Categories
Technology

I’d like a Big Mac

AppleWatch has an interesting article on the price differences between Apple computers and PCs. According to its analysis, Macs now cost close to twice as much as a PC for approximately the same hardware. Though people may prefer the Mac OS X, at the same time, can we afford such a price difference?

I recently wrote about needing to get a new computer. Both my Powerbook G4 and my Dell Inspiron 1505 are aging, and though they’re able to handle the load, my interest in HD video has really a strain on both. In addition, I’m starting to run into “Intel only” issues with my Powerbook; enough to make it difficult to keep up with my interest in, and work with, web graphics.

I have looked at refurbished iMacs, as well as Macbook Pros, and Macbooks. The Macbook Pros are way too expensive—I can’t swing them, end of story. The Macbooks have integrated graphics, and just won’t work for my interests. The iMacs, now, do interest me, but the one that I would want to get is still close to $1800.00, refurbished. I can get one of the new Dell Studio Hybrid, or an HP, or other machine for half the cost.

There is that issue of operating system, though. I do prefer the Mac OS X, hands down. I love my Macports and all that free software. I love how easy it was to set up Rails for a book I’m currently tech reviewing. I also appreciate the Parallels capability, in addition to others, that would allow me to run Windows and Linux side by side with the Mac OS X. It is, to be succinct, sweet. However, I can’t afford spending close to a couple of thousand on a new computer, not at this moment. It’s not a question of being frugal, or cheap, but of literally not having that amount of spare cash.

My hope for the Secret of Signals web site was that I could somehow turn it into an income earning site, focusing on digital how-tos, and the new state of internet video, and so on. This is one reason why I need an upgraded machine.

At the same time, to be ruthlessly honest with myself, I’ve never been able to really turn any kind of profit from my online sites, and I’m not sanguine I can do the same with SoS. Or any other of my sites, come to that. I couldn’t even earn $5.00 a quarter posting Amazon links for my books. In fact, my sites have never been anything but a labor of love, and sometimes not even that.

Pair that with spending an extra thousand on a computer and one can see why a person, such as myself, died in the wool Mac fan, would hesitate between a Mac, with its lovely OS, and a PC, with, ugh, Vista.

My hope is the rumors I’m hearing of newer, cheaper Macs hitting the streets soon are true, which is why I haven’t bought anything yet. In the meantime, I make do.

update I just noticed that the percentage difference for buying a refurbished Macbook Pro over a new one has increased to 35% for some models. I wonder if this isn’t signaling that there is some truth to cheaper Mac laptop coming, soon? Probably not, but it’s nice to dream.

Categories
Critters

Tiger Tales

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

This is Missouri’s week for tigers, but not all the tiger tales are happy ones.

Today, the St. Louis Zoo will introduce five Amur tiger cubs to the public for the first time. The Amur tiger, also known as the Siberian tiger, is one of the rarest tigers in the world. At one time, they numbered only about 50 in the wild. Thankfully, rigorous conservation has increased this number to close to 500 tigers in the Amur district in Russia.

Breeding programs like the one for Amur tigers at the St. Louis zoo also help add to the numbers. Unfortunately, though, Siberian tigers raised in captivity don’t typically survive when released into the wild. The only hope for conserving the wild Siberian is to maintain strict conservation.

The St. Louis Zoo is an accredited and highly respected animal preservation center, but the same can not be said about two other animal parks in the state, also in the news this week because of tigers. The tales from these two parks, though, are not happy ones.

In Branson, a 16 year old is in critical condition after being *attacked by three tigers while he was in the cage taking photographs for visitors.

I am amazed that this park would encourage its employees to enter a tiger enclosure just to take a picture for some idiot tourist. I hope the young man lives and sues the park for everything it owns. And I hope our state closes this park down.

