One company I don't mind pirating from

alternateorg on July 5, 2001


Microsoft Word + Entourage SE will be available in English and French versions for an estimated retail price of US$149. The English version is expected to reach stores the week of July 9, and the French version the week of Aug. 6.

Seriously? Only $150 for a fucking word processor and email app? Where do I sign up? Wow… It’s not like I could get an entire UNIX-based operating system for less than that price, or a Linux-based one for fucking free. Holy crap. Microsoft really does know what they’re doing, and this whole ‘open-software’ thing is just a fad. Expensive, shitty software that is incompatible with other software from the same vendor really is the future. I simply love how sometimes, inexplicably, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Mac Edition and Microsoft Entourage can’t run at the same time, or if they do, then you have to open IE first, otherwise the whole machine crashes. That’s zzzrad.

&#60/sarcasm&#62

All of a sudden, that 80mb Hotline download a year ago that provided me with Office 2k1:mac for no price whatsoever looks like a great deal.

Requires Virtual PC to install?

alternateorg on July 5, 2001

Someone please explain to me how I am supposed to install this firmware update on a G4 for a Sony CD-RW drive?


This Firmware Upgrade can be installed under Windows 98, ME, and 2000 Operating Systems. The upgrade resolves multiple CDRW drive functionality, Retrospect software functionality, and Mac G-4 detection issues. Some drives were shipped with this version of Firmware installed. Those users will be notified during the upgrade that it is not neccessary to continue.

Slippery Slope

alternateorg on July 3, 2001

This song-parody line possibility just popped into my head. I’m posting it because if I don’t, then I’ll just keep thinking about it and eventually will end up doing the whole damn song, and no one wants that: (sung to Depeche Mode’s ‘Blasphemous Rumours’) “I don’t want to start any MacOS Rumors / but I think that Jobs’ got a sick sense of humor..” Okay. That’s it. No more.

MacTrivia.com up then down

alternateorg on July 2, 2001

So MacTrivia went live recently. Then it went un-live:


Well, we were open all day on July 1–and we were hammered with visitors! …basically, the script we
chose to use couldn’t handle the barrage of traffic simultaneously.

So hopefully it’ll be back online soon. I didn’t even get to try it out.

AI: Apple Inside

alternateorg on June 30, 2001

Okay, so being the Apple-dork I am, I’m probably the only one in the packed theater showing AI tonight who recognized that a futuristic-looking thing in a laboratory was in fact an Apple iSub..

As far as the movie itself goes… It was definitely interesting, like Kottke I found myself not sure if I liked it until the very end; and like him, I did. Most people in the theater, however, did not. I chalk it up to the fact that most Americans cannot read between the lines, even if those lines are drawn very large, with giant spaces between them, and the lines themselves say ‘Read between us.’

Perfect

alternateorg on June 29, 2001

So, as a Mac-user, I probably take great industrial design for granted. But my gaze just happened to fall on my Apple Pro Mouse and it hit me for the first time since I saw one for the first time that this object seriously is a thing of beauty. One of the most beautiful thigs ever created. I’m not kidding. Perfectly functional without too many ‘features,’ like the rest of the PC world’s mice.. you can launch a fucking rocket with those things with 12 buttons, and yet Apple sticks to the single-button mouse. Because the mouse has one use, and one button takes care of that wonderfully. Fuck that scroll-wheel shit, I say.

Shhh, its called Aimster now….

alternateorg on June 27, 2001

Ok, so Aimster has been finally released for Macintosh. This brings Napster ease of use to the large peer to peer Applications. Kinda cool that it uses the same network protocols of AOL’s Instant Messenger.

Open-souce Flash dev

alternateorg on June 23, 2001

I just stumbled across this via K10k. It’s called OpenLGX and it seems to be an open-source, cross-platform Flash development application that has more robust capabilities than either Macromedia Flash 5 or Adobe LiveMotion:


Multi platform- Linux, Windows, Mac, and even PocketPC (light version)

Much more stable than other multimedia applications and solutions. Needs a fraction of the resources, drive space, ram, etc as the other alternatives.

Native support for .mp3, .avi, .3ds, .psd and several others. Import your mesh, or your image and not lose a thing (animate layers of a .psd, import Lightwave, etc.).

Full export compatibility with Macromedia Flash Player (v4 or v5) as well as the LGX player that supports a true 3d gaming, 512 bit encryption (no, that is not a typo, you can make banking apps with this), and is completely modular so new advanced or custom features can be added without ever needing to upgrade the installed plug-in (and is fully Open Source). If you can code it, you can bring it into LGX is our goal. Enable the web, not bastardize it. 🙂

Now, it’s not unknown that I tend to dislike Flash, but I’m down with anything that empowers the community and can help shift dependency away from A Gigantic MultiNational Corporation.