Australian Open – the Hooligan’s Grand Slam
The Australian Open Grand Slam event in tennis is regarded as one of the four hallowed grounds for all Tennis players, professional or amateur. Is the appellation founded? The others being the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Each, as I wrote once before, are characterized by unique traits, both in the surface, and in the spectators. The French Open played on clay, is an event where the crowds are discerning, and cheer their favorite enthusiastically, be that a country-person or a foreigner. Wimbledon, played on grass, is the classiest and the most prestigious of the Slams, and attracts a very cultured and well-behaved crowd, known for its indulgence of Strawberries and cream. The US open, played on hard courts is a fast-paced tournament, with crowds that match, always on the move – the atmosphere of an amphitheater. Which brings me to the Australian Open, played on rebound ace. The fans there have been raucous and brash, always. And now this tournament is synonymous with rioters and ethnic violence, exemplified by the fisticuffs and fights breaking out between Balkan supporters during the games in the last few years.
This is just an example. This tournament seems to attract the lowest denominator of spectators. Un-sportsmanlike, and rowdy. Not surprising for a tournament which tries to pass off as a Grand Slam, but is, in all shapes and forms a glorified Master’s cup, with hardly any history or charm behind it. I remember when I watched Sampras play Phillipousis back in the day. Sampras was booed every time he won a point, and the noise levels were deafening when Mark did. Even our puny little TV conveyed the noise levels in that place. No, the tennis wasn’t spectacular. It was an error-ridden match made worse by the roudy raucous crowd. Another example just yesterday. Match between Dinara Safina and a Frenchwoman. Somewhere during a crucial point, as Safina was about to take a smash shot, someone in the crowd yelled out "Out", causing Safina’s concentration to break and her to net the smash. The look of pure disgust on her face was mirrored by mine. Tennis is a gentleman’s game: we don’t need football style hooligans and rowdy, raucous crowds here. Take it to rugby.
Renamer4Mac – Renaming in OSX
After my brief sojourn in Microsoft land, I heralded my return to OSX by addressing a long neglected sorting need. Over the months and years, my e-book and e-comic collection has grown by leaps and bounds. Whatever I finds, I downloads – has been the mantra. While this is fine for bigger downloads once in a while, the same can grow into a monumental problem when smaller files are downloaded, and downloaded in bulk.
This is not helped when the uploaders don’t adhere to a common nomenclature for their files, or just have them in weird numbers. To lend order to the mayhem one might consider renaming the files into a more readable format. Problem is, when dealing with a large number of files (1000+), how best can one rename the same without batch renaming and therefore renumbering? E.g Tintin Volumes 1 & 3: batch renaming would number them 1 & 2, and so on. One clearly needs a better solution, and I am glad to report there is one, for Mac OS.
Renamer4Mac, is an app that allows Search and Replace of characters and sequences occurring in Filenames using simple search or Regular Expressions e.g. ([A-z]*). In addition one can do the usual Batch Renaming etc. The interface is clean and to the point: enter an expression – simple or regex - to search for, and the pattern to replace it with. Regexes might seem complicated to the uninitiated at first, but once you get the hang of it, one can create the most complex regex’s to get the quickest and all comprehensive search results using the queries.
I cannot begin to calculate the amount of time this app has saved me over the months, and now especially as I tackle the thousands of files in my collection. A task so monumental I had clear ignored till date, I am now accomplishing with flourish. Do give this one a whirl. Well worth it.
Windows 7: First impressions – Vista, done right
Joining the millions who brought down Microsoft servers when Windows 7 Beta went live, I booked my place in the starting lineup to get the latest and best OS to come out of Redmond thus far. Yes, there I said it, Windows 7 is the hands down, complete winner, and it has not even reached GM status. I am simply impressed by the ease, speed and the intuitive nature of the OS, after having castigated Vista for the lack of the same. Microsoft has clearly gotten its act together on this one.
The speedy setup led me to the Win7 desktop before I could scarcely even register the installation time. All my hardware was recognized immediately and the driver support seems to be top-notch! Installation of third party drivers went flawless, although I am unable to install Alcohol 120%. I ran the install through a series of stress tests including Benchmarks and file transfers, and a number of graphics intensive games. In all tests, it just seems to beat the pants off my previous install of Vista. Things, just work!
My test platform is a modest machine by all means and not a benchmarker’s dream by any stretch of the imagination. The same machine I outlined a few blog posts back. That I believe is a true test of an OS. Anyone can run Vista like a dream on C2Ds and Quad core systems with 4-8 Gigs of RAM. I am yet to find a objective review of W7 on regular Joe Six-Pack hardware specs. My search continues.
