01.16.08

Touched

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 5:30 am

So, as you might have surmised by my lack of enthusiasm, yesterday’s MacWorld was actually pretty tame. The biggest announcement was indeed the somewhat unsurprising MacBook Air, which by all accounts is impossibly small. Of course, having handled an iPod Touch for about, oh, all of last night, I don’t think I need to say “impossibly”. The minuscule size is quite possible– and actually very nearly probable.

I’ve tried not to think of the Touch as an iPod, actually; with the SDK coming up in a month and a half, it’s really more a Trojan Horse into the palmtop computer/organizer venue. Even as it stands now, with just a handful of the sync-capable apps and the extremely tightly-coupled Google integration, the device is more organizer than I’ve ever used. And believe me when I say I’m going to make use of it; the Basroil’s a wonderful computer and still my primary, but sometimes there’s just not enough room or time to sit down, pull it out of the bag, open it up, and so on and so forth just to check mail. Pittsburgh’s a good spot for Wi-Fi, too, so I should have no trouble staying connected. Naturally, I probably won’t be able to make use of some of the really obscure features, like location via hotspot proximity, but we shall see. If anything, I’m definitely going to go ahead with the .Mac subscription so I can keep everything more or less synced up (the Touch syncs to KOS-MOS, and I keep most of my calendar appointments on the Basroil).

Oh, incidentally? The YouTube integration? Pure bliss. I look forward to being able to show off “The Weapon Of CX” on-demand.

It’s been kind of a crappy week for gaming, both in new releases and in stuff I’ve played. I couldn’t get much further in Eternal Sonata the past couple of nights, but tonight I hope to plow through to the next chapter at least turn it on unless something else comes up. Something usually does. Ah well; one way or another I’ll have something on the other side tomorrow. See you there, then.

01.14.08

And The Hits Keep Coming

Posted in Appleology, Rants, Writing at 6:32 pm

All right, I promised you guys that I would talk about GASP. The Gaming Association of Southwest Pennsylvania is a regional board and tabletop gaming group that meets monthly. We play obscure board games and on occasion roll a little of the polyhedra. Coincidentally, I tracked down an old module and have begun preparations to run a one-shot D&D session of my own during these times (there’s on the order of 50 of us, so it’s not like there won’t be people doing other stuff or I’d be monopolizing the event). So, that’s that; it’s pretty basic and nothing too spectacular.

I also said I’d talk about the whole ‘workout’ thing that I’ve been doing. To be honest, there’s not much to say– I’ve gone to the gym four times so far, today was the fifth, and I’m working on increasing stamina and maybe a little bit of ab definition and arm strength. The primary purpose is to just get me moving in a comfortable environment. I’m certainly not going to suddenly go overboard and work towards being an Arnold-like muscle mass. I’m about twenty years too late to want to do that.

There’s also my task of finding a literary agent for Blueberries; letters are going to be written and sent out, if not during the week, then on Saturday. I have my resolution to keep, after all, and a list of forty agents with more to come. I’m probably going to start sending out review copies to friends and family soon, so if you’re interested in giving it a look, please let me know.

Finally, MacWorld is tomorrow. I’m severely psyched for the show and the announcements, but the problem is that the odds are starting to swing away from an iPod/Touch refresh and more towards a MacBook announcement. Whatever “Air” is, it’s going to be ‘big’ but not for me. Moreover, it’s only been three months since the Touch was released, and I don’t think Apple would be willing to take that kind of a bath by dumping a new model this soon after Christmas. I’m looking forward to whatever’s up tomorrow, but for now my expectations are a little deflated.

Catch you folks tomorrow.

01.08.08

The Calmness of WAIT HOLY CRAP

Posted in Appleology, Gaming, Rants at 5:34 pm

These past few weeks I’ve been pretty heavily indulging in the geeky pursuits closer to the LJ-style than those things which would be applicable to blog entries. That naturally leans a bit more towards these posts being somewhat leaner than the LJ posts; then again, to be totally honest, after a month and a half of neglecting gaming and anime in favor of writing, the balance needs to be maintained again. I wouldn’t count on my attention wandering back to writing for a few more weeks, anyway, but I assure you it will in time, especially given that I’m likely to be doing up the first batch of query letters at some point this week.

On Thursday I’ll likely have something to say about life that’s a bit… let’s call it, unorthodox for me. There’s also tech news from CES rolling in, and that’s completely neglecting the matter of the upcoming Macworld show where undoubtedly people will be inundated with remorse over their post-Christmas impulse purchases of iPods or iPhones. (I came about twenty minutes away from breaking down and getting an iPod Touch myself these past couple weeks, but I didn’t, and I’m counting my blessings with each rumor that arises.) If there’s one thing that I really miss, it’s a May E3; still, I remember when there was no E3, and CES was the big event for both tech and gaming. I’m sure I’m not the only one to remember reading about CES in Nintendo Power long, long ago. Anyway, the tech news might be better held on to until the middle of next week.

