Joachim writes:<--snipped-->
Anyway I just read an interview with another sony bigwig here and his talk of an OS for the PS3 was weird. Maybe I am wanting it too much, but do you see a collaboration with Sony and Apple for an OS? I mean the whole WWDC year of HD and the PS3 can do 1080p HD and that twice with dual monitor connections! Plus this would get them off the hook with IBM and put the hardware in Sony's hand just like the how they are putting the peripheral chips (north & south bridge) in Intels.
qutoes from the article that I like:
"Of course, the PS3 can run Linux. If Linux can run, so can Lindows. Other PC Operating Systems can run too, such as Windows and Tiger (Max OS X 10.4), if the publishers want [them] to do so. Maybe a new OS might come out.""The user interface will also get interesting. In the case of the PC, users will have to wait for years between XP's UI to Longhorn's. But the PS3's UI will evolve much faster."
<--snipped-->
Oh my, did Sony see you coming a mile away...
posted on September 30, 2005 at 11:22 PM
I just returned from a long weekend in Seattle. I've attached a couple of shots of The Cow accompanying us on our obligatory tourists' visit to the Space Needle. Sorry about the quality of the photos. Apparently, those rumors of Seattle being a drizzly place are not overstated. Despite the weather, we had a great time - Seattle's one hell of a town! Next month, we depart for a week-long dive trip to Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras. I hope to surpass my Cozumel pics, so stay tuned ...Cheers,
Jay
Seattle is a very cool town, but you shouldn't have even mentioned Honduras Cow, as now you have my hopes up, and I'll be super disappointed if it doesn't happen...
Don't know if you've seen this already, but you have a search item in Quicksilver's Web Search module all to yourself. You're in the Other category since you defy categorization.Because, you know, you don't get enough mail already... :)
Enjoy,
- jeff
This was so amusing I had to ping the developer of Quicksilver about it, who also had no real clue how it got in there. All that's known is it's been there since version one, and it's referencing the old drunkenbatman.com site URL, which still works but is forever in danger of going away.
Quicksilver dubs itself "An evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data," and it's really hard to describe QS to someone who hasn't experienced it. However, if you were going try, the words "interesting" and "innovative" would probably come up, even by those who don't take to it or just get confused by it.
It's worth noting that the author, Nicholas Jitkoff, redeemed a Golden Ticket yesterday from Pittsburgh and will be on the panel for Evening at Adler, and the original roster was updated a few minutes ago to reflect it.
Quick note that we're going to be wrapping up pre-ordering for the shirts on October 3rd, which is this coming Monday evening. It also looks as though there'll also be a small surprise in the pre-orders, as hey, everyone loves stickers, especially of The Cow. I looked into Shrinky-Dinks, but realized that path led to madness.
I know, I know, the shirts will have only been available for pre-order for like a week at that point, and no one reads sites during the weekend, but:
- I did say this was going to be a pretty short pre-order period, as I'm serious about trying to get them into as many hands as possible before the talk. I can't promise, but that's the goal. For those of you who asked, if it does work out and you bring them, yes I'll sign them if asked. It's your shirt, and if you want to decrease the value who am I to judge.
- This is going to be a decent sized order, and the design is complex with a bunch of colors, so I'm trying to increase the chances of snags not popping up as its going to be tight as it is.
I also mentioned that there'll still be shirts, but that they'll only be available in one color...
So your request on your blog for an OS X Portable Firefox. Here you go.Sam Krupa
This is one of those messages that makes me feel slightly ill. I start talking about how much I'd like something, someone takes the initiative and creates it -- and then tells me about it -- and for all intents and purposes it looks to him as though it's been dropped into a black hole...
I know this can not be Thumbscrew, how are you doing these, don't tell me you spend more than a drag and a drop? :-)
This is another of those "If I had a nickel" questions I get via email. I'm sure a few of you are laughing at it, because it seems kinda obvious, but please keep the ham story in mind (especially because Honey Crisp apple's are starting to come into season again).
Last night, I set a goal for getting my inbox below 200 unreads in my drunken accounts -- an unread message is something I've left because I need to reply or do something about it. When I have big projects going on, I'll usually set setting daily goals for myself -- what I expect myself to get accomplished within that day. Since we're being honest, these are more guideposts for where I need to get rather than set in stone, or at least that's what I tell myself when I'm finding the pillow after failing to accomplish them...
Just a quick note regarding the shirts, because I blew my time budget yesterday introducing Germans to the wonder that are brownies, and am paying for it tonight. You may have noticed I said the shirts were going to be a 50/50 cotton-poly blend, and that a few people didn't like that. I don't really pay much mind when someone says, "If you do x I'll buy y...", because it's akin to "If Apple does x, I'll switch to..." -- 90% of the time they're talking out of their ass because its not an accountable medium...
I'm sorry if this is listed on your site somewhere, but in your recent post you have an image of your IM client. What client do you use? It looks much cleaner than Adium, which I use currently. Thanks. (Assuming you reply. If not picture me scowling at you.)
It's not a big deal, if I only had a nickel for when I get asked something like this and it's another reason why I really, really need a FAQ or something. I remember meaning to do one, and then getting sidetracked by other things, and until I do Paul @ Rogue Amoeba is going to be asking why on earth he's seeing me answering reader mail before getting back to him...
I have about 40 draft posts sitting in MarsEdit, which have been growing steadily over the months. Generally they're just little jottings and ideas I've jotted for posts in the hopes of following them up later, which I always intend to do yet so rarely actually do.
Every once in awhile I'll scroll through the subjects to try to clear out things which are now moot, or I've covered in another way, because it makes me feel accomplished on days when I'm feeling anything but. Amusingly enough, one of them had this image...
I've already covered how I'm prone to slip into a heady mixture of Flowers for Algernon and Willy Wonka when I've been pushing life at the seams a bit, and even drawn readers into the madness, so for tonight we'll ignore my mouth and stick to the jottings I'd left around the image...
The Cow you can wear is finally here, or at least is officially on its way -- just click the shirt. Available via pre-order for the next few weeks only, The Cowch Shirt comes in four colors:
- Black
- Forest Green
- Chocolate
- Navy
The color selection is only possible due to pre-ordering, which means while The Cowch may be available in limited quantities in the future, it will only be as a single shirt color. I want to keep the pre-order round as short as possible, as you guys have already been patient as hell.
Other things to know...
Hi db ~I was planning on coming but it sounds like it is turning into a
convention. Best wishes on your new found fame.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ben R.
*Rubs Temples* There are days when my inbox confounds me, and I wonder just what is going through people's heads when before they throw things my way...
Questions and such about the shirt are fracking up my inbox something fierce, so lets just knock them all out before it goes up...
I talked this up in a big way before, and won't rehash it here, and I don't really do the xyz has a new version out deally.
However, I do think it's worth noting this one, as Smart Crash Reports could end up being a big deal for developers and having the platform improve in general.
Its out of beta and available for download, complete with a spiffy new icon which some people say looks like a beetle trying to have sex with a paper airplane which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your views regarding beetle-on-paper action.
Go get it, and hope you see an app you like on the supported list soon. It's also worth checking over some of the Q&A on their site to bone up on some of what it's doing a bit. There's a real chicken and-the-egg problem with something like this, where developers need users to have it, so if you can, help lay the damn egg.
In my continuing quest to cut a swath through my inbox this evening instead of doing what I said I'd do to others, I'm noticing people keep asking why they can't post a blogspot or google url in the comments, and I really need something I can just link to instead of having to reply, as due to time they're getting shorter and shorter, and it'll eventually be mistaken for being terse. It basically comes down to two things...
If you RSVP'd for the LiveTable via comments or email, I have them and have accounted for them.* I was really out of it when I posted the final date and preliminary roundup for this, and when I woke up and saw the response I had a small "Oh lord, so that wasn't just a dream." cold-sweat moment, where I was trying not to wet myself.
Awhile ago, I said the Mighty Mouse officially blows, and its caused some email. Damn, am I ever sick of this product, and I'm a step away from creating a rule funneling all mail mentioning it to a separate folder so I can only view them in a batch when I'm mentally prepared...
I could let the last post go awhile, but the writing is kind of on the wall. The vast majority really, really want The Cow as close to his full glory as possible if given the choice. Considering several hundred of you are going to have the chance to be within arms reach in the not-too-distant-future, it's in my best interest to keep you happy...
So we're just a few days away -- if that -- from taking pre-orders to have a bunch of shirts printed with our favorite inebriated mascot. While you can't wear your own swag, the goal was to work with David to get something I'd want to wear within the current limitations of shirt printing.
Since you'll be wearing them (or sealing them in mylar, away from harmful UVs) to help support the site, and we can only go with one design, let me know which you prefer (A, B, C or D) and why so we can throw together the final. Click for larger...
Earlier today I found out the venue choice -- the Universe Theater at Adler Planetarium -- went from a 95% lock to a 100% lock. This means I can tell you the official date for the talk will be the evening of October 21st.
Done. Locked-in. Won't have the plug pulled. Same week as before, except now it's a Friday and will be slightly later in the evening.
Consider this an informal ping for those who have to make travel arrangements, as it's going to be several days until I can formally release exactly who'll be participating in the low-key roundtable, along with a spiffy poster and other details. It's going to be a cool Friday.
The left-behind cocktail napkins say OmniGraffle 4 is going to be released today sometime a little before noon, which is just going to kill my day, while I can least afford it, as I doubt I'll be able to resist putting it through its paces. OmniGraffle is one of those apps I don't open as much as I used to have to, but still go fanboy for...
Sunday, as a whole, was a bit of a trip. I got to stop and spend three-ish hours at the Adler Planetarium for a tour (and a show) where it looks like the event is going to go down. No sleep the night before so I could clear off the day, along with 2.5 hours on the train and several beers at lunch before we showed up, but no one seemed to pay any mind, or at least was polite when I was having to backtrack at points in the conversation to follow along...
Probably the most amusing aspect was when I was being introduced to people, as people feel very silly explaining why a guy named "drunkenbatman" is poking around under the stairs at a rack of Apple cubes and routers...
Earlier today, Siracusa finally got around to throwing up his own blog over at ArsTechnica, dubbed FatBits, which I'll be keeping an eye on. I dig the name, and it's cool to see him jumping in.
Ah, Hawaii. Kind of hard to think of a better way to spend a lazy Saturday. Warm sun, blue ocean, sandy beaches, girls with the brown eyes and coconut bikinis, and cocktails heavy on the rum.
And now, an inebriated Cow...
You may remember that the talk at the Apple Store was canceled, and I mentioned an alternate venue...
I'd like to invite you to pick a date next week (Tues-Fri if possible, or the following weekend I could come in and meet you) to come see the place, the auditorium I'm thinking of (Universe Theater, seats something like 265+ people, has the 'magic escalator' up to the Sky theater, maybe we could hook that up too, I don't know.) And I can give you a quick behind the scenes tour and set you up with some free tickets to one of our 3D or sky shows, yadda.....has a big screen for projecting, we've got a decent projector and sound system we can set up in there, and I'm only half kidding about flying you in for a ridiculous entrance. ;) Oh and it has some funky fiberoptics in the ceiling that can be turned on to look like constellations. Pretty trippy.
We also have a pretty cool video studio in our CyberSpace gallery, I've been overhauling it for the last few months and it will be fully operational (IT'S A TRAP) well before October, so, woot. Maybe it could tie in somehow too. Not sure if our bandwidth could handle a live stream of your talk, but I'd love to try...
Somehow, it technically got to be Friday a little bit ago, which means it's Apple Bug Friday again. My brain is trying to reject this, because yesterday seemed like Monday night, but here we are and there they are. Once again, we'll be revisiting our old friend: The Mac OS X Finder.
More specifically, how it integrates Spotlight. It's rare that someone is able to introduce a technology meant to be better than what came before, but due to f'ing up the implementation it ends up being worse in just about every way. It happens, but generally not if the right people are paying attention and there's a competent testing and feedback loop involved, yet here we are with Spotlight.
The ∞ symbol is in the title because aside from some of the core tech and exposing it to developers (Well, developers already had SearchKit), there's just so little they've gotten right, and today we'll note a few of those...
As it turns out, my embargo is generally worthless, because no one is paying it any heed. Earlier today, Rosyna passed on their new treat called Smart Crash Reports has reached Beta 5, along with some screenshots. "I'm embargo'd." I said, and then realized I was forwarding it onto twenty people I thought should know about it...
(Note: The download link on the front of the site isn't working, and most normal people -- Including the Unsanity Folks, are asleep. However, this direct link will work until non-vampires awake)
A few minutes ago, I ran Software Update just to check and be sure that it was wanting me to restart. I was flying close to the Sun again yesterday, which means yesterday is hazy -- I have iTunes sitting on my Desktop, but can't recall if I'd tried Software Update which people said wasn't asking you to restart.
I got the above, where it's just sorta sitting there. It says it ran, yet the progress bar is still spinning... and actually it's saying "Last Check" which could mean it ran successfully, or it ran successfully last time. Checking top, the process is just sitting there doing nothing...
I could run a sample and try to see if that gives any clue, but this comes on the tail of seeing Software Update actually lock up the entire System in 10.4., and at some point it sucks to pay for something -- only to have to allocate time as a beta tester -- so I'm disinclined.
I wanted to throw up a short note about iTunes 5, even though it's pushing 4:30am and I'm having to add more wicks to the candle, because some have gotten the wrong impression about my post yesterday -- or rather are reading too much into it.
It's understandable, as its lacking some context, which is my fault, as I tried to do a quickie on something deserving a longy. Judging by my inbox people are annoyed at a lot of things about the iTunes 5 interface, while yesterday I was reveling in the glory that is Burnt Aqua Unified. I have to keep this somewhat short, because otherwise the embargo on the site in order to get things done for the site will be meaningless, but basically they have the right of it.
A lot of things going on here, which means the site is going to be quiet over the next few days while I try to squeeze a bunch of stuff in that just isn't getting done so the dreams of running up sand dunes will go away. Lots of cool stuff, it just kinda sucks one can't think of it and then have it happen without actual effort.
However, Apple wrapped up their "special media event", which means my inbox is getting humped by a bunch of excited readers, and one good humping deserves another...
About a week ago, I got turned onto the blog of a small pizzeria. Yes, a blog about nothing but pizza -- and it's just short of glorious. Topics include tips on how they do their dough, new vending machines hitting the market that will spit pizza at you while you're waiting for the bus, and of course photos of their wondrous creations.
Two things came to mind:
- These people are doing God's work.
- Alright, Apple. You ignored blogging while Microsoft was doing it, and then while Sun was doing it, but now you're getting shown up by a mom & pop pizzeria.
If you're not careful and wait too long, we could well end up with another one-button-forever fiasco, where you don't deign to participate for a decade or two because you came so late to the party and need to save face.
Hi, I'm a Mail.app user, but the widescreen-pane aspect of Gyaz looks really neat,However I noticed scrolling through my messages is rather laggy. Is this something you've noticed as well?
Nicholas P.
I've gotten a ton of mail over the last while about GyazMail, and I've kind of avoided it because I wasn't really sure how to handle it. I use it on OS X, however I rarely recommend it anymore.
I'll get to that in a moment, but to get to your question, yeah, it's always been a little laggy when browsing large amounts of messages, but amusingly enough it still used to be faster than Mail.app...
i am fairly new to your site, but enjoy it very much. I am not a programmer (my wife was a C prgammer) but i am a sys-admin at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.It seems to me that you are running MOVABLE TYPE. Is this a MT install on OS X Server ? just curious. cause i am having trouble gettin it installed and workin i am decent with unix, but still... grrr..
anyhoo... just crious if this was runnin on OS X 'tiger' Server and if you know any sites with info.
//glenn
This is noted somewhere, but the site runs on Linux. Back in the 10.3 days, I tried to get Movable Type running on OS X without a lot of success. I remember having to go to find the DBI bundle, which wasn't playing well with OS X's perl install whatsoever. From what I could tell, or remember, Darwin in 10.3 seemed to ship with a multithreaded version by default and had a few bugs in its configuration files. This was tripping everything up when it was easy as pie to get going on Linux.
At the time I found some workarounds online, but none of them were doing anything for me... I was looking at blowing away OS X's Perl install with something a little more standard, and then realized since I was looking at moving to Word Press eventually, which I had up easily on OS X, I just didn't want to take the time to really mess with it and installed it on my local Linux box instead. I haven't looked at it since. However, I know it's possible to do it, and I'm sure someone can fill some good URLs in the comments to help you out.
You really seem obsessed with this guy! Though you pay him out, it comes across like you have a crush on him. :)Steve W.
This thing has gotten a little comical, and I guess its worth clearing up. The thing you have to realize about my Siracusa comments is that I sorta know him, or rather he found my IM awhile back and we talk from time to time. I knew I was in trouble when he demanded my last name, not because he was curious so much as he hated the idea of having an incomplete address book card on his system. Talk may also be a poor choice of words, because I'm not sure one can talk to Siracusa, rather one is subjected to Siracusa.
The other thing you have to realize: Oh my god is he fun to poke.
Hey DB, in light of your comments on the Mighty Mouse (and my own realization that I already do take my left finger off the button when right-clicking), I'd be interested in knowing what mouse you yourself recommend.I've never been one of those RAZR PINGSLADE 560000 mousers, but the notion of a mouse with a beefed up scrollwheel and a couple extra well-designed buttons for expose/dashboard (is that even possible without built-in support from Apple?) is kind of neat.
To answer your last question, yes it's possible to use the buttons on other mice without built-in support, although Apple actually does have built-in support providing you just want to use the buttons for Expose or Dashboard.
As far as the first question...
Matthew Schinckel passed on this shot from the AppleCentre Next Byte in Australia. Specifically, the one in Adelaide at Rundle Mall. Apparently he turned on the iSight and caught himself in it...
To my untrained eye, still looks like he was endeavoring to get the back of the sales girl into it. One day, there's going to have to be a coffee table book of these, so keep being creative.
I was chewing through AnandTech's No More Apple Mysteries, Part Two which was making my happy place all tingly. Now, lots of things make my utility belt tingle, but if you're not aware, Part 1 of their article focused on benchmarking Mac OS X for many server related tasks (I.E., Apache, MySQL, etc.) and came up with some abysmal results for the Mac compared to other platforms.
It caused a hell of a lot of smack to be thrown around -- primarily at them -- with only about 5% of it being deserved. There were all sorts of theories being thrown around as to why the results might have been showing so badly in OS X's favor, especially when it came to databases, all of which clearly ignored...
Somehow it got to be Friday again, which means it's Report an Apple Bug Friday again. Since last week's was a bit of a doozy, we'll downshift and pull out something generic and arbitrary (Because it's not lacking for material) from an app we all use, the Finder.
One of the things that's fascinated me when it comes to Mac OS X has been the Finder's ability to screw up the most mundane of things, over and over, almost as though it's in its nature. I'm not talking about say, completely locking up your Mac when a server disconnects, but rather something as simple as remembering what size a window should be, or what you see in the following screenshot...
