Preoccupations

Re-echoing that Mac/DOS piece

When I read Stephen Fry's first Saturday Guardian column (previous post), I took in the cross-reference to Umberto Eco's piece about the Mac/DOS:Catholic/Protestant parallelism but didn't follow it as I recalled having read it before. Then I saw friends bookmarking it and something made me check it out. What I recall reading (in October, 2005, it turns out — see Labyrinths and Internet) was something fuller — short of a full-length newspaper column but more than a clip.

I found it on the web in The Modern World and I see from the same site's page of Eco's writings that it says of this, the Mac/DOS piece: 'This ubiquitous work has, by now, found its way all across the Internet'. So there we are. And here it is, again.

The Holy War: Mac vs. DOS by Umberto Eco

The following excerpts are from an English translation of Umberto Eco's back-page column, La bustina di Minerva, in the Italian news weekly Espresso, September 30, 1994.

A French translation may be seen here.

---

Friends, Italians, countrymen, I ask that a Committee for Public Health be set up, whose task would be to censor (by violent means, if necessary) discussion of the following topics in the Italian press. Each censored topic is followed by an alternative in brackets which is just as futile, but rich with the potential for polemic. Whether Joyce is boring (whether reading Thomas Mann gives one erections). Whether Heidegger is responsible for the crisis of the Left (whether Ariosto provoked the revocation of the Edict of Nantes). Whether semiotics has blurred the difference between Walt Disney and Dante (whether De Agostini does the right thing in putting Vimercate and the Sahara in the same atlas). Whether Italy boycotted quantum physics (whether France plots against the subjunctive). Whether new technologies kill books and cinemas (whether zeppelins made bicycles redundant). Whether computers kill inspiration (whether fountain pens are Protestant).

One can continue with: whether Moses was anti-semitic; whether Leon Bloy liked Calasso; whether Rousseau was responsible for the atomic bomb; whether Homer approved of investments in Treasury stocks; whether the Sacred Heart is monarchist or republican.

I asked above whether fountain pens were Protestant. Insufficient consideration has been given to the new underground religious war which is modifying the modern world. It's an old idea of mine, but I find that whenever I tell people about it they immediately agree with me.

The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counter-reformist and has been influenced by the ratio studiorum of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory; it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach -- if not the kingdom of Heaven -- the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: The essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.

DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can achieve salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: Far away from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.

You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counter-reformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It's true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions: When it comes down to it, you can decide to ordain women and gays if you want to.

Naturally, the Catholicism and Protestantism of the two systems have nothing to do with the cultural and religious positions of their users. One may wonder whether, as time goes by, the use of one system rather than another leads to profound inner changes. Can you use DOS and be a Vande supporter? And more: Would Celine have written using Word, WordPerfect, or Wordstar? Would Descartes have programmed in Pascal?

And machine code, which lies beneath and decides the destiny of both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that belongs to the Old Testament, and is talmudic and cabalistic. The Jewish lobby, as always. ...

Technorati tags: Umberto Eco, Mac, DOS, PC

Why not to buy a Mac

An email from Apple just appeared in my Outlook inbox:

'No' to all of those.

I'm drawn to Macs (there are many reasons for considering the Intel Mac as an excellent choice), but adverts like this one just put me off.

Dave Winer:

Every time my Mac crashes in the middle of the night I think of the stupid Apple commercial where they claim that Macs don't do that. It happens about once a week, sometimes every other day.

Apple: "Your toaster doesn't crash. Your kitchen sink doesn't crash. Why should your computer?" 

Good question. The answer is that computers crash, even Macs. In my experience, they crash more than Windows machines. Giving Apple the benefit of the doubt, their marketing people don't understand computers. Better to promise to help users when the computer you sold them crashes, than to promise they don't crash.

Technorati tags: PC, Windows, Dave Winer, advertising

BPI gets go-ahead to sue AllofMP3

BBC report here:

The British recording industry has been given permission to sue Russian music website allofmp3.com in the High Court. Members of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) want to prove the site, which offers downloads for as little as five pence, is illegal. They were given the go-ahead to sue the company last week, and say proceedings will be issued in Russia this week. The operators of allofmp3.com deny the recording industry's claims that their site is not licensed to sell music.

Slashdot doubts the likelihood of this action sticking. WiredFire has an interview with with Matt Phillips, Communications Manager of the BPI. (These links all via ORG-discuss, the discussion list of ORG.) AllofMP3's press statement about recent developments (statement dated 6 June, 2006) is currently here. Earlier (also 6 June) BBC report about the BPI and AllofMP3 here.

I've posted about AllofMP3 before: AllofMP3.com: bursting the mould? (4 January, 2006); Best on-line music site? (25 March, 2004).

Some thoughts from the WiredFire interview:

Whether the BPI action is likely to be that successful is open to widespread conjecture. On the surface they would appear to have quite a solid case under UK civil law, given that their site appears to be targeting English consumers. But enforcing any judgement overseas is going to be an altogether different issue – especially if AllofMP3.com can demonstrate that they have been complying with the laws of their own country and that their export market is incidental to their primary business model.

