Saturday, August 26, 2006

Windows or Mac

Steve Gibson (SpinRite creator, Anti-Spyware pioneer) "liking the Mac"

It is an interesting phenomenon. A lot of people are looking to buy Macs so they can run Windows or because they think they need Windows. I think most of them will discover just like Mr. Gibson did, that Windows is an unnecessary part of their lives.

Zac | August 23, 2006 06:34 AM

Well said.

Batteries

Yesterday, I submitted a form for a replacement battery for my PowerBook. There has been a lot of crap in the mac news lately on the matter. Some time ago, perhaps a year, there was an issue with certain batteries. I checked the serial number and it wasn't anywhere near those affected. This time however, it is. This is kind of weird since the battery is now well over a year old as I purchased the mac back in March 2005. The battery works fine except that it doesn't last very long. It's not that it has diminished in its carrying capacity. It's just that it never lasted long. Oh well. Perhaps I'll take into work tomorrow for something to do. It's much more enjoyable to play with than the work PCs are.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

A weird closing

Some moments ago, I submitted a comment in response to a post on another site. The site is scripting.com and the post was written by Dave Winer.

I closed my comment by saying, "Keep on learning".

I have never said such a thing before so having done so, and guessing it's too late to edit the comment, I am now left wondering what prompted me to end my comment that way.

After some reflection, my guess is this: I have been reading that site for a long time. I don't remember exactly when but I think I began reading it a couple of months, no more, after it opened up. Along with a site written by another Dave, David Siegel (who incidentally, linked to scripting.com back in '96) titled, Welcome to my Casbah, these were probably my first experiences with a journal style of online writing that came to be known as a weblog. Mr. Siegel ceased his online writing efforts in 1998, (since continued at a torpid pace) much to my regret but Mr. Winer has pushed his site along in a great way ever since. I continue to visit at least once a week. On my browser's home page, a page of links that resides on my local machine, I have his site listed prominently. While he may have geekish tendencies, his writing covers many subjects — my comments were a response to a posting on baseball's history. That is important to me.

Anyways, one of the reasons that I've continued to read his postings is that he really gives the reader a glimpse of the world through his own eyes. As this past decade or so has apparently involved his learning many new things (and subsequently doing many new things), I have gained my own exposure to those very same things. Had he ever put down his sword, had he been satisfied to do merely more of the same, he probably never would have launched scripting.com, nor would he have created blogging nor any of the other things in any of the other pots he's stirred over the years.

As such, I have benefitted from those efforts. If Mr. Winer continues to learn more and hence, do more, I am more than certain that I will continue to partake of those benefits. Besides, I think he enjoys learning.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Names and Games

Several years ago, there was a very popular computer game titled, "You don't know Jack". I don't know where the title came from but today I was reading a top ten article at Kuro5hin and I saw the expression being used. Perhaps, this is the source.
Jack Shit: the magic ingredient "It makes great garden soil. Take as much as you like. I haven't cleaned that jack pen in twenty fucking years." Felonious Frank was staring at us like we were nuts. Frank had four jack mules in his jack pen. Grok and I stared at each other in amazement. "You don't know jack shit." Grok blurted out while we set forth digging for gold. Felonious goes back to sawing timber in his sawmill…
Amusing.