DEFCON is a real-time strategy game created by independent British game developer Introversion Software. Inspired by movies like Dr. Strangelove, and WarGames:

Players are given a 1980s vector graphics computer-themed world map, a varied arsenal of nuclear and conventional weaponry, and a primary objective: destroy as much of the enemy’s population as possible while having as little of one’s own population destroyed as possible. A typical game will see civilian casualties numbering in the millions (megadeaths) while players try their hand at annihilating their opponents.

In most games, all sides take heavy losses. “Nobody wins, but maybe you can lose the least.” Games last 30 to 40 minutes while real-time gameplay can last more than eight hours. Game time can be varied by a consensus among players configuring the speed at which events progress from real-time.

DEFCON is a streamlined real-time strategy game, with no unit production, resource collection, or technology tree upgrades. Players choose and position their forces at the beginning of the game on one of six territories, North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Russia, or Asia. A countdown system prevents games from disintegrating prematurely.

Gameplay begins at alert level DEFCON 5 and counts down to DEFCON 1, and the use of nuclear weapons Each upgrade in alert level brings more strategic possibilities.

Ground installations are immobile, and can be destroyed by nuclear attack. They include missile silos, airbases, and radar installations.

Naval units are organized into fleets of up to six ships which move and fight together. Fleets must be placed in territorial waters at the beginning of a game, but may move through the ocean, albeit slowly. Fleets can include any combination of battleships carries, and submarines.

Aircraft are launched from either airbases of carriers. Typically they operate autonomously after launch, but bombers and fighters can also be controlled while airborne. Bombers carry a single short-range ballistic missile that may be fired at a nearby target. Bombers have a long range to deliver this payload, but are vulnerable during the trip.

Missiles deliver a devastating payload. A direct hit on a city will kill half of the current living civilians. Between one and three hits are required on the hardened buildings that players place to destroy them. Missiles can only be shot down by silos in defense mode, which have a small random chance of hitting the missile with any given shot. A hit will cause a limited detonation in the missile, yielding minor casualties if a city is directly beneath, or damaging or destroying a facility if one is below.

Once launched from a silo, submarine, or bomber, missiles cannot be retargeted, though they can be disarmed in mid-flight. Missiles can also target sea-based units and will destroy any aircraft caught in their blast radius.

DEFCON uses a real-time line of sight system common to traditional RTS games, where only enemy units within radar coverage may be seen. However, a nuclear missile launch from a silo or submarine is automatically detected by all players (though the missile itself is not, and must be detected by radar), which reveals the location of the unit launching the missile.

A nuclear missile launch from a bomber, however, does not reveal the location of the bomber. Making it the perfect first strike vehicle. Most units have several operating modes for different functions, and require several minutes to switch modes. For instance, ordering a missile silo to switch from offensive launches to missile defense will leave it inoperative while it switches. Signaling to other players the perfect time to attack.

A DEFCON game can host up to six human or AI players. Alliances can be formed, broken, or renegotiated at will with human players. Alliances with CPU controlled players can only be set at the start of the game. Allied players share radar coverage and line of sight, but there is no allied victory and there is only one winner. This means that all alliances are broken by the end of the game.

Lead designer Chris Delay explains: > We’ve seen alliance members shooting overhead friendly planes down because they believed the planes were scouting the area for targets in preparation for a strike. This results in arguments in the chat channels, followed by skirmishes at sea, followed by retaliation, before finally the whole alliance collapses and everyone starts nuking the hell out of each other. It’s awesome.

DEFCON is an awesome game. Like Risk, only with nuclear weapons, everybody starts out with the same chances, the same units, and the same belief they will survive annihilation. Only luck and strategy set a victorious player apart from his conquered peers.

The stark isolation of the vector graphics, and the bone chilling audible gasps of the dying, brings the faceless reality of nuclear war to player in a way rich texture maps, and dynamic lighting never could. With each pulse of white light representing a nuclear explosion players know millions of virtual lives have been lost, but the real fear comes from the fact that there is very little separating DEFCON from the way a real nuclear war would be fought.

I highly recommend DEFCON to anyone who grew up fearing the nuclear bomb, or wanted to be that kid from WarGames, unknowingly ready to start a nuclear war, if only on the Internet.

During the holidays many of us gave and received the gift of photography.nDigital cameras, family portraits, and photo greeting cards, are all part the holiday tradition.nThe accessibility of digital cameras has helped to strengthen the importance of photography during family gatherings, but the prevalence of digital cameras has also helped make photography a year round event.nBefore there were digital cameras there was probably an aunt, uncle, mother, or father who took all of the families photos.nNow that digital cameras are inexpensive, easy to use, and included in most popular electronic devices people are taking more pictures no matter the time of year.

With devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch it is easy to see why Apple is such a popular consumer electronics company, but it is often overlooked that Apple is a giant in photography.nEvery mobile device Apple makes contains a camera. From the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, to the entire MacBook lineup, Apple’s most popular products include a lens for capturing the world.nAt this time the iPhone is the most popular camera on Flickr, and it may be the most popular camera in the world.nBut Apple wasn’t always a huge success in photography.nStarting back in 1994 Apple released the first line of digital cameras aimed at consumers, and failed miserably at gaining brand recognition or marketshare.nJust like the Newton MessagePads, released at the same time, Apple’s QuickTake line of digital cameras were a series of products developed before their time.

QuickTake 100

The QuickTake 100 was Apple’s first foray into photography, and the first digital cameras consumers could take home and connect to their personal computer.nReleased in January 1994 the QuickTake 100 was designed by Kodak in the United States and built by Chinon Industries in Japan.nIts unique shape resembles the pair of futuristic binoculars Luke Skywalker used to gaze across the sands of Tatooine in the first Star Wars movie.nWeighing one pound, the QuickTake 100 originally sold for $749.

Marketed as easy to use, the QuickTake 100 had a built-in flash, but no focus or zoom controls.nShutter speed was limited from 130th to 1175th of a second, and the camera’s available apertures fell into the f2.8 to f16 range.nAll settings except for the flash, timer, and resolution were chosen automatically.nIt was powered by three rechargeable AA batteries that could last for 120 shots, and included a Macintosh style serial cable for connectivity.nThe viewfinder was optical, and the built-in LCD screen was for status information only.nCaptured images had to be viewed on a Mac using the included QuickTake software.

The QuickTime 100 was capable of storing up to eight photos at 640×480 resolution, 32 photos at 320×240 resolution, or a mixture of both sizes on its 1MB Flash EPROM.nThe QuickTime 100 had no upgradable memory.nAll photos were stored with 24 bits of color in a proprietary QuickTake PICT format that can not be easily read in Mac OS X.nEvery photo taken with the QuickTIme 100 had to later be converted into a JPEG, TIFF, or BMP before they could be shared.nThe QuickTake 100 produced photos with quality similar to today’s most primitive camera phones.

QuickTake 150

In 1995 Apple released the QuickTake 150, an improved version of the QuickTake 100 that featured a macro photography add-on lens, PC compatibility, and support for TIFF, BMP, PCX, and JPEG using the included PhotoFlash software.nPhotoFlash was an early ancestor to today’s iPhoto.nIt allowed for the easy organization, enhancement, and publishing of photos from a single application.nWith PhotoFlash images could be captured on a QuickTake camera and sent directly to a computer using the built-in serial connection.nBy controlling the camera from the attached computer many businesses used QuickTake cameras to take employee photos for IDs or security badges.nThe QuickTake 150 sold for $700 replacing the QuickTime 100.

QuickTake 200

The QuickTake 200) was a dramatic departure from the binocular form factor of previous QuickTake cameras.nBuilt by Fujifilm for Apple Computer, the QuickTake 200 offered a substantial improvement in image quality by addressing the shortcomings of earlier QuickTake cameras.

Instead of a 1MB Flash EPROM, the QuickTake 200 shipped with a 2MB removable SmartMedia card.nApple sold an optional 4 MB card, and even larger capacity cards were available from third-party vendors.nRemovable media cards allowed QuickTake 200 users to take more photos before returning to their computer to offload images.nInstead of saving photos in a proprietary PICT format the QuickTake 200 recorded all of its photographs as PC compatible JPEGs.nThe QuickTake 200 was restricted to the same 640 x 480 maximum resolution as earlier QuickTakes, but the lossy JPEG compression meant more photos could be saved in the same amount of space.

Unlike previous QuickTakes the 200 could focus on one of three specific ranges without the need of add-on lenses.

• Close-Up: 3.5 to 5 inches
• Portrait: 17 to 35 inches
• Far: ~ 35 inches to infinity

This made pictures sharper even if there was no discernible increase in sensor quality over earlier QuickTake models.

The 1.8 inch LCD viewing panel greatly improved the usability of the camera.nInstead of returning to a desktop computer to view your images the QuickTake 200 could show you what shots you had already taken, and a live preview of images yet to be captured.nFor the first time in the QuickTake’s history, shots could be deleted individually from the camera without the need of a computer, and exposure and composition could be judged before the photo was taken.nThe 1.8 inch LCD viewing panel replaced the integrated optical viewfinder found on earlier QuickTakes, but a snap-on viewfinder was also included.nThis optional viewfinder was especially useful for shooting a series of photos because of the slow 30fps refresh rate of the 1.8 inch LCD viewing panel made tracking moving subjects difficult.

Another QuickTake first was the 200’s user selectable aperture modes.

The QuickTake 200 has two aperture settings (light settings).nThe user can switch between f2.2 and f8.0. f2.2 is used in low light settings and f8.0 is used in bright light.nIf the camera thinks you are underexposing or overexposing the image, it will warn you by suggesting you switch to the opposite aperture setting.n

By the time the QuickTake 200 shipped in 1997 Apple had already abandoned the photo software business.nThe QuickTake 200 shipped with Adobe PhotoDeluxe 1.0 to enhance images, Adobe PageMill 2.0 to create web pages, and PictureWorks NetCard 1.0 to send Internet postcards.

The QuickTake 200 was considered a good overall camera in 1997, but Apple was not a familier brand in the photography market.

Traditional photography equipment makers like Canon, Kodak, and Nikon began to flood the market with brands that consumers more readily associated with photography.nFurthermore, even though the QuickTake cameras were all Windows compatible given the right drivers and cables, in the mid 1990s Apple was extremely paternalistic and increasingly viewed as a niche player so the QuickTake cameras never really gained a reputation as being anything more than a Macintosh peripheral.n

Apple sold the QuickTake 200 for about a year before Steve Jobs discontinued the QuickTake line of cameras in an effort to streamline operations and focus all the Apple’s resources on reviving the Macintosh.

In many ways the QuickTake camera is like the Newton MessagePad.nA product released before its time, that would invent an industry, but ultimately die at the hands of Steve Jobs before being reborn as an essential technology in Apple’s modern day success.

In the late 2000’s the original iPhone was the best phones money could buy, but it wasn’t necessarily the best phone for British Secret Agent James Bond.

For one, the iPhone 2G was too flashy. Its broad aluminum back, shiny chrome Apple logo, and large illuminated 3.5 inch screen attracted too much attention in a time when multitouch smart phones were new and noticeable. If Bond pulled that phone out in a crowd during his Quantum of Solace mission, everyone would have taken notice.

In addition, the iPhone 2G was locked to the carrier on which it was sold. A decision that caused all sorts of controversy in Europe, and a clear problem for a Secret Agent traveling to exotic locales across the globe.

Third, the first two versions of the iPhone were issued with a miserable two megapixel fixed-focus camera. It is hard to imagine how a British spy would make use of such a terrible camera with no flash, no autofocus, no face detection, and no video recording.

Finally, Sony, not Apple, has been 007’s preferred patron of technology product placement in all of Bond’s most recent adventures. MI6’s choice of Sony Ericsson phones in Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall, might have something to do with the fact that Columbia Pictures, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, distributes the films.

No, the iPhone 2G would not have been a suitable Bond Phone for the release of Quantum of Solace in October 2008. Instead Q Branch issued Bond the Sony Ericsson C902. A more than capable quad-band, Java-based world phone, with a five megapixel camera, and a few extra surprises.

For the past thirty days I have been using the C902 myself, and although it is not as timeless as my Omega Seamaster diving watch, it still manages to make an impact where style and technology are concerned.

