Monday 25 December 2006
Merry Xmas, GoogleBots
And a very Merry Christmas to any human reader who happen to stumble across this post.
Wednesday 20 December 2006
Downloading Godot
This is showing the potential for turning into a rather successful running joke, along the lines of "MacTab's 2nd Anniversary: Torrent had only 5 days remaining". This could become the blog equivalent of Waiting for Godot. (Thinking about it, "Godot" would make a rather good name for the kind of application like a bit torrent client which you find yourself waiting on.) It could even become a meme.
I wish it would just hurry up and end.
We are now eleven days in and still only 82.71% downloaded. I can be precise because I have just swapped over from Acquisition to Transmission, and after a week of 3kb/s trickling we now have a proper torrent on our hands plus a proper percentage read-out.
83.19%.
In case you feel like doing the same, it's actually quite easy. Carefully shut Acquisition down, pausing the download first. Then copy the partially downloaded file from its "Incomplete" folder (typically found inside the "Music" folder) to wherever you've told Transmission to store its downloads (the Desktop by default). Then start up Transmission and feed it the original .torrent file. After a bit of thinking about things it should continue the download where Acquisition left off.
83.48%.
Acquisition is a great Gnutella client, but when it comes to Bit Torrent it seems to have a few issues. Top of the list is the way it slowed my internet to a crawl. I have been living the last week at dial-up speeds, which was not pleasant. Now with Transmission running things I can actually browse at the same time.
83.67%.
Don't get me wrong. I do like Acquisition. Hey, I even bought a copy. But for all its polish it still has a few rough edges. For a start, it could let me download the latest update without trying to sell me another set of licenses. (I'm sure that'll be resolved before too long.) For another, it really needs a proper manual. (For instance, can anyone tell me what the "Retry" option - available when you right-click on a download - does?)
84.21%
I might try one of these while I'm waiting. Hmm. On second thoughts, having read the instructions maybe I won't. I do own a soldering iron, but more as a threat than with any real intent of using it. Perhaps I'll just knit a fancy iPod cover instead.
I wish it would just hurry up and end.
We are now eleven days in and still only 82.71% downloaded. I can be precise because I have just swapped over from Acquisition to Transmission, and after a week of 3kb/s trickling we now have a proper torrent on our hands plus a proper percentage read-out.
83.19%.
In case you feel like doing the same, it's actually quite easy. Carefully shut Acquisition down, pausing the download first. Then copy the partially downloaded file from its "Incomplete" folder (typically found inside the "Music" folder) to wherever you've told Transmission to store its downloads (the Desktop by default). Then start up Transmission and feed it the original .torrent file. After a bit of thinking about things it should continue the download where Acquisition left off.
83.48%.
Acquisition is a great Gnutella client, but when it comes to Bit Torrent it seems to have a few issues. Top of the list is the way it slowed my internet to a crawl. I have been living the last week at dial-up speeds, which was not pleasant. Now with Transmission running things I can actually browse at the same time.
83.67%.
Don't get me wrong. I do like Acquisition. Hey, I even bought a copy. But for all its polish it still has a few rough edges. For a start, it could let me download the latest update without trying to sell me another set of licenses. (I'm sure that'll be resolved before too long.) For another, it really needs a proper manual. (For instance, can anyone tell me what the "Retry" option - available when you right-click on a download - does?)
84.21%
I might try one of these while I'm waiting. Hmm. On second thoughts, having read the instructions maybe I won't. I do own a soldering iron, but more as a threat than with any real intent of using it. Perhaps I'll just knit a fancy iPod cover instead.
Sunday 17 December 2006
This Made Me Smile
I guess I must be getting into the Christmas spirit at last.
What didn't make me smile so much was that shortly afterwards, whenever I went to take a piture all I got on my phone's screen was a bunch of purple lines. Oh well. At least I couldn't have asked for a better last picture from the little guy.
What didn't make me smile so much was that shortly afterwards, whenever I went to take a piture all I got on my phone's screen was a bunch of purple lines. Oh well. At least I couldn't have asked for a better last picture from the little guy.
Saturday 16 December 2006
Oh, Bugger
Just came across this (via MacUser).
Okay, I suppose it's really good news. I'm just annoyed that after all this time, just as I decide to start doing it someone comes along and beats me to it. Plus, my own OS x86 download is still only about 50% of the way through one week in.
Hmm... I guess it could be a fake. For instance, they mention that the installer isn't optimised for the UMPC's small screen, with the "forward" and "back" buttons not fitting on, and yet in the accompanying pictures they are clearly visible... Sorry. Sour grapes. I'm actually really glad someone has got this working.
