kingsley: December 2008 Archives

This time took me two tries to get my MT blog updated properly. Still, it isn't difficult to do, but WordPress is a lot faster and easier when I use the One-Click Installs provided by DreamHost. Alas, the option isn't available for MT. With this new version, I can also try out Motion, which brings microblogging, streams and open social to MT. But it's in beta, and I already have enough server tinkering for one day.

I love this idea by long-time Mac user Lesa Snider King. Show your disapproval of Apple and Jobs for abandoning Macworld Expo by staying silent at the keynote next month. No clapping, no booing, just silence. "Speak volumes...by not saying a word."

I won't be there, but I'd love to see what happens if this protest carries out. Spread the word.

The final release to ecto version 3.0 is out. I've been using the beta for a while now, and that's been useful and stable, so much that I bought a final copy yesterday without a second thought. With ecto on my Mac and iBlogger on my iPhone, I have no excuse for not blogging, except for my laziness.

iBlogger is on sale at the App Store for 99 cents--that's one-tenth the price I paid for my copy--enough said. Go grab it.

Wow, what a blow! Less than a month before Macworld Expo 2009, Apple announces that it will be the last one for the company, and that Steve Jobs won't be doing the keynote next month. After next year, Macworld Expo will continue, just without Apple or Jobs's participation. I haven't planned on attending this one, but if I had, I'd be bummed knowing I won't be seeing Jobs. Of the last three times I attended, only once I was able to see Jobs live, the other times I was either a spillover or too late, but at least I had the chance. Not so lucky with the attendees from hereon.

Without Apple and Jobs, Macworld Expo is going to be a tough sell, especially for those who must make a long trip to attend, like me. When Apple pulled out of the east coast expo a few years back, it took only a year or two before the expo was cancelled for good. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself. I think one Mac expo a year for all the Mac heads to gather is totally sustainable.

[Update: 19 December 2008] The Mac community is set on fire with the news of Apple's plan to retract from future Macworld Expos. I've read and absorbed the pro and cons to Apple's decision from different point-of-views, but for me, it comes down to this: As a loyal Mac user for 20 years, through good and bad times, I feel like Apple has abandoned me and the Mac community purely for its selfish reasons. It's loyal users like us who made Apple into what it is, and this is so not the way for Apple to show its appreciation.

According to iPhone Atlas, foreign users who bought unlocked iPhones legally in countries like Hong Kong are finding out that when they return to their native land, updating to the latest OS 2.2 will lock their iPhones, rendering them unusable unless they're unlocked again through illegal means. That just threw all the advantages to buying an unlocked iPhone from Hong Kong out the window if you don't live here.