tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-143443862012-02-16T17:55:48.379-05:00Apple, Macintosh, and an occasional dash of Doug.Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.comBlogger811100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-52365502196557368842007-10-30T14:24:00.000-04:002007-10-30T14:39:52.028-04:00

This NYT article talks about the decline of the evangelicals (Thank the Lord!) and mentions the old-school evangelical theology:Ever since they broke with the mainline Protestant churches nearly 100 years ago, the hallmark of evangelicals theology has been a vision of modern society as a sinking ship, sliding toward depravity and sin.It got me to thinking about this "direction" metaphor as

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-40085994434148644312007-02-25T22:16:00.000-05:002007-02-25T22:16:10.446-05:00

RPG Vault: Jeff Vogel's View From the Bottom #7Lots more to say about this - I've been going back and forth as to whether or not I agree with him. On the one hand, it is a total pain in the ass to grind from Level 1 to 60 or 70, and I'm only halfway there (lvl 30 on my first ever MMORPG character). I can't say I'm totally bored, but it does get to be a drag after a while.On the other hand, what

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-11617752797236939132007-01-25T09:47:00.000-05:002007-01-25T09:54:10.051-05:00

Inside Mac Games News: WoW Interview Mentions Next MMOEven though I play WoW and really like the concept (and the complexity), the whole fantasy LoTR-ish theme has always struck me as childish and, to be honest, dumb. It's all bright colors and orc chicks with boobs and really fierce-looking trolls with big bad clubs. I mean c'mon - I've outgrown my Piers Anthony/Terry Brooks phase (and oh lord,

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-62218408577446760992007-01-16T14:31:00.000-05:002007-01-16T14:31:59.373-05:00

Infinite Loop: Macwelt gets more iPhone details out of AppleAgh, what's the use of a smartphone if you can't install software you want or download software/songs via the wireless connection? I'm really sick of mobile provider politics and their fiefdoms crippling the potential of these devices. And if Apple, who has a good history of aggressively breaking down barriers like these (see iTunes

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-22310756665573998312007-01-16T13:02:00.000-05:002007-01-16T13:02:26.992-05:00

Netflix to Deliver Movies to the PC - New York TimesBut Netflix, my PC is a Mac, and it's in my office, where only one person can watch at a time. If I can't save or burn the movies, what good is this to me? Get thyselves over to Comcast, Cox, DirecTV or some such thing and get this added to their On-Demand offerings. Then you'll have me, big-time. Until then, its appleTV (maybe) for me, or the

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-4040480170494007912007-01-12T15:56:00.000-05:002007-01-12T15:57:04.827-05:00

Roughly one-third of adult gamers spend 10 hours or more per week playing console or PC games compared to just 11 percent of teens, according to results from a new study released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®).It's nearly year-old data, but I love this! Totally validates my Masters' Thesis, too, about how games are taking over popular culture. I wrote it because I was tired of

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-39844029949950373632007-01-12T13:34:00.000-05:002007-01-12T13:50:39.416-05:00

Lots of people have mentioned that the name "iPhone" is a bit...constricting when it comes to describing all the things this device does, er, will do, er, is supposed to be able to do. I was thinking this morning that the move away from the "iPod " convention is an interesting and not entirely obvious decision. It was probably driven by the fact that Apple can't sell this thing itself, but

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-2311198257637888742007-01-11T10:57:00.001-05:002007-01-11T15:59:34.579-05:00

This is a very good list of perceived shortcomings and criticisms, and responding to it pretty much covers all my thoughts, so here goes, point by point:Cost: Yes, the price point is high, and of course it will come down in a year. But remember that this is more than a phone - it's a phone/ipod/PDA rolled into one. Not that this doesn't exist elsewhere, but as with the iPod, it doesn't exist in

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1154533362716462032006-08-02T11:42:00.000-04:002006-08-16T12:50:39.283-04:00

Desktop Pipeline | Ballmer Analyzes Microsoft's One Big Vista MistakeSo now Ballmer is admitting what has been clear for some time - they bit off more than they could chew. Vista was originally intended to be this supernova of an "update" - a fundamentally new OS, built upon a new file-system and with tons of innovative features. So much for that dream - now they're saddled with a scaled-back,

