What is it with non-commercial programmers/scripters and documentation? This is something I have noticed for years: people who write small scripts or programs that are not self-executing rarely write more than a few lines of vague instructions on how to use them, even if that much. These people apparently feel that telling other people how to use their creations is unnecessary. “Here’s a great script,” they tell you, “which will do all these great things.” But they don’t tell you where to put it, how to modify it, or anything else that’s necessary for using it. Sometimes these people don’t even make clear what their script even does beyond general descriptions.

Are they just yanking our chains, or do people who acquire the skill to script suddenly lose sight of the fact that most people don’t know how to script or use a command line interface, and can’t figure out what the hell they’re supposed to do with these cryptic files? Better not to publish on the Internet claiming you’ve just created something useful, for all the headaches you cause so many people trying to follow up on your promise of a cool product with needed features. I’m not trying to be ungrateful, these people put a lot of work into some good ideas to make a useful product. But if you spend that much time making the script and then bail on the documentation, then what’s the point?

And I’m not talking about full tech support here. I’m talking about sitting down for two friggin’ minutes and writing down the most basic of instructions. If the file is self-executing, and simply works when you double-click it, then fine, minimal documentation is OK (ironically, those programs usually have good documentation), but the stuff that needs to be changed and placed just so–these are the ones the developers seem to completely abandon once they finish coding.

Were this only a sometimes thing, it wouldn’t be so bad–but it seems that it’s the case nine times out of ten. Is it just me, or what?

Are you using Safari? If so, look at the search box on this page. Notice anything about it? Rounded corners, gray placeholder text, the circle-x ‘clear’ button once text has been inserted?

It turns out that Apple created a few new tag features just for Safari, intended for Dashboard widgets, which are based in Safari. The ones I’m using are for the <input> command, namely type=”search” and placeholder=”Go fish!”. The type=”search” attribute is the key one, though–that’s the one that rounds the corner and gives you the circle-x button. And it is invisible to other browsers, so they still see the regular search box–which means 91% of my visitors. So no loss, but a little cool tweak gained with the extra code. Heard about it on Ars Technica (though they don’t seem to like it), and more in detail from Bartelme Design. The “placeholder” attribute, by the way, adds the gray text inside the search box which disappears when you click to type.

So far I’ve applied it to the main page, the individual archive pages, and the search page. What I haven’t figured out yet is how to make the little magnifying-glass icon appear on the left so you can review recent searches…

Update: a helpful member at Ars Technica filled out the answer: in order to get the “recent searches” menu, you have to add both “autosave” and “results” attributes. For example: <input type=”search” autosave=”anyname” results=”5″ placeholder=”Search this site…”> and that would give you all you need for the full search box in Safari, recent-search magnifying glass icon and all. Cool! Now, everybody just switch to Safari, now that you have a reason.

Okay, I’ve figured out the comment system and have revamped things a bit with this whole Movable Type 3 upgrade.

I’ll continue with comment moderation, but there’s an easy way around it: register with TypeKey. It’s explained on this page, but essentially it’s a free registration system which will allow you to place comments here and any other Weblog using Movable Type 3 without moderation, meaning your comments appear immediately.

If you log into TypeKey and allow the cookie to stay, it works seamlessly. If you log out of TypeKey or if the cookie expires, then it’s a click-new page-click-and-back exercise, and probably takes less time than typing in your name and email anyway.

Without registration, comments are of course still open and I’ll usually be quick about approving them (my computer is usually on and the comments are emailed to me, causing Eudora to beep at me). Except, of course, when I’m asleep….

As a result of all this, the site should (knock on wood) be completely free of spam.

Additionally, the comments are now back to their normal appearance, and the search template has been rewritten so as not to look completely spazzy.

One note about the upgrade: MT-Blacklist apparently becomes far less functional, which is a pain in the neck. Under MT v. 2, MT-Blacklist will not only block new spam in comments and trackback which match blacklist criteria, but can also “de-spam,” which means that if a spammer got 500 spams into your blog before you could add him to the blacklist, the de-spamming ability would allow you to flush all that out of your blog with a few clicks of the mouse.