It truly seems that Microsoft has gotten it’s act back together – Windows 7 is truly what Vista should’ve been. It does seem that Microsoft needs a swift application of an appendage to the posterior to get its act together and I cite you historical facts for the same. Windows ME after Windows 98, led to the most successful consumer oriented OS release – XP. Vista after XP, will lead to Windows 7 – whether or not it will be successful, time alone shall judge, but if the beta is so good, stay tuned for the GM!
I will try and outline a few features that appealed to me during my test drive. Customary screenshots follow.
AeroPeek – on moving the mouse cursor to the bottom right, the Windows stacked on the desktop become transparent. Visual eye candy, this can be useful when trying to get to the files on the desktop. This feature seems to replace the ubiquitous "Show Desktop" on previous versions of Windows.
Taskbar – Much has been written about the new taskbar and I can corroborate, it is pretty good. It acts much like the Dock on OSX, with items that can be made "Sticky" or applications that are present while running. It automatically collates the running apps into a single icon which when hovered upon will give a live preview of the Window contents. Time saver indeed, and one step beyond OSX (in terms of preview).
Copy Progress – right on the taskbar. Not really documented on other sites, this seems to have snuck past other reviewers (or so I’d like to believe).
Recents – Right on the start menu, instead of having to scour through the Recents link on the start menu, which list all the recent application documents opened, this is a definite time saver.
I am indeed quite impressed.
Testdrive Windows 7 Beta 1
Usually the prerogative of MSDN Technet Subscribers and *Arr Matey’s* – starting this afternoon, the average Joe Six-pack will be able to download the latest beta version of Microsoft’s next gen OS – Windows 7, for free! Starting from 12:00PM PST (or 3:00PM EST), interested users can download the limited time beta directly from Microsoft.
Though many have been scarred by what has been described as the greatest Microsoft debacle since Windows ME, Windows 7 seems to offer what Vista should have from day one – Speed, Compatibility, UI enhancements, streamlined OS, etc. A number of reviews of the same can be found here, here & here.
A caveat though – I did notice that all the people beta-testing and posting their reviews of Windows 7 were testing on an ueber-pumped up system (usually Core-i7 processors and 8 Gigs of RAM at times), rendering the result of such a test run, more or less meaningless for normal users with more "dated" hardware, which is the true test of an OS. Anyways, I can’t wait to be one of the waiting masses as the ISO becomes available. One thing is certain, the servers will be clogged, and the download speeds won’t amount to much at all.
Happy New Year and MacWorld ’09
A very happy and prosperous new year to one and all! I have been tardy in blogging so far this year, but as this blog reaches its second anniversary (check the archives for posts from ’06), I find myself growing inadvertently busier and less inclined to type out a post. But I will try and keep up.
Of course the latest from the Mac World was the MacWorld (pardon me) ’09. A landmark event of sorts in the build up to the same, it turned out to be a damp squib. Landmark since this will be the last time that Apple features at this expo, which is a conundrum of sorts since this is actually "Mac"World, a place to showcase and demonstrate the latest and greatest in what Apple has been working upon in the previous year. This decision, I simply don’t fathom. Next, Steve Jobs – conspicuous in his absence from MacWorld ’09. The jury is still out on the future of Apple Inc once the CEO departs, but one thing was certain, it did make for a less-than-spectacular MacWorld event. No offence to Phil Schiller, but the charisma and the charm Jobs pulls into an event of this sort is really unparalleled. It was unfortunately a damp squib as it didn’t quite meet the expectations of the Apple fans (like moi-meme) in that no new gadgets were released or announced (unlike the previous years – a-la iPhone, MacBook Air, etc).
That notwithstanding, Apple did come up with three new announcements: iWork ’09, iLife ’09 and the 17" MacBook Pro. I have already downloaded iWork ’09 and will soon post my experience, but I am really looking forward to iLife, and iPhoto in particular. The demonstration left me agape, I love the neat features that iPhoto has come to incorporate and as an avid iPhoto user, I can’t wait to get my grubby lil’ hands on the software.
Rest is all well, the weather continues to disappoint, snow and below freezing temperatures all the time – making it difficult to drive and get to work at times, but well, only three more months of this, and then blessed, beautiful Spring. For those curious about this: No, no snow angels yet! ; ) It is beautiful at times: right now as I gaze outside, thick snow flakes everywhere: a winter wonderland.
