M.W. Tremblay

Alright….time to weigh in on the Psystar issue…

Yep, time for me to throw in my two cents.

First of all, I’m an Apple fan. I’ve never been happier since I switched to OS X as my main OS, before I used linux switching around between ArchLinux, SuSE, and Ubuntu. My distro-hopping was interspersed with short stints using Windows 2000 or XP. My reason for switching to OS X was this; I wanted an OS with the *nix sensibilities, but with the Windows polish (take this statement with a grain of salt, by polish I mean that it’s a mainstream desktop OS, no configuration files to mess with [aside from messing with TweakUI, disabling and uninstalling unneeded things], etc, I hope that what I mean is understood). OS X provided this, it was built on a *nix platform and had mainstream support from Apple and others, and it this time Apple was on the rise again becoming a major player in the market. After using it for a while I grew fond of Apple’s design sensibilities as well.

So, the point is, their OS is in my opinion the best available, there’s no swaying me on that unless Microsoft really impresses me with Windows 7.

But I have quite a problem with Apple (a few problems, but lets focus on hardware…). In order to use OS X you have to buy one of their computers. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if their product line wasn’t so unbalanced. They offer the Mac Mini as an entry-level budget computer, while this computer has a really nice design, it’s a merely a toy for any user out there that uses their computer for more than internet usage or word processing, some might contest this, but the might as well call this computer an internet appliance (some have used the Mac Mini as a media center frontend, but with the lack of expandability I can’t really see how useful or versatile this thing could be). Next up is the iMac, again, another really nice design. I have the first generation 20″ Intel iMac, it’s a nice computer that has served me well, I’ve had absolutely zero problems with it, but the lingering issue which has bothered me is the lack of expandability, it’s a platform that typically costs around $1400 dollars that will never be better than it is when you bought it, sure you can upgrade the RAM (which I have maxed out on mine) but you can’t upgrade the video, sound, processor or anything else you’d want to tinker with. Finally, you have the Mac Pro, which is a total beast of a computer, with insane levels of upgradability, a terrific design, and a price tag that is simply out of reach for the average consumer.

So, I’ve said a bunch of things that a lot of people already know, now I’m going to say a few more things a lot of people already know. In the PC world you can build your own computer, if you know what you’re doing you can choose a motherboard that has room to grow and use that motherboard for a very long time, all the while you can upgrade the sound, video, processor, memory, you can buy a case that can hold many drives, etc. In doing this you can build a very nice computer, with plenty of expandability for around $600 to $1000 dollars depending on your needs and the components you choose. Apple does not have an offering like this, they do not have a mid-range expandable platform, they have a major hole in their product line.

So….Apple branded hardware (which is just normal PC hardware), or the large stock of available PC components, or the many pre-built computers out there that you can upgrade. I say, the PC hardware wins.

Enter Psystar. I give major credit to this company for challenging Apple, even though they are clearly violating the EULA (which apparently they feel they can thwart in the courtroom), they are starting something that I hope continues. Apple should allow this, the consumer would have more choices and many of them would probably buy a copy of OS X to put on their new non-Apple hardware. Imagine if HP were to offer OS X computers alongside Windows computers. A consumer who would otherwise ignore Apple because they don’t like the hardware would look at the computer with OS X, the consumer would test both machines and decide which one they like better, and many would probably choose OS X.

That is my opinion on this in a nutshell, I could probably have written this a bit clearer, and will probably add more to it later. If anybody reads this and has a comment, please post it! It would be nice to have a civil discussion on the matter. As far as I’m thinking right now, my next computer will probably be a Psystar like machine running OS X.

Apple, your software is simply the best out there, please please please make it available on a wide range of hardware, expand your user base!

This is so stupid, I just have to post it.

Free speech is a wonderful thing.

Tags: america, atheist, craziness, god, idiots, religion

Here’s something random.

My friend Johann has requested that I post this odd little thing….

QR Code Generator

Don’t know what it is? Neither do I…

Tags: barcode, johann is odd, wtf

The iPhone thus far.

So far this thing has been great. The app selection is terrific, I’ve been able to find an app for anything I’ve needed. In fact, I’m writting this post from my iPhone.

The touch keyboard isn’t quite perfect, it’s great in the widescreen mode but not quite as comfortable when it’s in the portrait mode, and sadly not all apps have the widescreen feature.

It’s pretty much as advertised though, safari works great and the spelling correction is rather intelligent, which is good because it’s really easy to mistype something.

I won’t babble much more about it, most people already know all about this phone by now. Maybe I’ll post later about certain apps I’ve been using and the ones I like best…..

Tags: apple, awesome, iphone

The iphone rules

It made this post possible.

More later.

Tags: iphone apple awesome

iTunes is now DRM free.

