Bday presents
Somebody is going to have a very nice birthday, in spite of his loving wife being away at the O'Reilly OS X Conference.
X10 files chapter 11
Pop-up ad pusher X10 files for bankruptcy. In general, I think that schadenfreude is a bad idea, but in this case I'll make an exception.Dori bitches and whines
Misbehaving.net is a new blog by and about women in tech. No, I wasn't invited to join, but such is life. And that has nothing at all to do with the reason I went off on a rant about women and tech in their comments; it's nothing I haven't said here before.Knee Defender
A new product, the Knee Defender, keeps the person in the airline seat in front of you from leaning their seat back. I really want this, not because I'm a tall person (far from it!) but because I'd like the person sitting in front of me to ask before they lean back. I've come close to having a smashed laptop too many times now.Music for Comrades
This one's for Comrade Gary: SovMusic.ru - Soviet Music. Don't miss that stirring tune, Don't Come Here, Samurais!.Typeface Humor
Hey there, typography geeks (and you know who you are): Behind The Typeface is a clever and funny Flash movie that tells about the rise, then fall, then rise again of one of type's beloved classics. Via Paul Music.
Search inside the book
Amazon.com has a new feature: Search Inside the Book which allows you to, oddly enough, search inside books for any mention of a word or words. First thoughts:
- Searching for "negrino" gives you a whole lotta books, including those classics where his name only shows up on the back cover, such as Incorporating Your Business For Dummies, Stress Management For Dummies, and Lawn Care For Dummies.
- It doesn't just index the contents of the book, but also the screenshots if they could be read by whatever OCR tool they used. Yeah, think about that one for a minute. For instance, I don't this page should have come up when searching for "negrino".
- And unsurprisingly, someone already invented the game of "AmazonWhacking," similar to the old game of GoogleWhacking.
Panther's coming
And while I'm on the subject of new stuff from Apple, OS X 10.3 Panther comes out on Friday. Apple's site says that there's events at your local Apple store or reseller, so check 'em out.
We don't have a local Apple store, so our local Mac user group has teamed up with our local CompUSA to throw a "Night of the Panther" party. That, of course, means that Tom will be on hand to talk about Keynote (and his Keynote book) and sign books. So if you're in the Santa Rosa area (or even if you aren't), c'mon by the Santa Rosa CompUSA Friday around 8:30 pm to say hi.
If you're looking for a good deal on where to buy Panther, the best I've seen is Amazon.com, where the regular version is going for $119.99 and the Family Pack (good for up to 5 computers) is going for $199.99. Know of any better prices? Tell me in the comments.
G4 iBooks
Okay, we know we'll be asked about this, so here's the breakdown of Apple's current 12" laptops:
| 12" iBook | 12" AlBook (low-end) | 12" AlBook (high-end) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 12.1-inch TFT Display, 1024x768 resolution | ||
| Processor | 800MHz PowerPC G4 | 1GHz PowerPC G4 | |
| Level 2 Cache | 256K | 512K | |
| Memory | 256 included, 640 MB max | 256 included, 1.25 GB max | |
| Hard Drive | 30 GB | 40 GB | |
| Optical Drive | Slot-loading Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) | SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) | |
| Graphics | ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM | NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM | |
| Video outs | VGA (mirroring only) | Mini-DVI, DVI, VGA (supports multiple monitors) | |
| Weight | 4.9 Lbs. | 4.6 Lbs. | |
| Bluetooth | Optional | Included | |
| Airport | Airport Extreme optional | ||
| Ethernet | Built-in 10/100BASE-T | ||
| Firewire | One FireWire 400 port | ||
| USB | Two USB 2.0 ports | ||
| Price | $1099 | $1599 | $1799 |
Overall, the new iBook is pretty darn nice, and if you don't need dual (vs. mirrored) monitors, it'd be hard to pick the low-end AlBook over the iBook.
Pasta Helper
Do you eat spaghetti with the help of a spoon? I don't (my family thinks it's kind of gauche), but Dori, who was raised without the benefits of an Italian family cultural indoctrination, does use a spoon. This new invention does away with the need for a spoon. There's even a website for the company that makes the invention, which features a completely superflous and content-free Flash animation that takes up your whole screen. Via Paul Music.We're speaking
Dori and I will be speaking about JavaScript at the October meeting of the North Bay Multimedia Association - Web Developers SIG on Wednesday 10/22 at 7 PM. They meet in Marin. If you're in the area, stop by!Blogroll changes
If you read the blogroll over on the right (the one under "What we read and recommend"), you might notice some changes. I've gone through and added some and deleted a bunch. If you have a favorite I've thrown out, or if you know of a great blog that I've managed to miss up till now, let me know in the comments. No promises, of course.
And if you have a great blog that you think that I should know about, feel free to mention that too. But if you want to improve your chances of being added to our list, make sure that we can be found on your blogroll when I'm checking out your recommendation.
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