Well I'm off early tomorrow!

So I'm posting for everyone a big TaTa and will be back in two weeks time. I probably won't have time to post anything else before I leave so I'll see you all when I get back. Don't forget to visit my new blog, I got a script to work that rotates the header images and I'm really proud of myself! *biggrin*

So see you in two weeks and I hope you don't mind mosquito bites 'cause I'll be covered with 'em... :^D

I love donating blood! ;^)

Something big is on the horizon...

Well I'm leaving for a two week vacation on Monday morning. So in two days... We're leaving as early as we can drag our butts out of bed, on Monday morning, in fact. I'm pretty revved up about the whole thing.

And icing on the cake! With toasted almonds to boot! Hmm-mmm!

My friend Stretch has made me an offer that I found too hard to refuse. We will be sharing the same webhost and I will be slowly transferring my stuff over there. I will be using WordPress just like Stretch and the template is awesome! I am putting it to my hand right now, tweaking it but no way will it be finished before I leave!

Here is the link, MHC-in-the-box. Same name, same dame, same manic posting, different addie!

So... We still have stuff to shop for, some running around and then some housework so we can leave the apartment in good shape. We will have a catsitter come by to feed our little darlings.

And well lots to do, lots to think about before we're off. Might not have time to post my frantic number of daily posts before leaving either.

Ah! Before I forget! I will be contacting those of you who had the post comment permissions and I will create for you an account at my new blog so you can comment just like you used to here.

Logitech MX 1000 Mouse problem (old story)

I wanted a two button mouse with a scroll wheel for my iMac so about two and a half years ago I bought a Logitech MX 300. After about a year and a half the scrolling wheel died. So ok, I tell myself, I'll get that amazing looking Logitech Laser MX 1000. It was an expensive purchase but I figured it was well worth the cost. It has been nothing but trouble from day one!

The cursor kept jumping around intermittently all over the screen, I simply could not even predict when the cursor would jump so picking things on my screen was quite an adventure and many a times this has caused me to screw up big time! I tried various troubleshooting procedures, even ditching Logitech's driver (yes, at the time Logitech made Mac drivers! w00t!!!) and installing Alessandro Levi Montalcini's USB Overdrive instead. The utility slowed down the mouse (Duh! I had bought that mouse because it was supposed to be fast...) but did not prevent the Skipping Cursor Blues.

So I went to the Logitech users forum and Whoah! Babyyyyyyy!!! I sure wasn't alone experiencing the jumping cursor! Mac and Windoze users alike! Some said it was the antenna, some said it was the driver, some said "To hell with this!... and exchanged the mouse for another brand entirely. And to make things worse, Logitech probably was swamped with returns at some point but they made it more difficult to return your unit: you had to have the original box in which the mouse shipped in otherwise no exchange...

Thankfully I called the Mac store I bought the mouse from and they didn't have any problems with exchanging the mouse: they would simply take the box of the new mouse and put my defective unit in its place to return it to Logitech. So I bring in the whole kit and kaboodle, antenna, mouse, adaptor (think it was PS2 to USB or whatever the hell it was... And the Logitech software CD which was a hybrid, Windoze and Mac). I go to exchange the whole thing and "Wait a minute Mister Postman", this new CD doesn't have a Mac logo on it! In fact it says Windoze-only! So I ask the salesman if I can keep the old CD so I can have a driver to install if ever I need to and it's fine with him.

So I go home and start using this mouse and while the cursor still jumps to the sides this time (by not much I admit, the skipping could be like one or two pixels on either side, depending) it is still annoying when you use Photoshop, for example, but I choose to live with it. Why? Because the ergonomics of that damn mouse are out of this world, that's why! I've never held such a comfortable mouse in my hand in my life! Of course, when you think I paid close to $110CAN (taxes included) ergonomics sure don't come cheap, do they?

So about this Logitech Windoze-only CD... After coming home, I go to check the Logitech website because I'm wondering at this point if the store has ordered a Windoze-only replacement for me and lo and behold, Logitech has issued an announcement that they had decided to stop all development of Mac drivers for their mouse models!!! Now I wouldn't find that too bad if a Mac user had a rebate since we can't get any drivers from Logitech now for their damn rodents but we pay the same price as a Windoze user who has software up the wazoo from Logitech...