Watching the video (the second one on the page, by the way, the first being that equally cool Mac Mini portable from a couple of months ago), two things strike me. The first is that the touch screen seems to be working okay, complete with Inkwell text input (not demonstrated), which is good. The second thing is how incredibly slowly it's running. The Asus R2H has a 900Mhz Celeron M and GMA900 graphics, so you'd expect it to perform a little better than shown.
Anyway, if you'll excuse me I have the innards of an iBook to cry into.
Okay, I suppose it's really good news. I'm just annoyed that after all this time, just as I decide to start doing it someone comes along and beats me to it. Plus, my own OS x86 download is still only about 50% of the way through one week in.
Hmm... I guess it could be a fake. For instance, they mention that the installer isn't optimised for the UMPC's small screen, with the "forward" and "back" buttons not fitting on, and yet in the accompanying pictures they are clearly visible... Sorry. Sour grapes. I'm actually really glad someone has got this working.
Watching the video (the second one on the page, by the way, the first being that equally cool Mac Mini portable from a couple of months ago), two things strike me. The first is that the touch screen seems to be working okay, complete with Inkwell text input (not demonstrated), which is good. The second thing is how incredibly slowly it's running. The Asus R2H has a 900Mhz Celeron M and GMA900 graphics, so you'd expect it to perform a little better than shown.
Anyway, if you'll excuse me I have the innards of an iBook to cry into.
Tuesday 12 December 2006
The Economic Consequences of the Heist
So. This MacHeist thing is causing a bit of a kerfuffle, isn't it? Rory Prior over at ThinkMac produced this article entitled "The Economics of MacHeist". Below is my own analysis of the subject. I don't intend to tackle the subject of whether or not MacHeist is "a good thing" for those involved or the independent developer community as a whole, but instead to highlight some of the points those getting involved will have considered (or at least would have, were they a member of that mystical genus, homo economius).
But before I start, I should say that, despite the subject matter of most of the other posts on this blog, the Independent Developer scene is something that matters to me, as it should to everyone who enjoys using well-designed - no: lovingly crafted - software. Double standards? Perhaps, but I do purchase licences for the software I use regularly and I encourage other people to do the same. Hey, I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I? So on with the economics.
Okay. Let's start by making a few assumptions.
Firstly, Gus Mueller states that he was offered a fixed $5,000 to take part in MacHeist (he mentions the figure in the comments). Let's assume that the same was offered to - and excepted by - each of the developers who took part.
While this amount will still be liable to corporation tax (or the equivalent), the developers won't have to pay credit card processing fees or any other associated "costs of sales". (We'll come to support costs later.) So this payment can be looked at as "gross profit".
In the table below I've listed the applications being offered in the bundle. Note that Pangea offer a choice of one of the four games listed, and that although Newsfire and TextMate will only become available once a certain sales total has been reached, a copy of each will be given to everyone who has previously bought a bundle.
[1] iClip 3 costs $19.95 with a free upgrade to iClip 4 when it comes out, whereupon it will cost $29.
[2] TextMate actually costs €39. At the current €1 = $1.32 this is $51.75.
The figures in the "Gross Profit" column are 90% of the sales prices. 10% seems a fare figure for card processing plus a share of the costs of bandwidth. I haven't purchased one of the bundles but it looks like anyone who does will have to download the applications from the developers' own sites.
The "Break Even" column is the $5,000 payment divided by the "Gross Profit" figure. It's meant to give a rough idea of the number of regular purchases - allowing for what the developer saves off of the cost of sales - the $5,000 would normally have bought. It's a really basic back-of-an-envelope style calculation, but something of an eye-opener, I think. The $5,000 represents the (estimated) gross profit on between 70 (FotoMagico) and 372 (Disco) regular sales.
As of the time I'm writing this (9pm GMT on Tuesday the 12th), the counter on the MacHeist site registers just short of 2,700 sales, with 5 days and 8 hours left to run.
I have no idea how many copies of these applications their developers would have expected to sell during a regular week, but it could be that, if it is usually significantly less than the figures shown here, they were betting on the promotion generating fewer sales than this, allowing them to bank the difference between the $5,000 and the value of the software actually sold. If this was what they were thinking then they will have got a nasty shock.
