TPN::MacHelp from Maui

The AppleTV is one slick toy - the purpose of which evades me.

Scott — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:15:20 +0000

Tuesday the president of the Maui Apple Users Society (MAUS) asked me to stand in for him at this weeks meeting. The subject of this meeting was to be the new AppleTV, so my part was to take his new one home, figure out how it worked, then present it to the understandably impressed inmates.

MAUS is a pretty mellow group, our membership drive consists of occasionally asking people to join. The meeting attendance varies from a few geeks to a full house depending on the surf conditions and the weather.

The first thing I realised is that nothing I own will plug into an iTV, I mean AppleTV. My stereo will, but that runs off a spare PowerBook or an Airport Express. My ten-year-old analog television on gets turned on by my wife, and only then for Oprah, the Travel Channel, House and the Daily Show. We get the rest of our news and entertainment from the web and these things called books - you’ve heard of them?

I may write more detailed accounts of the AppleTV and there will be a Podcast about it as soon as I can get Carmen back into her chair. - i promise. Until then, I’ll just say that wile I personally can’t imagine buying one - I’m saving up for a $100 book called “Recording the Beatles” - it does everything it says better than you could imagine.

Because I couldn’t set it up at home, I had to go from ignorance to demo in a half-hour as the room filled. The TV in or borrowed our Lab at Maui Community College had all the right parts, and I had uncharacteristically read a few pages in the teensy users manual.

The set-up is about as hard as configuring an iPod and the on-screen menus are brilliant, beautiful and practical. We got three different Macs hooked up with no trouble and the performance was as good as the content.

In short the AppleTV is an iTunes server which makes whatever you can put into that program available on your big screen either over a wireless or an ethernet connection. If you’re into Final Cut Pro, iMovie or torturing your friends with slideshows you’ll be able to justify this as either a terrific way to demo, proof your work or make people leave the room.

If you regularly download iTunes videos and want to see who else may be living in your house and your content is safe for family viewing - you could be a potential user.

If you’re into serious hi-fi and have a drive full of lossless files the optical output circuits Apple uses are said to make this one of the best sounding wireless systems on the market. The Airport express is a less expensive option, but it isn’t as much fun to play with.

Finally, if you loose the remote, you are screwed because that’s the only way to control the device - so but a spare on day one, “pair” it and hide it in a drawer against the inevitable day you lose one.

Bottom line - if you have one of those new wide-screen Tv thingies eating a hole in your brain, you can find some content worth watching and have lots of stuff in iTunes you’ll no doubt want a AppleTV - the $299 price is fair enough and it’s fun to play with.

Rebirthing a Pismo

Scott — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:31:24 +0000

I’ve just successfully performed a brain transplant on my five-year old Pismo PowerBook - moving it’s hard-drive and a few other bits into the chassis that previously housed one gone to meet it’s Philippino maker.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve keep my eyes open and carefully collected a stack of PIsmo parts and two mordant chassis. So, when the screen on my beloved old work-horse could no longer sustain an erection I was somewhat prepared pull these parts together and create my very own Macinstein. Handicap - I didn’t use any manuals!. I’ve been inside of enough iMacs and Pismos over the years to be sorta familiar with what goes where, and while I’d never done a complete part-swap on this level most Apple’s are self-instructive - is you just look you can see how things work. At least these old ones were like that.

You should have seen my bench - parts were strewn from one end to the other. Little “x” marks and discrete piles separated the trash from the treasures as I carefully laid the parts out in anatomical order. Keeping track of everything required a suprising amount of discipline, or at least compulsive attention. Thank you again for your assistance Mr. Ritalin.

Rule #1, never put in the last screw without testing. My first attempt resulted in complete and utter silence on boot and the beginnings of a dangerous frustration. I swapped more parts but after a few hours unplugged everything and went to sleep on it, waking at 5am the next day determined to either get the damn thing working or turn the entire project into jewelry and wall sculpture.

The gods of old Macs smiled though, and after a few chasing a few screws across the room and digging the crud out of a few parts, I now have a 5+ year old mac with two batteries, a great screen and almost all of its pieces happily running OS X 10.4.9. And I never once had to resort to Super Glue or “make a part work.” The old antique may yet have more life in it. Try THAT with a 5-year old PC laptop!

