Apple

MacWorld '09

So, in the final Apple keynote of a MacWorld conference, Apple introduced iLife 09, iWork 09, and the 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro.  The only one I care about is iLife, particularly iPhoto (I don’t own a digital video camera, other than what phone or point-and-shoot can do, and have never really touched GarageBand).  So, part of iPhoto is now the ability to do facial detection, geo tag decoding, new slideshow themes, a new book, and the ability to sync with FaceBook and Flikr.

I use FaceBook, but seldom put pics on it, as when I started on FaceBook it required the person viewing to be a member as well, and made sharing a pain in the arse.  Instead, I put all my pics on Picasa, owned by Google, which I generally like except for very poor iPhoto syncing.

The idea of Flikr has crossed my mind several times in the past, and the new features of iPhoto make it even more appealing, except for one issue: Yahoo! owns Flikr.  Since about a 18 months ago, I have been rather anti Yahoo!, and am actually closing in very near deleting my Yahoo! account, as it currently is used only for a spam email box, which I can obviosly do without.

I understand why Apple made the choice of Flikr though, and it’s related to a release from the day earlier (Monday).  Picasa is a 2-part operation, the downloadable program as well as the web-albums.  On Monday, finally, Google released Picasa (the App) for Mac.  This program, for storing, sorting, categorizing, and sharing your pics to the web sounds incredibly similar to iPhoto, and is its newest competitor.

So, despite the fact that one of Google’s founders is on Apples board of directors, and that Apple uses Google maps and search as the default in over 20 apps on both Macs and the iPhone/iPod touch, there is no support in iPhoto for Picasa Web Albums, because it is a competing product.

So, I have 3 options:

  1. Keep iPhoto and live with poor Picasa Web support.
  2. Keep iPhoto and switch to Flikr
  3. Switch to Picasa (the App) and keep Picasa Web Albums.

None of these are ideal, but I will most likely end up with #1.  I like iPhoto, and I generally like Picasa Web Albums.  Maybe I will give Flikr at least a try, before I end my Yahoo! account.

Anyway, moving along…

I went to Bay City today, was gone about 12 hours.  Nothing real big, visit  with Mom and Dad, fix Grandma’s computer, come home.  Roads weren’t bad, but other drivers seemed to think differently.  One guy was actually going 30 on the freeway at one point.

Watched several movies: “Zombie Strippers”, “HellBoy II”, “The Dark Knight”, as well as the entire series of “Clone High”.  All were pretty good.  I must recommend “The Dark Knight” to all, and “Clone High” as well.  “Zombie Strippers” was pretty much just as fucked up of a movie as it sounds.

Bought my books for school yesterday, $208 and change for 3 books.  Good nes is, thats the last time I have to by text books (until grad school, 3 – 5 years maybe), yay!  School begins on Monday.

By my count, there were 45 posts in 2008, averaging to a post every 8 days or so, so not even once a week.  I think I can beat that this year, but who knows.  It is already the 8th, and I am only making my first post.

OK, thats enough for now.

nick

Little Late, lol

Well, I guess I should update.  I haven’t since November 16th, as the Christmas post was actually Jenn.

This past weekend we went to Bay City for Christmas.  We were going to leave Saturday, but was really foggy so we left Sunday afternoon and stayed through the evening.

Weekend before we went up to Alpena for christmas with Jenn’s family.  Drive home was really crappy as it was snowing faster than the plows were cleaning up.

Other than that, have done nothing for the last week and a half, and enjoyed the hell out of it.  It’s my last christmas break after all, I intend to enjoy it.

Exams were not bad, grades came out a 2 A’s, 2 A-‘s, and a B-.  GPA is at 3.72, would like to get it up to a 3.75 for Magna Cum Laude.  Just need 3 out of 4 A’s over winter, with no less than A- in the fourth.

During late November, I made a site for my SME group.  I  also helped organize our Christmas Parade float, which their are pictures of on the SME site.  We were competing for $100 prizes for most festive, most participants, and most lights.  We had a good chance at most lights, but haven’t heard yet (which presumably means we lost).

