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Russell Finn’s Blog Posts

Dear Rita Nelson of Minnesota

Published May 3, 2006

We appreciate your commentary on the White House Correspondents’ dinner (reprinted here from [Editor and Publisher](http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002461891)):

> I thought it was great, except for Colbert, he was terrible, nothing funny there! I love to see what the women wear, and the only thing I can say about Washington is there are a lot of ugly women, in government and the press, who do not have any fashion sense at all.

There is one small problem, however; you signed your letter simply as “Rita Nelson, Minnesota”. Could you please provide us your entire address? We would not want the notice of revocation of your voter registration to get lost in the mail.

Thanks!

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Get a Mac

Published May 2, 2006

Random thoughts on Apple’s new [“Get a Mac”](http://www.apple.com/getamac) campaign:

* The name itself is significant: not “Switch” but “Get a Mac” — i.e. you can have both.
* The [TV ads](http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads) are funny and make their points without being smug. (I particularly like “Network”, the one with the “new digital camera from Japan”.) But then I’m closer to the fanboi end of the spectrum to start with.
* I’m not so sure about the Mac being a scruffy twenty-something — I guess they’re going for street cred, or whatever the kids say today. Perhaps they’re going for the all-important [“Ed”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247091/) demographic (of which my wife would be a key member) as the [actor](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0519043/) is the one who played the geek wanna-not-be Warren Cheswick.
* I’m sure people are worried about challenging the bad guys by claiming superiority on the [virus](http://www.apple.com/getamac/viruses.html) front. So far they seem to be walking a careful line and not claiming Macs are virus-free or “bulletproof”. (Oh, and this line: “In order for software to significantly modify Mac OS X, you have to type in your password. You’re the decider.” Priceless.)
* #1 on the list of reasons to get a Mac: “It just works.” Amen. (I wish “design” weren’t quite so high, though.)
* I also like the list refuting reasons not to buy a Mac. One notable omission: “Macs aren’t more expensive” (for what you get); it would be tough to make this case in a few sentences (and tougher still with Dell desperately slashing prices…).

On the whole, it’s good to see Apple making some noise. Now if they can just get the new Intel-based iBook replacements out (before the education buying season)…

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SubEthaEdit for $0 is a great deal

Published April 25, 2006

SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys is an excellent collaborative editor that I’ve used to help create session notes at past PyCons. Many people also use it as a programming editor, although to date I’m still in the BBEdit camp.

Now, as part of BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com, MacZOT and TheCodingMonkeys will award $105,000 in Mac software — specifically, free SubEthaEdit licenses (if enough bloggers link back to the web site to reduce the license price to $0).

Obviously, the intention is to drive a lot of visits to the MacZOT site, but SubEthaEdit for $0 is a great deal no matter how you slice it. (And MacZOT is an interesting idea itself; I’ve used it once or twice to spring for software I might not have otherwise bought, when the discount pushed the price down to impulse buying levels.)

(Thanks to Matt Deatherage for the heads-up.)

Update: Yes, enough bloggers fell for the offer to drive the cost down to $0, and I got my free license code over the weekend — thanks, MacZOT and Coding Monkeys!

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Apple does the right thing with DTKs

Published January 10, 2006

Amidst all the hoopla over the new [Intel-based Macs](http://www.apple.com/imac/), I’ve seen little coverage of this item: Developers who spent $999 to “rent” a Developer Transition Kit (a G5 case with a Pentium 4 inside) will have the opportunity to [exchange](http://developer.apple.com/dtkexchange/) it for a 17-inch iMac with the Intel Core Duo inside. For *free*. And yes, they get to keep the iMac.

I had privately conjectured that Apple might encourage developers to return their DTKs on time by offering a small incentive (like a $500 credit towards a new Intel Mac), but this is even better.

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Switch campaign updated

Published August 8, 2005

Looks like Apple has updated their [Switch campaign](http://www.apple.com/switch/). Now *that’s* more like it. I’ve been “advising” the neighbor on what computer to buy their son who’s heading off for college — his first volley was “Look, here’s a Dell for only $299!” — and this is the sort of information I’d like to have handy.

