baroque blog

5 Minutes of Earthly Bliss

Having put on some BIBER in a depressed mood, I discovered 5 minutes worth of music that seem to make life worth everything it is, and it's all wonderful. Biber's Harmonia-Artificioso-Ariosa, track 29, CD by the Rare Fruits Council. Fabulous! You get that smile like... "Yeah, that's what it is all about... I've tasted it.."
posted at 12:45 AM by John Hendron

Telemann E-minor violin fantasia versus in Bach violin work? Comparison? When listening to Andrew Manze perform Telemann's violin fantasia's I can't help but wonder why they sound so... un baroque? Easy, perhaps... but the style is so different, from say, a Bach concerto passage, partita, or solo sonata... They are certainly freer works, heavy structure left behind. Lots of double-stopping in this E-minor fantasia. Chromatic intensity, too. For those who like a more light-hearted Baroque aesthetic, I highly recommend the forward-sounding Telemann.
posted at 1:37 AM by John Hendron

Writing great reviews for recordings was harder than I thought... I'm almost done with my first. Now, you may be scratching your head... "Biberfan, you have several reviews already, what's this 'first stuff'?" Well, if I DO launch a revamped website, I need material, and nothing but the very best will do! So, I've taken a music-centric approach to the whole idea. Instead of reviewing a recording, I review a musical work (a little history) plus all the recordings I have of that work. So, if you made a CD with three major works on it, I might not cover the entire CD. This is a good design, however, for those interested in research on one particular work. I started with the Brandenburg Concertos of Bach. 5 recordings sets to review. So, I start with something familiar, but something BIG!
posted at 8:23 AM by John Hendron

Welcome to the Baroque Blog. Here I aim to discuss the world of Baroque music, through the eyes and ears of a well-trained musician evaluating performances, mostly on record. Tonight, I spent some time reading reviews at the The Flying Inkpot, a cultural web-zine based in Sinagpore, that does a pretty good job at reviewing concerts and classical recordings. I only wish there were so many culturally-minded persons of this persuasion in my own community to share dialogue, argue, and agree with. I write this listening to Ton Koopman's recording of Bach's B-Minor Mass. Any particular reason? Yes, I'm importing CDs number 245 and 246 into the iTunes library now. iTunes is the perfect fusion of my two loves in life: music, and computers. For the first time in my life, in my dreams, I can consolidate my entire music collection in one central location. I already have close to 280 CDs entered into the system. It already consumes over 20 GB and 5000+ tracks. Along the way, I have to be somewhat selective, I can't put in absolutely everything. Those composers like Stravinsky and Martinu must wait outside, but all the Bach and Biber must go in. As I listen to some of the selections as they get placed in, I get to re-excite myself over my immense collection, immense to me, anyhow. I know there are people out there with larger collections, but I am specializing, it seems, in the Baroque. And I'm often wondering about my love of this music, of music, in general. Why do I do it alone? To enjoy, to savor, to relish what this music offers, I must go into solitary surroundings to enjoy, get tastes of, and sample the music. No personal friend of mine shares my same intense interest in this music, and even those close to me, show no interest at all. You can't blame people for not liking Bond movies. Some like Bond, some don't, The same goes, I suppose, with the Baroque. But I often find this solitary pursuit lonely. My aim in creating the Biberfan website was two fold: to share my stories and personality for humor, and to enlighten others with my own perspectives on this music. I hope in the next 5 months I succeed at this pursuit. I'd love to open dialogues with other music lovers and fans.
posted at 1:38 AM by John Hendron

New Theme

Soon, a new theme will replace /mac-blog/, and this will become "Baroque Blog," the section where I review CDs. Stay tuned for these changes!

posted at 9:53 AM by John Hendron

Macworld Disappointments

Back in the luster years of say 1988, or even 1990, the magazine Macworld was an impressive little book that was published 12 times a year. It was the first in the industry of a "wide" magazine, and thick too. It had articles on Mac stuff, lots of ads, and was the place to get all news Macintosh. Today, in 2001, it's a pitiful little dribble of a magazine, small, lightweight, and hardly anything worth reading. This is in part due to the dominance of windows, and the rest can be blamed on the Internet. But they still host the big conference twice a year, once in January, and once in July.

