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For Sale: Bill Gates’ signature, $40

Vista imageDid you know that you can buy a version of Vista signed by the one and only Bill Gates? That's right; the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE Limited Numbered Signature Edition is signed by Bill himself. As seen at the above Amazon link, it's $289.99 (but currently out of stock; I guess Bill must sign slowly!). On that same page, however, they direct you to the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE, which is in stock, for $249.99.

Ergo, having Bill's signature on your Vista box will cost you $40. Yikes. The guy's already worth something north of $40 billion, and he wants $40 more from those who desire his signature?! Wonder if those paying the $40 will see their investments pay off on eBay in 20 years or so? Sad to say, they probably will...

As much as I like Apple and OS X, and admire Steve Jobs, there's no way I'd pay any amount extra to have an OS X 10.5 Leopard box signed by Steve himself -- and in this case, I think sending $249.99 to Microsoft is already way more than sufficient, especially given that I expect Leopard will be roughly half that cost!

Thanks to Kirk for pointing me to this silly signed edition of Vista...



Some notes on 24’s sixth season

24 logoOn Sunday, the sixth season (see note below) of 24 started. In typical fashion, things started very quickly, and there were the usual plot holes and logical inconsistencies (just how quickly can one shave one's own beard off, cut one's own hair (perfectly), shower, and dress? If you're Jack Bauer, in about 10 minutes, apparently!). Despite these issues, I'm already hooked on the new season, and eagerly anticipating each week's episode.

Note: Although this is the start of the sixth season of 24, Jack Bauer is now at least nine years older than he was at the start of season one--18 months passed after season one, 36 months after season two, and then 18 months after each of seasons three, four, and five. Add it all up, and that's 108 months, or exactly nine years.

Caution: There are spoilers below, both for the current season as well as past seasons. If you're not current with season six, or you're working your way through prior seasons, you may not wish to read on. No plot details are revealed, however if you keep reading, you will learn the fate of some of the characters on the show. You have been warned...
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Ten iPhone suggestions

Macworld logoEven though the iPhone won't ship for about six months, that hasn't stopped me from thinking about how I'd make it better--that is, how I'd make it more into something more of a myPhone than an iPhone. I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and came up with a final list of ten suggested iPhone improvements for Apple's consideration (because they always listen to me!).

Much of my list is influenced by my current phone--a Palm Treo--and the capabilities it provides. If the iPhone is to replace the Treo in my pocket, it's going to have to handle a majority of the items on my list. If it doesn't, I'd actually end up carrying one extra device, instead of one less device.

How realistic do I think my list is? Not very. But it's what I'd make sure the iPhone could do if I were building it just for me!



My thoughts on the Expo keynote

Macworld logoI took a few minutes yesterday to jot down my thoughts regarding the keynote. As described in the article, I was disappointed--not by the iPhone (wow, what a product!) nor the Apple TV, but by the complete lack of information on OS X, the lack of new Apple software, and the non-existence of any new Mac hardware (excluding a never-mentioned AirPort Extreme).

Don't get me wrong--I'm not negative on Apple, and I think the iPhone is truly revolutionary. It's going to spawn a full line of products (come on, Apple, drop a 100GB drive in there, remove the phone wiring, and sell the true Video iPod). I do think it will take Apple in exciting (and profitable) new directions, and I can't wait until I can play with one in person. But attending a Macworld Expo and not getting any new Apple hardware or software to play with is...disappointing.



What are they up to?

They being Apple, of course. If you haven't seen it yet, check out their home page. This from a company who has somewhat of a history of setting a very high expectations bar?

So what's coming? Seems like too much hype for a simple dual quad-core machine, or the iTV, or even any form of video iPod. Is it a 30th Anniversary Mac? A tablet? An ultra portable? Something else entirely? Nothing at all? Feel free to comment with your thoughts...

Whatever it is, it should be a most interesting keynote speech next week!

Macworld logoUpdate: I said I'd get better at this, and I'm off to a bad start. I actually wrote up my predictions for the "big news" in the keynote in a piece for macworld.com last week. My hope? Definitely for something in the ultra-small category, perhaps functioning as a tablet as well as a laptop...and designed in such a way as to be befitting it's title of 30th Anniversary Mac :).

I'm off to San Francisco today, and I'm anticipating a great show, regardless of what Apple may or may not reveal on Tuesday. I've not seen such a great collection of new hardware and software from the other Expo vendors in many years (just based on the exhibitor list and the flurry of press releases thus far). It should be an exciting week. Check macworld.com for regular updates from everyone attending, and I'll try my best to remember to cross-link anything I write over here.





