It seems that someone took a video (on Betamax!) of the first introductory presentation of the Macintosh by Steve Jobs. That was back in January of 1984, as you will recall unless you’re not enough of a computer geek to have that date etched in your brain. Someone recently found that tape, digitized it, and now it’s available for viewing on the web. It’s pretty amazing to see 1) how young Steve Jobs was at the time, 2) how tacky his suit was at the time, 3) Steve Jobs in not only a tacky suit but also a bow tie, and 4) how you could actually boot a computer from one floppy disk and have it do something useful. Click here to reach one site that hosts it. You might have to scroll around a bit to find it. The Trunk Monkey videos are pretty funny, too. read more

I’ve restored my photo gallery again. This time I did it without messing up halfway through, I think. I’m using a newer version of the software (which is named Gallery, appropriately enough) that has some nifty features like a search utility. There’s a handy link on the right column of this page, or you can just click here to go there.

I just discovered that Costco recycles inkjet and toner cartridges, and you can even print a pre-addressed, pre-paid shipping label from their website to send them your cartridges. It appears that they’ll take any cartridges; other recycling programs exclude some manufacturers such as Canon. (This is one of several reasons that I purchased a Lexmark printer recently when my Canon proved to have a deliberately curtailed lifespan, but that’s another story.) The link is here.

Another even better way to recycle your cartridges is to participate in a program that donates funds to the City of Hope for cancer research. I believe that this program excludes certain brands, but City of Hope needs your donations much more that Costco does. That program’s page is here. read more

This is one of the best yet, and probably has broaded appeal than much of their stuff. Click here.

And speaking of both Weebl’s Stuff and the new iMac, this is how I feel after a day of trying to move one of our programs from CodeWarrior to Xcode.

I’ve had an Intel-based iMac for a few days. It was purchased so that we (Audio Damage) could start dealing with the massive amount of work foisted upon us by Apple’s change. We weren’t planning to buy machines this early, partly because the last three first-generation Macs I’ve purchased have all turned out to have rather serious design and/or implementation flaws, but things are moving a little more quickly than we expected and we didn’t want to get left behind.

Overall it’s a pretty nice computer. It’s fast, it’s very quiet, its LCD is almost as good as my Samsung LCDs, and the built-in video camera is handy for making faces at Chris while we work. Rosetta seems to handle pre-Intel software with mixed success. I’ve really only tried Firefox and a couple of other little things, but Firefox definitely feels sluggish in an odd way. Fortunately there’s a Universal Binary of it slated for release in March. read more

The word is that the official ground hog, Punxsutawney Phil, predicts six more weeks of winter. I guess those of us in Boulder can interpret it to mean that winter will now start and last six weeks, since AFAICT it hasn’t really started yet. We’ve had next to no snow all season, and more than an average amount of warm weather. It seems a little stupid to complain about a long stretch of nice weather (particularly when my family members and business partner in Oregon have endured 12 inches of rain in January alone), but we’d really be happier if we had a bit more precipitation. read more

There’s a nice little editorial here at Wired news which voices an opinion I’ve held for awhile: as much as people despise Microsoft and envy Bill Gates for his money, it’s hard to argue with the contributions he’s made to very worthwhile causes. Elsewhere in today’s news it’s mentioned that Gates is giving $900M to tuberculosis research. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to do much of anything in the way of charitable donations. Don’t tell me that it makese a difference that Gates is the richest man in the world and Jobs is only the 194th richest man in the world (not counting that he’s going to rise in the ranks considerably after the Disney/Pixar deal). The point is that Gates is putting very real money into causes that benefit humanity, and Jobs isn’t. Consider that next time you think you’re being politically correct by buying an Apple product. read more

There’s a new cartoon up at Weebl’s Stuff. It’s about chutney. Click here to go there.

I made a foolish mistake while migrating the photo gallery from version 1.5 of the software to version 2.0, and now neither gallery is complete. I’ll get everything patched up soon, but I’m running out of time tonight. Do not attempt to adjust your picture.

Ever wonder whether people spell “argh” as “aargh” or “arrgh” more frequently? Of course you have. Here’s a web page which tells you.