getwired.com

I have to ask… Why on earth does Google install Chrome where it does? On my system, it is installed in:C:\Documents and Settings\wmiller\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome and drops it’s own auto updater in a VERSIONED directory under that. WTH? Application Data is, not surprisingly, where a User’s application data is supposed to live – not an application itself – and an updater like that should be downloaded either into the same directory as the application or into the temp directory. Nice app sprawl, Google. Thanks.

I largely use Macs now… My iMac at home, a MacBook Pro at the office, and another Mac Mini tucked back on my desk at the office for a lightweight VMware system for testing. In general, I like each of these systems a lot. But if there was one thing I could ask Steve for about the hardware in particular, this would be it. Please, for the love of all that is good, will someone at Apple create a DOCKING STATION or a PORT REPLICATOR for the MacBook Pro/MacBook? When I am at the office, even with a sweet 21″ Apple Cinema there, and all of my peripherals plugged into it. I have to plug in the AGP, USB, and Firewire from the Cinema to the MBP, and then plug in the power cord – on the opposite side from each other. Leaving the office is the same exercise in reverse… it’s just kludgy, and “un-Apple”. It’s a minor thing, but a reminder that Apple is still stuck in their consumer past. Laptops in business need port replicators/docking stations. It just makes life easier for a portable that truly gets used everywhere.

Ah – so I’m in San Diego until the middle of next week. After running around quite insanely for much of last week – we’ve left Austin and headed to San Diego for a big announcement. Hope to catch a little R&R too – we’ll see.

This morning I spent 20+ minutes on hold. With Earthlink. You see, I had grand plans to kill off my dependence on Time Warner, and switch to Earthlink+Dish. I’ve had Earthlink before – and they were not bad – basically just reselling TW’s cable service and riding their lines. But at the end of the day, I compared TW and Earthlink, and the price was a draw – with a contractual obligation. Anyhow – I decided to cancel the Earthlink before I even got it installed (also going to cancel the Dish order – TW may be annoying and overpriced, but they are reliable, and I don’t have to get new holes drilled in the house). Cancelingwas one of those incredibly unpleasant experiences. Like a tooth extraction:

• Me: I want to cancel my service
• Her: Why?
• Me: Because I got a competitive price from TW
• Her: I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear that (admittedly, we had a bad connection, but NOW you can’t hear me?)
• Me: I priced it out and realized I was going to pay less for the same service with TW
• Her: But your service is only $29.95 for the first 6 months, then only $41.95
• Me: I know. Which is more than I was going to pay for TW for my existing service
• Her: But do you have computer protection
• Me (frustrated): YES. YES, I DO. I WANT TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT
• Her: Please hold while I verify your account (2 minutes of silence)

Ow. I spent the day out with my daughter – and got schooled several times by my iPhone. With the EDGE iPhone, I experienced Safari crashes maybe 10 times over the year. I’ve experienced at least 20 since I got my 3G. I’ve become uncomfortably familiar with the feel of Safari right before it hits the floor. The keys on the keyboard stop responding as quickly, the address bar seems “sticky”, then POOF… Safari is gone and I’m back at the front page of the phone. I wasn’t as much of a cynic as some that Apple had shipped a “beta” of 2.0 – but man – Safari is extremely unstable! I still love my phone, but what the heck is going on?!?!?!

You never realize how much you miss something until it’s gone. I’ve been having two problems with my Macs for a few weeks. The first is Office 2008 crashes – across all the apps. Only the second app launched (not the first) and only towards the tail end of the day, not when I first log on. Just one quick bounce on the dock and the app is gone. I hate having issues like that – you feel like an idiot telling someone “it only does it if the machine is facing north and it’s after 2 PM on Thursday.” But seriously — that’s the issue. The second was as of yesterday (suspiciously after installing VMware Fusion Beta 2 – now removed from the suspect list), my context-menu for right-click completely disappeared. Poof. Gone. Histoire. You do NOT realize how much you need that context-menu until it won’t show up. In speaking with a co-worker, he highlighted the fact that I’ve got eye-candy gunk (Candybar) that does some hacktastic things to make the desktop purty. Sure enough, I disabled the themeing, and now the context-menu is back. We’ll see if the Office issue is better now too. I’m optimistic that it is. On an up note, VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 is AWESOME. Ever so much closer to my beloved VMware Workstation on Windows (oh how I miss it’s features). In fact, I’d say that there are not many apps that I actually miss from Windows – but there are a few. I’ll try to post them. But VMware Workstation is one. It’s funny for me, since I’ve been a VMware fan/user for so long (since it was the virtualization standard AT MICROSOFT), I’ve watched Workstation grow up. Today, Fusion is really an analog to a Workstation version 3 or 4, IIRC. More than one snapshot being there in 2.0 is critical to me – so it’s nice to see that. Now, I just wish they’d add private networking. But I understand that the “nerd features” that make it useful for me as a software development tool in Workstation don’t always help sell Fusion, which seems to be hardcore targeted at consumers for now (not that that’s bad).

I realized the other day that it’s been over a year since I added Macs to my life. And just under a year since I bought iPhone 1.x. I just plunked down cash two weeks ago for a 3G (two actually – the wife has one now too), and I have to say in general I like it.

My only qualms about the phone so far aren’t really hardware (though the 3G coverage in Austin seems to be scarce). Rather, the OS, especially under strain from apps, seems to silently hurl the way Safari used to on my gen 1 iPhone. Admittedly, it’s nice that the iPhone doesn’t show system modal dialogs announcing that things have gone boom – but then it just gets to pretend that nothing ever happened. At this point I think I’ve gotten more app faults on my iPhone than I’ve ever gotten on Windows, and almost as many as on my MacBook Pro with it’s temperamental install of Office 2008.

My iMac is happy – and after adding one more GB of RAM (taking it to the Intel-capped 3GB limit for that generation of white iMacs), and defragmenting it with iDefrag, it seems noticeably happier. The MacBook Pro happily churns along, though I consider torching it’s BootCamp partition. Though I use BootCamp on the iMac once in awhile, it’s just a PITA to use on the MBP, considering VMware Fusion with a Windows install on it will usually give me what I need. My only complaint on the MBP is the Office 2008 install. I remain convinced that it’s some strange app I’ve installed – as in the morning everything is fine at a fresh logon. But by the afternoon, only one Office 2008 application can be started at a time – the second one started crashes silently and fatally after just one sad little bounce in the Dock. I should probably just reinstall 10.5 (I’ve already completely removed and reinstalled 2008) – but don’t want to do that just yet.

I’ve had two specific goals in mind when writing my blog before. I’m going to try to fulfill them both this time:

1. Discuss the pros and cons of Macs vs. Windows from my own relatively unique perspective
2. Discuss my thoughts on working in the software world from what I’ve seen. It’s been a strange ride, and I’ve thought about sharing it via a book or a script. I think this should suffice.

So it begins.