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1153677689495765042006-07-23T14:01:00.000-04:002006-07-23T20:38:39.306-04:00

Microsoft won't see Zune zoom up the chartsFrom the article:Microsoft's dominance on the desktop will not be seriously threatened until a technology is introduced that makes the desktop obsolete. Similarly, the iPod and iTunes dominance is not likely be threatened unless a technology happens along that makes its model of buying and listening to music obsolete. I wonder if this is true of all

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1152897658438629472006-07-14T13:20:00.000-04:002006-07-17T19:05:43.586-04:00

Sometimes the blogosmear just distorts things way too much. The basic truth is that OS X, at the moment, is not under attack from any exploits, whether they're viruses, worms, trojans, or whatever. Period. The level of danger to an internet-connected OS X user is far, far lower than that of a Windows XP user, nearly non-existent, in fact. This should be something that Apple shouts from the

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1152810965287770472006-07-13T13:16:00.000-04:002006-07-13T13:16:05.416-04:00

StumbleUponThis is my latest obsession - a Firefox add-on that lets me do targeted surfing. You download the add-on, create an account that includes your preferred web topics, then use the handy toolbar to "stumble" around different sites that the service (and possibly another user) recommends. So far I've "discovered" Pandora, a slightly out-of-date but still cool page about URL obfuscation, and

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1152359854453294032006-07-08T07:57:00.000-04:002006-07-08T07:57:34.533-04:00

The most interesting notes out of this panel discussion about OS X vs. Longhorn design were:MS was really sidetracked by the security issues for about two years, putting OS development on the back burner. I wonder how much of a leg up this gave Apple in terms of development years.OS X was developed in such secrecy that there was no user testing. Weird, and probably harmful. I wonder how much

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1150822704240563852006-06-20T12:47:00.000-04:002006-06-20T12:58:24.290-04:00

My wife and I discovered the show about Krakatoa this past weekend, and we watched it over the course of two nights on the DVR. Absolutely mind-blowing. (Click the title to see the Discovery page about it.)You cannot comprehend the sheer scale of the eruption and the catastrophe that follows, though the show did a good job of bringing it to a human level. Almost too good - there's one scene where

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1150479827111698702006-06-16T13:43:00.000-04:002006-06-16T13:43:47.393-04:00

"Apple is about to unveil the next generation of iPod, the best-selling music player in the U.S., using a 'none-touch' concept."As tempted as I am to believe in the Wii-controller motion-sensor iPod, I think this refers to wireless and touch-screen. Perhaps a bluetooth remote? I dunno. Anyhow, the thing's been begging for a larger screen since they added video, and I can't wait to see the clever

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1148670634905835162006-05-26T15:10:00.000-04:002006-05-26T15:10:34.926-04:00

I remain skeptical that this will be big, but it's cool synergy nonetheless. Now if only the iPods had wireless (Bluetooth) built-in...Other possible match-ups? How about iPod social networking, with a plug-in that wirelessly shares your info with other iPod users in your radius? Or iPod GPS integration, which plays special music when you near certain locations? I hope this is only the beginning.

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1148669252791368042006-05-26T14:43:00.000-04:002006-05-26T19:56:35.296-04:00

So there's been some hand-wringing about the fact that the smallest MacIntel laptop is now 13+ inches, a bit bigger and heavier than the nearly-subnotebook class 12" Powerbook. Does this leave a hole in their product line for another size of Macbook? I think it does. Apple clearly feels strongly about making slim, portable laptops, and the Mac Mini shows that small size can pull in customers. So

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1146063622036674472006-04-26T11:00:00.000-04:002006-04-26T11:00:22.050-04:00

iPod Vending Machines Land at Airports, HotelsThis brings to mind cool scenarios of people casually buying sophisticated devices from wall-mounted vending machines, but is the business model the right one? When you walk up to a vending machine you expect to pay a buck or two, or perhaps ten bucks for stamps or something, but a sawbuck for a gadget might be too much for the traveling public (

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1143125367994763032006-03-23T09:49:00.000-05:002006-03-23T19:31:43.406-05:00

