Categories
Author: Shelley Powers
Categories
Misfeed
Just realized that my redirected feed was no longer being redirected. Though I haven’t been writing much, I have been writing at some of my sites. I’m also redesigning again, based on the work I’m doing creating an ePub theme and application for Drupal. Needless to say, the design is clean. Very, very clean. One could even go so far as to say stark.
I have linked all my writings in this space, except for my more personal site, Just Shelley. I haven’t written at that site since Just a Cat. When I do, I’ll link the stories here, too. I promise: no more sending you all over hell and gone trying to find what I’m doing.
Haven’t been taking many photos, either. What pictures I have taken I’ve uploaded to my newly renamed MyGreen site (formerly MissouriGreen). Some new Spring flowers, new orchid shots, but nothing that makes me want to go, “Hey, look at this!” Photographically, I’m in a rut.
It’s been a quiet winter, focused on the new book and my work with the HTML5 working group. Now that I’m done with both, I hope to be a little more active here.
Categories
An Appleless future
It is time to buy new computers.
My desktop Windows computer is a 4+ year old Dell laptop with a burnt out LCD that I hook up to an external monitor. It’s running Windows XP, and could potentially be upgraded to Windows 7, but only with much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
My laptop is the last of the PowerPC PowerBooks running Leopard, since Snow Leopard only runs on the Intel machines. I’ve had to replace the Airport card, and the hard drive, but both were covered under warranty. The keyboard is starting to get mushy, but still works. The real problem is the growing lack of support for the old PowerPC architecture.
If July royalties go well, then I’ll look at replacing at least one, possibly both. When I do, though, I won’t be replacing either with an Apple computer.
Why an Apple-free future? One reason is cost: I can replace both my desktop and laptop with good, relatively powerful Windows machines for the cost of one 13 inch Macbook Pro. The days of having money to burn for “sexy” machines are over—now I want solid machines with good software support that are competitively priced.
Another reason to move from Mac back to Windows is I don’t need a Mac. All of the applications I use have a Windows-based version. I stopped using MacPorts a while back when I got tired of the continuous round of upgrades. I don’t run a web server on my home machines anymore, doing all my development out at my web site. Besides, you can run a web server on a Windows machine as easily as a Mac.
Ease of use isn’t an issue for me, as I’m comfortable with both environments. I haven’t tried Windows 7 but whatever quirks it has, I’ll learn and adapt. I used to be able to work with DOS and the old VAX/VMS—I can handle a new operating system.
Security used to be a big reason to stay with the Mac, but nowadays Apple is as much of a target as Windows. Besides, most security problems arise because of applications, and cross OS boundaries. Relying on using a lesser used OS to protect you from problems isn’t an effective approach: a secure system is 95% common sense, 5% other. So, save some money and use common sense.
My Photoshop installation is CS3 on the Mac, but supposedly I can cross-grade my license, and swap it for a Windows license. If I have spare change from buying a new machine (i.e., you all buy more of my books) I’ll upgrade to CS5, and cross-grade the license to Windows. If Adobe doesn’t let me port my license to Windows, well, then it’s time to move all of my graphics work to GIMP. Besides, I primarily like Photoshop because I like Adobe Bridge for editing metadata and viewing my images. There are alternatives.
A last reason for not staying with Apple is I’m tired of the company. I’m tired of hearing about it. I’m tired of seeing people in line, waiting for a phone. I’m weary of the Apple cult, Apple lawsuits, Apple prototypes, Apple mystic, and stark black and white.
I am no longer enamored of devices where form takes precedence over function. What other manufacturer could get away with providing devices where you can’t replace the batteries?
Worse is the lock-in. If you want to develop for the iPhone or iPad, you have to own a new Macbook Pro just to use the relevant SDK, and then you have to purchase the SDK. It also peeves me to see people buying into what is nothing more than a horrifically closed, obsessively controlled environment. You have to use the Apple code, develop to the Apple model, think the Apple mindset, which embraces puritanical censorship and nowadays lacks both perspective, and sense of humor.
The Steve Jobs of yesteryear was arrogant, but innovative. The Steve Jobs of today is just plain arrogant. I don’t want to give him my money.
Categories
Skewing old
Amazon released a Kindle 2.5 update this week. The big news about the software upgrade is that it finally includes support for collections—being able to group books based on some criteria. This is the functionality we’ve been asking for since the Kindle was first released. Great!
Great, except that the software upgrade is for Kindle 2 and DX owners, not the Kindle 1. Amazon seemingly perceives the Kindle 1 as an early, failed experiment, and Kindle 1 owners, early adopter guinea pigs who should be content with just being there in the beginning.
When Kindle 1 owners expressed disappointment in the Kindle owner discussion forums, we were told that this is the way it is; that companies don’t support old, obsolete equipment. Instead of bitching about the software update, we were told to upgrade to a shiny new Kindle DX. One wit even quipped that yes, he also wanted support for his Commodore 64.
Ignore for the moment that the Commodore 64 is 28 years old, and my Kindle 1 is a little over 2 years old…
I had planned on providing more edits to my change proposals, but doing so is only throwing good time away on a hopeless cause. I can’t even get the HTML5 co-chairs to realize that by allowing those who proposed a counter-proposal to group all of the items in only one response, they’ve made individual discussion on each change proposal, impossible.
I also can’t discuss most things on the list without being told to take it off-list. I feel as if the co-chairs are continuously taking me to the wood shed—it’s been, frankly, a humiliating experience.
I have no recourse but to quit the group. Evidently, the W3C does not find me a useful participant.
I’m not done with HTML5, but I am done with the HTML WG. I think HTML5 has significant problems, and I think the way the specification is currently written is going to cause a lot of confusion and problems in the future. But if I write on HTML5 going forward, it’s as a “citizen”, and not part of a group that says it wants to hear responses from the web community at large, but in actuality, just wants to rubber stamp what some of the browser companies want.