Help me, Apple. Please.
October 23, 2007
at 1:23 pm
in apple, microsoft, technology
Comments (0)
Everyone knows that I’m an outspoken Windows user. I’m running Windows Vista on 5 machines in my house (completely stable, mind you), and a server in my house is running Server 2003. My desktop is specced out from a custom build.
That’s why it’s interesting that I’m writing this right now. Over the last few years, I’ve slowly grown an appreciation towards Apple’s OS X. As much as I’m surprised to say it, I have actually (and am currently) debating becoming one of the so-called “switchers” at least in part.
Let me say first of all that I’m still a die-hard Windows user. Windows has been great for me. Vista is a solid upgrade over XP. But whether or not Vista or Windows has been a good experience for me (and it has), Windows is slowly becoming a dying brand. There’s a massive amount of bad PR against Windows, regardless of whether it’s justified bad PR or not (which most of it isn’t). Windows has lost respect … and I’m doubting that unless Windows 7 pulls off a miracle, it will never get it back.
At this point in time, like I said, I’m seriously considering switching most of my daily work to a Mac machine. The issue of not being able to run the same applications is a moot point now. It wasn’t 5 years ago, but it certainly is now. While OS X inherently doesn’t have as many applications availble for it, there’s plenty of alternatives. The rest you can pretty much run flawlessly inside of a Virtual machine such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion.
Previously, as a power user, the main reason holding me back from getting a Mac was the hardware performance. Regardless of whether or not Apple refused to believe it, both Intel and AMD had much more powerful chips than the G3, G4, or G5 at any point in time. The benchmarks were overwhelmingly in favor of the PC.
That, again, is a moot point since the transition to Intel chips. The only difference between a Mac machine and a PC now is the type of BIOS system that Mac uses.
The other thing that was holding me back was the software. As a hobbiest .NET developer, I rely heavily on applications such as Visual Studio 2005 or SQL Server 2005. You can’t run these on a Mac … or can you? Only recently has Parallels and VMWare Fusion fully supported both of these. I can run both of them in a Virtual Windows installation without any problems at all.
At this point there’s only one single thing holding me back from getting a Mac and getting the best of both worlds (Windows and OS X) … the price. As a power user and someone who is wanting to run development and enterprise-level applications such as Visual Studio in multiple instances and SQL Server 2005, an iMac + a Virtual machine just isn’t going to cut it. I’d be required to get a Mac Pro. Even with the education discount (and the discount I get from working for Best Buy), I’d still be forking out $2300 at a minimum. And that’s only with 1GB of RAM and an 250GB HDD. That’s pathetic.
In order for my needs as a power user to be met, I’d need to spend around $3200+ for a Power Mac. Considering I have 3 machines currently sitting on my desk, I honestly can’t justify that cost. And it’s not that I can’t justify it … if I had that kind of money freely avaiable, trust me, I’d buy a Mac Pro in a heartbeat. The fact of the matter is that I can’t. Even as a college student who is 1) living at home for free and 2) receiving a 100% free education thanks to the state of Florida, and 3) making a respectable amount of money working as a Geek Squad agent in Best Buy, I just don’t have that kind of money to spend.
Apple: If you’re reading this, I beg of you. Help me. Help those of us who are in the same position. There has to be SOME way we can do this without having to spend that much money.
Help me, Apple. Please.
I’m Impressed with Kensington
October 8, 2007 at 1:28 pm in blogging, keyboards and mice Comments (0)
I recently blogged about my mouse pad and my search to find the same item since the one I have now is starting to get old. To my surprise, Tom Pscheidt, the Product Manager for ergonomic products at Kensington found this website and left a comment on that post regarding the issue and gave me direct email contact to him.
That’s impressive. All I wanted was a $5-10 mouse pad and yet he still contacted me regarding the issue. His time spent writing that comment is worth well more than that, yet he still left the comment. That’s customer service. I’m a satisfied customer regardless of whether I can get the mousepad or not.
Thanks, Tom. And thanks Kensington.
I Love Networks
October 8, 2007 at 12:17 am in internet, networking, standards Comments (0)
It’s no secret. I’m a geek.
I’m also a networking geek. Basically, that means I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I work with computer networking. I love it. It’s should be no surprise that I’ve chosen Network Administration as the field and career that I am currently pursuing.
Whether it’s TCP/IP, LDAP, DNS, HTTP, packet sharing, ports, firewalls, security, Linux, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, routers, switches, hubs, CAT5e, or anything else network related, I devour it. I love it.
The reason I love networking so much is because, well, it’s just so cool. I mean, come on. Even though it’s old technology, I just got a color LaserJet printer capable of connecting directly to a router. How cool is it that I can’t print to this router … by an IP address? How cool is it that I can do some port forwards on my router and actually print to my printer when I’m in another city and state?
Networking is what powers the internet. It’s what allows us to connect to any device I want and communicate with it. And its full potential has only begun to be realized. The future of networking is in the small things: like our MP3 players connecting wirelessly to our computers to sync music. Or perhaps, our MP3 players listening to music that isn’t even stored on the device but rather on a file server at your home hundreds of miles away. It’s what will allow us to watch TV from anywhere at anytime on any device we want. (Slingbox Pro anyone?).
