512 Pixels

Gruber:

Are software touchscreen keyboards good for everyone? Certainly not. But this is another aspect of the Apple Way. Apple tries to make things that many people love, not things that all people like. The key is that they’re not afraid of the staunch criticism, and often outright derision, that comes with breaking conventions.

[…]

That the iPhone — or specifically its software touchscreen keyboard — does not appeal to everyone is not a problem. Nothing appeals to everyone. Even if you try to make something that appeals to everyone by adding every single clamored-for feature, you wind up with something like Windows that does not appeal to people with a taste for the elegant and refined.

Bingo.

This is very, very cool.

Macworld’s Dan Frakes:

It’s important to keep in mind the system’s limitations: a relatively slow processor and an underclocked graphics chip, a tiny 1024- by 600-pixel screen, a cramped keyboard, no optical drive, and a horrible, horrible trackpad. It’s a discouraging list of drawbacks, but apart from the trackpad, you know about these limitations going in: you buy a netbook like this, regardless of the OS, because you’re willing to trade performance to get an inexpensive, 2.4-pound laptop with a tiny footprint.

In that context, the computer performs better than I expected, and I was surprised to find that most standard features work under OS X: The computer successfully connects to my wireless network, the Webcam works with iChat, I can use Bluetooth input devices, and the keyboard’s volume, brightness, and sleep keys function normally. I’ve even updated the OS and various Apple apps several times using Software Update.

Having run OS X on both an HP Mini 1000 and a Dell Mini 9 (the twin of the Dell Vostro A90 Frakes used), I agree that OS X on a Dell Mini 9 is smooth as butter, but I ultimately have given up on netbooks due to the hardware limitations that are inherent to the machines due to their very nature.

I now carry a black 13-inch MacBook around everywhere that gets the job done in a small-ish package. While it’s no Mini 9—by any means—it is a fine machine for its size.

From the aforementioned NY Times story:

Health is the most private of all matters for very good reason, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has never disciplined a company for a failure to disclose health problems. In part, we all buy, sell and trade on someone’s health without knowing their fates. Sergey Brin or Larry Page, Google’s founders, may be fit as fiddles, but they could get run over tomorrow by a Prius in Palo Alto (a Prius would still hurt, right?).

Didn’t Apple pull out of Macworld? The NY Times seems to have missed the memo:

Next February, when Steven P. Jobs — knock on wood — does his big reveal at Macworld, the geegaw people will most want to see probably won’t be on display.

Whoops.

Speaking of Eee PCs, plastibots.com has a story covering a Eee PC hardware hack that adds the trackball from Apple’s Mighty Mouse into the case for fast-action scrolling:

I found the 2-finger scrolling using the touchpad a P.I.N.T.A. . So, since it’s never my intent to leave well enough alone, and I was itching for something to take apart and hack, I decided to integrate a trackball into my EEE 901. The Apple Mighty Mouse was the best candidate becase the trackball acts like a wheel on the mouse - I can use it solely for scrolling rapidly through pages of content. Of course, there are other options out there, but its ball acts as a mouse controller (not for scrolling) and I didn’t want to pay the price. I figured the Mighty Mouse would be more of a challenge anyhow.

The mod is not for the faint of heart, but man, it is awesome.

Daniel Huffman:

I want to point out that this map is actually provided by the town as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. I am not kidding.

Look, the town population is only about 1700. That’s smaller than a lot of high schools. I can understand that they don’t have a trained cartographer on staff, and when someone decided to make a map, they were not going to be using the latest and most advanced tools that professional cartographers use. But if you want to make a map with giant pixels, try MS Paint (or your preferred equivalent). It is, in fact, significantly harder to make a blocky pixel map in Excel. It’s a spreadsheet program. It’s designed to crunch numbers and show you if the town can afford this year’s hayride. It takes some doing to get pictures out of it.

Hit that link for some eye-melting awesomeness.

Holy crap.

(Video via Laughing Squid via The Memphis Blog)

ABC 7 News:

“We heard a woman scream back toward the bathroom area and all of us stopped. One of the staff members opened the door and one woman yelled, ”Call 911 someone’s been shot,’" said another unidentified witness.

[…]

Investigators believe the gunman came through a rear loading-area door, fleeing the same way he came in. Police used helicopter and K–9 units to conduct a sweep of the area and are calling the incident as an attempted robbery.

Simply horrible. All the best to the Store’s staff, customers and the victim, who is said to be in serious—but stable—condition.

[ via Apple Insider]

I had to replace the unibody on a MacBook Pro yesterday, which requires taking everything in the notebook apart and moving it into the new case. Two hours later, it was like new.

From a leaked AT&T memo:

Fact of the Week: On June 25, the day Michael Jackson died, text messages sent on our network spiked at 65,000 messages per second — the largest volume ever recorded — surpassing events like American Idol voting and New Year’s Eve, when millions of our customers wish their friends and family a happy new year via text."