Brad's World

For those who grew up or lived through the 70's it was a visually challenging time. Check out this site of awful 1970's interior designs considered quite tasteful at the time. The commentary had me belly laughing -- even though I am half awake (and half asleep!).

A few comments:
"Love the rug, too. They didn’t even make AMC cars in those color combinations. They didn’t dare."
"He’s Sauron, baby, and he’s back in town! Yes, the all-seeing eye that embodies evil and domination is groovier than ever"

I'm heading to the basement to find my $9 desk clamping, swing-arm desklamp. If only they had one in orange..

A friend and I were speculating recently as to whether the new version of Mac OS X, named Tiger, will be faster or slower than the current one (Panther).

Years ago when I was a Windoze Luddite, I upgraded to the new versions of Windows and Office. My machine came to a grind as the bloated software used up all the system resources and thrashed. Even today, it is common knowledge that in Microsoft's Windows emulator for OS X, Virtual PC 7, you need to turn off all the fancy GUI features of Windows XP to make it run reasonably.

My experience with Apple and Mac OS X has been the opposite. Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) was faster than Mac OS X 10.1. Max OS X 10.3 (Panther) was faster than Mac OS X 10.2. The reasons have to do with some very smart Apple (and third party) programmers exploiting features built into the hardware. The graphics you see on the screen are very CPU intensive to calculate. What if you could offload some of that calculation to another processor? This is the basic idea of "hardware accelerated" graphics -- a feature which has been exploited more and more with each new release of Mac OS X.

Now we are hearing about Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and its "Core Image" feature. It will take hardware accelerated graphics to an all new level. No more "jumping" when you enlarge a Quicktime window while dragging the corner with your mouse for example. Steve Jobs showed a new version of iPhoto in his recent keynote which smoothly scrolled 25,000 images. Amazing.

So.. will your old Mac be able to exploit Core Image?

Here is a cached copy of a web page (now withdrawn) from Apple discussing Core Image. It shows a list of compatible graphics cards. Here is an excerpt:

System Requirements
The performance gains and features supported by Core Image ultimately depend on the graphics card. Graphics cards capable of pixel-level programming deliver the best performance. But Core Image automatically scales as appropriate for systems with older graphics cards, for compatibility with any Tiger-compatible Mac.Supported graphics cards:

• ATI Radeon 9800 XT
• ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
• ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
• ATI Radeon 9600 XT
• ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
• NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
• NVIDIA GeForceFX Go 5200
• NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra
  

These cards are available in today’s PowerBooks, Power Mac G5s and both the 17-inch and 20-inch iMac.

What graphics card does your Mac have? Check it here (and bookmark this link -- its pretty useful!). So my PowerBook 17in/1.33Ghz is covered (ATI Mobility Radeon 9600), but my flat panel 15in/800Mhz iMac is not(NVIDIA GeForce4). So I am guessing Tiger will be a good idea for my PowerBook, but maybe not my iMac.

Please comment if you have more information to share on the general subject of "will Tiger be faster than Panther -- should I avoid making my machine slower just to get new features?".

But seriously..

Wahsington is talking about privatizing Social Security. I believe the scenario would be that instead of me blindly putting in money and reading my annual statement, I could login to my account at their website and manage a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and securities. Sounds like fun! My retirement hooked to the DOW. I'll be rich! Order me one of those Bombardier private jets please.

Back to reality..

I hate to be cynical, but I have to think the motivation for doing this would be to pump up the stock market (and the lawmakers portfolios..). When the 401k law was passed, people began indirectly buying stocks through their company 401k program. Didn't this lead to the DOW's longest bull market in history? Think about it.. A constant, daily supply of new money pouring into the system means lots of "Buy!" orders in the exchange pit. The quantity demanded goes up, the price should too. I think there probably are some supply-side economics forces to be considered here as well, but I am not an economist..

This all sounds dandy doesn't it? Fixing the problem of dwindling funds because the DOW will grow like never before. Of course there will be a "transition phase" (paid for with deficit borrowing..)

Well.. what if the bubble bursts? All those people will need their entitlements and you and I will pay for it somehow..

Bringing uncertainty into something with the word "security" (as in "Social Security") is madness..

My 2 cents..

I haven't heard much discussion (yet) about the iPhone from Apple, but it looks like it will be this phone from Motorola, the E398. According to the Keynote log of MacMerc.com, Steve Jobs showed a Motorola E398 and mentioned an iTunes client would be included. Shipping this spring. The phone reportedly has the following features:

Integrated MP3 player, camera with flash, Bluetooth SanDisk removable memory and dual stereo surround sound speakers, and something called "rythm lights" -- lights that interact with Java games, ringtones, caller ID and ambient noise.

I need this .. don't I? Yes. Of Course. Yes.. I do..

They did it. Apple announced a $499 computer that runs Panther and fits in the palm of your hand. No monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Connect your own.

Congrats to Mike Shoemaker for keeping the faith!

Its small enough to hide behind my Wintel 17 inch monitor at work. Hmmm..