The PS3 controller in itself isn't that interesting to me, but the larger problem of physical interface design, a.k.a. ergonomics and usability, is. With handheld devices so popular and component sizes shrinking, we probably have the capability right now to make a Zoolander-style cell phone. But have we seen it? No, because the human hand is too big and fingers are too thick. At some point,

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1142431433647871782006-03-15T09:03:00.000-05:002006-03-16T12:35:16.106-05:00

So new info (to me) in this article - EFI is not new technology, and has existed on the server side of the Windows world since the early 90's. Interesting. Then I found this series of posts by Daniel Eran, which explains it all better than I ever could have, and definitely sides with the Funke camp of Virtual Windows on MacIntel in the end. It's an excellent read, and if I were a teacher I'd make

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1142356192307884382006-03-14T12:02:00.000-05:002006-03-14T12:09:52.333-05:00

This guy, BadAndy, seems to know a heck of a lot about the switch, and quotes some very interesting articles about it. Essentially, the way he paints the picture, Apple was getting painted into a corner by the IBM Freescale road-map, the evolving partnerships between IBM and Sony and Microsoft, and the fact that because of those partnerships Apple was seriously losing negotiation leverage with

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1142277968540532292006-03-13T14:24:00.000-05:002006-03-13T22:38:34.156-05:00

"Can you post your point of view on:1) OSX on vanilla Intel and2) Windows on Macintel?Specifically, which should/will be possible/embraced by Apple/Dell/Microsoft. Which is useful, which is just an exercise?"Happy to, but first, a bit of background for the uninitiated.In many ways, Apple migrating to Intel hardware is the final step in that company's journey to non-proprietary hardware. They

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1142264047080319162006-03-13T10:34:00.000-05:002006-03-13T10:42:20.813-05:00

I really can't wait for the full-length book to come out about the invasion of Iraq, because I'm fascinated by this stuff. Hussein was obviously paranoid as hell and trusted very few of his people, and why wouldn't he? He got to power by being ruthless in the first place, and the flip side of that is to trust no one and act as if you're always about to be overthrown. Trouble is, constant

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1142091286408578142006-03-11T10:34:00.000-05:002006-03-12T10:57:53.876-05:00

Agh, this sucks. What the hell is MS thinking? EFI is clearly the BIOS of the future, and Apple is of course out in front in implementing it, but for MS not to support it with Vista is clearly a mistake. Not because it won't boot on the new Macs (at least until Conroe-based desktops come out), but because they are being short-sighted and limiting the hardware makers who build the new boxes. If

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1141603643845074272006-03-05T19:07:00.000-05:002006-03-05T19:13:40.326-05:00

Crave on CNET.co.uk talks about the talk of over-hype at the last Apple event, where the Amazing Leather Case of Awesomeness made its appearance with a Jobsian flourish. It got me wondering whether or not there was more planned for this announcement that was delayed at the last minute. Probably not, given the downplaying that happened on the invitation itself, and given that Apple is so eager to

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1141337207510464812006-03-02T17:06:00.000-05:002006-03-02T17:11:43.983-05:00

Apple's forthcoming "true" video iPod will feature a 4-inch display with a quarter-inch border, allowing the device to maintain dimensions typical of previous iPods, further sources have confirmed.This only makes sense, but it's nice that it's happening so soon. They could have waited to release a video iPod until this model was available - the current screen, while bright and sharp, is really

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1141232316347853202006-03-01T11:57:00.000-05:002006-03-01T23:24:10.533-05:00

So the "big" event came and went yesterday, and I have to say that I too am underwhelmed. Why does a leather case merit a big announcement? And why does the damn thing cost a hundred bucks? The Hi-Fi is a nice concept and all, but it lacks what I was expecting, which is wireless streaming like Airport Express. And don't get me going on that price. Sheesh.The Mini going Intel is the newsworthy

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1138590908348103912006-01-29T22:15:00.000-05:002006-01-29T22:15:08.396-05:00

tungsten t gpsCan anyone explain a blog like this to me? What is a body trying to accomplish by creating this? Baffling.And Hayduke, according to your blog I should be finding porn by now. I've clicked the "Next Blog" button ten or twelve times, and this is the closest I've come. Where's the dang porn?

