truetech

Dave added Google search to mammothconcepts.com this morning. I may add it to my template in the near future, but for now, if you need to search, feel free to use Dave’s page.

Steve Jobs: We are here to mourn the passing of Mac OS 9.

Mac OS 9 Resuscitated By Quick-Thinking Developers: It was kind of weird, but the OS’s whole life flashed before my eyes. I saw OS 6, MultiFinder, OpenDoc, Themes… I thought, ‘Good times. Good times.’

Vegan Couple Starved Toddler, Cops Say: Sixteen-month-old Ice Swinton weighed only 10 pounds, looked like a 2- or 3-month-old and was half the normal weight of a child her age when authorities discovered her close to death last November . . . The Swintons, who say they approach veganism as a religion, fed the child a diet of “ground nuts, fresh-squeezed fruit juices, herbal tea, beans, cod liver oil and flax seed oil,” a complaint said. This may very well be one of the saddest news stories I’ve ever read. This poor child has probably suffered damage that can never be repaired. These people need to be locked up and never allowed near their daughter again.

A Slashdot article on Microsoft’s Windows licensing policies for schools. Astonishingly, Microsoft wants schools to count every single computer they own when calculating the terms of the license, including all Macs, UNIX computers, and machines that will never, ever run Windows. My favorite quote, from Nick This: Anyway, the argument is flawed. You all realize this already. The argument should be that schools should be teaching how to solve problems using computers, and the tools that they use to solve them are inconsequential. It doesn’t matter whether you use a Bic pen or a Pilot pen… they are both just tools. So with software. But schools don’t get it. We should be teaching students to solve problems with computers, not how to make a three column brochure in Microsoft Publisher. Sadly, it will be a long, long time before many schools realize this.

And speaking of Slashdot and education, here’s another interesting article: P2P Programs on K-12 Networks? Oy! All about blocking peer-to-peer ports in a K12 environment. Apparently the guy asking the question is having a tough time because it’s the teachers doing all the downloading. General concensus from the posters: shut ’em down. Great quote from leonbrooks: You’re in the right. Act like it.

Here’s a ringing endorsement for Windows: He [Stuart Madnick, professor of information technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testifying on behalf of Microsoft] showed the judge a diagram that depicted Windows as a system made up of dozens of oddly shaped, interconnected pieces. Madnick said the diagram showed how Windows was like a “house of cards” that could collapse if any of the pieces were removed. Hey, that sounds like a recipe for stability and reliability, doesn’t it? “I’m sorry, you honor, our software is written too poorly for that sort of thing.”

I keep picking on Macintouch, but I keep reading it. Why? Because of “reader reports” like this one.

Okay. This is just weird.

help 3658, pharmacy s=2101&a=19482, doctor 00.asp”>Home Depot chills out.

The Joy of Tech: We have a saying around here . . . Imitation is the sincerest form of trademark infringement!

PythonCard for OS X. Hmmmmm.

Hmmmmm . . . a possible explanation for Dave passing out in my office a few weeks ago.

Apple’s new eMac, just for education. Awesome machine. My friend Joe thinks it’s butt-ugly, but I like it. My only complaint – no handle. Related Slashdot discussion is here.

Matt Groening, via FT.com: “I wear two hats,” he admits. “One is as the cranky cartoonist, but I also have to worry about a lot of people and be a manager and boost morale and all that stuff. I’m not particularly fond of the stuff which takes me away from the creative side.”

Jen and I are very seriously considering adoption. In vitro, while appealing, is awfully risky, especially given our finances (or lack thereof). Adoption, which is still expensive, has more than a fifty percent success rate. Plus there are so many kids out there who need homes. If I could afford it, I’d adopt them all. I know Jen would, too.

Well, perhaps this could help us out a bit. If you live in Pennsylvania, please consider writing to your representative about this bill.

