January 11, 2007

MWSF: Day Three

Day three started with a fun MacWorld Live event hosted by David Pogue of the New York Times. This is a tradition that started since my last MacWorld ('97 in Boston), so it was a first time thing for me. It's done in a sort of David Letterman-style talk show format with a few guests and ended with Pogue and one of the guests performing two comedic songs he had written. The funnier of the two was mocking the RIAA and was set to the music of the classic "YMCA" song.

I attended my second round of seminars afterward and also spent some more detailed time on the show floor visiting vendors and seeing interesting products.

Unfortunately, though, the thing I wanted to avoid finally happened. Since Monday afternoon, I'd started to feel a scratchy tickle in my throat behind my sinuses.

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January 9, 2007

MWSF: Day One

Today was probably the one and only "relaxed" day at MWSF. Any Power Tools seminars you were signed up for started this morning and ran all day without any distractions. Tomorrow, however, the craziness begins and there will usually be about four things you'd want to do all going on in the same time slot. It sure sucks having a million interests... :)

As predicted, I woke up at 5:15 AM (feeling surprisingly rested, actually). Three cheers for the east coast body clock. San Francisco is remarkably dead at that time of the morning, so I had to forage a bit around the nearest block or two to find something to eat. Unfortunately, the best I could do under the circumstances was Carl's Jr. (also known as Hardees where we live). Oh well... I got some protein along with the grease.

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January 7, 2007

In, settled and freakin' exhausted...

I'm a night person. Any attempts to go to sleep earlier than when I am feeling genuinely sleepy usually don't pan out.

That's why I'm cursed when it comes to things like flying out at 6 AM. Despite my best efforts last night, I rolled around in bed, unable to sleep until probably 2:45 AM. That lousy hour of pseudo-sleep I had when my alarm went off at 4 AM was probably worse than not sleeping at all.

I also wasn't thinking too straight at the airport when I got sucked, mid-sentence, into the whirlwind that is the final security point prior to boarding. The TSA people hate me because my carry-on luggage is like a portable version of a Best Buy store. I got caught up in the unpacking of the laptop and the removing of the shoes and the answering of questions and pulling out this and that and going through the metal detector and...

... and there's my wife behind me, a metal detector and the TSA lady between us, and me in my socks suddenly remembering that she can't follow me since she's not a ticketed passenger...

... and I hadn't given her a hug and a kiss. Because I'm a distracted dumb ass.

I asked, but they said I couldn't go back through unless I took everything back through with me... and I was already about six seconds away from a cavity search by this point.

So that's how I started off my trip... saying the week's goodbyes to my wife via my cell phone from the men's room five minutes later (I had to wait for her to get back to her car where she left her cell phone). :(

Fortunately, the flights were uneventful and the layover brief. Colorado and the Rockies were a sea of pure snow from the air. The wind coming off the mountains threw the plane around a bit, but it wasn't white-knuckle sort of stuff.

As usual, I was unable to sleep substantially on the plane. So by the time I had arrived in San Francisco, waited for the glacially slow luggage carousel to barf up my one checked back (the boring bag with insignificant crap like clothes in it), dragged my possessions through ten BART stops (actually, eleven since I went the wrong way at first and had to backtrack), checked into my hotel and gotten my bearings... yeah, I was zombified.

I scoped out the area a bit and I'm happy to say that I'm stationed pretty much at ground zero for MacWorld 2007. :)

I did finally give in to a much needed short nap, but I set the alarm to be sure I got up again at the local version of dinnertime despite my body saying it's 10 PM. I staggered out, grabbed something light and brought it back to eat in my room in case my dulled motor skills caused me to jam the sandwich in my eye or start snoring mid-chew.

So it's not really the East Coast/West Coast jet lag so much as just not having any proper sleep for about 24 hours. I'm pushing myself a bit longer, though, in hopes I can sleep until a sane time and not sit up in bed at 4 AM local time. We'll see.

I grabbed a few token photos (small versions are here... I'll link to a real gallery starting tomorrow) on my brief jaunt around the neighborhood. I stopped in at the Apple store (1.5 blocks away) and CompUSA before sticking my nose in the door at Moscone South for a second.

So I'm going to zonk off here in a bit, but I'll post more tomorrow as the action starts and I have my wits about me. :)

January 6, 2007

Off to MacWorld San Francisco!

This is just a quick note that I am off to MacWorld 2007 in San Francisco in about... nine hours. Yikes! Gotta go finish packing.

I'll try to post regularly here during the week, so keep your fingers crossed that Apple is geared up to meet or exceed the Internet hype-machine! ;)

- Aaron

November 3, 2006

Strange OS X Ethernet Behavior Driving Me Batsh*t

I've stumbled upon a strange and frustrating problem on my MacBook Pro this week and it's driving me crazy. Through various tests in the last few days, I've narrowed the problem down to a recognizable pattern, but I've yet to determine if there is anything I can do to fix it. More than anything, though, my frustration stems from not being able to determine why this problem has suddenly cropped up.

I first ran into the problem around Wednesday morning. iChat Video has replaced the telephone for most conversations that I have with my Mom. If we're both at our computers (which is a lot of the time... at least in my case), clicking the green camera icon in the Buddy List is easier than picking up the telephone. We do this a lot and seldom, if ever, have any problems outside of the occasional blips typical of real-time data traversing the wild and woolly Internet.

Starting that morning, we couldn't keep a connection going for more than a few minutes before it would freeze and spit out an error indicating the other end hadn't sent any data for ten seconds. This, of course, annoyed me to no end and I started looking for some kind obvious cause.

Three days later and after numerous elaborate experiments, I've opened Pandora's Box and I believe I've found a reproducible pattern.

In a nutshell, nearly every time my Mac blurps out a seemingly normal IGMP Membership Report (V1 & V2), it goes mute for anywhere from a couple of seconds to tens of seconds before returning to normal. Of course, a span of that many seconds will cause the iChat Video stream to crash and burn (as well as stall downloads, delay web page loading, etc).

Continue reading "Strange OS X Ethernet Behavior Driving Me Batsh*t"

April 12, 2006

Another step closer...

And yet another step closer to ending the Internet as we know it:

Telecom reform moves forward - House panel OKs measure favored by phone companies

Enjoy it while you can.

March 23, 2006

FCC Complicity in the Corporate Murder of the Internet

As predicted, the FCC is lining itself up to favor corporate interests over the greater success of the Internet and the protection of consumers:

FCC Chief: AT&T Can Limit Net Bandwidth

No shock, I guess. The goal of this administration has always been to maximize profits of corporate interests. Who cares if it's short-sighted? The desire is to pocket as much as possible before the entire system collapses...

This is the next step in what I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

So get ready to pay your ISP for service while Google and others pay for their service and then pay yet again to be allowed passage across an increasingly segmented and tiered Internet. Oh, and don't forget that those sites that can't pay up just won't even get a shot... thus ending much of the great revolution that was once the Internet as we know it.

Call me reactionary or fatalistic... but this is how it starts, folks (much like the Patriot Act and your ever-eroding civil rights).

UPDATE: Everybody is piling on the topic: dvorak.org/blog, Slashdot and Digg.

March 9, 2006

The Greatest Thing EVER!

After all the incredible excitement and hype, Microsoft has finally unveiled what they promise to be the coolest thing ever for mobile computing.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be this:

Microsoft Origami UMPC

Wow. An over-large, limited-battery-life, not-sure-if-you-can-make-calls-on-it, not especially sexy handheld (plural, not singular) PC running Windows XP.

Put Linux on it and it might be mildly interesting in the right circumstances. Can't put it in my pocket... big enough that I might as well carry my far more powerful Mac laptop...

They sure are tone deaf at M$.

- Aaron

UPDATE: Heh... seems Waldo feels about the same. :)

March 7, 2006

The Ongoing Corporate Murder of the Internet

The stories cropping up everyone regarding lobbying efforts by telecom companies to start chopping up, tiering and otherwise murdering the smooth flow of information across the Internet have started to worry me more than just about any other technical issue of late. Typically, this whole situation is yet another example of corporate interests and their political partners working to maximize profits while limiting the choices of the consumer. From successful attempts to obliterate municipal wireless networks to decreasing regulation touching off more and more megamergers in the telecom and media world, we're likely to see the Internet we use today turn into another "gold", "silver" and "platinum", tiered, packaged and overpriced pile of crap not unlike satellite TV and cell phone service.

That might sound a little fatalistic or overblown... but look at the warning signs. Of the various articles I've read scattered about the web, this story on DailyKOS is a good starting place to get a taste of the political and corporate mix that is taking us down this road:

According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets -- corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers -- would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us -- from content providers to individual users -- would pay more to surf online, stream videos or even send e-mail. Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

Give it a read...

January 11, 2006

Playing iPocket Pool

I've got a high tolerance (infatuation?) with gadgetry and have been accused of appreciating some pretty silly and superfluous "technology" before... but even I have my limits.

Levi's introduces iPod-compatible jeans

From the article:

With a joystick remote control built into the watch pocket, the new jeans will allow wearers to play, pause, track forward or back and adjust the volume on their iPods without having to take them out of their pockets.

Honestly, I'm speechless. This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've heard of in a very, very long time. I'm even having trouble summoning up the slightest twinge of appreciation for the technology behind this since I just can't get past the idea of some dude playing pocket pool out in public while he's already deaf to the world with earbuds crammed in his cranium...

Fortunately, they have cured my speechlessness with just the right amount of corporate blather. That is, if the retching noises from vomiting in my wastebasket after reading this next part qualify as a form of primitive speech:

"The Levi's RedWire DLX jean is the latest extension of the Levi's brand leadership position, by merging fashion and technology that provides consumers with the most innovative way to enhance their portable digital music lifestyle," Robert Hanson, Levi's US brand president, said in a statement.

Somehow, I'll summon the will to survive the shame of carrying my iPod outside of a special marsupial-like pouch and can even probably live out a normal life operating the clickwheel directly instead of through a wire in my trousers.

And I though the iPod Sock was inane...

September 5, 2005

Katrina & Google Earth = Sense of Scope

I've been a fan of Google Earth (formerly Keyhole) since it came out... it feeds my voracious love of maps, satellite photography, 3D and GPS information like a drug.

Combine this software with the resources of Google, thousands of networked enthusiasts and professionals and you've got resources that likely dwarf the capabilities of photo intelligence agencies of only a few years ago. Spinning the globe around like a marble in your fingers and almost instantly seeing what can be very up-to-date, detailed imagery is positively intoxicating.

After a couple of days of trying to take in the scope of the Katrina disaster, especially in New Orleans, I finally sat down to look at the city in detail. I wanted to better orient myself and get a clearer understanding of the spatial relationships between the locations of buildings, levees, etc., that were constantly being discussed in the media.

The first few moments of looking at New Orleans, even just the pre-flood, high-res photos, hit me like a brick. You can see it on TV and read about it on the web, but until you are looking at photos where you have a sense of control and scale over what you see, you simply cannot absorb the sheer size of the disaster we're witnessing.

Continue reading "Katrina & Google Earth = Sense of Scope"

September 3, 2005

Gigabit Speeds via Cell Phone

I gave up on the US cell phone industry a long time ago. Most of the really significant technological developments seem to happen in Europe and Japan where there seems to be a lot less focus on screwing the consumer and doing corporate battle over incremental changes and false advertising.

The latest major advancement I've seen appeared in this Slashdot article tonight:

Experimental 4G Phone Service Faster Than Cable

NewScientist reports that Japanese researchers have achieved blistering rates of transmission for cell phones that allowed for viewing of 32 high definition video streams, while traveling in an automobile at 20 kilometers per hour. From the article: "Officials from NTT DoCoMo say the phones could receive data at 100 megabits per second on the move and at up to a gigabit per second while static. At this rate, an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute." These transmission rates were achieved using new experimental methods of multiplexing."

Super cool... hope it becomes a reality soon. Heck, it might even make it to the US in 25 years. :)

September 1, 2005

Modern Boston Tea Party: Microsoft Overboard!

Slashdot has this piece about the government in MA opting to switch all document storage standards to a combination of PDF and OpenOffice:

"The switch to open formats such as these was needed to ensure that the state could guarantee that citizens could open and read electronic documents in the future, according to Massachusetts - something that was not possible using closed formats. The proposal, which is open for comment until the end of next week before it takes effect, would represent a big boost for open source software such as Open Office, which is created by volunteer programmers and made available free of charge."

This is a fantastic idea and another win for Open Source over draconian closed standards. I hope to see this repeated elsewhere both in business and government.

August 16, 2005

"Ancient" iBooks Spur Near Riot

Life is beyond busy right now... we're in the "hell weeks" at work right now. These particular weeks come whistling out of the ninth ring every August and land on you with a dull thud. Faculty are returning, early students are already arriving, the first-year's get here end of the week and the whole ball of wax lurches into motion by Monday. All of us in computing will become roadkill in the process.

So, needless to say, I'm not doing a lot of posting on halfpress right now. I sure as heck haven't picked up my camera this week (though I am squeezing in a photo shoot of our local Democractic HQ opening on Friday evening of all times... I am insane apparently). Crazy work week aside, I'll definitely do what I can to help that particular cause.

I couldn't pass up the opportunitity to post this CNN article, though, concerning the sale of over 1,000 four year old iBooks from the Henrico County schools in nearby Richmond:

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

My friend, Steve, (the Springer fan) is going to be positively beside himself reading this article. Anything in the media involving folding chairs wielded as weapons and urinating on oneself scores high on his entertainment scale. :)

"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

$50 is a nice price and I do love Macs... but jeez, people. I've seen younger Macs after a tour of duty here at work (the ones assigned to public check-out duty in the library), so "buyer beware" is one phrase that springs to mind. :)

August 4, 2005

Mighty Mouse Violated

The guys at Ars Technica took apart their day old Mighty Mouse already. Fortunately, they shared all the gory details with us...

I originally wrote that it had a speaker... then the first reviews said it didn't and there was much puzzlement over the odd Apple verbage in the marketing materials. Turns out it DOES have a speaker... so now we're puzzling over how (and if) it is (or will be) used. :)

Ok. That's two posts on a mouse. Enough. :)

- Aaron

August 2, 2005

Apple Finally Does It: >1 Button

I wasn't sure I'd ever see the day when Apple built a mouse with more than one button. It finally happened. The first blog item I saw this morning in my Safari RSS feed list announced Apple's new Mighty Mouse which they promote with these four words: Click, Squeeze, Roll, Scroll.

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