Not as much, though, as I hope it closes Wesa-A-Geh-Ya, near Warrenton. The day before the Branson attack, a tiger jumped a fence at Wesa-a-Geh-Ya and attacked a worker cleaning her cage. The worker lost his leg below the knee, but is expected to survive. The animal farm people actually tried to cover up the nature of the attack, saying the man was attacked by pit bull, rather than a tiger. Of course, the attacked man is not supporting this lie.

This exotic animal farm has been under investigation in the past, and has had its public display license revoked. PETA and others have been critical of the establishment, because of the animal enclosures.

Supposedly the owner has offered to give up their animals and have them euthanized (animals from these establishments typically can’t be integrated into zoo populations), but then has changed her mind. The decision should not be up to her, if her cages are such that animals can escape that easily.

I absolutely loath and despise these “roadside zoos” and believe, strongly, they should be closed. Most are poorly managed, and the animals badly cared for. I also do not agree with having exotic animals for pets. We have domestic cats and dogs needing homes that would make wonderful pets; exotic animal pets are nothing more than ego trips for the owners.

update The Branson folks are claiming that the tigers did not attack the boy. That they were trying to help him, after he fell and hit his head, which is why he has severe puncture wounds to his neck.

I hope I will be excused for greeting this with a great deal of skepticism.

Categories
Weather

Hot Days

We’ve been lucky this summer and had relatively mild weather. However, this week our luck has run out, as we contemplate heat index readings over 115 degrees (46 celsius).

Stay cool.

Categories
Environment

Beijing on a smoggy day

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I have been following James Fallows’ coverage of the Olympics with interest, specifically because he has been focused on the air pollution that plagues Beijing.

It is unfathomable that a city would put its people at risk by having air quality so bad that it has to take such drastic steps as eliminate 90% of cars from the road and close most of its factories, in an attempt to clear the air for the games. By all accounts, the effort is not succeeding, and rightfully so. If concern about its people does not move the Chinese government, perhaps embarrassment in front of the world will do the trick.

Fallows had written once that he hopes the Beijing games succeed, because if they fail, foreigners in China will be blamed and their lives made miserable. With all due respect to Mr. Fallows, and with empathy to those who are in China for their jobs, I hope opening day of the Olympics dawns a brown, moggy mess.

Thanks to a link provided by Ryan in comments, an excellent review about a new movie, Dark Matter, and its indirect association to our relationship with China, and the importance of the Beijing games being successful. It gave me food for thought, but hasn’t necessarily convinced me to change my opinion. We’re facing a desperate situation, environmentally, and China’s environmental policy hurts not only the Chinese people, but the rest of us, as well. I find that difficult to overlook.

Categories
Just Shelley

Planning your own EOL

This week I’m updating my will, which hasn’t been updated since I was married (I’m now divorced). Updating one’s will is never a fun task, but it is essential if you don’t want to leave a mess behind after you die. More importantly, you may not always want everything you own go to Nearest Next of Kin, or the courts, if you die intestate (without a will).

In my case, a will is simple since I don’t own a house or business, and don’t have kids. I’m including in my will my bank account number, and my car insurance policy account information, in addition to the online accounts I’ve set up for both. I do have royalty payments, but it’s a simple matter of just specifying who the royalties go to. Of course, I also have to leave instructions about what royalties I am expecting and who to contact to ensure they go to the right person.

Then there’s this web site, and therein lies a modern challenge when planning one’s own EOL (end of life): what do we do about our connected lives?

I currently have automatic payments set up to pay for phone and internet, as well as my web site. To ensure that these are managed property, I’ve included instructions and access information for both.

I’ve provided a list of people and their email addresses to be notified if I die, so I won’t suddenly disappear without a trace. However, I have no interest in my web site lingering much beyond my death, as some form of white cross along a virtual rather than real highway. I realize that my web site going away will leave holes where previous documents used to be, but whoever decided that the web must remain static and 404 free really didn’t think through the issues in their Utopian view of the internet.

