Windows 7 32 Bit accepts more RAM!

One of the most astonishing things about Vista, the modern operating system the Microsoft claims it to be, still can only use up to 3GB of your installed RAM in the 32Bit versions of the OS. So at the moment Vista can only use 3 of the 4GB of ram installed in my new MacBook Pro which sucks, at the moment Mac OS X can handle around 32GB with snow leopard introducing support for 16 terabytes of RAM!!!. The screenshot below was taken from Paul Thurrott's Win Super site preview of Windows 7 M3, notice how the windows rating section indicates 4GB of ram just above the 32 Bit Operating System notification.


Its late and I haven't even started reading about the technical advancements in Windows 7 so if there is any information about these types of specs revealed, please let me know :). This is a nice advancement though, even if its well and truly late. My biggest request for Win 7 is drop the different versions, at least to 2 version, one consumer and one corporate.

Update: This post has gained some decent attention (one of the top windows 7 search results) but for the wrong reasons. I want to clarify and apologize for the way I wrote this post. It was only intended to announce that the 32Bit Windows 7 can see/address 4GB of ram as Vista/XP could only address 3GB. Mac OS X 10.4 was designed to handle more ram due to the 16GB Powermac G5. *All* versions of Mac OS X Leopard are full 64Bit, able to handle up to 32GB of Ram though most current macs have a limit of 4GB due to the Intel hardware limitations. I compared Leopard against Win 7 not for their Ram limits but for the fact that Microsoft's big next gen OS is sold as 32 Bit, though 64bit is an option. Mac OS X mastered the 32Bit/64bit combination before vista was even released. Microsoft needs to step up and release a decent os that they just didn't copy from every one else, transparent windows to desktop? My ass, thats just a poor attempt at the basic functionality of Expose introduced in Tiger.

It shipped!

Ordered Sunday arvo, shipped Monday morning! My new Unibody MacBook Pro has shipped, a whole 5 days early than expected. Not that I'm complaining but it will be here by the weekend! It's so close to the alloy and glass goodness!

Woohoo

MacBook Pro Unibody ordered!

The hard work and saving has finally paid off, I just dropped some coin on a brand new unibody MacBook Pro or more commonly referred to as the most stunning laptop on the planet (take that Voodoo Envy). These are the specs:

15inch LED Backlight LCD
2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR3 Ram
250GB HDD
Superdrive (DVD-DL Burner)
Mini DisplayPort to DVI adaptor


It will be between a week and two weeks before it arrives and I can't wait, like I want it NOW! How bout that DDR3 1066Mhz Ram, thats lightening fast. The things Im most looking forward to are the multi-touch trackpad, iMac like screen, backlit keyboard and super bright screen. My screens are always set to the brightest settings and the new LED does not fail, neither does it take 15 minutes to get to full brightness like standard screens. The first thing I will do when I get it is set it to use the 9600M GT with 256MB for maximum performance :) The next step (and a big next step) is to get the new LED Cinema Display with DisplayPort and MagSafe Adaptor built in but that will be a long time off yet. The weird thing is, the 15 inch screen has the same resolution as my external 19 inch Dell so its like carrying my dell screen with me.

This is so cool, more updates as they happen.

Finished High School!

Today is unofficially the last day of school (until graduation) so as of this point, my high school days are finished which is pretty grand statement that I have been waiting 13 years to say :) The first thing I did in my post school life was take the rubbish out :( Today is also the day that I return to blogger as my only blog instead of rapid weaver so as you can see we have a new theme and header image, both of which will be tweaked over time, what do you think?

The new Alex Mills Design logo you see in the header image is for my new software division that will be going live within the next couple weeks with Water being my first release, Water 1.0 Beta 1 for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Let us know what you think of the new logo? My website will be updated accordingly with some new features, but really it's just finishing of the bits that didn't make it through the initial release.

Now on to bigger and better things.

MobileMe, refreshes for your pleasure

Recently my desktop mail app has started crashing upon launch and with me being lockdown with assignments for the rest of the week haven't had a chance to fix it so I have been forced to use the MobileMe web interface. At first I thought it was cool when you woke ya mac from sleep it would refresh but when it does it while you are trying to do something, that is annoying. Like composing a message and it just randomly refreshes which takes me back to the inbox without even saving my message to drafts! Most of the time messages will arrive in my inbox without refreshing (AJAX) so why the hell is it refreshing all the time?? Yeah I can understand some hiccups after launch but not several months after, this is a damn Apple product, yeah but unfortunately that world class quality is present here. I have already been given around 3 months free on my subscription but I would gladly trade that for a service that works as advertised. Take a look at the image above and then at Apple's advertising below, I don't get no shiny red unread count so I'm surprised the calendar icon actually works! I'm using a mac with safari, you couldn't get a more perfect setup for an Apple service.

I don't use most of the sync services with my Mac and iPhone until I go somewhere which isn't very often living in the outback but the IMAP works great with the Mail.app on my desktop so I better get that fixed soon.

Numbers 08: Interesting Bits

One of the greatest movies on the planet, The Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy, contains a massive supercomputer called Deep Thought. This computer when ask 'the question' returns an answer of 42, much to the dismay of it's designers and supporters but what does this have to do with Numbers, the great spreadsheet app from a certain fruit company. Well it appears that the certain fruit company also likes this film, check out the screenshot for the 'Cells' option on the inspector, its says 42!!! That is so cool :)
Another little interesting tidbit I came accross today that I have not seen in either Pages or Keynote is that when a table and it's legend are grouped together, the sheet cannot be deleted as displayed in the following screenshot.

Performing the exact same chart creation and grouping within Pages and Keynote doesn't prevent the page or slide from being deleted. This is highly unlike Apple, they have presented the user with instructions on how to fix it instead of offering to do it itself and it's not even like the charts related table is on a different sheet. This one is actually quite weird.

Seen any other little bugs/feature requests for iWork, drop a comment.

I provide feedback on Apple products all the time but my most highly recommended new feature is an update to the alignment system by providing measurements between other shapes and objects on the canvas. (Much like Interface Builder). Another is the ability to add gradients to text instead of just solid colours, that would be really sweet.

iTunes store rant

Now that apple has changed the rules on the app store that only if you have purchased the app can you submit a review, what they need to do is apply that to the music store. Things like 'this song sounds awesome' and 'I might purchase it' annoy the crap out of me. Make some room for people who have actually purchased the song please. My main rant is also about the user reviews, 'click yes if you agree', WTF!, do you see a 'yes' button anywhere? (have a look, I'll wait... and no the 'Was this review helpful' question doesn't count. How hard is it for them to type 'yeah you should purchase this song', it ain't no friggin election.

On a side note, big shout out to Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup for winning todays bathurst enduro and returning to the top of the championship, bring it home for Ford guys!