In fact, if Apple’s serious about restarting the campaign, they ought to be printing this up as a brochure to distribute at Best Buy (next to the Mac minis), CompUSA, etc. They should also have a version ready to go as a multi-page ad insert for glossy magazine and Sunday supplements.

And most importantly, they should have one of those MTV-style TV ads that shows beautiful happy people plugging their iPods and their digital cameras and their camcorders into Macs — each bringing up the appropriate application — and ending with the Apple logo and the URL www.apple.com/switch. Put it in heavy rotation starting this fall; get people fired up for it by Christmas.

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It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

Published July 5, 2005

Guess I was wrong about that whole Intel thing, huh?

The afternoon of the announcement I was describing myself as “lost and frightened” to people who knew me as a long-time Mac fan — but that was (mostly) a joke.

Now that we’ve all had a month to let the news sink in, it appears that this will be a good decision for Apple to have made, and most people seem to agree. Of course there will always be the usual idiotic comments from analysts. One important point made by Matt Deatherage is that (contrary to some misguided advice) there is no reason not to buy a PowerPC-based Mac today if you need one — it will continue to run all existing Mac software through the transition and beyond, whereas Intel-based Macs may not run existing software as smoothly at first (apart from the usual first-generation glitches).

On the other hand, if I were in the market for a new PowerBook but didn’t need one in the next six months or so, I would definitely wait to see what’s announced in the new year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Intel-based portables (or even Minis) announced in January at MacWorld Expo and shipping shortly thereafter (although March might be more likely). Meanwhile, we should see new PowerPC-based desktops this fall. (I hope so — I’ve got a developer hardware key I need to use by mid-November, and my G4 (Digital Audio) is getting a little long in the tooth.)

But for most end-users there will be no discernible difference between PowerPC-based Macs and Intel-based Macs. (Unless you rely on something that runs in Classic; then you may want to stock up on PowerPC machines over the next year.)

Developers? Well, Mac developers continue to live in interesting times — maybe a little more interesting than before.

Bonus link:
It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

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Dogs and cats living together

Published June 5, 2005

Apple and Intel. Geez. That’s what I get for spending a weekend away from the Internet.

I’m still catching up to the Internet commentary, but it’s beginning to sort itself out, or at least start to repeat itself. Just to put my thoughts on the record — I’m leaning toward the “Intel builds a fast PowerPC-family chip for Apple” scenario. It seems to accomodate the evidence best, especially the less obvious details, like starting with low-end computers in 2006 and going to high-end in 2007 (it’s the low-end G5-class chips Apple needs worst), and why Intel instead of AMD (because AMD only builds x86 chips).

I guess we’ll all know by this time tomorrow…

(Bonus link)

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It Can't Happen Here

Published May 5, 2005

No theocracy in America, eh?

Air Force to Probe Religious Climate at Colorado Academy:

> Last week, the Washington-based group Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a 14-page report charging that there is “systematic and pervasive religious bias and intolerance at the highest levels of the Academy command structure.”

> The report said that during basic training, cadets who declined to go to chapel after dinner were organized into a “Heathen Flight” and marched back to their dormitories. It said the Air Force’s “Chaplain of the Year” urged cadets to proselytize among their classmates or “burn in the fires of hell”; that mandatory cadet meetings often began with explicitly Christian prayers; and that numerous faculty members introduced themselves to their classes as born-again Christians and encouraged students to become born again during the term.

[Robert Heinlein](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671577808/002-0215128-2780033), call your agent…

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Letter to the editors of Time magazine

Published April 19, 2005

I sent the following letter today to Time magazine:

It shows extremely poor editorial judgment to feature Ann Coulter on the cover of Time on the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City terrorist attack that killed 168 people, including 19 children.

Recall that Ms. Coulter once said (as quoted in the New York Observer, Aug. 20, 2002), “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.” She later “amended” her statement (in an interview on rightwingnews.com): “Of course I regret it. I should have added, ‘after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters.'”

I consider myself a great advocate of free speech, and Ms. Coulter is entitled to her own opinions; but is this really “just having fun”?

[Tip of the hat to This Modern World.]

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