interloper: Computing

"Wake the f*** up, people"

Thu, 05 May 2005 23:53:43 GMT

"On Tiger: Wake the f*** up, people. The correct response to Apple's OS update is 'you devious, rip-off f***ing bastards', _not_ 'Oh, Apple, thank you for this wondrous bounty'. They put in a few nice tweaks. OK. But for the most part this is a bunch of patches to the more glaringly shit parts of the OS. And they do this on a yearly basis whilst charging you through the nose for the privilege." [2lmc spool]

Well, I only asked...

Apple - Birmingham - 29 April 2005

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 20:54:09 GMT

I had to go to the 'world famous' Bullring today and found myself walking past the soon-to-be-opened Apple store. It has a steel frontage but the windows were blanked out. By listening carefully I could hear the sound of drilling from within. There was no letterbox, so I couldn't shout into it, "Come on, you bastards, get a move on." I got home to find an email from Apple in my inbox inviting me to visit on 29 April. No mention of goodie bags, though. Just a free t-shirt for the first 1400 through the door. Given the amount of dosh I've spent on Apple in the last 3 years that seems piss poor to me. When the London store opened the first 300 got goodie bags worth over £750. You can keep watch over the Apple store via web cam, just in case they open a few days early. It's on the extreme left, adjacent to the top corner of the diamond pattern on the floor.

iPod Invasion

Sat, 26 Mar 2005 21:14:24 GMT

"According to a press release, 4.5 million iPods sold through between October and December, 2004, while Apple has sold a little better than 10 million iPods since its release in October, 2001. To put the figures in context, over 40 percent of iPod sales came in just three months -- after being on sale for about 39 months." [BG News]

Wanna do iPods?

PC Pro slobbers over Mac Mini

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 21:06:58 GMT

"So it's a tiny, powerful, gorgeous-looking, fuss-free computer that, while not dirt cheap unless you're prepared to put up with a limited spec, is reasonably priced for what you get. If you want a machine for surfing, writing, ripping or burning, there isn't a reason not to buy one of these. And that certainly provides some serious food for thought." [PC Pro]

Something is slowly turning on the windmill that is the Windows media. They're starting to admire Apple.

Mac OS X 10.4 to arrive in April

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:10:38 GMT

"Apple will officially announce Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger's release at an event in early April and will begin shipping the operating system within two or three weeks afterwards, Think Secret has learned. Apple has previously only stated that Tiger will ship during the first half of the 2005." [ThinkSecret]

I really hope that this new update to Apple's operating system doesn't spoil anything. Right now my system, running version 10.3.8, is the most stable system I have ever used in twenty years of using a home computer. It never crashes, everything I plug in works, there are no viruses or worms to fret about, the Apple software is excellent and third party stuff is of high quality. If it ain't broke please don't fix it.

Higher scores

Tue, 08 Mar 2005 21:38:26 GMT

skti, who make the HTML editor SkEdit, also have some Flash games on their website. These are simple games with basic graphics but they are also very addictive. Jarts is a particular favourite. My hi-scores have been rather low, my best a tepid 396. But some people, who have a worryingly large amount of spare time on their hands, are getting scores 1000 points higher.

Radio is one hell of a ride

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 16:26:34 GMT

Steve Kirks: "If you are looking for a serious blogging tool that's not in 'beta' and has a strong user community, plunk down your $40 bucks and sign on to one hell of a ride: Radio UserLand"

[Donovan Watts: Radio UserLand: The Missing Manual]

US bank 'loses' customer details

Sun, 27 Feb 2005 00:23:13 GMT

"The Bank of America has revealed it has lost computer tapes containing account details of more than one million customers who are US federal employees. Several members of the US Senate are among those affected, who could now be vulnerable to identity theft. Senate sources say the missing tapes may have been stolen from a plane by baggage handlers. The bank gave no details of how the records disappeared, but said they had probably not been misused. Customers' accounts were being monitoring and account holders would be notified if any 'unusual activity' was detected, bank officials said." [BBC]

Makes you ponder just how safe your personal information really is. You may take care of your information when it is in your control but you have no control over other people or companies who look after it. A company may have a satisfactory security policy when you become their customer, but what happens when they change ownership or sell off the bit of the company with your information? There's a whole load of trust going on and yet we're still at the start of protecting privacy in this electronic world.

Dreamweaver? What's that, then?

Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:38:58 GMT

"When I first started experimenting with the web in 1995, we had notepad. And perl. I took it upon myself to learn a bit of each. Three years later, when the web started really taking off, I found I had better things to do than keep track of the moster table nests you had to use in those days to make a page work, and full-blown CMSs weren’t really viable, so you tended to update an entire site manually. What a pain in the ass...I have a Mac, and I use TextMate." [learn html]

Ah, yes. This takes me back. Trying to do html first in Netscape Navigator, then Adobe PageMill. The marquee, the blink-blink. I remember them well. Is it only 8 years ago that I put up my first web site? 1997. Such a long time ago. Here's what my first site looked like. Lovely big graphic and ugly frames.

iPod Backside

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 04:17:29 GMT

I know this has been available via Apple for ages, but how cool to see your name etched on the back of your iPod, and at no extra charge.

Writing and Shuffling

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 21:14:56 GMT

Also announced by Apple today was the iPod Shuffle, a mini flash-based music player, and iWork which includes a word-processor, and Apple's Keynote presentation software.

