Blind Not Dumb (Posts about macintosh)

So I got a new keyboard (WASD Code 104 Key)

cpatti — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 08:00:00 GMT

Readers of this blog will know that I love mechanical keyboards. Traditionally I go for the super clicky Cherry MX Brown switches.

However, my next door neighbor at work very politely informed me that I was driving him stark raving bug house with the machine gun like sound of my typing.

So, after some heart felt recommendations from my coworkers I bought a WASD Code 104 Key Keyboard.

It's a nice compromise. I'll always prefer the superior tactile feedback of the Cherry MX Brown switches, but given that each key doesn't issue that satisfying (or annoying, depending on your perspective) CLICK, typing on this keyboard is still extremely comfortable.

The keyboard offers some great features. One of my favorites is a set of DIP switches on the keyboard's underside that allow for hardware configuration of a number of important characteristics. For instance with the flip of a switch I turned on "Mac Mode" which put the Command/Apple key in the right place among other things.

I also find the white backlighting this keyboard offers to be very pleasing to the eye. If I'm honest with myself the cool green backlighting is one of the features of love about my Razor Black Widow Ultimate.

The only down sides I can cite for this keyboard are the lack of pass through connectors for USB and headphones. Both my DAS and Razer keyboards have these and they're very handy for things like hooking up your mouse.

Overall it's a great keyboard and I'm pleased that I can type comfortably without annoying the crap out of my coworkers :)

I've gone native. (Or - Google's UI and I are parting ways)

cpatti — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:31:00 GMT

Today Google announced that they were releasing a new Composer for GMail.

It's awful. They made the window small, and right justified it. I feel like I have to crane my neck at an unnatural angle in order to see what I'm writing, and worse yet, they've turned my good old message composition interface into something akin to a web forum or chat window.

This is NOT what I'm looking for in my email user experience.

A few months back, Google also did a full on revamp of the GMail UI that utterly convinced me they have an unrelenting hatred of the visually impaired. The entire screen looked as if it had been bleached of color and life, and the contrast was so low I could literally barely read it at all.

After squeals of protect from a large chunk of their user base, they relented and produced a 'high contrast' setting, which was better.

In short, I can't keep feeling like I'm being punched full in the face by Google every few months. I respect their right to innovate their products in whatever way they see fit, but thankfully I don't have to choose between liking it or hitting the road.

I've switched to Apple's Mail.app and iCal. They work great, aren't actively hostile to the visually impaired, and allow me to keep using the Google back end so I can keep my old email addresses and contact info.

Apple may be many things, but one thing they are great about is providing accessibility features for the handicapped. It's not like I have any illusions about being a minority - most people can probably read the ghostly low contrast color theme just fine, and probably like the fact that their email now looks more like IM.

More power to them I say :)

Update: Can't lie, it's been a rough go. Gmail's IMAP access throttles throughput beyond a certain point, and Apple Mail can't handle the large mailboxes I have even with having given them a serious slim down. I really wish there were a solution to this problem.

Update Update: I've essentially given up on this :( Mail.app just plain stinks. It might be fine for folks with a single account or maybe very light usage on multiple accounts, but with two Gmail accounts and lots of labels, it's downright abysmal. It takes 15-20 minutes to get everything in sync, and then often takes another 20 minutes just toexit the app!* This is not my idea of an enterprise class eMail application. I'm disappointed in you Apple!*

Why Apple's Mac App Store will be good for the Mac

cpatti — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:19:00 GMT

When Apple said they were introducing an "App Store" to OSX a-la the iPhone, iPad, etc. there was much ranting and foaming at the mouth...Many geeks proclaimed the death of Mac OS X as we know it. "Apple is iPhone-izing the Mac!" they cried.

They're largely wrong, at least in all the important ways.

Here are the salient points:

Discovery - people are *far* more likely to purchase things that are available from a single, readily accessible source. Having a veritable floatilla of awesome software that's discoverable right from the Apple menu of every Mac means that if you're a publisher, people are FAR more likely to try your software. I myself found a free copy of Autodesk Sketchpad in the app store that I am very much enjoying. I might end up buying the commercial product as a result - possibly through the app store! (See caveats below for why I might choose the shrink wrapped version.)
Ease of installation - just like on the iPhone and iPad, you click "Buy" or "Install" and *BOOM* it's on your machine, happily bouncing in your dock. For non technical people, this is a godsend. They do not want to know about .dmg files, dragging apps to the Applications folder, or the like. Yes, I know, this is VASTLY easier than the folks in the Windows world have it with their highly complex installers, but even still.
One Stop Shopping for updates - Sure, lots of devs these days are bundling some kind of update mechanism into their apps, but this is once again - seamless and easy to use for non technical people.

Of course, every silver lining has a cloud attached, so there are a few down sides:

Inflexible upgrade path - Apple has imposed rules around publishers app store offerings, I don't know all the details, but I do know that publishers are not happy. They want total control of how they monetize the sale of upgrades for their customers, and to a certain extent I can't blame them. Over all I think the net winner here is the consumer, so we'll see how many publishers sign up and grudgingly cope with the new rules.
Restrictive rules about permitted content - Nothing sexy, nothing violent, no Java or Rosetta, just like the IOS app store.

From my perspective, people who object to the app store on OSX are on shaky ground, because unlike the IOS world where the app store is the ONLY way to get apps, the app store on OSX isn't. You can still install apps the old fashioned way, and Apple has given no indocation that they intend to do this now or at any time in the future. I don't think it's in their best interest to do this, and I think people who are predicting imminent doom really need to get their collective head checked.

Then again, geeks do have a propensity for hysterics.

To sum up, I think everyone (publishers, consumers, and the wider Mac community) has everything to gain and nothing to lose from the app store, and I for one welcome the addition.

Apparently hell froze over - Apple made Safari into a usable web browser!

cpatti — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:37:00 GMT

For a long time I have *wanted* to be a Safari user...

But every time I would try I would end up using it for 5 minutes and then find myself butting heads with a site that's entirely unreadable using it.

My hard core Mac zealot friends would wave their arms and say "BUT THOSE SITES AREN'T STANDARDS CONFORMANT!" which is probably true, but there are times I simply want to be an end user, and web browsing is one of them.

Happily, with version 1.3 Apple seems to have improved the HTML, CSS and Javascript rendering support enough that all of the sites that I tested which used to fail utterly or render useless results under older versions now work like a charm.

Kudos to Apple for having had the sense to bring their default web browser for OSX up to the excellent user experience standards exhibited by the rest of its environment.