Unboxing

I purchased a brand new, unlocked, Sony Ericsson C902 for a little over $100 off of eBay,¹ with the hopes of conducting a “Stephen Hackett Experiment” of my own. I have gone more than a month without a smartphone before, but this time I wanted to try something with a little more 007 style.

In its day the C902 was a premium phone, that cost over $549 MSRP. By the fit and finish of the box alone you can easily tell the C902 was a luxury product. They don’t package phones with this level of care, or this many accessories anymore.

Inside the black piano gloss box, I found the C902 presented at the center of a cardboard cutout depicting a picturesque lake scene. After the phone was taken out, and the cut out removed, the remaining space was broken up by two separate boxes. One containing the phone’s accessories, the other paperwork and software.

As I mentioned before the C902 comes with a generous amount of accessories. There was a USB cable with proprietary Sony Ericsson docking connection on one end. There was a separate power plug with an integrated Sony Ericsson docking connection cable included. I quickly found out I could the use the C902’s USB cable to charge my phone using the USB port on my computer. But the small white USB power adapter that comes with the iPhone wasn’t enough to charge the C902. Including both the USB cable and the power adapter was a nice touch, and allowed me to charge my phone from two different locations without bringing Sony’s proprietary power charger along with me.

One downfall of the Sony Ericsson proprietary dock connector, is that it is also the only place one can attach headphones to the phone. The included adapter comes in the form of a long cable with a mic3.5mm headphone jack on one end, and the Sony Ericsson dock connector on the other. You can answer the phone using the provided bottom on the Mic, just like you can with an iPhone. The included headphones come with a relatively short cable to compensate for the adapters already generously long reach. The C902 can playback MP3 and AAC files, but I don’t expect to be listening to much music with this phone considering its peculiar headphone arrangement that can’t be used then the phone is charging.

The last accessory I found in the box was a Memory Stick Micro (M2) to USB adapter. The USB end of this adapter slides out like the blade to a pocket knife, and although the adapter is made of plastic, it has a fit and finish worth of any MI6 issued gadget. With only 160 MBs of internal storage, it was important that Sony choose an expandable memory format for the C902, and even more generous that they included a 1 GB card and optional adapter along with the C902. I just wish they hadn’t relied on the proprietary Sony Memory Stick Micro (M2) format, and choose Micro SD instead.²

Accompanying the box of accessories was a similar sized box of paperwork and software. Just like most electronics from the late 90’s that shipped with a plethora of paperwork, Sony Ericsson decided to continue the tradition by including an assortment of useless warranty cards, manuals, and getting started guides with the C902. I never opened the included Suite of PC software for transferring pictures and music to the C902, because the phone mounted as a USB storage device the first time I plugged it into my computer. Sony could have saved a lot of space and paper by loosing the junk mail.

Construction

Up until the iPhone 4 I could have said the Sony Ericsson C902 is the best made phone I have ever owned. Despite its deminished size compared to most smart phones, it has a reassuring weight that cannot be easily ignored.

The top of the phone is dominated by the 240 x 320 pixels, 2.0 inches(~200 ppi pixel density) display. The bottom by a directional pad, six navigation buttons, and a twelve key keypad that after one month of use, continues to feel firm to the touch. The back of the phone is clad in painted metal.

The Sony Ericsson C902 came in four colors, “Swift Black, Luscious Red, Titanium Silver, Cinnamon Bronze.” I choose the “Swift Black” model, although Bond’s phone in Quantum of Solace was “Titanium Silver.”

All along the sides of the phone is one of the C902’s most distinct features, raised metallic edges. Like the handle of a gun, these edges give the C902 extra grip that can easily be appreciated when the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Keyboard

It has been such a long time since I have used a conventional twelve key keypad for typing on a phone. I swore I would never do it again. It took me close to ten minutes of staring at my C902, and repeatedly pushing the keypad, before I realized how to type on this thing.

There are two typing modes — predictive and repetitive. Using the predictive mode you can press the number key with the corresponding letter once and move on to the next character in the word. Sony Ericsson’s predictive software will figure out what word you are trying to type with amazing accuracy. Using the repetitive mode you must press the number key with the corresponding letter several times to cycle to the character you wish to enter. Both methods are tedious, and I couldn’t imagine Bond taking the time to write a lengthy letter to Moneypenny using the C902.

On the lower left hand side, opposite the proprietary Sony connection, I found the C902’s camera shutter button and volume rocker. I don’t like the position of either of buttons, I think they should be up towards the top, like the iPhone. Also the dock connector really needs to be on the bottom of the phone. No one wants to try to listen to music, type, or answer a call with a dock adapter sticking into the palm of their hand.

I learned to type on the Sony Ericsson C902 by entering my personal contacts during my flight to the Memphis Tennessee St. Jude Marathon.³ Short of an old outdated iSync plugin, I couldn’t find any other way of syncing my friends phone numbers to the C902.

As you learn to trust the predictive software typing common names and English words becomes easier. Just don’t try addressing an email, or entering a URL. No wonder BlackBerry with their full QWERTY keyboards were so popular back in the day.

Software

The Sony Ericsson C902 is a 2G device in the States, but capabilities, not speed will prevent you from getting the most out of your data plan while using this phone. The web browser is old-school NetFront. Navigate up and down, link to link, and hope the website you want to visit has a WAP version.

Email is possible, but I was unable to get iCloud’s IMAP settings to work in the C902. Instead I forwarded all of my personal, and work email to a POP account I setup for the C902 to check periodically every four hours. I was able to get SMTP to work with my POP account, but like I said before, unless you are a whiz with a twelve key keypad, you will not be sending very many emails from the C902.⁴

In addition to the thousand entry contact list, and basic email capabilities, the Sony Ericsson C902 includes a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a task list, a notepad, a timer, a stopwatch, an alarm clock, a calculator, and a speakerphone. The C902 isn’t a smartphone, but it offers a nice assortment of advanced options like Bluetooth with a stereo profile and remote control options, PC syncing, a file manager, USB mass storage, integrated GPS, and a code memo for storing sensitive information.

A basic RSS reader, and podcast catcher is also included, but good luck entering all of those addresses without an OPML import.

The C902’s music player (MP3 and AAC files) isn’t officially a Walkman player, but it might as well be. Settings include an equalizer, playlists, stereo widening, Sony’s Mega Bass, and shuffle and loop modes. The interface is minimalist, but functional. There are no visualizations, but the player supports album art. Just keep in mind that it won’t recognize every song it plays. Other features include an FM radio, TrackID, and support for audio books and podcasts. Getting music on the phone is as easy as drag and drop.

Camera

The Sony Ericsson C902’s killer features are hiding in plain sight, and behind a pull out slider. Pull the top of the phone up, and a five megapixel camera, complete with xenon flash, and portrait mirror is exposed. As the lens is revealed the C902 instantly switches to camera mode, illuminating eight blue touch controls previously concealed along the edge of the display.

These controls can be used for setting the camera mode between still, video, and playback, as well as focus, shooting mode, scenes, timer, and flash. The slider motion still feels solid after a month of use, and I appreciate how the it hides and protects the lens from scratches. Without knowing, you can not easily tell the C902 is also a camera, making it the perfect spy phone.

The touch controls might seem like a gimmick at first, but they provide quick adjustment to the cameras most used settings without having to dive deep into menus. I wish more consumer level cameras included such touch sensitive controls among the edges of their displays to make up for their lack physical knobs, switches, and dials.

Not only does the Sony Ericsson C902 control better than the iPhone 2G, but it also takes better pictures. I found exposure of tough situations like the setting sun, superior on my Sony Ericsson C902 than on competing camera phones like the iPhone 4S.

The C902 was the first in Sony’s line of Cybershot camera phones, and the attention to photographic details and features shows.

You can take pictures in four resolutions, from 5 megapixels down to simple VGA. Editing options are more than generous. They include face detection, an autofocus, a macro setting, an infinite mode (disables the autofocus for pictures taken at a distance), a self timer, five white balance settings, an adjustable brightness meter, four color effects, two quality settings, a 16x digital zoom, an image stabilizer, and Sony Ericsson’s BestPic feature (for taking nine shots in rapid succession). There are even four different shutter sounds, but no silent option

With a firm grip, a five megapixel sensor, and a real shutter button it is hard to discount the C902’s camera functionality. The resolution may not be as high as today’s smart phones, but the available options are more plentiful. With the C902 in your hand, you feel like you are holding a real camera. Getting your photos onto a computer is as easy using Bluetooth, USB, or the included Memory Stick Micro (M2) adapter. I just wish there was a better cloud sync option. We are all spoiled in the modern age of Instagram.

Conclusion

Between its stylish good looks, ample accessories, tough construction, and secret spy cam, you can easily see why the Sony Ericsson’s C902 was Bond’s phone of choice in Quantum of Solace. It may not have the extensibility of a modern smartphone, but for taking pictures, sending quick messages, receiving email, and just plain talking on the phone it is a great choice.

The unlocked C902 makes a great alternative to carrying a smartphone while traveling abroad, and its 9 hour 2G talk time will impress you when you realize you don’t have to charge it every night.

I only wish more of the C902’s menus could benefit from the innovative touch controls hiding beside the display, and the predictive keyboard knew what I wanted to type before stumbling with the keypad.⁵

Just imagine if Siri was available on a small, light, stylish phone like the Sony Ericsson C902. Now that really would be a Bond phone.

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1. I didn’t splurge for the Sony Ericsson Limited Edition James Bond C902 with an eerie picture of Daniel Craig in the box.
2. Sony announced on June 1, 2009 that M2 support in Sony Ericsson phones would be dropped in favor of microSD.
3. There is still time to donate.
4. Apparently their is the option to sync the C902’s Address Book, Email, and Calendar with Exchange, but I could never get it to work with my work email.
5. A standard micro USB connector, and headphone jack would have also been appreciated.

When you think of a Bond Watch, what comes to mind? Style, luxury, sophistication? Perhaps the actor who played James Bond in your favorite 007 movie, or maybe the over-the-top gadgetry that made the Bond Watch a trademark of the 007 films from the late 70’s and early 80’s?¹ No matter your initial reaction, or the concealed gadget inside, we can all attest to the coolness of the 007 timepiece. A symbol for the man every boy wants to grow up to be, and the confidence every grown man wishes he could achieve.

As an avid Bond fan I have collected all of the movies,² read all of the books, and played most of the video games.³ Not one for props, memorabilia, or firearms, I thought my Bond collection was complete. It wasn’t until I became jealous of my friend’s Omega Seamaster, that I realized owning an authentic Bond Watch could be within my future.

The first step in buying a Bond Watch is figuring out which watch to buy. In the movies Bond wore everything from a Rolex Submariner, to a digital Seiko. Of course for me growing up in the James Bond meant Pierce Brosnan, and his ocean blue Omega Seamaster. What can I say I am a child of the 90’s.

The Omega Seamaster 2531.80 Chronometer is the watch Pierce Brosnam wore in all of his Bond movies.⁴ It played such an important role in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Die Another Day that it has become known as the definitive “James Bond Watch.” Handheld lasers, and remote explosive detonators aside, I wanted this watch because of its recognizable face and sophisticated style. It is by far the nicest thing I own.

What I like most about my Seamaster is its color. Depending on the light it can either appear to be bright blue or deep black. The wave pattern on the face distributes light in mysterious ways. The skeleton hands provide a sophistication that is unique to this model of watch.

If you have never worn a Seamaster than you are missing out. There is something about the way the two-tone stainless steel bracelet drapes across your wrist. Nothing is as comfortable. Unlike leather it is impervious to moisture, and unlike the cheap links of other straps, it never pinches the skin.

A brand new Seamaster costs several thousand dollars, but due to a vibrant second hand market I was able to pick mine up at less than half the asking price.⁵ When it comes to the decision between Quartz and Automatic, I would spend the couple extra hundred dollars for the Chronometer. I didn’t think it would make a difference, but I have grown to appreciate the steady ticking of the mechanical movement. It will never need a replacement battery.

I own very little in the line of luxury, but I bought my Bond Watch because it is a constant reminder of confidence.⁶ James Bond might be a fictional character, but his legendary confidence has captivated audiences for over 50 years. That is a quality money can’t buy, and an heirloom I hope to pass on to future generations.

• And in my opinion the low point of the franchise.
• Skyfall is a must see by the way.
• GoldenEye being my favorite.
• Not true, he wore a quartz model Seamaster 2541.80 in GoldenEye, but that is just because Omega was being cheap.
• Just be sure to ask for the warranty, box, and papers.
• Not not features like the Helium Escape Valve, or water resistance up to 300 meters, but reliability and craftsmanship rarely go out of style.

