One

Ah, the video wars: HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray. I've been a champion of Blu-Ray for a number of reasons, and now it looks like the first real step towards a "winner" has been made. Blockbuster is going to go Blu-Ray. I favour Blu-Ray because it's a better viewing experience, it stores a better amount of data which enables more features. And, my PS/3 runs Blu-Ray. That's probably the real reason. In every video format war, I picked the losing side because I always pick the better one regardless of price. I've done that again, but I think this time I may be right.

Blockbuster has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year and found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time."The consumers are sending us a message. I can't ignore what I'm seeing," Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, told The Associated Press.

Whatever you do, don't buy the combo players. If you read the specifications, you will find that the HD-DVD special features don't work on the combo players: only Blu-Ray works. But, you can watch your films and maybe that's all the matters to you.

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!

The Most Exciting Numbers Since Lost

The last numbers that generated this much excitement were "4 8 15 16 23 42" from the hit TV show Lost. What is it about the code "O9_F9_ll_o2_9D_74_E3" when coupled with "5B_D8_41_56_C5_63_56_88_CO" that has everyone so riled up? A fascinating question for the uninitiated. That code (at least through 1 May 2007) would unlock any HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movie ever produced. It's the master key for the supposedly unbreakable encryption these disks are wrapped in. Isn't that illegal one might logically ask? Well thanks to the DMCA it very well may be illegal.

However, don't believe for a minute that there aren't some perfectly legitimate uses. For example, someone with a Linux box owns a film in these HD formats and wishes to view it. Because there is no DRM in Linux, you can't view it. The only way is to hack your legally purchased item. Has anyone lost a dime? No. Is it illegal? Possibly so, and that's clearly wrong. Another example, my older Sony Plasma TV has a DVI input. However supposedly only HDMI carries the special security codes needed to play true HD -- and many newer players will not play true HD content without that signal, so does the AACS-LA and MPAA plan on buying me a new TV? Of course not.

The DMCA is one of the worst laws passed in recent memory -- it's right up there with the Patriot Act as laws that do nothing to help anyone on the planet but lawyers and people who want to take away your rights. I firmly believe in intellectual property rights, however there are sane ways to do it and stupid ways. This was a really stupid way. It also proves the most uncrackable systems are easily broken -- this crack was done by some kid on an unmodified Xbox 360 almost by accident. Yeah, it was that easy and it was done using a video game? How stupid is the AACS-LA?

How big is this story? Well it's made every major news service around the world. Read one example on the New York Times. There is no reason these numbers wont expire and be replaced by newer keys, but let this be a lesson to you: never have a master back-door key, because some kid is smarter than you are. Especially if your organization is obscenely arrogant. What goes around, does indeed, come around.

I already own a number of Blu-Ray movies -- the format I hope wins the war -- and I play them using my PS/3 and a newer Sony TV so I have no motivation to try and hack them. First of all, I'd have to use Windows to do that and everyone knows I'd rather chew my arm off. And I don't encourage anyone to do this without a damn good reason, but I resent being told that I can't do that.

If I can rip my CD collection and store it on my hard drive so I can listen to it in iTunes, who the fuck are the AACS and the MPAA to tell me I can't do the same with my movies if I wanted to. A great quote from Josh who runs the Blu-Ray website -- the AACS-LA, he says, "has proven to be as effective as a screen door on a submarine."

Will I get a cease-and-desist letter for posting this? I suppose it's possible but I have altered the code slightly so it doesn't work. It's really crap this whole DRM thing -- as a consumer you're being shafted. You buy something and you should be able to do whatever you want with it (within reason). What's next? A movie that will only play on your DVD player and not on your friend's? Movies will end up like software -- you'll have to jump through hoops to use them. Maybe the MPAA is taking lessons from the RIAA? At least it would explain their stupidity.

More Nails For Windows Vista's Coffin

Another person has added to the list of reasons that Windows Vista is now looking more like the infamous Windows ME than the future of Microsoft's. I have many posts about Windows Vista (see the tags below) but this is the most important one of them all. Microsoft has turned on itself.

And Dave Jewell in his article Vista-End of the Dream says it's got a simple reason: unmaintainability. I agree with the conclusion, but before reading the article, I have to admit I was highly sceptical about his claim. But, being a code geek myself, I think he may have a point. There are many reasons as I've said before -- even many of the people in Microsoft are opposed to Windows Vista and the disaster it represents.

