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New user? Wednesday, July 19, 2000
PowerMac Cube
It's days like this I wish I had a boatload of money to spend. I really like the new Cube, just for its looks, but I think it's too expensive. It doesn't have PCI slots, doesn't come with a monitor, but it's $300 more than an iMac DV Special Edition, which has a built-in screen! You're paying for the size and style. Having all the connectors on the underside of the computer is going to be a major pain, I think.
After a few more hours of thinking, the Cube feels like a black sheep. I don't know where it fits yet. It's not cheap, so it doens't appeal to people who want something like an iMac but not all-in-one. It's obviously not portable. And it's not as good as a G4, especially for that money, since it doesn't have PCI slots, and isn't dual-processor.
If you've figured out who the Cube is for, please share. I have a few ideas, but I'd rather hear yours before saying mine here.
So many opinions! Bill loves it. Dori doesn't. Damien isn't sure. I think Josh wants one. Niel and Edd want one.
I'm totally smitten with the new 17" CRT monitor though. I think it's the nicest monitor design yet. My favourite iMac colours, orange and purple, are gone. Bummer. There was NO word about the PowerBook or iBook today, from what I've gathered.
Remember the old Apple, that had many dozens of different models of Performa, PowerMacs, and PowerBooks? Well, now Apple makes 8 iMac models, 3 iBook models, 2 PowerBooks, 3 G4 towers, and 2 Cubes. Is Apple's falling into the same trap again, or is the new Apple is better able to handle that kind of lineup?
Stackable Cubes?
According to Damien, the Cube looks stackable.
I see that the clear shell has a cut out in the back where the cables could supposedly be run if you were to stack a Cube on top of another, and that the cage is wider at the bottom than the top, to allow stacking.
But how would you use the DVD-ROM drive on the bottom machine? Would the bottom machine be able to stay cool even though it couldn't let hot air out of its top? If you stacked a few of these things, wouldn't it get a bit tipsy?
Anyone know for sure if the Cube is officially stackable or not?
Site Map
I just created a Site Map page. It was pretty easy, it's a built-in page type in Conversant.
Time to Redesign?
I've been thinking about redesigning this site. What do you think, should this site retain its Aqua-look, or should I do something new?
Update: Ed's Weblog has redesigned. I liked the old design, and I like this one too. Note the title -- "Simple is better" -- that's what I've been dreaming of for my new design.
Tuesday, July 18, 2000
Wrinkle in Time - QTVR pano mega-site
I'm surprised I hadn't found this earlier:
Wrinkle In Time - QuickTime VR panoramas taken all over the world in the first 24 hours of year 2000.
The Late Show with the X-Men
I just got back from seeing X-Men, for the second time. I love that movie. :-)
The neatest thing however, wasn't seeing the movie twice, it was being in two different, very distinct audiences to watch the same movie.
The Saturday matinee crowd was full of people who just had to see X-Men as soon as they could. You could tell from people laughing at the inside jokes, oohing and ahhing at particular gadgets or people or scenes, that these were X-Men fans. Hard core comic book aficionados. It was a lively crowd.
Tonights crowd were full of people who could wait until cheap-ticket Tuesday to see X-Men. There were still a few hard core people around, you could here them much more clearly because there wasn't as much background noise in the theatre... people weren't laughing at the jokes (well, not the subtle ones anyway), and weren't generally going NUTS because they were FINALLY SEEING THE X-MEN ON THE BIG SCREEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!
On Saturday, I went with 2 comic book literate friends. Today, I went with a comic book newbie.
Very different experiences. I can appreciate both experiences because of their uniqueness. It's not usually worth going to the same movie twice, in the theatre, but tonight I'm glad I did.
Even if you're not an X-Men fan, I think you can enjoy the movie. My friend did tonight, and I gathered plenty of positive comments from people while they were leaving the theatre.
Don't I spell funny? Theatre. Theatre. Hahahaha!
Monday, July 17, 2000
Hugh Jackman as Wolvie
I can't believe this guy was originally cast for the part of Wolverine. Dougray is too tall, for one thing. And too pretty. Hugh Jackman is a way better fit for the part, bub.
we have a mail server down -- i repeat, we we have a mail server down
The mail server for the roepcke.com domain just went down (unexpectedly). I haven't contacted my ISP yet, I'm not sure how long the outage will be.
Important Update: The mail server is back up, however, it has been configured to disallow all mail from yahoo.com and hotmail.com.
I hope that doesn't include messages from mailing lists I'm subscribed to where the From: header is someone from yahoo.com or hotmail.com! Lots of people sign onto mailing lists with hotmail accounts.
Another Update: Turns out I misunderstood. The new configuration affects outbound mail only, not inbound mail. (I think)
X-Windows for OS X
In keeping with the X-Theme here at HBWT, Tenon announced it is working on an X-Windows Server for Mac OS X.
Honda Insight: Hybrid gasoline-electric car
ArsTechnica: A great review of the Honda Insight, a hybrid gas/electric vehicle. The review ends with this hilarious comment:
While peering at the dash, he pointed to the LCD monitors and asked "what are those hoochies?" I wish you could have seen the look on his face when we showed him the tiny color cameras. As we were about to drive off he asked us where we were from. I just looked Chris, looked back at the man, smiled and said "We are from the future."
LOL!
UVic alumni are everywhere
Found at marginalia (one of my faves):
osadchuk, a weblog focusing on privacy issues.
I took a look at Darren's M.A. thesis, and noticed he went to UVic. I don't normally mention it here when I find people online that went to UVic, but in general, I seem to find interesting people online that went to UVic almost every week!
X11R6
X11R6 binaries are now available for download for Darwin, Apple's cross-platform Mach/BSD-based open-source operating system.
