Blog entries from lowededwookie

The end of paper is nigh

Darryn Lowe — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 13:39:44 +0100

Paper... we love it and we loathe it. It still exists because we've built a dependance on it despite the fact that we have technology that renders it null and void. We have document formats like ePUB and PDF that allow us to carry around books wherever we go. We have the ability to create these forms of documents so easily especially with the latest update to iWork. We read on the internet and we read e-mails. Our communication has gone from slow pieces of paper being delivered by people on p...

So endeth March Apple Madness

Darryn Lowe — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:44:14 +0100

This month has been so full on with Apple related stuff for me and yet aside from a copy of Filemaker Pro I'm still waiting on I have no Apple products in my hot little hands.

My March Apple Madness actually started around January/February when Polly from Kinetics (Filemaker's PR firm in Australasia) contacted me about them flying me over to Sydney to talk about how I use Bento, Filemaker's brilliant consumer database application. I had a problem because I've never left New Zealand bef...

Why Phil got my post wrong

Darryn Lowe — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:27:09 +0100

Phil's post in reply to mine was incredibly funny (http://www.nzmac.com/community-blog/why-darryn-got-the-tech-pundits-wrong.html). In it he accuses me of not reading what the pundits wrote (which I did) and then goes into a tirade that proves he never really read my post but skimmed through it and had a go at me for what he perceived I had written.

My post was purely quashing the negative comments that the pundits wrote about the iPad that were largely baseless in the first place. Ma...

Why the tech pundits got it wrong

Darryn Lowe — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:05:15 +0100

In ten years of Microsoft trying to push the tablet as a computer the tablet just hasn't ever taken off. The one thing the naysayers of the iPad have never asked themselves is why has tablet computing failed up until this point?

The answer is simple... they're too under powered to do the work people think they should be doing. Essentially what is happening is people expect to work on a tablet the same way they do on a laptop but the specs of a tablet and the ridiculous price of these t...

The year of the document

Darryn Lowe — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

In my last post I surmised what the probable specs of an Apple tablet would be while also showing why Apple has a great shot at making it all work. But a tablet is only going to be as good as the software that runs on it and will only work if people see a use for it so this post is going to look at what the Apple tablet will do if it exists at all.

There are two rumours about the name of the tablet device... iSlate or Magic Slate. The latter actually is a better name in my not so h...

miTablet

Darryn Lowe — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In two weeks Apple may be holding a media event that has kicked up the whole tablet storm again. I think it’s highly plausible this time but to see why I say this we need to look at why it will be Apple who remain the only hope for the future of tablets.

Apple more or less invented pen based computing with the Newton, Palm followed with the Palm Pilot, Microsoft released various pen based products including a tablet OS for tablet computing. Essentially all of these failed for...

Irony makes the best tool

Darryn Lowe — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:54:46 +0100

As a computer technician my job mostly requires working on Windows machines. Macs are now starting to show up but due to their reliability most of the Macs we deal with will be generally nothing more than software issues.

One of the greatest tools ...

The power of faking it

Darryn Lowe — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0100

One of the most powerful features of Mac OS X is not a Mac OS X specific feature but one that has been around for almost as long as *NIX operating systems but is one of the most under-utilised features of Mac OS X. It's power makes for some interesting ways of forcing software to conform to your way of storing files. This magical feature is called Aliases.

In layman's terms an alias is a shortcut but it does more than just create an icon to a file or application. The best way to descr...

Life Without Steve Jobs

Darryn Lowe — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I had dinner with Phil on Thursday and due to me being away from Internet access for the better part of two days by this time I was unsure of the Apple world around me. Phil proceeded to inform me that Steve Jobs had just announced that he was taking 6 months off in order to deal with his health. Tim Cook is now in charge of the day to day stuff but the big decisions will still require Jobs' input.

I think it is a great thing on Jobs' part to take the time off. I sure know all about ...

Searching for good search engines

Darryn Lowe — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Have we lost the ability to question? Has computing removed our ability to get the information we are really looking for?

My questions come from the complete waste of time that is search engines. We often resort to these when trying to find informa...

Back to the past for Apple

Darryn Lowe — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

It's amazing, the more I read about what Apple is planning for Snow Leopard the more I realise I've already been there.

