Tisvernicio’s blog on Vox

No, it's not (yet) 64-bit capable

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:03:56 +0200

The new iTunes 9 released today by Apple is still not 64 bit capable - it runs in 32 bits mode. Should it run in 64 bits? Maybe, or maybe not, but it has been a bit of a let down.

If Apple doesn't start to release its software in 64 bit versions, why upgrade to Snow Leopard for 64 bit support???

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Now we need 64 bit apps: a performance overview of Snow Leopard vs Leopard vs Tiger

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:24:01 +0200

I have installed Snow Leopard today and did some testing with regards to its performance in booting, shutting down and launch times of applications. At the same time I check the RAM usage soon after the booting process is completed.

I have first done an upgrade of 10.6 upon my existing 10.5.8 installation and then (like it is always better to do in a complete new OS version) I did a clean install. The results are interesting.

I compared these numbers, with the timings I have recorded in the past with a 10.4.9 installation and a 10.5 clean install to see how Snow Leopard stacks up.

All tests are made in the same way on the same hardware (2GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook with 2GB RAM), averaging 3 consecutive measurements after each booting/shutdown cycle.

Though the absolute numbers are obviously not important, their relative value between different OS versions is what counts the most.

RAM usage (in brackets the differences wrt 10.6 clean install):

10.6 (clean install) --> 470MB

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) --> 554MB (+15%)

10.5.8 --> 474MB (0%)

10.5 (clean install) --> 349MB (-35%)

10.4.9 --> 405MB (-16%)

10.4.7 on Power PC (Mac Mini) 206MB (-128%)

For the following measurements no reference to the Mac Mini with PPC processor are made, since the hardware changes are too radical (especially processor absolute speed, e.g. MHz, and 2 cores, rather than 1).

Booting:

10.6 (clean install) --> 27"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) --> 38" (+29%)

10.5.8 --> 41" (+34%)

10.5 (clean install) --> 44" (+39%)

10.4.9 --> 26" (0%)

Mail:

10.6 (clean install) - Mail 4.0 (64 bit) --> 4"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) - Mail 4.0 (64 bit) --> 5" (+20%)

10.5.8 - Mail 3.6 --> 6" (+33%)

10.5 (clean install) --> N/A

10.4.9 - Mail 3 --> 4" (0%)

iTunes (currently only available in 32 bit):

10.6 (clean install) - iTunes 8.2.1 (empty library) --> 5"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) - iTunes 8.2.1 (empty library) --> 5" (+20%)

10.5.8 - iTunes 7 (empty library) --> 9" (+44%)

10.5 (clean install) --> N/A

10.4.9 - iTunes 7 (empty library) --> 8" (+38%)

Firefox (currently available only in 32 bit):

10.6 (clean install) - FF 3.5.2 --> 6"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) - FF 3.5.2 --> 12" (+50%)

10.5.8 - FF 3.5.2 --> 13" (+54%)

10.5 - FF 3.5b4 --> 7" (+14%)

10.4.9 - FF 2.0.0.3 --> 7" (+14%)

iPhoto (currently available only in 32 bit):

10.6 (clean install) - iPhoto 7.1.5 (library with 1700+ pics) --> 5"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) - iPhoto 7.1.5 (library with 1700+ pics) --> 5" (0%)

10.5.8 - iPhoto 7.1.5 (library with 1700+ pics) --> 8" (+38%)

10.5 - iPhoto 7.1.5 (empty library) --> 2" (-150%)

10.4.9 - iPhoto 6 (library with 6700+ pics) --> 7" (+29%)

OpenOffice/Neoffice (currently available only in 32 bit; OpenOffice native versions not requiring X11 were not available until 1 year ago):

10.6 (clean install) - OpenOffice 3.1.0 --> 12"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) - OpenOffice 3.1.0 --> 15" (+20%)

10.5.8 - OpenOffice 3.1.0 --> 15" (+20%)

10.5 - OpenOffice 3.1.0 --> 13" (+8%)

10.4.9 - NeoOffice 2.1 Patch 1 --> 25" (+52%)

Safari (used only since the release of version 4.0):

10.6 (clean install) - Safari 4.0.3 (64 bit) --> 3"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) - Safari 4.0.3 (64 bit) --> 3" (0%)

10.5.8 - Safari 4.0.3 (32 bit) --> 6" (+50%)

