Upgraded the CPU on my Mac Mini from Core Duo 1.6GHz to Core2Duo 2.33GHz – (instructions & discussion) Results are amazing, and the bump in performance, even during transcoding of video, is immediately noticeable.  Note that there was a dramatic increase in fan noise so hope you’ve got your Mini in a closet somewhere as I do.  (UPDATE:  Fan noise was due to broken heatsink screw.  Here‘s an example of why this upgrade was a great idea)
	Created a generic bootable USB OSX Leopard installer on a 16GB Thumb Drive – (instructions & instructions) Upgrades and refreshes are now a breeze.  It’s also got all of my (licensed) apps like Adobe CS and Microsoft Office on board in case I ever lose my hard drive, etc.
	Installed and began regularly using Sxipper for login automation – (install) Apart from making it WAY easier for me to log in to sites and keep track of all of my passwords, this has allowed me to emancipate myself from a broken Firefox configuration that I have beeb married to since the early Betas.
	Hacked my AppleTV and installed XMBC/Boxee – (instructions) Since I already store my media within iTunes, and since Boxee has very limited content avilable at the moment, this was FAIL.  I do find it interesting to see what others are watching, but the only active friend I have is Boxee CEO Avner Ronen.  If Boxee wants me to be a frequent user, it needs to allow me to subscribe to torrent feeds and automagically download the movies to my AppleTV.
	Maxed out the RAM on all of our Macs – (get some) RAM prices are artificially deflated thanks to the manufacturers vastly overestimating the demand for memory following the release of Windows Vista.  My friends @ CanadaRAM have great prices as a result.  Their loss is our productivity gain!

All in all my future wife was quite dismayed at the number of times I broke out the torx screwdriver and cracked open a computer on the ottoman while watching “Long Way Down” but I’m grateful it’s over with.  Happy New Year all!

UPDATED: One more Bonus thing I did!

Installed Nambu on my MBPro and iPhone for managing my Tweets etc. – (discussion & iphone app ) The Nambu Desktop app is in beta, so you can’t get it yet… but the iPhone cllient is available for cheap from the iTunes Music store.  Keep an eye on the Nambu web site for the launch of the Desktop client.  Nambu in both cases revealed a number of Direct Messages I never knew I had… twitter is notoriously bad at revealing these via its web interface.

Seeya.

So no surprise then that CBC Marketplace has taken the boilerplate “bust a mechanic” TV camera entrapment scheme and used it to go after the 21st century’s answer to the auto mechanic — Geeks. In this video they busted Geeks On Call Nerds on Site (thanks to the Geeks On Call pseudo-lawyers for clarifying this), Geek Squad, and the nerds in VW Beetles from a number of other smaller organizations making all kinds of wacky diagnoses of the planted problem (albeit a persnickety one) of a damaged RAM DIMM.

I for one am disappointed they didn’t show more. From my experience with (fellow) geeks, I’m surprised there weren’t even more hare-brained recommendations than the $2,000.00 “clean room” in London, Ontario.Like grease monkeys, the geeks are becoming used to dealing with customers who revere their “talents” (read: dubious obscure knowledge) and over-simplifying problems to aid in comprehension. Also like auto mechanics, the temptation to exploit this gap in understanding is tough to resist.The difference is that in the automotive world, most of us have fled to the eager arms of dealer-affiliated repair shops. The reason is the feedback loop: if we feel ripped off, if we are concerned about the qualifications of the mechanic, or if we doubt the merit of their diagnoses these can all be addressed with the regional office of the manufacturer or beyond, and the mechanics know that.

But in the Personal Computer world, the reps that are being busted are exactly the people we’re used to trusting: technicians affiliated with major retail, software, or hardware brands. And while the feedback loop appears as though it might be there, these large companies have done a much better job than the auto manufacturers of insulating themselves from the petty concerns of their customers.

What the CBC has really done is expose the entirety of the business model associated with the mobile computer repair business: the upsell. They exist largely as a customer retention program for retailers, so that the first sale becomes a platform that results in a total lifecycle of sales as your computing equipment “matures” into planned obsolescence. Of course they’re just TV reporters so they didn’t really clue into that, so there’s little about this story that will surprise any of us within the industry.

Still, it’s fun to watch self-important geeks who 30 years ago would be wiping the grease from their hands as they waxed poetic about the ailments of our family cars, come up with a plethora of totally overblown and completely irrational conclusions. That said, a blown memory DIMM is difficult to diagnose, especially if the computer boots (which is not clear in this report).

