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From Silicon Valley… |
Independent Online Edition > Lasseter axes Toy Story 3
Praise the gods of Kobol that Lasseter axed Toy Story 3. Toy Story 2 was a great sequel, but a third movie would have done nothing to further the characters or the plot. The only thing it would have been good for is as another monster merchandising opportunity for Disney.
I updated our WebStar web server to 10.4.4 from 10.3.8. Hopefully, this solves the memory leak problems that would require a reboot every 4 to 5 days. I also recently applied a WebStar 5.4.0 to 5.4.1 patch.
Gil Amelio: Information From Answers.com
To replace Copland and fulfill the need for a next-generation operating system for the Macintosh, Amelio started negotiations to buy Be, Incorporated, makers of BeOS, but negotiations stalled when Be CEO Jean-Louis Gassée wanted $400 million, Apple offered $125m maximum. In November 1996, Amelio started discussions with Steve Jobs’ NeXT, and bought the company on February 4, 1997 for $402 million. NeXT’s operating system became the basis for Mac OS X. Amelio later admitted he felt he had overpaid for NeXT.
What would have happened if BeOS had become OS X? I’ve always heard that BeOS was an amazing OS and even saw it at MacWorld one year. It’s probably for the best that the NeXT OS was used instead since Steve Jobs was brought on board.
Back in 1984, when I was accepted to Princeton, the total costs were around $17,000, which is one of the big reasons I didn’t go. Now, it’s up to $42,200 a year there. I wonder when the Ivies will break the $50k barrier. What’s nice is that the Ivies do have large endowments and it appears Princeton is providing grants instead of loans these days to attract lower-income students.
I increased the amount of RAM on a 1.8 Ghz Powermac (the 1st generation one with a 900 MHz frontside bus and 8 Gb of maximum RAM) from 3 Gb to 5 Gb, and strangely enough, although About This Mac shows 5 Gb, in the Activity Monitor under System Memory, it only shows 1 Gb of System Memory. The strange thing is that before when there was 3 Gb in the system the Mac showed 3 Gb of system memory.
This tech article from Adobe sheds some light on what I’m seeing:
Photoshop CS2 is a 32-bit application, and when you run it on a 32-bit operating system, such as Mac OS 10.2.8, it still can only access 2 GB of RAM. The operating system uses some of this RAM, so the Photoshop Memory Usage preference displays only a maximum of 1.6 or 1.7 GB or total available RAM.
When you run Photoshop CS2 on a 64-bit operating system, such as Mac OS 10.3 and higher, it can access up to 8 GB of RAM. You can see the actual amount of RAM Photoshop can use in the Maxiumum Used By Photoshop number when you set the Maximum Used by Photoshop slider in the Memory & Image Cache preference to 100%. The RAM above the 100% used by Photoshop, which is from approximately 3 GB to 3.7 GB, can be used directly by Photoshop plug-ins (some plug-ins need large chunks of contiguous RAM), filters, actions, etc. If you have more than 4 GB (to 8 GB), the RAM above 4 GB is used by the operating system as a cache for the Photoshop scratch disk data. Data that previously was written directly to the hard disk by Photoshop, is now cached in this high RAM before being written to the hard disk by the operating system. If you are working with files large enough to take advantage of these extra 2 GB of RAM, the RAM cache can speed performance of Photoshop.
Apparently, OS X is now allocating all that extra RAM as a substitute for the hard drive for virtual memory.
Addenda 2/17/05 – After upgrading to OS X 10.4, all 5 Gb of RAM shows up.
Sometimes an iPod freezes and locks up. Here’s how to make it functional again:
With a 4G iPod, you have to have it plugged in via the power supply or the firewire cable, switch the hold button on and then off, then press the menu and middle button until the Apple icon appears for a reset. The nice thing about the iPod nano is that you can perform this same reset sequence without having it plugged in.
I received my new wheels today with DT 240S hubs, Velocity Aerohead rims and DT Swiss spokes and the weight of the front wheel was 625 while the rear wheel was 865 for a total weight of 1490 grams (they were advertised at 1430, but my there’s a lot of variability in rim weights and scales and 1490 is still light). Here are the complete specs:
E-BAY SPECIAL
SHIPPING CONTINENTAL USA ONLY:
FREE SHIPPING CONTINENTAL USA ONLY :
This is a brand new, hand built, never installed, DT Swiss-Velocity 240S 700C Clincher wheelset, one front and one rear, Race Ready or Training. Shimano compatible only. Top performance at a great price.
FEATURES: DT Swiss 240S Road Hubs-the Legend. These high tech hubs are based on the Hugi Star Ratchet free-wheeling system .The highest quality cartridge bearings, optimal seals & top of the line performance. Full service available thanks to the world-wide dealer network.
RIMS FEATURES: This wheelset features the race proven, aero design, Velocity Aerohead Road Rims, black. Stiff for sprints, light for climbs. Made of heat treated high strength 6106-T6 alloy and machined sidewalls for improved braking performance.The Aerohead rim has been a favorite of racing and sport cyclists since 1992. I have selected the Velocity Aerohead rim for our top of the line Wheelsets due to its quality and strength. I have never built with a flatter, rounder rim.
SPOKES FEATURES: DT Revolution is one of the most popular spokes ever. Double cold-forged, ultra-light, highly resistant, and a wind cheating midsection of 1.5mm .
FRONT WHEEL FEATURES: The DT Swiss 240S Hub 28 hole black/red laced 2X with DT Revolution spokes, black and silver alloy nipples to a Velocity Aerohead Rim, black. The Front Wheel has 28 spokes laced 2x for excellent radial and lateral stability that a high performance wheel demands .
