Leopard Woes? Not for me
A quick search for OS X Leopard Problems will leave one feeling as though Leopard is filled with holes and bugs. While there is much that is shiny and new in Leopard, My findings after a month of use do not indicate any of these issues. In fact, I have only three complaints, and they are minor UI issues.
I am certainly happy that my experience has not gone the way of this man’s: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2223921,00.asp
Bill
Linux, WPA and wpa_supplicant
So… I have an older Apple Titanium PowerBook G4 500 with an AirPort card built in. It seems like a perfect machine for me to run Linux on, so I installed Ubuntu 6.06. Everything ran great… except for the AirPort card! It seems that Ubuntu does not support Apple’s original AirPort card (which really is just a basic Lucent WaveLAN card)... Bummer…. So I download and install Yellow Dog 4.1... They claim to support Apple Hardware in particular… but to my surprise WPA is not an option. How can it be that Linux, oh so secure Linux, can not support WPA without some additional add in. Why is it not built into the way the OS handles wireless? WEP is there but not WPA… not without wpa_supplicant. How can this be?
Well… My ideas for a nice simple linux laptop for browsing the web are gone. I am not going to to extra work for this thing… I will install OS X 10.4 and call it good.
Long time… no see
Well… It sure has been a while since I have posted. Much has happened so I will use this post a a catch-up. First and foremost, school is out for the summer! For me and Becca both! That is exciting news because it means that we can sail and hang out together again. Second, Becca and I will be working together next year! She has gotten a job as the Upper School Social Studies teacher at the school where I have been for the past several years. I have a new computer. My trusty 1GHz PowerBook G4 failed me last month The Hard Drive is bad, but this being the second major failure in the last 6 months… I began to feel that I needed a machine I could rely on, so I purchased a PowerMac G5 Dual Core 2.3 GHz, 4.5 Gigs of RAM, and a 30” display. Oh yeah… Apple Care too! (With the help of a friend at Apple I was able to get the whole thing for less than $4200) Last… We finally got our boat back from Seaview East. This is a long story but one which I will tell in a separate post.
A Simple Rails Setup?
I have been looking for a simple and effective way to setup and manage Ruby on Rails without fear of a simple update breaking everything. It seems that James Duncan Davidson has been too. Here is his solution.
http://duncandavidson.com/essay/2006/04/portsandbox
New Computer Time
So… My PowerBook died again… Last week RIP. This time it will not be resurrected. I find that I simply can not trust it to not do this again. I mean this will be the 3rd time in the last 6 or so months that it has catastrophically failed me. So… This week I am purchasing a Dual- Core 2.3GHz G5 tower, and a 30” display to go with it. That is right… I am moving to a desktop system for the first time in over 10 years. Yeah… I have had desktops before.. but for the last 10 years, a laptop of one sort or another has been my primary machine. Now it is time to change that. I can get a lot more computer for the money if I go desktop. And… I will pony up the $100 and buy a cheap HD for the PowerBook so that I can still have a mobile machine for the times that I do need one. But my primary machine will be the G5.
“G5!! Why???” you say… Intel Macs are here… and they are the future.
Simple… I need a machine that will run all of my software that I have right now… and it must do it well. Since Photoshop is my one of the primary apps that I use, and Adobe will not support the Intel Macs until they release CS3 later next year… well.. the answer is pretty simple. G5 for me.
Then… when I am ready to go down the Intel Road, the G5 will replace this trusty iMac G4 as the server in the house.