In a similar vein, the gamble taken by the Newsfire and TextMate developers is (at least mathematically) very interesting, mirroring as it does in some ways the kind of bet you see played-out in the financial markets. They are gambling that sales don't reach the $50,000 (Newsfire) or $100,000 (TextMate) levels which would mean their having to distribute licences, instead allowing them to keep all of their $5,000. Pat Nakajima calculated that these roughly approximate 4,082 and 8,164 bundles, or the equivalent of $69,761.38 and $367,380.00 in gross profit, respectively. Ouch. That's some gamble.
Of course, when we talk about "the equivalent of ... gross profit" we're assuming that the person buying the bundle would otherwise have purchased the "full-price" application - that the developer is in effect losing a sale each time. What if we instead assume that each purchaser is only really interested in two of the ten applications? and therefore will do nothing else with the other eight? Even with the 2,700 sales we've had so far, that still gives each application 540 new users. You could view this as having offered a 50% discount on each copy sold, but that 50% figure is dropping rapidly.
Umm... this post has grown way out of hand, so I think I'll call it a night there. There's a lot I haven't covered which I should have (including the deal from MacHeist's point of view), so if there's any interest I may revisit the subject again.
But before I start, I should say that, despite the subject matter of most of the other posts on this blog, the Independent Developer scene is something that matters to me, as it should to everyone who enjoys using well-designed - no: lovingly crafted - software. Double standards? Perhaps, but I do purchase licences for the software I use regularly and I encourage other people to do the same. Hey, I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I? So on with the economics.
Okay. Let's start by making a few assumptions.
Firstly, Gus Mueller states that he was offered a fixed $5,000 to take part in MacHeist (he mentions the figure in the comments). Let's assume that the same was offered to - and excepted by - each of the developers who took part.
While this amount will still be liable to corporation tax (or the equivalent), the developers won't have to pay credit card processing fees or any other associated "costs of sales". (We'll come to support costs later.) So this payment can be looked at as "gross profit".
In the table below I've listed the applications being offered in the bundle. Note that Pangea offer a choice of one of the four games listed, and that although Newsfire and TextMate will only become available once a certain sales total has been reached, a copy of each will be given to everyone who has previously bought a bundle.
| Price | “Gross Profit” | Break Even (units) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delicious Library | $40.00 | $36.00 | 139 | ||
| FotoMagico | $79.00 | $71.10 | 70 | ||
| ShapeShifter | $20.00 | $18.00 | 278 | ||
| DevonThink Personal | $39.95 | $35.96 | 139 | ||
| Disco | $14.95 | $13.46 | 372 | ||
| Rapid Weaver | $39.95 | $35.96 | 139 | ||
| iClip | $19.95 [1] | $17.96 | 278 | ||
| Pangea Games | Pangea Arcade | $19.95 | $17.96 | 278 | |
| Enigmo 2 | $29.95 | $26.96 | 185 | ||
| Nanosaur 2 | $24.95 | $22.46 | 223 | ||
| Bugdom 2 | $34.95 | $31.46 | 159 | ||
| Newsfire | $18.99 | $17.09 | 293 | ||
| TextMate | $50.00 [2] | $45.00 | 111 | ||
[1] iClip 3 costs $19.95 with a free upgrade to iClip 4 when it comes out, whereupon it will cost $29.
[2] TextMate actually costs €39. At the current €1 = $1.32 this is $51.75.
The figures in the "Gross Profit" column are 90% of the sales prices. 10% seems a fare figure for card processing plus a share of the costs of bandwidth. I haven't purchased one of the bundles but it looks like anyone who does will have to download the applications from the developers' own sites.
The "Break Even" column is the $5,000 payment divided by the "Gross Profit" figure. It's meant to give a rough idea of the number of regular purchases - allowing for what the developer saves off of the cost of sales - the $5,000 would normally have bought. It's a really basic back-of-an-envelope style calculation, but something of an eye-opener, I think. The $5,000 represents the (estimated) gross profit on between 70 (FotoMagico) and 372 (Disco) regular sales.
As of the time I'm writing this (9pm GMT on Tuesday the 12th), the counter on the MacHeist site registers just short of 2,700 sales, with 5 days and 8 hours left to run.
I have no idea how many copies of these applications their developers would have expected to sell during a regular week, but it could be that, if it is usually significantly less than the figures shown here, they were betting on the promotion generating fewer sales than this, allowing them to bank the difference between the $5,000 and the value of the software actually sold. If this was what they were thinking then they will have got a nasty shock.
In a similar vein, the gamble taken by the Newsfire and TextMate developers is (at least mathematically) very interesting, mirroring as it does in some ways the kind of bet you see played-out in the financial markets. They are gambling that sales don't reach the $50,000 (Newsfire) or $100,000 (TextMate) levels which would mean their having to distribute licences, instead allowing them to keep all of their $5,000. Pat Nakajima calculated that these roughly approximate 4,082 and 8,164 bundles, or the equivalent of $69,761.38 and $367,380.00 in gross profit, respectively. Ouch. That's some gamble.