Also have not heard from UniSolar.  I interviewed with them mid November and was told I would hear by the holiday.  I emailed them 2 weeks ago and was told they would get back to me.  I’m not giving up on them though, with this economy (especially in MI) I’m sure they are looking long and hard before making any decisions.

You would think I would have more after 6 weeks, huh?

I have been watching DiggNation rather regularly now.  I downloaded it to watch on my iPod and got into it.  I had watched a few about a year ago but stopped after 2 or 3 episodes.  I used to watch all of Kevin Rose’s “the Broken” episodes, but with the death of TechTV I lost trach of his whereabouts for a while, and didn’t even realize he was the guy that started Digg.com until about 2 years ago.

Next week is MacWorld Expo, and Steve Jobs is not doing the keynote.  Further, it is to be the last expo attended by Apple.  In the past, Apple’s priority was to keep their user base from migrating away, so attended user expos.  Now, Apple has a large enough base that they can just use their TV spots and stores to build a bigger base.  So, its sad news for lovers of the keynotes, but understandable.  Many of Apple’s major announcements over the last few years have been at special events outside the expo anyway, and there is still Apple’s own WWDC in May-ish.

Only 16 hours left in 2008 right now.  That is a little scary.  Amazing how the year can seem so short and so long at the same time.

My beer came out decent.  Guys liked it, Jenn and I rather enjoyed it, Jenn’s Dad and his friend didn’t, lol.  Its not for people who are set on drinking one beer, and especially if that is a lighter beer.  My “Creative Juices #1” is rather heavy, and a bit bitter.

Fish are doing well.  We had a second Jack Dempsey (Buster), but he passed a few weeks ago.  Our unknown cichlid (Tiger) is doing well though.  Will need to get some pics.  I still really wat a bigger aquarium, and saw an awesome 65 gallon at PetSmart in Saginaw, but need to wait at least until after the move.

Finding a job is looking like it will be a royal pain.  most companies are laying off far more than hiring.  Still, I know they are out there.  Most of the layoffs are production workers while Manufacturing Engineers are exactly what they need to help trim inefficiency and reduce costs.

Went to Birch Run shopping with Jenn and her Mom and Sister a few weeks ago.  Was the first time I had been there in probably 5 years.  A lot of stores that have been there for as long as I can remember, and a few new ones.  I was excited to see a Merrill store, but Nordstrom’s Rack is still a better deal.

Other site work, other than SME listed above, is our wedding site.  Jenn made one up a few weeks ago, and I did a redo a few days ago.  I should have a final composite up within a couple weeks, as well as possibly its own domain.

I think, that is it.  I know there is more, especially after 6 weeks, but can’t think of it right now.  Will try and make my next most a little sooner.

nick

Birthday Week

Well, birthday went well.  Had Applebee’s a few days before, and went to Schubergs the night of.  Had some mini burgers and chili cheese tater tots, yum.  Went with Jenn, Greg, and Dane.

Classes for the week went fine, especially since I got to miss a day.

IMTS was very interesting.  Saw a lot of stuff that I had barely heard of, and more that I had no idea existed.  Some of the machines and robots were really impressive.

Apple introduced new iPod nano, iPod touch, and iPod classic on Tuesday, full details on their site.

Jenn and I went to a bridal show last night (Friday) in Grand Rapids at the museum.  Was a lot of women running around crazy excited of nothing, I was glad to get out of there.  We headed over to Beltline to Johnny Carrino’s which was decent, but not great.  They are trying to find a niche between Olive Garden and Carraba’s that I don’t think actually exists.  Since we were nearby, I persuaded Jenn to go to Woodland Mall and look at the new iPods which are very nice.  She made me promise I wouldn’t buy one before we went though, so I was good.

So, that was my week.  Only other thing I could add is that I have been disk golfing more.  Three times this week.  Would be more if not for the rain.

nick

Service

Well, my box arrived today for the MacBook to go in for repairs.  That crack in the palmrest that happened in March is finally going to get fixed.  Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.  If it does, hopefully its in time to ship in over Christmas break.  Still, preferably, it hopefully doesn’t happen again.