I want to throw out something in support of Mr. Jewell which he missed upon, and it's important. He mentioned Apple and their multiple releases of new versions of operating systems. That's great. However, he got the logic wrong and that logic supports his arguments. Over the years Apple has totally and completely abandoned their old operating systems and re-written them from the ground up: the biggest and most famous was ditching OS-9 in favour of OS-X -- however it happened when they went from ProDOS to GS/OS which introduced resource-forked files and it also happened between OS-6 and OS-7 when they introduced colour (wow) and multi-tasking where more than one application was actually running at once (multi-finder). This is an oversimplification, but it gives you something to look at.

Apple isn't afraid to throw everything away, tell developers "here's our new path" and then they boldly (and sometimes stupidly, I shall admit) go marching down that path without ever looking to see if anyone is following. Apple has a fantastic success rate with this sort of thing. It's coming soon to the iPod line if you want to know my opinion on the matter. And Apple isn't stupidly building DRM into their entire operating system -- it is built into specific applications which requirement and not shoving it down everyone's throat regardless of the conditions.

Another Blow To Vista

In another blow to Microsoft's latest version of Windows, "Vista", Dell has been forced to backtrack its Windows Vista only decision (news article), and is now shipping XP based systems due to overwhelming demand from its customers. While I am torn at whether or not to blog this because I hate Dell more than almost any other company in the USA except for, perhaps, Aetna Insurance, my distaste for Windows compels me to report this.

I am also shocked that Dell has bothered to listen to its customers, because quite frankly, based on the feedback in my other post on Dell, they haven't got very many fans. Apparently, Microsoft can't be quite as happy with Windows Vista's rollout as they have been claiming.

For more on Dell, Vista, Microsoft, please click on one of the tag links and you'll see all my posts on that particular subject.

Post 300: Microsoft's Arrogance And Stupidity

An interesting article (here) about Windows Vista by Andrew Grygus. It's fitting that my 300th post is yet another tirade against Windows. Actually, it's more my commentary on someone else's tirade. This guy is vehemently anti-Mac and I'm still going to talk about what he had to say because he gets it. Microsoft has gone from bad to worse.

He recounts a famous story where, James Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's Platform Products and Services Group wrote an internal memo saying that Microsoft had lost touch with customer needs and if he didn't work there he'd buy an Apple Macintosh. Allchin retired the day Vista shipped but his memo lives on.

There are many issues with Vista's DRM components and by using them you waive your right to privacy. If you use Vista, Microsoft knows who you are, where you are, and where you computer is physically located. And they can disable your computer. Yes, they can render your computer non-functional if they find it not in compliance. No joke. If you install a driver program and they do not feel it meets the current DRM specification, they can cause Vista to cease to function. You just sold your soul to Microsoft -- aren't you glad? I'm not making this up. Spend some time on Google. I am not anti-PC (yay Linux) but I am vehemently anti-Microsoft and even more anti-Windows. I just don't understand why anyone in his/her right mind would use it.

The answer is often, "we use it at work" -- and that is a reason for you, personally, to use it at work. However, the question is: why would your company allow it? At my office we run an IBM branded AIX based p-series server. Almost our entire company functions using dumb terminals (IBM 3153) connected to this. Do we have some PCs? Yes. Our voice mail system is on an isolated e-machines PC, UPS Worldship runs on another, another that runs QuickBooks (which I am working to make go away), and the Internet station so people can look up stuff on the Internet and run Word and Excel. The last unit will be replaced with a Mac when it expires, but why obsolete something that works. I have a PC laptop but that was for budgetary reasons and it gets maybe 14 or so days of use a year, mostly when I am sent places like China. I won't even go in to the security issues with Windows.

I will, however, ask again why any sane person anywhere on the planet would use a computer when the company that made the operating system can disable your machine? Do you want a company to have that much power over you? Especially when that company is Microsoft?

Seriously, read Andrew Grygus's article here and then James Allchin's internal memo from Microsoft (internal memo) and ask yourself what the hell you think you're doing? There's nothing inherently wrong with an Intel based system* but stick OS-X on it or AIX or Linux, or something that is not Windows. Stop the insanity.

* I prefer PowerPC myself, but that's just me. Geek that I am.


(And that concludes my 300th post. I want to thank my regular readers who subscribe via RSS feed as well as my thousands of itinerant visitors who pass through. Thanks for the e-mails and comments. I like comments.)

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

The Return of Sanford Wallace

Sanford Wallace, generally credited* with modern spam**, the scourge of the Internet, is at it again. This time, MySpace is suing him. I'm quite mystified why someone hasn't given him a pair of cement shoes and thrown him over a bridge. Like many things in life, just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right. Now he's making fake profiles on social-networking sites to lure people to spam sites on the net.