For some unexplained reason, MT-Blacklist 2 lacks the de-spamming ability, which is a major annoyance to me. It essentially makes the program half as strong as it used to be and makes it far less appealing. While MT v. 3 does allow for possible de-spamming of moderated comments and trackbacks in the control panel, it doesn’t work as easily as MT-Blacklist used to. I would have thought that an upgrade would enhance or add features, not chop them in half.

However, there might be a new plug-in that works as well: SpamLookup. I’ll let you know how it works. If it does, then maybe I’ll be freed from constant spam moderation. One can only hope.

From the Washington Post:

On Social Security in particular, Bush has called on Democrats to offer their own proposals instead of simply attacking his, but the tactic has largely not worked.

The tactic has been a common one, but also always an empty one: the Republicans are the ones with more or less complete power in Congress, and every time Democrats come up with a proposal, it is shot down immediately by Republicans. So the call for Democrats to come up with something is obviously not a call for compromise or a desire to flesh out the possibilities, but rather simply a desire for Republicans to be able to criticize the Democrats for something. And why should the Democrats comply? They have nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing so. No plan of theirs will make it through the Republican Congress, and they’ll just be opening themselves up for attack.

One of the downsides to having complete power in Washington is that you have no one to blame but yourself–not that this fact will stop the GOP from trying. This tired, self-serving call for Democratic proposals is simply a vain attempt by Republicans to try to have their cake and eat it, too. But the GOP is working hard to try to turn this against Democrats, and no one should take GOP PR drives lightly; they have succeeded at making the ludicrous popular many times before.

The ludicrous part? That Bush and the GOP are trying to set up the Democrats as being “obstructionist.” Um, obstructionist how? What exactly are they blocking? Bush says they’re obstructing Social Security, but if Bush had all the GOP on his side, then there would be little the Dems could do aside from filibuster, and there has been no filibuster of any Social Security bill. In fact, there hasn’t even been a Social Security bill in Congress, that I know of. So how can the Democrats be obstructing it? By not coming up with their own plan which Bush would immediately reject and then bash Democrats with? Um, yeah, right.

Got the new PowerBook. And as advertised, it’s very, very nice. Transferred all my data and settings from the old TiBook, it was very seamless. So far, it’s working brilliantly. It plays the Hi-res Apple Movie trailers quite well, ones which would not play well at all on my old ‘Book. And though the unit gets hot, it doesn’t get nearly as hot as my older computer would get. And though it’s supposed to be .2 pounds heavier, somehow it feels lighter, even when holding both computers at the same time, one in each hand. I haven’t had the chance to take it for a real spin yet, and won’t see its full effect until the 1GB RAM upgrade gets here next week.

One problem: a dead pixel. Yargh. At least, it’s partly dead. As far as I can tell, only the green element to the pixel is dead. But in most circumstances, it makes the pixel look dead, next to the other pixels around it. Anything that’s not pure red, blue or purple, anything that’s lighter than that, and it shows up. And there seems to be another pixel stuck on blue as well. The good news, somewhat: both are on the right side of the screen, less than an inch from the edge, so they won’t be so noticeable. But you always really hope for the screen to be perfect. And Apple’s policy is to accept anywhere up to five or perhaps seven dead or stuck pixels on a screen. Won’t stop me from taking it to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Ginza and seeing what they say and do about it. I doubt I’ll get anywhere, but best to try all options.

I was just recently lectured at by a posturing right-wing commenter who claimed that I would never concede an opponent’s point “no matter how strong the evidence.” A completely false claim: to state a few examples off the top of my head, I conceded to a conservative commentator on a Schiavo post where I had not fully made clear the nature of certain witnesses, to a conservative visitor who pointed out a Clinton quote I had overlooked, and, not to put too sharp a point on it, a concession to the very person who claimed I never would make concessions, in the form of agreeing to Rodney Peairs’ grievous error in judgment the night Yoshi Hattori was killed. A concession made to this person, a few weeks before this person complained I never conceded anything. Rather typical of the right-wing visitors to this site.

So now let’s see how well it works the other way. I have been writing on the Terri Schiavo case since October 2003, and have received a good many vitriolic comments from people on the other side of the fence. Many claiming that Michael Schiavo was a wife abuser and murderer and denied Terri therapy, others stating that Terri Schiavo was fully capable of not only recovery but could swallow on her own and would make a substantial recovery with treatment. I argued against those points, making references to a great deal of evidence and court proceedings, to be rebutted by people who vilified the judges for not agreeing with them, and regurgitating pap from pro-life spin sites.