10.5 - Safari 4 beta (build 5528.17) (32 bit) --> 1" (-200%)

Shutdown:

10.6 (clean install) --> 4"

10.6 (upgrade from 10.5.8) --> 5" (+20%)

10.5.8 --> 8" (+50%)

10.5 (clean install) --> 18" (+78%)

10.4.9 --> 19" (+79%)

Comments:

Clearly a clean install is to be preferred to an upgrade install. The benefits of a freshly cleaned hard drive, with the apps and libraries, defragmented and all close to each other, does bring it's benefits. On average, the 10.6 clean install provided me with an additional 20% performance increase compared to the upgrade install measurements. Also the installation process is considerably shorter, 23' instead of 32' (30% less - but you still have to re-install everything though...).
Memory usage: 10.6 has about the same footprint of 10.5.8, but strangely 20-30% more footprint compared to 10.5 and 10.4.9; 10.6 brings 64 bit & native multi-core support and several other improvements. Clearly the Intel architecture is extremely inefficient compared to PPC architectures, requiring more than 2x RAM after boot. With about the same RAM usage you get a system that is on average 40% faster than 10.5.8 and 30% faster than 10.4.9; on the same hardware!
Regarding HDD usage, after the upgrade I had gained 3GB of free space; your mileage may vary, depending on installed applications and whether you are using Xslimmer or not. The System folder now is 200MB (-5%) smaller, the Library folder is 1 full GB smaller (-33%) and the user's library is 500MB less as well (-40%). Installing 10.6 is a no brainer in that sense.
Booting is about 30% faster compared to Leopard; strangely no difference wrt 10.4.9. If you do a clean install, you get a 30% speed bump compared to the upgrade install.
Shutting down is 50% to 80% faster. A clean install gives a 20% faster shutdown compared to an upgrade install.
Regarding single applications loading times, wrt 10.5.8 there are benefits across the board, also on 32 bit applications, waiting for an upgrade to 64 bit. Notable examples are iTunes (20% to 40% faster), Firefox (20% to 50% faster; it has never been a lighting bolt...), iPhoto 7 (30% to 40% faster) and Openoffice (10% to 20% faster, but still stubbornly above 10" - about forever!); it would be interesting to see the performance of the 32 and 64 bit versions of a program side by side...
Safari is weird: the current 64 bit version is yes, 50% faster than it's 32 bit counterpart, but 3x slower than the 32 bit beta that was available in 10.5.8 - why?

Bottom line: 10.6 from the outside doesn't seem to bring much - after reboot the only thing that gives a hint that you have upgraded is the new Aurora desktop wallpaper (more violet), the black pop-up menus for Dock Icons and a few other minor things here and there. But under the hood, there are major changes, last but not least, full multi-core management, 64 bit apps, cleaned up code (i.e. Finder). For 30$/€, with essentially the same RAM footprint you get more speed, faster booting and shutdown times and more hard drive free space.

Many applications are not yet optimized for multi-core processors and 64 bits, so the best is yet to come...

Apple again has managed to make a major transition seem effortless for the user. The OS, although at his first release shows, until now, some very minor bugs, but nothing that will not prevent you from working like you did before in 10.5.

It is true, 10.6 has booted the 32 bit kernel. I have tried to force it to 64 bit, but without success. But all applications and OS services that can run 64 bit, will do. The kernel runs currently, according to several sources outside of Apple, to guarantee the maximum compatibility with non 64 bit kernel extensions that will simply not work under a 64 bit kernel. Because the applications can and do instead fully work in 64 bit mode, there is no reason to panic. Likely in a couple of OS patches (i.e. 10.6.2) 64 bit kernel will be enabled, and probably the user will not even notice it.

Moreover if you have less than 4GB of RAM, right now there will be no additional benefit.

Interesting will be to see what 10.6 will bring to my Mac Mini running a Core Duo processor that does not support 64 bit processing. Will Grand Central Dispatch provide some benefit? Will I get more hard drive space?

More to come in the next few days, after the upgrade.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Myth About Exercise

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:49:05 +0200

I have read this week a very interesting article on Time about exercising and loosing weight.

I have been going consistently to the gym for the past 2 years. And despite my efforts, I am always weighing the same and my body composition has moved more in the direction of increasing fat, instead of muscle mass.

So I was wondering - am I just loosing my time? why going to the gym at all?

