OS X

Apple, Google, Microsoft Windows, OS X, Social Commentary, Web Development/Programming

Let’s not forget Dennis Ritchie

While Steve Jobs’ death has been covered extensively by the media, I think it’s important that the world learn about the death of a man whose contribution to the information age is so immense that it is beyond measure. On October 12, 2011, Dennis Ritchie was found dead in his home at the age of 70. Ritchie is the inventor of the C programming language and a co-inventor of Unix, the father of all modern operating systems. The man was, without a doubt, brilliant. His contributions are what every nerd should aspire to.

Why is the C programming language so important? Because C was the perfect bridge between man and machine. Before C was invented, programmers had to write the code that runs operating systems (and most everything else) in assembly, which is just one step above binary. Assembly, while powerful, is also extremely cumbersome. Writing even the most trivial of programs is very time consuming. Ritchie’s C language put the development cycle of operating systems and applications into overdrive, allowing programmers to crank out innovation quickly and easily. On top of this speed and power, Ritchie gave his newly-minted language away for free to universities, who were free to do with it as they wished. C has since been used on nearly every system imaginable, from super computers, to PCs, to Macs, to video game consoles.

Nearly every programmable device in existence today owes its ability to be useful to Dennis Ritchie. Without his brilliance and willingness to give that brilliance away, we would still be in the dark ages of Information.

Microsoft Windows, OS X, Tech Tips

Should You Buy a Mac or a PC?

In the last couple years, more and more folks have been asking me whether a Mac or a PC is the better computer. In case you don’t know, a Mac is a type of computer made by Apple, the same company that makes iPods and iPhones. A PC, on the other hand, refers to a computer that runs Microsoft Windows. When you’re standing there holding your credit card deciding which to buy, which is best?

Apple would have you believe that Macs are far superior to the old stalwart PC. You may have seen the Apple ads on TV that portray the Mac as a coolguy 30-something with all the answers. He has conversations with PC, who is a middle-aged nerd in an ill-fitting business suit that is always having problems.  According to Apple, the purchase of a new Mac will change your life forever.

Well, Apple’s claim is true in some ways, but it’s mostly marketing hype. The truth is that for 95% of computer users, all tasks they want to do can be done on either a Mac or a PC. The difference lies in how the total cost of each of the machines is spread out. Macs are great for creating audio, video, and DVDs right out of the box. It’s easy to make your own custom recordings or photo albums. Also, you don’t have to buy antivirus software for Macs. The catch to all this is that Macs cost about twice as much (or more) than a PC with the same amount of processing power, memory, and storage space.

PC owners won’t pay as much up front, but they will have to spend $400-$500 to buy software that offers features equivalent to what a Mac can do out of the box. (Some users won’t spend a dime on extra software because they will never need these capabilities.)  Then, there’s the $30-$50 per year you’ll have to spend on a good antivirus program, since Windows PCs are vulnerable to many types of viruses and other malware. PCs outshine Macs in the area of choice. For any given thing you might want to do on a PC (such as create scrapbooks), there may be 4-5 good programs to choose from for getting it done. On the other hand, a Mac might only have 1-2 programs for any given purpose. Macs and PCs can’t run the same software, so any software you want to use has to be written for one or the other.

Which Do I Think is Best?

I have used PCs for 15 years and Macs for 8 years. My personal take on it is as follows:

Buy a PC: If you favor a lot of choices, buy a PC. As for software, there still is no where near the amount of software available for Macs as PCs. Why? Apple makes up 10% of the computer market, so there aren’t as many people buying software for Macs. Therefore, more developers (the people who create computer programs) write code for PCs. I would feel guilty if I didn’t state outright that I think Windows 7 is great. It’s the best thing Microsoft has cranked out in a long time. As an example, AreoSnap and the way Libraries work allow me to get more done faster. It’s all the small touches like this that makes Windows 7 great.

On the hardware side, Apple doesn’t offer a lot of variation in hardware configuration or style. When’s the last time you saw a red or blue Macbook? Some people love the clean, white lines of a Mac. Others abhor them. Unless you buy a PC, you’re out of luck.

