The All-New iMac G5
13 comments (closed), posted on august 31, 2004, tags: tech
So, after months of speculation and waiting and timelines miscalculated and more speculation and rumors of speculation about speculating, it's finally here: The all-new iMac G5. Some notes about the new machine follow, as well as some thoughts on the "From the creators of iPod" advertising tie-in.
The good news about the new iMac? It's a Single-processor 1.6 or 1.8GHz G5 and 17- or 20-inch display all in once piece, only 2 inches thick. The machine is extremely simple in its design—hell, even the ports are all in a simple line on one side of the back of the display)—and it features a mount similar (if not identical) to the new Cinema Displays. It's also get serial ATA drives now, which should increase disk performance compared to the old iMac model.
The bad news? The front-side bus is just over half that of the Power Mac G5 and the memory is only expandable up to 2GB (the Power Mac G5 accepts either 4GB or 8GB depending on configuration). Only two FireWire ports, and they're both 400. It's made of white plastic that's shiny (like the old iBook), and it looks a lot like the eMac from the front.
Extremely good news, though, is that Apple has priced the entry-level, 17-inch model at $1299 USD. This means that the iMac is still very affordable as a consumer desktop machine, and means that more and more people can make the move to the significantly faster G5 processor. Bluetooth is still not built-in by default (Apple, read this: Want people to buy your wireless mouse and keyboard? Then build Bluetooth in! Do it on every machine, always, no exceptions!), which I think is a mistake. Apple should be capitalizing on all the little things that make a Mac so great to use on a daily basis, and being able to sync all your contacts and date book items from your phone to your computer and vice-versa with little-to-no setup is something Apple should definitely be promoting.
The iPod Tie-in
Saying "From the creators of iPod" bothers me for three reasons:
- "The creators of iPod" are Apple and designer Jonathan Ive. Ive is also responsible for the original iMac design, the previous iMac design, the iBook, the PowerBook and the Power Mac. To say this new design is from "the creators of iPod" is like saying "From the people who made every other Apple product." I would assume the connection is supposed to make people think, "Hey, I like the iPod. If this new iMac was made by the same team, it is probably as good as my iPod. I'll buy two!" I dunno, I think it's a stretch.
- Removing the article from that statement bothers the hell out of me. "From the creators of iPod" sounds absolutely incorrect to me, and I had to read it a few times before I realized the "the" was missing. Then I started to look around Apple's site and I noticed they aren't using articles at all. "Though ease of use has always been the hallmark of iPod..." No, you bastards. It's been the hallmark of the iPod. You bastards, you're driving me nuts! "And you can shuffle your way through a lot of songs now that iPod lets you..." apparently iPod is a person who lets you do things. Next time you pick up iPod, ask iPod if it will play you some music. Ridiculous!
- It really has nothing to do with the iPod save the fact that it's a white square with a screen.
A Few Miscellaneous Thoughts
This new iMac looks almost exactly how a tablet-pc would look. In fact, if you could remove the mount, you'd have a tablet (albeit a corded and probably hot and heavy one). It feels like this is the beginning of the path to an Apple tablet PC. I'm excited about the idea, but only because I'm a gadget freak—I don't think an Apple tablet PC would really be a good idea. How many people have tablet PCs right now? I've never seen a single one outside of movies and shipping companies.
Two inches thick screams "getting close to a G5 PowerBook." I hope so. I don't need a new laptop (I have a 15-inch PowerBook), but there are plenty of people waiting, money in hand, to buy a new PowerBook the moment it includes a G5 processor. Frankly, the sooner Apple has a G5 in all of its machines, the better.
It's sad to admit it, but it's true—I want to see an Apple Sidekick-like PDA/phone. I really love mobile phones, and I have still yet to find the right one for me. I'm extremely interested in the new Sidekick II, but I can't get the device on ATT wireless (and I'm under contract). Still, I feel like Apple could make a fantastic device, even though it will probably never happen (although I have received confirmation that it is happening—I just don't believe it).
Another "Busy" Entry
2 comments (closed), posted on august 30, 2004, tags: random
The weekend was long, and we really packed it in. Hiking in upstate New York, pedal-boating in Prospect Park, a movie (Garden State), the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center, hanging out with Shawn and editing last night before catching up on the last few missed episodes of Six Feet Under. Whew.
Work progresses on our third short film, and we're nearing completion. Now we're working on what to do next. I think we're going to try to make this work a daily thing, so that we're constantly doing something. Whether it be brainstorming, writing, shooting or editing—just doing something every day.
