3G instead of just wifi

I have finally succumbed and got a 3G iPad,replacing my wifi-only model.

I stuck to 16gb, though, I haven't come close to using that much space, so no need to burn cash.



—-- this article posted from iTowel, my Apple iPad, using Blogpress.

Know where your iTowel is (II)

And here is a suitable backdrop...




—-- this article posted from iTowel, my Apple iPad.

Know where your iTowel is

So, I have finally succumbed and got myself an iPad. Since I have wifi basically everywhere both at home and at work, I figured a wifi iPad should be enough, and 16 GB should be ample. I use the iPod Touch for media like music, whereas I will be trying to make the iPad more of a personal information manager and GTD Device.

I shall keep you guys posted on progress.

—-- this article posted from iTowel, my Apple iPad.

Battery tool for MacBooks

Well, folks,

I bought an Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch, the old model with a Core2 Duo, of the second unibody generation with the non-user serviceable battery. It was a demonstration model at the dealer, and with the sales assistant unsure as to how long it had been there, I wanted to check if the battery was healthy. I still got a little discount, but I needed to check that battery´s history , quickly.

Here´s a tools that did just that: coconutbattery

Oh, and the MBP is gorgeous :D

Just Testing

... Blogging from my ipod Touch!

The virtual keyboard, as always, was a bit of a bother.

The ails of a friend ...

are being felt by their friends, too.

I have been raised in what used to be the "western" Federal Republic of Germany, and there never was any doubt for me that the United States of America were our natural ally, and the locals´ relationship I´ve experienced with American citizens, servicemen, associates or others was better than friendly. And I´ve spent my formative years in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Eng. Rhenania-Palatinate), formerly nicknamed "Nato´s biggest aircraft carrier", so there was much familiarity either way. There were attacks (and only singular events) on service men, perpetrated by the extremist and thoroughly isolated "Red Army Faction", but they mostly attacked the German state, killing politicians, Federal Judges, the police etc.

Americans are my best buddies.

Overall, I expect most of my countrymen, or at least most of those that were fortunate to grow up on this side of the Iron Curtain, would still consider the citizens of the USofA their allies and friends. Even when old Rummy complained that we "Old Europeans" would not join the Iraq quagmire willy-nilly.

And that´s where the hurt comes in. When you always had a high opinion of the USA as THE modern republic, what happens right now is a hurtful experience. I´ll give you a very mild example:









(directly linked from daybydaycartoon.com . Do visits Chris´ site by all means, it´s a great web comic, despite the spin. Chris, if there is anything wrong with the link, pls notify, I know you´ve visited us here.)




I can only answer this in pure GI lingo: WTFO?

Folks, comparing the circumstances of the election leading to G.W.Bush´s 2nd term, I don´t think any reasonable persons can have any doubt that Barack H. Obama is the rightfully elected President.

DEAL WITH IT. GET WITH THE PROGRAM.
STOP FOAMING AT THE MOUTH.
BE REASONABLE AND ABOVE ALL, RATIONAL.
BE THANKFUL THAT CORRUPT BUNCH THAT GAVE AWAY REPUBLICAN AND ALL-AMERICAN VALUES TO THE LOWEST BIDDER IS REMOVED.
REMEMBER YOUR HISTORY.

Hell´s bells, if this sh** carries on the only thing you can wish for is Old Zachary Taylor to come back from the grave and getting to work on all those Birthers, Medicaid-bashers and "Hussein Osama"-baiters that desecrate your country´s flag and heritage.

Germany was once a country that was torn in strife like the USA is now. What came of it? That little Austrian Charlie Chaplin lookalike that ruined most of the world in his short career. You know, the same guy Obama is being pictured as or with:



Suckers, you have no idea what you´re talking about.

Thank you for listening. Excuse a concerned friends open words, if you please. I sincerely hope you lot pull through that crisis in your democracy.

Nuff ´sed

July 4th redux

netbooked

Finally succumbed and got myself a mobile internet device. Initially, I wanted an iPhone (and somehow, I still do). Considering my requirements and my experience with Iphones, however, I looked for alternatives.

I am not saying the iPhone is a bad thing. Not at all. I just wanted a more powerful solution, that was still portable. And my fingers are just wrong for the iPhone´s screen keyboards, I´m afraid. It would also have been hideously expensive, as I would have had to buy one WITHOUT a data plan. Got two of these things already. Do not really need another, do I?

Now, my favourite solution would have been a Mac OS X netbook. Unfortunately, the smallest Macbook is still 13.3 inches. Are you listening, Steve? AND WHILE YOU`RE AT IT: BRING BACK THE NEWTON. Honestly, a pen driven netbook with OS X the size of my venerable MessagePad 2100 and an up-to-date technolgy platform underneath would be THE SHIT. And I know you guys could do that right sodding now.

So, while I am waiting for those fine folks at Apple to deliver... I needed an alternative:

• portable (netbook size)
• enough processing power and storage to run a decent OS
• keyboard suitable for actual use

I came up with the Samsung NC10, the keyboard and the accumulator capacity calling the shots. One Annoyance (with capital A): it came with Windows. It also does have an 802.11g Wifi, not draft-n. I will live. Did not get the one with an UMTS modem, as I wasn´t convinced it would work with other OSs than Windows.

