Apple on the Radio

The DJs on my favorite radio station are pretty funny… I quote:

"Did you see Apple's new laptop? 5 pounds, titanium… and you still can't open it up when you fly coach."

Today is Pampering Day

First, the car. Oil change, inside cleaning, outside wash.

Second, me. Hair cut, buy new pair of shoes.

I screwed up and forgot to make an appointment with my regular hair stylist (that's what they call themselves nowadays.) I will most likely end up at SuperCuts or some place even scarier.

Whatever happened to the days when I didn't care who (or what) cut my hair?

I Love Java

Brent Simmons beat me to the punch answering Simson Garfinkel's I hate Java article. Brent rightfully points out that Java on the server-side makes sense.

Garfinkel complains about Java's poor performance compared to C/C++ solutions, a moot point when dealing with server-side applications. Granted, the interpreted nature of Java will most likely slow down the processing of the very first sever-side request, but all subsequent requests will be processed by code which has already been converted to bytecode and resides in memory. In other words, without substantial differences from native code. This is nothing new, I was making the exact same point back in 1998.

There are quite a few popular, powerful and reliable Enterprise solutions which are build around Java technologies such as Servlets, JSP, Beans, etc. As a matter of fact JSP-powered sites are popping up all over the place, from Omaha Steaks to the United States Postal Service.

Garfinkel also complains about Corel's inability to complete Office for Java. Don't blame it on Java, Corel hasn't been able to complete anything in a long time. If you're looking for an Office solution look no further than Sun's StarOffice. Just like the other office, it's huge and bulky, but it's also open source.

There's more to Java than some mortgage applet as Garfinkel seems to think. Applets are the tip of the iceberg, and Garfinkel has done as much research on the subject as the captain of the Titanic did.

Macworld Keynote

Live Report from Webcast. My delayed commentary is below.

Mac OS X

Steve showed the new Apple menu, customizable windows toolbars, popup menus in the Dock, as well as improved Fonts panel. OS X will be released on Saturday, March 24 and priced at $129.

PowerMac G4

New Generation of PowerMac G4s, 4 new models, up to 733Mhz, CD-RW standard, AGP 4X, Nvidia graphics card, 5 slots, SuperDrive (CD-RW, DVD-RW) with high-end model. Prices range from $1699 to $3499. Low-end models available now, high-end models in February.

Digital Media Software

iTunes, MP3 recorder, CD ripping made easy, songs library manager with power search capabilities, drag & drop playlists, one-click burn, compatible with portable MP3 players. Internet radio channel selector.

My QuickTime Player crashed…

iTunes is free, available for download today, but only supports new SuperDrive, drivers for other CD-RW to be made available soon. The new SuperDrive can write DVDs, but encoding usually takes 25x longer than the original playback. Using the G4's AltiVec, Apple engineers were able to reduce the encoding time to just 2x.

iDVD, DVD maker software with easy to use GUI. Apple will be selling DVD-R media. 5 pack for $49.95. DVD Studio Pro. Professional DVD authoring tool, part of Final Cut Pro. Available by end of month for $995. PowerBook G4 Titanium 5.3 pounds, 500Mhz G4, 5 hours battery life, 1-inch thick, 15.2 megawide screen, DVD-ROM. $2599-$3499. In production, available by end of month.

End of broadcast

Delayed Commentary

A few hours later.

Mac OS X

They've listened to feedback, good. No ways to turn off or change Aqua, bad.

The new improvements are marginal at best. I didn't see anything that is bound to make Windows users actually want to jump ship. The clear advantage is in now in the OS architecture, not the UI.

I'm really starting to wonder if the Macintosh GUI as it stands today really has any clear advantages over Windows ME or 2k. I've been using Macs since day one, I should be biased, but I've also seen too many Windows users struggling with the Mac OS, finding it confusing and hard to use; just as I felt the first time I used a Windows machine.

Nowadays, I constantly flip-flop between OSs without even thinking about it. I use the OS which provides me the best tools for the task at hand, regardless of the OS specific UI.

Will the OS X UI be any different in the long run? Different, yes, better, I seriously doubt it.

PowerMac G4

Pricing/performance ratio is good but not great. I think I'll wait another round before getting a new desktop Mac. I'll probably end up getting a multiprocessor G4 anyway.

iTunes

I've downloaded it, and am using it right now. I might consider it as replacement for SoundJam MP Plus. Only time will tell.

iDVD

Not my thing, hopefully it'll appeal to others.

DVD Studio Pro

I'm so tired of the Pro label. Real DVD Professionals won't even look at it, they already have extremely powerful and expensive tools. At any rates, not my thing either.