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1138468449054858022006-01-28T12:14:00.000-05:002006-01-28T13:35:33.146-05:00

Recent attempts at installing Windows XP have left users scratching their heads. Hopefully a $6000 prize will inspire creative thinking.I haven't read the article yet, but it seems that this EFI thing is giving people fits. Is it that it's too new to be understood by many, or that it's architecturally barely possible to make this work with pre-Vista software? I fully believe someone will get it

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1138314231249159782006-01-26T17:23:00.000-05:002007-06-11T19:56:40.815-04:00

Apple's decision to unleash Intel-based Mac systems six months ahead of schedule is proving less successful than the company anticipated. Two weeks following the Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote, sources report that sales of the Intel-based iMac are lower than Apple expected.Not entirely surprising, really. Two factors: Speed increases not as fast as advertised, and the majority of the

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1137942359770874652006-01-22T10:05:00.000-05:002006-01-24T20:31:24.223-05:00

Cringely, as always, offers thoughtful and interesting predictions that anyone interested in the business of technology should read. I take issue with a couple of things though:Right off the bat, #1 prediction is a slew of new Apple products, most of which I think are no-brainers, except "...two new Intel Macs with huge plasma displays, but with keyboards and mice as options -- literally

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1137872959952901732006-01-21T14:49:00.000-05:002006-01-21T15:11:48.650-05:00

...according to a 1989 Compute! Magazine article: scan the custom newspaper that spills from your fax; capture segments of a show you like and put them in a video report for school for $1,000; ISDN will simultaneously transmit voice, video, and computer data. You'll talk to your TV set, and it'll customize itself...This article itself is pretty accurate, though the extent to which computers have

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1137374245036031382006-01-15T19:57:00.000-05:002006-01-15T20:31:44.683-05:00

I wouldn't be MacDoug if I didn't comment on Apple stuff once in a while, eh? It was a bit surprisingly to see how fast they shoehorned the Intel chips into their desktop and laptop lines, but the speed increases are gratifying. Clearly much of the advance work had been done in software, keeping the Intel kernel of OS X alive and updated in parallel, but what wasn't as clear was that the hardware

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1136130589349698962006-01-01T10:49:00.000-05:002006-01-02T07:20:45.806-05:00

Production cycles have interested me ever since I was part of a disastrous systems development project with Andersen Consulting, back in the "day". We were using Oracle SQL server as the back-end and Oracle Forms and PowerBuilder to build front-end GUIs for a custom-designed petroleum trading system. It was a nightmare. The development schedule was, in retrospect, appallingly optimistic, and our

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1136042507933062272005-12-31T10:03:00.000-05:002005-12-31T10:21:47.953-05:00

Lots of mini-entries piling up in my brain, so here's a core dump:Babies are Analog Devices: So after nearly 10 months of having an infant in the house, I've come to the stunning conclusion that a baby is not at all like a computer. Let me explain a bit. Computers are satisfying to me not only because of the expanded powers of production and repetition that they offer, but because when things go

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1135284764663590472005-12-22T15:52:00.000-05:002005-12-22T15:52:44.676-05:00

Click link to see headline. He may be onto something here...

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1135258838164744162005-12-22T08:26:00.000-05:002005-12-22T08:40:38.193-05:00

I can't help but feel a lot of "I told you so's" welling up from my righteous gullet. Recall that I said that the creepy revelations about the administration were only the tip of the iceberg? Hello iceberg. I can barely contain my contempt for this kind of ignorance and self-serving justification. I know he believes that this surveillance, blatantly illegal and totally contrary to the laws of our

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1135210575510295702005-12-21T19:03:00.000-05:002005-12-21T19:16:15.526-05:00

Guess where I am? Lying in bed, using a wireless laptop I borrowed from school, waiting for Vicodin to arrive so I can sleep. I have four holes in my abdomen, and just a few hours ago one of them saw the transit of my gallbladder as it left my body. I think it's the one in my belly button, because that one hurts the most. Anyhow, the operation is over with and apart from the discomfort and belly

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1134959846724661822005-12-18T21:26:00.000-05:002006-02-03T19:33:37.976-05:00

Holy Jesus life is f'ing crazy. A mostly complete list of Things My Wife and/or I Did Between the Hours of 6 PM and 9 PM tonight:Finished editing a DVD of the baby and began burning processCompleted two dictations for psychiatric evaluationsTwo loads of laundry, washed and now dryingBaked a pre-stuffed chicken with vegetables, made a pan gravyBathed, dried, medicated, diapered, dressed, and put

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1133232534124115412005-11-28T21:49:00.000-05:002005-11-28T21:48:54.220-05:00

My friend C has a T-shirt business now, consisting of all his own designs. The shirt, I think, are clever and well-done, and anyone who's a serious MMORPG gamer should check them out. Just don't use Safari on OS X when you browse to his site...

