No name (2)
April 6, 2011
I am not a person who goes around naming my objects. I have several friends who name their cars, and I just don’t get it. It’s a car. I suppose I can understand naming ships and trains and planes. They’re big. They have routes. They go places—across the country, across the ocean, to another continent. A car goes to the grocery store.
And if I were a guy, I certainly wouldn’t name my, you know.
What I do name are my computer hard drives. When I first started thinking about this this evening, I assumed it was because “Macintosh HD” is so non-descriptive that you’d get confused if you didn’t name it something else. But that’s really not true, at least for home use, even if you have more than one computer, such as I do. I’m not going to be too confused by seeing two “Macintosh HD”s on the network. One is the computer I’m using, the other isn’t.
So it turns out that I give in to a little bit of frivolity on this front after all. It is, I must admit, a little more entertaining to see the name of your hippity hoppity bunny rabbit. I name my hard drives after my pets.
My rabbits have gotten the hard drives, the cats have gotten the peripherals. The “turnover,” if you will, in both departments has been compatible. So, let’s see if I can remember what they’ve all been.
Macintosh Performa 631CD: Hazel (rabbit)
UMAX Macintosh clone: This was probably also Hazel, as he lived for 10 years. This was a great machine.
40 gig external hard-drive: Hilda (rabbit #2)
Sony Memory Sticks for digital camera: Dhia, Yul (1st, 2nd cats)
iPod 3rd gen: Daisy (shortlived 3rd rabbit). This is still a hard-drive iPod, not one of the newer flash drives, so it counted for getting a name.
Apple G4 dual 867MHz: Robbin (5th and current rabbit). This computer is a tank, and if the Mac OS hadn’t left it in the dust, I’d still be using it.
Extra internal HD in the G4: Belle (shortlived 4th rabbit, posthumously named, because this was the one case where sweeties and hard drives got out of sync), used for music storage
(Wow, did I go from the UMAX to the G4? Holy crap, I did. It seems so long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.)
G4 iBook (2004, still in use, I’m writing on it AS WE SPEAK): ROBBINBOOK. iBook 2004, Robbin Rabbit 2003.
Mac Mini dual Intel whatever: ROBBINmini. Mini 2010, Robbin Rabbit 2003.
External hard drives used with ROBBINmini: Dasie (1), CJ (3rd and 4th, current, cats). Dasie gets the music, because she’s crazy and fun-loving and crazy. CJ gets the one that’s for back-up, because she’s more no-nonsense.
Endnotes
1. Yes, there have been two Daisys. Daisy the rabbit only lived for half a year due to defective genetics, probably due to purebred inbreeding issues. When Dasie the cat came to me, I knew I couldn’t keep her shelter name of Sadie. I thought Daisy was a fun name, so when I realized that I could anagram Sadie into Dasie, it was a no-brainer. It still sounded the same, but was a different spelling as well as a non-traditional spelling. And it totally fits her personality, just as Daisy had fit the rabbit’s. She was a devoted, little ray of sunshine.
Birds don???t make me angry
March 30, 2011
I’ve never been a big game player. Oh sure, back in the day I was pretty good at Centipede and then Joust. Tempest held my interest graphically and I was just dumb-lucky enough at spinning the dial thingy around to keep going for a while. I think you can immediately tell from the preceding discription that, though I sometimes find a game that I find interesting and easily understandable enough to play a second time, you could hardly call me a gamer. I’m not.
Once I got my computer I, um, didn’t really start playing games. In the early days (we’ll call it 1996-ish) on my Mac, I enjoyed Peter Gabriel’s Secret World, which I borrowed from work, but my home computer was never quite beefy enough to make that a satisfying experience.
In about 2004, I finally found a game I could get behind—Super Text Twist. I play the desktop version, not online. I don’t care if I match my prowess against a bunch of people I don’t know. Initially I played the untimed version, but it didn’t take long before I took on the greater challenge (such as it is) of always playing timed. Of course, it helps that I figured out a sort of cheat that helps me figure things out if I’m having trouble.
Then I got my iPhone and boy, did things ever stay the same. I have a bunch of games on it, but my favorite is another timed word game—imagine that—Scramble CE. I don’t like, a little bit, that it’s by Zynga, but it’s free and I can play by myself. I do like that I have to think rather than shoot. There again, I play the slightly more challenging “Advanced” option, in which I have to find—oo-oo-ooh—four- rather than three-letter words.
And shooting brings us to, what else, Angry Birds.
I feel about Angry Birds sort of like I feel about the iPad. It would be fun, but I don’t really need it. Nevertheless, I forked out the US$1.06 for it because, let’s face it, that’s a lot more affordable than $400 or $600 or whatever the iPad is.
I know people who are obsessed with Angry Birds (well, really, and iPads, too). I’m sure you know someone. I am not one of them. Right now it is only a way to relax in bed for a few minutes before switching to Scramble and falling asleep, or maybe to reading a little, too (still on iPhone), and falling asleep. Though I do admit that, because I have failed screen 9 of Poached Eggs at least thirty times (see screen shot at top), the victory smirk(s) of the pig(s) is(are) beginning to get to me and I can see how it could become compelling to those with weaker resolves. I suppose there are cheats posted online, but fortunately I don’t care that much yet.
