Bit of a yawner
Macworld keynote this morning:
1. 3 new PowerMac G4s: 733, 867 and dual 800…Funky new enclosure that was accurately reported by MacOSX.org last week.. only they look a little better for real, but still, no actual presentation of it, just pictures on the screen… CDRW in the entry-level, SuperDrives in the top 2. Giant hard drives in all.. I think 40, 60 and 80. Price points: $1699, $2499, $3499
2. Faster iMacs (no more Dalmation and FlowerPower): 500, 600 and 700 G3s… CDRW across the board.
3. Apps for X: Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Maya, FileMaker, etc. The only ones available today are FileMaker and Maya.
4. MacOS X 10.1 available today as Software Update download… Movable dock, DVD playing, burning CDs in the Finder via a new ‘Burn CD’ menubar icon, super fucking fast, etc.
There was other stuff, most of it not important.. you just keep waiting until he smiles and says ‘Oh, and one more thing,’ which he didn’t say today, except the thank Apple employees and their families. So kind of a boring Macworld, but in these economic conditions for computer makers, especially with the EOL of the Cube, you can’t expect them to make too much of a leap. Still.. kind of disappointed by the lack of any change to the TiBook whatsoever.
At leat now running Linux on it would be useless..
In the course of my design career, I have had the utter privilege of using Macintosh computers just about exculsively. Now, it has been my experience that while the people who design the world do it on a Mac, the people who use the world do it on Windows. It makes a little bit of sense, and it’s something I’m sort of fine with. And now, if you’re a MacOS X user, you can run Windows on your Mac, as well as X. VirtualPC is nothing new, but hey, it’s on X now.
So I didn't get home until 1:30, but still…
I urge you all to get out and do what I did last night: Play a little Quake with some friends, walk down to a record store and pick up the brand-spankin’ new Saves The Day album, ‘Stay What You Are’ (website done by our friends at Liberation Media).
And once you’ve browsed said record store and have made sufficient fun of the pictures of Mudvayne and Slipknot on the cover some retarded metal magazine, go see Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within for a rollicking good animated ride. I should warn you, though: some people co-occupying the theater with us were less than enthused with the movie at its end. These people are morons, and do not understand science fiction: All science fiction has a plot that is so basic it is almost childish, while simultaneously being nearly impossible to understand. What sets good science fiction apart from the bad (say, Final Fantasy from Wing Commander [both based on video games, actually]) is the quality of the acting and the quality of the special effects. At least, that’s my opinion, but I digress. Some people didn’t like it because the plot borders on cheesy, but if you’re someone I would like, you’ll be too enthralled with the quality of animation and the bad-ass-ness of the computer interfaces and machinery used by the characters to pay much attention to the plot.
Better get in line now
Here’s where you can watch the MacWorld NY Expo keynote address on Wednesday, July 18. I’d bookmark it now, and open it up like Tuesday night, hitting refresh every 10 seconds all night until 9am ET. Otherwise, it tends to be a little difficult to get in.
Typography, part II
Following in the recent vein of enlightening the unenlightened as to type and how it works, here’s a great article / thing about Post-Industrial sans type – which fonts are most widely used (I’m guilty of using most of the featured families), and why. Check it out, even if you’re not a designer, as it has a lot of info and is really interesting. Via xBlog.
Ye Olde Nacho Shop
2 rules among many about Renaissance Festivals:
1. They are not actually based around the renaissance, but the middle ages. The renaissance was in Italy, after the middle ages, not in England with swordfighting.
2. You’re going to see some stupid-ass tatoos. That is not an option.
An alternative to writing useless emails to big companies
I’d like to send a couple of these court injunctoins to AT&T, Qwest, HP and Microsoft, amongst others, simply because their sites are so poorly laid out.
Peachiness…
I have no spiffy links to throw at you guys. No witty Apple commentary (the *ahem* core of this site). The most interesting video game thing I can think of is that North America is getting Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (for the PS2) before Japan is. That’s unheard of. So why am I wasting your time?
Because I’ve had a good week. I achieved two new skills, one of which was looong overdue. See, there are three things that for some reason or another, people seem to skip out on during childhood: the requisite bee sting, learning to swim, and the all important first bike ride. I’ve been stung quite a few times, and I’ve done the junior lifeguard thing, but I just never got around to riding a bike. I know, I know, stupid me. I knew I’d get around to it eventually.
So I’ve been on this activity streak. Many of my friends are big pot smokers, which = lack of activity. I must be striking out against that. Since December, I’ve been into rock climbing and whatnot. It got me interested in other sports. I dug out the old skateboard I bought last summer to kill the time between Tony Hawk Pro Skater installments. Never really got the hang of it.
Two days ago I rode my first fucking bike. A day later, I fell and donated some skin to the school parking lot up the street. Today, against all logical thought, I went skating for two and a half hours (with my scabby knee and elbow), and got to that “hey, this isn’t so scary anymore” place. I can skate now. On said skateboard, I went down the hill that messed me up when I was on my bike. I got further on my ollie than I ever have before.
So what does this all mean?
I am the Shit. I have two wheeled sports, technically three “extreme” sports, and I’ve bleed for ’em. I am fucking hardcore. This week has been great. Just felt like sharing.