I think I just shorted out my keyboard with drool looking at these pictures of a Mac Pro being closely examined. Oh boy is that one amazing system.
Also note this parody of the Apple commercials.
Tag: Hardware
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Cleaning Up The Rats Nest
I have 2 computers on my desk. Despite the wireless network, keyboard, mouse, bluetooth… it looks like a rat made a nest behind my desk. It annoys me to no end. It looks like Belkin has been working on that problem with some new surge protectors that take into account cable management. Perhaps with some cable ties, and a nice surge protector like one of those, I could clean it up.
It normally doesn’t bother me to much, except when I kick something loose, which is rare, but drives me nuts. Those surge protectors look a little pricey… but just might be worth it.
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The PC Turns 25
The BBC has a little article on the Twenty Fifth Anniversary of the PC. What’s so scary is that despite being 22, I learned to program using BASIC on one of those monsters since my father had one during the earlier part of 90’s. Which means I’ve already been programming for more than 1/2 my life. Just a strange thought.
All I can say about this is WOW. Kinda makes me want to add an Intel Mac to my collection (though I think I would really want a tower with dual processor or something really beefy, rather than current models).
What I really wonder now is, why they don’t make Boot Camp so that you can boot from an infinite amount of OS’s including Linux? Hopefully that’s under way.
Either way, really cool, and makes me love Apple hardware even more.
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Stick to Certified WiFi Gear
Gartner is warning against early adoption of 802.11n citing the need for more testing, and waiting for the specs to be truly finalized before adoption (likely 2007).
I couldn’t agree with them more. 802.11 gear is only good if the devices are “Certified” (not to be confused with “Compatible”). I’d bet that 90% of problems people have with wireless gear is simply because they choose “Compatible” rather than “Certified”. One meaning the manufacturer feels it’s good enough, the other meaning it’s up to the specifications.
I really don’t believe in “Turbo Mode”, and all these other proprietary addons to WiFi hardware. They can’t even get the basics right (look many still aren’t Certified).
Early on (I think it was 2001) I started playing with some early Linksys hardware, uncertified. A real drag. As soon as I started putting Certified equipment in place, the certified equipment worked flawlessly, while non-certified gear still had occasional problems. Now I’m only buying certified hardware, and everything runs very nicely. You especially see problems with non-certified gear when mixing brands. Right now I have 3 different WiFi Adapters connecting to an Access Point from yet another vendor. Not a problem.
A word of the wise, if you insist on reliability, always get certified. You can lookup your products here to see if they are.
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The ports keep marching forward
I’m a strong believer that form = function. A well designed product just works better.
My T43 is a fairly well designed computer, minus it’s few shortcomings. Now take a look at the T60, which I just don’t understand. Why is the VGA port half way down the side of the laptop? Why is USB so far down the left side? Why is Ethernet there?
Perhaps they are operating under the idea that everyone uses their laptop on the go, and nobody uses it at a desk. But personally I find even the T43’s Ethernet (which is further to the back on the left side) a little annoying. I think the new positioning is just asking for it to get hit and broken.
Am I the only one who likes the cables in the back (out of the way)?
Hopefully they at least figured out that using an SATA drive would be a good idea. That way they get rid of those 2010 errors plaguing T43 owners.
I do however like that they kept the same simple design, rather than go with the glow-in-the-dark plastic with flashing lights design that many seem to like.
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When did Logitech drop the ball
I’ve been a fan of Logitech products for a while. I’m typing on a Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo right now. My only complaints about this Keyboard/Mouse combo are:
- Mouse batteries drain way to fast. Should be rechargeable.
- Software for it is extremely buggy. Doesn’t work on my Mac, and causes my PC to blue screen about 3X a day if installed. So I use the built in drivers on both OS’s. Meaning most extra keys don’t work.
I like some of the newer models like the MX 3100 (which you can find cheaper at ZipZoomFly. But no Mac support, and I’ve read it has issues with some KVM’s (which I do have). They also have a Mac Keyboard. Which is listed on Amazon @ $99.
Why the heck are their platform specific keyboards? For a long time keyboards worked well on either platform, then Logitech apparently stopped caring about the Mac drivers, and moved on to their next generation (leaving their PC drivers in the dust too).
Are their best days behind them? Their products have always been nice, but unless they start working on drivers and compatibility, I’ve got to start looking elsewhere.
For now I think I’ve got to get some Radio Shack brand rechargeable batteries, and just forget about all the extra keys on my keyboard. I considered a replacement several months ago. But I don’t see a good alternative to what I have. Mine works pretty well with a KVM and cross platform. Heck mine even has Apple and Alt written on the same key.
Someone should tell Logitech to stop making half assed products. They aren’t the only ones. I’ll be ranting about more in coming months. Some companies seem to intentionally cripple products, and it’s just stupid.
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I told you so
Well, it’s not much of a secret that I’m an Apple Zealot. I admit it right away. Apple’s hardware and software far exceed that of any other company in the industry, no exceptions. A bit more recently this is starting to become a more common mindset. Hixie recently admitted how Mac users seem to always solve the problems (scroll down to Wednesday). Now Paul Graham posted an great bit on how the Mac is making it’s way into every Geek’s heart.
I guess I was just way ahead of my time. I still love my Macs. and I’m aching to get a Wireless card for my Mac Mini so I can get that sucker online.
Mac Users seem to so rarely have problems. Computers run fast, stable, UNIX based OS, quality hardware. I can’t remember the last time a Mac friend told me about their hardware problems. My PC friends tell me about it all the time. I have about the same number of friends on each side of the platform fence. Nor can I remember ever needing to reinstall the OS because of problems. My PC friends (and my PC) have that done all the time. Mac’s just work. They are easier to use, and do the job better.
And if you haven’t figured it out yet, the Tiger theme on this blog is in honor of Mac OS X 10.4 coming soon.
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The eternal disk scans
Decided this would be a good day to scan and defrag my harddrives (you do that monthly right?) PC desktop took about 5 hours (it was bad). Laptop took about 2hrs. Bender, my Mac file server, has the largest and most fragmented drive (thanks to several fun new things I installed, with billions of files). I took it offline at aprox. 2:30 PM EST. It’s now 11:14 PM EST. And it’s not done.
Boy. And I wanted to play with some new toys on Bender. Not today.