Weekend with Jenn’s sister and family went well.  Sat around Friday night, went to GR Saturday, and they left Sunday morning.  We had some Red Robin which is always good, and tried to get my computer fixed at the Apple Store, but they wont ship so would require a trip back which sounded un-fun.

I got my PPG paycheck a week and a half early, always nice.  Will be useful when we got to Bay City this weekend, and to Ren Fest in Holly.

School is down to about a week and a half now, and my birthday 2 and a half.

Still haven’t gotten another crawfish.  Aquarium looks kind of empty.  At least need some plants.

OK, think that is all.  Will update hopefully Monday, if my computer is back.  Can always use Jenn’s though too.

nick

Freedom

I am free!  Yesterday was my last day of work at PPG.  We tried to work out something for the fall but my school schedule just didn’t allow for much.  Despite feeling like the $10/hour peon sometimes, I did enjoy it.  It’s too bad it took so long for them to start giving me more engineering assignments though, as that was sort of what I was there for.  I did get a lot of quality management though.  I should be back for a visit with SME in October or so.

I just checked Nearly Free Speech and my bandwidth has finally exceeded 1GB, which now means I pay under $1 per GB of transfer ($0.991 currently).  It goes down in a log type formula as I use more bandwidth.  Sadly, this deal began February 1st, so it took me six months to get in that first GB.  It goes down constantly, so I keep paying slightly less to transfer every single page load though.  Once I reach 10GB of transfer, my cost will be down to $0.50 per GB, in about 5 more years.  Unfortunately, bandwidth (obviously) is not my primary cost but server space.  Still, I only use about $4 or $5 per year excluding domain name.

Jenn managed to plan about half of our wedding in the last week.  She gets a little obsessed sometimes.  Tentatively (very), it is scheduled for 10/10/09 at Garland Resort, but that could change overnight.

School is down to about 3 weeks away now.  August 2nd.  I am looking forward to it, nerd that I am.  It’s my last year of school, it is very sad.  😦

Sunday morning I went to feed the fish, and we had lost another one.  Rosy, the remaining rosy barb had perished.  Not sure how, but somehow overnight.  She was oldest, now it is Kitty.  She was about 2 weeks over a year old.  Was much smaller than Jill or Sunny, and were kind of expecting her to go in the next couple months as Jill keeps growing.  We still haven’t replaced Bubba yet, but maybe in the next week or two I will go to the pet shop since I am off.

I watched MST3K: the Movie tonight.  I was never a fan of the show (not that I didn’t like, but just never watched) but that was funny as hell.  A lot of the comments are very so-so, but they just throw one after another after another, and suddenly you break out laughing at the stupidest one-liner.

Uhm…

Apple has refurbished iPod touch for $199.  I really want one, but my extravagant spending for the year was my kilt.  There are nanos for like $149 too.

On that note, my birthday is one month from yesterday.

That would be it I think.

nick

New Name

So, the prize I promised is… nicholasyax.com.  atomicow.org will continue to work until is expires on October 07, 2008.  I realized mostly that atomicow says nothing about me, and my actually name says alot about me, so why not.  At some point in the next 4 months you should change the link you have saved, though for right now going to nicholasyax.com actually redirects you atomicow.org.  I should have that changed in the next few days or so.  I will also start to push the point more in about August, possibly with JavaScript popups to those that go to the old address (if I can figure out how).

At work, I am starting to figure out what I am doing.  Working with Quality department for now, doing capability studies on gages and processes as needed, and starting on some process documentation.  Has been going smooth so far, though it’s hard not having a computer yet to do work yet.

On Saturday, Jenn and I went to Grand Rapids for some shopping.  I needed some shirts for work, and we felt like some non-Big Rapids dining.  We went to the chinese buffet that was so good last time, but this time was a little more disappointing.  I did get 5 new shirts though.

Jenn and I went fishing Sunday and I actually managed to hook something.  Unfortunatley, I did not hook it very well and it got off.  Fish nibbled a few more times, but I never managed to bring anything in.  Will try again next weekend likely.  There is actually talk of me meeting my Dad in Clare as Jenn will be working all weekend and he will be at my Grandma’s trailer in Gladwin.

Apple started their Back-To-School promotion today, and since they hate me, are giving away a free 8GB iPod touch to students with a computer purchase, or $299 off any iPod.  Oh well.

