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This blog contains my random ramblings about everything Mac and some things OT
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Sunday, November 21, 2004
iPodmini!!!!
I got an iPod mini for my birthday!!!! It's golden, very cute and it has to charge for 4 hours before I can play with it!!!!!! (0) comments Saturday, November 20, 2004
More toys to go with the other ones
The Airport Express brought the acquisition of a new sound system, Altec Lansing, 2 speakers and a subwoofer, very nice and iTunes plays fabulously from our computers to the bedroom sound system now. (0) comments Friday, November 19, 2004
The day of new toys
We just got an Airport Express to go with our Airport Extreme (we needed to extend the range to provide absolute coverage for all the 62 m2 of our apartment. And I got an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard, my back is already hurting less :-) (0) comments Saturday, September 04, 2004
ACHDS
I'm now an Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist. :-D Next one will be ACPT probably or ACTC if PeachPit comes out with a book for that one soon. (0) comments Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Neat little piece of software
I just came across a nice little treat for the Palm: Particle Data Book What is this doing in a Mac blog? It's a Mac user that made it. At least he has his home page on mac.com. (0) comments Monday, July 19, 2004
ACHDS
What a nice acronym. Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist. I'll be taking the exam for this certification end of August. I still have a voucher from last years survey Apple made and it will be expiring end of next month. I had planed to take an exam earlier this year, but the Prometric center in SDQ had temporarily disappeared. I was just about to write to Prometric today about the matter, when I took another chance on the test center locator and, voilá, there it was again. Since I don't really have much time to study, I'll do this ACHDS exam as it is mostly about stuff I'm ok with. I also found out that Apple has finally started publishing books for the exams. Actually Peachpit Press is publishing them but Apple stands behind them. Apple Training Series: Mac OS X Help Desk Essentials and Apple Training Series: Desktop and Portable Systems so far. I'll be pre-ordering the ACHDS book, it's bound to come out on Friday, tomorrow. This should help me get prepared for the exam. (0) comments Apple Certifications I just discovered that Yahoo! had deleted a group I created last year for Apple Certification related talk. What I find very strange is the fact that they didn't even send me a notice that they will delete the group in x days because of y. So I recreated the group again and anyone interested, feel free to sign up. AppleCert Group (0) comments Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Exciting Times So next Tuesday the biggest thing in music will get even bigger, some new countries in Europe -and Canada as the rumors tell- will be admitted to the iTunes Music Store. And 3 weeks later the WWDC 2004 will take place in San Francisco. We can for sure expect, besides a preview of Tiger, a bunch of new and improved hardware. And last but not least, the new Airport Express looks really cool. Just too bad that I don't need one... (0) comments Thursday, June 03, 2004
And since I am already at posting... ...a little bit of shameless self-promotion: maclocalization.org is looking for help in developing and promoting the site. Any great ideas are welcome. (0) comments Shame on me I just realized that I hadn't made a single entry to my Mac blog in 2 months. Now, for one I am quite busy -working hard on a college degree- and second the mac scene was very quiet lately, business as usual. But there is the WWDC coming up and we'll be given a first glimpse at the upcoming version 10.4 of MacOS X. Let's see what Santa Steve is going to put into our stockings... (0) comments Thursday, April 01, 2004
Happy Birthday Apple Computer!
TIME: 80 Days That Changed the World, April 1, 1976: Apple Computer Boots Up News Round-Up of the Day Steve Job's resigns Mac virus attacks Windows PCs Apple logo found on Mars Apple is dead (0) comments Monday, March 08, 2004
History of the Mac OS Wether you need a little refresher in the history of the Mac OS or you are wondering how it all started, this is an excellent article: A History of Apple's Operating Systems (0) comments Sunday, January 25, 2004
Happy Birthday, Mac! As I saw a few other members of the blogging Mac-community used the occasion to look back in time on their own beginnings with the Mac, here is my story... My first contact with computers was in high school, programming in Fortran, not very inspiring for a mainly visual person. The following years I had on and off to do with computers (learned Basic on the way) and eventually owned a Commodore 16. But none of these got me really hooked, until '87. In early 87 I heard at some seminar for journalists about some new technology, called DTP. It was just mentioned as a new way to visually layout pages on a computer, no pictures, no demo, but it stuck to my mind. A few month later I came across a classified job ad mentioning computer based layout, and at my interview for the job, which I eventually got, I saw my first Macintosh. I had been working in traditional page layout for some time and what I saw there just blew me away. Instead of counting lines and drawing layouts and hoping the typesetter wouldn't mess it all up, I could do it all on my own and see the final outcome on the screen. WYSIWYG and I was hooked. The company, a magazine publisher, had 2 Macs, a Macintosh IIe and a II, networked with some DOS monstrosity with a custom made program to transfer the stories the writers typed on DOS machines and carried over to the layout department on 5.25 inch floppy disks. I started my first day and began my training... I received a pile of papers and was told to design a magazine for insurance brokers. "And, btw, the computer is switched on here. You have about 2 weeks to finish the project." I spent the first half day on exploring the interface (this was pre-multifinder!) and trying out what happens if you click on things etc. After 10 days I had finished my magazine layout and also learned the Mac inside out. Spending every minute during this time reading the manuals and books I found in the office made a good foundation for many years to come. I have never, not for one minute, regretted to be working on this truly great platform. So once again, Happy Birthday, Mac, and to another 20 great years! (0) comments Saturday, January 24, 2004
iCar Absolutely amazing what that guy did... Tatra Mac G4 - fastest Mac on the four wheels? (0) comments Friday, January 09, 2004
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
iPod mini So, are you disappointed too? The general tenor of the comments on the new iPod mini that can be found on various mac fora and mailing-list are 'neat but too expensive'. I must admit I was a bit disappointed too at first, but thinking about it, it's a smart move. Apple will be selling the all-new, all-colorful, all-cool iPod mini in big numbers thus making a good deal of money. Then, in a few month there will be a new line-up of the iPod mini, a 8-10GB model (to fill in the gap to the iPod) for USD 249 and the 4GB low end will drop to USD 199, thus breaking deeper into the mid-level player market. Taking this speculation a bit further, I would expect a line-up of 3 sizes of iPod mini and 2 sizes of the iPod, all depending on the pace at which Hitachi can offer bigger HDs at a decent price. This strategy would clearly follow the line-up in Apples computer offerings: iMac - Powermac iBook - Powerbook iPod mini - iPod Now as for a timeframe, a good date to expect a revision of the iPod mini and a possible price-drop might be the one year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store. The sales of the iPod mini -and the iPod for that matter too- might rise internationally, if Apple finally manages to get the iTMS up and running outside the US. Lots of rumors to that issue are around, including Canada, Australia, Europe and Japan. Japan might rank on top of the list for Apple as the brand is well-known in Japan and has a good share of the market. Also, Japanese people are great lovers of gadgets of all kind, especially if they are electronic. A japanese iTMS might be just around the corner. Canada and Australia might be good candidates too as they are both big countries with a fair amount of money to be spent on an iTMS. Europe, though, is another story. Not that it would lack lots of consumers with money to spend and a decent interest in electronic gadgets, but licensing issues might delay the launch of the iTMS in Europe for a long time. I honestly don't think Apple will launch it, unless it can cover at least the UK, France, and Germany and some of the Scandinavian countries. Let's just hope it will not take as long as the international availability to order prints and books from iPhoto. (0) comments |
