nick peelman

Mac Pro Announcement + One Week

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:11:48 -0400

I already shared my thoughts on last week’s Mac Pro peak. The intervening week has caused a lot of research into what my alternative is going to be.

On the low end, I might snag a Haswell Mac Mini, if/when that refresh is made, and pick up either one nice 27” display, or a pair of 24” displays, most likely Ultrasharps.

Or, depending on the outlook and the announced specs of the Haswell iMacs, I may end up with a 27” iMac mated with a 27” Thunderbolt display. This could serve double duties; in addition to giving me a solid home machine with plenty of screen real estate, it also gives me a pair of 27” monitors that I can drive from my work Macbook Pro (or future Macbook Air).

The likelihood of the latter is pretty slim; that’s a lot of cash to drop on a desktop, and its a stretch to justify having such a potent machine at home now that it is no longer my primary machine. But I’m not sure the Mini would have enough balls to really handle what I tend to throw at things, then again, I worry at how poorly the iMac will fair at virtualization and video encoding. Speccing the Mini all the way out, which I would do if I took that leap, gets me over $1500, which is deep in 21” iMac territory, and not far enough from 27” iMac ranges. And the added memory capabilities of the 27” are of particular interest, as is the 7200rpm main drive and high powered graphics options.

Then again, I still haven’t ruled out picking up a clearance or refurb last-gen true-Pro before they disappear. Right now I’m in a holding pattern until Haswell reaches everything else.

Crossbow vs Dr Pepper 10 at 2500fps - The Slow Mo Guys (by...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:52:17 -0400

Crossbow vs Dr Pepper 10 at 2500fps - The Slow Mo Guys (by theslowmoguys)

Awesome.

thefrogman: Sick burn, dude.

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:00:42 -0400

thefrogman:

Sick burn, dude.

Photo

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:00:18 -0400

parislemon: And now for something completely different. The...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 07:00:12 -0400

parislemon:

And now for something completely different.

The mottled colors behind Control Center already causes me eyestrain. I really hope they refine the translucency some. I love how within 10 minutes they killed Flashlight apps and password tools for almost every basic user (my mother will never use 1Password, but she will probably benefit from iCloud Keychains).

WWDC Keynote; digested thoughts on the Mac Pro

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:31:00 -0400

Price

There’s no way for there to be a sub-$2500 model as capable as the single-processor previous models in that price range were for their respective times.

Expansion

I can only see 4 memory slots. 16GB and 32GB sticks exist, but not that i’ve seen at the new bus speed, and they are expensive as hell for 1333Mhz. That means 8GB sticks are realistic. Which means 32GB of memory inside the realm of financial possibility for 90% of the already small Mac Pro audience. As somebody who regularly taps all 16GB of his laptop, and all 12GB in his current Mac Pro, I was looking for a machine that could get to 64GB relatively easily and affordably. I’m a power user, but money doesn’t grow on trees, even for people who are gainfully employed.

No graphics expansion. Need something the internal cards can’t do? TFB.

No PCI-E Capture cards (no, Thunderbolt isn’t a substitute).

No Fiber Channel cards (or HBAs of any stripe) (no, Thunderbolt isn’t a substitute).

No 10Gb Ethernet cards (no, Thunderbolt isn’t a substitute).

(See my footnote at the bottom regarding Thunderbolt)

In the same vein as this: no next-day replacement drive from Amazon if the SSD fails. No graphics card replacement. It would appear to be so thoroughly integrated that no single PCB will be replaceable, and even if it were, you could probably afford a nice iMac for the cost.

“Moar Power!”

I hate to say this, but only twelve cores? Perhaps the 16-core model will be an option at the high end? Perhaps I’ve just been pricing too many servers lately. But you can get 12 cores today.

I really want to redact points for the soldered graphics chips, but I seriously don’t think they could have done anything better than what they are doing. The specs are astounding and the dedicated memory alone is quite insane. As somebody still tooling along with twin ATI 2600XT’s in his Mac Pro, I can’t really force myself to care that you can’t upgrade the boards, especially when the boards are that stupid-awesome. And I guess its not necessarily a mortal lock that you can’t upgrade the cards; you’re just certainly at Apple’s mercy to do so.