Perhaps the biggest clue as to their future intentions is detailed within their press release:

“On September 1, 2006 the changes to the Russian copyright legislation will come into force. Since January 2006 the site has been making direct agreements with rightholders and authors at the same time increasing the price of the music compositions and transferring the royalties directly to the artists and record companies. The aim of AllofMP3.com is to agree with all rightholders on the prices and royalties amounts by September 1, 2006.

We believe in the long term and civilized business based on respecting the law, considering the customers' demands as well as the interests of both national and international rightholders”.

… Whatever the outcome, we feel that it is about time that the true cost of digital music is properly reflected in the retail price. Ridiculous statements such as those made by Mark Richardson that “the cost of distribution for downloads is actually higher than for CDs” do nothing to attract any sympathy from those of us who have spent not inconsiderable fortunes in amassing our modest CD and DVD collections. Whilst the BPI are to be commended for their more realistic approach to digital file transfers than their US counterparts, the RIAA, their curious choice of allies in the form of Mark Richardson of Independiente Records is certainly doing them no favours.

Also in the WiredFire interview:

Jamieson went on to criticise iTunes for their use of non interoperable DRM, calling on Apple to open up its software in order that it is compatible with other players. "We would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability."

Technorati tags: AllofMP3, AllofMP3.com, BPI, RIAA, RIAA,  iTunes

Dual-booting Apples

I've been away in Paris and missed the official announcement from Apple about Boot Camp:

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.

Over at Daring Fireball, an excellent essay on Boot Camp by John Gruber:

Right now, it’s a dual-boot situation, which is obviously less than ideal. It’s not hard to imagine, though, that the version of Boot Camp Apple is building into the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 (a.k.a. Leopard) will be a concurrent virtualization tool — i.e. that Windows (and perhaps any other PC OS) could be hosted within a running Mac OS X session, obviating the rather annoying need to reboot to switch between OSes.

Do I know this? No. But it certainly seems like the obvious direction for Boot Camp to take, and it’s certainly technically possible. E.g. earlier today, their hand presumably forced by Apple’s release of Boot Camp yesterday, Parallels released a public beta of their $50 Workstation virtualization system for Intel-based Macs. It’s like Virtual PC except, because there’s no need to translate between the PowerPC and x86 instruction sets, it executes the hosted virtual system at native speed. I think it’s a safe bet that Apple plans to include something like this with Mac OS X 10.5, for free.

And this points to the rather delicious conclusion that Apple is casting Windows, including Vista, as the new Classic. Boot Camp portends Apple’s intention to become a Windows-only PC manufacturer no more than Classic served as a hedge against Apple’s commitment to Mac OS X — that is, not at all. … This is a move of supreme confidence — Apple relishes the comparison between Mac OS X and Windows XP, and Microsoft has shown enough of Vista via its widely-available beta seeds that Apple quite obviously isn’t afraid of that comparison, either.

Technorati tags: OS X, Windows, dual boot, Boot Camp

Little boxes

John Naughton's column in today's Observer has an entertaining couple of final paragraphs about Apple's new TV ad and Intel's gobsmacked reaction:

'The Intel chip', it burbles. 'For years, it's been trapped inside PCs, inside dull little boxes …'

These preceding paragraphs are the meat, though:

The move to Intel processors takes Apple into uncharted territory. For the first time it will be possible - with a little bit of tweaking - to run Windows natively (without going through a software emulator) on a Mac. The prospect of so-called 'dual-boot' Apple computers - ones that can run both Microsoft and Apple operating systems - now seems real. This could be good news for people who run PCs, not because they love them but because an application essential for their business only runs under Windows.

It's more difficult to see what the upside of this would be for Apple. It might mean that it sells more computers and finally penetrates the corporate marketplace - hitherto a Windows-only zone. But the impact on Microsoft would be negligible, because people will still need Windows licences if they wish to run a dual-boot machine.

More troubling for Apple is the prospect that its operating system and applications software can now run natively on (much cheaper) PC hardware. The company is set against this, but already programmers have hacked it and it is difficult to see how Apple could stop the practice. If it catches on, Apple might see sales of its computers decline as those who admire Apple software but dislike its hardware prices get the best of both worlds.

Technorati tags: Windows, Microsoft, Intel, John Naughton

More on the iPod: design

From Mobile Community Design:

We all know Apple didn’t do an ethnographic study of how people listen to music before they started. They had a “visionary” come in with the idea to make a mp3 walkman with a hard drive in it - that had already been on the market for years (see Nomad Jukebox). If they had taken the time to do their research first they would have found that people use Walkmans in complex social settings. Users are often distracted. They often use the devices to shield themselves from unwanted attention. They use it while doing other things (e.g. shopping, entering the bus, talking to people). They hold it primarily in a pocket or purse. They struggle with headphone wires. They make subtle changes to their music rapidly and then drop it back in their pocket. The IPod is not designed to support or improve on these things.

