Year: 2007

By Posted on Posted in Technology No Comments

Safari

For anyone who has read my blog for a while, you know I usually write about how great Apple’s latest and greatest hardware and software are because in most cases, they usually are truly great.

Yesterday’s release of the Safari 3 Public Beta made me take a step back and really think about the quality of Apple’s Windows applications. I installed it on my Windows XP and Windows Vista machines with no problems, but the performance is sluggish at best, and there clearly needs to be some performance tuning before Safari is officially released in the fall.

The thing that really bothered me about Safari was the blatant disregard for Windows development standards. The user interface matches the Mac version of Safari instead of taking advantage of the look and feel of Windows XP and Windows Vista. Apple did the same thing when they released iTunes for Windows. If they truly want to create the best Windows programs available, they need to embrace and take advantage of the underlying technologies in the platforms in which they develop. Just imagine the uproar that would occur if Microsoft released Office for Mac using the Windows Vista look and feel. The Mac community would go crazy for good reason. Oh wait, this happened already with Office 6.0, and the Mac community did go crazy.

I am lucky enough to have both Mac and Windows machines at home to play with, but if I were purely a Windows user, I would be confused and frustrated by the iTunes and Safari user interfaces. They would seem foreign and sluggish to me. The applications clearly take a performance hit by trying to look like a Mac program in Windows.

It is time for Apple to recognize that if they really want to be in the Windows applications business, they need to embrace the platform and make the best looking, easiest to use, and fastest applications that take advantage of the foundation that Microsoft provides. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Apple needs to create Windows applications that look and feel like Windows applications.

By Posted on Posted in Technology 4 Comments

RapidWeaver is a great web design tool for Mac OS X. I have been using it a long time for my personal websites and will continue to do so because it is, by far, the best web design software I have ever used. The only thing that I don’t like all that much is the blog functionality. After much debate, I finally switched over to WordPress so I could take advantage of the latest and greatest blogging technology. I did this in spite of my desire to keep the look and feel of my site consistent. I know I could always create a template in WordPress that would match my RapidWeaver site, but quite frankly, I don’t have the time to spend on something like that.

Now, it looks like Dan Counsell and crew over at Realmac Software are working on a nice update to the blog features in RapidWeaver. Just looking at the image posted on their blog, I can’t wait to check out the new version. The only bummer is that you can’t post to the blog remotely. That is a big thing for me because I use multiple computers and I have to travel for work.

What I would really like to see is some kind of integration with a mainstream blogging application. It would be cool if Realmac would integrate WordPress in some way. What might be even more impressive is if they would integrate Blogger by using the Blogger API. Users could take advantage of the great look and feel of RapidWeaver while still having the opportunity to use Blogger to post remotely. Now, that would be the best of both worlds. Dan, if you’re listening, put this on your list of things to do.

By Posted on Posted in Sports No Comments

Now, this hasn’t happened in a long time. Both the Cubs and the Bulls are riding high on 3 game winning streaks at the same time. What’s great is that the Cubs have been beating the pants off of the Cardinals this weekend, and the Bulls have been putting Shaq and the rest of the Miami Heat in their place. It hasn’t been this much fun to watch both teams since 1998. Really, how long has it been since both teams have been going for a sweep of a series on the same day? If I were more into sports history, I would go back and check, but at this point, I’m just excited about the possibility of what could happen today. Can’t wait to watch!

Update: There will be no Cubs sweep tonight. Cardinals pitcher, Josh Hancock, was killed in a car accident early this morning, and the game has been respectfully postponed.

By Posted on Posted in Music No Comments

For those of you who know me well, you know I do a little beat box from time to time. Having played trumpet for a bazillion years, I can make some fairly strange noises with my mouth. A couple weeks ago, my buddy, Paul, hipped me on to this video on YouTube. It’s Rahzel from The Roots doing some crazy cool beat box. He breaks into Iron Man towards the end. Now, this is must see TV.

By Posted on Posted in Uncategorized No Comments Tagged with

Our New Dog
Originally uploaded by Tim Probst.

Just in time for Opening Day, Wrigley has joined the family. He’s a 3 1/2 year old beagle with the best attitude and personality we could have ever hoped for. He’s quickly made himself at home and seems to be comfortable here, and best of all, he’s a Cubs fan. Check out my Flickr page for more pictures.

By Posted on Posted in Music No Comments

Apple launched a great new feature in iTunes on Thursday called Complete My Album. The basic concept is that you now get credit for the singles you’ve bought when you buy an album. This works really great when you’re checking out a song or two from a new band and you decide that you want the entire album. I tried the feature yesterday and got the remainder of a Wynton Marsalis album (five songs) for a couple bucks. Although the feature will benefit all of the artists selling music on iTunes, I think this will be a huge benefit for new bands. Listeners can buy a song or two to check things out and go back for the album for a reduced price. Complete My Album will be a great opportunity for artists to sell more albums and for consumers to expand their musical horizons.

By Posted on Posted in Music No Comments

Okay, I admit it. I watch American Idol, and I can’t wait to see what happens every week. One thing has been really bothering me this season. It’s the continued presence of Sanjaya on the show. This guy is clearly the worst singer and performer on the show, and he’s wasting space. Last night, Chris Sligh got booted off the show. He really blew it the night before, but he has actual talent. Sanjaya, on the other hand, has a lot of learning and growing to do as a singer. He’s just not ready to perform at this level.

Now, to all of you American idiots out there voting for this guy, stop and think next week before you vote for Sanjaya. So far, three insanely talented singers have been voted off the show. Let’s prove to the rest of the world that Americans can judge talent by voting Sanjaya off the show.

By Posted on Posted in Technology No Comments Tagged with ,

It seems that the market has yet again overreacted to a bit of bad news out of Cupertino. Apple is delaying the release of the Apple TV by a couple weeks, and of course, this is a sign that the end of the world is near, and Apple’s share price should automatically be pummeled.

Since becoming an Apple shareholder many years ago, I have had to endure many trading days like today. Apple lives and dies by hype, and unfortunately, when they don’t deliver, Wall Street decides that the company is worth five percent less than it was the day before. I have no doubt that the stock will rebound in a day or two as it always does when things like this happen. I just wish the market would be a little more rational when it comes to Apple. I like roller coasters, but enough is enough.

By Posted on Posted in Technology No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

My buddy, Scott, and I went to the same Microsoft launch event for Windows Vista and Office 2007 in San Deigo and Saint Louis respectively. Even though we were separated by 2,000 miles and different speakers, we both came away with similar opinions of Windows Vista. It just isn’t all that impressive when you get right down to it. My wife and I have a new laptop running Vista, and it looks nice, but it has nothing that Mac OS X hasn’t had for years. Plus the laptop had to be souped up big time to even run the system. On the other hand, I have an almost eight year old Power Mac G4 running Mac OS X Tiger like a champ, and I plan to upgrade to Leopard soon after it is released. It seems to me that Microsoft tried too hard to make Vista look similar enough to XP that it wouldn’t freak people out. Vista has some really nice new features, and they could have been much cooler if the general layout of the desktop wasn’t the same as it’s been since Windows 95. There do seem to be some underlying technologies that could produce some cool new applications in the future. Now all we have to do is wait for developers to redesign their applications.