Weather Widget Broken?

Has anyone else noticed that the weather widget isn't working with their MacBook Pro?

Laptop Bag

In a previous post I mentioned that my laptop bag wouldn't hold my laptop despite what the Timbuk2 site said. I wrote their customer support and got the full scoop. They redesigned the bag from the one I have and I was assured that the MacBook Pro will fit into the newer bags.

Front Row

Why is it that Front Row when started via iTunes to a shared iTunes list from another computer will play fine, but it won't look at machine otherwise (ie select it unless you are already there in iTunes)

Processors Run Cold

The hottest part of the MBP so far is the Airport card located under the left speaker. You can warm your hands on it, but I have yet to see the CPU fan come on, except when DVD ripping.

MacBook Pro First Impressions

I've been using the MacBook Pro (MBP) for almost two days now. I was up until 3 am last night playing with it and used it all day at work.
The Good
The screen is for lack of a better phrase, fucking awesome, at 30% is as bright as my 12 inch PowerBook. I've let auto adjust based on ambient room light and it seems to do a good job at picking the brightness level (at most two nudges in either direction) The thing to watch out for is don't rest your hands on the speakers as that is where the luminance sensors are and it will make adjustments as if it were dark. The extra pixels compared to the 12 are welcome, but would be pretty much the same as current 15 inch models so not much of a difference there.
Performance, this fucker is fast, applications come up quickly, and even when stressing the CPU by ripping a DVD the machine is responsive, no spinning anuses [thanks Matt] Eclipse launches and is ready to go in ten seconds, the Gimp will launch and be ready to run in under fifteen seconds. Using Handbrake to rip a DVD took about the same amount of time as when using my G4 1.5 PB, but this was done via Rosetta. The iLife apps are fast as well Garage Band is also ready in less than fifteen seconds.
Battery life seems good as well I'm going into my third hour running with the Airport on, Bluetooth connected to my phone constantly (via BluePhoneElite) with apps like Eclipse, Net News Wire, Mail, iChat, iTunes and a term or two open, with the "Normal" profile.
The Bad
Universal binaries are around for everything, I'm using a milestone build of Eclipse and for some reason the iPhoto to Flickr export doesn't work, though this may just be some random thing. Running stuff through Rosetta is certainly comfortable but I'd like to see the native performance boost. The angle of the iSight is also a bit strange. First off the angle that you'll be centered isn't the most natural screen position. Additionally the from the bottom up angle is never as flattering as the from above angle, the iSight's position just won't allow for it. Lastly the track pad is too big, my thumbs seem to activate it too often. I've never had this problem before in seven years of using a laptop daily, so this is unique to the MBP.
The Ugly
The MBP won't fit in my current laptop bag EVEN THOUGH they say it will on their site. The measurements don't match up. 13.75 x 10.25 x 1.25 for the bag and 14.1 x 9.6 x 1.0 means that it is too wide. right now I'm using the laptop pouch for the other stuff and keeping the MBP in the main pouch the bag is nicely lined and has decent padding but, I'd like to find one that fits.
The other ugly thing is the squeaking it makes from the crappy fit on the front left of the palm rest. You can see a movie of the squeaking

MacBook Pro

MacBook Pro
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

It's arrived! I'll try to answer any questions if you have some.

Fuck FedEx and Why There Aren't a Lot of Women Taxi Drivers

So obsessing about my the MacBook Pro that says it will arrive tomorrow according to the FedEx tracking site you can imagine my surprise when I looked at the tracking info at work this morning and the FedEx site said "Out for Delivery" So I did what any normal computer obsessed person would do, take a cab home.
This was the first time in my entire life that I've ever had a woman cab driver and if this woman was typical of the experience I now know why you don't see them more often. First of she didn't know how to get to my house, then she seemed to miss every light, when I finally realized that she only thought she knew how to get to my house, I had to guide her there. This would have been understandable except for the fact that I live at the intersection of a number street AND Independence Ave! To make matters worse the cab was heated to about 100 degrees and R&B was on the radio.
You can clearly figure out what happened next. When I got home I saw the door tag on the door noting that FedEx had already came and I missed them :-(

Worst of Both Worlds

It seems that the phone using world can be divided into three categories.

• Those with only a home phone


• Those with only a mobile phone


• Those with both a mobile phone and home phone

There seems to often be a some animosity between the mobile only phone users and the home only users, consisting of "What you don't have a mobile phone?" to "Why do you need to be in touch all of the time?"

Personally, I've come up with a new plan for myself. I'm going to treat my mobile phone as if it were a home phone and leave it at my house and only use it when plugged into the wall in my living room.

That way I get the worst of both worlds! Not using the phone away from home AND the shitty reception that comes along with using a mobile phone.

Please leave a message after the tone. Beep.

