Lady Ballz!

[azurite]

From Aria's Ink Secret Stalker... I finally got the lady ballz to actually put it as my desktop. I must say, when I was fiddling around with Finder (sometimes upgrades are a bitch), it was fun grinning from ear to ear like that.

Man, I wish I were in S.F. right now. I read the Macworld Expo update, and... gawd, I am so stoked for 2008. Not like I'm going to dash out and buy an iPhone (not until it's no longer attached to AT&T without hacks involved) or a MacBook Air (...this laptop is new enough for me. Until it breaks, I'm using it. Plus, I happen to like having an optical drive and a huge hard drive...), but DAMN. Apple just... kicks ass. Have I mentioned lately? You really oughta switch.

I personally think if I could have gotten a single measly day there and been back here... it would have been worth it, just for Steve Jobs' keynote speech. Sure, he flubbed a few times, but it sounded SO fun. And a play-by-play just isn't quite the same as being there, in the flesh. (Yes, the play-by-play had to suffice; it made me jealous) So I have a goal for 2009 (besides graduating in the Spring, that is): Go to Macworld Expo 2009. Network, network! (Who knows, maybe I could impress someone important and get a job at Macworld? Tee-hee.)

What else I'm excited about: the Time Capsule, the companion hardware to Leopard's Time Machine. It basically acts as the AirPort Base Station I spent $179 on, but it comes with a hard drive, supports 802.11n Gigabit Ethernet. A 500 GB (the smallest version available) is $299. I think I paid $250 for my 120 GB MyBook Pro external hard drive, so in terms of pennies per GB, it's very much worth it, in my mind. For die-hard downloaders, there's a 1 TB (!!!!!) version for $200 more. It ships out in February... around the same time as the new student-licensed version of Office 2008:mac, which I've been wanting, because Office 2004 on the Mac is kind of a bitch. Plus, I want more templates than Pages can offer. I didn't realize until today, when I had to make a flyer, that Word is really better than Pages for that. I hate still being Microsoft's bitch in any respect... but with all the years gone by, they have made a powerhouse of a word processor.

What I'm dreaming of: it would kick ass if more companies (including the ones that make $9.99 cheap games for Best Buy, Target, and the like) got on board with Cider to make games Mac-compatible. With Cider, there's only one source tree to manage (from what I read), so it's not like there's a whole overhaul involved. Basically, you take your game and wrap it in something that's friendly to Macs. Nothing changes about the game, the interface, etc. Of course, Cider has its limitations, and since it's not for end-users, it's not like I can just download something and all of a sudden be playing Doom again (*sigh* I miss killing Imps! And NO, I don't want Doom 3! >_< I like my pixellated pigs, thank-you-very-much). But I'd love to be able to play Riddle of the Sphinx, Pharaoh/Cleopatra, and similar Egypt-puzzle games (my favorite) again without going into Parallels. In reality, Parallels has felt like a waste of money to me, because... well, what the hell was I using Windows for? I hardly ever go into it. Blah. I hope there's an update that gets my games working again (in the meantime).

What I should be doing: the 30kisses update. I've already got the T-Z stuff from a_white_rain, though I have to sort through it all to put it in the right order-- by fandom. Today's the first day when my sleep schedule's semi-normal (and my computer hasn't been overheated), so I'm going to get it done-- especially since I said I would do it by yesterday. I'll also have to combine that with Phase Five of the Claims List Purge-- but as for the actual completion of the Tags Removal and putting the dead claims into the Memories, I'll need help. Mod Squad, you still around?

What I'm testing the waters with: Scrivener, a... humungo writing program JUST FOR MACS (eat that, Windows biznatches!). dqbunny, you might like this one. If you try it too, we can compare notes. :D I'd also like to try MarsEdit2, a blog publisher. I use xJournal now, and have Phoenix as a backup, but frankly, one of them is always lacking SOMETHING. I wonder if MarsEdit would make a difference. I already know it's compatible with LJ; the question is if it supports all those tiny little features that aren't necessarily blog-platform-cross-compatible (e.g. stuff you'll only see on LJ and its off-shoots, not other blogging platforms like Blogger, etc.) For some reason, I'd get my panties in a wad if I couldn't change security settings or screen comments by default. I'm still kind of PO'd that xJournal doesn't support Location (okay, my location hasn't changed in the past two weeks, but still).