Storage

In the age of HD video (which will shift towards 4K in the time period this machine will exist) and 12-30MP images, flash is not suitable as the single storage medium for a “Pro” desktop.

Yes, its fast. Nobody is going to argue with you, but in the quantities that would make it suitable, I cannot see this working out for the bottom line of this machine. Kneecapping users into network storage is messy and problematic. Anybody who has suffered with OS X’s shitty SMB/CIFS/AFP experience can attest to the lack of local storage being a bad idea. There’s always Thunderbolt and USB, but now in addition to a tower on my desk, now I have to have one or two or several USB/Thunderbolt drives and enclosures? That’s elegant?

The case…

Round?

No really, Round?

The Cube didn’t do it, but Apple thinks a Cylinder is the magic shape?

You’re not going to be able to put much around it, without impeding its airflow, and save for morning breakfast pastries, you’re not going to be putting anything atop its chimney.

And speaking of heat rising, lets talk cooling for a brief moment. Anybody who has ever opened their Mac Pro can tell you that they are dust whores. Have pets, specifically cats? Yeah, you’re screwed even more. Now instead of catching things that are floating by in the air, your Mac Pro can act like a desktop Roomba, inhaling any and all dust on or around your desk! And we all know how clean office spaces are kept!

Boat Anchor though it may be, the current Mac Pro’s sturdy case and heft ensured that while it would remain on the floor, it would be largely impervious to the damages that can result from being there (save for dust contamination). One other small advantage the previous case had was its “leg handles”, which elevated it just enough to keep at least some of the dust bunnies under, rather than in, the case. Even on a carpeted floor, the case was usually high enough to avoid direct floor inhalation.

The new case ensures that it will need to be on the desk, out of harms way, but in the way. I really do not give a shit what my power house desktop looks like or that people see it, and I damned sure do not want it on my desk if i can help it.

Ports

Back to the round thing: So there’s no “front”, so no “front” ports. Everything goes in the back.

Ok, not great, but I’m with you so far.

So you spin the case…does it have a lazy susan built into the base? And what if you have cables running both directions (network cables coming from the left, displays to the right, or vice versa. You have to have that much more slack in your network cables to turn it? What about the power cable? Highly flexible those are not known to be (admittedly if you’re using Cat6, the power cables will probably be the least of your worries).

As for the ports themselves, a single fraking HDMI port, 4 USB ports (one less than we currently get, which wasn’t enough to begin with), but sweet hell, we have 6 Thunderbolt ports.

For a large number of peripherals that we don’t know will exist, be affordable, and/or work the way they have been promised to.

I guess you’ll be able to adapt to whatever you need. For a price. Eventually..¹

¹Maybe

Bottom line for me

I was excited this afternoon. Then tonight I started combing the specs and looking at the snaps taken by the press pool. This will be a $3000-3500 machine, sans any display; it will have mediocre storage capacity, and be inconveniently designed for my purposes, or the purposes of just about every other current Pro user I know.

Speaking thereof, just how big of a desk would you need to have the touted 3x 4k Displays + the Mac Pro on your desk, far enough away so it doesn’t melt your face off with its chimney of death?

I’m also concerned about the sheer number of changes being made. With a new manufacturing process, in what will probably be a new factory, even one here in the States, my money is on the first generation being rife with build and QC problems.

I know there are those out there who will be excited by this ~~box~~ tube, but unfortunately I am not one of them. So now I’m torn. Do I replace my 2008 Pro with a decent iMac, or wait and pick up this gen’s Pro on clearance or refurb once the new one is available?

Thunderbolt footnote

Thunderbolt is great, but show me the list of devices that have been created for the Macbook [Air|Pro], iMac, and Mac Mini markets. The Mac Pro’s niche market is not going to be the spur that gets that horse running.

Its been what? 4 years since Thunderbolt debuted, and its still overpriced and under-utilized. Whether that’s due to licensing issues from Intel, lack of demand, or the simple unwillingness of manufacturers to ask “how high?” when Intel says jump is anybody’s guess. The handful of Thunderbolt “docks” we have seen have been laughable, half ass attempts that were delayed forever. And there still remains only one Thunderbolt-capable display that can handle the daisy-chaining the technology promised. So if you have a Macbook Air, but want to use both a wired network and a monitor? Well, wish in one and shit in the other, because we’re still not there.

