A pet-hate of mine is that annoying noise that plays when your machine starts up. Whether it’s a PC or a Mac, I have no idea why someone would think it was a good idea to by default play a sound at startup, or shutdown for that matter.

What is the benefit of that? No, I can’t think of it either.

Strange thing is, on the Mac it’s not something you can easily get rid of. So, other than remembering to mute the sound before shutdown, you’re was stuck with it. Grrrr.

However, after a little bit of digging about, I’ve found a method to stop the startup sound on the Mac without the rest of the sound being muted.

Unfortunately it’s an add-in as opposed to a hack, but it does the job.

Just go to the Arcana Research site and download their little add-in – StartupSound.prefPane – and follow the instructions.

Once you install, an extra icon, called “Startup Sound”, appears in your System Preferences app. Just click it and check the ‘mute’ checkbox: Job done. No more annoying startup noise.

(although for some strange reason it also lets you set a specific volume for it should you so wish; more craziness!)

Delicious Digg This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

I think The Big One is probably the highest coaster I’ve ever been on. Although other coasters may come close, because it’s located on the Blackpool coast, the wind coming in off the sea makes you feel as though you’re at the top of an Himalayan abyss.

This coaster is prone to being closed due to high winds in the vicinity. The first couple of times I was in the area since it was opened, I didn’t get on, but it was worth the wait…

‘The Big One’  Coaster Vital Statistics

Type of ride: Steel ’standard’ coaster

• Height: 213 feet
• First drop: 205 feet
• Top speed: 74 mph
• Track length: 5497 feet
• Ride time: 2:00 minutes (actual 1:15)
• Inversions: 0
• Max G:Force: 3.5
• Height requirement: 52 inches
• Opened: 28/05/1994
• Manufacturer: Arrow Dynamics

The Big One is an imposing coaster. When you walk up to it, it’s quite stunning, both in terms of height and location. It looks out of place, towering over residential houses.

Lots of the new-world coasters are quite compact in area. The Big One is high and long and as you approach it, it takes in your whole field of vision. When you get in your seat, you find it’s only a lap-bar holding you in and could be forgiven for wondering whether you’ve been duped and this is all going to be a bit tame.

The traditional coaster chain lift takes a full 45 seconds to get us to the stunning 213 foot height. The view from this height is quite remarkable. Everything on the ground is very small and, like The Who once said, you can see for miles and miles.

While you’re admiring the view, the track takes you into a small dip and curves round to the right before plunging you downwards 205 feet in a very short space of time. Then it’s back up again to let us drop, slightly more gently this time but taking you along the full length of the coaster and parallel with the Blackpool promenade.

At the end of the long run, the track takes you round a full 360 degree left hand turn, doubling back and taking three long dips; one shallow, one deep and the last shallow one taking you into a left turn with one more dip taking you below the structure for a classic old-school head-chop moment.

We then come back up for a dab of the brakes before another dip which takes us into a tight horizontal 360 left-hand loop and an even closer head-chop under the white timber structure again before a final bend and dip into the dark to finish.

Now for complex coaster fans, it’s easy to look at this coaster and discount it as a one trick pony. However it has to be said, it’s a helluva trick.

Verdict?

This coaster opened the same year as Nemesis at Alton Towers. Completely different genre, but it’s a rocking coaster nonetheless.

Delicious Digg This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

I’ve admired them since the early days, but until relatively recently never owned any of their products. A bit too expensive and not mainstream enough to be in use where I worked.

That all changed with the iPod. Still expensive but luckily I received one as a gift. I liked the simplicity; the controls, the minimalism. Then, more recently and long overdue, I got myself an iPhone; even better. Finally I took the big step and plunged into OSX and a MacBook; rock ‘n roll!

It’s all about the little design things for me. The way it looks, feels. The buttons are just right, the precision machining (the sim drawer on the iPhone for example), nothing is superfluous; all form, fit and function.

You’ll be hard-pushed to persuade me against any of the Apple products I own,  other than with newer, better versions of them.

And therein lies my gripe about Apple…

But back to that gripe in a minute.

General criticism of Apple falls into two areas; price and, well, price.

Apple products are damned expensive by comparison to others vendors in the same sector, and deliberately so. They’ve developed a knack for creating demand from their great product design, courtesy of Johnathan Ive, with an appropriate level of function and then they’re premium-pricing it. An almost arrogant, “If you don’t like the price, don’t buy it”, if you like.

As the oft mis-quoted saying goes, “If you build it, they (sic) will come.”

I think it’s more like, “If you build it beautifully, they will lust after it. And then they will put their hand in their pocket and pay. Handsomely.”

I’ve been following the hype and speculation about the iPad.

I did laugh when I saw Steve Jobs proudly holding one an iPad at the launch; it did look like a mini-Steve holding up an iPhone.

I too want an iPad. Of course I do, it’s gorgeous. I have no idea what I would use it for, that I don’t already have covered by my iPhone and MacBook. But I know it will be great.

Apple have hit the spot again; they have created yet another product that invokes the tech equivalent of lust.

But I’m not going to get one. Not just yet.

The problem with Apple is their penchant for continual evolution and therefore rapid ‘obsolescence’. No sooner have you saved up your hard-earned dosh, rush down to the Apple Store™, or online equivalent, and get your hands on a gorgeous piece of Apple kit, than a new one comes out.

The changes are usually small and subtle. Maybe a slightly glossier finish, or a different trackpad, or more rounded corners. But you’re still left feeling like the shop-staff changed the display the moment you left the store. A feeling compounded by the fact you’ve paid a premium price to start with.

