I note with amusement my pal Damien’s post on TUAW regarding the release of the 1.0b1 version of Adium, in which he writes, “Please note that this is still in beta, though I was using it last night without any significant problems presenting themselves.”
I realize TUAW’s audience includes many non-geek types, who are happily using iChat, and haven’t yet discovered Adium, but it still brought a grin to my face to see a somewhat boilerplate beta-warning line for software that, while technically still in development, has been very stable–for me, at least–over the past year I’ve been using it. This is the first version I’ve seen with the 1.0 moniker attached to it in any form.
If you don’t use the voice and video chat features of iChat much, you should check out Adium (new beta). It supports multiple chat protocols (AIM, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, Jabber (Gtalk), ICQ, IRC, and more…), has a logging feature I have found most useful in finding URIs or other bits of info I forgot to note elsewhere, and is open source, so there’s no proprietary lock-in, if that’s something you’re concerned about.
Tag: Mac
MacJournals recently released the third installment of its 2005-2006 MDJ Power 25. The Power 25 is a ranking of the twenty-five most influential persons with regard to the Macintosh platform. These persons are voted on by a select group of Apple insiders, developers, and media types.
In the “Unheralded” section of the final installment, MDJ had this to say:
Only writers from TidBITS and Macworld made the list again, blanking out the talented staffs at print publications like MacAddict and at online journals such as About This Particular Macintosh (whose editor, Michael Tsai, is also the author of DropDMG and SpamSieve, two best-of-class shareware products).
I have long thought that we have a fantastic staff working on ATPM, one reason why I continue my involvement with the publication.
Unlike the other publications noted in the MDJ quote, our staff is all-volunteer; we all have “real” jobs. (Well, most of us do, any way.) Each month our writers churn out reviews and how-to columns, as well as opinion pieces, you won’t find anywhere else. We don’t regurgitate product specs and marketing materials, throwing in a few hours of the product use. We live with these items, attempting to integrate them in to our daily workflow or play time. Many a reader has told us how much they like our publication because of that depth. We strive, each issue, to be the “e-zine about the personal computing experience”.
I feel as though this publication is, in a way, an extension of my family, and I always like to see my family’s work recognized and appreciated. Thanks, Matt, for the recognition. Kudos, and thanks, to the staffers of About This Particular Macintosh. You guys and gals rock.
The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Paper or plastic?
Wes ponders the news of Mark Pilgrim’s publicized switch from the Mac OS to Ubuntu Linux, as well as the ensuing conversations around the blogosphere. He also points to items on OS X’s kernel, the Apple v Does case, Apple conspiracy theories, John C. Dvorak’s admission that he trolls for Mac users, and Windows Vista running on a MacBook Pro.
We have another double-dose from the prolific Mark Tennent, who loves Call of Duty, but wonders where Apple’s next design inspiration will be springing from. Ted takes a rabbit trail off the outlining pathway in this month’s ATPO, exploring some of the nature and philosophy behind outlining. Chuck looks at script parameters and results for you FileMaker jocks. Miraz Jordan notes how iWeb’s current incarnation isn’t a friend to web accessibility, and Sylvester gets around to using Automator.
This month’s desktop pictures are of Alaska, and are courtesy of John Lowrey. Some of you may know John from Northern Softworks. I have several of John’s photos in my desktop rotation, and we thank him for sharing his work with our readers.
This month’s Cortland features a radical departure as artist Matt Johnson explores a corner of the web comics universe.
Looking for a solution to his DVD-burning needs, Chuck reviews DiscBlaze, then turns his attention to Dobry Backuper, which, if you failed to infer from its title, is yet another data backup app. Wes wasn’t blown away by Google Map Hacks, while Matthew attempts to find out if he indeed did assassinate the President in XIII.
I hope ATPM offers some cool news as the northern hemisphere slides through the hot days of summer, and as always, we thank our readers for…well, reading.
It’s not a full-scale semi truck, or even a VW Beetle, but it is a real-life Transformer.
[Via Firewheel Design.]
* * *
Brent informs us that Mississippi is very dog-friendly at its rest stops.
* * *
As Lee said when he pinged me via IM, “What a waste of a Countach.”
* * *
For some reason, I can’t believe John blogged iStache.
I must have a Gnome-be-Gone. Must.
[Via Uncrate.]
* * *
Why is it I’m learning about Pete’s Famous from Brent, rather than my parents, who have lived in the Birmingham metroplex for a decade? (I can actually answer this one; my parents bring their lunch to work, and don’t go out.) I wonder how far Gus’s place is from their respective offices?
* * *
Of course, I could see this eating into the PowerMate’s market. I mean, who needs a flashing knob to notify you of email when you can have a flashing keyboard?
One reason I turned off that particular functionality of my PowerMate was the distraction of the blinking light…
* * *
Presenting the iCarta. iDon’t think so.
[Via Firewheel Design.]
I renewed my .Mac subscription last year, though I did so with reservations. That was the last time I will renew, and come October, I will be .Mac-less for the first time since the service was the original, free iTools. With every feature “update”, I am finding less and less value in the service for myself. I am not alone in my feelings, and Khoi Vinh sums up a lot of how I feel. Your own mileage may vary.
I thought I would begin the process of replacing the features I use with .Mac, keeping in mind the sum total of the replacements not exceed .Mac’s annual price tag of $99.95. Steven Frank offers alternatives, and I will likely touch on many of those as well.
Anti-Virus
To begin the replacement process, I started with virus protection. When McAfee began to have issues with Virex 7.5, before and after the introduction of Mac OS X Tiger, I went looking for another anti-virus solution. Granted, we have yet to have a serious virus infection of the OS X community, but it never hurts to be prepared.