Music is a shared resource. Bands record their own music and then trade it. People lend CDs to other people to listen to for a while. People recommend music to other people. People make bootlegs and then buy the original if they like it. How does the IPod support this? It doesn’t. It puts barriers in the way of it. Ever try finding a song on your IPod using a standard Windows interface? All the music is obfuscated into meaningless numbered folders. Copying music between IPods via a cable (much less wirelessly) isn’t supported. You might say that this is because of copyright issues. Then what about the IPod Photo? I take my own pictures, save them, and then want to share them. I can’t even connect the IPod to a friend’s computer and easily give them a copy of my latest travel photos. It is completely unusable due to the folder structure being used. This isn’t about copyright, it’s about the designers not understanding the social nature of handheld devices that hold personal data. These devices are about social networks and sharing. While we're on the topic of legal music sharing: why can’t I send a snippet of a song to a friend, or a bookmark to purchase the song on the online music store, or download the song direct and wirelessly to the IPod? That would be visionary. …

The IPod is a pretty music player that has an annoying circular interface and comes in small package. Apple created it long after other companies had been producing similar (albeit uglier) products. Other personal media players already offer superior interfaces and battery life than the IPod. So why does the IPod do so well? Firstly, usability isn’t the only factor that makes products a success. Secondly, the innovation at Apple appears to happen in the marketing and sales departments and not in the mobile design department. It’s a shame, because the marketing and brand power of Apple could enable the IPod designers to deliver truly liberating music players into our pockets - if only they would design them.

There’s another factor in Apple’s favor, which has to do with memes, or the spread of product concepts if you will. Apple’s main markets are musicians, students and designers. If you were going to copy someone else to try and look cool, who better to mimic – particularly when the product looks fashionable from a distance. Thus, buying an IPod is a statement of social status which spreads further each time a fashionable person uses them in public.

Mobile phones are starting to introduce music player functionality. Apple is likely to be overtaken by these mobile phone companies because they have the wireless networking infrastructure to facilitate media sharing and they already own our other pocket. Will we carry two devices when we could carry one? Only if the IPod can deliver a sufficiently superior social media experience. Think different Apple.

I'm reminded of Christian Lindholm at Reboot 7.0 asking how many of us had an iPod.  A sea of hands.  'And how many of you have your iPod on you?' If I recall accurately, two hands went up. 'There you are,' he said, 'the iPod is not a truly mobile device.' He also expressed surprise that Apple has not given a text-based search facility to the iPod.   

Technorati Tags: iPod, Lindholm

The Apple honeymoon

Surely it's got to end?

I'm thinking seriously of buying a PowerBook once the new ones are out — I'm following Jeremy Zawodny's line of thought. BUT meanwhile, and for other reasons, I can't believe what Apple is getting away with. My sons' iPods have broken down not once now, but twice in their first year of use (and I hear similar stories from other users). Twice my sons have had to go through the 40 minute phone call to Apple UK, clearing the various hurdles before their iPods get sent back to base for repair. Once these warranties are finished, that's it: when they break down for a third time, buy a new one … Or not. Apple have lost two future customers here, so disillusioned are they with the gap between the hype and the reality.

Dave Winer's just posted this:

The user interface on iTunes is awful. It's the worst piece of crap I've ever used. People would tell me when I was a Windows user that it was because the Windows version of iTunes is crap but the Mac version is easy. Well, both programs are head-up-butt impossible to figure out. The user model makes no sense. When is something on the iPod? How many copies of the music do I have? Where the fcuk are they? How do you delete something? Is it really gone? Why does it wipe out the contents of the iPod when I don't say it's okay to?

I don't understand how they get people to buy so much music on their store, I wouldn't give them a dime. I buy the CDs and scan em in. Someone bought me a copy of Alice's Restaurant as a present when I got the new iPod. Well that was gone in less than a week, never got to play it once. What did I do wrong? I swear, I have no idea, and I'm a professional software designer. What about the poor schnook who is just a user?

I'm reminded of Douglas Adams:

… ‘technology’, as the computer scientist Bran Ferren memorably defined it, is ‘stuff that doesn’t work yet.’

Merry Xmas to one and all.

Satisfaction not (yet) guaranteed

Dave Winer:

Jeremy Zawodny had a bad experience with iTunes yesterday too. You know, reading his story actually makes me feel better. The bad part about it is that I was looking forward to watching a movie on this little hand-held marvel. Watching a movie on the subway in NY and seeing what people think. Apple is very seductive. But also flaky. The joy of it will wear off, for sure. And when the initial experience is so disappointing, you gotta wonder if the whole thing is worth the trouble. The same thing happened with the Apple laptop and the desktop I bought. But then it also happened with the Sony Vaio. But it didn't happen with my new Toyota earlier this year, or my Lexus, which I bought in 1999. Both worked flawlessly. It seems the computer industry hasn't gotten to the stage yet where it can really deliver delight to users.

Jeremy Zawodny's post caught my eye earlier today:

In summary, do not upgrade from iTunes 4.9 to iTunes 6.0 if you value your time, music, and sanity.