Now yesterday the replacement has stopped working. It hasn't even been a year that I bought it, it's been about eight or nine months since I had it replaced and now it's on the blink again. This time it seems like it's the antenna that's dead. The mouse is fully charged, it identifies I am moving it around but the antenna, for some stoopid reason, is not sending the signal. I reinstalled the driver and it doesn't see there is a device plugged in. I pulled the cable out and inserted the MX 300 instead and the Logitech mouse driver picks it up instantaneously so the problem isn't the USB port either. Can't see it being the cable from the keyboard to the antenna, it hasn't moved, it's away from all things that could get hot, so really...

So now I should go back to the store and exchange it again. Hah! You know what? I'm fed up! ergonomics or not, I'm bloody fed up. Needless to say I will never ever buy a Logitech product again in my remaining life, not even their lame computer speakers. I do not want to encourage a company that thinks Mac users are second class citizens.

So now I have set my eyes on this one, the Razer Pro V1.6.

It's pretty sexy, hunh? Plus I simply love the fact that they don't mind developing Mac drivers and aren't ashamed of showing the Mac logo on their webpage. The website promises an online store in Canada but doesn't say when this will happen so I have emailed them to find out if they have an idea when they plan on launching it.

Here are the Razer Pro V1.6's Technical Details.

I was for a time interested in Apple's Mighty Mouse but reviews are so mixed, I really don't know what to think. Besides, the ergonomic design, the shell that makes the mouse's shape, hasn't changed much from what I can see from the Apple Pro Mouse. I'm looking for something a bit more comfortable...

Improving Mac OS X's Finder: Take two

It seems to me that The Great "Improve The Finder" Debate has been going on for a while. Granted, some have been using the Mac much longer than I have (I started using one in late 1996, with system 7.5.3) but ever since my early days of using a Mac I've heard this debate, off and on. The introduction of Mac OS X had quieted down the musings for a while but now they're picking up momentum again and in certain cases, rightfully so. Like for instance I posted earlier on this opinion by afterglow from creativebits and improvements suggested made plenty of sense, Rethinking the Finder.

drunkenbatman adds his thoughts to the whole debate. It seems that the Tiger Finder gets weirder and weirder and the cause of this is Mac OS X's LaunchServices. Take a look at what he means... Oh, Stupid Finder. Since I'm still with Panther I can't exactly verify to which extent that can get as bad, but I have noticed since the later Panther updates that at least one of the problems he mentions is happening in my system as well...

Tiger System settings

A whole bunch of them got together at Macworld to write this article, Tiger Secrets: System settings - 20 top-secret tweaks that can bend OS X 10.4 to your will. Like for instance did you know you could ask Tiger's Spelling to be bilingual? Man, lemme tell ya, it sure will come in handy for me, I'm constantly changing the Spelling Dictionary in Panther, I sometimes write emails in French, sometimes in English.

Check it out, there must be something in there you weren't aware of... ;^)

Mac OS X's Color Picker

Macworld's Rob Griffith posted an interesting How To, Secrets of the Color Picker.

If you’ve used a Mac for any length of time at all, you’re probably familiar with the Color Picker. The Color Picker is a small floating window through which you can choose colors for text, objects, lines, and other objects (depending on which application you’re in when using it, of course). You can call up the color picker from any Cocoa application (TextEdit, Mail, Keynote, Pages, etc.) by hitting Shift-Command-C. Other programs, such as Word and Excel, don’t use Apple’s color picker at all, so the following tips won’t apply to those programs. Finally, some programs such as Photoshop offer the option to use either the Adobe color picker or Apple’s color picker. Obviously, you’ll have to be using Apple’s color picker in those programs in order to use these tips.

The first thing to realize about Apple’s color picker is that it’s a relatively complex interface element. You’re probably most familiar with the picker’s default look, which is the color wheel interface. But using the small toolbar at the top of the window, you can choose from four additional styles: Color Sliders, Color Palettes, Image Palettes, and (the most fun) Crayons.