Search for Thunderbolt on any retailer. You’ll find hideously over-priced external hard drives, a Lacie enclosure that requires its own zip code, Areca and Drobo drive hardware whose insanity is only matched by their price tags, the two shitty docks that exist, and a couple of HDMI capture devices.

Siracusa has compared the Mac Pro to the super car, the Corvette of Apple’s lineup. The problem is, its more akin to the 3500HD or even the GMC TopKicks. Yeah, they are never going to be the best selling pickups, the half tons will always win that war, and cars are still going to win the battle overall. But they are necessary for shit to get done.

With the Mac Pro, Apple is doubling down on Thunderbolt, and they may damned well be right.

But do you know what they call a leader with no followers? A guy taking a walk.²

²Or NeXT

John Gruber on the iOS 7 Design

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:22:00 -0400

John Gruber on the iOS 7 Design:

charlesesmith:

The software is now of a piece with the hardware. Two sides of the same coin. Not hardware design and software design. Just design.

Exactly what I was hoping to see from Jony Ive.

Can’t argue with that. I do agree with my colleagues that some of the icons look a little Fisher Price, but the consistency is nice.

What I saw, overall, during the iOS 7 demos and presentation:

A lot of little touches to discover and delight.

laughingsquid: My Mom’s Computer Keyboard Well at least...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 15:00:19 -0400

laughingsquid:

My Mom’s Computer Keyboard

Well at least it’s not just my mother…

arcticmonkeysus: she’s thunderstorms Lol.

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:00:36 -0400

arcticmonkeysus:

she’s thunderstorms

Lol.

msnbc: From PoliticsNation: Michelle Bachmann’s congressional...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 15:00:32 -0400

msnbc:

From PoliticsNation:

Michelle Bachmann’s congressional report card doesn’t have too many legislative accomplishments so far.

Do you think she’ll rack up anything more before she departs next year?

"As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process...."

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:41:45 -0400

“As a culture we have moved into a realm where the consumption of news is a near-constant process. Users with smartphones and tablets are consuming news in bits and bites throughout the course of the day — replacing the old standard behaviors of news consumption over breakfast along with a leisurely read at the end of the day.”

-
In my own case, this is absolutely accurate. I used to sit in front of Google Reader all day, every day. Then Twitter came along and I just stopped doing that. Most of the news I consume now gets pushed to me from Techmeme or a few other sources via Twitter on my various iOS devices.

(via parislemon)

I’ve never understood this. Twitter is far too synchronous for me, if I’m not at my desk when news goes by, it gets missed. Rarely do I retreat into my timeline to look at what has been posted since I last checked, the signal to noise ratio is just too high. Granted, there is plenty of noise in my RSS feeds too, but its much easier to filter the long-form posts I want to read when they’re not buried in the mire of a thousand short form posts I don’t.

I don’t get to read my news continuously, I can’t, it’s just not feasible. I get breaking news alerts from CNN via email, but everything else is in Newsblur which I intake via the fits and starts of my average day. Standing in line for lunch, eating lunch, the brief moment while I’m waiting on something else at work and have nothing else to fill the time in with, and usually as I’m winding down my day (a habit I probably need to break, but I’m working on one self-improvement aspect at a time).

I wish people would stop confusing the death of Google Reader with the death of RSS Readers / News Aggregators…

I now know that Randall was talking about the Gmail app. Since...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:24:14 -0400

I now know that Randall was talking about the Gmail app.

Since changing phones and thereby losing my ActiveSync connection to my phone, I have been using the Gmail app and enduring its large amount of suckage. PowerUser client it is not. Mail might not be the geekiest app out there, but damn do I miss it.

