One of these things is not like the other

I have a couple of operating systems under test at the Home Office - Windows 7 RC and Ubuntu 9.04 are running in VM sessions on my Macintosh.

Windows 7 is a HUGE improvement on Vista - and Ubuntu's gradual evolution just makes this a nicer and nicer product.

I don't plan to abandon the Mac as a primary platform in the foreseeable future... but it's nice to know that the option set is getting steadily better.

Apropos of that, an oldie but a goodie:

A grudging admission

After removing all evidence of problems that were of my own making...

The Vista laptop is actually running pretty well, and it's a pleasure to use.

Despite having successfully used VMware Fusion for a couple of years now -- basically, a canned Windows XP environment lives on my hard disk and I kick it off whenever I need it (not often) - Carrie and I found ourselves in the absurd position of having a houseful of Macintoshes and being in the market for a Windows laptop.

Some of the software Carrie needs to run to crunch the data she's going to visually interpret is Windows-only.

Some software that I need to stay current on - Adobe Framemaker, for instance - is now available for Windows only. Technical authoring in general is heavily weighted towards Windows; most of the more interesting help and e-learning authoring tools are also Windows-only. MadCap products in particular are Windows-only.

We're not giving up our Macs. But we're a multiplatform household now.

Fond memories of early experiments with hypertext

This one will really resonate with Mac users of a certain age -

Miss Hypercard? Try Tilestack.

Stacks can be published to Blogger, Facebook, Wordpress, and your (or somebody else's) iPhone, among other places.

If you're a Mac person looking for a laptop, here's a deal

This is not paid advertising, but I've done business with these folks myself, found them to be pleasant and competent, and wanted to bring this to your attention:

Small Dog Electronics (an operation specializing in Macintoshes) has available for sale about fifty refurbished first-generation white MacBooks (with one-year Small Dog warranty) for $599. 1.83Ghz Core Duo, 80GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM. I would add a gigabyte of RAM (cheap these days) and you'd have a very nice machine for not much money.

In fact, you could add a honking big hard disk for not much money, too:

MacBook 13in 1.83GHz 1GB/60/combo/AP/BT white (Used, 1 year Small Dog warranty) $ 599.99
PC5300 SO-DIMM 1GB DDR2-667 - Ram Module (New, never used, 10 year factory warranty) 2 @ 39.99 = $ 79.98
250GB 2.5in SATA Hard Drive 5400 RPM (New, never used, 3 year factory warranty) $ 99.99

($60 more would get you 500 GB - personally I'd go for it.)

25 years of Macintosh

Dave Winer reminds us that this is the Mac's 25th anniversary year:

On January 24, 1984 a couple thousand people were present at Flint Center in Cupertino at the birth of something with real lasting value, the Macintosh.

[...]
Hard as it is to believe -- that was almost 25 years ago!
http://mac25.org/

My arc with Macintosh is not quite that long... I'm coming up on 20 years myself, with a couple of longish intervals of Windows/PC use:

First Mac purchased - Mac SE, 1989
(Other Macs owned: Macintosh LC, two PowerBooks... plus a couple of Newtons in there somewhere.)

Moved to NYC in 1996 as a Mac user (brought PowerBook with me) and promptly went to work for an all-Windows shop. :-)

Windows/Linux user from 1997-2005, despite an all-too-brief interregnum working in an all-Mac shop in 2000.

2006: After a bad experience with Microsoft Vista, I buy a Macbook for home use.

I liked it. I liked it a lot... and still do.

Most recent Mac purchases: 24" iMac, 2007; MacBook Air, 2008.

(And a couple of iPhones in there somewhere.)

So... from this:


To this:


In 20 years. Not bad.

Jobs pulled the original Mac out of a carrying bag in 1984 and it was a sensation ("never trust a computer you can't lift") - in 2008, he pulled the MacBook Air out of a standard manila interoffice envelope, and that was just the logical conclusion of a lot of advances in technology and engineering since 1984.

