d00dism

I recently criticized Watson for removing EyeTV functionality from Watson’s TV Pane. Dan Wood has restored this and the iCal functionality (with caveats). I must applaud him for this. I think most Watson users would have taken the TV pane as was and thought nothing more of it. It’s great to see such dedication.

After a long iMac-less summer, Apple has announced the new iMacs with full specs and pictures.

I’d list them here, but I figure there’s not much point. You can all read. Of note is the fact that the iMacs are using a system bus that is a third of the processor speed. This is a first for G5’s, but probably won’t have a large effect upon performance. They’ve also adopted a new form factor that has essentially moved the entire guts of the machine into the LCD frame. This begs the question, why couldn’t they make a G5 Powerbook again? I won’t go off on a rant about misplaced priorities at Apple again. I’m sure that can come back another day.

Gone is the 15″ iMac. 17″ and 20″ are the only two sizes. They are widescreen, keeping with Apple style, but to contain all the computer parts, there is a rather large white (unsightly) border below the screen. I’m not saying I don’t like the new iMac. It seems like a very nice computer. It didn’t wow me like the original flat panel iMac did though. The iMac G4 made me question whether I wanted a Powermac. That’s not the case this time around.

I do see this as a great machine for many consumer users. The iMac is back to being a really tight integrated machine again. While the swivel arm was great and functional, it did make the iMac a little less all-in-one like. I’d also like to note how it resembles the 20th Anniversary Mac. I can think of one person this computer is perfect for already, mother dearest. She spends most of her time at home in the kitchen. It’s hard enough getting her to touch a computer, nevermind dragging her upstairs into my father’s study to sit her down at his old frankenstein of a Mac. Putting this on the kitchen counter would give her instantaneous access to a new world of things.

At any rate, check it out. It may have been what you were waiting for.

Months after the announcement that they would do so, HP has begun selling the iPod. Different faceplates can be gotten through HP (thought I believe they are actually sticker; I couldn’t get a picture of them because I refused to wade through their flash based iPod site).

This is a win-win situation for Apple and HP. Apple spreads its market dominence while increasing public visibility. HP gets to sell an existing product (meaning no reasearch and development costs) that’s already dominating the market. This allows them to sell the iPod at lower prices as well as bundle it with their own systems.

I’m not sure that there is much else to be said about it for now, but it will make the debut of Microsoft’s service a little more interesting.

As probably nearly all readers of this site know, I am a volunteer moderator over at Macworld’s Forums. Macworld recently revamped their website and accompanying website, MacCentral, which a new design. It’s a radical change for sure, but uses CSS heavily to improve portability and loading speed.

It has also moved Macworld’s news site into the main site and pointed the comment system for those stories into Macworld’s existing forums. This had couple changes that went along with it. The first being that existing MacCentral users had to get new usernames at Macworld’s forums (resulting in 0 post counts). It also meant that existing discussions were in a different forum system.

Before I give my personal spin, let me give a warning that this is my own personal spin. It has nothing to do with Macworld, so if you don’t like it, you have a problem with me, not Macworld.

1. Instead of carefully examining the situation and seeing what the actual changes were, most users jumped to a series of rash conclusions which was joined with a lot of crass comments and childlike threats. It was fairly obvious what happened, at least to me. Macworld had two forum systems and migrated people from one to the other for the purpose of commenting on stories. Macworld left MacCentral’s forums in place, but they are no longer in use for story commenting. They did not “delete user accounts” as a few users suggested.
2. Due to the number of overlapping users, merging the two forum systems wasn’t possible. I had logins for both sites, which was common. Additionally, some users that weren’t the same on MacCentral, registered on Macworld’s forums. Those logins couldn’t and shouldn’t have been wiped to be replaced by MacCentral users. That’s not fair. Instead, users are given a new account at Macworld.
3. Avatars and image signatures are not allowed at Macworld. They make pages load slower and I for one applaud Macworld for never enabling those features. If you don’t like that, you can read the next point.
4. MacCentral’s existing forum system is alive and well. It’s still accessible through a link available in Macworld’s forums. Use it.
5. Being crass and making threats helps no one. It only aggravates those running Macworld. This goes for any business or institution. It’s like the old saying goes, you’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
6. If you don’t like something about the way things have changed, specify them. Don’t just reiterate the moronic “it sucks”. Describe them very specifically and be extremely clear about what you mean. Posting “I can’t make new topics” isn’t clear. Explain that you’re talking about creating a new thread about a particular story. Also, offer suggestions. “Go back to the old site” is not a suggestion. If the type is too big in your opinion, suggest smaller type. I think you can get the idea.
7. That said, there has been, in my opinion, excellent feedback on the new design. There are a few users in particular that I can think of. They did all the things above I suggested. more importantly, they are going to wait to see how things play out for the next couple weeks. Others have not, opting for immature threats.

I’d like to see Macworld utilize the ability of different CSS style-sheets to be used. That way, they could offer a “Classic” style sheet that closely emulates the original style. Users could choose which style sheets to use. (For those of you didn’t pick up on it, that’s an example of constructive feedback.) The possibilities are many and certainly too early to pass final judgment on.

Addendum: I forgot to mention that post counts are not a functional thing at all. It’s completely for vanity. If your points are salient, post counts are unnecessary to back them up.

Following a Paul Hamm’s dramatic recovery from a mistake during the overall gymnastics competition at the Olympics, we all learned of a scoring error that would have meant only second place for him, giving the bronze medalist the gold.

Naturally, it’s a sad turn of events for the South Korean, but the Federation of International Gymnasts (FIG) has refused to step up to the plate to rectify their mistake. Instead of giving Yang Tae-young another gold or telling the world that they made a mistake and that it is final, they are calling upon Paul Hamm to turn his medal in and “do the right thing.” Suddenly, the competitor who has no hand in the scoring, is being asked to rectify the situation? He is being called upon to fix things. It’s absurd!

I wish I could be like that. What if criminals did this? George steals Frank’s car and sell it to Peter. George gets caught and instead of setting things right, says “All sales are final. Peter, do the right thing and give Frank his car back.” It doesn’t work like that.

Further, it’s not like it’s a huge deal if FIG gave out another gold medal in this isolated case. If they are afraid of setting precedent that might result in this happening frequently, then they need to revisit their judges and their apparent lack of judging ability. It’s like the use of the red flag in football. It should be unlimited use as long as you are right. It’s use is limited to twice because of a misplaced fear that it might slow down the game. That is only a concern if the officiating is so awful that they continue to screw up. In that case, the NFL would have much larger problems than the game getting delayed. The same goes for FIG.

Should the IOC give out another gold medal? I don’t know. Should Paul Hamm give his back? Hell no.