Last thing you'll ever read…again
Posts tagged Apple
Quick Tech Post
Jun 8th
Firefox, I’m sorry, but you’re losing. You have nothing going for you anymore.
Chrome and Safari both have extension support now and a javascript engine that is far superior. I was actually quite amazed that the latest Safari 5 outperforms the latest dev build of Chrome. Very interesting indeed. Then we have IE9 which by the way things are going will be the most standard compliant browser once it reaches final. I’m not saying it’s full standard compliant now…far from it but the way the dev team is working (shown through their blog) I won’t be surprised if they come out on top in terms of standards.
Ironic.
In the mean time Mozilla is holding onto everything they have. Development cycles are way too slow and performance improvements are subpar compared to the competition.
As you may all know Apple just announced the iphone 4. Too bad it’ll be released in Australia one month after it’s release in the States. I think I can wait. Hopefully Optus provides some form of discount for existing iphone customers to cancel their contracts like they did last year.
The Apple fanboys are jizzing in their pants whilst the Apple haters are crying “It’s not magical! It’s not revolutionary”.
Well you know what? It’s not about inventing something that’s “new” it’s about taking what exists and making it work.
Windows 95 was “revolutionary” but Xerox had the concept like 20 years earlier. Touch screen isn’t new either, we had PDAs since the 90s. But the problem was that none of it was widely adopted! Technology was shoddy, it needed someone to step in, raise the bar and force the industry to innovate. People in the tech business are lazy, mainly because they’re run by old money who have this philosophy of “milking as much out of one technology as possible”. I mean really, before the iphone it was simply which phone had the “better” camera. What else did a phone have to offer? Now it’s a platform, so much more than just a “phone”.
It’s unbelievable, you’d think we’d be living in a world where video calls are common place. But I doubt many have ever made one. I’m not including webcams here. CISCO does a good job with it’s “Telepresence” system but it’s made for corporations and not feasible at all for the everyday user.
What else do I have to say?
I don’t care what you say about Jobs, his cock is tasty.
To OS X
Apr 30th
So I’ve finally made the switch to OS X completely. Now my main monitor is connected to my laptop whilst my 2nd monitor is connected to my PC.
PC is more or less a file “server”.
Here is a pic of my tri-display. Generally I get the “wow that’s so cool” response from girls. When it comes to guys though I get the “meh” response. Guys seem to turn everything into a competition regarding the size of their penis.
“Well I had a longer penis tri-display earlier!”
“Have you seen blah’s penis displays?”
“My penis size display setup could be as awesome as that…I just choose not to”
Guys, it’s okay, it’s not a competition.
Oh and 10 points for the first person to get the reference in the picture. There’s actually 3 references…but I’m thinking of one in particular. So if you want to guess, leave a comment 
I have my keyboard/mouse setup through synergy. So basically, my mouse keyboard is still connected to my PC but I can control my macbook seamlessly. Cool huh? (IT Guys: No not really, I’ve done that like a billion times before)
Then I had a problem. Whenever someone used the wireless, synergy would just lag hardcore. Bummer. Solution? Bridge the connection between my Mac and PC. I always wondered “Why the hell does my PC have two lan ports?!”. Today I was grateful I had two. Sharing my internet connection in Windows was extremely easy. A couple of clicks and *poof* internet on the mac. Now there’s no lag. Happy days!
I now need to work out how to get the keyboard shortcuts and extra mouse buttons working in OS X.
Command-tab should also need to be fixed, likewise for the behaviour of the “Home” and “End” keys. Driving me insane.
Did you find any of the above funny/interesting?
If you got this far without losing interest then I’m pretty impressed, so here’s some non-IT stuff.
I told a particular someone that if I were to fail honours, I would not regret it. Why? Well, I could still graduate with Computer Science and Technology (Advanced). “But then wouldn’t you have wasted a whole year?” they asked.
No. I’ve met more people this semester than I have for the past 2 years. No joke. It’s probably due to the fact that I actually a joined a society outside of IT. Through meeting people you learn a lot, things that you will never realise by yourself.
