This blog contains my random ramblings about everything Mac and some things OT

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Moved!  
I've earlier this year decided to consolidate my blogs and thus this blog has moved to the category The Lapintosh Files on Weasel™. All posts from here have also been transferred to the new blog.
posted by Kay at 1:11 PM | link   (0) comments

The Switchers Are Upon Us  
Lots of people are crossing over from Windows now and it looks like it's the crème de la crème of lusers. Not that I'm not glad for Apple and Mac in general, but some things are just too much. I've recently started unsubscribing from some mailing lists because I just couldn't stand it anymore. I understand people that are new to a platform have questions, but RTFM! Don't they have Google on Windoze? Can't they just look up things before they ask? And how about checking the questions that had been asked-and answered-recently? </rant> But on a more serious note, I have been testing both Parallels and CrossOver on my DualCore and yes, they are nice tools, maybe one day they'll be as stable as VPC was (though hopefully not as slow), but I see another side of all this. Will the fact that winapps will be readily available to use on Mac not impede the market for native mac apps? A: If switchers can use their Win apps they might be less likely to support mac native apps. B: If win apps run on the mac, are developers still going to port their apps? C: What's going to happen if switchers use their crappy win apps on half-baked emulator software and it doesn't run? Will they conclude that the whole Mac platform is bad? Just some food for thoughts.
posted by Kay at 3:48 PM | link   (0) comments

iVideo  
So tomorrow is the big day? Rumor has it we'll get an Apple Video Store. I did check the Amazon one last week when it went online and you need a propriety software to watch what you download from them (and pay for) and, guess what, it's only available for Windoze XP. Bad move amazon, I was ready to give you some money just to try it out.
posted by Kay at 1:40 PM | link   (0) comments

One fast little bugger  
The Dual Core arrived yesterday and I transfered my stuff with the migration assistant (what a joy not to have to wade through endless folders). I was done in almost no time. The speed improvement is enormous, on the old mini a SETI work unit would take about 12 hours to be processed, the DC does it in 3, which comes out as 4x faster. Front Row looks great although I won't use it much on this machine but I'm looking forward to put it on the iMac.
posted by Kay at 11:02 AM | link   (0) comments

AdSense  
Trying out AdSense in connection with blogger. Looking forward to how that will work. Any money is welcome ;-) Btw. the Dual Core is in Miami, actually on it's way to here. Going into customs on Monday.
posted by Kay at 11:33 PM | link   (0) comments

Dual Core  
I ordered this week a Mac mini Dual Core. Will be here hopefully end of next week. Looking forward to try out Parallels.
posted by Kay at 12:38 PM | link   (0) comments

Found this on space.com today  
under 'Sponsored Links'

Looking for intelligent life? Start exploring with software and devices that run on Windows®. Go to windows.com.

posted by Kay at 2:38 PM | link   (0) comments

Going Intel  
I guess everyone remotely interested in the Mac knows already the big news that from middle of next year on Apple will sell Macs with Intel inside.
I definitely didn't believe the rumors until Steve Jobs let the cat out of the bag while giving his keynote speech at the WWDC in SF this Monday. And, honestly, I was quite surprised. I did read the press release and some of the statements that started popping up all over the web. But until I had watched the keynote myself on Tuesday morning and also read through some of the preliminary documentation available on the ADC site, I couldn't really get a picture of what was going to happen.
I don't want to say it will be easy, but it will be for sure much easier than the two major transitions Apple had gone through before. The first one, from 68k to PPC, was quite painful and the second one, from OS9 to OSX, was quite easier.
1. Tiger is a great, mature operating system and it has been built to work on both processors.
2. The whole thing was planned for some time and there is a 1 year advance warning for developers with full support from Apple (Xcode 2.1)
3. Steve Jobs is in charge.
I must say after all, I am not afraid but I am actually looking ahead to what is coming. And, to defy all the nay-sayers, we'll be buying an iMac G5 this month. I am sure Apple will keep on supporting these machines for several years.
posted by Kay at 6:25 PM | link   (0) comments

Tiger is roaring on my PowerBook  
I just installed Tiger on my PowerBook G4 and so far, it works great. I still have a bit a problem with Mail quitting unexpectedly, but I think this is due to some of the add-ons I had installed in Mail. All in all, I like it, widgets are great and spotlight seems to be very good, once it is done scanning all hard drives.
posted by Kay at 10:05 PM | link   (0) comments

What's next? Apple Certified Portable Technician ...  
Apple Certified Portable Technician is the next one on the to-do list. I got the Peachpit book Apple Training Series: Desktop and Portable Systems, it should be delivered soon, then I'll make the final decision if first ACDT or ACPT.
posted by Kay at 11:16 PM | link   (0) comments

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!!!!!!
posted by Kay at 2:34 PM | link   (0) comments

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.
posted by Kay at 5:28 PM | link   (0) comments

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 :-)
posted by Kay at 2:25 PM | link   (0) comments

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.
posted by Kay at 8:54 PM | link   (0) comments

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.
posted by Kay at 9:15 PM | link   (0) comments

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, voil&aacute;, 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.
posted by Kay at 6:15 PM | link   (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
posted by Kay at 5:02 PM | link   (0) comments

 
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...
posted by Kay at 10:15 AM | link   (0) comments

 
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.
posted by Kay at 12:52 PM | link   (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...
posted by Kay at 12:28 PM | link   (0) comments