Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

March 14

Lotsa life affirming stuff going on, new job, great company, taxes, and two concecutive Easter Weekends with both members of the Catholic society, full-on scheduled weekends all around. HOWEVER, now that the schedule is stable, it's back to normal for the ADC and it's weekend updates (weekly or bi) by all accounts. So in thanks for your patience while the dust settles from all the hub-bub, you'll find 1 month worth of journals to parouse over. Don't miss week 88, 89, or 90 - the one representative of the artwork which has already been showered in accolades - but mostly hate mail - the week of DKE and his Holocaust analogies. Enjoy!

Connectix is still treading water in it's hopes to keep it's PSX emulator afloat with recent court rulings beating the snot out of them. At the latest, the court has granted an injunction because of concerns about the BIOS being present - rather than "reverse engineered" - leading to open questions on copyrights and code instead of all the back-patting that's been going on about turing an 1100 dollar plus iMac into a 130 dollar game system that has another company's name and hard work branded on it. At least that was the reports coming from MacWeek.com, specifically the report from Wendy J. Mattson and Matthew Rothenberg, which mentioned the following:

Sony, however, said the injunction goes to the heart of its case. Riley R. Russell, Sony vice president of legal and business affairs, said the temporary restraining order blocks Connectix from using PlayStation BIOS code in its Windows development for the next 20 days, when a preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled. At that hearing, Russell said, Sony will argue that Connectix used Sony's BIOS code in both the Mac and Windows versions of Virtual Game Station and that this use represents an infringement of Sony's copyrights. "I think the court articulated that it was a copyright infringement," Russell said. "Sony met the burden of proof."

And there you have it. So what's the difference between grey market emulators that contain illegal ROMS, BIOS images, and open piracy on the high seas - with that of a Mac developer that is offereing up the same drugs to the "open" market? Not a whole lot in the eyes of the court. Is this over? Not with lawyers involved - so the bottem line is that there's going to be plenty more of this story to report on in the future. In the meantime, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy playing games legally - on my N64. BTW: for all you vidiots out there with such a toy, check out Beetle Adventure Racing - it's not just a commercial for VW, it's proof that Electronic Arts can still show Japan a thing or too about fun driving games.

March 15
ISP's and Mac users have never been pals ever since Apple decided to push them out of the out of the office market with single vendor hardware, and non-existant enterprise support. Of course that doesn't stop them from coming up with conspiracy theory's that put anything JFK freaks could invent to shame. But aside from bottem-line enterprise strategies excluding the Mac - one has to wonder if perhaps the sheer misplaced tennacity of the MacJihad might be the hidden component that they're actually looking for behind the curtain. Consider this: (a) fact - most of the planet uses Wintel 95% across the board, and (b) most if not, nearly all ISP's favor Linux, Apache, Sun, NT whatever not Mac OS basically for their major functions. (c) Mac supporters are vocal and often found stepping outside the bounderies of good taste, manners or behavior. Wouldn't it correlate that most ISP's have had it up to "here" with the MacJihad and - in my personal experience, have been quick to nuke e-mail accounts from spamers that show up on my doorstep that even "smell" like trouble - that contain Apple in the name? I'm not saying that everyone on the internet is on their best behavior or anything - but given a choice at the top of the ISP chain - which would be gonged, banned, canned or finding their e-mail accounts defunct faster? (a) a Linux freak who'se gotten a little more "vocal" than normal and has a complaint lodged? (b) a Mac freak that has complaints coming in with e-mail examples and URL's that contain "MacJihad" speak and the usual extreemest jargon? Somehow I have a feeling that there's a potential for a lopsided jury on this one, and probably a faster recourse as a result. Think about it. BTW: I'm not advocating spam abuse or games etc - but it's interresting to think that if there is abuse to report, it's probably going to be remedied a lot faster if it has the fingerprints of the MacJihad all over it.

March 16

MacWeek.com puts in glowing HTML, another crisis-of-the-minute that has the MacMarines and their shorts in a bunch. This time it's another indicator how far Apple has fallen from the office tree, with UPS taking a powder on supporting 1% of the market rather than 99% of their bottem line. Let's take a peek at John Batteiger's take on things, with me in the itallics:

At issue is UPS OnLine Office, free software that automatically processes packages for delivery worldwide, prints labels, tracks shipments and keeps records. Now at Version 6.0, the software requires an Intel-standard PC running Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0 and, for printing records, a Windows-compatible printer.

Naturally, the best things in office or enterprise computing are free - unless you've invested heavily into the Mac and now have to - shudder - BUY A PC!

