As I tried to update the photo site with RapidWeaver, I noticed that RW wouldn’t ftp my changed site up. As it ends up, there’s some kind of problem with RW on Leopard. However, the good folks at RealMac Software have posted a beta version of RW that seems to correct that. Chalk one up for the good guys.

However, I’ve noticed something new with Safari 3. Both the photo site and this humble blog are not loading completely with Safari 3 under Leopard. It appears that the problem is with images being sent down the line, and it might even be specific images. I don’t know if the problem is with those particular images served from my server, or the images themselves. Firefox has no problems, and Safari 2 under Tiger has no problems rendering the pages. I’ll have to keep an eye on this one, as it’s growing a little painful here and there.

Stay tuned….

The great Leopard experience is continuing, with only a couple of things noted tonight.

First, Genuine Fractals refuses to take an update. I can get the original software installed, but it refuses to allow any of the updates to be applied. So far, there’s not much info popping up on this one, although I’m watching closely.

The second had to do with some of my Nik Software filters. They used fonts rendered so poorly that it was impossible to use the filters — I couldn’t read the menus. Fortunately, Nik has posted a workaround, although I’m not sure I like it. The workaround is to change the smoothing model for the entire system to CRT (instead of automatic, which works quite well for my dual flat panels). I’m really hoping that someone at Nik figures out a patch for this, ’cause I’d rather be using my system the way it was intended, instead of munging up the fonts. At least they got me up and running though.

More to come, I’m sure! 🙂

OK, so this is a riot….. Take a look at this website, and see how Windows machines are shown in CoverFlow. This really rocks! 🙂

FedEx just dropped the carton in my hands, and now my day of work is ahead of me. I fully expect to spend a fair part of the day doing the upgrade and working through the issues, if there are some.

(BTW, the FedEx dude said that they are delivering a ton of these today. I guess the delivery date problem I experienced weren’t unique to just me!)

In truth, I think the longest piece of this will be all the necessary backup activity needed to pull this off safely. I’m not planning to upgrade the server, so it’ll be around while I do the upgrades. I’ll just add comments to this post as I go through the process… Enjoy the ride!

The good news from FedEx is that at 8.14am, my carton of Leopard is on the truck from Earth City, and headed my way.

Woo-hoo!

So Beck and I went down to the Global Release soirée at the Des Peres Apple Store tonight. I didn’t exactly dress in my most geekly for the occasion, but neither did anyone else. I dunno what I was expecting, but part of what I was expecting was probably some folks to be over the top. As it ends up, folks were generally friendly, excited and fascinated with the experience. I’m not sure what the other folks at the mall were thinking though. There were many questions — ya know, once you see a line, it’s just human nature to try to figure out if it’s worth standing in, ’cause if that many folks are standing in line, there must be something good at the end of it, right? 🙂 The folks I felt bad for were the casual shoppers who wanted to visit the Apple Store to pick up something ordinary, not realizing they’d picked a bad day to casually visit the store.

As best as I can figure, we were about 150 folks deep in the line when we strolled up around 5.30 (the event was to begin at 6pm), and by the time the doors opened, there was easily another 50 folks behind us. I suspect there were some folks who camped out through the day, as there were plenty of folks with backpacks, laptops and gear to make their stay more comfortable.

Just minutes before the doors opened, the staff was taking pictures of the very orderly crowd, and the crowd was reciprocating, shooting photos — and some video — of the experience. After a 10-down-to-1 countdown, the doors opened and the crowd was let in a few at a time, with some throttling to ensure there wasn’t too big a throng in the store at any given time. I’d guess that we were inside by 6.15 or 6.30, with the line stretching back at least as far as where we joined it, which would put the crowd at easily 300 folks, and probably more.

Beck and I each got a free T-shirt, although each of them are a little smaller than we’d prefer. I guess the folks that procured the shirts weren’t real familiar with the average shirt size of their die-hard customers!

I’ve gotta say that I was very impressed with playing with Leopard in the store. Visually, it’s just flat amazing, and it seems like there’s plenty of new features to keep folks like me busy for a while. I’m sure it’ll take a while to figure out how best to use these new features, and I’m sure it’ll be fun to play with all the newness….

…once my copy of Leopard arrives. According to FedEx, there’s no new status since it left Memphis around lunchtime. Bummer! 🙁

BTW, there was a really good Diesel Sweeties comic today that flung a barb at the release event tonight. Way funny.

Today is the global release of OS X 10.5, AKA “Leopard”. There’s been talk about this release for many months, along with some gnashing of teeth that the release was rumoured to be delayed due to realignment of resources to finish the iPhone on time. From everything I’ve read so far, this sure looks like a real nice upgrade to the OS. Of course, there are folks that are curious why there’s so much hoopla for a dot-release, but with Apple, dot-releases seem to be more like major releases. There’s a ton of changes, additional functionality and lots of “prettiness” added.