The Macworld conference ending this week is a sad, sad, deal. Apple failed on many fronts, including a major update to MacOS X, new iMacs, and all the splendor one usually associates with the Steve keynote. Guess we haven't waited long enough, September should showcase a fix. Funny I bought my computer in August to take advantage of an OS due in January, that was delayed until... March, and in July is still worthless as a dirty, copper penny.
posted at 2:53 PM by John Hendron

a Website Note

I spent about 10 minutes today at the website Hot or Not, which as you probably already know, is a place to submit pictures of yourself where visitors can vote on your looks, from 1 to 10. I am just sick with the entries. There are so many bad pictures submitted. The whole world needs a course in Photoshop. Pictures too big, too dark, and then you come across a picture where someone was cut out (the significant other who is no more significant) and it just looks bad. Focus? Seems to be optional. I give 1s and 2s for bad pictures, let alone bad models. And dare I say it, the voting is all suspect. Many of the voters are obviously too easy. Show a little skin, you're a 9. It's a good way to blow-away some time, that site is, but I'm sorely disappointed with the quality of what people send in. Many, many wasted pixels.
posted at 9:34 AM by John Hendron

iTunes?

Magically last week, my copy of iTunes in OS9 sported the ability, all of a sudden, to write to my CD burner, a 3rd party unit connected via Firewire. Previously, I could make CDs using Toast, but now, iTunes can do that for me. My experience was a mixed one, however. First, take a look at the wonderful interface. That button spins, glows, etc. Very cool. In fact, the entire process of making the CD was simple, straightforward, and very Macintosh. The process of turning MP3s into AIFFs took longer than the actual burn.

On some tracks, I have noticed, iTunes adds artifacts—static, noise, etc., to the mp3 file it creates when ripping from commercial CDs. This has not happened often, but it has happened. Unfortunately, the first track of my newly burned Piazolla disk is marked by this phenomenon. Awful sounding, and can't be great for the speakers. So, I'd have to award iTunes 4 stars out of 5. Quality is still important to me: the same popping, noise business is evident in about 7 of the 3166 tracks I've burned thus far. But to end on a positive note, it is nice to be able to navigate so many tracks with such ease.
posted at 10:15 AM by John Hendron

The History of Computing

The history of computing should include the picture seen below, circa 1987-88, right before the Admiral-to-be would get his first MacPlus. Seen here is the classic 1980s machine: the Apple //e with a duo-disk drive, Imagewriter I printer, and the decorations proper for a quality computing experience. Thought some of you would like to see.

posted at 4:36 PM by John Hendron

Blast from the Past

In going through my archives today, throwing many things away, I came across an original brochure showing this:

Yes, a NeXT laser printer, 400 DPI with no rendering engine. It used NeXTStep's display PostScript to do all the imaging. I got this when I went to NeXTWorld 1991 or 1992, don't recall the year to be sure.
posted at 9:12 PM by John Hendron

Mac OS X Update

After upgrading with a fresh install of MacOS X 10.0.4, I can say things are getting "better." I'm now posting this blog using MacOS X and Classic. It's not where I'd like to see it, but it's small progress. I must say, MacOS X excels in the area of screen savers and I'm a huge fan of the dock and other eye candies.
posted at 5:09 PM by John Hendron

Installing a new Hard Drive, Admiral Style

I was confused on how to install a new hard drive with a lack of instructions. Apple told me most, but the little details like the jumper blocks for slave/master drive confused me a bit. but, I got the sucker in there.

first, I hate taking that computer apart. Yes, it's as simple as cake to do, once you get it from underneath the damn set up I have. I would love a simple glass table, with the Tower there... so easy to upgrade, but instead, it's stashed away underneath my IKEA monstrosity. I open up the hard drive. It was made in some god awful country... which was it... oh yeah, Poland. Leave it to IBM to make their hard drives in Poland and Thailand.