I am spending more time on the PC these days; running Windows 10 and dialing into MIT’s Linux servers. My trusty Apple Extended Keyboard hasn’t been getting much use. Instead of taking the time to perform the obvious task or remapping my Apple keyboard, I decided to indulge my curiosity and purchase the Das Model S Ultimate Keyboard instead. I first heard about the Das Keyboard from Shawn Blanc, when he reviewed three different clicky keyboards for use on the Mac.

The Das Keyboard has two great things going for it. More than the other two keyboards, I prefer the tactile feel of the blue Cherry MX switches and the audio click of the Das. Since you don’t buy a mechanical keyboard for its aesthetics, for those looking to get a clicky keyboard, this is the one I would recommend.

I have tried a Tactile Pro in the past, and am a big fan of Apple’s Extended Keyboards from the last century, but I had never heard of the Das before Shawn recorded its clickiness for the all the web to hear. The Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate is the loudest keyboard I have ever used. It employs 104 German made gold plated Cherry MX Blue mechanical key switches to produce its signature clicky sound, and distinctive two stage feel. > The Blue switches are popular within the typing community because of the “clicky” tactile bump when the activation point is hit. The overall experience of Blue switches is very similar to typewriters, however, those around you might not be as big of a fan due to the audio feedback. The standard “clicky” versions of Das Keyboards utilize Blue switches.

Sharper than the click-clock sound of my Alps equipped Apple Extended Keyboard I, the Das Keyboard’s clicky key switches really come into their own when typing at high speeds. The Das is the Death Star or keyboards. Large, black, and glossy, The Das Model S Ultimate is the keyboard Darth Vader if he couldn’t get dictation in his meditation chamber. At almost three pounds, the Das Keyboard is almost as heavy as my Apple Extended Keyboard. Lacking the large “function key forehead” of Apple’s Extended, the Das features a more streamlined design that still dominates my desktop. Its extra long two meter USB cord means Ican layout your workspace any way I like, and its high-speed USB 2.0 hub allows me to sync and charge up to two devices including an iPad from the keyboard’s right side. I only wish the USB cable was was easier to conceal, and that there was a USB port on opposite side of the keyboard for South Poles like me. In order to get the maximum charge out of the Das you need to plug in both USB plugs that fork from the end of the Das’ extra long cable. Its massive size, and cabling requirements might make the Das a little too much for Ultrabook users who only have a single USB port on either side of their laptops. While some might call the Das keyboard “ugly,” I think the Das Model S Ultimate looks rather BAD ASS. > Just because it has mechanical switches, which were especially common from keyboards of the ‘80s and ‘90s, doesn’t mean it should also look like it’s been rescued from 20 years ago.

One of the things that makes the Das Model S Ultimate keyboard so BAD ASS is the fact it has no key cap inscriptions at all. Instead of the “horrendous” typeface Das uses on its other keyboards, the Ultimate models are free of markings, striking fear and awe into the hearts of everyone that passes by. Learning to type on an unmarked Das keyboard means learning to type stronger. I can no longer cheat by looking down at the keyboard to find those rarely used, out of the way characters. Before using the Das I found myself still looking down at my keyboard from time to time to regain confidence and make sure my finger reached the proper key. With the Das I am building the muscle memory all great typists have. For the first time since my high school typing class I make my fingers do the walking without looking down. I will admit I had to rethink some of my harder to type passwords after adopting the Das, but after two weeks of constant use I am surprised at how well I remember the QWERTY keyboard layout without cheating. The Das Model S Ultimate Keyboard fits its name. It is the ultimate typing tool for anyone who wants to develop muscle memory, build confidence, increase speed, and scare away onlookers with a inscription less keyboard and a BAS ASS clicky sound. I hate to retire my Apple Extended Keyboard, but ADB has been gone for over 16 years. It is time to make the switch.

When I worked behind the Genius Bar in 2003 there was no Concierge, no booking system, no appointments, and no Genius Bar assistant to help people get in line. Instead there was a sea of faces, impatient customers waiting to be assisted. In the old first come first serve model for Genius Bar management, it was not uncommon for a Mac Genius to help three people at once while trying to hold down a conversation with several onlookers. People used to race to the Bar when the Store’s doors first opened, playing musical chairs with the bar stools, fighting for their place in line. I will admit after leaving Apple in 2006 I would have nightmares about the faces staring back at me across the bar, and the stress that came from managing the queue.

As one might expect the first come first serve method of Genius Bar management was not well liked among customers and Mac Genius alike. At some stores a Genius would maintain a paper list of the people waiting in line. At others a limit of how many customers could be helped in an hour was enforced. We tried calling people on their cell phones when a appointment was available, and handing out buzzers that would ring when it was time to return to the bar. As the Genius Bar’s popularity grew it became harder to manage the flow of people gathered around the Apple Store’s primary attraction. My Store manager insisted we help everyone, but sometimes there wasn’t enough time in the day. Because we were one of the first Apple Store’s in the North East with a free parking lot people came from as far away as Upstate New York to see us. It was sometimes impossible to help everyone.

One day during a busy Saturday morning at the Genius Bar, a customer came in complaining his 17 inch PowerBook G4 would not boot. He was too impatient to wait in line, and wanted to leave it with me so I could take a look at it. With very few exceptions we never took in a machine without first reproducing the problem in front of the customer. There are just two many open ended interpretations to computer problems, and in order to know what is really going on, a Mac Genius needs to confirm the issue with the customer first. Because he was unwilling to wait, and because I was unwilling to take his computer from him without a diagnosis, he purchased a brand new 17 inch PowerBook G4 instead. While he was leaving he asked me what I wanted to do with it.

“What do I want to do with what” I asked.

“My old computer” he replied.”

“If you don’t take it, I am just going to throw it in the trash.”

I didn’t believe he was serious, and I still had a long line of customers in front of me. So I just shrugged, and told him maybe he could bring it in another day.

On his way out I watched in horror as he shoved his old 17 inch PowerBook G4 into the mall garbage can just outside of the Apple Store. When I found a free minute, I excused myself from the bar, and quickly chased after him to retrieve the PowerBook and see which way he had gone. By the time I had his 17 inch PowerBook G4 safely in my hands he was gone.

At the end of the day, after my shift was over, I went back to the 17 inch PowerBook G4 to diagnose what was wrong. It was a second generation model with a 1.33 GHz processor, 512 MBs of RAM, a 80 GB hard drive, and a slot-loading 2X “SuperDrive.” At almost $3,000 new, it was a not a machine to be left in a mall trashcan. The only thing I could find wrong with it was bad stick of memory, and a quirky optical drive that required cleaning. It booted immediately after the RAM was replaced.

Using the receipt from his recent computer purchase I contacted the customer several times, letting him know his computer had been fixed, and was ready for pickup. He informed me he lived several states away and was not interested in picking it up. When I told him I could mail it, he declined saying he didn’t want it back. For a couple of months it sat in the Genius Room waiting for a pickup that would never come. I eventually took it home.

A lot of people have been displeased by the skeuomorphic design elements appearing in Apple’s latest operating systems. Some attribute these design decisions to the tastes of Steve Jobs. I don’t think anyone could clearly define the tastes of Steve Jobs, not even himself. One minute he might be appreciating the craftsmanship of his Bsendorfer grand piano, the next he might be observing the minimalistic teachings of Zen sitting cross legged on the floor of his unfurnished home. If there is one thing that could be said for Steve Job’s taste it is that he only wanted the best. Apple’s history with skeuomorphism reflects the desire to present users with the best technology has to offer, even if that desire is misguided, and Steve is not around.

The Desktop Metaphor

Steve Jobs might not have started the desktop metaphor, but he did bring it the world’s eye with the introduction of the Macintosh. Before the Mac there was no skeuomorphism, because there was no graphical user interface. For almost thirty years the iconography of desktop objects have greeted users as they stare into their computer screens. The desktop metaphor has given new computer users a familiar foundation to ground their experiences upon, and expert users terminology such as “files” and “folders” we still use today.

The Classic Calculator

Steve Jobs was so concerned with the skeuomorphic design details of the Classic Mac OS Calculator that early Apple employee Chris Espinosa had to develop “the Steve Jobs Roll Your Own Calculator Construction Set” just so that he could get it right.

Every decision regarding graphical attributes of the calculator were parameterized by pull-down menus. You could select line thicknesses, button sizes, background patterns, etc.

Steve took a look at the new program, and immediately started fiddling with the parameters. After trying out alternatives for ten minutes or so, he settled on something that he liked.

The calculator Steve designed remained the standard calculator on the Macintosh for over sixteen years, all the way up through Mac OS 9.

Apple CD Audio Player

By the time System 7 shipped in 1991, Steve Jobs had long since left Apple, but his appreciation for the finer things in life was still ingrained in the minds of software engineers working on the Mac. One of their creations, the Apple CD Audio Player, brought an unconventional skeuomorphic design to the Mac that allowed users to adjust the color of the apps stereo receiver facade. This was a first for Mac software, and an unusual move for Apple who normally prohibited users from changing the appearance of the Mac OS. The trend of user customizable themes, and skeuomorphic app designs would continue with the release of Mac OS 8.

Mac OS 8

The introduction of Mac OS 8 on July 26, 1997, brought with it the Appearance Manager, and a new face to the Macintosh GUI called Platinum. The Appearance Manager was originally developed for Apple’s failed en.wikipedia.orgwikiCopland_(operating_system text: Copland) project. It introduced a layer of abstraction between the Control Manager and QuickDraw allowing users to theme the Mac OS. Platinum, the default theme, introduced 3D elements into the Mac OS GUI through the use of subtle shadows and simple gradients. Platinum wasn’t the only Apple-developed theme though.

Hi-Tech is based on a shades-of-black color scheme that made the interface look like a piece of stereo equipment. Gizmo is a “kids” interface, using lots of bright colors and “wiggly” interface elements. Both changed every single element of the overall GUI leaving no trace of Apple Platinum. A third theme was later introduced, Drawing Board, developed at Apple Japan. This theme uses elements that make the interface look like it has been drawn in pencil on a drafting-board, including small “pencil marks” around the windows, a barely visible grid on the desktop, and “squarish” elements with low contrast. Although none of these themes were included with a released version of Mac OS, the files can be copied from the pre-release versions that contained them and successfully used on retail versions.

The optional themes in Mac OS 8 might have been Apple’s greatest example of skeuomorphism to date, but it was Steve Jobs who decided to officially drop support for themes in order to preserve a consistent user interface. Themeing would live on in later versions of the Classic Mac OS and even into the early days of Mac OS X, but only as eggfreckles.net(kaleidoscope.netWhat_is_Kaleidoscope.html text: third-party extensions) and haxies.

QuickTime 4

Intended to showcase the technological improvements of the QuickTime 4.0 multimedia technology, the QuickTime 4.0 Player sported a completely re-imagined user interface designed to look like a “real-world” consumer electronics device. The QuickTime 4.0 interface represented an almost violent departure from the long established standards that had been the hallmark of Apple software by introducing skeuomorphic design elements such as drawers, brushed metal, dials, and borderless windows that would haunt the Macintosh GUI for years to come.

We find this trend toward “consumer” interfaces to be particularly disturbing. The design places a premium on aesthetics over usability. The emphasis is on creating a flashy product, and not on creating a useful and usable product. Rather than asking, “How can we make this look more like a real thing?”, the designers would do their users a far more important service by asking, “How can we make this operate better than the real thing”. To use the QuickTime 4.0 Player as an example, the designers spent far too much time making the software look like a hand-held player, and far too little time examining how they might add utility to such a player. A hand-held player is just that: a player. A software-based multimedia viewer can become an information device. It would appear that this latter approach was never considered in the design of QuickTime.

