Andrew’s Mac Tips Weblog

I was just reading a Playlist review of the new Apple iPod Hi-Fi. I’m only moderately interested in the Hi-Fi, as I don’t even own an iPod. I read it more because I’m always just as fascinated by the response to Apple’s new offerings as I am by the products themselves.

I remember when the Shuffle came out and the lack of a display became somehow a plus rather than a trade off, at least in the eyes of the marketing department. I don’t even have a shuffle; I do have an mp3 player from another brand though. It only holds 128 megs of files, but that’s enough for a couple days use, and enough that I certainly need and use the display to navigate my way through the tracks.

Getting back to the Hi-Fi, what struck me by the article wasn’t so much the discussion of what was included and what was left out. No, rather I was struck by the speakers themselves. In olden days they were called the loud speakers, and then the loud was dropped and they were just the speakers; it’s a shorter term and the loud part is probably redundant.

But where have I been? Now, all of a sudden they are speaker drivers, or worse still, just drivers. As an aside, why is it that when a car has disc brakes — the discs themselves (and they are discs) are now called rotors? It happens everywhere you look.

Here’s another example: a cellular phone was what it was, and a mobile phone (although another name for the same thing) is still what it says — a phone that’s mobile. But what is a cell? A cell isn’t a phone — it’s just a cell. And what’s this Fox News thing of calling intelligence intel? Is intelligence too much of a mouthful that we should instead use a term that could be confused with a chipmaker?

Here’s another one from all this Hi-Fi discussion: price point. Do a search and replace, and remove every instance of point from price point and you are still reading the same thing; the same meaning. What’s the point of the point?

Finally, another observation about words, and that is the word: Lifestyle, used as an adjective. Try substituting the phrase: frivilous waste-of-money version of an otherwise ordinary product, and it fits everywhere that you see the word.

I guess Lifestyle serves a purpose then, as it shortens the sentence — still makes me cringe though…

I mentioned Mac Notables below; I should also mention Mac Voices.

Like Mac Notables, it’s also hosted by Chuck Joiner. On this site though the downloadable audio is of short five to ten minute discussions with a single guest at a time.

A lot can be said in five minutes — great stuff.

Mac Voices

Yesterday I was listening to the Macnotables podcast. There are some very bright people talking on that podcast, and they’re all writers of great columns.

I wondered if they could type as fast as they could talk. I was thinking that because they were saying some things that were so spot on or relevant or just plain funny that I wondered how much of what they think actually gets down on file as it were (we used to say, “Get down on paper,” so I guess file would be the best equivalent).

Occasionaly I will think of something that I consider mildly profound, but by the time I’ve typed it, something is lost in the translation. I certainly wish I wish I could type faster.

Touch typing, let alone fast typing is something that I’ve never mastered, no matter how much I’ve practiced. My standard excuse is that kids these days are using keyboards at an early age so it comes more naturally to them, but most of the guests on Macnotables are just as old as me.

Maybe they’re just more diligent than I am. Or more hard working at least.

So anyhow, I’m not diligent or hard working so I decided that I need a quick and dirty solution to this problem. As a result I am typing this article in a whole new way. What I’m doing is I’m typing without bothering with spelling. Well, of course I am trying to spell correctly, but when I make a typo I’m not immediately stopping to correct it. That will be taken care of when I’m finished with the piece.

The other thing I’m skipping for now is capitalising of sentances, and punctuation; I’m still putting in the commas, periods and semi colons in real time; I’m just not bothering with the apostrophies for now. And let me tell you, this is working very well. Much more in keeping pace with what I’m actually thinking.
Now if only I could master more than two fingers per hand at a time.

Well, that worked out very well.

The above paragraphs were bashed out in no time at all, without losing my train of thought. Even with the editing it took less time than if I’d done it the old fashioned way.

What do you know; I’ve developed a life hack, or a hatchet job.

Take your pick.