Having battled Spamford Wallace and CyberPromo myself back in the Pro-Entropy days, I am definitely on MySpace's side. They've got just as much money as AOL did and they have a good chance of winning. I hope he suffers anal violation in prison by an HIV positive masochistic guy who's built like a pro-wrestler.


* I don't mean this in a good way, obviously.
** He's also credited with the modern junk-fax

Video Game Console Wars

Whither PS/3, Xbox-360, and Nintendo Wii? Ah, well I am so glad you asked. In the 24 March 2007 issue of the Economist, they do an analysis of which of these systems is better.

So far, The Xbox 360 has sold the most consoles but is flopping in Asia while doing well in the US and parts of Europe -- speculatively because they launched much earlier.

Nintendo can be proud of the Wii having accelerated sales far faster than anyone else, and still having scarcity based on demand in many markets. Analysts expect sales to taper off because the graphics on the Wii are inferior compared to other offerings. I tend to disagree because the Wii (in my personal experience) is way more fun than any video game I've played in ages.

Sony claims PS/3's relatively slow sales are the result of low availability, but we all know they're in stock everywhere unlike the Wii. (The Xbox also has Ample supply). However many people buying the PS/3 are in search of a Blu-Ray player and not a video game console, considering that a nice bonus.

So who's the winner? The answer will absolutely, positively shock you. In the month of December alone the Sony PS/2 (not PS/3) outsold both the PS/3, Wii, and Xbox 360. Yes, the PS/2 is still winning the race.

Music and the 1 Terabyte Hard Drive. Complete.

I have had a series of posts about my ongoing CD ripping project started 1-1-07 and finished today 3-6-07 after 65 days of work. The first post is here, but you can see them all by using the labels (tags) feature.

The final result is 10,629 songs for a continuous playing time of 29.8 days -- this represents 773 albums and 252 artists*.

As I said in my original post, I've always wanted to have my complete library available to me, and now I do. I've ripped everything except spoken word discs

I used either 160 or 192 and in a few rare cases 320 bits depending on the recording. Most are being done at 160 because when they were recorded any real difference wouldn't be noticeable, and as a result I saved tons of drive space. Newer discs were done at the higher rate for better quality. My calculations for total space were way off because I took a typical CD and used that for all calculations, but most older albums are much shorter. Back in the LP era, an album could hold 45 minutes of music. The new ones hold 70 to 80 minutes so I ended up using half the space I expected. I also did the calculations before factoring in disk space shrinkage for using smaller bit rates. It was all done at 320, so my 1TB hard drive still has a lot of space which means I can buy more CDs.

I still wish iTunes let you have real dual libraries -- that is you could have two open at the same time and move songs back and forth. That would please me and it would make my project of removing any remaining illegal tracks go faster. I'll start updating tags which should be done later this year. And I'm slowly adding artwork too, because I'm anal that way.

* Sort of. Some albums a multi-disc set counts as "one album" and on others it counts as "two albums" depending if iTunes recognizes it as "Title" or "Title (Disc One)" and "Title (Disc Two)" but that is a minor quibble. Also for artists, it's the same thing "Elton John" is not the same artist as "Elton John & Billy Joel" so the count isn't perfect. Use the iTunes browse feature to get this information..

Idiotic Windows Users

I realize my Mac friends will think the title of this is utterly redundant, and I would generally be forced to agree on some level, but I also use a Windoze PC besides my trusty Macintosh. (In this article when I refer to PC, I am referring to Windows based PCs. I am all for Linux based boxes on any platform.) I was moved to type this after hearing yet another Windows-using acquaintance of mine bemoan how counter-intuitive Windows is and how horrible his user experience is.

I hear people complain how they hate their PC, how it's not intuitive, and how nothing works right. Sure, some of them are idiot users but most aren't: they're average, ordinary people. Can I help Windows users? Sometimes, but I usually choose not to do so unless it's something really simple. Windows users have brought their misery upon themselves.

All kidding aside, this frustration is the number one reason people use Macintosh: Macintosh works and it makes sense. It's intuitive to all but the dimmest bulb.

Almost all Apple programs confirm to something called HIG (Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines) -- an awesome book written by Apple when the Macintosh first came out -- it's seen revisions over the years and you can still buy it on Amazon using ISBN-10: 0201622165

HIG clearly defines what users expect -- based on research into how people use computers and expect them to work -- and EVERY SINGLE Macintosh program (games excluded for obvious reasons) is expected to conform to these standards. If your program saves files and you want the Macintosh to recognize them officially and automatically, their filetypes and creators should be registered with Apple -- and this generally ensures a quality experience for the user. The one notable exception is Microsoft whose software is not fully compliant, though Office 2007 for the Mac (due out this summer) will supposedly be. And to be fair a few Adobe products (Photoshop) are not fully compliant either, but Joe Average user probably isn't using a $1,000 program -- but honestly, I've figured out the basics of it. Also, many Mac programs have more features than their Windows counterparts -- though this is also true in reverse sometimes.

