April 15, 0:21 | Comments (17)

Tiger performance: +50% CPU, +25% UI

Part of the joy of seeing a new major release of OS X is the enviable speed increase that follows. Going from Jaguar to Panther, we got something along the lines of twice the user interface performance. Just by upgrading the OS.

Now it's time for another considerable boost with Tiger. My new 1.67ghz Powerbook is getting +50% on CPU and threading and +25% on the UI. That's just nice. You get more features, newer apps, cuter eye candy, and everything is smoother.

Since I seemed to have missed the opportunity to piss off a few Windows users in the back: Have you switched yet? (Pronounced with pointy finger and tall hat). Just kidding... kinda.

March 30, 4:22 | Comments (34)

The State of the Mac

Paul Graham is writing about the Mac adoption amongst hackers in general and his own return in particular:

All the best hackers I know are gradually switching to Macs... The reason, of course, is OS X. Powerbooks are beautifully designed and run FreeBSD. What more do you need to know? I got a Powerbook at the end of last year. When my IBM Thinkpad's hard disk died soon after, it became my only laptop.

It's great to see that over the past few years it has become the norm, not the exception, that good programmers are wielding Macs. There's the odd exception of Linux here and there, but the writing's on the wall: OS X offers the best personal computing experience available today.

While I can certainly understand the reasons why some people go with Linux, I have run all but dry of understanding for programmers that willfully pick Windows as their platform of choice. I know a few that are still stuck in the rut for various reasons — none of them desire.

I would have a hard time imagining hiring a programmer who was still on Windows for 37signals. If you don't care enough about your tools to get the best, your burden of proof just got a lot heavier.

So if you haven't switched already, stop procrastinating. Get it over with. If you have any desire working for the rising rank of companies building their business on open source technologies, you don't want to carry a liability like that around on you resume. Being labeled a 2005 Switcher is bad enough.

UPDATE: Of course the discussion continued off-site, so I elaborated on my position in two takes on the Ruby mailing list.

January 19, 11:56 | Comments (16)

Mac Mini shipping, iPod Shuffle still waiting

My Mac Mini has been shipped off to the robots awaiting my arrival in Seattle next week, but the iPod Shuffle still hasn't. They expect it to ship on the 24th, though, so there should be enough time for it to make it before I go back on the 30th. Pretty crazy demand for those things, by the way. I hear that there's a 4-week backorder in a lot of places now.

January 13, 14:50 | Comments (14)

Bare Bones starts giving the leftovers away

It shall remain no secret that I am not a BBEdit fan. It shall remain less of a secret that I was involved with bringing TextMate to market. So an unbiased reporter on this subject, I most certainly am not. But that won't stop me from wondering about the disconnect in logic exhibited by Bare Bones with the unloading of a free TextWrangler on the market.

In their FAQ, they state the reason for giving away TextWrangler 2:

We see the need for a strong, feature-rich text editor at a low price. In the past two years since TextWrangler's initial release, we have observed the crowding of the landscape with products which don't meet our standards for quality and thoughtfulness.

By making TextWrangler 2.0 available at no charge, we're answering the call of Mac users who need a powerful, professionally executed product, and raising the bar for Mac text editors.

If the market is getting crowded by editors that doesn't meet their "standards for quality and thoughtfulness", why should it be a problem to maintain TextWrangler at $49? If the bar is really raised by the "mind-boggling quantity of additions", then TextWrangler should be selling like hot-cakes at $49.

But maybe, just maybe, the problem isn't that the market is crowded with sub-par products. Maybe the Mac is just finally getting some competition around text editors and a watered-down version of an editor that used to hold a monopoly wasn't looking too sharp in the same price range as Subethaedit (for commercial use) and TextMate.

Even if you're the greatest Bare Boned fan in the world, you should be seeing the rise of Subethaedit, TextMate, and other new editors on the Mac as the best thing that ever happened to your text editing needs. Lack of competition makes for old sleepy giants. It appears that one of them is just waking up now. Rise and shine!

January 13, 0:59 | Comments (11)

I ordered a Mac Mini

I needed a good excuse (or any excuse, really) to get a Mac Mini and in the long lasting desire of a PVR to record TV onto a harddrive, I found it. I'm going to "build" (plugin firewire cables and chuckle at the missing step three) my own PVR using the Mac Mini and the EyeTV 200.

I'm ever so envious whenever I drop by Jason's place and play with his Tivo, so since Tivo won't come to us Danes, we'll build something even better ourselves. That's right!

I already have the external firewire drive to beef up the storage and since I'm getting it with the airport extreme card it'll fit right into the stereo rack under the TV. Oh, got the bluetooth builtin as well, so it can be controlled with Salling Clicker from that wonderful phone of mine.

Can't wait to stop complaining about how we got 40 channels with nothing on.

January 12, 14:22 | Comments (25)

The desk after the 23'' arrived

October 2003...

March 2003...

October 21, 2:08 | Comments (16)

TextMate 1.0.1 has been released

I've always wanted to do this. So now I'm doing it. Quoting myself:

The first official update to TextMate has emerged from the trials of nine betas before it. Before talking about what’s in it, we’d like to thank all the early adopters that have made it possible for us to iterate at this insane speed. Your time and money are incredibly appreciated and your trust and belief in the product has made all the difference in the world. We’re honored to serve you with this update.

Yes, TextMate 1.0.1 is out. Read all about or skip right to the download.

August 31, 11:34 | Comments (21)

BBEdit 8 released, bloggers long for TextMate

UPDATE: TextMate has been released!

Bare Bones have released the 8th edition of BBEdit, but the reception has certainly not been the all fuzzy, warm, and welcome that the company might have wished for. Chris Carline writes:

BBEdit's popularity continues to remain a mystery to me. Apparently, a "new version" has been released, but the "new features" seem so... weak...

So why do people continue to pay through the nose for BBEdit? It makes no sense! Sure, it's quite a nice editor, but it's worth ~$30 tops! How can the $180 price tag possibly be justified?

And of course, it doesn't get easier to continue to charge 4-6 times the prize of a regular shareware package, when strong competition is mounting in the horizon. idoChron writes:

I like it, but I’m not sure if I $50 upgrade like it. Especially with TextMate around the corner.

...and Carline has even less flattery to spare:

For me, I'm sticking with Vim for now. But on the horizon is TextMate, which actually looks like it might be a bit good. Actually, really, really good.

...and Justin French chimes in with his disappointment that the 8th release wasn't an overhaul:

It’s a predictable and welcome evolution. On the other hand, I was looking for a revolution.... If ever there was an application that was begging for a complete overhaul, BBEdit is it. It feels bloated and cluttered.

With TextMate still aiming for a beta release in September, it certainly looks like the beginning of a new era for Mac editors. BBEdit unchallenged reign of high prices and debatable feature set is coming to an end. I can't wait until MacroMates decides its time for release, so everyone can partake in the goodness that is TextMate.

Have you signed up for the one-time notification yet? You should. It's likely that a smaller crop of testers will be picked from this pool before the official beta unveiling, so there's a bone for you.

August 06, 18:27 | Comments (48)

TextMate: The missing editor for OS X

UPDATE: TextMate has been released!

When I first arrived on the Mac with Jaguar two years ago, I was somewhat stumped by the lack of a decent editor. On Windows, I had been a big fan of UltraEdit and knew of TextPad a decent alternative. But on the Mac there was pretty much nothing of the kind.

Continued...