Archive for » 2010 «
It’s been a while since I threw a Mac tip into the mix, so here goes.
A pet-hate of mine is that annoying noise that plays when your machine starts up. Whether it’s a PC or a Mac, I have no idea why someone would think it was a good idea to by default play a sound at startup, or shutdown for that matter.
What is the benefit of that? No, I can’t think of it either.
Strange thing is, on the Mac it’s not something you can easily get rid of. So, other than remembering to mute the sound before shutdown, you’re was stuck with it. Grrrr.
However, after a little bit of digging about, I’ve found a method to stop the startup sound on the Mac without the rest of the sound being muted.
‘The Big One’ is a Pepsi Max sponsored roller coaster at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach resort in North-West England (UK).
I think The Big One is probably the highest coaster I’ve ever been on. Although other coasters may come close, because it’s located on the Blackpool coast, the wind coming in off the sea makes you feel as though you’re at the top of an Himalayan abyss.
This coaster is prone to being closed due to high winds in the vicinity. The first couple of times I was in the area since it was opened, I didn’t get on, but it was worth the wait…
As you may have seen from other posts, I’m a big Apple fan.
I’ve admired them since the early days, but until relatively recently never owned any of their products. A bit too expensive and not mainstream enough to be in use where I worked.
That all changed with the iPod. Still expensive but luckily I received one as a gift. I liked the simplicity; the controls, the minimalism. Then, more recently and long overdue, I got myself an iPhone; even better. Finally I took the big step and plunged into OSX and a MacBook; rock ‘n roll!
It’s all about the little design things for me. The way it looks, feels. The buttons are just right, the precision machining (the sim drawer on the iPhone for example), nothing is superfluous; all form, fit and function.
You’ll be hard-pushed to persuade me against any of the Apple products I own, other than with newer, better versions of them.
And therein lies my gripe about Apple…
This is perhaps a slightly unusual post for me; a sport, or more specifically, a football post.
Back in the day, my father-in-law used to play junior football. By all accounts he was a bit special as a left back and always been a big fan of football at all levels.
We knew he played for a few clubs before hanging up his boots to raise his family. Money was tight and a steady job had to take priority over his passion for the game.
We were going through some boxes of old photos recently and happened upon something genuinely interesting from 60 years ago…
I like music. I’ve always liked music; all kinds of music. In days gone by, I would spend my spare cash on buying vinyl or things to play it on.
When CDs arrived on the scene, I switched to the new medium and the vinyl was assigned to the loft. I even re-bought some of my old vinyl on CD (you’re welcome guys – double-whammy for you).
When downloads came into play (jeez this makes me sound old) I still continued to buy CDs, because some strange part of me still liked having something solid and tangible in my hand after parting with my cash.
When I finally took the plunge and bought a few individual tracks from iTunes, to fill some gaps on my iPod, all seemed fine. Until I decided to move some of my music onto a little stick MP3 player and I happened upon the problem with Digital Rights Management.
The iTunes-purchased tracks wouldn’t play on my stick drive because it was in iTunes format, not standard MP3…
Until I went on Montu at Busch Gardens in Florida, Nemesis at Alton Towers in England was probably my favourite coaster.
Over the years, I’ve been To Alton Towers many, many times and whenever I’m there, I always make a point of having at least a couple of goes on this fabulous coaster.
Alton Towers is situated in the heart of the Staffordshire countryside in England, about equidistant between Derby and Stoke-On-Trent, if you happen to know that neck of the woods.
You drive on some winding roads through some really beautiful countryside to get from the motorway to the park.