Fiddrer

With all of the conflict in the world these days, this is a good reminder that, yes, I do believe we can all get along.

Mideast conflict

Richard Cohen has a blunt and controversial column on the current conflict in the Middle East.

Casual MacBook vs. PowerBook encoding benchmark

I just performed a quick and dirty speed test to see how fast my (wife's) new MacBook is at video encoding.

MacBook
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB RAM

PowerBook G4
1.25GHz PowerPC G4
2GB RAM

Both systems were rebooted and AirPort and Bluetooth were turned off. I let them sit there for a few minutes to allow for background processes to load and everything to settle down. Then, I opened an identical 110MB QuickTime file (3:02 running time, H.264 format), and using both hands for simultaneous kickoff, started converting them to iPod format.

The MacBook completed the task in roughly 3 minutes. The PowerBook took roughly 11.

Impressive.

It's been a while

Busy times, and I think they're here to stay for a while, but here's a quick roundup of the things I've been up to:

<> I am now the "Director, Interactive Client Services" at my company;

<> picked up the lowest-end MacBook to replace my wife's dying G3 iBook (am still using my PPC PowerBook G4 for now, but it's good to be getting some hands-on experience on the Intel side of Mac-land);

<> this is a good rundown of some of the reasons why Macs are great;

<> this is a good explanation of the stupidity of our president and his foreign policy (thanks, Mike);

<> in general, I support a strong Israeli response to terrorism and feel that Israel has a degree of moral superiority over the tactics of their enemies, but I am beginning to question the wisdom of destroying Lebanon in the process;

<> I had to replace my SLVR because the headphone jack (which is a mini USB port) was dropping the connection to my headset during music and phone calls- I was also losing the USB connection to the computer for iTunes syncing, so it was clearly a port problem and not a problem with a specific cable- so now I have a replacement SLVR, though I'm concerned that the USB ports on these phones are inherently screwy, as a coworker has had similar issues;

<> I am working on the second draft of a play with my actor-friend James DiSalvatore, which I expect to have completed shortly- details will follow;

<> Coulter vs. Hitler;

<> contemporary music mixing and mastering techniques are destroying dynamic range.

Have a great weekend.

Closing

From the moment I saw Star Wars: Episode III, I've wanted to do this:



Seriously, really listen to the words (all the way through)... it's PERFECT.