Apple likes and annoyances

I’m writing this post on the Mac. I’ve come to like and dislike things about the Mac.

To sum it up, I do not understand the fascination with Apple. It seems to be driven by a misguided response to Microsoft Windows Vista. I really feel Vista is overall a superior OS.

Mac likes:

  • Better apparent hardware quality than PC. The essential chips and wires are the same. It’s the packaging and fit and finish that’s better. But it’s not night and day. For example, Lenovo’s laptops aren’t “pretty,” but they are well designed.
  • Pretty. Except perhaps for Sony, PCs just don’t look great. But then again, I don’t, either. So this is a weak plus.
  • Very fast boot and shut down. Start up is less than a minute, shut down is just seconds. I guess that Apple must be able to massively optimize its code since, unlike Vista, it doesn’t need to run on varied hardware configurations.
  • One version of OS X. Microsoft screwed up with its confusing flavors of Vista. Apple was right to include everything in one version at one price. The only valid counterpoints I can think of are support and enterprise reluctance to install everything. But tools already exist to address both problems.
  • Freeware enthusiasm. Those developing freeware for the Mac see more enthusiastic about developing well-running, easy to use applications than comparable efforts for the PC or especially Linux.
Mac dislikes:
  • Safari is surprisingly buggy, insecure, and is prone to UI glitches, incompatibilities, and stalls for no apparent reason.
  • The kernel panic I induced without trying.
  • Sometimes crashes when awakening from sleep. When this happens, the laptop stops responding, and the “on” light doesn’t even light. The only way I can get it back on is to hold down the power button for 5 seconds (like a hard power off when it’s on) then power it back on. This sometimes happens to Vista, too.
  • No second mouse button. Come on, how long have PCs had 2 button mice? Control-click? Whatever.
  • Touchpad is too big. I keep sliding other fingers on it because it’s so huge. Somehow I change Safari’s font size when a finger slips. (And searching on Safari gestures still hasn’t explained why that happens.)
  • Menu bar stuck to top of screen. Windows does it better: menu bars are attached to the application window. Actions that require lots of menu use really get annoying on OS X.
  • No concept of multiple instances of an application. OS X has strictly one copy of an application open, and if it has multiple windows, they all share the same menu bar. That means you cannot Command-Tab between windows of the same application; you have to switch to Command-`. Binding task switching to application affinity sure seems arbitrary. It’s like the old days where you had to open an application before opening the document.
  • Because of prior problem, too easy to close out all windows/documents of one application. Command-Q and hitting the wrong button does it.
  • The knowledge that I am indirectly supporting an unusually smug, proprietary, sue-happy corporation. In my opinion, Apple to computing is like Prius to automobiles: the social statement seems to take undue weight, bordering on arrogance. But what is this social statement for?
    • Despite their use of BSD, Apple is highly proprietary.
    • Even though it’s compatible with clone hardware, Apple makes it quite difficult and illegal to run OS X on non-Apple hardware.
    • Apple sues bloggers.
    • Apple is a profit-loving company just like Microsoft.
    • Apple sells its stuff at well above market prices.
  • Apple menu, application menu, File menu on every application. Windows does it better with a master Start menu and the application-specific menus neatly attached to the application.
  • Errors often get buried with no indication. Only on some errors do I see the bouncing icon on the dock. Many errors go unnoticed if the “erroring” application isn’t in the foreground.
  • Poor busy notifications. The cursor only occasionally indicates that the computer is “working.” The application’s icon in the dock only bounces for a smallish portion of its load time. There’s no hard drive light, and Safari has no “working” indicator like all other browsers.
  • The dock. Pretty but poorly executed. The “running” indicator is hard to see. Windows again got it right:
    • Start menu contains both “pinned” items, most frequently used applications, and all the rest of your applications are just a click away.
    • Running applications are clearly visible in the Taskbar.
There was a time that I thought I may be interested in an Apple. But now that I have one, I think it’s going to be a toy more than a workhorse.
Why am I still on this Apple? My Lenovo X60 developed a hardware problem. I received it back from Solectron today (contract repair company), and it developed a serious “power on” problem, and the tablet functionality stopped working. I should get my Lenovo back on Thursday. I cannot wait!

So much for “it just works”

I was issued an Apple MacBook Pro at work today. We are about to deploy some Apple servers, and apparently server administration works better if done from a Mac OS X client.

Construction, aesthetics, fit and finish, and design seem more refined than typical PC laptops.

However, after I installed an AirPort update, I ran Safari and then installed iTunes. Safari crashed HARD. I couldn’t even force quit it. Because of that, I couldn’t even restart the computer. It just refused to close out the OS.

So I had to power the thing off by holding down the power button for 5 seconds.

Powering back on, I get this nasty error:

Yeah, that’s right, kernel panic! As in, “you’re gonna reinstall from scratch.”

One hour later I’m back up–after reinstalling from scratch! With some help, I learned how to hold down Option to force the equivalent of pressing F8 in Windows. I erased the old image and installed a whole new OS.

