Belated Birthday

5 Replies

This was something I meant to do Wednesday, but I wanted to wish ***Mac OS X|http://www.apple.com/macosx/*** a happy third birthday!

On ***March 21, 2001|http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/mar/21osxstore.html***, Apple announced that Mac OS X would be available starting that weekend, March 24. And as promised, Mac OS X began showing up at local retailers such as CompUSA. (Apple had not yet opened any of their retail stores; the first two would open ***two months later|http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2001/may/15retail.html***.)

Developers and other afficionados had already been given a taste of the new operating system by way of the Public Beta, released September 12, 2000. But Mac OS X 10.0 was the first chance for everyone in the Mac world to step up to the next level.

I did not purchase Mac OS X right off of the bat; I was running Linux on both of my Mac computers at the time, and I didn’t see any immediate need for it. However, my curiosity eventually got the better of me, and I ended up installing Mac OS X 10.0 on my PowerBook towards the end of July, just before leaving for the ***O’Reilly Open Source Convention|http://www.oreillynet.com/oscon2001/***.

Version 10.0 (“Cheetah”) was admittedly quite flaky. Most of the critical features were there, but there weren’t a lot of extras to be had, and some things still didn’t work quite right.

Version 10.1 (“Puma”) was released September 25, 2001, fixing many of 10.0’s bugs and adding some new features. Since Apple had by then opened many retail stores, this upgrade was passed out for free that evening. I was there at the recently-opened ***Northshore|http://www.apple.com/retail/northshore/*** store to pick it up.

Version 10.2 (“Jaguar”) was released July 17, 2002. This, many people felt, was the first “real” release of Mac OS X. All of the features were there, it was no longer flaky, and it was just overall a good, solid experience. Particularly notable was the introduction of Quartz Extreme, boosting 2d graphics performance through the roof when used with compatible accelerated graphics cards. I was at the Northshore store again for their Jaguar release party, that night, and I’ve got the ***photos to prove it|http://gallery.prwdot.org/jaguar_party***.

Version 10.3 (“Panther”) was released on October 24, 2003, introducing some amazing new technologies such as Expose. Again, I was at an Apple Store for that celebration (dubbed “Night of the Panther”), only this time it was at the ***Burlingame|http://gallery.prwdot.org/sfo_day6/DSCN4220*** location, as Becky and I were vacationing in San Francisco.

Mac OS X has come a long way, and I now have the latest version, 10.3.3, running on both my PowerBook G3 and my PowerMac G4. It’s definitely the most stable, feature-filled, easy-to-use operating system I’ve ever experienced.

If you’re interested in a technical look back at the evolution of Mac OS X, Ars Technica has written up an article on ***Three Years of Mac OS X|http://www.arstechnica.com/etc/mac/index.html***.

Thanks also to The Apple Museum for their ***Macintosh operating system timeline|http://www.theapplemuseum.com/index.php?id=tam&page=timeline&subpage=os***.

Search and Archive

1 Reply

You should notice a few additional new features on our site: a blog search engine, a link to our archives, and the ever-popular “permalink” notation on each blog entry.

The search engine can be found towards the bottom left part of the page. You might have to scroll to see it, but we opted to keep it that way as putting it on top of the page caused some of the links to scroll off of the screen. To use it, simply type in whatever you’d like to search for, and hit enter. The screen will refresh and display excerpts from any entries in our blog that match your search word. You will then be able to navigate directly to those entries.

The archive link can be found on the top left part of the page. It will take you to a page that displays different groups of previous blog entries: category-based, date-based, and individual. You can use this to see, for example, all of the entries from October 2002, or all of the entries related to Food.

Finally, the permalink is provided in each entry for the purposes of linking directly to a given entry on our site. So if you would like to mention a specific entry from our blog in your blog, email, IM, or whatever, you can now use our permalink. Easy-peasy!

All of these changes, and many of the other new features that were introduced with our new format, are a direct result of my reading up on ***MovableType|http://www.movabletype.org/***’s feature set and template system. I’ve done a lot more as far as correctly implementing links, using more of MT’s built-in features where I had previously been doing hacks, generally getting more out of the system.

We hope that you enjoy all of these changes, and as always, share any comments with us via the commenting system!

Funny Politics

Cake on Crack

2 Replies

Due to popular demand, I am posting the recipe for “Chocolate Cherry Bars” mentioned by Peter in an earlier post. This is an anonymous recipe that i received at my bridal shower in September 2002. I believe that it is from the Lyttle family, but I’m not 100% sure. Happy baking!