Steve Jobs, you owe me an apology.

For a company that's built a reputation on stuff that "just works", this is unbelievable. You're lucky I can't use anyone else's software to put music on my iPod. I don't look forward to spending the next 3-4 weeks re-importing 500 CDs into your buggy software.

Apple of your Eye

Tomorrow's Private Eye. There are two iPods in our family, and they've both given a lot of trouble. My students have similar tales. Is this unusual experience?

Robert points to this Apple front page:

I have to say, to me this seems at the very least cheesy, but probably in poor taste.

No axe to grind here — I'm sorely tempted to buy a Mac PowerBook before long. But how come the problems with iPods don't make more waves? And I can't believe I'm alone in finding this kind of advertising … shallow (because tastelessly parasitic — what's owning a Mac got to do with fighting racial segregation)? (One of those leaving comments on Robert's posting asks what the reaction would be if Microsoft had used the Rosa Parks image: 'Where do you want to go today?'.)

Desktop OS crossroads looming

Julian Bond has just posted about MS, Longhorn, DRM and the option to choose Mac over PC:

… I'm reading more and more about how Intel and Microsoft in conjunction with the hardware manufacturers will be bolting DRM in various forms right in the middle of the OS. I'm reading about how I won't be able to do what I want to do. The only reason I stay with XP is because so much software appears on XP first, Apple later and if you're lucky and Linux hardly at all. But if significant software I want to run is prevented from running, It's finally going to tip me over the edge to switch.

The other side to this is that MS is getting into the classic big software project mentality. Whatever the bug or feature is, it will be fixed in the version that comes out with Longhorn. Because all the software is so intimately tied to the OS, there's come a point where they can no longer ship each individual piece early and often. Everything has to wait for the big release. And that big release therefore ends up being vast and untestable. And late.

Now it looks like I'm going to be due a machine upgrade round about the time of the Longhorn release. And by chance that coincides with when Apple-Intel laptops should be available. So finally I'm being forced into making a choice that I otherwise could have put off for a bit longer. Will I stay with MS for another cycle or is this the time I jump ship? Will all the endless annoyances of Windows being added to by another load of DRM and control finally tip me over the edge?

I think I'm not alone in this. A Unix based OS with a pretty face, stable drivers, and easy access to all that OSS feels awfully attractive. Just maybe a Linux distro will be as good as Mac OSX but I kind of doubt it.

So I think this should be a call to arms to Apple and the OSS cadre. You've got 2 years or so to become a completely credible alternative. If you can manage it then you can do us all a favour and blow MS out of the water. Because everyone who currently uses XP is going to be faced with the same choice I am. And that's the perfect moment to say "'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more" and just switch.

'I think I'm not alone in this.' I've been having the same thoughts for a few months now and my next machine upgrade will also be due around the time Longhorn finally hoves into view and Apple-Intel laptops appear. I've been following the "discussion" that Cory has been at the centre of, concerning Apple and DRM (Trusted Computing), and there's still plenty of time for the picture to change substantially, but right now, if I had to say how I'll be choosing, I'd say I'll probably be going with Apple.

Apple, IBM and Intel

I read Kottke and watched the video of the keynote. The best commentary I've read so far is in Ars Technica, from John Siracusa — as recommended by Marc Orchant on … theunofficialmicrosoftweblog ('his assessments are sound. In a long post today, he explains some of the history behind Apple’s CPU decisions in the past and then presents an excellent Q&A about the ramifications of the decision'):

A lot of people are excited about the prospect of a future Apple without the dark cloud of CPU uncertainty over its head. I like that idea too, but I only wish it had come to fruition through IBM. After the G5 introduction, I thought it had. I was actually encouraged by IBM's game console contract wins. It seemed like the PowerPC ISA had a bright future. Maybe it does, but apparently not with Apple.

I've also heard this transition compared to the 68K-to-PowerPC change. Emotionally, nothing could be further from the truth. As technically risky as the PowerPC move was—arguably a lot more risky than moving to the dominant x86 ISA and the dominant CPU maker—it at least had an air of technology-based excitement. Apple was moving to a new, better ISA. The x86 ISA is anything but new, and few would call it "technically better" than the PowerPC ISA. Yes, Apple is assured a steady stream of competitive CPUs as long as Windows targets the same ISA, but at a cost. Apple's CPUs may no longer be slower than the competition, but they also give up any hope of being faster.

That, in a nutshell, is why this is a dark day for Apple. It's yet another little thing that Macs used to do, if not always better, then at least differently than Windows PCs. Macs are now slightly less special.

If all goes as planned, the Mac platform will be stronger in a couple of years than it is today. (Who knows, maybe Doom 4 will even get decent frame-rates.) I'll buy a multi-core, multi-CPU x86-64 Mac and I'll like it because it'll be fast, good-looking, and it'll run Mac OS X. But I'll still think of what might have been...and what someday might be again. Call me a hopeless romantic. I'll miss the PowerPC.

(My emphases.)

