#8: Doing my Silicon Valley homework — hello from HDTV land

November 13, 2005 By

My son is behind me blogging. Where are we? At the Palo Alto Apple store. Heh, figured if I was going to get to 100 posts about something other than, well, you know, that we better go do some homework. So, we went to Fry’s today. Yesterday I was at the Best Buy. Now we’re at the Apple store. Who’s we? Patrick, and Buzz Bruggeman.

It’s clear that the world is going HDTV. Sony had a big tent out in the parking lot with lots of people sitting in it. The salespeople were swarming. They know that everyone there is a potential $5,000 sale.

Ah, now we’re off to San Francisco to walk around the Golden Gate Bridge. More later.

Oh, and you guys who think that fonts are more readable on a Macintosh are just plain nuts and what’s up with this one button mouse? Heh, yeah, I’m gonna get flamed for those two statements, but I’m on a $1,299 Cinema display and the fonts just look fuzzy to me and the mouse is simply lame. Everything else sure looks sexy though.

One thing Apple sure has down is the retail experience. Aesthetically it’s the best in the industry. From the wood desk I’m typing to you from to the signage to the Eminem screen saver (which matches their TV advertising, which is also most excellent). Oh, and you can see HDTV’s influence all over the store here. Not to mention there’s a Sony HDV camcorder right next to me.

More fun things to come all week. I have lots of fun meetings setup here with people doing remarkable things.

Update, a reply to my son Patrick: using WordPress on the Mac/Safari doesn’t have a link command either (he noted he couldn’t figure out how to link on the Mac using his blogging service). I had to type my links by hand in HTML. It’s amazingly bad. Now I understand why so many people at blogging events don’t understand how to build links.

Filed Under: Blog Tips

Mujibur

microsoft’s patent proves little — woz actually came up with the first sub-pixel rendering techniques.

http://grc.com/ctwho.htm
Mujibur

microsoft’s patent proves little — woz actually came up with the first sub-pixel rendering techniques.

http://grc.com/ctwho.htm
http://www.stevenfrein.com/ Steven Frein

Scoble:

Isn’t the issue for the links on blogger a blogger issue and not a safari issue? Check their supported browser page:

Blogger Browser Matrix
Blogger’s awesome wysiwyg editing features are fully supported in the latest versions of the most popular web browsers: Internet Explorer 6/Windows and Mozilla Firefox. Safari support is coming, eventually.

Blogger’s Preview mode and HTML formatting buttons work in some older browsers, but not in others. This table shows what works where. Please upgrade your browser if you want to use Blogger’s latest and greatest features!
http://www.stevenfrein.com Steven Frein

Scoble:

Isn’t the issue for the links on blogger a blogger issue and not a safari issue? Check their supported browser page:

Blogger Browser Matrix
Blogger’s awesome wysiwyg editing features are fully supported in the latest versions of the most popular web browsers: Internet Explorer 6/Windows and Mozilla Firefox. Safari support is coming, eventually.

Blogger’s Preview mode and HTML formatting buttons work in some older browsers, but not in others. This table shows what works where. Please upgrade your browser if you want to use Blogger’s latest and greatest features!
Splashman

Scoble, can you acknowledge that the “readability” issue is mostly a matter of preference? (Maybe you already have? Hard to tell.)

I work on both platforms, but mostly on Mac, by choice.

I tend to think MS’s display is “sharper;” in certain applications, and at small font sizes, I tend to prefer it.

I consider Apple’s display “smoother,” and generally more pleasing to the eye.

You predicted the flames, because I think you knew you were over-generalizing on a preference-based issue.

I hate Apple’s mice. Not sure I’d waste even two words blogging on that subject, though, since even fuzzy Martian caterpillars are aware that Apple has shipped lame one-button mice since the beginning of time.

One tends to think that with all of Apple’s design talent, they could come up with a kick-butt mouse or a quantum-leap input device. Alas, the Mighty Mouse ain’t neither. Give it another twenty years or so . . .
Splashman

Scoble, can you acknowledge that the “readability” issue is mostly a matter of preference? (Maybe you already have? Hard to tell.)

I work on both platforms, but mostly on Mac, by choice.

I tend to think MS’s display is “sharper;” in certain applications, and at small font sizes, I tend to prefer it.

I consider Apple’s display “smoother,” and generally more pleasing to the eye.