What’s sad though is that the days of a geek user swapping out parts to keep a favorite laptop on the road are coming to an end. No one in their right mind would ever think of cracking a MacBook just for fun. Like shade-tree mechanics, kitchen-table hardware hackers are an endangered species because it’s just to damn hard to break the new devices down and get them back together without a NASA facility and support staff. The only special tool I needed was a teentsy Torx screwdriver - which was easily found online, and more patience than I usually exhibit.

So here’s to Apple’s great design and the deviant Celtic determination to keep a good tool on your belt for no other reason than because you can.

MacHelp Podcast #91 Rumor Milling

Scott — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:36:21 +0000

Should you get a new Mac now or wait until the heat death of the universe?

Why are some many people waiting for Leopard? So what if you don’t have the newest Mac on the block. So what if your friends all think you’re a raw newbie? We attempt to peer past the noise of the rumor mill to see what’s in Apple’s near future so that the stress won’t overcome you.

Then, after a few dozen chocolate chip cookies, Pekelo plays the Hoki Poki Hula all around Hana town before we go out with a whimper.

Apple architecture leaked and Scribd!

Scott — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:21:26 +0000

Description: Internal Apple information on the iPhone OSX architecture.

Apple’s iPhone architecture exposed! For those of you who are into such things, here’s a little geek porn - the first known diagram of how the hardware and software of the iPhone work. You can see how they assigned priorities and dependencies to the code and chip bits that underlay the devices features. There’s even a game stack and “touch services” which may be illegal in some states.

And the phone stuff appears to be in the category of “Radio.” Remember radio? Now the word for an entire industry has collapsed into an embedded feature in a thing you will keep in your pocket.

It’s also interesting that the device runs on an updated version of the Newton’s chip, making it even more realistic to call the iPhone Newton II.

Then there is this “Scribd” service where the leaked Apple document is displayed. I like the interface and the concept. Scribd deserves a closer look.

AppleTV Hack and Tamed

Scott — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:07:52 +0000

I haven’t been paying much attention to the Apple TV.

Don’t get me wrong - it appears to be a cool product - but I just don’t ever watch television, so the whole idea goes right over my head which is usually pointed at a computer display or buried in a book.

But something very interesting has happened to this device in the few short weeks since it began shipping - geeks have hacked it. There are a pile of DIGG links to stories of folks who have been running LINUX on it, or have downloaded the “OSxLite” operating system.

Here’s an example:

“Far from being a hack, but useful nonetheless, is confirmation that Apple TV does indeed work with non-HDTVs. All you need is a TV with component inputs.”

This means there is a very real possibility of the AppleTV becoming a $300 computer, or at the very least a very powerful media center PC with greater capabilities than the the original product. Someone even replaced the paltry 40gig drive with a 120gig monster. And there is still a USB 2.0 socket where yet another drive can be hung.

My question is whether anyone has tried to plug in a keyboard and mouse. That would nail down the last plank.

LINKS:

Boot Apple TV from an External USB Drive [Get USB Info]
Get Apple TV to Run XviD Files [Gizmodo]
Up Apple TV’s Hard Drive [Gizmodo]
Make FrontRow Look Like Apple TV [Winnopeg]
Get Apple TV to Work on Your Old Boob Tube [Apple TV Hacks]

MacHelp from Maui #90 The 10.4.9 Update - Viruses & Jawaiian Reggae

Scott — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:47:07 +0000

Viruses & what’s in the Mac OS X.4.9 Update.
Sahra Indio plays Sweet Reggae Music From Hawaii

Force Quit Front App.

Scott — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:40:35 +0000

From MacOS Hints
(I didn’t know this one!)

Here’s another way to Force Quit an application:

Click the Apple Menu
Hold Shift, and notice that the ‘Force Quit…’ menu item has changed to ‘Force Quit [frontmost app name].’
Select ‘Force Quit [frontmost app name]’ to force quit the Application.

This method allows you to Force Quit (Relaunch) the Finder without
opening the Force Quit application window or using the Finder’s Dock
menu.

Rumors of Better Macs

Scott — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 23:11:38 +0000

Heard about the web: From I, Cringely

The Great Apple Video Encoder Attack of 2007:
Cupertino plans to add H.264 hardware support to its entire line.

Now comes the rumor I have heard, that I believe to be a fact, that has simply yet to be confirmed. I have heard that Apple plans to add hardware video decoding to ALL of its new computers beginning fairly soon, certainly this year…

…This will change everything. Soon even the lowliest Mac will be able
to effortlessly record in background one or more video signals while
the user runs TurboTax on the screen. Macs will become superb DVR
machines with TiVo-like functionality yet smaller file sizes than any
TiVo box could ever produce. In a YouTube world, the new Macs will be a
boon to user-produced video, which will, in turn, promote the H.264
standard. By being able to encode in real time, the new Macs will have
that American Idol clip up and running faster than could be done on
almost any other machine. Add in Slingbox-like capability to throw your
home cable signal around the world and it gets even better. Add faster
video performance to the already best-of-league iChat audio/video chat
client, and every new Mac becomes a webcam or a video phone.