Update — this from Jay Savage from tuaw.com:

Looking over the responses to yesterday's Stevenote, the only person I think has got it right so far is Jonas Luster.  I'm with Scott in not really caring, objectively speaking, whether my computer runs on PPC, Pentium, rabid weasles, or a rack of 2,5000 1.023Mhz Motorola 6502s.  Intel Machines are fine with me.  I have several running a variety of OSes. I don't think the performance of the Intel dual cores is as good as the performance of the IBM dual cores, but if Apple is confident in the road map, ok.

What I do care about is my computer spying on me or telling me what to do.  I don't like DRMed software, and I detest DRMed hardware.  But that's exactly where Intel is headed, and it's silly to think that the Pentium-D and 945 chips or their successors won't make it into transistioned hardware.  In fact, it's probably a large part of Apple's interest in Intel to begin with.  The RIAA and the MPAA like on-board DRM, and Apple has a cozy relationship with both.  Far from a move to Intel being a poor plan on Apple's part, I think it could easily be the first step toward taking iTunes to video and exapanding Fair play into a multimedia, harware-based solution compatible with the Microsoft DRM the Pentium-D is designed to support.

And that sounds like a pretty good business plan.  What it may not sound like is something I'd want on my desktop.

And also from tuaw.com, 'when Apple is selling Macs with Intel in them AND Macs with PowerPC's in them how are they going to deal with the Megahertz Myth (in reverse)?'.

Insiders and Outsiders

Robert Scoble:

… the whole blogosphere is an insider's club. How can you tell that? Well, when I got to blogger conferences I see about 70% Macintoshes, but when I fly on airplanes I see only about 5% Macs. That tells me that we're self selecting and different than the general population.

Translation: if we don't get a more diverse set of people doing blogs we'll make mistakes if we only listen to bloggers. It's even worse if you listen to only those types who have the money or the time to go to conferences.

This echoes Don Park:

Tim wrote:

I hadn’t heard about any first-hand experiences since few people I work with live on Windows. ... The proportion of thought leaders who use IE on Windows is trending to zero.

Given the sharp rise of PowerBooks at conferences are of any indication, I think he is right.

What I wonder though is whether the, so called thought leaders, are leading or simply getting out of touch with the masses?  With the Net, the perfect reality warping medium, serving as the social fabric of the thought leaders and new social software enabling them to form tighter groups, what lies ahead?  Perhaps a shock many times greater than the one I felt at the end of last presidential election?

Mac mini — the media Mac

This sounds like the Mac which will appeal to thousands of hitherto tempted but hesitant PC-users:

Starting at just $499, Mac mini is the ideal desktop computer for anyone looking to get started with Mac OS(R) X and features iLife(R) ‘05, the latest version of Apple’s innovative suite of software for managing digital photo and music collections, editing movies and creating music. Just two-inches tall and weighing only 2.9 pounds, Mac mini redefines design for the sub-$1,000 desktop.

“… Mac mini is the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS X and iLife,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Just plug in your display, keyboard and mouse and you’ve got an incredibly compact Mac for a price that almost anyone can afford.”

• includes iLife ‘05: major new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand; latest version of iTunes
• choice of either a 1.25 Hz or 1.42 Hz Power PC G4 processor + AT Rad eon 9200 graphics with 32MB of dedicated DR memory
• slot-load Combo drive for watching DVDs & burning Cd's
• choice of either 40GB or 80GB hard drive
• one FireWire 400 and two USB 2.0 ports
• DVI interface that also supports VGA
• built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and a 56K V.92 modem
• internal Bluetooth module
• OS X version 10.3 “Panther” is pre-installed on every Mac mini (includes iChat AV desktop video conferencing, Mail, Safari web browser, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iSync, iCal, DVD Player and the Classic environment)
• available worldwide on Saturday, January 29

from PhotographyBlog

Also in today's MacWorld Keynote:

iPod Shuffle: 'control is reduced to the absolute minimum. Stick your iPod Shuffle in the side of your Mac for a slurp of music and power, then walk away with a randomly selected music mix drifting across your ears ... It's important to remember how new this way of listening is (OK, we had a shuffle button on CD players, but that was no bloody use at all.) Shuffling across thousands of songs suddenly becomes an utterly compelling experience. Here's a device built principally for shuffle mode first, with sequential listening second. … the iPod shuffle actually destabilises the album. Sidelines this 50-year-old mode of music organisation by having an 'album-destroyer' tool at the flick of a switch.' cityofsound

Steven Johnson: 'As always, I'm amazed at the Jobs-era productivity of Apple: two new pathbreaking hardware products; a whole new word processing application (Pages); massive updates to almost all the iLife apps, including HD support. Oh, and the fourth significant upgrade to the operating system in as many years.'

The seemingly never-ending question: Mac or PC?

