Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh, but think about it for a moment. Everyone is complaining about power consumption and global warming and whatnot, THE EARTH IS DYING!!!1oneoneeleven, yet by now it’s really fucking hard to find a decent mouse or keyboard that does have a cable.

Why is that?

I seriously don’t understand why it’s necessary and accepted among computer users to have a formerly cable-bound piece of hardware that now doesn’t “need” a cable anymore, but batteries (rechargable or not). Or worse: the mice that come with their own base stations and power adapters.

Mind you, your mouse and keyboard are usually around 50cm to 1m away from your Mac or PC. So why not use something with a cable?

I am currently shopping for a new mouse, hence the confusion. Well, actually I am annoyed. I was eying the beautiful Logitech MX Revolution, which is a wonderful piece of equipment, is ergonomic, has the right size for my paws, it would be perfect!

Unfortunately (for Logitech) I refuse to buy something as mundane as a pointing device with its own PCU. Sure, they probably don’t care.

/sigh

Friday I finally got my new machine delivered to my doorstep: 24’’ iMac, Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 7600GT.

First impression: it’s huge. Really huge. “A couple of smaller iMacs are orbiting it!”-huge. But very shiny. My 20” Dell flatscreen is still sitting next to it, looking small.

The transition from the Mac mini to the new box was uneventful, almost too easy, if there is such a thing. Next I moved a few gigabytes of porn data over from my PC, the 250GB drive took it with a mere shrug, as expected.

I also installed World of Warcraft/Burning Crusade, since it’s the only game I have lying around for OSX at the moment. (Which reminds me, I also have Uru and Warcraft III and should probably take them for a spin as well.)

Short verdict: frickin’ sweet. 1920×1200px, all settings cranked to max, glow enabled, 16xAF—I get 30-60fps all the time, no matter where I am. One thing that for some reason doesn’t work, tho, is FSAA. Apparently the 7600GT doesn’t do FSAA in WoW, but it’s a known problem, and I hope they’ll fix it at some point. That said, it’s not like the lack of anti-aliasing is really apparent. :)

Also, the box doesn’t really break a sweat running anything. For example, the CPUs hover around 20% while playing WoW. Even when converting AVI videos to something my iPod can handle it was blazingly fast, yet quiet and still responsive, the way it should be. The difference between a single G4 Mac mini and a Core 2 Duo iMac 24” is nothing short of breathtaking. (If it wasn’t, I’d be seriously disappointed anyways.) It performs admirably.

I named it Rupert.

Summing up YouTube. xkcd does an excellent job of taking a snapshot of YouTube in one single comic strip.

It’s art! jr has an iNsight

Apple is not a business. It’s an art co-op.

Project Censored: Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007. Interesting list. I “liked” #2, Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran.

How old is the Grand Canyon? Park service won’t say:

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.

Dick in a box. IKEA instructions for making a DIAB.

AG? Nine year old Wired story, still fascinating and mindboggling:

Skeptics had a field day when a scientist claimed in 1996 that gravity could be negated. Now his findings are being investigated in laboratories worldwide.

Solid State Disk Changes The Game [via Simon]:

And, it will change the way your software runs. When there’s little penalty in saving to disk, there’s no reason not to. Your changes are stored as your writing the memo, or playing with the spreadsheet.

Windy. Outside a storm is brewing that is assumed to end all life in Germany. Everywhere. We’re all going to die! Is Jesus coming back, bringing his lawyers? No idea. I just hope we’ll still have a roof in the morning.

New keyboard. Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, excellent even on a Mac, thanks to the surprisingly flexible IntelliType software. I love Apple hardware, but the glaring lack of an ergonomic keyboard is nothing short of a shame.

A dirty, dirty, dirty keyboard can be cleaned thoroughly easily, it doesn’t necessarily have to be thrown away—you can reuse it! Here’s how.

Unplug the keyboard. Then disassemble it, usually that means taking out the screws in the back and ending up with one plastic board holding all the keys and the (more or less) fancy casing. If the cable can be detached, even better.

Now, take the key board and the casing and put it in a dishwasher. Put it in an upright position. Close the dishwasher and let it do its dirty work.

When the dishwasher is done, take both parts of the keyboard and put them in a dry place. Again, in an upright position. Usually leaning them against a closet works fine. Leave them there for one or two days so the remaining water can drip out or evaporate. The longer, the better. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Once the parts are dry again, reassemble the keyboard and plug it in. Usually (see disclaimer below) you’ll have a clean and working keyboard now. Even all the board chow is gone! Splendid.

If it doesn’t work correctly, it’s probably not entirely dry yet. Just let it dry for another day or so and try again.

Disclaimer: I’ve followed this procedure two times by now. The first time with an Apple Keyboard. No disassembling necessary (or possible). Worked fine. Second time just last week with a no-brand ergonomic PC keyboard. Both times I was successful. Your mileage may vary, and I won’t take any responsibility.