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With all the hubbub about 10.1, why
can't the I seem to find it? Maybe they should have
named it Cheshire instead of Puma...
I jumped on the OSX bandwagon a few
months ago - and have been breathlessly anticipating
the release of 10.1. Quite frankly, I'm looking for
anything to brighten my day in the last couple of
weeks. I was totally taken by surprise when I visited
the Apple site on Tuesday to find the splash graphic
advertising its release (my e-mail server had been
unavailable for the last couple of days) - and quickly
linked to the upgrade page. This started a series
of (mis)adventures as I began my search for the wily
Puma.
Just the Fax
Reading the upgrade page and PDF, I
quickly figured out I wasn't about to wait 6-12 weeks
for disks to arrive - so I filled out the fax order
form, got my software coupons copied and fired it
off to the 800 number. Busy. I waited a minute and
fired it off again. Busy. I set up the fax machine
to autoredial, and walked away for the evening.
I showed up Wednesday morning and found
that the call hadn't gone through. I knew there would
be a lot of people faxing in their orders - but all
through the night? I had this vision of fax machines
autoredialing all across the country with orders waiting
to be placed.
About 25 hours after I started, the
call finally went through. I think. But I'm not an
especially patient person, and I have several machines
to upgrade (including an OSX server) so I want to
get some disks in hand ASAP.
Not for Mac
I was having trouble sitting still,
and I wanted to start getting down to some serious
Wolfenstein MPTest action. I needed to run an errand
and pick up some blank Zips for my classes, so I drove
to a large local Mac reseller hoping for some good
news about upgrade availability. I won't specifically
name the store, but the initials NFM might as as well
stand for Not For Mac. They have a wide selection
of Apples and Made for Mac products and software -
but they apparently train their employees to steer
you toward the PCs on display.
I went and goofed around with an iMac
running CroMag Rally until a salesperson was available.
Pretty soon this guy strolls up to me and says, "If
you want REAL gaming action, you should look at one
of the Compaqs we have on sale." I spin around
and ask when NFM is going to start carrying the 10.1
upgrades. He tilts his head just like my dog does
when she hears a word like "cookie", and
mumbles, " Yeah, those Compaqs have real nice
video cards, and the case is attractive too."
By this time I'm a little annoyed, but
decide to press on. Does anyone here know if you are
going to carry the APPLE MACINTOSH OS 10.1 upgrades
- letting a little volume into my voice for the benefit
of all the other shoppers.
He actually scratches his head and says,
"10.1 - I think I read something - what does
it look like?"
I silently counted to three, and took
a deep breath. I still have no idea if he was asking
about what the box, the OS, or reading looks like.
"The box has a big, blue X on it. X as in the
Roman numeral for 10."
"Mmmm. Yeah. X, huh. Well, I suppose
that sounds familiar."
At this point I started laughing, because
not only does he remind me of Lumberg from Office
Space, but he's actually standing in front of a display
with a OSX box. "Yeah, X - are you getting the
new X - maybe on Saturday?" I prompted.
He looks at me for another moment, and
then sighs. "You're not interested in a Compaq
at all, are you?"
I gave him a big smile, and watching
him wander off. I actually have the shell of an old
Presario in my basement. I keep it around to kick
when I get ticked off about something. Honest to God,
that's how I feel about Compaq. But I digress.
I finally got another salesperson who
knew what I was talking about, but didn't have the
slightest idea when disks would arrive. I thanked
him, and drove across the street to another Mac reseller.
Tambourine Man
The store across the street (which shall
also remain unnamed, but purports to contain a city
full of circuits) was not much help, either.
I talked briefly with another salesperson
who had no idea that 10.1 was being released that
week - but thought that they might have disks available
next week. I was a little confused at how he could
not know about the release, but thought that disks
would show up. I thanked him for the guesstimate,
and turned to head for the parking lot.
I was confronted by a young man with
a vacuous look and more facial piercings that I have
ever seen. "You like, like Macs, right? I like,
totally love my Mac, man <bizarre machine gun laugh>.
I love it <rata-tat-tat>!"
Against my better judgment, I asked
what kind of Mac he had.
"A red one, dude! Like in the Matrix
(I can only assume he meant the pills that Morpheus
displayed to Neo), man. I got it all tweaking and
sh%t! It f%ckin ROCKS!" At this point he started
making guitar sounds and thrashing around with one
arm raised. I swear to God, the piercings on his face
were making a sound like a tambourine as he carried
on making this guitar noise.
"10 - do you mean X, man? That
rocks - I love the X-Men, man - and Apple has the
X-Men on their X page, man!"
I thought about this a moment, and realized
that this made sense. "That's right, they use
X-Men to demonstrate the new DVD player."
"You're the X-Man, you want X,
man! <rata-tat-tat> <screeching yowl>
I dig Wolverine man! WOLVERINE!"