Just when I thought I was ready to plunge Mac-wards, Jeremy Zawodny blogs about why he is moving the other way — but not entirely. Highlights:

Something has been bugging me for the last few months. Though I got my nice new Mac and switched to using it as my main personal desktop/laptop machine, it's been a frustrating experience at times. … it never felt quite right. The Mac felt slow and awkward for daily "office" use. So I decided to begin using the Windows box for my work related activities in 2005. Instead of hauling the Powerbook to Yahoo each day, I now take the Compaq. …

I've found that nearly every one of the Open Source applications I've installed seems to work better and significantly faster on this machine than on my nearly new Powerbook. In other words, open source applications feel better on Windows than on the Mac. …

The Mac isn't going to collect dust. I still use NetNewsWire daily. iPhoto and the Flickr plugin are still my preferred way to deal with digital photos. iTunes, my iPod, and the iTunes Music Store are still the center of my personal music world. … But Office on the Mac just doesn't compare to Office on Windows. …

The Mac is my media computer. I see it handling my audio/video/entertainment needs for the foreseeable future. …

The only viable choices (for me) are Mac OS X or Windows XP. And Windows lets me:

• feel like I'm getting more out of the hardware
• stop fighting the Mac's usability problems (the tab key being useless in most dialogs, the lack of hotkeys in most apps, the X11 requirement for some apps)
• have decent power management—almost as good as the Powerbook
• get full IT "support" at work (meaning that I get on the "real" network and don't need to do all that tunneling crap)

I can quite see the appeal of a Mac for media stuff — and maybe the ideal is a Windows machine for "work" and the rumoured about $500 Mac (due to be announced tomorrow?) for all things play and media: a Media iMac.

Why Macs?

My thanks to my colleague, Nick Weaver, for pointing me to this excellent post over at The macosxhints Forums by Carlos Alvarez:

I'm in the process of switching. Despite what Mac people have said, not because of it. And definitely despite Apple's stupid, condescending, and offensive ads that make me feel like I should only use a Mac if I'm a moron or a hippie. When someone lies to me about one thing, I distrust everything else he has to say. So I might have switched much sooner if it wasn't for all that.

1. Let's get over the "Windows crashes all the time" crap. It doesn't. I'm an IT consultant supporting hundreds of Windows XP, 2000, and 2003 machines. They don't crash. Simple as that. They run, and keep running. Patches are applied easily. Apps install easily. There are occasional problems as with any technology item, but no more than there are on the Macs. They're not perfect either. If you think they are because YOURS never crashes, you need to remember that you're just one example. I get to see hundreds of examples.
2. "Windows is ugly." Get real. For one, you can skin Windows to look like anything you want--even OS X. Secondly, all I did every time someone told me that was roll my eyes. I like eye candy, but if that's all an OS has going for it, I don't want it. Plus, I and a few million other people don't think Windows is ugly at all. OS X is prettier, sure, but that doesn't make Windows outright ugly.
3. Viruses. It's a good point, but don't harp on it too much, since good virus protection makes it a non-issue. Just make the point and move on. Same for spyware.
4. Hardware plug-and-play. It's mostly a non-issue these days since everything related to drivers has improved so much. Don't try to make arguments that applied to an OS version from five years ago. There is a small margin of favor to the Mac here; it does work out-of-the-box with many devices. Then again, ALL devices have Windows support, and some don't have Mac support at all. Touche. Since most people haven't had device problems, you lose them when you try to convince them that Windows has all these device issues--it doesn't.
5. Performance. OS X is leaner and faster than Windows. The applications and data files are THE SAME though. Net result...comparable Mac and Wintel machines perform about the same in the real world in real use. Some things which depend on pure clock ticks to do, like some pure math work, will happen faster on a Wintel due to the faster clock. Some things happen faster on the Mac due to better architecture.
6. OS X is simpler to use. Well, sorta. But here's where the user's expectations and abilities change the rules. OS X makes all of the basic and intermediate stuff very easy to do. Advanced stuff gets very complicated because it is purposely hidden from the user. Windows, on the other hand, makes it easier to do the hard stuff, generally.

The bottom line is that OS X has one distinct advantage, which nobody ever told me about:

Out of the box, it provides a more complete, rich, and attractive user experience. More apps and utilities are built in. Most things you would want to do are already there. A thousand little tiny detail things are just done better on the Mac, and put together, they add up to a big advantage. Sometimes Windows forces you to get an add-on or to take steps to accomplish something which is just *done* on the Mac.

This provides balance against the Mac's greater cost. I haven't done the numbers, but I think you'd find that you'd narrow the cost a bit when you factor in the built-in capabilities. And some silly little things like Sherlock save a lot of time, even for a very experienced computer/web power user like myself. I turn to it more often every day.

Nick also pointed me to mi2g's recent study:

The most comprehensive study ever undertaken by the mi2g Intelligence Unit over 12 months reveals that the world's safest and most secure 24/7 online computing environment - operating system plus applications - is proving to be the Open Source platform of BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) and the Mac OS X based on Darwin. This is good news for Apple Computers(AAPL) whose shares have outperformed the benchmark NASDAQ, S&P and Dow indices as well as Microsoft (MSFT) by over 100% in the last six months on the back of revived sales and profits. The last twelve months have witnessed the deadliest annual period in terms of malware - virus, worm and trojan - proliferation targeting Windows based machines in which over 200 countries and tens of millions of computers worldwide have been infected month-in month-out.