The first tip is one that you may be familiar with—you can save often-used colors in the small white boxes at the bottom of the window. Simply choose the color you’d like to save, then drag and drop it from the color bar area into a white box at the bottom of the screen. But what if you want to save more than 16 colors? That’s also easy, if not quite so obvious: just drag the small dot at the bottom of the window downward, and you’ll reveal up to 10 rows of 16 boxes. You can see examples of both saving colors and the extra boxes in this short video clip...

State of Massachusetts goes Open format

Groklaw's Pamela Jones has this amazing news. At least it is amazing to me because the State of Massachusetts has just taken a bold, gutsy step and has decided the State is going Open Format. Out Micro$oft Office, out Lotus Notes, out Word Perfect. Since this will be a humongous task to get all departments working in the new OpenOffice environment, the deadline for all to conform will be January 1, 2007. MA Chooses OASIS OpenDoc XML as Office Standard - Requesting Comments:

This is a bit of a miracle.

The State of Massachusetts is backing OpenDocument v. 1.0 as the standard for office applications, text documents, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents like drawings and presentations, and all agencies are expected to migrate by January 1, 2007.

Here is the new version [PDF] of their Enterprise Technical Reference Model. As they themselves acknowledge, "Given the majority of Executive Department agencies currently use office applications such as MS Office, Lotus Notes and WordPerfect that produce documents in proprietary formats, the magnitude of the migration effort to this new open standard is considerable."

Considerable, yes, but if your goal is interoperability, both necessary and worth the effort, as anyone who has ever tried to interoperate in WordPerfect with someone working in MS Office can testify. They also say when formatting doesn't matter, documents created in proprietary formats can be saved as plain text -- think email, for example -- and for documents that will primarily be accessed by a web browser through the Internet or an intranet, HTML is preferred. By HTML, they mean standard HTML, as in HTML v. 4.01. PDF is also acceptable for documents that will not be further modified, and the standard there is PDF Reference v. 1.5 that supports XML functionality.

If you wish to review where this story began, back in January, Massachusetts announced its Open Format policy (announcement transcript here), and in March many at Groklaw responded to the request for input from the public on the Commonwealth's Enterprise Technical Reference Model. We had issues. A lot of other groups had issues too. Massachusetts listened. They met with industry and other groups' representatives. You can see a list of those asked to give input at one meeting. Then they went back to the drawing board and came up with this new version. They are asking for comments once again. ...

I can well imagine the top brass at M$ trying to pressure the government into not even thinking about this move. Just remember when Steve Blamer cut short his vacation and went to meet the officials of the city of Munich, if I'm not mistaken who wanted to go completely open source for the OS running the entire government website and governmental computing infrastructure: they wanted to ditch Windoze and go Linux. Balmer, I'm sure must have been carrying a special deal in his alligator carrying case... I can't remember if Balmer went there for nothing or not though. Gee I hate these partial memory mappings... Anyway.

Which makes me think that this, in the long run, should be what big companies, trying to go too much the way of proprietary format and the like, should get. You want to grab the bedsheets all to yourself? And pull 'em all on your side? You don't want to play nice with the rest? You think making your software stand on an island and shut out competitors is a great idea? Sorry, administration bureaucracy is too big and departmental software needs to talk to each other...

Creative gets creative with their MP3 player Zen Neeon

So Creative is gettin' cocky because they were awarded a patent that could possibly place Apple and the iPod in a delicate situation. Instead of strutting around, maybe they should check out what they do and what they ship, maybe? Creative MP3 Players Shipped with Windows Virus:

Multimedia company Creative acknowledged that 3,700 of the company's Zen Neeon MP3 players that shipped from a company factory in late July contain a Windows worm.

The 5GB Neeon digital audio players contain a copy of W32.Wullik.B, according to a statement posted on Creative Technology Ltd.'s Japanese language Web site.

The worm file doesn't pose a serious threat of spreading, but could potentially infect Windows systems that are connected to the Neeon, according to anti-virus company F-Secure Corp. ...

Looks like the only money they'll be making, since they make such lame products, is collect royalties from Apple, I guess.

Driving too fast post

My friend Stretch isn't too happy when he has a slowpoke in front of him on the road. But here are examples of the complete opposite, driving too fast.

Click to enlarge. From How you know if you're driving too fast...

From Driving Too Fast

And two little stories in the same short article, Driving too fast?