These people were certain that Terri Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative state (she was, they claimed, in a “minimally conscious state” and could “wake up” any time); that she could recover with therapy; that she could swallow on her own and could sometimes even talk; that dehydration would be incredibly painful for her, as she could still feel; and that we could see from the video tape on TV that she could follow movement and react to people talking to her and looking at her. They touted a “world-renowned” doctor “nominated for a Nobel Prize” who supported their case.

The argument back: doctors, including court-appointed physicians, presented evidence that most of Terri’s cerebral cortex was gone and that she was indeed in a persistent vegetative state and beyond any recovery; that repeated tests showed she had been incapable of swallowing for years; that dehydration would not be painful because she no longer possessed the capacity to feel pain; and that the video shown endlessly on TV was heavily edited and represented only random, reflexive movements and not consciousness. And the “renowned” doctor was a charlatan (see comment section), who was never officially nominated for a Nobel Prize.

Had I posted this yesterday, I would likely have gotten a sheaf of vicious and venomous arguments from the “Terri Was Conscious” crowd. But now the results of her autopsy are in:

Terri Schiavo was indeed in a persistent vegetative state.

She was incapable of swallowing. (Remember those protesters who tried to get to Terri to pour water down her throat?)

Her brain damage was irreversible, and no amount of therapy would have helped.

The autopsy results showed that fully half her brain had wasted away, and just as all the doctors (except for the quacks hired by the pro-lifers) had stated, her cerebral cortex was gone. In fact, even the visual centers of her brain were dead. Remember the videotape? Remember how convincing they made it look with editing, as if she were following the balloon movements? Remember how the pro-lifers argued that this “proved” she could follow movement? Well, the autopsy proved that she couldn’t even see movement.

But what about the nurses who came forward and said that they saw Terri swallowing and talking? After all, two nurses came forth, and they would never lie, would they?

Well, obviously they were lying. And not just a little.

And then there were the endless allegations that Michael Schiavo caused her injuries, that he abused her, strangled her, tried to inject her with poisons. The autopsy results vindicate Schiavo’s claims of innocence, showing no evidence whatsoever of strangulation, abuse, or poisoning. Interestingly, they do not support the theory that she collapsed due to bulimia, either. So no explanation is forthcoming–but the baseless accusations of the pro-life crowd against Michael Schiavo are now laid bare as false. Not that this will stop them from believing any of this; already the pro-lifers are slinging an amazing amount of complete fiction in a vain attempt to deny the autopsy findings, and her parents are apparently just beginning to plan legal battles for God-knows-what.

And of course, the re-posturing has already begun, with pro-lifers just beginning to claim that the PVS, the alleged abuse, the lack of a cerebral cortex, and so on were never really at the center of their argument at all, that it was all really about “starving the disabled.” Just like Bush claiming that Iraq was never about WMD, but rather about Democracy in Iraq. And doubtless that the pro-life crowds will eat it up.

Amazing what people will believe, how easily they are willingly fooled. The evidence was all there for people to see, but the personal and political bias of the pro-life crowd made them blind to what was plain.

So I come back to my original theme: I’ve been willing to admit I was wrong when conclusive evidence was presented.

To all the pro-lifers who came here before, raged on in certainty and heaped verbal abuse, using names such as “fool,” “moron,” “intellectual nazi” and “scumbag,” saying the “lies” and “exaggeration” were “reprehensible”… but even more so to those who more politely and yet vehemently argued that Terri was provably conscious, capable of recovery, swallowing and talking, and that the video proved she was so: how about you? Can you admit when you’re wrong?

In the meantime, what we have left here is a tragic story of a lovely young person who died for unknown reasons, whose husband cared for her for years until he accepted the evidence the doctors gave him, who battled for years and withstood vicious smears so that he could honor his wife’s wishes–though it would have been simple, and eventually highly profitable for him to simply stand aside and give Terri to her parents against her wishes. And finally, fifteen years after her death, her body was allowed to follow her spirit.

Rest in peace, Terri, and I hope you didn’t have to watch all this from wherever you are.

