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I was saddened today by one post at Cliesource. There was this guy who was distributing copyrighted software. He openly admits it. But then he was ticked off by those (who got the software from him) who did not even emailed back to say thanks to him. Probably the next generation of pirates do the wrong thing without even knowing that what they're doing is wrong.
I'm having fun alpha testing all sorts of programs! Though these programs can sometimes crash the Powerbook, helping to build a program from a buggy to a stable version is an exciting process. For me who's not even a programmer, it's a big deal to help the real programmers.
I was searching eBay for an affordable copy of Office X when I stumbled on someone selling ThinkFree Office. I remember I tried TFO before but it was too slow in the Macs at the office. TFO is a Java-based Office replacement -- at a fraction of the cost. So far, the speed is not that bad in the Powerbook. What stumped me was the lack of a drawing tool (which might be there but which I haven't found yet) which I really wanted to test. I'll play around with TFO for the next 30 days and see if it fits my needs.
Opera for Windows Preview 2 is now available. Opera has been my choice for quite a while now. It's fast (try the back and forward buttons) and it strictly adheres to web standards. What this means is, if a page does not show up properly in Opera, it is NOT Opera's fault. Rather, the webmaster was sadly closed-minded enough to only design the page with Microsoft Internet Explorer in mind.
Preview versions are not the final versions so expect some bugs along the way.
After days of frustratingly figuring out what's causing the networking problems I've been having, I definitely know the reason.
I had a firewall on.
That's it. Something that was supposed to be protecting my data was ironically the cause of hours of lost productivity. The firewall has been brought down now. I prefer having some of my back doors open than having to wonder why some of my other front doors won't open at all.
I teach iMovie to my 8th Graders.
It's really a *very* basic course. They are required to work in groups of four or more. The end product should be a music video. All music should either come from original CDs or bought from the iTunes Music Store. They are also required to do a simple script along with a crude storyboard. The only problem is the availability of the DV cameras. So what I do is I record whatever footage a group has from their camera to the school's DV camera, then import from there to the iMacs. Those who have DV cameras to begin with, usually finish ahead of time. Incidentally, our 128MB iMacs can handle iMovie... without problems!
Yeah, the end results are not that great but the process of creating the music videos is something to see and learn from. It's incredibly fun to watch dynamism at work! (Kids these days are so talented -- just put them in front of a PC or Mac (it doesn't matter what platform) and they'll easily figure their way around.)
Our school in Guam caters to a mix of mostly Filipino, and a sprinkling of American, Japanese, and Chamorro students. We use all Macs and have been exploring iMovie for three years now.
Dave McKean is one of my favorite artists. I first encountered him when I was still collecting the Sandman comic books. McKean's art was always something that greets me whenever I got a new issue of Sandman. After I relish Neil Gaiman's writing, I always go back to the cover to see it again in a different light.
It's a welcome surprise that Dave McKean is Mac user. "And I made every mistake possible. I worked from RGB files that proved unprintable. I made images the wrong size. I saved them in the wrong formats. But I got all of my major mistakes out of the way on the first cover. I think I really got the gist of the computer working on those early CD covers." I experienced that too... and it's an honor working like the artist I admire.
Here's the article about Dave McKean at Apple Pro.
Another wild rumor or is it finally true? Being a switcher since November, I'm willing to drop the Clie for this Apple PDA.
"The timeline for this product is an introduction by July 2004. Hopefully Apple will deliver it sooner now that Palm has gone public with its withdrawal of Mac support.
It will use an OS X-like OS, having full integration with iCal, Mail, Address Book, iSync, etc. It will be QuickTime driven, with support for the new codec’s, including Mpeg-4. The display will offer 65k colors and will be as large as the largest Sony Clie (there's that Clie thing again). The screen will be touch-sensitive, using Ink as the input software. Just imagine the latest Clie (!) with an Apple twist, meaning a whole new design concept, a flip screen, and a keyboard, FireWire, USB and Bluetooth. And it will be hard-drive based, using the same hard drive in that the new iPod mini uses, but I'm told the drive will be bigger. I have no idea what the cost will be, nor do I have any information about the processor, RAM, or anything else. However, it won’t matter if you have a Mac or PC, it supposedly works with both platforms through the introduction of iSync with Windows and an arrangement with Microsoft. (you don't think Apple advertised iLife '04 as being "Microsoft Office for the rest of your life" for nothing, did you?)"
