Media - Aldoblog

Definitive Mac mini to Dell Price Comparison

In The Mac mini: Comparing Apples and Oranges, Dan Frakes breaks down the pricing for Apple’s low-cost system and a “comparable” $399 Dell system that journalists all over the planet seem to think is a fair comparison. Unlike all those other journalists, he actually compares _everything_ that comes in the box or pre-installed on the hard drive.

In The Mac mini: Comparing Apples and Oranges, Dan Frakes breaks down the pricing for Apple’s low-cost system and a “comparable” $399 Dell system that journalists all over the planet seem to think is a fair comparison. Unlike all those other journalists, he actually compares everything that comes in the box or pre-installed on the hard drive.

The nutshell is, the Dell is missing a lot. If you need any of those things (and some of them, such as anti-virus software, are essential to everyone running Windows), the Dell stops being so cheap.

Macworld Expo Hits From Apple

Like a lot of other Mac aficionados, I followed yesterday’s announcements by Apple quite closely. A lot of people are writing about them, so I’m just going to jot down a couple of thoughts I’ve had that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

But first: I think the Mac mini is a grand-slam; I expect Apple to sell a million units a quarter through the rest of this year (assuming they can make that many), with only a modest impact (cannibalization) of sales of existing products. Most of these will be to first-time Mac owners. The price point and the packaging are both trying to suggest that the Mac mini is an impulse buy (even if the idea of switching platforms on an impulse is ridiculous).

Continue reading “Macworld Expo Hits From Apple”

Quoted in the New York Times

Rochelle and I were quoted in the New York Times again, this time in the Sunday magazine, in a travel article about people who base their vacations around food, so-called “gastronauts.”

Rochelle and I were quoted in the New York Times again, this time in the travel section, an article about people who base their vacations around food, so-called “gastronauts.” It’s a fun article to read; better do so quickly, before the story disappears behind the for-pay firewall.

It looks like the story might have gotten chopped up a bit in editing, because I am a San Francisco-based software developer, not LA-based. And, while the Klausners may also have done so, I know we told the reporter about our trip to Chicago to eat at Charlie Trotter’s, which turned into a week-long eating binge though much of Chicago’s best-rated food establishments. (Our vacation eating focus is much less high-end these days.)

If I was going to offer once piece of advice to other food enthusiasts who were going to plan a vacation around that passion it would be this: walk everywhere you can. There’s no way you can put everything of interest in a spreadsheet before you get on the plane; walking will take you past things you could not possibly have planned for. And if nothing else, it’ll keep you from gaining too much weight while you’re eating your way through the local food scene.

I Might Be a Crank, But I’m Not Alone

I wrote before about “downgrading” to a slower hard disk, just because it made less noise than the fast disk it replaced. I also spent a lot of time researching parts and putting together two PCs from nearly silent components, just to replace my old server and Rochelle’s aging — and incredibly noisy — PC.

After doing all of that, the noisiest item in the office was once again my Mac, which lost the title when I took out the noisy hard disk, but had a couple of fans that were quite a bit louder than the now-very-quiet fans in the two PCs.

When I got my new girlfriend, that noise went away. My PowerBook is normally completely silent, because laptops run cooler than desktops and the aluminum case dissipates heat extremely well. There is a fan, and it makes noise when it’s on, but that’s only when the CPU is really crunching. Now, although they are pretty quiet, the server and Rochelle’s PC are again the noisy items in the office.

It’s really not a lot of noise. A quiet radio or a conversation would cover it, as does the street noise most of the time. But, it’s still there, and since I’m most efficient at night, when everything else gets quiet, it’s starting to be annoying. Which is crazy, because 6 months ago the reduced noise level from those systems made me ecstatic.

I’ve realized that I’m becoming a crank, someone obsessed with something most people find trivial, and I’m sure I will ultimately go mad trying to squeeze that last decibel or two out of the office. My only consolation is that I am not alone, and it’s now possible to find plenty of components, and even whole systems, that make computing quiet.

House of Flying Daggers

Over Xmas, in conversation with my brother about various movies that have come out in the last year, I found myself wondering why I haven’t been to the movies more often in 2004. Today I was reminded why. In spite of going to the “bargain” matinee, my movie experience was nearly $20 ($7.50 for the ticket, $9 for popcorn and a Coke, and $2.75 for parking).

