October 27, 2003
C# 2.0 Design Spec
Microsoft has posted the design specification for C# 2.0. I knew that generics support was being added, but I hadn't heard about anonymous methods, which are supposed to be like Lisp lambdas. C# anonymous methods allow you to create closures. Cool.
NSController
Dissension in the ranks: Aaron Hillegass blasts NSController .
October 26, 2003
Exposé Quirk
Small quirk in Exposé : If there is a tooltip on screen when you hit the "Desktop" Exposé key (default F11), the tooltip is treated like another window. The tooltip is not treated as a separate window when you ask Exposé to display all windows.
Panther Weblog
Ken Bereskin, Apple's Product Manager for Mac OS X, has started a weblog about Panther. Ken did the same thing when Jaguar came out, and his posts were usually very interesting. If you use Panther, or just want to read about the new features, check it out.
(By the way, this is my first post from Panther.)
October 18, 2003
G5 Arrived
My G5 arrived Wednesday. I had a midterm exam and a project due on Thursday, so I only took it out of the box and admired its industrial design on Wednesday night. (Observation: The Power Mac G5 has a very supple power cord. :-)) On Thursday night I got down to business and hooked up the G5.
So far, I am extremely pleased with the G5. I haven't done any major benchmarks or stress tests, but I have been unable to find anything at which it is less than very responsive. Almost all apps launch in two bounces or less, project compilation is speedy, and activating a background app is instantaneous. (I did install an additional 512 MB of memory, bringing it up to 1 GB.) All of this is a very welcome improvement over my aging 400 MHz PowerBook G4.
October 13, 2003
Network Application Protocol
I'm taking a course on computer networks this semester. The term project for the course is to design and implement an application layer network protocol. A client-server architecture where one server can handle multiple clients (e.g. HTTP, SSH) is preferred. Anyone got ideas for the next great killer network app?
Kill Bill Thoughts
Ever since I saw the Kill Bill teaser trailer , I predicted that Kill Bill would take stylized violence to new heights. Quentin Tarantino didn't let me down. I really liked the film; it was oozing with style and the execution was damned near flawless. I'm hesitant to compare Kill Bill to Tarantino's other films without having seen Volume 2, but I don't think Kill Bill was as good as Pulp Fiction. Kill Bill was great at what it wanted to be, but I don't think it aspired to the same level as Pulp Fiction.
Anyway, if you haven't seen Kill Bill, then run, don't walk, to your local theater.
October 09, 2003
G5 Shipped
My Power Mac G5 has finally shipped! It should be here next week. Here's the configuration:
Processor 065-4227 Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
Memory 065-4356 512MB DDR400 (PC3200) - 2x256
Hard Drive 065-4376 160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
Optical Drive 065-4168 Super Drive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Graphics Support 065-4449 ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
Fibre Chl PCI 065-4491 None
Modem 065-4166 56k V.92 Internal Modem
BlueTooth 065-4292 BlueTooth Module
Airport 065-1899 None
Keyboard Language 065-4161 Apple Keyboard & Mouse
Mac OS Language 065-4160 Mac OS X
Country Kit 065-4159 Country Kit
October 08, 2003
iCal 1.5.1
iCal 1.5.1 was released today. As a recent switcher from Entourage to iCal, I'm pleased with the upgrade. The drawer is somewhat better than the utility window, but the features I'm most excited about are the new reminder features. You can now ask to be notified about To Do items, and you can also snooze any reminder. Snoozing was something I did all the time with Entourage - I would ask to be notified about an event one week in advance, then snooze the event for a few days.
One annoying thing about iCal 1.5.1 is that the new "event location" field doesn't show up when a calendar is synced to an iPod. I've filed feedback .
Kill Bill
Two days 'till Kill Bill ! A group of us is going to see it at 9:30p Friday at the Cinemark in Valley View.
October 06, 2003
Stephen Hawking
By getting up early this morning and standing in line, I was able to get a $7 student ticket to Stephen Hawking's lecture next Monday at Severance Hall. w00t!
October 02, 2003
Guacamole Doritoes
Jason has introduced me to the joy of Guacamole Doritos . Apparently they have been available in California for some time, but they are just now showing up here in Ohio. They were on sale this week at the grocery store, so we picked up a few bags.
My Dock
This article on the O'Reilly Network has touched off a spate of Dock picture postings. I keep my dock on the left side of the screen. I started doing that when I got a widescreen PowerBook, since I had some "extra" room on the sides of my screen. The apps in my Dock, from top to bottom, are: Finder, Safari, Entourage, MT-NewsWatcher, iCal, System Preferences, Terminal, Project Builder, Interface Builder, AppKiDo, BBEdit, iTunes, iChat AV, Adium, MSN Messenger, NetNewsWire Lite, Kung-Log, SpamSieve, SSH Agent, Stickies, Watson, TextEdit, OSXvnc, and Preview. In the documents section, I just have my home folder and Trash. I've also got LaunchBar running, but not in the Dock.