I'm not knocking Apple but I came from where Apple is heading when I left the sadly sinking ship that was the Amiga. Everything Apple is planning to do has been done on the Amiga back in the 80's and 90's.

Let me explain. Apple is shrinking Mac OS X instead of expanding it. Effectively Apple is removing things that make it bloated namely Carbon. Carbon was design...

Battery Life

Darryn Lowe — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:00:00 +0100

The biggest complaint many have about the iPod is that it lacks a replaceable battery. Personally I don't think this is an issue and I'll tell you why... toothbrushes, in particular electric toothbrushes.

I know that might sound a bit weird but it occurred to me when I was brushing my teeth that no one ever complains about the lack of ability to replace the battery in a rechargeable toothbrush, especially when they use NiCd batteries. These batteries develop a memory that would make a...

Why are computers so dumb?

Darryn Lowe — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:00:00 +0100

I'm a firm believer that artificial intelligence will never happen, at least not human level intelligence. For it to occur a massive shift in the way computers think needs to occur.

Computers work in binary which is nothing more than 0's and 1's. Essentially all computer decisions are based on whether or not a switch's state is on or off, true or false, yes or no. This is not intelligence that's merely reasoning which is not intelligence per se. Merely being able to reason on somethi...

Predictions for WWDC

Darryn Lowe — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

Well it's that time of year again when the Mac world contemplates what Apple has in store for developers. As always there's those that don't get the concept of a Developer's Conference and naturally assume that Apple is going to release updated Macs and iPhones.

The gimme is that Apple is going to fully release the SDK for iPhone as well as v2.0 of OS X which is not to be confused with Mac OS X which is the version of OS X for the Mac not the iPhone/iPod Touch. Confused ...

UI

Darryn Lowe — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:00:00 +0100

One of the things I love about working on the Mac is how efficient the User Interface is, however it's far from perfect. There is one thing that irks me about UIs and it has to do with user interaction with the environment.

I'm right handed and I tend to have a visual path leaning to the right. My mouse is to the right of my keyboard as is most right handed people's mouse. This means to access things like the Devices or Folders on the Finder we have to travel a reasonable di...

Think Different with Certification

Darryn Lowe — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:00:00 +0100

I work for a company called Datacom and we mainly deal with corporate and government systems. As you could imagine we are mostly a Windows based support company with a few Linux/Sun machines we support.

For years I was mocked and goaded because I own a Mac but it's interesting that those idiots that mocked me are now in fact Mac owners. It's even more interesting that my manager is also a Mac owner and due to a chance meeting at the Developer Conference a couple of years ago wit...

Why can't all ISPs be this good?

Darryn Lowe — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0100

So my flatmate left over the weekend and before doing so he got the Phone/Internet/TV cut off and due to a stuff up on my part I can't join Telstra for another couple of years (long story). So I haven't had the Internet for a week or so nor have I had a phone (not that that gets used much anyway).

So I took the plunge and tried Orcon and ended up speaking to a chap by the name of Stefan. The whole process was smooth, quick, and helpful. All my questions were answered and althoug...

The importance of future proofing

Darryn Lowe — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0100

You may have heard about the new Lotto ticket checkers that are going in around the country that allow customers to check their own tickets. Well I'm involved in the project so if you're in the greater Wellington area and you see a short red head guy with a big sod off drill drilling holes in the counter then that's me. If it's a middle age guy with grey hair then that isn't me.

Anyhow, one thing I've noticed during this project as well as the numerous office mov...

I'm going to patent stupid

Darryn Lowe — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0100

If you've been reading the news about Apple you'd know that over the last few years Apple has been hit with numerous court cases regarding patent disputes. Apple has in fact settled on some, most notably the Creative case where Creative reckoned it had the patent on the iPod's menu system.

You may remember during the launch of the iPhone Steve Jobs said Apple had patented the hell out of it. It's an interesting situation because up until this Apple hadn't really take...

iPhone/iPod Touch becomes next computing platform

Darryn Lowe — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0100

So on Thursday Apple supplied developers the tools to create native apps and in doing so made the iPhone and iPod Touch the next computing platform. One of the most interesting aspects of this is that both these devices can now become what Palm and Windows Mobile have failed to achieve, truly great portable platforms. Don't get me wrong, Palm and Microsoft have been around for a long while and have huge development resources but clearly have a long way to being great multipurpose tools. ...