Recently in Apple Ahkbar! Category
So the new MacBook Pro arrived today. Not much time for a big review, but I have to say it's worth it, even though the initial outlay is more than what you might pay for a cheesy Win laptop. This baby is screaming fast--and it's not even the fastest model they have. A new 2.6 GHz model is coming out sometime.
I got a 200-gig harddrive (because it was faster) and I'm going to order third-party memory to upgrade it to 4 GBs of total RAM.
I plan to do all my development and photography on this one laptop, so it's got to everything I need.
The new OS X (Leopard) is not a huge change, like Tiger was. There's a lot of new stuff in here, but I have yet to use most of it. Stacks are nice, despite what I've read. The translucent menu bar is fine, too. I did find a tweak to turn my dock back into 2D, but other than that, I'm very, very pleased.
Now I've got to spend the next several days tweaking and copying files off the old laptop. Getting all my preferences and what not migrated over.
All-in-all, I'm a happy Apple camper (you expected something different?).
Looks like a new MacBook Pro has left it's birthing center in China and is speeding it's way across the Pacific to its new, adopted parent (me):
I'm probably going to run the risk of being misunderstood with this post, but I've been getting annoyed lately at people who think they know what they're talking about but who, in fact, don't have a well-rounded understanding of their sheer ignorance.
You've heard the phrase "it takes all kinds"? No, it doesn't. There just are.
I've always been fascinated by computer games. I remember playing Keystone Kapers on my cousin's Atari, I had an original Nintendo (my mom still has it), and I've been playing console and computer games since my Apple IIc days (with the green-tinted monitor, no less).
But Gamers sometimes make me want to smack them. Especially when they rant on about the only computer platform they've ever had any exposure to (Windows) and how Macs are for snobs and zealots.
I get irritated because they've only ever used a computer for fun. Computer makers design these weird-looking enclosures for them so these guys can have bright, shiny things on their computers that make them feel all high-techy and stuff. But they don't depend on a computer for productivity. They can afford to put up with idiosyncrasies in the operating system and software that actually slow you down and let you down. But some of us actually have to get stuff done on a computer.
Their knowledge and understanding of the depth and breadth of what can be done on a computer is fairly superficial. I'm not saying that Mac users aren't susceptible to the same dogmatic views on computers and that there aren't Mac users that don't really understand the inner workings of the computer they use to get stuff done, but if you take a random sample of gamers and compare them to a random sample of Mac users, you'll find that gamers tend to be myopic about their technology and Mac users actually understand the fundamentals of why they chose that platform. Gamers adamantly stick to what they know and deride anything else. They make fun of other technologies to which they have had no exposure.
I've used most of the major operating systems and I work all day within the confines of the computer world. I depend on my computer to do actual work and it's not an exaggeration to say that I know of what I speak when I espouse an opinion about it. Others, with louder and more dogmatic opinions also espouse their opinion, but it becomes immediately apparent that the more dogmatic the opinion, the less well-informed it is.
With this new release of Apple's operating system, Mac OS X Leopard, Apple has exposed itself to criticism for their unfounded anti-Windows attitudes. There are a number of issues to be fixed in OS X 10.5 that should have been caught before releasing it into the wild. One of the show-stoppers for developers like myself is the delaying of Java 1.6 on Leopard. But even then, it's still the best operating system on the planet and I get more work done on my Mac than I do in Windows or on my Linux workstation. I'm getting ready to upgrade my PowerBook G4 to a new MacBook Pro when Java 1.6 gets released and Apple has had a chance to release a few updates to 10.5 to fix some of the more outstanding issues.
If all you want to do is goof off and play games, then by all means, buy a crappy laptop at half the price (you get what you pay for) and laugh all the way to the service center about how much money you saved on your shiny toy. Just keep in mind that some of us have actual work to do. I don't want to brand all gamers as second-class computer citizens, but, at the very least, get a little more broadly informed about what's happening in the larger (and arguably, more important) "real world" of computing before you draw your ignorance in such sharp relief.
I don't use the Windows operating system myself. Once in a while, I run into a situation at work where the [ahemm] opportunity demands it, but by and large, I'm in the Mac OS X and Linux world for all my computing needs.
I realize, however, that most of you folks use Windows as your portal into the world of 1's and 0's. I have been advocating using Firefox as your browser, instead of Windows Internet Explorer, because it's, well, better. Exactly how and why is a subject of vehement debate.
But now my favorite computer company has released Safari for Windows. I'm writing this blog entry in Safari. I use Safari as my default browser on my Macs. Firefox is my go-to browser when I want to get a lot of work done and we use it as the standard browser in our company (mainly because it works almost identically on all platforms). But when I want a fast-loading, easy-to-use browser that renders web pages quickly and does what I need it to do, I use Safari.
Now you Windows folks don't have to get all huffy at us Mac-o-phants when we make fun of you for being in the dark ages of computing. With iTunes running, your iPod earphones growing from your ears, and now your Safari browser surfing the web, you can pretend like you've almost graduated!
In all seriousness, though. Safari is a superb browser that deserves a try. IE 7 is out, and the website stats show that many of you are using it. But non-Microsoft browsers like Firefox and Safari are still more secure, adhere to the accepted Internet standards better, make it easier for developers to provide great (and great-looking) applications to their users, and are just plain better than any monolithic, old-world application released by the Jolly Green Giant (otherwise known as the Evil Empire) called Micro$oft.
I've been trying out the new Mac-only writer's project management and writing application Scrivener (yes, as in Bartleby, The).
It's just exactly what I've been looking for. It's not an MS Word replacement. It's not a real word processor. It's an information management application for writers. By that I mean it has a lot of great features in it that help you organize your work and keep track of little bits of information. It lets you categorize your novel and put individual scenes into separate documents inside folders. When you export the whole manuscript, you can choose how things get formatted in a dizzying number of variations.
I can't really explain it very well and if you don't see why something like this is necessary, then you're probably not going to be interested in this application anyway. But if you just don't feel like you're able to work as efficiently as you could be (given that's the whole reason for using a computer in the first place), then you should definitely try out their 30-day free trial.
It's only $35 if you decide it works for you. I'm going to wait for a couple weeks, but I imagine I'll be purchasing it before my month is up.