I bought the IBM Deskstar model, it's supposed to be the best, 75 GB. Well, the problem is, no screws. You need screws to fester this thing on the bracket. Well, Apple says they give you screws when you buy the computer, but who the heck knows where the box is, I couldn't find It in the closet.

So, I had one left over screw from the installation of my TV card. That should be in the computer, mind you, but is not, and was an extra. So, I used this. Perfect fit. If only I had three more screws like this. Nope. So I go rummaging around my bag of screws, nails, and such, and find a box of various sized screws. These are all wall screws that are huge, very long.

And TOO BIg. But that didn't stop the Admiral. oh no! I pounded and screwed those huge screws in there, with most of the 1.2 inches hanging out off the side. Luckily, there's so much room around in there that they didn't bump into anything. So, it looks awful, but it worked, at least for now.

Initialized like a charm and now I have 4 drives on the desktop. Looks like now I can install Mac OS X.
posted at 11:42 AM by John Hendron

To commemorate the new ORANGE phase John is going through, I have a bit of Apple rumor.

Tomorrow the Powerbook G4 will be bundled with an external CD-R/W drive. And in 3 months they will ship with an internal combo drive like the iBook. Clearly, they need to work on the size of these drives to fit it in the Powerbook. The question remains will this help of hurt sales. If you really want internal you are going to wait until September. But then again- that is a long time to wait. I imagine people who really want a Powerbook but were holding off for a CD-R/W will bite on this. People that want internal will buy an iBook. So long as Apple makes the sale I am happy.

Let me offer an official congratulations to John on his promotion.
posted at 10:44 AM by Sam Steak

Netscape?

I decided to try out Netscape again. In a recent HTML book I borrowed from the library, they had glowing things to say about its support for CSS, etc. So, I downloaded Netscape 6.1 PB for Mac, and again was so disappointed. I don't understand how other Mac users can download this crap and actually recommend it. One guy said he threw MIE 5 away in the trash. I wasn't surfing for 5 minutes when all mouse control was gone. I could move the mouse, I could use the rest of my computer, but clicking the mouse in Netscape had no functionality. What a crock! I could go back pages with Command-Arrow key, I could use the keyboard fine. But mouse control? Out the window. Release 6 was buggy, and so is this one. Plus, the looks of the browser stink! How ugly. The icons don't even all "match," as if they were each done by a different graphic artist. This is so sad. Netscape used to be so good, and since AOL got a hold of it, it's gone to crap. Back to IE 5.
posted at 9:59 AM by John Hendron

Apple Genius

I suppose that someone thinks I'm an Apple Genius to have received a promotion at work. I wonder if Apple would think the same? I never heard from them after applying as an Apple Genius in Columbus, OH, and now Todd writes and suggests I should go for the big one in Cambridge, MA? Sounds wonderful. I'll see what I can check out when I'm in the Boston area later in July for my vacation.

posted at 7:51 PM by John Hendron

Antitrust

The movie Neumann saw on his plane was Antitrust, starring the Neumann-declared looker Ryan Phillipe. I saw it some time ago, and enjoyed it, although it is somewhat lacking. Perhaps a lack of funding. Anyhow, I digress.

Today I visited CaptiolMac once again, as has become a bi-Saturday event. They had many iBooks in inventory, and some rather high-priced items. The USB-memory key chains are awesome, you can hold 32 o 64 MB of storage in a key-sized "plug." Imagine carrying around pictures, files, etc., all on a keychain. The only hitch was the high price, but this should come down within a year. The other disappointment was the high price ($499) for a 60 GB internal hard drive. I found my dream drive by IBM on Buy.com for $300. And that's bigger than 60 GB. The last disappointment, aside from the lack of having the new 17" flatscreen, was the new boy wonder salesman. Some kid--I don't want him selling me a computer for $3000.00. Sheesh.
posted at 3:35 PM by John Hendron

As promised I wanted to discuss this movie I saw on the plane from Paris to Chicago. I say "this movie" because I do not recall the name. Anyhow it is a clear spoof on Bill Gates and Microsoft. The lead vilan runs a software company loacted in Seatle, that is being investigated by the justice department. The man looks like Bill Gates- even has a house on the Pget Sound like Bill Gates. So where does Apple come in? It is subtle. But at the very end- there are clear Apple references. First- the final hack that saves the day is using a Powerbook. A web page involded in the hack is called skullbones. i.e. the old Pirate flag at Apple. And the winners who become famous end the movie being discovered in the garage in Palo Alto.

