Still Apple to the Core

Still using the fruits from the tribe in Cupertino, and happy to say - Lovin' it!

The next step will be to convert the old MAC-Mini into being the household media device. It will have to share the interface with the Roku, but I don't think that this is going to be a great pain; in that, the Roku can accept streaming content from alternate devices (or at least I have been told - I still hold on to an old school Missouri show me mentality.)

So this means a whole new project for me. BACK-UP, BACK-UP, BACK-UP: Think I'll listen and actually do the do, or hop on the pony and ride with no protection - NOT! I've already been around this block once or twice before. I may just make a back up, test it for completeness, crash the mains, and then try to restore from the back-up.

Oh no wait, I think that I will make the back-up, test the validity and integrity of the data and then restore to it, and then crash the mains to get to the point where the back-up is necessary. Hey life is only time that you spend trying to figure out what to do in the moments that you think you are bored. But that aside, this new venture into having a fully computerized media center seems like a worth while project - especially since it may be accomplished without any if not too much to money out the door.

The MAC-Mini will need to be updated to at least OS X Snow Leopard, and then the fun begins.

Look for new rants or raves as the process ensues.

Not to let the embers die

Today I received a note from a former colleague and that was a really good feeling. You know the one, where you just feel good that you knew this person from your past and suddenly they are right in your present. Good. Regardless, this is a friend in another city, and as I now go there more frequently, I am going to ensure that this opportunity is optimized. Because, the tracks in one's life are better noted with the company of friends.

Also, today I received a call from a friend that I do not get to talk to too often, and when I do it is like time has dilated and there is no real break from the last conversation that we had. She called today because she is dealing with some serious cancer issues with her husband and needed a vent, and I could not take the time to be a listener, as work was in the way (today in a big way and it was a beast). For this, I am truly sad. For my friend, and for me in not knowing how to put the other call I was on on some kind of mute or hold to allow my friend a moment to share without it being rude. I hope she calls again tomorrow and I can make the most of the moment and let her have her moment and pour out some of the fear, stress, and or just anguish from the cancer that has come inside her life through her husband.

Life is too short to let the fires go untended, and wither to a point at which no flame may be fanned into existence. Life should be a pledge to never let the embers die.

We'll miss you Steve!

With the passing of great, we somehow always stop to note both the small and the large contributions that they made. With Steve Jobs, his contributions, like the giants shoulders on which he stood, were none too small, and yet so great that the world will note his presence for centuries.

Like the immortal words of Arthur C. Clarke "any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic ", and the magic of "i" that Steve Jobs proctored into existence has provided simple magic to millions.

But alas as from the words of Billy Joel "only the good die young!"

Steve, the man, the spirit, the boomer - gone but to be not forgotten as his contributions will survive.

Random Thoughts about "The Information"

From a passage in "The Information", there is a reference to the storage of the stories of mankind as a method of providing cohesion for the human condition, and therefore, our genes. In a modern world teaming with the rapid development of information technology, are we overlooking the obvious? In that, with the electronic tablet, the laptop computer, the Cloud, are we all becoming the scribes of our immediate lives and not the watchful stewards? The actual question is are we allowing the rapid ability of capturing and disseminating information through electronics to produce a great loss by overlooking the fact that this new technology has no real permanence? By permanence, I mean true long term storage and accessibility without requiring any external energy source. Cave walls, clay tablets, paper, albeit each brought with it a hinderance of decoding the symbols, but all are deciphered and no form of energy was required for their preservation, transcription, or meaning to be revealed. Are the contents of a laptop, an iPad, or a smartphone any where near that level of energy independence? The book may be found - If the power suddenly failed, have we put the collective of newly created intelligence at risk?

My new green regiem may be greenless for others

With the purchase of a gas hog of a truck, the feel of 70 to 80 dollars per tank really hit.

As a greener response, I joined the gas sippers, and purchased a Toyota Prius. For a baby boomer, this car has as many of the George Jetsonish features as you can remember from Saturday mornings in front of the tube. Except that it does not morph into a briefcase. I am waiting on that upgrade feature (but not holding my breath.)