Fortunately, there are a lot of geeks out there who can fix this kind of stuff, and you probably know one. If you do, then certainly the personal accountability feedback loop will probably do more good than any corporate accountability feedback loop. Just don’t call me — my Volkswagen is a Jetta. 🙂

-Ian.

I don’t think there’s an Anti-American bias on this list (now that Caroline Rechia is gone.. tee hee!) so much as there is an Anti-Bush bias. Americans comprise roughly 50% of the readership here, and in my random sampling of those people not a lot have claimed to feel that way. Still, semantics _are_ meaningful so I take your criticisms to heart.

In my defense I think that there is an Anti-Bush sentiment that runs through here… and that’s just my point all along. Bush and his cronies have seen to it that to criticize his government and its policies is necessarily the equivalent of criticizing America. I>like< America; I obviously like Americans -- so much so, I used to live there. America has problems as does any country. America draws a lot of fire right now because it is at the helm of our entire species. Therefore, it's kind of important to discuss, analyze, and criticize those we lead the country. That's the whole point of FOIB. Believe me, if the Canadian Liberals had any global relevance whatsoever, we'd be kicking the shit out of them and picking apart their policies, too. But as it stands — can anyone even tell me without googling who Canada’s Finance Minister is right now? That fact is important to Canadians but nobody else in particular right now. But the chair of the SEC in the United States has global relevance and consequences, and so discussing such issues appeals to the entirety of FOIB.

In fact, 90% of the time I talk about Canadian stuff on FOIB I’m doing it to be cheeky, and because it interests me (editorial prerogative). Other than that, who really cares?

Sad but true.

-Ian.

On Thursday, March 20, 2003, at 11:08 AM, Mike Masnick wrote:

> Oh, come on, Ian.
>
> (1) This is old news.
>
> (2) As awful as it sounds (and it *is* dreadful and shows just what an
> awful person Ashcroft is and why he absolutely should not be trusted),
> as soon as this came out (over a month ago) the condemnations came
> raining down from everywhere:
>
> Conservatives And Liberals Unite In Opposition To Patriot II
> http://www.sierratimes.com/03/03/14/armg031403.htm
>
> Congress was pissed off about it to:
> http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109507,00.asp
>
> (3) The line about the “control sheet” suggesting that Cheney and
> Hastert have seen the draft is bullshit, and was pointed out
> repeatedly when this first came out. You always put their names on
> the control sheet. It doesn’t mean they’ve seen it. In fact, it’s
> almost definite that they hadn’t seen it. Yet the anti-Americans
> cling to that, as if it was this big secret plan. Get over it.
>
> (4) The thing we *should* definitely be worried about is if another
> terrorist attack happens, will Ashcroft try to ram this through. That
> is a risk. But, to just repost the same boring bits, and ignore the
> fact that they’re inaccurate and leave out the almost universal
> dislike of the proposal is unfair.
>
> So, yeah, it’s an awful plan, but the response has been good, and
> ignoring that continues the ridiculous efforts on this list to make
> Americans look bad. I have no problem with serious discussions on
> this, but you seem to post biased one-sided stories. As I’ve said in
> the past, you’re much smarter than that. I’d much rather see you look
> at stuff arguing for the other side and pick that part. You’re good
> at that – even if I may argue back at you. Don’t just repost the same
> useless biased crap.
>
> Mike
>
> At 09:58 AM 3/20/2003 -0800, Ian Andrew Bell wrote:
>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: Salim Virani
>>> Date: Thu Mar 20, 2003 9:11:11 AM US/Pacific
>>> To: Ian Bell
>>> Subject: Bend over.
>>>
>>> http://www.rediff.com/us/2003/mar/19us.htm
>>>
>>> US drafts draconian sequel to Patriot Act
>>>
>>> Jeet Thayil in New York | March 19, 2003 17:49 IST
>>>
>>> In February, the non-profit Center for Public Integrity, a
>>> Washington-based watchdog organisation, posted on its web site an
>>> 86-page draft of the secret Domestic Security Enhancement Act of
>>> 2003.
>>>
>>> United States Attorney General John Ashcroft’s staff had drafted the
>>> document even as the Justice Department denied persistent rumours
>>> about the creation such a bill.
>>>
>>> The draft bill proposes more than 100 changes in law, and allows
>>> increased electronic surveillance and data collection from sources
>>> such as e-mail, chat rooms and cell phone conversations.
>>>
>>> For the first time encryption will be made a criminal offence, a
>>> daunting idea considering the increasing daily usage of encryption
>>> in internet communication.
>>>
>>> The draft bill allows the attorney general to deport any foreigner,
>>> including permanent legal residents whose presence is considered
>>> ‘inconsistent with national security’. The summary deportation can
>>> be carried out even if there is no evidence of crime or criminal
>>> intent.
>>>
>>> Section 501 of the DSEA allows the Justice Department to revoke
>>> permanent resident alien status. It gives the government power to
>>> strip the citizenship of, and detain as aliens, Americans suspected
>>> of helping those ‘designated as a terrorist organisation’.
>>>
>>> The draft bill dramatically increases the government’s domestic
>>> spying capabilities. It permits wiretapping of citizens and
>>> residents for 15 days without a court order, at the discretion of
>>> the Attorney General. It allows a citizen’s internet and chat room
>>> visits to be monitored for 48 hours without a judge’s permission.
>>>
>>> The document also protects federal agents carrying out illegal
>>> surveillance while Section 312 invalidates court-approved curbs on
>>> police spying.
>>>
>>> Authorities may create a DNA database from ‘suspected terrorists’ or
>>> non-citizens suspected of ‘ordinary’ [read non-terrorist] crimes.
>>>
>>> For the first time in US history secret arrests will be permitted in
>>> a section titled ‘Prohibition of Disclosure of Terrorism
>>> Investigation Detainee Information’. It allows federal agents to
>>> carry out indefinite detentions while denying the identity or
>>> existence of such detainees.
>>>
>>> In fact, proposed Section 201 of the Domestic Security Enhancement
>>> Act overturns a federal court order that the Bush administration
>>> must reveal the identities of detainees. The relevant section notes
>>> that ‘the government need not disclose information about individuals
>>> detained in investigations of terrorism’ until criminal charges are
>>> filed.
>>>
>>> Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity and a
>>> former television personality, was interviewed on Bill Moyers’s PBS
>>> programme Now, on the same day the document was leaked.
>>>
>>> The draft bill would ‘give the attorney general unchecked power to
>>> deport any foreigner’, Moyers said.
>>>
>>> Soon after the show aired on the enormously influential PBS station,
>>> the leaked document began to make its way to mainstream radio and
>>> media outlets.
>>>
>>> Civil liberties group dubbed the proposed bill ‘Patriot Act II’
>>> after the USA Patriot Act, which was passed soon after September 11,
>>> 2001. That act gave the government unprecedented powers while
>>> limiting civil liberties.
>>>
>>> “If you liked the Patriot Act, you’re going to love the sequel,”
>>> said George Getz, communications director of the Libertarian Party.
>>> “Patriot II offers awesome government power, rapidly disappearing
>>> freedom, and an action-packed war on the Constitution.
>>>
>>> “You’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat as your liberties are
>>> stripped away,” he added.
>>>
>>> Other civil groups said much the same thing. “The DSEA of 2003
>>> encroaches on the rights and protections of Americans even more than
>>> its predecessor did,” said Mel Lipman, president of the American
>>> Humanist Association.
>>>
>>> Lipman said the bill ‘would see our basic freedoms diminished along
>>> with key checks and balances on executive branch powers’.
>>>
>>> He said certain individuals would be targeted not on their actions
>>> but on whether they were a ‘potential threat’ according to
>>> ‘ethnicity, belief, appearance, or other unrelated factors’.
>>>
>>> Lewis, who is executive director of the Center for Public Integrity,
>>> said the leaked document provided startling evidence of ‘another
>>> tectonic shift in the historic constitutional balance between
>>> security and liberty’.
>>>
>>> The Department of Justice has not yet officially released the draft
>>> bill, but a ‘control sheet’ attached to the bill indicated copies
>>> were sent to Vice President Dick Cheney and Speaker of the House
>>> Dennis Hastert.
>>>
>>> No official statement has been made on the draft bill or the fact
>>> that it was leaked to the Internet, and subsequently to the media.
>>> The only response from the Department of Justice was a written
>>> statement from a spokesperson saying it would be ‘premature to
>>> speculate on any future decisions, particularly ideas or proposals
>>> that are still being discussed at staff levels’.
>>>
>>>
>>> Salim Virani
>>> 604.773.4436
>>
>>

During the concert that I went to (in 1999, in fact) he explained that he had re-arranged a bunch of new songs while riding in the bus from Calgary to Vancouver and that they were going to play those new arrangements for the first time at the show.

