Steve Speak

ComputerWeekly just named Steve Jobs the greatest IT person of all times. He even beat out Bill Gates, who came in 3rd. Many will think this is just silly, but really… read the article. I think it is a well deserved honor. While he had a LOT of help… without his vision and drive, much of what we now know in the the IT world would not exist, or probably be greatly delayed.

ComputerWeekly article

My only question… where is my name?

I just ran across this article on Apple’s security problems. From the press lately, you’d think the sky was falling. Thankfully, John Welch has written this excellent article on what this really means, and some tips to help protect yourself. To sum it up, no, the sky isn’t falling chicken little. I especially liked the idiots who added a 3rd party wifi card to a MacBook, and then hacked it (so that makes what? one MacBook like this in the entire universe?… what dorks.)

http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193001536

This week, I was a bit bummed about some issues Apple has been experiencing with their new MacBook Pro and MacBook models. It turns out that some manufacturing problems have lead to CPUs running hot (due to thermal paste application issues), and some problems with fan bearings. In one case, some plastic was left covering the back vents.

It became personal when I ran into the fan issue on the MacBook Pro that was issued to me at my job (YAY!). I ended up having to take it into the Apple Store to be repaired, and am currently awaiting its return. It’s not a big issue, mind you. Though, any day away from a new Mac can be quite traumatic (as any Mac user can attest).

However, I found that things could certainly be a lot worse. Sure, Apple has a problem now and then, but they are generally very good about fixing problems. And even with the problems, their products are still on par, or superior in quality to just about anything else on the market.

Case in point… I wonder how much press Dell will get compared to Apple on this one?

This photo is from the following article:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

The laptop was apparently set up at a conference table, when it ‘exploded’ into flames. Good thing it wasn’t on someone’s lap. Think about that the next time you’re sitting on the couch surfing the web! Yikes!

Now I’m certainly not saying that non-Apple laptops explode or burst in flames on a regular basis (not counting the Windows OS in a figurative sense, which happens VERY often). But, the types of issues Apple users tend to see are not uncommon at all with other higher end vendors, and very mild compared to the lower priced brands PC users are quick to refer to when comparing to Apple.

So, I’ll not complain too much about a bit of bearing noise in a fan… and a week away from the new little Mac… sniff, sniff. And even though Apple is getting quite a bit of press on ‘issues’ with their new laptop line… we just have to put it all into perspective.

It has been about a week now since Apple released the new MacBook. Apple has now almost completed the transition of its entire computer line over to Intel CPUs. I have now been an Apple user for two major chip architecture changes, and one complete OS transition. I have friends who could add a tick to both columns, though I joined the Apple fan club with the Macintosh. Meanwhile, my Wintel friends have endured maybe 1 such transitions (if they are old enough to have used DOS extensively.)

Sure, Apple has a way to go yet until some of the foundational applications are once again transitioned to what is called Universal Binary this time. But, as I said… we Apple faithful have been through this one before. Things are coming together quickly.

However, in reading some of the articles and forums the last month or so, it is very clear to me that many people just do not understand Apple’s position or what is going on in the industry. I have read so many comments that I will summarize into the following comment…

“Wow, Apple finally woke up and switched to Intel. They started using USB instead of FireWire and have even created Boot Camp to run Windows. Why don’t they just give up, dump OSX too, and go Windows like the rest of the world.”

Considering such attitudes or variations there of abound… (sometimes something similar even from Mac users!… sans dump OSX of course)… I thought maybe a bit of a history lesson and dose of reality is in order.

First, and most importantly, we need to put this transition to Intel into perspective. This is MUCH more a case of Intel finally waking up, than it is Apple. However, it really is a win-win situation, and there are some very good reasons why Apple has done this. However, despite popular opinion, performance is not the main thing Apple gains.

To put the performance issue to rest, I’ll share some Cinebench scores I collected from various web sites around the Internet of different processors. I’m using Cinebench as it is a real-world type of benchmark that truly pushes the CPU. It is also able to use multiple CPUs and is fairly well optimized to each hardware platform it runs on. I personally use ElectricImage Animation System, and have seen similar results there as well for rendering, but no such ‘benchmark’ type application exists for it.