Windows XP lasted for about five minutes, as I prepared for a hacked Mac OS X install. Seems that this is, at least not yet, a feasible solution, too little of hardware is being supported at present, and I didn´t want to start with massive hardware mods right away (like changing the WiFi i/f).

So, next stop: Linux. Turns out that a regular Ubuntu 09.04 desktop edition will do the trick nicely. I did not even go for the netbook remix. All hardware, power modes etc. supported.

Hooking it up to my UMTS phone and using it as an internet dialup was a matter of minutes. Moved to an USB stick in the meantime... more UMTS features.

I will watch the developments to adopt Mac OS X keenly though.

Leap to Leopard

Well, Saturday afternoon brought... more work. So much for me going to the shooting range :(

But at least there was one pleasant duty: My Leopard DVD arrived. My trusty iMac still ran on Tiger 10.4.11 , and I will be getting the latest one pretty soon, so, I figured, stuff like time machine would be nice, and having a working boot camp assistant for my GameOS (Windows XP) might also be a good thing.

So I backed up the home dir once more, did the upgrade, solved a little mail problem (easily solved with the help of two Google searches, always a good thing to wait a little before jumping on some newish shiny O/S... let some other guys blunt their teeth first) , set up time machine and let it do it´s first backup to an USB disk I had prepared. In the meantime, disk indexing happened, and although the machine was still working happily and responsive, I decided to do my shopping. And I returned to a fully working machine. No problem with any app. All critical settings working.

So, when my new 24" behemoth will arrive sometime next week, I´ll have a time machine backup ready to migrate from. And it will likely be as painless as this afternoon.

And people ask me why I eschew any Windows for my Macs .... Well, folks, I remember my Windows version changes with the time they cost me and the gnashing of teeth that came with it. I´ll be damned if I go back to that.

got VDSL? Good and bad...

Bad: two days off-line
(UMTS is just slooooow)

Good: bandwidth
25/5

Meine DSL - Geschwindigkeit beträgt


Download: 22.562 kbps
Upload: 3.980 kbps

Wie schnell ist dein Internet?
Mache jetzt den Test:
DSL Speed

A lively flock I

Just some of my Pelikans.

From left to right
120 (manufactured by Merz&Krell)
140
400
M250 pre ´97 green/black
the same in blue/black
M200 blue/black
same in red/black
M200 Demonstrator blue/green/red
M215 rings
M215 "lozenge" ("Rhombe")

below, from left
P1
M400 old style

More new (really new) pens

Just arrived: to complete my series of Pelikan 215s, one with the rhodium squares pattern, and an M400 in tortoiseschell/white, both with a fine nib:

More old new pens

From bottom to top:
Pelikan 120*
Pelikan P1
Lamy 27
Lamy 57*




















(* from RossPens, thoroughly recommended)

Finally, Mr Lincoln had won.

from here.





















from here.

Got an old pen...

well, aktually, I got a new pen, but: it´s a pen, that, in this shape, has been manufactured since 1966.

photo linked from LAMY web site.

It is a Lamy 2000. Like all Lamy pens, it is pure utilitarism, the barrel and cap made from a fiberglass enforced plastic, the then newly developed Macrolon, a piston filler mechanism and a mostly covered point. The finish is said to be awfully resilient, let us see how well it ages in daily use.

The only logo is the company name on the side of the clip hinge, in simple capital letters, and the point looks like a simple steel point. It is, in fact, a gold point plated with platinum. Utter and complete understatement. But then, that´s how I like my pens, the only departure from that principle being my opulently coloured Souverän Grand Place in my favourite 600 barrel size. Please stay tuned, I need a good enough macro lens to make a photo worthy of that one.

My Lamy2000 has an M(medium) nib, and is one of the smoothest-writing nibs I´ve ever had. Not much flex, which is a subjective difference from all my Pelikans, but nice nonetheless. The Pen is quite light, has a nice barrel diameter, and is long enough not to require posting the cap.

Filled with Pelikan "Brilliant Black", it produces a line similar to hat of a fibre-tip pen, with no noticeable feathering even on modo-e-modo faux Moleskine paper. I might go for another one with a fine nib, just so I´ve got a spare and an option for really fine writing like in the Moleskine reporter.

I´ll link some reviews of this classic and timeless pen later.

Time off?

Hey, I´ve taken a whole week off work. Weather is nice and sunny, although climate change brings a heavy gush of rain on and off.

I wrote, I took time off, but that´s not really true... so much to be done. Visit to doctors, to the vet, setting up the new web site for our gun club (now 426 years old!), tinkering with computers, and improving my BF2 skill.

Well, I will try to make the most of it.

Have a nice day!

Top Ten Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts | The Apple Blog

This is one for us Firefox users. I like the shortcut to re-open a tab closed accidentally best, personally.




