So db solicited for contributors here on donburnside.com and then gave me permission to post. However he never gave me any ground rules before he turned me loose…. That may have been a mistake on his part…
For now at least I’ll behave myself…
Actually a quick introduction, I’m Michael and db has had a link to my irregularly updated site in his sidebar for a few years now. I met db through the MINI community (you’re stunned I’m sure) and have somehow managed to become a semi-regular host over on White Roof Radio. According to the Personnel Directory here I’m also the Chief Plumber - again possibly not one of db’s better decisions. Then again I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express on New Years Eve…
Elsewhere I’m the Chief Photographer and Behind the Scenes Person over at www.mycruiseplanner.net (a position I just made up) as well as producer and co-Presenter with Patricia of The Mail Buoy Podcast. I’ve also got two Flickr streams that I post to, one for the Cruise Planners site and the other is my personal one that’s not cruise related. If you look hard enough there’s also a few other places on the web you can find me.
Anyway, until I can come up with something interesting to post I’ll solicit some input from the donburnside.com audience.
What are your tech predictions for 2009? Will there be chaos as the digital TV transition occurs in February? Will Steve Jobs leave Apple this year? Will Best Buy or Circuit City survive the year? What cool gadgets are coming this year? Leave a comment and let me know what you think….
No Sunday post today. Instead, a reply to a post by Nathaniel Salzman concerning the new Microsoft ads and Microsoft in general. I would follow that link first before reading on.
Interesting. I haven’t seen the new ad yet, but at least it says Microsoft more than the quirky Seinfeld ads.
A terrible product and user experience: Their products are the Achilles heal Apple is shooting arrows through left and right
Sure it’s bad, but if you’ve been using Windows only since Win98/WinNT4 it’s really not. It’s what you know. When I switched to Apple, I was going crazy trying to figure out the things I did on Windows with a few keystrokes and still have a hard time with the crazy symbols.
Convoluted systems: The user must constantly adapt and relearn, rather than having a system built and adapted to them and what they’re trying to do.
I’ve been using Windows since 3.11 and I don’t remember constantly relearning or adapting to anything. If anything, the way applications act on Windows is way more consistent than on the Mac in some respects. And Windows has, essentially, worked exactly the same since Win95. Vista I’m sure is different, but not too much from what I have seen.
I will say the primary reason for my switching is I got tired of fiddling. I’m a fan of “It Just Works”.
Corporate inertia: When was the last time Microsoft did something truly new?
There is the Surface thing, which is promising. Too bad nobody is really pushing it or coming up with a cool use for it.
I’m in no way a Microsoft/Windows fan boy, but I have been using it for almost 20 years (and DOS before that). I haven’t used Vista yet, but I can say that Windows XP for 99% of it’s users is a great OS, very stable and (as long as they are running IE7), fairly secure.
One thing everyone seems to forget is that while Microsoft was booming with Windows 95/98, Apple had System 7/OS9. While I have heard System 7 was ok, I know from a little experience (and what I have heard) that OS9 was horrible. Microsoft had ME, but as long as your hardware supported it, it was as good as 98. Apple didn’t start getting praise until they released OS X on a wide scale. Before that, they were relegated to hobbyists, print shops and (I wish this would come back) education.
Windows has been around for a while. Crappy ads or not. People will continue to use it as long as that’s what they have in the office. Offices will continue to use it as long as they have software developers that can’t/won’t ditch DOS, IE6 or INI/batch files. And, as long as one can go to Best Buy/Walmart/[enter local electronics store here] and pick up a Windows PC for less than $500, it’s going to be here to stay.
To be honest, I almost didn’t switch. The community surrounding the Apple and it’s products (including the iPod) are a little to enthusiastic for my liking. But I was able to get past that and see the quality of the product, which then justified the price.
I prefer the Mac by a longshot and try to get others to switch every chance I get. You just can’t discount Microsoft because they don’t know how to sell themselves or do anything revolutionary.
It would appear that some iPhone developers are a little upset.
It seems several different companies have renamed their iPhone games to begin with either a space, a quotation mark, or some other symbol so that they appear first in the list of 197 games on the iPhone portal to the App Store.
Really? It’s good thing they don’t advertise in the yellow pages.
I’ve actually worked with people like this. Had a domain name that started off with 3 A’s because he thought it would help him get to the top. Idiot.
And, this is no different than the way iTunes handled podcasts when it first started. Before there were categories or any organization, you would pull up a list that was complete rubbish at the top with all of the silly names starting with all manner of punctuation, the letter A and spaces. Most of those shows are gone now, as you can imagine.