My copy is pre-ordered, and per the Apple pre-order info, it’s supposed to be waiting for me when I get home today. However, FedEx reports that the box is just leaving Memphis this morning, with a delivery date of tomorrow. Not the end of the world, but I really wanted to get started tonight!!!

Instead of dashing home tonight to possible shipping disappointment, I plan to go to the global release event at one of our Apple stores. I’ve never been to something like that, and I thought it might be interesting. I plan to take a few photos (surprise, surprise), and revel in the geekstosterone that that will be flowing by the bucketload. Aside from just soaking up the ambiance of a rock-n-roll style event, I actually wanna see some of the demos of Leopard, and see if there’s anything I can learn before I start my upgrades.

The only upgrade-related thing I’m kinda concerned about is the print driver for my Epson R1800. When I checked over the weekend, a Leopard driver was not yet available for my printer — one was posted yesterday however. I’ve gotta figure out whether this new driver works well, and if the print quality is appropriate. So, there’s a little experimentation on the docket for this weekend.

Beck’s gone most of the weekend to an gal-pal slumber party, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunity to play. Stay tuned for more as I go through the upgrade and testing process!

Apple made new announcements yesterday. There were rumors over the last week that were absolutely all over the place about what would be included. As long as it wasn’t more stuff about the iPhone, I’d be happy! 🙂 After all, the iPhone has been in the way of the new OS, and has taken front stage for much of Apple’s public face over the last many months.

Well, the Kids from Cupertino came through, and the announcements yesterday were very Mac-centric. There was at least one surprise — a stay of execution for the MacMini, and its movement to a 64-bit processor — along with some expected changes. There were even some quiet announcements, like Gig-E on the Airport boxes, and a new RAID card for the MacPro. To me though, the most impressive was the new iMac.

Cased in anodized aluminum (like its bigger sibling, the MacPro), and sporting a glass-fronted LCD screen of either 20″ or 24″, this thing looks cool. Add to that up to 2.8Ghz Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 4GB RAM, up to 1TB internal drive and a nice video card, and suddenly you’ve got a box that I’d be happy to have on my desk. It’s even got a great looking new anodized aluminum keyboard to match the look of the new machine. As much as I thought the last iMac was a work of art, this new one far surpasses that design.

So what’s missing? Storage expansion. A second drive bay in the 24″ model would really be welcomed, and from what I can see on Apple’s site, it doesn’t have one. Having room for another internal drive at SATA speeds — or an eSATA connector, perhaps — is really key in selling this new iMac as a desktop machine for someone who doesn’t need the power of a MacPro, but needs plenty of storage. Someone like… oh, I dunno… maybe a fledgling pro photographer? 🙂 I don’t know what the inside looks like, but if there is an extra SATA connector somewhere, I suppose it’d be possible to retrofit the thing with either an eSATA connector in the case, or at least a SATA cable dangling from the thing. I’m sure someone in Appleland will do that research soon.

Now, there are some folks out there that don’t like the new look, saying it looks too much like a giant iPhone. I suppose it does a bit. Does that really make it a bad design? I don’t think so. It has a very modern look to it, and in a contemporary office setting, it’d fit right in. And since it can be arm mounted using a VESA mount, it’d be easy on your desk space, too.

I gotta admit, there’s a temptation to sell the Quad and put this on my desk…

• At 24″, it’s more screen real estate than I currently have, although I could solve that with a new Apple display.
• The power savings could be immense. The Quad chews through the kilowatts, and by comparison to the iMacs seems to be a competition-grade gastrointestinal competitor.
• Then there’s the desk space. I could solve part of my desk space woes by putting my current monitor on an arm or pole — either of which I’d probably do with a shiny new iMac. However, not having the behemoth next to my desk would be nice.
• My office currently sounds like an aircraft flight line from the fans in the Quad running all the time. Just the nature of the liquid-cooled beast. The new iMac is, I’m sure, much quieter, and that’d be a nice improvement.
• I continue to question my need of the horsepower I have in the Quad. I’ve only seen all four cores exercised hard a couple of times, and the dual-coredness of my MacPro has so far done me well. And since the new iMac will go to 4GB RAM, there’s plenty of room for Photoshop (which in the CS2 version was limited to 3GB anyway — dunno about CS3). That’s my bread and butter at home, and although I use it a ton, I’ll probably never notice if a sharpening filter I run is done in five seconds or seven seconds… assuming there’s any performance difference at all with Photoshop between quad 2.4Ghz G5 cores and a pair of 2.8Ghz Core 2 Extreme cores.
• I’m starting to get a bit of a green conscience (he says after driving his SUV!), and the fact that parts of the iMac are advertised as coming from recycled bits is appealing.

BTW, within hours of the announcement, there were already unpacking photos showing up on the net. What a hoot.

So there’s my take on part of the new crop of Apples from Cupertino. To my eyes, it looks like the crop’s doing well.