Curiouser and Curiouser! on apple

Darkest tempatations

Wed, 08 Oct 2003 12:08:23 +0100

Who gives a damn. And maybe you buy yourself, say, a new Apple PowerBook, as I just did, and it comes in this really quite beautiful sleek black box with small elegant typeface and gorgeous subtle graphics and a strange and obvious attention to... [The Obvious?]

I sense a man struggling with a deep, dark, temptation.... ;-)

Better upstreaming all round?

Sun, 18 Jan 2004 07:27:52 +0000

Some users are already testing the Windows Upstreaming app. The feedback I've had so far has been positive, all the glitches are UI related - the upstreaming works.

Andy Fragen points out that we should be able to do this stuff really easily on Mac OS X too using Folder Actions to talk to Radio Userland.

Being a complete OS X newbie I am struggling but it would be neat to complete the set. Here is Andy's comment:

For those asking about OS X, consider this. A Folder Action attached to the www folder that would, in turn, use the "Do Script" command from the Radio UserLand AppleScript dictionary to run. Do Script: Execute a script Do Script string -- The text of the Frontier script to be executed Result: anything Where string is say the text of builtins.radio.upstream.xmlStorageSystem.upstreamMultipleFiles ?? Jake, if you find this adding to the AppleScript dictionary the ability to Do Script Object Database location would be much better.

So far I haven't figured out how to add the Apple Script menu to Finder. I found the menu itself, but clicking & dragging it doesn't seem to do the right thing. BTW: Apple should be really proud of the job they did on the Help for this:

Installing Script Menu
After you install Script Menu, you can use the included scripts or add your own scripts to the menu.

Thanks a bundle! So, for now, i'm playing with this in the Apple script editor. However, here too, I'm getting stuck. I've written a test script:

tell application "Radio Userland(TM)"
    Do Script "Frontier.bringToFront()"
end tell

This asks me to identify the Radio application, which I do, and passes the syntax check. However when I run the script the Editor freezes and, eventually, times out. Radio is definitely running. Maybe there is some other step to allow apps to be scriptable?

Anyway if this can be made to work then it should be possible to do using the following Radio verbs:

radio.upstream.uploadChangedFiles()
radio.upstream.checkForDeletions()

I have a wrapper function around these two calls in the tool that accompanies Windows upstreaming.

Is Apple trying to rip me off?

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:27:52 +0100

My Dell Inspiron laptop is almost 3 years old and coming to the end of it's warranty and I was just casually pondering the idea of buying a 15" PowerBook. Not seriously looking you understand, but interested, browsing, ...

Anyway according to Apple's UK store the price of the 15" Combo PB G4 1.5GHz is £1379+VAT. That's pretty steep (an equivalent spec Dell Latitude comes in around £967+VAT) but if you consider Apple styling, attention to detail, and having a Unix based computer with a nice GUI worth something then, maybe, you can live with that.

However I was pretty ticked off when I checked US Apple store. The same PowerBook in the US costs $1,999 which, at todays rate, equates to £1,059. Why am I supposed to pay £320+VAT more to buy the same PowerBook here than in the US?

In the interests of being fair it appears that Dell are charging UK customers approximately £100 more than US customers (although I could be wrong as I found it harder to match the equivalent models between their UK and US sites.)

Second thoughts

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:04:50 +0100

Apropos of nothing I popped into the Apple Store on Regent St. on my way home last night. I wanted to get a feel for the 15" PowerBook. Once I'd got a member of staff to turf one of the zillions of kids using HotMail off it (sorry kids) I was able to get my first real look at the computer I'm thinking of buying.

Firstly I have to say I was shocked at how big (and heavy) it was. I thought he'd accidentally put me in front of a 17". In reality it's probably exactly the same size as my Inspiron (and lighter) but I think I had dreamed and expected something much more compact. I kept looking over at the 12" PB and thinking

That's the kind of object I want to carry around with me...

But the 12" PB is slower and restricted to 1024x768. Ouch!

The 15" screen was okay but I'm suprised that the resolution is only 1280x854. Come on Apple what's going on here? Even my 3 year old Inspiron has a crisp 1400x1050 screen! That's about 25% less area to play with which isn't good news if you want to do development work (which I do).

