All threats are taken seriously.

1000 customers should be enough for everybody to react! So come on, Apple. Do something about it. This classy, fancy, shiny PowerBook thingie is so fucking useless to people doing performace, recording and presentations when there is still this frantic audio bug looming.

I am already quite pissed about the situation and I think all affected users should get into second gear now. Suggestions?

Update: Apple Insider reports about the upcoming Mac OS X 10.4.5 update:

According to tipsters and reports already present on the Internet, Apple this week seeded the fourth external build of Mac OS X 10.4.5 for PowerPC Macs. The build, reportedly labeled Mac OS X 10.4.5 8H14, is said to address issues with multi-application audio support.

Hope.

Update: According to the original tech article the problem should finally be solved by installing the just released 10.4.5 update. I installed it. So far no loops but to be sure I have test this for a couple of days.

Hmm. Even more Apple trouble on the horizon. I start to get really pissed. I am still in the weird situation having bought a top-class laptop for audio that is not able to play audio. Next up for trouble is the iPod.

I find more and more reports of iPods destroying headphones (you might want to digg the related report on digg.com) and must say I noticed something ‚round here as well. I am still not absolutely sure but it is now the third headphone in a row that exposes weird distortion sounds on the left ear after having it used with my 5G iPod with video for a while. I start believing it might indeed be related to the iPod.

I am not listening to music very loud. Actually, most of the stuff I listen to is speech. So there must be something terribly wrong with this device. I recommend NOT buying this device until further notice.

How many of these did Apple sell? Millions! This could be a very expensive party for Apple.

Do you know that feeling when you can’t recall the next number? Not anymore! Here is the Counting Numbers podcast! Never forget any of these filthy integers anymore!

On Martin Luther King day (January 16th), Al Gore has given a really strong speech on the current state of politics in America, the wiretapping of American citizens by the Bush administration, the lawless imprisonment of US citizens, the practice of torture by the CIA and he couldn’t have been more explicit and precise in many ways.

The Raw Story has a transscript of the speech (Washington Post has one as well) and Madge Weinstein managed to get her hands on a full recording of the speech (MP3, 1:06:35, 45.71 MB) and published it on the Yeast2 podcast.

Here are some notable excerpts of the speech:

„Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our Constitution? If the answer is „yes“ then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited? If the President has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can’t he do?“

He also relates to surveillance technology itself:

„…we need to be aware of the advances in eavesdropping and surveillance technologies with their capacity to sweep up and analyze enormous quantities of information and to mine it for intelligence. This adds significant vulnerability to the privacy and freedom of enormous numbers of innocent people at the same time as the potential power of those technologies. These techologies have the potential for shifting the balance of power between the apparatus of the state and the freedom of the individual in ways both subtle and profound.“

Furthermore he addresses the overall state of the legal and judiciary system in the US.

„Moreover, in the Congress as a whole-both House and Senate-the enhanced role of money in the re-election process, coupled with the sharply diminished role for reasoned deliberation and debate, has produced an atmosphere conducive to pervasive institutionalized corruption.“

He also gives examples on the suppresion of free speech by threatening NASA scientists:

„To take another example, scientific warnings about the catastrophic consequences of unchecked global warming were censored by a political appointee in the White House who had no scientific training. And today one of the leading scientific experts on global warming in NASA has been ordered not to talk to members of the press and to keep a careful log of everyone he meets with so that the Executive Branch can monitor and control his discussions of global warming.“

He adds the any „telecommunications company that has provided the government with access to private information … without a proper warrant should immediately cease and desist their complicity in this … illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens“. And, even more important, he relates to freedom of speech on the Internet in particular:

„Freedom of communication is an essential prerequisite for the restoration of the health of our democracy. It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or the efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it.“

All in all, a very impressive speech. Take your time and listen to it.

You can find me on Plazes now. If you like.

Wow. Retrievr. Search photos by drawing a sketch. Stunning! Check it out.

I have been thinking about the new MacBook Pro model for a while and have lamented over the non-availabilty of several ports. But I think the real target of that new model is programmers.

Mac programmers did not have much time to adopt the new platform. Apple originally targeted June 2006 (or at least they said so). Moving the code to the new system is easy for some, but hard for others. It will take time, nevertheless, before the signifikant amount of programs runs without let or hindrance. Until then it’s just the power users, chronic early adopters and the programmers who will flock to the new machines. So there is a reason that the MacBook is built the way it is: it attracts primarily programmers.

The machine lacks a lot that creative professionals need. VJs for instance can’t really use that machine at all. But their software will probably take long to arrive anyway so it doesn’t really matter. They wouldn’t switch now anyway. So they go for the PowerBook for the time being.

The programmers however will like it: it’s got all the necessary networking, basic USB and FireWire support and it has brand new stuff as well: the ExpressCard slot directly targets developers – software and hardware developers alike.

Guy Kawasaki describes The Art of Evangelism by listing the ten fundamental principles of evangelism.

1. Create a cause
2. Love the cause
3. Look for agnostics, ignore atheists
4. Localize the pain
5. Let people test drive the cause
6. Learn to give a demo
7. Provide a safe first step
8. Ignore pedigrees
9. Never tell a lie
10. Remember your friends

It’s business oriented list but lists at least five things I would consider the building ground of any evangelism. It might apply to religion as well but haven’t thought about that.

Discordianism – being a cause you can love as much – would add at least one other fundamental principle: „An Evangelist is Prohibited from Believing What he reads“