You predicted the flames, because I think you knew you were over-generalizing on a preference-based issue.

I hate Apple’s mice. Not sure I’d waste even two words blogging on that subject, though, since even fuzzy Martian caterpillars are aware that Apple has shipped lame one-button mice since the beginning of time.

One tends to think that with all of Apple’s design talent, they could come up with a kick-butt mouse or a quantum-leap input device. Alas, the Mighty Mouse ain’t neither. Give it another twenty years or so . . .
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

Todd: I was talking about the mouse I was using in the Palo Alto Apple Store. I assume that’s the Mighty Mouse. It sucks. Pure and simple sucks. You guys need to use a real mouse and see how much more productive you’ll be.

Splashman: I’ll go with that. I theorize that readability is much higher on the Windows screen. But the overall effect of the Mac screen is sexier, I’ll give you that.

Mujibur: you have absolutely no clue about how different the technologies that do font display and what Woz came up with are. Why don’t you sit down with Bill Hill for a while and talk about it. I’ve seen the work the font folks did. Saying that they are the same is like saying a Formula One Race Tire is basically the same as work done in the 1970s by Goodyear. Well, they are round. They are black. But the similarities end about there.
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ scobleizer

Todd: I was talking about the mouse I was using in the Palo Alto Apple Store. I assume that’s the Mighty Mouse. It sucks. Pure and simple sucks. You guys need to use a real mouse and see how much more productive you’ll be.

Splashman: I’ll go with that. I theorize that readability is much higher on the Windows screen. But the overall effect of the Mac screen is sexier, I’ll give you that.

Mujibur: you have absolutely no clue about how different the technologies that do font display and what Woz came up with are. Why don’t you sit down with Bill Hill for a while and talk about it. I’ve seen the work the font folks did. Saying that they are the same is like saying a Formula One Race Tire is basically the same as work done in the 1970s by Goodyear. Well, they are round. They are black. But the similarities end about there.
http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

Mice all suck. they’re too small, they break too easy, and require FAR too much desk space.

Now a big-arsed Kensington Trackball? That’s an input device. Requires less space than a mouse, never moves, and has great big bearings that you couldn’t break with a stick.

Pfah, arguing about which mouse is the best is like arguing which version of Windows has a crappier UI.
http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

Mice all suck. they’re too small, they break too easy, and require FAR too much desk space.

Now a big-arsed Kensington Trackball? That’s an input device. Requires less space than a mouse, never moves, and has great big bearings that you couldn’t break with a stick.

Pfah, arguing about which mouse is the best is like arguing which version of Windows has a crappier UI.
http://www.richbrownell.com/ Richard Brownell

Sorry Robert, but the OS X font comments are incorrect and the attitude about them is uncalled for. Have you heard of the X vs. XP site? They take an objective look at OS X and Windows XP and break it down into a billion categories. I can find no bias in it as each OS gets lots of low and high marks where appropriate. This is their page on fonts: http://www.xvsxp.com/fonts/

It’s close, 9-8, but Mac OS X wins. Look at their samples. It’s very clear which OS is pushing out better fonts and on top of that, you give me a call when Windows is doing ligatures. Do a find for “fun with ligatures” and you’ll see an amazing screenshot. I hope we can someday get fonts like that on the web.
http://www.richbrownell.com Richard Brownell

Sorry Robert, but the OS X font comments are incorrect and the attitude about them is uncalled for. Have you heard of the X vs. XP site? They take an objective look at OS X and Windows XP and break it down into a billion categories. I can find no bias in it as each OS gets lots of low and high marks where appropriate. This is their page on fonts: http://www.xvsxp.com/fonts/

It’s close, 9-8, but Mac OS X wins. Look at their samples. It’s very clear which OS is pushing out better fonts and on top of that, you give me a call when Windows is doing ligatures. Do a find for “fun with ligatures” and you’ll see an amazing screenshot. I hope we can someday get fonts like that on the web.
http://virtuallyshocking.com/ Brock Tice

I can’t stand to use those auto-linking things. They all seem to behave differently, so I spend time cleaning up after them rather than linkin. I much prefer to do it by hand with HTML.
http://virtuallyshocking.com Brock Tice

I can’t stand to use those auto-linking things. They all seem to behave differently, so I spend time cleaning up after them rather than linkin. I much prefer to do it by hand with HTML.
http://epeus.blogspot.com/ Kevin Marks

For some stupid reason, Macs often default to the non-subpixel anti-aliasing. You may have had that problem in the Apple store.
High pixel-density laptops are also an Apple blindspot. I’d love a 12″ PowerBook with a 1600×1200 screen.
http://epeus.blogspot.com Kevin Marks

For some stupid reason, Macs often default to the non-subpixel anti-aliasing. You may have had that problem in the Apple store.
High pixel-density laptops are also an Apple blindspot. I’d love a 12″ PowerBook with a 1600×1200 screen.
http://www.cross-spectrum.com/audio Herb

“Herb: I’m at my brother-in-law’s house right now. He works on the Mac team at Apple.”

