March 2006

The ongoing case of Apple Computers vs the Beatles’ Apple Corps record label.

Apple Corps say that Apple computers have broken a contract agreed between the two companies in 1991, in which Apple agreed not to move into the music industry, iPods and the iTunes Music Store being the major points of contention.
While this is old news (lawsuit was filed in 2003) and to be expected in today’s litigation friendly society, it has turned up this choice quote from one of Apple’s lawyers.

“Even a moron in a hurry could not be mistaken about that….”
the distinction between the computer company’s iTunes online music business and a recording company like Apple Corps Ltd.

Made me laugh anyway!

Technorati Tags: apple, music

If you don’t like maths, don’t click this link!
Riciulous Fish - Pi
Interesting attempt to stop spam by requiring anyone leaving a comment to enter “two very large numbers”. These two numbers are then used in an equation to calculate pi.

Technorati Tags: maths, web

tenfortyfive*
Always nice to get have someone sing your praises.

UPDATE:
Here’s another one.
Twinfish

I could get used to this.

Joy of Tech cartoon.
Either way you look at it, sums it up!

Technorati Tags: apple, imac, mac, XP, web, Windows

I’m not a Placebo fan. They look like I should like them, in interviews they sound like I should like them , but then…….
I hear his voice! Could never get past his voice!

But is it just me, or does Molko appear to have gotten his whining out of the way and grown a pair on this new album? Or maybe I’m just getting less fussy in my old age!

“Meds” (Placebo)

Technorati Tags: music

I’m sure most of you will remember the classic 1982 film Tron.
Well then you should check out GLTron. Play Tron on your computer in glorious 3D!
It’s been around for a while. Can’t believe I’ve only just discovered it!

Technorati Tags: downloads, os x, web, Windows

MoRU - Advanced searching in OS X Tiger
Provides loads more functionality than Spotlight. Looks cool, but can you turn Spotlight off by default? Probably not.

From Daring Fireball

Technorati Tags: downloads, mac, os x

I’ve had a copy of Nausicaa in my collection for about 2 months now, and only yesterday managed to sit down and watch it. It’s the fourth of Hayao Miyazaki’s films that I’ve seen, the other three being Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle.

If you’re familiar with any of Miyazaki’s work, you’ll have some idea what to expect. Lots of fantastic creatures in fantastic places you only wish you could visit someday. Nausicaa is a bit more than that though. It has more in common with Princess Mononoke than the other two for one very simple reason - the story and the characters are more important than the images on screeen.

For me, both Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle are very visual films, both focusing more on what you see than what you are told. This is not a criticism of either film. Far from it. Spirited Away is one of favourite animes ever!

But Nausicaa is a very different beast. The characters are complicated and the story quite political (though thankfully not in a “Star Wars - Episode 1″ kinda way!). If you are expecting another friendly, “Alice in Wonderland”-esque tale, then guess again. This is quite aggressive story telling combined with Miyazaki’s amazing ability to amaze and enchant children. This is what Disney wants to be when it grows up!

If you have not encountered Hayao Miyazaki’s work before, I highly recommend any of the above. Just bear in mind that some may not be entirely what you expect!

Technorati Tags: anime, movies

Well new apps to me at least!

This my first post using ecto, a “desktop blogging client for MacOSX and Windows”.
Initial impressions are good. The interface is clean and easy to navigate. Writing posts can be done in plain text (with html tags) or in rich text which is then converted to html.
Click to select categories for new posts, add your current itunes tunes, publish/unpublish/delete…….. all from one app. Nice.

Also new to my Mac today is Growl, a notification system for OS X.
Basically posts an alert on your desktop when a supported app does something, eg. Apple Mail receives a mail, new ICQ message, download completes, etc.
Supported apps on my machine at the moment include the above mentioned ecto, Adium (chat), Colloquy (IRC), Cyberduck (FTP), and Shiira (my new fave web browser). Growl is proving quite useful actually. It has certainly lessened the number of times I flick back to read my new ICQ “message” only to see an Emoticon! It’s worth it just for that!

Technorati Tags: apple, os x

Having read a lot of commentary on the new MacBook Pro (NYTimes , arstechnica) as well as comments about the brightness of the backlit keyboard and reports of unbalanced speakers, I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of a unit so I could see it with my own eyes.

And the first thing that hit me?

THE BOX!
It’s been totally redesigned to the degree that you look at it and think “They can’t fit a 15″ laptop in there, can they?”
But they have. Gone are the huge pieces of styrofoam that used to protect the Powerbook, replaced by a thinner styrofoam piece with circular indents and MacBook Pro embossed on the bottom. All the accessories (power supply, cable, DVI-VGA adpater) are now contained in the same section as the laptop, though separated into different compartments. First impression is a good one.

A new cloth covering protects the laptop. It’s not quite as durable as it’s predecessor, but I doubt it’ll get used too much after the first week! Clicking the lid release reveals the next new feature.

The screen catch. The single latch from the Powerbook has been replaced with a double catch system, very similar to the one seen in the 17″ Powerbook. Presumably, this has been introduced to make room for the iSight camera.
Which leads me to the top bezel.

It’s big. Very big. Probably about twice the thickness of the side bezels. It looks a little odd really, or maybe i haven’t quite gotten used to it. Personally, I would have preferred a thinner bezel and no camera, but hey……..
Minor point here.

The MacBook Pro logo at the bottom of the screen.
Why is it reflective? What possible function could having the midday sun emblazen “orP kooBcaM” across my face have?
Seriously though, I find it really distracting to have that little twinkle everytime a move my head slightly. Admittedly, I do have my back to a window when sat at my desk and am probably more likely to have a machine in direct sunlight, but i shouldn’t have to worry about such things when working on a portable computer.

Moving on.

The screen is lovely. A vast improvement over the last 15″ Powerbook revision which had nasty horizontal lines across it. It’s sharp. It’s bright. The light and colour are consistent. It’s just lovely!

The other new feature that has been getting some press recently is the MagSafe connector for providing power. Basically, the power connector connects magnetically to the machine. There are no pins sticking out, so when someone trips on your cable, it disconnects rather than dragging your machine to the ground. And it works too! It’s a lot stronger than I thought it was going to be, and it’s invertible. Status lights are provided on both sides so you can see when it’s charging or when it’s charged. Cool!

So far, pretty good.

A few points though.

The dual layer Superdrive has been replaced by a single layer drive. I believe this is due to a problem with the form factor of the laptop, which is slightly thinner than previous versions. Because of this, Apple had to use a thinner optical drive. unfortunately a dual layer Superdrive was not available in this configuration. I have heard rumour of their existence recently, so maybe it’s only a matter of time.

The lack of modem has had some people up in arms. Not really an issue for me. Dialup is effectively dead with the advent of fast and cheap broadband, though I do accept that some hotels are not exactly passing this saving on to their customers!

Performance? OS X feels quicker and more responsive on an Intel Mac. This is true of all the new Macs. Apps launch quickly and behave as expected.
I will have to wait to see how it performs in the real world.

I’ll keep you posted.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, macbook pro