More on the iPod patent going to Creative

Well I do have apoplectic fits about this but it seems that Creative is starting to go "Hmmmm" and scratching their collective chin at the possibilities... According to a Macworld article, After patent, Creative examines all options they just might demand from Apple a licensing fee or some kind of money on each iPod unit sold.

Craig McHugh, president of Creative Labs, says that his company is "evaluating all alternatives" now that it has received a patent for music player interfaces. The patent, issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, covers the hierarchical display of music information on digital music players that Creative claims can be found not only on its devices but also on Apple's iPod and iPod mini.

The interface that Creative has patented covers the display of music on a digital music player using hierarchical menus that sort content using metadata tags. In a series of slides shown to conference call attendees, McHugh demonstrated how it works on Creative’s Zen Micro player — the screen shows a music library comprising playlists, albums, artists, genres and tracks — navigating the Artists menu, for example, yields a list of artists whose music is on the player. Go to the next level and you’ll find the artist’s albums on the player; the next shows individual tracks. ...

The hierarchical interface has been used by nine generations of Creative music players, said McHugh. That includes the Nomad and black and white Zen line, the Zen MicroPhoto, Creative’s alternative to Apple’s color screen-equipped iPod, and the Zen Vision, which features a larger form factor, color screen and the ability to play back video in addition to music and photos. ...

The US Patent & Trademark Office awarded Creative its patent in the early August, but this is the first time the company has publicly acknowledged it. McHugh said that the recent press coverage regarding Apple and Microsoft’s patent dispute spurred Creative to take action.

Last month the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office rejected a patent application filed by Apple for some elements of the iPod interface, citing a patent submission made by Microsoft developer five months before.

McHugh explained that Microsoft developer John Platt’s patent covered a different aspect of the interface than the hierarchical display of music. Creative patent application, filed in January of 2001, predates both Apple and Platt’s filings, he added.

Why wasn’t Creative mentioned in the US Patent & Trademark Office’s rejection? As Creative understands it, “the patent office only has to cite one piece of prior art for rejection,” McHugh said. “Not all of them.” ...

Uh oh here we go... Apple Is Accused of Violating Software Patent.

So what will Apple do? This is a very tough spot they're in now... :^(

Apple unveils Developer Transition Resource Center website section

Via TUAW, I notice that Apple has launched for you developer types a new resource centre aimed at easing the transition toward the Intel chip. Here is Apple's new developer section, Developer Transition Resource Center.

Apple has announced that it is transitioning the Macintosh to an Intel-based architecture, and the resources here provide everything you need to make sure your applications are ready. Join the many Mac developers who have already migrated their code and are ready for the future of the Mac platform. ...

Categories included:

• Universal Binaries
• Porting from CodeWarrior
• Xcode 2
• Optimization

Each category has numerous sub-categories and should well take care of any aspect of the developer's difficulties. Besides, Apple sure doesn't want to lose you guys, do they? ;^)

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Here is The World's Shortest Personality Test. You simply choose the image you like best. The image I picked says this:

You are dignified, spiritual, and wise.
Always unsatisfied, you constantly try to better yourself.
You are also a seeker of knowledge and often buried in books.

You tend to be philosophical, looking for the big picture in life.
You dream of inner peace for yourself, your friends, and the world.
A good friend, you always give of yourself first.

Whoah! Even I'm surprised! LOL

N.Y.T. article: Americans scientifically ignorant

Here's a New York Times article that says that Americans are scientifically ignorant, Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much.

Wow! Just you wait till Intelligent Design is taught in schools...

liveplasma

Via Futurosity I came across a cool website called liveplasma. It's kinda like a search engine that recreates spheres of influence/related artists and connections in music, cinema, directors, actors. It's beta and it takes a while to load. I had a hard time getting a second query going, had to get out of the site, get rid of the cookie and go back but it's still a spiffy site.

The Mac Support Store

Need to replace a part in one of your Macs and trying to save money by doing the repair yourself instead of sending it to the repair shop? MacTech Magazine has an article on Brooklyn-based The Mac Support Store, Worlds Largest Selection of Genuine Apple Parts Goes Online:

The Mac Support Store, a Business Outsourcing Provider and online Reseller of Apple products, has added more than 5,000 Genuine Apple parts into its online store. Customers can order any part Apple manufactured between 1991 and 2005.

