soapbox

So, I got my copy of Leopard on Friday and installed it Friday night. There are definitely a few cool things about it… lets do it in list form.

Cool: it has virtual desktops built in.
uncool: there aren’t enough function keys on my laptop to map the virtual desktops. (This isn’t a problem at home since there aren’t dedicated keys for keyboard backlight brightness and screen mirroring.)
Cool: seems to be rock solid, no crashes or weirdness.
Uncool: the menu bar is now a light shade of blue.
Cool: you can now set mail to permanently accept certificates from servers with self-signed certs. (cough, dactyl.)
cool: time machine
uncool: the fact that time machine will only really work correctly with an external disk.

Basically, it seems to work really well. However, it doesn’t do that much that’s new. Time machine is probably the killer reason to upgrade, but since most of us are using laptops the usefulness is a bit diminished.

So here are a few guidelines:
You might as well upgrade now. It works and it’s only going to get better.
Before you install, make sure you have a backup and you’ve let software update update everything that it can.
Use the “archive and install” update method. This will make sure that any weird little programs you installed a year and a half ago won’t cause problems for you now.
Make sure you have as much memory as your computer can handle. (This isn’t a Leopard-specific thing, but more memory will always make your computer faster.)
Read http://www.macosxhints.com to find out all the random cool stuff once people discover it.

In other recent-ish Apple news, you should really look at the new version of iWork. Keynote is about a million times better than powerpoint and the new version is pretty nice.

(Oh yeah, Leopard requires at least a 1 Ghz G4. So your computer has to be older than mine to have any problems. I can’t think of any of you using older hardware. Maybe Brian.)

This one’s mainly directed at our favorite early-adopter (this means you, G-Money), but anyone else who’s hooked up the newest OS X release should weigh in with their thoughts, too.

Also, to keep this post interesting, check out the laziest picture of a leopard. Ever. No, seriously, that’s pretty darned chill. That cat must live at a zoo or some other place where chasing down the food is not required.

Here’s the pumpkin I carved for the Keene Pumpkin Festival.
(more…)

This article in The D caught my attention, as I wait for my stupid code to finish running. Raises some good points, and some not-so-good ones, but a couple quotes towards the bottom of the page surprised me.

“Marxism currently exists in only three places: North Korea, Cuba and American universities,” said [econ professor] Kohn. He went on to call the academic left a “watered-down version of Marxism.”

…the Sox won the Series, for those who didn’t already know. Since we have Rockies fans among us, so I won’t speak more on this. Instead, I’ll move on to another fine example of reasons to love Jerry Remy. This should amuse Michael, at least…

Just now, during the post-analysis on NESN with Jerry and Jim Rice, they touched on the odd diversion during the eighth inning of tonight’s broadcast. For those who weren’t following along, the geniuses on the mic at FOX decided to start discussing the fact that A-Rod was opting out of his contract with the Yanks. It was in decidedly poor taste and very unsporting: disrespecting the game at hand, and, by extension, all members of the Rockies and the Sox, and frankly, all of Denver. More than stoopid - downright careless.

Anyways, Remy summed up his reaction in about two sentences. Before he was done, he laid the blame on both Scott Boras (everyone’s favorite agent to hate) for choosing to release that info in the middle of the World Series and the moronic FOX broadcasters for deciding to talk about in the late innings of Game 4.

I wish I could find a transcript of the fire Remy was spitting. It was awesome. No beating around the bush at all: the words “despicable”, “disgusting”, and I think “unprofessional” all made appearances, and, had he been a younger man, I think they would have needed to tape-delay his comments in order to properly censor him. Go, Rem-Dawg!