Of course, when we talk about "the equivalent of ... gross profit" we're assuming that the person buying the bundle would otherwise have purchased the "full-price" application - that the developer is in effect losing a sale each time. What if we instead assume that each purchaser is only really interested in two of the ten applications? and therefore will do nothing else with the other eight? Even with the 2,700 sales we've had so far, that still gives each application 540 new users. You could view this as having offered a 50% discount on each copy sold, but that 50% figure is dropping rapidly.
Umm... this post has grown way out of hand, so I think I'll call it a night there. There's a lot I haven't covered which I should have (including the deal from MacHeist's point of view), so if there's any interest I may revisit the subject again.
Oh Show Me the Way to the Next Logic Board
Woo-hoo! My replacement logic board has arrived!
Those of you who have been avidly following this blog (self-deception is a wonderful thing, isn't it?) will remember my comment about having a disassembled iBook lying around. And I bet you thought it was just a throw-away line to allow me to link to that Mac tablet thing. Well, it wasn't.
Wintermute, my snow iBook G3, gave up the ghost last February after three and a half years of sterling service. Now, this particular generation of iBooks, it turns out, was rather prone to failure, so much so in fact that Apple extended their warranties and introduced a replacement scheme. Not that anybody bothered to tell me. What exactly does Apple do with our registration details? Would one "by-the-way your laptops about to snuff it?" e-mail have killed them? It would at least have gone some way towards making-up for all those "buy your loved one an iPod this non-specific festive-style seasonal-period" messages they're currently bombarding me with.
This model iBook was susceptible to two different faults which, helpfully, produced the same symptoms of graphics errors - random tearing and corruption - followed by total screen blankness. The first fault was due to wear-and-tear of the inverter (and I'm sure I don't have to explain to you exactly what that means), and meant that you could still use the iBook with an external monitor or in target disk mode. The second was due to the video chip working loose and meant you now owned a very pretty, if rather small, polycarbonate tea tray. Naturally, my iBook fell victim to the latter.
(Well, at least it didn't start to discolour. Now that would have been just terrible...)
A slight shortage of funds back then meant that I didn't get the machine fixed at the time. It also didn't help that I couldn't find anywhere in the UK who sold the replacement logic boards. There were a few places which advertised a complete repair service, but I wasn't prepared to go down that route for reasons which will, believe me, make an enlightening and hilarious post at some time in the future. Still, I continued to look for a replacement board on and off over the rest of the year (during the grim time I refer to as "The Dark Days of the Acer" and which I really prefer not to think about if I can at all help it), occasionally checking eBay and so forth, but with no luck. Until a few weeks ago.
I stumbled across a company called PowerBook Medic who were offering reconditioned iBook motherboards. What with the tanking dollar and everything, the $399 they wanted for a 900Mhz model (a 200Mhz upgrade from my original) seemed rather reasonable, coming out at around £275 once Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs had added their 17.5%. A combination of Thanks Giving over there, and the aforementioned Excise men over here means it's taken about two and a half weeks to arrive, but that's still much faster than if I had, say, decided to download it through Bit Torrent (sorry, but were back to "970 days remaining"...).
Anyway, the board is now safely in my hands. I've given it a quick once-over and have established that it is indeed an iBook logic board as advertised, and not, for instance, a piece of cardboard painted green. I shall endeavour to install it either later tonight or tomorrow, and if you're very lucky I shall post some photos of the process here tomorrow. Oh, lucky you, how will you sleep tonight?
Those of you who have been avidly following this blog (self-deception is a wonderful thing, isn't it?) will remember my comment about having a disassembled iBook lying around. And I bet you thought it was just a throw-away line to allow me to link to that Mac tablet thing. Well, it wasn't.
Wintermute, my snow iBook G3, gave up the ghost last February after three and a half years of sterling service. Now, this particular generation of iBooks, it turns out, was rather prone to failure, so much so in fact that Apple extended their warranties and introduced a replacement scheme. Not that anybody bothered to tell me. What exactly does Apple do with our registration details? Would one "by-the-way your laptops about to snuff it?" e-mail have killed them? It would at least have gone some way towards making-up for all those "buy your loved one an iPod this non-specific festive-style seasonal-period" messages they're currently bombarding me with.
This model iBook was susceptible to two different faults which, helpfully, produced the same symptoms of graphics errors - random tearing and corruption - followed by total screen blankness. The first fault was due to wear-and-tear of the inverter (and I'm sure I don't have to explain to you exactly what that means), and meant that you could still use the iBook with an external monitor or in target disk mode. The second was due to the video chip working loose and meant you now owned a very pretty, if rather small, polycarbonate tea tray. Naturally, my iBook fell victim to the latter.
(Well, at least it didn't start to discolour. Now that would have been just terrible...)
A slight shortage of funds back then meant that I didn't get the machine fixed at the time. It also didn't help that I couldn't find anywhere in the UK who sold the replacement logic boards. There were a few places which advertised a complete repair service, but I wasn't prepared to go down that route for reasons which will, believe me, make an enlightening and hilarious post at some time in the future. Still, I continued to look for a replacement board on and off over the rest of the year (during the grim time I refer to as "The Dark Days of the Acer" and which I really prefer not to think about if I can at all help it), occasionally checking eBay and so forth, but with no luck. Until a few weeks ago.
I stumbled across a company called PowerBook Medic who were offering reconditioned iBook motherboards. What with the tanking dollar and everything, the $399 they wanted for a 900Mhz model (a 200Mhz upgrade from my original) seemed rather reasonable, coming out at around £275 once Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs had added their 17.5%. A combination of Thanks Giving over there, and the aforementioned Excise men over here means it's taken about two and a half weeks to arrive, but that's still much faster than if I had, say, decided to download it through Bit Torrent (sorry, but were back to "970 days remaining"...).
Anyway, the board is now safely in my hands. I've given it a quick once-over and have established that it is indeed an iBook logic board as advertised, and not, for instance, a piece of cardboard painted green. I shall endeavour to install it either later tonight or tomorrow, and if you're very lucky I shall post some photos of the process here tomorrow. Oh, lucky you, how will you sleep tonight?
Monday 11 December 2006
Torrential
Hmm... 48 hours in and 565Mb down. That's just around 20%. And I don't even want to think about the average transfer speed. Yes, I do have broadband, in case you're wondering. The thought of ever trying to do this over dial-up... I shudder.
In case you're wondering, I'm trying (and succeeding, albeit slowly) to download a Mac OS X disc image. Was that a shocked collective intake of breath I just heard? Too right. I wish I didn't have to do it this way, too, and not just because it looks like I'm still going to be waiting this time next week.
I already have a Mac OS X for Intel DVD, the one which came with my MBP. I would much prefer to use this, patching it into a compatible state. There would be far less to download, plus it would give me a better idea of what needs changing in order to get proper OS X to run on non-Apple hardware. Educational, quicker and less, well... dodgy. Unfortunately, this isn't an option. (I do like it when other people ask my stupid questions for me.)
So I had to hit the torrents. Now, I'm sure that I'm nowhere near being the most profligate of pilferers out there, but it still makes me feel kind of dirty. Nevertheless, telling myself it's all for the greater good I gave my morals the slip and went ahead anyway.
(Before anybody asks, sorry, I'm not going to tell you where to go to get the downloads. I could give you a list of reasons for this decision but I think they have already been summed-up pretty well in this post here.)
So, 48 hours later and here we are. I'm happy to report that the download has speeded up a little today. I guess the moral is not to try this at the weekends. Not sure why: I would have thought that business use would easily have swamped home consumption, bandwidth-wise. Maybe it was just an issue on my immediate (residential) bit of the 'net. All those people spending Saturday and Sunday downloading ripped CDs. tssk. It shouldn't be allowed.
Anyway, now there are only "2 days remaining", apparently. I really should find something more constructive to do to pass the time.
In case you're wondering, I'm trying (and succeeding, albeit slowly) to download a Mac OS X disc image. Was that a shocked collective intake of breath I just heard? Too right. I wish I didn't have to do it this way, too, and not just because it looks like I'm still going to be waiting this time next week.
I already have a Mac OS X for Intel DVD, the one which came with my MBP. I would much prefer to use this, patching it into a compatible state. There would be far less to download, plus it would give me a better idea of what needs changing in order to get proper OS X to run on non-Apple hardware. Educational, quicker and less, well... dodgy. Unfortunately, this isn't an option. (I do like it when other people ask my stupid questions for me.)
So I had to hit the torrents. Now, I'm sure that I'm nowhere near being the most profligate of pilferers out there, but it still makes me feel kind of dirty. Nevertheless, telling myself it's all for the greater good I gave my morals the slip and went ahead anyway.
(Before anybody asks, sorry, I'm not going to tell you where to go to get the downloads. I could give you a list of reasons for this decision but I think they have already been summed-up pretty well in this post here.)
So, 48 hours later and here we are. I'm happy to report that the download has speeded up a little today. I guess the moral is not to try this at the weekends. Not sure why: I would have thought that business use would easily have swamped home consumption, bandwidth-wise. Maybe it was just an issue on my immediate (residential) bit of the 'net. All those people spending Saturday and Sunday downloading ripped CDs. tssk. It shouldn't be allowed.
Anyway, now there are only "2 days remaining", apparently. I really should find something more constructive to do to pass the time.
Praxis - Part I
I'm hoping that it's going to work like this:
Firstly, I'll get the Mac OS running on a standard PC. I've got access to a couple of recent-ish (18 month or younger) laptops which should take OS X, even if not every device or peripheral works correctly. This should allow me to get the hang of cajoling the system to run on foreign hardware.
Next comes the part where I load OS X onto a Tablet PC. Now, the most import bit of kit which will need to be supported at this stage is the digitiser. From what I've been able to discover, most of the Tablet PCs available at the moment simply have a Wacom-compatible screen connecting into the system just like any other peripheral. Fingers crossed that all it will take are the appropriate drivers and away we go. Success.
In case it doesn't quite work like this, I can take heart in the fact that there are already various Linux distributions for Tablet PCs out there. I've no idea exactly how good their hardware support is, but I'm willing to bet that they have working digitiser drivers I cansteal study steal and then jury-rig into OS X. (I mean, they must have working digitiser drivers, right? They wouldn't be Tablet PC distributions otherwise, would they? Unless they're just standard distributions without keyboard drivers which display pithy "So what are you going to do now, eh?" messages upon booting.)
Anyway, sounds easy, doesn't it? There are a few complications, of course. Like the fact that I don't actually own - or otherwise have access to - a Tablet PC. Still, where other people may see a gaping great problem, I see the opportunity for loads of blog entries where I prevaricate over which Tablet to buy.
Stay tuned.
Firstly, I'll get the Mac OS running on a standard PC. I've got access to a couple of recent-ish (18 month or younger) laptops which should take OS X, even if not every device or peripheral works correctly. This should allow me to get the hang of cajoling the system to run on foreign hardware.
Next comes the part where I load OS X onto a Tablet PC. Now, the most import bit of kit which will need to be supported at this stage is the digitiser. From what I've been able to discover, most of the Tablet PCs available at the moment simply have a Wacom-compatible screen connecting into the system just like any other peripheral. Fingers crossed that all it will take are the appropriate drivers and away we go. Success.
In case it doesn't quite work like this, I can take heart in the fact that there are already various Linux distributions for Tablet PCs out there. I've no idea exactly how good their hardware support is, but I'm willing to bet that they have working digitiser drivers I can
Anyway, sounds easy, doesn't it? There are a few complications, of course. Like the fact that I don't actually own - or otherwise have access to - a Tablet PC. Still, where other people may see a gaping great problem, I see the opportunity for loads of blog entries where I prevaricate over which Tablet to buy.
Stay tuned.
Sunday 10 December 2006
Reality Distortion Field
The other day the ever-reliable John Gruber at Daring Fireball published this in response to the news that MicroSoft would be paying Universal a fee for every Zune they sell. And he ignored the obvious cheap shot that this would probably only total about $30 plus change. The guy is pure class.
However, knowing what I do about Steve Jobs (that is, nothing more than lazy rumours, fanboy mythologising, a couple of half-understood in-jokes culled from reading Fake Steve, and a sneaking suspicion that anyone who would shaft Woz would also happily dispatch kittens using a claw hammer), something just didn't ring true about it. So, in the spirit of "embrace and extend"...
(We pick up half way through John's post, where MORRIS has just named his price of two dollars per iPod.)
JOBS: Two bucks? Wow. I was thinking more along the lines of fifty cents. One dollar tops.
MORRIS: (Slowly shakes his head.) Sorry, Steve. Given the iPod's position it's gonna have to be two dollars.
JOBS: Well, if you insist...
MORRIS: We insist.
JOBS: In that case - gee - I don't know what to say. Thanks, I guess.
MORRIS: So if we have a deal... (He starts to extend his hand.)
JOBS: But what about the - you know - retrospectives.
MORRIS: (Hand pausing in mid extend.) The... ?
JOBS: Retrospectives. Royalties. I mean, there's already like seventy million iPods out there. Shouldn't we include them.
MORRIS: Sure. I don't see why not. (Smiles.) If you insist.
