Festa Del Cupertino

I'm an Apple fan but I don't get all uppity about it.

I think Apple is one of—if not the—best consumer electronics companies out there. I'm an especially big fan of OS X, to which I am a recent convert, having been lured by the 12-inch Powerbook and a BSDish operating system that was better than I at making a GUI appear on the screen.*

The iPods I liked fine. Especially the lack of unnecessary features. That whole "less is more" thing worked out really well until they became the dominant game in town, making MP3 player purchases a choice between a greater feature set or a greater accessories ecosystem, but then Apple came out with the iPhone and I sort of stopped caring. Because the iPhone is one of my favorite gadgets ever. I'm not too proud to say so. I bought one the second day they were out. (I tried to resist!) And even now, I still get a kick out of using it. It still feels like the future.

So sure, enormous fan. But I don't like getting all caught up in the rumors and such here on Gadgets, because it just seems like so much wasted effort and worry. I hope they come out with a sub-notebook today just like most people, but posting up every little scrap of rumor isn't going to make my wishes come true.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you guys know where I stand. A few folks asked me why I don't cover Apple more, but never without saying they're fine with the level of Apple they get here, so I don't expect that to change much. But today's an Apple holiday, so let's enjoy it. If Sony or Microsoft or, I dunno, Samsung or someone would start running their press like Apple and doing big splashy events with often innovative products, I'd enjoy those events, too.

Oh! I was thinking since there's no point whatsoever in liveblogging Macworld—I'm not there, for one; the web will be dripping in it, for two—I was wondering if anybody wanted to jump into an IRC server while it's going on and yak it up. Someone run a channel? Or could we just jump on EFNET or something and start one? I've never used a non-private IRC network so I don't know how those work.

* Seriously, have you ever tried getting X running on FreeBSD? I know it can be done, but sheesh.

Update: We're having a little chat in #bbg on Freenode.

[#1 posted by strider_mt2k , January 15, 2008 5:54 AM]

I'd like to THANK you for not overdoing it like so many others do at this time.

I'm not a fan OR a user, but I'm open to different ways of doing things for different people, therefore I DO enjoy reading about Apple's latest.
(and hey, their stuff is pretty cool!)

It's when it's OVERDONE and EVERY piece of minutiae becomes a story is when I become annoyed and tune out.

So for what it's worth I say you're right on.

[#2 posted by phi , January 15, 2008 6:20 AM]

macrumors is usually running an irc room on their own servers. of course there's a couple of "life-casting" people out there with their own chat rooms as well on justin.tv

[#3 posted by remmelt , January 15, 2008 6:47 AM]

http://www.macrumorslive.com/

Is what I follow. Right from the comfort of my web browser.

[#4 posted by Joel Johnson , January 15, 2008 7:05 AM]

@Phi: Yeah, but I don't want to be in a big cluster of people. I just figured a handful of us from BBG could hang out.

[#5 posted by jrishel , January 15, 2008 7:39 AM]

if no one else is going to jump, I'll do it. I've created a channel on freenode, #bbg

so point your irc client at irc.freenode.net and /join #bbg

[#6 posted by Joel Johnson , January 15, 2008 8:08 AM]

Cool, works for me!

[#7 posted by Anonymous , January 16, 2008 4:01 AM]

For me, getting X running on FreeBSD involved using the "standard" installation from the CD and turning on the computer.

Xorg is a major improvement over XFree86 when you had to look up the horizontal and vertical refresh rates in your monitor's manual (hoping they were even listed...).

[#8 posted by Anonymous , January 16, 2008 2:16 PM]

Happy Jobsmas!