Laptop Stolen? See who did it…

In this strange world, people can’t seem to leave your stuff alone. All the electronic gadgets of today are too attractive to the lowlife of this world. So what do you do if somebody swipes your laptop? You take a few pictures of him, and trace his IP address!

Migrate from Windows to OSX

My wife got tired of her Windows/Compaq laptop. So 2 weeks ago, she decides to go out and buy a 15″ macbook pro (an excelent choice I might add). She was a bit worried about getting used to the new machine, but decided to take the risk. After no more than 3 days, with surprisingly little help, she figured out how to do everything she did on the Windows machine, and even installed her own software.

The last thing to do was to migrate all the stuff from her old Windows machine to her new “lappie” (yes, she actually gave this one a nickname ). Although Microsoft tries hard to keep Outlook Express users locked in, I did find a tool that solved the problem completely for me.

Clone Windows HD on Apple OSX machine

Last week, lightning struck at my parents apartment building (literaly). Other damages aside, my dad’s PC also died.

The guy at the PC repair shop warned my dad that “we may need to wipe the HD, do you have a backup”? Ofcourse, all data was backed up daily and “off-site” at my house so all important data was safe. But just in case, we wanted to make an exact disk image of the drive, so that we could easily restore it when the PC returns from the store

Difference between Windows and OSX

Another great example showing the differences between OSX and Windows. Bot applications synchronize your phone over bluetooth. Both applications are simple to use, but one is simpler. And contrary to expectations, this time the Windows version (left) will cost you money, and the OSX version (right) is free.

Although you’d expect the Windows version to do more with all these bells and wistles on the screen, but it’s actually iSync that also synchronizes the calendar to my phone, and back. Automatically. No configuration needed, it does what is considered logical to the sensible mind.

Apple and OSX are just like a Volkswagen New Beetle. Either you like it, or you don’t. But either way, it’s good that it’s here.

For the record: I don’t like the Volkswagen New Beetle, and I do like OSX. My Mac Mini is absolutely by far the best computer I have bought in the past 5 years, maybe even the best computer I’ve bought ever. No kidding.

DOCTYPE is a myth…

… and other wisdom from Joel. Finally, after weeks of slightly boring posts about travel, speeches and FogBugz, Joel has an article on his blog he was so famous for: Martian Headsets.

The article discusses the problems with the HTML spec, and numerous other problems developers are facing these days. That, and the Martians’ strange fascination for all kinds and shades of red.

At times, the article remembered me of some thoughts I have during my dayjob:

• Minimize. (also known as the KISS principle)
• Have a contract early in the process. Make it testable. Find a way to handle problems in the contract.
• Be strict and transparent. Fail early and explain.
• Using a standard and conforming to it are two different things.
• Communicate.

Although all are true to some degree, they aren’t going to solve all problems, because everybody has their own set of thoughts and rules. For every problem there is a nice, clean, simple, cheap, wrong answer.

Now go read the article, it’s much better than my writing…