Freecasts

Psystar has released a PC which can run the retail version of leopard out of the box. with no OS it goes for 399, and it can run xp, linux, ect. and NATIVE OS X. If you order OS X with it, they ship you a retail version of leopard. Apparently they put some circuitry on that system to run OS X natively. Anyways, if you want a computer for grandma and you have a leopard disk, look no farther than the psystar Open computer. psystar.com

By now, you have probably heard of the web joke “If Operating Systems Ran the Airlines.” If not, read it, then come back to this post. I was reading it, and something seemed a bit wrong with the Linux Air description. Here is how I would make it go.
Linux Air was founded by people who were annoyed with the other options. When you fly Linux Air, you get a free ticket, and if you want, you can see how the ticket was made. When you get on the plane, you find that it is a little bit older than you expected, but it has a higher top speed than most newer airplanes. When you board, you get the parts to make your seat, and all the required tools. The instructions for making it are a bit unclear, but the plane is full of people who can and will help you for free. They are, for the most part, quite nice. Once you build your seat, you find that it is comfortable, the plane is stable, and the pilot is good at his job. The food is great and free, and you get to your destination early with all your baggage. You try to tell everybody about this free and excellent airline, but when you start, all they can say is, “You had to do what with your seat?!”

I have had it with everybody and their brother ragging on Sony. It is like whenever I mention that I both use and like Sony products, people think I am the antichrist! I try to see why they are so hated and I just can’t. However, the reasons usually fall into one of these categories: They are overdogs, They put a rootkit on my computer 3 years ago and I just can’t let that go, or They are just bad.
First of all, they are hardly overdogs in all industries, and if they were, don’t you think that there is a good reason why they are overdogs? Because they make good products, thats why! When I look around my house (at my consumer electronics) here is what I see. An HD projector by Sony, a PS2, a PSP, a small Sony TV, a Sony DVD player, the list goes on. Basically, they are overdogs in some parts because THEY MAKE GOOD PRODUCTS!
When I hear about the rootkit, I feel that that is a slightly valid argument. They did screw the proverbial pooch there. They messed up, but at least they apologized.
When people say that they make bad products, I just cringe. I have both a DS Lite and a PSP and I use the PSP a lot more. I have Sony components in my home theaters because they are good! I dearly miss my Sony MDR-V600 headphones! Have they made some bad products? Yes. But they are not a horrible company.

Bell Peppers

Originally uploaded by Charles Sporn

A few months ago, I took this picture of some Bell Peppers with my Nikon D50. Recently I rediscovered this photo in my Aperture library and thought “With a hint of retouching, this could be awesome.” So I did a bit of retouching and it came out like this. It isn’t an HDR, but it looks like it!

I recently bought the MacHeist bundle. If you wanted it, you are now too late, because the bundle sale is over. However, today, on this blog, I am giving away one piece of software from this bundle. This piece of software is Appzapper which is an excelent software uninstaller for the Mac. It normally sells for $12.95, but if you are the first one to comment on this blog post or the first person to direct message me on twitter (My twitter name is Spornographer) with the code, “I want Appzapper” you win.

It slows your computer to a crawl. It makes your computer’s components work harder. It is platform androgynous, affecting Windows computers, Macs, Linux boxes, Unix Boxes, and BSD boxes (Yes I know that some hardcore geeks will say that some of the last 3 are the same, I know, but that history confuses me so separate they will remain.) In fact, you are probably infected right now. There will never be a software patch for it, and yet it costs little to fix. What am I talking about? The latest piece of spyware or the latest virus? No, I am talking about dust. I was hit hard recently by a dust “attack” on a semi new PC I got. But like all my blog posts, there is some backstory here.
At school, I am the defacto computer geek. If you are having problems with your computer or just want it to go faster, you come to Charles. It was because of this reason that I was approached to do a data transfer from a PC to a new MacBook. I got there and was thanked because they were going to throw out the PC. I offered to take it because while it is old, the specs were ok. (2.8 GHZ Pentium 4 with hyper-threading, 80 gig drive, and easily upgradeable ram.) I turned it on and much to my surprise, it was emitting a loud noise. If you want to know what it sounded like, imagine this: 100 iMac G5s all running at full speed with their fans running on high speed. It was that loud. Also it was full of crap. It had: AOL IM, AIM, AOL toolbar for IE, the AOL browser, Norton Anti Virus, Real Player, and more. I decided that the weird noise was from some piece of spyware that had gotten installed. I got rid of all the junk, ran a spyware and virus check, and was greeted by lots and lots of noise. Then I had an idea. The sound sounded like there was something trapped in the fan. So I opened the case and unscrewed the CPU cooler, and the internal fan was covered in dust. In the end I pulled out about four tablespoons just from that one fan. After cleaning out the fan and heat sink , I popped the fan back on to the heatsink, turned the PC on, and heard only the slight humming of the hard drive with the whisper of the fan to accompany it. Not to mention it was faster as well. This dust experience was rather sobering because I like to keep my computers running fast (my PowerBook g3 has it’s maintenance programs run so often, it is faster than some of my classmates’ MacBooks) and I never paid that much attention to dust. Next weekend, I am pulling the fans out of all my computers and giving them a good cleaning.

I thought that today’s keynote was definitely not last year’s keynote. Nothing people wanted (Except Rentals) was introduced. You have Time Capsule (Airport+HDD) which was pretty nice, but nothing groundbreaking. A Teaser. Then you have the appleTV Update, Woop Dee doo. And then you have a crappy, underpowered, Overpriced macbook with one Usb port and almost nothing else. And don’t forget the unreplaceable Extremely unreliable hard drive inside it. My iPod 5th gen has died 4 times, all due to HDD Failure. Please note that I rarely Use My ipod, nevertheless handle it roughly. This Thing Will Not Hold Up. Also Note that this has integrated graphics and Non Upgradeable Ram. If You want more ram, Too bad! And, This thing looks like the clamshell ibooks. Where is the Market for something Like this? Or at that price? When I first saw this on appleinsider, I thought “I might buy this if it was a cheaper version of the macbook, and maybe act as a companion laptop”. But then, I saw the price and my mouth flew open. What is wrong with the current macbook to make it deserve this?

Apple introduced new Revisions of Mac Pro and Xserve Systems This morning. The New Mac Pro has the option of one 2.8 ghz 45 nanometer quad core processor, or for 500 bucks more, you get two. That adds up to 8 cores! The New price point: $2,319! Finally, it comes with 2gb of ram standard (just like the Macbook Pro). YAY!