Buy a Mac: If you are willing to pay a little more and don’t want to worry about so many choices, a Mac is the way to go. Most of the software that’s available for the Mac is pretty high quality, as long as it always has the features you need.  Macs come with iLife, which comes with some of the best consumer-grade audio and video creation tools out there.  More and more developers are being drawn to write software for Macs, because there market share is growing very quickly (due in part to the iPod, iPad, and iPhone). Also, Macs are easier to maintain. Macs do get slower over time like PCs, however, it  takes much longer. As of now, you really don’t have to worry about viruses on a Mac, though I suspect that will change as more and more people buy Macs. The more people using a system, the more appealing it is for virus programmers to get to work.

With the Web, Who Cares?

I can’t really say a Mac or a PC is better. It all depends on what you value. Each is great in its own way. Mac vs. PC has been, is, and will be one of the biggest geek holy wars.

Most PC users I know right now are really into sharing things on sites like Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter. All this communal goodness takes place in a web browser. The sites don’t care what browser you use, and both Macs and PCs have several great browsers available. So, for most people, the choice of Mac or PC is moot. Both cost about the same in the long run, and both do a good job getting things done, howbeit in different ways. Some things are easier on a Mac and some things are easier on a PC, but you really can’t go wrong either way.

In the last couple years, more and more folks have been asking me whether a Mac or a PC is the better computer. In case you don’t know, a Mac is a type of computer made by Apple, the same company that makes iPods and iPhones. A PC, on the other hand, refers to a computer that runs Microsoft Windows. When you’re standing there holding your credit card deciding which to buy, which is best?

Apple would have you believe that Macs are far superior to the old stalwart PC. You may have seen the Apple ads on TV that portray the Mac as a coolguy 30-something with all the answers. He has conversations with PC, who is a middle-aged nerd in an ill-fitting business suit that is always having problems.  According to Apple, the purchase of a new Mac will change your life forever.

Well, Apple’s claim is true in some ways, but it’s mostly marketing hype. The truth is that for 95% of computer users, all tasks they want to do can be done on either a Mac or a PC. The difference lies in how the total cost of each of the machines is spread out. Macs are great for creating audio, video, and DVDs right out of the box. It’s easy to make your own custom recordings or photo albums. Also, you don’t have to buy antivirus software for Macs. The catch to all this is that Macs cost about twice as much (or more) than a PC with the same amount of processing power, memory, and storage space.

PC owners won’t pay as much up front, but they will have to spend $400-$500 to buy software that offers features equivalent to what a Mac can do out of the box. (Some users won’t spend a dime on extra software because they will never need these capabilities.)  Then, there’s the $30-$50 per year you’ll have to spend on a good antivirus program, since Windows PCs are vulnerable to many types of viruses and other malware. PCs outshine Macs in the area of choice. For any given thing you might want to do on a PC (such as create scrapbooks), there may be 4-5 good programs to choose from for getting it done. On the other hand, a Mac might only have 1-2 programs for any given purpose. Macs and PCs can’t run the same software, so any software you want to use has to be written for one or the other.

Which Do I Think is Best?

I have used PCs for 15 years and Macs for 8 years. My personal take on it is as follows:


Buy a PC: If you favor a lot of choices, buy a PC. As for software, there still is no where near the amount of software available for Macs as PCs. Why? Apple makes up 10% of the computer market, so there aren’t as many people buying software for Macs. Therefore, more developers (the people who create computer programs) write code for PCs. I would feel guilty if I didn’t state outright that I think Windows 7 is great. It’s the best thing Microsoft has cranked out in a long time. As an example, AreoSnap and the way Libraries work allow me to get more done faster. It’s all the small touches like this that makes Windows 7 great.

On the hardware side, Apple doesn’t offer a lot of variation in hardware configuration or style. When’s the last time you saw a red or blue Macbook? Some people love the clean, white lines of a Mac. Others abhor them. Unless you buy a PC, you’re out of luck.


