Monthly Archives: April 2008

April 29, 2008

And Per Se And

By chitowngeorge

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A historical look at the Ampersand from a typographical point of view.

By the way, if you are at all interested in fonts and typography, typography.com is a great resource.  I have kind of a hold over interest on the topic from my brief design/desktop publishing days – back when I could actually identify many fonts on sight by name, and always knew which font I was looking for for whatever project I was working on.  (Unlike now, where I usually have to switch to Font Book and scroll through the font list trying different fonts to see what they look like.)

Comments Off | posted in Computers, Typography

April 23, 2008

Unpacking the iPhone

By chitowngeorge

One of the weirdest, most pointless trends in on-line tech journalism/blogging recently has been “articles” which are nothing more than photo sets of someone un-boxing their shiny new tech toys.  This is brilliant parody of that trend:

LEGOs unpacking an iPhone

(I’m sure it’s meant as a parody, but I could be wrong.  Either way it’s brilliant.)

2 comments | posted in Apple, Art, Photography, Tech

April 18, 2008

History of Milliways

By chitowngeorge

If, like me, you’re interested in the history of computing, and the individual stories behind how some things did or didn’t come to be, you might appreciate this.

Andy Baio at Waxy.org managed to get his hands on the complete backup of Infogames 1989 network drive.  From that he’s pieced together the history of the infamous sequel to the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy computer game, Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  Obviously, this should also appeal to Douglas Adams fans.  For me, that’s a double jackpot!

It’s a long, but interesting, story.  And, he includes an actual playable prototype of the game.

Comments Off | posted in Computers, Tech

April 16, 2008

It Seems I was Wrong

By chitowngeorge

As it turns out, Microsoft isn’t that good at marketing to businesses after all.

I wish I could say “Enjoy!”, but you surely won’t.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you, this is one of the worst things you will ever see.

1 comment | posted in Computers, Microsoft, Tech

April 16, 2008

Resistance is Futile

By chitowngeorge

Even IBM is switching to Macs now.

Okay, okay, I know it’s just a pilot program, but I still think it speaks volumes about the changing tides in IT right now.

I love this little bit, though.  Among the (few) complaints the participants had:

Other drawbacks or weaknesses users reported in the Mac platform included support issues with IBM’s Lotus Sametime instant messaging software and a “lack of robustness or support for Microsoft applications – PowerPoint issues, no NetMeeting, [and] limitations for tools running on Internet Explorer.”

NetMeeting?  NetMeeting?  Do people really still use that?  And I guess they didn’t have Keynote installed, because anyone who’s ever used Keynote would care less about PowerPoint issues.  And Internet Explorer?  They’ve heard of Firefox and Safari, right?

Seriously, though, I think this is a good indication of the changes that are going to be happening in the next few years.  Microsoft is having trouble staying ahead of the industry.  More and more people are using Google Docs and OpenOffice instead of Microsoft’s Office.  People are switching to Macs and Linux for their home systems.  Companies are switching to Macs, Linux and Unix like never before.  Meanwhile, MS is wasting resources on the XBox and Zune to try to compete with Sony, Nintendo and Apple in markets where they just don’t belong*.  And while the XBox may be marginally successful (at least from a business standpoint – I know it’s popular with gamers, but it doesn’t make MS much money), the Zune has been a complete failure.  Instead of innovating on the web front, they’re trying to buy out Yahoo!, which will only result in Yahoo! being converted over to the same mediocre MS technologies that run Hotmail/MSN/.Net/Live (or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week).  (On a side note:  I really hope Yahoo! is able to resist this takeover bid.  I like Yahoo! mail better than Gmail, and Flickr better than Picasa, but I’ll switch if I have to!)

Microsoft has gotten too big for its own good.  It can’t adapt fast enough.  It’s sticking its hands into too many pots, and is unable to concentrate on their core business because of that.  The massive Vista failure is only one of the problems they face right now, but indicative of where things are heading for them.

The next five years should be pretty interesting.

* What I mean by “don’t belong” is that they clearly don’t know how to compete in these markets, and would be better off doing what they do best, which is marketing software to businesses.  They can get into whatever markets they please, but I wouldn’t buy a car from them if they put one out, you know what I’m saying?

2 comments | posted in Apple, Computers, Microsoft, Tech

April 14, 2008

Bad News, Everyone

By chitowngeorge

One of my favorite places in Chicago, Goose Island (the Clybourn location) is closing at the end of the year.  It seems they lost their lease.

It’s too bad.  The Clybourn location is so much better than the Wrigleyville one (even if you don’t take into consideration having to deal with Wrigley Field being only a block away).  I really hope they open a new location that’s on par with the current one at Clybourn.  I just can’t see myself going to the Wrigleyville location all that often, particularly if it’s a “game day”.

What’s really ironic is that that whole area owes everything to Goose Island being there.  I’m sure the area will thrive without Goose Island now, but G.I. used to be the only thing there.  That area would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for Goose Island.

The article (more of a blurb really) doesn’t go into the details, but I hope it is something that can be resolved before the year’s end.  (They’ve updated the article since I initially posted.)  It looks like the issue is money.  Hopefully the landlord (CRM Properties Group) will come to their senses and negotiate with Goose Island.  (Or, like I said, they open up a new location.  Hey, the Edgewater neighborhood is drastically lacking in brew-pubs!)

Comments Off | posted in Beer, News

April 9, 2008

Embiggen

By chitowngeorge

I was using the Flickr slideshow feature, and clicked on the “Options” link in the lower right-hand corner, and saw this:

It’s a perfectly cromulent option.

Comments Off | posted in Computers, Simpsons, Tech

April 8, 2008

Sam Adams Recall

By chitowngeorge

In case you haven’t seen this elsewhere, I thought I’d shift into public service mode here and pass this info along.

Sam Adams is recalling some of their beer due to a potential hazard with the bottles.  They’re erring on the side of caution with this (in other words, don’t freak out if you drink Sam Adams), but it doesn’t hurt to check.

Comments Off | posted in Beer, News

April 8, 2008

History of Storage

By chitowngeorge

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I think it serves the purpose of showing how much things have changed in such little time.

The history of computer data storage in pictures.

(If you read through the comments, there’s also a great link to a comparative photo of various hard drives on wikipedia.)

My first “real” computer, which I got in 1991, was a Macintosh LC.  It came with 2MB of memory (which I upgraded to 4), and a 40MB hard disk.  I later added a 230MB (remember, these are megabytes here, not gigabytes) external drive when the technology became available/affordable for around $300.

Now I carry around several gigabytes in my pocket!  Seventeen years is a long time when it comes to technology.  (Let’s not forget the 2800 baud modem I had at the time, compared to 3.0 DSL service I have now.)

As long as I’m in “old guy reminiscing” mode, I’ll mention that years before the LC, my parents had gotten me a Coleco Adam, which used cassette data storage, similar to what’s shown in the article.

Comments Off | posted in Computers, Tech

April 5, 2008

It’s Officially Over

By chitowngeorge

Well, it’s officially over.  Call it Karma is no more.

Laura, Paul and I met the other night to determine the fate of the group.  If you haven’t been paying attention, I’ll bring you up to speed.  First, our original vocalist (Erin) left last year.  After some auditions, we replaced her with Laura.  Then, earlier this year, Jeremy took a job out in California.  So, now we needed to replace him.

During the time it took to try to schedule something to work out a possible percussionist/drummer replacement, Dan took a job in Toronto, so he’ll be leaving soon, too.

Well, that just left Paul, Laura and myself.  With only two of those people being original members of the group, we decided to call it quits.

We’re going to put together a new group.  That’ll take some time.  Not only do we have to find a new bassist and drummer/percussionist, but we plan on expanding the lineup with a pianist/keyboardist.

I’ll update our progress as it happens here, so keep an eye out.  In the mean time, if you haven’t already, make sure to stop by CDbaby.com to pick up copy of our CD or EP.  Once they’re all sold, that’s it!  This may be your last chance to own this little piece of music history.

Oh, and we haven’t decided on a new name yet.  However, Laura and I spent a good portion of the past two days exchanging Ghostbusters quotes via email.  (If you haven’t figured it out, or didn’t already know, “Call it Karma” was a reference to Ghostbusters, and not a reference to a bad song by some crappy Emo band.)

Comments Off | posted in Music, News, Personal

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