Worship The Spam Karma

So I’m now a proud beta-tester of Spam Karma 2.0. The poor guy who wrote the plug-in is being subjected to hate mail and death threats from people who were “caught” in his spam-trap. To them I would say “Hey, there is friendly fire in every war. Quit your bitching and write a better comment spam filter.” For now, I’m thankful to Dr. Dave for his hard work and commitment to fighting web garbage.

Thanks to D Mann for bringing to my attention the Spam Karma website.

In case it hasn’t been made explicitly clear, comments have been turned back on (heh. until the next spam flood).

10.3.9 -> 10.4 Upgrade Successful

Last night I blew off pre-arranged plans and the bar scene to spend a little quality time with my home computer. It had been a while since I set aside special time for just the two of us. But with that inviting OS X Tiger box set sitting on my desk, there was not much else I could think about.

Of course, I immediately went and bought a fresh eBook copy of Joe Kissell’s Take Control of Upgrading to Tiger and spent about 2 hours poring over it before issuing any commands (because doing this has prevented me from suffering major upgrade headaches in the past). By 3:00 AM, I had backed up my data in three different places, cleansed and purged the main drive of excess, and let the upgrade roll. So far, so good.

I wanted to mention here that the OS X Panther-to-Tiger upgrade went smoothly. Every time Apple comes out with a new OS product, I am subjected to oodles of stories from people wanting to complain that “The upgrade trashed my system.” I love how they cannot get more specific than that, instead slandering the software with language of the grossly misinformed. (These are also usually the same people who never perform a backup of critical data and then whine when it disappears).

Partially because of the prevalence of such horror stories and partially because of my neurotic Sys Admin nature, I always wipe my hard drive clean and perform a “Fresh Install.” This has always produced spectacular results in terms of stability and OS integrity. However, this has also come with a tax — a time tax — in returning your system to its normal state of end user customization. This year I reckoned I had paid enough tax to Uncle Sam and I wanted to avoid paying the time tax again. This is why I opted to test out the Upgrade option for Tiger.

Well, the prep time was around three hours, but not everyone moves as slowly as I do. Once I began the installer and selected which software bits I wanted it to install, the upgrade process took less than 20 minutes (dual 1.42Ghz G4 tower with 2GB of RAM). A few seconds later I was rebooted into the new OS X (Tiger or 10.4) and began checking out my files and applications to make sure things went as planned. I have noticed no major problems with the upgrade as of this writing.

Dashboard is a relatively cool new widget thingy meant to save all us busy people a fuckload of time by placing commonly used applets in one viewer screen. While I definitely like the look and feel of Dashboard, I have noticed that it can really put a hurtin’ on CPU performance. And if you remember the system stats from the above paragraph, you might wonder too at just how processor-intensive this tiny little application actually is. In fact, I want to see it operate on a system with a “more normal” amount of RAM. I imagine on the stock systems Apple ships (usually 256MB of memory) that Dashboard would bring everything to a cool-looking grinding halt. Hmmm… Did they test this before shipping?

First impressions? Well, Tiger is exactly like Panther, but with a slight increment in the version number (and it cost me over $70). Over time, I hope to publish more helpful feedback on the product, but for now everything looks status quo — which, if you’re one of the Mac faithful, is a very good thing. I’m primarily interested in ever-increasing stability and speed improvements. The benefit or advantage of all the little changes/applications has yet to be seen. Just don’t charge me 70 bucks for something that slows down my fancy computer, please.

Oh Ess Ten Dot Four: Liger

Since I love to keep last week alive, here is a rehashing of something funny I saw somewhere on the Internet.

The Apple nerds of the world anxiously await this freakin’ awesome software release from Cupertino. However, if they haven’t incorporated two-way stateful syncronization of iCal data, then I’m gonna call Steve a “bodaggit” and elbow him in the stomach. Oh, and thanks for jacking up the Educational price (by roughly 75%), you egomaniacal SOB.

“Napoleon, don’t be jealous that I’ve been chatting online with babes all day.”

Alan Embraces 21st Century Computing

Today was a lot like Christmas. It was a crisp, beautiful Saturday — blue skies, perfect temps and endless sunshine. (Just what the Doctor ordered.) And a friend of mine who had been coveting a Mac Mini for some time took the plunge. Amen! Another convert (and another kickback for me from Apple HQ).

[For $599 you get a 1.42 GHz G4 processor, 80 GB disk storage and DVD-playing/CD-burning combo drive, all in the tightest, most portable package available. (Plus a bunch of Apple software and, of course, the pièce de résistance OS X.) Sounds like Apple is ready to make headway into the lower-priced computing market. All you need to add is one figgity-fat stick of DDR RAM to complete the package.]

Alan was smiling and giddy like a little kid the whole ride back. Plus he was cradling the computer in his lap as if it was a newborn (which, in a way, it most certainly is). It was hysterical. Best wishes to Alan and his new baby. (And since he now has a Mac, we can expect a bunch of kick-ass shit on his websites any day now.)

I didn’t buy anything (thank goodness!), but I did have a fun time joking around with the saleswoman. We wanted to record this historic purchase with our fancy digital cameras, but were informed that Apple does not allow any photographs to be taken inside their stores. As soon as the shutter clicked, giant, robotic gorillas descended from the ceiling and began pummelling us about the head and neck. We barely made it out of the store, but we got what we came for.

The Passing of a Legend

Jef Raskin is perhaps the one person I should thank most for my involvement in the realm of computing. After all, it was my fascination with the Macintosh at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Student Stores during the Summer of 1984 that got me hooked on the keyboard (and mouse). Since those fateful days bothering the store clerks while writing my school essays on the Macs and printing them out on those classic Apple printers, well, not much has changed I guess (‘cept the lack of a floppy drive). A grand time in the computer world, by my recollection.

I am therefore very sorry to note Jef’s passing and simply say “So long and Thanks for all the Interfaces.”

A Note On Tech Support

Tech Support is laborious & annoying. Family, friends, people at random gatherings (including weddings, airports and recently while viewing a house with a realtor), you name it. After being paid to do this for several years, I have grown to believe that most tech support should be like this.

If I actually had to deliver “Tech Support” these days, I think it would sound a lot like this: “Just keep referring to the referrer log. If you see anything bad, call me back.”