Lenses as software

John Gruber links Brian Tiemann’s piece on the cost of platform switching.

Pounce the Geek Cat

Pounce the Geek Cat
Mountain View, California

Pentax Optio S
1/8sec @ f/2.6 iso800, 5.8mm (35mm)

My ex-cat Pownce preparing to jump away from the Mac OS X platform?

The argument centers around that the cost of switching in photography is high because of lens investment just like the cost of switching in computers is high because of software (purchase) investment.

Bullshit.

Continue reading about Lenses as software after the jump

Someone needs two bits of sense, and it’s not Apple

Since it was linked to from Apple’s Hot News section, I read with interest Galbraith’s article on the color accuracy of the new Macbook Pros, even though I plan on skipping this iteration of macbook.

When I came across this article titled, “New MBP offers top display quality, but some beg to differ, I thought, “Oh, Galbraith was wrong on something.”

Not everyone is satisfied with the MBP screens, however. Designer Louie Mantia of the Iconfactory has a bone to pick with the screen quality of his new 13″ unit; it’s sporting a 6-bit display, which has been an issue with color-sensitive professionals for years now.

No such luck, just some moron talking out of his ass. Ahh, the old canard about how their 8-bit panels are really 6-bit. Let me spare these people two bits of wisdom.

Continue reading about about 6-bit and 8-bit color after the jump

Price is a bad thing in recessions

I’ve mentioned the Laptop Hunter ads before. And, if you haven’t gathered, I think it is the first smart campaign from Microsoft in a long time. The reasoning is that portraying Mac owners as “style over substance” and “too cool” hits the right polarizing note during tough economic times.

Sure it’s offensive and not always true, but you have to give them props for being clever.

It is possible, however, to go too far.

What’s wrong with the Laptop Hunter campaign? Well there are arguments about “the facts” (low resolution, slower RAM, etc), but it’s hard to ding Microsoft for that and not say that similar over-simplifications don’t occur in Apple’s Get A Mac campaign. There’s also the issue that the ads seem more about selling HP products, than Microsoft ones. But it’s their money. 🙂

Besides, television advertising has never been about the facts, it’s basically an appeal to emotion.

Instead, the weakness of the campaign centers around a disturbing trend among these ads: they focus on cost, not value.

Continue reading about Understanding downturns after the jump

Last day for MacHeist

Just a reminder that this is the last day to Last day to purchase the MacHeist bundle. I’ve been buying these since they used to be co-produced with MacUpdate, and now it’s almost just a habit on the off chance that I might need one of the applications. Usually just needing one offsets the price of the bundle.

Just recently, everything got unlocked.

MacHeist 3 bundle

Because of this I’ve found I own a lot of duplicates. I thought I’d go over some of them just FYI for Mac Users.

Continue reading about Looking at the bundle after the jump

Microsoft’s answer to Ellen Feiss

A continuation of my Why WROX failed theory:

Last week…

Me: Lauren is a cheap ass. 😀

“I’m a P.C.” sounds like the person has bladder control issues. “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person” is so much better.

M—: Oh yeah, I saw that yesterday… It’s a good commercial though. 🙂

Me: Only because she’s a redhead.
Me: Admit it.

M—: Haha.

The beauty of this ad is that finally Microsoft hits the right buttons in these politically divisive and tough economic times.

Too bad there’s no mention of Microsoft products. Seems like HP should be airing this.

Ahh… good times

#firstmac

Because it is the 25th anniversary of the Macintosh, there is twitter meme going on where you talk about your first mac.

Reading the headlines on Microsoft, Sony, and Nokia, I’m struck with just how impressive Apple’s quarterly’s are. Yesterday, I noticed that Apple’s front page was bragging that they have had over 300 million iPhone AppStore downloads since its launch.

Instead of going back 25 years, I’d rather go back seven when, in October 2001, Apple released the iPod. Now most of us don’t have to eat as much crow as Slashdot did—I purchased my first iPod one month after the release. However when Steve Jobs said then that the iPod was “the 21st-century Walkman” who didn’t think it was laced with more than a little hubris? And yet, now, we’d probably think that the iPod which reenergized the Macintosh, changed the music industry, and was parlayed into the “it” smartphone was the Walkman and much more.

Sony missed the iPod market because its acquisition of Columbia made the huge technology company a victim of the requests of its media division. Instead of learning from this mistake and moving forward, in 2005, this Japanese engineering company appointed an American entertainment executive to lead their company.

“If you look backward in this business, you’ll be crushed. You have to look forward.”
—Steve Jobs, on the 25th Anniversary of the Macintosh

My #firstmac? Well that was just under 25 years ago. I can still remember making Dungeons and Dragons maps with it in MacPaint at my best friend’s house—that computer changed my life. I went home and begged my parents to buy one and I’ve used sixteen macs since that day—I can name every one.

That moment also marked one of the last times I’d spend with my friend—the years play-acting fantasy books in the junkyard behind his house giving way to separate schooling and separate lives. That computer also changed some others lives. It was purchased with the same drug money that would later kill 18 people.

For different reasons than Steve Jobs, I can’t look back, I’d be crushed. I can only look forward.

PHP anthem

IM from a friend:

See ya.
Oh, by the way in OS X shell:

say -v Good oh PHP ow ow oh PHP ow oh PHP ow ow oh PHP ow oh PHP ow ow oh PHP ow oh PHP ow ow oh PHP ouchie

for PHP anthem.

ROFL

Update (2010-08-05)

If you came here from a blog search, here is another anthem.

GPS everywhere and in everything

My computer has a GPS in it using the same SIRFstar III chipset as my hiking handheld, which also doubles as my cycling GPS.

On the Mac, it appears as a “USB-serial” device whose driver is made by Prolific Technology which, coincidentally, makes the driver for my camera GPS receiver. Like all SIRFstar III GPSs, getting the acquisition took only a second, but a fix took a minute.

Great! Now what to do?

GPS + Google Earth = fun

[gps madness after the jump]Continue reading

Planning your Macs

My Uncle is soon to be without his laptop and desktop. An in our family, this means a Macintosh…with Skype installed. And this means, bouncing ideas off the family Mac geek: me.

Here were his ideas:

Idea 1:
Get 1 desktop and 1 laptop. For desktop, I am thinking of iMac rather than a Power Mac (which may be too large and iMac can do the most of PowerMac capability). For laptop, Mac Air may be good and light but it may lack some features like hard-disk, and the number of USB ports.
Idea 2:
Get a good laptop, a wireless keyboard & mouse, and a big LCD screen to hook up the laptop wirelessly.

I thought it’d be fun to share my thinking/email.

[My commentary after the jump.]Continue reading