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We thought this advertising at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware was interesting, especially as our iPhones were unable to make and take calls due to weak signal.

Ironic, don’t you think, AT&T?

This is an available login screen when you look for WiFi at Starbucks, in Washington, DC. It doesn’t look like ATT Wireless or iPhone customers are supported in using WiFi here, right?

Like a happy and supportive hygeinic software user, I found this notice about updating my Mac Office Software and dutifully downloaded the update.

Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.4.0 Update - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

After much hard drive whirring, I was treated to this dialogue box:

When I read the “ReadMe” it said to figure out which version of the software I was running. I did that, and oh, I may not have updated the last 2-3 updates. So I went and downloaded those. Same process. Same dialogue box:

(actually it’s not really a dialogue, it’s one-way communication).

5 updaters later, there is no upgrading happening here. Can’t a combo updater be produced? I don’t understand what the purpose of creating an updater is if no one can actually use it.

At this point I only use Micrososft Office to open others’ documents. And that’s becoming rarer and rarer. Hello iWork.

All of this concern over $20? I’m waiting for an iPhone 16 GB

Tribolum.com: Apple Inc. becomes the Dark Side

Countdown to Macworld…

I love the library. It is so convenient for regular books. They also have this cool digital collection, which takes a little getting used to, with all the hoops and all, to get materials. In the end, it has been worth it. But now?

The saga started when I placed a hold on an electronic book I had previously checked out successfully, using a combination of the Library’s web site and regular old Adobe Reader.

This time, though, they’ve added a new piece of software to the mix - “Adobe Digital Editions.” No big deal, except for a few red flags, namely that the software doesn’t install where it’s supposed to, in the Applications folder. What you get in the Applications folder is an alias to the software, which has been placed somewhere else on your hard drive. Nice and standard (not really). The application is bare bones, with a different UI from Acrobat, and not much help. Okay, so onward.

It’s not entirely clear what to do next, but I download a file (is it the book, or just a ticket to get the book? It doesn’t say). The file downloads and I’m asked to pick an app to open it with, so I go for digital editions. And then…DRM error. I go back and repeat the process - maybe I should have chosen Adobe Reader? Another DRM error. Maybe my digital editions software is not up to date (there’s an arcane reference to this in one of the errors). Can’t download it, “page not found.”

On the final attempt to get it from the Library to try again, error on the library side. Even though the book is checked out to me, too many attempts.

I understand the theory behind Digital Rights Management (DRM) in this setting. At this point, it’s more convenient to just go to the library and pick up the book physically and read it whenever and wherever I want.

Wait a minute, isn’t DRM failing in another consumer industry, too? Obviously, there are a lot more important things in the world to focus on, but as a huge fan of the libraries, I think a concerted effort should be made to have books as accessible as possible to the public. In essence, we are denying this vital resource to those who need it most.

Screen shot - cavalcade of convenience (click any to enlarge)

Okay, I have to say that I found this latest post from Mini-Microsoft amusing:

Mini-Microsoft: Microsoft’s 2008 - What’s Going Well?

On the one hand it says, “there’s less trash talk about Apple at Microsoft,” as something of a compliment to a different kind of behavior at Microsoft. Makes sense- trash talking your competition says more about you than them.

Then it cites Mac OS X Leopard as having a “blue screen of death and other failures.” Huh?

I think it might be useful to re-read what you wrote, mini. I have great respect for Microsoft and all it can do for computing. Do the same for your competition - if you compare the feelings for Leopard vs. Vista out there, there’s no comparison. Having just installed Vista myself on my MacBookPro, I have been more than amused (not really) with the overkill-UI-pop-up-for-every-action-you-want-to-perform-OS.

You’re not going to convince people about what Apple products mean to their customers. You’ve got a better chance of convincing people what Microsoft products mean to their customers because that’s where you can be an expert.. React by innovating. We’re all better off if you can empower more people to do better with technology.

Leopard is great - no doubt about it. The recent issues that have been caused by Quicktime changes (problems with Keynote playing movies, problems with Flash), illustrate the up/down side of a closed ecosystem. There have been a few of these problems lately. Luckily, the Apple support community is so rich that it’s easy to get answers quickly. Hats off to Apple, Inc. for that.

• Apple - Support - Discussions - QT 7.3.1 - no longer plays older movies … -
• Apple - Support - Discussions - I can no longer “Enable Flash” from the … -
• Adobe - Export - Helping to solve the problem of playing flash with the Quicktime player introduced with Quicktime 7.3.1 on Leopard
• SWF to Video Converter, Convert Flash to Video, Enjoy Flash on portable devices! -
• Adobe - Developer Center : Mobile learning: Adobe Captivate content on video iPod devices - Helping to solve the Quicktime_Flash problem introduced by Apple Quicktime 7.3.1
• Cupcakes Take The Cake: NYC Cupcake Wars: Buttercup vs. Little Cupcake -
• New York cupcake rationing averted | Travelog | Guardian Unlimited -

Apple - Get a Mac - Watch The TV Ads

“PR Lady” is great.

It felt really smart all of a sudden….

Doesn’t this make your heart skip a beat? It does, because it looks possible.

It’s from http://i7.tinypic.com/5z6vt4n.jpg

This isn’t going to be a multipage exhaustive review as will and has already popped up elsewhere. Just one person’s experience with the new Apple Computer operating system. And really without hesitation, and even with a healthy dose of skepticism, the executive summary is : incredible, a huge leap forward.

Installation: Completely trouble free. Followed all of the directions, even to go outside for a bit (went to the gym) while the system upgraded. Came back just as the OSX Universe was officially expanding and I logged in to the new system. Plugged in my external hard drive and it became the Time Machine disk.

Finder and basics: Apple took a bunch of little time sinks and got rid of them. And they work. Stacks get you quickly to what you’re looking for without a lot of churning. In the stack, you can manipulate the file, look at it, move it around. Spaces took me about 10 minutes to figure out and now I get it. This space is for Web browsing. That space is for mail and calendaring. Assigning these applications to the right space keeps the visual overhead low, just as advertised. Little things like the front most window changing appearance enough to cue you to it’s front status are great. At one point in the first time-machining, the Finder began to behave strangely so I did quit and restart it once, and all has been well since then.

Mail and iCal: Again, these two are improved to add the next level of efficiency. One thing I spent a while with was the to-do feature. There’s now a lot of integration between the two programs, but it’s not very well documented, and a little tricky. Store to-do’s on the mail server or on your mac? How does that work and what’s the real difference? Some test to-do’s I set up didn’t seem to “stick” in Mail. I’m hoping for an update at least in documentation. It looks very helpful, though. RSS reading comes to Mail as well.

Safari: I’m prepared to make this my default browser (away from Firefox). I flipped the switch on that choice. We’ll see how it goes. It’s so cool to see the machine go to a different space when a Web page is fired up.

Other goodies - Apple’s team knows about downloading files from browsers. They ALSO know about PDF-ing receipts from Web purchases (how did they know I do that? :)), and actually have a quick way to PDF a Web receipt and put it in its own folder from Safari. All of this is possible from the Mac’s reliance on PDF as the graphics engine of the system. It all comes together. The dots are connected.

In short, this is what an operating system should be - an evolutionary improvement in computing, in ways that make a difference. As usual, the computing experience that accompanies this system is not just manageable, it’s enjoyable.

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