Degutis Insights

Snow Leopard – a service pack that needs an update already

Posted on the August 31st, 2009 under Mac,Technology by Al

I purchased and installed the Mac OS X Snow Leopard update. I knew it wasn’t going to bring a lot of new features but the reviews touted modest performance gains and a few UI gems.

I installed it as a fresh install, not an upgrade, on my 18 month old Macbook Pro with 4 GB of memory. After using it for three days, I have to say I’m disappointed and think it should have been a free upgrade. I’m glad it only cost $30.

Online reviews and comments claim a noticeable increase in performance. I’m wondering if this is the infamous Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field in affect. Here’s are my experiences so far:

I’ve seen more spinning beach balls (i.e. waiting for the app or OS) in the last 3 days than I have in the last 3 months, especially with Safari 4. Firefox 3.5 has been running fine, without a visit by the spinning beach ball.
iMovie is also slow. Trying to edit video clips is painful because it pauses for 2-3 seconds.
Mail.app crashed for the first time in a year, if not longer. I’ve had it lock up occasionally under Leopard, but it only took 1 day for it to crash with an error message in Snow Leopard. This may have to do with the Microsoft Exchange email that I added today, which is a new feature so I can understand this one.

I’m anxiously awaiting the 10.6.1 update. I will not be installing Snow Leopard on my iMac until 10.6.1 comes out and proves itself worthy on my Macbook Pro… unless I revert back to Leopard that is.

~ Posted by Al

He’s hooked, he’s hooked, his brain is cooked

Posted on the August 17th, 2009 under Uncategorized by Al

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by Al via email from frumpa’s posterous

Book: The World According to Twitter

Posted on the August 17th, 2009 under Misc,Twitter by Al

My co-author, David Pogue, sent me an autographed copy of our new book. Sure, I only provided one line but I feel that without that single line the book wouldn’t be the great work that it is.

Get your copy today!

Seriously!

TheWorldAccordingtoTwitter
Click here to get more info on the book.

if a 25 year old can’t pick up after himself… #getoffmylawn

Posted on the August 16th, 2009 under Uncategorized by Al

Sent from my iPhone

Posted by Al via email from frumpa’s posterous

PHP help needed! Why does this code fail?

Posted on the August 14th, 2009 under Uncategorized by Al

The code:

if (phpversion() < 4.1) {  $GET = $HTTP_GET_VARS;  $POST = $HTTP_POST_VARS;  $SERVER = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS;  $COOKIE = $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS;  } else {  $GET = $_GET;  $POST = $_POST;  $SERVER = $_SERVER;  $COOKIE = $_COOKIE;  }

The error:

PHP Fatal error: Can’t use function return value in write context in…

Posted by Al via web from frumpa’s posterous