Okay, the site itself has been upgraded to Movable Type 3.17. However, I’m still trying to get used to all the new stuff, so please be patient in the meantime. One point is that the comments are now being moderated, which means that when you leave a comment, it will not be posted immediately. Instead, it will be sent to me for approval, and will appear when I get to it. I’ll try to make that as soon as possible, but it might take several hours (especially if I’m sleeping!). Anyone out there know, for example, how to create registered commenters? I’ll learn how, but I gotta do some reading and experimenting, and I did sort of start this project late at night on the eve of a workday. So there’ll be a bit of a lag before stuff gets smoothed out.

Hopefully, the upgrade (along with MT-Blacklist 2 once I get around to installing it) will come along quickly. Anyone out there with experience with version three and you know some possible kinks in the system and things to look out for, let me know!

I’m finally getting off my duff and upgrading to Movable Type 3, but in the process there may be a few quirks. If the blog does not display or accept actions as it usually does, please be patient.

Thanks!

I received an email from Apple telling me that the PowerBook G4 I ordered last week will be arriving late this week, earlier than they first predicted. They told me it would get here on the 22nd, but now the correspondence says it’ll get here no later than this Friday, the 17th.

But that’s not the confirmation I’m referring to in the title of this entry. Rather, it’s a review of the exact same PowerBook model on a website called “Notebook Review.” The article is written by Gabe Lipson, a long-time Windows user who intended to buy another PC, but heard of issues with the model he wanted and quickly was sold on the PowerBook when he visited an Apple Store.

Many parts of the review are comforting especially in light of the possibility of Mactel Powerbooks as early as a year from now. Lipson points out that using a very simple benchmark (calculating pi to 2 million digits), the PowerBook outperforms a range of Pentium-M Wintel laptops running from 1.6 to 1.9 GHz; so despite the lack of a G5, the PowerBook G4 is still fast enough to rank up there in the laptop market. I know that more complex benchmarks will rank things differently, but still we’re talking about an equivalent class of computers.

Lipson also compared the PowerBook screen favorably compared to the highly-touted BrightView reflective screen. I’ve seen these on PCs and they look very nice, but as Lipson points out, the reflective part seems like it could be an annoyance. The PowerBook’s screen, he reports, does just as good a job without that down point.

Otherwise, Lipson praises though does not gush about the PowerBook: the size of the computer, the keyboard and the screen is just about right, not too big or small; the speakers do well, the processor performs well, the ports, WiFi and battery all perform as well as can be expected. Lipson likes the backlit keyboard, and admires OS X 10.4.

All of this not bad at all for a notebook computer which has received no significant processor upgrades for the past three years!

Lipson also mirrors my worries and complaints: the possibility of dead pixels (crossing my fingers big-time) and the fact that you never know when a huge upgrade may or may not be just around the corner.

This is what I’ve become used to hearing from long-time Wintel users who make the switch: pleasantly surprised. It also confirms many of the reasons why I like the Mac.

One more point, while I’m here: there has been a lot of talk in the past week about how Mac users are reacting to the switch to Intel, as if we’re all supposed to feel betrayed or something. My reaction has been, “why?” The Mac switched over to RISC and IBM years back, and it didn’t hurt me at all then. Apple will likely make this change just as transparent. So what? A new chip is a new chip.

Many Windows enthusiasts have been crowing about this, gloating about how Mac fans have been touting the PPC, and now have to eat crow over the switch to Intel. I don’t get that, either. I had great hopes for what IBM was supposed to deliver, and if it towered over what Windows PCs were getting, all the better. But what happened was IBM’s failure, not Apple’s, so Apple just went with someone else who could do a better job. Maybe if I’d been going on about how crappy Intel chips were and IBM was so superior and that’s the way it would be forever and ever and I’m so sure I would bet the farm, then I’d have to eat crow. But even at that, for the present at least, IBM’s existing chips are still superior to most of what’s out there in the Windows market. This is evidenced by what I mentioned above, that the laptop G4 still compares well to the latest Wintel chip offerings. The problem is that IBM has stalled and had no future promise–and apparently, no interest, either.

The only way that I see the Mactel news as being of any importance is that it seems to signal strong possibilities for the Mac OS to encroach on the Windows market. And even many Windows enthusiasts I see on the web seem to be more biased towards PC hardware, and would be fine with the Mac OS, so long as it could work transparently with Windows software–which is what will very likely happen.