Apple DVD Player

The Apple DVD Player that shipped with Mac OS 9 went far beyond apps without windows. It shipped with a completely round user interface that more closely resembled the Puck Mouse from the first iMac than a traditional Mac OS application. It is hard to grasp the design decisions made around the Apple DVD Player, and even harder to grasp the app itself. Without a titlebar, or window border to speak of the Apple DVD Player was a skeuomorphic flop that kept users guessing how to drag it off screen long after the movie had started to play. In the age of the candy colored iMacs, and the dawn of brushed metal, Apple emphasized form over function to keep things cool and tide customers over until the arrival of Mac OS X.

iTunes

Another Skeuomorphic design that kept things cool before the arrival of Mac OS X’s Aqua interface was the deeply beveled, brushed metal interface of iTunes 1.0. Complete with jelly bean volume sliders, and Aqua blue accents, iTunes 1.0 looked like something straight out of the future, even running under Mac OS 9. The Faux LCD interface is still a part of iTunes today, but back in version 1.0 the screen was purposely left pixelated to preserve the look of a high-end stereo receiver. (Bitmapped greyscale displays were still a luxury feature on the stereos of 2001.) As an experiment the iTunes user interface was a complete success. Just the right mixture of skeuomorphic cool, combined with the usability of a conventional GUI. iTunes showed the world that skeuomorphic accents could work as long as user interface fundamentals were preserved.

Aqua

Aqua, the Mac OS X user interface, brought many of the accents that made Apple hardware cool and fun to use back to the Mac OS. There were jelly bean buttons, like the CD eject button on the very first iMac. There were translucent colors, like the blue apple on the Power Mac G3, G4, and G4 Cube, There were pinstripes, like those found on all of Apple’s Studio Displays and iMacs shipping at the time. For the first time in history, computer graphics were powerful enough to support photorealistic icons, smooth animations, high-definition textures, and deep drop shadows. Apple didn’t hesitate incorporating these features into Mac OS X, and in doing so changed what we thought of computer interfaces forever. Everything else looked dated in comparison.

As time progressed, the Aqua interface has evolved to reflect the changes in Apple hardware. Gone are the over the top transparencies, deep drop shadows, and distracting pinstripes. Subtle grays, mute reflections, and soft gradients now fill the retina displays of Apple’s latest portables. Some might say that Aqua is not a skeuomorphic interface because it does not resemble a specific real world object. To them I say Aqua is a mirror reflecting back the design decisions that have made Apple’s hardware so appealing over the last 10 years.

Brushed Metal

Despite the abundance of candy colored hues, silky blues, and soft gradients, Mac OS X imprisoned many of its apps in a colder metallic texture for several years. Born in the dark ages of QuickTime, Sherlock, and iTunes, Brushed Metal made its way into the world’s most advanced operating system as an optional interface theme. Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines state that the brushed metal interface should be used for programs that mimic the operation of, or interface with, common devices, but that didn’t stop Apple from bringing Brushed Metal to the Finder and Safari in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Out of all of Apple’s skeuomorphic faults, brushed metal might be the most loathed by long time Mac users. It was retired from Apple’s desktop operating system in October 2007 with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

iOS & Back to the Mac

The runaway success of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have introduced a whole new generation of users, both young and old, to modern computing. To help them find their way, Apple has littered their path with real-world objects such as torn paper, Corinthian leather, wooden bookshelves, green tabletop felt, stitched pages, dark linen, reel-to-reel tapedecks, and highway road signs. Apologists for skeuomorphic design maintain that users will more readily be able to transfer their knowledge of real-world objects to software using these helpful guides. Unfortunately, the apologists fail to recognize that there are two likely consequences of this approach:

1. The user is unable to transfer his or her existing knowledge of computer interaction.
2. The software becomes needlessly subject to the limitations of the physical device.

With the release of Mountain Lion, Apple is bringing even more “helpful guides” back to the Mac, and needlessly limiting the capabilities of software. With the dawn of the Retina display, and more pixels to fill, I don’t think the trend of skeuomorphic design is going to stop anytime soon, even after the passing of Steve Jobs.

For those of us already running Mac OS X Lion, Mountain Lion will be a minor update. Continuing the iOSfication of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion brings even more apps and features back to Mac from our iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. Unfortunately not everyone will be able to take advantage of the polish Apple’s latest cat provides. Mountain Lion, like its predecessors will be leaving some Macs, and some Mac OS X features behind. The list might not be as long as last year’s, but any feature worth using is a hard feature to lose.

Hardware

At first glance Mountain Lion’s system requirements look pretty straight forward, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later installed, 2GBs of memory or greater, and at least 8GBs of available hard disk space. It is not until you get to the list of supported models that you realize something is up, and not all of the Macs that can run Mac OS X 10.7 will be able to make the move to Mountain Lion.

• White plastic iMacs with Model Identifiers iMac5,1, iMac5,2, and iMac6,1 will not make the cut due to outdated graphics chipsets.
• All plastic MacBooks that pre-date the aluminum unibody redesign with Model Identifiers MacBook2,1, MacBook3,1, and MacBook4,1 will not make the cut due to outdated integrated Intel graphics chipsets.
• MacBook Pros released prior to June 2007 with Model Identifiers MacBookPro2,1, and MacBookPro2,2 will not make the cut due to outdated graphics chipsets.
• The original MacBook Air with Model Identifier MacBookAir1,1 will not make the cut due to outdated integrated Intel graphics chipsets.
• The Mid-2007 Mac mini with Model Identifier Macmini2,1 will not make the cut due to outdated integrated Intel graphics chipsets.
• The original Mac Pro and its 8-core 2007 refresh with Model Identifiers MacPro1,1, and MacPro2,1 will not make the cut due to a 32-bit boot EFI, although there is a work around.
• The Late 2006 and Early 2008 Xserves with Model Identifiers Xserve1,1, and Xserve2,1 will not make the cut due to a 32-bit boot EFI, although the same work around may apply.

The official Mountain Lion release date is just around the corner, and as it approaches I am sure we will learn more about which models are supported, and what workarounds can be taken to update an aging Mac one last time.

RSS

RSS has been part of Mac OS X since the release of Safari 2 and Mac OS X 10.4 on April 29th, 2005. One of Mac OS X Tiger’s 150+ new features, RSS in Safari allows users to read news feeds from within the browser and stay up-to-date with new content as it is published. Safari’s RSS capabilities were never a threat to dedicated readers, but provided a quick way to peruse a publications feed, distraction free, prior to subscribing.

Starting the release of Mac OS X Leopard on October 26th, 2007, Apple took a second shot at publicizing the potential of RSS by including it in Mail 3. RSS in Mail gives users the ability to subscribe to feeds and read articles alongside the email in their inbox. Mail proved to be a better RSS reader than Safari, but neither method provided much in the way of sharing articles, or syncing feeds between devices. In Mountain Lion both RSS in Safari and Mail are gone, replaced with Reading List in the browser and the chance at using a dedicated client instead of a half-hearted attempt in Mail.

X11

XQuartz (commonly referred to as X11.app) is Apple’s version of the X server, a component of the X Window System, for Mac OS X. The current version of XQuartz implements support for hardware-accelerated 2D graphics (in versions prior to 2.1), hardware OpenGL acceleration and integration with Aqua, the Mac OS X graphical user interface. X11 was initially available as a downloadable public beta for Mac OS X v10.2 and later included as a standard package for Mac OS X v10.3, which can be downloaded from Apple’s website. In Mac OS X v10.4, X11 was an optional install included on the install DVD. Since Mac OS X v10.5, X11 is installed by default. As of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has dropped dedicated support for X11.app; users are directed to the open source XQuartz project instead.

Because The X Windowing System and X11.app were written with the MIT open source license these technologies will continue to be available for Mac OS X even if Apple does not want to support them. I suspect X11’s lack of Retina display support, and Apple’s move away from freely distributed applications might have something to do with X11.app’s abandonment.

Mac OS X

The biggest feature missing from Mountain Lion might be the Mac in its name. Starting with the release of 10.8 the name of Apple’s Macintosh desktop operating system will be OS X. The “Mac” has been removed from the name.

The first version of Mac OS was 7.6 released in January of 1997. Prior to that the Macintosh operating system was referred to as “System Software” and could be acquired for the price of floppies from many Apple resellers, and user groups. When Steve Jobs returned to the company he founded in 1996, the Macintosh operating system was officially rebranded as “Mac OS”, and Apple began charging for new releases.

“Mac” is a powerful brand name among computer enthusiasts, but “Apple” is recognizable by almost everyone. The removal of Mac from OS X might signal a future where the lines between OS X and iOS begin to blur, and we are all buying Apple’s instead of Macs. Whatever the course, I’m hoping that during the continued iOSfication of OS X we don’t forget all of the good things the Mac has given us over the years.

I missed out on the original release of Pretty Hate Machine in October of 1989. I was only six years old. Since then Nine Inch Nails has become my favorite band, Pretty Hate Machine my favorite album, and Trent Reznor my favorite artist. It is hard to sum up why I like Nine Inch Nails so much. As with most memorable human experiences it comes down to connections. I first discovered Nine Inch Nails during a difficult period in my life when I felt trapped. Pretty Hate Machine, and Nine Inch Nails taught me I am never imprisoned as long as I have the power to express myself. Trent Reznor, the frontman of Nine Inch Nails, has a unique talent for turning everyday noise into emotionally charged experiences. Mechanical rhythms, high voltage instrumentals, and passion fired vocals are the recipe for Nine Inch Nails' greatest hits. Every time I listen to Pretty Hate Machine, I not only feel the power of his performance, but remember a time when I discovered I was no longer powerless to express myself. I missed out on the Kickstarter project for Pretty Eight Machine, but thanks to Inverse Phase’s hard work I can still benefit from it today. Pretty Eight Machine is a Chiptune parodytribute of Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine. A Chiptune is a piece of music composed in the 8-bit NintendoAtari style. Think the theme songs of Mario, Mega Man, and The Legend of Zelda. Pretty Eight Machine is a parodytribute because is stays true to the source material (tribute), while containing the whimsical feel of a 1980’s era video game (parody).

I think Pretty Hate Machine already sounds a bit gamey and that makes it perfect for my project. That’s also what gave me the inspiration to Chiptune some of it in the first place. Though some of this is for the challenge, I do want to end up with something that resembles the original music; I don’t want to destroy it.

Pretty Eight Machine is more than a just down sampled version of my favorite album. It has been meticulously crafted to invoke an emotional response for the music I love, played in a way that still sounds familiar. Think of Pretty Eight Machine as a cover of Nine Inch Nails' greatest album recorded on piano, saxophone, or acoustic guitar. The music sounds similar, but is expressed in a whole new medium. > The plan is to approach each song and find one sound chip that works particularly well with it, and then just go to town, following the appropriate limitations. Since this is a parody, my tradition is to also make a nerdy, possibly corny pun of each track title.

Despite being a fan of video games all of my life I am new to Chiptunes. I never spent much time listening to the music from my favorite video games, because I always thought they were just part of the game. Pretty Eight Machine has opened my eyes to this new genre of music. I now think of Chiptunes as not just video game music, but a form of musical expression with the same validity as Jazz, Country, or Rock & Roll. > I’m a big NIN fan. I want to share the impact it’s had on me with the rest of the world. I want to introduce Chiptune fans to NIN and I want to introduce NIN fans to Chiptunes. And if they’re already a fan of both, I want to give them a funny feeling in their pants or at least put a smile on their face.

If you are a fan of Chiptunes or Nine Inch Nails I strongly suggest you check out this album. Inverse Phase has given me a new way to listen to my favorite music, which without lyrics is perfectly suited for listening while writing or performing other concentration intensive tasks. Starting at $6.50 it is hard to go wrong supporting an album that will bring you back to the video games of your childhood, and remind you of the power of personal expression.

As a long time Mac user I was born into the desktop metaphor of files, folders, drag, and drop. It is hard to imagine using my computer in any other way. iOS opened my eyes to how functional a simplified mobile operating system can be, and why ditching the filesystem might not be a bad thing for most users. But what about the Power Users amongst us? If iOS is a simplified computing platform, and the Mac is the “computer for the rest of us,” then what are die hard file system addicts like myself supposed to be using? Some would say the command line, but I don’t think the answer is that simple. A modern computing experience needs to be more than a powerful shell. Pictures, webpages, sounds, and multimedia are too much of what we use our computers for these days. A truly forward looking file system manager needs to accept these considerations while offering users powerful tools in a package that does not feel foreign to the way files are managed today.

Path Finder by CocoaTech is a file manager that promises more ways to access your data, using fewer applications in less time. It approaches the file system problem in the same way as the traditional Macintosh Finder. You won’t find realistic 3D environments, multi-colored blocks, or exploding sunbursts while using Path Finder. Just the same icon, list, and column views that have been part of Mac OS X since the Public Beta. Path Finder doesn’t depart from the Macintosh experience of overlapping windows, files, folders, drag, and drop. PathFinder feels at home on my Macintosh desktop just like any application developed by Apple. The difference is Path Finder was designed with Power Users in mind.