Anyway… on to the data:

G5 MP 2.7 – 701

G5 MP 2.5 – 656

Xeon MP 3.4 – 643

MacBook Pro 2.16 – 626

MacBook Pro 2.0 – 575

MacBook 2.0 – 550

Pentium4 3.0 GHz – 347

As you can see, I have arranged them in order from fastest to slowest (ie: higher number is better). You can see that the G5 processor is king of the hill. IBM has really done a great job with this chip. That, of course, is why Apple went that direction several years back.

We can also guess that if we had a dual P4 system, that we might get close to the G5 systems… as 2×347 = 694. However, you can’t generally just double the single to get the dual, as some efficiency is lost in the process. I would guess a dual P4 wouldn’t be that much different than the dual xeon.

Apple had said Intel was going the wrong direction with the P4 architecture, and Intel has finally realized this. They have gone back more in the direction of the Pentium Pro, and introduced multiple cores and some other great stuff for the Duo Core line.

Now, yes, there ARE some AMD and Intel systems out there that have been custom built up and tweaked to perfection which will score higher than these two G5 systems. However, Apple has a Quad 2.5 GHz G5 system that will take out all but 1 or 2 very extreme AMD based systems on any of the benchmark sites I have seen.

My point being, that Apple didn’t mainly make the transition to Intel for performance. Then why did they switch? The following is somewhat speculation, but I’m pretty sure it is sound speculation.

The biggest reason is likely the supply chain and that Intel is dedicated to CPUs. In the past, Apple has always picked the BEST technology, but often at the expense of what is best in an overall business picture. If you are following the news, Apple was looking at some other processor options that might have been even better than the Intel move technologically… but could they deliver… on time, and in quantity? This is something Intel is very good at. Apple wanted to be certain that if they went through all this trouble to change architectures, they would be in the most solid place possible.

Second, this puts Apple lock-step in line with the Wintel market. Never again will the Wintel market be able to get goofed up over thinking their boxes are faster because they only know how to read the MHz label. If the machines use the same processors… then it comes down to who has the better OS and hardware design… something Apple has always been best at.

Apple is also very good at implementing new technology quickly. This means that Apple will probably have the very latest and best of what Intel produces into their systems and to market before many of the PC makers. The Duo Core chips are an example. Apple beat many of the Wintel makers to market by quite some time with their machines based on these CPUs.

Lower power was another huge factor for Apple. It has been no secret that while Apple has the best laptops on the market, they were starting to lag behind on raw CPU power by a bit. OSX kind of helps make up for this (as I’m sometimes amazed at all the things I have running on my 1.33 GHz Powerbook at one time, and it is still silky smooth), but at some point, they needed faster chips. IBM just didn’t seem to be motivated to make a low power G5.

Compatibility? Well, I suppose this might be kind of an ‘icing on the cake’ type factor. It certainly doesn’t hurt. Now PC users can confidently buy the Apple hardware they have been drooling over for years… and even run Windows on it if they want to do so. Also, Apple users can run Windows full speed when their companies write stupid apps that only run on Windows. And, by this, Apple gains somewhat of a Trojan Horse. No, not the virus kind… but more of a real one. If Windows users leave Mac OSX on their machines, they might use it some. Once they do for a bit… there ain’t no way they are going back.

So, I submit that these folks claiming Apple has finally woken up just don’t know what they are talking about. Just like all the folks who have been saying Apple will go out of business any day now… or those who have said Apple stock isn’t worth buying, etc.

Apple has always pioneered technology. Just consider this list of technologies that Apple has either pioneered, or has been a very early adopter:

GUI (yep… I’m old enough to have been laughed at by DOS users for my ‘pretty’ computer)
Mouse (yep… was laughed at for that too… the DOS folks though no one would ever be using those)
Laser Printer
PDA (remember the Newton anyone?)
Digital Camera
Wireless (at least made popular – Airport)
On-line music purchase

Got rid of floppy (well… I guess the Wintel crowd is having some trouble with this one…)
Made USB popular (yep… PCs might have had them first, but no one was really using them until Apple started.)

Oh, and BTW… Apple has not switched from Firewire to USB. All the Macs I know still have FireWire on them. FireWire is a vastly superior technology to USB for moving data, and is considerably faster. I use my FireWire port just as much as I use my USB ports for peripherals.

Apple has been QUITE awake all these years. Hopefully the Wintel users will start waking up one of these days and get with the program.

