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Guess there is some good coming out of the move to XML by Microsoft in their Office apps.

If you've ever looked at the XML that they create you might conclude that it is just as "easy" to reverse engineer a binary proprietry file format as it is to parse the Office XML files...

Mind you, I just ran across a similar case on the Mac. I was trying to find out how to read Garageband files in my app. Apple don't publish the file format and have said they have no plans to. I was suprised and delighted when I opened a Garageband file to find it was XML. Delighted that is until I read further down the file and found the <data></data> node that contained all the interesting stuff in a single base64 encoded block. So much for the openness of XML

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I was suprised and delighted when I opened a Garageband file to find it was XML. Delighted that is until I read further down the file and found the <data></data> node that contained all the interesting stuff in a single base64 encoded block. So much for the openness of XML

Nice. Do you get the feeling that the programmers got told to make it XML at some late point in development?

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blah blah blah...

*Edit* Just read the Omni page closer, it looks like Omnigraffle Pro can read and write to Visio 2002 files. Guess there is some good coming out of the move to XML by Microsoft in their Office apps.

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Everything you listed has a Mac counterpart that is file compatible. I've never used groupwise however so you've got me on that one.

I've said it before and i'll say it again, switching to this Powerbook has been one of the best things i've done in a long time. I got so sick of the PC headaches. Everything i've wanted to do on this thing has either just worked or been stupid easy to figure out. The workflow is just phenomenal with apps like Quicksilver, Sidetrack, iTerm, and Expose. The only thing i've had to use Virtual PC for so far is for my GPS. Having a *nix under the hood is so amazing I can't even tell ya. If you are Linux savvy you'll love it.

As for the Karma... correct me if i'm wrong here those who have them... but doesn't iTunes work out of the box with the Karma? I was floored when Kelly's Riot just popped up in iTunes so i'd imagine the Karma would as well.

I did have to have my logic board replaced for a RAM slot issue, but it took a whopping DAY to get it back from the Apple store here in SF. Talk about support man. Unbelievable. If you don't have a local service center repairs turnarounds are what... 2 weeks at most from what I gather?

You might want to wait a bit.. the new speed bumped powerbooks are supposedly a couple weeks away, and the G5's are just around the corner.

I can't recommend them enough!

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(it's getting close with iPhoto5)

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There a really neat application that will put up nice caller display messages on your screen when someone calls on your phone - gets the info from your address book - you can answer or reject the call right from the computer too (though you have to use the phone to talk - for now). Makes using any bluetooth phone with Mac OS much nicer. I forget the name as I don't have it installed right now, but I'll post it when I remember.

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Hahah... couldn't hold off could ya! There's also some forums on apple's website, but they aren't the best. They are surprising low volume though.

I highly recommend Sidetrack (turns the sides of your trackpad into scroll bars and corners into whatever you want), and Quicksilver (hard to describe, but it allows super fast access to files without touching the mouse). Those two apps I can't live without on my Powerbook.

I spent all of last night moving my mail and address book out of Entourage and into the Apple Mail, Address Book, and iCal programs, which are damn nice. I now have everything synced in my phone and various places. Entourage is needless bloat. If iPhoto would only catch up to something like iView Media Pro (it's getting close with iPhoto5) then i'd be all about the iLife apps. =]

God I love how it all just works together!

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You ordered already anyway, but I just wanted to let you know you won't be seeing a G5 Powerbook any time soon. Hopefully that makes you feel even better about your purchase.

Bruno

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Kaare: The Powermate... that's another cool gadget that I can't justify. What are you planning on using it for?

EDIT: Hahah... the bug is going around. After destroying two old PC laptops with viruses and spyware to the point where I don't even want to bother with them... Kelly has decided to go pick up an iBook today, which means an ever so dangerous trip to the Apple Store!

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Just read the Omni page closer, it looks like Omnigraffle Pro can read and write to Visio 2002 files. Guess there is some good coming out of the move to XML by Microsoft in their Office apps.

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So, you might want to check with Apple today, since all the Powerbooks got speedbumped.

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Where did you order it from that they shipped it out that quick? You're sure it's not an updated one, they're supposed to be shipping this week.

Matthew

I'm more or less certain that it's not one of the new ones. I didn't order it directly from the apple store, as they had no in stock - instead i found a local apple pusher with around 30-40 in stock of the model i wanted. The only thing that i know i will be missing if it's one of the old ones is the trackpad scroll feature - the rest of the new "features" are more or less upgradeable. I did order it with the large gfx card - i do have a 100gb 5400rpm hdd sitting here at the table, just waiting to beinstalled. Was supposed to install it in my t40, as i've run out of space.. And i did get it with 1gb of extra ram.