Here’s both an offer and a request for those of you who want to learn how to code web pages. I teach an introductory computer class, and part of it is to learn how to code HTML. The basics, of course, not advanced stuff.

I like to create my own materials (finding books to teach it in just the way you want is usually more trouble than just doing it yourself!), and I just finished a huge chunk of it. My students will be using it soon, but I wanted to put a copy of it up here to see if anyone here could find a use for it, and if you do, then let me know what you think of it, and how it rates as a primer for beginners.

If you already know basic HTML coding, then this will likely be boring for you. But if you know nothing at all about how to write a web page using HTML, this guide should (knock on wood) teach you how.

I’d appreciate any and all comments, kibitzing, critiques and corrections to make this better for my students. Keep in mind that the formatting is simple (white backgrounds, not much garnishing) because this is a first draft; future drafts may include more formatting so it is easier to read. Although it is intended to accompany several regular classes in which I’ll be walking them through all of this, it’d be nice if it could be self-contained as well. And yes, I know the last two chapters and the project outline are missing–those have yet to be written.

Also note that this is aimed at Windows users. If you use a Mac, the pages will still work, except you should use a simple text editor like iText to write the pages, instead of Windows’ Notepad. I avoid TextEdit because after saving and re-opening web pages, it tries to display them like web pages instead of showing the code, and I don’t like trying to reset it to do what I want. I hate simple programs that try to “help” you too much!

Here’s the link to the HTML Primer.

Thanks in advance!

See the pretty girl giving the demonstration at the World Expo in Aichi? At first, seeing what looked like a little camera behind her, I thought she was wearing gloves as part of some motion-sensor demonstration. It was only when I read the small print that I found out what I never would have guessed: that’s not a girl. It’s an android. Specifically, it’s the Repliee Q1, developed by Osaka University. As the unit’s co-creator points out, when androids get to looking that human, it gets a little creepy.

When you visit the project’s home page, the photos there are higher-definition and the android no longer looks as perfectly human as it does in the Expo photo. But well worth watching are the three MPG videos of the android talking, moving, and reacting to someone touching it. Here it’s a mixture of the thing looking less human than you thought but at the same time also looking more human than you might have expected.

One thing it suggests: androids indistinguishable from humans are a little less far off in the future than you may have thought. They’re not coming soon, but we’re farther along the road than I’d have thought.

Just a little pic here. I know that I’ve been low on photos as of late (as one commenter gently hinted), but rainy season is here and there have been a lot more rainy weekends than not. Right now we’re in the midst of Typhoon #4, and there are a lot of numbers left. So hang tight, and here’s a sliver shot of Meiji Shrine taken in recent better weather, with a 1280-pixel-wide version available on click.

For a few months now, I have been somewhat mystified about how some particular people have been finding my blog via search engine. My blog’s search engine stats reveal how many people find my blog through Google, Yahoo and others, and they reveal what search terms led to my site. And far too many have been of a rather pornographic nature.

They include “seven of nine nude,” “nude harry potter,” “nude widget,” “busty american soldier,” “katherine harris nude” (yecchh), “nude taiko drumming,” “seven of nine sex porn nude,” “harry potter porn,” “kung fu porn,” “porn widgets,” “surprise porn,” “nasal porn” (wha??), “walter cronkite nude photo” (almost but not quite as much ‘yecchh’ as for Katherine Harris), “porn with popcorn,” “hurricane george and porn,” “japanese rice patties sex slavery,” and “sex on the 26th floor of goldman sachs.”.

So I wondered how on earth the search engines sent people my way for stuff like that? It bothered me for a while, until I figured out what was happening. At the bottom of each of my blog’s individual entries (where one blog entry and all comments are listed on a single page), I explain about the blog’s anti-spam software and how it blocks certain keywords–and then I list some of the words, which include “porn” and “nude.”

Meaning, of course, that these words now appear on the same page as every single blog entry that I have made, about 1300 of them, on a huge variety of subjects. Aha.

Though now I am, admittedly, a little bit curious as to what exactly is happening on the twenty-sixth floor of the Goldman Sachs building.

	Sapporo came out with a new lite beer recently, and it is superior over others not because it has fewer calories, and not because it has less calories, but rather…

I just hate the ones with fewer more calories.