In use the machine seemed nice and smooth but what I really wanted to do was run Eclipse and Ruby and try some stuff out. Exactly the kind of thing you can't really do on a machine in an Apple store. I'm not used to particularly fast machines (my main PC is still a P4 1.6GHz) so I'm not expecting the earth but I am hearing people (e.g. Russel) talking in less than glowing terms about PB performance.

Sometime last month I came across a benchmarking site which suggested (IIRC) that a 1.5GHz G4 would be roughly equivalent to a Pentium 4 2GHz. If confirmed that it it's probably fast enough for my purposes. Can anyone add anything useful on performance?

My reason for wanting a PowerBook is to have a computer which:

is portable (my Inspiron is bulky and heavy)
is simple and uncomplicated, a pleasure to use
has good battery life (after 3 years my Inspiron gets about 40 mins on battery)
has flawless wireless (Windows XP wireless has been very tiresome)
will handle my email, surfing, and writing
is good for presentations
can be used to develop and test software (mainly Ruby and RubyOnRails)

#2 is pretty important to me. I'm not leaving Windows and I'll still have Windows machines around. But I'm tired of the Windows baggage - it pains my soul - and want a simpler, less complicated, life. This seems to be the promise MacOS X holds out to me. I want less bumps in the road. Having the Unix command line around would be a nice bonus too :-)

Development wise I want to be able to have the full stack running, usably, on my machine at the same time. IDE (Eclipse), Database (MySQL or Postgresql), Browser (Firefox) and my application (MemeScope). This is what I have on my WinXP box and it means I can develop anywhere.

However I guess I'm having some doubts about the PB. I'm wondering if I shouldn't trade developer friendliess and get the 12". Or maybe I'll be disappointed and find it no panacea? Or maybe it'll seem very slow. These doubts are exacerbated by me having to pay for this myself with precious cash which might otherwise be going to pay for my next course, or on conferences I want to attend, or on any number of other things.

Please do leave comments about your PB experiences and, if you didn't buy one, what swayed you. I'll take all the advice I can get.

Must it always be this way?

Tue, 10 May 2005 18:37:21 +0100

So today it's Apples turn to incur my mighty wrath. Having gone to hell and back solving all the browser related issues with XSLT rendering of RSS feed, Beth dropped the bombshell that Safari 2.0 was completely ignoring my stylesheet and rendering the feed itself.

Now, i'll grant you that Safari does a pretty good job rendering the RSS, it's sweetly pretty. However it rather pisses on my parade since Safari doesn't know a damn thing about topics!

So i'm busy rendering up topic cross-references (major thanks to Beth for solving what she said were simple XSLT problems but which, nevertheless, had me pulling my hair out) which Safari will happily ignore. Why does it have to be this way? Especially when I am actually telling Safari exactly what XSLT stylesheet it should be using.

Can anyone supply me with the magic incantation to make Safari honour my stylesheet?

The Tiger has claws

Thu, 12 May 2005 16:39:28 +0100

Not everyones happy in Tigerland:

The Internet is filled with angry OS X Tiger upgraders, there are security exploits, the whole thing is a mess. [Sam Gentile's Blog]

I'm hoping they'll have 10.4.1 out in July when I look to buy.

PowerBook quandry

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 22:06:05 +0100

Apple's move to Intel has given me something to ponder. I had been planning to buy a PowerBook next month, now I'm not sure if I should wait. When are the first Intel based PowerBooks likely to hit the market? If it's early next year I'd probably hang on, if it's in 12-18 months time I'd probably get a 12" PB in July and see what happens.

Damn.

Intel buys Apple next?

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 19:04:35 +0100

I've been waiting for Bob Cringely's reaction to the Apple/Intel deal and it didn't dissapoint. He see's the announcement of Apple's with Intel chips as the first public steps in a dance that will see Intel buying Apple in order to strike back at Microsoft whom it see's as an unfaithful partner. He could be wrong but it fits some facts which are hard to explain if you take Jobs at his word.

A defining moment

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 22:05:45 +0100

I've just read the defining moment of the Apple/Intel coverage in John Siracusa's interesting wrap-up at Ars Technica:

Q: Will x86 Macs come with a two-buttons mouse?
A: Hey, we're just taking about moving an entire platform to a new CPU architecture (again). Let's not get crazy!