Yes my friends, the time has come to be vigilant for low flying pigs.

Why you ask? Well listen closely… very closely.. cause I’m only going to say this once. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer said something that I actually agree with. Gasp! Ekk! Did I really just say that?

Now, in case you haven’t been following along, it is really no secret that I don’t have a lot of love for Microsoft. Not only have they laid waste to the technology industry for decades now, but they have some (P.C. mode) kinda goofy (/P.C. mode) characters heading the company up. One of these would be ‘monkey boy’ Steve Ballmer. Think I’m being too harsh? You be the judge:

http://www.ntk.net/media/dancemonkeyboy.mpg

Anyway… I’m reading the tech headlines, as I typically do, and I run across this article that frankly, I can’t disagree with to any great extent.

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/72412

What is going on here. First the the iPod packaging experiment leaks out of M$. Then, Steve Ballmer is saying things that actually make some sense? Things are getting scary in Redmond.

He recognizes that the keyboard and mouse aren’t going to go away, though other input methods will advance. I have to give him a lot of credit for admitting this, especially after the fuss that was made over Origami. (see my previous blog)

He also talks about Google’s key not being the search engine, but the business model. Who can argue with that? You have to make a decision between good and evil at some point. I’m glad he recognizes this. (See my friend Mark’s great article on this topic.)

But, what really caught my attention, is what he said about the future of the iPod. It’s no secret that Ballmer is more than just a bit jealous of the success of the iPod. In a March 29, 2006 article in Fortune magazine, when asked if he used an iPod, he said, “No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children–in many dimensions they’re as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.”

The key in the current article, however, is that he sees something that Apple might want to wake up to REAL quick. Ballmer said, “Portable music is not limited to iPods.” So far, Apple’s strategy seems to be in keeping the music limited to the hardware. I, along with Ballmer, think this trend isn’t going to last all that much longer. The problem isn’t really the iPod itself, but how the music is locked to it.

For example, other than using up some gift certificates I was given at the iTunes Music Store, I won’t buy more music there. I love the experience. I love the convenience. I love technology in general. I love the iPod! But sooner or later people will wake up to the reality of what they are being sold. Unlike the normal CD in the store, you get a lower quality version that is locked to the hardware Apple (or the music industry) will allow you to play it on.

I put a nice car stereo in my Miata. It can play MP3 and AAC tracks. Can it play what I buy from the iTunes Music Store? Nope… not without a bunch of quality loss. Up until a few months back, I was able to use a great program called JHymn to free my purchases to play on my car stereo. But, with iTunes v6 the party is over. What I buy is once again locked to my computer. Sorry, but that is not good enough for me… especially at the 99 cents per track price. If it were 25 to 50 cents… I might be interested in a lower quality version. But at full price, I’ll just buy the CDs.

But, I can’t just blame Apple here. It really is the fault of the music industry, as well as a society seriously lacking morals. These two forces are locked in an opposing battle, and it is us honest consumers who get burned. Some want to steal and distribute the music while the music industry doesn’t have the ability (or wherewithal) to catch the real offenders. So, we end up with the sad world of DRM. And, if you think any of this is bad… I think you ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait a couple years when DRM invades just about every facet of your interaction with TV, movies, music, and phone. It might be enough to make us just want to ‘pull the technology plug’, so to speak.

There seems to be a lot of media excitement over the new M$ Origami product, but after reading some of the articles, I began to wonder how big of a deal it really is. In a Wired article I read this morning Microsoft’s Itty-Bitty Computer, Bill Mitchell, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile Platforms Division said, “”It really opens up new possibilities for PC use.”

Hmm… I started to think about this. I began to imagine having such a device, back to my Palm or even Apple Newton days. I thought about trying to use my PowerBook without a keyboard. About the only use I could think of for such a thing would be stuff like light web browsing, artistic sketch apps, and custom input applications designed for touch screen.

I guess there is some merit in the above. Palm OS focused on the vertical market of custom input type applications, and had some success in medical areas and such. But they did this many years ago, and the popularity hasn’t been picking up from what I can tell. Will a bigger screen really help? The down side, is that you can’t slide it in your pocket like you could a Palm V.

