Friday, May 16, 2008

How buggy was OS X 10.5.0? There are 220 fixes in 10.5.3 ...

I don't recall 220 significant fixes in 10.4.3 or 10.3.3 or even 10.2.3. 

AppleInsider | Mac OS X 10.5.3 moving along, on course with iPhone 2.0?

Among those improvements are tweaks to the performance of certain graphics drivers and fixes to parental controls, wireless certificates, and screen sharing, those people say. The latest additions bring the running total of fixes expected as part of the release to a staggering 220.

OS X 10.5.0 was a really buggy release. I'm glad I haven't updated yet. With 220 big fixes in 10.5.3 I'm thinking of waiting for 10.5.4!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Google Doctype

via Daring Fireball

Google Doctype - Google Code

...Google Doctype is an open encyclopedia and reference library. Written by web developers, for web developers. It includes articles on web security, JavaScript DOM manipulation, CSS tips and tricks, and more. The reference section includes a growing library of test cases for checking cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility...

Thank you Google.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Google Docs: A server error has occurred

Sometimes I think those people who write glowingly of Google Apps don't really use Google Apps.
Google Docs

We're sorry.

We're sorry, a server error occurred. Please wait a bit and try again.

Find out more at the Google Docs Help Center.

Microsoft WorldWide Telescope's Mac support

Microsoft Research's WWT has Mac support ...

WorldWide Telescope

For Mac:

Microsoft® XP SP2 (minimum), Windows® Vista® (recommended) with BootCamp...

Not.

Ah well, it's hard to complain too much. It is Microsoft Research after all.

I'll try out WWT on my XP box. If/when I get around to installing XP SP2 and VMWare Fusion I might try it on my MacBook too.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Project Eggplant - Google Sites example

Google has a few sample Google Sites projects online. I liked Project Eggplant best. Evidently there's a way to eliminate the "comments" footers from a Sites page. I hadn't figured out how to do that in my small Sites experiments, but now I see it can be done. I might have to RTFM.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Walkabout camera: DP-1, Richo GX or Canon G9?

Nice discussion of high end walkabout cameras ...
Out In The Streets - Inside Aperture

... I left out the Leica M8 as I think that for $5500 (for the body alone) the camera just isn’t there yet. The perfect camera for me is really a Leica M9, with a full frame BEAUTIFUL sensor, and all the ergonomics of its film predecessors. Until that model exists, I can’t see myself investing that much money in something substandard.

The G9 will have to do for now. Hopefully it will fill that void between the little camera in my iPhone that I ALWAYS have with me, and my DSLR, that I just don’t like to lug around with me anymore unless I have to. Either way, these three cameras really do point toward a new class of camera. A 'street-able,' compact camera, pocket sized, that shoots RAW, works with Aperture, has a wide and fast lens (fixed is fine with me) and can produce large prints that I can hang on the wall.
I'm surprised the G9 is considered pocket sized! I had a Canon G2 and liked it quite a bit, but Canon lost its way with the subsequent models in that series. Nice to know the G9 has a following.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Macintouch likes the Amazon Kindle

Macintouch has the best and most positive Amazon Kindle Review I've read.

I think Paul Krugman is also a fan.

Interesting comment -- the author felt the ideal audience is people who are running out of book shelf space, rather than people who read books then give them away. (We're more the latter.)

On the other hand the Kindle is Windows centric. The Audible support requires a Winbox.

I'm impressed. I was skeptical about the Kindle at launch time, but it does look like a real success. (You were right Andrew!).

I'll keep an eye out for Kindle 2.0 -- and for Apple's rumored challenger. There are still a ways to go before it passes the four tests.