I happened to turn my PC on this evening.  Not an everyday occurance, I can tell you, what with the vast superiority of my Mac, but sadly the majority of the world still hasn’t come over to the dark side, so every now and then I have to test web sites on that old lumbering beast that is Internet Explorer.  In fact, I have both IE7 and IE6, just to be nice to those dinosaurs who are still living in the 90s.  I looked at my XP desktop, and thought, oh for a gorgeous Apple-like program to cheer up my poor, left-out PC.  And then it hit me – I hadn’t installed Safari yet!

When Microsoft abandoned Mac users by stopping development of Internet Explorer for the Mac, Apple bit the bullet and decided to create their own web browser, with more frills, functionality and fun, and they did a wonderful job.  Sure, it’s not perfect even now, nothing is, but it’s a darn sight better than IE, despite Microsoft’s years of experience.  And recently Apple decided that PC users could have a slice of the action, and released a PC version of their award winning browser, boasting a faster user experience than any other browser available.  A pretty tall claim to make, but so far no one appears to have corrected them, which is a good start.

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In a previous post I lamented the limitations of the Address Book app that comes with Mac OS X Tiger, in particular its inability to take into account relationships between contacts and the sharing of addresses between multiple people.  However, it is with great satisfaction that I discovered that by default this humble app does in fact support these features, and with the inclusion of a small plugin copes with it very well.  So my apologies to Apple for doubting the capability of your software, you have surpassed my expectations once again!

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Years ago, long before the likes of Rollercoaster Tycoon came on the scene, Chris Sawyer released Transport Tycoon for the PC, a DOS-based game working on an isometric grid where the player created complex transport networks between industries and towns.  Over a decade later and the game has been ported to other platforms, developed almost beyond recognition, and has a cult following of enthusiasts still hooked by the thrill of the money-spinning construction game.

Having recently installed the Mac version of OpenTTD (which is the open-source release of Transport Tycoon Deluxe) I have been reliving my wasted youth building expansive rail networks with complex junctions and sprawling airports.  But rather than quietly indulge in my own private geekiness I opted to share my obsession with the world.  Here, then, are some screenshots of some junctions I have just built for demonstration purposes.

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When it comes to keeping track of what’s going on in the world, I happen to be notoriously uninterested.  I particularly remember one rather embarrassing moment when I was at school when I came into the classroom and someone asked me “So what’s your view on the war?”  I bashfully replied, “We’re at war?  Who with?”  Since that moment I’ve realised that I do need to make an effort to stay up to date with what’s going on, and anything that makes that experience easier and more interesting has got to be a good thing.

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Yes, it’s finally reached the point where I’m thinking about upgrading my Mac.  I’ve had my Blue & White G3 for a couple of years now, and it has served me well so far.  It’s been reliable, fast (compared to my PC anyway), efficient, and of course drop-dead-gorgeous, but it’s finally beginning to show its age.

I bought it second hand on eBay, and it came already upgraded to include a 1GHz G4 processor, although the motherboard itself remained standard.  While the extra processor speed was useful, the rest has suffered from not having the benefits of the G4 motherboard, which has prohibited the use of more powerful graphics cards capable of the clever QuartzExtreme jobbies that really make OS X shine.  Neither does the G3 support Airport Extreme, as far as I am aware, which is the latest line of wireless connectivity addons that Apple has created to connect our Macs to the net.  At the moment I’m still using one of those old-fashioned CAT5 cables, which is so last decade.   The computer also only came with two 10GB hard disks, which was hardly sufficient, and they soon made way for a 250GB disk taken out of an external firewire drive.  Unfortunately the G3 motherboard doesn’t recognise anything that enormous, so I could only format half of that, but so far 128GB has been plenty for my needs.

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You know, it’s a strange thing watching your wife go out to work while you’re still in your dressing gown. Ellie has a job working backstage at a theatre in Ipswich, and this week is the pre-production week where they set everything up, do sound checks and run-throughs and suchlike, so Ellie is working some very long hours. She left here at about 8:30am, and won’t finish work until about 10pm, after which she still has to get back to Wivenhoe, so it’ll be very late before she’s safely back here. And all the while I’m here alone in the house, working from home. I already miss her dreadfully.

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