And you’d think that a company like Sapporo could spend a few bucks to have a translator check out their newest slogan….

For those of you who both use Macs (with Tiger) and listen to Air America Radio, there is a nifty new Tiger Dashboard Widget that lets you tune into Air America Radio easily. Now, I’ve had the AAR audio stream link on my Linkboard for some time now and will continue to have it, but if you use Tiger, get this widget.

So I just got off the phone with the Apple Store, having ordered the new Mac. Should arrive in about a week and a half. Got the 15″ PowerBook G4 SuperDrive model running at 1.67 GHz, with optional U.S. keyboard (which causes the delivery delay).

Now to order an extra Gig of RAM.

I’m probably also going to order a Bluetooth mouse, though I don’t see many out there that look too attractive. But MacAlly has a new model, called the BT-Mouse, which sells for $50 and looks like it’s well-put-together. It’s full size (most BT mice are minis, which I don’t like at all), and has the third button just below the scroll wheel, also where I prefer it.

The mouse won’t be available for a few more weeks, but I should be able to get the RAM at about the same time as the computer arrives, which will be nice.

Anyone want to buy a used 800 MHz DVI TiBook?

Chris Seibold, in an article for Apple Matters, wrote:

Witness the people hauling around first generation TiBooks holding out for the (never to come) G5 laptop. People have been guessing that a G5 PowerBook was just around the corner for two or three years and have waited for it accordingly.  Wouldn’t their overall computing experience have been better if they had gone ahead and purchased a new PowerBook when they first felt the need?

Now, if he’d written that before the Mactel announcement, I would have given him more credit. Right now, it’s unmistakably clear in hindsight. So thanks, Chris, for being paid to state the bleeding obvious after the fact.

For me, it’s harder to say that the Mactel news will slow Mac sales, because that very news has drawn me to decide, or almost decide, to get a new PowerBook G4. Of course, I won’t be in a typical place.

Right now I have an 800 MHz G4 PowerBook (the first DVI model) which just turned three years old a few months ago. I have been waiting for a significant upgrade before getting my next Mac ‘Book, but the Mactel news has spurred me to move forward sooner than I’d planned.

The model I’d buy now is the 15″ PowerBook G4 running at 1.67 GHz, the Superdrive model. I should be able to get academic pricing from Apple Japan on a model with the US keyboard layout, meaning not having to ship from the U.S. and not having to pay high California state sales taxes. The cost would be about ¥245,000 ($2300) including tax. Add another $200 for an extra 1 GB of RAM. It’s not a quantum leap over my present computer, considering that it’s been 3 years. The new ‘Book would have double the CPU speed, but in the past, that’s happened a lot faster. However, there are other considerations, including 512 KB of on-chip L2 cache as opposed to 1 MB L3 cache (the former is better than the latter, for those of you who don’t know what cache is about), a (slightly) higher bus speed, better RAM, better graphics chip, and several other small points. The big differences would be a faster Superdrive instead of a slower Combo drive, double the size of the HDD (40 GB to 80 GB), built-in Bluetooth, USB 2, and AirPort Extreme to match my base station.

If I wait for the new Mactel Powerbook instead of buying now, I could be waiting as long as 2 years, and will have spent much of that time impatiently expectant of a new PowerBook “any day now,” not to mention trying to get along with a much slower computer than I’d prefer.

In addition, most completely new models–not just upgrades, but new designs–have kinks in the system that need to be worked out, and the new Mactel PowerBooks are probably more likely to have such bugs than other models. These bugs get smoothed out, but only after one or two revisions. Which means that when the first Mactel PowerBook comes out, it’ll be fast but with the risk of annoying problems.

Getting a Powerbook now means that it’ll be three years old (my standard computer retirement time) when the first Mactel PowerBook free of problems rolls out.

The risks: there could be a significant G4 upgrade soon, such as dual-core, that could come out in 3-6 months. If that happened, I’d be kinda pissed. However, the chances of that are low, and by waiting for that much longer, I would be getting started later on the lifetime of my next computer. Also, there is the chance that the first Mactel PowerBook out of the gate could be killer and have no flaws. Again, chances are low, but possible. Were both these things to happen, I’d feel pretty stupid. But I’d also feel like an idiot if I waited till MacWorld SF in January to find the next PowerBook model to be a minor speed bump to 1.8 GHz and little else, followed by a Mactel release in June 2006, 6 moths after buying the speed-bumped G4.