JOBS: I insist. Let's see. That's seventy million iPods at two bucks a time, makes...
MORRIS: One hundred and forty million bucks.
JOBS: Yeah. Wow.
MORRIS: (Again offering his hand.) So, do we have a deal?
JOBS: Sure thing. (They shake hands.) I mean, it's not like we need the money but, still, it'll sure come in handy. I mean what with the iPhone launch and the iTV and Leopard and all. Every extra million helps.
MORRIS: (First tiny fingers of doubt beginning to massage his brow.) Uh, yeah. Sure.
JOBS: But, hey, I don't want you guys worrying about it. Easy payment terms. We're not going to get heavy with you or anything. Anytime in the next six months will be just fine with us. My people'll fax your people our bank details.
MORRIS: You'll ... we'll ... bank details?
JOBS: It's sure been great doing business with you. And to think Bono said you were a real asshole. See you around.
(Some time later, in the car home.)
MORRIS: Will somebody please tell me what the fuck just happened.
Now that's the Cupertino way.
However, knowing what I do about Steve Jobs (that is, nothing more than lazy rumours, fanboy mythologising, a couple of half-understood in-jokes culled from reading Fake Steve, and a sneaking suspicion that anyone who would shaft Woz would also happily dispatch kittens using a claw hammer), something just didn't ring true about it. So, in the spirit of "embrace and extend"...
(We pick up half way through John's post, where MORRIS has just named his price of two dollars per iPod.)
JOBS: Two bucks? Wow. I was thinking more along the lines of fifty cents. One dollar tops.
MORRIS: (Slowly shakes his head.) Sorry, Steve. Given the iPod's position it's gonna have to be two dollars.
JOBS: Well, if you insist...
MORRIS: We insist.
JOBS: In that case - gee - I don't know what to say. Thanks, I guess.
MORRIS: So if we have a deal... (He starts to extend his hand.)
JOBS: But what about the - you know - retrospectives.
MORRIS: (Hand pausing in mid extend.) The... ?
JOBS: Retrospectives. Royalties. I mean, there's already like seventy million iPods out there. Shouldn't we include them.
MORRIS: Sure. I don't see why not. (Smiles.) If you insist.
JOBS: I insist. Let's see. That's seventy million iPods at two bucks a time, makes...
MORRIS: One hundred and forty million bucks.
JOBS: Yeah. Wow.
MORRIS: (Again offering his hand.) So, do we have a deal?
JOBS: Sure thing. (They shake hands.) I mean, it's not like we need the money but, still, it'll sure come in handy. I mean what with the iPhone launch and the iTV and Leopard and all. Every extra million helps.
MORRIS: (First tiny fingers of doubt beginning to massage his brow.) Uh, yeah. Sure.
JOBS: But, hey, I don't want you guys worrying about it. Easy payment terms. We're not going to get heavy with you or anything. Anytime in the next six months will be just fine with us. My people'll fax your people our bank details.
MORRIS: You'll ... we'll ... bank details?
JOBS: It's sure been great doing business with you. And to think Bono said you were a real asshole. See you around.
(Some time later, in the car home.)
MORRIS: Will somebody please tell me what the fuck just happened.
Now that's the Cupertino way.
Saturday 9 December 2006
The Story So Far
Hello, and welcome to MacTab, the blog about Mac Tablets (do you see how clever that name is? It's all going to be quality like that from here on in). More precisely, this is the blog about my attempts at getting Mac OS X running on a Tablet PC.
"What?" you ask. "Why? How?" Okay, let me explain.
I have a sneaking suspicion that pen-based Mac OS computing may just be the greatest thing ever. Yes, it may even be insanely great. Only time will tell. I can back this up with a whole load of stunningly well reasoned arguments and air-tight logic, but that will have to wait for another post on another day. I'm not stalling, honest, I just need more time to assemble the links and references and stuff. Yes, really.
Anyway, I don't think I'm alone in my belief in pen-based Mac-ing. In fact, considering the extremes some people will go to attain computing nirvana, my attempts are likely to seem rather half-hearted. I don't intend to do anything nearly that drastic (or warranty voiding). This is mostly because I lack the putting-stuff-together skills necessary. (Although, oddly enough, I do currently have a disassembled iBook handy. Maybe I could make one of these. Hmm... No, probably not.)
So what is my plan, then? Well, actually, I currently have three:
Plan One: Wait for Apple to do it for me
All things considered, this would be the most sensible thing to do. After all, if anyone knows how to do a Mac right, it's Apple, and if the recent rumours are anything to go by, we won't have to wait too long either. Probably a lot less than the 1174 days Acquisition tells me it'll take to finish downloading umm... something... yeah. Never mind.
