Computer related stuff (and computer-related gadgets).
Besides the obvious fact that contextual menus are now in inverted type and resemble overlays (making them easier to read), the Dock preferences has a hidden gem.
To find the minimized windows, click and hold to activate exposé (note the lightbox background)—the minimized windows now appear as a smaller preview in the lower part of the screen.
Nice. But the UI seems to resemble Ajax’d websites more and more.
What it does is add a system-wide hotkey to open Terminal as an overlay. The problem is it doesn’t work in Snow Leopard.
A little investigating implied that the problem was that SIMBL is not updated for 64-bit. So the trick is to simply “Get Info…” on Terminal and have it launch in 32-bit mode…
Now if only Logitech Control Center worked in Snow Leopard. I know the application is suck, but I’m getting tired of weird finger yoga to get at the control key on my Logitech DiNovo Mac Edition Keyboard. 🙁
John Gruber links Brian Tiemann’s piece on the cost of platform switching.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
A continuation of my Why WROX failed theory:
Last week…
Me: Lauren is a cheap ass. 😀
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.
On my way out of the office the other day I happened to glance at the front desk to see a stack of MaximumPC magazines. Curious I flipped through a couple issues and noted:
Why doesn’t the cover of MaximumPC have some hot Asian babe splayed across it?
A friend suggested that it was because maybe hot Asian babes used Macs, but what I was really trying to get at was how similar PC overclocking is to import car tuning.
Sometime just read the covers of MaximumPC and ModifiedMag and tell me they’re not the same magazine delta the modified women?
I’m actually counting the days until the next sequel to The Fast and the Furious will be about your next LAN party.
Well the Kindle 2 came out today so I preordered it.
This morning two people IM’d me about it so I decided to give the first my Amazon referral bucks. I give Amazon bucks semi-randomly to various friends and he asked me how I do it.
I use a “Buy from Amazon” bookmarklet I wrote to make life easier.
You can drag that into your toolbar if you like. One nice thing is to remove the second prompt and just replace the href with the tag to yourself. I keep it this way so that I remember to put the associate ID of one of my friends since I put them on rotation.
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.