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Rob Griffiths

Too much realism in flight simulation?

As a (non-active) instrument-rated pilot, one of my favorite diversions is X-Plane—as it's the closest I'll ever get to flying the "big iron." There are realistic touches in many spots in the sim, including the occasional bird flock visible during takeoff or landing at some airports. Now I'd seen these flocks on many occasions, but hadn't realized that they were actually...involved...in the simulation.

But the other day, I was taking off in a 747 out of Portland (not like we really get those here), and a flock flew across the runway just after I rotated. Despite my best efforts, the 747 flew right through the clump of birds, and the he results were...quite surprising, and more gory than I was expecting. Read on for the details and a (too realistic?) screenshot.
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24 on an extended hiatus

24In case you missed it, CNN is reporting that the seventh season of 24 will not return until 2009. In the story, CNN notes that 24 would end during the summer if it started its run late. (Traditionally, networks won't air their top-tier shows in the summer.) Here's how Fox summarized their decision making process, from the story:

A January 2009 start seemed the best way to comply with viewers' wishes that a season's episodes run without interruption to conclusion, Fox said on Thursday.

Ummm, no. The best way to comply with viewers' wishes would be to start production, begin airing the show whenever it's ready, and then air it in consecutive weeks until it's done. The best way to comply with the network's wishes, however, would be to make the decision they made. Idiots.



Site upgrade complete

We're now running the latest version of WordPress -- if you run WordPress and aren't on 2.3.3 yet, I strongly recommend upgrading, or at least patching your xmlrpc.php file. There's a security problem with that file in older WordPress releases, as detailed in this WordPress blog post:

If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog.

This actually happened here; two posts were modified to include links to malware and ringtone sites.

Most everything is back up and working as it was before, though sadly, the King Login widget, which allowed logins directly in the sidebar, doesn't work at all with 2.3.3, so it's been disabled. While working on the upgrade, my comment spam blocker was offline for all of 10 minutes or so. During that time, three anonymous spammy comments were submitted -- sheez!



A picture 30 years in the making…

My use of personal computers began back in 1978 or so with a Commodore Pet. While it was an interesting machine to play around with, it didn't really grab my interest completely. That happened when my father brought home an Apple ][ in 1978. As I recall it now, it took but a few days for me to realize that this machine was really something special. From that point forward, there's been an Apple ][ family machine, or a Mac, in my household basically ever since (with only a couple years' exception, when I worked for IBM). Given my history with the machines and company, I was thrilled today when I finally got the chance to meet one of my heroes in person...

wozniak

When I sat down in the speaker's lounge this morning to finish up the slides for my presentation, Steve Wozniak was there, sitting at the same table as I, doing the same thing--finishing his notes for a talk he was about to give. Sitting next to him was an Apple employee I know from elsewhere, so I asked her if he'd have time for a quick picture when he finished his notes. After getting the OK, I introduced myself, and (corny, I know) thanked him for inventing a machine that basically changed the course of computing--as well as having a tremendous positive impact on my life. In person, Steve struck me as friendly and outgoing, and he chatted with the folks at the table for a bit before heading off for his talk.

So, thank you Steve Wozniak, for the chance to say hello and for taking the time to snap a quick picture with me. I know you must get sick of the requests, but you were gracious and friendly about the whole thing.



Macworld: 2007 writings

Macworld logoHere's the full list of my 2007 Macworld articles; as usual, a few are missing from the aging archives…

January
Jan 2Reading between Apple's lines
Jan 4Safe Eyes 2006
Jan 8'Twas the night before Expo
Jan 9Expo reaction: iDisappointed
Jan 11Don't crowd the iPhone
Jan 11How not to start an Expo presentation
Jan 11Ten iPhone suggestions
February
Feb 9On meaningless hyperlink graphics
Feb 28TypeIt4Me 3.1
Feb 28Don't leave the Windows open
March
Mar 15An Office 2008 VBA to AppleScript helper
Mar 16The limits of Apple's warranty
Mar 26Ring-a-ding-ding
April
Apr 9No-stress remote access
Apr 16Four ways to Windows
Apr 17Parallels: Multi-OS powerhouse
Apr 18VMWare: New kid on the block
Apr 19CrossOver: Windows applications without Window
Apr 20Boot Camp: Ultimate compatibility
May
May 1Vacuous Vista versioning
May 15Shopping, or not, at the online Apple Store
May 29MacMania VI sails from Seattle
May 29Breezing to Juneau
May 30Cruising with Leopard
May 31Juneau, you know
May 31Going on a glacier safari
June
Jun 1Ketchikan, if you can
Jun 1A cool dive in a dry suit
Jun 4Homeward bound
Jun 6Cruising for cameras
Jun 8A genuine disadvantage
Jun 10First Look: Safari 3 beta
Jun 13Apple's disappointing iPhone message
Jun 14http://www.macworld.com/article/1131761/typo.html
Jun 19First Look: Leopard preview: What's new in OS X 10.5
Jun 27Saft 8.3.12
July
Jul 9What computer should I buy?
Jul 13This enhancement is not so transparent
Jul 17Parallels Desktop 3
Jul 18Ten of my favorite iPhone things
Jul 25Application launching woes
Jul 31Six months to 1 billion
August
Aug 6My Apple event wishlist
Aug 8First Look: First Look: Numbers
Aug 8Three things I don't understand about Apple's moves
Aug 16Numbers '08
Aug 30The Beatles on iTunes: Tomorrow never knows
September
Sep 17Don't break my third-party iPhone apps
Sep 27Fusion 1.0
October
Oct 1iPhone 1.0 forever
Oct 12Walking the walk
Oct 16Customize your Mac
Oct 16A few words about customization
Oct 17In praise of TinkerTool
Oct 17Time Machine could give hard-drive sales a jolt
Oct 18How to: Upgrade a G5's optical drive
Oct 24First Look: Analyzing Macworld's Leopard draft selections
Oct 24First Look: Picking our favorite Leopard features
Oct 24Inside Leopard: Time Machine
Oct 25Inside Leopard: Finder and Dock
Oct 25Inside Leopard: Safari and Automator
Oct 31Inside Leopard: Under-the-hood
Oct 3110.5: Upgrade or not?
Oct 31First Look: Trojan Horse warning: What you need to know
November
Nov 1How to: Discover malware before installing
Nov 13From four to zero in a day
Nov 16Where did that command go?
December
Dec 7Choice additions to OS X
Dec 26iMovie versus Final Cut Express