Jon Rubinstein, on Apple’s decision to “discontinue the PowerBook” (via Crazy Apple Rumors): Man, I really don’t want to open that thing up again. The last time we did, there were six screws and this little thing that looked like a square bottle cap left over when we were finished. We just sat there staring at each other. No one had any idea where they were supposed to go. If you’ve ever opened a PowerBook, you’re laughing right now.

Cable modem has been up and down today. I’m off to get some Spider-Man pictures for Gracie before it chokes again. For some reason she has decided that she likes Spider-Man, despite the fact that she’s never seen him.

The Register’s Andrew Orlowski on the continued testimony of Bill Gates: Therapists typically base the nuttiness of a patient on the strength of their convictions, on which basis this 43,000 word opus alone stands as a kind of testament to Bill’s madness.

The thing that Andrew gets, that most people don’t seem to, is that Microsoft has already been found guilty. This is a remedy hearing. This is basically a convicted criminal telling the court that the punishment being considered would really inconvenience him. Well, guess what. It’s supposed to. It supposed to hurt. It’s supposed to make you change your behavior. What a travesty.

Bill Gates: In cross-examination during his second day on the witness stand, Gates reluctantly said the proposed remedies would have kept Microsoft from threatening to cease development of Mac Office if Apple Computer had not installed Internet Explorer on new computers. Well, duh.

Arg! Stupid virus! Receiving an e-mail containing the Klez virus “from” someone does not indicate that their computer is infected or that they sent the virus, antiviral experts said. Klez spoofs “From” information in the e-mails the virus sends. My friend Steve has it. I’m getting killed. He has to use Outlook Express on Windows where he works. If he were allowed to use his PowerBook with the Mac version of Outlook Express, this wouldn’t be happening.

I learned a lot about Active Directory today. Pretty cool, but it seems very complicated. I’m very excited that it can function as a standard LDAP server, because I’ll be authenticating Mac OS X Server against it if everything works out right.

Apparenty the propaganda thing from yesterday was a hoax. Not a very funny one in the grand scheme of things, but (and I must credit where credit is due) very well executed. I’ve known too many people who reason like that.

Propaganda: This OS — and its Darwin offspring — extensively use what are called “daemons” (which is how Pagans write “demon” — they are notoriously poor spellers: magick, vampyre, etc.) which is a program that hides in the background, doing things without the user’s notice. If you are using a new Macintosh running OS X then you probably have these “daemons” on your computer, hardly something a good Christian would want! This clearly illustrates that not only is Macintosh based on Darwinism, but Darwinism is based on Satanism. It’s stuff like this that makes people think Christianity is weird and narrow-minded. Flaws in logic and the guy’s astonishing lack of technical prowess aside, you’ll almost always find the conspiracy you’re looking for if you look hard enough. This just makes me shake my head.

I still find it odd that Mac OS Rumors has this tagline: The Future of the Macintosh. More like the very recent past of the Macintosh, as previously seen on Apple Hot News.

Bill Gates finally testifies in person. Yikes.

MacNN (no link for reasons which will become obvious) is now gifting me with pop under ads. You know what my biggest problem with pop unders is? It’s the not the advertising, although I do find that annoying. It’s that Internet Explorer for the Mac decides to use the dimensions of the pop under window for next new browser window. That’s infuriating. I guess I’m done with MacNN.

That’s a shame, really. Macintouch isn’t what it used to be, either. Their turning point was the day Ric posted his infamous “Monopoly” editorial on the front page, drawing the ire of Steve Jobs and countless devoted readers.

So where is one to go for good Mac-oriented news? There’s MacSlash, but they’re busy trying to be SlashDot. Once upon a time you could even get good dirt from MacOSRumors, but I think they need to change their name to reflect the fact that only post the painfully obvious, and only after it has already happened. If I were one of his paying subscribers, I’d be pretty pissed. O’Grady is a shadow of what it once was. The commercial Mac rags are horrible.

What’s a guy have to do to get some Mac news? Apple Hot News?