Unrelated and slightly gaming-related: Playing through the first few bits of StarTropics last night, I came across an NPC proclaiming herself to be “Miss C-Island 1990″. And holy crap did that make me feel old. Hmm… now that I think about it… Well, I’ll just keep that idea quiet for now.

Catch you all tomorrow on the other side. Maybe with some thoughts on StarTropics and a quick update on Eternal Sonata.

Also: After finishing the post for today, Steve over at the Wicked Good Podcast brought it to my attention that The Mole is returning. Let me repeat that so it sinks in: The Mole is returning. Twice before was I denied the opportunity to go on the show, but now… NOW….

11.06.07

Lolcat

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 5:34 am

So, I’ve had some exposure to Leopard now. I managed to install it on both of my Macs– the Basroil (the Intel MacBook) and KOS-MOS (the PPC Mini what serves as my media center PC). To be completely honest, my initial expectations were totally wrong. The Basroil suffered a little bit of a slowdown, and KOS-MOS actually doesn’t suck anymore. Let me go into a little bit of detail here.
( I also go into the bug, so you don’t have to. » )
Overall, I’m happy with Leopard. I do use KOS-MOS often enough (daily for the iPod syncing) that the speed increase offsets the slight decrease on the more-commonly used Basroil. And in actuality, the times that I do run against the delays on the Basroil are few and far between. So, no worries, really.

We’ll go ahead and give a real update on the writing tomorrow.

11.03.07

Hi-Five My Remix

Posted in Anime, Appleology, Rants, Writing at 8:27 am

I’d been vaguely aware that the current issue of Wired– which I read only occasionally, sadly– had something rather interesting, but for the life of me I couldn’t quite recall what. (This lapse certainly could not have been the result of my Pokemon obsession, or my furious and frantic NaNo preparation, no sirree.) As it turned out, the feature that had caught my attention was a look at the manga industry as it exists in Japan. I’ll start by briefly recapping the article, then give my thoughts.

(EDIT: Incidentally: I was surprised, after my voice gave out yesterday, to find copies of Leopard at freakin’ Best Buy. I mean, the most stridently anti-Mac place I could think of now has a huge Apple display where they maybe once had a plasma screen showing off the latest DDR. Meh. You win some, you lose some, really. Related to this, Leopard is nice, very nice. Installing Leopard is unimaginable pain. Right, back to the Wired rant.)
( That all depends on your definition of the word ‘brief’. » )

10.22.07

Thoughts of a Despairing Appleologist

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 4:33 pm

Over the weekend– which was fantastically relaxing, thank you– I came across a post on an unnamed forum by an unnamed individual. Well, all right, the forum and the person do indeed have named, but I’d rather not reveal them here. Anyway, this person’s someone who I’ve had an arm’s-length relationship for a while, and in general I respect his opinion, even if I also in general almost never agree with him. Funny thing about that, really; I might not agree but he’s got a solid opinion and his arguments work from his point of view… just not mine, usually. That’s tangential, really, to the point at hand, being that he had a temporarily-bricked iPhone because he loaded a custom ringtone on it prior to the firmware upgrade.

Needless to say, he was upset. ( I don’t blame him, really… » )

10.17.07

I Already Used The Obvious Joke Here

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 4:33 am

Next week, Apple is set to release the newest version of their OS X operating system, code-named “Leopard”. (Actually, I suppose it’s no longer strictly speaking a code-name, as it’s pretty much the de facto marketing word for the 10.5 version’s box.) Akin to Microsoft’s release of Windows Vista late last year/early this year, many computer users are facing the very difficult decision: should I stay, or should I go?

( The gag is ‘Beware of the Leopard’, for reference. » )

This post really doesn’t serve much in the way of a purpose; just my musings on the impending release. I’m kind of curious to admit that I’d love to see the commercials for Leopard, to see if they’re as ever-present as the previous “I’m a Mac” commercials have been, but come to think of it, those have sort of dropped off, haven’t they? Also, what do ya think of the new cut system for the blog? (EDIT: Fixed a minor glitch with the cuts; they should be more obvious as cuts now. I’m still working on some more CSS trickery to make them even more obvious.)

