Consolation Champs» Macintosh

MacJukebox

James McNally — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:35:15 +0000

MacJukebox is a great site set up so that people can share their GarageBand musical “creations”. Don’t miss “Hot Dog Weiner Juice”. (via bored astronaut)

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MacJukebox

Postfix Enabler

James McNally — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 05:41:59 +0000

Postfix Enabler is a great little app that activates Panther’s built-in mail server. I was reading about this on Meg’s blog at just the right time. I work in consumer marketing for a wine importing agency, and a big part of my job is designing, writing and sending out email newsletters to our customers. Lately, a few ISPs (AOL and Cogeco) have been bouncing all our emails, claiming that our ISP is on a blacklist of spammers or at least of ISPs who allow open relaying (which assists spammers). This has devolved into a nasty political fight among ISPs which calls to tech support have been unable to solve. It’s been immensely frustrating to me since our list is an opt-in list and our messages are definitely not spam.

With this handy little program, I can use my local Mac as an SMTP server, allowing us to bypass our ISP completely. I’m a big hero in the office now!

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Postfix Enabler

Food Chain

James McNally — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 18:44:05 +0000

One of my favourite games from a few years ago is finally available for OS X (and Windows!). Food Chain is one of the most innovative and entertaining games I’ve seen anywhere. Paying the $15 shareware fee was a no-brainer for me. I’m sure it will be for you, too.

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Food Chain

Gruber vs. Boutin

James McNally — Sat, 28 Jun 2003 08:01:07 +0000

John Gruber has a white-hot response to Paul Boutin‘s recent Slate article that claims that Apple may end up losing market share to Linux. I think he’s right on the money (Gruber, that is…)

UPDATE: Scott Rosenberg’s gentler criticism also makes sense to me.

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Gruber vs. Boutin

Safari 1.0? Bah!

James McNally — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 19:51:55 +0000

I downloaded the “final” 1.0 release of Apple’s browser, Safari, just as soon as it was posted yesterday. So far, I’m unhappy. A few sites I visit regularly have been misbehaving. One weblog’s colours disappear below the point where I have to scroll. Another bulletin board site doesn’t register my postings until I manually refresh the page. What’s up, Apple?

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Safari 1.0? Bah!

Apple Music Service?

James McNally — Fri, 25 Apr 2003 07:45:00 +0000

Rumours have been swirling for weeks, and next Monday, some of them will become reality. It’s almost a certainty that Apple will be launching some sort of online music service, probably closely linked with its iTunes software (or the bundled MusicMatch that comes with Windows versions of the iPod). My guess (and it’s an informed one) is that Apple will use the AAC format that has been included in Quicktime since last year. AAC is a new compression format that squeezes files smaller than MP3, but will allow some form of digital rights management. The files will still likely be convertible to MP3, allowing Apple to save face with the file-swapping masses, while satisfying the music industry’s need to get paid. As for prices, who knows? But in my opinion, even $1 per track might be a hard sell.

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Apple Music Service?

Employment Insurance for Windows

James McNally — Sun, 30 Mar 2003 17:51:16 +0000

Government services are usually designed to be accessible to everyone. The blind, the deaf, and the lame can all apply for employment insurance benefits in their own government-assisted way. But not Macintosh users. Here’s the message that greeted me when I tried to apply for my benefits online:

Q: Why is the EI on-line application not compatible with Macintosh computers at the present time?

A: Knowing that the vast majority of the Canadian public access the Internet using PC (not Macintosh) computers, our priority is to deliver our on-line services on the platform of choice for the majority of Canadians. In the shortest amount of time while being cost effective, the current EI on-line application was developed to support Windows-based versions of Internet Explorer. The versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape that run on Macintosh computers are quite different from those supported on a Windows platform and therefore process JavaScript and XML differently.

Does this strike anyone else as just plain wrong? I’d love to send them a nasty email…

The funny part is that in Canada all services have to be provided in French as well as English. English is obviously the “platform of choice” for most Canadians but that doesn’t mean that they don’t support the minority, even when it means absolutely indecipherable URLs that include BOTH the English and the French acronyms for government departments.

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Employment Insurance for Windows

Voice Box

James McNally — Fri, 21 Feb 2003 16:48:20 +0000

Voice Box is a cool program for Mac OS X that will read text out loud in a variety of voices. The neat thing is that in the new version (1.3), you can have it read RSS feeds. It can also save the results to a sound file that can be transferred to your iPod. A great way to catch up on your favourite weblogs and news sites on your way to work.