But, really, make good software. Promote it on your web site. Link to it on your website. Encourage your customers to spread the word. Something.
Just don’t get all pissy because someone is thinking they are being clever because they are faking out the system. Sheesh. Pull your skirt up already Alice.
Besides that, I just checked the app store and I didn’t see any of that silliness. Maybe the good folks at the apple store decided they didn’t want your panties to get in a bunch so they fixed it for you.
For the last 6 months or so I’ve been going back and forth on my next computer purchase. As I’ve mentioned before, I like 2 machines. 1 that is mobile that I can keep small, light and having only what I need to have while I’m mobile. And the other for my desk which holds all of my media (music, photos, video) and does everything the mobile machine does.
I haven’t had that. Not since my PC died in early ‘07, shortly after I got the MacBook. And, while the MacBook is a great little mobile machine, it just doesn’t have the horsepower I need for doing other things. As it turns out, there are a few other issues I have with it as well.
So I’ve been watching the refurb shop at the Apple store for a 20″ iMac (the good one, not the low-end model), a 24″ iMac and a 15″ MacBook Pro. After my last trip, I’ve made my decision.
15″ MacBook Pro.
This came to me as I was trying to edit video on the road on the 13″ MB screen and watching as iMovie brought the machine to a smoking, screeching halt and declared 200+ minutes to export a 15 minute long video. No good that. Also I got the chance to check one out in person at that ginormous Apple store in Boston. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it.
So, when the time comes, I will get a 15″ MBP for my desk. Run it off the juice with the battery removed (if I can) and use it mobile when I need the extra power.
Something else that I discovered after last week was just how cool the iPhone was. Every day during MTTS it saved our asses no less than twice, and some days more often than that. Whether it was finding the nearest Starbucks or giving us directions from point a to point b, just have access to Google Maps, even as slow as it is over EDGE, was a godsend!
Now, I’m not going to do anything foolish like drop Verizon and go to AT&T. Besides not liking AT&T, the coverage, where I spend most of my time, is crap. And, since it’s the only phone I carry, I like it to work all the time.
What I’m actually hoping to be able to do is get my MBP sometime before Apple stops that student special so I can also get an iPod Touch. Um, sure, it’s, um, for teh lad. Yea, that’s the ticket!
All of which hinges, directly or not, on my getting work. Don’t forget, I am for hire! Feel free to pass along my contact info and whatnot to anyone that you think could benefit from my skills.
Ok, back to processing one more video. Then, and only then, will this round of MTTS be done!
So, I have Leopard up and running.
Before I began, I purchased a second external hard drive. CostCo has the WD dual interface (firewire and USB) 500GB drive for $149 if you are looking for one. First step, copy everything from the old 250GB to the new. Time: 4.5 hours.
Then, it was SuperDuper!’s turn to back up my user folder and whatnot. Time: 3.5 hours*
Then, and only then, was it time for Leopard. Erase and install for me thankyouverymuch because I had a ton of cruft, crap and misc. whatnot that I didn’t want anymore. Time: 1 hour
Then, install apps time. This time around I’m really going to make an effort to only install apps that I will be using on a regular basis. For the others, I am not going to install them until needed. Here is what I have so far.
- iLife ‘08
- iWork ‘08. Yes, I’m going to try this for 30 days before reinstalling office.
- SuperDuper!
- Skype
- VMWare Fusion
- Adium
- Flickr uploader
I have a few left to go (MAMP, Smultron, Acorn/Pixelmator), but those I will leave for later today.
Thoughts so far?
It’s faster. Noticeably faster. I’m not sure where, but it is.
Safari is smokin’ fast. So, I’m going to try it for a while before I put FireFox back. 2 things that are killing me on this so far are the ability to set all new links to open in a new tab (I know, cmd-click does this, but FF has a setting so I don’t have to) and to highlight the menu bar with a single click. Plus extensions. But, I’m going to give it a week and see what I can do.
Dock on the bottom sure is pretty. Dock on the left is pretty ok too. Although the change from black arrows to blue lights will take some getting used to.
Spaces seems awesome. As soon as I play with it some more I’m sure it will be.
Spotlight doesn’t suck anymore. I’m going to try to use that instead of Quicksilver for launching apps (the primary use of Quicksilver for me anyway).
Preview is great. It’s that Windows feature that I have been waiting for and they did it right. Try it with a multi-sheet spread sheet. You can actually look at all of the sheets in a workbook. Awesome.
So far it’s only been about a day with it, but I can say that I am glad I did the upgrade.
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