ragged blog

I have a new MacBook. It’s less than a month old, and came with Leopard.

My father bought be a Mighty Mouse (wireless) to go with it.

Today, I’m getting angry to the point where I thought about the idea of taking the whole lot back for a full refund. You see, this is the most unstable system I have used since Windows 98, and that’s no exaggeration.

Leopard, is a piece of shit. Ok, that’s possibly a little harsh, but…

• I have had two full kernel panics since I bought this laptop (i.e. in the first month)
• I have had numerous application crashes, mostly with Mail.app and hardware interfaces (bluetooth + USB), but actually, half of the apps currently on my Dock have crashed on me.
• I have not installed any kernel level software (which is what causes other OSes to BSOD/panic)
• The mighty mouse crashed the bluetooth system, twice, and then stopped working completely.
• The USB system has frozen (complete OS deadlock) the laptop, three times, coming out of, or going into standby.
• Spaces is buggy as hell, many of the native apps (including iTunes and Mail.app) don’t Apple+Tab correctly if they’re “Zoomed”. That’s really poor, and suggests a serious lack in real user testing before launch.
• The PGDN + PGUP and HOME + END key bindings (on the MacBook) are so inconsistent it makes me angry about once every 5 minutes.
• The RSS screensaver prevents you from logging in when you come out of standby, and it can’t release control of the screen back to the login prompt (this is pathetic, and likely a security hole) (and it makes the screensaver completely useless for laptop users, really)
• This is a set-top-box - There is no damned excuse for instability. At least EVERY OTHER operating system ON THE PLANET supports a great deal of hardware, and in reality, receives it’s instability through THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE. First party instability in a commercial “production ready” kernel, is pathetic.
• “The Cult” lies about stability issues, and on becoming a mac owner, they start to open up to the truth, that this system is in fact NOT stable - For that, they are due a “Fuck you, liars” from those of us don’t follow “the religion”.

So, you arses, please sort this crap out. I’ve sent you all the bug reports for these crashes, it’s about time you live up to the lies you (and / or your users) have been spreading. And if you wouldn’t mind sorting out the security whilst you’re at it, that would be just dandy (there are plenty of exploits documented (and in my normal usage, I have found more - I’ve been too busy to do an audit, but this OS would fail))

I won’t be returning this stuff yet, at the moment, the stability issues can be worked around (by not using the respective features and devices), and the only reason I’m still here is for the performance of Ruby, Textmate and Terminal.app, and the reasonable quality of the hardware itself - At least that’s making me JUST happy enough to combat my current anger, after a rant. If it wasn’t for these things, I’d be screaming bloody murder right now.

I had been told a long time ago by an engineer, that it was probably best to go through longer charge cycles with Li-ions. It seems that advice was not really correct, according to Wikipedia, and the Battery University.

Apparently Li-ions should be charged more frequently, although I am certain I have heard reports of people suffering ‘memory’ style patterns in some Li-ion batteries when charging really frequently. Maybe this is just the low number of charge cycles these batteries can actually cope with. I should think charging at around the 10% mark is actually the way to go, but not to drain them too low, as apparently this is bad for them too.

Li-ion lifetimes can be extended by cooling the batteries too!

I remember the advice I got regarding AA batteries when I was using a Psion 5, in those days, gently crushing the battery and / or leaving it on a radiator for a few minutes would generally give you enough lifetime to make a short trip home etc.

Battery specs are a pain still, but hopefully it won’t be too long before that changes.

Anyone else looking at the numbers on blackle and realising that it’s probably using more power running the server than it’s actually saving?

Even at 500w for the server and the IP stack, it’s looking at 4380kw/year.

Anyone who gets one of these before me better watch their back….

http://www.fusionio.com/index.html

So, I don’t think I can afford the new computer I want… Damn dynamic cross platform development…

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds)

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C3 TwinX (2×1GB) £279.95
Asus M2N32 WS Pro nForce 590 SLi Motherboard £154.95
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ 2.40GHz £141.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA £89.95 x3

Subtotal £846.70
VAT £148.18
Total £994.88

N.B. This is without a decent graphics card for the unit, which I will at least need a PCI-Express card, ideally something like a Quadro or 7950GX2, but that adds ALOT to the bottom line again.

What do you think about this new technology? I think it’s welcome change in architecture policy. We all know that uni-processor systems are going to become limiting as the ratio between cost and speed increase becomes ever worse for major chip manufacturers.

My Dad forwarded me this article on cell processing. I think it is well worth a read, so enjoy.