7:10 pm

Watching KOLR10 radar coverage. They are wall to wall with radar and weather staff. Mostly they are repeating National Weather Service warnings and reports of tornados. Interestingly, they can switch their Doppler radar to show wind direction and speed to get an idea of tornado activity. Hopefully this will save someone's life.

Blogging the storms in my area:

Here's the NOAA link.

iPod!

I purchased an iPod yesterday from Best Buy. A “clearance” model with touch-sensitive scroll wheel, it was a 10GB model for $299. That's the same price as the new model but includes the belt clip and earphone/remote combo. I took some time last night to get my iPod set with my current music selection and experimented with some new AAC tracks from the iTunes music store. Here's some details:

The packaging is exquisite. My PC-owning co-workers remarked that it seemed appropriate for the level of equipment (expensive toy-first class packaging). The user experience was great from the first moment I opened the box: the side that is marked iPod actually contained the iPod unit. It didn't have to, it just did. Elegant.

The ease of use is well documented, so I'll skip it here. I let it charge for about 4 hours, then plugged it into my TiBook. It immediately launched iTunes and update it's firmware to 1.2.6 automatically. In the meantime, Software Update allowed me to download 1.3 and, after the iPod's requisite reboots, I applied it and was off and running. Did I mention it also copied my music collection? It's about 3GB of music, mostly MP3, and it copied in about 15 minutes. Nice.

Next, I set iSync to work with the iPod. Wait, I didn't do that, the Mac did! I fired up iSync and it had already realized I had an iPod so it was set to go. A (long) iSync later and my calendar, contacts and now AAC content was on the iPod.

Finally, a name. When I first setup the iPod, it requested a name. My machine is “getz”. I named the iPod “gilberto”. It seemed appropriate.

A special thank you to my wife of seven years, Tammy. Without her, my dreams would stay just that–dreams.

-srk@mac.com-

General Update:

I'm sorry that I haven't written in this lately. Sometimes things in life go astray, and my weblog has been one of them. I haven't written lately, mostly due to the fact that I had nothing to say.

Now that I do, read on.

Downloaded and installed the 10.2.5 update. We'll see if this offers any kind of meaningful enhancements or fixes for my setup. To be fair, my only current problem with 10.2 is the poor SMB performance on my work network. I authenticate with my domain credentials to my local server and can browse shares without issue. When I try to copy files, it crawls at 16 kilobits per second instead of 100 megabits per second.

Anyone have any ideas?

What's up with this? Return of the old enemies from the cold war?

GPS jammer at the Russian Embassy in Baghdad?. This story on the Russian convoy which was shot at after leaving Baghdad contains the following: The business daily Kommersant reported Tuesday that the Russian diplomats had departed from Baghdad only after Secretary of State Colin Powell “repeatedly and persistently”… [The Command Post]

MacOS on Intel Opinion

So is the MacOS running on an Intel (or compatible chip) a good idea? As a technology consumer, I don't see why not. You can argue about the elegance and engineering of the PowerPC vs Pentium all day, but it still comes down to costs. I want to buy Apple technology but pay a competitive price. Will MacOS on Intel do it? Here are some things to consider–pro and con:

–Most computers in the world run on an Intel chip. If the PowerPC disappears from the consumer landscape, that will effectively leave two competitors in the consumer PC chip market –AMD and Intel. I believe this to be bad since a lack of competitive pressure has a negative effect on innovation. Witness the outcome of the breakup of the Bell System in 1984 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Without those two events, it is likely that we would not have DSL, cable internet, ubiquitous Internet access or the deep penetration of cell phones.

–Just because Apple might make systems that use Intel chips doesn't mean that BillyBob can buy $400 worth of components and build his own Mac. A Mac will still be made by Apple. No clones, no how, no way. They would just require OpenFirmware on the board vs CMOS/BIOS, right? No license to Dell; what would be the point? In my unscientific opinion, the end use wouldn't see any difference between an Intel-based Mac and a PowerPC-based Mac, execept price and speed. Aqua will only run on a Mac and won't be open sourced. That means that Office X for Mac will only run on a Mac, not a Darwin install running on an old Dell with an nVidia card.

Think and email me: srk@mac.com

So a man comes to our door at 9:30 p.m. asking for money for a locksmith. I stepped outside to talk to him, got the 'willies' and sent him on his way. I thought I'd post this info on my weblog just in case I can't remember it later.

Physical description: male, white, late 40's, about 6-5 and thin/medium build, bald on top, salt and pepper hair on the sides and mustache. clean teeth. spoke evenly with a semi-deep voice. Purported to be a Chistian minister with 20 years experience and a counseling office in the plaza towers building. Might have said his name was Paul. New in town, “new neighbor” was his phrase. said he lived at 538, just up the street and locked himself out of his house. He tried three different locksmiths and they all wouldn't let him in unless he had the money upfront ($60). He then said that he was $18 short. I told him that I thought that most locksmiths would let someone in if they could provide proof that they lived there. He dodged the question/statement saying that his driver's license had a PO Box on it for security reasons since he was a christian counselor.

What strikes me now is how quick I was to open the door and step outside to talk. He could have hit me or tried to kidnap me and I wouldn't have been able to do much. Tammy answered the door first, but didn't open it (thank God). This whole thing scared me sh*tless.

That's all for now. I'll post more in the morning if needed.

I've been impressed by the restrained political comments during the Oscars broadcast. I know that the presenters and the “winners' were cautioned not to prattle on about war items, but some have managed to slip some out.

I read a bit of online Oscar coverage, including the attributed from scripting.com “backstage” blog by a person named Ian. What a disappointment. He's backstage and we get a repeat of the winners and what they said. So what.

I just watched Michael Moore make a fool of himself on national TV. Subtract the political content of his acceptance speech and what do you have? Nothing. Just because you got your “15 minutes” of fame doesn't mean you have to prove to the world just how stupid you can be.

This is interesting…

Drivel:   Windows is becoming like an…
Drivel:  Windows is becoming like an old pair of underpants that you've received too many wedgies in.  At some point, you just have to throw them away. [X-log]