The similarities between the Finder and Path Finder end as soon as the preferences come out. As a power user’s Finder replacement, Path Finder gives you a choice over almost everything with lots of exciting panes, drawers, toolbars, contextual menus, and keyboard shortcuts to customize. For starters Path Finder gives your more font, color, style, spacing, and sorting options for data than the Finder. You can have directory listings appear in bold, invisible items appear in grey, and the sort order vary by name, extension, or kind. I appreciate the freedom Path Finder gives me to see my data in my own way even if the combination of a brush script font with a deep drop shadow would cause Steve Jobs to roll over in his grave.

One of Path Finder’s strengths over the Finder is the ability to view two different sections of the file system in a dual-pane view. This feature is especially helpful when transferring data within the local file system or across network volumes. You can use one pane to view the local filesystem while the other pane is monitoring a remote filesystem mounted over AFP, FTP, NFS, or SMB. You might be familiar with this functionality if you have used a popular file transfer utility like Transmit. Path Finder does one better than most FTP clients by allowing both panes to view remote volumes while supporting the direct transfer of files between panes without manually downloading files first. Path Finder makes right on Mac OS X’s promise of being a good network citizen without needing additional file transfer utilities to live up to its word. It even gives you the option of withholding the Macintosh specific .DS_Store files that infest so many foreign network drives and drive System Admins crazy.

Just like your browser, Path Finder supports tabs. Within a single window you can collect multiple views of local or remote filesystems in one window, bookmarking your favorite destinations so you can come back to them later.

The built-in Drop Stack is a Path Finder first that makes copying files between two locations easier. Path Finder was the first application to offer this novel resting place to put your files during the middle of a complex drag and drop operation. Path Finder 6’s Drop Stack allows you to collect multiple files on a single stack. When you are ready you can copy or move all of the files in a single step. The Drop Stack is especially handy when moving a collection of files between Path Finder tabs, or buried application windows.

Path Finder’s most powerful features come in the form of customizable drawers that can be bolted onto any Path Finder window to display a variety of information. Possibilities include showing a selection’s attributes, info, permissions, preview, path, size, tags, or rating. Each drawer can show two views of additional information. Drawers can be accessed from the left, right, and bottom of each Path Finder window. The option of a third pane on the bottom and the ability to make any view a floating pallet means no filesystem attribute is ever far out of reach. In addition to data attributes, drawers can also be used to show powerful developer tools like a terminal window, hex editor, and run common Git and Subversion commands without the command line. One of my favorite views is the built-in iTunes Browser for surfing my music without opening iTunes, but there is also a Cover View option for browsing files by icon preview. As a well crafted Mac app Path Finder supports Quick Look.

In addition to containing a hex editor, terminal emulator, file transfer utility, and source control app, Path Finder 6 is also a batch file editor, text editor, simple image editor, and built-in data compressor. Using Path Finder’s file management tools users can apply filename changes to a group of files simultaneously. Prior to using Path Finder I had to perform similar operations using Mac OS X’s Automator, or a third-party application. The built-in text editor gives you most of the features of TextEdit without leaving your Path Finder. Perfect for creating small text files in the filesystem without launching an additional application. Lion’s Preview application has gained a reputation for saving unwanted modifications, and crashing unexpectedly. Prior to trying Path Finder 6 I would resort to using a powerful image editor to perform basic crops, scales, and rotations on my images. With Path Finder’s built-in image editor I no longer have to start up an additional application even if I am working on a file saved on a remote server. The built-in data compressor works with a wide variety of archive types including zip, gzip, dmg, sit, and more without the need of a third-party compression application like StuffIt. Path Finder 6 keeps the tools I use most at my fingertips without reaching down to the Dock.

The customization possibilities in Path Finder 6 never seem to end. With the ability to define criteria based file selection, adjustable toolbars, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and the option to create your own contextual menu commands it is hard going back to the Finder. File tagging, and the access control list editor means it has never been easier to keep track of the your files, and keep them safe from prying eyes. By looking at Path Finder 6’s feature list it is easy to see there is very little this Finder alternative can’t do, but can it replace the Finder?

No, Path Finder is not able to completely replace the Finder. Path Finder is unable to duplicate some system functionality that is embedded in the Finder, and removing or disabling the Finder will break these functions. Also, a few applications are hard-wired directly to the Finder and are unable to communicate with any other file browser. These applications can launch Finder if it's not running.

The most troubling part of adopting Path Finder as your daily file management application is that it can’t replace the Finder for everything. Clicking on the Trash in the Dock, or performing a Spotlight search will relaunch the Finder even if it is not running. The task of juggling two file managers breaks some of the enchantment Path Finder brings to file management, but CocoaTech have provides some powerful preferences to keep the Finder out of your way as much as possible.

• Set Path Finder as the default file viewer – If this option is enabled in Path Finder's Reveal preferences, applications that include a “Reveal in Finder” function will use Path Finder instead. This option adds a special key to every application's preferences file requesting that the application recognize Path Finder as its file browser. While this should work in most cases, it is unfortunately only a suggestion and some applications may ignore it.
• Launch Path Finder automatically after login – If set in Path Finder's General preferences, this will start both Path Finder and the Finder upon user login.
• Enable Finder's ‘Remove from Dock' – Choose this menu item from Path Finder > Finder to allow the Finder icon to be removed from the dock. Once enabled, right-click or control-click on the Finder icon in the Dock and choose “Remove from Dock.” This will allow the Finder to run silently in the background. The Finder will necessarily reappear in the dock every time you restart your computer.

For the past 30 days I have tried to use Path Finder 6 as much as possible and have enjoyed the additional options and powerful customizations it provides. Path Finder 6 is more than a file browser though, it is an ultra wide Swiss Army knife chock of multi prong tools waiting to get work done. I would recommend Path Finder to anyone who is discontent with the options of the Finder, or works with multiple remote servers on a regular basis. The dual pane view and tabbed browsing make juggling multiple Finder windows unnecessary, and the popup File Transfer queue keeps all of the activity in one place. It is true that some of Path Finder’s functionality like batch file editing and showing invisible files can be replicated in the Finder using various add-ons, but you will never find such a wide assortment of file management tools designed so perfectly for the Mac all in one place.

Steve Jobs came back to Apple to save the company, not to kill the Newton. Killing the Newton was a sacrifice that had to be made to save Apple. It is pointless to think if things had been different, if the Newton had survived. Because if it had we would not have the Apple we have today. I am glad Steve made the choice to kill the Newton if it meant saving Apple.

Input

I think that, to me, what I want is this little thing that I carry around with me that’s got a keyboard on it, because to do email, you need a keyboard. Until you perfect speech recognition, you need a keyboard. You don’t sit there and write stuff, you need a keyboard. And you need to be connected to the net. So if somebody would just make a little thing where you’re connected to the net at all times, and you’ve got a little keyboard, like an eMate with a modem in it. God, I’d love to buy one. But I don’t see one of those out there. And I don’t care what OS it has in it. So, you know, I don’t want a little scribble thing. But that’s just me.

It sounds like Steve was talking about a BlackBerry. He wasn’t the only one that poked fun at the Newton’s poor handwriting recognition. Deciphering people’s handwriting is hard. It is much easier to get the human mind to adapt to the restraints of a device, than it is to get a 20 MHz ARM processor to adapt to the infinite varieties of human handwriting. Graffiti on the Palm proved people could be taught to write in a restrictive way a limited PDA can understand, but for a device to be accessible to the general public the learning curve had to be lowered. People are attracted to the familiar. Keyboards are familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. If the technology for transparent handwriting recognition isn’t available why make people suffer through a half-baked experience, especially if the alternative, a keyboard, is readily available and the faster way to go? It is hard to support a product that was developed before its time when superior alternatives are right around the corner.

Connectivity

I tried a Newton, I bought one of the early ones, I thought it was a piece of junk, I threw it away. I bought one of the Motorola envoys, I thought it was a piece of junk after three months and threw it away. I hear the new ones are a lot better. I haven’t tried one… here’s my problem: My problem is, to me, the high order bit is connectivity. The high order bit is being in touch, connected to a network. That’s why I bought the Envoy: it had a cellular modem in it. And I don’t think the world’s about keeping my life on this little thing and IR-ing it into my computer when I get back to my base station.

The internet is a big part of the iPhone’s success. One-third of the iPhone introduction keynote was for a breakthrough internet communications device. Many of the App Store’s most popular applications leverage the internet for real-time communications and services. Most desktop computers at the time of the Newton’s release didn’t have an always on internet connection, and most mobile devices could not connect to the internet short of being tethered to a desktop computer. The Newton’s audible faxing capabilities and optional dial-up modem were a step in the right direction, but the technology for always on wireless internet connectivity just didn’t exist when the Newton was being developed. It would have been a financial mistake for Apple to wait another ten years for the Newton to fulfill its promise of being a great communications device. Putting the company further behind when it needed to focus on its strengths.

Focus

Apple suffered for several years from lousy engineering management. There were people that were going off in 18 different directions… What happened was that you looked at the farm that’s been created with all these different animals going in all different directions, and it doesn’t add up - the total is less than the sum of the parts. We had to decide: What are the fundamental directions we are going in? What makes sense and what doesn’t? And there were a bunch of things that didn’t.

Focusing is saying yes, right? No. Focusing is about saying no. You’ve got to say, no, no, no. The result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.

I think that most companies can’t be successful with one stack of system software. Rarely can they manage two, and we I believe are going to succeed at managing two in the next several years, with MacOS and Rhapsody, which is a superset of that. I cannot imagine being successful trying to manage three. So I have sort of a law of physics disconnect with trying to do that, I just don’t see how it can be done. And I don’t think that has anything to do with how good or bad Newton is, or whether we should be making $800 products, or $500 products, which I think we should. It has to do with, I don’t see how you manage three software stacks.

Have you ever tried to buy a computer off of Dell, HP, or Sony’s website? So many options with obscure product numbers, unordered pricing, and customizable specifications listed in a language only an engineer could understand. Excessive choice makes the shopping process more stressful than it needs to be. Customers begin to second guess themselves, and all of the acronyms lead towards too much confusion. It is fruitless to concentrate on making more, when the quantity you have is uninviting, and the effort you put towards maintaining that quantity is diluting your bottom line. Steve Jobs understood this. He understood how expensive maintaining multiple software stacks can be let alone the printers, cameras, and desktop accessories Apple was peddling at the time. For Apple to be great, no for Apple to survive, it had to concentrate on the Macintosh, the one thing it did best, while saying no to everything else. That included the Newton, the printers, the cameras, servers, desktop accessories, and middle management that were getting in the way of making the Macintosh the best it could be.

John Sculley

Oh, it was very painful. I’m not sure I even want to talk about it. (pause) What can I say? I hired the wrong guy. And he [John Sculley] destroyed everything I’d spent 10 years working for. Starting with me, but that wasn’t the saddest part. I’d have gladly left Apple if it had turned out like I wanted it to.

I don’t know if Steve jobs was a vengeful man, but people say since John Sculley created the Newton, and John Sculley threw Steve Jobs out of Apple, that Steve jobs threw out the Newton. I don’t know if that is true. It is hard to love your enemies baby, but if John Sculley’s baby had been a success would Steve have kept it around? It is pointless to engage in these kind of “what-if” scenarios. If the Newton had been successful and transformed Apple into a thriving consumer electronics company Steve Jobs would have never come back to Apple in the first place. Steve Jobs didn’t kill the Newton because John Sculley was its father, Steve Jobs killed the Newton because it was already dead.