Time's article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin", by John Cloud, has been published at the right time. It is very well written and explains, based on the latest research in the field, why going to the gym is only one part of the equation.

Summarised, it goes more or less like this:

going to the gym is helpful and good for your health, no doubt about it
going to the gym makes you more hungry than usual
after leaving the gym one tends to eat more than necessary, feeling the need of eating more not just because you are hungry, but because "I am training!"
you tend to indulge more on sweets or fat foods, because you know that you will go to the gym or you have gone to the gym and you will burn extra calories off (wrong)
you have gone to the gym = you move less during the rest of the day
you end up gaining weight because of all the above or in the best case you weigh the same - fat converting to muscle is only one part of the equation
even if you were superman and managed to convert, say, 5 kg. of fat into muscle, the overall daily basic need of calories changes minimally (in this example about 40 cal./day - though I am not too sure about it)

This means, that if you go to the gym to loose fat, you need to eat *exactly* the same as when you are not going to the gym and you need to keep doing the same physical activities out of the gym as usual.

If you go to the gym to build muscle mass, you need to eat exactly the same as before or be *very* careful how many and what type of calories you eat.

Good luck with all that....

(read the article - it is worth the read).

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

iPod/iPhone firmware .ipsw files (can be deleted)

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 10:38:08 +0200

(This post will likely not interest most of my friends and contacts - it is here more as a reference in case somebody out there is looking for this information and Google has indexed this page...)

The iPod firmware files, usually located in the /%Username%/Library/iTunes/iPod Software Updates and named, e.g., "iPod1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw", may take some HDD space. They are around 250MB in size.

I have found on my Mac mini the following ones, giving actually a good idea on how the size of the firmware has changed through the various versions. From OS 1.x to OS 2.x there was quite a jump, but OS 3.0 is actually smaller than the latest OS 2.2.1.

Here the details:

iPod1,1_1.1.4_4A102_Restore, 165.5MB, March 2008

iPod1,1_2.0.1_5B108_Restore, 246.7MB, August 2008

iPod1,1_2.0.2_5C1_Restore, 246.2MB, August 2008

iPod1,1_2.1_5F137_Restore, 239.5MB, September 2008

iPod1,1_2.2_5G77_Restore, 248.1MB, November 2008

iPod1,1_2.2.1_5H11_Restore, 248.1MB, January 2009

iPod1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore, 231.2MB, June 2009

The date is when the update was done - in my case is typically 1-2 weeks after the firmware was released, so they should be pretty accurate.

According to this post in the Apple forums, it is safe to delete all files to recover disk space.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Why Apple is keeping a customer (happy).

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:38:29 +0200

After months experiencing disappointing customer services, finally today something really nice happened. Though I don't like making free advertising for companies in general - I do want to recognise quality and good service when you get it.

In this case it goes to Apple.

My 2.5 year old white MacBook had the top keyboard cover broken near the border and two thin pieces of white plastic were about to break off on both sides of it. I had fixed both with super glue and though it didn't look perfect, it was OK.

Today I decided to go to the Apple Store here in Munich to see what it could be done, since I had also read that Apple was changing for free the white casings in case of severe cracking - they recognised the bad quality delivered and they are doing something about it.

So, first good impression, you book an appointment via the internet - you just don't have to go to the store and hope after waiting forever that somebody will ask you "may I help you" - as it sometimes happens in shops.

Though mine was fixed at 18:20, and arrived at 18:25 (I lost the subway...), a nice lady at the "concierge" told me to take a seat and that I would be called. After 5-10 mins she picked me up *personally* (no shouting), and a friendly (honestly) Genius called Philipp looked at my MacBook.

After 30 secs and without any "but" or "if", he told me that they would change *for FREE*, completely out of warranty!!, the top keyboard cover, complete of keyboard itself and trackpad, since it was due to a faulty design. The cracks and the plastic splits are due to the thin plastic spacers located on the screen lid, where the magnets that keep the lid closed touch the top keyboard cover. He checked whether they had all the parts in-house, called a supervisor (30 secs total) to approve the free repair out of the 2 year warranty (in the EU we have 2 years warranty - the benefits of being in the bureaucratic EU), got my mobile number and took the MacBook with him. He said they would call me on the mobile within 8pm.

