Chris, Author at Chris Ullrich dot net - Page 56 of 93
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Chris

Mac OSX 10.5 Screenshots, Global Warming and more

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ok, this could, of course, be a fake. as many like it have been in the past. however, this looks more real than anything i have seen so far on the web so . . . you never know. could be real.

in other things around the web:

here’s a list of the 50 worst video games ever. at least according to the folks at game revolution.com

in 1939, Disney openly discriminated against women becoming animators in a circulated memo. having worked at Disney with the animation department i can tell you i don’t remember meeting very many women animators at all. and that was pretty recently.

our planet is the hottest it’s been in 2000 years. i wonder if there’s something to that global warming stuff? of course, the brain-trust that is the bush administration maintains that global warming is just a theory and isn’t a real threat. hmmm.

and, the FBI arrested 7 people who may be involved in a plot to blow up, among other things, the sears tower.

last but not least, they are watching you so don’t do anything weird. your tax dollars at work.

Changes

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the theme of this blog, of late, has been change. i did other jobs. went back to former careers. loved and hated them at the same time. changed the coloring and theme of the site and a bunch of other things. all under the heading of change. to some, change is bad. i don’t think it is either good or bad. i think it depends upon how you change and if you really want to change. in other words, it depends on the person.

anyway, as you have seen this site has changed themes about once or twice a day for the last few days. i don’t really know what i want it to look like exactly. if i had more skills in the web design department i could probably get it to do what i want. sadly, those skills i do not have. so, i am left with mucking around inside the typepad themes and some “advanced” themes of my own to see what works and what doesn’t. until then, it will just be a bunch of stuff thrown against a wall to see what sticks.

so what’s going on in the world. let’s see, shall we:

Apple’s market share could blow up soon thanks to the ipod and the switch to intel, mostly.

MacBooks can now come in many of your favorite flavors. i still like black but have at it.

Blue Ray, one of the much-hyped HD DVD formats debuts next week. i’m trying to get excited about it, i really am. no really. maybe i’ll wait and see what HDDVD looks like. i’ve heard that neither one of them makes watching “XXX” or “Basic Instinct-2” any better. i’ll stick with normal dvd for the moment until more titles that i really care about are released.

Google Calendar now has two, count ’em, two more new features. get yours today!

NASA will explain how black hole’s work on june 21st. i’ll be listening. maybe they will have something about it on discovery hd theater. they have a lot of NASA stuff there. don’t have discovery hd theater? well, get directv then and you will. if you do get directv, please mention that i sent you so i get my kickback. thanks.

And talk about changes. Microsoft big cheese Bill Gates has decided to step back from his post as big cheese over the next two years to devote himself full-time to his foundation. well, at some point money doesn’t mean much so you may as well help people with your billions.

fortunately, nutcase steve ballmer will not be in charge. and by nutcase i, of course, mean great guy who is just misunderstood. (in case there are any microsoft lawyers who read this). meet the new boss, ozzie (no, not this ozzy) this one.

oh, the picture at the top is just to show that no matter how much trouble you get into early in life you still have a chance to, you guessed it, change. bill didn’t do too bad for himself now did he?

Site Design

i will be messing with the design of this site again so please don’t be offended if things change a little (or a lot ) here and there. this is the first change in about a year or so and i think change is good most of the time. anyway, on with the changes.

at the moment i think i am kinda in a minimalist kind of mood. simple and not too many colors to distract the reader/ viewer. i wonder if the text is too small to read? not for me but you never know who might be reading this thing (someone must be).

Flocking it again and some LAist news

i am trying the new version of the pretty cool browser called flock. flock combines many of the tools that i use (blog software, image browsing, search, news, etc.) into one easy to use interface. it’s really come a long way since the last beta i used. a really long way.

its tough though because i am now a big fan of camino, especially on the mac book. it really flies and loads pages very quickly. flock doesn’t seem quite as fast but it does offer many more features that are built into it so its got a lot going for it.

i will keep using it and make a few more notes down the road a little. in the meantime, i am still putting the mac book through its paces and more and more it is performing very well. even on my lap it is still a pleasure to use. not too hot. nor am i experiencing the swollen battery issue or any yellow stains, as some others are reporting. search and you will find the deets.

still not in love with the keyboard although i am getting used to it more each day. broken record, i know. sorry, i type on it quite a bit so it means something to me. also, i still wish it wasn’t quite so big. i wonder if there is any way to get a big screen experience on a small form-factor laptop? maybe some day.

last but not least some interesting news. tony pierce is the new editor-in-chief over at laist. i have read his blog for a long time so working with him now should be a great experience. i anticipate some nights of hard drinking and tall tales. or, maybe just one drink and a quick story. who knows?

so, check him out at laist. i am going to start posting more there as well. in fact, just did one a few days ago so if you have a spare minute, head on over an take a read. comments welcome. i especially am interested in anything constructive. simple abuse is not really helpful and makes you look like an ass. so there.