Enhanced illuminated keyboard? - hmm, think i can live without it. And i bet that my use of word wouldn't put strain on the 1.5ghz cpu :-)

See, still trying to convince myself..

\\Kaare

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+ compatible burner is all i'd miss.

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You won't miss the trackpad upgrade if you use SideTrack as i'd mentioned above. . . well, with the exception of being able to scroll around a page willy nilly as it appears you can do. Your locked to one axis at a time. The faster and + compatible burner is all i'd miss.

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Just to pick a nit, the backlit keyboard was optional on the 15 up until now... I beleive the ambient light sensor is supposed to turn on the keyboard backlight and control the screen brightness, but I've never used it.

Matthew

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it's virtually impossible to make [the keycaps] out. Very annoying.

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I've never been really good with the small impresions on the F and J to figure out orientation

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Everything you listed has a Mac counterpart that is file compatible.

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Is there free software that will work with Word and Excel documents or do I have to buy MS Office? It doesn't need to have all features of MS (in fact, I'd rather it didn't) but I would like more than bare bones word processing and spreadsheet functionality (better then WordPad).

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Excel is limited to 65K rows, OpenOffice, last I checked was limited to 32K.

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Plus its word processor looks bad. Really really bad.

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There are other costs beyond sticker price.

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you don't get stuck using (bad) "free" software.

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for [a text editor] to be KING it has to offer more than a text editing engine

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Personally, I never use any of the vi GUIs. Waste of time and space. (Except for under Windows, which has virtually no text-mode interface.) You're not editing pictures, you're editing text.

I cannot imagine working on Windows without Cygwin. It does not quite lets you think you are on an actual operating system, but comes pretty close. However, I still find myself using a GUI version of vim (mostly launched by an one-letter alias from bash, but also from explorer context menu) more often that not. Then again, GUI and text version of vim differ mostly in more readable syntax highlighting and a few usefull menus...

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If I hated a GUI that much I'd use a terminal for everything.

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GUI and text version of vim differ mostly in more readable syntax highlighting

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Not if you have a 256-color xterm.

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Do you have a squeaky spacebar?

Bruno

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You don't happen to know a product that'll do NTSC- or HDTV-out from a laptop, do you?

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My Spacebar made a noise whenever I'd press it on the right side. it was very annoying. Through much (much) typing over the past four months it seems to have gone away. It's been reported by other people with their Powerbooks as well, so I thought I'd ask.

Bruno

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All Mac notebooks have TV output, NTSC and PAL. And all recent ones support HDTV resolutions/modes over DVI. If you don't have a Mac notebook and yours doesn't have TV output capability, then you'll have to find something that takes VGA signal and converts to NTSC. They exist, but I don't know any brand/product information.

My Mac notebook is now too slow to play the majority of AVI files out there without some serious slow framerate issues.

I was looking for something for my PC laptop, as it's capable of playing everything I want. I just want it to use the TV and it has no TV output. I just thought you might know of something other than a VGA-to-NTSC adapter. It seems like there ought to be a simple Firewire or USB2 or PCMCIA adapter that would be a display for the PC on which I could full-screen a video player application. I just can't come up with any reason why no one makes something like this, but no one seems to.

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It seems like there ought to be a simple Firewire or USB2 or PCMCIA adapter that would be a display for the PC on which I could full-screen a video player application. I just can't come up with any reason why no one makes something like this, but no one seems to.

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Your idea is demonstrably untrue based on the fact that people have been doing realtime Firewire NTSC video input for years, and that's certainly FW400.

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On a side note, anybody know if this means my Mini is defective? If I watch a DVD on my Compaq DVI monitor at it's max of 1280x1024 or 1280x960 then I get pink flickery lines overlaid all over the screen. If I use 1152x870 or below then it appears to work fine.

Using the VGA dongle and the VGA input on the monitor works with no problems at 1280x1024. The odd thing is that the monitor works fine with my PC using DVI at any resolution.

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That's interesting, Hugo's does the same thing onto his 1280x768 plasma. It doesn't need to be a DVD, either: that lovely astronomy-photos screensaver does it too.

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There might already be a big report filed at Apple about it.

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Excel is limited to 65K rows, OpenOffice, last I checked was limited to 32K.