Category: Apple
The Beat Goes On, The Money Keeps Flowing
New iPods? About time. The scrollwheel on Jordan’s 1st generation mini stopped working, so she’s been using the mini a friend graciously gave me after my own iPod got lifted from a hotel in North Carolina.
My big question is whether we’ll see a multitouch widescreen iPod, and whether it’ll simply be the iPhone sans phone (but with WiFi and the interwebs functionality), or just the iPod portion. I’ve said before that I didn’t really care much about the phone part of the iPhone, just the iPod and internet device parts. Jordan and I could’ve certainly used the convenience of the Google maps app while touring Seattle and Portland.
Point and Shoot Update
Lots of stuff happening - turned 30 last Thursday. Lots of friends came out to celebrate on Friday, some of whom I hadn’t seen in the flesh in a very long time. I have no photos, unfortunately, an oversight to which the remainder of this post relates directly.
Fake Steve Jobs was finally (and regrettably, in my opinion) unmasked, and new Apple hardware and software got announced yesterday. It says something about my obsession with keyboards that I’m probably most intrigued by the new razor-thin keyboard that they debuted as opposed to the iMac/iLife announcements. I’m using a Macally IceKey at work, and at home I’m rocking the super-clacky Matias Tactile Pro. So far the Tactile Pro is my favorite, but unfortunately it’s simply too loud for the office.
In a fit of autogifting I ended up getting the Ricoh GX-100, and the battery is charging as I write this. Amin Sabet’s detailed comparison between the GX-100, Panasonic LX-1, and Canon G7 helped me make up my mind. That, and seeing/holding all of the cameras in the flesh at Adorama.
I waffled for a long time between the GX-100 and the GR-D, but in the end the need for some measure of focal length flexibility won out. I think if/when the Sigma DP-1 and the GR-D follow-up hit the market I can decide whether I need a prime-lensed model. The other candidate was a Pentax K100D, with either the 21mm or 40mm pancake lens. The rationale behind getting the compact instead was for more portability - I already leave the rangefinder at home more often than I’d like, and that outfit is around the size of a small DSLR.
I’m excited to start shooting this thing. I’m going to install the Aperture and Lightroom trials on my machine, and see how each runs. I have a feeling that Aperture is going to be pretty slow on my Macbook, but it’s worth a try.
More hockey tonight.
Coda Now Does Actionscript
For the last few days I’ve been playing around with Coda, the new web development environment from Panic. It’s a throwback to the old HomeSite-style editors, taking a site-level approach to web development. Daring Fireball had a nice writeup on the philosophy behind Coda, and how it differs from the prevailing web development tools currently available on OS X. I highly recommend that anyone doing web development with your bedrock HTML/CSS/[Scripting language] check it out. The UI is quite simple and beautiful, which is not a surprise to anyone who has used Transmit or CandyBar before.
I was initially disappointed with the app, not because I disagreed with the site-oriented approach, but because it simply didn’t load Actionscript files. Attempting to map the .as file extension to Javascript didn’t work, either. I put the app aside, thinking I’d check back in at version 1.5 or so.
Well, version 1.0.1 just dropped and Actionscript is now supported, so I’m back to playing around with it. The function list is much better than in TextMate, where it’s hidden in a footer drop-down. I was hoping that class properties would also get entries in the list, but so far it’s just functions. Again, this is only version 1, so I’m sure some of this stuff will find its way into future releases. At present the editor doesn’t have the bundle/macro power of TextMate, so I doubt that I’ll be switching over at this point. The future looks promising, though, and if they ever get site-level class browsing and Actionscript hinting like FlashDevelop I’ll certainly be taking another test drive.
Encrypting Files with TextMate
I love the way TextMate doesn’t bludgeon you over the head with its feature set, instead presenting a super-clean UI that belies the extensive amount of features and utilities under the hood. One of the little bits that I’ve just stumbled upon was the file encryption command under the Text bundle (Bundles -> Text -> Encryption). I’ve been looking for a quick-and-dirty way to keep some URLs and passwords encrypted when backed up to an offsite server, and this looks like it’ll do the trick.
For a more generic utility a coworker of mine suggested Crypt, which should work with any file.
Like a Phoenix
It’s been quite for far too long in this space. Figured it was time to resurrect the blog for my three readers out there. My absence is mostly due to a very busy month at work, as well as long-ish trip out west. Jordan and I spent a week out in Napa Valley, leading up to a friend’s wedding. Photos are back from the lab, and I’ll be posting a few shortly.
The title of this post refers to my 2 1/2 year-old 12″ Powerbook, which Friday night started going into a beach-ball spiral of death. An attempt a reboot stalled at the Apple logo screen. This, friends, is why you back up. I loaded a cloned backup of my harddrive from a week ago and so far things appear to be stable, but I’m wondering how much longer this hard drive will last. Super Duper!, which I use for backups, has proven to be worth every penny of the $30 license.
In other news, I am now officially part of the bike commuter nation, the recipient of this bike from my family. Kudos to Joseph for the great idea. It now takes me roughly 10 minutes to get to work, with most of my route sporting a dedicated bike lane. And yes, Mom, I wear a helmet.
If you’re not up on it, it’s probably too late. But for the rest of us, rejoice - The Wire is back on tonight.
Finally, Joyce Bakeshop is now open in Prospect Heights. It’s like the Peach Pit for Brooklyn Vassar kids, only featuring superlative baked goods.
