Nothing Really Poignant - James in Taiwan

So this weekend I sold my black MacBook. This was maybe one of the few machines I did not hate by the time I sold it. Surprisingly it also held it’s value. In June it will be 2 years old and it only lost 1/3 of the original total value. For a well-used laptop, this isn’t bad.

Over the years I have had quite a few laptops. Of course my first laptop was a PowerBook 145, but after I got a PowerBook 520c and it was in the shop for 6 out of 9 months I owned it I started thinking Apple products were lemons. Apple eventually gave me a new and faster machine, the Powerbook 1400, but by that time I started using NT 4, and let’s face it - OS 8 was never as stable as NT 4.

So eventually I sold the 1400 and didn’t buy another laptop until Sony came out with the Vaio Z1. This was sure a beauty, however it had some defects - the biggest being the lack of a global warranty and the paint chipped off the mouse buttons. This was replaced by an IBM X40, which was an overall great, if underused machine since I had the same machine at work and rarely used my home machine. During this time, OS X 10.3 came out, and I was starting to look at Apple again, but this was for a “Fun Machine”. We eventually bought an iBook G4, but I wasn’t sold and this was used for just web browsing.

Next we go to Apple’s Intel announcement and the soon released MacBook. When they came out I was so happy. For one, it wasn’t white so it wouldn’t get dirty like the iBook G4 we had. Secondly my brother-in-law recently bought an Intel iMac and I was sold on going all-Mac. I went out to the Portland Apple Store and picked up this beauty (seen here).

So now Steven has a white MacBook for home use, we still have the iBook G4 running as a iTunes / print / web server and I have my office machine, so I figure it was time for this machine to find a new home. I hope the new family is happy with this and the little son doesn’t pound the keyboard with his sticky fingers too much.

So what’s next for me? Well I see a MacBook Air in my future, but the true question is when should I buy it. I am not really in a rush, so maybe I will get it in the summer when I am on vacation.

This past week Steven went to the emergency room twice and a lung specialist once. Unfortunately the two times he went to the emergency room the doctors said “oh you just have a cold” when it turns out that the lung specialist saw pneumonia on the very same lung x-rays. Coincidentally, the very same emergency room staff said I had an enlarged heart when all I had was bronchitis.

When Steven got home and showed me his medicine, I started laughing. I suggested he gets something with codine to help his cough, however they also have cough medicine with opium (the source of codine) in Taiwan. I looked at the brand name of the medicine and get this - it is called “Liquid Brown Mixture (with Opium)”. He asked me why I was laughing, and I said “The name - it is so funny” but he protested because he said it was an accurate name.

You need to remember that this is the same logic that was applied to our pet bunny when he chose the name Brownie - she is brown indeed.

MacWorld recently released a review for the MacBook Air where they gave the machine a rating 3.5 out of 5.  I am in fact a bit more inclined to purchase one now though, for two reasons.

1. They tested the 1.6 GHz version, and the 1.8 will be faster
2. They said:

The MacBook Air came on the heels of using a 2.16GHz MacBook, and I found its speeds in day-to-day use to be perfectly sufficient. … Using Photoshop CS3 to do some minor image tweaking seemed perfectly fine.”

The 2.16 GHz is faster than my laptop, meaning someone using something faster didn’t notice anything. MacWorld then goes on to say:

Then there will be those who … will adopt the MacBook Air as their primary Mac—simply because they’re laptop-only users who want that laptop to be as small as possible.

This is how I feel - I honestly am not so happy with all of the reviews out there who say the machine is “slow” because that is based on an opnion, and as nice as opinions are, they are irrelevant.  If I perceive the machine to be as fast as my current machine, I know I will be happy.

The day after the Apple Keynote, everyone in the office asked me “So are you pre-ordering one yet?”  Well I guess the word is out that I am an apple FanBoy, but i need to be honest, I still don’t know how I feel about it.

Don’t get me wrong - it isn’t the price. I’ve shelved over more for my lovely Vaio Z1 of yesteryear.  I even think after the memory upgrades, California tax and all my current MacBook was as expensive.  I even have been saving some money for the past 6 months just for this purpose. So it isn’t price - it is something else though.

At first I thought it was the non-removable battery, but it turns out that it is trivial to replace. Some people complain about the lack of a CD/DVD drive, but honestly my IBM X40 didn’t have one and I never missed it. Some people complain about the lack of ethernet, but I think the USB Ethernet adapter is just fine since I only use a wire in the office and I would probably leave it permanently attached to my ethernet cable on my desk. What about when I travel - well I have an extra AirPort Express that I can throw in the bag.  I am not complaining about the size either, the screen is big enough and who’t want a lighter laptop?

So what is bothering me then? Well, I think it is the speed. I really want it to REPLACE my primary computer, and right now the benchmark tests say it falls far behind my consumer grade laptop. On-board video isn’t the problem, but I really would want it to be my primary machine, and I think the speed would really bother me.  I have a 2.0 Core 2 Duo now, and I at least would want the same in my replacement.  Maybe they bumped the processors up too fast in the entry level laptops because I want speed and the small size and can care less about ethernet and the optical drive.

OK - I will probably end up buying one anyway, so I shouldn’t complain too much - but please, oh please bump up the speed a bit.  Anyone else feel the same?

