Macinations

October 2, 2021

📙 Book Review – Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

Continuing with biographies, I picked up Dealers of Lightning and was absolutely stunned by PARC. It’s no secret their work brought about the UI for both Windows and Mac. But, there is so much more. Dare I say, the UI was the tip of the iceberg. There was the laser printer, Ethernet, multi-node networking, ARPANET, photo editing, the “desktop” paradigm, object oriented programming, the mouse, bitmap graphics, and of course, the Alto which tied all this together. Even the concept of the iPad was conceptualized at PARC, the DynaBook. So much of our everyday computing lives trace their roots back to PARC. It’s amazing and impressive how much they developed, and this was before 99% of the public even knew what a computer was or what they could do with it. It’s almost laughable there was a time when a computer didn’t have an express purpose. And the idea of an idle computer was unheard of. You paid for compute […]

September 27, 2021

💻 App Tamer, Fact or Fiction?

If you have a lot of open apps, and a lot of apps running in the background and menu bar, you might need App Tamer by St. Clair Software. App Tamer is a tool designed to help control resource hungry apps, throttle background apps, and even shut down apps when they go idle. But, is such a tool necessary? macOS does a fine job of managing and controlling apps. Apps that are native to the new M1 Apple Silicon should run great right? On my system, an old Intel, Mac Pro, with a dozen apps open at any one time, plus another dozen in the menu bar, lots of things are trying to use resources when in the background. Some times it’s not the apps you think. For example, if you push your browser to the background, should it keep using the same resources it did when it was in the fore? If you’re streaming videos yes, but if you’re […]

September 23, 2021

🍏 Disappointing Apple Event?

No surprise, the web is abuzz with reactions to the Apple event. Oddly, a lot of them are filled with disappointment. People are disappointed because there wasn’t enough “stuff.” The upgrades weren’t “big enough.” That makes me laugh. They’re disappointed not because there was something wrong with the event or the offerings. They’re disappointed because they listened to a bunch of “leakers” who hyped up expectations for products that never existed. People go into these events expecting the world because some “leaker” also known as someone who “guesses,” made a 3D render of something he thought was cool. Or made the claim, they knew a guy, who knew a guy, who overheard another guy talking about Apple. They have no insight into what’s going to be released. People feel cheated, not because Apple promised something and didn’t deliver. They feel cheated because they didn’t get a feature they can’t name and was never listed in the first place. So they […]

September 22, 2021

⛔ Path Finder, why do you disappoint me so?

After working with and enjoying Path Finder for about a year, it’s time for us to part ways, and not under good terms. Path Finder was a great deal in a previous Bundlehunt Sale, and is a full featured file management tool. So what’s the problem? Turns out it’s actually a subscription, and that doesn’t fly. It’s not just a simple matter of no more updates, I’m fine with that. The software reverts to Trial mode, the nags begin, and clearly it’s only a matter of days before it stops working. I can’t keep using what I’ve already paid for. I don’t rent software, so that’s the end of our relationship. I don’t agree with this sort of business model, so I’m not going to support it. What’s more frustrating, none of this is written out on the site. Nothing states the software stops working at the end of your “year.” You are entitled to free upgrades for a year […]

September 20, 2021

📱Where is the iPad mini Pro?

I thought the California Streaming event was quite enjoyable. I’m also amused at the off target guesses by the experts. Not to mention the pointless commentary on how Apple didn’t release “The next big thing.” Sure, anyone can release the next big thing year after year after year. It’s totally easy. Anyway, I see that Apple Watch 7 in my future. The others offerings were solid upgrades for people who haven’t updated in awhile. Seriously, you can’t upgrade every year. I really liked the camera array for the iPhone 13 Pro. It made me think, why not make an iPad mini Pro and give it that same camera configuration? While watching the segment where they make a video with the iPhone, I thought the iPad mini would be the perfect size to use. It has a great screen for viewing and editing. Easy to mount, or use with one hand. You could confirm your rack focus shots more easily too. […]

📙 Book Review – Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age

💻 App Tamer, Fact or Fiction?

🍏 Disappointing Apple Event?

⛔ Path Finder, why do you disappoint me so?

📱Where is the iPad mini Pro?

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