June 2004 Archives

This is pretty cool. Rendezvous is a technology implemented by Apple in iChat. It basically allows for things like real-time chat (instant messaging) without having to connect to an actual server / service. It works over a LAN. Seems that Apple will be releasing this for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. That'll make intraoffice communications a little more interesting.

There is a plethora, a regular myriad, of articles out there about the preview of Apple's latest edition of Mac OS X, dubbed Tiger, coming out. Okay, I admit it; I just wanted to say plethora and myriad. Truth be told, excited as I am about Tiger I still find it lacking some features I want, and quite frankly it'll take some getting used to. So if you want to read more about Tiger, I suggest you look here. That article's got plenty.

In the mean time, I am going to turn my focus to Safari. It seems that in this new version of Mac OS X will be a new version of Safari, version 2.0. And in this version will be RSS support. Yeah, you heard me. RSS support. And I'll tell you something else, when Safari provides RSS support I can only think of two aggregators that will survive it: Shrook and NetNewsWire.

I use NetNewsWire Lite myself, and would love to try Shrook out because it's just pretty and looks great. I haven't tried it because I don't want to pay for it and I'm not sure how their version of shareware works. We all know that shareware is a broad term which can mean anything from "free but please register it" to "crippled version that will only work for five days and then you're done." I may give it a try later on today, just to see, but I don't want to get into that. I think Shrook's best shot at survival is going to be releasing a Lite version as well as their fully functional one.

I would move to agree with Brent, author of NetNewsWire, when he said, "It also may mean that Apple will evangelize RSS to publications that haven’t yet adopted it. Which is great: it’s not something we have much time for, and when CNN hears from Apple it carries a bit more weight than when they hear from Ranchero Software." His blog can be found here. My apologies for not providing a permalink to this statement, but he does not appear to provide them himself. The article I speak of was posted at 3:18pm on June 28, 2004.

Of course, Brent also points out that, according to the demo, Safari's RSS reader will not be fully featured. And why should it? To be honest with you, I don't want it in Safari at all. Apple has been very good, thus far, at creating one application to do one thing. iCal for calendars, Mail.app for eMail, AddressBook for vCards. Forget about stuff like Outlook or Entourage. But now they're combining in Safari. I worry about what this signifies. I'd rather see Apple release a separate application. I think that's my final opinion on it, what it all boils down to. I love that Apple is putting their support behind Aggregators, and am thrilled that it may put pressure on folks like CNN to start syndicating, but I worry about the direction it takes Apple software as a whole. I also know that CNN will try to shove ads into their RSS feed if they create one; that's the reason they don't have one as it is -- so that they can serve us with ads when we go through the page.

It seems like so long ago, the end of Desert Storm. Leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of many, and likewise the flavor of pumpkin pie in others, the United States ended Operation: Desert Storm years ago. It dropped off the face of the news, and it was over.

Then George W. decided we needed to go back. He dragged our troops in, searched the place, attacked the place, and then it was over again. Remember that day on the big flat boat where he came out all dressed up and announced Mission Accomplished? Well here we are, over a year later. Two days ahead of schedule the United states has dropped sovereignty in the lap of Iraq. (article) But the question in many peoples' mind is whether or not they're ready for it. With the world of problems they still experience, and the world of problems we still experience while trying to keep the peace, one has got to wonder if we're pulling out early because it's gotten to be too much for us.

The other interesting thing is that, much to the dismay or quite a few people in quite a few countries, Nato will be training a force of Iraqi fighting men. Presumably to operate in a peace keeping role as well as protecting the country from terrorists and would-be usurpers. (article) Keep a close eye. I don't believe this to be done. Not by a long shot.

Okay, maybe not the whole station. But these guys apparently left some potatoes cooking in their oven when they went out on a call, and they caught fire. Check out this (very short) article.

In this press release, Egenera, a small blade server vendor in the Boston area announced filing for an IPO today. Why is this so important? First of all, they're a great company with a great line and a great customer history. Second, and perhaps most important, is that my good friend Skadz works for them. Check it out, folks. Even The Register picked it up in this article.

Again with the not posting! I really need to do something about this, start reading blogs and the news again. But I've been super busy with work and, let's face it, a little disgruntled in the work place. Between that and hardware issues, and my newly reborn addiction to Diablo II, I'm never even thinking about writing anymore. Strange, no?

Anyway, I think I'll make this my official effort to begin posting again. But in the mean time, just to keep some content here, I'm going to try to make sure a full month of posts always shows.

Since I've no real topic for this post, I'll instead post about my personal life. This is a rare thing on this site; I don't like airing my laundry about for all to see, be it clean or dirty.

This weekend is the Big Game over at the paint ball field I enjoy attending. It should be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I can't exactly afford to play. But I'm friends with the owner and the refs, so in a strong effort to prove said friendship as well as to escape the prison of my own home a little bit I'll be heading down to see if I can't help out somehow.

Outside of that, I'll most likely be at home. Playing Diablo II or reading. I'd like to try to find myself out at some coffee shops in the area reading a bit as well this weekend. A minor and passive effort to meet some new people who fit a little more with my positions, opinions, and allergies than most of the other folks I meet.

And that's about enough for now.

Mozilla has released version 0.9 of their popular Firefox browser. This browser seems to have made a good many upgrades and changes. One of them in the Mac platform is that data is no longer stored in ~/Library/Phoenix/. You can now find it in ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/. This is important to note for all those who backup their bookmarks file and the like.

This is definitely a sad loss. Ray Charles has passed away. His legacy will forever live on.

I'm late on this one. This just makes me sad.