Logo Wars

Come on Apple Corp, drop this foolishness. Not only is it clearly different in shape and color, it looks like it was designed in the 21st century. That green sour apple hasn't changed since I bought my first Beatles album almost 35 years ago. Clearly a company that is trying to be opportunistic and take a shot at a successful company. They wish they could sell a fraction of the music Apple has. Apple is now the hot target. They will win this one but there will be more to come. And lawyers will make lots of money. Cheers!

Avie Tevanian leaving Apple!

I dreaded the day I would hear this, and today is the day! Can Apple continue to innovate OSX as it has without this genius at the helm? What are your thoughts?

NY Times Headline - Windows is so slow - but why?

Poor Bill, he looks like he's at a total loss to explain why Windows XP has 35 million lines of code and Windows Vista has stalled again. When will all the lemmings wake up.

"Last week, in the latest setback, Microsoft conceded that Vista would not be ready for consumers until January, missing the holiday sales season, to the chagrin of personal computer makers and electronics retailers — and those computer users eager to move up from Windows XP, a five-year-old product.

In those five years, Apple Computer has turned out four new versions of its Macintosh operating system, beating Microsoft to market with features that will be in Vista, like desktop search, advanced 3-D graphics and "widgets," an array of small, single-purpose programs like news tickers, traffic reports and weather maps."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/technology/27soft.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

My New iMac!!

Well Gentlemen, I had to wait until the right moment to share with you one of the great joys we experience in life. For my 40th birthday, my wonderful wife got me a new 20 inch iMac core duo maxed out with ram. It was truly a dream come true, only matched by the Titanium Powerbook (which is still going strong, by the way!). I needed time to fully absorb the implications, and to soak in the glory of the moment. There can be no doubt that this is indeed a turning point in our lives, much as the Titanium Powerbook forever changed our lives. And gentelemen, this machine is indeed a screamer!!! I do realize this is a consumer machine, and this drives home the reality that when Apple releases the professional towers, they will go beyond even the high standards Apple has set up to now. The future is blazing hot, men!!

Le French shutdowne du Applee

What do you all think about the French government forcing Apple to share it's music file format with all the competition? Personlly I am a bit divided on the issue. Having been on the other side of the fence with Microsoft and how they have stiffled competition. But I believe it is different in that Microsoft went to some extreme measures to cut out competition. Purposefully making some programs not work properly on their system, such as Netscape. Paying other companies to file lawsuits against there competitiors so that MS name is not attached. Once a monopoly starts to bully and abuse the competitors then it may be time for some sort of divestiture, to stimulate competition once again. But with the iPod, Apple does allow for non copy protected songs to be played on them so they are not locking others out completely. Of course no music company will sell there music without copy protection. If people are really that unhappy with iTunes and the iPod then they can burn all of there songs to a CD and reload them on a MS based music player. So I don't know if the law change would truly apply to Apple. There is some quality loss though. I have done it myself and have not noticed much difference but if you compress the file again to MP3 then it sounds like a loss of quality. I suppose Apple could just pull completely out of France, and then call their iPods, FreedomPods. But the market is big, the second biggest in Europe, and they could just have French iPods with a new open copy protection scheme that only works on iPods made for the French.

Check out my Dashboard!

I am trying a new widget that allows me to post a blog from the veritable convenience of my Dashboard. Was I successful?

Indeed I was! Now that's a cool widget – blogging to Macnight without bothering with a browser. Browsers are soooo 1990's!

New ROKR Phone

Saw this pic of the new ROKR and this info:

*Dedicated music player buttons on the side (Play/Pause, Skip Forward/Backward and Hold) and front
*Full stereo audio via industry standard 3.5mm headset jack eliminating the need for adaptors
*Store over 500 songs on 2 GB optional hot swappable SD mass storage memory card
*Transfer music seamlessly through USB 2.0 high-speed connectivity
*Integrated 1.3-megapixel camera with flash and video capture and playback (15fps)
*Built in FM radio with up to 30 presets
*Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology for hands-free connectivity with compatible *Bluetooth-enabled devices
*Motorola's SCREEN3 technology solution featuring zero-click access to news, sports, entertainment, and other premium content
*WAP 2.0 compliant Opera browser with GPRS Class 10 for high-speed data transmission

-Le

Reactions...

...to the announcements yesterday, Gents?

-Le

February 28th

So Gents,

What are we going to see on February 28th? New iPod? New Mac? New phone? I am betting on the iPod Pequeño. (hey, just kidding!)

-Le

Amazon first worthy iTunes competition?

Gentlemen, let me be the first to ask the obvious - will the rumored Amazon music download service be the first to provide competition for the iTunes music store? Amazon is quite a savvy online marketer, and as one of their customers, I think they provide excellent service.

I can't help but wonder: can Amazon link up with a good enough digital music player to challenge the iPod+iTunes juggernaut?

Get out your Mac condoms, trojan virus on the loose

Darn, I knew this would happen eventually, Apple gets hot and the demons start targeting us. Oh for days of ambiguity, windows, you can have 90+% market share and all the viruses that come with it. Heed the warning!

Mac Users beware there is a proof of concept trojan making its rounds on the Internet. First spotted on the MacRumors forum promising the latest pictures of OS 10.5, Leopard. The latestpics.tgz file acts as a Trojan and places code on your machine.

Some good chatter over at Ambrosia Software about this. http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=102379

Dude, win Olympic Gold with an iPod

Yes, you too can join the likes of Carl Lewis, Peggy Fleming, Eric Heiden, Jean Claude Killy and Kristy Yamaguchi. All you need are some funky pinstriped pajamas, a smart a%@^$ gnarly attitude and an iPod and you're golden. Oh yeah, you have to be able to drop down an inverted fakie 720 and hit the bomb hole without doing a face plant or a biff. Hey, I think I'm halfway there with my Pods. Gonna grab a plank and chillax with my iPod and half pipe. Chillin' in Minni.

Motorola SLVR

Gents,

I see that the new Motorola SLVR is out now, the latest iTunes phone from the company. Though it has the same limitations as the ROKR, it's much cooler. Oh, and I thought it was the SLVR as in 'Silver,' but I guess it's the 'Sliver.'

-Le

Le Is Back in the US of A!

Gents,

Glad to be back home, but I must say that Taiwan was an amazing experience!! I have already been invited back in September, which I am very, very seriously considering!

-Le

Ease of Use - Microsoft Outlook

If Word is your e-mail editor and you want to add a signature to only one message, you can manually insert it.

1. In the e-mail message, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General tab.

2. Click E-mail Options, and then click the E-mail Signature tab.

3. In the Type the title of your e-mail signature or choose from the list box, click the name of the e-mail signature you want to use. Under Create your e-mail signature, select the signature text you want to add to your e-mail message, and then press CTRL+C.

4. Click Close, and then click Cancel.

5. In the e-mail message, place your cursor where you want the signature to appear, and then press CTRL+V.

Note The signature will not automatically appear in all new e-mail messages.


This is the help from using MS Outlook if you want to manually add a premade signature to an email. You just dig through 5 layers of menus or tabs to find the stored signature and then cut and paste it. Huh? Somewhere else in their help they say you can insert a signature by going to Tools/AutoText/Signatures in the menu system but of course this does not work. Ahhhhhhh. Thank god for the Mac.

Sell your Apple Stock

Run for the hills, Microsoft has anounced that it may develop its own personal music player to compete head to head with Apple's iPod. Microsoft has been unhappy with its other partners who build PMP's with not being able to penitrate Apple's market share. Bill Gates was quoted as saying, "people would prefer a choice over Apple's iPod".

A choice! Ha. Microsoft can say that with a straight face. They all believe in choices, as long as everyone picks their offering. I believe the motto is more: "crush all possible choices for the consumer so they have to choose Microsoft."

Next up, favorite podcast.

This is an "everyone play". No Tiger needed. Podcast's are in their infancy, there are many silly ones with people giggling. Not many do I return to for information or for entertainment value. Yes, I know that I'm a photoshop geek but can't resist learn more about probably the most important and productive software used. Even on the PC side. (sorry MS Word) I'm sure these guys will share with us just how Stitch managed to get his mug on that mug. Share your podcast with us. As an FYI, I have found it helpful not to limit your podcast exploration to iTunes. There are many podcast directories that can point you to your area of interest. Cheers.

http://www.photoshopguys.com/

Jobs first action as head of Disney

As you know Disney has bought Pixar and now Steve Jobs is the largest single stock holder of Disney stock. Steve is now on the board of Disney and will great influence. When asked what will be his first decision as head of Disney. "I will take a wrecking ball to the 'Its a small World' ride at Disneyland." Yes the song we all just plain can't stand will stand no more. Many have commented that the ride was pure torture. The endless singing of "its a small small world after all". Uggh it is making me ill just thinking of it.

History of MacNight

A long time ago, even before there was such a thing as the Macintosh computer. Even computers at all, there was a group of men who sought the best in everything they did. Everything they purchased had to demonstrate innovation and style. These elite men regularly congregated to discuss the great products of the day. They called this meeting day, MacNight. Over the years MacNight evolved but the core principals remained the same. Quality and style.

Imagine the great delite the MacNight following had when a product was developed which exemplified these qualities and surprisingly had a similar name as their group. It was the Macintosh computer. A revolution which keeps on going. Form and function. And from that day forward, the Mac has been the center of MacNight ever since.

I may have a few details mixed up but you get the jist of it.

The current members were formed after the person who we currently call Macintosh Fanatica, was deciding to replace his PC with a new PC. And the person we call Stitch, commented: "Go ahead and buy the PC. You can drive the Chevy while I drive the Honda." This comment struck a nerve with MF, especially since he owned a Honda and could relate to the quality statement. This was a turning point, of which Le dreads even today. A Macintosh monster was created, after such fine quality in Apple products he could not satisfy his hunger for more. He became an evangalist for the Mac. A Johnny Appleseed, if you will, ready to spread the news of quality and style. MacNight was formed to celebrate the quality and style of the Mac, (and a reason to drink beer) and the rest is history.

Luckily MF had a brother, Le, who is a necessary counterweight to keep MF grounded. Otherwise by now MF would be living in a house shaped like an Apple and have Apple wallpaper in all rooms of this house. Yet even though Le still uses a standard issue PC, he is an audiophile. The sweet necter of the iPod was too strong for even he to resist. And so it goes.