Stealing From Lonnie Bruner

I just got this in my inbox today:

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Let's Get It Started!
Gracing the cover of Blender Magazine this month is The Black Eyed Peas, who have mastered killer hooks and hip-hop fashion seemingly overnight. However, long before The Black Eyed Peas were funking with our hearts, they toiled in the L.A. underground scene for years, making their success only more bittersweet. Come help us open Merriweather Post Pavilion's summer season with one hot Saturday night dance party. Don'tcha wish all summer shows were like this?

Honda Civic Tour & Hot 99.5 Present
THE BLACK EYED PEAS
w/ Pussycat Dolls & Flipsyde
Saturday, April 22
5:30pm Gates

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and like the mention from the Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset blog I'd rather Lick the spot right above Danny Devito's butt crack. (Only if Devito was freshly showered). then go to this concert. Though I'd happily tolerate the "Warriors" if a black eight (or two) was involved.

Godwins Law Revisted

To anyone who has seen the newly released footage and still doesn't think the Administration is capable of covering up horrible atrocities, you are in denial.

Fucking St. Valentine

I'm usually pretty good at spotting spam by the subject line when cleaning my junk folder, but spam with the title "Fucking St. Valentine" warranted further investigation and it was worth it the following is the text of the message minus the link:

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What are you to do if you have bad erection? Especially
in the forthcoming Saint Valentines Day???
Don t worry, it is not the last of pea-time...
The most simple way is to visit our site, order the
medication and that is all you are to do!

Do not kill the clock!

---

Double Plus Good

Capitol Account Surplus == Trade Deficit

These guys are very good at double speak and framing the discussion.

Best Rude Pundit Opening Ever!

So, like, apparently the country pays attention whenever someone in the White House blows a load all over another person.

What Budget Does this Come From?

I certainly hope my taxes, which were sent to my accountant today, weren't used to pay for this ritzy Valentine's soiree

Also fuck, Chuck Norris.

What I Learned About Chinese Culture

There is a post on Boing Boing that discusses how easy it is to get mp3s from Yahoo China's search so I tried it and I realized that Chinese college students create just as shitty and overloaded with crappy animated .gifs and onload midi files as the fucking myspace people.

WTF?

English is my native language and as such I feel I have a pretty good command of it, but the following letter from Apple makes me question my reading comprehension skills. (I've emphasized the lines that conflict and hence confuse me)

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To Our Valued Apple Customer:


Today we announced that this week Apple will begin shipping the new 15.4-inch
MacBook Pro featuring the Intel Core Duo processor, a built-in iSight, Front
Row with Apple Remote and more. The reception of the MacBook Pro has been
tremendous and we are working hard to ship as many units as fast as possible.

Better still, prior to shipment we've improved the entire MacBook Pro family
with configurations starting at 1.83Ghz up to 2.16GHz. We have upgraded your
MacBook Pro from a 1.83GHz processor to a 2.0GHz processor at no additional
cost! We anticipate shipping your upgraded order by February 28, 2006.

To learn more about the most recent upgrades to the MacBook Pro family, please
visit http://www.apple.com/macbookpro. You might be interested to know that
Apple is offering an even faster processor - the 2.16GHz. This is a custom
configured option and is available for an additional charge.

If you decide you'd like to make a change to your upgraded MacBook Pro order,
we're happy to help. You may reach us at at 1-800-676-2775, Mon-Fri 7 am-10 pm
and 9 am-6 pm Sat-Sun (Central). Some change requests may extend your shipment
date slightly. If we do not hear from you by February 18th, we will ship the
MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo.

Our systems will reflect the change to your order by February 15. Please visit
http://www.apple.com/orderstatus for the
most up-to-date information on your upgraded order. A shipment notification,
with tracking information, will be emailed to you as soon as your order is
shipped.

Thank you very much for shopping at the Apple Store!

---

The tracking system of course says that my order will ship on the 15th.

The only thing I'm certain on now about shipping is that I got FUCKED

I Once Shot a Man

Just to watch him die

Even though I now know that it wasn't a bird, and instead a man, I would still shoot the man in the face again to bring democracy to the forest.


PS To the NRA, good example of how guns save people.
But she said, "The nature of quail shooting ensures that this will happen. It goes with the turf."

Topography of Terror

From We Make Money Not Art:

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"It is where we will deal with the question of how in 150 days, from January to June 1933, a democracy was turned into a totalitarian dictatorship that was able in that short time to subordinate all of the institutions of the state to its purpose," said Andreas Nachama, director of the Topography of Terror Foundation.

---

I wonder how long it will be before the US has to ask this question of itself?

Santorum You Frothy Devil You

Rick the behavior you were worried if same sex marriage was legalized happens among your own crowd.