We know Scoble – this is about the 2,000,000th time you’ve mentioned this (sorry to be a little snarky, but whenever you make a Mac comparison, you always mention this. It’s an appeal to authority, and it’s getting old).

“His computer looks the same. Even he agrees type is more readable on the Mac.”

Presumably you meant “he agrees type is more readable on *XP*”

Like I said, I don’t agree, and I’ve used XP and OS X extensively. It’s a matter of personal preference. Or do you know of an objective 3rd-party study that says otherwise?

“Oh, by the way, who has a patent on sub-pixel font rendering? You guessed right. And, who licensed same to Apple? You guessed right.”

So, would that have been part of the cross-licensing settlement that MS reached with Apple for using stolen QuickTime code (http://tinyurl.com/9q2b9) ?

“You guys need to use a real mouse and see how much more productive you’ll be.”

Scoble, do you *really* believe that Mac users go through life never touching a Windows machine with its “real mouse” and unreadable sub-pixel AA? The majority of my computer use (because of work and public terminals) has been on Windows machine, and I’d be shocked if there are a significant number of people who say otherwise. I’ve used real mice. In fact I *own* a couple of real mice – they’re in a drawer somewhere. Somehow, someway, against all the odds, the stock Apple mice have met my needs.

Well not the hockey puck mice, those truly suck.
http://www.cross-spectrum.com/audio Herb

“Herb: I’m at my brother-in-law’s house right now. He works on the Mac team at Apple.”

We know Scoble – this is about the 2,000,000th time you’ve mentioned this (sorry to be a little snarky, but whenever you make a Mac comparison, you always mention this. It’s an appeal to authority, and it’s getting old).

“His computer looks the same. Even he agrees type is more readable on the Mac.”

Presumably you meant “he agrees type is more readable on *XP*”

Like I said, I don’t agree, and I’ve used XP and OS X extensively. It’s a matter of personal preference. Or do you know of an objective 3rd-party study that says otherwise?

“Oh, by the way, who has a patent on sub-pixel font rendering? You guessed right. And, who licensed same to Apple? You guessed right.”

So, would that have been part of the cross-licensing settlement that MS reached with Apple for using stolen QuickTime code (http://tinyurl.com/9q2b9) ?

“You guys need to use a real mouse and see how much more productive you’ll be.”

Scoble, do you *really* believe that Mac users go through life never touching a Windows machine with its “real mouse” and unreadable sub-pixel AA? The majority of my computer use (because of work and public terminals) has been on Windows machine, and I’d be shocked if there are a significant number of people who say otherwise. I’ve used real mice. In fact I *own* a couple of real mice – they’re in a drawer somewhere. Somehow, someway, against all the odds, the stock Apple mice have met my needs.

Well not the hockey puck mice, those truly suck.
http://on30guy.wordpress.com/ on30guy

Using Macs and PCs side-by-side for some time, I’d say that the displays are quite similar. Now, I’ve been using tubes (mostly Trinitrons), not LCD/Plasma jobbies, as they’re still generally superior for graphics and video production.

As far as the mouse, yeah, I prefer more than one button. So, I use an MSFT optical two-button-plus-scroll-wheel model that I absolutely love. Works great on both platforms.
http://on30guy.wordpress.com/ on30guy

Using Macs and PCs side-by-side for some time, I’d say that the displays are quite similar. Now, I’ve been using tubes (mostly Trinitrons), not LCD/Plasma jobbies, as they’re still generally superior for graphics and video production.

