There is a lot of speculation coming out of Robert X. Cringely, including some grounding from John Gruber. I’d like to comment on it.
Cringely says a new kernel is coming for Intel Mac OS 10.5. Gruber says Apple would never release a PowerPC 10.5 with a different kernel than Intel 10.5. But I am not so sure. Gurber admits the kernel of an operating system is hidden from the average user. Developers would have to test against 10.5 wether it had a new kernel or not. But Gruber does have a point, writing operating Systems kernels is hard. Just ask The Hurd.
But what if Apple decided to use the Linux kernel? They could add Mach-o as a first class executable format. They could replace the driver subsystems with IOKit, and bam! You would have a kernel in no time. This would even allow you to run Linux executables (no need to eliminate ELF). Imagine a Gnome or KDE app running side by side to a Mac app. A lot of people find that desirable.
Then Cringely talks about Apple rewriting the Windows XP version of the WIN32 API so they could run Windows applications natively under Mac OS X. Gruber notes how non-trivial this would be and I totally agree it would be to difficult to actually do.
But what if Apple used their cross patent agreement with Microsoft to “Carbonize” the WIN32 API? Pick 80%-95% of the most used calls and rewrite them. This would require Windows Developers to recompile their application, and fix any “missing API” issues. But they will have to do this for Vista anyway. There would be no reason to implement undefined behavior (or bugs).
All Apple would have to do is convince Windows developers to write to 5% of the market.

My father died this morning. He was 120 miles away in a hospital. My mother was with him. The event was wholly expected, so I dealt with this a long time ago.

I tried to make a commitment to post something here at least once a month. I failed for March, this doesn’t count.

Saturday, Feburary 18 was an unexpectedly fun day. My daughters pleaded with me to take them out, and after a few hours of finishing a project on the computer we all decided to go to the park. My wife was still asleep and even she decided to get up and come with us.
So we are driving to the park. A nice one in Pleasant Hill with lots of fun things to do. This is just a city park, nothing all that special. Then I told my wife of my desire to go back to Crissy Field in San Francisco one morning.
It was way to late to do such a trip then, because I really wanted to be in Crissy Field to see the sun rise. But right then my wife had a wonderful idea. She suggest we go up to the top of Mount Diablo. When you live in Diablo Valley the areas largest mountain can be seen from everywhere. It is surprising it took us so long to even think of it. The real reason for going was the recent snow fall. It never snows in the valley, but when it gets cold enough the 3,849 foot high mountain will get a dusting. It usually happens once a year. This was a perfect time to go.
Personally I hate the snow. Too much sunlight reflection and I’ll start to get migraines. But even I was excited to go.
Our trip up the mountain was uneventful. The road was closed about two thirds up the mountain. We hiked up another 200 feet; seeing lots of snow, but most of it was ice and too far off of the road to experience. But it was very fun to be out as a family. On our way down it started to snow. It was then we all agreed to go back the next day for another trip.
The next day my wife was too sleepy to get up and go with us (we left the house at 7:30 A.M.). So this time it was just me and my daughters. The road was closed at the same place as the previous day, so we parked and started to hike again. Sadly, there was less snow on this day. About an hour after we parked we saw a park ranger leading cars further up the mountain. So we quickly went back to our car and drove further up the mountain.
On our drive up we saw more and more snow. We were all getting very excited. The rangers had blocked the road at the top of the mountain. So we parked again and found a true winter wonderland. Real snow (not ice) and lots of it. People sledding down paths. Everyone having a wonderful time. We stayed another hour. Megan kept trying to put snow down my pants (that sure gets old quick).

My car came with zero accessories. Not even a clock. I had to go to Radio Shack to purchase a small digital clock so that I would know what time it is when I’m driving around.
I’ve had the car about three years and now the clock batteries are finally wearing down. I can tell because the display is is fading. It’s not as contrasty as it used to be.
But it is also exhibiting a very weird condition. The hour hand is stuck at 9 o’clock. Never mind that this is a digital clock. At 9:59, it rolls over to 9:00. Other than this little problem, it keeps perfect time.

Yesterday I saw Stephen Colbert interviewd live on stage at a City Arts & Lectures event. Oh man did I enjoy it.
The interviewer, the TV critic of the San Francisco Chronicle (I’m too lazy to lookup his name), was excellent in getting Stephen to open up the the audience. But that wasn’t every hard, Stephen has been an actor for a long time. Originally he trained to be a serious stage actor and you really saw it when he jumped out onto the stage and soaked in everyone’s applause.
The most entertaining part of the interview was when Stephen would quickly slip into the Colbert Report character and start answering questions like a pompous know-it-all. But he would just as quickly revert back to regular guy Stephen that we all love.
Before the interview started, the very beginning of the first Colbert Report was shown. This is where truthiness was introduced as the first The Word. He went on to talk about how the AP’s story on the word of the year and how it didn’t mention The Report in an way. He said it was the best thing to every happen because the character needs to be attacked by the liberal media. Complaining about personal attacks is very natural to the character.
We learned about Stephen’s childhood (youngest of eleven children). A tragic moment in his family (His father and oldest brother dying in a plane crash at age ten). His first attempt at college (philosophy major at a small college in South Carolina). His second attempt at college (switching to the drama department at a college in Chicago). They then talked about being a part of Second City, then onto a show with Robert Smigel that I never head of. Then Strangers with candy, a show I never appreciated while it was on. But now I fondly remember it when I think of the characters.
The Daily show is where I first remember him. The Gaydar segment is one of the funniest “Have fun with regular people” segments I’ve ever seen on that show. Of course that was done when Craig Killborne was the host, so it has not been repeated since John Stewart took over. Now that Mr. Colbert has his own show, I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again.
After the interview was over it was time for audience questions. I really wanted to ask about Harvy Birdman but could think of a pithy question.

I don’t know how much to worry about this kind of thing but I got a 37 on an Autism quiz. Go here to take the test yourself.
37 is a score a little higher than a someone with Asperger Syndrome would score.

Here is a poem my daughter wrote about my other daughter.

Love that girl
like a candy is sweet
I said I love that girl
like a candy on a stick
love to see her in the morning
love to see her
hey there, sister!

Just now I was looking thru iPhoto to find another picture to post to Flickr. I came across this photo:

I could not help but think this was the last time my PowerBook 100 ran correctly. I was going to use it to upload Intellivision games to my Intellicart at my 2003 Intellivision display at the Vintage Computer Festival 6.0.
The Intellivision uploader I wrote (in REALBasic) would not run on the PB100 because its operating system was so old. I remember hauling out a Macintosh Quadra 610 and installing an old copy of CodeWarrior to write a simple drag and drop Intellivision Uploader. It worked beautifully. But the next day my Powerbook would not boot. I just got sad mac error codes (pointing to faulty memory) and that was it. A dead Powerbook 100.
I instead took the Quadra 610 to the exhibit. The funny thing is the DigiBarn had a nice exhibit of old Macs at the show. They included a PowerBook 100.

Wow, I’ve had a blog for almost a year and have not done a list. Well since iTunes gladly tracks which songs I listen to let’s
have a list of my favorite songs: