GordyBlog

Triathlon Training – day 40

Morning – Spinning Class

This was the regular 05:15 AM class at Lifetime Fitness. I had to bug out a bit early. Was trying to get home before Mikie had to leave for Pasadena.

Lunch – Strength Training Coach said just to do upper-body today. I’ve got the 25K Rocky Raccoon Trail run up in Huntsville State Park. Details Duration: 00:35 Sets: 1. DB bench press - 25x10; 45x10,12 2. seated lat pulldown - 105x10; 120x10,11 3. ab with twist, decline - BWx20,20,30 4. DB shoulder press - 25x10; 30x10; 35x5 5. BB bent-over row - 115x5; 95x8, 10

Parallels 5 Rocks!

I purchased and installed the Parallels 5 upgrade for my Mac a couple of days ago. Those of you who know me are aware that I am no fan of any Windows operating system (although 7 is looking interesting), but that I occasionally have to run it because there are a couple of niche programs that I have whose developer’s have yet to provide a Mac version.

One in particular is the Polar desktop application that is needed to upload data from my Polar heart rate monitor to the computer.

Well I’ve been using Parallels to run my Windows XP partition on the Mac for some time now. It works, but it’s been kind of slow and also there have been issues with certain peripherals. Give you an example of the second point. Sometimes when I plug in the USB infra-red data transfer device that interfaces with the Polar HRM, XP wouldn’t recognize it. My work-around was to just start-up the Add/Remove hardware control panel. Just had to get it to the second screen and then I could quit it.

Well after installing Parallels version 5 I have noticed that (1) it’s MUCH faster and (2) it seems to recognize the IR interface reliably. Good job Parallels!!!

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Here are some interesting articles that compare the cost of Apple Macs with various Windows-based computers.

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html

A PDF document

Windows 5 Times More Expensive

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In my opinion, Apple Computer should buy RunRev. I think it was a terrible mistake on Apple’s part to drop HyperCard. They could rectify that mistake by purchasing RunRev and bundling it with every computer that they sell.

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Very interesting article: Building the $200 OSx86 Mac.

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Apple has quietly released a bunch of updates to their line of hardware. For me the most exciting one is the new dual-core G5. Here is an overview of the specs for the high-end model:

• Two dual-core 2.5GHz processors
• 1MB L2 cache for each core
• 1.25 GHz frontside bus
• Up to 16GB PC2-4200 RAM (533 MHz, DDR2 SDRAM)
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 256MB GDDR SDRAM (other cards also available)
• 250GB SATA drive
• 16X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R, DL/DVD+-RW/CD-RW)
• 3 PCIX slots
• USB 1.1 and 2.0, FireWire 400 and 800
• Analog and optical audio in and out
• Dual 10/100/1000BASE-T ethernet, airport, bluetooth

It’s a bad-ass machine, folks!

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I saw a product on Max Upgrades that I really like. It is a combination of mounting hardware, power and data cables, and a SATA PCI card that lets you add three additional internal SATA drives to your G5 Macintosh. The PCI card gives each drive it’s own high-speed data channel.

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Yesterday during the keynote address at the 2005, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would transition to the Intel processor over the next two years. I think this is an excellent move on Apple’s part. Here’s why: As a developer that writes code for Macintosh, Windows, and Linux/Unix, I see real value in having one system that can run all three operating systems. Very convenient.

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The best and most comprehensive review today for Apple‘s new operating system, OS X 10.4 “Tiger” is available here.

It is written by John Siracusa. His article does a wonderful job of explaining some of the major new features in Tiger and it recommended reading.

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