Another Word for Nerd

Apple released the Intel Core-based Mac mini systems today. Overall, I’m underwhelmed, and glad I bought the 20″ Core Duo iMac instead of waiting for the Intel mini as I’d originally planned.

Apple no longer offers a sub-$500 computer. You’re forced to pay $100 more for a system with built-in wireless (802.11b/g and Bluetooth) even if you don’t need it, and Intel GMA950 integrated graphics. While the new integrated graphics chipset is a performance improvement over the older Radeon 9200, it “steals” system memory (according to Apple, a minimum of 80M) to use as graphics memory. As a result, instead of a 512M system out-of-the-box you’ve got a 432M system. Other changes include two DDR2 SODIMM slots instead of a single DDR DIMM slot, four USB2 ports (up from two), gigabit Ethernet, and analog/optical audio in (finally) and out. Prices start at $599, but I’ll pass. If they’d released a version without the built-in wireless for the original $499, I would have thought about picking one up.

(I’m sure the reason that wireless is not an option is that its built into the Intel system chipset and isn’t a “piggyback” board as it was on previous models.)

I find it highly ironic to look at Apple’s original web page about the G4-based Mac mini graphics:

“Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they’re good for 2D games only. That’s because an “integrated Intel graphics” chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You’d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don’t even have an open slot to let you add one.”

Here’s mine.

I finally broke down and bought a 30G iPod Video (black, of course) a couple of days ago.

No, not that del.icio.us, I’m talking about Delicious Library from Delicious Monster.

Using the built-in iSight camera on my new Mac, I’ve started cataloging all of the books I own – and boy, do I own a lot.

I’m about half done, and here’s the library so far.

The iMac G5 (17″, 1.8Ghz, SuperDrive/wireless/etc) that I bought in October of 2004 is being wiped and reinstalled tonight, in preparation for its travels to its new home with a friend of mine.

This machine served me well, running 24/7/365 (except for January 2005, when I was living in a hotel and using the iBook G4 as my primary machine) for a year and a half. I consider it a rock-solid machine, save for the midplane replacement in March 2005 (caused by bad capacitors) and a power supply replacement in November.

I’m pretty happy with my 20″ iMac Core Duo so far. Apple has done a great job with the PPC emulation (“Rosetta”) in the new machines, and I can only hear the fans on the new system when everything else in the room is turned off. My Pentium M-based work laptop is louder than the iMac, even.

It looks like OneShare can finally do business in Texas!

I eventually want to pick up one share of Apple and one share of Sun.

I ordered a Sun Type 7 USB keyboard today to test out. We’ll see if it’s any better than my current favorite of a 15-year-old Apple Extended Keyboard II connected with an iMate ADB-to-USB adapter.

I also like the Mattias Tactile Pro, but it’s just too loud (very “clacky”, but not near as bad as an IBM Model M).

UPDATE: (5/06) SBCL now runs natively on Intel-based Macintosh systems.

I upgraded to a 20″ iMac Core Duo (from a 17″ iMac G5) on Thursday night.

I then found out that neither SBCL, CMUCL, nor OpenMCL will run under the “Rosetta” PowerPC emulation facility. I’ve got a half-assed compile of CLISP working, but it fails one of its tests because I’m unable to install GNU libsigsegv (doesn’t compile on OSX/Intel). Tried to bootstrap SBCL with CLISP, but no go. I can use CLISP to bootstrap ABCL, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for.

Out of the commercial Lisp offerings, Lispworks Personal Edition hangs on startup. I’ve not tried Allegro CL yet, because the eval/free version of ACL v8 isn’t out yet…

I’ve noted my thoughts on the “Intel vs. G5 Boot Time Video” controversy (with links to the videos) over at MacHELP.

I finally got Brad Parker’s MIT CADR emulator up and running on my Mac under OS X. I had some SDL problems at first, but version 0.8 only required me to change one line in the Makefile and rebuild everything.

Now I just need a “taller” screen, as 1440×900 cuts off the bottom of the 768×1024 CADR window!

You think I’m sick?
You think I’m twisted?
You think I’m ill?

You’re right!

Here’s proof!