I also realised my perception of people changes really quickly. Within a couple of minutes I went from “This guy seems like a douchebag” to “This kid is actually pretty cool”. I’m not too good with first impressions but it’s a good thing, I like surprising myself when people turn out different to what I expected.
Anyway, I’m tired going to sleep.
I wish you would stop confusing me.
Tech blog – No subliminal messages
Mar 18th
So I’ve been using my Mac for around 1 week now and it has been a pretty amazing experience.
Having said that I still do not see myself moving to the mac full-time.
When I switched to Ubuntu from Xp/Vista, it was heavenly. Everything “worked” more or less. Took me 2 weeks to fix the wireless drivers and then there’s the random config files you need to mess here and there just to get something trivial working. But it worked fine! apt-get was a god-send. However, after using Ubuntu for a year I decided to try out Windows 7 beta. I more or less ditched Ubuntu straight away. It picked up all my drivers straight away. The superbar was and still is one of the best things that’s ever happened to windows. I’ve been using it since.
I’ve been mainly using my mac for development. I was also hoping to learn some objective-c and develop this idea that I’ve had for quite some time now. But I can see myself using the Mac full-time. Everything is just so clean, crisp and organised. Installing an app is as easy as drag and drop.
There are plenty of small annoyances that I would love fixed but overall I have been extremely happy with the mac experience. The apple tax is well worth it. Though I cannot hack the fact that the base Macbook pro in USA costs less than my base macbook. Unbelievable.
I’m even contemplating selling my macbook and getting the range of macbook pros when it comes out. I never considered myself a laptop fan but Apple has really changed my way of thinking.
Ubuntu has a long way to go. Windows will always be a dominant presence in the software market. OSX is slowly but surely catching up. With Valve’s plans of putting Steam on osx, Apple will enter the gaming market without having to lift a finger.
Random thought: I always liked the song “Dip it low” by Christina Milian, listened to it for the first time in years…and realised how dirty it was, but oh so arousing.
Comment!
Was originally going to be a tweet
Mar 9th
So this was originally going to be a tweet/fb update. But then I thought…”This is going to be so embarrassing”. And then I thought “Wait…why would it be embarrassing?”. After couple of seconds I was like “Yeah…I’m not going to tweet this…”. So I’m going to blog about it instead. Yay!
Here are my reasons for blogging
- Because only those who give a crap will read this
- It’s prob too long to fit in a tweet
Sorry for hyping this…but it’s really not that exciting.
Well…I just bought a Macbook.
I’ve been saving money for as long as I can remember. Initially my pocket money was $5 every fortnight. This started when I was in Year 3? So it basically took me a whole year to save up a measly $100. I remember for Christmas I went to buy my OWN present. I spent more than half of the money on a lego set. It was a pretty cool lego set. It’s similar to one of those laser space planes in Star Wars. The ones that go “pew pew”. Later I bought a yo-yo at Hungry Jacks for $2. (Don’t judge me, it was during the yo-yo craze and I was too cheap to buy those crazy $15 flashy yo-yos)
Anyway, so eventually it became $5/week to $10/week and by the end of Year 12 I was getting around $100/week but $50 went to Mr Gu…and the majority of the other $50 went to food. After that I got a job so that made saving even easier. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a miser that just dumps cash in a bank and get excited each time the numbers go up, I would spend it but usually on “small” luxuries (one quick look into my bookshelf and you will shake your head in disappointment) *cough*$100 Linkin Park Album*cough*.
So my point is, over the past couple of years I’ve saved up quite a bit. Generally around $200 a week, consistently for 2 years…you do the maths.
So tonight I was staring at the Apple site and then loaded up Netbank and I said “Fuck it”. I wasn’t saving up for anything in particular but it’s nice knowing that if I do want to buy a house or perhaps put in money for a home I could…not that I’m planning on doing either anytime soon.