The same thing goes for hardware. You should plug it in, and it should work. Sometimes obscure hardware needs a driver but generally printers, mice, keyboards, digital cameras, webcams, digital camcorders, scanners, monitors, external hard drives and the lot just work. The end. Sure a specialized driver might make it work better but they aren't required. I can plug many printers marked "for Windows only" into my Mac and they work anyway.

Anything I buy, I can make work. I stick it and it goes. Command-P (alt-P to you PC users) does the same thing in every single program. Windows programs didn't use to be like that, but it's getting closer. For example, I am not a video editor, but I can open iMovie and figure out how to use my webcam to make a short home movie. It might not be good or professional on the first try, but it's done. I am certainly not an audio-geek but I can edit sound and song files with ease. I can use any word processor, speadsheet, and most graphic programs and figure them out. I may not work like a pro, but I can make the program work. I don't need a manual.

Despite what pundits and commercials may have you believe, Macs have the same crap as Windows PCs do when it comes to extensions, drivers, system updates, and all that, but on the Mac it's all transparent. Macs are true plug and play. Windows PCs are plug and play and then fiddle with drivers, reboot a few times, and hope it works and nothing else broke. Macs are not perfect, but as a user of both, I can not in good conscience recommend a Windows based system to anyone I like, unless they're a hardcore gamer because Windows is certainly better at that if you go by selection and accessories for same.

If you're frustrated with your computing experience, go to your nearest Apple store, and try a Macintosh. Or try a friend's. Use it for just an hour with an open mind. When you're done, you'll see why Mac users are so fiercely loyal to their computers. Whenever one of my Windows friends gets hugely frustrated, I give them that same advice. Their conversion rate is around 75%. If you buy a Windows based systems you're getting exactly what you're paying for -- cheaper is not always better. My goal is to change the world one person at a time. I wonder why people choose to use a computer that makes their life miserable. The Mac can do everything a PC can do.

There are some good reasons to own a Windows PC: If you're a gamer, get a PC. If you are in school -- teacher or student -- and that's what your school uses or recommends, get a PC. If you want to be one of the masses of people who can't think for themselves, a PC is definitely right for you. If you make a living helping people with their PCs, you don't have much of a choice; and you're going to have a job for life. Mac users don't normally need help and we're smart enough to find it online when we do :)

Lastly, if you're a PC user, you probably don't want to read this article from 2002 which suggests statistically Mac users are smarter than their PC counterparts. And you certainly don't want to read this article from 2004 because you'll get an inferiority complex. In defense of the Windows PC users I must reiterate my previous statement that I do know smart Windows PC users, but for the most part they're really not quite as intelligent as the Mac users I know. Which explains an awful lot about the world. (There are similar studies, none of the very scientific, indicating a correlation of Mac users being better educated, more liberal, and so forth. However, we all know statistics can be made to say anything, so I won't go off on that tangent.)

Besides, why support Microsoft? If you use Vista, you're handing your life over to them.

Terrabyte HD and the CD Ripping Project Update

In three previous posts to date: one, two, and three, I've commented on this project. As of right now, I'm at 23.5 days of continuous music, representing over 8300 songs and counting. I'm on the Soundtrack section and this one's interesting because I'm wondering exactly why I even bought some of these. Yeah, a good track here and there, but do I really need the entire Empire of the Sun soundtrack? And why do I have both London and Broadway cast recordings of Cats?

The one that will be really fun (insert sarcasm here) is my multi-lingual collection of Les Miserables soundtracks. I have a lot of these and I'll have to encode them so they don't register as duplicates. Won't take too long.

I'm still trying to keep up the pace but it's hard to stay with it; I'm probably done for the week and will try to resume this weekend. But I maintain that I'll still finish this project by June. I started New Year's Day and figured it would take 4 to 6 months.

After soundtracks, there's nothing much left except my Elton John library. I've saved that for last. I will not be including my spoken word CDs; that seems sort of pointless to include CDs containing interviews and such.

After it's done, as I said in post one, I'll slowly check my original playlist, and remove songs that are in my master list. I want to make sure I legally own everything. Then I'll go on a shopping spree to buy whatever I may not legally own. Yay. Then, I get buy new stuff. Watch my Amazon wish list later this year!

Advice, suggestions, and help solicited for this way-cool ongoing project.