Macbook vs Macbook Pro.

Mar 13

Those of you who have been following me on twitter probably know by now that I sold my old generation one Macbook this week. With mixed feelings I reinstalled the little while buddy and took it towards its new owners who were already jumping with joy to get their hands on it. I do say mixed feelings because , aside from being a little sad to say goodbye to the last white apple laptop in the house (we said shalom to our Ibook last year) I am very exited about the next part of the story , the part where I get to buy myself a new toy. Of course I had been looking at the new Unibody Macs for quite some time, but until now I was not very tempted to buy one. (we have a last generation Macbook Pro in the house, and the specs don’t really differ from the later models) And just like the other times Mac came out with a "new model", me and Nyana needed some some time to get used to the new designs (at first we always go .. Yuck ! … and then we change our minds). So with the Macbook gone ( i don’t hold on to hardware longer then two years) its time to go for something new.

 

 

This brings us to the following predicament :  What to buy. At first i was not tempted to buy anything. Cause save for the new casings and the brighter screen, not much had changed since we bought our Macbook pro. So I did some research into what was new about the whole new Apple laptop line. First they were talking about how "sexy they looked".. Ok, i started to agree there. They all looked like the Macbook air, the most overrated overpriced underpowered piece of crap since time began. And then everybody was going on about ‘how they were built" .. I don"t give a frying fuck about how they are built ? I don’t even care if my pizza is made by 24 naked virgins whispering my name as they spread the onions.. If it tastes like crap I can’t be bothered. So after the hype and in the apple-fanboy"s post-orgasmic era I decided to "shop around". 

What I found out was kind of shocking. In short : There was a surprisingly small difference between the higher end Macbook models, and the entry level Macbook pro’s. Browsing around and reading specs I came to the startling conclusion that the gap between the Macbooks and the Pro’s was rapidly shrinking. With the new unibody-body’s there was no longer a "plastic vs Aluminum" gap, and both models sported equally sturdy casings. And when I lined up both models (high end Macbook vs entry level Macbook Pro) the only difference was the addition of a firewire port and a larger screen. So in essence the high end macbook became the super-portable Macbook Pro ? 

So now we come to the question: What to buy. Will I go for a Macbook pro with the larger screen, or for the more compact Macbook and a large external monitor. The ‘road warrior’ in me says to go for the Macbook , small portable and easy to flip out. The multi-media maniac in me is begging for a bigger screen and is shouting ‘PRO PRO PRO’ . So i’m not really sure as to what i’m going to do .. but i’ll keep you posted.

 

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Knightwise on Hacker Public Radio episode 310.

Mar 12

For those of you who don’t know Hacker Public Radio, HPR is a podcast produced by a variety of hosts, that mostly deals with all things geek. Well, maybe its geek-bordering-nerd, because some topics are pretty “down and deep” into the technological side of the story and might not be the greatest pristine pieces of audio production (nor eligible for a grammy). But when it comes to content they are darn good. in the spirit of contributing to the community I have done my own little episode of HPR and added it to their stream. So for those of you interested in a deeply techy talk on using SSH, centerim and screen .. You know where to get it : http://www.hackerpublicradio.org/  or to listen to the episode directly you can click HERE .

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Mellow Monday : 5 Cd's and a Podcast for free.

Mar 09

Some mondays are a little different from other ones. Some mondays you
jump out of bed, shout "Shakaaah" and bang on the walls to wake up your
neighbours to make them enthousiastic about the upcoming week. You race
downstairs and (after twittering ‘HELLO WORLD’) open the door and yell
"Hello World" into "meatspace" (referred to as ‘the real world’) You
jump into your car and dive straight into the work thats waiting for
you in the office, and empty out your inbox, resolving every problem
that had been lurking in there once and for all. During your coffee
break you scribble down the cure for cancer on a post-it note and
accomplish peace in the middle east after mediating the conflicting
sides over MSN Messenger.

 

 

And … some mondays are not like
tha
t. Upon waking up you feel like awakening from a very pleasant coma
into a horrible cold world. Talking to people is not an option (your
grumpy morning mood is a match for a Slovakian Assasin) and your
workplace is concidered a target for a thermonuclear test-strike. So in
order to "survive your day" some nice music would go a long way. Today
I’m in one of these mellow monday moods where I need a auditory
firewall between me and my surroundings. Where i’m not quite ready yett
for the assault of "everyday life" and need to have some nice mellow
music to "faze me into the working week".

One of the podcasts that never fails to deliver is my good friends TC’s
podcast called " Spacemusic.nl " where he plays great sets of ambient
music from a variety of artists. So please go and subscribe to
www.spacemusic.nl if you want some great chilly tunes. Some of the
artists featured even offer their music for free , as for example these
5 albums from Generall Fuzz . There .. 5 free cd’s and a podcast to
cheer up your monday morning blues.

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Dc201 "Installing Bashpodder"

Mar 07

How about a PDF-manual in your feed to explain how to use and install the mighty simple program of bashpodder. Follow the step by step instruction to install bashpodder, a command line based podcatcher on your linux system. After that, go one step beyond and automate the entire process via CRON. Set when and where you want to get your podcasts downloaded and let technology work for you.

Shownotes.

  • Downloading Bashpodder
  • Installing Bashpodder
  • Configuring what podcasts to download
  • Check your downloads
  • Automate the Process using Cron.

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Afraid to Slide ? Get some Air !

Mar 06

A lot of people are afraid to use another operating system. Some people are afraid to embrace something that is different then the thngs they know. And coming to think of it, I can understand them. There are lists upon lists out there that give you "alternatives" Alternative operating systems to Windows, alternative programs to Word, Excell, Internet Exlplorer and so forth. It seems that whenever we want to switch operating systems we also need to get used to new applications to do the same thing. And coming to think about it . Why should we ! If an operating system is indeed a "transparent tool" to help us get things done, why can’t we use the exact same applications on EVERY operating system.

Enter "middleware" In the professional side of the IT business, middleware is software that connects one kind of "back-end systems" (like for example AS400 ) to front end software like for example an http interface or something. Middleware is something that is also available to switchers (or should i say "sliders", like us) One of those is ADOBE AIR, a "middle ware software" that enables programmers to develop software application for the "middle ware software" while Adobe desings the "air platform" to run on both Linux, Osx and Windows.

 


 

One of my favourite Applications on the ADOBE AIR platform Must be Tweetdeck. The multi-column approach to reading tweets, following people and more importantly keeping tabs on keywords and searches.

So if you want to go ahead and give it a try, its pretty easy to do.

Download adobe air for the Mac and the Pc HERE , and if you need to get it going in ubuntu (its very easy) follow THIS howto. After that , download Tweetdeck and hit install. !

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