Tiger Review

Since I pre-ordered Tiger directly from Apple, I received it yesterday afternoon. I've been having some profile issues with Panther lately so I decided to backup my data and perform a clean install of OS X 10.4. unfortunately I forgot to export my Address Book so I lost all my contacts. In the future I will keep a paper copy around just in case.

What I noticed first is that Tiger now ships on a single DVD rather than 3 separate CD's like Panther. Bravo to Apple for doing this, I only wish other companies did the same (like id Software with their Doom 3 product). It also shipped with a trial version of iWork '05 which I haven't installed yet. It took less than an hour to install Tiger and it was just as easy as ever. I recommend performing a custom install so you can deselect all those printer drivers and extra languages you don't need. I would also recommend selecting the X11 package which for some reason is not installed by default. The Xcode developers tools are also on the same DVD but can only be installed afterwards.

After the installation I immediately went to check out the new backgrounds and screensavers. Most were pretty cool and some were retained from the older versions. I still have lots to play around with but some of the new features I noticed in Tiger that were different from Panther include the following:

• Pinstripes are gone from the menu bars. Apple lightened them up with Panther and now in Tiger they are completely gone. I guess Apple wanted the OS to reflect how their new hardware looks as opposed to the older generation. I like this change as it looks much cleaner now.


• Dashboard is cool and will get cooler with more Widgits becoming available.


• The new DVD player looks the same but now plays a mini movie when the app is minimized (providing you were watching a movie to begin with).


• There is a new Dictionary application which does exactly what you think it does.


• Mail now has a better interface.


• Haven't had the chance to use Automator yet but it looks promising.


• There is a new Grapher application that uses OpenGl to render realtime mathematical graphs. Reminds me of the OS 9 Graphing Calculator.


• Spotlight works as advertised although I have to admit I never really had a problem finding files.


• I didn't realize this but using iChat AV has some strict hardware requirements now if you want to use the multi video and audio options. You can check out the specs here but as you can see this is going to limit us from performing a multi video chat unless Dave and Rob upgrade their hardware. Gary is also going to need to get broadband.

I hope to write a follow up blog later on my Tiger experience.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Movie

Valve released a new QuickTime movie showing off its upcoming new free add-on for Half-Life 2, simply called "Lost Coast". This new level is supposed to showcase a graphical technology called High Dynamic Range rendering. Quite simply, this video looks stunning. I hear you will need a very high end system in order to play it though. In addition to HDR it looks like Valve also increased the quality of its textures. Rob and I debated whether Half-Life 2 had any bump/normal mapping in it like Doom 3 did but after watching this video there is no question the new level definitely has plenty of it. By the way Rob, how is that normal map blog coming along?

You can download the movie here...

http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096481522/

Disneyland Trip Report

Annel and I decided to take the girls to Disneyland last week since it was the last day we could go before our annual pass expired. We decided not to renew since Ari is now three years old and we would have to pay $987 for Premium AP's which is a little too much money considering how often we go. Perhaps when Marissa is older we will consider it but for now we will only go for special occasions.

We immediately went to see the "new" Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride at Tomorrowland. I only put quotes around new because the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World had it first but it still is a welcome new addition to Disneyland nonetheless. We got to the attraction about 3:30pm and saw a standby line snaking around the building towards Arial's Grotto so we decided to get 2 FastPasses instead.


The beginning of a very long line...

Our comeback time was 6:40pm so we did the usually kiddie rides until then. Promptly at 6:40pm we walked right in and was greeted by an animatronic Buzz Lightyear. I remember this from Florida and it looked cool with the Madame Leota face effect.


Buzz Lightyear to the rescue, Madame Leota style.

The ride itself was very similar to its Florida cousin although I wasn't really looking around a whole lot because I was busy blasting aliens. This ride is really interactive and warrants repeat visits. Often times when you shoot something it reacts and moves, kind of like a shooting gallery. The ride's vehicle uses Disney's ever popular Omnimover but with the ability to spin it around in a 360 degree fashion. I found the movement very smooth and fluid like.


Buzz Doombuggy

One cool feature that the Florida version does not have is that somewhere in the middle of the ride Disney takes a photograph of you. At the end of the ride you can use a touch display to send anyone that picture, all for free. Can anybody beat my score? The gauntlet has been thrown! Even Ari managed to shoot something.


In the heat of battle.

We also caught the newly refurbished Enchanted Tiki Room. The girls loved this attraction, especially Marissa. They did get a little spooked during the war chant scene, I guess that's what happens when you anger the gods with all that celebrating. The birds never looked better and the outside queue is much improved. You can see the before and after at the SaveDisney website.

Disneyland 50th Anniversary Merchandise Part 2

Just came across some new links showing additional photos of the soon to be released Disneyland merchandise.

First check out Kim Peterson's excellent fifteen page article at LaughingPlace.com. The links to the high resolution images were not working for me today, but hopefully will be later.

Chef Mayem of DoomBuggies.com was also one of the lucky few invited to the sneak preview and has posted some great pics of the Haunted Manision merch found here. The Haunted Mansion Stained Glass Lamp looks like another must have- very tastefully done. Judging by some of the postings, it looks like I'm gonna have to fight for the HM lamp and sconce. ;) I predict most of the items will sell out within a day.