Top Ten Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts | The Apple Blog

virtual gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Well, a couple of the guys from the local Association (I´d link a webpage here but unfortunately our old web master literally took it with him when he left us, so you´ll have to wait until yours truly has time to set something new up) went to take our chance to try a new variation of our sport: multi-distance and metal targets. So, off we went to Grünstadt on last Saturday.

Well, it was all a lot of fun and would have been even better, if my handgun had not decided to have a jam or two. Unfortunately, I had sent my trusty 1911 off for a clean and overhaul... and got it back with half an extractor, so I had to fit the 9mm barrel instead. I had used that a couple of times already on our range but for the metal targets I had bought cartrdges with a heavier bullet (124 as opposed to 115 grs). The Ol´11 , already pining for its .45 barrel, did not like them a bit.

So I quit the first round, and borrowed a friend´s Para Ordnance for the metal shoot-off. Well, at least hat went quite well.

And to help matters, I got myself a Bianchi holster and a replacement extractor. I´ll fit that tomorrow, and I am finally back in the game. Picked up a couple of ex US Army mags, too. My replacement mag by Mecgear will not let the slide catch do its job, so that goes back to the store, and I´ve got three mags now.

Stay tuned, next Saturday coming up.

Kitties gu leoir!

I´ve been meaning to upload these, and I finally found a quiet minute. These are Maunz (black-white) and Red Bull (red-white).

Red Bull (And aptly named he is, for he can be a bugger for keeping you up at night if he feels so inclined) got his name from the neighbours, who took him and his brother in after someone got rid of them in summer, two years ago. I kept seeing them and occasionally fed them. Together, however, they started to fight, and in September last year, after not having seen him for a week, Bully, as he is known for short, turned up with a severe wound on his right front paw. Since he was not the neighbours cat (or so they felt), I caught him, took him to the vet and saw him through recovery (the whole paw was bloody and heavily inflamed), and after that, he stayed home with the rest of the pack, to avoid a recurrence of this kind of trouble. He still likes to sneak out, but overall, he´s happy and well cared for at home.

And so we have got a new napping and playing partner for Maunz, filling in for Müffel and Marvin the previous incumbents of that position.

Hey, wake up! I think we´re being watched.

Aww, whatever!

Firefox for Web development

I´ll have to redesign our Gun Club Web site some time soon, so for me and all of xou in a similar plight, help youself:


Why Firefox Is a Web Designer's Best Friend

Mondays always suck

from http://www.savagechickens.com/blog/2007/11/monday.html

blog recommendation: OS X : Command Line Warriors

OS X : Command Line Warriors

This is quite a nice blog, with interesting reasoning about Linux, OS X and M$. Some will be advocacy, but most is quite ineresting.

Are you artistic or logic - Maybe both... : All My Faves | Blog

Just stumbled upon this on. Now, do you consider yourself an extremely logical person? Do you have pointed ears and say "fascinating" a lot?

Or are you a hip, artist, creative-type of guy (or gal)?

Find out:

Are you artistic or logic

Google Earth’s Hidden Surprise: A Flight Simulator

I haven´t seen it myself yet, but it certaninly will be the first thing to check on the ol´ iMac when I get home tonight... it seems, Google Earth contains the chance to take to the skies, in a comfy four-seater or in an F16. Join me in clicking on the heading above to find out ;)

Hang on, Vista is no more painful than XP...

... or is it?


(original comic from http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comics/20070331.jpg)

Bring back the NeXT feeling

When I first saw a NeXT Computer (although it was the same package, it was not originally called "cube") I was fascinated with the cleanliness and the power of both the OS and the development package. I was a student at that time and couldn´t think of buying one of those sleek machines at that time. When I had rejoined work life in 1993, NeXT Hardware was on the way out, but NeXTSTEP for Intel Processors (NSfIP) appeared as an implementation of NS 3.1. I immediately spent some money on that package, with an erly adopters package, and on a PC to match the hardware compatibility list. I was hooked for a time, but work soon took over much of my time and I didn´t stick to it.

Later, I picked up a NeXTstation Colour, and that adorned my desk as an everyday work machine for quite some time, until the monitor broke. Even later, I picked up a couple of PA-RISC boxes, 712s and 715, and more followed, and NS for PA-RISC. I still have a 715/100 next to my desk in the home office.

And finally I got an iMac... it´s not exactly the same thing, but OS X retains enough of that luster and sheer satisfaction I had experienced with NeXTStep.

For some time there has been a free implementation of OpenStep, GNUSTEP, which I always wanted to try out. I just stumbled on the page below, looking for a build to match my distro, SuSE (back from debian).

Well, now to find some time. Vacation coming up in a month.



GNUstep Binary Packages for SUSE Linux

Linux Weather Forecast - The Linux Foundation

For thos of us who, like me, are no longer intensely involved in Linux development, but want to keep track of the latest trends and features in kernel development. I must say I like the mode of presentation.


Linux Weather Forecast - The Linux Foundation

Mac and Blackberry

For all those out there like me, who use a Mac and a Blackberry, here is good news: PocketMac for Blackberry is now available free as a download for BB users. Just follow the link in the headline.