Comparing light weight Apple notebooks

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 23:23:05 +0100

Friend and former colleague Paul Walk has suggested another possibility vis-a-vis my buying a Mac. He was in more or less the same buying situation as me and thought a 12" iBook was better value for money than the equivalent PowerBook. He waxed pretty lyrical about it today and certainly it looked very nice. When he told me he hadn't shut it down in 6 months (he can just open & close the lid as necessary) I was pretty impressed. Hibernate has never worked under Windows XP for me.

It's true that the benefits of the PowerBook seem more pronounced in the 15" and 17" models. My plan was originally to get a 15" PB but I have been seduced by the idea of carrying a super-small, super-light, Mac with me where-ever I go.

The iBook is cheaper and that money could go towards getting a new PowerBook when the second generation of Intel variants start arriving in 18 months time.

So, to compare:

12" iBook
CPU	1.2GHz G4
L2 Cache	512K
FSB	133MHz
GPU	ATI Radeon Mobility 9200 32MB DDR
RAM	768MB PC2100 266MHz
HD	60GB 4200RPM
Wireless	Wi-Fi + BlueTooth
Dimensions	3.42cm high x 28.5cm wide x 23.0cm deep (2241.8cm3)
Weight	2.2kg
Battery	6hr
Price	£874

12" PowerBook
CPU	1.5GHz G4
L2 Cache	512K
FSB	167MHz
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 64MB DDR
RAM	768MB PC2700 333MHz
HD	60GB 5400RPM
Wireless	Wi-Fi + BlueTooth
Dimensions	2.8cm high x 27.7cm wide x 21.9cm deep (1698.9cm3)
Weight	2.1kg
Battery	5hrs
Price	£1099

The PowerBook should be a better performer. The CPU, RAM, FSB, GPU and disk are all faster components. But, really, how much of a performance difference will be noticable? The only online comparisons I could find of iBook vs Powerbook performance seemed pretty old.

The iBook is cheaper by £200. This isn't as big a margin as I'd imagined but it does put the iBook under the magic £1000 barrier. Apple RAM seems to be extortionate even by their pricing standards. Am I safe buying memory from Crucial or Kingston? A 1GB stick for the iBook costs £88 from Crucial and £340 from Apple!?! (That would reduce the price a fraction to £862 at the same time giving me 1.25GB RAM instead of 768MB and probably a small performance gain into the bargain.) I guess I should also ask how many people buy AppleCare too?

A concern I have about the iBook is that it can't drive a second screen. I see mention of mirroring and a suggestion that this means you just see what's on the LCD on the external screen. That would be a big minus. On the other hand it seems like you get an extra hour of battery life which is a plus. But, then again, the PB is 25% smaller (by volume) than the iBook.

Now I'm not so sure Paul's made my life any simpler :-) And then, of course, Apple may confuse(please?) me even more if they rev the iBook/PB line at MWE next month.

I've come up with some more information to muddy the waters still further.

Because of it's graphics card the iBook does not support the new CoreImage feature of Tiger. It's not clear to me whether this is relevant to someone who doesn't do a lot of graphics heavy work. Will it affect the general OS X experience much?
There is some kind of ongoing problem with the scrolling and the trackpad on powerbooks although I'm not clear what the problem is or how serious.
Apple Insider have a report which suggests that either iBooks or PowerBooks might get a faster CPU in the October time frame. It's not clear which line or what the details are but 2.0GHz with a 200MHz FSB is not out of the question. This is only a marginal improvement but might be worth holding out another 3 months for.

Is the time for indecision past?

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 18:08:43 +0100

So, my resistance to the lure of the Apple Powerbook is breaking down. It occurred to me today that even if new Powerbooks get announced in July I probably wouldn't be able to buy one for another 4-5 months and I really don't want to wait. I could, but I don't want to.

In the intervening time I could be using Keynote, TextMate, Tinderbox (finally), SubEthaEdit, making Rails run right, using Unix again, and just generally having a happy and portable experience.

Despite the cost angle the PB is winning over the iBook on account of size, weight, and graphics issues (the inability to drive a 2nd monitor properly being foremost among them). The 12" PB because I want to take it everywhere with me.

