Category: nerd

I’ve nearly made it through my first week without a Palm Pilot. It was possible because I didn’t have any meetings, and only a couple things to do. Still, I’m not happy about the prospect of having to look at calendars other other such archane habits.

I believe I lost it on between Chicago and Portland. It must have fallen out of my bag. I was playing Klondike in Chicago because our plane was late, then I forgot to zip up the pocket it was in. For such a simple mistake, its going to set me back centuries. Its almost like loosing fire. Can you imagine having to go back to raw meat and cold caves?

At least I have Michelle at home. She remembers things. Lets just hope the person who finds it doesn’t figure out my password. Then they’de have access to my password database. I guess I could change all the passwords…

I’ve been a mac user for half of my life. I’ve also used PC’s most of that time as well,5, even for employment, but I’d never identify myself as such. There’s something unique about being a mac user, which might stem from the fact that we’ve been hustled for years for being elitists, simpleton, extravagant spenders, and cultists. We may be, but we’ve had our share of disappointments, betrayal, and moments of pure joy.

In 1994/5, the mac world was in such disarray. There were companies building mac computers, and they made much better computers than Apple did. Be even made a better OS than Apple did. Steve Jobs came back, and saved to company. It took a while, but we kept giving them money, and convincing our friends and family to buy macs. With Steve, Apple returned to the limelite with the best designs, best OS, easiest user experience. We could use the internet easier than everyone else. The mac users I was in school with knew both Macs and PCs better than anyone else, and we naturally picked macs.

It only get better for us, because we love our computers and the operating system when Mac OS X is released as a public beta. Apple let us test their operating system for them. We did their work, paid for it (or, someone did) then we bought the release, which was a beta as well. It was great for nerds, anyway, because it was an OS that we could be proud of. In fact, MacOS X’s unix underpinnings made those of us who actually enjoyed using macs “cool”. For some reason, now that we’ve added a command line to the things we’ve been doing for years, we become legit.

MacOS X has been a blast. I now revel in the command line. I used to make fun of people who complained that macs had no command line. I can be proud of the computer identity I’ve rallied behind for years. It’s like collecting on your investment (speaking of which, apple stock is at 15bux). Every 6 months, Mac users get rewarded with MacWorld, which is the trade show that Steve Jobs uses to release Apple’s next and greatest computer or software. Its almost always worth the wait, and the suspense. But as a shareholder (hardly), I watch as stock prices rise a bit until the announcements, jump a dollar afterwards, then drop 2 dollars. Technically, every breakthrough they make, they loose my money. I know its not their fault, because capitalism is not capitalism, and the world is full of people who hate it when people show them up.

Macworld was today. Steve announced a 17″ flat-panel iMac, MacOS 10.2, iTunes 3, and .Mac services. These are some pretty exciting announcements, but the overwhelming feeling mac devotees got was that Apple has truly sold out. We got that feeling when they teamed up with Microsoft. We accepted it because apple needed it (office 98, 01, X) and Microsoft needed it (we’re not a monopoly! look at apple!). Today’s announcements included 10.2 ( a 130 dollar upgrade) and that they were going to change the free service (itools) to a pay service (.mac) What they’re doing is charging for a service that they once gave away, and extolled as one of the virtues of having a mac. I’m a @mac.com subscriber, and i don’t use iTools, but I’ll have to pay if I want to continue using my andy_freed | @mac.com address. Lame.

This was the first day I agreed with the investors who made stock drop 2 dollars a share. I’m mad because I’m losing my e-mail address in 60 days. In this world, that’s the electronic equivalent of being neutered. The company I’ve spent so much time working and advertising for has pulled a microsoft. I remain confident that the overwhelmingly negative response to some of these changes will force changes, but I’m upset they even brought it up.

Apple just gave us the world of open source, and now they expect us to pay for it? Its unlikely. If Apple is going to turn in to Microsoft, they’ve lost their devoted following. I’m sure they hear this all the time, but if you’re thinking about a mac, just realize that computers and technology are no longer free and unlimited. Apple is a better place for it, but don’t expect the wonderful 4 years that we’ve have had recently. Companies have found a way to commercialize, simplify, and severely limit it. Just note, Apple is filled with amazing talent, amazing creativity, and amazing potential, but they’re also a company.

Last night I was sitting at the computer, trying to figure out wireless networking in Linux, and a spider crawled over my laptop and onto my hand. It was dark, and I was started. Its the second spider to go scampering across my desk in as many days. I saw another spider on the floor by the surge protector, and another on the ceiling. I’m not sure why they all decided to come indoors this week.

