What isn’t Apple, audiobooks, or alcohol is probably cats.
Personally tested, compared to other options, and now recommended products and services.
This is a pretty neat trick. See if you can figure out the puzzle faster than I did (took me about a minute, looking really closely).
This is a pretty neat trick. See if you can figure out the puzzle faster than I did (took me about a minute, looking really closely).
I’ve been using Mac OS X for about six months now, and really love it. Mac OS X is built on top of Unix technology. My computer has crashed exactly once in that time. Once.
I’ve been using Mac OS X for about six months now, and really love it. Mac OS X is built on top of Unix technology. My computer has crashed exactly once in that time. Once.
Stewart Alsop questions the effectiveness of Microsoft’s ability to “innovate,” comparing Windows XP (which just shipped a few months ago) with Unix (which was developed in the ’70s):
XP really isn’t all that new or stable. XP is based on what used to be called Windows NT, which Microsoft developed over many years as a competitive response to Unix. Yet XP requires you to do things Unix doesn’t require, like restart your machine when you install a new application… This reflects the design of the core of the operating system, called the kernel. The kernel in XP is not fully protected against what application programs might do; the kernel in Unix is.
As he points out at the end of the article, when you have $40 billion in cash in the bank, you don’t have to do squat.
I like Mac OS X.
Pretty fuckin’ funny.
get your war on is pretty fuckin’ funny.
Last night I saw Iron Monkey. The similarities between it and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon only serve to make the differences more obvious; Crouching Tiger, with its broader scope and vision, more complex characters, and much more interesting storyline, is a much, much better film.
Last night I saw Iron Monkey. The film, which was made several years before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, clearly inspired elements in the later film. They have similar historical/mythical Chinese settings and achieve similar levels in martial arts action choreography (which is to say, they’re both spectacular to watch).
But the similarities only serve to make the differences more obvious. Crouching Tiger, with its broader scope and vision, more complex characters, and much more interesting storyline, is a much, much better film.
At work yesterday our IT department installed a bunch of updates on my computer. I always worry about installing updates for no reason, but they wanted to do it, so I let them. Maybe I shouldn’t have…
At work yesterday our IT department installed a bunch of updates on my computer. I always worry about installing updates for no reason, but they wanted to do it, so I let them.
So far nothing seems amiss. But after reading this guy’s upgrade story, I’m a little worried.
I have written several times about my search for an acceptable keyboard to replace my beloved Apple Extended Keyboard, which I can no longer use with my Mac, due to the retirement of the ADB interface. At long last, my search is over, with the purchase of a Ballistic USB Extended Keyboard.
I have written several times about my search for an acceptable keyboard to replace my beloved Apple Extended Keyboard, which I can no longer use with my Mac, due to the retirement of the ADB interface.
Well, my search is over. About three weeks ago I received a brand new Ballistic USB Extended Keyboard (Graphite) from Mac Station, and have been beating on it regularly since then. It’s everything I have been looking for in a keyboard, with the exception of not having the groovy Volume Up/Down/Mute and CD Eject buttons that the Apple Pro Keyboard has. And those I can live without, in return for the right feel on the keys.
If you’ve used and been a fan of the old Apple Extended Keyboard, the Ballistic will delight you, and at $75 Canadian (under US$50), it’s actually cheaper than any of the bad keyboards I’ve tried.
Highly, highly recommended.
Something really, really exciting is going on in technology right now. It’s not really clear where all this is heading, but the amount of activity, creativity, and energy going into building and combining new Web-based services is large and growing, in a way we haven’t seen since about 1994, when the Internet first started to take off.
Something really, really exciting is going on in technology right now. It’s not really clear where all this is heading, but the amount of activity, creativity, and energy going into building and combining new Web-based services is large and growing, in a way we haven’t seen since about 1994, when the Internet first started to take off.
Some data points:
Paolo Valdemarin summed it up thus:
Basically what is happening is that every piece of information, every idea, every concept, every document is getting its own url. You can access it and reuse it. All borders between you desktop and the rest of the universe are fading, you can borrow the search capabilities of Google’s powerful servers from within your favourite application, or you can read news from the New York Times on the same page containing the news from your co-worker telling you what’s up today.
It’s safe to say that we’re in the period of wild experimentation and innovation, where no one really knows what they’re doing or has a complete vision of what is to come. But it’s also safe to say that we’re going there fast, and it will change the way we use computers (again). And the ride itself is going to be a lot of fun.
Buckle up!
Dave Winer is at the heart of all this energy, he’s involved with or creating every one of the major elements that make up this exciting soup.
Dave Winer is at the heart of all this energy, he’s involved with or creating every one of the major elements that make up this exciting soup. He’s written a bit about what he thinks is next:
Before this release, from Google’s point of view, we were all users. Now some of us are developers. We get another chance to define what that means, based on what we learned being developers for Apple, IBM, Apple again, Netscape, the Internet, Microsoft and now the Internet again. It’s a good time for a fresh start.
We’re at the Hello World stage again. It’s like the hobbyist period of personal computing, or MacWrite/MacPaint in 1984, or the early days of the Web when the blink tag was a minor miracle. Same idea.
Rochelle has a firm belief that people who live in San Francisco should have to justify living here, by taking advantage of unique aspects of living in the city on a regular basis. This new channel will cover some of those unique things, or other random stuff that we do on our days off, that would otherwise end up in the Miscellaneous category.
Rochelle has a firm belief that people who live in San Francisco should have to justify living here, by taking advantage of unique aspects of living in the city on a regular basis.
This new channel will cover some of those unique things, or other random stuff that we do on our days off, that would otherwise end up in the Miscellaneous category.
Today one of those unique things is going on at the Toronado, SF’s best beer bar. That’s right, it’s Belgian Beer month, and today is the kickoff.
You should be here.
Odd Todd is probably the funniest of the various “I’m unemployed and have lots of time, so I’m going to document what’s it’s like to be unemployed on the Internet” sites.
OK, here’s another one. Odd Todd is probably the funniest of the various “I’m unemployed and have lots of time, so I’m going to document what’s it’s like to be unemployed on the Internet” sites.
The weirdest thing about this one is that the narration is in a voice that sounds a lot like one of Rochelle’s co-workers, who I met just after viewing the cartoon. It made it very difficult actually hear what he was saying, instead of just marveling at his voice…
Anyway, there’s a couple cartoons, and while the visuals are very stick-figure, the narration and audio is terrific. Recommended.
Jodie Foster’s Panic Room is a very solid, very tense thriller. Recommended.
I saw Jodie Foster’s Panic Room yesterday. Very solid, very tense thriller. Jodie is awesome, Forest Whitaker is his usual excellent self, and Dwight Yoakam, of all people, is the scarier of the two psychos in the movie.
The writing is excellent. This isn’t a movie filled with jack-in-the-box surprises that make you jerk in your seat (or scream), but does have plenty of “faster, faster” moments where you’re trying to help out by leaning into where you want things to go. The movie plays fair: no tricks or rabbits out of a hat to end the picture — something that happens all too often in this kind of film. Highly recommended.
TeacherReviews.com looks like a great resource for getting honest information from fellow students about what classes and professors to take — and who to avoid.
Rochelle is taking a web building class this semester, and for her final project is working on a system that will help capture student reviews of the instructors in her program (MLIS at San Jose State).
As part of her research, she found a site, TeacherReviews.com, which does much the same thing, but for any school in the world.
It’s a pretty nicely done site, and if you’re currently in school (even part-time, like Rochelle and I), you should take a few minutes and add your reviews to the site.
And pass the URL along to your classmates; these things are only useful if there’s a good body of knowledge that gets preserved.