So, there is I would say a better than even chance that I will buy a 12" Powerbook at the Apple store on Oxford St. tomorrow. My strategy is to buy with 768MB of memory (a £50 upgrade) then buy a 1Gb stick from Crucial next month and auction off the spare 512.

The PowerBook cometh

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 19:45:50 +0100

I am now the very proud owner of a 12" powerbook. My capsule review:

It's f**kin lovely

The Command+W blues

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 11:10:57 +0100

One thing I haven't gotten used to on the Mac is controlling my urge to misuse Command+W. On Windows the Alt+W combination brings up the window menu and it's my habit to use it to see which windows I have open. I've lost count of the number of times I've managed to close my current window instead of getting the desired effect.

This seems to be the only windows habit of mine which is persistent and irritating. I've also noticed I am having occasional troubles copying & pasting on windows now when my fingers end up doing ALT+C and ALT+V. I guess this is actually a good sign :-)

Here's hoping for a better life

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 13:35:41 +0100

Begin by turning off all the LEDs on your keyboard. My keyboard doesn't have any LEDs. You must turn off the LEDs on your keyboard. My keyboard doesn't have any LEDs. I can't help you if you don't turn off the LEDs. -- Excerpt from a Dell customer service call [Modern Times - The Obvious?]

You don't have to track very far into this story to find out that Dell are closing their online customer service forums either as another cost cutting exercise or, possibly, to stifle criticism from customers. It wouldn't surprise me if, rather than engage with critics and attempt to resolve their dissatisfaction, Dell would rather try to suppress them. Let's not try to work out the value of happy customers who want to sell your brand for you:

Me: Withers!
Withers: (for it is he) Yes, sir?
Me: Prepare my clue-by-four post haste!
Withers: I'm sorry sir, but it's not back from the menders after the Adobe incident...
Me: damn and blast!

I've had my share of fights with Dell support over the last three years. Most I could resolve by keeping a solid log of everything said and walking them back over broken committments and errors until they gave in although, in one case, I did have to get in touch with the MD's office and make a nuisance of myself before anyone would talk sense about solving my problem.

Dell kit is not expensive but crappy service is one of the reasons. This time I've gone Apple and am hoping for a better life.

No longer pissing in the wind

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:40:19 +0100

I know have 5 problems registered at the Apple bug reporter site (which is just a hideous application by the way, I hope this isn't the standard of Web Objects apps!) They're all for things which are niggly like Bluetooth troubles, the spell checker not working properly in Pages, and icons disappearing from the dock seemingly at random.

MacOSX certainly isn't free of these sort of Windowsisms but they do seem far fewer in number and, so far, less likely to be of the variety that will make you wish Turing had never been born.

Another quanitifiable difference between the Apple and Microsoft experience here is that I am actually reporting these bugs with Apple. Better yet the response to the first bug I posted suggests that real engineers are attempting to diagnose my problem. I can even track their progress myself. Just think of it!?!

I've no idea if, ultimately, Apple will fix my problems. Certainly Apple release cycles are more of the kind where I can imagine fixes in my life-time. However, what's most important to me is that I don't feel like I'm pissing in the wind any more. If and when Vista finally arrives Microsoft customers should expect wet trouser legs as per usual.

Note to Apple: Keep the Mac expensive!

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:57:59 +0100

I was pondering the Mac's security and the fact that, compared to Windows, it's largely virus and spyware free. Why should that be?

Some answers which spring readily to mind might be:

the Mac's low market share compared to Windows
dislike of Microsoft making it an easy target
MacOSX's Unix underpinnings

however I wondered if there wasn't something else to it as well.

I have a (possibly naive) stereotype of the virus/spyware author as a 14 year old kid using an el-cheapo x86 box and a pirate copy of Windows. Not having the pocket money for a a Mac this kid is only using (and hence targetting) Windows.

If there is even a grain of truth in this then I think it's imperative that Apple ensure that MacOSX never runs on commodity PC hardware. Indeed the very pricing which makes a Mac a luxury can be seen as a not having to install Norton Anti-Virus tax and I'm willing to pay it for that alone.

I never thought i'd hear myself say this, but, Keep Mac's expensive!

No more 12" PowerBook?

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 15:02:55 +0000

Am I reading the scuttlebutt right?

The 12-inch PowerBook is no longer on Apple's roadmap -- as reported in August -- and the new Intel-based 17-inch model is slated for release several months later.