One more reason I’m probably switching sooner rather than later…paying for apps for business just doesn’t seem worth it, especially when I’m not the biggest fan of their free product…

Initial iPhone 5 thoughts...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:12:00 -0400

peelman:

Bigger screen is nice, but superfluous

Vibrate motor is noticeably better

Home and Lock buttons are noticeably clicky-er

Speed bump is nice, but areas I were hoping to be faster aren’t (perceptively at least) ** Launching Drafts, Agenda, and 1Password still takes longer than I wish (really picking nits though)

battery life - I’m working on 15 hours for this charge. Damn.

Photo

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:00:16 -0400

"Maybe it’s less important to restrict the access of the government to data about us and increase our..."

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:14:34 -0400

“Maybe it’s less important to restrict the access of the government to data about us and increase our access to data about the government.”

- Doug Masson

lemonsweetie: Let me tell you a thing, about an amazing man...

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:00:21 -0400

lemonsweetie:

Let me tell you a thing, about an amazing man named Patrick Stewart

I went to Comicpalooza this weekend and I was full of nervous energy as I was standing in line to ask Sir Patrick Stewart a question at his panel. I first had to thank him for a speech he had given at amnesty international about domestic violence towards women . I had only seen it a few months ago but I was still dealing with my own personal experience with a similar issue, and I didn’t know what to call it. After seeing Patrick talk so personally about it I finally was able to correctly call it abuse, in my case sexual abuse that was going to quickly turn into physical abuse as well. I didn’t feel guilty or disgusting anymore. I finally didn’t feel responsible for the abuse that was put upon me. I was finally able to start my healing process and to put that part of my life behind me.

After thanking him I asked him “Besides acting, what are you most proud of that you have done in you life (that you are willing to share with us)?”. Sir Patrick told us about how he couldn’t protect his mother from abuse in his household growing up and so in her name works with an organization called Refuge for safe houses for women and children to escape from abusive house holds. Sir Patrick Stewart learned only last year that his father had actually been suffering from PTSD after he returned from the military and was never properly treated. In his father’s name he works with an organization called Combat Stress to help those soldiers who are suffering from PTSD.

They were about to move onto the next question when Sir Patrick looked at me and asked me “My Dear, are you okay?” I said yes, and that I was finally able to move on from that part of my life. He then passionately said that it is never the woman’s fault in domestic violence, and how wrong to think that it ever is. That it is in the power of men to stop violence towards women. The moderator then asked “Do you want a hug?”

Sir Patrick didn’t even hesitate, he smiled, hopped off the stage and came over to embrace me in a hug. Which he held me there for a long while. He told me “You never have to go through that again, you’re safe now.” I couldn’t stop thanking him. His embrace was so warm and genuine. It was two people, two strangers, supporting and giving love. And when we pulled away he looked strait in my eyes, like he was promising that. He told me to take care. And I will.

Sir Patrick Stewart is an absolute roll model for men. He is an amazing man and was so kind and full of heart. I want to let everyone know to please find help if you are in a violent or abusive house hold or relationship. There are organizations and people ready to help. I had countless people after the panel thanking me for sharing the story and asking him those questions. Many said they went through similar things. You are not alone.

X

^ Here is the video of my question to Sir Patrick Stewart

Photos by Eugene Lee, Thank you

A great, great man indeed.

Initial iPhone 5 thoughts...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:00:30 -0400

Bigger screen is nice, but superfluous
Vibrate motor is noticeably better
Home and Lock buttons are noticeably clicky-er
Speed bump is nice, but areas I were hoping to be faster aren’t (perceptively at least) ** Launching Drafts, Agenda, and 1Password still takes longer than I wish (really picking nits though)

parislemon: nevver: Feedbonk Sadly, this probably applies to...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:00:31 -0400

parislemon:

nevver:

Feedbonk

Sadly, this probably applies to me.

Me too.

Yep. Totally should have gotten an AT&T iPad mini instead of...

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:33:59 -0400

Yep. Totally should have gotten an AT&T iPad mini instead of Verizon. Much better LTE speeds (in Seymour) (Taken from my iPhone 5)

Currently: Copying 23 of 147 (apps)

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:01:46 -0400

My new iPhone 5 has arrived, and i realize that having 53GB of shit on something you sync over a bus as terrible as USB 2.0 is a great way to go from “living in the future” to “living in the year 2000”.