Tag Archives: Apple

How To Python import GeoIP in OS X

Posted by Tom Schultz on June 19, 2011 None comments

I’ve recently purchased a MacBook Pro and I started doing some Python/Django development. I came to a point where I had to use some of MaxMind.com’s GeoIP module and setting GeoIP up on OSX was a bit more challenging than Ubuntu but it wasn’t too bad.

In Ubuntu you can essentially sudo apt-get install python-geoip and things start working but it takes a slight bit more in OSX.

In order to do this on the Mac/OS X you need to install two things,
1. The MaxMind GeoIP C library http://www.maxmind.com/app/c
./configure make make check make install

and 2. The Python MaxMind GeoIP library http://www.maxmind.com/app/python
python2 setup.py build python2 setup.py install

For further information here’s a great page on MaxMind.com http://www.maxmind.com/app/geoip_resources

Bad Omen for Apple

Posted by Eric Shull on October 24, 2010 None comments

There’s been quite a bit of tech news over the last week, among it Steve Jobs’ rant to investors about Android’s inferiority to the iPhone operating system. The rant came during a conference call with Apple investors that was originally intended to explain poorer than expected performance over the last quarter. Many have pointed out that poorer than expected performance from Apple has a lot more to do with high expectations than objectively poor performance; it’s clear that Apple is doing very well. It’s new iPhone sold more than expected (despite quite a lot of bad press with antennas and cracking glass) and while the company sold fewer than expected iPads, the problem was on the manufacturing side, not the demand side. With all that in mind, a number of people have asked the question, “What is Steve Jobs complaining about?”

Even Steve Jobs’ detractors rarely claim that he doesn’t think ahead. He might be arrogant and controlling, but he’s visionary. That said, I wonder if Jobs’ foresight has let him see something that makes him want to rant about Android. I doubt that he thinks it’s a better platform or that it’s more popular, and the only other aspect up for grabs is the ecosystem, which brings me to what I think is really getting to Steve Jobs: a drop in the number of iPhone developers.

I don’t have any evidence that there is such a drop, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was and it might explain a lot about Steve Jobs’ rant last week.

On the other hand, he might just have been having a bad day.

Podcast Episode #8 – Apple takes over the work

Posted by Tom Schultz on May 2, 2010 1 comments

We’re back! It’s been a long time since our last podcast and we apologize!

This week we talked about why Apple is looking at purchasing ARM, the iPad and some questions we have about Ubuntu’s user experience research.

Apple to purchase ARM (appleinsider.com)
Ubuntu and notification area elimination (design.canonical.com)
Ubuntu and making my freaking network settings disappear, disabling alt-tab, and disabling my task-bar when I tried to fix it…
iPad hmmmm

Pointless Rants Episode #8 [ 45:51 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Apple and AMD/ATI should merge

Posted by Tom Schultz on April 16, 2010 None comments

So a friend at work showed me this article on macrumors.com today. It talks about Apple potentially looking to AMD for their next processor line up, due to Intel’s production shortcomings.

Now that’s interesting, AMD has been in Intel’s shadow for a long time and it would be great to see them get something good going again. It would be huge if Apple decided to use AMD processors in their computers. AMD has ATI which has been making great budget graphics cards. AMD also has a really decent platform for their CPUs right now. While both Intel and AMD are screaming about hex-a-cores there appear to be some differences between the platforms that Apple could indulge in. For example, AMD’s processors appear to use less power. This would be huge for laptops and cooling issues.

So here is what I think…

Apple should buy AMD.

I think it would just make sense and be a benefit to both companies. Apple could then have in-house CPU and GPU production and they wouldn’t have to worry about production delays. They would also have the ability to have their hand in the development of new CPU/GPU platforms which they have already expressed an interest in by purchasing P.A. Semi for the development of the A4 chip in the iPad.

Apple would have the ability to really open up their creativity for a bargain price!

AMD’s market cap is $6 Billion…that’s just 1 quarter’s revenue for Apple ($223 Billion market cap). Of course, I’m using these numbers wrong, but I just want to put into scale the difference in the sizes of the companies.

So these thoughts have really made me wonder, “What was AMD really doing at the ApplePlex?”

Where did the iPad go wrong?

Posted by Tom Schultz on March 30, 2010 None comments

Apple is undoubtedly an epic company with a history filled with controversy, success, failure and inspiration. Apple has brought us amazing things that have altered the course of history over the years. Brilliant products like the iPod, iPhone, MacBook and iMac are all products that when people buy them, they end up using them every day and you usually enjoy using these products.

I am critiquing the iPad in this post even though I have not used one and I probably will not get the chance just like I’ve never had the chance to use a Newton.

Now Apple has some great ideas and their products push not only technology but also many other industries. I think this may be the only thing that the iPad has any chance of accomplishing.

The hope that I noticed, seemingly being the agenda of Apple in this product release, is the hope of helping, if not solving the plight of the publishing companies in this digital age.

