11 posts tagged “unpaid advertising”
Please for the love of frugality, head over to http://www.macheist.com/.
Great Hardware
I have nothing but praise to lavish on my MacBook for its construction. Made of a solid piece of aluminum, it is the sturdiest object I own. The size of the MacBook is “just right”. It fits well on my lap for couch computing and is large enough to accommodate a useable screen and an adult sized keyboard. The picture above is a self-portrait not so lovingly manipulated with some free open source image editors. Don’t let this picture fool you, the unibody aluminum MacBook is 100% gorgeousness.
The Macbook just plain feels good. The cooling fan is silent during normal use and very quiet during heavy use. Heat over all is quite low. This is no lap-burner that will give you sweaty palms.
Macs of late have been criticized for using glossy displays. Back in 2002, I bought a LCD monitor for the sole reason of reducing eye strain due to the brightness and glare of CRTs. The MacBook has a glossy LCD screen, but it is no mirrored hunk of glass. On sunny days I have to keep the screen shaded, but I have not noticed any problems in any other light. Perhaps the LED backlighting is bright enough to overpower reflections. The screen’s resolutions is also just right: enough pixels for 720p HD movies but a low enough resolution to avoid squinting at on-screen text.
The Nvidia 9400M integrated graphics really pep-up the display. For an integrated chip, the 9400M is more powerful than many discrete cards. Its a real game changer and the reason I bought this MacBook over Apple’s weaker offerings.
Typing is a pleasure: quiet, smooth, with keys that are well laid out and easy to find by touch. The keyboard sits back from the largest trackpad I have ever seen. My MacBook does not include a backlit keyboard, which is available on the more expensive model. This is a feature that I do not miss, thanks to contrast between the keys and the aluminum shell.
I was never a fan of laptop trackpads because I could never move the cursor from one end of the screen to the other. I also had trouble hitting the buttons. The multi-touch trackpad is a quantum leap in trackpads, and perhaps the most innovating input device since the invention of the mouse over 40 years ago. Tapping twice for “right clicking” and running my fingers around to scroll is so much easier than mousing around that I have packed away my spare mouse possibly forever.
Great Software
Little did I know that experimenting with Linux was good practice for using the Mac OS. Coincidence? I think not. Both Linux and Mac OS are derived from Unix based systems of old. The user interface for many linux systems also borrow from Mac OS. Frankly, with no disrespect to the hardworking and ingenious Linux community, Mac OS is better. Applications install to the Applications folder and are therefore easier to keep track of. Connecting to other computers and network drives is ten time easier. Mac OS also has smarter user management which for you Linux geeks means no more typing "Sudo" a thousand times just to edit xorg.config and makes a mockery of the thousand times I had to type "sudo" in a Linux terminal. There is no point in comparisons to Microsoft Windows except to point out that after using Linux and Mac OS, Windows just seems wrong.
Most of the great open source software I used with Linux is also on the Mac: OpenOffice.org, Gimp, and Firefox. I was surprised, though, at how much I liked most of the software included with the mac. iWeb is a fantastically web publishing tool that perfectly compromises ease-of-use with features. iPhoto is easier to use than I originally believed. Preview is also more capable than I would have given it credit for (but it still doesn’t replace Irfanview). TimeMachine is just magical in its ease of use. The biggest surprise I found was Safari. With a few free extensions (from pimpmysafari.com) Safari had all the tab saving ad-blocking power of Firefox. I can’t quite put my multi touch finger on it, but Safari just seems better on a Mac than Firefox.
But the New Macbook Is so Expensive! Or is it?
All-in-all, is the unibody MacBook worth it? Yes. Financially, the MacBook is a good deal. "Wait . . . what?" you say. Just look at this handy table comparing the costs of the MacBook versus Apple's cheapest computer, the Mac Mini. I supplemented the Mac Mini with products from the Apple store necessary to bring the Mac Mini to the feature level of the MacBook.
Looking at this table, the new MacBook is a better deal from Apple than the Mac Mini. The advantages of portability don’t lend themselves to a chart, but ponder this: I created this web page on my couch. Can a desktop do that?
Consider also the resale value an Apple computer versus its Window's lovin' competitors. A late 2004 Apple iBook G4 originally cost around $1500. Now it might sell for $500 on ebay. The most sought after PC in my experience is the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad. A Thinkpad t42 that cost $2050 in early 2005 might sell for $300 on ebay. An iBook owner would have $200. Some Macs fetch even better resale values.