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Voice Box

Apple Pros

James McNally — Wed, 19 Feb 2003 07:08:04 +0000

Here‘s a section of Apple’s website that I’ve never seen before. I’m not even sure how you’re expected to find it from the main page. It’s directed at Apple’s pro customers, working in film, photography, music, and science.

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Apple Pros

The Worst Of Mac Software

James McNally — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 07:54:41 +0000

Perversion Tracker: Apparently Useless Software

Ok, funny, but why the strange name? I thought it might be a site to graph strange, ah, proclivities. And so will all the people who find this entry via Google. (via Backup Brain)

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The Worst Of Mac Software

Surfin’ Safari

James McNally — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 06:07:43 +0000

I’ve been withholding my judgement on Apple’s new browser for a few weeks now. But much as I like some of its features (clever bookmark management, innovative page-loading progress bar, speed), I still suspect its rendering engine is wonky. Major case in point: this site. Only in Safari would the entire right column be invisible. It’s not gone, since you can still mouse over the invisible links and the cursor turns into a finger and shows the links. Very frustrating. I don’t know how many of you are even Mac users, never mind Safari users, but for now, I think I’m sticking with Chimera. That is, if the developers don’t throw in the towel first.

For any super-smart web developer-type people out there, any idea what’s going on?

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Surfin’ Safari

Brand New Mac!

James McNally — Tue, 05 Nov 2002 18:25:37 +0000

I can’t believe that I haven’t posted about this yet. On Saturday, Brooke and I took home our new bundle of joy. Yes, we got a new dual-processor G4 867mHz machine. No, we weren’t able to wait, but thanks to everyone who chipped in advice. I’ve been busy trying out all the games that were too demanding for our old system, but I’ll try to find time to write here a bit more. Why not? I can even blog faster with the new system, right?

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Brand New Mac!

Bye Bye Beige

James McNally — Tue, 22 Oct 2002 17:28:31 +0000

Well, after four years, my beige G3 desktop computer has finally given up the ghost. The timing is terrible. We’re going to be paying for our wedding for a few months yet. Also, I’m not sure whether to hang on until Macworld San Francisco in January to hear about new G4 models. For now, I’m chugging along on my two year old iBook. If you’ve emailed me in the past few weeks, and haven’t heard back, it might be because all of my messages (and addresses) are on the dead box. Try me again…

Oh, and Mac folks, any suggestions as to whether I should add to my debt now or wait for bigger and better?

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Bye Bye Beige

Cosmic Encounter

James McNally — Tue, 17 Sep 2002 20:35:47 +0000

Wow. There’s a great feature on Apple’s web site about Cosmic Encounter Online. I played this obsessively when it was a board game. I can’t wait to check it out online.

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Cosmic Encounter

How Cool is This?

James McNally — Wed, 11 Sep 2002 04:35:54 +0000

Apple’s Product Manager for OS X keeps a weblog! (via torrez)

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How Cool is This?

“I Have What You Need”

James McNally — Thu, 13 Jun 2002 18:30:12 +0000

This Wired News story details “slash” fiction tales of Bill Gates/Steve Jobs secret love affair. I don’t even know where to begin, but this is funny:

“In real life, Bill Gates screwed Steve Jobs and everyone else in the computer industry.

But in Slash fiction, it’s Steve Jobs who gets to screw Bill Gates — literally.”

This puts Apple’s “Think Different” campaign in an entirely new light…

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“I Have What You Need”

Switch!

James McNally — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 03:18:34 +0000

Wow! Apple’s unveiled a new ad campaign aimed at getting PC users to switch to Macintosh. One of the ads features Mark Frauenfelder, who is one of the BoingBoing guys. I think it’s about time they did something like this. The only thing I tell people who ask me about it is that a Mac, though a much more elegant machine, is still a computer. You still have to know a little bit about computers. It’s not like using your toaster, and it never will be. So, Macs are not for “dummies.” Which brings up my favourite customer “confession.” They’ll walk into my store and say, “Well, I’m computer illiterate…” I mean, would you walk into a bookstore and say, “What books do you have for people who can’t read?”

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Switch!

Macintosh Rising

James McNally — Thu, 30 May 2002 20:13:38 +0000

Tangentially related to my last post: Meg’s buying a Mac! I’m seeing more and more Windows users buying Macs for the first time, or returning to the platform since OS X came out. It’s heartening. Let’s see, in the last few months, that’s Meg (and Jason), Mike, Andre, Mike, and Jish joining other Mac regulars from my sidebar, like Brad, Michael, Dan, Jeffrey, Derek, Dean, Josh, Rik, Jay, and Todd. Have I left you out?

