4/5/2009 - MacHeist 3

With only two days left for this offer, I wanted to get the news out about MacHeist 3, the software bundle that aggregates hundreds of dollars worth of Macintosh applications for only $39. Too good to be true? Fear not, because this is actually an opportunity for software vendors to get their brand noticed in the Mac community, and it's a donation of sorts since 25% of the sales go to charity! That's right, get a bunch of quality apps for a rock-bottom price and donate to charity... how can you lose? Here was the unveiling of MacHeist 3 a couple of weeks ago:



Would you ever see this kind of promotion for Windows software? I don't think so.

1/6/2009 - Mactini

The last MacWorld keynote (with Apple's participation) was today and a lot of people expected an Apple "netbook" to be announced. Netbooks are the big trend in computing these days. People seem to like their ultraportability despite having underpowered processors. They're meant to be carried anywhere and everywhere, and they cost about half the price of a regular notebook computer. I'm actually skeptical of the longevity of netbooks because their underpowered processors can't handle the HD video that is becoming more prevalent. Still, I think Apple would have been well-served if they did come out with a smaller laptop but one that has a real processor in it. My previous laptop was a 12" PowerBook and I thought it was the perfect mix of portability and power. The smallest laptop Apple has now is 13" and my complaint of it is that it won't fit into those small safes you find in hotel rooms. Ugh.

Well, if Apple ever did make a netbook, I'm afraid it will look something like this:

10/9/2008 - IT guy v.s dumb employees

At work, my computer is probably one of the oldest computers at the site, but it still runs like a champ and its faster than a lot of the computers that were bought years later. It's not because I've upgraded the processor or anything... it's because unlike most people, I don't load it with a bunch of unnecessary software that will bog it down. Having experience as a programmer, I know what kinds of things out there will slow down a computer and what kind of maintenance is necessary to keep things running smooth. It pains me to see computers at my workplace abused to the point where they act like computers with Pentium II processors and 128 MB of RAM. What's sad is that good computer practice is something that is easily learned, but is almost never put into use because there are so many "utilities" and programs out there that people want to experiment or play with. Non-computer people see little consequence in loading their computers up with these unnecessary programs, but people like me cringe. Oh well... the disparity of experience that keeps me employed. And it's why this video gives me such a good laugh:

10/1/2008 - Apple Lisa Demo

Yes, Xerox PARC may have invented the modern graphical user interface (GUI) with mouse-based input, but it was Steve Jobs' vision that brought it to the masses with the Macintosh computer. Before the Macintosh, though, there was Apple's first computer with the GUI called the Lisa. The Lisa was not really meant for the average consumer and, in fact, its $10,000 price tag was even too much for the business consumers that Apple was aiming for. Still, there's no doubt as to its impact in the world of computing. The concepts and innovations of the Lisa GUI are still being used to this day and it's hard to imagine anything replacing it any time soon. It's so ubiquitous that grade school children are more well-versed in using a mouse and keyboard than their parents and grandparents.

Using a mouse with a GUI may seem so commonplace and pedestrian now, but imagine back when computers were still using text-based input. It must have been like a toy or novelty to move a cursor around and clicking on icons. In some ways it's actually slower to use a mouse and GUI, but its ease-of-use comes from the fact that it's harder to make mistakes like you would with typos in a command-line-interface (CLI). Not having to memorize command keywords also helps immensely. Sure, people had to get used to it, and there were actually videos like this one that got people acclimated to this new concept:

7/16/2008 - Frying an Egg on a GeForce 9800 GX2 Graphics Card

I don't understand the need for a dedicated gaming PC in today's gaming environment. Back when gaming consoles could only do 2-D graphics and no online connectivity, I could understand the lure of gaming on a PC that could get online and could do 3-D. But ever since the Dreamcast, all that has changed. Video game consoles now can push polygons just about as well as the latest gaming PCs. It's amazing to me how many people complained about the launch price of the Playstation 3 being $600, and yet nobody decries the cost of Alienware hardware that run into the thousands of dollars. I guess if you had an unlimited income source and wanted the absolute "best", there's something for you out there.

I have to say, though, that it never ceases to amaze me how hot the processors of these machines can get. The only thing that is generating the heat is the resistance of electrical impulses. So the faster the processor, the greater the number of electrical impulses per second, and thus the hotter the processor. How hot can the latest processors get these days? "Hot enough to fry an egg" is always a good phrase to test:

3/24/2008 - "Magneto Man"

During my young career as a PC tech, I've already seen it all. Frozen startup screens, blue screens galore, computers not being able to shut down, bad hard drives, bad memory, and even bad capacitors! It's never the same thing twice and it's always a bit of a challenge. While it's never the same problem twice, some people are more "problematic" than others. It seems inexplicable sometimes how computer problems can crop up for particular individuals at a higher frequency than the rest of the population. It's nothing in particular that they're doing wrong (although some pet owners forget that fur gets caught in the fan intakes of power supplies)... some people just aren't meant to be around a keyboard and mouse, and they'll be the first to admit it. What's funny is that when I try to reproduce the problem on their computer, a lot of times the problem disappears. I know it's not because I'm some super-guru with computers, so is there something with them being a sort of jinx with electronics? Or maybe there is some other explanation, as this video shows:



Now, I don't know whether or not such people with high electrostatic discharges exist (although it would make a good comic book plot). And this video doesn't really convince me that this kid is anything out of the ordinary. The explanation as to how the computers he uses always produce all-caps text without the caps lock button activated? StickyKeys. Google it.

1/3/2008 - Esc - An animation by Justin Henton

Anybody who has worked a bit on PC's knows the basic concepts by now... the Start button, the minimize button, windows, icons, the taskbar, etc. Well, this computer animated short by Justin Henton takes advantage of your knowledge of those concepts and spins it into a whimsical little adventure that rivals some Pixar shorts. Stuff like this makes me yearn for a Tron sequel.

11/3/2007 - Cool Computer Program

Sometimes I wonder if I missed my calling and blew the chance at learn or work at a place like MIT. Don't get me wrong... I love my sysadmin job and I think I'm pretty good at troubleshooting computers. But when I see cool stuff like this next video, it makes the work I do look like child's play. This whiteboarding technology is like nothing I've ever seen. It looks like a combination of a projection display with either a touch-sensitive background or perhaps a motion-tracking system to follow the pen. There's some kind of hand-writing recognition feature to autocomplete the shapes and figures drawn. A built-in "dictionary" of physics and engineering concepts rounds out the software featureset. The integration of all these features is phenomenal. It may be something that would be very useful in physics simulation or as a design tool. But face it, you'd probably spend hours making to carts crash into each other.