Chocolate Cherry Bars

Bars:

* 1 pkg. devil’s food cake mix
* 1 21-oz. can cherry pie filling
* 1 tsp. almond extract
* 2 eggs, beaten

Frosting:

* 1 cup sugar
* 1/3 cup milk
* 5 T. margarine
* 1 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13″x9″ pan. In large bowl combine all bar ingredients; stir until well blended. Spread in pan. Bake until toothpick in center comes out clean (25-30 mins) In small saucepan, combine sugar, milk and margarine; mix well. Bring to a boil. Boil 1 min.; stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate chips until smooth. Pour and spread over warm bars. Cool 1 1/4 hours or until completely cooled.

New

7 Replies

It is true, World Wide Wood has molted and regrown a new and improved skin! There is no need to adjust your monitors.

We decided that after a year and a half it was probably time to give the ole website a new look. Cleaner, fresher, just different. A couple weeks ago we asked for suggestions for change and have attempted to incorporate these suggestions.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I don’t usually deal well with change. I get attached to things (backpacks, sneakers, pillowcases, websites) and go through heart wrenching episodes while I transition to the new.

I hope you enjoy the new look and layout. If there are any out there, like me, who need to revisit the old look you can see it ***here|http://prwdot.org/index.old.php***

Various and Sundry

2 Replies

Becky and I made some big strides in the new design for the World Wide Wood site this weekend. I’m pretty excited about it… it’s a very different look and feel We have a few bits and pieces to finish up, but the overall design is complete, including a new color scheme and layout. We think you’ll like it.

Saturday night we hung out with my cousin Mark ( of ***Izotope|http://www.izotope.com/*** ). His car gave us detailed computer-navigated directions to ***Taco Bell|http://www.tacobell.com/***, where we had dinner. Speaking of TB, they have this great new feature on their hot sauce packets: little hot-sauce-related quotes. For example: “The road to mediocrity is paved with ketchup packets.” or “Why order hot sauce when you can ask it nicely?” or “Mild: It’s the new ketchup.” (P.S. For anyone who cares, “ketchup” is the preferred spelling, while “catsup” and “catchup” are variants) Becky made a chocolate-cherry cake for dessert, which was beyond excellent. It had a devil’s food cake mix at its core, but did not use the recipe on the box. Becky can post the actual recipe she used, but suffice to say, it rocked. There was a lot left over, so I brought it in to work today. It was quickly devoured. One choice quote from the office crowd: “It’s like cake on crack.” Many thanks to my wonderful wife and her drug lab… err, I mean, kitchen. 🙂

After dinner we partook in ***quality entertainment|http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0098546/*** on DVD.

On the Mac front, the update to Mac OS X 10.3.3 was ***recently released|http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosxupdate_10_3_3.html***, and I’ve got that installed on the Pismo and Sawtooth at home. It just keeps getting better.

cut to the chase

4 Replies

Something like three months ago I sent a cover letter and resume to “Zoo New England” for a position in their education department at the Stone Zoo and the Franlkin Park Zoo. I knew it was a long shot, but at this point in the game it seemed worth a try.

So, this afternoon I received an email from them. The content of the email will be self-evident once you see the subject line. Here goes:

“Subject: Rejection Letter”

Woah! Don’t be afraid to let me know how you really feel! C’est la vie!

a flaw in the system

2 Replies

I have a pet peeve when it comes to fast food resturaunts and thier pricing schematics. Here’s the deal. Yesterday, I drove through McDonalds wanting some McNuggets and a small Diet Coke. I had a moment to look over the menu-board and was faced with a frustrating decision. The two items that I wanted were the same exact price as a ‘combo meal’ containing the McNuggets, a Large Coke and a Large Fries. More food for the same money. hmmm.

My good sense of Value tells me that I should order the combo meal. For the same price I get much more lunch. I would be the first to jump on such an offer in many other settings; ie, buy 3 tires get one free, or buy-one-get-one-free boxes of cereal. However, this time I was trying to be healthy and not eat all those french fries!

Yesterday’s experience reminded me of one I had a while back. I wanted a bagel and a small hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts. I went in and ordered. The kid at the counter, being nice-doing his job, let me know that it was actually cheaper if I bought the large cocoa with the bagel (again a combo meal deal). I didn’t want the larger drink and ended up paying MORE for less! How aggrivating!

I wish that I could say that I didn’t understand why places do this, but I do. People respond well to marketing that offers them more for less. And the combo meals are easier and quicker to order. It would just be nice to spend money in correct proportion to the amount of food actually purchased. How frustrating to be penalized for wanting less!

If Dogs and Cats Could Blog…

The Life-Stealer

4 Replies

It tastes so good that I had to pause in the middle of eating lunch to post this.

Last night Becky made one of my favorite dishes, “tater tot casserole”. I don’t know the exact recipe, but I do know that it involves ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese soup, and of course… tater tots. We had it for dinner, and there was enough left over for me to bring some in for work today.

I think that eating it has probably taken a couple of weeks off of my life, but oh… it’s worth it. Maybe Becky will be kind enough to post the complete recipe here later tonight.