I now use ClamXav to fend off the nasties. The only downside to ClamXav is a lack of protection from Visual Basic-based macro viruses, which infect Microsoft Office documents. Personally, though I own Office, I use its components rarely, so this isn’t a showstopper for me. If the applications of Office are some of your mainstays, however, you might want to investigate Norton AntiVirus or VirusBarrier.
It should be noted that Apple no longer includes any anti-virus package with .Mac, so even if I were to pay for NAV or VirusBarrier, it wouldn’t be counted against the $99.95 cost of .Mac.
E-mail
Besides the former use of Virex, another feature I’m using with .Mac is the @mac.com e-mail address. At the last revision of the .Mac feature set, Apple increased the default storage limit to one gigabyte. This is shared space; it is utilized by your .Mac e-mail, as well as any files you upload to your account.
Contrast this with Google’s Gmail, which gives you, currently, 2.7 GB of space, and counting. (Google slowly increases the storage amount each day.) My Gmail account has become my main e-mail account, with my account on my own domain coming in second. The Gmail web interface is much faster, for me at least, than the .Mac web interface, though with both accounts I use the POP protocol to route the mail to my local e-mail client.
So for now, I’ve replaced the anti-virus software Apple no longer offers, and I’ve replaced the e-mail service with one that offers more storage and a faster user interface, both at no cost. More on my personal quest to rid myself of .Mac in a future post.
You know, I find it quite amusing, given Al Gore’s connection to Steve Jobs (Gore serves on Apple’s board of directors, in case you didn’t know), that at the same time An Inconvenient Truth is released, so is Cars.
* * *
Since Textpander has become TextExpander, and now comes with a thirty-dollar price tag, all of its little quirks may send me back to TypeIt4Me, of which I am a registered user already.
The biggest quirk? If I misstype an abbreviation with Textpander, but backspace and fix the abbreviation’s spelling, it won’t trigger the full text. TypeIt4Me does. With Textpander, I have to delete whatever part of the abbreviation I’ve typed, and start over.
* * *
I really like the FIFA World Cup smiley-faced logo. It’s just so cheery.
When you see “Fédération Internationale de Football Association“, does Monty Python and the “Department of Redundancy Department” come to mind, or is it just me?
The June issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available.
Mirko von Berner celebrates the new MacBook in this month’s cover art. Wes Meltzer waxes nostalgic on the Mac blogosphere’s round-up of the MacBook, as well as noting Apple’s new commercials, Microsoft Vista delays, and other blog posts of interest to Mac users.
Mark Tennent has a triple dose of MacMuser for us this month: Mac vs Windows network printing; the value of iDisk; and how black is the new black. In this issue’s FileMaking, Chuck devles in to FileMaker scripting. Sylvester ponders the modern technological conundrum of the digital lifestyle not always being all it’s cracked up to be.
Chris Lawson offers us another dose of photos from last year’s Oshkosh AirVenture event for this month’s desktop pictures section. This set features some of my favorite prop planes: the P-51 Mustang, aptly named “Gunfighter”; the P-40 Warhawk, defender of Chinese airspace in the days before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; the P-47 Thunderbolt; Supermarine’s Spitfire, defender of Britian’s skies; and the venerable DC-3.
In this month’s Cortland, Todd lands a date and a job interview on the same night, but neither is what it seems. Plus, Chad is taken down a notch by the Boss Control Squad.
Paul reviews photo manipulation newcomer PhotoComplete, while Wes has a double-shot look at products from Waterfield Design. If you’re not a briefcase type, such as moi, you may want to give the Racer-X a look; it could change your feelings about briefcases. But if you go with the Racer-X, or any of Waterfield’s other cases, you’ll want to use their SleeveCase in conjunction with the larger bag. My PowerBook rides in a SleeveCase, no matter what other bag I use, and I second Wes’s recommendation, though unlike our Mr. Metlzer, I prefer the full flap on the SleeveCase.
What happens when worms gear up with mil-spec hardware and wage war? Worms 3D, of course, which our Matthew Glidden puts through its paces. Eric runs Yojimbo through the wringer to close out the June issue, available any way you like.
The iPatch.
* * *
This likely has made its rounds through the blogosphere already, but I just read in the latest dead-tree edition of Wired that Choose Your Own Adventure books are getting republished, updated for the 21st century.
Though he’s not old enough yet to read on his own and appreciate them, I may have to pick up these titles for my little phisch. I had a great time with them when I was eleven, though I don’t believe I was ever able to successfully navigate The Abominable Snowman without “cheating”.
* * *
What happened to all that wreckage from the Twin Towers after 9/11? Twenty-four tons of steel girders ended up in one of the Navy’s latest ships.
Good tip, courtesy of TUAW, on pairing your Apple Remote with its intended system. Very useful in a mutliple Apple-Remote-Mac home. I went ahead and paired my iMac with its remote, even though it’s the only such capable Mac we have. You never know what might be around the corner.
* * *
42 Climbers Reach Summit of Mount Everest. Note to self: “May is considered the best month to climb Everest. Climbers in Nepal have to complete their mission by May 31 before the weather deteriorates during monsoon season.”
* * *
“Elvis impersonators can relax: No one’s coming after their bespangled jumpsuits.”
Damn.
* * *
This story is encouraging me to let the little phisch have a cheap point-and-shoot digital in a few months. He loved using a Fujifilm disposable camera a couple of months back, and even framed a shot or two pretty well.