We've been here before with the Mac tablet rumours. They come around again about every six months or so. I think we're more likely to see the iPhone some time soon. Not that I'm not hopeful. In fact, I know it's going to happen. This blog's sole aim is to make it happen sooner rather than later. The way I see it panning out is like this: I spend a couple of months and some cash following Plan Three below, and the day it all comes together, the day I can take my first proper "hello" screen shot, Steve Jobs will "one more thing" the MacPad (or whatever they call it) into existence. Just like they launched the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros the day after I finally gave up waiting and bought a now-oh-so-antiquated first generation MBP.
Plan Two: Wait for Someone Else to do it for me
Like Plan One, this has the advantage that I don't actually have to do anything, leaving my time free for reading Crazy Apple Rumours and other important stuff. However, if this is anything to go by, I really shouldn't hold my breath. (No offence meant if this is your page, but really, it's looking a little empty in there. Tell you what, when I get something useful I'll add it.)
The OSx86 Project has a lot of useful information and links, with a really active community in their forum, but nothing tablet specific. I shall probably be making plenty of use of them as a fall back on...
Plan Three: Do it myself
I've been thinking about this for a while, on and off. Mostly off, but when it's on it's really on. Like I said, I really think that the pen-thing is the way to go, and I've lost count of the number of times I've sat down to try and Google a way of making it happen. But then something else comes up. You know how it is. And that is what this blog is mostly about. I thought, this time, if I make it more formal, I wouldn't be able to back out. So here goes nothing.
Feel free to offer a little encouragement.
(Alternatively, if you know this has already been done, let me know and then we can all go home early.)
"What?" you ask. "Why? How?" Okay, let me explain.
I have a sneaking suspicion that pen-based Mac OS computing may just be the greatest thing ever. Yes, it may even be insanely great. Only time will tell. I can back this up with a whole load of stunningly well reasoned arguments and air-tight logic, but that will have to wait for another post on another day. I'm not stalling, honest, I just need more time to assemble the links and references and stuff. Yes, really.
Anyway, I don't think I'm alone in my belief in pen-based Mac-ing. In fact, considering the extremes some people will go to attain computing nirvana, my attempts are likely to seem rather half-hearted. I don't intend to do anything nearly that drastic (or warranty voiding). This is mostly because I lack the putting-stuff-together skills necessary. (Although, oddly enough, I do currently have a disassembled iBook handy. Maybe I could make one of these. Hmm... No, probably not.)
So what is my plan, then? Well, actually, I currently have three:
Plan One: Wait for Apple to do it for me
All things considered, this would be the most sensible thing to do. After all, if anyone knows how to do a Mac right, it's Apple, and if the recent rumours are anything to go by, we won't have to wait too long either. Probably a lot less than the 1174 days Acquisition tells me it'll take to finish downloading umm... something... yeah. Never mind.
We've been here before with the Mac tablet rumours. They come around again about every six months or so. I think we're more likely to see the iPhone some time soon. Not that I'm not hopeful. In fact, I know it's going to happen. This blog's sole aim is to make it happen sooner rather than later. The way I see it panning out is like this: I spend a couple of months and some cash following Plan Three below, and the day it all comes together, the day I can take my first proper "hello" screen shot, Steve Jobs will "one more thing" the MacPad (or whatever they call it) into existence. Just like they launched the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros the day after I finally gave up waiting and bought a now-oh-so-antiquated first generation MBP.
Plan Two: Wait for Someone Else to do it for me
Like Plan One, this has the advantage that I don't actually have to do anything, leaving my time free for reading Crazy Apple Rumours and other important stuff. However, if this is anything to go by, I really shouldn't hold my breath. (No offence meant if this is your page, but really, it's looking a little empty in there. Tell you what, when I get something useful I'll add it.)
The OSx86 Project has a lot of useful information and links, with a really active community in their forum, but nothing tablet specific. I shall probably be making plenty of use of them as a fall back on...
Plan Three: Do it myself
I've been thinking about this for a while, on and off. Mostly off, but when it's on it's really on. Like I said, I really think that the pen-thing is the way to go, and I've lost count of the number of times I've sat down to try and Google a way of making it happen. But then something else comes up. You know how it is. And that is what this blog is mostly about. I thought, this time, if I make it more formal, I wouldn't be able to back out. So here goes nothing.
Feel free to offer a little encouragement.
(Alternatively, if you know this has already been done, let me know and then we can all go home early.)
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