Perhaps obsolescence is a strong word for it. After all, your iPhone, MacBook, etc. are all still great, but there’s a better one out now. So people who pay the same money you did, now have something better than you. We don’t like that.

I got my ’standard’, white 13 inch MacBook in May last year. And a thing of beauty it was, but there are other posts about that.

However, comparing it to the ’standard’ 13 inch model available in November, only 6 months later, I see the following differences:

• Glossier: The white finish is indeed glossier, it’s not my imagination.
• Thinner: The lid is thinner, and the corners more rounded.
• Trackpad: My dual touch with button is now multi-touch glass.
• Power: Slim magnetic-plug & the wire is no longer at 90 degrees.

All of these are nice form and/or function improvements, they’re all the right thing to do. The galling part is that at least the latter two of those improvements were available at the time I purchased mine, but only on the MacBook Pro model.

It’s as if Apple are rewarding those who held off buying one with features they could have included first time round but were using as a differentiator between models. That’s good for the late(r)-adopters but, dammit, that’s no good to me.

Bizarrely, and as if to contradict my rant here a little, I found an instance where they seem to have gone the wrong way.

• FireWire: No firewire port on the new MacBook.

Now that is a definite backwards step. I like my firewire drive, it’s quick. It gets its data and power from a single cable. The alternative on the new machine is to use 2x USB ports (one for power, one for data) and obviously lose the circa. 50% speed benefit.

That said, I’d probably swap that for the glass trackpad…

Delicious Digg This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

Back in the day, my father-in-law used to play junior football. By all accounts he was a bit special as a left back and always been a big fan of football at all levels.

We knew he played for a few clubs before hanging up his boots to raise his family. Money was tight and a steady job had to take priority over his passion for the game.

We were going through some boxes of old photos recently and happened upon something genuinely interesting from 60 years ago…

You can probably guess, from the team logo, he played for Kilbirnie Ladeside FC for a time. They were very well known and respected back in the day and are still fighting the good fight; apparently they were the first junior team with their own website.

This first photo is the regular Kilbirnie Ladeside first team for the 1949-50 season. It was a good season for The Blasties; the silverware was in abundance.

My father-in-law, John McKenna, appears in this photo (back row, third from the right). Had the wonders of colour photography been available then, you would be able to see the shock of red hair that earned him his imaginative nickname, “Ginger McKenna”.

Not the traditional build for a left back, his wiry frame meant he was fast and skilful on the ball, even in those days where it was a particularly punishing game with a heavy ball and what we would now consider primitive footwear.

I unfortunately don’t have any other names from this photo but would welcome details, should any readers be able to identify any of these fine fellows.

In the 1949-50 season, Kilbirnie Ladeside won four honours; something not to be sniffed at, either then or now. The following photograph shows the trophy cabinet containing the spoils of the season.

They won the Western League, The Ayrshire Cup, The Irvine and District Cup and the newly christened Land of Burns Cup in this season. They were on fire.

Winning as much in one season is a pretty big thing, for any team. So I guess it was because it was so long ago, it’s not recorded either on the official Ladeside website, or the Wiki entry for the team. I’ll maybe get in touch with the guys via the site to let them know.

For additional authenticity, below are Ginger McKenna’s set of medals from the season as testimony to his part in the season-of-seasons for the club; below.

John has a bit of trouble remembering recent stuff these days but when I showed him the medals and photos, he remembered it like it was yesterday.

At the end of the glittering 1949-50 season, he was scouted for a sizeable (for those days) transfer fee, by Blantyre Celtic which was significantly closer to his home town of Rutherglen.

All photos © Steve McCallum, all rights reserved, please ask before using.

Delicious Digg This Post Reddit Stumble This Post

When CDs arrived on the scene, I switched to the new medium and the vinyl was assigned to the loft. I even re-bought some of my old vinyl on CD (you’re welcome guys – double-whammy for you).

When downloads came into play (jeez this makes me sound old) I still continued to buy CDs, because some strange part of me still liked having something solid and tangible in my hand after parting with my cash.

When I finally took the plunge and bought a few individual tracks from iTunes, to fill some gaps on my iPod, all seemed fine. Until I decided to move some of my music onto a little stick MP3 player and I happened upon the problem with Digital Rights Management.

The iTunes-purchased tracks wouldn’t play on my stick drive because it was in iTunes format, not standard MP3…

“Easy!” I think to myself, “I’ll just convert them to MP3″. Except, when you try to do that, good old DRM stops you, “Oh no, you can’t do that, you might be a teenage file-sharer trying to bring down the music industry.”

Well no, actually, I’m not. I paid for the tracks and I want to listen to them on whatever player I sodding well want to. I don’t peer-to-peer share. Never have, never will.

I didn’t fancy the whole DRM stripping software thing because that’s like admitting you’re doing something illicit (did I mention I’d already paid for these tracks?). But, there is another way, without the need for hooky software.

How to remove DRM from iTunes tracks

1. In iTunes, select all the DRM’d tracks and create a playlist
2. Burn the playlist onto a CD
3. Put the CD back in your machine and rip it as MP3
4. Enjoy the music you paid for when and where you want

Anyhoo, I’m going to boycott iTunes for music purchases till they stop putting DRM on their tracks. I’ll stick to Sky Songs or Amazon MP3.

As a parting comment on the subject – you want one reason against DRM and the whole “killing music” thing?

1. MTV Cribs

Delicious Digg This Post Reddit Stumble This Post