Google Reader is dead. NetNewWire is a shadow of its former self. For the last couple of years I have been using Shaun Inman‘s Feverº to access my feed from any browser. Install Fever is not your ordinary web app. You have to install it on a hosted server you control. The system requirements are pretty standard,¹ but you don’t need command line access to get started. If you have ever installed a web based CMS like Joomla!, or WordPress you can install Feverº. Setup is straight forward. Create an account on feedafever.com. Download the Feverº compatibility suite. FTP the Fever directory up to your server, and change the permissions on the directory to full read and write access (777). Visit yourdomain.comfeverboot.php in your web browser, and enter your MySQL database connection details as prompted. If your server meets the requirements you will be given a compatibility confirmation code to enter at feedafever.com. This code tells Shaun that your server is Feverº compatible, you know what you are doing, and you are ready to purchase. After your payment is processed you will receive an activation code you can use to complete the Feverº installation on your server. Some potential customers might complain the $30 price tag is too high, the purchase process is too difficult, or that Feverº needs a trial periodrefund policy. Feverº is a speciality product, and if those are some of your concerns Feverº might not be the right RSS reader for you. It would have been nice to try Fever before you buy, but a self-hosted demo version would contain all of Feverº’s un-obfuscated PHP code and Shaun would lose his shirt. If you are still interested in Feverº after reading this review get a second opinion by reading what my friends Shawn Blanc, and Pat Dryburgh have to say. Setup Feverº is not your ordinary feed reader.

Your current feed reader is full of unread items. You’re hesitant to subscribe to any more feeds because you can’t keep up with your existing subs. Maybe you’ve even abandoned feeds altogether. Fever takes the temperature of your slice of the web and shows you what’s hot.

Unlike traditional aggregators, Feverº works better the more feeds you follow. It does this by making you classify your Feeds into two supergroups, Kindling and Sparks. > Kindling is where you keep your must-reads, certain industry publications, friend’s blogs, project management updates, and family photo feeds.

The majority of the feeds I imported from NetNewsWire using an OPML subscription list became the basis for my Kindling. These are the feeds I read daily, and never miss an article. Feverº preserves the groups I created in my old newsreader and lets me create new groups with specific views tailored to each group. > Sparks is where you keep your occasionals, the more superfluous hit or miss feeds. Sparks serve to compound and amplify the items in your Kindling that are likely to interest you.

The remaining high-volume feeds from NetNewsWire became the basis of my Sparks. As a NetNewsWire user I could never subscribe to sites like Engadget, The Verge, The Next Web, or Macworld because I would quickly become overwhelmed with reading material. Feverº looks at common links in my Sparks and sends Hot Topics boiling to the top. It doesn’t matter how many Sparks I subscribe to, Feverº knows what’s hot. Use I use Feverº to follow the news in two different ways. First I read all of my Kindling just like I would on a conventional newsreader. I control how my feeds are ordered, how content is displayed, and the appearance of unread counts in all of my groups. Feverº includes keyboard shortcuts and mouse free navigation. I can choose to Mark as Read, Save, Blacklist, or send to Instapaper, Email, Delicious, or Twitter all with a few simple keystrokes. The Feverº interface makes it easy to hide superfluous feeds, and previously read content so nothing gets in the way of what I want to read. The second way I follow the news using Feverº is by using the Hot View. > Feverº scans your feeds and identifies links of interest. Temperatures based on the optimum human body temperature of 98.6º Fahrenheit are assigned to links determined by the amount of relinking and discussion they generate. All the items that point to, or talk about the hot links are aggregated so you don’t miss out on the range of opinions and reactions.

The more feeds I follow the more informed Feverº is about the stories that interest me, the more influential the story the higher the temperature. The Hot View is a great way to look over the most influential stories of the past day, week, or month, especially if I was away from a computer during that time.< Since the shutdown of Google Reader it has been challenging to maintain a consistent newsreader environment across multiple platforms without the aid of a universal sync. Although it is possible to sync feeds across multiple Macs using Dropbox, this leaves mobile RSS reading out of the loop. Web based news readers often lack the consistency and OS integration of their desktop based competitors, but Feverº does a good job of including the most valuable desktop features like OPML importexport, automatic updates, keyboard shortcuts, mouse free navigation, and integration with popular web based services. Its specially designed web view is tailored for the iPhone and iPod Touch.² For Mac OS X users looking to break free from their browsers, Feverº integrates with the single-site browser factory Fluid.³ Feverº might not have all the features or polish of NetNewsWire, but it is a platform I control, with a public API developers can use to extend its potential. If you are the kind of person who wants to control your newsreader experience, or who needs a helping hand sorting through your feeds, Feverº might be the right RSS reader for you.

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1. Fever requires a Unix-like server (no WindowsIIS) running Apache, PHP 4.2.3+ (preferably compiled with mbstring and GD with PNG support) and MySQL 3.23+.
2. Feverº can overcome iOS’s multitasking limitations with a carefully crafted cron job that refreshes feeds in the background so you don’t have to wait. curl -L -s --user-agent 'Fever Refresh Cron' -k 'https://yourdoain.com/fever/?refresh'
3. The total number of unread items is updated in the Dock in real-time.

You have heard it on The Talk Show. The loud clickity-clack of John Gruber’s Apple Extended Keyboard II. The keyboard that Daring Fireball was written upon. Known for its massive size and generous weight, the Apple Extended Keyboard II is a behemoth compared to the minimalist “Chiclet” inspired keyboards made popular by MacBooks today. Its mechanical key switches produce a reassuring sound that has not been heard by most Macintosh users for more than a decade. Code named “Nimitz,” after a United States supercarrier, the Apple Extended Keyboard II was born in a time before USB, when keyboards and mice were connected to Macs via ADB. Keyboard connoisseurs, like John, who continue to use an Apple Extended Keyboard II today must rely on an ADB to USB adapter like the Griffin iMate to use their keyboards under Mac OS X.

John Gruber won his first Apple Extended Keyboard II during a legendary game of Madden in the dorm rooms of Drexel University in 1992. It lasted him through multiple Macs and 14 years of use until the “E” key “got flakey,” and the whole keyboard had to be replaced in November 2006. The replacement Apple Extended Keyboard II he stored away in his closet for just such an occasion has never felt the same. Great authors have always had affection for their tools, and John’s attraction to his keyboard is no different. The Apple Extended Keyboard II is a great keyboard, but it is an inferior sequel to the to the greatest keyboard Apple has ever made.

The original Apple Extended Keyboard is the best keyboard Apple has ever made. Code named “Saratoga,” it is larger in size and heavier in weight than its successor. The Apple Extended Keyboard features the same 105 key layout as later models, but unlike the Apple Extended Keyboard II it only contains the superior Alps Electric Co. brand mechanical key switches. When you purchase an original Apple Extended Keyboard you are guaranteed quality. When you purchase an Apple Extended Keyboard II you are taking a risk on inferior key switches.

Early model M0312 Apple Extended Keyboard IIs were manufactured with the classic Alps mechanisms. Later model M3501 Apple Extended Keyboard IIs were manufactured with either Alps or subpar Mitsumi mechanisms. If you have a model M3501 Apple Extended Keyboard II you cannot be certain of the key switches it contains without breaking it open. This might account for why John’s second Apple Extended Keyboard II never felt the same as the original. You can always tell the Apple Extended Keyboard and Apple Extended Keyboard II apart by the sounds they make. The original Apple Extended makes a satisfying “clickity-clock,” while the Apple Extended Keyboard II produces a slightly softer “clickity-clack” sound even if it contains Alps switches. Both the Apple Extended Keyboard and Apple Extended Keyboard II require an ADB to USB adapter in order to be used with modern Macs, but only the Extended II contains a crude height adjustment mechanism that often locks up, or fails to keep a consistent elevation. The Apple Extended Keyboard contains no height adjustment, and is a far more sturdy typing platform.

Other differences include the placement of Apple logo on the keyboard, and the choice of power key. The Apple Extended Keyboard II has a sloping curve in the top part of its plastic casing leading up to the Apple logo on the left and unconventional power button on the right. The original Apple Extended keyboard has a straighter curve with the Apple logo in the lower left hand corner, and a power button that resembles every other key.

Another way to tell the two keyboards apart is the labels under the first four function keys. On the original Extended you can find “undo” under F1, “cut” under F2, “copy” under F3, and “paste” under F4. None of these labels are present on the Extended II. On either keyboard there is plenty of room to accommodate large template guides over the top row of function keys displaying shortcuts for many popular historic software packages. The dedicated number pad on both keyboards are equally well spaced and easy to use. And best of all the Caps Lock key on both keyboards locks down when in use.

The assurance of Alps key switches, the larger design, and heavier weight of the Apple Extended Keyboard might seem like minor differences when compared to its predecessor, but there is one unheralded feature of the original Extended keyboard that its sequel can’t match. The Apple Extended Keyboard can be taken completely apart for cleaning. By removing four sturdy screws its key switch mechanisms can be completely removed from the case. The Apple Extended Keyboard II on the other hand relies on a single screw and several plastic snaps to hold it together. Its key switch mechanisms cannot be easily removed from the case. Each Alps keyswitch is rated for 10 to 15 million keystrokes. It is important to be able to clean your keyboard when the expected lifespan is 15–25 years.

The Apple Extended Keyboard was only sold for a short time as an optional accessory. It is much harder to find than an Apple Extended Keyboard II which was manufactured from October 1990 all the way until January 1999. I am lucky enough to own one of each, with a untouched spare Apple Extended Keyboard II hidden away in the closet for a rainy day. I may not be a great author, but I have a great keyboard.

While attending Macworld 2012, I met John Gruber. I was waiting outside the men’s room in an upscale hotel lobby. I was not alone. Stephen Hackett, and Pat Dryburgh were with me. We were all waiting for Shawn Blanc and Ben Brooks who were attending a private get together in the hotel bar across the room. We should have been having a drink ourselves, but instead we were sitting on a sofa outside the men’s room looking rather lame. John Gruber on his way to said men’s room quickly commented on my Daring Fireball t-shirt before walking through the door. On his way back to the bar he came over, introduced himself, and thanked me for being a reader of Daring Fireball. After I returned the introduction, he told me he had visited Egg Freckles and considered linking to my site in the past. I said I was honored, I didn’t know what else to say. He kindly invited us back to join the group and have drinks at the bar. Introducing us as “look who I found over there by the men’s room.”

The moral of this story is that when you meet someone from the internet you admire, try to be cooler than a guy waiting outside the men’s room in a fancy upscale hotel lobby. At least buy yourself a drink. The people you know from the Internet are more interesting in person. Try to act the same.

For me Macworld 2012 was all about meeting new people. I didn’t come to see new products or hear the latest announcements. I know I am not alone. The Internet has replaced conferences as the way to get the word out. As events like Macworld reconfigure, it is important to remember their value is in the people who attend under a common interest, and not the wares, booths, or babes, that are the background noise of any show.

If like me, you are still using a Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and want to continue syncing your iCloud email, calendars, and contacts, then these are the insturctions for you.

iCloud Email

Email is the only iCloud service Apple currently supports in Snow Leopard. Setting up Mail.app for iCloud email is easy once you know the server settings.

1. Launch Mail.app.
2. From the Menu Bar choose Mail, then Preferences.
3. Click the Accounts tab.
4. Click the plus button to create a new account.
5. Fill in your full name, iCloud email address, and iCloud password.
6. Mail.app will fail to automatically detect your email settings because it presumes you are a MobileMe subscriber. Click Continue.
7. Switch your account type to IMAP, and enter your incoming mail server as “imap.mail.me.com”
8. The outgoing mail server should be “smtp.mail.me.com”
9. Click Continue then Create to take your iCloud email account online.

Calendar Syncing

You can sync your iCloud Calendar with Snow Leopard’s iCal by following these steps.

1. Visit iCloud.com.
2. Click on the Calendar button.
3. Click concentric curves on any calendar to bring up the calendar sharing preferences.
4. Check Public Calendar and write down the webcal address.
5. Uncheck Public Calendar.
6. Launch iCal.app.
7. From the Menu Bar choose iCal, then Preferences.
8. Click the Accounts tab.
9. Click the plus button to create a new account.
10. Choose the CalDav account type.
11. Enter your iCloud email address as your username.
12. Enter you iCloud password.
13. Enter “caldav.icloud.com” as the server address.
14. Click Create.
15. Access to the acount is not permitted. Click Go Offline.
16. Click the Server Settings tab.
17. Change the Server address to “pxx-caldav.icloud.com” where “pxx” equals the webcal server address you copied down from iCloud.com.
18. *Take note of the server path”xxxxxxxxprincipal”, you will need it for syncing your contacts.
19. Enter the port number 443, and check “Use SSL” to complete the configuration.
20. Quit and relaunch iCal.

Contact Syncing

Similar steps can be used for configuring Address Book.