More at MacNet2.
(By the way, that's a picture of an Apple Newton and not this new PDA.)
Dash and I saw the remastered DVD of Raiders of the Lost Ark using the Powerbook. Before we watched it, we were expecting to laugh at most of the scenes because we thought they would look dated. However, the experience of watching Raiders was fantastic. I actually forgot most of the scenes and was still awed at some of the stunts. I'm usually hard to please when it comes to special effects and stunts but the remastering team (if you can call them that) did a great job with Raiders of the Lost Ark. We'll soon see Temple of Doom, Last Crusade, and the bonus disc soon. This DVD set is a must have!
I wish there's a user-friendly clothes database for OS X. Just this morning, I dusted off a pair of Levi's jeans that has been hanging in my closet for at least two years. You see, shorts and shirts is the way to go here in Guam. I remember bringing in four pairs of blue jeans when I moved here three years ago. Those jeans haven't been worn for more than ten times each. A database would primarily record when I bought a particular piece of clothing, when it was last laundered, and when it can be retired.
Maybe I'll visit VersionTracker to see if there's a creative looking clothes database already created.
Apparently, there are other deeper problems in my Powerbook. For one thing, I now have to restart in order to get net access whenever I change locations. The next puzzle is, the website I'm managing suddenly cannot be accessed anymore. It's only when I thought of accessing the website from my office computer did I realize that the site can be administered. I'm still on the lookout for potential causes of the problem. But as early as now, I'm ready to do a full system backup and reinstall.
New Clies have just been announced by SonyStyle USA. I'm tempted to get the new TH55 but it might not be a wise move. New screen technology and a new operating system are expected soon from Sony. So what should I do in the meantime? Of course, maximize the use of my Powerbook with UX50 and T610 connectivity!
I woke up with the news that MozillaFirebird 0.8 is out... and that it has a new name. Mozilla Firefox is one of the better browsers out there as I have mentioned before but the one thing that prevents me from using it is vBulletin support. (The "other" browser I'm testing has an even bigger vBulletin issue but I'm willing to let that go in favor of its features... and that's another story.)
Anyway, I'm having problems downloading Firefox at this very seconds. No surprise there though. I'm sure the Mozilla faithful are keeping the servers' hands full.
What keeps me jittery is the delay... I'm really curious how this new version compares with the recently updated Safari 1.2.
Update: Yup, the servers are indeed busy. However, I found the reasons for the name change.
Here's what happened at Cliesource when I removed a link to a closeup picture of Janet Jackson's right breast. As we know by now, there was an alleged "wardrobe malfunction" during the last few seconds of the SuperBowl half time show.
So why is it here? It's an example of how technology site content can be manipulated by members if left uncheck.
Texts in bold were comments I was answering to:
1) A link to a national news story was censored.
No. A link to a close up picture of Janet Jackson's breast was deleted. The people who linked to it were PMed to inform them of the deletion. I should have called the deletion "image deleted" and not "link deleted" If I censored news I apologize but I'm pretty sure I censored picture links.
2) ClieSource accepts compensation for allowing a retailer of "sexually-oriented material" to link to the front page of the site.
There is no direct link to the site like what you did (and which I censored). You would have to type in whatever you want to search for the specific item you were linking to and that's not found in the front page. Tixx, you said so yourself: "doing a search for sex in the e-book section here at ClieSource links people straight to actual "sexual-oriented material"
If Palmgear suddenly posts a direct link to those ebooks so much so that they would appear in the front page of CS, I would personally complain to them.
Again, a link to PDM will be allowed. But a direct link to actual content in there that is sexually-oriented will be censored.
One of our rules is "By clicking the Agree button, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws." CS is always on the look out to consistently implement this but moderators can only do so much. I would like to thank the members who consistently report objectionable posts for us to look into.