Much more at: THIS LINK

Changing the iPhoto External Editor

Scott — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:30:07 +0000

On Mar 8, 2007, at 12:22 AM, (lady in distress) wrote:

I am taking a Photoshop Elements class and bought the software
for Elements 4.0. Now when I open iphoto, and right click to open in
external editor, I want it to open in 4.0 but it still opens in 2.o.
Shouldn’t it have automatically transfered whatever was in 2.0 over to
4.o? What to do?

Automatically? hahaha! You kid me. Actually that WOULD happen if you deleted the old version, (which you should do anyway) then carefully put the new one in the same place with the same folder and application name. Then iPhoto wouldn’t even notice the difference

Instead, go into the iPhoto Preferences, and where it says: “Double Click Photo” set “Opens photo with” to the new external application. Best of both worlds.

Leaving it this way will actually be a hassle because you won’t be able to use iPhoto’s wonderful editing features.

So now close Preferences but then immediately reopen it and change it to “Edit View. Now you can select the new program by right-clicking or control-clicking on the picture and then selecting “Edit in external editor” but iPhoto’s editor will still come up when you simply double-click on a photo.

I know this seems arcane, but some of iPhoto’s effects and tools are better and easier to use then Photoshop, so you don’t want to miss out on them.

MacHelp from Maui #88 Iliili!

Scott — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 07:32:27 +0000

A little history - with no time left for the music of which we speak.
Our guest/victim this time is David Kapralik, a dear friend and inspiration who takes us back in time, then forward into our future.

FYI: LaCie updates firmware

Scott — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:12:24 +0000

Since I’m always recommending LaCie drives for backups and production storage here’s an announcement of the software for your drive.

LaCie Update Tool v1.3.3 is now Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) compatible and adds the latest firmware support for d2 and Design by F.A. Porsche drives with FireWire 400 and 800 and/or USB 2.0 interface.

IMPORTANT: Updating drive firmware is a critical task that should be done with attention to the included instructions. While LaCie has taken precautions to prevent data loss, be sure to have a backup copy of any important files or data before attempting to update firmware. Normally, firmware updating will not alter any data on the drive. If there are other unanticipated issues with your more…system, data loss is possible during the update process. Please proceed with caution. Be sure that your operating system is running correctly.

WHAT’S NEW Version 1.4.1: Adds the latest firmware support for d2 and Design by F.A. Porsche drives with FireWire 400 and 800 and/or USB 2.0 interface.

Read all the scary stuff in the info and be sure to back up your important files to a CD or DVD just in case. I’ve seen very few problems with LaCie drives so this would be a least a good reason to back-up your back-ups.

LINKY

MacHelp from Maui #87 Podcasting HowTo

Scott — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:05:34 +0000

Podcasting from end to end
Care and feeding of RRS Feeds
How to explain it to your friends
Flowers and Birds
Pekelo live on the old radio

Cool iTunes Hacks

Scott — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:38:52 +0000

From LifeHacker’s Adam Pash

If you use iTunes on the Mac, you should know about Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes, a repository of scripts that add tons of useful functionality to Apple’s music player…

Take for instance #10 here:

10. Import iPod Audio Files: This handy little gem lets you grab audio tracks (AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, AIF WAV, and Audible) from a plugged in iPod and automatically adds the tracks to iTunes.

Mac program destroys your computer if you try to steal it!

Scott — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 23:55:49 +0000

Here’s what’s boncing about the web right now!

Mac Display Eater kills home files

PR disaster waiting to happen

A MAKER of Mac software has uncovered a “scary” anti-piracy measure in a bit of code called Display Eater.

Display Eater records motion video on your screen which you can then convert to a Quicktime movie.

However writing in his bog here, Karsten Kusche, who works for another Apple software maker Briksoftware, says that if you try to use a pirated serial number with Display Eater, the software will delete your home file, which in Mac land is the same as killing your computer.

Kusche said that while it is not right to pirate software it is a bit drastic to kill a mac user’s home file.

