Hamarana

1) I haven’t heard from Mike about PithHelmet, but he’s probably on vacation so pfft, he will answer soon enough.

2) Light banding on my LCD screen: appears to be almost gone. Obviously, whatever Leopard was doing, was unacceptable, and Tiger is just fine. I don’t think there is enough in Leopard to make me re-upgrade now, unless I really MUST have Time Machine (which I no longer am interested in). And If I want Windows stuff I’ll use VMWare Fusion, Crossover, or Parallels (or try to track down a standalone version of Bootcamp).

3) My Pinnacle TV Stick has now decided that it has plugged into a USB 1.1 port (we know its USB2 on these intel iMacs) and refuses to work. That, at least, is when the stick is even detected. Most times it isn’t. Tested in the old eMac (where it wont work because those ports *are* 1.1) it reveals that it does actually work. Just not on the eMac. Or, apparently, on my iMac, anymore. This isn’t a new issue since reinstalling Tiger, its been going on for some time. This week though (today more particularly) is the first time its refused to work on the iMac at all. Maybe its on the way out. If so I don’t think I will bother replacing it with something else. I have had in mind to get a decent PVR for the loungeroom and TV set there, and I have an IceTV subscription for the next 12 months… so I rather think that a Beyonwiz or Topfield will be a more likely purchase.

I’m rambling. And its the first day of 3 extra days off (lets call it a holiday) where I do not have to be at the office.

I have reverted to using Tiger, for the moment, in an effort to pinpoint the screen issues (my thinking was that maybe some of the driver updates had screwed something… and they haven’t… still got the issue)… anyway thats not what I want to post about. What I want to post about is my idiocy in not making a serious attempt to record serial numbers and keys for software I buy, even if i stop using it, just in case I might want to in the future.

This is happening even as we speak. I bought a licence for a piece of ad-bocking (for Safari) software called PithHelmet, some time ago. I lost the licence for it once before and wrote to Mike, and he was kind enough to resend it. Back then I could remember what email address I used, etc, but this time, do you think I have even the vaguest inkling? Nope. So I have written to poor Mike again… I hope he is a merciful being

Alas, here I am on Christmas Day (Merry Christmas, people)… getting into a tizz because it seems now very likely that I have a serious problem with the screen of the iMac. Apparently the 20″ screens were (and still are) extremely poor quality. Unusual for Apple but there it is. I now have severe banding/streaking lines up and down my screen, and the severity depends on what colours are in use. I cannot get a fully black screen, its like theres a big light behind it, and gauze draped over the top. When applications open, it depends on the colours and gfx. Example below.

The very saddest thing, of course, is that the warranty on the computer was up about July, and I did not buy Applecare to get an extra couple of years. Foolishly, did not think I would need it. Looks like once it dies, it will be trashed.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am inclined to be a bit of an Apple apologist… I tend to like most products Apple produce and am not slow to say so. I am about to make another exception, as I did previously, with dotMac.

MobileMe is the new product which Apple touts as being the best thing, really, since sliced bread. Its an online storage, email, and syncing solution. You can also have a website there, and your own photo gallery. All in all it looks like a fairly decent product. But… gone are older features from dotMac: iCards -> gone. Groups -> gone (though they might return, not sure about that)… I am also NOT that keen on having *any* userID at me.com. It seems weird. The best feature is the price vs storage (20G is expensive anywhere, so getting it for $119AU per year seemed like a good deal… until you find that data transfer is restricted to 200mb… what???? – errr… see the edit below!)

So I tried it for this past weekend, played with it when I could get into the site (lots of teething problems) and found it to be visually very attractive, but functionally lacking. So, as I did with dotmac, I have cancelled my account. I’ll use other options to run my website (looks like the blog stays!) and will seek photo hosting elsewhere…

[Edit] Geoff has pointed out to me that 200 GIGABYTES is the transfer, not 200 MB. What on earth was I thinking!!

Well, I cannot recall how many “insiders” have told “exclusive” stories to various online news sites, but heres one more.

After months of speculation an industry insider (who has asked to remain anonymous) has confirmed to CNET.com.au that Optus will be one of several Australian mobile service providers to be selling Apple’s iPhone, with sales and service commencing in the last week of June.

Optus plans to make the announcement mid-May ahead of Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference on June 9 in San Francisco where Apple CEO Steve Jobs is tipped to launch the next generation of iPhone.

While this source could not confirm a 3G version of the popular handset, they did suggest that Optus was expecting the upgraded models.

Read the rest at cNet

Let me say this: I am not aiming to be a professional photographer… but I just love to have applications which let me pretend.

I’ve just discovered Adobe Lightroom. On the Mac, I could also choose to use iPhoto + Aperture. However, Lightroom has me completely transfixed. I think this is the first time I am seriously considering paying a vast sum to own a piece of software like this. I’m downloading the trial version of Aperture as I type, but right now, I am not sure why I am bothering… perhaps because its Apple software and I feel I ought to give it a tryout.

From the Lightroom website:

Enjoy robust support for more than 150 camera raw formats, and experiment with confidence. Adjustments you make to images in Lightroom won’t alter the original data, whether you’re working on a JPEG, TIFF, DNG, or camera raw file.
…
Fine-tune your photographs with precise, easy-to-use tools for globally correcting white balance, exposure, tone curves, lens distortion, and color casts.

Seriously, its like having a darkroom right there on your computer. And the changes are non-destructive… unlike in iPhoto where if you make a change it gets saved whether you want to keep it or not. There are ways round that but its a pain… I like the way Lightroom works… because it works like I do.

If you are even halfway serious about digital photography, you owe it to yourself to take a look, try it out. I haven’t been this impressed with a piece of software for a long time.

There has been a lot of chatter in various forums regarding who will get the deal with Apple and when it will happen. The general consensus is that the iPhone will come to Australia when there is a 3G version… and its starting to look like Telstra might be the company they will deal with.

An article discovered by one of the Whirlpool denizens seems to suggest it… READ

Of particular interest to me was the following paragraph

But Telstra and Apple have been growing close. In August, ASX-listed Telstra reseller Fone Zone bought Australia’s largest network of Apple stores, Next Byte, followed by the purchase of Apple support and rentals business Frequency Communications in October.

Nextbyte and Frequency are the largest Apple resellers that I am aware of. I wonder if Mac1 will be next…