I find myself a little disappointed with these products. I'll have no use for the iPod Shuffle and iWork seems like a minimum-strength WP. I already own Nisus Writer so I'm already kitted out for an editor. I suppose I should be glad that I don't have to spend any money on new Apple products, lickable though they may be.

See Tera Patricks for some interesting comments on what was missing from the announcements.

Apple brings on the Mac Mini

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:32:17 GMT

A brand new PC from Apple!

The modular design of Mac mini lets you upgrade your current system to the elegance, simplicity and reliability of Macintosh. If you already own a monitor, keyboard and mouse, you can get up and running in minutes. [Apple]

This machine sounds like it could be just right for someone who wants a mac and already has their own keyboard, mouse and monitor. Someone coping with a Windows machine, for example. It's a bit of a stripped down iMac but still well enough equiped to compete at the budget end of the market.

Crash and burn

Thu, 06 Jan 2005 22:33:58 GMT

"During a demonstration of digital photography with a soon-to-be-released Nikon camera, a Windows Media Center PC froze and wouldn't respond to Gates' pushing of the remote control. Later in the 90-minute presentation, a product manager demonstrated the ostensible user-friendliness of a video game expected to hit retail stores in April, Forza Motor Sport. But instead of configuring a custom-designed race car, the computer monitor displayed the dreaded 'blue screen of death' and warned, 'out of system memory'". [ABC News]

uk.comp.sys.mac

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 22:36:46 GMT

"The purpose of this website is to pool the knowledge of the members of the newsgroup uk.comp.sys.mac, and to set it forth in a convenient format....uk.comp.sys.mac is an Internet newsgroup (‘uk’ denotes the United Kingdom; ‘comp’ denotes computers; ‘sys’ denotes systems; ‘mac’ denotes the Apple Macintosh). A newsgroup is a public discussion forum.... if you want to explore them you will need two things: firstly, access to a news server (ask your Internet Service Provider about this) and a newsreader program (see the section on news readers for more information)." [MacFAQ]

This looks like it will build into a useful resource for mac lovers. Lots of stuff about macs mainly from the uk.comp.sys.mac newsgroup. You can read this on Google but instead you can use a news reader for more flexibility.

Steve Jobs is Business Person of 2004

Mon, 27 Dec 2004 12:46:28 GMT

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been dubbed ‘Mr Incredible’ in winning the coverted role as The Sunday Times Business Person of 2004. The Sunday Times is the largest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. The paper claims that Jobs’ success with the iPod and Pixar films has transformed two industries. ‘It is not often that a company boss gets to bathe in the success of a product that is a smash hit with consumers. It is rarer still for that product to be genuinely important, transforming not just the company that designed it but the face of an industry,’ says the newspaper." [MacWorld]

Apple to sue over leaks

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 20:29:20 GMT

Following the recent rumours about a Motorola and Apple collaboration Apple has stamped its foot.

"Apple has filed a civil complaint against unnamed individuals who we believe stole our trade secrets and posted detailed information about an unannounced Apple product on the Internet,' Apple said in a statement given to MacCentral. 'Apple's DNA is innovation and the protection of our trade secrets is crucial to our success." [MacCentral]

Safe Personal Computing

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:15:30 GMT

Bruce Schneier (a name I always have to double-check for spelling accuracy) has published a brief guide to increasing your security when using the Internet. These are quite helpful guidelines especially if you have to rely on Microsoft products.

"Really, it's not that hard. The hardest part is developing an intuition about e-mail and Web sites. But that just takes experience." [Bruce Schneier]

iPhone Prediction Confirmed

Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:39:10 GMT

Apple has confirmed that not only will they be releasing a full-fledged Apple-inspired phone with Motorola circuitry, but it will likely be shown off in January to an eagerly-awaiting public at MacWorld Expo. [Mike Davidson]

Hmmm...shiny. Could this be the start of a PDA/Mobile phone from Apple? The new Newton?

Sloppy Software

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 23:26:44 GMT

Having commented about the frightening reliance on Windows by the UK armed forces we now low learn that the Benefits system has gone tits up because of a Windows 'upgrade'.

Pension and benefit payments face disruption after what is being described as the biggest computer crash in government history left as many as 80,000 civil servants staring at blank screens and reverting to writing out giro cheques by hand in the latest blow to a hi-tech Whitehall revolution. [The Guardian]

Lurking in the background is EDS, an American IT company well-known for several unfortunate mishaps in the UK. There is some talk that they might be let loose on the forthcoming ID card, or Entitlement Card, as I believe we'll have to call it. In fact, if you do a Google search for 'EDS cockups', you can get quite an insight into the fastidiousness of this company when it comes to IT.

A COMPUTER PROGRAM that was intended to speed up royalty payments to over 300,000 American Indians lost details of the payment but the US Interior Department hid facts from a judge presiding over an inquiry, it has emerged. And instead of producing accurate figures from the buggy system, the Interior Department used an alternative set of figures cooked up by giant computer firm EDS. [The Enquirer]

And also keeping their heads down are the good people of Microsoft

Some 80,000 computers at the Department for Work and Pensions went down during 'a routine software upgrade' of its Microsoft machines this week. Staff at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were unable to use their PCs this week after a routine software upgrade knocked out 80 percent of the PC in the sprawling department, which numbers some 100,000 employees...Microsoft said that the issue has now been fully resolved, but was unable to provide any information on what caused the crash. [ZDnet UK]

If you use Windows and are getting fed up with all of this try an alternative approach to computing.