1. Launch Address Book.app.
2. From the Menu Bar choose Address Book, then Preferences.
3. Click the Accounts tab.
4. Click the plus button to create a new account.
5. Choose the CardDav account type.
6. Enter the following string as your username “xxxxxxxx%40xxx.com:password” where xxx is replaced with the appropriate parts of your iCloud email address, and password is replaced with your iCloud password.
7. Enter you iCloud password.
8. Enter “carddav.icloud.com” as the server address.
9. Click Create.
10. “Address Book couldn’t discover the account settings…”, click Create again.
11. Click the Server Settings tab.
12. Change the server address to “pxx-contacts.icloud.com/xxxxxxxx/principal” where “pxx” equals the webcal server address you copied down from iCloud.com, and xxxxxxxx is equals the unique iCloud ID you acquired from your iCloud calendar’s server path.
13. Enter the port number 443, and check “Use SSL” to complete the configuration.
14. Quit and relaunch Address Book.

If Address Book does not accept these settings you may need to edit the Configuration.plist in ‘~LibraryApplication SupportAddressBookSources’ to make sure the settings appear correctly.

When I was a Mac Genius, and the Genius Bar was new, a red phone with a direct line to Cupertino used to sit behind the bar. The phone didn’t call anyone important, but it did get you AppleCare Tier 2 support if you got stumped by a customer’s question or needed to ask a inquiry of your own. I never picked up the red phone to ask a technical question, that’s what the internet is for, but I did use it a couple of times to ask procedural questions on pending repairs. Most of these questions could have been answered by email, but when a customer visits the store because their mail-in repair is missing, or they were offered a deal by executive relations the quickest answer is sometimes the phone behind you.

On this occasion I didn’t need to use the red phone at all, it was the customer who was making the phone calls. An elderly couple had sat down at the end of the bar with the tangerine iBook they used for connecting to the internet over AOL dial-up. When I asked them what was the problem he told me in a dry British accent that his computer was “swearing at him and saying the filthiest things.”

I asked him if this was before or after he had gotten online, thinking the root of the problem was an inappropriate homepage or some sort of unseen audio pop-up. He said that he could never get online anymore and that when he tried his computer would swear at him several times over the speaker. I didn’t know if I truly believed him, but I went about trying to reproduce the issue anyway.

At first I tried connecting the iBook to the store’s front-of-house ethernet network. Everything worked fine, no swearing. Next I brought out a phone cable and connected to special dial-up server Apple provides for treoubleshooting purposes. Once again the modem worked fine, and the iBook was able to connect to the internet without profanity.

Finally with the phone line still connected I tried using the default ISP phone number AOL had listed and that is when the obscenity began. The phone rang a couple of times over the iBook’s speakers, but instead of being picked up by a computer at the other end a man’s voice answered. He was immediately greeted by the iBook’s computerized hissing, humming, and beeping, and before long lost his patience shouting a long list of profanities into the phone before hanging up.

The iBook’s speaker volume was loud enough that this was heard across the store, and as soon as the lesson in four-letter-words had ended the old gentleman turned to me with a stiff British lip and said “are we doing something wrong?”

I had to hold back my laughter because I immediately knew what was happening. His tangerine iBook was calling a unsuspecting neighbor in the same area code as his AOL ISP. Each time he tried to get online his iBook would call the same man and only answer with the kind of noises a dial-up modem uses to connect to a host server. The recipient had clearly lost his patience after numerous dial-up attempts and resorted to cursing several times before hanging up the phone.

Trine 2 takes place in the same fantasy world as the original, and once again our three heroes, Zoya the thief, Pontius the knight, and Amadeus the wizard are bound together by the Trine and forced into saving the kingdom from darkness.

Trine 2 shares the same game mechanics as the original. Only one hero can be on the screen at a time, and the player must decide which hero’s unique set of abilities is up to the current task. Obstacles include the same spikes, pits of lava, fireballs, swinging pendulums, and booby traps as the original, but this time our heroes are forced to solve more difficult puzzles involving steam, pipes, and running water.

The hordes of skeletons from the first game have been replaced with roaming bands of goblins that attack our heroes with sword, spear, and arrow at designated times. I can’t say the variety or difficulty of the enemies has improved, but the adversary in Trine has always been the environments and never the combatants.

The characters are controlled using customized directional keys on the keyboard. Aiming is accomplished with the mouse.nThe left and right mouse buttons perform different attacks, spells, and actions depending on the character in play. The scroll wheel is used for switching between weapons.nSometimes it is important to perform a spell or attack with one character, and then quickly switch to another hero to use a different capability.nThis can more easily be accomplished by reprogramming the buttons surrounding the movement keys to switch in different characters.

Trine 2 shares the same emphasis for collecting experience points as the original. The bad news is that the ability enhancing treasure from the first game has been replaced with useless collectable artifacts in Trine 2. The good news is that casting spells or special attacks no longer has an energy requirement, and skill points can be reassigned among characters during the game.

Zoya retains all of her skills from the original game. She can shoot flaming arrows, and use her grappling hook to climb and swing from nearby wooden platforms.nIn Trine 2 she gains the ability to shoot frozen and explosive arrows, and creep past enemies with unnatural stealth. Zoya is still the most versatile character. Her distance attacks prove remarkably effective at close range after she gains the explosive arrow skill, and her grappling hook to can get her to many place other characters cannot.nI wouldn’t waste experience on her stealth skill. The object of the game is to kill opponents for their experience, not avoid them.

Pontius the knight gains some explosive capabilities of his own in Trine 2. He still boasts the same sword, shield, and hammer combo that made him a powerful warrior in the original, but this time his abilities have been strengthened with fire, frost, and throwing attacks. Pontius' frost shield temporally slows down enemies after he blocks their attacks.nHis fire sword makes short work of goblins that get in his way. With the proper experience he now has the ability to throw his mighty hammer, or charge its attack for even more damage. Pontius' hammer throw is indispensable for boss battles later in the game, but I have never found a need for his charged hammer attack.nEnemies just seem to die so quickly from the flames of his sword. Pontius also has a running charge attack, but the experience to unlock it could be better served on the wizard’s puzzle solving capabilities.

Amadeus the wizard is the groups problem solver. He has no offensive capabilities of his own, but his ability to conjure multiple objects and move things with his mind make him invaluable at solving the puzzles in Trine 2. I strongly advise that you place a lot of experience on Amadeus' ability to conjure multiple objects, and unlock his plank ability as soon as possible. The game is made easier by acquiring skills, and nothing helps reaching out of the way vials of experience like a stack of boxes conjured in the right place. Amadeus loses the power to conjure the floating pyramid from the original game, but his ability to pick up enemies with his mind and place them in harms way makes up for the difference.

Just like its predecessor Trine 2 benefits from the Nvidia PhysX engine. That means all of the boxes Amadeus generates, or all the goblins Pontius kills fall and interact with the world in a realistic way.nYou will start to count on this behavior when you swing Zoya from her grappling hook, or change the direction of deadly acid flowing overhead. The weight of objects Amadeus picks up with his mind can be used to activate pressure switches, spring levers, or crush enemies.nHalf of the joy of playing Trine is seeing what Rube Goldberg inspired contractions you can manipulate, exploit, or create in this realistic world. By using the realistic physics there is more than one way to solve a puzzle, making Trine 2 never the same game twice.

One way Frozenbyte, the developer of Trine, has tried to improve its replay value is with a series of achievements and an online cooperative multiplayer mode. The achievements challenge the player to discover all of the collectable artifacts in the game, or perform stunts like surf on a platform floating on steam for four seconds.nChallenges like completing an entire level with one character become difficult when you only have a constrained set of capabilities to rely on.

Due to a lack of available online players I never got to fully test Trine 2’s cooperative multiplayer capabilities. I suspect this feature is best served for local network play, or multiple controllers attached to the same computer.nIn cooperative play up to three players share the roles of the three available heroes. Puzzles must be solved with all players working together, no hero can be left behind.nI fear cooperative multiplayer mode might have made the single player game too easy.nNo one likes sitting around dead while their friends complete the game, and have all the fun without them.nTo combat this lack of participation Trine 2 offers a healthy amount checkpoints to revive fallen players. If you want a challenge in Trine 2 you will have to pick the hard difficulty where checkpoints don’t revive your health.

The world of Trine 2 is a beautiful one. Graphical detail and realistic lighting have been improved to the point I can no longer max out the video settings on my 2011 MacBook Air like I could with the original. It is difficult to find a 2D side-scrolling platform adventure, let alone a 3D shooter, with this amount of detail. It is a hard benchmark to beat, but I think Trine 2’s animated background paintings are even more beautiful than its predecessor.nYou can witness this beauty straight from the playable title screen where an enchanted castle vista is depicted in the same hour of daylight as your computer’s clock.

Trine took the standard side-scrolling platform adventure and turned it on its head with a choice of three heroes, upgradable abilities, and a realistic world where everything falls into place. Trine 2 follows on the same path as the first storybook adventure with gradual improvements that streamline gameplay and open the Trine world to players of all capabilities. If you liked the original, Trine 2 is a sure buy for $14.99 from the Mac App Store.

Limbo is a puzzle-platform game that was released for the Xbox 360 in July 2010. It has only recently made its way to the Mac. I have been excited to play Limbo since I first saw the concept art over two years ago. Once you see a screenshot of Limbo you will know why it is unlike any platform puzzle game you ever have played before. Limbo was created by Danish game developer Playdead. The name of their company is fitting for their creation. Limbo is presented primarily in monochromatic black-and-white tones, using lighting, film grain effects and minimal ambient sounds to create an eerie atmosphere often associated with the horror genre. Journalists praised the dark presentation, describing the work as comparable to film noir and German Expressionism. Based on its aesthetics, reviewers classified Limbo as an example of “video game as art”.

If you like challenging platform-puzzle games with a dark and lonesome atmosphere similar to Myst, Limbo might be for you. Just don’t be surprised that when you die, (and you will die often) your character will meet his end in the most violent and cruel ways imaginable.

Limbo follows the story of a nameless boy who awakens in the middle of a dark forest. While seeking his missing sister he encounters various puzzles and traps as he makes his way in between the menacing trees and into an industrial ruin.

As is typical of most two-dimensional platform games, the boy can run left or right, jump, climb onto short ledges or up and down ladders and ropes, and push or pull objects. He must manipulate his environment to stay alive, often pushing boxes, floating logs, flipping switches, and enacting perfect timing to avoid chasms, spikes, saw blades, and the weight of oncoming objects.

The game’s second half features mechanical puzzles and traps using machinery, electromagnets, and gravity. Many of these traps are not apparent until triggered, often with deadly consequences.

The boy is able to continue at the start of the current obstacle with an unlimited number of retries. As the player will likely encounter numerous deaths before they solve each puzzle and complete the game, the developers therefore call Limbo a “trial and death”; game.

Limbo is much more of a puzzle game than an action platformer. The few human characters the boy encounters either attack him, run away, or are dead. Other enemies include a giant spider, and white worms that latch onto the boy’s head and control his direction until removed.

When playing Limbo you get the feeling you are very much alone, and since you have no means of attack the best defense when you come across an enemy is to run away and rethink your strategy. It might surprise you that Limbo with all of its eerie atmosphere has very few sound effects and no musical score. Much of your time playing the game is spent in near silence. You might be tempted to turn on some music or listen to a podcast while playing, but you will miss out the on the emotional suspense and subtle clues the developers have infused into the gameplay.

The game’s story and its ending have been open to much interpretation; the ending was purposely left vague and unanswered by Playdead. It was compared to other open-ended books, films and video games, where the viewer is left to interpret what they have read or seen. Some reviews suggested that the game is a representation of the religious nature of Limbo or purgatory, as the boy character completes the journey only to end at the same place he started, repeating the same journey when the player starts a new game. Another interpretation suggested the game is the boy’s journey through Hell to reach Heaven, or to find closure for his sister's death.

Your interpretation of Limbo only comes from playing it. Limbo might appear predictable to the casual observer, but each challenge is different than the last. You can rarely depend on skills learned earlier in the game to complete your latest objective. It is because of Limbo’s dark dreamlike tableaus and intriguing challenges that I recommend this game both as a fun puzzle and a work of art. At $9.99 from the Mac App Store, Limbo is sure to keep you busy for at least three to six hours, while its silent film effects and unnerving mood will have you coming back for reruns.

