mtnsloth’s posthaven

The Pogo Sketch stylus is a major disappointment . . . or at least it has made a poor first impression with me. I will give it a few more days, and see if my opinion changes. The following sample was again made using Penultimate on an iPad:

Ryan Block has been covering technology for about 7 years. Some of you may remember him as an Engadget reporter and later its editor-in-chief. I hope that those of you with a passion for gadgets and consumer technology are aware of (if not actively using!) gdgt.com - a site that Ryan and Peter Rojas (the founder of Engadget) started about a year and a half ago. While he may have missed covering the rise of the iPod, Ryan is in a far better position than most to appreciate both the importance of Steve Jobs to Apple's current success as well as the bigger picture when it comes to Apple.

Thus, I was pleased to see a very thoughtful piece by Ryan in the gdgt newsletter, and it is worth a read by anyone interested in the Steve Jobs and Apple saga. The following portion of his post is a take that seems to be missing from too many of the "Oh my god! Without Steve - Apple is doomed!" stories that I've seen over the last two days:

So when you think about it, it actually kind of makes sense why Apple -- now the second wealthiest company in the country -- has no formal succession plan for its CEO. Succession has become endemic. For the nearly fifteen years since his return, Steve's worked to prepare Apple to avoid the mistakes of the past, stock leadership and board members loyal to his way of thinking and doing business, show the bad apples the door, and demonstrating to everyone at the company how the company ought to operate with or without him.

I think at this point it's probably safe to say that the plan has worked, because if it hadn't there would be simply no way Apple could function at the speed, scale, and depth that it does today. And whether investors like it or not, there's an inevitability to the fact that sooner or later someone else will be the CEO of Apple, someone with their own ideas and vision for the company -- but they'll always be living in Steve's house.

Living in Steve's House

I encourage anyone with two minutes to spare to read Ryan's article.

Sad news. Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from Apple for health reasons. For those of you with medical questions (and limited access to a physician), I recommend the lead story on Tech News Today on the TWiT.tv network.

The pre-order from preferred EA partners expried on January 11.  It included 4 in-garme items, a bonus character and a bonus mission. A year ago, I would have gotten this deal on Steam.  Now EA is trying to break Steam's dominance in on-line sales, and the package wasn't available on Steam.

The Pre-order for Dragon Age II showed up on Steam today, and what did it include?  Just a shield and a sword.  So half the items, no character and no bonus DLC.  Screw you, Bioware/EA!  I'm not pressing that pre-order now button.

Think I'll wait for the super-saver version.  I may not get to play Dragon Age II this spring; but by waiting I'll pay less than half price, and probably get all the DLC for free to boot. 

Just a quick note that Amazon has a deal on 12 month Xbox LIVE Gold membership cards.  The deal is only for the version that ships inside a plastic with some dead tree.  It is NOT for the Online Game Code version.  While it should almost go without saying, this is NOT the Family Pack version either - just the Individual version.  It can be used to create a new individual membership or to extend an existing membership.

Oh!  How good is the deal?  $39.99 instead of the usual $59.99.  Now get moving! 

UPDATE (1/17) - - Amazon's deal appears to be over. There is a third-party selling the cards for $49 now. Buyer be ware!

First there was the leaked Yahoo! slide that listed the status of del.icio.us as "sunset". The delicious team were among those laid off by Yahoo. Then the tech-blogosphere went nuts. I know I retweeted the news.

The sense of incredulity and indignation was best summed up in a Tweet by Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies):

    US: You own 2 GIANTS of social media & Web 2.0
    YHOO: I like email
    U: Um. Gmail already won
    Y: I like email
    U: Is this a bot?
    Y: I like email

A day later, and there was a suspicious post to the delicious blog that . . . well . . . you can read it for yourself.

I say suspicious because I didn't see how the post squared with either the leaked slide or the terminations going on within Yahoo. Frankly, since none of the other products getting the sunset deal are being sold, this smacked more of corporate BS than it did of truth.

Today there is a report from Abraham Hyatt and Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb that outlines the fail within Yahoo that lead to this, and they conclude: "Is Yahoo really going to try to sell off a system that contains private data to another company after it is rumored to have fired all the people who knew how to operate it? Unlikely." Read the complete ReadWriteWeb post.

Sadly, the delicious ride isn't over; but I think I'm getting off just the same. Think I'll be leaving the Yahoo amusement park entirely out of loathing and disgust. I mean, really?!? How long before flickr gets the heave-ho from Yahoo's sinking ship?

Stylus in green and finger in red.

If you are an IT professional, there are times when using Macs can be more than a little frustrating - like when you have to use “Windows Only” software.  Most of the time, the brute force answer is launching a version of Windows from VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop for Mac; and running the Windows software from there.  

However, there are times when virtualization is not the answer . . . or maybe not the best answer.  For those times, I offer the following suggestions gleaned from more than four years with a Mac.

The Terminal replacement:  MacWise

OS X’s Terminal is fine for getting your unix CLI on, but it is lacking simple solutions for many things.  Unless you are a unix USB hardware wiz, you will probably get frustrated trying to use Terminal and a USB-to-serial interface adapter with a switch or router.  

I can vouch for the MacWise + Keyspan’s USB to Serial adapter (USA-19HS) combo working with Snow Leopard.  Don’t know of anyone else that offers a proven solution for configuring network equipment via a serial interface from your Mac.  

MacWise is feature rich - which may sound like an oxymoron to the MCSE/MCITP crowd when considering a “telnet” replacement.  MacWise includes support for things like AppleScript and a bi-directional clipboard (can interact with both your mac and the remote host - not as simple as it sounds).  However, I’ve only used these features using VT100 on switches and routers - so your mileage may vary with other protocols.

http://www.macwise.com/