As far as the mouse, yeah, I prefer more than one button. So, I use an MSFT optical two-button-plus-scroll-wheel model that I absolutely love. Works great on both platforms.
http://www.microsoft.com/ pat

wow this really got the Apple Trolls buzzing, Apple is far superior to anything else that has ever been created in the world of computing!

gimme a break

you say scoble writes with a slanted view

How about the trolls

APPLE IS FAR SUPERIOR
LONG LIVE OUR LEADER JOBS
WE LOVE PAYING WAY MORE THEN ANYONE ELSE FOR HARDWARE
WE LOVE LOVE PROPIETARY SOFTWARE FROM APPLE
LONG LIVE APPLE!
oh ya I forgot one more thing
IF YOU SPEAK BAD ABOUT ANYTHING FROM APPLE I WILL STICK MY FINGERS IN MY EARS AND CHANT BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING BAD ABOUT APPLE
http://www.microsoft.com pat

wow this really got the Apple Trolls buzzing, Apple is far superior to anything else that has ever been created in the world of computing!

gimme a break

you say scoble writes with a slanted view

How about the trolls

APPLE IS FAR SUPERIOR
LONG LIVE OUR LEADER JOBS
WE LOVE PAYING WAY MORE THEN ANYONE ELSE FOR HARDWARE
WE LOVE LOVE PROPIETARY SOFTWARE FROM APPLE
LONG LIVE APPLE!
oh ya I forgot one more thing
IF YOU SPEAK BAD ABOUT ANYTHING FROM APPLE I WILL STICK MY FINGERS IN MY EARS AND CHANT BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING BAD ABOUT APPLE
http://www.richbrownell.com/ Richard Brownell

Turn your fucking caps lock off
http://www.richbrownell.com Richard Brownell

Turn your fucking caps lock off
Pingback: Ian’s Blog » Good Firefox
http://patrick.geek.nz/ Patrick Q-G

“You guys need to use a real mouse and see how much more productive you’ll be.”

Uh, Robert, no. That’s a gross over-generalisation.

It’s not true for me, and it’s not true for plenty of Mac users. It’s also not true for plenty of Windows users who never use anything other than their left mouse button.

As for appearance of fonts? I sit in front of a 20″ Apple display all day at work flanked by a couple of Dell monitors. One of those is occasionally attached to a Windows box (I’m a responsible user: it’s never connected to the network) and I much prefer the fonts on my Macs. Note that I’m not saying it’s better and Microsoft’s look like crap, because that would be trolling, and even if I don’t happen to like the washed out blurry look that I get on Windows set to ClearType, especially on italicised text, that’s personal opinion.
http://patrick.geek.nz/ Patrick Q-G

“You guys need to use a real mouse and see how much more productive you’ll be.”

Uh, Robert, no. That’s a gross over-generalisation.

It’s not true for me, and it’s not true for plenty of Mac users. It’s also not true for plenty of Windows users who never use anything other than their left mouse button.

As for appearance of fonts? I sit in front of a 20″ Apple display all day at work flanked by a couple of Dell monitors. One of those is occasionally attached to a Windows box (I’m a responsible user: it’s never connected to the network) and I much prefer the fonts on my Macs. Note that I’m not saying it’s better and Microsoft’s look like crap, because that would be trolling, and even if I don’t happen to like the washed out blurry look that I get on Windows set to ClearType, especially on italicised text, that’s personal opinion.
http://terceiro.wordpress.com/ terceiro

“I theorize that readability is much higher on the Windows screen. But the overall effect of the Mac screen is sexier, I’ll give you that.”

You theorize? As in, you have some general principle to back you up? I believe what you have is a blind guess based on personal preference. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — just the connotation of ‘theorize’ is you taking an unsupportable stance.

As far as Mac screen resolution, read John Gruber’s excellent post which addresses the subject: http://daringfireball.net/2005/11/full_metal_jacket
As always, Gruber is witty and accurate, and isn’t trolling (which is more than can be said for some).
http://terceiro.wordpress.com/ terceiro

“I theorize that readability is much higher on the Windows screen. But the overall effect of the Mac screen is sexier, I’ll give you that.”

You theorize? As in, you have some general principle to back you up? I believe what you have is a blind guess based on personal preference. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — just the connotation of ‘theorize’ is you taking an unsupportable stance.

As far as Mac screen resolution, read John Gruber’s excellent post which addresses the subject: http://daringfireball.net/2005/11/full_metal_jacket
As always, Gruber is witty and accurate, and isn’t trolling (which is more than can be said for some).

#8: Doing my Silicon Valley homework — hello from HDTV land

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