I kind of like my little Treo 650 phone we use at work, but I can slip it in a belt case, and it does all my mobile functions to some degree. I can, very slowly granted, take some notes on it. It is my cell phone. I can get e-mails and browse in a limited way. I can use custom apps. But to me, the key is that it is integrated into my phone which I have to carry anyway. If it were trying to replace my PowerBook, I’d dump it out of frustration in an instant.

As I do 3D, it does peak my curiosity about its possible use in the artistic field. I can’t sketch to save my life, but I know many designers who would love to have a digital sketch tablet. It might be a good device for such applications in this market.

But, for the average current computer user, I think they will more immediately be frustrated with it rather than find it ‘the next big thing.’ Again, imagine your average daily computer use with no keyboard. You can surf some sites to read the news or look up movie times, but you would have a hard time, say writing to your blog. How about responding to an e-mail, using IM, or responding to posts in a web forum?

If there is a market for such a device, I think it is with the more average person on the street, who is not really a computer user. They don’t really care for using Word and Excell. They don’t do a lot of input to the web or e-mail. They mainly want a ‘hip’ gadget to carry around and maybe pull up a map, check the weather, read some news, play a game while sitting on the bus, or surf the web before going to bed. For these things, it might be a kind of cool device, but it is hardly the first such device. It is kind of big, heavy, and clunky compared to its competition. Its main selling factor, which seems to be ‘runs M$ Windows’ is largely irrelevant for the purposes listed above.

So, I believe that it is a portion of the market for future computer use. M$ will no doubt talk naive users into believing having Windows is an important feature to have. But, I hardly see this as a breakthrough, or as Bill Mitchell says, ‘opening up new possibilities.’

What I do hope comes out of this, if anything, is to push an acceleration of free wireless everywhere. The key to having such devices is the idea that where ever their users take them, they will be able to pull them out, and be web connected. If it helps expand that, I’ll give it a big hurray, while I enjoy real computer use with my ever so slightly larger PowerBook or MacBook.

That is the question I have to ask of all the media hype over this new trojan horse type attack on OSX the last couple days.

http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cultofmac/index.blog?entry_id=1415489

I wrote a response to this article as follows:

From article: “One more thing: there was talk a while back that Apple’s move to Intel chips would make the platform more susceptible to malware like this.”

First… Can you explain how Apple’s move to Intel chips would make the platform more vulnerable? Such comments show little knowledge of the difference between hardware and OS. Get a clue folks!

Second… This so called ‘first’ OSX virus is not the first attempt at OSX of this kind, as others pointed out. ANY OS would be open to this kind of attack, and probably always will be. Heck, I can write a shell script that will erase your hard drive… send it to you and tell you to run it. If you are naive enough to do that, then I will succeed. If an OS/computer did not have this ability, it would be pretty useless for 95% of users.

OSX is certainly not immune to a virus attack, but is less susceptible than Windows in many ways. Maybe one day us OSX users will have be afraid, but currently, this is just a bunch of media propaganda. (Probably jealous people who didn’t buy Apple stock.)

-Steve

**********

I guess I have to ask the question again. Is this just naive hysteria? Or, is it a malicious attempt to rain on Apple’s parade because of jealousy over failure to purchase stock? Or, maybe it is Jealousy from poor souls with Windows boxen attacked from every angle, who wish they would have bought a Mac instead. My guess is that deep down, it is probably the latter.

Update – Feb 22: Another article with a bit more sense on this ‘sky is falling’ media rage:

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70257-0.html

Just a quick update. Trixie spent a couple weeks in the shop getting all dried out, carpets cleaned, and enzyme treatments applied. I also changed all the fluids (transmission, differential, oil and filter, coolant, etc.) All seems fine now. Yay!

It is great to have Trixie back, and we’re looking forward to more adventures. This summer, she might get to make a trip to Yosemite. Stay tuned…

First, we hear that GM is having problems and cutting back. Now, about a month later, we hear the same or worse news from Ford. Huge cuts and changes affecting tens to hundreds of thousands of employees.

I feel very bad for these folks. While in my field, IS/IT, jobs can be had just about anywhere, the same is not true for auto workers. Many towns literally revolve around the plants located in or near them. This will ultimately affect more than just those who work at the plants getting shut down. They might even take whole towns down with them. NPR had a worker on who was just moved from one state where a plant closed, now he is facing the same thing again… even IF he could get moved to a plant in yet another state.

