Latop toys and OS X Con

A few thoughts I thought I'd pass on...

Apple recently made it clear that we shouldn't expect G5 laptops 'any time soon', so as I've said before, the way to make your current laptop happier is to buy it gifts. In this case, I got the Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard and a 512 Mb RAM DIMM, both from Other World Computing (aka MacSales). Powerbooks need to feel the love from time to time to be happy, and this'll bring my baby up to 768 Mb.

While in the middle of this buying frenzy, I got the latest MacDevCenter newsletter (which, unfortunately, isn't online), but the timing was nice, as Derrick wants to know what toys and gizmos you use with your PowerBook. If you use something cool, let him know.

And finally, Derrick also said in the newsletter that he's extended the Call for Proposals for the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference until Sunday night... so if you procrastinated and then missed yesterday's deadline, it's still not too late. Go submit your session ideas. Now.

Naderwatch #6

Naderwatch #6, in a continuing series

The New Democrat Network has a recent poll (PDF), which includes in its discussion the following:

Without Nader on the ballot, Kerry has a tiny lead, 47 percent to 46 percent. With Nader on the ballot, Kerry is losing 43 percent to 45 percent (with Nader drawing 6 percent). Nader is drawing his votes from independents and Democrats, the majority of whom would otherwise be voting for Kerry. Without Nader on the ballot, Nader voters prefer Kerry over Bush 58 percent to 22 percent.

That's the problem in a nutshell.

Hey, it's a two-fer! Here's a new Fox News poll:

Kerry 45%
Bush 43%

Kerry 42%
Bush 42%
Nader 3%

And as a bonus, here's Salon on Nader still claiming that he'll draw more Republican votes than Democratic, and still without any facts to back that up.

Zombies

Tuesday, I bought an AirPort Express. Wednesday, I bought a 2.5 GHz G5 (with the developer discount, it's a mere $2,399).

I am Apple's bitch.

Look for my Dual 1 GHz G4 to show up on eBay sometime in July. Yes, I'll remind you then.

breathless birthday ramblings

Reason #453 why we love Susan Kitchens: breathless birthday ramblings.

The dinner she describes sounds a lot like the one we had last month for our anniversary. And now we find that (darn!) we have another excuse to go back there next month. Life's rough sometimes.

Gmail invites

Either we've suddenly become much cooler, or everyone person on earth already has a Gmail account, but I've been given some Gmail invites. If you want one, let me know, otherwise, the cat gets 'em.

Conference proposals are due, ladies

Okay, I've bitched and moaned about the lack of women speakers at tech conferences so many times that you're sick of it, but here's the flip side for once. I'm on the program committee for the O'Reilly Mac OS X 2004 Conference, and to the best I can see, right now, there are No, ZERO, ZILCH session proposals from women. Not a single one.

If the deadline passes, and the conference program is posted, and there aren't any women on the schedule, I will say Not One Word about the lack of women speakers, because it ain't O'Reilly's fault if none apply.

This means You.

The deadline is this Friday, June 11^th. Earlier is better than later. Here's the Call for Participation. You know what to do. Pass the word on, too.

Note: this is not to say that men aren't welcome to apply, also! I just want to make sure that no one can say that the deadline caught them by surprise.

Conferencing Geeks

Am I the last one to notice that Apple's WWDC is June 28-July 2 at Moscone, while Sun's JavaOne conference is June 28-July 1 at Moscone?

Whose bright idea was it to run them both at the same time?

Predictions:

• A lot of bored Java programmers will be trying to sneak into WWDC, because it'll be more interesting. And hey, they all have Powerbooks already.
• Based on last year's gift of iSights to WWDC attendees, I'll bet that Apple is going to give away an AirPort Express this year. Well, I can dream, can't I?

You say it's your birthday...

Jeez, today seems to have been a popular day to have been born. Our very best birthday wishes to Susan, Derrick, and most particularly, Todd (who really needs a Web page of his own).

AirPort Express + AirTunes

New today from Apple: AirPort Express and AirTunes. Tom and I have already come up with reasons to purchase about 5 of these things, but we'll probably just start with one. Very, very cool.

Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house. Share a single broadband Internet connection and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go. Extend the range of your current wireless network. How many devices do you need to do all this? Just one.

I want!