Buy a Mac: If you are willing to pay a little more and don’t want to worry about so many choices, a Mac is the way to go. Most of the software that’s available for the Mac is pretty high quality, as long as it always has the features you need.  Macs come with iLife, which comes with some of the best consumer-grade audio and video creation tools out there.  More and more developers are being drawn to write software for Macs, because there market share is growing very quickly (due in part to the iPod, iPad, and iPhone). Also, Macs are easier to maintain. Macs do get slower over time like PCs, however, it  takes much longer. As of now, you really don’t have to worry about viruses on a Mac, though I suspect that will change as more and more people buy Macs. The more people using a system, the more appealing it is for virus programmers to get to work.

With the Web, Who Cares?

Most PC users I know right now are really into sharing things on sites like Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter. All this communal goodness

Microsoft Windows, OS X, Personal Updates

A Welcome Old Feeling

Recently, I’ve been feeling something I haven’t felt in a really long time: A sense of excitement about technology. For the past 8 years or so, it seems as though innovation and competition in the tech industry has slowed to a trickle. Microsoft killed Netscape and left us with the dead Internet Explorer 6 code base for nearly seven years. In the wake of the ever-exciting browser wars, we’ were left with what felt like a wounded soldier with a wooden leg. Then, the wizards in Redmond heap Vista on us, which did absolutely nothing to excite me. (In fact, it lead to a great deal of screaming and renting of garments in the Smith household.) On the hardware front, Intel and NVidia thwarted the lackluster AMD/ATI combination. Sure, we got faster CPUs and GPUs out of ’em, but who cares…Speed does not equal more fun or innovation. What’s a geek to do?

Thankfully, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate these days. For the first time in a long time, nerds everywhere are buzzing about a choice of quality operating systems. Apple has done a great job continuously improving OS X, which, for my money, is very stable and user friendly at version 10.6. In the wake of Apple’s ever-improving market share in both the laptop and desktop segments, Microsoft has gotten its act together to bring us Windows 7. The interesting thing to me is that neither OS X 10.6 nor Windows 7 are revolutionary products. The improvements are small on both fronts, and at first glance, it seems as though the OS upgrades are nothing more than marketing fodder. But, in the midst of all this, it’s easy to tell that both Microsoft and Apple are seriously trying to one-up each other by making systems more stable and user friendly. In short, end users are being treated to the fruits of healthy market competition. (On top of the OSs that are here now, rumor has it Google is launching its own low-power OS soon!)

Even more exciting to me is that the browser wars are back. Thank God for Mozilla, which delivered the first stable version of Firefox in 2003 and hasn’t looked back since. Again, Microsoft had to wake up and do something. Out of this panic, we were treated to Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8, which actually do a pretty good job at following standards.  But the fun doesn’t stop there: The WebKit folks have given us Safari and provided Google with the foundation it needed to launch Chrome. What we’re left with are fast, secure, standards-compliant browsers. And, more importantly to me, we have several choices in browsing for the first time in a long time!

There’s less to be excited about on the hardware front, but notebook makers are doing a great job making specialized laptops for just about any purpose. The buzzword soup actually has a lot of differentiated products behind it: notebooks, business-class, ultra-portables, netbooks, media stations, and desktop replacements. No matter what your personality or needs, there’s probably a sweet little portable out there to suit you.

To sum up, I’m simply pumped about all this competition. If I don’t like one thing, I can jump ship to another option. Now, if we can only keep the lawyers from stifling all this…But that’s a rant for another day.

OS X

Here, Kitty Kitty

So, I just installed OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard. So far, I feel about like everybody else: There are some neat new UI features, but it’s mostly more of the same, only a little faster.

So far, I like the icon resizing slider in the Icon view. Unlike a lot of reviews I’ve read, I think I’ll use this feature a lot. When I’m searching through a folder of pictures, I think this will make me pretty happy, since I like to be able to make the preview icons bigger without having to use Quick Look (which I’m not really a fan of….I know. Everybody else on the planet is, but not me.) Also, the new Expose view that pops up when you click and hold on something in the Dock is absolutely awesome. I never really used Expose much, since I prefer to click and hold on the icon of the program I’m really interested in to see multiple instances. Now that Expose is a function of doing this, I think it will have much more utility for me.