And Now the Bad
Some of the software that comes with new Macs are not all they are cracked up to be. iWeb fills a hole in my heart, but programs like iTunes and Safari are free to anyone. iPhoto has lost some luster with Google's release of Picasa for the Mac. Some software, like Garageband, looks cool and would be great if I only I could play a musical instrument. Other software, like iMovie ’08 stink big time.
Using iMovie ’08 for the first time is like finding a dent in your brand new car.
To be blunt, iMovie '08 is a broken program that can no more edit my home movies than change my underwear. My first movie project was editing my wife’s home movies on DVD. iMovie '08, however, won’t even try to import movies from DVDs. I encoded the DVD as a .mp4 files with a handy free application called Handbrake. iMovie '08 would import the .mp4 file but that took about 12 hours. The whole time a bar imperceptibly indicated progress toward making thumbnail pictures for the video. I gave up and hit the (X) button. The video survived, but without thumbnails. Then iMovie '08 crashed. I started up again and selected a portion of the video to crop. iMovie '08 first ran excruciatingly slow before crashing again. I could have sworn I was computing back in 1992. Then iMovie '08 crashed again.
In disbelief, I searched the internet for a solution. To my surprise, iMovie '08 was derided by many. In fact, the reaction was so poor that Apple now allows owners of iMovie '08 download iMovie '06 for free. In my opinion, Apple should have saved me the download and pre-installed iMovie '06 on my MacBook. Despite being two years older than iMovie ’08, the download actually edits video. Another great free program is Mpeg Streamclip. It can make quick cuts from a movie before iMovie will even load. In my opinion, iMovie '08 can go suck an egg.
Prospective Mac purchasers, you can look forward to using iMovie '09. Apple announced this upgrade less than a month after I received my MacBook. Apparently this product is like an iMovie '08 that works. Am I hurt and angry that Apple sold me a broken version of iMovie when they planned on coming out with a better version less than a month later. You betcha’. But I am more disturbed that Apple released iMovie '08 in the first place.
Mobile Me makes me think Apple's engineers had to have the internet explained to them.
Mobile Me works somehow, that's the best I can say about it. The service can sync passwords, bookmarks, calendars, mail, contacts, and files saved on network storage named iDisk. Signing up was easy. Syncing was easy too. MobileMe even imported my contacts from gmail. Mounting the iDisk was easy at home but transferring files is very very slow, like dial-up speeds. Maybe Apple's servers only came with 56K modems. Sometimes Mobile Me does not work so well. The iDisk does not always mount on my work computer and other users complain of outages.
The mobile part of MobileMe is the most lacking. MobileMe has the most barebones website since the original Google search website. It looks slick with smooth shiny buttons, but that’s all it is, buttons. Compare that to the user defined splash pages pages such as iGoogle or Yahoo. Even Microsoft has customizable home pages (that seem like neanderthals in a crowd of homo sapiens). I feel great after syncing my bookmark changes, but then I log onto iGoogle and instantly see my gmail, calendar, RSS feeds, weather, and sticky notes. No syncing is necessary with iGoogle and unlike MobileMe, iGoogle never gives me a bogus error for using the wrong web browser. The real kicker: I can do everything on Mobile Me for free somewhere else. Yet Mobile me does what it advertises, is a one-stop-shop for my syncing needs, and I feel safer having my data backed up on the servers of a solvent company.
In Summary
As a hardware company, I give Apple 5 out of 5 stars. The Mac OS is in my opinion the best on the market. Most of Apple’s software is valuable and makes the MacBook a MacBook. When I combine the failure of iMovie '08 with the buggy and lackluster Mobile Me offering, I must wonder whether Apple is really ready to deliver in this new age of high definition/internet delivered content. Troubling thoughts for a new Mac owner.
After months and months and months of prodding by me, my wife bought an iPhone. Technically, my wife and I bought an iPhone because we are married and our money is in a joint account. But technically it is her iPhone because it has all of her e-mail settings and her applications for posting on LiveJournal. Besides, I owe her. Long ago she was promised a new iPod. She bought one, engraved and all, only to be dissapointed when a week later Apple released the video iPod. Apple kindly lets users return their items when one of their secret upgrades hits like a laser guided smart bomb in the night within 2 weeks of purchase. My wife did return her now obsolete music and pictures only iPod, but never bothered to buy the video iPod in its place. Years later, she buys the iPhone.
The iPhone has been touted as the Jesus phone because it appears to do everything you want with only one device. Ever since the dawn of cell phones, the internet, mp3 players, digital cameras, and touchscreens, mankind has dreamed of creating a Frankenstein device that includes all of these functions and fits in a shirt pocket. So basically our society has been waiting for the iPhone for about five years. Five long years of backwardly using 5 devices or more to live our digital lives.