PowerBook G4 Titanium

Say hi! to my next PowerBook. It's not cheaper, but a little thinner and a lot cooler than any of the competition. The fact that'll be able to run OS X doesn't hurt either. If Apple can keep up with the production, they should be able to sell them like pancakes.

Final Thoughts

It wasn't a bad presentation, Steve, but when all is said and done it felt like too little, too late.

Ask me tomorrow and I may have a completely different opinion.

New year, New millennium, New weblog look

I could no longer stomach the Aqua theme, it's hard enough on my desktop.

This theme is called Hazard Area, enter at your own risk.

Moving Supplies

We're looking for reasonably priced moving supplies, things like cardboard boxes and bubble wrap. If you have any recommendations, please let me know.

I can't believe the markup on cardboard boxes, we bought some from U-Haul, pricing was simply ridiculous. We did find small boxes decently priced at The Home Depot.

Moving supplies are joining my list of items which are overly priced solely based on demand. The list includes such items as Automobile parts, Baby clothing and food, Crutches, TV sets, etc.

Macworld

It's starting tomorrow, nothing there for me.

I can't believe I'm saying this. I used to look forward to Macworld in Frisco, I would not have missed it for the world. Nowadays, it's just another trade show and I won't go unless I have something specific to see or do.

I'm going to Sun's TechDays in Seattle at the end of the week. I'm excited about that.

I'll watch Steve's keynote though.

Mac OS X sux Aqua is ugly, I want to turn it off. Like most developers I don't want to program for Cocoa in Objective C. Mac OS X rox Unix Shells + Mac OS = me like. The core Cocoa frameworks are fully accessible via Java APIs.

On our way from the theater yesterday nite, Vicki asked me what my thoughts were on the percentage of politicians kids who actually do drugs. The question made a lot of sense as we had just seen Traffic.

I told her the percentage was most likely very high, for two specific reasons. First, the kids have the means (money, etc.) to buy the drugs. Second, they are often forced to project an image of perfection, which must undoubtedly make things like taking drugs look quite rebellious and exciting.

My exposure to drugs has been pretty minimal over the years, granted mostly by choice. There's a lot of talk about peer-pressure, it makes me wonder how I would fair as a kid, today. I've always been head-strong, even as a kid, but would that have been enough?

Share you thoughts, click the discuss link below.

Microsoft hacker fired. Seems like a nice guy.

Linux 2.4 is here. The 2.4 kernel contains several improvements. For desktop use, the most notable improvement is support for the multitude of printers, digital cameras, scanners, keyboards, mice, network cards, modems, Zip drives and other devices that plug into the universal serial bus port.

Mac developers see life in OS 9. Some software makers are questioning Apple's decision to put all its eggs in Mac OS X's basket. I think it's pretty obvious that Apple intends to and will support both OS 9 and OS X for a while to come.

Oscar pro picks flix, We haven't seen Traffic, yet, but probably will tomorrow. I'd have to hope for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but I doubt many Academy members will actually have seen it. After all we had to locate a theater that played it and even wait a few hours because our show was sold out.

Apple Open Source License updated. Also see the Free Software Foundation response.

MacOSX and XFree86 run side by side. XonX has announced interoperability between Xfree86 and MacOSX. Relatedly, Xfree86 now supports the Darwin platform and XFree86 binaries are available.

Windows: McAfee VirusScan Definition update.

Macintosh: CD Finder 3.0.1. Bug fix release.

BugTraq: Mac OS 9 Multiple Users Control Panel Password Vulnerability.

Mac OS 9.1 details available, due Tuesday. A new nanokernel, new process manager, FireWire 2.7, a new version of OpenGL, a Mac OS-X compatible startup disk control panel, and access to iTools via Apple's navigation services…

Yahoo! to convert to fee-based services. Is Yahoo's move to fees risky business? Will the Web follow Yahoo's charge?

Sun's million dollar enterprise servers.

Greenspan cuts interest rate by half a point. The downfall is starting.

Gore moves ahead in Florida recount.

India enlists teen hackers as cyber cops. We prefer to prosecute them. ;)

Spammers Jailed for 2 Years. There is such a thing as justice after all.

Hands on MYOB AccountEdge. The project I'm currently working on involves AccountEdge.

File Buddy 6.0.2 is out. Hardly seems worth the upgrade price.

New Macs in the pipeline? Apple will unveil a G4 PowerBook and faster G4 towers--sans dual processors--at Macworld Expo next Tuesday.

Nearly one in ten men forget sex and play with high-tech toys instead.

SuSE Linux goes handheld. I'm only hearing good things about SuSE. I've yet to try their PowerPC version of Linux, but I fully intend to.

Thinking Different. CNET's Mac Hardware 2001.

Senator Hillary steals the show on the Hill . You go, Girl!

20 JavaScript Window Manipulation Tips.