More with the Macbook, Windows and Bootcamp

And now, a little more on the very cool macbook. now that i have had chance to use it for a little time i have come to like it even more. i put in the 2gigs of ram and that made all the difference. it is now one heck of a machine. i got mine from other world computing but you can get it almost anywhere. i recommend owc or new egg or crucial.

i managed to get all my info transferred over from the powerbook and now most of the apps seem to work. some are, of course, not universal such as microsoft office or photoshop, but even those still open pretty fast and are able to be used with no problem. although, as i said before, more memory does help.

the first time you open them it does take a minute but after that they run just fine. as well as they did on my previous laptop, the 12“ powerbook with 1.5 ghz g4 processor ( a great machine that i will miss). fortunately, the powerbook found a good home with my friend zach from laist and the oaks so i know its being put to good use. he will treat it well.

so, a few more thoughts on the macbook:

the black is starting to show more crap from my fingers. mostly on the track pad but some on the rest of it too. not so bad but a little annoying. it can be cleaned and the stuff seems to come off pretty easy by just rubbing it with a soft cloth such as the kind you used to get with every sony ericcson cell phone. soft is the key here as i don’t really know how much this thing could scratch if i pressed harder.

also, i am still not in love with the keyboard. although, as i use it more i find that it gets easier. it might be because i am a lazy typer and was very used to the keys being so close together so now that they are not, i am getting more typos. i think apple will realize that this keyboard isn’t very good and perhaps make some changes to it. i wonder what steve jobs thought about it when he used it for the first time. i bet he didn’t love it either and just thought it looked ”cool“. which it sorta does so there you go.

i have also installed bootcamp on the macbook and yes, windows xp. now that it is up and running it works just like an xp laptop when i am booted in windows and its a mac when running osx. installing boot camp was sort of a pain and here are the two most important things to realize when you are going to try to do it:

you must an installer cd with windows xp pro or home with service pack 2.

you cannot use the actual windows installer cd because it is too shiny for the cd drive in the macbook. it won’t work. at least it didn’t for me.

i had to make an exact copy of the windows installer cd onto a cd that was not shiny and then the install went off without a hitch.

now, my best windows machine is a mac. go figure.

more later. but a hint. i am going to install final cut pro studio and see what happens when i run it with the shared video memory. i bet it won’t make that much of a difference but we’ll see.

moving is a bitch

you really never realize how much stuff you have until it is packed in about a hundred boxes, loaded in a truck and taken across town. then, unloaded and taken into your new home. wow, do we have a ton of crap. its really amazing to see. the moving process has taken six days and on sunday it took almost nine hours to load up the truck, move, and unload and get everything in the door. all of this for a move in the same city and less than two miles from old place to new.

please, if i ever talk about moving again anytime in the next hundred years, just kill me and spare me the misery. i don’t know what’s worse, moving your own stuff or watching four trained monkeys move your stuff for you. seriously, to call the movers we had monkeys is really an insult to monkeys who are smarter than these four guys that came to “help” us.

they were nice enough the way a small child can be nice. let’s just say they were lacking a little something in the brain power department. fortunately, they didn’t seem to do any real damage to anything except a few scratches here and there. besides the movers themselves, we also had trouble with the moving truck which decided not to start for a few minutes after it was completely loaded and ready to go.

the thought of having to unload all the stuff again and then load it into a replacement truck was almost too much for mew to take. fortunately for the movers and anyone close by, the truck finally started and we were on our way. then, art the new place they proceed to unload at a pace that can best be described as “leisurely”.

of course, i was paying by the hour so they were in no hurry. or maybe they were just tired. really, i was tired from just watching them so they really could have been tired and not just taking their time. i choose the latter and give them the benefit of the doubt. tired it is. i guess that makes me a jerk for thinking they were trying to milk it for more dough. oh well, i’ve been called worse.

anyway, time to go back to the unpacking and try to see where all of this stuff goes. i hope we have enough room for all of it. keep your fingers crossed.

