Why a ScreensavRz?

Apple's got a little issue with their current PowerBook line. The keys press into the LCD when the lid is closed. Which isn't good because then you get finger dirt and such on the screen, in a nice keyboard configuration. Unless you are into such types of modern art (I'm not) you really don't want this to happen as it makes the screen harder to see.

I've had my 15" PowerBook for a year now. About a month into owning it I started to see my keyboard in my screen, rather than say the Terminal window I was currently working in. Not good.

Doing some research on the web I found Notebook ScreensavRz, a microfiber cloth you can place between your keyboard and your LCD. A year later I can't be happier; its saved my LCD from looking exactly like my keyboard. But yea, it wasn't cheap.

Given how much Apple charges for their PowerBook line you would think they would have this issue solved by now. Or at least include a ScreensavRz free. But nooooo. I guess they figure their end users can afford to either replace the LCD or purchase their own ScreensavRz. Sort of like a country club charging high membership rates and then high rates to actually play on the course.

Optimus Keyboard

Optimus keyboard

I have been waiting for a keyboard like this for years. Now we finally have one coming to market, hopefully around 2006. I have long thought that a keyboard whose key caps could adapt to whatever input symbols were most relevant would be incredibly useful for a huge number of applications. So did these folks, and they apparently have created a keyboard whose keycaps aren't printed in the factory - they are tiny displays showing whatever glyphs/icons the computer wants them to show.

But unlike just a touch sensitive LCD panel, each key is still a distinct physical key - so you get tactile feedback.

I love the idea of a "Photoshop" keyboard. That alone could save a good amount of time for graphic artist type folks. Now if only Kinesis would license the technology and put it into their keyboards (I can't work without my programmable Kinesis!).

IBM Turns to Open Source

As an IBM stockholder all I can say is: way to go IBM! IBM is breaking up their products into components, increasing reuse. This can only lead to faster development of new products, both inside and outside of IBM. Eclipse is just the tip of the iceburg for them. It looks like the Rational and Lotus Notes suites are next.

BetaNews | IBM Turns to Open Source Development (via Slashdot)

BeOS Lives Again

I remember back around 1996 when Be first came to the market with their BeBox and BeOS products. I was rather interested in their machines as they were all dual PowerPC 603s. Never before had a company really focused on the benefits of a dual processor desktop system, and most dual processor Intel boxes were out of the reach of people.

What was really interesting however wasn't the boxes, but the OS. An entirely new platform which provided a very effective multimedia system. The backbone was a system composed of a large number of threads and clean APIs.

Be died when Apple didn't buy them (they bought NeXT instead) and Gateway and Dell couldn't ship BeOS for x86 on their systems due to their contracts with Microsoft (monopoly anyone?).

It looks like a Germany company has finally brought back the ideals of the BeOS:
yellowTAB - Makers of ZETA . Whoopie. Gateway and Dell still can't ship it.

The People Behind Family Guy

Just discovered the Family Guy Blog, thanks to the link posted over at MeFi. These folks have a crude sense of humor, but its just too funny to not watch every episode they produce. I watched Family Guy in reruns on Adult Swim until I'd seen everything 2 or 3 times, always finding something new in each episode. I'm very happy Fox has brought it back and made it a part of their Sunday night lineup!

Is America Becoming a Fascist State?

After reading Definition of Fascism one might actually think so.

With the expanded PATRIOT Act powers recently being approved by the Senate one can't help but wonder if Lucas timed Star Wars III's release a little too closely with our own loss of liberties.

Then there are those who lived through McCarthy-ism who say we're still better off today then we were in the 1950s, so its still A-OK in the U.S. of A. That's fine and good, but we are now worse off than we were in the 1990s. Why are we going backwards, even if it is by a small amount?

Oh that's right - the Saudi oil fields may be drying up, so its time to use America's troops to invade Iraq and secure future oil revenues for our friends in the House of Saud.

Just Starting Red Vs Blue Season 3

I'm only starting to watch season 3 of Red Vs Blue and I can't get over how funny these folks can really be. The writing is good, the acting is bad, the graphics suck, but it is definately some of the best entertainment available!

I think I only previously saw season 1, and I think I missed season 2 entirely. Fortunately they sell the DVDs. I might have to pick them up.

Unfortunately my wife doesn't get their humor and hates it when I watch Red Vs Blue when she is home. Her loss.

Apple is switching to x86

Well, its true. Apple is switching to x86. And I'm an excellent predictor of when a proprietary operating system company will switch hardware - right after I purchase it. This is now the 3rd time I've bought a proprietary machine and its the 3rd time I've bought right before the switch.

Buying right before the switch is a bad investment as your equipment will become obsolete at least 2x faster than at any other point in its history. Buying right after the switch is a bad idea as the equipment and OS tend to not be as stable due to their immaturity. sigh

MacNN has coverage of the keynote from Steve Jobs.

Too bad I purchased a Macintosh and helped to prop up Apple as they pulled the rug out from under me for a second time.

Where is that fully open PC platform with great laptop hardware? That plus FreeBSD or Linux looks like the only sure bet towards long-term support.

Apple better not switch to x86!

I really hope John Gruber is right in Daring Fireball: Intel-Apple Odds and Ends.

I just purchased a 15" PowerBook in late December. I was hoping it would last me the next 3-5 years.

Last time I purchased a Macintosh computer was in 1994. Apple had just introduced the PowerPC line, but I didn't have the funds for one of the new PowerMacs - so I purchased a Quadra. The Quadras were based on the 68040 processor, and were the last computers shipped by Apple using that CPU. Apple had just started the transition to a new processor platform and I got left behind from day one.

In 1997 when it was time for me to upgrade I went with an SGI O2, as SGI had been on the MIPS architecture for years and showed now signs of leaving it.

A year or so later SGI announced they were eliminating the MIPS processors from their lineup and moving to Intel processors. This didn't worked out very well for SGI, and I was stuck with a MIPS based SGI. SGI is just barely alive. I'm surprised they haven't closed their doors yet thanks to that (and other) disasters.

The SGI/Intel event prompted me to move to x86/Linux for several years.

But now I'm back on the PowerPC based Macintosh, as I just got fed up with the GUI environment on Linux not working well, and most laptop hardware is crap (when compared to Apple's current offerings).

So I guess its just about time for Apple to switch architectures on me. Again. At least I purchased Tiger.

Clothing for Chickens

Keep your chicken warm. Don't you think your chicken will look great with its own little windbreaker? Yea, me neither, but you can get one and try it on him or her anyway.

Google Sitemaps

Google's introduction of the sitemaps XML API is very cool. It permits a web developer to better inform the search engine about the websites intent to change content, rather than making the search engine guess and crawl at whatever intervals it wants to. After all, there is little point in fetching my archives every couple of days if they rarely change. The beta is here. Via Slashdot.