All I can say is…

WOOOOOOT!

Major win for the anti-DRM crusade, and on top of it, all of the songs are also in higher quality AAC format.

I guess once the RIAA realized they were losing more money than they made trying to fight little kids downloading music in court they gave up.

Take that bastards!

Tags: aac, apple, downloading, drm, fuck you riaa, itunes, Music, riaa, ultimate win, woot

Apple TV: New toy I got for Christmas

Yeah, it’s a neat little box, though out of the box it’s a bit limiting. Streaming music and video from iTunes is pretty cool, but it doesn’t really do much else. You have that, interfacing with the iTunes store, and YouTube. And you have to do it all according to Apples rules. Which, frankly, sucks. But, luckily Boxee exists, so I’ve been playing with that.

Unfortunately my network setup is far from normal, using Verizon Wireless Broadband for my internet limits a lot of what I can do, and how I can set up my network. I’ve been able to play with the interface, and play with the online content streaming, but not with the networked media sharing. (Yes, my network is THAT odd, when I move, this will be resolved). 

An odd thing though, is people who are ripping their DVDs to stream them to their Apple TVs or other Boxee devices, I’ve been messing with it too, but it takes forever to rip and encode the video. In the time it takes me to do that I might as well just watch it on DVD anyway, it’s kind of a silly idea. The real cool thing about Boxee though is the online streaming, getting YouTube, Hulu, and any of the above on your TV is great, the local music and video streaming just seems secondary.

When I move I’ll have two or three room mates, and we’ll be using my TV set up in the living room I’m sure, so it will be fun to have all of our music and video shared so we can all enjoy it in the living room. For now though, it’s just a toy I’ll be playing with.

And an update on the whole “Future of Media” theme that I’ve had going on…

Well, I’ve been loving Amazon downloads, and more recently the iTunes Plus downloads (lossless audio, no DRM), I’ve been doing that a lot lately, and buying vinyl, it’s been working well for me.

As far as video….well, the only really good options are…just buying DVDs, or streaming from sites like Hulu. There are no DRM free video download services that I know of (that are legal at least), and newer DVDs are even coming with DRM on the disc. These companies are going nuts with this.

The future of video? It might be streaming.

Tags: apple tv, audio, boxee, dvd, media, Music, streaming, video

Recent Vinyl Scores

I’ve recently begun collecting vinyl records, the king of all formats. The nature of the media gives the music a more “organic” sounding effect, and the bigger artwork is great. It’s really the only format I would fight to keep, CDs can be (and are being) replaced by digital downloads (as I’ve posted about before), if bands and record labels offered lossless audio downloads and cover art, and a PDF booklet, I’d give CDs the finger. With vinyl though, it’s something special, I don’t really understand why, but it is. It seems to make more sense to me to distribute albums digitally, but sell vinyl for the collectors, it’s something you can display, and they sound awesome.

So…what have I bought lately?

Skinny Puppy – Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse

Skinny Puppy – Cleanse Fold And Manipulate

Skinny Puppy – Testure (12″ Single)

Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral

Ratt – Invasion Of Your Privacy

Tags: Music, nine inch nails, ratt, skinny puppy, vinyl

You sir, are a nerd.

I’m afraid I am, as I just scored another Sega Saturn and I’m damned excited about it. When I was little I had a Genesis, and I think it’s sort of tied me to the company a bit, since now I am for some reason compelled to collect any Sega stuff I find, and recently I’ve been all about finding games in boxed condition. I had a Saturn before, but it broke a while ago so I had no way to play my old games.

A friend of mine mentioned that they had one at our local ultra-nerdy video game shop, Game Pad, and we went straight there. Now I have a Saturn with one controller, but sadly no A/V cable. Luckily eBay exists! So, I have a new cable coming my way.

In some fit of strange celebration I decided to break out the whole collection…and god damn it…I’m a nerd.

Connected to my 32″ HDTV right now is a Master System II, a Genesis II+SegaCD(and sometimes a 32X), and a Saturn (awaiting the A/V cable obviously). I’ve been alternating between Shinobi, Ys, and Streets of Rage and damn is it fun! So, now I’m trying to build up my collection of games for all of these systems, the only thing is…I’m a collector…which means that I have to find them complete with box or I don’t want it. You’ll understand when your older.

My bank account is currently in danger right now since, as luck would have it, SMS and Genesis games are quite easy to find boxed on eBay.

Should I photograph the current collection?

Tags: boxed, ebay, genesis, master system, nerd, saturn, sega

This is a test post

Just testing the blogging capabilities of the Flock web browser, I stumbled across it today, seems okay but the themes are pretty ugly IMO.

Check it out.

Tags: browser, flock, test, web