Another Snow Leopard Update

A few minor things, all resolved now: an incompatibility between Firefox and Flash, and new a new driver was needed for a Canon scanner.

Speaking of scanners, many of the software packages that come with them have "issues" with Mac OS X; a very good alternative is VueScan. In addition to running without problems, it has many features not found in the bundled packages.

All in all-Snow Leopard was more than worth the price!

Patrick Jost

Charles Sanders Peirce: Neglected American Genius

If you are interested in mathematics, logic, linguistics, or astronomy, then you should get to know the life and work of Charles Sanders Peirce.

These books, from Dover Publications, are not only a great place to start, but there is more than enough substance here to develop a fine appreciation for Peirce's accomplishments.

For example:

Peirce's work on semiotics ("theory of signs") is key to linguistics.

He worked as an astronomer at Harvard, measuring the shape of the Milky Way.

He realized that Boolean algebra could be reduced to two operations, NAND and NOR. In addition, he recognized that Boolean operations could be performed with switches, anticipating the digital computer.

There are many more.

Patrick Jost

Bye Bye Blackberry: Part 2

Sorry about the poor scan, but there's not much you can do with a phone in a polycarbonate case with a screen protector… (look closely, you can see the green and red buttons)

UPS delivered the G1. I called T-Mobile to get them to make the changes to the data package.

That was almost instantaneous! They offered to walk me through the process. The only near-showstopper was getting the back off to put the battery and SIM card in.

The T-Mobile representative had done it, but it is hard to describe.

After that, it was very easy. I'd already set up my accounts with gmail, so I only had to add the one account, and it took care of the rest.

I had to import my contacts from the SIM, that was an small, extra, and unexpected step.

There's a program called "translit" (free!) that handles Cyrillic quite well. Type a Russian message, set up an email or SMS, paste in the Russian, send. I had expected this to be something of an ordeal, it wasn't.

I like the G1. It is not a Blackberry, but that's fine. I have to get used to minor things like the alerts and where to look for messages, but not a problem.

I like the "real" keyboard. The polycarbonate case is very nice, but I would not want to have to take it off again.

The screen protector is not perfect, but they never are. I think I'm going to find that this is the phone for me.

The issues I've seen are minor and so far it already resolves some of my Blackberry issues.

Patrick Jost

Bye-Bye Blackberry: Part 1

I had planned to end Labor Day Weekend with a review of a chess book, but the Blackberry situation demanded my attention. Watch for the chess book review though!

I've had a Blackberry for some time. I got it because I didn't like being chained to the computer.

One issue I've had is the almost complete lack of compatibility with Macintosh. Yes, there's a way to back things up, but that's about it.

I've also had a few them die, and all in the same way. The USB port used for power and data seems not to hold up, and when it starts to fail, you can't charge the phone.

So, when the current Blackberry's USB started to fail, I had a long talk with the people at T-Mobile.

I know they'd have given me a new Blackberry, but that's a hassle as I have to reload Cyrillic, and that requires Windows.

The compromise was a G1. There's no Exchange support, but I don't need it as I don't use Exchange.

If you're wondering "hm, why not an iPhone" the answer is simple-they are expensive and I don't want to have to rely on a touch screen in case I have to type something. I like keyboards.

I read up on the G1, and realized I'd need a dedicated gmail account. That's not as bad as it seems, as a gmail account can read other accounts.

Setting them up was fairly straightforward, but gmail seems to be a little balky about reading external accounts. I do like the idea of having all of my email on Google's servers, just in case something goes wrong somewhere. One of my primary accounts is hosted through Swissmail, and they are very reliable, but you can never have too much reliability.

T-Mobile advised that they have to make some settings changes for the G1. The plan is to pick up the G1 tomorrow, call T-Mobile, plug it in, and then set it up. I'm hoping this is not much more than putting in the SIM card, as email should be more or less sorted via the gmail account.

I went to T-Mobile today and bought a package of screen protectors and the polycarbonate case for it. It will be like Gort in Forbidden Planet (not the remake, please!), but, if airline inspectors want it opened, that may be a problem as I've read these cases are very difficult to get off once put on.

I should have an update at some point tomorrow.

Patrick Jost

Mellel: Simply the Best

I've used a Macs since they came out. MacWrite was nice, but limited. The first version of Word got me through graduate school, but it had issues. WriteNow! was great, but sadly not available for OS X.

The best word processor for OS X is Mellel.

Go to http://www.redlers.com and download the trial and try it out. You'll be convinced.

Apart from being a great product, the company offers unparalleled support.

There was a minor issue with Mellel and Snow Leopard. It was resolved promptly. I received an email saying "within hours" and it was. The company is in Israel, so they were working well into the wee hours of the morning.

But this is typical-if you email, they respond. I have an old copy of Word as a last resort for reading documents. Pages is very nice, and my "Word reader" of choice. Bean is a nice product (and it is free) but Mellel is the one I have to have.

Patrick Jost

Shostakovich: The War Symphonies

This is an interesting concept: a set of recordings of Shostakovich's wartime symphonies.

The result: well worth the effort.

The listener is treated to the little-performed Fourth Symphony; Shostakovich was beginning to develop his own style, and this is something of a bridge between his first three symphonies and the Fifth.

There are many recordings of the Fifth and Seventh, and these stand with the best of them.

The Eighth is a personal favorite of mine. Very heavy music, but also very, very good.

The Ninth is a lighter work; Shostakovich also feared comparisons with Beethoven's Ninth, so he took a safe way out.

Patrick Jost

The Advent of the Algorithm

I really wanted to like this book, as well as another by the same author: A Tour of the Calculus.

The battered scan should convince you that I DID read this book…some parts several times…

David Berlinski clearly knows his mathematics, and his "formula" of explaining things through historical anecdotes, should work, but it doesn't.

The problem is that the anecdotes start, very quickly, to seem forced. You just *know* that they did not happen.

In addition, there are many other books-some reviewed here-that do a much better of of accomplishing what Berlinski set out to do.

Patrick Jost