If I buy a new computer this week, I’ll even have a good excuse: today was my birthday. Taking time zones into account, it’s 2:35 am Japan time on Thursday, June 9.

So I’m probably a day or two away from ordering. Anyone has good reasons to stop me, better chime in fast!

Yet more Mac news, this time on the Eastern side of the Pacific: The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (a leading economic newspaper, kind of like the Wall Street Journal of Japan) is reporting that Apple will open an iTunes Music Store in Japan in August of this year. This would be encouraging, except that the same paper previously predicted that the iTMS Japan would open in Spring 2005. The Mainichi Shimbun, however, did predict that the store would open before the end of 2005.

What is encouraging about the new story beyond the possible August start date is the report that Apple may be charging as little as ¥150 ($1.40) per song, well under the $2+ prices offered by current download services in Japan (though the story did go further to say that the price could be “between 100 and 200 yen per song”).

Still, good news for Japanese music fans, or those in Japan without a credit card with a billing address in a country where an iTMS is already located.

The Steve has just announced at the WWDC that Apple is indeed switching to Intel, because IBM simply cannot deliver–can’t give us 3 GHz in the PowerMac, can’t put a G5 into a PowerBook (tell me about it). What he also said was that Apple has been compiling OS X on Intel chips for five years now, and the Tiger presentation he is giving the audience as he speaks is a Pentium 4. Even though they can work Apple software on Pentiums today, the transition will go as reported in the press, from June 2006 to June 2007. Nevertheless, both IBM and Intel processors will be supported for “a long time to come,” undoubtedly making a lot of people happy that they will not be forced to switch.

As for how long developers will have to work to port their programs to Intel chips, Jobs is claiming that it just takes a few hours, using Mathematica as an example. The app apparently is very complex with millions of lines of code… but only 20 or so had to be changed for the app to work. The question is, will all apps be so easy to change?

Apple will add two points: first, an emulation mode called “Rosetta” that will allow all PPC software to work transparently on Intel Macs (Mactels?), and new software written in Fat Binary, able to run on both PPC and Intel chips. This is all very, very familiar to those of us who followed through the Motorola-to-IBM, 680×0-to-PPC transition some time back.

Even Microsoft is in: an Apple press release quotes a Microsoft exec as saying that they will develop a fat binary version of Microsoft Office for the Mac–a surprise to me, I had heard that they stopped developing that particular suite for the Mac platform.

interesting: no mention of .Mac despite the coincidental blackout; no mention of whether or not Intel will vary its chips specifically for Apple or if Apple will use off-the-shelf Pentiums; no mention of Transitive (probably they’re just not using them); no mention of whether Windows would run on Macs; no mention of using Windows apps more easily in OS X/Intel.

Sounds to me like there’s a lot of stuff going unsaid…

All of this, of course, leaves me in a tough spot. It seems rather apparent that I will not be getting a G5 PowerBook, or even a dual-core G4 or Freescale PowerBook. Probably nothing but minor-speed-bump G4s until the Big Switch is made. It is not even certain that a Pentium PowerBook will be released in 2006, it could take as long as two years for it to come around. And I’m stuck here with an 800 MHz PowerBook. Which means I can get a new PowerBook with a slow chip and be stuck with that for another 3 years… or I can suffer with a slow CPU for as long as 2 more years and get one of the new Pentium PowerBooks as soon as they come out.

It’ll take a bit of thinking about, but I’ve already figured a few things out. First, I don’t think I’ll want to be using a 5-year-old PowerBook. And second, new computer designs often have bugs that don’t get smoothed out until a few revisions down the line. If I get a PowerBook now, then it will probably be ready for a replacement model at just about the time when Pentium PowerBooks have gotten their kinks worked out.

I think I’ll start taking a look at what’s out there…

Another note: OS X version 10.5 will be called “Leopard,” and will be out by late 2006 or early 2007–around the same time Longhorn is scheduled. That should be a challenge to Microsoft; Apple has gotten their releases out fairly regularly and on-time, while Longhorn has suffered serious delays (even though they cut out two of the biggest new features so they could release it earlier).