Latest religious insanity: Apple can't use logo

Via Ed Brayton:

A group of Christians in Russia says the ubiquitous bitten apple is too symbolic of the idea of original sin and should be replaced with the symbol of Jesus Christ. And they may have the law on their side.

Technology website xbitlabs.com says Apple “may run into problems” if Russian parliament passes a set of laws designed to protect citizens’ religious and spiritual values from “blasphemy and insult.”

Blasphemy laws are a huge problem. They always signal the end of democracy and freedom. Haven't these people ever heard of the Inquisition?

Airdrop works like a dream

Airdrop icon.

On Black Friday, I bought the cheapest MacBook Air. No bells or whistles, just the essential Apple goodness -- and it was $100 bucks off. I use it only for writing. It has no photos on it, no music, just Scrivener (my writing program) and the zillion useful apps that come with every Mac.

I bought a Mac laptop because I knew it would work well with my desktop computer. And boy, does it! Both computers are running Lion, Apple's latest OS, which means I can use Airdrop to transfer files between the two. It works so well, it's frightening.

I can work on Xmas Carol on my desktop computer for a few hours and then drop the file on the icon of the Air. That's all I have to do. Then I leave with the Air, work on the book some more and when I get back, I drop the file on the icon of the desktop computer. And that's it. They're in synch. It's amazing.

We always knew that computers would work like magic someday. Thanks to Apple, some of that magic is here.

Free stuff for Macs

It's amazing that there are so many open-source applications out there for Macs. I mean, first Apple gives you 17 tons of useful software with a new Mac -- and then you can download major programs for free.

For instance, I always use NeoOffice instead of Microsoft Office. I don't want anything Microsoft on my Mac. NeoOffice is a great replacement for Word and you can even save files in .doc format to exchange with poor slobs who are merely on PCs. You can download it here.

I also found an open-source Mac alternative for Adobe's Illustrator, which I never found easy to use but nevertheless relied on for simple tasks. I was sad to lose the program's functionality when I switched from a PC to a Mac about five years ago. Thankfully, I recently discovered Inkscape, an open-source program that pretty much does the same things as Illustrator. Mind you, this one isn't even halfway to a 1.0 designation -- it's very much a work in progress. But for the simple uses I plan for it, it seems fine. You can download Inkscape here.

And finally, I've just located an open-source substitute for PageMaker. I used to be a PageMaker maven on my PC, making newsletters for tons of good-guy organizations. I can really work PageMaker. When I switched to a Mac I bought Quark Express but I can't even transfer it to the new computer I just got, and anyway I hated it. So I recently downloaded Scribus, an open-source Mac alternative to PageMaker and Quark. This one is beyond 1.0 so it's pretty stable. I haven't used it yet (and it seems it may be difficult for folks who aren't already familiar with desktop-publishing concepts) but it seems quite functional, at least to me. I grok what all the buttons are for. You can download Scribus here.

So much free stuff! My thanks to all the developers who worked so hard to make these programs available for mere mortals. May they live long and prosper.

Big screens: the good and the bad

My new iMac is a 27" model. That's a lotta screen. Mostly, I'm in heaven. And it's fast. It's got so much RAM that it does things even before you tell it to. Well, maybe not, but close.

So here's Apple, the coolest company ever, selling these computers with huge-ass screens and there's this teensy problem, literally. The menus on all the programs are so tiny that you can't see them. Everything scales up to fit the new screen except the menus. They stay tiny, as if they think they're still on a 13-inch MacBook.

Same with iTunes. I can't buy anything at the store because the type is so small. You have to be 7 or 8 years old to read it. Teeny albums with teenier words -- how does this make sense? You're Apple, fer dog's sake. You made this huge screen. Scale up your damn system fonts! We shouldn't have to tell you this.

UPDATE: I turned on Universal Access. Now at least I can zoom my menus. I'm thankful there's a work-around but we should not have to do this.