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An expansion in focus…

Given that most of the technology subjects I think to write about are being used on macworld.com (they get first dibs on anything that I want to write that's related to my job), I've chosen to expand my writings here on robservatory to cover other topic areas that I find interesting. I make no promises that you will also find them interesting, but I don't think there are a ton of readers out there anyway :). The first two such posts follow this one.

I'll clearly not venture into areas of "social debate," such as politics, religion, or Wii vs. PlayStation vs. Xbox 360...ok, if someone wants to send me one of each of those, I'd write about them :). Basically, the new entries will cover things I run into in my daily adventures that I find intriguing, stupid, rant-worthy, rave-worthy, or that otherwise tickle my interest. As such, I can't tell you exactly what those things might entail, but hopefully you'll occasionally find them of interest.

Note that I will still cross-post all my macworld.com stories here, and will continue to focus mainly on Macs, OS X, and technology, as those are my three main interest areas. And after Expo, look for a totally new "Robservatory 2.0" to be launched here. The look will be much the same, but I've spent a bunch of time digging around for nifty WordPress plug-ins, many of which are Ajax-ified for easier user interaction. I think you'll like the new tools, and I'll like some of the things they let me do (like easily run polls on various topics).

And now, I'm off to the Expo! Hopefully the realities of the Tuesday keynote meet the incredibly high level of hype they've generated...but really, how could it? I've got my fingers crossed, though, just in case!



All-new G5 chassis spacer now available!

In the midst of swapping my Dual G5 for the Mac Pro that Macworld so kindly decided to provide for my use (read my three-part hands-on report at macworld.com), I ran into a bit of an issue: I have an external DVD burner that I wanted to position on top of the G5. However, the front handle on the G5's case prevented the burner's drawer from opening. What I needed was some sort of spacer to lift the burner up above the handles.

After digging around in the office for a bit, I found the perfect solution:

spacer

That's right--a leftover copy of my book, Mac OS X Power Hound: Panther Edition. Now I happen to know that there are only many thousands of copies left at Amazon, so if you own a G5 and you've been trying to find that ideal spacer on which to place an external CD-R or DVD-R, look no further! And even though the book only covers up through 10.3, most of the tips will still work on 10.4, should you happen to actually want to read the thing. Of course, you'll be on your own as to figuring out which work and which don't, but heck, that's half the fun!

Act now, and give the official Cheese Grater Chassis Spacer Book to all your G5- and Mac-Pro-owning friends for Christmas! That's right, this book is Universal; it works equally as well on the new Intel-powered Mac Pros as it does on the older Power PC G5 machines!

(Note: This is completely tongue-in-cheek, of course. I just found it funny that the book was exactly the right height for the job, and it clearly wasn't doing me any good sitting on the shelf.)



All washed out

Macworld logoAfter struggling for many months to solve an odd color fading issue with videos I encoded using H.264, I decided to get serious about solving the problem.

After much Googling, I found an answer and wrote it up for macworld.com, in case others are being afflicted by the same problem.









The perils of iPod movie watching

Macworld logoWhile flying to Tampa for the MacMania cruise, I had a chance to really put my new 80GB iPod to the test--I had purchased a couple of movies from the Music Store, and was anxious to see how well the iPod worked as an in-flight entertainment device.

So how'd it work? Well, I had a very non-standard experience, which I wrote up in this editorial at macworld.com, along with my general observations on using the iPod as a movie viewer.



Geek Cruise: MacMania V

Macworld logoFellow Macworld Senior Editor Dan Frakes and I have just returned from a week on a Geek Cruise in the western Caribbean. We both wrote quite a lot, and took a bunch of pictures. So instead of linking to a huge collection of articles, I'll just link to the two relevant sections on Macworld's site, where you can find everything: the MacMania archives for October 2006 and November 2006.

Macworld's site has changed over the years, and there's no longer a section for each cruise. So here's everything from this trip that I was involved with:

Separately, I posted some of my scuba diving pictures from the trip here on robservatory.com.





The Steve and Phil show, circa 1999

I don't normally post links to interesting things on other sites as stories here, just because I figure there are about 210 other places out there that already do just that. But someone sent me a link today to an absolutely amazing video from Macworld New York in July of 1999.

Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller were demoing AirPort, and the way they did it simply must be seen to be believed. I would have lost a lot of money had someone bet me that someone did what they did in this clip--"no way, he's not going to do that!" But, as you'll see, he did.

I had no idea they were that wild and crazy "back in the day..."