The reports that iLife apps run faster under 10.6 are correct as far as I’m concerned. Granted, the improvements aren’t that noticeable, but some of the pauses that were present before are gone. I’m pretty sure Apple has tweaked the Color LCD color profile. The colors on my October 2007 MacBook seem more vibrant. This could just be me, though. No one else I know has mentioned this. I stand corrected: Straight from Apple, the default gamma settings have been tweaked by +0.4, so the colors are brighter.

OS X, Tech Tips, Web Development/Programming

Solution to Deployment issue using Netbeans 6.5.1 and Tomcat 6.0.22 on OX 10.5.7

Somehow I always find myself in the middle of a very strange computer problem. This particular issue is a result of my wanting to learn to write JSP applications using Netbeans 6.5.1 with Tomcat 6.0.20. I don’t have time to do a full writeup, so here’s a nutshell version of the problem and my solution:

Problem

When I tried to use the Deploy option to push my Netbeans project to my Tomcat webapps folder, the deployment would fail. I could manually copy the .war file into my Tomcat webapps folder and everything would work fine. But, I thought, “Why should I have to do this if Netbeans is supposed to do it for me?”

Solution

Since I’m running OS X 10.5.7, I opened the Netbeans configuration file at

/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans6.5.1.app/
Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/Netbeans.conf

and added the following to the netbeans_default_options line:

-J-Djava.io.tmpdir=/tmp

Note: This must be added within the double quotes. Also, I didn’t distrub anything that was on the line already but merely added that tidbit of code.

Explaination

I found this piece of advice buried deep in a forum. Apparently, Netbeans puts the deployed files into a temporary folder before deploying them. The temporary folder it tries to use on OS X isn’t accessible (a permissions problem I guess). Adding that snippet of code tells Netbeans to use the OS X default temporary folder tmp for its intermediate work.

Enjoy!

OS X, Tech Tips

Xfolders 1.5.1 Crashes in Leopard (and how to fix it!)

I’ve had my MacBook now since September and I really like it.  Apple has a good thing going. That said, some things about OS X are strange, such as you can’t see certain parts of your filesystem with Finder unless you a) resort to some odd Terminal commands that need to be flipped on and off depending on how much of your filesystem you want to see or b) get a wonderful piece of software such as Xfolders to let you see everything when you need to.  Xfolders is great. It was one of the first things I downloaded and installed when my MacBook still smelled new.

Then I did something stupid: I upgraded to OS X 10.5 Leopard.  I haven’t had as much trouble as some who have taken the plunge, but one side effect was that in Leopard, Xfolders would crash anytime I tried to click on the root drive (cheerfully known as Macintosh HD on my MacBook). No matter which pane I clicked on, attempting to access root would bring up the OS X crash log.  Oh the horror! I may as well be running Vista! :)  After much agonizing and digging around, I found the solution to the problem:

  1. Open a new Terminal window
  2. type rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.kai-heitkamp.Xfolders.plist and press Return

That’s it! I’m not sure why, but sometimes, Leopard can corrupt the Xfolders configuration file, which causes Xfolders to crash upon launching.  By simply deleting this configuration file in your home directory, Xfolders can once again give you easy access to viewing 100% of your files whenever you need to.  I hope this helps someone!

Author’s Note (February 18, 2008):  I have some reports that this was a problem with Xfolders on some versions of OS X prior to 10.5.  This fix may work for OS X 10.4 Tiger sometimes, too!

OS X, Tech Tips

Mac OS 10.4.3

When I get home, I’m going to install Mac OS X 10.4.3 on my old iBook. I have the bare minimum hardware requirements, so I am a bit nervous about how things are going to run.  One thing’s for sure, I can’t stand the lack of support for OS X 10.1.2.

For the last two weeks, I have been playing with Ubuntu Linux 5.10 for PowerPC.  I really like Ubunu.  All the included apps are very useful and everything is very well integrated.  The biggest problem is that the video drivers are unaccelerated, which leaves video playback at a crawl.  So, I broke down and bought the officially sanctioned Apple solution.  Only time will tell.

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