The fairest way to praise critique my wife's iPhone is to compare it to the device that preceded it, in our house. That device is a Blackberry Curve that I use for work. Both devices are roughly the same size, as shown in these blurry photos taken by my unsteady hand with the other device.
This is the real deal: the iPhone's touchscreen is Godlike in its ease of use. The Blackberry seems like an old arcade toy with its scroll ball and buttons. The button with all the dots on it really doesn't make any sense. What are all those dots anyway? The iPhone says "Slide to Unlock". Seeing that phrase alone is like moving out of an asylum featured in "One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest". Smartphones had been so bad for so long that the original iPhone was so far advanced it seemed like something sent back through time by Captain Picard to save mankind from Romulan invasion. I feel like I live in the future every time I pick up my wife's iphone and flip though the screens. Webpages scroll smoother than on my thumdrive driven laptop. And the iPhone is a kickin' game machine to boot.
The Blackberry Curve itself is a response to the iPhone. RIM, the maker of the Blackberry, added a pretty cool multimedia player and decent camera to its boring smartphone. But these are just add-ons. The Blackberry has like 64 MB of storage, a.k.a. a laughable amount of storage. You can add a micro SD card, which I did, but it fits under the battery in some kind of mouse trap like holster. Everything about the Blackberry seems like an afterthought, i.e. a thought that came up after the iPhone. To be really fair, RIM has released updated models like the BlackBerry Bold and the Blackberry Storm. But the Bold has the same old scroll wheel and the Storm is like the iPhone with its big screen but the same bland Blackberry software.
The big draw of a Blackberry over an iPhone is the actual keyboard. The Blackberry is easer to get carpal tunnel syndrome on than the iPhone. Here I thought my bony fingers would come in handy, but even I had trouble hitting the keys. Seriously though, its a phone. messages work best. It's also a phone so I guess you could just call people and talk to them instead.
Huzaa to Apple, maker of the Jesus phone!
I love this website: http://www.photofunia.com/
It let me make this in three clicks:
Why would a 33 year old cheapskate, with a loving wife and entertaining child, want to spend his time and money on a game? Let me bulletpoint the ways:
- Men of my generation and the ones who followed were raised on games; Halo is like crack to us.
- The original Halo was a ground breaking game that revolutionized the genre of first person shooters.
- I secretly lust for violence and combat.
- Halo 2 improved upon Halo, but the story of Halo 2 only ends . . . with Halo 3.
- Halo 2 came out three years ago, I have been waiting three years to "finish the fight"!
- My wife is letting me buy it.
- I never feel bad killing aliens, especially aliens that reanimate the dead.
- The whole world is at stake, dagnabit!
- Halo is a cultural tour de force.
- For all I know, I could be Master Chief.
- Red vs. Blue.
- There are no stupid power-ups to look for.
- My brother is going to buy Halo 3 and I can't live knowing that he is playing Halo 3 and I'm not.
- The music of Halo is just friggin' awesome.
- I have been saving up for two years to buy an Xbox 360 and Halo 3.
- Legendary mode.
- When I finish Halo 3, I will be one step closer to Nirvana.
While cruising the Patent Office website, I came across the invention of the year, the Enertia® Home. As a house fanatic, I was intrigued. The uniqueness of the Enertia® home is in its passive temperature regulation system. A combination of an envelope around the home and the use of wood ensures a constant temperature inside the home during both summer and winter. In the summer, cooler air is circulated through the basement, heated in the envelope, and released out the attic. In the winter, air is circulated through the envelope where it is heated by the sun during the day and the basement during the night.
The most striking aspect of this ingenious design is its simplicity. The Enertia® system uses no moving parts and requires no power whatsoever. The inventor, Michael Sykes, initially based his design on the natural properties of wood. It may not be bamboo, but wood is a sustainable resource. The prototype failed to perform as he calculated. Rather than give up he changed the facts; he treated the wood so that its thermal properties would perform as he originally expected. That is the best kind of innovation.
Check out US. patent No. 6,933,016 for more details on this fantastic invention. Don't build it yourself and risk infringing this patent. Sykes is selling pre-cut kits for different home plans. All you need to supply are the foundation, electrical, plumbing, and labor. In a few months you can be relaxing in your uber-comfortable Enertia® Home and scoffing at your negligible utility bills.
Huzaa to Sykes and his amazing Enertia® home!
This last week my wife and I did something I had hoped not to do, we bought another product from Canon. I had promised to never buy another Canon camera after our little Canon Powershot camera had died after a long battle with defective components. I also have shunned mail-in-rebates. Nevertheless, my wife and I found a great deal on a new Canon SD1000 with a mail-in-rebate. Damn you Canon for making such fine looking camera's with great picture quality!
