Macworld: 2013 writings
All (or as many as could be found online) of my 2013 writings for Macworld.
Aviation geekery: Rainy early morning PDX departure
Earlier this fall, the FAA decided to allow use of electronics below 10,000 feet on flights. As an aviation geek, this was great news; not because I could now use my iPod or whatever all the time, but because I could use my camera to record takeoffs and landings.
In particular, I think takeoffs are amazing events, wherein a huge multi-ton semi-controllable beast of a machine on the ground transforms itself into a powerful and graceful master of the skies, seemingly weighing nothing and covering vast distances at over 500 miles an hour. But I wax off-topic…
I don't fly all that often any more, and yesterday was my first flight since the rule changes went into effect. It was also a very early departure (5:40am takeoff), so it was pitch black outside. Plus it was overcast and a bit rainy.
Nonetheless, I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by, so I recorded the takeoff and initial climb out of Portland. There's even a bit of commentary, for the sake of my daughter sitting next to me.
(For the best visual experience, click the gear icon to choose 1080p, and then zoom to full screen.)
Despite the darkness and rain (or perhaps because of it), I find the resulting video to be mesmerizing…but that's mostly because I am an aviation geek, and love this stuff. If you'd like the technical details behind the video, keep reading.
On multi-display support in Mavericks
One of the touted features in Mavericks is better multi-monitor support. And at some levels, that's true. Unfortunately, my overall experience is that things are worse, not better, than they were before—especially if you don't use full screen mode often (or at all).
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So I’ve been doing this podcast thing…no, really!
As someone who works at home and has younger kids, I've found it difficult to get into listening to podcasts—it just seems there's never a good time for them. During the work day, I find it impossible to listen to a podcast, probably because my brain is easily dist…hey, look what's on reddit now…er, wait, what was I saying?
And in the evenings, the kids tend to take up much of the free time, and once they're in bed, I'm not usually in the mood to listen to a podcast.
In any event, given that background, you may find it surprising to learn that I'm involved in a new weekly podcast. Not only that, but that I've been involved for six full episodes now, as of this week's show. Surprising, indeed, but it's true.
Here's the tl;dr version: I'm co-co-hosting a podcast with Ian Schray (@idschray) and Tyler Poage (@tylerpoage). It's called The Committed. So what's it about? It's about tech, and things related to tech, and occasionally garbage cans (no, really).
We typically record on Monday, with the show being available on Tuesday. The exceptions are weeks where someone is traveling and unavailable, or if there's an event set for the Tuesday of that week (as with the upcoming October 22nd event). In those cases, we record on Tuesday for publishing on Wednesday.
During our roughly one-hour show, we strive to share useful information and tips in an entertaining manner—which are pretty much the objectives of every podcast ever created. But still, they're good goals to have, and we're doing our best to achieve them.
I'd love it if you could give us a listen and let me know what you think; never having done this on my own, I'm curious to know if you find what we're doing informative and entertaining—I think we've put together some good shows, but one's comments on one's own work don't really count as usable feedback.
Read on if you'd like more details about why someone who isn't an active podcast listener has chosen to become involved in podcasting, and for more information on the show, its focus, and the cast.
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What Lance Armstrong should say…but won’t
If it's true that Lance Armstrong may confess to doping, here's what I think he should say:
For years, I lied, cheated, and stole my way to the top of professional cycling. I was the key man in a wide-ranging effort to field the strongest, fastest, and winningest teams in the history of the Tour de France. I contracted with doctors, trainers, and other riders who shared my vision of cheating and domination. For years, I lied to everyone about my efforts, even going so far as to sue those who would question my authenticity.
I have shamed myself, embarrassed my friends and family, and let down the millions of people who looked to me as their idol. I deserve every bit of anger, disappointment, and resentment that people have heaved in my direction. For all of that, I am sorry for everything I've done, and have nothing but regret for the choices I made in my cycling career.
I cannot change the past, but I can hopefully change the future. Today I start that process by returning all of my prize winnings, all of my salary, and all of the proceeds from my advertising partners from the years I was cheating. Of course, I cannot conceivably do this in one chunk, but that's where my efforts will lie in future years.
I will also start working with USADA and other anti-doping organizations to teach them the tricks our teams used to bypass the testing processes, in the hopes that they can catch future cheaters early and often.
Finally, I will begin working to earn the respect and trust that millions heaped upon me solely due to my drug-enhanced Tour de France victories. I cannot do this through professional cycling, of course, but will attempt to do so through my work with cancer patients, my fundraising efforts for various charities, and my work with anti-doping agencies.
In closing, I stand before you in shame, offering no excuses for my historical actions. Going forward, though, I will do my best to earn back your trust and admiration through my actions.
Of course, it won't come out that way…
Macworld: 2012 writings
All (or as many as could be found online) of my 2012 writings for Macworld.
| January | |
|---|---|
| Jan 16 | The best way to run Windows on your Mac |
| March | |
| Mar 16 | How to get the best price selling your used iPad |
| April | |
| Apr 11 | How to manage your Mac's keyboard shortcuts |
| September | |
| Sep 18 | Mac classics: Confessions of an Excel geek |
| Sep 28 | Review: Parallels Desktop 8 vs. VMware Fusion 5 |
| December | |
| Dec 25 | Mac Gems: Miro Video Converter makes it easy to convert video |
The wild world of WordPress plug-ins
A couple weeks ago, our family visited the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. Being an aviation geek, I took a ton of pictures, and wanted to post about 150 of them here on my WordPress-powered blog.
Years ago, I used to make such albums using an app on my Mac, which I'd then upload to my server, reference in a blog entry, and that was that. It's been a while since I've done this, and I know that WordPress' gallery had improved, and that there were tons of extensions that would also create and manage galleries.
So I set off looking for a plug-in to handle my gallery needs. I thought I had a pretty simple list of requirements:
- Ability to batch add images at once via WordPress' built-in Media tools.
- A grid view to easily sort and caption large numbers of images.
- Control over title, caption, and metadata—both customizing those fields, and whether or not they appeared.
- Support for more than one gallery per post or per page.
- The creation of a thumbnail index page must be optional.
- An understandable user interface that didn't have a steep learning curve.
- No reliance on Flash, but with some flashy features via jQuery or similar.
- Ideally, the plug-in would create slideshows that scaled nicely based on screen size/resolution.
So I went to the plug-ins section of the WordPress interface, and ran a search for slideshow.
Yikes, 432 plug-ins?! Problem number one: an overabundance of choice. As I started digging, though, I found numerous duplicates as well as entries for plug-ins that hadn't been updated in years. Problem number two: cruft in the search results reduces their usefulness. I scanned the results, focusing on those with high numbers of positive user ratings.
A visit to an amazing aviation museum
If you're an aviation enthusiast (as I am), and you're ever in Oregon, you owe yourself a trip to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum.
Despite living here for nearly 20 years, I'd never been until last week. The kids had a day off school, and we had some tickets we'd bought during a fundraiser for OMSI, so we went and made a day of it.
The museum has a large collection (100+) of aircraft, all in impeccable shape. In addition, there's quite a collection of space memorabilia, including a full-size Titan rocket. The star attraction, though, is the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' massive flying boat. There's also a waterpark whose key feature is four water slides that drop out of the side of an actual 747, which sits on top of the water park's building. Our passes included cockpit access to the Spruce Goose as well as a tour of the cockpit of the 747 sitting on top of the waterpark.
As you might expect of an aviation enthusiast, I snapped a ton of pictures. The more bearable of my efforts can be seen in this album (set to open in a new window). You can navigate with the on-screen buttons, the arrow keys, or by clicking directly on each image; you can also resize your browser window, and the image sizes will adjust.
If you enjoy all things aviation, you should put the Evergreen Air and Space Museum on your list; it's definitely worth the time and effort it takes to get there.
The Tesla Motors Model S is one incredible machine
Last night, thanks to a friend (let's call him Jake, since that's his name) with a position in the buying queue, I was able to get some extended (passenger only) time in a Tesla Motors Model S—more specifically, the Model S Peformance, loaded to the gills with pretty much every option available.
Jake was concerned about the car's clearance into and out of his somewhat steep driveway, so the dealer agreed to let him (with an onboard sales rep, of course) take the car home to test it out. I rode out as a back seat passenger, and got to ride back to the dealership in the passenger seat. So what was it like? In short, it's an amazing technological tour de force that elicits grins with every punch of the accelerator.
Siri, why is Google voice search better than you?
In case you missed it, a month or so ago, Google added voice search capabilities to its free Google Search app for iOS devices. If you haven't tried this out yet, I highly recommend you do: I find it so useful I've given Google Search a spot in my Dock.
What's so good about Google's voice search, especially on a device that comes with Siri already? To demonstrate the answer to that question, I made a little video, wherein I used my iPad mini to ask both Siri and Google four questions:
How do you spell exuberant? Who won the Trailblazers basketball game last night?
How do you make vanilla ice cream? How high is Mount Kilimanjaro?
How do you make vanilla ice cream? How high is Mount Kilimanjaro?
So how'd it work out? See for yourself…
Watch the full-size version
[mp4 only • 1024x768 • 11MB]
[mp4 only • 1024x768 • 11MB]
(Production aside: Yes, I realize you can use Siri from anywhere. I toggled back to the home screen each time simply to give different backgrounds to Siri and Google.)
Read on for my thoughts on how these two tools compare.