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MacBook Pro - I'm waiting..

Posted by Stephen Waits Thu, 04 May 2006 04:54:47 GMT

Ok.. I’ve waited now, basically a year for the MBP’s. They got here, then I decided I’d wait for a) some kind of bonus check from work (still waiting) and b) for the details of the new MBP to shake out. Well, I’ve now come to the decision that this iteration of MBP just isn’t for me.

Why would I wait? Here are a few reasons why..

  • Many of the MBP’s where making weird noises …
  • And overheating like mad - I went and felt one at the Apple Store and it actually burns …
  • And battery life is no improvement over the previous generation, and I’m a battery life nutcase …
  • And sometimes the fans aren’t working …
  • And trackpads have been flakey …
  • And screens are unevenly backlit …

But probably more important than all of those (except maybe the heat thing), is that Intel’s Merom is due out this Fall. With Merom, we should get about the same, or maybe slightly less performance (though still plenty), at a considerable power savings. That should fix the battery life and heat problems.

For now I’ll stick with my Mini and my crusty old Laptop, now sporting Kubuntu. Since Cathy’s got her own laptop now, that eases things on me a bit, and I can get by just fine. After all, for most of what I do I just need Opera, Thunderbird, and a text editor, along with various compilers and interpreters - and I’ve got all of that on all three of my personal PC’s.

Cathy just says, “you’re being very patient”.

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Macbook Pro Alarm

Posted by Stephen Waits Sun, 09 Apr 2006 03:27:42 GMT

This is way cool to me. I guess in a geek nerd kind of way, but whatever.

See, the Macbook Pro (and prior PowerBooks) have a motion sensor in them. Previously there was a “Carpenter’s Level” application written for it, which is rather impractical.

However, now there’s iAlertU which is an alarm for your Macbook. Set it, and if anyone moves the thing, it goes off, de-muting if needed. The guy even used the Front Row remote control to arm it, and themed the thing in the ever familiar auto-alarm sounds. Way cool.

Hit the link, and watch the video.

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Eager.. old-school intelligent agent.

Posted by Stephen Waits Sun, 22 Jan 2006 04:53:00 GMT

Wow, the concept of Eager is very interesting. I can’t imagine a programmer that wouldn’t find something like this useful. Watch the video, ignore the old Mac gayness.

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