Macbook update

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quick update on the new macbook. got matched 2gb of ram from other world computing and installed it today. what a difference! now this macbook flies. much better with more ram. not really a surprise but damn, really nice.

applications load faster, graphics are snappier and all in all a much better user experience. don’t get me wrong, it was useable before with just the stock 512Mb but for me, just barely. this makes a huge difference.

as we are moving this weekend (yes, on memorial day weekend. feel sorry for me?) i won’t get a chance to replace the 80Gb hard drive that came with the macbook with the new 120 GB i got at the same time as the ram. after we move and after i finish putting in the new drive, its time to install bootcamp and (shudder) windows xp. then, the circle will be complete. or something like that.

i’ll report back when i’m done with all the fun and exciting details. oh, one more thing. i really don’t love the keyboard at all on the macbook. the more i use it the more i don’t like it. unfortunately, its the biggest problem i have with the macbook. its just not very responsive and is harder to type on then the old one on my 12“ powerbook.

if i could take that keyboard and put it on the macbook, then i would have a perfect machine. alas, it is just one of those things that i will have to deal with i guess. more later.

Macbook in the house

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so, got the macbook now. just took it out of the box and starting to put it through its paces.

first impressions:

– it’s black

– it’s matte

– the glossy screen is better than i thought it would be

– the keyboard is more annoying than i thought it would be – the keys are a little too far apart for me

– performance is pretty good even with the stock 512MB of ram. i’m sure it will be much better after i put the 2 Gigs in

– its hasn’t gotten too hot yet. i even tried it on my lap wearing shorts and it was fine. no hotter than my 12“ powerbook

more to come but that’s it for first impressions. all in all pretty cool so far.

(btw – the photo is from the good folks at engadget, not me)

Dizzy or whatever

for the last few weeks i have been, for lack of a better word, seasick. its odd to feel a sensation of movement even when you are not moving. i“m not experiencing the ”sick“ part of seasick but i definitely feel as if i am on a boat. it comes and goes but it started, coincidentally, after i got off an extended stay on a boat.

a few weeks ago we went on a cruise with my parents for their 50th anniversary. i have been on boats many, many times before and had no ill effects. this trip, an eight day-er to mexico, was the first time. everything was fine for the first several days. in fact, almost to the end. however, that wasn’t to be the case eventually.

monday night, two days before we got back, i experienced some ”whatever“ which felt like seasickness so i had to get up, walk around and basically kill a few hours before i could go back to the cabin and finally get some sleep. good times.

now, for the last few weeks i still feel like i am on a boat. moving around, etc. i can’t explain it. its not terrible. more annoying than anything. its especially annoying at night when i try to go to sleep. although, eventually i can.

the really odd part is that claritin (an allergy drug) actually makes the symptoms all but disappear. and, for the last week or so i felt basically fine and was getting back to normal. that is until last night. last night is was back and it took a long time to get to sleep while i rocked with the boat that isn’t really there.

anyway, i’m going to see an ear doctor tomorrow to hopefully figure out what the heck is going on. its a problem for me as i like being able to move around and i like being able to sleep at night. so, this needs to be addressed. and soon.

perhaps there are other people out there that have had similar things happen to them. if so, please feel free to speak up and let me know as i like more information. anything constructive or informative is a good thing.

sorry to dwell on my problems but sometimes you just want to get things out there and talk about them if possible. no reason to keep stuff a secret, especially if someone has a good bit of information.

i’ll be back to the usual ramblings any day now . . . oh, and no more cruises. . . . ever.

Moving, Moving, Moving

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got some boxes today. that was fun. from a place called box city in van nuys. even got a tape gun too. its neat. apologies (yes, again) for the lack of posting but i have been a little under the weather for awhile after my work of late. stress is a funny thing that does bad things to you. its just bad, bad, bad. that’s why i try to avoid it as much as possible and one of the reasons i pretty much gave up on showbiz. too much stress.

oh well, i guess i messed that one up, didn’t i? in other news, put my order in for a shiny new black macbook today. its a cool new laptop (sorry, not a laptop) a cool new macbook which will allow me to get rid of two pieces of hardware and go down to one. with a macbook running mac osx and windows xp via bootcamp i won’t need a windows laptop anymore either. cool, right?

apple says the computer should ship in 5 to 7 business days but i hope its faster than that. usually is. let’s hope so. although, what with the moving and all i doubt i would have much time to play around with it anyway so its probably good that it doesn’t get here until after the move anyway. less of a temptation to just sit around and play with it instead of packing.

anyway, i’ll give a full report on it when it comes and let you know if the glossy screen and the new keyboard are annoying or cool. my dell laptop has a glossy screen so i’m not too worried. i don’t think it will bother me. we’ll see. ok, gotta go now and walk over to rite aid to pick up some stuff.