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40 Gigabyte Seagate Barracuda ATA/100 hard drive: $74.95!
Looks like Apple will be able get the superdrive into the Powerbook soon. I wonder if I'd ever burn DVD's if I could. Seems like a nice way to archive I guess. Regardless, it's cool for sure, and I want one.
This is my tech lust strategy. I want all the stuff, but of course can't afford it. So I just admit to wanting it, but instead of also admitting that I can't afford it, I just say I'm waiting for some new feature X to appear. When that feature finally does appear, there will be some new X on the horizon to postpone my collision with fiscal reality.
So I'm going to buy a Powerbook. I'm just waiting for the superdrive. Or I'm waiting for airport reception to be improved. Or I'm waiting for a higher pixel density on the screen. This way I'm not poor, I just have very high demands.
Went to see The Fast Runner last night at the Sunshine theatre on Houston. The theatre is a winner for sure, as others have noted. I liked the film too. The long running scene is beautiful.
This one takes the cake.
A SPAMMERS LETTER OF RESIGNATION:And it goes on for like three more pages telling you how terrible spammers are, how you can never get off their lists by replying, while at the same time repeatedly asking you to send them your email address. I'm surprised these people don't explode in a puff of logical contradiction.
Dear Spam hater:
We are quitting, but before we do we are going to expose detailed information about the largest spam operators in the USA that ripped us off so bad we had to get a bank loan to get out of credit card debt.
Do you want to know how to send the crap back to them?
OF course you do!
Forget about clicking REPLY...you know by now that doesn't work. We know what DOES work.
For more information please email us at: Cleanbox@fastermail.com...
Holy hell is it hot. We had to sleep in the office (in the basement, with an AC) last night. Every time I sleep somewhere else I'm reminded that we have the greatest bed in the world. You might think you have a nice bed, but that's only because you've never slept on this one. Of course when you put that bed on the fifth floor of a five floor tenament - with no AC and it's 100 degrees out - it looses several points of awsomeness. But that's not really the bed's fault, is it?
Why we don't just get the AC fixed is an interesting question. Part of it is stubbornness. Part is just being lazy. But I think the real reason has something to do with the satisfaction of having very simple concrete problems. Sure it's blazing hot and uncomfortable, but that's a pretty easy problem to understand, and maybe it forces out any thoughts of dealing with other sneakier problems that are more difficult to get a handle on. "If I can just make it through this heat..." Kind of gives you something to focus on.
I wonder how many stupid problems in the world are semi manufactured like this just so people don't have to deal with the really hard stuff? Anyway, did I mention it was hot? I'll think about this in the fall when it's cooler.
I'm thinking of this past week as the great blog outage of '02. I just haven't been able to write. Busy weird times. Now we're back out on Long Island. Things seem to be looking up. I don't think it's only because of the three beautiful women in our party of four, but I guess that helps. Not sure how I got so lucky. I'm recommending this ratio though.
Despite the rather drunken start last night, this will be another working vacation trip. About to start in now. This project needs to be wrapped up by Monday, and then I'll be back to blogging. No, really. Lots of stuff happening in the computer world and elsewhere.
Are we half way through this summer yet?
Came out to Long Island on Wednesday. This is our yearly house sitting "working" vacation. MB brought her new firewire hard drive and has been using the flat panel iMac that lives here. I brought my crt iMac, which is pretty easy to do if you are in a car. But it seemed like a joke at first, as I couldn't really do any work on Thursday. But it sure is nice to live in a house with a big kitchen and deck and garden and pool...
But then yesterday, which started out slow, ended up being a really productive day. Maybe the first one since I've been back from Montana. Sure, I've done lots of stuff since then, but I hadn't really gotten in deep with anything. Yesterday I wrote the entire foundation for a new site I'm building (well, rebuilding.) I noticed that when I'm really cruising on a project I like to hear the same music over and over again. Yesterday it was six Lucinda Williams tracks off the MP3 player. Over and over again. I think I do this so I don't have to listen too hard. I can just work, and the repetition somehow marks the time. It gives my brain something to hold onto. Otherwise time can really slip away when you're staring at the screen.
Woke up this morning and I'm anxious to get right back to work. That's how I know it's going well.
This evening we'll take a ferry out to Fire Island to celebrate Stephen's birthday. Home to NYC tomorrow. Feeling very good.
Wow. My friend Dave posted some amazing pictures from his new temporary home in New Zealand.
Check out this switch ad Apple has pulled off the air. Apparently she seems too "stoned". I don't know about that, but it's the best Mac ad I've ever seen. (Quicktime 5 required)
Steve Job's keynote just finished (MacWorld New York.) New 17 inch flat panel iMac (1440x900). 256 megs ram, 80 gig hard drive, Superdrive (DVD player/burner; CD player/burner), Gforce 4 mx graphics.
$1999.
Clearly the most powerful consumer machine in the $2000 range. Only an incremental improvement, but it's very impressive nonetheless. As a first computer there isn't a better choice.
Also, the 5 gig iPod drops to $299, the 10 gig to $399, and a new 20 gig (!) is $499. Oh, and they work with Windows now. Still can't make playlists on the fly though. :(
Lots of Jaguar (OS X 10.2) previews. Out August 24th. $129. Looks great.
iTunes 3 is out, with only minor revisions. But my most wanted feature was added, so I'm very happy. iTunes will now automatically normalize the sound levels of all songs across your collection. This was a nightmare problem for me making playlists for the restaurants. I had to go in by hand and tweak the levels on all the songs because some CDs are so much louder than others. But no more. Nice.
iCal is the new (free download of course) calendar app. Looks very slick. I'll be quite interested to see how open the data format is.
More to come on iSync and Rendezvous. Certainly Palm and bluetooth phone owners will be happy with the much improved integration. Looks like I might have to get the Sony/Ericsson T68i.