This is an even worse shame when you get to discover that the official PC based updater is a complete bastard to get working. Let alone it needing a PC to run it on. To get this tool (gratefully necessitated by the good folks at three) you should firstly download a reasonably recent version then you should install flash player with this exact link, because installing it in Firefox is fine for most functional uses of flash, but this requires an ActiveX installation of Flash- which unsurprisingly almost no-one will tell you.

Pity it didn’t fix the problems with my phone though.
Bugger.

In almost equally exciting news (for you perhaps, but personally I find this much more exciting) my electric guitar has recently arrived. And it is awesome. Unfortunately it did arrive a few days later than originally hoped- but otherwise Thomann have been exceptionally good value and lots of help when I ordered.

The new theme is also going to mark a whole new version of themak.org, the move from the brilliant PALGN free hosting to an ASO shared hosting plan where I will also move this blog from WordPress to a hand made django weblog platform.

I now only have 4 exams left until I’ve finished with my GCSEs, and I feel fairly confident about how I’ve done (which is good) and I’m now only a few short days away from purchasing my guitar and hosting package.

11. Sensible Support Costs
    PCPRO have made a valid point here; the support plans available for Macs is far less than a PC. However, Apple products have almost always placed in the top 5 for fewest product returns. Also, where they state that most computer shops only service PC’s- they are only counting the PC worlds anti-mac bias. It’s possible to find a shop to service your apple gear.
12. Microsoft’s on your team. No they’re not. With activation and Windows Genuine Are You A Thief? Microsoft are clearly not on your team.
13. Black’s still the new black
    In making this point, PCPRO are implying that Macs are quick to go out of fashion. Then how come older macs can still sell for very respectable prices (far more than equally old PCs).
14. The CD-ROM has an eject button.
    I suppose it does, but then again which is best is entirely a matter of preference. And it’s notable to say that most Macs nowadays use slot-loading drives, which are naturally more convenient to eject via software.
15. No Confusing Version Numbers.
    Apple only sell one version of OSX, and for PCPROs claim that updating it breaks that; well, that’s ridiculous. For those confused: here it is. 10.x.y x= the version of OSX, there’s a new version every 1-3 years. y= “service pack” there are 10 of these between two versions and usually bring new features to OSX.
16. What the hell was that?/The Apple start up tone irritates the PCPRO editor?
    Then hold mute as you boot. Apple have used sampled sounds since the Apple II- and the current start up sound is about 16 years old. Also, Windows has an equally jarring sound to a mac user.
17. Cheap OEM Versions
    This is covered in point 6. Because you cannot build a mac from scratch, then you do not qualify for OEM. The closest you’ll see to an OEM copy is pre-installed on every new macintosh. There’s no arbitrary be a geek and buy a mouse discount.
18. Far Better Media Capability
    Currently MCE is superior to Front Row at acting like a £1000 video recorder. For one, I’m happy that my dedicated DVR unit does this without making toast and catching virii. Also when you buy a Mac TV-Tuner it is likely to be from Elgato who offer very good software to do just that. (Apart from the virii.)
19. IT Support Expertise
    For a magazine which has always seemed to be for professionals in the IT industry, the idea of becoming the ‘gold dust’ of support professionals must be enthralling. Same goes for programmers, you also need less support on the mac.
20. Not So Insecure.
    PCPRO argues that a PC with latest service packs and antivirus is unlikely to get a virus. This may be true, but Windows insistence on patching is very annoying to a power user like myself. I want the only update traffic to be the update list and update files, not the entire UI. Also, the antivirus software is not infallible and requires constant updates to be this secure. Also, MAC OSX is more secure by design- not additional measures.

[1|2|3]

In other news: Statistics coursework looking less like a 50 tonne weight descending on me. Normal updates resume other end of the tunnel.

Yesterday I received an invitation to the new brainchild from the makers of mydreamapp (I voted portal); MacHeist. Personally I don’t know what it is yet, but I do know that I will get hevilly discounted or free shareware. And in my books, that’s a good thing.

Maybe this is the Goliath creating his David, pondering this question: “Will google start to inherit from searchmash, or is searchmash going to become google.

Me? I quite like this new look google it has more flair, where I finally get my desired #1 for themak, instead of a placeholder site with a dot com after it.

Also, my mac just went “swoosh”. It’s not Adium- that’s a chord. It’s not Mail- wrong “swoosh”. It’s not one of a million things, and I have no idea what program is reporting success or failure. None whatsoever.