One has to ask how this could happen. Sure, the American auto makers are competing on a global scale now. But, many of these companies now own some of the foreign car makers, or have partnerships on many of the models. The problem is much deeper than that.

I typically am not a big fan of unions. My story on this goes back to personal experience within my family while growing up, watching how the union interacted with my father’s work situations. Then, I had more direct interaction with a couple of the large national unions on a project I worked on later in life. They have become very self-interested entities that I believe are out of control in many ways. Yet, even the UAW hit it square on the head on NPR today. Ford had simply not kept up with the times on what people want to buy. BINGO!

I still come back to the question of, how and why??? If just about every person in the country can figure it out… and has had it figured out for several years… how can highly paid people who have for their primary job watching the industry mess up so badly? I just can’t fathom the stupidity of it. Sorry I can’t be more diplomatic about it…. but it is just that, stupidity!

How long have gas prices been going up? How long have we known people were beginning to become more aware of the environment? How long have other companies like Honda and Toyota had hybrid models? How long has flack been growing against the popularity of SUVs?

I suppose SUV sales haven’t drastically declined until the super high gas prices of the last year or two. But, couldn’t they see this coming? Again, I just don’t understand. If I were the share holders of these companies, I’d clean house of all the upper management. You could hardly pick worse people to run things. Heck, just go randomly pick folks walking down the street and they are likely to have better judgment for what the market wants and needs.

I really hope one day the American car companies ‘get it’. America is a country that seems to be able to be on top of technology in any area that we put our minds to it. The auto industry should be no exception. American autos have come a long way on build quality, and the workers should be proud of that. But the workers and unions can’t do a lot about poor design, market research, and planning. This time, the fault falls squarely on the management… shame on them!

Well Christmas and the Holiday season were going nicely this year… busy but I got some actual time off and I was really enjoying that. I’m certainly behind in my posting and editing the Intelligent Design article I had planned. But, 2005 went out in a bit of a wild way here in the Bay area. We got rain… lots of rain! It was the start of a rather different New Years event than I have experienced before.

I had come home around midnight from a day playing Gran Turismo 4 with a friend and parked Trixie (hey… you folks didn’t come up with a better name… don’t you feel bad now?) in her usual parking spot on the street curb by our apartment.

About 4am on Dec 31st, we were woken by doorbell and pounding on our door. Fortunately, it was a neighbor who had got up for some reason and noticed that things were being flooded. At the time, there was no water in our actual parking lot, but street was beginning to flood. Several of us ran to our cars to get them out of the street… the parking between our buildings is space limited, but on a bit higher ground.

Well, soon we realized that it was coming up into that area too, but the street would have been over Trixie’s dash for sure! As the water level got higher, we soon realize that our cars might still be in trouble… but there was no where else to go. Then we began to be concerned about our actual apartments. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor, but many of our neighbors were in possible trouble. We were house sitting the 1st floor apartment below us.

We watched the water level closely and it crept up steps, step by step. It was about 1 inch from invading the 1st floor apartments, when it stopped rising. It slowly began to drop. Some people had actually started to move 1st floor things to 2nd floor. We were all pretty tired from the excitement, yet no one could sleep as it was still raining, but it had slowed for sure.

In a couple hours, the water had dropped another inch or so, and it was beginning to get light. We could see more damage at this point and debris floating around. We were certainly lucky compared to many others in our community who lost homes, business, and lots of cars. I think 170 businesses in San Anselmo were badly damaged or destroyed. I heard a number of $50 million in damage being mentioned in this small town while I was out the other day.

Trixie did take some damage. There is about 2 inches of height difference between the door sill of the Miata and our Civic. The Civic was fine, but the Miata got an Inch or so of water on its floor. It initially started fine, but after driving a bit, wasn’t running so well, and the engine and ABS lights are on. I’m hoping after it is dried out, it is just something simple like water splashed in the spark plugs, or O2 sensor and brake pad sensors for ABS. Time will tell… she is at the shop now.

So, while this is not the start to the New Year I had been hoping for, I still have to be thankful for what we have. It could have been MUCH worse. Gave us just a small glimpse into what so many have gone through over this last year. Let’s hope this year is much better for the world in regard to natural disasters.

Here are some photos I snapped when it got light out. It was at least 3 inches higher at its peak level… maybe more.