Tag: computers Posts

New Macbook and Macbook Pros Announced

 Journal

I’m sure it’s old news by new, but Apple announced updates for their Macbook lines today. They look pretty snazzy, sporting thinner aluminum cases and black plastic near the monitor. I’m not sure I’m sold on the decision to make the monitor glossy (as this makes it more difficult editing photos, IMO), but all in all it looks like a step in the right direction. As I’ve indicated previously, I’m focusing on paying off my student loans for the next little while, which basically means no major purchases. For the time being I’m going to try and stick with my Macbook Pro, even though the backslash key stopped working a few weeks ago. What does everyone else think of the announcements?

Made It

 Journal

Well, I made it. The flight was, for the most part, uneventful. I actually had to stop in Edmonton briefly which was unexpected. That being said, it got me off the plane for 20 minutes to stretch and get a bit of sunshine, which was nice. In fact, it was one of the most enjoyable flights in a while. I spent most of it reading a book I picked up in the Vancouver airport called “From Good To Great” which methodically investigated the top 11 companies in the last 30 years to see what they did differently than the rest. I usually don’t like business books as most of the authors seem to be full of hot air, however I enjoyed this one, primarily because the author approached it as a research project instead of a “hey I did it, so you can too” type of book. I’m in a […]

Entry #6: An Update From The Fort

 Journal

First off, I’m going to put together a Blogathon-wide RSS feed so that people can follow what everyone is doing on blogathon without having to visit each site individually. You can subscribe to it by clicking here. Also, if you’re part of blogathon, please drop a comment and I’ll add you to the feed (I’m going to do my best to add everyone I know about), but given that time constraints of writing posts, it may take me a few hours. Raul and John at my place Raul and John are currently keeping me company at home. My laptop LCD broke a few days ago, so instead of committing myself to spending 24 hours at my computer desk in my room, I decided to haul my iMac out into the living room. In addition, Raul was having some major laptop LCD issues as well, so I pulled an old LCD […]

The End Of Microsoft Windows

Technology

Yesterday I read a really interesting article about the end of Windows as we know it. I can’t say that I disagree with that assessment at all. As many of you know, Windows Vista was basically my sole reason for moving to a Mac last year. I had installed it on my Toshiba notebook computer and it was the slowest piece of a garbage I had ever used — none of the drivers worked properly, and it crashed for no reason. The worse part was their “upgrade wizard” said my machine would be fine. Here’s a little video I took while installing it (looks like it’s up to 50,000 views on YouTube): The thing about Mac, at least in terms of an OS, is that’s basically the BSD kernel with a nice UI on top of it. And I say that in a good way. What it means is that […]

My Computer Can Kick Your Computer's Ass

Technology

I was walking around my apartment this evening, and came to the realization that I have a ton of computer equipment. So much in fact that some of it is piled is various corners of my place. Here’s a small list of what I have sitting around: 1) iMac Core2-Duo 2.0 GHz Desktop 2) Macbook Pro Core2-Duo 1.8 GHz Laptop 3) Intel based 1.6 GHz mini-server running debian linux 4) Quad Core 2.4 GHz Centos-based mini-server with 1 TB raid 5 storage (I use this for storing photos and other things I don’t want to lose) 5) External 350 GB USB 2.0 drive, used for time machine backups 6) Apple TV 7) External DVD USB 2.0 Burner with LightScribe (I use this for sending photo discs to people) 8) Nokia N800 mobile device (this belongs to my work, but it’s here for now) Not a bad little collection for a […]

The Sun Is Rising

 Journal

As most of you are now aware, last night we moved our clocks ahead an hour due to daylight savings time. At 7pm tonight, as I pumped endless money into my Apple TV, I looked out the window and saw the sun still setting, a nice change from the dark evening skies of winter. This year I’m going to do something different with regards to the summer — I’m going to keep all my weekends open for me. For the last three years, I have basically not really had any time in the summers to do the things I wanted. The summer of 2005 I spent in a small office in Burnaby with a bunch of other guys, literally working 6 or 7 days a week. The last two summers I spent attending weddings, helping friends move, going to events, and doing little side projects. But this summer, I’m going […]

I Code, Therefore I Am

 Journal

Tonight, while sitting at home on the couch, I was reminded of a conversation I had last week with someone that I hadn’t talked to in quite some time. That person was someone I used to hang out with quite a bit in university, but haven’t really seen that much of in the last few years. We both somehow ended up in software development, although I’ve stayed more along the lines of developing software while he has moved on to managing a small team of developers. The thing is, I left the conversation somehow being made to feel bad that after eight years in my career I haven’t advanced to full-time management, something this person moved into a few years ago. When I asked him if he still coded, he basically scoffed, implying it was basically beneath him now. I’ve actually been in charge of people a few times in […]

Laptop Bag

 Journal

I’m in the market for a new laptop bag. I currently have a backpack which holds my laptop and my camera gear, but when I don’t carry my camera gear I find the bag is fairly big and bulky. So, I’d like to pick up a nice, slim laptop bag that goes over my shoulder. I googled a bit this morning trying to find recommendations where to go, but most of those sites just talked about bags and didn’t really point me in any useful directions. Rebecca gave me the name of a site on Robson, but when I went by this morning they were still closed. Can anyone recommend a good place to buy a laptop bag? I’d like something a little more modern and less London Drugs-like.

New Apple iMac For Home

 Journal

As everyone knows, I’ve spent the last six months battling my Macbook Pro. It’s been plagued with various problems, the most severe of which lately is intermittent connectivity wherever I go. Not coming back whenever it sleeps it pretty lame too. Anyways, I went to drop it off at the repair facility, and they said it would be gone for at least two weeks. So, being the impulsive buyer that I am, I decided to pick up an iMac for home. And to be honest, I used to always use a desktop computer, even though I had a Windows laptop before. But when I got my Mac, I ended up formatting my Windows machine and turning it into a Linux server — can’t really remember why I did that. So anyways, I now have a pretty sweet iMac at home, and it’s a nice change to have a fully working […]