So I spent $1.4k on a macbook and got a 8gb ipod touch so I can get the $268 rebate. I’ll probably sell the ipod touch pretty quickly, my guess is they’re probably trying to get rid of all the ipod products to make way for the new range this year.
It’s so easy spending money on other people. When it comes to presents I’ve spent up to $100 on more than one occasion. It’s not that I’m generous or have money to burn, I guess I take pleasure in getting someone something they enjoy rather than something crappy, though this usually only happens with close friends. However, with the rush of 21sts I tend to just chip in for a big gift.
So yes, that’s my story, I save a lot and I bought a Macbook.
Will probably blog about my Mac experience once it arrives.
Hey look, two blogs in one day, aren’t you guys lucky. Now comment below!!!
Piracy Today
Jul 21st
The reason why piracy is so rampant is the fact that it’s so damn easy. Back during the days of dial-up, it was hard. I remember having to download ripped games (games that don’t have any music or video to cut down download size) and using download managers to auto-connect when disconnected. I left my computer on overnight for a week just to download the latest version of Roxio Easy Media Creator (?). These days it’s a simple matter of going to your favourite BT tracker, doing a quick search and voila, minutes or hours later your download is complete.
You then have shady sites like PirateBay attempting to JUSTIFY their existence on the internet as being a fair and honourable website. It’s like having a company called “Organised Crime PTY LTD”.
Okay, so we’ve all walked down the path of piracy but these days pirating apps isn’t as “useful” as it was say 5 years ago. Before people would pirate an application because it’s necessary to do something but these days there’s open source alternatives that can do the same thing if not better. There are exceptions though like GIMP but even programs like Open Office are slowly catching up to the game. The only challenge now are stuff like games and media. I own perhaps 15% of the music in my arsenal which should be substantially more than the average person. I don’t know anybody that buys music online and I for one probably won’t start either until they’re dirt cheap.
I recently purchased my first iPhone app, I came across it browsing through the app store. It’s an application that tells you your usage details for your phone/internet. I did a bit more research, had a look at the free alternatives which were non-existent or just bad, had a look at the paid alternatives (crappy reviews) and decided on a whim to just buy it. It’s called iiQuota and now I can keep track of my phone usage without having to painfully log into optus. I bought another App yesterday called Tripview which helps you catch public transport around Sydney. The timetable is all stored locally (which can also be updated) so you don’t have to go online to view the timetable.
Alternatively, I could jailbreak my iphone, install a program called “Installous” and simply get the applications illegally. Installous is actually a legitimate application designed to install custom ipa files. But then there’s Appulous which provide access to cracked applications. Now the reason behind Appulous is that the appstore does not provide a try-before-paying option for their apps. I beg to differ. A lot of decent developers provide a free alternative with some features missing or compensate through the use of ads. In the free version of Tripview for example, saving your trips have been disabled. Their reasoning behind their service is just another lame excuse to steal from developers.
On a side note I also learnt that itunes does not give you an option to “confirm” before purchasing an app. I accidentally clicked “Buy now” and it immediately processed the request. Thankfully, the amount was credited back to me after filing a report but according to Apple “this is a one-time exception”.
Apple’s Excellent Customer Service
Sep 26th
Lately, I’ve grown extremely irritant towards anybody who does not show a gesture of “kindness”. Clients at work who do not say “Goodbye” before they hang up, drivers who do not bother stopping at the zebra crossing, random people on the street who are just rude in general. It ticks me off just by thinking about how unthoughtful and rude some people can get at people they don’t even know.
I had to visit the Optus Store twice, call up Optus thrice and sign the same contract twice just to get the name changed on the owner of my iphone plan. Once should be enough. Not to mention it took Optus nearly 4 weeks to actually deliver me the iphone.
This is the conversation I had with the woman at the Optus World Store.
Me: I’m wondering…how many people have actually RECEIVED their iphone?
Woman: What is your number?
Me: Sorry?
Woman: What is your number? So I can check to see if we have it.
