Congratulations to Daniel on releasing Mars Edit 2.0. I’ve been a fan of Mars Edit for several years and was happy to see Brent pass it on to capable hands. The new version is very cool. I love the Flickr media pane - clever idea. Upgrade price is only $9.95 so no brainer for me to get it!
andrew carter
coding in the rain
Enough Already
Just when you thought it might be safe to buy a new high definition DVD player, Paramount and Dreamworks make a mess of things. This is getting ridiculous. I’m so sick of consumers being left out in the cold. There are technical differences in the two formats but not enough for ordinary people to care. These guys never learn their lesson. Sony gave in for the original DVD and it created one of the most successful formats ever. They didn’t cave in for SACD vs. DVD Audio and high resolution audio never took off. The same thing is happening for Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. I don’t really care who wins. Just get it done so maybe we can watch a movie on our fancy TV’s.
My New Ride
I have owned a BMW 328i since 1999. It’s been a fantastic car. I’ve loved every minute of owning it. However, it was 8 years old. Stuff was starting to wear out. I did the brakes and tires last year. This year, the ABS/DSC control unit went out ($1200), the wiper motors were beginning to fail (~$1000), and the driver’s door window motor also was starting to fail (another $1000). So instead of putting over $3000 more into the car, I decided to look at something new.I’ve been a huge fan of the modern MINI Cooper. In fact, I have been on the waiting list to buy one twice before but backed out before putting in the order. With this year’s redesign and the aging of my BMW, I decided to actually go through with it this time.So here it is:
I first attempted to order one at Northwest MINI in Tacoma. They offered a 9 month waiting period just to get a build slot. I understood this in 2001 when they came out. But now? I tried Rasmussen MINI in Portland next. I got a build slot as soon as I could make up mind what I wanted and put down a deposit. That was in June. The car was expected to be here in September. Instead, here it is a month early and in my hands!I drove down to Portland on Monday to trade in the BMW and get the MINI. Although Rasmussen was very good, it still takes a lot of time to do a car deal (especially with a trade-in). My BMW was worth even less than I feared. I waited too long to sell it. The big ABS warning light coming on wasn’t helping my cause.When I finally rolled out of Portland, the traffic was so bad and I had a long way to go, I didn’t enjoy the MINI that much. In fact, I was more bummed out about parting with my BMW (I really loved that car). I was fatigued and the sport suspension and seats were tiring after 6 total hours driving.However, that’s changing rapidly. You see, the MINI isn’t your usual car. It needs a special road to hook you. And when it does, you are all in. I got a taste of how fun the car is racing it around the past week to work and showing it to some friends. But this morning I finally got to take it on a proper drive. I took the back roads from my house to Snoqualmie Falls and back. There is an incredible stretch of twisty roads I will not share with you (I can’t afford to let anyone else know it exists). It’s a series of 25 MPH corners coming up out of the Snoqualmie valley back up to the Issaquah plateau. It takes about 10 minutes to make the full run. By minute 2 or 3, you are in love. Nothing handles like a MINI through a corner. This car is simply made to eat them up.
I’ve become a car enthusiast since buying my BMW. I did the M School in spring 2006. I learned a lot about how to drive high performance cars. But the reality is that as fun as an M3 is, it’s really only at home on the track. The MINI on the other hand can be immense fun even at 40 MPH. And for the price of an M3, you can buy 3 loaded MINI Coopers. Not to say that MINI’s are cheap, just that they are a good choice for a performance car without spending outrageous money.On the more practical level, the MINI is a very functional car. Its size is a great advantage in some situations. Parking in the city is much easier. It’s plenty big as a commuter or general run around. I feel better about driving it by myself than something larger. And it does get good gas mileage (if you don’t drive with too heavy of a foot). I got 30 MPG on the drive back from Portland and 28 MPG with my admittedly spirited driving this week. Given that I drive to Seattle frequently, this is all good.The technology improvements in the past 8 years are welcome. I love being able to just plug in my iPod and get fantastic sound. Bluetooth phone integration is more than a luxury - it should be standard on all cars (because everyone still uses their phone while driving). It’s much safer than any other way for calling in the car.It’s not perfect. I don’t care for the dinner plate in the dashboard. And my iPhone’s address book doesn’t work correctly with the Bluetooth. The lack of memory power seats is a pain with more than one driver. There are some pieces that seem a little cheap (like the center armrest). But overall, this car is a BMW even if it isn’t in name. There is no mistaking the handling and road feel as anything else.Specs:
- 2007 MINI Cooper S
- Lightning Blue with Black Top/Mirrors
- 175 HP Turbo
- Front Wheel Drive
- 17″ Run Flat performance tires
- Sport Package
- Black Leather interior
Flickr photos are here.
My next computer … Mac mini?
I’ve almost always had a powerful desktop machine at home. It started with gaming. By necessity, you needed a powerful machine. I typically was building my own machines so I could focus on getting the biggest bang for the buck. Once I got back into the Mac, I started with a PowerMac G4 Dual 1GHz. At the time, this was probably the middle of the PowerMac machines. I upgraded that to a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.7 a few years later.
I began to augment my main machine with a laptop starting with a Powerbook G4 15″ (which I still have). I had Windows laptops from work that were always pieces of garbage. The Powerbook was the first laptop that started to shake my desktop bias. Then I got a MacBook Pro last November. That’s when I started to really think seriously about going laptop all the time.