Anyway, Scramble and Angry Birds get to be out loose on page 2 of my iPhone. The rest of the games are combined into folders, one for the ones that I play occasionally and the other for the ones I don’t. I am going to give Crazy Penguin Catapult and Tangram Pro honorable mentions. Those are the other two that I like to play. The gameplay in Crazy Penguin Catapult is similar to Angry Birds—you fling penguins through ice blocks at polar bears.
I don’t know. I think the penguins in their battlefield helmets with their salutes are a lot cuter than the angry birds, and I know I like polar bears better than pigs, although pigs are very intelligent and I find that appealing. Plus, I paid a dollar for it so I feel like I should play it in order to get my money’s worth.
Apple-flavored Kool-Aid
June 17, 2010
Despite my best effort, I do not have an iPhone 4 pre-ordered or even merely reserved. Why? Because Apple??AT&T decided to discriminate against people who, for whatever reasons, only have a debit card and not a credit card.
My own story is that I had personal bankruptcy effective December 31, 2004. I have found it surprisingly easy to lead a cash-based existence. I suppose that???s in part because banks for a long time have given you VISA debit cards, so I can pretend that I have a ???charge??? card, even though it comes (relatively) right out of my checking account.
That was all fine and dandy until yesterday, Day of the iPhone 4 Pre-Order. Yesterday, Day of the iPhone 4 Pre-Order, was the first time I have ever run into a SNAFU because my card is debit not credit.
At lunchtime, I made my way over to the downtown AT&T store because that was most convenient. I drank the Apple Kool-Aid a long time ago, as I believe I have mentioned previously, and would have preferred checking in at one of their stores, but as it was a non-weekend workday, I made do with what was available.
I can???t blame anybody but myself for this lack of fulfillment. I arrived at the AT&T store where the line-managing concierge made a frequent point of mentioning that debit cards would not be accepted and that if that was all you had, you should save yourself some agony and turn back now. I smugly watched three people ahead of me in the line of nine bail. I am an experienced Apple line-waiter. I stayed.
Oh, and I also answered to at least two passersby who wondered what the line was for, that AT&T was giving away a million dollars but that they should keep it on the down-low.
Yeah, then reality set in.
My turn with a CSR came and I had an enjoyable fifteen minutes with Zach while he waited for the overloaded AT&T and Apple systems to process each screen of information. Then came the Moment of Doom. I realized that my card was debit not credit.
It???s not that I???m dumb. I know the charges come right out of my checking account. But I???ve never been denied, because the card with the VISA logo, etc., is supposed to work “everywhere VISA is accepted.??? Right. Apparently not in Cupertino, California??AT&Tland.
The official line is that in previous pre-order situations, people were confused because a ???hold??? is placed on the total $$, though (as usual) the account activity doesn???t occur until the purchase is shipped. People less smart than I did not comprehend that it was not an actual duplicate removal of funds. Apple??AT&T decided not to deal with the questions this time around.
Freakin??? awesome.
I tried to be interested in picking up something for lunch on the way back to the office, then decided I???d see what would happen if I tried pre-ordering online at the Apple website. The first two attempts failed. The third attempt denied me for some reason other than my debit card, because I never got so far as being asked to enter the number. But what it did ask me was whether I wanted to ???reserve??? one at a store to pick up on the Day of Release. YES, PLEASE.
I then got a friendly web page that said something to the effect of ???thank you, your iPhone will be ready for you to pick up.??? There was no subsequent email confirmation. I was nervous that I had any kind of deal.
In the evening I saw the headline informing the world that AT&T stores had sold out of their allotted pre-orders. Skepticism crept closer.
This morning I tried the Apple site again and saw that instead of ???Ships: Arrives on June 24th??? it said ???Ships: By July 2nd.??? After lunch it said ???Ships: By July 14th.??? What?
Then I saw the headline that over 600,000 iPhone 4s had been pre-ordered. Whoa! Panic!
I called the store where I thought I might have an iPhone 4 on reserve. Nope, they didn???t have me on their list and, of course, I couldn???t be added.
My main motivation for wanting to acquire an iPhone 4 on the day of its release is because I???m leaving for ten days in London the next day, and my current iPhone 1 (bless its Edge network soul) is beat up and cracked, and water seeped into those cracks a few weeks ago and caused the top half of the touch screen to no longer work. Although I have gotten quite adept at creatively rotating the thing to accomplish tasks, there are some important actions that I can???t do, such as dial a phone number with the keypad.
So it???s down to this. I will draw on my line-waiting experience at an Apple Store around dawn on June 24th and hope for the best. If the iPhone 4 stock has been depleted by the time it???s my turn, I will instead get the $99 iPhone 3GS and figure out the rest (with regard to contracts and upgrade prices) later. I really want to take something that is fully functional in every way with me on my trip.
