Is It So Wrong?

Posted on October 30, 2007

Is it so wrong to fall in love with someone based solely on their Last.fm profile? I ask this for a reason of course. It all started months ago when I was observing my musical neighbors on my profile. Last.fm matches your profile with those of others who share similar musical tastes. This girl over the course of the month crept up to the top of my neighbors list where she’s been ever since.

Examine this chart of her top 25 artists. The artists highlighted in green are all artists that I would rank in my top 25. A pretty good matching I would say. Her recently played list is always full of songs that I love listening to.

And there’s more. When Cafe Tacvba’s new album came out last month, I made sure to run out and get it right away. As I was listening to it, fresh from the plastic wrap, I thought to myself, “I wonder if she’s got the album yet.” So I checked her profile. And she was listening to the new album as I was listening to it. Track by track, we were listening to it at the same time. I’m not one to believe in signs, but surely this is a sign, no?

Then today. I’ve been spending way too much time with the Futurama trivia app on FaceBook. When you go to the trivia app’s page it shows you a recent person who added the app. And there she was.

Some day… Some day we’ll be together in love.

Leopard Some More, A Response.

Posted on October 28, 2007

Over at Wind the Frog DB asked some questions about Leopard. I was going to post answers to his and others’ questions in the comments section, but some how it turned into a whole fucking essay, so instead I’ll just post the thing up here.

The dock on the right or left…works ok?
Yes the look of the dock changes when you’re side dockin’. It reverts to a transparent dark bar similar to the previous dock. Check my Skitch for a screenshot. There’s a hidden preference if you want the dock in the bottom but prefer the new-old transparent dark bar. Oh, and when you’re side dockin’ stacks doesn’t fan out in the cool manner. But that’s livable.

Anyone test the audio/video quality with iChat?
Haven’t done video/audio chat yet, I’d have to do my hair first. I am tempted though because I want to test the new chat recording feature. iChat still disconnects randomly but at least now it automatically reconnects.

Coverflow/Preview work ok? Or is it real dodgy?
I haven’t used Coverflow either, because the only use I really see in it is browsing porn/random images folders. For seeing what documents are I hit space bar and that brings up QuickView right away. Which is another awesome feature. Works like a charm. Preview.app has gotten a lot better at loading quickly and handling multiple documents/images at once. And you can resize images within the app now. About f’ing time.

On the Intel machines, can you tell it is faster?
The OS on the whole does run faster, though that’s always been the case with OSX. The newest version always runs a li’l zippier than the previous. Also: Me and my MacBook Pro are rockin’ 64-bit I was just impressed how fast the installation was compared to installing Tiger and Panther.

Anything else you would like to add?
Safari resizes images to fit the window and zooms to full size with a double click. That is a feature that I rather missed from Firefox. Now if somebody would make proper adblocking for Safari so I don’t have to look at NSFW ads on FaceBook (which I’ve already complained to them about). And I totally love resizable text input boxes. Perfect for when WP gives you a small space to type in and I have to write up a big post like this.

Last.fm’s client needs to be updated because you can’t switch off showing it in the dock, and it hangs when you quit the program fifty percent of the time which annoys me, but I’ll get by ’til they update it. Also, InDesign was totally borked thanks to the upgrade, although I’m hopefully going to be finding a workaround for that next week.

Paul said: I read that the iLife was a backwards step for iMovie and/or iDVD in terms of functionality, otherwise I might be upgrading too.
Yes you can still get the previous version of iMovie after the upgrade, or if it’s already installed, ‘08 leaves it on the system. I would say that it’s not so much a step down for iMovie as it is a step left. They completely rewrote it so that it’s a different program. I think they’re trying to push iMovie as the program for the unwashed non-tech saavy masses who know nothing of video editing, and want to push the more experienced people (i.e., the people complaining about iMovie ‘08) to upgrading to Final Cut Express. iDVD isn’t so much worse as it is that Apple hasn’t really upgraded iDVD in the past two revisions. They just pack in a couple new themes and call it good. I’ve only used iDVD once in the past three and a half years of owning a Mac.

I think that’s all I got for now. I might have more later, or possibly a video of a monkey washing a cat. Who knows!

Leopard Livebloggin’ #7

Posted on October 26, 2007

It’s not “Line Livebloggin’” because I’m no longer in line. I’m at home, installing on the MacBook Pro. The plan is, do a clean fresh install on the MBP, and a backup on the iMac. We’re all good to go. The wait was fun really. I was worried when I showed up and there was nobody there, but people did eventually show up, and by the time six pm rolled around and they opened the doors, there was a crowd of about a hundred or so. The big exciting news? John from Apple’s Guided Tour works at our store. I hugged him.