For all of Windows’s faults, Vista has never left me this stranded!

Industrial Boulevard poll = Dallas City Council looks like dummies

Dallas City Council members have traded entertaining barbs over a recent poll about renaming Industrial Boulevard. The winning choice was Cesar Chavez.

The problem is the poll is complete bunk. In no way could it accurately represent the voice of Dallas citizens.

The poll allowed people to vote over fax, email, and phone. How do you ensure that voters only vote once, and how do you ensure that voters are actual Dallas citizens? You can’t!

The Dallas Morning News says that city staff attempted to “weed out vote-stacking” by eliminating “more than one vote … from the same computer” Also, “a three-vote maximum was allowed per phone…” (link)

First, there is no way to accurately enforce one vote per computer on this poll. Since the site did not let users log in (and reference some kind of credential), there are only two ways to ensure uniqueness:

  • One vote per IP address. I doubt they chose that; it would effectively block most users of ISPs that proxy users behind few IP addresses, such as AOL.
  • Set a cookie. The cookie can easily be discarded. As soon as that is done, the vote server would have no idea it was the same old browser!

Second, there is nothing preventing someone from calling, faxing, and computer voting (several times). It’s impossible to accurately cross-reference computer votes to phone calls!

Third, without some kind of pervasive, city-issued ID system, it is utterly impossible to validate that votes came from Dallas residents. Without advanced techniques well beyond the scope of this survey, it is utterly impossible to link computers to specific cities. And even if phone numbers were validated, how do you know the person on the other end of the line isn’t a commuter from the ‘burbs?

City council: please stop. You’re making yourself look like idiots.

With way it was conducted, this poll is only good for entertainment value. Nothing else!

Case for FLDS raid keeps collapsing

Today, the Texas Supreme Court further proved that the Texas Child Protective Service‘s jihad against the FLDS church is phenomenal bureaucratic ineptitude.

The Supreme Court rightly ruled that CPS never had sufficient grounds to remove the kids from the compound.

This comes after weeks of curious revelations, including that the phone calls instigating this raid were fake and, unlike the original allegations, that the CPS remains unable to substantiate any current pregnancies are with underage girls.

It’s even worse.

So far the CPS only suspects that 1.25% of the seized kids may have been physically or sexually abused. Let’s put that in context. In 2002, 4.6 million children were checked for abuse in the USA. Of them, approximately:

  • 20% showed any sign of abuse.
  • 6% showed signs of sexual or physical abuse (either one or both).

1.25% of the FLDS population is 94% lower than the physical or sexual abuse rate of the general population of investigated children. (source of stats) The point here is that the FLDS raid was grossly overbroad in including so many children.

<digression>

The media adds a humorous element to this saga: they are fascinated at how the FLDS members aren’t cooperating with officials, intentionally making it difficult for the government to investigate them.

Why is that weird? Why are the FLDS members’ actions any different than normal citizens? When you see a cop doing revenue enhancement running a speed trap, do you 1. brake and take other reasonable steps to avoid a citation or 2. drive up to the cop and ask to pay the speed tax ask for a ticket? (And don’t respond and say you never do this; almost everyone drives slowly around cops.) Ladies and gentlemen of the media, it’s normal for people not to submit to government intervention. Big Brother is not our friend. The rest of us get it. When will you?

</digression>

Now, don’t get me wrong about the FLDS. That church is very strange. It has bizarre, weird, heretical beliefs. It comes close to a cult.

Their founder is a pederast. Here are pictures of him passionately kissing a 12 and 14 year old girls he may have “married”:

(source)

How would you feel if those were your daughters? Fortunately, he’s in jail. Which means he’s not in Texas.

Memo to the Texas CPS: It’s legal to be strange! And thank God for that right.

Unless things start changing quickly, heads must roll at the CPS. A failure to soundly scourge that agency will set a precedent that the government is the chief child abuser in Texas!

Memorial Day treat from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra gives us a treat every Memorial Day. As part of its Community Concerts series, the DSO does a concert at Dallas’s Flagpole Hill, a part of White Rock Lake Park. The audience sits on a gradually sloping hill facing a small band shell that contains the orchestra.

The orchestra sweats through several patriotic or traditional songs, and it’s capped off by a nice, small fireworks show.

Halfway through my 8th grade year, I switched from trumpet to euphonium. I stuck with it through my junior year at SMU.

Even though they have too much firewood string instruments and no euphoniums, I really enjoy when they do Sousa marches. I still remember most of the fingerings and “play along,” sometimes getting the 4th valve fingering right for the lower D and D flat.

The program never indicates the fireworks show. What always happens is they do one last surprise song kind of like an encore, and the fireworks go off during then. The fireworks are shot off across Northwest Highway (6 lane surface road) from Flagpole Hill. The cops block off traffic during the fireworks, possibly because of the smoke and distraction.