Yet Another Switcher
Monday, May 05, 2008 - 09:06 AM
Much attention is given to “switchers” in the Mac journalism front (and even in general “tech” journalism). I think this one deserves attention, however, because it’s from the perspective of not an average user (or, commonly for these types of articles, a tech journalist), but from a programmer. He digs into the under-the-hood stuff to explain why he, as a programmer, switched to OS X from Windows. And, he doesn’t get bogged down in any of the stupid quasi-religious/political/emotional B.S. that usually surrounds platform choice. He just lays out the facts surrounding his decision.
Part one is here:
Part two is here:
I think this quote sums things up nicely:
There might not be as much third-party software for Mac OS X as there is for Windows… , but the quality of the applications is a great deal better. Third-party developers on Mac OS X strive to make applications that work in a way that’s consistent with the OS itself, with first-party applications, and even with each other.
Of course, the article goes into quite a bit of depth as to the reasons why that is, but (to me, anyway) that seems to be the crux what he’s getting at.
And Per Se And
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 08:14 AM
&
A historical look at the Ampersand from a typographical point of view.
By the way, if you are at all interested in fonts and typography, typography.com is a great resource. I have kind of a hold over interest on the topic from my brief design/desktop publishing days - back when I could actually identify many fonts on sight by name, and always knew which font I was looking for for whatever project I was working on. (Unlike now, where I usually have to switch to Font Book and scroll through the font list trying different fonts to see what they look like.)
History of Milliways
Friday, April 18, 2008 - 08:53 AM
If, like me, you’re interested in the history of computing, and the individual stories behind how some things did or didn’t come to be, you might appreciate this.
Andy Baio at Waxy.org managed to get his hands on the complete backup of Infogames 1989 network drive. From that he’s pieced together the history of the infamous sequel to the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy computer game, Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Obviously, this should also appeal to Douglas Adams fans. For me, that’s a double jackpot!
It’s a long, but interesting, story. And, he includes an actual playable prototype of the game.
It Seems I was Wrong
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 12:39 PM
As it turns out, Microsoft isn’t that good at marketing to businesses after all.
I wish I could say “Enjoy!”, but you surely won’t. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, this is one of the worst things you will ever see.
Resistance is Futile
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 09:57 AM
Even IBM is switching to Macs now.
Okay, okay, I know it’s just a pilot program, but I still think it speaks volumes about the changing tides in IT right now.
I love this little bit, though. Among the (few) complaints the participants had:
Other drawbacks or weaknesses users reported in the Mac platform included support issues with IBM’s Lotus Sametime instant messaging software and a “lack of robustness or support for Microsoft applications - PowerPoint issues, no NetMeeting, [and] limitations for tools running on Internet Explorer.”
NetMeeting? NetMeeting? Do people really still use that? And I guess they didn’t have Keynote installed, because anyone who’s ever used Keynote would care less about PowerPoint issues. And Internet Explorer? They’ve heard of Firefox and Safari, right?
Seriously, though, I think this is a good indication of the changes that are going to be happening in the next few years. Microsoft is having trouble staying ahead of the industry. More and more people are using Google Docs and OpenOffice instead of Microsoft’s Office. People are switching to Macs and Linux for their home systems. Companies are switching to Macs, Linux and Unix like never before. Meanwhile, MS is wasting resources on the XBox and Zune to try to compete with Sony, Nintendo and Apple in markets where they just don’t belong*. And while the XBox may be marginally successful (at least from a business standpoint - I know it’s popular with gamers, but it doesn’t make MS much money), the Zune has been a complete failure. Instead of innovating on the web front, they’re trying to buy out Yahoo!, which will only result in Yahoo! being converted over to the same mediocre MS technologies that run Hotmail/MSN/.Net/Live (or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week). (On a side note: I really hope Yahoo! is able to resist this takeover bid. I like Yahoo! mail better than Gmail, and Flickr better than Picasa, but I’ll switch if I have to!)
Microsoft has gotten too big for its own good. It can’t adapt fast enough. It’s sticking its hands into too many pots, and is unable to concentrate on their core business because of that. The massive Vista failure is only one of the problems they face right now, but indicative of where things are heading for them.
The next five years should be pretty interesting.
* What I mean by “don’t belong” is that they clearly don’t know how to compete in these markets, and would be better off doing what they do best, which is marketing software to businesses. They can get into whatever markets they please, but I wouldn’t buy a car from them if they put one out, you know what I’m saying?