No more Apple at Macworld

Looks like the era of the big tech trade show is well and truly over. Apple have announced Macworld 2009 (January) will be their last. Killed by online business and their growing chain of retail stores.

The only Mac I've ever owned was an elderly B&W 7" screen Macintosh that was handed down. I tossed the 20+ veteran last year when shifting house and it refused to start no matter what I did.

It won't be last, though, as the new Macs have been calling out to me for several years and the urge to buy one has been steadily growing. A triumph of marketing, I may yet join that customer base. The product looks good and there is no shortage of content on the Internet that people have produced using their Macs. This last, more than anything, is what has impressed me.

Consumer NZ review of Linux

Consumer NZ has posted a review of Linux as a consumer product.

Learn all about Linux and find out if it's right for you with our report into this powerful open-source operating system.

Sick of paying big bucks for Windows? A Linux operating system is free to download and use.

We explain its pros and cons, how to get started and take you step-by-step through burning and using an Ubuntu Linux LiveCD.

More please.

Gonna buy a Mac (or three)

I'm going to buy an Apple Mac.

I've never owned an Apple Mac before, other than a VERY old MacIntosh that I inherited for free gazumpty-hand. That one had a 7 inch B&W screen and 512kb of system RAM. But it really, seriously died this year at the age of roughly 25, so I binned it.

I'm going to buy a NEW iMac. Maybe this one or maybe THIS one.

Though if I go with a Mac Mini, I can buy TWO of these or maybe even three.

Or maybe I'll get an iMac AND a Mac Mini (or two) for the kids.

I've been down to the Magnum Mac store several times and played with the systems there. It feels a lot like Ubuntu Linux, but with more bells and whistles. I especially like the video-editing app on the Mac. That's the real reason I'll lay out the money for it.

Ubuntu Linux will remain the workhorse, doing stuff that a proprietary system provider of any sort would want serious money for.

My copy of Windows Vista can gather dust somewhere.

Firefox 3.0 out on 17th

The latest version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser is out on the 17th of June. They want to set a Guinness Book of World Record record for the largest number of downloads in 24 hours:

Set a Guinness World Record
Enjoy a Better Web

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We're not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 is June 17, 2008. Join our community and this effort by pledging today.

You can click here:

Windows versus Linux

The latest from Slashdot on Microsoft's Windows Media Centre is that it is crippled.

Microsoft has acknowledged that Windows Media Centers will block users from recording TV shows at the request of a broadcaster.

I've been a Linux user since late 1993. I liked the idea of software no one owned and anyone could improve or change. As time went on, it represented software no vendor had crippled to suit their or someone else's marketing needs, wants.

I was exclusively a Linux user for my own use for about 5 years, until the YouTube online video revolution. Linux just didn't have any free or cheap video capture and editing software that suited my needs. The ones that did exist either segfaulted on my Linux distro (version) or didn't work properly.

Meanwhile, Microsoft offered Windows Movie Maker on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Having used both, the version on Windows Vista is MUCH better than the one on Windows XP. It has fewer options for output, but it's more stable and handles audio more accurately.

To make vids I've had to use Windows and I don't like it. When I find a Linux program that can edit MPEGs and produce reasonable quality video, I'll be free to return to Linux for almost 100% of what I do on computers. I've heard "kdenlive" may do what I want.

What's renewed my interest is that the latest Microsoft update for Vista, purporting to be a "malicious software removal tool", kills my external sound jack so i can't use headphones with my Acer laptop. If I roll the update back, I get my sound back...and then Vista installs it again and my sound goes away. I know I can stop that, but I'm effectively orphaning my system if I can't put any more updates on - ever. That has happened to me before on Windows. It's like the system is telling me it's time to go buy a new computer......and the problems become more numerous and serious if I try to hold back the tide and use the laptop I bought barely more than a year ago.

If kdenline works, my deliverance from bossy MS software may be at hand.

Laptop "issues"

I made the mistake last night of applying the latest Windows Updates to my Windows Vista (SP1) Acer Laptop. Now the external headphone jack doesn't work. There was always an issue with that, well documented on the Net, but easily recovered from by putting the system to "sleep" and coming back....Voila!....sound. Plus it didn't happen very often.

Not any more.

Now, when I start both Firefox and Safari, I lose the sound on the external port and can't get it back without fiddlng around for an hour...only to lose it again next time I start both browsers and do something like play a video on YouTube. At least, that's what I suspect. I can't get the sound going often enough to test it out.

The "sleep" fix no longer works because the sleep and hibernate functions no longer work. Well, maybe one in 10 attempts will see "sleep" work and even then half the time I still don't get the sound back. I haven't worked out what sequence of steps would be required to make that predictable....if there is one. The system quiesces to either state, but the power button light doesn't go out so the only way to come back is to remove the battery and re-boot or hold the power button down for more than 5 seconds and force the system to power off, effectively crashing it.

Don't you love wasting time on stuff that should just work? Maybe Apple really is the way to go. I'm sick of this. Meanwhile, I'll roll back to a checkpoint backup I did last week.....though that often doesn't work either for reasons that remain obscure. Or it says it fails, but the problem is fixed....so it did SOMETHING.

[UPDATE: Restored to a checkpoint from 3 days ago and the problem is fixed. Sleep works fine and that gave me my sound back. But it leaves me wondering if I can ever again update my system.....]

[UPDATE 2: Also realised the update had broken my network printing. After the restore, my network printing to a WinXP system works once again.]

GTA IV - Parental Guidance Prohibited

Best title I could think of, though it doesn't quite convey what I had in mind about this story.

The latest version of console game "Grand Theft Auto" reportedly contains more violent and sexual content than previous versions. The version available in New Zealand has been toned down for the Australian market, but still attracted an R18 rating here. The even more violent and explicit US version isn't available in shops in either country.

It seems parents are turning up in games stores with their teen age sons asking to buy the R18 game. Shopkeepers who want to obey the law are finding it tough going. Refusing sell the game to a parent demanding it wouldn't be easy.

Against the debate about smacking, how does this stack up? Is the nanny state interfering with parents rights by not allowing them to buy for their kids material judged to be restricted to those over 18? Or are the parents concerned being derelict in their duty to safeguard their children? Or neither? Or both?

Having not played the game since GTA II, and then only briefly, I don't know. Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, usually shows what I consider to be good judgement in censorship matters. I'd be inclined to trust him and his office on this one.

Easy for me to say. We don't own a games console of any sort as they are banned in our house by she who must be obeyed. "Waste of time and money". Hard to argue with that.