A deadline looms for Mac customers because UPS says that all third-party software for processing UPS packages must be compatible with the Windows-only UPS OnLine suite by Oct. 1. The only options for Mac-based offices are to do UPS business over the Internet, rent a stand-alone tracking device at added cost or buy an Intel-standard PC to handle package delivery.

THAT'S gotta hurt, unless you're 99% of the office out there that realized what "market share" ment and threw some of their collateral IT weight behind a platform that is less than mashuga (sic). Still some users aren't above taking this personally, what - the MacJihad take things personally? Something as esoteric as "shipping and tracking software"? Ye gads! Noooooo!

"I can't believe they're doing this," said Stephen Keyes, president of Corporate Services International, an Encinitas, Calif., supplier of promotional products. "I'm a daily pickup customer, and they're telling me that I have to buy a PC to keep doing business with UPS."

I have to step forward with a little writer-environment segue at this point, I'm listening to a new breakout song from the group "Prozzak" titled "sucks to be you". It's catchy with a blend of techno-pop and Neil Diamond style accoustic guitar work (you know the electronica set is running low on samples when they go with Neil's library), and is nice for background music when doing a writing jag - particularly when it jibes with the topic matter at hand.

"I called UPS and they confirmed that they're not going to use their daily record book any more," Keyes said. When the sales representative said "You have a Windows computer, don't you?" Keyes said no. "She said, 'Too bad. You're going to have to get one.' "

Sing with me: "Sucks to be you - I know, I know - Sucks to be you - I know it's true - Sucks to be you - I know, I know - Sucks to be you - I'm a bastard it's true, if she did to me is what I did to you, I'm a bastard it's true, Alas it's true - Sucks to be you - I know I know - Sucks to be you - I know it's true - Sucks to be you...."

March 17

Wrapping up the UPS story, I had to do a double take on the non-event mass zero and wonder aloud to the public out there - why all the hub-bub? What about that oft-touted argument of the MacJihad - "hey, it's a Mac AND will run all your windows software in Soft PC!". I've heard that one at CompUSA, and from other users who have taken it on themselves to be their own free slave labor workforce for Apple, so what's the deal here? Does Soft PC lack the basic and most pithy firepower to even take on a form based data-entry and tracking software client? Given all the soundbites that accompanied the MacWeek.com report one get's the general feeling that this particular piece of wimpwear is wearing thin after it's oft-touted "solutions" status that it garnered around the time of the iMac into. Is this just another proof in the pudding argument or what? Hey don't ask me, I just write here.

March 18

Apple announces it's MacOS license, which is a curious one of those given the fact that Apple has put it's foot down as the approval community and executioner of anything that crosses it's path. Not exactly open-ended by any stretch because - hey - this is Apple folks. You were expecting RedHat maybe? But the real hummdinger in this techie - wanna be as dead as Netscape - scenario is that the code isn't even Apple's to play with anyway according to Perens.com(brought to you by Nigel2010 of ADC BBBS fame):

"We note that much of the material that Apple has just released under the APSL originated at The University of California, Berkeley and at Carnegie-Mellon University. That work was sponsored by the U.S. Government, paid for with our taxes, and was already available as Free Software under the BSD license and other well-accepted Open Source licenses. Many of these files do not significantly differ from the pre-Apple versions except that they bear the addition of a new copyright and license."

Well yoiks and zort! You mean Apple is playing godfather to PD code that is now being offered up as a (quasi) open license? How quaint! Gee, and I disinctly recall Apple being touted as the origin of all things perfect in the world of computing from the outer Jihad gallery! Lemmie double check to see if I have this right. First, Jobs leaves Apple, signs up NeXT with educational insitutions and adapts PD code into NeXTstep for it's Unix kernal, then returns to Apple and modifies NeXTstep into Mac OS X, and then releases an "open license" on that very same PD - taxpayer funded - code with all the legalesse deserving of a copyrighted and protected software entity. Call me non-plussed and dis-interrested, but I think the fanatics are following a false-prophet in the truest sense of the word.