Coming up for air

The last few days have been a little manic and there's still work to be cleared. Yesterday, we held a conference about IT and the future for our final year sixth-formers (18 year-olds) and those from St Helen's. It was excellent and I want to blog about this and a host of other things which have caught my eye lately. I also want to incorporate my "teaching" weblog into this one, so that all my interests are located in one place. As I have used Basecamp for teaching, I have found less and less need for a "specific" teaching blog. We have a visit from Ross Mayfield impending and I want to talk with him about SocialText, Basecamp, etc.

Right now, though, this caught my eye and seems like a really cool innovation. From Engadget:

We always felt something was lacking about Apple’s AirPort Express, but we think Keyspan has filled that void with their Express Remote, which allows you to wirelessly control your iTunes playback by plugging in the USB remote receiver into a PC, Mac, or even the AirPort Express itself (hence our enthusiasm). Available next month for $60, the remote should also help you control Quicktime, Powerpoint, and other multimedia programs as well.

Oh, and the news that Gmail is adding POP3 support — as Anil says, 'one more barrier to me using Gmail just fell away... they've added free POP support to their mail service. I still don't use Gmail, but they're making it harder and harder to resist'. I use it already, but I know many for whom POP3 support is essential.

Bad Apples?

Jeff Jarvis and Om Malik have both written about iPod woes:

One is a chance, two is a coincidence but three is a trend. It is official - the new iPod updater is killing iPods. (Om Malik)

The iPod crashed bad last night -- because of Apple's own iPod updater. Thing was working fine. But after updating it wants to be plugged in. It didn't think it was plugged in and wouldn't do anything else. Resets didn't work. Then a reset apparently hosed the drive. iPod dead. I call Apple; wait forever; told I'm six days past my 90-day phone time; I say it was their goddamned updater that did this to me; he listens; he agrees. iPod dead. I'd play Taps... if I could.

Fred Wilsons' iPod crashed yesterday. Om Malik's iPod died, too. Dreaded clicking noise, just like mine.

The Airport Express is OK, but setup wasn't the breeze it's supposed to be. Worse, when I tried to follow the instructions to set up profiles, it kept crashing my Vaio (Apple's revenge). And the instructions bear no resemblance to the software.

The problem with Apple for years now has been that it pays more attention to design, aesthetics, UI, and advertising than it does to nitty-gritty technical matters. I was thinking about buying a Mac again. Now I'm doubting it. (Jeff Jarvis)

Meanwhile, Marc Canter points the way to Dashboarder, 'your one-stop shop for all Dashboard needs' — adding, 'do it for Windows'.

Writing for the web

Tim Bray:

The state of Web authoring tools is kind of like the state of what we used to call “Word Processing” twenty years ago when I was getting into this business. If everyone’s going to write for the Web (and it looks a lot of people are going to) we need the Web equivalents of Word Perfect and Wordstar and Xywrite and Microsoft Word, and we need them right now.

Jonathon Delacour:

I’m an advanced content creator who, like Tim Bray, wants the convenience and ubiquity of browser-use together with the advantages of a feature-rich client. ... Why can’t Tim and I have a decent WYSIWYG browser-based editor?

Apple: now much more than "just" a computer company

The Apple/Motorola initiative to put a version of iTunes on Motorola's next-generation phones (see here) has led to speculation that this might be ' "step 1" in a relationship between Motorola and Apple to build wireless iPods'. Marc Canter writes elsewhere:

See! I told you so! You think Apple still thinks of themselves as a computer company? I doubt it. They've been milking the Mac and their users for years and they're about to launch their entirely new model - which will be based upon enabling people's digital lifestyles.

Music is just the first step. And creativity. You'll soon see .Mac and Rendezvous play a big part in Apple's comprehensive solution for the digital convergence. Shared calendars for the family, tied into your vacation albums and home movies. Throw in nutritional guides, pick-up and drop-off schedules and after-school activities - and we'll finally have iCommunity.

Apple is showing the world - right now - that end-user's experiences actually DO count. That's why the Mac was always the best and why the iPod is the best. They're doing our R&D for us!

AirPort Express

Ars Technica has a full review of this (doubling as a handy installation guide for use of the device on both Macs and PCs):

Looking rather like a PowerBook AC adapter, the AirPort Express is a multipurpose device that can act as an 802.11b/g wireless access point, serve as a bridge to extend the range of your AirPort Extreme or Linksys WRT54G (more on that later), stream music from iTunes to a home stereo system, and finally, share a single USB printer via 802.11b/g. All this for US$129. ...

Conclusion
For a piece of hardware that performs so many functions, it actually does them all fairly well. In looking through Apple's AirPort Express website, you can see the way Apple pitches it: it's the small, portable device that can extend your wireless, digital lifestyle throughout the home. Now if your home is a 500 sq. ft. studio apartment, you won't need more than one wireless access point. However if your current wireless network does not reach everywhere you like, the AirPort Express might be what you need. It's also good for frequent travelers — while in-room broadband is become more the norm in hotel rooms, WiFi does not have the same sort of penetration. Bringing an AirPort Express with on trips will untether you from the desk in your room.