In 7th grade, my art teacher told me about a spider that had made a web and laid an egg sack in his floppy drive. That really disturbed me. I was especially pleased when Apple quit using floppy drives. I used to hate spiders. Now I dislike them, mostly because I can’t tell what they’re thinking. They’re so damn unpredictable. Michelle thinks she got bit by one in th shower.

You’d think we lived in a barn. Its actually quite clean. I guess I”ll have to pick up all the power cords behind my computer and vaccum there. Maybe its because we leave the door open, and lots of flies get in, and they’re just following the flies…..

I suppose I’ll have some explaining to do tomorrow. My Unix class had a chat tonight, but the chat wouldn’t start because of permission issues. Oh well.

Instead, Michelle and I played with Google Sets, and its quite scary how accurately it predicted Michelle’s music taste’s with just 4 sample artists. When I tried, I had less success, unless I stayed with 1 genre.

When I was in elementary school, these really cool pieces of styrofoam were repackaged as rice cakes. My sister and I loved them, and I used to make sandwiches with them. I think I only made them with peanut butter and jelly, but there are probably other worthy combinations. I had some rice cakes today. These ones were from the health food section, and they had flavor, something I don’t remember from the old Quaker brand.

I was eating one at work and the phone rang. I had just taken a big bite, and I tried to quickly crunch and separate it into my cheek pouches. I was worried I’d spit on the phone or something. I don’t remember what the call was about, but after I hung up, and started chewing again, I realized there was nothing to chew. It had dissolved in my mouth. Its the perfect cubicle/phone support food. A food for which chewing is optional….no wonder I’m out of shape.

Barley woke us up early this morning. He had to go poo. He woke me from a really cool dream about programming and architecture and life. This is all pretty dorky stuff, so I’m going to use the extended option to decrease random viewer boredom.
Continue reading cool dream

I was flipping through Macworld and found a blurb for the irock300W, a miniture radio transmitter that plugs into anything with a 1/8″ jack, and broadcasts the signal in FM. I have to get one of these. I think my dad already ordered one. Imagine how nice it will be to hook up the iBook in the car, or the desktop to my stereo. The digital life rules.

Apple auctioned off a bunch of warehouse stock, and I was going to bid on an iPod, but I didn’t want to spend over $50. (dog just had surgery) Sadly, the starting bid was $75, and closed somewhere near $300. Someone had bid on all 39 of them.

I set up Red Hat v5 on a 486 back in college. That’s about all I did with it. The hardware had problems, so X-windows worked poorly, and I wasn’t about to learn command line when there was music to be downloaded. (on campus I could get up to 800k/sec transfers)

I just set up Yellow Dog Linux v2.2 on my iBook. I’m planning on taking a linux class this summer, so I thought I’d check to make sure it would work. It does, and now I’m finally using the “Teach yourself Linux in 24 hours” book I bought 4 years ago. I have to admit, it was much easier to install now, and it makes much more sense now that I’ve been working with OS X and unix.

I like OS X a lot more than KDE, but I’m going to keep trying. Open source and open mind or something.

I had been skimming over links to this story all day. It turns out that Apple Computers is anti-christian, anti-creation propoganda, and its a cult run by a demi-god (ok, we knew that part.)

This guy is making more allusions than I did in my senior IB English paper. If only I had know earlier, I could have armed myself with the truth, and taken the high road with a Windoze PC. Granted, I wouldn’t put it beyond Steve & Co to use some of these things, but I had no idea I was so indoctrinated.

This guy must have done his research from behind a proxy set up to block out informed and enlightened thought. How else would this guy draw such bizarre conclusions.

You’ve probably read all the different “National Database” and “Shared Databases” stories recently. State and Federal Agencies want to share information on you so that there won’t be any more breaches in intelligence (i.e. September 11th). Naturally, every major tech company has offered their product in some form; Oracle, Sun, and now Microsoft all want in on the pie.

I’m not against National IDs or shared databases for security reasons, but if we were going to use Microsoft Passport and the .Net scheme of things, we may as well sell our personal information ourselves. Would Microsoft sell our information? Who knows (probably), but if their contribution to national security was anything like their contribution to network or software security, we’re screwed.

That’s why I think I should change my name. Not to something normal, but to a function. This way, when my name, Andy =CONCATENATE(B3:B5) is entered into the database, I’ll be stored as Andy SmithWatersFord or some such thing. This is only the beginning. People could change their names to a problematic script that would randomly copy and past data to other places. These “macros” or whatever you want to call them would be like status symbols. Imagine sticking your card into an ATM and having that stupid “Are you sure you want to withdraw money, some last names may contain Macros that can damage your computer” message pop up.

What would your name be?