Muskoka Mac User Group » Rod’s Ruminations
Hi all,
Hope you don’t mind me dropping in… but I was one of the millions in line for an iPhone 4 the other day in Cincinnati… (pics below) and was telling the people around me about the last time I stood in line for a product launch… 11:50 pm – October 23, 2003.
Quite the product launch for Panther in Huntsville, ON
Meg and Jamie waiting for us inside...
Thousands flood the store!! 
It was a slightly different story this week…
Outside the Apple store in Cincinnati with 500-600 of my closest friends
Hope all is well – and that you survived the G8!
Thinking of you …
Rod
Incredible…
This is Apple’s last year at MacWorld.
Steve Jobs will not be presenting (Phil Schiller will be…)
To quote CrunchGear.com:
There was a bit of rumbling the other day when Steve Jobs was curiously left off the Macworld SF speaker / events list and now it looks like big man himself isn’t going to take the stage at all. That’s right, no jeans and black turtleneck. No “one more thing.” No “boom!”
The power of the web … and retail stores… will knock out MacWorld – probably by next year. Several companies (big ones) have already pulled out this year… the end of an era!
Interestingly – the Mac is 25 years old in 2009. (I bought my first mac in June ‘84 – $3800 for the 128k Macintosh – with an external floppy drive, no hard drive and a dot matrix printer).
Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting when they decided that Jobs would not address MacWorld – traditionally the time he introduced new products etc…
Well – there you have it. A brave new world!
Hi all… I know its been forever since I posted… I DO think about you guys
I saw this and had to post!
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/ical_now_supported_google_calendar
I downloaded and tested… it works great! I use google calendar a lot – since I’m working off two macs… so I was pleased to see this…
hope you’re all staying warm!
For anyone nervous about updating to 10.4.4 – I have it and everything went well for me. There is some word out there that indicates if you’re running OS X server with MySql you may lose your connection to it – but I did not experience that issue on my powerbook (see Apple article on OS X Server here)
From Apple:
The 10.4.4 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.
It includes fixes for:
- SMB/CIFS and NFS network file services
- Bluetooth wireless access
- Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, RAW camera support, including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- Spotlight indexing and searching
- AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications
- Dashboard widgets: Calendar and Stocks
- Software Update and Sync Services
- compatibility with USB and FireWire devices and third party applications
- previous standalone security updates
there you have it
Rod
I have long been frustrated about windows media player on the mac. It hasn’t been updated since 2003 and Microsoft has officially announced they have halted development for the Mac (see CNET article here).
The great news is that they have released Flip4Mac – free software that allows WMV’s to be played in Quicktime. (It works) – get Flip4Mac here.
Whew – finally.
Hey all…
I’ve been waiting for this one for quite a while – if you’ve never seen google earth – one word – WOW. You can zoom in on almost any place (mostly in North America and major cities around the world at this point) in the world and it shows actual satelite pics. (like google maps on steroids).
It is pretty amazing.
You can download the beta here http://rapidshare.de/files/8860896/Google_Earth.zip.html – you’ll need to scroll to the bottom of the page to select free download, then enter a code that’s provided, wait for a bit and it will start.
Rod
Well, I haven’t posted forever (though I read it everyday)… so I thought I would share a bit of a recent conversation I had with a friend. On the one side is me, a “rabid” Mac user now… along with the more intelligent people on the planet… (he he) and on the other side of the conversation is a friend of mine who has both, started as an Apple developer ages ago and now works for one of Canada’s banks. In his home, the conversion back to Mac is well underway.
The biggest difference between Apple and Microsoft now, he contends, is that Apple is once again being run by a passionate geek, while Microsoft is now being run by a salesman. Wow… that is SO TRUE!
When was the last time Microsoft shipped a product? The last major release of Office (Oct. 21, 2003 for PC) was for the Mac (May 2004)… oh.. and of course the new XBox (a giant in computing prowess)… (I know… there was Server 2003 – but what about Longhorn?)
The result? Apple stock has gone consistently up for the past 4 years. Microsoft, fairly consistently down (though its rebounding).
Interesting thoughts huh?
Rod
(by the way… life is good in Cincinnati… I was still riding my goldwing until just last week!)
Hi guys… (I’m still checking…)
I upgraded the day it came out of course.
Things I like:
- spotlight – very cool… and fast!
- quicktime7 – I know – not just for Tiger – but WOW. quicktimeHD is amazing also (see apple’s website).
- my computer seems quicker/snappier
- safari is FAST and very nice – though I still prefer the RSS in Firefox.
- Dashboard – yep – very cool – I have the weather for London (where I am today), Toronto and Cincinnati (where I’ll be tomorrow).
- It didn’t kill my mysql databases!! (this is for the programmer in me…) every other upgrade has killed the databases I had been using – I always backed them up and had to reinstall mysql and php. Not this time! (though I did have to reinstall PHP – no biggie)
Things I Don’t like:
- MAIL – YUK! – though I’m still using it – I do like the threaded conversation option, the interface is blah and you can’t have the time as a column anymore (that is important to me)
- Printer support – it killed support for my Brother all in one.
- Potential security holes with Dashboard… please don’t get as bad as Microsoft!!
All in all – a worthy upgrade that is getting good press and reviews.
On a personal note… I’ve been in London ON for a couple of weeks, waiting to have my interview for my visa. That was Monday, I picked up my visa on Tuesday and I’m on my way down to the States tomorrow! Whew! I’ll continue to keep up with you guys – you’re in my RSS List of course!
Rod
For the first time in months, I was able to attend a user group meeting. Though there were only a few of us there, Jonathan (my son) and I had a great time – in fact – he said he enjoyed this meeting more than any other.
I think part of the reason was the feeling of friendship we both experienced. I really believe that’s a big part of the user group. Other than the knowledge we share and the fun we have… there is the real friendships that have, and are forming.
One friend I miss is Al Simcoe. Those of you who have been around since the beginning know that Al and I created the group and led it for the first year. When Al left the group, we didn’t speak for a while – I guess we were both a little stubborn
It was the night of the panther… – the release of Apple’s new operating system that we patched things up and started back towards friendship. (Thanks to Jamie and Meg for hosting it )
Al and I had lunch 3 days before he died. We were supposed to talk about Apple technology and all the cool things… but mostly we talked about our friendship and the history between us. Al was really struggling in his situation – and I tried to encourage him. We parted with smiles and a handshake that evidenced our growing friendship.
I know this may be a little sappy (sorry)… but Jonathan (he’s 11) and I both commented on this very thing on the way back from the meeting last Tuesday.
I love this idea of blogging (an idea Al introduced me to actually)… I have my blog – which is mostly work and fun related… THIS blog has the potential to bring incredible knowledge and problem solving to the group… but it also has the potential for far flung friends to stay in touch.
And that’s pretty cool
This is a presentation Rod Martin did last year. I couldn’t quickly insert it into the blog – so I just created a link to the original.
It’s here