March 19

In a bit of a writer's cop-out I'd like to put a spin on what I publically thought of the whole retro-NeXT scenario that now presented itself as the latest Rhapsody, Copland, Pink, Tallegent, Kalledia, Blue box, Yellow box, Plaid box - that is going to save Apple with a modern OS of the month flavor Mac OSX oh wait Mac OSx Server - sure whatever - and will show all those nerds using Windows NT whose boss. This one is of course from the BBBS - which again I invite anyone to check out if they like a good nerd argument with their morning coffee, or during their lunch break. It's where you'd find the following:

Obviously the idea that Mac OSx being infused with borrowed code ala NeXTstep must be an afront to "the perfect Apple" - regardless of the fact that no one (aside from me and 49,999 other rarities) actually gave NeXTstep and BSD/Mach unix the time of day during Jobs' failed campeign to accomplish anything remotely resembling enterprise computing also redefined in Jobs-speak as "interpersonal computing" after a failed bid to be known as "the best computer for desktop publishing ever" (pitty Quark and Pagemaker or anything like real DTP apps appeared on it). But that's just a theory of mine, he could just be running the usual pubecent gammut of snide giggle fest "sneak attacks" that leave everyone head scratching who let the moron in the club anyway. Well, I'm the moron - and I think he's cute in his high school approach to writing, humor, and public discourse. So I'm keeping him. Now if he actually owned a NeXT, knew anything about the computer industry and how Jobs has reinvented his failures time and time again - or at the very least - didn't take himself too seriously - then he might actually be entertaining around here. Don't hold your breath - I don't have user liability for suffocation at this club.

The upshot for some of the contexual speak is that I'm one of three moderators who let in a newbie that began the usual "Born-Again" speak that flows freely like a torrent from the more impressionable members of the MacJihad set. I decided to keep him, a rareity, because dammit - IT parranias gotta eat, and sometimes it's fun to thow a newbie to public techie discourse into the deep end of the fish-tank. So come on in, check out the BBBS. The waters fine!

March 20

Just a shortie - the Marines get pissed at the MacMarines. This is something I pondered over openly over a year ago - and at least THIS prediction came along nicely and right on time - however I don't have a link handy and I refuse to go digging with my state-of-the-fart 14.4 home modem card right now (and if you're wondering why I'm enduring self-torture, it's because the T1 is at the office - and the pokey card has an ethernet adapter included, which takes this laptop up to full power over lunch and coffee breaks etc. Getting a dual laptop card is in the ballpark of a few hundred, and I'd rather just save up for a new beast if I'm going to play with 250 dollar incriments - particularly if it's Gateway's XTV Destination - yum!). So I'd rather take a time out and describe something interresting that happened on the way back to the full-time job market. I'd been freelancing for at least 4 out of the last 6 months, and after being an internet "guy" for a few years, doing the "graphic design" thing left a bad taste in my mouth. It's not the mere fact that Apple still has many of these offices in it's slipping grip - but the whole hippy farm pompous art-prostitute biz was wearing thin. It's no secret that when you open the paper there's more internet and IT jobs out there than "graphic artists". In fact the only one I saw in this market last Sunday was for a "web graphic designer". Well, in reality, I'd seen this writing on the wall back in 1995 when I was introduced to the WWW after doinking around on usenet, fidonet, and other fringe areas of the internet and local BBS scenes. Talking with people that were making scads of money schlepping code and content for wires was a little more interresting than pushing pixels for Budweiser products. In 1996 though the satellite TV biz was pushing harware into orbit - not programming schedules and investor information down the internet. So after getting into the hornet's nest of Quark and the death-star of the DTP world, and getting the hell out in 2 years, I decided to check how the people "squirting the birds" were doing with their internet stuff. Well 2 months, 4 interviews, 3 signatures, 5 hours of corporate-speak in 2 locations later I'm back in the saddle. Now aside from providing a peek in what the delay in the updates around here were all about, it's also telling to take a look at some of the other members of the various internet, satellite internet, and intranet teams and their backgrounds. Either it's coders or database heads that have found manna from their proxy servers, or it's people who used to grok photoshop and other graphic tools to stake out a claim on the brave new turf. What's interresting is that even the graphic people have only briefly tolerated the MacOS, and have no major Jihad for or against the box they're pushing pixels and content-prep on. In fact given the age-demographics, the younger they are, the less-Mac time they have. The bottem line, if you want to get a job on the internet, you don't have to be employed for a company with their own staff of rocket scientists (2 more birds are scheduled to go up this year), to know - that in spite of what Apple says about Macs and the internet - Macs fare very little in 1000 plus seat operations, and even less with sub-operations for the internet. All I can say is - thank god I continued to expand my OS base rather than being on some self-dellusional "quest" to defend a corporation and their tech of shrinking relevancy. Imagine if the economy wasn't so hot right now and I was still embracing a Mac like a cuddly toy? Just thinking about it gives me cold sweats.