/me looks at date on last update...*snicker* It's been a fricking long time since I've updated this... But I suddenly realized last night that I have some interesting things to relate.
First, iTunes for Windows is rather cool. As I've said before, I'm not a fan of Apple's pompousness, but this time, they seem to have done something really great, and on Windows no less! Apple, as always, has an interesting way of looking at user interface design. Far too many music jukebox apps ( including my personal favorite, Winamp) are based on the idea that a music jukebox app should look like some type of stereo equipment...While this is at first a nice premise, Apple seems to have taken the position that a music jukebox app should look like a library of sorts, because that's what it is, a library for your music. It's an approach that works, IMO.
Second...GO FALCONS!!! I've already got my tickets for the MAC Championship game on Thursday.
Third, over Thanksgiving Break, I made the severe mistake of picking up my copy of Cliff Stoll's excellent book The Cuckoo's Egg. You see, once I start reading a book like that, I don't stop until I get to the back cover, and thus night rapidly became morning. If you haven't read Cuckoo's Egg, and have any interest in computer networks or computer crime, this is the book four you. While it's written like a fictional work, and certainly flows like one, it's 100% true. Cliff Stoll by the way, is I think the only person I've ever seen hiding behind a chair on C-SPAN. You may remember him from the awesome early-period MSNBC show "The Site" from back in "the day". As I recall, he did one segment from his bathtub, naked, with his laptop (computer) on his lap.
In computer news...
I found an IBM Model M keyboard at Goodwill! This is definitely the Keyboard of the Gods. It makes my current Gateway keyboard feel like a piece of flimsy trash. No stupid "media" buttons, no stupid Windows keys, just 100% pure keyboard. It feels more like some type of huge control console then a keyboard. Unfortunately, I can't use it here in the dorm because it's far too loud...However, I shall display it proudly and take it to LAN parties and other geeky events.
Elsewhere in computer news, I got bored over break and installed OS/2 Warp 3.0 and Windows NT 3.51 on our old Compaq, dual booting via OS/2's very nice Boot Manager.
I put OS/2 on because...Well, I don't know why... It's sort of a joke with me, I've put OS/2 on several machines just for the hell of it, but I can never really find any use for it. It takes one hell of a long time because the copy I have is on several dozen floppies.
NT 3.51 strikes me as very, very cool. I must admit, I love the way the old interface looks (other then the wasteful way programs minmize to the desktop), and with the added graphical goodies of NT (full window drag and dynamic resolution changes), it looks better then ever. Thinking back, the NT 3.x series was probably the first real OS Microsoft ever produced (32-bit pre-emptive multitasking, excellent resource management, protected memory, multiple user support, file security, etc). Thank you David Cutler, et al.
In gaming news, my roommate introduced me to Gunbound, an amazing online game that combines the gameplay of Scorched Earth and Worms with the psudo-manga graphical style of Rangorak Online. Basically by fighting you can improve your character. You earn experience points and gold which is then used to buy cool stuff that improves your stats. Basically you have to see it to understand. I recommend it to everyone!!! My name on Gunbound (not surprisingly) is Anthropic.
