Month: July 2002

In my Apple developer newsletter today, there’s a request for suggestions for Apple’s Powerbook/iBook division. Here’s the email I sent them.

To: powerbook marketing
Subject: Powerbook Suggestions

Smaller, lighter, more durable.

I like to take my iBook everywhere. I’d like a tinybook to combine my iPod, Palm, and iBook; and maybe eventually my GPS, digital camera and cellphone.

The Sony PCG-U1 (http://www.dynamism.com/u1/index.shtml) or the Sony Picturebook (C1 series) are good examples of what I’d like to see. If you could get Sony to OEM you one of these, with OSX, that would be perfect.

Fantasy specs: OSX, 40GB HD, 256 MB ram, 6″ 800×600 screen (or so). Single USB and Firewire ports (or extras in an expansion port connector). Airport, of course, could even be non-optional. Don’t even offer an optical drive (or if you do, make a detachable firewire one that attaches to the bottom of the unit). 10-hour battery. Compactflash card for expansion. Build a solar charging panel into the lid! Camera lens, if that’s easy enough to do. GPS receiver antenna/chip (license from Garmin). Even a cellphone would be possible, with either strategically placed speaker/mic or external headphone/mic. Now – to really go out on a ledge – make it durable as heck and at least a little bit water resistant. Sell it for $1000-$1500; or a stripped down model for under $1000.

I’ve owned every “subnote” Apple has made: the Powerbook 100; every model of Newton; the Powerbook 2400; and now the iBook is as close as I can get. Notice how all of these have been “legendary” models of Powerbook that all still have an enthusiast following.

You’d get the annoying PDA rumor people off your case (well, a little), and I’m sure it would sell amazingly well in Japan. In fact, you could sell it only in Japan so far as I’m concerned – as long as I can order one for a reasonable price from the Apple store.

I’m a Mac user (since 1983) and a Select developer. Was a Newton developer. Now a PHP/mysql developer on OSX!

Thanks for your attention!

Last weekend’s San Diego beach burn (local Burning Man gathering) was stormed by government-sponsored
terrorists.

At Cybertel, our servers are all Microsoft. That’s what we bought into when we first bought them, that’s what we’re stuck with at the moment.

Now, we have the (old) 4.0 version of Windows Server, and Microsoft Exchange email server (…why it’s not Outlook server, I don’t know, that’s a whole other rant…) and that’s what our “intranet” is running on. This is bundled into a package called Small Business Server, which also includes SQL server. Now, separately we’ve bought Windows 2000 server and SQL Server 2000, and that’s what our Web and Database servers are running on.

We need a new copy of the intranet software. Windows NT 4.0 seems to run okay, but user management is bizarre in that got-to-love-Microsoft way that’s gotten only somewhat better in 2000; and figuring out the old version of Exchange…oi vey. So we’re here, cash in hand despite the fact that we’re broke, to upgrade to Windows 2000/Exchange 2000.

Good luck trying to buy this. There are about a dozen part numbers, none of which with a reasonable explanation of what you’re buying.

The upgrade to SBS appears to be the cheapest way to go at about $700, or $900, depending on whether you want to get screwed a little, now or a lot, later. You get to choose between standard (over-)priced software, but next time you want an upgrade you have to pay full (over-)price AGAIN; and “upgrade advantage” where you pay MORE now but you actually get upgrades for the next year or two. And of course you’re never buying Microsoft upgrades for the new features, but for the bug fixes. I swear it’s a lot easier to steal Microsoft software than it is to purchase it legitimately.

Why not just move to Linux, or (as I’d rather) Mac OSX Server? Linux is free, Mac OSX server is $500 for a 10-user licence, $899 with an unlimited licence, and reasonable upgrade prices. Sounds like a good idea to me – but then it would become my responsibility. Like the “Moose turd pie” story – whoever complains, they get to be the cook.

Is there really any point in resisting the government anymore? Or by extension, the mighty corporations that now “own” the government? I don’t know, but John Gilmore seems to think so; he’s challenging the “secret” legislation which requires you to present ID before boarding an aircraft. Makes a good case for it too, I think – I’ve run into problems when Telenomics bought a ticket for Rick, then decided at the last minute that I should go instead – it cost far more to change the name, than the ticket cost – for no valid security reason, only to protect the airlines’ profit. And despite how I love gathering and analyzing data, I think the government is doing quite enough of that as it is. But I’m starting to think there’s hardly any point in fighting it anymore.

Speaking of which, did you read that John Poindexter is going to be in charge of the Information Awareness Office?? Gotta love that logo.

From a discussion on Kuro5hin about privacy and supermarket cards:

*ring*ring*
“Mmm, hello??”
“Hello, could I speak with Mr. Chapman, please?”
“This is he”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Chapman, how are you today?”
“Mmm, ok…is this a telemar..”
“I’ll be brief Mr. Chapman. This is Safeway(tm) foods calling. Our computer shows that you’ve recently moved to San Francisco, is that correct?”
“Um…yea, I suppose so.”
“And that you’ve been here for more than 30 days, is that correct?”
“I guess. What’s this about?”
“As per public ordinance 89.5T/9, you have thirty days from establishing residence in the Bay Area to apply for a Safeway food club card. Failure to do so can result in a fine of no less that $40.95 and possible jail time of up to seventeen minutes. We strongly recommend that you correct the situation immediately.”
“Excuse me??”
“We don’t play games here in San Francisco, Mr. Chapman. This is your only warning.”
“But I don’t even shop at Safeway.”
“That sort of attitude will NOT win you any favors with the judges in this district Mr. Chapman. If this matter is not corrected, you will be visited by the San Francisco Police Department, Safeway division.”
“Uh..”
“You can fill out an application at any Safeway, Ikea over Oakland, Pacific Bell’s main branch or one of any number of Starbucks coffeehouses in the lower peninsula. Have a nice day and remember. We own you.”

I also liked this one:

“The first rule about Ralph’s Club is…don’t talk about Ralph’s Club.”

…in case [Diet] Mountain Dew Code Red doesn’t give you enough of a lift in the morning…

If you’re actually checking here for updates, I guess you’ve noticed none recently. This is due to Cybertel billing week – where I shuffle data for a week to try to get the bills to come out right. That and the holiday weekend (on Friday, I straightened up the servers at the office, on Saturday I cleaned my garage!). In any case, more rants to come soon.

Today at work we were discussing the phonetic alphabet to use when spelling things out over the phone. The one I’m used to is (I’ve learned) NATO standard from 1954:

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu

But there are others used by police, military, etc. The linked article gives some interesting history. You may prefer, for example, to use RAF 1942-43:

Apple Beer Charlie Dog Edward Freddy George Harry Ink
Jug/Johnny King Love Mother Nuts Orange Peter Queen
Roger/Robert Suga Tommy Uncle Vic William X-ray Yoke/Yorker
Zebra

…or Esperanto:

Asfalto Barbaro Centimetro Doktoro Elemento Fabriko Girafo Hotelo Insekto Jubileo Kilogramo Legendo Masino Naturo Oktobro Papero Rekordo Salato Triumfo Universo Universo-hoko Vulkano Zinko

Happy Ward Cleaver Day! (Today’s the day we get to say goodbye to June, with the traditional incantaion: “Ward, I think you were a little hard on the Beaver last night”!)