Security hassled the waiters twice, because we were blocking foot traffic (but not actually) and because people were leaning on the gigantic planters, which are apparently made of plastic. They had the scary orange forms, but fortunately none were given out. Just typical security guard “let’s hassle dudes because I’ve got this plastic badge” stuff. One of them rode on a Segway.

Before I wrap this up, gotta give shout outs to Pete, the guy that made everybody wear badges, Johnny for being entertaining in the line and for being a loud guy with ice cream, to the one cool security guard of the bunch, who I shall name Edgar because I don’t know his name, and to the guy rocking the Cube G4 t-shirt. Live the dream. Peace.

Pictures will be forthcoming in the Flickr stream as soon as Flickr gets their API issues sorted. And I’ll have a proper write up on Leopard in a couple of days hopefully, after I’ve had time to use it.

Mmmm. New Mac smell.

Leopard Line Livebloggin’ #6

Posted on October 26, 2007

Woot! I’ve got my copy, as well as a t-shirt and a new case for the phone. Now to drive back to Lincoln and start installing. Expect a final write up tonight when I can type on a proper keyboard.

Leopard Line Liveblogging #5

Posted on October 26, 2007

We are now a proper mob. Pics will be on the Flickr later. Security has already threatened to make us leave. Good idea, kick out the people waiting to spend money.

Leopard Line Liveblogging #4

Posted on October 26, 2007

The line is up to nine people. My ass is numb from sitting on the pavement. A loud man with ice cream just showed up. I’ve removed my nametag since girls showed up. I should have brought my MacBook. And a cushion. Maybe a flask. Morale is waning but I maintain hope. More from the front line later.

Leopard Line Liveblogging #3

Posted on October 26, 2007

Finally. A line has appeared. A line of three nerds. But a line nonetheless. Less than two hours to go. I’ve taken a piss and grabbed my earbuds so I’m good to go. This beardy fellow handed me a nametag, but he doesn’t work for Apple in any capacity. I have no idea why I’m wearing it. So it goes.

Leopard Line Livebloggin’ #2

Posted on October 26, 2007

I wandered over to a Jos A. Bank store just to browse around and look for a nice cardigan sweater. The only one they had was 80 bucks. I’m not paying 80 bucks for a cardie that isn’t the perfect cardie but the helpful guy said he’d keep it at the counter for me. And then stood at the counter and watched my every move. I was saved by a fella who came in for an order, sending the old clerk into the back and letting me make my escape without having to explain that I wasn’t going to buy the sweater. Thanks rich guy for saving me from embarrasment.

Leopard Line Livebloggin’ #1

Posted on October 26, 2007

Having nothing better to do with my day I decided to trek on up to the Omaha Apple store to wait around for the Leopard launch. Bloody hell. In New york they were queueing up days in advance; here, less than three hours to go and there’s nobody here. So now I’ve got an afternoon to kill. I stopped by the World Market (think Pier One with a sense of self-rightousness and a dash of hippie “save the world” granola). After a few minutes of browsing the wine section I felt decidedly metrosexual so I left. Now I’m sitting outside a coffee shop stealing wifi and wishing there were a bar in walking distance to wait it out. There’s a cute girl with an iBook doing a crossword nearby, I’m guessing she’s waiting too. I’ll be back with updates as they happen.

Single of the Week: Rod Stewart

Posted on October 21, 2007

The other night I was driving home, and I had a problem to solve. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to listen to the Rolling Stones, or should I listen to Rod Stewart and the Faces. What to do what to do. And then a solution presented itself. How about Rod Stewart doing a Rolling Stones song? Brilliant! Courtesy of the two-disc (at least, iTunes says it’s a partial album) Complete Mercury Studios Recordings collection, we have an excellent rendition of “Street Fighting Man”. It’s a slowed down, slick and sliding blues version, with some great resonator guitar action (Hey Paul, maybe you should get a resonator guitar… it’s still hillbilly, like you were looking for, but it’s cool, too.) and after it ends, it reprises with a an approach similar to the original version, but still acoustic. And really, it’s a fantastic track.

Bonus crossover fact: Ronnie Wood played guitar with the Faces with Rod Stewart, before joining up with Mick and Keith and the gang. Neat!

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