Happy Mac!

MacBook White 2.4 GHz, first impressions:

• Keyboard is weird, i.e. not the same as on the computers I'm already accustomed to. On any objective measure, however, probably quite good.
  
• Screen: marvelous improvement. Mirror rather than diffuse reflections means easier reading in the face of ambient light (at least, as far as I can tell by shining a flashlight on it) and easier reading sans backlight (i.e. by shining a flashlight on it).
  
• There seem to be a lot of magnets around. Magnetic power connector, magnetic lid closure...
  
• The new Safari is cool, but I can't figure out how to set it to "Ask me what I what done with every kind of cookie, and I'll tell you whether to trust a given site or not".
  
• "Spaces" (the multiple-desktops thing - Unix geeks have seen this ages ago) rocks. Totally.
  
• The time from "two fingers on the trackpad scrolls? ... weird." to "whee!" is surprisingly short. (whee!)

In related news, I can't seem to import my old song ratings into the new iTunes library. Ah, well.

P.S. Those of you who listened to the voicepost (hi, chanlemur!) and therefore heard about my Not-Exactly-First Foray Into The One-Mile Race (now with 100% less training!) may be interested in seeing official times (I'm #81, Robin Zimmermann, 7:44.40) and official photographs (I'm the demented-looking chap slightly left of middle).

Linkbit: the Pope and the President

P.Z. Myers on Benedict XVI meeting George W. Bush - outraged, as you should be. Outraged, to a great extent, because in all the "coverage" of this "event", and indeed in the "event" itself, there is not shown the slightest awareness that these men we are seeing praise each other and be praised in return are complicit in horror and terrible horror.

I know I, for one, am tired of this eternal drumbeat of dreadful revelations, each of which has effected not the slightest visible good in its wake. But that exhaustion is no excuse. Each beat of this drum stands for the agony of hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. The least we can do is stand for them.

(P.S. On a much more minor point, Expelled came out today. Do not watch it. Expelled is a terrible movie, morally and cinematically.)