Me: (Tells her my number)
Woman: Oh…it’s available now
Me: (WHY THE FUCK HAVE NOT CALLED ME TO COLLECT IT THEN YOU DUMB BITCH?!)
Me: So when was it available?
Woman: Yesterday
Me: (WHY THE FUCK WAS I NOT CALLED YESTERDAY?!)
I tried to get a free iphone case off her to compensate but she just shook her head at me.
About a week after I got my phone I went to the apple store and bought a dock and a $40 dollar case…two month later…the case broke. Just to make it even more ironic, I scratched my iphone sometime between getting my iphone and putting it on. I believe that I scratched the screen putting on the case, perhaps there were some hard dust particles trapped beneath the screen protector which I somehow managed to scrap across the screen.
That said, I was sad, I always tend to get over excited about new technology that I over look taking care of it, I tend to take good care after something once I’ve gotten over it. Unfortunately, it’s during the process of getting over it that I damage it. Once it’s damaged, you hardly ever care about it.
So today, I decided to visit the Apple Store again for two reasons:
- See if they can replace/trade it
- Purchase some screen protectors
I first tried to replace my broken screen. Took it to the counter and the guy told me the case is not an apple product so they cannot support me, they advised me to email the manufacturer. I thought this was fair enough, but still a bit upset that they couldn’t just help me out with the problem.
I then went up to the second floor to look for screen protectors. There was a Apple techie replacing some cases on the shelves so I decided to give me a chat:
Me: Hi, do you know how to remove scratches from the Iphone screen?
Tech: Hmm…you don’t?
Me: If I did I wouldn’t be asking you…
Tech: No as in…you don’t
Me: Oh…
Tech: Let me see the scratch
Me: *hands over iphone*
Tech: How did you scratch it?
Me: I think I scratched it putting on one of these cases *points to case*
Tech: That’s impossible *takes out pen* Look. *Grabs nearest sample itouch and begins to stab the shit out of it using the pen*
Me: …
Tech: If I can do that to the screen and not scratch it I doubt one of these cases can. Where did you get your iphone?
Me: Optus Store
Tech: Maybe you can talk to them…and possibly get them to replace it…if you’re lucky.
At these point I realised I’ve lost the game. As soon as a techie tells you to call/visit/email some external source, 99% of the time they don’t want to deal with your situation and most likely not want to help.
Me: *sad face*
Tech: Have you got insurance?
Me: Nope…
Tech: You know what, let me talk to one of the technicians upstairs and see what we can do for you.
Me: Sure, thanks
Tech: *walks away*
I honestly wondered if he’ll really be back with anything or it was just one of those “Let me put you on hold whilst I do nothing” sorta thing.
~5 minutes Later~
Tech: We can book you in for a session upstairs
Me: Okay
Tech: *grabs my details* (The computer said that the soonest session was at 4)
Me: …
I can’t really remember what happened next but for some reason he went back upstairs to speak to someone. He came back 5 minutes later again
Tech: Okay we’re going to replace your iPhone
Me: *heart just skipped a beat*
Tech: I’ve talked to one of the people upstairs and we can call it “manufacturing defect” and replace your iphone
Me: That’s great, thanks a lot!
Tech: Come back at 4 for your appointment
Me: Sure, thanks!
*shakes hand*
I ended up going to a net cafe to waste time, I tried getting a game of dota in but…my comp didn’t have the map and nobody was willing to let me download…so I just played Cod4 single player.
Eventually, I went to the Apple Store again and retrieved my iPhone. The only downside was that I lost 5 days worth of SMSes and Pictures since I last synced my iphone with itunes 5 days ago…
I also purchased screen protectors for $20, when I got back home I looked it up on ebay and somebody in Chatswood was selling it for $8 AND it covered both front and back…so I bought that as well.
So in the end I’ve spent around $150 on iphone accessories. I’m in the process of getting $30 back from my “dock extender” and also hopefully I can return the “Nu form” case I purchased off the Apple Store.
All in all, Apple has great customer service.
