Filed under: General | Tags: apple, gestures, mac os x, Magic Mouse, Mouse, touch sensitive
I had no need for one, my old mouse (Microsoft Comform Mouse Optical 3000) was working well for me, but one thing I hated was the cord. Apple recently announced the release of a new generation Mouse, one with a touch-sensitive surface, supporting multi-touch gestures, the Magic Mouse.
What makes this mouse stand out at first is the design, it’s basically a shallow arc, smooth surface, but the most obvious thing is that the mouse is very low profile, probably half the height of other mice. The mouse uses Bluetooth and is quickly setup within Mac OS X, it requires 10.5.8 or 10.6.2 to run, once found that is pretty much the setup, a matter of seconds.
The use of the mouse, despite its low profile, is surprisingly good. I really like that I can scroll my page with an up-down gesture, it’s somewhat easier than a scroll wheel; back/forward via two-finger left/right gesture; and screen magnify with CTRL+up/down gesture. As with Apple’s previous generation of mice, the Mighty Mouse, the mouse exhibits no visual suggestion that it’s a two button mouse, although you do need to turn on this feature within the System Preferences Mouse panel.
Happy with my AUS$99 purchase, just ticked it took so long to arrive in stores.
After 9 months yesterday I became an uncle with the birth of my niece Ruby Kate Purse. She’s absolutely gorgeous, and so far, very quiet. My sister is proud as punch, Ruby spewed amniotic fluid overnight and promptly returned to sleep haha. I think they’ll have a little girl who likes her sleep-ins and will be difficult to wake to go to school in a few years time. They ended up having to deliver via caesarian as Ruby was in no hurry to come of her own accord, even gel to bring on labour failed to do the trick.
Welcome to the world little one, see you next month 
Filed under: Computing | Tags: 10.6.1, annoyance, bugs, disk eject, mac os x, Snow Leopard, unmount, USB
Alright, for the most part Apple’s Snow Leopard 10.6 release of Mac OS X has been a positive one, however there is an annoying bug in 10.6.1 where one of my external USB drives responsible for Time Machine backups keeps ejecting. Worse still is the fact that when it does this the external keyboard and mouse also stop working WTF! I trawled the Apple Support boards yesterday and it appears that I’m not the only one getting this. I hope that 10.6.2 resolves this, it’s apparently due soon. For the moment I am leaving my USB drives unplugged, the constant unmount/mount of the Time Machine drive makes this an impossibility for now.
Work PC goes in for re-imaging today, it has been a steady decline culminating yesterday in its refusal to load Dreamweaver CS4 and InDesign CS4, with the latter not even displaying its loading graphic. The computer has been slower than a wet week to load these past 1.5 months, for a machine not yet 2 years old it was taking 5 minutes to display the login then another 5 minutes usually before I could actually use it – frustrating to say the least.
I look forward to getting it back tomorrow and having to go through the reverse of what I was doing yesterday, migrating all my data from the laptop h/disk to external media. It’s at times like these I wish I didn’t have so much data, but 60GB of photos, websites and publications in progress, all regularly used, I have.
Wish I had a MacBook Pro at work instead of this piece of shit Lenovo.
After the crew of the Destiny narrowly escaped the clutches of the star, and recharging their energy stores in the process, they again face another problem, their water stores are again dwindling, and quicker than anticipated. The situation causes distrust amongst crew members who now believe that either the military component are lying about the true volume of water, or that members of the crew are using water beyond their quotas.
The Destiny exits hyperspace at a planet jokingly referred to as Hoth (see Star Wars – Empire Strikes Back), however the planet’s atmosphere is hostile to human life and with only two functional environmental suits the numbers able to explore via the gate are predetermined, the Colonel chooses himself and Lt Scott. After they disembark through the gate they begin testing the frozen wasteland and discover that near the gate the chemical makeup of the ice is toxic to humans; they determine to explore further away from the gate in the hope that the frozen lake make yield better results.
Back on the Destiny medico Johansen is left in charge and must get to the bottom of why water is disappearing. Johansen eventually determines the best course of action is the confine everyone to quarters whilst a limited group go in search of answers. As various members of the crew are exploring, trying to find answers, the entity that appeared to Lt Scott in the opening three episodes of Air is seen by Johansen, the entity creating a face to look at her; Johansen backs away and radios that she’s found an alien entity abord the Destiny.
Back on the planet Colonel Young and Lt Scott eventually discover water that isn’t toxic to drink and radio back that they’ve been successful (gate’s open). As they set to work loading the floating platform, developed by Eli (looks like Michael J Fox’s scateboard from the Back to the Future movies, only bigger), their return to the gate is halted when Lt Scott falls through the ice, damaging his suit in the process.
Back on Destiny another crew member comes upon the alien entity, panics and begins shooting after which the entity attacks leaving him badly bloodied. After this Sgt Greer develops a flame thrower and is determined to go hunting, eventually following the entity throughout the ship until it enters a room they are able to lock off and deprive of atmosphere. Locked in the room the entity becomes agitated and eventually manages to penetrate the seal whereupon Greer flames it to prevent.
On the planet the Colonel uses rope to try and lift Lt Scott to the surface, but faced with an injured leg, and Lt Scott being firmly wedged he faces a losing battle. After a while Lt Scott beings to float in and out of consciousness.
Back on the Destiny Lt Johansen devises a plan to get rid of entity. Johansen takes a barrel filled with water and opens it outside the room holding the entity, she then orders the room unsealed and waits for the entity to head towards the water. Her plan works and once inside she closes and locks the lid down.
Another quake occurs on the planet and frees Lt Scott for extraction by Colonel Young, although Lt Scott doesn’t regain consciousness until he nears the surface. Both men head back to the gate but as they arrive the gate disengages and quickly reengages, they are told to stay clear as they are going to throw the entity through the gate. After the entity is successfully sent through the gate Colonel Young and Lt Scott dial out and head home. Destiny shortly thereafter reenters hyperspace, the mission has achieved some success but their efforts won’t sustain the crew for long.
