My history with operating systems is fairly simple. When home computers
were new I started out with an Epson computer(!!) that had its own
operating system which was quirky by today’s standards but was quite
nice in its simplicity. I then moved to an intel-driven DOS machine and
had a love-hate relationship with it. I moved to UNIX/Linux in work and
home life sometime later and obviously concentrated fairly heavily on
that until OS X came along.
I got my first Apple mainly to accommodate my photography obsession
because (even still) using a linux machine with photos absolutely
blows. I enjoy OS X but I also enjoy linux/gnome. However, I have
noticed in the last few years that I have slowly moved away from
OS-dependence. Call it what you will – the Cloud, SAAS, whatev. All I
know is that it is incredibly convenient to be able to sit at any
computer and do all the things I would normally do at my home
computer. In fact, about the only apps I use that aren’t cloud-centric
are emacs and my photo-software. Even still, with emacs I mostly use
org-mode for my work and I keep all my org files online. As long as I
have emacs on a machine, I can do my work. But in a pinch, I could use
another editor on those files since they are simply text-files.
That still leaves photos. The only non-standard,
not-practical-in-the-cloud thing I do. I’ve seen the attempts at photo
editors online, I know that one can use online tools to store and
categorize their photos – but none of those services come close to how I
can do it at home with old-fashioned, closed-source, non-standard,
key-on-the-back-of-the package software. Maybe this means there is an
opportunity in the market or maybe it means that camera manufacturers
are behind-the-times… or maybe it means I am particular with my
photos – I’m not really sure.
I’m not sure what this means for Operating Systems – at least, OSes that
aren’t powering “the Cloud” – but it does feel like a trend that would
lend itself to devices that start quickly and get me online. I see this
progress in the direction the iPad has taken us. Whatever your opinion
is on the particular of that one device – the idea that I can have
a small, “instant-on” device that can get me online is incredibly
appealing. I think the future of such devices in grand.
I read today that Apple is going to renovate the Chicago “El” stop across from their store. The run-down stop is in bad repair and the Chicago Transit Authority has no money to do anything about it. In exchange, Apple gets naming rights, control of ad-space in the station, and, of course, a better looking neighbor.
I am of two minds about this news. On the one hand, I think it is a unique model for municipalities (or transit authorities as the case may be) to make some much needed upgrades when our poor economy and our national attitudes don’t provide enough support and funds to do so. At the same time, I cringe at the possibility of the “Apple iPhone North Station”. We have too much corporate sponsorship already. More will dull our senses (not to mention our history and traditions).
This quote from the article sums up the problem well:
“We are selling everything, aren’t we?” says Joseph Schofer, director of Northwestern University’s Infrastructure Technology Institute. “We haven’t come to the point where we recognize how critical the system is to the economy, and provide it with long-term, stable funding.”
Its a choice we have to make as a society – “Macbook Pro Stop West” or preserving our heritage. Unfortunately, in this economy, and with the “tea-baggers” ideas getting the airtime that they do I fear we will simply sell.
Just before, and then during, my 2 week vacation I killed two computers. Well… I actually didn’t do anything to them except use them as they were designed to be used – but they still died. As of this post, I now have one back from warranty repair and one still being worked on. This episode has highlighted my current data backup scheme and its success.
I have two ways of backing up my data. First, for everyday items that are not large files I use Dropbox and could not be happier with it. It works on both my Mac and Linux machines seamlessly and fits in well to my workflow. (by the way, if you click on that link and sign up, I get more space – woot! – its free up to 2GB)
Second, for large files like my photos or music I use a Drobo which is a RAID drive setup with some funky new way of doing RAID that allows for uneven sized drives, etc. So far it has been pretty nice though the setup and “Control Center” software is quite clunky. Nonetheless, I have 2TB of RAIDed backup running in a very quiet case.
The upshot of this is that although I have lost two harddrives in two machines, I didn’t really lose much – only some photos from vacation which I didn’t put in the dropbox folder before the crash. Compared to some of the more spectacular crashes I’ve had in my computing past, this is pretty great. Still a pain in the ass, but great.