Macworld: 2006 writings

Macworld logoThe following is most of everything I wrote for Macworld in 2006, though there are a few missing…

January
Jan 14 First Look: iWork '06
Jan 24Butler at your service
Jan 25 Review: Apple iPod Radio Remote
March
Mar 2 Top OS X tips
Mar 6 Souped-up Spotlight
Mar 12 First Look: A maximum look at a mini Mac, part one
Mar 13 First Look: A maximum look at a mini Mac, part two
Mar 15 First Look: A maximum look at a mini Mac, part three
Mar 16 First Look: Mini series follow-up: More RAM
Mar 20 First Look: Mac mini series: HD playback issues
Mar 22 First Look: The XP experiment: Running Windows on a Mac
April
Apr 18 First Look: Living in a Parallels universe
May
May 10 Norton AntiVirus 10.1
May 11 Intego VirusBarrier X4
May 12 ClamXav 1.0.3
May 19 What price MacBook beauty?
May 22 Music Store search struggles
May 30 Just the iPod facts, ma'am
June
Jun 2 First Look: MacBook gaming: A graphics concern?
Jun 7 Axis 207W network camera
Jun 7 Summer Gear Guide: Gifts for dads
Jun 8 Something's missing here…
Jun 8 Something's missing here...
Jun 28 First Look: 23 things we want in Leopard
Jun 30 Parallels Desktop for Mac
July
Jul 12 Best of Gems: Shortcuts, launchers, and search tools
Jul 18 First Look: First Look: Firefox 2 beta
Jul 27 Opinion: Which Mac should I buy?
Jul 7 Widgets calling
August
Aug 9 Apple Design Award winners announced
Aug 23 In praise of Senuti
Aug 25 'Not factory recommended'
Aug 28 Cruising for some hints
Aug 30 Google Earth goes golfing
September
Sep 14 Circular arguments
October
Oct 19 Discover Safe Sleep's secrets
Oct 27 My day at camp
Nov 29 All washed out
Oct 30 Leaving Tampa
Oct 31 Cruising the Keys
Oct 31 Sailing into Belize
November
Nov 3 Guatemala, Mexico, and Mac horror stories
Nov 6 All ashore
Nov 15 Hands on with the Mac Pro: Getting started>
Nov 16 Hands on with the Mac Pro: Putting it to work
Nov 17 Hands on with the Mac Pro: Testing the limits
Nov 27 FIOS tech review
December
Dec 8 Microsoft makes a Basic mistake with Office 2007
Dec 13 Should YouTube win an Eddy?
Dec 27 The Mac Pro and Photoshop CS3
Dec 29 iTunes, authorization, and multiple Macs




And the answer is…

For those who didn't quite see it in the comments, the mystery object is a printout of an entire walkthrough of the original game of Zork, one of the earliest interactive fiction games. Adventure was the first widely-known entry in the genre, but Zork really made huge strides in both the breadth of the virtual world as well as the character's interaction with that world. The printout pictured in the prior story was created on February 18th, 1980, by myself and a good friend who was in his first or second year at MIT.

Zork date

At the time, I was 15 and my buddy Patrick was 19. These were the early days of computing, just over two years into the Apple ]['s existence. So while graphical games existed (Mystery House was released in 1980, for example), the capabilities of the machine made for very limited graphics--check the screenshot on the Wikipedia page for proof. As such, interactive fiction offered a more complete escape into the gaming world, as your mind did the work of creating whatever "graphics" the game required, based on the descriptions provided by the developers.

It was also the very early days of the internet, meaning it basically didn't exist. Its predecessor, ARPANET, was just getting going. Somehow, probably through a computer club at high school, I was introduced to ARPANET and the MDL machine at MIT. This machine allowed free guest account signups, and they had Zork installed for anyone to play. That's about all it took for me to get hooked, even over a 300 baud modem working on a dumb terminal with thermal paper!

Read on for a bit more about Zork, online gaming in the very early 1980s, and that monster printout...
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Mystery font identified!

Mystery font

Update: It's identified! Thanks to the commenters who quickly identified the font as Textile. This was a font Apple distributed with OS 9, but never OS X. When I last upgraded my machine, I didn't bother to reinstall Classic, since I never used it. However, I did keep a disk image of Classic around on a backup, so I'm now set once again with Textile--thanks again for the fast response!

About five years ago, I created a project for an event at my wife's employer. What started as something small and simple grew into (of course) something large and complex. But the event was a success, so the efforts were worth it.

Fast forward five years, and the company would love it if I could update the presentation to cover their latest five years. No problem, I think, as I've managed to keep all the project files intact over the years. But I can't say the same for my Macs. I believe I've upgraded twice since I originally created the project (in iMovie2, as a reference point). And whatever font it is I used in the project has long since vanished.

Now that I'm updating it, however, I need to know what font I used--I'm sure it's on a disk around here somewhere, but I have no idea what it might be called. Since I'm far from a font expert, I figured I'd ask for some assistance. How about it? Anyone have any thoughts on what font family I might have used?

Thanks!