Trine. is a side-scrolling platform adventure.nThe game follows the adventures of three heroes bound together by a mythical crystal force known as the Trine.nOnly one hero can be on screen at a time, and the player must switch between the three heroes often in order to complete the games various puzzles, obstacles, and enemies.

Gameplay is similar to Castlevania with elements taken from the Legend of Zelda and Diablo.nThe game is set in a fantasy world with a very Tolkien feel.

The characters are controlled using directional keys on the keyboard.nAiming is accomplished with the mouse.nThe left and right mouse buttons perform different attacks, spells, and actions depending on the character in play.nThe scroll wheel is used for switching between weapons.

The objective of Trine is to progress through the game’s levels while collecting experience points, discovering treasure, and defeating enemies along the way.nExperience points provide our heroes with new capabilities.nTreasure enhances a heroes existing capabilities.nHeavily armed, platform hopping skeletons block the our hero’s way with sword, arrow, and fiery breath.nDuring the course of the game it quickly becomes apparent that the environments, and not the enemies, are the true adversary in Trine.nThe levels in Trine are filled with spikes, pits of lava, fireballs, giant pendulums, and various other booby traps and puzzles that require the unique skills of one or more of our heroes to overcome.

Our first hero is Zoya the thief.nHer bow and arrow is the only ranged weapon in the game, and her grappling hook is indispensable at reaching out of the way areas.nZoya is my favorite character for her mix of combat and maneuverability.nShe is very versatile.nThrough the use of power ups her bow becomes a formidable weapon, even at close range, and her jumping ability and agility cannot be beat.

Our second hero is Pontius the knight.nHe is the teams primary warrior and uses a sword, shield, and sledgehammer for melee attacks.nI found myself using Pontius more during the beginning of the game.nHis powerful melee attacks are useful at dispatching hordes of skeletons, but his lack of maneuverability makes him a poor choice for Trine’s later obstacles.

Our third hero is Amadeus the wizard.nHis ability to use sorcery allows him to move objects remotely, as well as conjure new objects into existence by drawing their shapes on screen.nInitially Amadeus is only able to conjure a single cube-shaped object, but later in the game he can create multiple cubes, planks, and a floating pyramid the thief can latch onto using her grappling hook.nAmadeus has no traditional attacks, but he can hurl objects at oncoming enemies.nHe is a poor choice for close quarters combat, but his telekinesis and ability to change the game’s environment makes him invaluable for overcoming Trine’s most difficult obstacles.

Trine would be an average side-scrolling platform adventure games if it wasn’t for the lush 3D environments and realistic physics our heroes must explore in order to complete their quest. nThe worlds in Trine are beautiful.nAfter seeing them you will agree with me that 3D landscapes with realistic lighting aren’t just for first person shooters anymore.nPart of the excitement of completing a level in Trine is getting to experience the next area.nEach level is different from the last, filled with new obstacles and picturesque background scenery that never seems to repeat.nIf there is one constant in Trine it is the Nvidia’s PhysX physics engine which provides objects and characters with realistic physical interaction.

Everything in Trine interacts with everything else in a realistic way.nStacks of blocks will topple over with an indiscriminate push.nThe remains of vanquished enemies fall to the ground with the characteristics of a rag doll.nPendulums swing with added force when pushed.nLevers lift with the expected result of additional weight.nTrine’s realistic physics make each level seem new every time you play it.nOn one go around a solitary block might be waiting patiently for our heroes to use its height to reach and otherwise unobtainable platform.nOn the next play through that block might have moved in the course of battle and be precariously positioned over a pit of lava out of reach of all but the wizard’s telekinetic grasp.nIt is easy to see how the realistic shifting, sliding, pivoting, swinging, and stacking of objects makes the wizard’s skills of manipulation invaluable.nAnd his ability to create new objects means that the same obstacle can be overcome in several different ways.nTrine is never the same game twice.

Trine takes the standard side-scrolling platform adventure and turns it on its head with a choice of three heroes, upgradable abilities, and a realistic world where everything falls into place.nTrine plays like a rich storybook with talented voice acting and a unraveling tale being told to the player in between each level.nIf there is a downfall to Trine it is that the enemies are not as diverse as the world they inhabit, and the wizard’s ability to conjure stacks of cubes, planks, and pyramids makes some obstacles too easy to overcome.nI highly recommend Trine, which can be purchased from the Mac App Store for $0.99 for a limited time.

By July 2002 Mac OS X was just over one year old, Safari was still several months away, and very few web browsers took advantage of the innovative new features and bold aqua interface of 10.1 Puma, the latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Opera looked like it belonged on Windows. iCab looked like it belonged on Mac OS 9. OmniWeb was the first Mac OS X browser developed in en.wikipedia.orgwikiCocoa_(API text: Cocoa), but all three lacked a modern rendering engine capable of displaying the world’s latest websites. Mozilla and Netscape weren’t much better. Both were bloated, unstable, ugly, and slow. Internet Explorer had been shipping as the default browser on Macs since 1997, and was the only browser included with Mac OS X. It’s en.wikipedia.orgwikiTasman_(layout_engine text: Tasman) rendering engine was state-of-the-art when version 5 shipped in early 2000, but since then Microsoft had lost interest, updates were few and far between, and page rendering had slowed to a crawl. Looking back it is hard to think Apple could sell Mac OS X as “the world’s most advanced operating system” without a world class browser, but that is exactly what they were doing during the Summer of 2002.

In late 2001, Mike Pinkerton and Vidur Apparao started a project within Netscape to prove that en.wikipedia.orgwikiGecko_(layout_engine text: Gecko) could be embedded in a Cocoa application. In early 2002 Dave Hyatt, one of the co-creators of Firefox (then called Phoenix), joined the team and built Chimera, a small, lightweight browser wrapper, around their work.

At the time Gecko was a very robust rendering engine, and when it was stripped out of the bloated MozillaNetscape suite it ran quite fast. By combining Gecko with the stylish performance of a native Cocoa interface Chimera became a world class browser in the making.

Quick to load, intuitive to use, I learned about Chimera in July 2002 during the release of version 0.4. This was an important update for the Chimera project because it marked the first time Chimera could open a URL from an outside application, and the first time Chimera could load content into new tab without the need of additional windows. The ability to quickly open websites from NetNewsWire in a row of organized tabs instead of a mess of stacked windows motivated me to replace Internet Explorer with Chimera as my default browser that summer.

Hyatt was hired by Apple Computer in mid-2002 to start work on what would become Safari. Meanwhile, the Chimera developers got a small team together within Netscape, with dedicated development and QA, to put together a Netscape-branded technology preview for the January 2003 Macworld Conference. However, two days before the show, AOL management decided to abandon the entire project. Despite this setback, a skeleton crew of QA and developers released Camino 0.7 on March 3, 2003.

The name was changed from Chimera to Camino for legal reasons. Because of its roots in Greek mythology, Chimera has been a popular choice of name for hypermedia systems. One of the first graphical web browsers was called Chimera, and researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have also developed a complete hypermedia system of the same name. Camino is Spanish for “path” or “road” (as in El Camino Real, aka the Royal Road), and the name was chosen to continue the “Navigator” motif.

Safari was first released as a public beta on January 7th, 2003, it became Apple’s default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 Panther on October 24th, 2003. During the Beta period and into 2004 I stuck with Camino because its Gecko rendering engine displayed pages more accurately than the up-and-coming WebKit rendering engine used in Safari. As WebKit’s popularity grew and developers became accustom to its features, Camino lost much of the dominance it once had over Safari. Safari 2.0 was released on April 29th, 2005 as the only web browser included with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. This version was touted by Apple as possessing a 1.8x speed boost over Safari 1.2.4, and a noticeable speed increase over pre 1.0 versions of Camino. Safari would go on to become Acid2 compliant with the release of version 2.0.2 on October 31st, 2005. It would take the release of Camino 2.0 on November 18th, 2009, to reach that same milestone.

After the release of 0.7 progress on Camino slowed as development was taken over by the open source community. The Camino website was moved from the Mozilla Foundation mozilla.org to the Camino Project caminobrowser.org. In September 2005, Mike Pinkerton accepted a position at Google where he worked closely with Google’s Firefox team and continued to work on Camino during his “twenty percent” time. Mike would go on to develop the Mac port of Google’s Chrome browser, a direct competitor to Camino.

Camino 1.0, released on February 14th, 2006, was the first browser of the Mozilla family to appear as a universal binary. It included many important new features and advancements like a new tab bar, download manager with pause and resume, built-in ad blocker, history search, and the ability to autofill forms from the address book. Thanks to improvements in the Gecko rendering engine Camino 1.0 also adopted SVG, the <canvas><canvas> tag, and JavaScript 1.6, as well as improved CSS 2 and CSS 3 support.

My daily use of Camino stopped with the introduction of Mac OS X 10.4, because of Safari 2.0’s superior Javascript performance and RSS handling. Camino continued to be an important browser for users of older versions of Mac OS X. While Safari 2.0 dropped support for Macintosh operating systems older than 10.4 Tiger, Camino 1.0 continued to support 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4.

Camino improved integration with Mac OS X while Firefox and other browsers were demonstrating their platform independence. Instead of using an independent spell checker, RSS reader, and password manager, Camino used the dictionary services, Mail RSS reader, and en.wikipedia.orgwikiKeychain_(Mac_OS text: Keychain) in Mac OS X. Camino’s Keychain compatibility made it an excellent second browser because it shared the same saved credentials with Safari. Camino 1.5 introduced session restore on June 5th, 2007, more than four years before Safari would gain the same functionality in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Because Camino is developed exclusively for Mac OS X it was able to adopt some Mac OS X specific features before any other browser including Safari.

Camino 2.0, released on November 18th, 2009, introduced many new interface features to the browser including movable tabs and tab preview. It was the first Camino release to be Acid2-compliant. Two of my favorite features from Camino 2.0 are the en.wikipedia.orgwikiGrowl_(software text: Growl) support, and enhanced annoyance blocking features. With Growl you are notified when downloads begin and finish, helping you keep track of the content you want. The enhanced annoyance blocking features allow you to enable Flash animations on a per-site basis, helping you avoid the content you don’t. Camino 2.0 introduced a updated AppleScript dictionary that included vocabulary for downloading the raw HTML source, or text from any webpage or selection. This feature is still missing from the latest version of Safari, and makes Camino a valuable part of many of my AppleScript toolbox. The greatest new feature in Camino 2.0 may be the inclusion of version 1.9.0 of Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine. It is this rendering engine that allows Camino to pass the Acid2 rendering test, and brings Camino up to date with Firefox 3.0 released over a year earlier.

One year behind Firefox, and more than four years behind Safari, Camino was showing its age even before it reached 1.0. Camino is no longer the world class browser it promised to be in the Summer of 2002. The latest version of Camino, 2.1, was released on November 29th, 2011 and brings Camino up to date with Firefox 3.6 released eleven months earlier. The Gecko rendering engine reached 2.0 on March 22nd, 2011 with the release Firefox 4, but Camino may never grow old enough to adopt it. Starting with Firefox 4 Mozilla announced the end of Gecko embedding, which Camino uses to include the Gecko rendering engine inside of a native Cocoa interface.

While embedding has long been relatively low priority, being officially unsupported is a significant change. As important parts of embedding stop working, core Gecko contributors will longer be fixing them. Such breakages are unfortunately common—in fact, making sure that embedding breakages were resolved was a significant amount of the work that went into the release of Camino 2.0, as well as the upcoming Camino 2.1. Without support for embedding, releases of Camino using newer versions of Gecko—like the one used in Firefox 4—won’t be possible.

The development effort that was used to maintain Gecko embedding is being refocused to rapidly bring Firefox up to par with WebKit browsers like Safari and Chrome. The volunteers who develop Camino are too few to maintain Gecko embedding on their own, or put forth the major effort required to port Camino to WebKit. If nothing is done Camino will continue to receive security and stability updates as long as Gecko 1.9.2 is supported, but it will never see full support for Acid3, HTML5, or CSS3.

Camino will continue to be a viable browser only as long as the web works with Gecko 1.9.2, but as I write this many webpages are passing it by. Even though I still have Camino installed on my computer it fails to qualify as a modern browser less than two months since its last update. I am saddened that Camino must die in the effort to save Firefox, a browser that has gotten just a bloated as the Netscape Suite it once replaced. By losing Camino we will not only see the end of a browser that once made the Mac great, but the end of a development community focused solely on the advancement of a great Macintosh software.