09.03.07

The Kerfuffle Goes On

Posted in Appleology, Rants at 8:44 am

Unrelated, actually, to the Appleology rant that is every paragraph of this post but this one, but what exactly is a “kerfuffle”? I gather from the context in which I’ve heard it that it’s a to-do of some sort; synonyms include “dustup”, “commotion”, and “spectacle”… but kerfuffle? Who the hell makes up a word like “kerfuffle”?

Ahem. Anyway, Wednesday is another Apple press event, and the blogosphere (there’s another non-word) has tagged this one with the moniker “The Beat Goes On” (after the last line of the invitations sent out). As per usual, speculation is positively pandemic among the Appleologists. Some are claiming that the Beatles will finally make it onto the iTunes store; others are claiming that a “fat Nano” will be introduced that has a widescreen display; still others are actually saying that Apple losing NBC support for the new season is going to be completely rendered moot by whatever it is they announce in 48 hours or so. All are wonderfully tantalizing, but if there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that Apple always has something secret up their sleeves for these events. Maybe not something useful-secret (I’m looking right at you, redesigned iMovie), but something secret nonetheless.

Let’s tackle these in order. The Beatles have been the sort of Holy Grail of downloadable music, and many folks were pretty shocked when Sir Paul’s tracks started showing up on the iTunes store earlier this year. This is, of course, because of the old (and long-since settled) dispute between Apple Computers and Apple Corps Music, the Beatles’ record label. Lending some amount of credence to the theory is the fact that EMI, which controls the Beatles’ library, was the first label to sign up for the iTunes Plus (read: no intrusive DRM, just some watermarking) distribution model back in late May. Well, it’s been three months and EMI is still in business, so that ought to shut up any naysayers in the RIAA about electronic music sales killing the industry and devouring artists’ children. (Unrelated: MP3 HUNGERS! MUST EAT MADONNA’S BABY! RARGH UMM NUM NUM) Anyway, since it has been just about ninety days, I’d say that the ink is barely drying on the contract to let the Fab Four onto iTunes. All you need, apparently, is patience.

Moving on, then, to the Fat Nano. If you’ve been following my Google Reader shared stories (and I certainly don’t blame you if you haven’t– I certainly wouldn’t want to right now, but I am working on that, kind of), you’ll have noticed that there’s been a few concept photoshops of a redesigned iPod Nano. This so-called “fat Nano” is so named because of its wide screen. It makes the Nano look squat and stubby, and while it does retain the basic design of the old-school iPod Mini, it has one key drawback: it looks fat, squat, stubby, and ugly. Personally, I do not think that this design is the real deal for three reasons. First, Apple has been known to let red-herring concept drawings loose internally to see who will leak them, and this might be one of them. This could be countered by the fact that Apple sent a C&D letter to Engadget when they first posted the photo, but the terms of the letter said that it was Apple’s intellectual property; that’s a pretty broad definition and doesn’t prove that that’s the real one. Second, I’m sure someone at Apple has the sense to see that the new Nano design is not aesthetically pleasing (in the immortal words of Mr. M. Doughty, “fly”). If I were in charge of the redesign, I would have rotated the screen 90 degrees so that it elongated the Nano further, rather than widening it. Now, this does run into some problems, especially as there are other video players out there with similar configurations. But Apple might want to risk it– after all, a settlement might be cheaper than lost sales due to an ugly product. Finally, there’s the obvious answer: what the hell does the Nano need a widescreen for? Seriously, the Nano is not intended to be a video player. I don’t like playing video on my full-sized iPod, and now you’re telling me to watch it on a screen that’s even smaller? You must be joking, right? The Nano is and should remain Apple’s primary music-only player. Cover Flow, while pretty, is mostly irrelevant for the Nano.

And now, the NBC thing. Last week there was a bit of “he-said, she-said” between NBC Universal and Apple with regards to their content-providing contract. The end result of all of the argument, and the thing which people saw first, was that Apple wasn’t going to carry the new season’s NBC shows, and that mid-season, all existing NBC content would be gone from the store. (It’s unclear if this affects “classic” NBC content, like Dragnet, or Sci-Fi Channel/USA Networks content, like Dresden Files or Monk (Universal controls both channels). I’ll do some more digging on this over the next few weeks.) Reaction from the consumer base has ranged from content-deprivation outrage (”How dare you not let us buy your stuff! I’m a paying customer, give me more Office!”) to torrent-fueled indifference (”Thanks for not letting us buy your stuff. We’ll still get it, we just won’t pay for it now.”). In principle, I agree with both sides; by and large the iTunes sales model has proven to be sound enough to warrant further trust (and come on, they released the Apple TV this past year, do you think people are going to stop buying shows?), but if it is not available for legal purchase, then there are alternatives. In my case, it’s called “my DVR”. (Come to think of it, there’s nothing really all that interesting coming up this year on NBC– “Chuck”, maybe, but that’s going to get cancelled because it might be interesting, just like “Raines” was.) As time wears on, this will develop, but Apple would not have let it go if there wasn’t some grand strategy in the works that will make NBC Universal come crawling back. That revenue stream is going to dry up around December or so, and Universal is going to be left holding the bill, looking for another vendor– and who else is there, really? Microsoft? With the juggernaut that is the Zune Marketplace and the Xbox Marketplace (where if it ain’t a game, it ain’t getting downloaded)? Don’t make me laugh.