Meanwhile, work continues on xPad. I'm implementing app-wide search, which is really the only true feature xPad is missing at this point. Once it's finished, the app's usability index should skyrocket.
Lots of other stuff going on all over the place. Little projects here and there. Trying to pull it all together. Trying to focus my efforts on the really important stuff—and I'll get there—it's just going to take me a bit.
xPad Version 1.1
5 comments (closed), posted on august 23, 2004, tags: xpad
After a few weeks of getting back to work on xPad, I'm finally releasing version 1.1. You can get it right now at the xPad site. Version 1.1 is just the beginning of a new development cycle which will feature lots of regular updates. From the press blurb Shawn wrote:
xPad 1.1 is a maintenance release and is free for registered users. Version 1.1 enhances usability and fixes outstanding bugs. Changes include the addition of true auto-save, drawer transparency, changed next/previous keyboard shortcuts as well as numerous user interfaces enhancements and bug fixes. For more information or to download visit http://www.getxpad.com.
I'm all for the feedback—hit me with it. I'm obviously still taking feature requests and so on as well.
More on Releasing the Source
10 comments (closed), posted on august 18, 2004, tags: site
After I mentioned possibly releasing this site's source code in my entry yesterday, I received a lot of great feedback. Several people sent me very long, well written emails discussing their thoughts on why I should release my code, how it would benefit them and the community, and how I might go about it. I have to say, it made me feel pretty nice. The feedback was good, and I thought I would clear up a few points about the whole deal.
Erik Price asked a good question: Why do I want to release the source? Is it because I want to make some money, or because I want to share the work I've put into making this site? The answer is both. Yes, I'll admit it—I want to make money if it's possible. Let's face facts: For four years, I've put more work into this site than just about anything else I do. It's a huge part of my life and I would love to think that I could make a little bit of money from that work. If anything, have it pay for its own hosting. But I also want to share what I've done. There's a lot of pride that comes from being able to show the world your hard work and get feedback. I enjoy that part of this process, and that's a big part of wanting to release the code. Does wanting to make a little money off my work make me a bad person? I'm asking that honestly because sometimes I feel like I can't tell.
The souce would be just that—source code. It wouldn't be a fully-functioning, drop this in to run package. It probably wouldn't work at all for you unmodified. The goal isn't to give you a CMS. The goal is to give you all my source code so you can see how I do things, learn from it, expand upon it, et cetera. I'm not trying to create another Movable Type.
A few people mentioned that they hope I won't stop writing entries like my "How This Site Works" series (see parts one and two) if/when I release the source of this site. I just want to let you know that I won't—I enjoy writing those kinds of things. Besides, a majority of the people who read this site would probably rather read a plain-English article about something than dig through commented source code.
About the monetary fee: it will be small (if I do it). Something in the neighborhood of $2-$5 US. You'll have the option to give more if you wish, but there will be a minimum to download the code. Since there's really no good way to keep my potential losses down, I'm going to have to end up using the honor system. You'll donate via PayPal or eSellerate and then you'll get a tarball. There will be a license you must agree to (I haven't worked this all out yet) that will state your limitations on the code, and one of them will be that you cannot redistribute it. Obviously, I won't be able to enforce this, but I'd like to think I can put trust in my readers. I'm thinking that maybe for a little bit more, you'll get updates too.
If or when this happens is still up in the air. I'm not quite finished yet with the rewrite, and even when I do finish there will still be a bit of work left to do commenting and setting up all the details, et cetera. Between that, xPad and filmmaking, it's probably not something that will happen within the next month. But it is on the horizon, and if I decide to do it, I'll surely let you know in advance. Thanks for all the feedback so far, and feel free to continue to post your thoughts and comments.
Very Busy Lately
10 comments (closed), posted on august 17, 2004, tags: xpad
Over the past few weeks, I've been slowly recoding this website. The recode is mainly for clean-up and speed improvement, and to take advantage of new features in PHP5. It's nearing completion, but it won't matter to you anyway since you won't see any difference. That is, unless I release the source. I'm still undecided on that part, but I'm willing to listen to arguments.
I wish there was a good way to ask people to pay like $2 US to download the source, but there's no way to track people in that system. I feel like I've put so much work into this site that giving away all the back-end code for nothing would be like giving away my house. It's thousands of lines of hard-earned work and to give it away free and clear might be too much. Is there a good way to require people to pay a tiny amount to get the source? All I keep thinking is that once someone gets it, they can send it to whomever they wish, and I'll be screwed.
The real reason I haven't posted in the past few days is that, well, I've been working on a new build of xPad. That's right, you heard me: a new build of xPad. I have a new, revised, private roadmap that includes several point releases. I'm not going to publicly release my timeline—I'll just say that new versions are coming. Soon.
Other than that, work has been busy, I've been visiting the dentist regularly (only have four more teeth to fix!), and I spent the weekend finding, test-driving and eventually (yesterday) buying and learning how to drive (standard transmission) a car. It's a used Saturn (2002) with virtually no miles that's in near perfect condition, but it's a standard so it was a bit stressful at first. I couldn't even take the car off the lot—my sister had to drive it off for me and then teach me how to drive it in a parking lot (thanks Ash!). After about an hour of practice I felt comfortable enough to drive home and by the time we drove through Manhattan I felt completely fine driving the car. I'll be sure to post a few pictures tonight.
The car should open up some new filmmaking possibilities, since we will no longer be tied to our apartments or mass-transportation. Speaking of films, I know both Shawn and I have mentioned a film coming soon, and it still is. With all our busyness, and Shawn's vacation last week, we're a little behind. Soon enough, though.
What have you been up to lately?
The Great FireWire Adventure
11 comments (closed), posted on august 10, 2004, tags: tech
My primary computer is a Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5. When I bought it almost a year ago, it was the top of the line machine—it has only recently been ousted by the Dual 2.5GHz model—and it's packed with great features and technology. One of the surprising things, however, is its lack of FireWire ports.
Apple developed FireWire and has been one of its biggest proponents. Since the Blue & White Power Mac G3 (released in 1999), Apple has included FireWire ports in most of its computers. My PC has two ports and I've never used them. Each of my Macs has had at least two ports and they've always been full.
I currently have my iPod dock, my iSight and two LaCie FW hard drives. The two HDDs have an extra pass-through port to allow daisy chaining, but even if I were to utilize both ports (which I'm not) I would still be left with two devices to plug in (one hard drive plugged into the other, the iPod dock plugged into that, leaving the iSight and the first drive). The problem? The G5 only has two FireWire 400 ports, and one is in the front. Could someone please explain this to me? This was a $3,000 machine. Top of the line. Fast, fully featured, et cetera. And yet, it has only two FW ports. I don't understand this at all.
None the less, I decided to purchase a PCI expansion card to add some ports to my machine. I picked up a Belkin 3-port card and tossed it into the machine. Perfect, now I have room for all of my devices. Well, time to go to work, better sleep my machine. Hey... what the hell? Why won't you go to sleep? Man, your fans are spinning even faster than before! What are you doing? Oh, you're not sleeping because OS X doesn't support deep sleep with any 3rd party FW PCI card installed. Fantastic! I rely on deep sleep during the summer because my office doesn't have an air conditioner in it and when I am at work during the day it gets very hot and my G5 doesn't need to be on. But I also don't want to shutdown and turn on my machine every morning and evening. A Mac which cannot deep sleep is a broken Mac.
After trying a few different cards (I learned "no cards work" fact after all this trial and error), I finally gave up and bought a Belkin 6-port FireWire hub* at the lovely high price of $70. That's right. $3,000 machine, iPod, iSight, et cetera, and I had to spend an additional $70 just to be able to use the devices with my "top of the line" machine. Kind of silly if you ask me.
But now it's working. The machine deep sleeps and all is well in the world once again. That's why, for the love of everything that is good and holy, I will not install the recent 10.3.5 system update on my G5 until these reported sleep issues are fixed. After all that nonsense getting my machine in working order, I'm not going to ruin it all with an update that breaks what I've just fixed.
Update: It seems the problem I linked to above only affects single processor 1.8GHz G5s. I'm still going to give it a little bit of time, though.
* It's worth noting that calling this hub a 6-port hub is false advertising. While it's true that the hub has 6 ports, Belkin claims you can "connect six FireWire devices," but fails to mention that one of those devices is your computer. You can actually only attach 5 devices. They should really call it a 5-port hub.
Food, Food, Food
5 comments (closed), posted on august 8, 2004, tags: me
I love FreshDirect, I really, really do. Living in Brooklyn and not having a car makes grocery shopping quite difficult. Between the lack of decent grocery stores and the distance you have to walk with all of your groceries, it's a lot of work to keep your apartment regularly stocked. Before FreshDirect, we would shop continuously—once every two days—but only for a small amount of items. We would buy meat the day we were going to use it (meat selection in this area is not fantastic anyway), vegetables here and there, a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow. But then FreshDirect finally started delivering to our area.
