I live in the desert. Water, in any form is a rare and precious commodity. That's why the snow yesterday (and icy roads this morning) is such a big deal. The last time it started snowing during the day, I was on the bus and everyone with a cell phone immediately called home to let everyone know...
So water is important. And since we've been bringing water into Tucson and able to shut off some wells, the water table is actually rising. So Tucson Water is taking advantage of the good news, and recently shot a 60 second PSA, featuring a magician making a table rise.
Guess who the magician is...
»plink« · January 31, 2002
Well, Apple's gone and done it. Some might say they are a week late, but they've speed-bumped the Pro Tower line, topping out at dual processors running at 1GHz (wheeeee!), with updated graphics chipsets to boot. There's definitely still a big difference in price between the top of the line iMac and a similarly equipped Tower, though...
»plink« · January 28, 2002
Interestingly, the question has been asked of me several times in the last week: "How do you do your blog at your mac.com web site?" And so I answered briefly, pointing them to an article I wrote nearly two years ago at my (now defunct) Keeper of the iBook site.
There's still some useful stuff over there, whatever kind of Mac you might use...
»plink« · January 24, 2002
Is it just me, or do Phil Schiller's responses in this interview with Business Week sound like so much canned marketspeak? To the point of sounding like an Eliza type bot?
»plink« · January 22, 2002
While I was away from the blog last week, I appeared in a commercial for the local water company. When the water table rises in the desert, it's a big deal. So they commemorated the occasion with a PSA featuring a magician making a table rise. Guess who the magician was?
Yes, I'll post it when I get a copy. It starts running next week, after debuting at our mayor's State of the City Address on Friday...
»plink« · January 22, 2002
A small change to the style sheet and the blockquotes below look much nicer (can you say "hanging punctuation?"). And in related news, Eric Meyer has posted some new ideas at his css/edge site that use very similar styles to what I am doing here with the headings of each post. Of course, being on the edge, Eric pushes things way beyond what I have, or even have thought about doing...
»plink« · January 9, 2002
David Coursey whines about not getting told about the new iMac before Time did. And uses that position to justify "dissing" the new iMac:
"It's sad that I feel almost like I need to diss the new iMac in order to offset the hype. But it isn't fair to judge the child merely by the sins of the father--even if he's Steve Jobs. So I will try not to."
I have no problem with an honest review that calls attention to a product's inadequacies - even an Apple product. But to lace your review (read: rant) with inaccuracies and other statements that belie an inability to read technical specs, and then title the article, "Time for truth: Why Apple's new iMac ISN'T 'flat-out cool'," is asking a little much. To whit:
"Apple also misses the point by not allowing users to have two drives. I find it very convenient to be able to copy files from one CD to another without having to copy them to the hard drive first. Apple's unwillingness to support this is a major shortcoming."
So get a G4 tower. Last I checked you could put two optical drives and three hard drives inside one. Or buy a FireWire burner to go along with the installed optical drive on the iMac. Remember, the iMac is targeted at consumers, not geeks like you and me.
"From a PC user perspective, the new iMac screen alone is a nice design. If someone offered me that screen--without a computer hidden in the base--I'd consider it a neat mounting scheme. But having the large PC system unit hidden under the desk isn't a big deal for me, especially since it gives me easy access to multiple USB, serial, and 1394 ports, something the new iMac doesn't offer."
Whoa there, David. Read the spec sheet, or look at the (clearly annotated) picture of all the ports that are conveniently located on the back of the base (about 10.4 inches from the font side of the base...). It's poor research like this that causes many to flame, and most to just shake their heads.
The rest of the article is given over to more whining about being lied to by Apple's PR department:
"In order to protect Time magazine and its exclusive, Apple clamped an especially tight lid--even for Apple--on the announcement. Last Friday, Apple PR flat-out lied to me--and apparently others--saying no one had been briefed on the new iMac and that even the usual leak to the Wall Street Journal wouldn't take place."
Sounds like Sour Grapes to me. After all, that is where whine comes from...
»plink« · January 8, 2002
Happy Anniversary, sweetheart! I look forward to many, many more...
»plink« · January 7, 2002
This was certainly a consumer keynote. iPhoto, new iBook and a completely redesigned iMac. But no sign of the professional line to be seen.
The keynote was very good, and the new products are indeed amazing. But I must ask a couple of questions: What's next, and what about education? To start with the second question, Steve did mention that the entire state of Maine has jumped on the iBook bandwagon, ordering one for every 7th and 8th grade student and teacher. But the new iMacs seem a little out of place for a lab of Macs in a school. I wonder how much they weigh? Will they be easy targets for theft? And how much abuse can the LCD/arm take? Maybe Apple's strategy is iBooks for education...
As to what is next? I'm thinking about the pro line. Its enclosure is due for an update, and with all iMacs now shipping with fairly high speed G4s and fast graphics cards, the towers are due for a processor upgrade as well. Maybe we'll see those rumored G5s sooner than we thought.
Oh, and best line of the keynote was when Jobs quipped that maybe we had seen the Time magazine cover before...
»plink« · January 07, 2002
Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my last post. There are many who believe the iWalk to be a hoax. An extremely well executed hoax, but a hoax nonetheless. Jack at As the Apple Turns has the best and most succinct roundup of reasons why it's a hoax, and I'll defer to him.
»plink« · January 3, 2002
New Apple rumormonger SpyMac.com has quite a scoop. Check this out while you can, because Apple legal is sure to jump all over this one soon. Especially now that a mainstream journal has picked up on it.
It's called the iWalk, which portends more than just another PDA. More than the Newton meets OSX. But the QuickTime videos and stills on the site (requires registration - just submit an email address so they can email you a name and password) don't reveal a whole lot more than PDA-like functionality.
But what they do reveal looks amazing:
- Fast handwriting recognition
- Fast Boot time
- Headphone, microphone, FireWire, and a new (GigaWire?) ports
- Organizer functions
- Notebook
- Calendar
- 2 more that I couldn't decipher
- Internet apps
- Multimedia hooks
- QuickTime
- iTunes (!)
- 2 more that I couldn't make out
- System info
- And more!
Go. Now. Before it's too late.
Or wait 'till Monday's Keynote...
»plink« · January 3, 2002
And I quote:
With the advent of this new version, PC users have no problem crossing over to the Mac. It's one thing to tell PC users that a Mac is better, but to show them that even a PC is better when it runs on a Mac really drives the point home.
From the Wired article: Virtual PC Is Virtually Perfect
»plink« · January 3, 2002
Cool! One of my favorite bands is featured at the Apple web site...
»plink« · January 02, 2002
Apple is really turning up the hype for next week's MacWorld Expo Keynote. It'll be a nice anniversary present for me.
I wonder if Jobs will wear a suit...
»plink« · January 2, 2002
Just checked out obzorg.org, a new mac-centric blog. Looks promising...
»plink« · January 02, 2002