Anyhow- the movie is worth a rent. Of course that may be difficult as I don't remember the name.
posted at 1:19 PM by Sam Steak

Genius?

The Admiral admits to Neumann's assessment of his Apple talents and such advice could not have come on a better day. The Admiral had a very bad day and was, more than ever, convinced of a possible career change. But I couldn't imagine something now that didn't deal with Macs... I just don't like Columbus. I wonder if Apple will think I'm genius material?
posted at 10:49 PM by John Hendron

One final note:

The Admiral has said he needs pressure to move and take action in life that has been missing since a certain smelly brown boy left his company. Well- I would like to officially encourage and urge the Admiral to drop this teaching bit and go be an Apple Genius. As all who know him can attess- the man knows his Apple. Plus I am sure the money is better.

So all who know the Admiral give him a call and push him along.
posted at 12:40 PM by Sam Steak

Neumann is back from his extended trip and came home to discover a wealth of Apple news. The announcement of the Retail stores was great and wonderful that they waited until the stores would actually open. I took the Steve Jobs Quicktime tour and can't wait to seeone myself.

The new flat screen displays are great and I think a sign flat screen iMacs are on the way. Shipping OS X on machines is good in that developers may move along. But the Admiral has reported some issues have still not been fixed -so I hope this doesn't create too much of a problem. Finally- I love the iBook commercial. Very cute. The computer is nice too ;)

Now I see from cathcing up on the biberfan blog that the Admiral has gotten news of the wedding. Indeed it was a nice time and Deedee did have to look over the place for the dead to see me. But then again- that meant she had an elevated position. A correction- Staci's dress was not from a thift store- but a bridal shop. It was, however, far cheaper than the digs I was wearing. All in all the event was very nice and the Admiral was missed by many- though his face made a pressence at numerous times during the video.
posted at 12:35 PM by Sam Steak

Seeing the iBook Up Close

Today I went to my local Macintosh store and saw a real, honest-to-goodness iBook, the New iBook, and was quite impressed. I know it will be a huge hit in Japan. It's a miniature Mac. Small, compact, quite attractive, really, glossy, and the screen--not a disappointment from my perspective. The whole package was small and compact, as advertised, but it looks quite a bit more impressive up close, in person, than it does on the Internet. For instance, you don't realize quite how small it really is... and the screen is surrounded by the plastic coating, it's a very attractive design. They actually had one at the store for sale.
posted at 5:51 PM by John Hendron

Mac Update

Seems the new iBook is a great hit. I like it but can't wait to see the color options to come... For the latest on MacOS X, and your host Biberfan, check out Biberfan's MacOS X page.
posted at 7:48 PM by John Hendron

Seems Neumann will be going to university in Arizona. X.S. reports this was a poor choice, considering SanDiego was a much better school. Of course, he said Iowa was even better because of some famous transgendered professor. But even so, folks, Mr. Neumann will be off soon enough in the fall studying the better science of economics while Biberfan goes on Macintoshing. Interestingly enough, I'm now in OS X under Omniweb. Seems when you log in as ROOT all the errors melt away.
posted at 9:31 AM by John Hendron

May 1st Annoucenment

What will Apple reveal tomorrow? What should they reveal? I say gimme a MacOS X update that fixes my poor, hurting Mac! But a new iBook would be cool, and all the rumors promise positive things. But readers, I still pain from my PPP problems, having disabled a processor I can now connect, but web updates are not possible with GoLive under MacOS X. So, for some time, I'll be back in OS 9 for doing 'work.'