Anywho, to work, to work!

Comments

[azhp.livejournal.com]

=/ you do know that externals nowadays cost $100-ish for 500GB, right?

[azurite]

O_O where?

[azhp.livejournal.com]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154150

[azurite]

Can you boast something like that that has Firewire? Because USB 2.0 is pretty slow for transferring loads of files at once...

[azhp.livejournal.com]

Firewire 800 you mean? I mean sure usb 2.0 isn't the fastest thing in the world but it's faster than regular firewire, and possibly faster than a wireless router depending on the speed of your card (i don't really keep up with this stuff too much...)

I'm too lazy and busy to look for one that's a 500gb, but http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154185 is a 1TB for $300, and has your precious firewire 800...decide for yourself if you'd rather have an extra 500GB or a networked harddrive =P

[azurite]

Well obviously with the Time Capsule, it being a network router is obviously a big plus, especially since it extends the range. Then again, it's not like I climb trees with my laptop, and I always lock all my networks, so range isn't so much of an issue. Signal strength, on the other hand, is, because we network up and downstairs, and have guests that often do, too.

But for me, I really just want a fast hard drive that doesn't take forever to be read. Firewire 800 is obviously the fastest on the market ATM (as far as I know), but I'm thinking to myself WTF would I do with 1 TB!? I'd rather pay that same price and get a smaller HD with a network drive... though I don't think it's quite the same as buying a separate wireless 802.11n router and a 500 GB HD (even if it's just USB 2.0). The whole reason when I bought a AirPort Base Station or whatever it's called in the first place was because my existing router was so weak and finicky... this one is SO stable and never gives out.

So... *shrug* We'll see?

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

*grins* I've been using Scrivener for more than 15 months now - ever since it was Scrivener Gold in the early beta stages. I. LOVE. IT. It is worth every penny and then some. How is MarsEdit2 so far?

[azurite]

Wow, how weird is that! Fellow mac-grrl, you shoulda tolda me sooner! I want to play around with Scrivener, though I have to get through the tutorial first...

As for MarsEdit, I just downloaded it only to stumble across this: http://www.red-sweater.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=300

Turns out LJ support is bare-bones. You can't do basic things that free LJ editors do, but the developer says he wants to improve MarsEdit2 to make it fully compatible with LJ and able to do the things mentioned in that thread-- choosing your user icon, changing security settings for posts/comments, add tags, mood, music, location, post in communities, and so forth.

My stupid little request for ANY LJ blogging platform would be the ability to crosspost-- that is, a little side-drawer or something that says "post to..." and shows you all the journals you have access to (based on the one you're logged into), and you just check the ones you want to post to.

Also, MarsEdit2 isn't really WYSIWYG, which is often a necessity when I blog, because only a few of my entries actually have HTML-- links, images, etc. I wonder if LJ usernames and cuts count as "code," though? Any blogging editor would have to recognize that code...

So basically, maybe when ME3 comes around... or something. We'll have to wait and see.

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

I thought we had talked about Scrivener in the past? Maybe it was with another fellow Mac user, I'm not sure. The tutorial is very comprehensive and I am positive I am not tapping the full potential of the software. But, it's been so amazing. It's worth the money to me. I still write one-shots in Word, but anything multi-chaptered is Scrivener.

Phoenix can cross-post to different blogs, but it's a little glitchy when it comes to that area. One of us should eventually just go through the Cocoa tutorials and try to build an LJ blog software for Mac on our own. Not sure how hard it would be. I'm trying to do some research myself. I think I'll steer clear of ME3 for now.

[azurite]

Heck, both of us should go through Cocoa and design something. Not only do I not think there are enough female developers out there, I think there are even fewer on the Mac platform.

we could call it LJBunny!