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1132943859035605082005-11-25T13:37:00.000-05:002005-11-25T13:37:39.043-05:00

"Distributed computing experiment SETI@home will be switched off on December 15 as it becomes part of the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC). The BOINC site will allow boffins to build other volunteer computing projects in areas like molecular biology, high-energy physics, and climate change study."I was psyched about SETI@home when it was first announced, and I'm equally

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1132943603152457102005-11-25T13:32:00.000-05:002005-11-25T13:33:23.163-05:00

I've become minorly addicted to this site in recent days. It's an easy $.03 per HIT and it's monkey work, basically. Kind of a cool concept, especially if they get more high-paying HITs that require some thought. I'm up to six bucks and counting - new graphics card, here I come! (in roughly 6 months).

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1132927882621786672005-11-25T08:39:00.000-05:002005-11-25T09:11:35.130-05:00

Well, not the proper Weblogistan - that's Iranian. Did you know that Persian is the fourth most popular blog language? Those Iranians are going to come shooting out of the gates any day now. This entry is in response to M&J's request for me to return to blogging. It's hard to find the time, especially with a baby, but I have to admit that many bloggable moments have passed me by in the last

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1124409353635710342005-08-18T19:43:00.000-04:002005-08-18T19:55:53.653-04:00

Been reading about Governor Taft in Ohio? Hear what he's being fined for and charged with? Gov. Bob Taft became the first Ohio governor found guilty of a crime Thursday as he pleaded no contest to charges that he broke state ethics law by failing to report golf outings and other gifts. And let's not forget that all of this came to light because something around half a billion dollars of the

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1124026226902262862005-08-14T09:46:00.000-04:002005-08-14T09:51:16.146-04:00

One of the stories I recently dugg on digg.com was about free online games. It's kind of amazing how many games of this kind are actually out there - check out the list on the site. I'm sure most of them suck on ice, it's still impressive that there are more than a few developers and players out there supporting communities like these. It's an indicator of things to come - the big games, like WoW

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123972892720218332005-08-13T18:41:00.000-04:002005-08-13T18:41:32.750-04:00

"Shares in Apple Computer surged to a 52-week high in late afternoon trading today, while the market posted broad tech losses led by Dell's weak second quarter and future sales forecast."I have to say, I worry a bit about Apple's profits coming largely from the iPod. What might this do to their commitment to OS X and the Mac hardware? Now that the hardware is going mainstream and could be

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123941953543235792005-08-13T10:05:00.000-04:002005-08-13T10:12:52.236-04:00

"John Carmack has confirmed that the Quake 3 engine will be released under the GPL in a matter of 7 days. The announcement was made at the 2005 QuakeCon."I've got nothing but respect for Carmack, even though he's an egomaniac genius snob. (To wit, see the first sentences in this blog entry: "To a first approximation, I don’t really like talking to most people...")He has that in common with Steve

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123798095259903782005-08-11T18:04:00.000-04:002005-08-11T18:08:15.270-04:00

You may have seen the first GROW game from Eyemaze, which can be found here:GROW game ver.3I played this game for hours, and ultimately had to cheat to max out all the items. Now there's a new GROW, and it's got an RPG theme! So cool, so addictive - click the entry title to go there.You might not get it at first - that's the cool part of this game. You have to play a few times through to

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123688992528157932005-08-10T11:49:00.000-04:002005-08-10T11:59:13.166-04:00

Somewhat of a rude surprise that Starbucks charges for their wireless connection, but I guess it shouldn't be. So much for Starbucks being the friendly neighborhood coffee shoppe on the corner. But I had to do it, just to say that I've blogging at Starbucks while drinking a non-fat iced latte. Too bad the damn sun is washing out my iBook's screen...I think I have a new paradigm of al Qaeda and