REAR WHEEL FEATURES: The DT Swiss 240S hub 32 hole black/red, the Velocity Aerohead Road rim, (black, 32 hole) laced 3X with DT Revolution spokes, black & silver alloy nipples for the non-drive side. The drive side is laced 3X with the more robust DT Super Comp spokes, black (2.0/1.7/1.8) and alloy nipples, silver. This wheelset is professionally built and weighs approximately 1430 grams for Campy and 1433 grams for the Shimano.
OPTIONS INCLUDED: DT Swiss skewers are included with the purchase of this wheelset. No sticky rim tape with this wheelset. Included with the purchase of this wheelset is the Velocity Valoplug. The Valoplug is an amazing new invention. Incredible, blow out strength. Takes well over 400 psi. tires start to fail long before the Valoplug. Tire mounting is easier with the Valoplug. Rim strips take up a lot of space, making tires more difficult to mount. With the sleek and slippery Valoplug, a difficult to mount tire becomes easy. Spoke replacement is simplified, as there is no need to remove a sticky strip. Just pop out the Valoplug over the offending spoke and pop it back in, repairs are complete. They can be used over and over. 32 Valoplugs equals 6 grams. The Lock-Ring is included with the campy wheelset.
MY GUARANTEE: 30 day warranty. If a problem occurs with any component after it is used contact me at once; each problem will be rectified on a case-by-case basis.Dt swiss hubs also come with a manufacture warranty. Buyer satisfaction is my most important goal. Please ask any questions before you buy. Please visit our e-bay store for more great bargains!
NOTE: We started working on a super strong, high quality pair of wheels last year. We wanted to build a pair of wheels that is durable enough for racing or training, and strong enough for the long haul. After trying different components, we came up with the DT Swiss 240S Velocity wheelset. This wheelset has been a hot seller since it was introduced this year. It has found its way to Israel, Australia, and the former Soviet Union.
Velocity Aerohead is old school, but they have been making them since 1992 and have it perfected. Their philosophy was if it works, why change it? Let’s just improve it. It’s proven itself to be a winner. Very durable, very strong and light. In a way just like Mavic with its Open-Pro rim, its been around a long time and has proven to be a very popular rim. The DT Swiss 240S, which is the Hugi hub, is just simply the best.
We have had a high demand for this wheelset. To assure the quality and consistency in building we only have one wheelbuilder. Consequently, it has been hard to keep up with the demand on the wheelsets we offer. There is a very limited quantity of this wheelset left for this year. When they are gone we will not have anymore this year.
The wheels look beautiful and were well packaged. I can’t wait to get them on my bike and give them a spin this weekend.
I recently purchased Apple at $72 a share. It’s been on a little bit of a roller coaster ride recently with a recent high of 86.40. Right now, the stock is trading at $77. The recent uptick was probably due to the excitement over MacWorld and the announcement and shipment of the new Intel Macs. This was counterbalanced by Apple’s recent earning’s reports and guidance. What doesn’t help is lowered projections by Apple’s CFO for the 2nd quarter, analysts’ disappointment in those projections, and an Apple article in the latest issue of Forbes on whether the company is overvalued. There is concern that the prices of the iPods that Apple is selling is dropping and the margins of iPods vs Mac computers is lower, but I still like Apple because of these reasons:
1. OS X. There is no better consumer operating system out there at the moment. I’m talking about stability, security, UI, ease of use, and an open source backend. As Vista’s release gets pushed farther back (there’s even a security alert for Vista!), OS X looks better all the time. I love Windows XP for games, but for everything else, I would use an Apple and OS X. Regarding OS X as a server, the Apple site says it best:
Mac OS X Server gives you everything you need to provide standards-based workgroup and Internet services — without the complexity of Linux or the cost inherent in other UNIX-based solutions.
I decided to go with Macintosh servers before OS X, and things looked bad for awhile with the limits of pre OS X operating systems, but I’ve been very happy with the stability and ease of use of OS X as a server operating system. What’s very nice is that I can use the vast library of open source programs on OS X.
2. Intel Macs. Intel has had its problems lately – especially with the superiority of AMD’s chips, but Intel has more fabs and an R&D department that can’t be discounted despite some recent setbacks vs. AMD. The relatively quick release of the Intel iMacs and MacBooks is a great sign that the transition to Intel chips will go smoothly. The roadmap for Macs looks a lot better now with Intel behind the brains of the Macs. The news that Apple won’t prevent the installation of Vista also means that Mac users can have their cake and eat it too, either with a dual boot Mac that can run OS X and Vista without any speed penalties or a Vista emulator running in OS X that should run at very high speed.
3. iPods. Apple owns the market, and iPods are a product that people can replace on a more frequent basis than computers. Apple doesn’t sit on its laurels in terms of iPod updates, and I can see people with multiple iPods for different purposes or just because they want the newest one with the latest features. The barrier to purchase is lower because the pricing is a lot lower than computers or older iPods.
4. Media opportunities. iTunes is a great interface for downloading and managing music and more recently, video content. From what I’ve read, Apple doesn’t make too much off iTunes or content downloads, but I think of the future and the possbilities of what Apple could control in terms of media content and the regular incremental revenue they could make off media downloads.
5. Steve Jobs. He is a business and media superstar. This guy pushes for excellence and he gets things done. Whatever one says about Apple, with Jobs at the helm, you can never say Apple is a boring company. With Jobs at the top and a culture that pushes the best, I expect some surprises down the line that could easily push Apple past the present products and technologies that analysts and investors think about these days.
From Mossberg’s review and other things I’ve read, it appears the transition from PowerPC to Intel chips will be relatively smooth. I wonder when they’ll come out with Dual Duo-Core Macs for the professional market.
A Million Little Lies – January 8, 2006
I love the Smoking Gun website. They present things straight from the source and you make your conclusions from there.