Bringing magazines and newspapers to a device isn’t a new thing(note: Amazon Kindle) but bringing the shiny,glossy look of a high class magazine or other published work doesn’t work so well on an e-ink screen. This fancy GQ, Vogue published material venue is, I believe, what the iPad is trying to shoehorn into.

A noble ambition and one with some potential for profit however it is a very risky one.

Firstly you have to get publishers on-board, and Apple has been working with them to get things started. They have not fully succeeded yet. Amazon and Barns and Noble have quite a lead in this arena.

Secondly, you have to get these published works into the hands of many. I’ve had a subscription to Wired for 3 years…and I only paid $30! The iPad is not cheap($499), but Apple says “oh, but you can use the iPad for so much more! Like work documents and…some websites”. I could, or with the time I’d save using a real keyboard I could go watch a 2 hour movie each week.

Apple’s stock was on a great rebound from all this insane recession business, especially noted during the time leading up to the keynote announcing a new product that Apple was going to show off! However after the keynote…the stock dropped considerably. Now I don’t think that the stock market is some kind of oracle but when you release a product and afterwards people think your company is worth less money than before…there might be a potential problem.

Apple hasn’t had a serious blunder in quite a while but I think this might be one.

The Apple iPad

Posted by decoy on January 27, 2010 2 comments

Let me preface this by saying I’m not an Apple fan. I own exactly one Apple device — an old iPod Photo — that I rarely use. I tend to skip Apple products altogether mainly because of their DRM and the infamous Apple tax… higher prices for prestige.

However, I was excited when I first heard about their new upcoming event. Many thought Apple would be cutting the iPhone loose from the ailing AT&T network and opening the door for Verizon. Many others speculated the time was right for Apple to release a tablet PC… especially after seeing domains like iSlate.com being bought by shell companies to Apple’s name. And the people who guessed tablet PC were right… but how right were they?

Is it fair to call the iPad a tablet PC? It is certainly a touch screen device, but out of the box it’s a single user, single program machine. Apple boasts that the iPad can get up to 10 hours of battery life, but that should not be difficult to accomplish if only one program can be run at a time.

The iPad should be great for watching video on the go. Does it have an HDMI output? No. Does it have a DVI output? No. It can use an adapter to output VGA/D-SUB so you can connect it to a projector though. You have to use an adapter? What happened to simplicity and ease of use?

Does the iPad screen have an aspect ratio of 16:9 or 16:10 so movies will look great? No, the iPad’s screen has an aspect ratio of 4:3… just like owning an old fullscreen TV.

But how much storage does it have? For $499 you can get a 16 GB version and for $699 you can get a version that tops out at 64 GB. Only 64 GB? It’s a portable device, so that’s probably OK. I can hook up an external drive to it when I need more storage. Wrong. The iPad has no USB ports, FireWire ports, or eSATA ports… not even any card readers.

Apple’s video iChat works great to connect people around the globe. At least the iPad will have that. Sorry, the iPad doesn’t have a camera on the front. Or back.

So what’s the up-side to this device? Does it do 3G? It will in fact do 3G, but you’ll have to throw in another $130 for the 3G capability. The capability… not the service. If you want an iPad with a 64 GB SSD with 3G capability, you’re looking at coughing up $829. Indeed a hefty price tag for features that netbooks at half the price can do better.

In all fairness, the iPad could work well as an e-reader, but reading from a bright, glossy screen isn’t likely to be easy on the eyes compared to the competition’s electronic ink.

It seems like the iPad could be good at so many things, but the it makes concessions on every front and does nothing well. Is this all part of Apple’s plan? It’s easier to make a better device when the device can be improved upon easily. Has Apple set it up so the 2nd and 3rd generation iPads will rock our socks? I sure hope so, because the 1st generation iPad is clearly an oversized iPod Touch (or a limited iPhone if you have $130 to burn on data only 3G capability) that suffers from very obvious ailments.

I’m not getting a Zune because I use linux (a true pointless rant)

Posted by Tom Schultz on November 2, 2009 None comments

Today I was talking to Trevor and something dawned on me… I’m not buying a new Microsoft Zune because I use linux(Ubuntu). Years ago I bought one of the first generation 30gb Zune’s and it has served me well, until 2 years ago when I fully switched over to Linux. I tried to make it work with linux, I really did! I loaded up a VM with my old XP Pro installation and hooked up my media library to it (via shared folders), and this worked for a little while, but as time progressed something started to happen. The months rolled on an soon I realized that I wasn’t booting into this virtual machine I had built to sync my library…podcasts…vodcasts…all the changing media that I used to listen to was being left behind(well atleast as far as the Zune was concerned). Now I wasn’t any less up to date with the information that was contained in the media that I wasn’t syncing with the Zune, I just wasn’t using the Zune. Now I’m not sure if it was the extra step of firing up another operating system or if it was the hassle of trying to get USB to pass through to the VM, but I discovered something…..

Pointless Rants

Rants that are usually about technology