Also in the news is Apples iTunes 7 and an 80gb video iPod. iTunes 7 even darker interface shows a solid departure from the traditional OSX aqua and metal style interface and shows perhaps some insight into Leopards UI- but perhaps not, as this might just be a little outing to the island of UI inconsistancy. Talking about new user interfaces it would appear that the next Office for mac will not have one, oh dear.

In unrelated news Nintendo told Europe just how much they should expect to be ripped off and when. The most significant thing about the £180 price point is that it is very close indeed to an XBOX360 core unit and it’s disparity with the price the US and Japan are getting.

Oh and I almost forgot; I’m sixteen next Sunday.

No Image:
With big image:

Here’s a quick teaser of the website that I’ve been working on for a while.
As to what it does, I’m not telling quite yet.

Oh and .

What can I say about Microsoft?
They make the best Office suite.

When I used Linux, there was only one thing that drew me back to using Windows; Microsoft Office. It always pulled me kicking and screaming back to Windows. But when I switched to mac I also installed Office 2004. Unfortuneatly iWork only had a limited trial and although keynote showed immense promise. Seriously, I think a fairc comparison is a peashooter (powerpoint) versus and ICBM (keynote), it was really that pronounced. For essays and the like I like to use Lyx because of its’ output and the formatting niceness of LaTeX. 00

For inter-service compatibility, there is none to beat AdiumX. Being open source I can always run the latest version on the svn tree- not suggesting this as a smart thing to do. The SVN version occasionally has it’s glitches but on the whole is very stable. Just before writing this article I ran svn update and recompiled from the latest build (17291), actually a later build as that one wouldn’t compile.

Adium is an open source Instant Messanger with full support for XMPP, Yahoo, MSN, AIM, gTalk, bonjour and several other protocols. Originally it used libgaim for this but now it uses a mix of libgaim, libezv and joscar- with smack soon to be used for XMP (this will have jingle support and will eventually allow Adium users to talk with gTalk users.

Adium 1.0 was released in 2001 by a student called Adam Iser, but was re-written to form AdiumX (originally planned to be Adium 2.0). Adium uses OSX’s built in html component (WebKit) to display each chat, and this allows for easy themeing of the chat window with only knowledge of HTML and css). Also the contact list is easy to theme and in the SVN version will hide on an edge of the screen and can be configured to only show as little or as much user information as it takes to show who’s online.

Adium has full out of the box support for Growl, a universal notifications protocol for OSX. Which allows you to be constantly informed of when someone comes online or sends you a message. Also possible is to have notifications read out using the system voice.

Seems that support is reliant on Core Image, so yay for my iBook and nay for the mini

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Zooomr

Zooomr has been described by some as Flickr on steroids, and certainly has a plethora of unique features which Flickr is lacking. Although on the other hand Flickr has many features not in Zoomr and far better documentation.

The things that I would like to see in Zooomr are:

1. More versatile searching.
2. A bulk uploader.
3. A wordpress plugin.
4. The ability to edit tags from the browse page (or inspector).
5. Better documentation and help.
6. Easier lighmat for non googlemap areas.
7. A way to mark a photo as favourite.
8. Being able to flag a photo as offensive.

Oh no are you attempting to execute a possibly untrustworthy executible which may or equally may not be mallicious!
The need for security is great in times like these. But asking the user repeatedly is confusing for newer users and pointless, those at danger will click yes, and there will eventually be a bypass mechanism- ruling the feature useless.

But first- count the dialouge boxes:

That’s not to say that they should all go, 4 is just clearly over-zealous. Asking the user for confirmation all the time will tire soon and alienate people new to computers, and irritate those that already have experience.

The big three. [CMD, Notepad, and Paint]

The command prompt is something that must look amazing on Aero Glass, it better- it’s horrendous without it.

Notepad, and indeed it’s slightly larger brother wordpad have received little love from Vista, also paint has nothing new to offer.

Conclusions:
Vista beta 2 has a lot of new innovations but does have some gross UI inconsistancies with parts that are entirely new and others which are directly from XP. Also it offers the sincerest form of flattery to Apple- It would be unwise to compare it to OSX as the latest version has yet to be released even any official news. There’s also far too much in the UI that is to be found by accident, such as the alt key showing the menus. Although on the other hand Office 2007 is very nice, with a user inteface that is more consistant with the Vista look and feel than most of Vista.

-Update:
Lifehacker has a nice set of screenshots which nicely summarizes the UI changes for those unable to install it.

Think Like a Computer Scientist

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