Something small
April 12, 2010
As you may remember from the turn of the year, I had the purchase of a new computer in my sights, either an Apple iMac or Mac Mini. I decided on the Mini because it is, well, small.
This is my new setup: the Mini and two external hard drives. The Mini???s drive is 320MB, the externals are 1.5TB each. The external drive labeled CJ (after my black cat) is my Time Machine drive. I hate the user experience of tracking down what you want to recover with Time Machine, but you sure can???t beat the authorize-it-and-forget-it ease of its backing stuff up. My previous backup method consisted of periodically copying things (such as my Photos folder) onto one of the extra drives I had installed in my old computer, which was better than nothing but not so good for the things that had been added in the intervening months.
The other external drive, Dasie (my black and white cat) will be my jukebox. I chose to name the music drive after Dasie because she???s more of a crazy party animal than CJ, who is the steady, consistent personality and more suitable for the important backup function. It is waiting for me to hook up one of the internal drives (Bibi, former rabbit) from the old computer and transfer the files.
To that end, I have an external case to house an internal drive. But today it was busy with the main hard drive from the old computer, (which was named after my rabbit). I could have booted the old computer in Target Disk mode, but I was thwarted by both old Firewire 400 (I did get a Firewire 400/800 dongle. Don???t you just love the word ???dongle???? I do.) and laziness about plugging in the computer and keyboard. Yes, folks, I would rather open up the box, remove the drive, and attach it to a new case than plug in the computer at the outlet (by which I mean grounded power strip).
It seems as though I???ve copied over everything I could need from the old drive. Eventually I???ll reinstall that drive and redo the old computer, and either try to sell it for beer money or donate it.??
So I plugged in the Mini (also named after my rabbit) and was all set to do Target Disk with the old computer and migrate my settings and user stuff and be up and running in no time. That was when I learned of the Firewire snafu. Instead of one-hour gratification, I had overnight gratification. I had to connect the two computers via Ethernet (!) and left the process chugging away overnight. In hindsight, it was probably better that way because then I didn???t stay up all night setting up and playing.
That???s the great thing about Macs. The transition was anticlimactic. There were no hitches. The migration worked perfectly and when I did things like check email and go online, I really wouldn???t have known anything was different because it just worked. The biggest adjustment has been to how quiet the Mini is. I don???t even know it???s there. The external drives are pretty quiet, too. The old computer was kind of like a jet airplane under my desk, which I didn???t realize until the sound was no longer there. Even this afternoon when I had the internal drive plugged in and was using it, it was very noisy. But the new computer mounted the drive and didn???t need to have any drivers installed or any other special considerations. Same with the CJ and Dasie external drives.
Get a Mac. They just work.
This entry is inspired by my photo of something small, my Mac Mini, but when I got to the sentence above, I realized that quite a bit of what I wrote could double as explanation for the March 20 mission (which I never wrote about), which was to share a word that???s not in your personal dictionary. The word I chose is the proper noun Windows, as in the operating system. Thankfully thus far in my computer computer career I???ve not had the OS inflicted upon me, and only use the word in the context of being a Mac fanatic and feeling superior.
Before: G4 // After: Mac Mini vs. iMac
December 31, 2009
This past weekend I spent time with geeks who, on their resumés, sport former and current employers such as Apple, Yahoo!, Topix, and Activision. When I proudly added my iPhone to the collection on the table and it was observed to be a first-gen among all the 3GSs, I was asked if I still liked my 128k Mac, too. Well, touché. I still use a G4.
I have the mirrored drive doors dual 867MHz, just the lowest model. I’ve had it since 2002 and it has been a tank for me (like most Macs, except maybe G5 desktops). The thing still works just fine. But the software I use as a graphic designer is at the point of superceding the hardware. Therefore, when I get my next income tax refund, a new Mac is in the cards. I don’t need much; I have maintained for a while that it wouldn’t be that much longer until my puny human brain would be unable to discern performance increases. Sure, maybe for heavy duty video and animation you can tell, but for what I do, not so much. So I only have my sights set on a Mac Mini or an iMac. There is no reason why a Mini wouldn’t be just fine. I have a monitor and display. But after working on a 30-inch Cinema Display at the office for the last few years, I think it would be nice to have that quality at home, too, hence the consideration of an iMac. But the one huge advantage the Mini has is that if I up and go to London like you all know I want to, I can pack it in my suitcase. There is at least one of you out there who reads this who could tell me if it’s as simple as getting a different power cord to take a Mini international. Because I plan on my next Mac lasting seven years like my G4 has. If it isn’t possible to just plug in a different power cord in another country, then the iMac would inch up in the standings. I suppose there are laws about taking software over national borders. I’m probably hosed. In that case, the Mini would still be the front-runner. If I were going to have to discard my fine Mac after a two or three years, then I wouldn’t want to spend more money than necessary. Hmm. Looks like the Mini wins either way.
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