On the other hand, the music streaming function is cool, but needs a little something more. The lack of any means to control the music aside from a computer is inconvenient. When the Express was announced and the technical specs digested, some of us were left scratching our heads, wondering where the remote control was. Apple has been coy about the prospects of some sort of controller for it, suggesting that such a device is an excellent idea. If Apple does not come out with one, expect a third party to to so.

Along those lines, Bluetooth support would have been nice. Imagine using Sailing Clicker to control AirTunes from your Bluethooth phone...

Is it worth the US$129? None of the functions in an of itself is worth the price. There are cheaper wireless access points, and one can build a more far-reaching network for less than the cost of an AirPort Extreme Base Station and an AirPort Express. There are other ways to share a USB printer — in fact you could buy another inexpensive printer and still come out ahead. Streaming music? There are other less-expensive options as well. But for a multipurpose device like the Express, the price tag is justified if you are going to take advantage of more than one of its features.

Airport Express

Beyond its role as an audio sink for iTunes, the Airport Express is first and foremost a wireless base station. And it's an awesome one. You know from the specs it's going to be small, but when you hold it in your hand and realize that in the box is a power supply, wireless base station, print server and an audio output ... well, let's just say it's surprising. ... Of course the small size makes it a road warrior's dream. But one thing that has plagued me in taking my larger base stations with me on the road is configuring them for the different environments it will be in. Well, that pain is no more thanks to a feature that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere—but was damn happy to find. Airport Express supports profiles. These seem to be stored on the device itself and are accessible from the Airport Admin Utility ...

x180: james duncan davidson

Why are Windows users besieged by security exploits, but Mac users are not?

John Gruber asks this question in his piece (referred to in the preceding post), Broken Windows.

... What’s remarkable is this: Crapware is a problem of epidemic proportions on Windows, but it is almost completely non-existent on the Mac. ... It’s not like Mac OS X is impervious to crapware. ... One difference between Mac OS X and Windows, however, is that Mac OS X doesn’t offer nearly as many places for nefarious software to hide. A major aspect to the scourge of crapware is that it’s extraordinarily difficult to find and remove it. This isn’t just about “typical” users; even expert Windows users get hit by crapware and can’t figure out how to get rid of it. ...

There are all sorts of ways that Windows executes software that don’t have equivalents on Mac OS X. Services get installed in the Windows Registry, and the Registry is an opaque labyrinth. This just isn’t a problem on the Mac. Even if you ended up with piece of crapware installed, there simply aren’t that many places where it could hide. Assuming the crapware needs to launch itself automatically, it’s either going to be installed in one of the various /Library sub-folders, or it has to be listed in your user account’s Startup Items in the Accounts panel of System Preferences.

... the Mac community has zero tolerance for vulnerabilities. Not just zero tolerance for security exploits, but zero tolerance for vulnerabilities. In fact, there is zero tolerance in the Mac community for crapware of any kind. If some “freeware” software for the Mac surreptitiously installed some sort of adware/spyware/crapware, there’d be reports all over the Mac web within days. Uninstallation instructions would be posted (and thus made available to all via Google), and the developer who shipped the app would be excoriated.

My answer to question posed earlier — why are Windows users besieged with security exploits, while Mac users suffer none? — is that Windows is like a bad neighborhood, strewn with litter, mysterious odors, panhandlers, and untold dozens of petty annoyances. Many Windows users are simply resigned to the fact that their computers contain software that is not under their control. And if they’ll tolerate an annoying application that badgers them with pop-up ads, well, why not a spyware virus that logs every key you type, then sends them back to the creator? (That’s a real virus, by the way, Korgo, which hit Windows at the end of May and is spreading quickly.) The Mac is like a good neighborhood, where the streets are clean and the crime rate low. You don’t need bars on your windows in a good neighborhood; you don’t need anti-virus software on the Mac.

... let’s address that other popular canard of Windows apologia — that on the whole, Windows XP is just as good, if not better, than Mac OS X. OK, fine. XP is as good as OS X; Windows Movie Maker is as good as iMovie; Photoshop Album is better than iPhoto; etc.

But is it fair to judge Mac-v.-Windows under factory-fresh conditions? Wouldn’t an accurate comparison be better made a few months down the road — after a nice sampling of the hundreds of new Windows viruses discovered each week get a chance to find a home on the Windows box? In the hands of a typical user, a six-month-old Mac is almost certainly in similar working condition as when it left the store; a six-month-old Windows PC, on the other hand, is likely to be infested with multiple instances of crapware. And if it’s not, it’s likely because the poor sap who bought it just got done reinstalling from scratch. You can argue about why this is so, but you don’t need to. You can’t argue with the facts. Anti-virus software vendor Sophos reported yesterday that it found 959 new viruses, last month alone. How many of those do you think were for Mac OS X? Any at all?