asciipr0n

I’ve got two 24″ monitors that I use side-by-side in TwinView mode in my home office, so when I look for desktop background images I hit up Mandolux. Mandolux offers free and original wallpaper in a variety of sizes for even the largest displays.

The only wrinkle in all of this is that Mandolux splits the larger widescreen backgrounds into separate left- and right-hand images. However, since I run my display in TwinView mode, my desktop is essentially a single 3840 x 1200 display ( two 1920’s side by side). For the Mandolux wallpapers to display correctly on my background I need to merge the two images into one. I could manually stitch the two images together with an image editing program like GIMP, but since I downloaded a dozen of the background images to try out, doing it manually sounded dauntingly tedious.

That’s when I remembered that the ImageMagick suite of tools includes the ‘montage’ tool. The ImageMagick tools can be installed with the following command under Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Then, to stitch the images together I ran the following command:

montage mandolux-ga2k6-*-1920.jpg -tile x1 -geometry +0+0 mandolux-ga2k6-3840.jpg

in a directory containing mandolux-ga2k6-l-1920.jpg and mandolux-ga2k6-r-1920.jpg (left and right side images, respectively). It is also worth noting here that the first filename precedes the second filename alphabetically, so the files are laid out from left to right in that order.

The result is mandolux-ga2k6-3840.jpg, which is a file with both images merged into into one 3840 x 1200 image.

Those who know me will note that, at best, I am reluctantly impressed by what Apple has to offer. The operating system and hardware work together, for the most part, seamlessly. As a fan of Linux and open-software in general, I tend to eschew the closed paradigm that Apple depends upon to keep their platform humming along harmoniously. Nonetheless, I am often forced to concede that there are things that Apple does right with it’s laptops.

The new MacBooks that debuted this week, I have to admit, are tempting me. The new unibody aluminum design is damn slick and feels very solid and substantial in my hands. The new multi-touchpad feels very natural to the touch. Even the internals have been simplified. I think Jony Ive was right when he said “it’s more beautiful on the inside than the outside”.

That said, there is a design choice that I find highly questionable: Apple’s decision to create a proprietary display connector for a standardized display interface. While DisplayPort is a license- and royalty-free industry standard which has a standardized connector, Apple chose to design its own connector and called it Mini-DisplayPort. Not the display interface standard, mind you, just the connector.

Earlier this year, I bought my first of two Dell WFP2408 LCD monitors, which were one of the first displays to feature the newly standardized DisplayPort interfaces alongside the more common DVI connectors. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to use the DisplayPort connectors because Apple does not conform to the connector standard nor do they currently offer a Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter. I can, however, elect to purchase a $30 Mini-DisplayPort to single-link DVI adapter. If I had a 30-inch LCD, I could choose the rediculously priced $100 Mini-DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter that’s about as large as the power adapter and also takes up a USB port. Conveniently enough, however, Apple has just started selling a new 24″ LCD monitor featuring their own Mini-DisplayPort connector.

After spending a fairly good premium on an Apple laptop, I don’t think it’s quite fair to force a customer to buy a $30-100 adapter for Apple’s non-standard DisplayPort connector. At the least, I feel Apple should include a Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter with their laptops. Each time I feel tempted to enter the beautiful, walled gardens of Apple, it’s these little catches that make me think twice.

Update Oct. 17. 2008:

Looks like I’m not the only one griping about this.

Update Jan. 30. 2009:

I  bought a MacBook on Jan 6.