He said that the would be pirates might even buy a licence one day if they like the software or at least talk kindly about it. However if it is the same software that killed their computer they are less likely to say nice things about it. We would have thought they would have sued. µ

LINK

The facts:

The developer did this as a “Scare Tactic” to prevent people from stealing his app, but it backfired on him. Either way, it was a very bad idea and he will pay for it.

Public Letter:
I hope the public will read this entire letter.
There has been alot of confusion regarding the copy protection of the program called Display Eater.

It is described here in:

There exists two illegal cd-keys that can be used to register the program without paying for it. When Display Eater detects these keys, it would delete your home directory.

However, this is not the case in reality. The whole purpose was to create a scare campaign. You can download, the file linked from the main page, which is now down(the link is still intact here), and check it for yourself. It has been this way since 2/7/07.

It was my hope that by creating a scare campaign, I could stop wasting time writing copy protection routines to be broken over and over. But, I was wrong, it backfired.
People started buying multiple keys, which I never intended, and in the beginning when the protection was in place, people who did not even know they had committed piracy or what piracy was were left in the dark. Legitimate users started fearing the program, which I never imagined.

A reporter called me today, and suggested that I make it free, and then have users pay for support. Or open source the program. I will consider all of these. -Reza

LINK

MacHelp Podcast #86

Scott — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:28:25 +0000

You got questions? Be careful, Scott might answer them.

Here are the secrets of input levels and all the different ways to get sound into your Mac. There will be a test.

To lighten things up, Pekelo sings a song about Hawaiian sovereignty called “Cry from a Nation.”

The Return of the Steve and the Diesel

Scott — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 07:35:06 +0000

• Stories about the day that Apple saved its “okole” by buying NeXT computer and got Steve for $1.00 a year.
• Tips to make your searching more specific.
• Diesel returns with a Gordon Lightfoot song.

Megapixels are bullshit

Scott — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:25:05 +0000

At nearly every party, inquisition or casual chat, after the “which Mac should I get” question, I’m often asked “which digital camera should I buy?”

My answer is simple: Get one made by a real camera company that has a good lens and uses normal batteries. The victim then responds with a string of Japanese company names and numbers which includes the word “megapixels” and something a friend said.

To which I reply, as my wife cringes and heads back to the punch bowl: “Magapixels are bullshit.”

If you’re not a professional photographer shooting REALLY big pictures, there are more important things to be concerned with than the number of dots on your thingy. Learn to take good pictures with a cheaper, easier to use camera and you will get better photos. Being able to replace the battery in Peru is more important than the quantity of bits in your box. Falling for more is more better will just cost you more - for something that’s usually not any better.

So now, famous David famous Pogue of the NYT puts his quarter on the rail - once again demonstrating how some of the people are fooled all of the time.

Breaking the Myth of Megapixels
By DAVID POGUE

For an industry that’s built on science, the technology world sure has its share of myths. Thousands of people believe that forwarding a certain e-mail message to 50 friends will bring great riches, that the gigahertz rating of a computer is a good comparative speed score, or that Bill Gates once said “640K of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.”

But one myth is so deeply ingrained, millions of people waste money on it every year. I’m referring, of course, to the Megapixel Myth.

It goes like this: “The more megapixels a camera has, the better the pictures.”

It’s a big fat lie. The camera companies and camera stores all know it, but they continue to exploit our misunderstanding. Advertisements declare a camera’s megapixel rating as though it’s a letter grade, implying that a 7-megapixel model is necessarily better than a 5-megapixel model.

Oh, there’s more: LINK

Kodak Ink Lasts for 100 years! - So Far!

Scott — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:19:47 +0000

Kodak may have just done something smart for the first time in years.

From Gizmodo: LINK

Kodak Invents Photo Ink That’ll Last 100 years.
…Kodak drops news we hinted at yesterday: Multifunction printers pumping a revolutionary ink through their nozzles that’ll create prints with an archival life of 100 years, versus standard inkjet photos that go the way of toilet paper after 15. And the ink costs half the price. Half?! We should buy Kodak’s new printers simply because they’re not trying to fuck us on the cartridge sales.In fact, all of your 4×6-inch prints will be a lot cheaper with the new inks averaging 10 cents per print. Meanwhile, letter-size black and whites will run about 3 cents per print. The inks themselves will be priced at $9.99 for a cartridge of black ink and $14.99 for a five-color cartridge. Kodak claims this is 50% cheaper than what you’d spend on say an HP, Epson, or Canon ink refill. So we checked out their prices and in all instances, the Kodak ink saves you a pretty decent amount of cash. Whether the quality is as good—that we’ll have to see for ourselves, but analysts have said good things so far.

Oh, these printers are fast as hell, too. They’ll shoot out your photos at the rate of 22 pages per minute.

Kodak 5100 and 5300. Just as amazing as the ink are the prices $199 and $149 for all in one printers!

Now please don’t let them screw it up by not making these compatible with Macs, employing a paranoid security system like Lexmark or designing them to fall apart after three months like [deleted].

MacHelp #82 OZ!

Scott — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:53:10 +0000

The First MacHelp Trans-Pacific Interview

We interview Mick Liubinskas, Chief Customer Officer of Tangler in Sydney, about his new MacintoshBook. (…”just graphics…?)
Keola picks on Bill@Redmond
At Last! Raiatea Helm sings again - but there’s a question…

MacHelp from Maui #81 iPhone!

Scott — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:05:11 +0000

Paper iPhones & Pekelo
Post-MacWorld iPhone lust.
Trying to explain the AppleTV.
More music from Pekelo’s “Hana by the Sea” CD
Geoff Muldaur on Maui
Some Artsy artist talk
Carmen wins the candy bar!

Great Blog on Kissing Up to Google

Scott — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:48:16 +0000

Here’s a nice, concise article about how to make your blog or website show up in the various search engines.

When talking with new website clients, I can always tell that it’s going to go bad if their first two requirements are 1. Flash and 2. Google ranking.

This is because the actual goal of a website is to SELL or TELL. The ultimate and actual target is a warm-blooded carbon unit at a keyboard down the end of a long virtual wire - not Google. Basing the presentation of a website on invasive technologies such as Flash animation or playing music is so off base as to be psychotic.

Once that is handled though, getting ranked in Google is important. You should always consider your media, just don’t put it before your market. So here’s a short and sweet article on doing that.

Search Engine Optimization

First, you got to create good content. Second, you ought to make your content accessible. And third, you should tell others about your content.

You want to rank well in Google, but you need to ask yourself: why should you rank well?

It’s more obvious why you want to rank well; you want more visitors, you want to spread the word on something that is important to you, you want to change the world, or maybe you just want to sell something, facing strong online competition. But why shouldwebmaster – but search engines first and foremost cater to the searcher. So you better make sure you deserve to be ranking well in Google for whatever it is you deliver to the searcher.

You’ve eaten the nest, now read the rest: LINK

MacHelp from Maui #80

Scott — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:37:17 +0000

We’re back with rumors and hopes about MacWorld and a few new year tips.

Wonderful music from Raiatea Helm’s CD Sweet & Lovely

Back up for the New Year

Scott — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 18:24:31 +0000

Did you ever think you would make it to the year 2007? Like most
kids, the twenty-first century always seemed impossibly far in the
future. But in spite of our best efforts we all now live in that future.

Unfortunately, the future doesn’t look like anything the photo
essays in old science magazines - those wonderful pictures and articles
never accommodated the retro-reality of the future. It didn’t dawn on
their authors that all of our old crap would still be hanging around in
the future, piled beneath the jet packs and wrist watch televisions.

Q: Why do we still make houses out of trees? Why do we need two
tons of steel to drive around town? Why do we need twenty-inch screens
to watch three-inch content? Where’s my jetpack? The future has turned
out to be messier and less groovy than I had had been lead to expect.

This is because human beans are trash-monkeys. We obsessively
archive old stuff and older ideas. If dead people didn’t smell bad we’d
probably keep them around too, Aunt Bob would be lovingly left in a
large baggie to be hauled out on holidays or to scare the kids. No one
really cares about your wedding photos, especially if you are no longer
wed to the same spouse. So why are they still under the bed?

Being a military brat though, I’ve developed a very realistic
pack-rat impulse. When the moving gnomes have repeatedly lost your
stuff you eventually realise that most of what you own is just crap you
would be better off without. Whole decades of my life are now
comfortably undocumented. Except for one footlocker hidden in the shed,
one photo album, and some school records, my childhood is a blank
slate. That’s is freedom.

That’s Real Life. Now in my digital world, I try to be insanely
compulsive - backing up everything that stands still and making copies
of the rest.

This first week of 2007 will be dedicated to backing up
everything I should on all my drives. I have a stack of Verbatim CDs
and enough DVDs to hold all my iPhotos.

You would all be well advised to do the same. At the very least
back up your home folder minus the music and pictures folder, then use
the built in back up features in iPhoto to save your pictures then burn
data CDs of all your irreplaceable music.

