Month: May 2006

I installed a RAM upgrade this morning on the MacBook, moving from two 256K modules to two 512K modules.

While Apple is getting kudos for the ease of HD removal (video from Macworld), the RAM upgrade requires notably more force than I imagined. The instructions are simple, and the only tool required is a small Philips screwdriver. Getting the installed modules out was straightforward, but putting the modules in was difficult because you don’t have much leverage, and your fingers take a beating. My first attempt failed. I put the computer back together and tried to start it up. No dice. I didn’t panic immediately because I’ve had a somewhat similar experience in the past with a different Mac. I opened the battery bay up again, and pushed until my fingers were dented, and kept pushing. I never heard the promised “click” to tell me that the modules were fully seated, but they were farther in, so I gave it a try. Success.

Seems Dave Winer had the same problem, but he must have given up on the more-than-educated pressure technique. The quote from a tech at an Apple Store was: “You really have to force it in there.”

Definitely. Apply educated pressure. Then try pressure beyond what you think is safe. If the L-shaped bracket which covers the modules doesn’t lie flat before you put the three screws back on, then you probably haven’t gone far enough.

As I noted yesterday, I’m thrilled with the computer overall, but might as well point out the annoyance, too.

I started a new gig today, and a very pleasant part of the day was spent setting up a spanking new MacBook.

(Yes, more on the new gig soon… not meaning to be cryptic, just trying to gather my thoughts semi-intelligently. And it’s late. And I want to watch the Champion’s League final from earlier today before I inadvertently hear the score.)

Anyway, the day after the product was released, I’m using a white version as my work machine. Seamless describes the experience, and I’m looking forward to applying my years of home Mac usage towards my day job, too. Outlook’s calendaring was the hook which made a Mac not worth the effort in the past, but Exchange isn’t the company standard for me anymore. Not missing it.

More to come in the future on bits and pieces of this computing experience. The web was all over this product, as you might expect. Here’s the CNET coverage:

• An early, pre-rating CNET review
• Photos of the introductory experience
• Photos of an arrest outside the San Francisco Apple store
• The story behind the arrest photos, from Scott Ard

I travelled this weekend, which meant I got to start and finish Robert Sawyer’s The Terminal Experiment. In a fun combination of two technology sectors, the story follows the impact of EEGs taken at a nanoscale level and software constructs of human brains/personalities. Call it a mashup, even…with an evil genius AI committing real-world murder along the way.

Sawyer, I’ve learned over a few novels, like Factoring Humanity, likes to linger on the spiritual implications inherent in technological advances. The method? The super EEG finds the physical expression of the soul (!), dubbed the “soulwave.” Huh.

These books aren’t quite redundant, but the style and story feels consistent with the few Sawyer books I’ve read. Fortunately, that’s a good thing.

As a mental break, I enjoyed Mission Impossible III last week. The action keeps jumping, as does the location (Vatican City, Berlin, Shanghai, Virginia, etc.). The only suspension of disbelief which was hard to swallow? When the MI team, in the middle of Shanghai, has a hard time getting a cellphone signal. Maybe in one of the dead spots on 101 in Silicon Valley, but to not get a signal in Shanghai? Come on!

Still, despite the leaps, I found this a worthwhile action movie. Metacritic score of 66 is lower than I would have given.

“Why Don’t Ad Agencies Advertise?” is a simple question I’ve never considered. And it’s a remarkable to consider, even if it’s a deliberate overstatement. The author of the article is Simon Sinek, CEO of Sinek Partners (terrible, Flash-heavy website), which clearly is in the marketing field, but I can’t immediately discern why it is or is not different from the agencies he derides, though clearly it must be. (Right?)

Anyway, the article was written for the April 17, 2006 issue of BrandWeek, with the title “Advertising Execs Are Hypocrites,” and starts with this:

If advertising is so effective, why don’t ad agencies advertise? PR firms tout themselves in releases. Event planners throw their own parties. E-marketers use the Internet. These folks all believe in the effectiveness of their disciplines. Do ad agencies disagree?

and later continues

In truth, it’s what’s in the advertising that is not working. Ad agencies are doing a poor job creating messages that affect long-term value for their clients. Along with the media in which it exists, advertising has been commoditized.

As someone who is leaving a media company (more on that soon) which depends on advertisers and their agencies, I have lots of conflicting opinions on this topic. But I’m certainly glad I read the article.

Via 43 Folders, I read David Sedaris’s essay Memento Mori in the New Yorker.

Essentially, a wide-ranging riff, which includes a few paragraphs on the challenge of finding the perfect gift. Sedaris on the challenge:

Hugh thinks that lists are the easy way out, and says that if I really knew him I wouldn’t have to ask what he wanted.

I envision demonstrating my perception and acute empathy when gift-giving, offering the right item at the right time, exceeding even the unspoken expectations of the recipient. Let’s just say that is aiming a bit too high…so I will more often err on just giving what was hinted, requested, or leaves the decision in the hands of the giftee. Feels like a copout, but the stress of perfection sure takes the fun out of gift-giving.

The Sedaris essay, in case you didn’t already go read it, gently explores much more in a better written package. What I selfishly took away from it is only a nibble.

Yes, it took me this long to see Deliverance (1972).

I thought the story originally appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, as this 1994 history of the magazine explains:

It was to The Atlantic Monthly that a little-known writer named James Dickey came when he had something called Deliverance that he wanted to publish.

But it’s not clear from what I can find on the web whether the magazine published the story. Perhaps the (at that time) affiliated publisher of the same name published the novel.

Wikipedia has a plot summary, including spoiler, although I wonder who hasn’t seen the movie besides me.

It’s solid, beyond the iconic scenes. Menace, with energy, and makes you wonder (if not think).