I really hope that Apple doesn't introduce the long-rumored tablet Mac at the upcoming MacWorld Expo... Steve Jobs' absence would suggest that AAPL will never again use MacWorld for major product introductions.

I hope they wait for warmer weather to announce general availability of the tablet Mac. I hate standing in line in the cold. (And I'm already on record as stating that I'm buying two of these - one for me and one for her.)

Related: Mactracker is a great walk down memory lane if you're an older Mac owner, or an owner of older Macs if you prefer.

Macs in suits

Millions of consumers are seeing the Mac in a new light. Once an object of devotion for students and artists, the Mac is becoming the first choice of many. Surging demand for the machines led Apple to predict revenues will rise 33% in the second quarter, to $7.2 billion, even in the face of an economic slowdown.

What's less obvious is that the enthusiasm is starting to spill over into the corporate market. It's a people's revolution, of sorts, with workers increasingly pressing their employers to let them use Macs in the office. In a survey of 250 diverse companies that has yet to be released, the market research firm Yankee Group found that 87% now have at least some Apple computers in their offices, up from 48% two years ago. "There's always been this archipelago of Macintosh use" among graphic artists and advertising managers, says Scott Teissler, chief information officer of Turner Broadcasting System (TWX). "My sense is that CIOs are more willing to see that expand without putting up as much resistance as in the past."

[...]

Mark Slaga, chief information officer of Dimension Data , a large computer services firm based in suburban Johannesburg, says he has received 25 e-mails recently from employees who want permission to use Macs at work. So far he has refused, because he doesn't want to hire people to provide Mac tech support, but "it'll happen someday," he concedes. "Steve Jobs doesn't need a sales force because he already has one: employees like the ones in my company."

BusinessWeek: The Mac In The Grey Flannel Suit (12 May 2008)

The Macbook is back

...and all is well. The repairs in Apple's facility took less than twelve hours, meaning that this whole thing could have been wrapped up in three days if there hadn't been some shipping problems getting the box to me.

Being forced back into Windows World full-time for a week was painful.

I'm glad to be back.

(Chap and I have been having synchronized hardware problems, looks like.)

Why I recommend Applecare...

...to anyone who purchases an Apple product of any kind.

Saturday, January 6: I call Apple Tech Support and tell them that the plastic around my MacBook's keyboard is discolored and cracking. They authorize an immediate repair.

Monday, January 8: DHL delivers a protective shipping box direct to my door. I package up the MacBook per the directions and peel off the shipping label to reveal a correctly addressed priority overnight label.

Tuesday, January 9: Carrie drops off the packaged-up MacBook at a DHL pickup point.

Wednesday, January 10: Apple technicians perform the necessary repairs *and* get the MacBook back into the DHL system, same-day. DHL records indicate that the computer is in Apple's actual possession for less than 12 hours.

Thursday, January 11: A perfectly repaired MacBook in working order arrives at our door.

Elapsed time from initial phone call (on a Saturday!) until a repaired computer is back in my hands, five calendar days.

Service: Insanely great.

Charge: $0.00.

iWant

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

Apple - iPhone

Je le veux

This little beast runs OS X.

A phone, an iPod, and a computer in a small, slim package... it's not really a phone, but the MacBook Nano.

And come June, I think there are two of them in this family's future.

Review: "Take Control of Your Wi-Fi Security" (E-book)

Look, let's face it: Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) security is a godawful mess.

It's incredibly confusing, and yet at the same time it's terribly important. You've got a little radio transmitter and receiver in your laptop (that's what wireless is, after all) and unless you secure it, every time you make a wireless connection you are broadcasting all of your private data in the clear to anyone within range.

(And, psst! Anyone who can use Google can find freely available programs that will help them eavesdrop on you.)

Don't believe me? Here, just go read the official security statement from the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group.

And consider that WEP, the kind of security that most of the people with "secured" home networks are currently using has become such a complete joke that the Wi-Fi Alliance is too sheepish to even mention it on their site. In fact, their attorneys have probably advised them against it.