Years, from now you can either thank me or just throw all the disks away. Or maybe do both.

That’s freedom

Free Software for Starving Students

Scott — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:09:37 +0000

Software for Starving Students is a free collection of programs organized for students (but available to anyone).

They’ve gathered a list of best-in-class programs onto one CD (one for OS X, one for Windows), including a
fully-featured office suite, a cutting-edge web browser, multi-media packages, academic tools, utilities and more.

LINK

MacHelp from Maui #78

Scott — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 04:46:06 +0000

Mele Kalikimaka Ya’ll

Mac gift ideas and hints from Scott and Carmen.

Bad Apple Tech Support

Pekelo plays this time about Kahoolawe

Tea by Tetley’s with Peanut Butter Cups

MacHelp from Maui Podcast #77 Pekelo Sings

Scott — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:40:37 +0000

More Apple Mail tricks and a few gift tips for the Mac lovers on your list

For the first time ever we say rude stuff about Microsoft

Support the Makahiki Hou world wide 24-hour cease fire on January First

Keola takes a parting shot

Pekelo plays about going to Hana Maui

Tea by Tetley’s with Hana Donna’s Cookies.

MacHelp from Maui #76

Scott — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:04:23 +0000

While the mothership is keeping quiet, we’ve added another local Maui artist, Diane Epstein - Silk Painter to our roster.
Carmen gets into painting silk, like watercolor isn’t hard enough!

Rumors and rumors of tablets

Music by Diesel: “Fever”

Tea by Tetley’s with shortbread.

How to Hack a Traffic Jam

Scott — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 17:30:12 +0000

This is neat! It’s a technique I’ve been using for years.

Maintain a large space ahead of your car.

Encourage one, two even three cars to merge ahead of you.

If traffic slows to a complete stop, KEEP TWO CAR-LENGTHS OF SPACE OPEN AHEAD OF YOU.

Never “punish” merging drivers by closing your gap.

Granted, traffic jams on Maui are a walk on the beach compared to those on the mainland, but we do suffer from a serious lack of alternative routes and way too many rental cars driven by people who should have stayed home and worked on their social skills.

The sight of a car full of Japanese tourists snapping pictures while driving on the wrong side of the road can ruin your day. A rustadorned pickup truck full of dogs and the carcass of a wild boar leaking blood all over while the driver slams Old Milwaukee is a good incentive to stay home and play with your guns.

Gaining any control over the traffic monster is a liberating experience. Years back I read about research on the cause of traffic jams. The results showed that driving on the bumper of the car ahead or passing cars that were only slightly slow caused “standing waves” - little clots of cars that built up into slowly moving parking lots. The solution was simple; “Hang loose brah!”

So I’ve made a habit of pulling back when cars ahead began to clump, maintaining about three or four car-lengths in front. After a while, traffic all around lightens up and starts to flow smoother.

This takes some practice and self-control, but it’s a fun thing to do and a great demonstration of the power an individual has when acting from intelligence rather than habit.

Read this, slow down, and get there sooner: LINK

Megapixels are generally bullshit

Scott — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:16:41 +0000

(sigh) How many times do I have to say this; Megapixels are magic numbers with only a glancing relevance to the quality of a digital photograph

A great lens on a good camera used by a good or lucky photographer are the cause of good photographs.

Too often, I’ve kept my mouth shut and nodded numbly when a friend waves their new 37.547 gigapizza camera at me. Yeah, the pictures look great, but that’s probably not because of the magic numbers.

I would rather have an old 3 megapixel camera with a great glass lens and a huge old CCD than one of those weenie new cameras with the teeny little lenses. Sorry.

Now, famous David famous Pogue announces the same thing based on getting people to look at the pictures instead of the numbers.

The Truth About Digital Cameras

…This post is going to get a lot of people riled up, I know, because in THEORY, you should be able to see a difference. But you can’t.

And I’m hoping this little test can save you some bucks the next time you’re shopping for a camera.

LINK

MacHelp from Maui #75 Tips & Sites

Scott — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 16:46:33 +0000

We mine the Apple rumor sites and reveal some more Apple Mail tips.

Keola pops in with a Hawaiian tech word I forgot.

There’s a site for free Mac software.

Guy Kawasaki Interviews Woz

There are some strange noises.

Tea by Tetley’s

No more Mr. Nice Guy until Cadbury’s puts out!

Music by Diesel: “Doing What the Lonely Do