I’m sorry, but networks are cool. Networks are one of the best examples, as well, for how following standards in the computing industry has gotten us places. Where would we be if TCP/IP wasn’t made a standard communication platform decades ago? The internet wouldn’t exist the way we know it today, that’s for sure.
What do you think of networks? Are they cool or do they scare the heck out of you because they seem so complex? Let me know. Leave a comment or Ask Me.
All I Wanted was a Mouse Pad
October 4, 2007 at 12:48 pm in internet, keyboards and mice Comments (3)
I have the best mouse pad in the world. I swear by it. I’ve used this mouse pad for close to 4 years and I’m not giving it up. The fabric has become discolored and the rubber grip on the bottom is starting to rot. I then decided it was time to purchase a new one.
I launched Kensington’s website and to my surprise (considering the mouse pad’s age), the same mouse pad I have was still listed though it wasn’t available for sale. I nabbed the model number (or so I thought) and did searched specifically for it. Once again, I found it for sale. So I ordered it.
But once I got the mouse pad … it wasn’t the right one. Well, actually, wait. It was. But it wasn’t!
The model number was correct on the invoice slip. The model number was right on the box. The model number was right on even the mouse pad’s packaging. Yet it wasn’t the same mouse pad that was pictured on this website, let alone Kensington’s website.
At the end of several phone calls, I’ll be shipping the mouse pads back and I’m waiting on a phone call from Kensington’s Product Manager to see if we can’t get the right one ordered or find out what local retailers are selling the mouse pad.
I mean, seriously … all I wanted was a mouse pad the same as what I had. Is that too much to ask?
Corrupted Hard Drive
October 3, 2007 at 8:03 pm in hardware, microsoft Comments (1)
The culprit? From what I can see, it was most likely Disk Cleanup. That’s right, an application which is supposed to make your computer run faster just broke mine.
Though, at the same time, I’m not sure whether or not this issue is stemming from Disk Cleanup. It could possibly be a section of bad hard drive sectors.
I’m still diagnosing the failure so I’ll put another update on when I figure it out.
Registering the Zune
October 2, 2007 at 12:42 pm in microsoft, technology Comments (0)
I started laughing while attempting to register my Zune a few minutes ago. The process seemed simple enough: login with your Windows Live account, put in your name/address information, and the device’s serial number and click “Register this Device.” However, I quickly discovered that, well gosh darn, Florida isn’t listed in the drop down box as a state.
Neither is Georgia and Maryland apparently. I called Zune support and had the device registered less than 2 minutes later and had a laugh with the guy on the phone about it.
It pays to check and double check those arrays, folks! What I don’t understand is that if they used ASP for the site, why didn’t they just use the built in classes which provide this functionality? Who knows…
Social Networking and its Failure
October 1, 2007 at 10:44 pm in blogging, future, standards, web development Comments (0)
Let’s take a trip back in time. The year is 2003 and the internet is a rather pleasant place to be, although looking back we wouldn’t make that claim. Myspace and Facebook didn’t exist and half of the world didn’t visit them at least once per day. No one knew what AJAX was let alone used it on their websites. Flash-driven websites were the “cool thing to do.” But most importantly, the idea of using the internet as a “platform” and the convergence of technologies was near non-existent.
Then this whole concept of Web 2.0 came along and everyone was confused about what it really meant. People claimed that their websites were Web 2.0 and companies even dedicated their so-called services to help people make their websites Web 2.0 compatible. Some people even jumped the gun and claimed that Web 3.0 exists.
The change that happened in late 2004 when people started really understanding what the Web 2.0 concept was all about. It was about convergence of internet technologies and using the internet as a platform for full applications. Instead of running a program on your computer, why not run that program on the internet where you can have access to it from anywhere you go?
To be honest, if we’re still dealing with desktop environments on our computers in 15 years, I’ll be surprised. Your entire desktop environment will be web based and you’ll have access to it from anywhere, but your files and documents will be stored locally for safety. You won’t be putting in a CD to listen to music, you’ll be using a music subscription service to listen to anything you want. You’ll have access to anything from anywhere at any time. All of your devices will work together, and all websites will be able to communicate and share information with one another.
And here is where I think Social Networking sites have failed. Their very idea in concept form is awesome. If we can connect technologies, why don’t we connect people together from all over? Let’s create a social map of the world on the internet. However, what social networking sites have lost sight of is that the whole point while doing these things is to converge technologies. With their immense popularity, their potential to drive forward convergence of web technology is just as immense. Why haven’t they taken advantage of it?
Picture this: Instead of you needing to upload photos of yourself to MySpace or Facebook, why not allow you to associate your MySpace account with your Flickr account? What if I could send an email to someone but I didn’t know their email address? What if I could use the information about that person I did know to send them an email? What if I could fully control each and every one of my accounts without even needing to launch a browser? And what if I could update all of my accounts at the same time with the same information?
The possibilities are endless. AJAX is only one very small part of the concept of Web 2.0. AJAX is the User Interface side of the vision of convergence of technology, not the convergence itself.
Social networking sites have failed at what could have been (and what still could be if they play their cards right) an awesome breakthrough in web technology and even your computing experience as a whole. MySpace and Facebook are right now just a place to “hang out” and post silly surveys. They each let it come to that, when it fact it could have been a complete portal to socialization and conversation and the computing experience as a whole.
-
Subscribe »
-
Search the Site »
-
Meta »
-
Archives »
-
Blogroll »
RSS