Who needs to attend those ridiculous Apple brainwashing sessions when you can watch them all online in a much funnier and abbreviated format. Enjoy!
[Via TechCrunch]
WTF: Man Turns Taxidermied Goats Into Bagpipes
How I Became a PC: Five Steps from Mac to Microsoft
If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I’ve been changing the computer regime over here. It isn’t that I don’t love the shininess of my MacBook. It isn’t that, given the money and all that, I’d just go out and buy a top-of-the-line Mac… because, honestly, I’d consider it. As important as specs are to me, the shininess of the Mac is hard to resist… or would be, if the following things weren’t a factor. The more I’ve thought about it, the less sense it makes for me to get another Mac, in spite of the fact that’s just about all I’ve used since the late 90s.
So how does a decades-long Mac user end up putting together a PC? The progression was slow, but read on and learn. Most of these are pretty geek specific.
- Price me out. My MacBook can’t hold its weight anymore. A new MacBook starts at about $1,000. Other laptops, however, with far better specs, running Windows or Linux, can be purchased for half that much. So, with the Mac, what I’m really paying for is the logo and the shiny factor, not the performance factor. And since I’m doing a lot of graphic design these days, not to mention gaming (which will be addressed below), specs are a lot more important than they used to be. There’s a point where you examine the specs of the machines side by side and really have to ask yourself how much the Apple software is worth. Because that’s where the price tag is. Oh, sure, there’s the iPad. But seriously, there’s no way that can hold up for what I need. At the moment, the iPad is a sort of peripheral gadget–you either have a use for it (and the extra money to buy it), or you don’t.
- Annoy me with video and gaming. Essentially, the MacBook hates Hulu. We troubleshot this for a few days and, after thinking it was our network, discovered the computer just can’t handle video playback. Since Hulu is one of the primary methods of television delivery, this is beyond annoying. The staggering and starting, the general grumpiness, just doesn’t cut it. Add to that the fact that, even when it was new, World of Warcraft looked like crap on it (“Wow, honey—Dalaran looks so beautiful from here!” “… all I see is a big purple nothing… oh wait that… oh, no, that’s nothing… just more blobs”) since I had to keep the settings so low to even manage my way around. With Cataclysm coming out there’s just no way it’ll cope. In fact, the latest patch simply refuses to work on my MacBook. So what’s a gal supposed to do?
- Make it impossible for me to breathe new life into it. Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t buy a Mac if you plan upgrades beyond memory. These things are made sleek, sure, but they’re also made to be almost impenetrable save by their genius staff. But even if I wanted to go in and improve the performance and extend the life of my computer (because that’s what I’d like to do, given a choice), I can’t. It means the only other option—if I want a better performing Mac—is to suck it up and buy a new one. And we’ve already established that I don’t have that kind of money.
- Make it difficult for the gimpier geeks. I’ve got carpal tunnel. I can’t use a normal keyboard. Typing on the MacBook is a special kind of torture for me, so I have to buy ergonomic in order to avoid the pain. Does Apple have a version of their delightful aluminum keyboard with a gentle, ergonomic curve to it? Nope. And the newest Magic Mouse… don’t get me started on the kind of pain involved using that (seriously, did they try to make it painful? Is this some strange torture device?). And as far as dictation software goes, up until a few months ago the only option was MacSpeech which, in my opinion, is nowhere as good as Dragon—even though they’re built on the same engine. Now there’s a Dragon for Mac. But on Windows, Dragon costs about $40-$50, while the Mac version is $179.99+.
- Lose exclusivity to Scrivener. The one program I kept my MacBook around for—beyond gaming and music and everything—was Scrivener. For novel-writing types, like myself, Scrivener is simply a dream come true. I’m not organized by nature, but the software has a way of giving me just enough in the way of organization to really impact my writing process. Since I started using Scrivener in 2007, I’ve written six novels (even sold one). And until recently, Scrivener was Mac only. However, this past week Scrivener for Windows went into Beta. For me, that’s the last bastion, the last hold out. Now there’s nothing holding me back from going PC.
So, clearly the evidence is against the Mac here. Instead of buying and out-of-the-box deal, we’re building a computer (because, taking a page from Apple, many desktops and laptops out there–like Dell–are just as bad when it comes to the difficulty of upgrading). Between the generosity of friends of ours and various parts we’ve accumulated, we have the makings of a pretty sweet little PC. And sure, Vista used to be a huge deterrent in the Windows world, but since we’re building our computer, that won’t be an issue.