Pretty amazing.

-Ian.

——- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/04/business/04PATE.html?pagewanted=print

March 4, 2002 Crooner Uses Computers to Replace Sheet Music By TERESA RIORDAN

Harry Connick Jr. is a versatile guy: crooner, composer, big-band leader, piano player, actor, comedian. And an inventor, as well.

Mr. Connick, who has been described by one critic as a new and improved version of Sinatra, recently received United States patent 6,348,648 for a “system and method for coordinating music display among players in an orchestra.”

“It basically eliminates old-fashioned sheet music,” Mr. Connick said in a phone interview 10 days ago, before leaving for Salt Lake City, where he performed “Over the Rainbow” during the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

His patented idea came to him one day several years ago when his big band was playing outdoors and the sheet music was blowing around. Why not, he thought, have all 16 band members read their music off computer screens instead?

So before he started a long tour in 1999, Mr. Connick bought enough blue and white G3 Power Macs, each with a rotatable screen, that everyone ‹ from his trombonists to his drummer ‹ could read from electronic sheet music.

For technical advice, he turned to his neighbor David Pogue, who is a former Broadway conductor and a computer guru to the stars, whose clients have included Stephen Sondheim and Mia Farrow. (Mr. Pogue, who also writes the State of the Art column for the weekly Circuits section of this newspaper, has no commercial ties to Mr. Connick’s invention.)

“A lot of the guys I knew from my pit work on Broadway said that it would never work,” Mr. Pogue recalled. “They said the computer would crash or the screen wouldn’t refresh itself in time for a professional situation.”

In fact, Mr. Pogue said, the technology had progressed far enough that the electronic page could be turned faster and more reliably than a paper page.

At first, Mr. Pogue said, the members of Mr. Connick’s band were skeptical. “They circled it and sniffed it the first day,” he said. “But by the time they opened the tour they were really into it.”

Mr. Connick started the digital- score tour in a relatively low-stakes locale ‹ Ames, Iowa ‹ so that any kinks could be worked out beyond publicity’s glare.

Unlike most other pop musicians, Mr. Connick does his own musical arrangements right on his Macintosh computer, using Finale software from Coda Music Technology, a division of Net4Music (news/quote). His system allows him to make changes to a given arrangement ‹ knock out eight bars here, add eight bars there ‹ and have them entered automatically into his musicians’ copies of the music.

“Oh man, it’s made my life easier,” Mr. Connick said. “Before, I would write out a song by hand and give it to a couple of guys in the band who are copyists and they would figure out the instrumental sections. It could take days. Now I can write a new score in the morning and everyone has it on his computer screen in the afternoon. Imagine if a Duke Ellington or a Stravinsky had had a system like that.”

The system has had some unforeseen benefits, as well. In studio recordings, for example, it’s no longer necessary to digitally remove the page-turning rustling in the background. Moreover, musicians can insert page breaks wherever they want.

And doing away with sheet music also means doing away with music lights for the musicians. So when the lights dim and Mr. Connick begins to sing, Mr. Pogue said, all the audience sees of the other musicians is “this super-cool bluish glow on their faces from the computer screens.”

Mr. Connick’s patent covers more territory than electronic sheet music. He hopes that eventually the computers will have their own operating system and feature a touch screen that allows a composer to write music as he would on paper.

But he makes it clear that he is a concept man.

“I can do stuff like put RAM in a computer, but I’m not a programmer,” he said. “You start talking about the technology involved in making it, and I’m going to be completely lost. I don’t have any interest in actually building it. I just want someone to send me one in the mail when it’s done.”

In fact, Mr. Connick approached Apple Computer (news/quote) about helping him develop the system.

“I love their products and I thought for sure they would go for it,” he said. “They put up a lot of `Think Different’ posters and I sure think different. But they weren’t interested.”

On the day his patent was issued, Mr. Connick said, his wife, Jill Goodacre, a former Victoria’s Secret model, asked him if he was proud of himself.

“I said not really,” Mr. Connick recalled. “It’s not like I invented Velcro or anything.”

http://mfile.akamai.com/95/live/reflector:20305.ram?bkup 307

Not too many people know about this so it’s pretty consistently fast.

-Ian.