Now it's once every two weeks. We order everything we're going to need and it's delivered the very next day. They only charge five bucks for delivery and their food is pretty regularly priced and high quality. I must say, it's fantastic not to have to go grocery shopping. For $5 more, I can order from the comfort of my living room, and they bring it to my door 20 hours later. It's fantastic. If you've got it (or a similar service) in your area and you haven't checked it out—you're wasting time.
And speaking of food: Shawn, Evan, Katia and I went to Peter Luger's on Saturday night. I made the reservations two weeks ago, and we got in pretty quickly because of a cancellation. We sat down to dinner at 6:45 and left—completely bloated and overly full—at 8:45. Two hours of eating fantastic steak, creamed spinach and fried potatoes. Oh, and dessert, too. The meal was expensive, but completely worth it since Luger's is the best steak in New York. I was full for about three hours. I'm talking please don't show me any food because I might have a reversal of fortune full. But my god was the steak good.
Oh, and as far as the lactose intolerance thing goes... it appears to be true. The past few days I have avoided lactose items and haven't been sick. The one day I did consume it, however, my stomach started a war with my intestines and it was a horrible battle. So, I guess that's it. I've been testing my limits with regular milk and they seem pretty low. I'm going to start looking into the substitutes and the pills and the other stuff, and have a conversation with my doctor to see what he thinks. Oh well. At this point, I'm willing to give up lactose entirely to stop the stomach problems.
A Few Things
12 comments (closed), posted on august 5, 2004, tags: me
Work is getting a bit busier and I've been preoccupied by a few things on the side, so I've neglected to post about a few things.
Dr. Bott doesn't stink after all
I meant to mention this last week, but Eric Prentice, CEO of Dr. Bott, LLC responded to my entry about his company's site not having a secure checkout option and the ridiculous CSR call that ensued. From Eric's comment:
As far as the security of our site, our cart is indeed secure and there have been no changes to our setup in the last 6 months so I'm not sure exactly what happened in your case. We do take security seriously.
It's good to know that Dr. Bott is concerned about security, and I'm happy to see a response from the company. I can now comfortably purchase things from Dr. Bott in the future, and they've reassured a customer—it's a win-win situation.
Now with PHP5!
Segpub moved to PHP5 on Tuesday. Things would have been a lot smoother here if I had bothered to check out how my site functioned in the new version, but I didn't so things were a terrible mess for several hours. One of the most significant changes in PHP5 is how XML and XSL are created and used and that affects this site very much. After several hours of fixing bad code on my part, everything was up and running again smoothly.
It's also worth mentioning that I have begun version 2.0 of this site's backend which is much smarter, leaner and uses new PHP5 class functionality. It should be done in a week or so and should speed the site up a little (as well as making the source a lot smaller and less messy).
Got milk?
It seems as though I've started to become lactose intolerant lately. I don't even know if this is possible, but recently any time I consume milk or yogurt I get sick. At first I thought it was a coincidence (I've never had the strongest stomach in the world), but last week I got sick three times (once on Friday night!) on three days during which I had milk and/or yogurt.
What I don't understand is that I used to drink milk every day and eat tons of yogurt and nothing ever happened. Now, suddenly, I can't do it. I can sneak in one bowl of cereal here and there without getting sick, but anything else makes my stomach very angry. And I love cereal! How will I survive this? I can't stand soy or rice milk.
Oh, my god! Ice cream! I just remembered about ice cream! No ice cream? Ever? Hopefully this is some strange bug I've got that will go away. Otherwise, this is a very sad story indeed.
Short films!
We've got another one on the way. Two quick bits to shoot and then we have to edit. Hopefully next week. Since Katia has a conference for work all weekend, we'll probably shoot another one as well. We're still chugging along.
How This Site Works, Part II
13 comments (closed), posted on august 2, 2004, tags: site
One of the great things about CSS is the ability it gives you to separate style from content. By simply changing a single stylesheet you can drastically alter the look and feel of a site without ever having to change any content. To strengthen the separation, one should avoid placing markup in their content as much as possible, only including absolutely necessary tags (like b, blockquote and a href amoung others). By doing this, you make the task of reusing your content much easier and cleaner. The less markup you have in your content, the easier it is to completely change your site by changing only the stylesheet.
But what if you need to reuse your content in a format other than XHTML? What if, on a whim, I wanted to create a mobile version of this site in WML or I wanted to browse my content in an OS X application? In these cases, the separation of style from content does nothing. At least not if your content is in XHTML format. Why should the content of this site—which is not specific to the Internet—be stuck in a format only recognized by the web browsers? It shouldn't. How can we take this separation a step further? How can we separate style from format from content? We use XML.