Also, it's just at ME2 for now; I get the feeling if all the features for MarsEdit ever get added, it'll be a full update.

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Hmm... If you could have your dream blogging application, what would it be?

[azurite]

Do you mean features? Well... since I only have LJ, I'm going to be speaking from LJ features perspective... I don't know if this would work with anything else, unless it came from the LJ source code (like GreatestJournal, InsaneJournal, DeadJournal, JournalFen, etc.)

* Ability to login to journal of choice (e.g. I might have different journals; I want the ability to login in to whichever one I choose, or have one auto-login)

* Auto-formatting-- assume a line break means a new paragraph. Basically, like the regular browser LJ update, where you can use code, but line-breaks are still automatically adjusted.

* See all the icons (or keywords I have for them) when posting, so I can choose whichever one I want.

* Set post security (e.g. Public, Friends Only, Private, or Custom)

* Set comment security (All unscreened, Screen comments, Screen anonymous comments, Screen friends-only) or whatever those options are. Also, Disable Comments option, and well as Don't Email Comments option.

* Post to communities that the logged-in account is a member of

* Format (one-click adding of thinks like links, images/media, LJ usernames/community names, LJ-CUT; also if something is highlighted, one-click formatting of text, like bolding and italics). Preformatted (no formatting) option.

* Moods, Tags, Location, Music (preferably auto-detect from various media players, but that's just me being spoiled)

* Cross-post

* Backdate

* Ability to look at friends list (mutual friends, one-way friends, communities that I'm a member of or are just watching)

* Poll Builder

* Web links to Profile, Recent Entries, Friends Page

...those are just the basic ones I can think off the top of my head... I doubt they're easy, but since so many of the other ones out there are open-source, I bet we could look at their code. :D

[shadowesque13.livejournal.com]

...*stares* *STARES* *STAAAAARES*

It's Ty. Ty. Ty Pennington. dlkjfIL:WJer8fj8 I MUST STEAL THIS AND USE IT AND LOVE IT AND DROOL ON IT. Ty is like MASSIVE HOT aaaand I think that image has made my morning~~~~ ♥

[azurite]

I know!!! Though I will be 100% honest, I started watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition because I thought it was the only decent "reality" show out there, being generous to deserving people (rather than being about superficiality, it was about giving people a safe/large enough/etc. home for their family).

Ty has just KEPT me watching because he's so cool. And hot. Yes, hot. :D :D Anyway, glad to please!

[azhp.livejournal.com]

In retrospect, aren't you so glad you decided not to go to MacWorld 09?

[azurite]

Yeah, for the most part. It's not like Steve would have made or broken the Expo; his health is first and foremost. But knowing that the Expo is going downhill, what with Apple, Adobe, etc. pulling out, I don't expect some of the big names I would WANT to network being there in any official capacity, so... I suppose there's nothing to regret.

[azhp.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, I applied to like 15 positions at apple the other day...then I really can be the one you bitch to when your hardware doesn't work right. =P

[azurite]

Hah, 15? Doing what? And do you mean in Cupertino or working at a Store? You're pretty ballsy to be applying at any Silicon Valley employer in these times; they're laying people off, not hiring, afaik.

As for hardware, I haven't had any serious issues lately. My keyboard's working great, and the tiny pixel cluster on my screen that seems burnt out isn't that much of a bother. According to Scott, the owner of my old MBP, the Super Drive is giving him problems, as it'll read some DVDs but not others, but that's the only "serious" hardware drive I've heard of since I made the switch.

[azhp.livejournal.com]

Cupertino. Apple and Nvidia were hiring through my school's ECE undergrad job listing, so I applied to about 20 positions between the two. Most of the jobs involve digital hardware logic design or FPGA testing and verification...but some involve things I'm not exactly qualified for but can learn easily, like perl scripting. But yeah I'm not expecting much considering no one is really hiring computer engineers...just hoping my 3.855 gpa and extracurricular helps me stand out >_>