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123637678105763082005-08-09T18:47:00.000-04:002005-08-09T21:34:38.126-04:00

I went to this site I saw on Fark.com expecting to see the usual photos of bullets caught in the middle of destroying stuff, and sure enough, there they were. Pretty cool stuff, but the dude seems to be just another German guy who's into photography, and clearly an engineer of some kind. But then I dug deeper, and read some of the most detailed, obsessed, and technical pages about modding a

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123419198902711202005-08-07T08:53:00.000-04:002005-08-07T08:53:18.906-04:00

You know how, back in the dark ages of the 20th century, our country used to celebrate Victory over Japan Day? V-J Day was, on its original day of August 14, 1945, a celebration that Japan had finally agreed to surrender after being atomic bombed twice, horrifically but, as some say, necessarily. Some wanted to call it V-P Day, for Victory in the Pacific Day, to bring it in line with V-E Day,

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123291898885996602005-08-05T21:29:00.000-04:002005-08-05T21:31:38.893-04:00

Blogging from bed on a school iBook, not much to say other than click the title of this article and read what Krugman has to say about the devious scheming of the "intelligent design" crowd. It articulates what I've been trying to say very well.

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123251325985127012005-08-05T10:14:00.000-04:002005-08-05T10:15:26.003-04:00

The story about the trapped Russian submersible (click title to see it) reminded me of thoughts I had about the shuttle and their repair EVA's they've been doing. So far, manned space travel has all been close enough to Earth that heavy ground support is possible. Witness the extensive help the shuttle crew has been getting from NASA's engineers - launch, orbit, payload deployment, docking with

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123248700542541482005-08-05T09:17:00.000-04:002005-08-05T09:38:58.240-04:00

As many of you know, we have a nearly 5 month-old baby in our house, and he's terminally cute. Above is a recent pic. Here's what's doing with the little guy, or "Smally" as we call him:He's started to grab his feet while lying down or in the bathtub. This is a key milestone for any parent because it solves the "what am I going to distract him with now??" problem quite nicely. His hands found

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123206954732242292005-08-04T21:46:00.000-04:002005-08-04T21:55:54.736-04:00

So we live in a little town called "Cumberland", which is actually really historic and cute and we like it very much. Trouble is, the town has three very unfortunate letters at the beginning of the name. And the natives, bless their hearts, have been known to use those letters (sometimes including the fourth, a silent "b") as shorthand for things. Take the event happening this weekend, for

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123110384778310042005-08-03T19:07:00.000-04:002005-08-03T19:30:58.716-04:00

I really hope, decades from now, that this period in our history is looked upon as a sort of Great Awakening of the 21st century. And I don't mean that charitably. The forces at work to undermine science, human rights, and freedom of speech are organized and gaining ground with scary results.Their latest coup is to get Bush to mention "intelligent design" as a legit theory to the press, and refer

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1123001828439635802005-08-02T12:47:00.000-04:002005-08-02T12:57:08.446-04:00

I have to laugh. Not because Apple has finally done it - they've built a two-button mouse! - but they've done it in such a way that it still can be called a one-button mouse. Best comment from Slashdot here.I guess they didn't want to completely shut down the single-button mouse haters.I do worry that it will be less than intuitive for those who indiscriminately click with fingers other than the

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122991289074726572005-08-02T09:56:00.000-04:002005-08-02T10:01:29.073-04:00

Click the title of this entry - this article is the perfect example of a principle I've seen borne out over and over again: Give someone a Mac to use in their daily computing for just a week or two, and they're hooked. This guy switched for security reasons, but the rest of the OS won him over as well, not just the lack of vulnerabilities (and, let's be honest, the lack of viruses, trojans, and

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122903877133059242005-08-01T09:40:00.000-04:002005-08-01T12:41:22.663-04:00

The fact that Bush is expected to appoint Bolton to be the U.N. ambassador during a Congressional recess shows just how far this president and his administration will go to get their way. The U.N. may be in need of some modernization and reform (at the very least, their headquarters needs it), but thumbing one's nose at such an important institution is, once again, stunningly arrogant. Do not be

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122809263612436142005-07-31T07:27:00.000-04:002005-07-31T18:56:07.623-04:00

I seem to have lots of good thoughts while I'm in the kitchen. At least, I think they're good. Here's a sampling from this AM:Why can't phones have more peaceful ring sounds/tones? We just bought a new AT&T cordless for our kitchen, and while we love the speakerphone features and the fact that the caller ID screen actually works, the ringers were just too damn loud and woke up the baby. Same goes

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122764250343323742005-07-30T18:55:00.000-04:002005-07-30T18:57:30.346-04:00

You must watch this (and you must have Quicktime):While my ukulele gently weepsSent to me by my mother-in-law, of all people. One of the more amazing pieces I've ever heard. Seriously.