Charging to Spam

People have recently got a lot of sand in their vaginas about AOL and Yahoo! discussing that they may accept payment for what is basically spam, from "legit" companies. This some how is supposed to stop people from getting a bunch of unwanted email because then only the paying customers will be able to send it. The rational for this whole thing is based on "it works for the postal system" Well I question that, my snail mail box at home is always filled with crap, tons of crap. Crap that ranges from ads from the local Safeway which go right to the recycling bin to credit card offers to mortgage refinance offers to insurance offers to cards from real estate agents to letters for dental services to my personal favorite the letter I get from some crazy church (redundant I know) that send me, for lack of a better term, trinkets that I am supposed to "pray on" and mail back, once just for fun I tried it. I prayed on the "prayer rug" (actually a piece of paper) and as directed I wrote my wish in the middle (In this case the legalization of marriage for all people gay or straight) and "seeded" it with some money (a nickel) and you know what, that shit didn't work, but I digress. The point I was trying to make was I get all of this offers in the mail, that people PAY to send me and I don't fucking do anything with them except recycle, shred or if really entertaining, mail shit back but only as a joke. The last thing I would ever do is actually buy something from these people! So please companies that want to use Yahoo! and AOL to this don't because it won't work and rather than sending back your business reply envelope with toe nail clippings and whatever random stuff I find on the way home. I can be a lot more creative with your emails because I know some computer things.

Open Letter

Dear Magazine Publishers,

I subscribe to exactly three magazines, by subscribe I mean that I paid for a subscription to your magazine where in you send me a flimsy book once a month or in the case of Make once a quarter. The magazine you send me is usually filled with a few things about one third is ads, about one third is writing I find interesting and about one third is stuff I could give a shit about, and about one third (I know, I know the math doesn't add up here but the last third isn't really part of the magazine so fuck off) is filled with little cards that fall out cause a general mess and make the magazines open to the same few pages every time and making thumbing through them impossible. I get it, you want people to subscribe to your magazine so that you will have a large reader base and you can sell ads, that makes sense, but for fuck's sake. I ALREADY have a subscription I payed my money to make your ad sales team happy so please, please, please, please don't fill MY magazine with these things. All of the magazines are tech magazines and if someone sees them and would like to subscribe I'll send them to your website, but until you stop doing this I'm declaring war! And I'm going to mail back all of those cards to you blank! Ha!

Sincerely,
DC Dan

DC Dan Contest

So my MacBook Pro is supposed to ship within a week! Though I am a bit distraught as to what to name it. I was using the seven deadly sins as a naming convention but that has been played though and I'm growing tired of it. I'm looking for a new naming theme and I'm taking suggestions. This is not something to be taken lightly and it will involve updating the names of all of my various electronics.

• Server, an eMac, currently "envy"


• MacBook Pro, currently unamed


• iPod mini, currently "pride"


• PSP, currently "larry"


• Phone, currently "kareem"


• My Airport Express meshed network, currently "lust" though changing that will be a PIA so it will not be named but bonus points will be assigned if lust can be cleanly integrated into the new theme.


• Room for new gadgets and goodies

The winner, if there is one, will get some DC Dan Merchandise and a page on my site in their honor.

Keeping with the tradition of Brit Milah or Bris for you Easterners. I will announce the name of my new computer eight days I receive it and it has been circumcised (in this case covered properly with stickers)

I Fear for the Future

I've spent some time looking at You Tube and My Space and I fear for the future for a few reasons. The first is that this will be the first generation where all of the stupid shit you said when you were sixteen will be perpetually recorded but also the essence of the shitty website with sound that runs in the background and the layout is confusing and frightening and happens more than it should.

16 More Days!

Valentine's Day

This was on Life Hacker today:

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Troubled reader Liz writes in:

I'm having a hard time coming up with something to give/do for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day. Guys may complain about all the pressure put on them for Feb 14 but I think that it is harder to be the girl. You want to do something special without being too mushy. You want to get the right gift, but it's just not as easy as finding something for a girl. (I mean, you can't just do flowers and/or jewlery and/or chocolate for guys.)
What do you guys recommend?

Guys and gals alike: what are you getting/doing for your SO this Valentine's day, or even better, what would you like to get/do? (I'm suspecting there are a lot of women out there who would rather get something other than flowers and chocolate for once.) Let us know in the comments, or send an email to tips at lifehacker.com.

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Since I can't comment on Life Hacker, here is my advice to Liz, give your boyfriend a six pack and a blow job and he will be more than happy and I assure you he and all of his friends will thing you are the best girlfriend ever.

Does Google Censor the US Results Too?

From google.az:

From google.co.uk

The Boing Boing post on Google censorship today; got me to
wondering if Google censors US results.
I've posted the screen shots below for a search of "Karl Rove"
7,100,000 in the US, 13,800,00 in Azerbaijan and 12,900,000 in the UK.

From google.com:

From google.az:

From google.uk:

Quote

"Let us never forget the sacrifices of America's military families." (applause) -- George W. Bush, State of the Union, Jan. 31, 2006

Unless they are people like Cindy Sheehan who will be arrested.