"I was always partial to Nightcrawler
myself."
He made the exact same tilted head dog
gesture and said, "Nightcrawler?" It wouldn't
have been any funnier if he made that confused woof
that made Scooby-Doo famous.
"Before your time - he could teleport
and looked like a blue-black devil."
"Right on! The devil! <yowl-screech
-stomp-ching> So are you looking for X, man, X-Man?"
<rata-tat-tat-ching>
"Yeah, I'm looking for the upgrade."
"Yeah, I got X, man. I got plenty
- its in my car - its a hell of an upgrade. Wait five
minutes and follow me outside."
Not being a complete idiot, I decided
to avoid a confrontation with whatever narcotics officers
might be lurking in the parking lot, loitered for
about 20 minutes, got in my car and drove home.
Epilogue
So I'm still in search of 10.1. So far,
the search is like peeking in Al Capone's vault -
a lot of anticipation and excitement - but no payoff.
I'm hoping that I might score a copy at CompUSA this
Saturday, but only time will tell. In the meantime,
I'll just deal with not watching the X-Men in X, man.
When I finally get a hold of this Cheshire Cat named
Puma, I'll post a column discussing the design implications
of both the OS and application implementation. I'm
having a hard time coming up with Quartz jokes, but
at least Aqua has some promise...
Stuffit
7 (10-18-02) Dr. Neale Monks. What purpose does file compression have
in this day of 100 GB hard drives? Is version 7 worthy of the upgrade fees?
Fireworks
MX (10-8-02) Dean Browell. Fireworks is more than just a pretty face;
The last app I needed to convert entirely to OS X delivers in upgrades and
features as well...
Dreamweaver
MX (10-8-02) Joel Davies. Not being satisfied with just carbonizing it's
product, Macromedia made sure that Dreamweaver MX was the killer app for web
design.
SliMP3
(9-6-02) Pat St-Arnaud. The SliMP3 is a small, simple and elegant network
devices that connects to any audio component with RCA inputs and lets you
browse, search and play music directly from your computer's MP3 collection.
Voyager
III v.3 (8-16-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Carina's Voyager is the grandfather
of Mac planetarium programs, but does it still have what it takes to keep
up the current generation?
CodeWarrior
8 (8-16-02) Douglas A. Welton. Doug dives into the latest version of this
robust multi-platform programming tool.
STM
Sports Backpack (8-9-02) Pierre Igot. How will this backpack designed
for the "global digerati" stack up when Pierre puts it to the test
with his mobile digital lifestyle?
Scope
Driver (8-2-02) Dr. Neale Monks. An alternative to the 'point and click'
telescope control paradigm: a powerful list-based utility for Autostar and
LX200 telescopes.
Apple
Final Cut Pro 3.0 (7-19-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate reviews the video-editing
powerhouse Final Cut Pro 3 and sizes up its competition. Does Final Cut Pro
3 hold its ground?
Strata
DVpro RME (7-16-02) Matt Frederick. Matt Frederick. Matt takes a comprehensive
look at Strata DVpro, Strata's pro-level non-linear editor for digital video.
Stargazer's
Delight (6-28-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Looking for a viable shareware alternative
to the big commercial astronomy software packages? Neale may have found one.
TheSky
(6-21-02) Dr. Neale Monks. Neale takes a look at the easiest to use planetarium
program for the Mac.
NI
FM7 (6-21-02) Matt Frederick. Matt takes this software replica of Yamaha's
DX7 synthesizer for a test drive.
The
Digital Universe (6-14-02) Neale Monks. Planetarium program, astronomy
encyclopaedia and space flight simulator all rolled into one - could The Digital
Universe be the ClarisWorks of astronomy software? Neale Monks takes a look.
After
Effects 5.5 (5-31-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate reviews the OS X native
version of After Effects and likes what he sees.
InDesign
2.0 for Non-Professional Designers (5-24-02) Pierre Igot. In the second
part of our review of Adobe InDesign 2.0 for Mac OS X, Pierre Igot looks at
InDesign from the point-of-view of the non-professional designer - and finds
plenty to like.
Corel
Graphics Suite, Part 2 (5-24-02) Dean Browell. CorelDraw returns in full
force and Corel R.A.V.E makes its debut.
Corel
Graphics Suite, Part 1 (5-17-02) Dean Browell. CorelDraw is back, and
it's brought some powerful friends that makes this Suite worth the look...
OmniGraffle
2.0 (5-10-02) András Puiz. Analog napkins are so 20th century --
this gem from OmniGroup knows (almost) all about diagramming. András
Puiz wishes all Mac developers developed a similar understanding of Aqua,
and of Mac OS X in general.
Watson
(5-03-02) Michael Tate Jones. Tate discovers a 'Swiss Army Knife' for OS X...
it's called Watson.
