Panther...

I installed Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) on my Powerbook tonight. So far, so good and everything I use seems to run without any updating. The whole computer seems definitely faster. Expose is a cool and useful tool. If you haven't heard, with a simple touch of a key or movement of the mouse to a hot corner, all open windows on the desktop shrink so that all are visible. When the mouse cursor is dragged over the windows, the name of the file or application is displayed. Clicking on a window brings that window to the front and everything back to normal size.

Contrary to the problems some users are experiencing, the install process went smoothly. The only think I did prior to installation was to "repair all priveleges" using Disk Utility. Except for leaving out the language packs and making sure all older Epson print drivers were installed (we have an older Epson 740), I just had it do the simple update installation, rather than the archive or clean install methods.

Anyway, more later as I try the new features.

Hell Has Frozen Over

This week Apple released a version of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store for Windows, with the tag line above (which reflects their previous attitude about selling anything for Windows). Gotta love their sense of humor, but this also represents a pragmatic approach they're taking with there business. They're selling iPods like crazy to users of both Mac and the PC platform, so the release of iTunes will give Windows users the same easy interface to transfer their music. I wish my son would hurry up and buy the one he's been saving his money for. Anyway, what's more is that Apple has worked out a deal with AOL to prominently place a link for one-click registration and integration with the ITMS on the AOL Music site. And finally, they announced a deal with Pepsi to give away 100,000,000 songs via a promotional give away. Given that to date they've sold around 14 million songs, this is quite the give away.

Yes, they are getting serious about this. There form of DRM seems to be acceptable to most and just might be the way that finally works. I am planning to buy a few songs/albums soon to try it out myself.

But I'm still waiting for my genome grant to start in order to get that G5.

Ahhhnold!!!

The California recall election. What better way to demonstrate that we're the best democracy in the world? California, the world's 6th largest GNP, now to be governed by a former weight lifting, body building, woman groping, action movie acting….simple family man. It'll be interesting to see his new economic stimulus plan to get California out from under that 38 billion dollar debt. I don't suppose he'll get much help from the Kennedy family, Maria not withstanding. On TV I just saw how Jay Leno introduced him. It's fitting. Just glad I don't live there.


The reformatted and rebudgeted genome grant went back to the USDA. Hopefully the money will be transferred soon and I start the process of getting it allocated to the four other organizations. Time to start advertising for a post-doc as well.