I don’t have any problems with DRM in my music. This is because I don’t have any DRM’d music. I really only buy CDs. I am a collector and it is not quite as fun to collect bits and bytes as it is a physical CD or a beautifully large LP. Still, I am firmly on the side of DRM-free music offerings and if I did purchase more music online I would only use Amazon or another DRM-free source. I’d be in trouble if I did buy DRMd music anyway as I use a Squeezebox at home to listen to my collection.
So it is with pleasure that I find this iTunes script which allows one to browse the iTunes store and then click a menu-item to take them to the same album on Amazon’s mp3 sales site. The appearance of tools like this should be a sign to Apple that people don’t want DRM – and they are smart enough to know what it is and how it restricts them.
In a soundbite, Apple, these folks are trying to Think Differently – perhaps you should too.
Yesterday the Blackberry network went down again – this is the third time since I got one that it has happened (twice this year alone). I can still use the phone portion of course, but anything data related is dead. First of all, I really don’t understand why it all passes through their network from AT&T anyway. I also don’t care, what I do care about is it working. Its infuriating.
What’s also infuriating is that my options are limited to move away from it. All other “smart” phones blow except for the iphone. I can’t do the iphone unless I go the “illegal” route and buy an unlocked version so I can use it when in various African countries. I have a friend at work who has done just that and he seems happy with it – but it does seem like a hassle. I suppose I could get an iphone and use my unlocked blackberry only when I travel but I’d much rather have one phone for everything – its all just so much easier.
Maybe the Android phones will come sooner than I’m thinking they will? I sure hope so.
How did I miss that Steve Jobs wants an iphone SDK by February? I find that to be much better news from Apple in regards to the iphone. I am still amazed that they intentionally tried to brick the phones (and you won’t convince me that they didn’t) but if this thing comes, it does take back one of the two issues I have regarding the device.
The other issue, of course, is the lock into AT&T. Funny thing is… I’m a customer of AT&T. A happy owner of an unlocked phone too.
I’m not the only one who thinks that network locking is wrong – the Consumers Union (folks behind Consumer Reports Magazine) started a campaign against the practice quite a while ago. More recently, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg went on another rampage against it. I don’t always agree with Walt – but this is dead-on-target. Honestly, it is tiring to be so far behind Europe on mobile technologies!
Meanwhile, I have now received my second SpaSMS. Another disturbing trend.
I only know one person with a “hacked” iphone – unlocked to work on a network other than AT&T. I haven’t heard from him since the Apple “update”. However, I do want to say that the American system of having the mobile phone linked to network via locking is amazingly broken. Apple caring as much as they seem to be about the very, very few people who have unlocked their iphone is simply lame. However, I must agree with the writer on Salon’s Machinist when it comes to the iphone: while its a technological marvel, “if you care about your rights, don’t buy an iphone.”
A friend sent me a link to a mac-centric review of the opera browser this morning. Right in the middle of the review the author (contributing editor Brian Burnham) makes this statement.
One of my constant complaints about Open Source is speed and user interface.
Not having read Mr. Burnham’s constant complaints before I can’t tell which apps he’s tried and on what he has tried them. So what we have here is a major unsupported piece of FUD. He mentions Firefox right after this so I guess we can assume that’s the “Open Source” he’s referring to. Or maybe its Apache. Maybe that piece of “Open Source” which is used by ~ 70% of web sites is cramping his style? Not sure. We need more clarification.
Meanwhile I’m gonna go look for an old copy of Netscape – the closed source version – it’s gotta be faster.
I think the new Apple keyboard is beautiful. Simply beautiful. I haven’t actually tried one yet to see if spacing and feel is good – but I imagine its very much like my Macbook (the Bluetooth oen looks more like the Macbook in key size). However, to replace my work keyboard (1980s IBM “clicky” keyboard) its going to have to have extremely great feel. It would really help if it was “clicky” too. Actually a modern-styled clicky keyboard would be excellent!
You have to hand it to Apple in that they remembered the keyboard. The majority of new keyboards these days are some of the cheapest toys ever. Truly awful plastic crap. At least Apple is trying to keep some apparent quality in theirs.