The differences between the old and new camera are striking. Check out how much smaller the new camera is, but how much bigger its screen is. We also have the benefit of higher resolution pictures, not that we need it. Most of our photos end up in e-mail and on web pages in a much smaller, grainier format. The gratuitous toddler photo here is in full 7.1 megapixel glory. The
Hopefully, the new camera will last much longer than the old camera. Or else this will be it for Canon. For real this time. Promise.
So huzaa to Canon?
I hate weeds. Before I owned a house with a lawn, I was indifferent to weeds. Now I believe that weeds were put on Earth by the devil because he hates us. The problem is how to kill them.
Having little guy around and a general tendency to adopt organic products, I have rejected commercial herbicides. Instead, I opted for an odd looking garden tool, The Weed Popper(R). It has a foot activated lever action and a weed grabbing fork. Used with gusto, it flings weeds, and dirt, into the air. For better pictures, and a video of the Weed Popper(R) in action, check out this website.
The trick is to to get the fork around the root under the leafy base of the weed. The lever action then pulls the weed, roots and all, out of the ground. No root means no regrowth. My wife took this picture of a typical Dandelion root, extracted from the soil and left to die. Take that you yellow flowered bastard!
Although I could spend all day destroying weeds, the Weed Popper(R) has its faults. A good extraction requires practice. The device is also quite flimsy. The handle broke on my dad, but the great man he is, my dad was able to fix it. The spring loaded dirt remover really doesn't work. Dirt removal is still a dirty job. The metal parts are weak; its no titanium alloy. Mine has already become misshapen. Still, it beats worrying about the health risks of spraying liquid plant killer.
Huzaa to the Weed Popper(R)!
30 Helens say you can't pay too much for a comfortable pair of shoes. I mostly agree. I think $165 is not too much, and I'm used to getting free shoes from my dentist.
Almost seven years ago I plunked down $165 for a pair of dressy shoes in anticipation of a formal law school event. Except for Nike Air, I knew nothing about shoes or shoe manufactures. But I do know what feels comfortable. And the square toe and shock absorbing sole of the ecco fit me just fine. Unbelievably, my fancy looking eccos were often more comfortable than my air cushioned Nikes.
My eccos have paid a heavy price for my comfort. The soles are worn through, the lining is pealing away, and the finish is scuffed up. I've tried polishing them and injecting the soles with epoxy, but these shoes have had it. It was time to buy new shoes. Actually, it was time to buy new shoes months ago. Finding just the right shoes is very, very hard.
I don't know why I don't just buy two pairs of the shoes I like. That way, when one wore out, I would have another pair to replace it. No shopping necessary. Oh yeah, I know why I don't do this: it costs twice as much. It still seems like a good idea in theory. Too bad I can't just get more freebies from my dentist.
In the last few months I have been to every shoe store within 50 miles and every shoe website. Life would be easier if shoe companies just stuck to one style. But, I suppose after six years or so I can't expect my style to still exist. And the shoe technology of today must be far superior to the clunky old technology of 2000. For example, I could have used another layer in the sole to keep water (and later snow) from leaking onto my socks while I searched for new shoes.
On my last shopping trip I was in the shoe buying zone, figuratively and literally (I was in the shoe department). I ran into another shoe shopper who loved Borns. I think he may have loved Borns as much as I love eccos. Had I not been so focused on getting new eccos, his infectious enthusiasm for Borns may have led me to buy a pair. We talked about the theoretical advantage of buying two pairs of shoes. Then we both noticed that when you are just browsing for shoes, the shoe salesman are all over you like flies on something disgusting but when you are ready to buy a show, the salesman are nowhere to be found. Finding this brethren in arms really boosted my shoe buying resolve.
Time was running out, i.e., the stores were closing. Fortunately, I had found my shoe, the ecco Arlanda tie. Thee are a reasonable facsimile to my old show only lighter and cushier due to the advances in shoe technology. The shoes cost $165, the same amount as my last pair. Considering inflation, that price is pretty good. Nevertheless, before I bought the shoe, I had to do the right thing. I called my wife. She gave me the thumbs up, figuratively speaking as I couldn't see her thumbs over the phone.
Triumphantly, I have new shoes. Thank goodness that's over. May I never need new to buy new shoes again.
Check out these bad boys. Wow, new shoes are really shiny and stiff. I sort of miss those lumpy wrinkles on my old shoes. I could even take them off and on without untying them. Oh well, I have six years to break in the new guys.
So huzaa to ecco!