Like a lot of you, I guess, I am the designated System Administrator for my network of friends and my extended family. I'm the guy they call when the computer eats their homework, or they get infected with spyware from surfing porn sites ("I have no idea how this happened!") or iTunes suddenly stops working on them.

I achieved this honor by having worked in the computer industry for the last 20 years and being a general propellerhead, but I have never made my living in the realm of PC security technology.

I have managed to secure my home wireless network pretty well, using the much stronger WPA standard; when I take my corporate laptop on the road with me, the IT staff of the big multinational consulting firm that sends me regular paychecks has thoughtfully provided me with Virtual Private Network (VPN) software and a SafeWord card that allows me to log in securely from almost anywhere, whether it's a wired connection in a hotel room or a wireless connection in a random airport somewhere.

So until recently, I haven't spent too much time worrying about wireless security. I've either been able to handle it on my own, or I've had some very smart and well-educated security folks handling it for me.

Then my wife and I bought a new "family" laptop with built-in wireless.

And we started using it occasionally from public access points, like coffee shops, or branches of the New York City Public Library.

I've been realizing, in the back of my mind, that I ought to do something about securing our new wireless laptop. I can't use the corporate VPN, for obvious reasons.

What I really needed, I figured, was some kind of *personal* VPN service that we could subscribe to... a service that, for a few bucks a month, would let us create a secure connection (that couldn't be eavesdropped on) from anywhere we happened to be.

In the course of searching out information on such a service, I stumbled upon something simply wonderful.

It's a $10 electronic book (e-book) called "Take Control of Your Wi-Fi Security." And if you're at all concerned with the issue, it'll be the best $10 you've spent in a long long time.

The authors, two guys with enormous geek credibility (one is the editor of the consensus-best Wi-Fi news and info website, the other has been writing and editing the Macintosh tech newsletter TidBITS since 1990), take the confusing tangle of Wi-Fi security issues and break it down for you in plain language.

The book is a marvel of excellent technical writing for a general audience, and I say this as a technical writer of some 20 years experience. It is completely current and up-to-date as of this writing (published exactly one month ago today: September 15, 2005) and packs a ton of information into a brief (115-page PDF) package; it's full of links to resources on the Web, too, and every link I've tried works: click it in Adobe Reader, and your browser goes right to the site.

(The links alone are worth $10; compared to what you'd have to pay at the local bookstore for an already outdated print copy of Teach Yourself To Be A Wireless Dummy in 15 Days, the e-book is an incredible bargain.)

Look, there are plenty of good, free Wi-Fi information sites on the Web. I'm going to list some of them at the bottom of this post, in case you're too cheap to shell out $10 to a couple of guys who have done all the skull-sweat for you.

And you can Google around and discover that there are, indeed, private VPN services like the ones I was describing above. Your choices include:

• PublicVPN - Works on Windows (Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP), Mac OS X (10.2 or later) $5.95 per month, $59.95 per year
  
  
• HotSpotVPN - Ranges from $8.88/mo. to $13.88/mo, depending on encryption strength; multiply by 10 to get annual cost. (Has a day or week-priced option for infrequent travellers.)
  
  
• WiTopia personal VPN (Windows XP) - Regularly:$79.00; currently priced at $39.50

All well and good.

But it took me over an hour to sort all of that out, my friends. (I signed up for a couple months of PublicVPN service and am currently testing it out; if it works out, I will point all the users in my "support community" to it.)

And then when I stumbled on the book, I saw... grrrrrr!... that the authors had already figured this out for me!

Oh, the time I could have saved myself.
Dammit.

Okay, here are the free resources I mentioned. But go buy that book, really.

• WiFi Networking News
• Daily Wireless
• Unstrung
• MuniWireless - About municipal wireless efforts worldwide
• TechDirt Wireless
• Reiter's Wireless Data Weblog
• Om Malik's Broadband Blog - "Unwired" topic

DISCLAIMER: Although I must sound like the worst corporate shill ever, I discovered "Take Control of Your Wi-Fi Security" on my own, bought it with my own money, have never met either of the authors and have no business relationship (or any relationship whatsoever) with them.