iBook, iMac, iBlog...

[April 25, 2001]

What's happening May 1?

A new iBook perhaps?

Fun at the fair

We spent most of the day at the Pima County Fair yesterday. Jordan entered some sewing and art projects, one of which received a blue ribbon. I also never thought I'd have more fun watching my kids on the rides, than actually riding them myself. It was a blast to see the ear-to-ear smiles on our four year old as she slid down the 3 story tall slide, or came around the Dragon "roller coaster" circle for the 10th time.

Of course I did do one ride...

[April 23, 2001]

TiBook closes Burbank airport for 6 hours

Although the LA Times article doesn't specifically name the computer, this line gives us all the clues we need: "although the titanium in the laptop..." It seems airport security thought the laptop might have been a bomb.

Of course if they had been running OS X with its protected memory, the bomb would only have affected the local terminal, instead of bringing down the entire airport...

STRESS

We listed our house Friday, and we start escrow on the house we are buying on Tuesday. It's going to be tight if we don't sell ours quickly. But things are looking good with the interest rate dropping last week, and our house being the only one listed in our area right now.

I just need to replace stress with trust...

[April 19, 2001]

Wheeeee!

Apple blows by consensus estimates with a $43 million profit or $.12 per diluted share.

[April 18, 2001]

Yes...

and we like it!

Congratulations Greg and Joanne!

[April 17, 2001]

Q2 '01 Financial Results Conference Call

Please note that comments made during this call may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements. For more information on the factors that could influence results, please refer to Apple's SEC filings.

[April 16, 2001]

Testing...

We homeschool our three daughters. Well, technically just the 8 year old. Our four year old and one year old are schooled, but not officially, yet.

Anyway, the state of Arizona has what is called the AIMS test - a criterion referenced test (have you achieved mastery?) rather than norm referenced (how much do you know compared to everyone else in the testing group). Today through Wednesday they are testing those homeschoolers whose parents want them tested. So I sit here typing this entry at the main library, amongst several other parents waiting anxiously as our kids, some of them for the first time, submit to the rigors of testing.

It's good for them...

He is risen...

He is risen, indeed!

[April 12, 2001]

The name was too long anyway...

I killed it. RIP iTools Homepages Web Ring...

Where Apple Licenses, Microsoft copies...

Ever wonder where Apple came up with the visualizer for iTunes? Read on to find out...

Apple recently licensed G-Force for its iTunes audio player, which is having a tremendous impact on its popularity. O'Meara was paid a "sizeable" sum, but declined to say how much.

And, as is typical for the world's biggest PC software seller, Microsoft copied G-Force's distinctive graphics for the latest version of the Windows Media Player, which could bring visualizations to far more people.

Quotes above (emphasis mine) from page two of a Wired article about Andy O'Meara, author of the G-Force music visualizer...

Spackle covers a multitude of sins...

It looks like we really will be moving into the house down the street, so we're kicking into high gear as we ready our house for the market. Last night I spent an hour or so removing the last few pictures and window coverings from the wall and then spackling over the holes. As I was reminded of my own incompetence in the area of home maintenance, I took comfort in the fact that I am not alone...

[April 11, 2001]

RIP Clippy!

We can only hope that the obnoxious "help" animation will disappear from Mac versions of Office too...

Virtual PC™ for Windows®?!?

So, this isn't really Apple related, but Connectix has announced Virtual PC for Windows. Yes, Windows. That's right, Windows 2000, NT or Me users can now run Windows in emulation. On their Windows machine.

In all fairness, this will allow web developers to run multiple versions of Internet Explorer at the same time on their machine. Among other things. For only $199.

Will wonders never cease...

[April 10, 2001]

Oh, Hail!

Weird weather 'round here today. Rain, hail, near record cold temps (in the 40's - hah!), and then the sun comes out and heats the wet asphalt enough to make clouds of water vapor form at ground level...

[April 9, 2001]

Joy of Tech

This cartoon works on so many levels...

Throwing the Switch

We just launched the redesigned National Optical Astronomy Observatory's web site. About 9 months in the making (things move slow around here), the new design moves us into the 21 century, and away from a 1995 design look. While it still uses tables for layout, it does use CSS and (mostly) valid code.

Subsections of interest (to me anyway...): News Releases, the Image Gallery, and Developing the Future.

I'm proud of what we've done. Does it show?

Jobs vs. Dell

Dave Schultz writes some intriguing commentary comparing Steve Jobs and Michael Dell. Based on an interesting interview with Jobs, and some comments made by Dell in Business Week.

I'll take Steve any day...

[April 5, 2001]

The Norm™

“I never could have put the whole presentation together without my Mac.” Jantze exclaims. “What I needed was a computer that helped me work, not one that I helped to work,” he states.

That's Michael Jantze, creator of the comic strip “THE NORM™”

[April 4, 2001]

Playing with fire...

When you play with fire, you're going to get burned. Copperfield survived his tornado of fire last night, but I was witness to another magician who learned the hard way. Yes, that is his face on fire. I was using a digital camera to try to capture him blowing a flame across the stage, but the flame came back on him. Because of the delay in the camera taking the picture, I ended up with this shot. It wasn't pretty.

Click on the image for the full picture and you can see the heat from the flame coming off the torch. Fortunately he survived and his face is not scarred. He was lucky. And he is still doing fire eating...

[April 3, 2001]

Close, but not quite

The sad thing about the National Championship game is that only one team goes home the winner. This year it was Duke. I think Arizona did a fine job this season, but Duke was the better team last night.

I'm still proud to be a Wildcat...

Mac OS X 10.0

Everything you wanted to know about Apple's latest Operating System and more. Like what happens when you launch every application that comes with OS X, plus a few third party apps for good measure...

From Ars Technica.

Days turn to weeks turn to months turn to...

It's already April. A new month means updates to the iFAQ and Archive...

[April 2, 2001]

News in the digital age

Related to our beloved Wildcats making it back to the Championship Game tonight, our local news rag had at least two different calls to the readers for content in today's paper. Only email would allow such a quick (one day) turnaround time. It's not as fast as the immediate response you can get on sites that allow you to post comments on articles, but it's not bad for a dead tree publication...

Go Cats!

My alma mater has made it to the Championship Game again (we won it all in '97 and play Duke tonight), and Tucson has the fever. You can see make-shift T-shirt stands taking advantage of the Wildcats' good fortune at street corners all over town. If you followed the link to the picture you might have noticed the clothespins on the lines for holding the shirts, and other U of A paraphernalia. At night the proprietors usually just take the merchandise, leaving the clothespins.

As we drove by one of these empty stands we thought it might be funny to grab all the clothespins and hide them under one of the tables with a note saying that "we hid them so no one would steal them." Don't know if the proprietors have a sense of humor, though.

'Cause we just kept driving...