What is the Apple OS doing on Dell’s Website

OK, I’m aware that Dell wanted Apple to license OS X for Dell systems. An offer I thought Apple has turned down. Now I go to the Dell site to look up Drivers for a Latitude D820. Bless my stars what is the first OS I see listed there? Apple Mac OS! What is this about? Mac OS is not on Dell boxes to my knowledge and won’t be on Dell boxes in the near future right? Is this an error? A joke? Signs of things to come? Have Jobs broken down and allowed OS X to flow on non Apple hardware?This is just plain odd. Perhaps Dell is trying to force Apple’s hand, create a stir, drive up traffic to their site or some employee decided to have the last laugh after being fired. The curious part of me is wondering what’s going on…

Gmaps Pedometer

I do a lot of walking these days. Mostly coz I’m stuck in an office all day and its nice to get some much needed fresh air as well as re-adjust my eyes to natural lighting. I also feel well rested after a long hike. Anyway, since this place is hilly and scenic I ten to go for miles and was wondering just how many more than a few times (2 miles? 3 miles, 4 miles?) Since I’m in the map making profession I was wondering if there was some way I could measure the distances on a map of some sort, sure I suppose I could do this in the office but I much rather do it at home. Enter Gmaps pedometer! I can measure my walk route, count calories that I burned, and even save the map if I want. I figured out that I was walking about 4.5 miles according to the “gped calculator.” Handy little tool… I have to try and map out my longer routes…

MacBook Ichimatsu

I couldn’t help but wink and nod when I saw this 2-toned Macbook keyboard online. Apparently, Kodawarisan, not only tore open their Macbooks to get a peek inside but took it to the next step by mashing two MacBook keyboards together from each color to create a single, 2-tone MacBook. Accordingly, the two set of keys feel different (of course due to the difference in materials). Apparently, the top of the keys of the white model is uneven while the top of the keys of the black model is smoother to the touch. I think it looks pretty cool and would be even cooler if the Macbook keyboard was illuminated as the MBP keyboards are. That would look pretty sweet.

The New Apple Cube

If you haven’t heard the big Apple news the last couple of days, a New Apple store on Fifth Avenue NYC was finally unveiled yesterday. It was the buzz, many people waited in line for hours and hours and even Steve Jobs showed up to check out his mug in the reflective glass door. One guy even took a moment to propose to his girlfriend (hope she said yes). People flew all the way from Scotland just to be there for the event. Gosh all the way from Scotland… I live in upstate NY and didn’t even give it a thought. Sure I like my Mac products very much but I’m just not the fan club member type. Besides the thought of standing in rain in NYC waiting in a long line just does not appeal to me in the least bit. I am glad though that there is an Apple store in the Big Apple and though it looks like a giant cube i’ll put it on my list of places to visit when I pop into the City this summer after the initial buzz have died down. Kinda interesting that the store uses reflective glass just as the new MacBooks are using glossy reflective screens don’t you think? BTW there is a nice review of the new MacBooks here. Why a cube though? I would have loved to see a gigantic Apple although you can sort of with that see through glass. Working there must be like being in a giant fish bowl though… Weird! Guess I have an excuse to go to NYC now… Gotta check this out.

13″ & No Dedicated Graphics

If you haven’t already heard the Macbooks are finally out. I knew that apple would skimp on something but did not believe that they would skimp on the graphics card or the screen for that matter. I was also hoping to get one of these sometime this year assuming I could find the funds but I would have to shell out $1500 for the high end model and I’m kinda still a bit annoyed that I would be stuck with 13″ of screen real estate and shared graphics. As a rule I don’t do machines with shared graphics. Now if they had dedicated graphics and say a 14″ screen or even a 15″ screen I would be smiling today. Now I’m thinking that I have to save up for that entry level MBP which means no Mac laptop for me this year. The glossy screen doesn’t bother me all that much although some folks are raising a stink about it. Knowing Apple they probably implemented this better than your average glossy HP or Sony laptop so I’m not so worried about that. I wouldn’t be surprised though if Apple release a few new models in the Fall though perhaps one with some dedicated graphics at the top of the chain. The other big thing with the new MBs is that they come in black or white. I would really have to see one of the black ones in the store coz from the pictures they remind me of the new Dells

Website Redo

I was getting kinda bored with the look of my website so I decided it was time for a redo. To help me in my endeavor I used the Blank White template from 11 Mystics and concocted my own links. The hardest part was having to redo my photos since I had a lot on there. I still need to port a few of my older photo albums but maybe I’ll stick to the photos I have up there now for a while. I realized that a dual monitor system would have been helpful here. Too bad my Mac Mini doesn’t have another graphics card in it for that sort of hookup. I suppose I might be able to get a splitter but with only 32 MB VRAM don’t know if it would be worth it all that much. That’s about all for now its getting late and I need to get some relaxing on while the night is still young.

ArcIMS Migration

For the past three days I’ve spent countless hours migrating from ArcIMS 4 to ArcIMS to 9.1. For those unfamiliar ArcIMS is the solution from ESRI for delivering dynamic maps and GIS data and services via the Web. Most mapping sites like Yahoo is using this software to serve maps to the internet. Basically ArcIMS allows an organization to:

• Deliver dynamic maps and data via the Web.
• Create easy-to-use, task-focused applications that use geographic content.
• Develop custom applications using industry-standard Web development environments.
• Share data with others to accomplish tasks.
• Implement GIS portals.

We basically use ArcIMS to allow Departments in the County and City to explore maps and information regarding parcels, zoning, streets, utilities, environmental health, election districts, construction projects, scenic resources and other geographic information.

The installation went fairly smooth and there were two of us doing the deed so moral support was at hand. We migrated to a brand spanking new server so we started clean. However, our troubles began after we copied over our sites and special codes from the old server to the new one. The web application display window would load empty content and we ended up tinkering with a bunch of settings and re-installing ArcIMS. As it turned out Win 2003 and IIS 6 did things a bit different than Win 2000 and IIS 5. The quirky thing was that the application display window worked fine in Firefox but not in Internet Explorer 6. Turns out that Internet explorer was sensitive to the URL of our output folder while Firefox was not. A little change and BAM our site was up and running. Thanks goes to or friend Mark from Fountains Spatial. The last thing was that we had to fix some issues with our Administrative backend. I have no idea what my Boss did after I left on Friday but that too seemed to have been fixed. All in all it was a good experience. Now I have to migrate a few applications to the new server and revamp the first page of our site as well as work on an application or two for public view.

SGI Chapter 11

I was a bit sad today to read that Silicon Graphics (SGI) is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. I remembered when my friends and I used to drool over the SGI 02 and displays. I actually remember them being the first company to showcase flat panel displays before they became popular. Also remember seeing SGI in the credits after watching Star Wars Episode I. Unfortunately, in recent years SGI have been offering a mixed bag of overpriced, Linux based workstations and Intel based supercomputers. That’s too bad coz they had some really cool looking computers and could have easily broken into the gamers market similar to what Alienware has done.

Watch full Episodes of Lost, Alias and other Shows for free from ABC

Starting today through June 30th, ABC is experimenting with streaming some of their prime-time shows on the web. Best of all it is free (at least for now). You will have to watch commercials as you do on regular TV but hey its free right this isn’t exactly ITMS. You’ll also have to watch these shows on your computer (I do anyway). ABC is streaming these shows via Flash video, so you can watch them on your Mac or PC (as long as you have Flash 8 installed). I tried it and it works pretty well so far.