Meanwhile, I've been shopping for a DSL deal. Earthlink wants $600 a year for DSL, and I've yet to find another big company... anybody know a good place to search for good DSL service?
posted at 7:49 PM by John Hendron

I've been complaining a lot about MacOS X on my G4 at home. I haven't said a whole lot about the experience with an iMac (350 Mhz, slot loading) at work. First, no Internet problems. Internet Explorer 5.1 has a few, it's slow and unresponsive, etc., but OmniWeb does a pretty good job at things. Right now, I'm at the machine, listening to Internet radio with iTunes, posting a blog entry. Works fine. But it took forever to load these Apps, and resizing a window is obnoxious. I have been having problems with windows and the desktop updating icons quickly. I haven't seen this on online posts, however. You can download something and wait quite long for it to appear in a folder or the desktop. This is problematic.
In general, the visuals for this OS are pretty good, but that's about it. It works, but app support is poor. I only wish I could take the speed advantage with the G4 but cannot with the PPP problems and panic crashes.
posted at 5:44 PM by John Hendron

iBook Smoozebook, Gimme a Fix

Neumann's savoring new iBooks. I just want an OS that works. Now people are disabling their second processor on G4 towers to get OS X to work. What kind of hack is that? Apple's going down, unfortunately. Unless a new iBook can save them quick!
posted at 6:17 AM by John Hendron

It is a beautiful morning here in Cleveland- so I thought I would take a moment to write a quick Mac blog. I am sure you have all heard of the coming "Specical Event" on Tuesday May 1st. No doubt Steve will introduce some new stuff- but what.

My guess is a new iBook. the iMac is too new- so I am steering away from that. The Captain suggestins a bigger screen on the iBook some new colors and perhaps a surprise or two. I also think we will see some dual processor PowerMacs as well. I suggest they should make that an across the line feature- but I doubt it.

Finally- I think we will heard a lot about OS X and perhaps the long awaited CD burning feautures.

until then...
posted at 8:37 AM by Sam Steak

Okay, heart breaker, enough of that... we've got MAC problems...

Admiral updates computer, but no new support for MacOS X, PPP, on a dual-processor Mac. Here's my life: as of Easter evening. Hopefully Apple will have a fix REAL SOON.
posted at 11:35 PM by John Hendron

I would like to discuss something dear to my heart.

One thing Apple is known for is the loyalty of its fans also known as customers. Some have rightfully noted that these people stuck with Apple even when their products were NOT the best and when things looked grim. One might say these people were loyal.

There are two kinds of loyalty. One is sticking with someone when they are down. Clearly Apple's customers did that during the dark days of Gil and Spindler. However, there is another type of loyalty. This is even a stronger more difficult type. For it is hard to stab someone in the back when they are down. However some Mac customers are called fans or fanatics because they have this other type of loyaty. This is the they type that prevents questioning. Or at least it prevents public questioning. Flower Power is a good example of this type of loyalty. Certain Mac customers derided Steve for this crazy color. Apple is not near bankrupcy so there is no risk of kicking the man or company while it is down. However, other fans stayed mute on this issue. They may have questioned this colorful choice of pattern, however, when asked by a Winteler- they would proudly state that Steve knows best and that they love the new "color'. These people went to stores and proudly pointed out the positive points of Flower Power. For example, it will never match anything you have- so there is no worry about whether one should try to find the perfect shade of blue/indigo to match your iMac. i digress....

The point is- these fans may not love Flower Power. But they love Steve and they love Apple. To public question this choice would be an affront to that "friendship" between fan and computer. Does this make sense logically and financially? Perhaps no. However, it is what a true loyal fan and friend would do.

This loyalty is not unbunded however. Had Gil stayed around and a couple more series of Performa's arrived- I guarantee many an Apple fanatic would have soured permanetly to the Mac.

Ladys and gentleman- I have a small GROUP of friends. For these people I share good times and some bad. However, I am truely a fan of only two people. For these two people there is no questioning of my loyalty and support. I do not always agree with what they do. However, only I may privately question their judgement. I permit no other to critisize or judge them. For this reason I find myself in a difficult position. I must soon explain to friend and family why one source of my admiration has done something that I and I expect few can understand. The ironic part- is that I must and will defend this action no matter how crazy, because some people can be as difficult, thoughtless, inspirering, creative, and endearing as my favorite fruit company.

