Jan
28
As I alluded to in my last post, I bought a MacBook last week. “But”, I hear you say, “don’t you already HAVE a perfectly good computer?” And of course, the answer is “Yes,” but I had several reasons for getting a new one.
First and foremost, I’m a student, and as such have several hours of class each week. Most of those classes require me to take extensive notes for at least an hour. Since I’ve been using a computer for 15 years (since I was 6, I believe), I’m a fairly fast typist. I also have terrible handwriting, and write (relatively) slowly. So the laptop helps me take better notes faster than when I’m writing.
Jan
27
Via Rail WiFi
Tagged review | via rail | 8 Comments
With my new MacBook in tow, I trekked off to my parents’ house in London this weekend. It was a fine time; I spent some time with my parents, had a good sleep in my bed there, and saw Cloverfield (quick review: It’s awesome). I’m now on the train back to Toronto trying to use Via Rail’s WiFi access (quick review: It sucks). The service is easy enough to sign up for (it takes about 2 minutes and a credit card) and is reasonably cheap ($9 for 24 consecutive hours). Unfortunately, the service itself is very splotchy. It drops the signal every 3 minutes and when it is working, it’s very slow. For example, I was downloading a file at about 0.5kb/s, and while I typed that last sentence, Adium was disconnected. Twice. Sure, it’s probably useful if you’re 45 and on your corporate issue laptop trying to check your email and reading the New York Times, but for anyone trying to read feeds in Google Reader or conducting a chat on MSN, it’s impossible to use.
They mean well, but its execution is flawed. It’s very likely that the main source of the problems is with the satellite uplink that connects the train from to the Internet, but this is the 21st century. Haven’t basic satellite issues been worked out by now? [By the way, 5 minutes later, Adium is just reconnecting]
Were I on a 5 or 6 hour train ride, to Montreal, for example, I would probably buy time on the network, but in its current implementation, the service is much too unreliable to be used for just two hours.
Via Rail, you get an A for effort, but a D for implementation.
Jan
25
iPod Battery
Tagged apple | ipod | iPod Juice | review | 1 Comment
I got my 5G iPod about 2 years ago, and use it extensively. All day at work in the summer, days when I’m waiting on campus for hours on end, etc. However, it really started to annoy me as the battery began to only last a few hours, sometimes less. Sadly, that’s how things go with Lithium Ion batteries; they begin to lose their capacity after about 500 charges.
So I looked around the internet and found iPod Juice, who sell iPod batteries and provide instructions on how to change the battery yourself. I got the kit a few days ago and got around to doing the surgery 2 nights ago, as my battery failed once more. The surgery was a success, it was pretty easy to do and didn’t take that long.
After the surgery and charging the iPod, I took it to school with me yesterday. I ended up not going home between my classes and spent 6 hours on campus listening to my iPod. It worked phenominally and barely broke a sweat. Basically, the iPod Juice battery was easy to install and worked awesomely. Thumbs up from me!
Jan
19
Macworld was this past week. It really kicked off with Steve Jobs’ keynote on Tuesday. If you haven’t heard yet, he announced some cool things. First and foremost (and what basically every news outlet is talking about) is the Macbook Air.
Basically, it’s the world’s thinnest notebook. It’s so small it can fit nicely in a Manilla folder, the kind you use to send Inter-Office mail. How do they do that? Well, most obviously missing is any type of optical (read: DVD/CD) drive. You can, however, buy an external USB drive for it. You also have the option of “borrowing” the DVD drive from another computer on your home network, which it would then use over the WiFi. Yes, it has to be WiFi, because this thing doesn’t have Ethernet or a modem or anything. The only wired option is to get a USB attachment that takes up the 1 USB slot. So, basically, really thin, reasonably powerful, no CD drive and just one USB port.
And That’s OK. I actually think it’s a great idea. The iMac (way back in 1998) shipped without a floppy drive, and people thought it was insane. That was how data was transfered between computers back then. But now, I don’t think there’s a laptop out there with a floppy drive and they’re becoming increasingly rare on desktops. Apple saw that the floppy was on the way out before most (all?) other companies, and I think they see it again. Think about this honestly: when was the last time you used your DVD drive? I can’t actually remember when I last used mine. It’s not very often. Most of the time I use my 4GB thumb drive to move data back and forth, and it’s more often than not much more than I need. With Internet speeds getting faster and faster and people getting more of their media over the wire (or through the air), there’s going to be less and less use for a CD drive.
The New York Times had an article a few weeks ago about people storing and working on data in the cloud, bringing such technology into the mind of people like my father, who is not at all tech savvy (he hates the Universal remote we got him and prefers to use 2 separate ones). If my father thinks something technological is a good idea, there’s a good chance it will catch on in the future.
Merlin Mann has some great thoughts on how Apple intends to move forward in this space. If Apple hadn’t started on this path already, they’d be stupid not to take his plan, flesh it out a bit and announce it at next year’s MacWorld. They’ve pushed themselves into prime position to dominate the ubiquitous storage/media realm. Young people today are buying macs in greater numbers, and they’ll be customers for life when they grow up. There are 4 million iPhones out there (in just 6 months), a number that’s going to keep rising. Those are tiny little network-connected computers that Apple could hook into people’s data stores and allow them to store and access all their files.
They’ve already made the move into ubiquitous content delivery by allowing you to buy movies on the Apple TV without even needing a computer (though you do need an internet connection). With just a few tweaks (like a free starter pack and expanded data storage for more money), Apple could make .Mac into a must-have accessory for all Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch owners. It would put them in the position of being a leader in the coming online storage revolution, just as they led the digital music revolution with the iPod. This may all be in their long term plan, which could explain why they dropped the “Computer” from their corporate name last year. Either way, I think it’s going to be an interesting year for Apple.
Jan
13
PETA kills animals
Tagged animals | PETA | Leave a Comment
Apparently, PETA, the group who like to go around pouring paint of people’s furs and yelling “Meat is Murder,” killed 97%(!!) of the dogs, cats and other pets it took in for adoption in 2006. It seems they took in 3061 animals and killed 2981 of them. By comparison, humane societies in Virginia during the same period killed just 34.7% of the pets in their care.
More info on the evils of PETA available from PETA Kills Animals.com.
[via kottke]