After 30 mins, I have been called on the mobile (!!) and went back to the Store and I was given back a "new" MacBook. The plastic keyboard cover, the keyboard itself and the trackpad are brand new.

All for 0€.

I have no idea whether another company could provide such a service, so fast.

So, certainly Apple is not perfect, and I was lucky that all parts were available so that they could give me a prompt service, but they certainly fare much better than others. And with this free repair, that costs Apple maybe 10-20€, they have renewed my loyalty as a customer for my next laptop - in 1 or 2 years, if nothing changes and the quality remains the same, I will buy another MacBook.

This is how you secure business. This is how you keep customers happy. So, if you ask me, buy a MacBook.

People talk about the "apple tax" - if paying a tax gives you 2 hours of excellent customer service and free out of warranty repairs, "no questions asked", then I rather pay it. I am still convinced there is a Windows-PC tax as well - and you get nothing in return; no sorry, you get Vista.

And this goes along the line of other extremely positive impressions I got from Apple Customer Service: my iPod Shuffle (1st generation) substituted out of warranty; the reimbursement of 100€ for the Apple Cinema Display due to the "price matching policy": after 1 day of purchasing it on the Apple Online Store, I found on the internet an offer 100€ cheaper. I sent a screenshot of the internet page with the cheaper offer from another shop to an Apple email address and after 1 week the money was on my credit card account. No fuss, no discussions, no questions.

If there were only more companies working like Apple.....for example Deutsche Telekom could be a just a tad better, just a "bit".....

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Are blogs still used at all?

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:29:34 +0200

Or everybody is on Twitter and Facebook and don't care about them anymore?

Some people on my Vox Neighbourhood haven't written a post since 2007... I haven't written since months either.

Should I drop this blog once and for all?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"Ubuntu 9.04 Is As Slick As Win7, Mac OS X" - I hope so.

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:36:19 +0200

An interesting article from ZDNet Australia about the UI of latest Linux distribution Ubuntu 9.04:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10226746-92.html

If all LeMai says is true, I cannot verify it myself, then finally Linux is truly becoming a "normal" user alternative and not something that requires a degreee in engineering to make sure it works on your PC.

But 2 "dark spots" for me in the article:

How LeMai can say that the implementation of Spaces is "erratic" without saying why, is out of my reach - I don't get it - I have used the multiple desktops of Linux and gave up after I realised that keeping a window on a desktop was not that straightforward and that visually you had no clue of what is on what desktop clearly as it is with Spaces, except a tiny icon on the taskbar. That Apple came late on implementing multiple desktop support - I fully agree though.
Moreover, the comment of Leopard running "sluggishly" on a G4 with 1GB RAM: clearly LeMai has never used Vista on a computer that runs XP "like a breeze" with 1GB - thank goodness they finally are fixing this with Windows 7 (I tried the beta on my old PC, with 700MB RAM and it works *really* good - read more on that here).

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Apple sometimes is completely and unexplainably "hopeless"

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:26:22 +0200

Apple is really hopeless sometimes - how can we tell them that they need to have a mid-range desktop as there are people out there who have a monitor, but would like a more expandable and more powerful machine than the mini? The iMac is not an option for me: I already have a monitor; the MacPro is not an option either, it is too expensive and offers way more than I need.

Another hopeless point - if you need a monitor and don't have a Mini Display port and don't have a MacPro or MacBook Pro, what is the offering of monitors from Apple today? Simply NONE. They used to have 20" and 24" Cinema Displays, now they only have the 24" LED backlit Cinema Display that works *only* with the new machines (no Mini Display Port to DVI adapter anyone?) or the older 30" Cinema Display that works *only* with MacPros or MacBook Pros or newer machines. Forget about wanting a 20", BTW. So if you have an "older" machine, you're out of luck and *need* to buy a non-Apple monitor.

Hello Apple?!?! am I supposed to go and buy a monitor from somebody else? do you really want me to do this?
It appears to be so.

Or maybe there are so few people who bought monitors from Apple in the past quarters that they have decided to drop the market altogether, offering very "niche" products like the 2 monitors mentioned above....

Hopeless.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Five Things

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:24:22 +0100

I have read on friend and fellow photographer Bexxi's blog a new Five Things meme in which you tell someone else what you associate with them, and ask them to elaborate. So, here are the things she came up with for me.

