Global Nerdy

Okay, so the just-announced new MacBook line doesn’t have the OLED displays that Jobs mentioned Apple would have sometime this year, or the Santa Rosa chipset. You still get a lot of bang for the buck, which includes:

• Faster processors, with 2.0GHz now being the slowpoke of the bunch
• Bigger hard drives, with 80 gigs being the minimum (That’s just okay —
  I’ve always felt that Apple was stingy with drive space)
• More beaseline RAM — 1 gig — which really should’ve been the bare
  minimum in the first place. OS X can be a hungry beast.

Apple does list the specs in their news release, but I’ve rearranged them into a nice matrix to make comparison shopping easier for you. You can’t say we at Global Nerdy ain’t never done nuthin’ for ya!

System	2.0 GHz 13″ White MacBook	2.16 GHz 13″ White MacBook	2.16 GHz 13″ Black MacBook
Price	US$1,099	US$1,299	US$1,499
Display	13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display
Processor	2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor	2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
Bus	667 MHz front-side bus
RAM	1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB
Hard Drive	80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor	120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor	160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor
Optical Drive	Slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive	Slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/CD-RW) optical drive
Graphics System	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Video Out	Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately)
Video In	Built-in iSight video camera
Wired Networking	Gigabit Ethernet port / 2 USB 2.0 ports / FireWire 400 port
Wireless Networking	Built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking / Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Audio In/Out	One audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog
Input Devices	Scrolling TrackPad / Apple Remote
Power Adapter	60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter

More evidence that those rumors about Apple updating their line of consumer-level laptops today are true: as of this writing (Tuesday, May 15th, 8:35 a.m. EDT) online Apple stores worldwide are displaying a banner that reads “We are busy updating the store for you and will be back shortly”, shown below:

Here’s what Think Secret speculates the updates to the MacBook line may be:

• These might be the first of the MacBooks to feature Intel’s Santa Rosa chipset.
• The Santa Rosa chipset can be configured with the Core 2 Duo processors to run at 1.8, 2.0, 2.2 and 2.4 GHz — they expect that the MacBooks will run at the lower speeds in this range while the MacBook Pros will run at the higher speeds.
• The MacBooks may incorporate the Intel GMA 3000 graphics processor, which should yield faster graphics performance.
• They say ”
  The MacBook will not employ newer LED backlight displays; that upgrade will need to wait until the next revision.”

The second annual RailsConf — the premier conference for Ruby on Rails developers — starts this Thursday, May 17th, with a full day devoted to tutorial sessions; the main conference starts on Friday, May 18th and runs to Sunday, May 20th and features three days of keynotes, sessions and gatherings of all sorts (here are the Friday, Saturday and Sunday schedules).

I will be among the 1,200 people attending this year’s conference (that’s three times the number of people who attended last year’s, which took place in Chicago), and I’ll be taking copious notes, photos, videos and podcast recordings as well as entertaining and/or annoying conferencers with the accordion. Watch this blog all this week for Rails and RailsConf-related posts!

In honor of Hammer’s inclusion as one of the experts at the upcoming TechCrunch20 Conference, we proudly present the truely unforgettable intro to the truely unforgettable animated series Hammerman:

If Arrington could just land Vanilla Ice and Gerardo, TechCrunch20 would have the perfect storm.

A still from Chris Messina’s video, given a little LOLcat treatment.

It’s been getting some buzz in “The Swarm” (a Skype chat where the TorCamp crowd hang out to talk about anything and everything — sometimes even tech!): Chris “Factory City” Messina has posted a 50-minute video polemic about the state of Mozilla, Firefox and the future of the Open Web in light of the challenges being presented by offerings such as Adobe’s Apollo, Microsoft’s Silverlight and the most newly-announced platform for web apps on the desktop, Sun’s JavaFX.

I’ve only managed to catch the first 15 minutes of the video (it’s been a busy day), but TorCamp regular Mark Kuznicki and Web Worker Daily editor Anne Zelenka have already thrown in their two cents. I’ll throw in mine, but I need to carve out some time first.

CSS coding, like most UI coding, is at least part voodoo, what with browser incompatibilities and the fact that a good number of developers have avoided it until every became Ajax-ified.

If you’re looking to learn CSS or refine your CSS chops, make sure you check out Smashing Magazine’s 70 Expert Ideas for CSS Coding. It provides tips of all kinds, from the general (such as workflow) to the esoteric (such as dealing with Internet Explorer).