But a hybrid car that does not use a key (in the traditional sense) does take some driver conditioning. The other feature is that the car is the most quiet thing I have ever driven. It is so quiet that I have currently gotten out of the car 4 times and tried to lock the door, only to have the car tell me that it was still running.

Quiet, and did I mention new, this car is fun to drive and it has the necessary pep to go when asked. But the thing that gets my attention is that I frequented Quick Trip for gas (many times when I owned the truck) and now I have owned the Prius since August 20th, I have been to Quick Trip 4 times, and I have not purchased gas once. I just hope that I do not single handed cause a dip in the QT revenues and cost someone their job.

I'll post again when I have to buy gas.

Bitting the Apple

I have finally taken the full on bite of the Cupertino Apple orchard.
- iPhone
- iPad
- MACBook Pro
Outside the dangers of over ingesting fructose from all the little apples (products) in my life now, I am quite happy with the operation of all these devices. Prior to actually going down the road that began this adventure into the Apple orchard of devices, I had purchased an iPod; however, operational accuracy - distortion of the audio content, prompted me to return the purchase. I had only purchased the device to get used to the new iOS interface. With the return of the iPod, I just went to the next tree, plucked an iPhone, and have been walking in the orchard ever since.

I now have, pardon the pun, an almost full bushel of the Apple product line. See the list above:
It is getting to a point as to which device I like the best. The iPad provides an almost junkie like addiction to the Internet using this device. It has both WiFi and 3G access, and is therefore the ultimate device to use all around, and is especially viable in airports where rogue WiFi access is problematic. I am still looking at "data in data out" aspects of using the iPad. Although, I am looking forward to the release of the upcoming version of the IOS v5.0. Not to mention the upcoming release of the MAC OS Lion.

The iOS is coming, the orchard is growing, and my little basket of Apples is being used happily.

Software Mwahaha - User Bane

Genius, schmenius, software creators? Build the app that takes over the world, and puts a laser on every shark's head for the sole purpose of world domination, I think not.
Software has gotten too big for its britches these days; albeit, for the most part, I can turn on practically any device and wait, and wait, and (wait for it) wait some more, and it eventually reaches the stable "ready for input" mode from which stuff may be accomplished. Is this the future that we all read about, dreamed about, and for some of us assisted to create? Once again, I think not, or at least I hope not. Configuration files gone awry, database schema not posting correctly, bad input, whatever, the digital world truly has two states. These states are 0. the exuberant feeling of happiness from not being connected, and 1. the insistently inane feeling that the technology you depend on is going to let you down. It is this second point in time that everyone experiences that I want to address.
When did it become accepted to rely on worthless to get the job done? When did we as a society take a pass on excellence to accept good enough as the normal? This can not just be my own angst bubbling to the surface. It has to be at a minimum a grass root movement to reclaim the world that was. When ideas came to pass via a software medium call paper, and simplicity and accuracy were the standard, and not the overly complicated and buggy!
I would not be so miffed if it weren't for the the case that my wife happens to be the worlds best appliance, software, gadget Quality Assurance evaluator in the world. How do I know this? I am the one who has to take the brunt of either explaining, resolving, replacing, or just fixing every software glitch in everything Windows and the plethora of connected devices that she encounters in this digital software augmented and abstracted world that we have blindly accepted as not only "new and improved", but modern. Used to be that quality of a radio was touted by the number of transistors that is used to receive and decode a radio signal, and the number was in single digits. Bam, Moore's law comes on the scene, and the race to increase the number of transistors in a device goes through the roof. What was once simple, due to its few modest components was now on the path to the future and its insane complexities. And along that same path crept the code monster come to facilitate complexities, calm the storm, rate the normal, make life easier, and (there is no proof to date that software has cured the common cold) bloat.
With the fact that software self proliferates with an effective self bloating increase, this is an ever increasing problem; circularly referencing growing faster than that proverbial law of Gordon Moore but not necessarily addressing the quality, the efficiency, and by no means at all verifying the multitude of configuration possibilities. Whew! This is what we have accepted as the normal, and it is only going to get worse as we as a society allow dysfunction to become our normal.
Take back simplicity. Turn off the computer, and go write the next new novel using a pencil and paper. Don't let the mantra of software world dominance become your personal bane, just because you want to be a user - if something does not work complain (and hope you have your own personal nerd to make it all better.)