Gary Robinson's Rants

MacBook Pro

I received my new MacBook Pro yesterday. It's a lot faster. On my 1.5GHz PB G4 I couldn't play a YouTube video in OmniWeb without it stalling every few seconds. No problem at all on this machine.

The main reason I waited this long to get a MacBook Pro is that I use my notebook on my lap a lot. Screenshots of people frying eggs on one made me think they may not be exactly compatible with my normal computer use. But the new Core 2 Duo models have a different design, and so far I am having no problem with heat. This is a great machine.

Where's Growl?

Growl is a fairly ubiquitous system-wide notification utility for Mac OS X. Many apps use it to inform the user when an event of interest occurs. My most common use is in Gyazmail, which issues a Growl notification when an email arrives that it can't reliably classify as spam or nonspam.

Notice that the word "Growl" in my first sentence above is not a link to the product site. That's because the link is down for a couple days. (Just when I wanted to upgrade to a universal binary version for use with my new MacBook Pro.)

Probably too soon to really speculate on this, but it makes me wonder if Apple is doing some kind of deal with the Growl team for inclusion in Leopard. The mysterious disappearance of a product's Web site has often been an indicator of that kind of thing.

If it happens, well, You Heard It Here First. I can find no other online reference to this possibility.

Funny patent claim

Seen on Reddit via TechDirt: a patent application, in the USPTO system, that has as one of its claims:

9. The method of providing user interface displays in an image forming apparatus which is really a bogus claim included amongst real claims, and which should be removed before filing; wherein the claim is included to determine if the inventor actually read the claims and the inventor should instruct the attorneys to remove the claim.

Monty Hall Problem

A great live demonstration of the Monty Hall Problem.

"Behind one of these doors is a car. Behind the other two is a goat. Click on the door that you think the car is behind..."

You pick a door, and before opening it, Monty opens a different one, revealing a goat. He then asks you if want to switch doors. Should you?