Month: November 2007

Computers and Me: Apple Macintosh

Previously on *Computer and Me*:

* [Amiga](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2007/11/02/computers-and-me-part-1/)

I was going to do these things chronologically (more or less), but it all kind of weaves together, so there’s no reason not to jump around.

Part of what prompted this series (besides needing filler for NaBloPoMo), was my rediscovering a page I wrote ten years ago about [why I was using the computer I was using](http://flyingsquirrel.ca/amistory.html). I concluded with a defiant proclamation that I’d get my parents to get my sister a Mac for school.

They did, too. They got her one of the early PowerMacs running System 7.

That was fine enough, I suppose. After a few years, though, she got annoyed she couldn’t read MS Word documents or play the games her friends were playing. Honestly, though, if she got a PC, it’s not like she would’ve upgraded the hardware or Windows or any of the things she’d have to do to do those things anyway. But I got in trouble anyway for subjecting her to a deviant computing platform.

I was probably more happy with it than she was. It was a little bit more capable than my Amiga at the time. When she and I were both home one summer (me on co-op), I ended up commandeering her computer to do things like watch videos of anime openings and playing games like [Exile](http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/exile/macexile.html). Whatever I could download on her super-fast 56k modem.

She eventually got rid of that machine and ended up getting a PC at Future Shop. And when it came time to pick a successor to my Amiga, I never even considered getting a Mac.

I knew about Max OS X, though. It was a flashy, new operating system built on an open source BSD base. Unlike my sister’s Mac, it had a command line. While I was mucking around in the dreary Windows world, it was gaining converts and cachet. You could do more and more stuff with it. Firefox was ported to it and it finally had a decent browser. It started looking like a viable platform.

I was curious. I wanted to see what was going on here. Plus, I kinda wanted a laptop for wireless networking, and I knew PC laptops sucked for that. (This was four years ago. They did. Seriously). Mac laptops were supposed to be really good, so I decided to get my feet wet.

I went to a Mac sales demo at the university. I really, really wanted the 12″ aluminum Powerbook, but the sales guy said that, with it’s plastic case, the 12″ iBook had better wireless reception. I caught wind that a G4 iBook was coming out, and I was sold.

And I’ve had it for four years. It’s what I’m writing this on right now.

I love my little iBook. There are a few little quirks that bug me sometimes, like jerky Flash animation and video, a jumpy track pad, and the lack of a one-handed Page Down key. And I love Mac OS X, too.

I think if you wanted to spend all your time in the Mac universe, you’d be just fine. Actually, you’d be fantastic. Everything works really well together. Not just Apple stuff, either. Third party application developers on the Mac are fantastic. [Quicksilver](http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver) has changed the way I think about computer user interfaces. Attempts to clone it on Windows or Linux are (for now, at least) only pale imitations. If every computer I ever used had Quicksilver and [Exposé](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expos%C3%A9_(Mac_OS_X)), I’d be so happy. It’s already ingrained in muscle memory. It eliminates so much command line and window fiddling.

There is trouble in paradise, though. Apple doesn’t play nice with others.

They do support things like Windows networking, but they by no means go out of their way to make it seamless. My [Airport Express](http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/) is a lovely little device for getting podcasts over to my stereo, but the hardware works with iTunes and only iTunes. My iPod is tied to iTunes. Data put into iTunes or iPhoto is never coming out again. The new iPods are even more restrictive. And then there’s the iPhone.

You know those Star Trek episodes where some hyper-intelligent alien comes along and sticks Kirk in some exquisitely beautiful paradise, where all his wants and needs are taken care of? But upon realizing this, he recoils and breaks out, giving a stirring speech about how it’s man’s nature to be free, to strive and to seek challenges, even though perfection could be handed to him?

That’s how the Mac and the whole Apple platform is starting to feel like for me.

I love the Mac. I really do. But the more I get into it, the more I feel like I’m being shackled to it with velvet handcuffs.

The handcuffs are starting to chafe.

Dear Facebook: Please Try Harder

Facebook, I gotta hand it to you. You’ve done a fine job. Everybody’s on Facebook. My mom’s on Facebook. You somehow suckered Microsoft into giving you $240M. Nightly news commentators make comments about you in their pointless banter. By all accounts, you’re on top of the world.

So why do you seem so desperate?

I know, I know. All of Web 2.0 (you included) is driven by ad revenue. That means you need to drive people to your site and keep you there. No problem there, it seems. Facebook junkies spend hours and days flipping through their News Feed and profiles. And by the looks of it, your advertising strategy is to stay relatively inobtrusive, and off to the side. No flashing banners. I might get a flyer in the sidebar sometimes, but not always. Which makes me think maybe you’re not scrambling desperately after every single eyeball at every possible instant.

Why, then, don’t you send message text in your email message notifications? Would that be so hard? You sent me an email message just to say “To read this message, follow the link below:”?

You know, I don’t really mind your site too terribly. But I’d probably like it more if I didn’t feel like I was being coerced into using it.

And then there’s Facebook Applications, each one desperately trying to be more viral than the last. At least you give me warning that you’re going to sell me out to third parties before I get suckered into installing one. I appreciate having the opportunity to say no.

I admit, though, I like being able to get various online things that I do into my profile so that people who like your site in and of itself can get easy access to it. That’s fantastic.

However, surely it must have occurred to you that it really needs to go both ways. I’m not going to put anything into your site that I can’t get out again. I already feel bad that I’ve accrued as much relationship networking stuff in there that I’ll never be able to get out again. You’re not going to be around forever. The next time I sign up for one of these social networking sites, I’m going to have to start all over again, re-establishing all the same relationships, presuming any of my friends have signed up. And again, the time after that. And the time after that. It makes me a bit sad that there’s no free and open platform that let’s me say “I trust this person; they can see my stuff,” but there isn’t. You could have been that, but you seem more preoccupied building up your walled garden.

And just because there isn’t an open platform now doesn’t mean there won’t be forever. And what do you know? It looks like [Google is out to eat your lunch](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/30/details-revealed-google-opensocial-to-be-common-apis-for-building-social-apps/).

You have so much potential, but from the outside looking in, you’re squandering it. You could be doing things that might make your users lives easier, like better filtering to cut down on the horrible spaminess of the News Feed page, or allowing me more control over who can see what than just assigning people to my “limited profile.” I’d like that. Instead you’re… I’m not even sure what you’re doing. What *are* you doing?

Well, whatever it is, good luck with it. You’ve got me on your site, and I feel a bit dirty about it. I like being able to keep up with old friends and acquaintances, but I feel no particular fealty to you. When they abandon you, I will to.

Leaves

For the record, a “day”, for NaBloPoMo purposes, begins when I wake up and ends when I go to sleep. So this counts as Sunday’s entry.

I spent most of today (the parts that weren’t spent at Ellen’s, anyway) out in the back yard raking up leaves. Okay, I took plenty of breaks, and really, I only raked up what was on the brick patio. That alone came out to eight yard waste bags. I have a lot of trees.

I’ve decided that the leaves on the lawn are going to stay on the lawn. I have a mulching lawnmower, and it seems to do the trick admirably. We’ll see how the lawn turns out. I’ve got a few bald patches, and I have a feeling that my overseeding in September didn’t take. Apparently you’re supposed to water new seed. Every day. We’ll see if any comes up in the spring, but I’m not entirely hopeful.

I’ve still got lots of leaves clogging up the eaves troughs. After last year’s roof leaking adventures, I’m definitely going to get someone in to do it. I’m just a little bit too terrified of being up on ladders to do it myself. I was up there doing a little bit–clearing out where the leaves clog things up the most: at the downspouts and at the one corner. This really needs to get done properly, though.

Speaking of buying stuff, when iRobot announced their gutter-cleaning robot, [the Looj](http://www.irobot.com/sp.cfm?pageid=354), I was all over it, putting in a pre-order. It came in about a month ago, and I put it together and tried it out shortly after. The leaf-spewing spinny front thing works really well, spewing leaves all over the place. However, it appears that my eaves troughs are slightly too narrow. The Looj’s tank treads couldn’t get traction.

I’m planning on writing them a letter. I’m not going to ask for my money back, because I honestly think it’s a fantastic idea. I’m just sad it didn’t work out for me. So I’ll have to hire someone instead.

A brain full of stuff

Rummaging through my thoughts to come up with something to write about tonight, I started to come to the conclusion that I spend way too much time thinking about products I would like to buy.

A lot of this seems to be stemming from the laptop thing. That’s something I’d been thinking about for well over a year. Realizing that what I’d decided I’d wanted wasn’t actually what I wanted shook the pedestal a bit, and right now my brain, as represented by a metaphorical glass vase, is wobbling, attempting to right itself. In the process of wobbling, I’m questioning why it is I care about this crap as much as I do.

The laptop isn’t the only thing, either. Home theatre setups, server hardware, Doctor Who merchandise, computer monitors, furniture, blinds, gardening tools, outdoor lighting, books, video game hardware and software, kitchen gadgets, Christmas decorations, art, music, toiletries, cat paraphernalia, clothes, MP3 players, gadgets and toys… They all swirl around my subconscious in a maddening whirlwind of debates and comparisons, priorities and time lines.

For example, I noticed in the Radio Shack The Source flyer that they had a sale on GPSes, and that they had [some nice Garmin handhelds](http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/product.aspx?language=en-CA&product=1917045&category=GPS_Handheld&catalog=Online&tab=1#more) for better prices than I’d seen elsewhere. I love maps and things, and GPSes are fun toys. I chickened out from buying one at the mall today because I wasn’t sure if it could keep track of where you’ve been so you can check out your route in Google Earth afterwards. Because, for some reason, I’d much rather just go out for a walk or a drive somewhere without knowing where I was going and see the map afterwards than use a GPS to figure out where to go in the first place. I checked the manual online, and apparently it can do that. Regardless, even though I could almost certainly live a happy and fulfilling life without one, I really want one of these toys. I’m holding myself back from hitting the “add to cart” button at this very instant.

I am a well-trained consumer, I suppose. The only way I’d be better trained is if I just went out and bought all of it without thinking, so I suppose this obsessiveness is a form of restraint.

I beat myself up a bit for spending so much mental energy on silly, single-minded consumerism, but I get stuck when I try to give myself things I *should* be thinking about.

There was, I think, a [Tapestry](http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/) episode, where a guy was talking about how we spend so much time fixated on collecting stuff and not nearly enough on collecting experiences. And while I couldn’t agree more, it’s hard (for me, anyway) to plot and plan experiences. Fretting about stuff just comes so naturally.

Computers and Me: Amiga

I probably spend way too much time thinking about computers and computer-related stuff. And with the whole [laptop thing](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2007/10/26/laptop-angst/), I’m maybe getting overly introspective about it.

It’s NaBloPoMo, so I figure I’m allowed to indulge my nerdier tendencies.

Shamus, over at [Twenty Sided](http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale) posted today about his [personal experience](http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1403) with various versions of Windows and how Vista is pretty much the culmination of a long history of suck. Well, he doesn’t quite say that, but that’s the gist I’m choosing to take away. That got me thinking of a (cringe-inducing but I’m linking to it anyway) page I posted up on my home page a good decade ago (back when it was fashionable to have home pages) about [my personal history with computers](http://flyingsquirrel.ca/amistory.html). I never liked it much, because I thought it came off as a bit defensive.

You see, all through high school and university, I had a [Commodore Amiga](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga). My grandfather bought me an [Amiga 500](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_500) when I was 13, and I upgraded myself to an [Amiga 1200](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1200) (with 40MB hard drive!) in my last year of high school. By the time I’d written that page in second year at UW, it was pretty clear that the Amiga was pretty much a dead platform. There was still a community out there on the Internet, thank God, and I was still able to get ahold of a few hardware upgrades when I had the spare cash, but the writing was on the wall.

But I loved my Amigas. Both of them. I kept using my A1200 pretty much till the end of university. Even after I graduated, got a job and bought my first PC, I kept using it. I even bought my Amiga a network card so they could talk to one another.

That didn’t last, though. The Amiga’s external 1GB hard drive died shortly thereafter. I was crushed. I had my whole life on there. (And it’s not like I could do back-ups. It was an Amiga. I couldn’t afford a SCSI tape drive. And I never got file sharing working well enough to get the data onto the PC’s hard drive. I was able to resurrect her briefly with a SCSI hard drive I salvaged from UW surplus, but I never really went back after the drive died.

That was pretty much the end of an era. I was officially a PC user. I’d given in, finally.

I hadn’t really meant to end up running Windows, though. It just kind of happened. When I bought the PC–a dual-processor Celeron 300 on an [ABIT BP6](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABIT_BP6) motherboard–I bought it fully intending it to be a Linux machine. And I would run SuSE on it, because SuSE (at the time) shipped with the [UAE Amiga Emulator](http://uae.coresystems.de/) by default. But I could never get the hardware working properly, so I mostly ended up staying in a partition that had Windows 98 on it (thus entirely negating the point of having 1337, hacky dual-processor machine) which I’d only really installed to play games.

I just kinda gave in, and I’ve been running Windows ever since.

*to be continued…*