These gel drinks are sold as healthy and refreshing, but seem like a bag of watered down sandwich jelly to me. These were originally popular in Japan, but they finally made it to 7-11 in Taiwan.

I haven’t tried one here, but I did try one when I was in Tokyo. They taste like room-temperature Jello made with too much water.If you are a vegan, I wouldn’t recommend you drink (or is it eat) these, since they are probably made with animal gelatin.

This is small sign posted on a chain link fence near in the high speed rail station. Unfortunately they place this above a metal hand-rail next to the curb where you wait for Taxis. Well at least they can claim that they warned you if you electrocute yourself trying to hold on to the hand rail.

About two months ago my apartment experienced water damage due to remodeling going on to the unit above me. Nothing really serious happened, but I did find a constant dripping into my old inkjet printer and about .25 liters in the printer chasis.

The very next day I contacted the remodelers and they apologised. They said we can get a new printer and they would pay for it. I wasnt looking for something expensive, just something that was like my old printer and I found the Epson C90, which even had Mac drivers.

We uppacked the printer, attached it to the Airport router, ran a test print on XP and went to install it on the Macs and low and behold I find out that there is a printing error. I go online and find out a lot of people are having problems with networked ink jet printers and I give up - until I find someone who uses Linux and see how they solved it.

Well many Linux users use CUPS printer drivers, and it just so happens Apple owns CUPS and licenses it to the opensource community. I found the driver in the most recent release of Gutenprint and select the driver, and printing is now A-OK.

I can’t really blame Apple for this problem, but I do blame Epson. You would think a printer company would QA the drivers properly before releasing them.

Everyone by now should know about the Gmail, the free web mail service with ~4.5 GB of storage offered by Google. The amazing thing is that they keep adding more and more customer oriented features to the service.

Just recently Google added IMAP support to Gmail. This allows easy email/folder/label syncing between multiple computers and Gmail.

When you have an IMAP account, you can leave messages on the server until you would like to delete it. Additionally, if you have multiple devices / computers accessing the same account, information such which emails you have read and sent mail are synced to the server. Lastly, unlike POP3 (another standard), IMAP only needs to download a portion of the complete email. For example, it will only download the subject, until you ask to read the full email at which point Gmail will stream the email to you. This is a much desired feature allowing users to keep all of their email on a managed server and have the user experience of a desktop mail client.

Yes, I have OS X Leopard Fever. For the past few weeks I have been waiting for it’s release, even counting down the hours. Why you ask? Well for one, I will be installing it on a newer notebook that I don’t use as often (and that machine will become my primary machine). Two, I will re-organize all of my files in the process and be able to back them up with Time Machine (a much neglected task). Three, it is a non-beta copy of boot camp that I am looking forward to.

Now if you noticed, I live in Taiwan. The good thing for Taiwan is that 6 PM on October 26th comes earlier than a majority of the world. This means that I could reasonably purchase it earlier. Also, I live right next door to an Apple Authorized Reseller, so theoretically I can just go home, swing buy the shop, hand over my credit card and go home happy.

Now there is a snag though. Apple’s launch plans in Taiwan are different from the US. Only one reseller, will receive stock on the 26th and the rest will receive stock on the 29th. Lastly, they will only have limited stock of the single license and they are not selling the family license.

Why do I care about the Family license when it is more expensive? Well, I have multiple Macs at home. I don’t want to buy too many copies, and I already have the family license for iLife 08 and iWork 08. I am willing to shell out for this, but they arn’t selling it. The thing that gets me is that this is just an OS. Sure, I have Leopard Fever, but I am looking for a quick, satisfactory business exchange, not a T-Shirt, not a single license. Is Apple hoping that people who REALLY want the product will buy the single license and then buy another family license later? Is it that expensive to print out the 3 page piece of paper that says the software can be used on 5 computers (thats the only difference). I guess I dont get it, this is just a DVD, there are no moving parts and there is no reason they can’t release the software in both license flavors (or have an online upgrade).

I’m not complaining about the higher cost of the family pack, instead I am complaining that I cannot buy it on the same day. Also, historically Apple has had troubles with piracy in Taiwan, you would think that they would bend over backwards to make it easy for paying customers to buy whatever they want.

Recently I was reading an article on C|Net news concerning a company that is developing a cryptographic chip to lock out companies from creating “compatible” ink cartridges for inkjet printers.  The idea is that by encrypting the controller chip on the inkjet cartridge no one can copy the cartridge.  Even if a company could decrypt the chips, doing so would be illegal under current laws in the US making the compatible cartridges illegal to sell and illegal to own.

One of the major printer companies, HP commented to C|Net on this and said the following: “There are other folks who want to avoid the (proper) process altogether and design a cartridge to work with an HP printer.”  HP considers that buying any printer cartridge that is not manufactured by HP is “illegal competition”.

Now what does the US legal system think about this?  Well a few years back Lexmark sued Static Control who created compatible printer chips for non-OEM print cartridges. Ultimately Lexmark lost the court battel even after attempting to appeal the case.  Now if Lexmark introduces encryption into the mix this will be a whole other matter.

Historically the Supreme Court has frowned upon suppliers marking up and selling consumable products, however they tend to take a strong enforcement stance when it comes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which “criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, even when there is no infringement of copyright.”