The new computer will kick the ass of my MacBook (which isn’t really a fair fight, considering this will be a desktop)—but it will also allow me to improve upon it for years, saving potentially hundreds of dollars; I’ll be able to play WoW with my husband again, write to my heart’s content on Scrivener while using a great ergonomic keyboard, and mod the heck out of the case (steampunk, anyone?). Not to mention it feels very empowering to know the ins and outs of your computer, and being able to root around inside of it.
Yes, I will miss the world of Mac. I will probably stand longingly at the windows of the Apple Store from time to time, and think of bygone days. But until I can justify a purchase like that, let alone the lack of flexibility among other things, I’d say I’ll be hanging out in the world of the PC for a while yet.
[Image: CC Robert S. Donovan via Flickr]
Tags: Apple, building a computer, computers, mac, macintosh, operating system, PC, Scrivener
Bitter is sweet for asthma sufferers
Researchers at the University of Maryland have discovered that the lung has similar bitter taste receptors to the tongue — and that this knowledge could help treat conditions such as asthma.
Dr Stephen Liggett says his team found the taste receptors by accident during a previous study into muscle receptors. Unlike those in the tongue, the receptors aren’t in clusters and don’t send taste signals to the brain. (Now that really would have been an aftertaste…)
The team’s original theory was that the taste buds were designed to alert the body when it had mistakenly ingested a bitter poison from a plant, the idea being that this would cause the person to get a tight chest and cough, prompting them to get away from the source of the poison.
However, testing on humans and mice showed the opposite was true: once stimulated the receptors force the airways to the lungs to open up. Indeed, the effect was greater than with existing drugs designed to treat asthma and related diseases.
Among the substances which successfully stimulated the process were quinine, chloroquine and even saccharin (the bitterness being the aftertaste in that case.) But Dr Ligget warns treatment wouldn’t be as simple as sucking on a lemon. Instead he believes the best way to take advantage of the process would be through an aerosol-based inhaler using chemical modifications of bitter compounds.
E Albert Reece, dean of the School of Medicine at which Ligget’s team works, said “These researchers were willing to take chances and ask questions about an unlikely concept. Why are taste receptors in the lungs? What do they do? Can we take advantage of them to devise a new therapy? In the end, their discoveries are in the best tradition of scientific research.”
I Am BATMAN! [Pic]
[Via Imgur]
That’s No Moon! [PIC]
[Via Reddit]
Twitter Re-enactment of Back To The Future
In conjunction with the release of the Back to the Future trilogy on blu-ray, a re-enactment of the trilogy is happening on Twitter! Organized, written, & adapted for Twitter by Brian Harnish for the “We’re Going Back” project, this is the Back to the Future trilogy as you have never seen it before! Be sure to follow the cast of characters as the Twitter re-enactment of one of the best trilogies of all time started TODAY at 2:00 p.m. (PST). Parts II and III will continue throughout the rest of this week, so stay tuned!
Tags: back to the future, twitter
Daft Punk – Derezzed Music Video / Tron: Legacy Trailer Combo
By Vectron’s kindly claws, you guys need to watch this right now! This has to be the most awesome music video I’ve seen in a long, long time. What else can I say? Daft Punk rocks the geek nation!
Yoshi Hates Mario [Video]
Coffee and eggs the recipe for robot technique
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded some strange projects in its work to develop new technology for the United States military. But perhaps none quite so strange as using coffee grains to pick up an egg.
DARPA provided some of the money for a newly published study involving researchers at universities in Chicago and New York and the iRobot corporation (who produces the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner). They’ve produced a robotic arm which, rather than having a claw-like device at the end, has a balloon filled with coffee grounds.
The device works because the surface of coffee grains changes under pressure. As Hod Lipson, one of the researchers explained, ” When they are not pressed together they can roll over each other and flow. When they are pressed together just a little bit, the teeth interlock, and they become solid.” Rice and sand have similar qualities but are heavier.
That’s the reason why vacuum-packed coffee feels much more solid than when the grains are loose. That effect is recreated in the robot by air being sucked out of the balloon. This effectively “solidifies” the balloon, holding its shape and allowing it to hold on to any object it was surrounding.
There are some practical benefits to the device, beyond simply being awesome. It works well even with objects that human aren’t able to handle such as coins (which are fiddly, particularly when laid down) or eggs (which need a relatively precise and controlled degree of grip to avoid messy results.) While the robot might seem an over-engineered solution when you think of the “hassle” for a human to pick up one such object, it could make a major difference in assembly lines such as egg packing or coin sorting.
The researchers also say the technique could be used for handling sensitive objects as part of a bomb disposal team’s work. Though I must admit I’d be tempted to drop the bomb just to smell that freshly roasted coffee goodness (albeit with a rubbery aroma.)
The results of the study have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The researchers say there’s no reason why the device couldn’t be manufactured commercially right away.