Earlier this year, I found a buyer for my G5. I decided to sell it for a couple reasons. The first was that the Intel transition was changing the Mac landscape much faster than I think anyone thought it would. Add in virtualization and the PowerPC machines quickly had little value. Given how much the G5 cost, I wanted to get something substantial for it. My intention was to buy a new MacPro. However, I felt at the time that the MacPro was due for an update (and rumors were pointing at that) so I decided to wait. In the interim, my MBP became my primary computer with only an old Dell PowerEdge as a second Linux machine.
It’s been a good and bad experience with the laptop as the primary. But I think I turned the corner and am mostly comfortable with it. The big problem was my work habits had to change a little. I treated my laptop in the past kind of like an iPod — it was always a snapshot of data from a master (in my case, my G4 or G5 desktop). Also, I have enormous iTunes and iPhoto libraries (200 GB and 20 GB). These don’t fit so good on a laptop.
I still want the MacPro as the ultimate multi-boot option (OS X/Linux/Windows). But I’m just not sure I can justify the cost. I have one at work and it is a monster (and I only have the 2.6). I will have a hard time bringing it to its knees for awhile. I run VMWare heavily on it. At home, I do more media processing but I do some development. What I think I really need is a Pro class single Core Duo 2. Something like the MacPro but with slightly less and lower cost. Like the lower end of the Dell XPS line.
However, Apple has never offered this machine. I had little hope that the event this last Tuesday would address what I wanted and I was mostly right. The iMac is close but I don’t want another screen. I upgrade machines and like to repurpose them. iMac’s are good as a desktop only. That leaves the Mac Mini or a non-Mac option.
Why do I want a second machine? Well, sometimes I want to run things that take a long time to do (video conversions usually). I also like Elgato’s EyeTV and would like to record video using that. My laptop is a poor choice for all of these. I’d either be chained to the desk when I’m running these or competing with some intensive processes for time to do anything else.
I found two options. The Mac Mini Intel Core Duo 2 2.0GHz or the Dell XPS 410(n). The mini loaded to the max (2GB RAM/160GB HD) comes in at $963. It’s as good as the machine will ever be. Intriguingly, the base specs are very similar to my MacBook Pro except that my MBP has a 2.3GHz and a much better video chip. Is it safe to assume the raw CPU performance of the Mini is on par with a MBP?
The Dell option highlights the real problem with the Apple hardware lineup. I found two XPS 410 configurations I liked - 410N with Ubuntu (2.4GHz/2GB/500GB) for $930 and a 410 with Vista (QuadCore 2.4GHz/2GB/500GB) for $1329. That means $400 buys another two cores and 0.4GHz per core. Vista of course would be nuked for Linux.
On the surface, the Dell is the clear winner. It is much more hardware for the money. Factoring in software capabilities, the Mini gets better. OS X is a big plus. I have and like EyeTV (Linux has the less refined MythTV). The Mini can be an iTunes server (although RhythmBox on GNOME supports DAAP serving except for DRM tracks). The Mini will use less power and space in my home office.
So, I’ll have to decide how bad I want to run the Mac software stack I guess. I wish Apple had a $1200 “Mini Expandable Pro” or entry MacPro in this price range. Instead, they have a gaping hole. For those of us that think an iMac is not a solution, there is a hole from the top end Mini of ~$900 to ~$2200. That’s insane. At least nail $1500. Apple is practically telling me to buy a Dell.
I’ve been hoping to see some reviews of the new Mini but so far nothing. I wish I could see some benchmarks showing me how fast (or slow) the Mini is. It seems like it would be an excellent workhorse for processing jobs like I described. I’d add firewire hard drives for storage of video. I could also find lots of other uses for a Mini even if I do get a MacPro eventually. The XPS as good as it is might not be enough better than my PowerEdge (P4 2.4/2GB). The PowerEdge makes a very good Linux machine. But I’d have similar problems sharing it with processing jobs when I use it for development.
Finished Summit To Surf
This post is really late but I finally got around to uploading my pictures to Flickr. I did indeed finish the Summit to Surf two weeks ago. Other than driving the long way, it went very well.
I had never done the ride at Mt. Hood so I decided to go with the 48 mile. Unlike at Redmond, there was no official start times. You check-in and take off from your choice of starting points. There were some extras you could do like a 12 mile climb to Timberline but since I was unsure of the route, I stuck with the 48 mile route.I had been training pretty hard up to the week before. My pace was up and I felt pretty good. I knew that the first part of the ride would be the toughest with a long climb up the pass before the descent to Hood River.It was a tough climb but not as bad as I thought it might be. I should have started at Welches and done the full 56 mile. Once I hit the first rest stop, it was very easy. The next stage was the heavy descent and I easily averaged 30 MPH with speeds over that. I was on the tail end of a group of 4 drafting so we really cruised. I finished the full 48 miles in 2:21. That was ahead of the pace I thought I would do so I was very pleased.
My wife’s company United Healthcare was a primary sponsor. She was there with my daughter to help out at the rest stops and with the event. I hope someday to do a ride like this with the whole family (my wife rides as well). My daughter is doing a good job riding around the neighborhood but it will be a little while before she goes barreling down mountain passes.I had a blast and am definitely hooked on doing the event rides. It helps me focus on the training. I plan to keep it up as much as I can. I did 13 miles this morning and have kept up at least 3 times a week with one extra on weekends when my wife lets me. And the Tour de Cure puts on first class events. Both Redmond and Hood were well managed with great support. I look forward to doing both again next year.Flickr photoset is here.