This is another important milestone in our online strategy to become the single online source for Apple goods and services, said Jeff Graber, CEO of The Mac Support Store. Apple has been selling packaged certification and customer installable parts for years but the choices for buying parts online haven’t been reliable. Our parts come direct from Apple, so we’re able to keep the costs low and the quality high. ...

Check out The Mac Support Store right here.

Photography Tip: more on the Canon 100-400MM lens and astrophotography

I just can't let it go, can I? *Wink* All morning I've been going around the internet to see reviews of tripods, ballheads and various quick release devices. One thing lead to another and I came across some reviews on the lens that one day I hope to be able to afford, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM and that I talk about here ¹. I know my friend Adrian wants the same lens as I do so this will surely grab his attention as well (and I also have a special treat for him at the end of this article).

From what I've read and I've seen a few samples of what the lens can do, I can say I can hardly wait! Some reviewers say it's a great lens but it is a bit soft at full open aperture/fully extended zoom settings and there is a bit of vignetting. But other reviewers, and they are the majority here, are amazed at the crispness, colour and contrast this lens gives to a photograph. I wouldn't know if the ones that saw a few Cons to the Pros in using this lens have bought one of the first or earlier versions of this lens or if they had a rather sub-standard specimen in their hands.

So let's have some links here so we can all read these reviews!

• Arthur Morris / Birds as Art - Bird Photography FAQ 7 Which is a better lens, the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS zoom lens, or the 400mm f/5.6L lens?
• fredmiranda.com Reviews Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
• Matthew K. Whitley's review Canon EF 100-400L IS
• Arthur Morris / Birds as Art Bird Photography FAQ 7 What do you think of the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS zoom lens?
• Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens Review
• And last but not least, Arthur Morris / Birds as Art Bulletins and Notes Archive's Confessions & Important Miscellany:

...Confession #1: Though I still consider it the best lens in the world for photographing birds in flight (see FAQs on web site for details), I no longer carry my beloved "toy lens"--the Canon 400mm f/5.6 L--on my shoulder as my auxiliary intermediate telephoto. It has been replaced by the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L Image Stabilizer zoom lens. I have been using the 1-4 more and more every day and--contrary to some reports from other users--have been making razor sharp images at all focal lengths with wide open to moderately stopped down apertures. In addition, I have it used it wide open, handheld with the 1.4X tele-converter with excellent results (with static subjects) at 560mm. For bird photography, the versatility of this lens is unmatched; I find myself making images that I would never even have thought of before--especially of groups of birds in their surroundings. And though it is heavier than the 400 f/5.6L, it is also a superb flight lens. At Bosque Del Apache NWR late this fall, I used the 1-4 on a tripod before sunrise for "bird-scapes" and then again almost exclusively for the spectacular blast-offs. I only wish that the zoom were a bit smoother. I am even considering selling one of my 400 f/5.6s; I never ever thought that I'd say that when the 1-4 first came out.....

Now for Adrian's treat. Adrian is pretty handy with his hands and can rustle up some homemade devices. I remember when he used his iSight webcam to take his first astrophotography pictures, so this shouldn't be too hard to do, if he can find all the pieces to this project.

Building an Eyepiece Holder for Canon EF Lenses Using a Rear Lens Cap:

For Finding and Centering Astronomical Objects for Astrophotography with Parfocal Eyepiece
Finding and centering astronomical objects in the view finder of consumer grade Digital Rebel or 20D cameras or older film cameras (e.g., EOS 650) can be challenging. A sturdy (flexure free) eyepiece holder that can hold a parfocal eyepiece is a useful aid to astrophotography and can be constructed from a Canon EF lens rear cap and threaded 1.25 inch eyepiece holder.

The example I photograph below uses a Televue 25mm Plossl eyepiece shown in position that is parfocal with the sensor/film plane of EOS cameras (A 19mm panoptic worked fine too). The eyepiece holder will not work with guiding eyepieces (e.g., 12.5mm Orion) or ST-4 as the working distance is too large. ...

Good luck Adrian! Hope you find this useful! :^)

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1. I so, so, so hope to get this baby. And this is a test for a footnote too! *Wink* ⥣  back to text