Yeah, I’m disappointed in Apple that they couldn’t shoot straight with us on the details of the kerfuffle with NBC. Apple claimed that NBC wanted more money; NBC countered by saying “no, no, there were other things, we weren’t going to ask the consumers for more money, just Apple” (in development costs, licensing fees, etc.). The root of the problem is with Universal; most folks know that Microsoft has to pay a chunk of the revenue from every Zune sale to Universal, who unilaterally declared that all non-DRMed music on those players was “illegitimately obtained”. Sure. Let’s gloss over the three days I spent in the summer of 2005 meticulously ripping all of my purchased CDs to AAC/MP3 so that I could listen to them wherever I was, either at home (on the disc) or on the road (on my iPod Mini). I obviously don’t speak for everyone, but if I’m using a poor sample size, then so is Universal. This dustup between Uni and Apple is their way of saying “All right, now you wouldn’t want to lose more money, would you Apple? All we ask is a simple offering of cash and recrimination against your users.” Apple’s done some pretty dumb things in the past (Newton, anyone?) but sticking to their guns on this one certainly isn’t one of them.

Besides, Heroes was boring. (I actually had to remember if there was anything on NBC that I cared about.)

That’s about it, folks. Catch you later, likely with that Game Clear notice (I’m on the last handful of missions in Luminous Arc).

08.25.07

Update On iTunes

Posted in Appleology, Rants, Site News at 8:41 pm

Just a little FYI, I finally got my iPod sync functioning again after a few hours of tinkering. The root cause of the problem was a set of six or seven locked (aka read-only) files deep within the bowels of my library. In a particularly fitting twist, the tracks whose intransigence were driving me to cut myself were all by Linkin Park. ANYWAY. I only found this out by using a bizarre terminal string, provided to me by Joe Eversole on the Apple support forums. Here’s the terminal command to IDENTIFY the locked files:
ls -loR | grep "uchg" (parameters after the dash are lowercase l as in loud, lowercase o as in odd, uppercase R as in rock)
This command should be run from the root directory of your iTunes library (in my case, since the root is on an external drive, I had to first cd /Volumes/Kalique/iTunes Library/); you should close iTunes before you use it just to be on the safe side. It will output a line with a lot of nonsense, including your username and some attribute lists, but the important thing you’re looking for is the filename on the end. Use Spotlight to find the file, open its info (Apple-i, or “Command-i” if you’re insufficiently old-school) and uncheck the “Locked” checkbox. Close the info box (and optionally, re-run the ls to make sure it’s no longer listed).

This doesn’t alleviate any of the slowness of iTunes, but it does help with the “WHY THE F%#$ WON’T YOU SYNC, YOU W’OZ-LOGGOTH-SPAWNED PIECE OF CUPERTINO CRAP”. With that, folks, I’m off to bed. Catch you in the morning.

08.22.07

On iTunes

Posted in Appleology, Essay Week, Rants, Writing at 7:51 am

Essay Week 2007 runs from August 20 to August 24, 2007. Each day I’ll present a short essay on a topic of concern to me; as you may already have noticed, though, I have the option of including a pre-essay post giving updates on ongoing life events if necessary. Some of the elements in these essays may be controversial; I hope, however, that most will be well-regarded and at least read with an open mind. If you have anything to say about them, please feel free to leave a comment; I read them all, even if I may not respond due to time or other concerns. Shifting focus a little bit, today’s essay concerns the perils of iTunes and having a little too much of the music in your soul, or hard drive.

I have a pretty big iTunes library, and unfortunately for me, it gets stashed on an external drive (but it’s FireWire, so that’s a help). More unfortunately, I use a pretty extensive set of Smart Playlists to get everything organized for use on my iPod. What this means is that, in general, iTunes is devastatingly slow to load and use. It plays with no problems, and syncing is nice too, but it’s a pain in the ass when I’m ripping new songs or adjusting the SPLs to clear out stuff I don’t care to hear.
Read the rest of this entry »