As for my writing or pictures, whatever I do have online is free for the taking after my death. Oh, the copyright will still be there, but my “heirs” will not be going after anyone. I haven’t decided yet, but I may ask that my online material be turned over into the public domain after I die. I’ll have to explore the ramifications of this issue in more depth, as there are some pieces that some people may want.

The domains I own will, themselves, be allowed to expire unless my heirs decide they want to keep or sell them, early. I will include information about how to access my registrar account, as well as my web hosting account.

Speaking of domains, currently I have several email addresses dependent on burningbird.net. I’ve already started using my Gmail account as an intermediary for sign up accounts, and I have to start doing the same with other email addresses I maintain. My email server will be gone once my web site is gone, and I don’t want others to suddenly lose email access because I’m no longer around to maintain the email accounts.

My Kindle is set up under my account at Amazon, and I’m not sure how one goes about “leaving” my Kindle books to another. I would assume that since these are property, and since the actual physical device goes to someone, the books themselves do, also. I’ll have to ask Amazon what its recommendation is. My Netflix account must also be transferred, which means transferring the Netflix Roku box to another account.

Other than my web site and email addresses, as well as online accounts with service providers, I don’t have any investment in any other online social services that I have to worry about closing.

Online accounts are not the only issue, though. I’m the tech in my household, and the only one with knowledge of how all the pieces are fit together. This week I’m spending time writing out detailed instructions of how all the components of my various systems fit together: from how to access movies on my AppleTV (including which computer is synced to my AppleTV, and what my iTunes account information is); to how to access movies, Hulu, or other online account from both my Mac and my Dell laptop.

These latter activities may seem frivolous when compared to the event leading to the need for such documents, but it seems a shame to do a really nice job with a home intranet, only to have it fall apart if I’m not longer around. Plus if I’m not dead, but only incapacitated for a time, or even on a long trip, it would be pity if my roommate couldn’t access my rather spiffy video setup.

To summarize the tasks:

  • Do the usual: create will, assign executor, provide detailed bank account information, as well as information about car insurance, and other insurance policies. Make sure to note all sources of income, even sporadic ones. (Getting money from selling ads, or being an Amazon associate? Note these.)
  • Provide a contact list of who to contact if you’re dead or may be dying.
  • Sign up for and use a centralized email account for any accounts. Have the account forward email to your hosted email account.
  • Leave instructions about how to access your web hosting account, and what do with your online material if you die.
  • Leave detailed instructions for all other online accounts, including your domain registrar, Amazon, Paypal, iTunes, FaceBook, Twitter, and so on.
  • Leave detailed instructions to access all your accounts that are setup with automatic payments. These will need to be transferred or canceled.
  • Provide account information for all computers, too, unless you want the computers wiped clean. Don’t forget your iPhone or other cellphone or small devices.
  • If you participate in some committee, such as a W3C working group, or provide open source software, such as Drupal modules, Firefox patches, then provide information about who to contact and how to provide access to any work in progress, or ensure that someone in authority knows that a module or other work is now available for someone else to support, if they wish. The same goes for any conference or other event where you’ve made commitments. Notice of death may be sufficient.
  • If you’re responsible for the internet or intranet connectivity in your home, (or church, or other organization outside of work) document your connections and equipment, and make sure whoever needs access to this information has these documents, and understands these documents. I am assuming you’re already doing this for your job.
  • To ensure you’ve accounted for everything, keep a diary, and every time you access a new online account, work on a new project, make an adjustment to a new device, make a new work or event commitment, jot it down and make sure the diary is accessible to whomever is your executor.

It is actually quite a lot of work to prepare for one’s own end in in this era of subscribed services and internet accounts— not to mention long distance relationships, and plethora of connected devices. I think, though, it’s important to do so if we don’t want to leave behind a tangled mess.

We should do this type of planning no matter how old or fit we are— there’s nothing morbid about planning for one’s death, and age is no defense. After all, there could be a beer truck with our name on it, just around the corner.