This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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Finally New MacBook Pros

This is of course on every Mac and Tech blog in the world this morning, but:

Apple introduces Penryn-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros
(AppleInsider)

Apple today updated its popular MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models.

…

In addition, MacBook Pro includes the latest NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory, and Apple’s innovative Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air.

The new MacBook Pro features the latest Intel Core 2 Duo technology with up to a 2.6 GHz processor with 6MB of shared L2 cache; up to 4GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory and up to a 300GB hard drive, plus NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with up to 512MB of video memory.

Every MacBook Pro now includes a trackpad with Multi-Touch gesture support for pinch, rotate and swipe, making it more intuitive than ever to zoom and rotate photos in iPhoto or Aperture 2 or browse web pages in Safari; an illuminated keyboard that makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls and a built-in ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the brightness of the display for optimal visibility.

…

We have been waiting for this update. 2008 is Brandy’s scheduled year to replace her laptop. Her existing Dell laptop is barely functional. The built in keyboard doesn’t work any more, so she carries around a full sized external keyboard with it. The power cord connector is flaky, so it has to be held JUST RIGHT to work, the battery lasts almost no time, and it is of course slow and has a tiny hard drive. We got it in early 2006 as a “temporary” bottom of the line option which has now way outlived it’s useful life.

We’ve been waiting for the MacBook Pro updates before pulling the trigger though. As soon as I move the cash for this from one account to another (which will take a day or two) we’ll make the order.

Woo!

Posted by Abulsme -- Tuesday 26 February 2008 16:11:41 UTC
Category: Tech | Leave a comment

The Delegates Trickle In

There were some delegate updates from CNN today.

On the Dem side this should be Democrats Abroad and a few superdelegates who have expressed a preference in the last week or so. (I don’t however actually see the Democrats abroad listed in CNN’s state by state breakdown, so maybe they have forgotten them, but that would be stupid… it is a small number of delegates of course, and they have that whole fractional delegate thing, so maybe their system choked on that. :-) )

Anyway, the net results of today’s changes were very small. 13 new delegates were added to CNN’s totals. 8 for Obama, 5 for Clinton. We went from Obama 50.8%, Clinton 48.2%, Edwards 1.0% to Obama 50.9%, Clinton 48.1%, Edwards 1.0%. Like I said, tiny change.

We are mathematically still a long way from the end. Obama needs 1281 more delegates to win. Clinton would need 1353 more to win. Of course, the big question is will one of them give up at some point. (I’m of course guessing Clinton will do just that if she loses Ohio and Texas.) Otherwise, we could certainly go straight through to the convention.

69 delegates were added on the Republican side. 20 of these were from the Republican caucuses in Puerto Rico. Like the Democrats abroad on the other side, CNN doesn’t list this on their state by state breakdown. I’m not 100% sure where the other 49 come from. I suspect they are from CNN finally getting around to adding up final delegate results from Wisconsin and Washington State. In any case, McCain gains 53 more delegates. Also for the first time since my February 10th update, Huckabee gains some delegates… a whole 16 delegates.

In any case, McCain is closing in on the magic number. 220 delegates left to win.

Posted by Abulsme -- Tuesday 26 February 2008 04:35:12 UTC
Category: News | Leave a comment

Six Degrees, Nah Two Degrees

News about one of the brothers of the person who was my boss from March 2004 to January 2006.

And on The Subject of Pentagon Announcements
(Spencer Ackerman, Washington Independant)

A lot of people believe [Lieutenant General Stanley A.] McChrystal will be the next Iraq commander after David Petraeus finishes his tour. The horserace—and this is pure gossip here, to be clear—has it between McChrystal and Lt. Gen. Pete Chiarelli, who was corps commander under George Casey.

I never met Stanley. Just his brother whom I worked for and another brother who I worked with. Of the two brothers I knew, one was OK. The other… well, let me not talk about that here. And of course none of that likely has any relevance to Stanley.

But I still find it interesting to note when I see new news about General McChrystal.

Posted by Abulsme -- Tuesday 26 February 2008 01:20:56 UTC
Category: News | 4 comments