In spite of the expense, I enjoyed House of Flying Daggers. While it’s not at the level of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it tries for it and succeeds on many, if not all, levels. Gorgeously photographed and choreographed, and Ziyi Zhang is definitely one of the most beautiful actresses on the planet. It’s a movie worth seeing on a large screen, for the action, costumes, and settings.

Even if it costs you $20.

Cancel Your Friendster Account

Well, OK, I won’t tell you what to do, but I’ll tell you what I just did: I cancelled my Friendster account (Friendster is a social networking company), because they fired an employee for blogging (participating in social networks).

Well, OK, I won’t tell you what to do, but I’ll tell you what I just did: I cancelled my Friendster account (Friendster is a social networking company), because they fired an employee for blogging (participating in social networks).

There’s been some coverage of the issue on weblogs and in more mainstream media

Frankly, I wasn’t using my Friendster account anyway; my LinkedIn account is more useful, and my Orkut account is more interesting. Friendter was trapped in-between being useful and being fun, which meant it was pretty useless. So cancelling my account to send a (tiny) message seemed like a reasonable thing to do.

After all, I have this blog, and someday I might be working 9-5 again…

G-Man!

Through the grace of a friend of a friend, I am now a Gmail user. I am only posting that so I can also rant on the so-called “privacy issues” that people have raised regarding Gmail, especially the moronic state senator Liz Figueroa, who this past week introduced legislation to ban Gmail.

Through the grace of a friend of a friend, I am now a Gmail user. (Gmail is the 1-gigabyte web mail service from Google that has gotten a lot of press lately.) I am only posting the news here so I can also post my thoughts on the so-called “privacy issues” that people have raised regarding Gmail, especially the moronic state senator Liz Figueroa, who this past week introduced legislation to ban Gmail.

First of all, Google is very up front and direct about how Gmail works, what information they will have about you, and how they plan to use it. If you do not like the way Gmail works, you don’t have to sign up for it. Gmail is entirely opt-in. (Indeed, it’s currently hard to get the opportunity to opt in.)

Why a state senator feels the need to “protect” people from something they don’t have to sign up for is beyond me. More proof that politicians are publicity hounds first, uninformed technophobes second, and advocates for genuine public good dead last.

Some of us, dammit, want Gmail to do what it does: scan your e-mail to improve the quality and relevancy of ads served. Log on to Yahoo!’s or Hotmail’s web mail systems, and tell me you actually like the horrible Atkins and dating services ads they are serving up. Tell me that’s better than targeted ads that might actually be useful.

(Before you scoff about ads that are useful, read why I like Google’s ads. I’ve bought things from the ads placed on Google searches.)

The other response to these so-called privacy advocates is more technical. The concern is that Gmail will be scanning all incoming and outgoing e-mail. Well, so do all of the other web-based e-mail services. For that matter, so do most ISPs and corporations. They are scanning for viruses, worms, and spam, but they are scanning all your e-mail already.

As usual, Tim O’Reilly has a sane and forward-looking take on the whole issue. For my part, I’m happy to make the deal with Google, relevant ads for a great web mail service (and it is noticeably better than Yahoo!’s e-mail service, which I’ve used extensively for many years). My only real concern is, how do I get my archived e-mail (all 250,000 messages) into it?

We’re in the NY Times

Rochelle and I were mentioned, and Rochelle quoted, in this Sunday’s New York Times.

Rochelle and I were mentioned, and Rochelle quoted, in this Sunday’s New York Times. The article is about couples registering for wine when they’re getting married, which we did, and recommend. Go read the article for more details.

Rochelle’s marking an item off her “to do before I die” list, and we were both happy that we weren’t the couple with the largest age range mentioned in the article (we’re 4 years apart, while the biggest gap was 11 years).

Security Insights

From a recent interview with Bruce Schneier, one of the U.S.’s premiere security experts, comes one of the most understandable and insightful comments on recent security changes that I’ve read: “Of all the measures instituted to improve airline security, only two have had any positive effect: Reinforcing the cockpit door and teaching the passengers to fight back. Everything else is window dressing.”