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122753148063034662005-07-30T15:45:00.000-04:002005-07-30T15:52:28.063-04:00

You may note that there's a new blog linked on the right, Lumpenlogocracy. For those of you who went to school with us, this is the blog of H.S. (Thirdpartydreamer) and her fiancé B.H. (Ambivalent_Maybe) and their family and friends. Thirdpartydreamer is actually visiting us this weekend, which is really nice because we haven't seen her in quite some time (since my wife's first day of residency,

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122752692730408662005-07-30T15:12:00.000-04:002005-07-30T15:44:52.736-04:00

Frist reverses himself on stem cells, sort ofUp until now I was pretty embarrassed to share an alma mater with Bill Frist, but his latest reversal on stem cell research gives me hope that there's a human being beneath all that Christian Right pandering. While it may fall short of a complete endorsement of all stem cell research, it's still quite something that he defied the White House and (

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122597598096987702005-07-28T20:22:00.000-04:002005-07-28T20:40:57.313-04:00

So I was thinking as I made breast pump soup tonight that I spend a lot of time reading fairly liberal media sources like the NYT and the New Yorker - okay, I mainly read those two - and that while I vehemently agree with them most of the time, I should probably test the waters of the right-wing writers and see what kind of stuff they say, just to be fair.Then I remembered that one conservative

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122577686014471052005-07-28T15:01:00.000-04:002005-07-28T15:09:15.480-04:00

Today on Slashdot:Email is for Old PeopleFrom the Reuters story:E-mail is for grown-ups and U.S. teenagers now prefer instant messaging to communicate with each other online, according to a survey released on Wednesday.Internet users from 12 to 17 years old say e-mail is best for talking to parents or institutions, but they are more likely to fire up IM when talking with each other, the nonprofit

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122332282517013282005-07-25T15:23:00.000-04:002005-07-25T18:58:02.530-04:00

When Elephants DanceVery interesting stuff. A sample:Microsoft has known for a long time that the PC as a platform is dying. The trends it sees for successor technologies are clear: mobility and gaming. Mobility means some combination of a handheld computer and a mobile phone. Gaming means xBox 360 and all that it can be -- a game system, a home media platform, a more-than-rudimentary Internet

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122299085289155832005-07-25T09:44:00.000-04:002005-07-25T15:23:02.600-04:00

Eight Days in JulyMy favorite quote:It was during that pre-Fitzgerald honeymoon that Scott McClellan declared that both Karl Rove and Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, had personally told him they were "not involved in this" - neither leaking any classified information nor even telling any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the C.I.A. Matt Cooper has now written in Time that it was

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1122036751686493292005-07-22T08:28:00.000-04:002005-07-22T08:54:13.930-04:00

So I know that many of you out there are probably in the pre-baby phase of life, and as one who has crossed over I was thinking last night of some advice I could pass along. Number a, babies are amazing. Letter 2, definitely try breast feeding, but be prepared for it to be tough.For starters, it took us about 4-6 weeks for baby to be even somewhat good at breast-feeding, which caused a lot of

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121884956198278932005-07-21T21:04:00.000-04:002005-07-22T18:46:54.350-04:00

Holy cats. It's been a while since I've been able to post here, but now that the baby is asleep, I'll take a crack at relating last week's events more completely.The long and the short of it is that my wife had dystentery. It wasn't pretty. In fact, it was one of the worst weeks we've had together as a couple in terms of suffering and hardship, and that counts the car accident and other bad stuff

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121604690681874012005-07-17T08:51:00.000-04:002005-07-17T08:51:31.520-04:00

