Entries from August 2005:

Chavez May Try to Extradite Robertson

From Reuters, via the New York Times. If this were in The Onion, I’d find it really funny. Being in a real newspaper, I find it kinda disturbing.

Tim Bray thought about switching back too, and he’s raised some interesting points. Of course, for him, “switching back” means back to one of Sun’s Unix-like operating systems, either Java Desktop System or Solaris. (Tim works for Sun.)

Well, last Friday I went ahead and ordered a Dell. (Sorry, Dan!) I got a great deal on a Dimension 9100 desktop, by using a coupon for 35% off which I found at FatWallet. It should arrive early next week!

I’ve been looking at PCs for the last 24 hours. Dell is so annoying.

Identical Dimension 5100c systems are $300 different depending on whether you buy through Dell Small Business or Dell Home.

Four identical Dimension 9100 systems all come up with four different prices, with $195 range between them, depending on how you buy. And they come with 3 different monitor types, because you have to buy a monitor if you order via one method, and you have to buy a nice monitor through another method.

This whole pricing scheme remind me of the airlines. No one on the plane thinks they got a good deal for the flight — they all assume someone paid less.

So I’m thinking about Switching Back.

I bought an iMac in May, a 17″ model, with a G5 processor, the newly-released Tiger operating system, etc. There are a lot of things I do like about it. OS X is indeed very pretty. There have been very few hardware problems: generally hardware has Just Worked. Some of the included iLife tools, like the Address Book, are great applications. The seamless Bluetooth synchronization has been fun too. I got a new cell phone last month and transferred 200 phone numbers with the push of a button.

But at the same time, I just don’t feel like it’s really doing anything for me. I still don’t feel nearly as productive on the Mac as I did on the PC. There are a lot of things I avoid doing, like balancing my checkbook, or doing Java work with Eclipse, or connecting to the VPN at work. I tend to make some silly mistakes, or just get confused about how to get something done. I probably could learn to be more productive with it, but I just haven’t had the time or energy. It doesn’t help that I’m switching back and forth every day between a PC at work and a Mac at home.

Anyone have any thoughts on this dilemma?

Discount retailer Target has purchased the entire advertising stock in this week’s issue of the New Yorker magazine, for a reported $1.1 million. It makes a lot of sense: Target’s core market is sophisticated yet willing to save a buck — urban hipster, but not socialite. The New Yorker seems like a great way to hit this market. Unfortunately, there’s not a clear demarcation between the advertising and the editorial content, so the whole experience has been a disappointment to a lot of media watchdogs.

Salon’s Bryan Curtis has published a great article on the Target-New Yorker deal.

Sarah Bettens was awesome! She performed acoustically, just her and another guitarist and their matching acoustic guitars. She performed a bunch of tracks from her new album, many of which I recognized from the media on her website. I especially liked the tracks “Go” and “Not Insane.” She also performed a few K’s Choice tracks, including their big hit “Not an Addict,” and a couple tracks from their last album, Almost Happy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to purchase her new album — it won’t be released until next Tuesday — but I already have it pre-ordered from Amazon. Instead I bought the K’s Choice compilation DVD 10, with five hours of material including a lengthy band bio, a live concert recorded in 2002, and fifteen music videos!

Also, Jammin’ Java is a very cool place. I really liked the vibe there — it would be a great neighborhood coffeehouse to hang out at. It’s a shame it’s 15 miles from my house. I’m not really into most of the singer/songwriter acts that perform there, but I might go back and see Lloyd Dobler Effect tonight.

Tonight I’m off to see Sarah Bettens at Jammin’ Java in Vienna. Sarah is the lead singer of K’s Choice, one of my favorite bands, that I first saw in 1997 with my friend Bridget. It should be a good show — I’ll post an update tomorrow!

Update: The concert was excellent, here’s a review.

I’ve also added a new photo gallery at http://www.ryanpark.org/gallery/. This is created with a very sophisticated web application called Gallery, and it will replace the old HTML photo gallery I used to maintain. Gallery might actually be too sophisticated for my needs, but it ties in well with Apple’s iPhoto, so I’m happy to use it for now.

I hope you enjoy the new visual design I’ve implemented on this site. I found a template called Authenticity at the Open Source Web Design community site. I modified it a little until I was happy with the aesthetics, and then spent hours getting it to work correctly with WordPress. It was a lot of effort, but I think it really paid off. There are still a few rough edges, which I may clean up eventually. I’m considering releasing the WordPress theme to the public. Please let me know if you’d be interested in this WordPress theme.

Thanks to Kenneth Barbour for the great template!