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Macintosh Rising

More PC Virus Woes

James McNally — Tue, 07 May 2002 23:49:48 +0000

“Klez only affects PCs running Microsoft’s Windows operating system”

So this is why I’ve been getting bizarre email lately. As a Mac owner, this sort of thing is just annoying, not quite destructive, although it appears that my email address might end up attached to some of the spam. This is probably the reason that John Halcyon Styn‘s domains were briefly shut down a few days ago by his host (and mine.)

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More PC Virus Woes

Forwarding Address: OS X

James McNally — Thu, 25 Apr 2002 23:29:52 +0000

Forwarding Address: OS X is a great group blog about, you guessed it, OS X. It features some very smart participants, including my favourite expatriate Canadian Cory Doctorow. (Where DOES he find the time?!)

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Forwarding Address: OS X

Apple=Darwinism+Communism

James McNally — Thu, 25 Apr 2002 18:26:17 +0000

Looks like the “Apple = Darwinism + Communism” site got slashdotted. Opinions are split on whether the whole thing is a hoax or not.

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Apple=Darwinism+Communism

Godless Apple

James McNally — Wed, 24 Apr 2002 19:40:22 +0000

Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism!

Nice to know that me and this guy could go to the same church…I guess if I used a PC, I’d be back in God’s corner? (via MacNN)

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Godless Apple

Full Frontal and CQ

James McNally — Fri, 19 Apr 2002 17:47:42 +0000

Great feature on Apple’s web site about Steven Soderbergh’s new movie Full Frontal, which was filmed and edited on consumer level equipment. Soderbergh continues to be a fascinating director and the film should be an interesting departure for him after his more commercial work lately. It’s nice, too, to see inside the machinery of filmmaking a bit.

In other film news, Roman Coppola’s debut CQ looks like a trip. Boy, those Coppolas!! It also features the inimitable Jason Schwartzman, hopefully atoning for Slackers. The trailer is available here.

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Full Frontal and CQ

QuickTaxWeb and Macs

James McNally — Tue, 16 Apr 2002 04:58:54 +0000

Well, this sucks. I just tried to check out Quicken’s online tax service for Canadians, QuickTaxWeb. It tells me it supports Netscape and Internet Explorer for Windows, but only Netscape for Macintosh. As the kids say, WTF? Explorer is the most standards-compliant, and is probably the leading browser among Mac users, as it is among Windows users. What gives? If the web developers for my bank can code for Explorer, why can’t Quicken?

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QuickTaxWeb and Macs

Have iPod, Will Bootleg

James McNally — Thu, 28 Feb 2002 18:27:59 +0000

Wired News: Have iPod, Will Bootleg

This made my colleagues and I laugh; then we realized that we need to keep our eyes open. We have enough problems with shoplifting as it is…

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Have iPod, Will Bootleg

Waking Life Snubbed

James McNally — Wed, 13 Feb 2002 19:55:01 +0000

I agree with Roger Ebert, who says Richard Linklater’s Waking Life was unfairly overlooked in the Best Animated Feature category in this year’s Oscar nominations. His theory is that Hollywood and its huge CGI industry didn’t like an indie film director’s use of off-the-shelf Macintosh computers and home-brewed animation software to challenge their supremacy.

What do you think of this year’s nominations overall?

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Waking Life Snubbed

Macworld SF 2002

James McNally — Tue, 08 Jan 2002 04:34:59 +0000

Mondays are my day off, and so I curled up in front of my computer screen today to watch Steve work his magic. And, though there were some interesting announcements, I was a little underwhelmed. I kept waiting for his trademark, “Oh, and one more thing…” but it never came. The iMacs are funny looking, but they’ll grow on me, and iPhoto is a great idea (though runs pretty slow on my computer, 1000+ photos notwithstanding), but I was expecting more.

Though that’s probably not to blame, I’ve just been feeling sad all day. So I went out and finally found the soundtrack CD for The Royal Tenenbaums, which is just perfect bittersweet music for nursing a sad mood. Listen to me: ignore the sudden swarm of war movies, which glorify violence and blind patriotism, and go see this movie, instead. You’ll be glad you did.

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Macworld SF 2002

Mac Rumours

James McNally — Fri, 04 Jan 2002 03:35:09 +0000

I’m a Mac user, less fanatical than some, but still pretty excited by the upcoming Macworld conference in San Francisco next week. One of the rumour sites is reporting that Apple will announce the availability of a new PDA device called iWalk. From the pictures and video on the site (which many believe are fake), it looks bulky and large. Still, I can’t help but get excited. What other computer maker is innovating like this? Even Apple’s own site can’t help getting excited. The front page has been teasing us with hype for the past few days. This had better be good.

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Mac Rumours

Waking Life Made With Macintosh

James McNally — Wed, 07 Nov 2001 17:55:10 +0000

Apple has published a feature on the Richard Linklater film Waking Life, which was animated using a lot of Mac computers. Go and read my review of the film, and then get thee to a cinema!

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Waking Life Made With Macintosh

Mmmmmm……

James McNally — Wed, 24 Oct 2001 03:22:52 +0000

Mmmmmm……

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Mmmmmm……

OS X.1

James McNally — Mon, 01 Oct 2001 02:40:30 +0000

One of the perks of working at an Apple dealer is early access to new stuff. The long anticipated OS X 10.1 update was going to be available on Saturday at our store, and I was lucky enough to walk out on Friday night with a copy in my backpack. I’ve installed it on both my computers and so far I’m really impressed. A lot peppier, and a few added features.

Today I went downtown to check out the “Word on the Street,” a huge book and magazine fair that’s held every fall in Toronto. I’d been once a long time ago, but it has really grown. Crowds everywhere. The best part is picking up tons of magazines cheap. I must have grabbed about a dozen magazines and spent about $5.

Oh, and one more thing from the mundane details file: we’re finally getting cable television. It’s the first step toward getting cable modem internet access, but it’s already going to cost $50/mth by itself. The internet access will be another $40/mth. We won’t be able to afford to leave the house!

And while we’re on that subject, listen up fellas. A platinum engagement ring is a great idea….if you remember that you’re going to need platinum wedding bands when the time comes. Where most couples are spending a couple hundred bucks on wedding bands, Brooke and I are looking at about $1500. Guh!

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OS X.1

OS X: First Impressions

James McNally — Mon, 07 May 2001 18:30:26 +0000

Due to (ongoing) hard drive problems, I installed Mac OS X on my main computer a few days ago, a little earlier than I’d wanted. So far, so good, although the fact that not all my applications have been updated yet means that I’m using Apple’s Mail program instead of Entourage, and using a “preview” version of IE. A bit of re-learning to do, in terms of file management and just navigating around, but I think I’ll get used to it. One of the coolest things has been using an instant messaging client called Fire, which allows you to simultaneously log into AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN and other networks and keep all your buddies in one big list. I think it’s open source, too.

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OS X: First Impressions

X is here!

James McNally — Sat, 24 Mar 2001 20:29:36 +0000

X is here!

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X is here!

Opera for Macintosh Technical Preview

James McNally — Thu, 22 Feb 2001 18:46:22 +0000

Just installed the Opera for Macintosh Technical Preview. Added the shortcut to my launcher of choice, A-Dock, and noticed something funny:

What could it mean?

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Opera for Macintosh Technical Preview

Audion 2

James McNally — Tue, 19 Dec 2000 19:48:07 +0000

Attention Mac users: Audion 2.0 is released and it rocks. Billions of new features, including MP3 encoding and ability to use visual plugins. Panic are one of my favourite shareware companies. Two great visual plugins are G-Force and WhiteCap, both from Andy O’Meara. Audion uses the SoundJam versions of these plugins. Go and play! And please remember to register your shareware.

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Audion 2

Revolution In GUI Design

James McNally — Wed, 06 Dec 2000 00:54:21 +0000

Steven Levy (Newsweek/MSNBC) writes about the revolution in GUI design in Screen Wars. It’s a nice comparison of what the next generation of Mac OS, Windows, and Linux desktops may look like. I liked the interactive feature that explains features of each design. Simple but effective. As a Mac user, I’m excited but also a bit nervous about the impending release of OS X.

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Revolution In GUI Design

First Computer

James McNally — Fri, 20 Oct 2000 21:27:31 +0000

While we’re waxing nostalgic, I’d just like to set down for the record that my first computer was an Atari 800XL, purchased in, I think, 1984. An Atari 520ST followed, then a generic 286 PC. My first Mac wasn’t until 1996, a Performa 5200CD. And my current ride, a beige G3-300mhz (purchased in 1998), and a new iBook (Indigo, for those who need to know). Oh, before I forget, I bought an HP-33E programmable calculator back in 1980. That was COOL. And I always wanted one of those Sinclair ZX-80′s that were advertised in the back pages of Omni. Now that my geek credentials are established, tell me what your first computer was.

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First Computer

G4 Cube

James McNally — Wed, 19 Jul 2000 19:09:43 +0000

Two words, people. G4 CUBE. I want one!!!

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G4 Cube