Ten seconds with the Google Phone’s chat app

In case you missed it, Google recently detailed its mobile platform. One of the focus areas is an emphasis on driving context-sensitive ads to the mobile devices. I can just imagine how this will play out...text chats, for instance...

Rick: So Ted ... first, that new car stereo [KMart: All the best brands for less] you bought is awesome! So what should we do tonight [NBC Presents Jay Leno's tonight show] for fun? Want to catch [BassMasters fly rods are the best!] a movie? [Regal: Your best value in entertainment today!]

Perhaps it's just me, but I'll take my mobile platform ad-free, thank you very much--even if it means paying more each month.



Catching up on my Macworld writing

Macworld logoOnce again, I've fallen behind in posting summaries of my Macworld articles here. I've now rectified that, and you'll find them all in the archives here on the proper date (i.e. the date that matches their appearance on Macworld.com). I've included both blog entries (rants, usually) as well as a couple of reviews and such that I've worked on.
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A most useful home project assistant

toolI took last week off as vacation, though what I spent most of the week doing was far from a vacation: I tackled many of the jobs on the never-ending household to-do list. So instead of relaxing on a beach, I spent last week hanging three curtain rods and curtains, installing towel bars in a couple of bathrooms, and doing some work in the garage to hang a pegboard and clean up the work area--among many other not nearly so exciting tasks :).

Through it all, the cool little device pictured above helped me immensely. That round thing is the STRAIT-LINE Laser Level 30 (LL30 from here on out), a cheap and effective laser level. Until about a year ago, I used to futz with an old-fashioned bubble level whenever I needed to get something straight on the wall. However, for most of the jobs I was doing, a bubble level was next to useless. It takes an extra set of hands to hold it where it's needed, and it seemed it was either too big or too small for the task at hand. So on a sojourn to Home Depot, I spotted the LL30. For the price ($15 or so), I figure I couldn't go wrong giving it a try...and after just one project, I was sold.
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iPhone 1.0 forever

Macworld logoAs you've read by now, Apple released iPhone update 1.1.1 last week. This update adds some compelling new features, most notably the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, easily-accessible iPod play controls, louder speakerphone and receiver volume, and support for video out.

However, as you've also read by now, the update did a few other things. First, as Apple had warned, it turned unlocked iPhones into expensive paperweights, rendering them useless. (A Macworld staffer who unlocked his phone so that we could document this procedure, had this happen to his iPhones.) Second, if you had a modified iPhone that ran third-party applications, like I had, the update removed those apps. So much for my plea to Apple. Finally, if you used Ambrosia's iToner, or any other such ringtone utility, you discovered that all your custom ringtones were also gone.

Unlike most Apple software updates, I held off on running this one until there were some field reports about exactly what happened. Once those reports started trickling in, I came to a painful but obvious conclusion: I will never install the 1.1.1 update on my iPhone.

Read my Macworld blog entry, iPhone 1.0 forever, for the rest of the story...



Review: VMware Fusion

Macworld logoYou may need (or want) to run Windows, or other operating systems, alongside Mac OS X, and Parallels Desktop (4 mice) is the best-known of several programs on the market for that purpose. (Full native Windows support, of course, is also available via Apple's Boot Camp, but it requires you to reboot out of OS X and into Windows.) A new-to-the-Mac player now brings a formidable challenger to the arena, however. VMware, an expert in x86 virtualization—that is, the ability to run one or more x86 operating systems as 'guest' under a 'host' x86 operating system—has released Fusion 1.0, its first OS X offering. Like Parallels, Fusion allows you to run many versions of Windows and other operating systems from within OS X. And unlike Boot Camp, you don't have to log out and restart in order to use it.

VMware Fusion supports more than 60 operating systems: Windows coverage extends from version 3.1 to betas of Windows Server 2008. If Linux is your cup of tea, you'll find support for Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE, Mandrake, and more. You can also install Novell Netware, Solaris 9 or 10, FreeBSD, and MS-DOS systems. Even 64-bit releases of Windows and some families of Linux, such as Red Hat and SUSE Enterprise Linux, are supported.

Read my Macworld article, Review: VMware Fusion, for the rest of the story...