Is this saying there will be no 12" Intel based PowerBooks? Is that why there was no update to the 12" PB last time around? Is the the 12" form factor is dead..? Waaaaah!

How can this be? So many of those whose love of their PB encouraged me to switch are 12" PB users. Are we such a minority? For me the 12" PB is the perfect blend of style, function, and form factor. Where do I register my dismay to Apple?

iCal appointments don't work for me

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:04:19 +0000

Something that's beginning to bug me is the way I never seem able to receive iCal attachments properly. I am using Mail.App and iCal, the rest of the company Outlook. When I receive an invitation it does end up in iCal and I get the warning indicator, but when I click it I get:

Only it doesn't list any email addresses for me to check, my _Me_ record in Address-Book has my email address (to which the invitation was correctly addressed) and I can open it fine in Entourage.

I'm baffled... what the hell is iCal's problem?

Scary but cool

Thu, 25 May 2006 18:12:09 +0100

The SmackBookPro is the hot new way to switch desktops. It's really very cool to watch even if I'm not sure I'd do it myself. I grew up with hard disks where the heads would crash if you look at them funny. Consequently I still treat my PowerBook like it's made of glass.

Maybe I'm just living in the past ;-)

Good Apples, Bad Apples

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 08:08:04 +0100

Just been reading some of a series about compliants with the MacBook Pro over at the Red Sweater Blog (via Non Stop Mac).

One of the fans on my 12" PowerBook sounds like it has a bearing going which would be very bad news if it meant I needed to send it away. I rely on this machine as my work computer (pfft if I'm going to use a PC again) and can't afford to be without it for weeks on end.

Back when I bought the PowerBook I had it in mind that I might only use it for a year before buying whatever new machines Apple had. But I played with a white MacBook yesterday and I can't say I was enamoured, the feel is all wrong and I didn't like the glossy screen.

Having said that I've also found the PowerBook to be such a lovely machine that I'm really in no hurry to lose it. If possible I'll hang on to it well into 2007.

Now, what's the best way to get that fan fixed I wonder?

Update: Actually now I think about it I wonder why this fan is running continuously when the CPU temperature is about 48-50 degrees. Should it run all the time?

Moo

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 17:53:32 +0100

Another distressing tale of MacBook noises from Pierre Igot (Via Tao of Mac).

It's not like I'm in the market for a new laptop (my PowerBook G4 runs just fine and in due course I'll probably try and pick up a G5 via eBay for my heavy lifting) but these noise issues would really be putting me off buying a MacBook or MacBook Pro if I were.

It's not just the many kinds of noise problems reported but also the way Apple seems to be responding to them. When you pay £1,000+ for a beautiful looking Apple laptop how can you enjoy it when the damn thing is mooing, grunting, chuffing, and feels like it's about to burst into flames?

Come on Apple, we expect to pay over the odds but you can do better than this!

Pads

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 18:39:20 +0100

As the weather has gotten hotter recently I have been noticing the PowerBook's fans have been getting more active when I use it on the desk. I'm convinced that this is partly due to poor airflow underneath the computer, the base does get quite hot to the touch.

As a first step I've stuck four felt pads (the kind you stick to furniture to stop it scuffing the walls) to the desk to support the PowerBook and create a 5-6mm gap underneath it. I was concerned that the pads mightn't hold it in place but in practice it seems as good as the little rubber grippers on the desk surface.

So far it seems to be an improvement and the fans aren't running as hard or as loud.

Heat

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 01:24:00 +0100

So it's 1:21am and I should be fast asleep right now, but it's hot and sleep seems far away so we blog.

And I'm not the only one that's a bit hot. From Tao of Mac more about the therm-o-rific MacBook which is now, apparently, getting discoloured because it can't discharge heat properly. Nice!

I'm hoping the MacPro will get released in August. I'll either be wealthy and buy one or looking to score a cheap G5 from eBay.

Defects

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:15:09 +0100

Trying to squash a site like AppleDefects (found via Rui Carmo) can only do harm. I hope Apple don't try it.

Sweatshop

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:22:25 +0100

Given that Foxconn seem to be admitting running an iPod sweatshop what else can one do but boycott Apple products until they get this sorted out? And that includes shining a flashlight into the places making the rest of the Apple kit.