1) An Italian in Munich – how the heck does that work?
So far so good.... There are many Italians living in Munich, a lot actually, doing all sorts of jobs (including Luca Toni!). There are pros (many) and cons (a few) living in Munich. Notably the very high quality of life compared to Italy vs. the long and cold winters/autumns and a general lack of empathy and connection with the locals (that is germans in general) - it is not impossible and usually you need them to have at least a beer in their stomach, but generically speaking it is much more difficult to get into somebody's life in Munich (and not just with germans sometimes) and feel a connection than, say, in Italy.
With the difference that usually once you are "in" it is very difficult to be "out" someone's life - a friend (Freund) in Germany is most of times forever. Otherwise you are always a Bekannte (an acuaintance), no matter what you do or say.

2) Florence
This is my "home" town, although I was not born there and lived only 8 years in this lovely, but abandoned to itself, town. That was during my university studies. My parents were born here, but due to the ob of my father, we have been living a bit all over the place in Italy and in England for about a year. It was also the place where my grandparents lived and I have been visiting regularly Florence, no matter where I was, all of my live. And where some, but not all, of my best friends live. I was born in Milan, but Florence plays a centra role in my life and it is very likely the place I will want to spend my retirement days - there is so much that connects me to this city.

3) Complaining about stuff
This is probably the worst trait of my character - and the biggest problem is that I don't even realise that I am complaining!!!
I am told that I can go on forever complaining about everything, people, places, facts, computers, music, books, you name it. I think this comes from me being very critical about myself and very detailed oriented. And then project this on everything else and being not very tolerant in situations where likely giving some slack would be better. This also results in me being "serious" when I shouldn't. I don't give usually too much slack to myself, and therefore I end up not giving it to others/other things, and end up complaining about it.
I am working on improving this dark spot and ask others/friends to tell me when I am doing it to stop, recognise that I am doing it and improve. There is always room for improvement, right?

4) candle-light setting on camera
This is related to a picture I took with a Point & Shoot camera I brought with me for casual phtographying during an excellent workshop called "Learning to see", by Chris Marquardt. Everybody was carrying their DSLRs and I was the only guy with a Canon S3 at the WS - it still has a lot of manual control but in comparison to a DSLR it lacks performance, picture quality and a couple of other things... I honestly felt at the beginning of the WS completely out of place. I thought, honestly, that I made a mistake joining. But everybody seemed to be cool about it and the purpose of the whole workshop, as Chris quickly explained, was learning to take good pictures, pics that mean and convey something by using what you have - even when using a throw-away camera or...a point and shoot camera!
I have learnt so much from the others and got the "virus of the DSLR" (I now own one ;)), but they also saw that I could take decent pics with more modest equipment and gifted me with many heartfelt compliments on what I shown them (we had each days a very honest pictures review session). Plus having a swiveling LCD screen and a 12x optical zoom in a tiny and light package, I could actually take pics you cannot easily take with a DSLR. You can see all the pics we took back then here (the first 6 pics were not taken during the WS).
So, back to the candle topic (sorry for the digression...), there I was during one of the dinners (the workshop was 5 days long) and took this pic using the "Candle Light mode" of the Casio Exilim that I took with me that evening. No DSLR has typically such modes, but the result was really good - it is currently one of the "most interesting" pics on my Flickr phootostream. I really like the pic and reminds of the very good times, the friendships I made during that workshop and all that I learned from Chris.
BTW: the camera has also the "food" mode, AKA Japanese-taking-pics-of-everything mode, "flower" "kids" "pets" modes and so on....

5) “non tutto il male viene per nuocere” (you quoted this at me once, and I liked it)
Literally translated the phrase sounds more or less, "not all bad comes to hurt" - this is one of the ways for me to try to see the glass half full - unfortunately it is usually half empty.
I don't remember when I mentioned it to Bexxi, but glad that she liked it! ;) It stikes me a bit that she associates me with this one.

Now these are the five things I associate with Bexxi (some are similar to the ones that our common friend Kavey wrote for her):
1) flowers and (wonderful) pictures of them
2) (her) self portraits
3) literature and university
4) this pic
5) A Welsh in Freiburg - how the heck does that work?!? ;)

How about yourselves out there? Post me and I will write 5 things that I associate with you and then you can write on your blog your comments on them.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Turning 36....

nobody@vox.com(Pakitt) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:35:22 +0100

.....but feeling 25!!!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend