The recently-released OS X 10.4.7 update included a not-announced Dashboard widget update feature which silently checks to make sure that your widgets are valid. I agreed with the need for such a feature, but wrote about how I think Apple could have implemented things a bit better.
Over the last week or so, I've been watching a fair bit of the Tour de France on OLN TV. When OLN launched a few years back, it was The Outdoor Life Network. As their programming expanded, they shortened that (thankfully) to OLN TV. But as of September, as they've seemingly been telling me every 10 minutes for several hours each morning, they're becoming Versus. Quoting from their press release:
Versus was the name that consistently rose to the top in focus group after focus group. Sports fans felt it was not only strong, but that it conveyed an idea and an energy that suggests a network experience centered on competition.
While I certainly don't disagree with the fact that the name suggests a network experience focused on competition, I'm not so sure that makes it a great name for a network. Personally, I think it just sounds silly, and it will make watercooler conversations more difficult. "Hey, did you catch that NHL game on Versus last night?"..."Is Versus going to show the Tour today?" Maybe it's just me, but Versus as a network name just seems wrong, somehow.
What's really sad is that they probably spent a fair bit of money on the research and focus groups to find their new identity. Add in the costs of rebranding all your merchandise, print ads, and online graphics, and we're talking about a huge investment of capital. And all of that for Versus? If we're going to use full English words, why not Compete or Battle or Strive or Match?
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I prefer network names that aren't full-on words. Give me ABC, NBC, ESPN, TNT, etc. over Discovery (though as words go, that one's pretty good), Lifetime, or Biography. Why? I'm not sure, other than they're easier to work into conversation without worrying about context, and they're much quicker to type :).
I guess I'll have to adjust, but Versus will always probably always be OLN around our home. And speaking of OLN, I have to get back to the time trial now!
In a feat of amazing stupidity yesterday (aided and abetted by a screaming three-year-old in the back seat), I managed to back our Honda Pilot into the garage door while it was still going up--I very nearly cleared the door, but ended up cracking the housing that holds the high-mounted brake light on the Pilot.
I called the local dealer yesterday, and they want about $150 for the thing--and it's a pretty simple looking piece of plastic. So I spent some time last night and this morning scouring the net for a better deal (but still from an authorized Honda dealer, as I wanted the genuine part). I was having some trouble finding the part, though, as I didn't know exactly what it was called. On one of the sites I visited, there was a button for "Live chat! 24 hour assistance!," so I thought I'd give it a try. Here's the actual exchange that took place with the "live" support rep:
Now, call me suspicious, but I don't think Simon is any more "live" than are the rocks decorating our yard. Sheez. If you're going to offer a live chat button, shouldn't you at least make sure it really does offer live chat?
If anyone out there is using a MacBook (or a MacBook Pro, for that matter), and has access to a temperature probe, I'd be interested in knowing the temperature of your power adapter brick. (Just stick the probe between the adapter and work surface, or hold it on top with a book or somesuch.) Apple just sent me a replacement for my first one, as it was making a scary sounding noise (sort of a grating static-like sound), and was getting to be *very* warm--at least, what I consider to be very warm.
Within an hour or so of powering up the machine, the adapter brick will go over 123F, which strikes me as too hot to be normal. It's basically too hot to hold comfortably for any length of time, and the brick will warp plastic if I set it on such for a period of time. My PowerBook, for instance, never got anywhere near 123F; its adapter stayed cool to the touch. And since both bricks exhibit the same behavior (noise and very high temps), then I think I must have an issue with my MacBook, not the adapter (or perhaps the wall-to-brick cable, but that seems unlikely).
On the other hand, if everyone out there is also recording 123F and can hear the grating static-like noise, then I guess everything's normal...scary, but normal. Still, I find it hard to believe that the brick should be getting that warm, just from the machine being powered up. (As soon as I put it to sleep, the noise in the brick vanishes, and temps return to normal).
June 24 update: I spoke with Apple again this morning, telling them that the new adapter exhibited the same issues as the old. They have agreed (without any prodding on my part) to take my MacBook in for a look-see. So I spent some time this morning reinstalling OS X and removing my third-party RAM chips; it's now ready to go back to Apple on Monday morning.
July 12 update: My MacBook has been with Apple since June 28th, with a status of "Parts on order." Not much of an update, really, other than knowing that I still don't have resolution on the issue.
-rob.
We're now running on WordPress 2.0.3, and most everything is back to how it was pre-upgrade. There are some exceptions (no more 'latest unread comments'), and I'll be tweaking things over the next few days, but the main stuff is done. Ahhhhh.
-rob.
I use iChat a lot--it's one of the ways the far-flung Macworld editorial staff keeps in touch with each other, for instance. My iChat info also winds up in a lot of iChat screenshots--some I take, and some taken by others. Most of the time, this isn't a problem. But sometimes, the user taking the photo might have my actual iChat ID visible on the screen, or I'll mess up and have it visible in the header of my buddy list. As a result, my iChat ID isn't a great secret--and since I have a .Mac account, it's actually very easy to figure out.
I used to leave my iChat sessions open, and would chat with whomever stopped by, as I love talking to other Mac users. But as the site's popularity grew, these random chats began to take up more and more of the day, so I eventually had to lock iChat down to only allow chats those on my buddy list (iChat Preferences -> Accounts -> Security tab). Now if someone wants to chat with me, they have to send me an email first. Not nearly as friendly as before, but at least I have time to work again :).
In any event, when I set up my recently-purchased MacBook, I forgot to set up the chat restriction. I didn't notice at first as I didn't have any third-party chat requests come in for the first couple days. Then I started getting chat requests from unknown users. Before disabling unknown chats again, I thought I'd take a few minutes and chat with at least a couple of the requesters, just to see who they were, etc. One of them turned out to be a high school student (or a friend pulling my leg; I'm still not sure which) who seemed to be the ultimate Mac power user--he claimed to own something like six Macs, including a PowerMac G5, MacBook, and MacBook Pro. Although that sounded suspicious to me ($10K worth of Macs while in high school!?), I kept talking with him. That is, until this exchange took place (my lone entry is in green, somewhat obviously):
So it seems all the industry experts have been wrong for all these years--apparently the PowerPC G5 and the Intel Core Duo CPUs are pin-compatible; just yank the G5, drop in a Core Duo, and your G5 is now a Boot Camp-capable Intel-powered Mac. Hmmm...why haven't I read more about this on the net?! :)
I chose that point to exit the conversation, and then immediately blocked future chat requests from non-buddies. So if this was a friend pulling my leg, you got me. If it wasn't, then this is clearly the most out-there liar I've ever had the "pleasure" of chatting with.
My story about what happens when you wake a Mac...without the hard drive that booted it being attached!
I wrote up my perspective on playing games on the just-introduced (and video-card-lacking) MacBook. There were some encouraging results, and a lot of not so encouraging results. Overall, I thought the MacBook did a passable job with older titles, a better-than-expected job with some games in Rosetta, and an abysmal job with the few current 3D games I tried.
Last Friday, a relatively huge article in the Living section of The Oregonian caught my eye. As you can see in the picture at right (hover and click for a larger version), it was hard to miss this article.
Expecting to find a shocking exposé on the hidden faults of the iPod, I started reading...and started getting angry. The article was nothing more than a writeup on one user's connectivity issues between her iPod nano and a Toshiba laptop. That alone would have been fine. But the article attempts to bring in other "evidence" of iPod nano flaws, and that's where I feel it overstepped the bounds of reasonable journalism (even for something in Living).
So I wrote up my thoughts for Macworld's site, as I felt it was unfair to let something like this sit without some form of response. I have also sent the paper a copy of my writeup, though I'm not expecting much in the way of follow up.
...but at least my identity is secured by VeriSign while I don't use the online banking system!
OK, not terribly broken, but I found it moderatly humorous today when I tried to logon to do some online banking.