I just do not know how many more Performas I can live through.
posted at 9:01 PM by Sam Steak

Old News

I hate to complain about old news... but after going to the Macintosh News Network, I noticed a post about the PPP problem with dual-processor Macs. He complained, as I think he rightly should, about the problems with MacOS X and not being able to connect to the Internet. Still, almost 2 weeks now -- no fix -- and the problem has existed since the Public Beta. This is outrageous.Anyhow, a quick post before starting the research required to update the music page(s).
posted at 9:31 PM by John Hendron

Microsoft Office Service Release

Installed the Microsoft Office Service Release 1, for Office 2001. Seems to fix some bugs. I have used it so infrequently lately that I didn't notice all the bugs it proports to fix.

Still waiting for a MacOS X fix to correct my PPP problems. Saw Roxio Toast Titanium on sale tonight at CompUSA... if Apple doesn't increase iTunes support, I might go Roxio and get the Titanium edition. Looks like it has a lot of good features for OS 9.1.

Effective May 1, 2001 /mac-blog/ will be run by Biberfan. This update is being provided by Biberfan.
posted at 9:32 PM by John Hendron

I have abandoned the use of MacOS X. The initial homepage should indicate why. MacOS 9.1 never seemed more zippier and efficient. That's biberfan's opinion, anyway.
posted at 4:22 PM by John Hendron

Biberfan reports more on MacOS X

Update: things do seem more stable with the new OS X 10.0.1 update, however iTools is horribly slow when mounting the iDisk. The Finder litererally slows to a crawl. It is quite unusable. In fact, it crashed the whole system. Omni Web 4, Freeze 3 seems to be a better release too, as I use Omni Web I like its Cocoa-based additions -- it seems like a good browser, however you cannot update your blog using OmniWeb. Still, however, MacOS X is not as zippy, as dare I say it-- Windows! I'm at the library now using Windows NT and it's just a zippier feel. Apple has to address this. Maybe it means changing Aqua--I don't know--but it should be addressed. I followed the advice of one user on the web in regards to my poor PPP performance -- but still get PPP drops. These latest drops, however, haven't crashed the machine. IE 5.1, however, does crash the machine -- almost each time. Which means what? I think this afternoon will involve a complete wipe of the hard drive, partition it, and reinstall fresh copies. I was disappointed to not see any updates posted this morning on Apple's site for the patch. Will keep using the "hacked" patch, however, because it does speed things up. I must also report that placing the dock on the side of the window with the freeware package "Dock Maneuvers" was a good idea. The Dock has much more function along the left or right side of your screen than the bottom -- which, by the way, messes up Apple's whole centrific idea -- now already smashed by putting the apple menu on the left hand side. Now, things are no longer centered. This was a poor idea, I believe, because most of the old Mac design was not this way, and it's hard to readjust the concept of a GUI along these lines overnight. I'll report later how things run after a reinstall and hard disk wipe.
posted at 11:23 AM by John Hendron

More MacOS X

MacOS X continues to be a pain in the butt. I've now installed it on a 350-Mhz slot-loading iMac, and it still is SLUGGISHLY slow. The thing has 128 MB RAM, and to do simple tasks, you wait, and wait. OS 9.1, by comparison, seems snappy. Makes you think back to when you ran System 7 on a Mac LC... when you jumped up to a Mac IIci, it was snappy. LC, slow. Go figure. It also crashed on the iMac, even after dumping the Public Beta. Mr. Neumann seems to think a clean install would fix, but there's no such option upon installation. Aside from that, I did do a clean 9.1 install on the iMac, and still -- errors. Not to mention file permissions so messed up only the root login can access files and old Classic apps. It is truly a disappointment.

Microsoft Office 2001

Upon installing the 10,000+ files that make up Office 2001, the experience has been pleasant. It works, there are small aesthetic changes to the interface, and even the icons look snappy. While some things I didn't like about the old OFFICE are still there, it seems to be improved. I seem to like all organizational tools in Entourage, I might actually use the app. Years ago, I saw similiar features in a Lotus-brand organizer on my friend's Dell laptop.
posted at 4:46 PM by John Hendron