Blogging hiatus
Due to upcoming law school midterms, I’m probably not going to post for a while. The exams run from December 2nd to the 16th.
Google is broken
It’s no secret that weblogs have really taken a toll on PageRank, but just to bring the point home, I offer a few examples gathered from my referrer logs.
At the time of this posting I’m the #1 Google result for tourist apparel, halloween photos 2003 san francisco, waiting with bated breath, and t68i daylight savings. I wish I had all day to sit around and find out every possible word sequence for which I’m the #1 hit. :)
I’m the #2 result for t616 review isync, examsoft linux, and they found nemo.
I’m coming in at #2 for blanton.
PowerBook white spots
I’ve started to see the infamous “white spots” on my new PowerBook. I’m not amused. There has been a lot of buzz about this on the Net, but I figured I was immune as I hadn’t noticed any spots. A couple of days ago I was using Exposé to clear the screen and the ‘glowing’ spots just kind of jumped out at me. I tried to strike it up to fingerprints or something and attempted to ‘wipe’ them off — joke’s on me. The spots on my screen are incredibly faint (nothing like Joseph’s), but they are there nonetheless and will only get worse over time. If you know me personally, you know that I’m a tad bit anal-retentive when it comes to my “gadgets,” and, umm, this is my favorite gadget. I’ve signed the online petition and Apple has officially acknowleged the problem:
The new 15-inch PowerBook has been a big hit with customers since its introduction last month. However, some customers are reporting the appearance of faint white spots on their displays after using the system for a short period of time, and Apple is investigating these reports right now. Any customers experiencing this problem should contact AppleCare.
The problem is apparently from “spacers” that are placed between the screen and the aluminum casing. The spacers are to prevent the casing from bending; they’re putting pressure on the screen and causing the white spots, which seem to be in the same general area on all the screens. MacFixIt has put up a picture that outlines where the spots are appearing. I have spots at positions two and three.
From what I can gather, Apple is fixing the screens without much hassle (100% free while under warranty — anything else would obviously be unacceptable). The screens are permanently scarred and so Apple is replacing the entire top portion of the notebook. I bring this up because I currently have no dead pixels — who knows if I’ll have any when they replace the LCD. I’m also apprehensive about the fact that some people have reported that their “fixed” screens have spots as well.
I’m going to wait until after my law midterms to get it replaced (perhaps some of the inconsistencies with the repairs will have been worked out by then). I’m headed back to Florida around Christmas and so I thought I would do it then. I called a few Apple stores around here to try and get a consensus as to whether or not Apple could send a repaired computer to an address other than the one the computer is “registered to.” I got conflicting answers from the retail stores and so I called AppleCare, who claim that it will be no problem. We’ll see.
I understand that no product is impervious to design flaws (yes, even Apple products are susceptible!), but it still infuriates me that something I paid so much for has such a glowing (pardon the pun) defect. At lease Apple is doing the right thing and replacing the screens free-of-charge and without too much fuss. Be that as it may, I’ll be singing an entirely different tune if my returned, and presumably ‘fixed’ screen, starts to show Orion’s belt again.
Science grab bag
The New York Times has an excellent compilation of the top 25 most provocative questions facing science.
Nothing but TiVo
Alan Taylor posted an interesting read about his three-year old daughter having never known life without TiVo. The part that I especially liked:
She has no idea when her favorite shows are on, never has. She gets quite confused when we are watching a non-TiVo TV, and she asks to watch ”a kids show”, and we have to explain that this TV won’t do what ours at home does. We’ve sometimes shortened this explanation to ”This TV is broken”, which she seems to accept, and will wait until we get home to watch our ”fixed” TV.
Speaking of TiVo, WeaKnees has just added Interactive TiVo Upgrade Instructions.
Buyers beware
I’m incredibly disappointed with the battery life of my Bluetooth mouse. It took less than three weeks for the batteries to die. I can’t find any literature as to the purported lifespan, so I’m here to say that it’s less than a month! To be fair, I’m always on my computer, but even so, I shouldn’t be worried about having to replace the mouse batteries every three weeks. What is more is that the tracking is very, very poor; it just seems to “skip” a lot and doesn’t feel very fluid. Looks like I might have to put this bad boy up on eBay or Craigslist and find a Bluetooth mouse with a charging cradle.
On a completely unrelated note, Microsoft has started to move IE into the 21st century by offering the option to block pop-ups. Way to go MS, you finally got a clue — alternative (and better) browsers have been doing this for years — I haven’t seen a pop-up since 2000. I always catch myself laughing on the inside when I’m sitting in class and notice people clicking away at pop-ups as if that is just a part of the web experience. I guess some people are into it (last paragraph).
The Elegant Universe
A PBS mini-series about Brian Greene’s Elegant Universe, is availabe as a three-hour stream on the website. I can’t wait until I have time to watch this.
Can’t sleep
My oh my you know it just don’t stop
It’s in my mind I wanna tear it up
I’ve tried to fight it tried to turn it off
But it’s not enough
It takes a lotta love
It takes a lotta love my friend
To keep your heart from freezing
To push on ’till the end
From David Gray’s My Oh My
The Matrix Revolutions
Jason Kottke pretty much sums it up. I was a little disappointed, but wasn’t really expecting too much given the Reloaded letdown. If the Revolutions post at Kottke’s site interests you, be sure to check out the huge Reloaded thread (don’t miss the ‘update’ at the bottom of the post that links to the monster comment thread).
UPDATE: I enjoyed the following reviews:
Photographs
Well, I decided that I was sick and tired of waiting and went ahead and re-added photos to the site. Enjoy.
Panther
I’ve been running Panther for a few days now and don’t have too much to complain about. The upgrade/install was flawless (and rather quick). Truth be told, I would have paid $129 for this ‘upgrade,’ but I’m glad I only had to pay $20.
The feature that I am most impressed with and one that I’ve talked about quite a bit in the past, is Exposé. It’s just one of those features that makes you wonder how you ever lived without it. I’ve yet to “feel” it get bogged down and I’ve thrown upwards of 35 windows at it. Apple also (finally) ‘fixed’ command-tab application switching. Anyone familiar with Windows and most modern *nix window managers, knows that command-tab allows you to quickly cycle through your open applications, a very useful feature and one that was sorely missed when I moved to OS X. The pre-10.3 implementation cycled through your dock and was useless if you ask me. Jason Kottke proposed a great idea concerning the merger of command-tab with Exposé.
Mail.app has gone through a significant overhaul as well. It has a much faster feel and a slightly more polished look to it. The big change is the addition of threaded messages, which is something it should have supported from day one. A big change for me has been the “Place signature above quoted text” option. You see, before, when I replied to a message, I had to manually cut/paste my signature each time from below the quoted text to above it where my message went. I realize that Apple’s implementation comported with the RFC, which requires that message replies go on the bottom and that signatures are the very last thing in the message (this has been carried over from Usenet), but I think it is rare that anyone complies with that anymore and I’m glad to see that Apple now lets me abandon it without too much fuss.
The Finder has also received some significant enhancements, including a major aesthetic change — it now has the brushed-metal look. I’ve heard a lot of complaining about this switch, but I love it. In fact, I wouldn’t mind it if the entire interface moved to brushed-metal .
On a slightly related note (by way of the fact that I’m running Panther on my new PowerBook with built-in Bluetooth), I got a Bluetooth mouse last week and couldn’t be happier with it. So nice to be able to pull my notebook and mouse out in class and not be encumbered with wires.
