Unsanity.org provides some shielding against the effects of the reality distortion field (via Manuel). Some valuable skepticism, but aslo some silly carping about New Things such as the built-in iSight and the remote. The writer’s analysis concludes that the new intelMacs were likely rushed into production and chalks up some of the downgraded features on the new machines to that. Sounds about right to me. I’m still considering flipping the current axe for one of the new machines. Better list on eBay soon, though. 😉
Buried
Amidst the mostly tiresome and predictable bash-and-fete chez MeFi was the news that Google Earth for Mac is out today. Today, not next March.
intelMac
Well, not that this is by any means some sort of unique, oracular reflection on today’s semi-surprise announcement of Intel-powered Macs – the scheduled ship date is a tad early – but I might was well offer my thoughts.
This weekend I had a pleasant drink or two with a good friend who was complaining about his current Dell laptop and I ritualistically plugged Apple, hipping him to the possibilities of Apple Certified and the like. As we prepared to move on from our discussion I dredged up the Macosphere rumor of the day, that Intel-based mac laptops were slated fro unveiling today. I passed it along, but scoffed heartily.
Thank you, Mac rumor sites! Today, I yam a ZHEEEHNIUOUS!
Overall, I’m impressed by the new axes. They appear to offer a significantly greater cutting-edge-to-pressure-flake ratio and make impressive use of available materials. I would not be surprised if we uncover traces of these axes in middens far, far afield of the previously recorded distribution. This, of course, implies robust trade networks.
Interestingly, the Axxle Store had not adjusted the base pricing of the previous axes, based on the now-abandonded Eastern Flake technique. Still, the hard-to-locate Cupertino axes and adzes remained available both in refurbished and new units at surprisingly comparable rates to the purportedly four-times-sharper Portland blades.
It will be well noted by veterans of similar digs that no actual instance of a Portland axe has been located despite a great deal of anticipatory research.
It is a peculiar tragedy of history that the genius responsible for three out of four base models of Axxle devices will remain forever shrouded in the mists of the Stoner Age.
Hail to the Cheif
Tom points out a hot one making the rounds in Redmond: Bill Clinton to replace Steve Ballmer as Microsoft’s president.
Please note, this rumor is passed along for infotainment purposes only.
Cat Content!
NYT: “DNA Analyses Offer New Insight on Cat Evolution and Migration: Researchers have gained a major insight into the evolution of cats by showing how they migrated to new continents and developed new species.”
What? No pictures of the contributor’s beasts?
iPatch
P-I: EyeBud can turn video iPod into big-screen TV for one.
Man, that picture is hilarious. Arrr. Don’t steal music – steal TV!
Wrist
Huh, an RSS reading feature referred to as ‘clips’ appeared in my Gmail today, interesting.
Type
Halfway through the New Yorker thing on type designer Matthew Carter, I check to see if it’s online. Alas, no dice. Note to self, readers, and bitwise archaeologists: I will have to save my mag to give to Stacey B.
Footie
I’ve personally been calling for an outbreak of Bigfoot sightings since I moved here in 1990, first tying the phenom to a poor national economy and then to an overheated local economy. Currently I hold that such outbreaks are largely tied to inflationary housing markets. Bring on the mystery anthromorphs!
Not in the cards.
Upon inserting the Elph’s 1gb card into my card reader, only a subset of the files I knew were there appeared in the Mac OS. Upon reinserting the card into the camera and hitting playback, I was pleasantly informed that there was “No File.”
So I shot some more test pix.
I had been planning a card experiment anyway, as Viv has been pestering me to learn how to get pictures from her phone, a Nokia 6220, on to her computer. When I bought the phone, it was supported by iSync; now, however, it is not, and in fact, there is no Google-able solution for easy data exchange to the Mac with this phone at the moment.
(Unless, by now, there is! via burning paper. crazy!)
The phone is much mocked for the idiotic placement of the SD card, buried deep beneath the battery, so even should this methodology work it’s less than desirable.
Happily, her card read fine and I was easily able to grab all the video and pictures from it. Unhappily, sometime in June, she started shooting to the internal storage of the phone. The phone does provide a mechanism to shift photos from the internal storage to the card, but only one at a time, and the procdure requires several button presses to complete for each image.
Once this had been attended to, I reinserted the Canon’s card.
Once again, the dreaded words: “The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in ‘IMG_0001.JPG’ could not be read or written.” Sigh. Looks like I need to do some research, or maybe actually insert the Canon-supplied software disc. At least this time it didn’t nuke the images.