david sidlinger

The 1.1.2 firmware for the iPod touch updates the calendar application to allow adding and editing of events. I can return my touch to its unjailbroken state.

via daring fireball

Today, I ran the jailbreak on my iPod touch. I was perfectly content to leave it locked up and wait for ISVs to get their hands on the SDK in February. The only thing that I wanted was the ability to add and edit events in the calendar application. I give Apple a lot of leeway (and a lot of my money,) but the artificial limitation they placed on the calendar app on the touch was too much. Apparently, it’s the same binary that runs on the iPhone with a configuration property change. What in the world were they thinking?

I recently picked up of the new Apple keyboards, the wired one, to use on both my laptop and with Windows at work. Spending a lot of time on the MacBook made me accustomed to typing on the chiclet keys, and I’m now used to the positions of the control and alt keys on a Mac. My traditional Windows keyboard, a Microsoft Natural Ergo 4000, was slowing me down.

The good news is that the keyboard works fine with Windows. A little bit of work with SharpKeys and I was ready to go. I remapped F13 to Insert (VMware Workstation uses Ctrl-Alt-Ins to send Ctrl-Alt-Del to virtual machines) and the right Command (Windows) to the Application key (context-click).

The only problem I have had so far is “bottoming out” my keystrokes. The travel on the new keyboard is extremely short. Sometimes my fingers forget about that and pretend they are hitting the keys on the old one. It’s a lot like when you think there’s another stair to go and end up slamming your foot down hard. I’m sure that will go away in time.

A couple things prospective buyers might want to know:

• As far as I can tell, the “special” function keys don’t do anything under Windows; so, no media/volume control is available. The keys don’t register at all using SharpKeys’ “Type Key” functionality. The only way to fix this appears to be a driver.
• Mac’s don’t use NumLock. The clear key functions as a NumLock key under Windows, but there is no indicator light for feedback.

Update: Forgot to mention that I love this keyboard. It’s the opposite of what I thought I’d want, but I wouldn’t want to go back now.

John Gruber has a good post over on Daring Fireball clearing up some misconceptions about the AAC codec.  I have to say that everyone I’ve talked to about this thinks it is an Apple proprietary format.

I guess I’m officially an Apple fanboy.

Last year, I was in the market for a laptop and decided on a MacBook. I really wanted something small that wouldn’t be a burden to carry around. The fact that I could run Windows easily on it won me over, but I don’t find myself running my Windows VM that much at this point.

A few weeks ago, I talked my wife into getting one, because the HP laptop she had been using was constantly giving her fits. It didn’t really take that much persuading. I’d say it was a good move, because, in spite of the fact that she moved to a completely alien OS, she hasn’t had any problems with it. To top it off, the ‘Books are sexy as all get out.

Then the Apple TVs came out. I have always dreamed about slashing our ridiculous cable bill. With all of our media firmly entrenched in iTunes, it was kind of a no-brainer. Sure, there are other, more flexible solutions out there, but none of them were dead simple enough to turn my son loose with the remote and not worry about. I picked one up the first week they were available. It will pay for itself in short order, as I no longer feel like I need anything beyond basic cable and internet service; I had digital cable and two (sucky) DVRs from Comcast. I’d ditch the TV service completely, but the need for cartoons and Food Network has been made very clear to me.

Last Sunday, my router went to the bit bucket in the sky. Want to take a guess where this is leading? I took my first trip to the local shrine Apple store and walked out with a bright, shiny, new AirPort Extreme base station. I didn’t comparison shop much at all, and I’m sure they are more expensive than most, if not all, of the other routers out there, but there were three things that drove me to it: the router is no longer an eyesore in the media room that looks like something from 50’s sci-fi, the built-in NAS and print server is awesome, and everything I get from Apple just works like it should.

Today, the final nail was driven in the PC’s coffin at my house. The iMac arrived from Amazon. We needed a desktop for my son to use and to serve as a warehouse for the big media files we don’t want to carry around on the laptops. The plan is to stream all the movies and TV shows from the iTunes library on it, maybe with an external drive. One of the big selling points was the ability to lock down my son’s activities. I hear that Vista has some new features in this area, but I would bet they’re not as dead simple to implement.

So, to recap, in the past few weeks, we’ve picked up a MacBook, Apple TV, Apple’s wireless router, and an iMac. I think that definitely gets me into the fan club.

The thing that makes this really funny is that I make a living writing business software exclusively for Windows on top of the .NET framework.  Guess you could say I’m leading a double life.