Macintosh

Adobe Activation FAIL

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I’ve swapped the 4GB of RAM and 320G 7200 RPM drive from my MacBook into the new MacBook Pro. It feels a bit faster than the MacBook, even when using the GeForce 9400M video. I haven’t tried switching to the 9600M GT yet. The display is really gorgeous – much brighter and better contrast than the MacBook. On the other hand, the new MacBook Pro does feel very big & bulky.

After swapping the hard drive, you would expect all of the software to still work. However, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and a few other applications including Fluid Mask 3 seem to be tied to either the machine serial number or MAC address, so they were no longer activated when I tried running them on the new MacBook Pro. Furthermore, Photoshop told me that I had too many activations and refused to let me activate it.

I figured out how to regain one activation from my old MacBook Pro, which I never deactivated and is going to a new owner tomorrow. I was able to boot from a backup drive on that machine, and Photoshop then let me deactivate it.

I’m still waiting for a response from Virtus about Fluid Mask 3.

Both machines open

I won a MacBook Pro

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A few nights ago I got a call telling me that I won a MacBook from Drive Savers at Macworld Expo. At first I thought it was a scam, but it was real.

Late this afternoon, FedEx delivered a large box, containing a brand new Apple computer box along with this letter.

Grand Prize

However, it wasn’t a MacBook – it turned out to be a new 15″ MacBook Pro! I was expecting a low end model, or even an older one.

Grand Prize

The screen is gorgeous, but it’s a lot heavier than my current MacBook. I’ll probably keep this one as my desktop system and use the MacBook for travel, since it’s easier to carry around. This weekend I’ll swap the 320G hard drive & 4GB RAM from my MacBook into the MacBook Pro.

This leaves my old MacBook Pro that I was using for software testing & debugging, which I’ll sell now.

iLife 09

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My copy of iLife 09 finally arrived today, two days later than it was supposed to arrive. I chose standard shipping, which turned out to be DHL via USPS. I don’t understand why Apple even bothers with DHL as the middleman. It would probably be easier, faster, and cheaper to just ship it directly via USPS.

The only application I’ve tried so far is iPhoto 09. I haven’t used iPhoto in about a year since I switched to Aperture, so most of the photos in my iPhoto library are at least a year old. With over 3000 pictures in the library, converting it to iPhoto 09 took only a few seconds. Scanning for faces took about 45 minutes.

I find that iPhoto’s face recognition is very erratic. It seems to recognize faces only if the person is facing more or less straight ahead. It often misses faces completely if someone is facing sideways.

iPhoto 09’s built-in Flickr support is pretty weak. It always creates a new photo set for every group of photos uploaded, and it doesn’t let you add keywords or a description when you upload. Thankfully, FlickrExport still works with iPhoto 09.

I still prefer Aperture for several reasons. I like being able to store the originals outside the library, so I can keep them on an external drive. iPhoto 09 still doesn’t let you move the originals after you import them, and when you import from a camera, you can only store them in the library. I also miss Aperture’s editing plugins like Hydra HDR.

On the plus side, iPhoto is a lot faster than Aperture. I find that Aperture can sometimes get painfully slow on my MacBook, even with 4GB RAM.

MacBook Crash

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I had a weird, random MacBook crash today. The screen suddenly got scrambled and collapsed to a narrow bar at the top of the screen, which was all black. It wasn’t merely a GUI layer crash, since I couldn’t SSH to it, so I had to reboot it. I didn’t notice any unusual messages in the console log leading up to the crash. This is the third time I’ve experienced this crash since the NVidia graphics update.

Weird MacBook crash

iPhone vs. Original Macintosh

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Comparing the specs of an iPhone to the original Macintosh shows just how far we’ve come in the last 25 years.

Mac 128 iPhone
CPU Speed 8 MHz 412 MHz
Storage 128k RAM, 400k floppy up to 16GB RAM
Display 512×348 B&W CRT 320×480 color LCD
Networking Internet? what’s that Wi-Fi, 3G

First Mac and those that came after it

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With the Macintosh’s 25th birthday coming up, everyone has been reminiscing about their first Macs.

My very first Mac was an original Mac 128, purchased in Feb. 1984. I’ve owned many others over the years:

  • Mac Plus
  • Mac SE/30
  • Macintosh IIsi
  • PowerBook 100
  • Duo 270c (with the mini dock only)
  • Mactell XB (Tanzania-based clone)
  • Blue & White G3/350
  • iBook G3/466 SE (Graphite Clamshell with firewire)
  • White iBook G3/500 (Dual USB)
  • PowerMac G4/500 (upgraded to 1 GHz G4; this is the oldest Mac I still own)
  • Original 12″ PowerBook G4/867
  • 15″ PowerBook G4 1 GHz
  • Mac Mini G4/1.42 GHz (currently in use as a DVR)
  • iMac Core Duo 1.8 GHz (first Intel Mac; replacement for ADP development system)
  • Original 15″ MacBook Pro Core Duo (2.0 GHz)
  • MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (Santa Rosa), 2.4 GHz
  • 13″ Aluminum MacBook 2.4 GHz (my current main computer)

Apple – Steve Jobs = Apple

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Apple is a lot more than Steve Jobs, and you can be sure that Apple has plans to go on without him. Don’t forget he’s still very much alive. It’s much too early to start writing his obituary.

The media craziness has reached epic proportions with people like Michael Wolff writing drek such as:

Indeed, the logical answer to what happens at Apple without Jobs is that it dies. What you have, demonstrably, is a company without any managerial wherewithal beyond Jobs; these are Stockholm syndrome people. The big guy is dying and his crew is ready to go with him (taking the shareholders’ money along).

Apple is in very capable hands with Tim Cook, who already had experience running Apple while Steve Jobs was out for his surgery. Apple still has other great people like Jonathan Ives, who is responsible for the design of most of their products. Enough of Steve Jobs’ vision has permeated every level of Apple that almost any Apple employee can ask themselves “What Would Steve Jobs Do” and know what to do.

Microsoft seems to be doing just fine without Bill Gates and I never saw any predictions that it would die when he retired. I can see a similar path for Apple and I’ll go out on a limb and predict that Steve Jobs will still be alive at the end of this year. I predict that Jobs will live long enough to go into a retirement similar to Bill Gates, probably in the not too distant future. In the upcoming months Apple’s leadership plans will be made clear.

Neat Receipts really is neat

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Today I got my Neat Receipts package, which I ordered right after Macworld while their show discount was still available. It really works amazingly well.

The USB bus-powered scanner is very compact and quiet. I discovered that it works with VueScan as well as their NeatWorks software.

The NeatWorks software lets you scan business cards, receipts, and other documents. It can also import contacts into the address book. I found the OCR to be amazingly accurate. It’s also very smart about recognizing fields, even recognizing abbreviations such as ‘T’ for main phone number & ‘M’ for mobile.

I found that it scans most business cards 100% accurately, even in colors other than black & white. I tried one very ornate card with lots of graphics, which I didn’t expect it to recognize at all, but it still picked out the name, title, and company.

Macworld Wrapup

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I got home from Macworld late yesterday and spent most of today just catching up.

I posted a two part Macworld wrapup at MacMegasite and I still have several reviews to write.

This year I stayed at the Hotel Milano, which is by far the nicest under $200/night hotel I’ve stayed at in San Francisco. The room was very large and the wireless internet was reliable. It’s just around the corner from Moscone West, which makes it very convenient.