From a recent interview with Bruce Schneier, one of the U.S.’s premiere security experts, comes one of the most understandable and insightful comments on recent security changes that I’ve read:

There’s a common myth that security and liberty are opposites, that increased surveillance is necessary for increased security. This is wrong. Of all the measures instituted to improve airline security, only two have had any positive effect: Reinforcing the cockpit door and teaching the passengers to fight back. Everything else is window dressing — “security theater,” as I call it in my book. Notice that neither of those two things have any effect on personal liberties.

I’m sure that so-called “homeland security” will continue to be a major political lever used to introduce more government control and oversight into our lives. Perhaps Bruce’s new book will at least inject some common sense into the discussion.

Uh…Is This Microphone On?

I subscribe to a mailing list for Linux news, called LinuxGram. The writer, Maureen O’Gara, has a writing style that could be described as “feisty.” It comes out once a week, and manages to entertain as well as inform. This week I was quoted in it, under a “Bite Me” headline!

Last week Maureen broke the story that SCO planned to expand their frivolous claims, and use their copyright on a particular branch of Unix source code to levy a tax on Linux users. It’s SCO’s latest move in their campaign of deception to extort money from IBM and other Linux supporters, by pouring as much FUD around Linux as news editors will publish, until somebody cries “uncle” and sends SCO a big check.

I called it McCarthyism here a while back, and when this particular story hit my Inbox, I posted those same thoughts onto the discussion board for the story. I did it without much thought, and — no thought requiring less time than thinking — ended up being the first post to the discussion. Ah, fame!

Little did I know! This week it would seem I was writing the news, instead of reading it: my posting was the lead in a special “reader feedback” issue. The e-mail graphic to the right is pretty much exactly what I saw early this afternoon (click for a larger, readable version), with zero warning that my name would be in bold print underneath the story heading “Mr. McBride, Bite Me!”. Yikes!

For the record, it’s the next guy down who actually wrote “bite me”. I don’t know if my posting was more rational, but at least I won’t get teeth marks on my butt because of it.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

Rochelle’s a big fan of the makeover show “What Not To Wear”, down to playing the same game with Hilda, our upstairs neighbor. They’ve been spending a couple hours on multiple weekends, going through each other’s closets, trying things on, nixing some, swapping some, and putting the rejects in the Goodwill pile. Now comes a great new show, for men, called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Rochelle’s a big fan of the makeover show “What Not To Wear”, down to playing the same game with Hilda, our upstairs neighbor. They’ve been spending a couple hours on multiple weekends, going through each other’s closets, trying things on, nixing some, swapping some, and putting the rejects in the Goodwill pile. Overall, about 5 bags of clothing and shoes have left the house.

Now comes a great new show, for men, called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. You may have read about it recently, but the simple concept is, five makeover gurus show up, run a helpless slob through the gauntlet, and in the end, he’s prince charming. The hook is, the five gurus are gay, the slob is straight.

It’s a lot of fun. If you get Bravo on your cable or satellite service, you should give it a whirl. Unlike most makeover shows, this one is 60 minutes, instead of just 30, which gives a lot more time to the different aspects of the makeover.

I doubt if any of this will rub off on my personal sense of style — or lack thereof. But the show’s funny enough, I’ll keep watching anyway.

Reloaded three times

I just went to see The Matrix Reloaded for the third time last night, which will seem like a lot of times, especially to those folks who didn’t like it, or the previous movie. But this is entirely defensible.

I just went to see The Matrix Reloaded for the third time last night, which will seem like a lot of times, especially to those folks who didn’t like it, or the previous movie. But this is entirely defensible.

The first time was the first time. Needed to see it in the theater, had a great time.

The second time was actually free, Rochelle and I just walked into it on a Sunday afternoon, because it started 2 minutes after The Italian Job finished, and we decided to get our money’s worth out of our tickets.

The third time was different. It was amazing. It was in IMAX.

If you haven’t seen The Matrix Reloaded yet, and if it’s playing on an IMAX screen near you, I recommend kicking in the extra $5. Even if you’ve seen the movie already, it’s worth going again. It’s a whole new experience, totally worth the extra money. There’s just way more detail up on the screen, and it makes the movie that much more “real.”

I may need to Reload again.