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121302833808213612005-07-13T20:53:00.000-04:002005-07-13T21:00:33.813-04:00

It's been a surreal week in our household - first my wife comes down with some gastro bug that's now lasted 4 straight days (!) without cessation. She's miserable and in tons of pain, and we've been to the clinic twice to rehydrate her and get blood drawn. So that's been one thing, and a huge one, because it leaves me to take care of the house, baby, and work chores, which takes a ton of time and

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121197049572672342005-07-12T15:37:00.000-04:002005-07-12T15:42:45.516-04:00

This was originally my first moblog, but then Manuel Cuffs overwrote it. Damn Manuel. Always taking American posts for less pay.Cute baby, no?

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121192747183982212005-07-12T13:17:00.000-04:002005-07-12T14:25:47.190-04:00

Interview With MacSoft's Phil SulakThis guy, who is obviously a major reason that the Mac has as many cool games as it does, says some interesting things about the state of Mac gaming and what the Intel switch means. For example:"Suppose Microsoft decided to bundle a new piece of software with Windows. Let's say for the sake of argument that they add a 'super-cool MP3 player with a built-in

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121174422441246062005-07-12T09:20:00.000-04:002005-07-12T09:20:22.886-04:00

Taken @ the Cumberland Urgent Care clinic.

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121132573890367472005-07-11T21:31:00.000-04:002005-07-11T21:42:53.896-04:00

I think it might finally be happening - the major scandal that rocks the Bush administration and exposes them for the lying, scheming, untrustworthy scumbags that they are. I've always believed that since the Republicans hold power so firmly at the moment, they must be doing some pretty dastardly things to exploit it. This is only human nature - Dems would most likely abuse this kind of power if

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121115952803347642005-07-11T16:52:00.000-04:002005-07-11T19:51:57.036-04:00

I have to admit a bit of a sinking feeling about this latest column by Jon "Hannibal" Stokes at Ars Technica:Inside the big switch: the iPod and the future of Apple ComputerBeing the fan of Macs that I am, anytime anyone says anything that seems to cast them in a dying light gets my dander up. What he says is: "The cold, hard reality here is that the Mac is Apple's past and the iPod is Apple's

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121091348419782612005-07-11T10:08:00.000-04:002005-07-11T10:15:48.423-04:00

We call these "Preppie Safari" and "The Dog Pharaoh". Cute, no?

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121090634731072462005-07-11T09:54:00.000-04:002005-07-11T10:03:54.740-04:00

The end of school means the beginning of lots of technological hustling for us, since we have to execute a change-over between the school's computer layout and accounts and the summer program's needs. Part of the logistical challenge for us was that we were also upgrading to Mac OS X Tiger, which we had just acquired the licenses for.So in creating the "master image" for our Tiger desktops, I "

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121038080745227472005-07-10T19:25:00.000-04:002005-07-10T19:28:00.750-04:00

I read Slashdot religiously, but I rarely post anymore. My karma is maxed, but my interested and time are not. Imagine my surprise and pleasure, then, when I happened upon a story that is completely relevant to me, a Dvorak-keyboard user from way back!Here's the story:Ask Slashdot: Back and Forth Between Qwerty and Dvorak?And here's my reply:You can be bi-keyboardishWe'll see how that puppy gets

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1121020506601280362005-07-10T14:34:00.000-04:002005-07-10T14:35:55.133-04:00

Gizmodo has a very funny blurb about IBM's new PowerPC chip:IBM Launches Dual-Core PowerPC 970 ChipWhat's funny is how IBM and Intel each characterized their relationships with Apple. IBM downplayed it: "Oh, Apple's only a small percentage of our business, not important to us, no great loss. We've got bigger things in the hopper for the PowerPC line anyhow." While Intel was all, "We've coveted

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14344386.post-1120937532174266002005-07-09T18:26:00.000-04:002005-07-11T17:08:22.686-04:00

I was going to write, "Here we go, yet another blog I'm not going to follow up on." But maybe this one will be different. For one, it can be a log of the baby Emmett's progress through life (he's four months old today). For another, I can wax poetical on all sorts of things Mac-related, as I tend to do via email. It's kind of a milestone day - first week of staying home with baby, fifth

Doug Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585324787204297785noreply@blogger.com5