OK, that is pretty good for now.  Later…

nick

New Computer!

So, Friday I got my money from Ferris, so I wrote Jenn a check for $1300 which her bank here cashed, then we headed down to GR. We got lunch at BD’s, then went to Woodland Mall. Jenn bought some Croc’s at Journeys, and I got a shirt with the silhouette of a man and boy, with the man pointing under a tree saying “That’s Shady”. Then, we went to the Apple Store. I walked in, and the concierge greeted me and asked if he could help me, so I pointed at the middle MacBook and said “I want that”. He said “Uhhhm… OK, let me find you an associate” and walked over to a girl and asked if she could help me get a MacBook. She said something like “You are interested in a MacBook?”, to which I replied “Yes, the 2.2GHz White MacBook with SuperDrive, the middle one.” “Uhh-OK, uhm…”. She was, at this point, a little off balance. Associates are no doubt used to selling iPods, or trying to talk iPod buyers into a Mac, or helping a customer decide between a few models, but not somebody who can walk in, not look, and just know exactly what they want. Finally, she regained her spot, fast-forwarding in her mind through all the other sales lecture, and began to ask if I would like a printer as well. “No, I already have a printer, I will consider Apple Care, but not today, and no .Mac”. She stands and does a little more fast forwarding, then said she would be right back and went to the back room. She came out with a black MacBook, so I sent her back for the correct one, then proceeded with checkout.

After shopping, we went to our hotel for the night, that had a really hard bed and maybe 5% humidity. I was itching and sparking all night. Worse, I had a brand new computer without any of my stuff on it, and the hotel wireless was $4.99 and only 100k! Thankfully, they forgot to charge us somehow. After a while there, we went out to dinner at Smokey Bones, kind of like Famous Dave’s but not as good.

Saturday we went to Centerpointe Mall where I almost bought some new shoes at Nordstroms, but they just didn’t fit right. Then, we went across the street to Woodland and ate at Olga’a Kitchen, which was really good, then to Barnes and Noble. After that, we came home and spent the evening here.

Sunday morning, Jenn woke up early, saw Meijer had Wiis in stock, and had one home and hooked up by 9. She woke me up just after 10 to make me help her clean because her parents were on the way. Just as we were about done, they arrived and we talked for a bit. Following that was Meijer, Qdoba, K-Mart, and Wal-Mart. Jenn’s parents proceeded home after that, and we sat around. I got a really bad headache, and spent most of the rest of the day on the couch. While at K-Mart, I bought a Belkin wireless router for my Dad, which was on sale for $29.99. I had found one for $18 on Buy.com, but was a brand I never heard of (but with really good reviews), no shipping, and less hassle. I decided he will like it.

Today was class, that’s about all. I took my computer in and had to answer questions about it, like that it can run windows, and it doesn’t cost a lot, and is cheaper than your $2000 Dell that is only 6 months old and is cracking and being a piece.

Lasty, Scott is apparently being deployed for it sounds like a month. Not sure if he is leaving today, or this week, or in a couple weeks, or when. If you read this, let me know, and good luck.

OK, tata…

nick

New Computer?

First of all, I apologize for once again neglecting my blogging duties. I got obsessed with a few things online and suddenly it was a week since a post again. Truth be told, I should have posted my 150,000th word by now. Soon, it should be coming up soon, along with the 15,000th visitor. Maybe I will strike until I get the visitor? Stop at 149,999 words, until right after the 15,000th visit, then just post “word”. That could be sweet.

I was talking with Mom and Dad and Jenn and with my fin aid refund coming in tomorrow, I am getting a new computer tomorrow. My grandma is borrowing me some money and my Dad is buying my iBook from me. The problem I am having, is my refund is going to Catholic Federal, which is 100 miles away, and they limit my debit card to $1000 per 24 hours. Since my computer is more than that, I am stuck. The Apple Store accepts checks, but my checks have my old address and my drivers license my address here, so I don’t know if they will take it. I do have a credit card from Fifth Third, that they decided to give me after I got my car loan, that is totally open. That only has a credit limit of $1000 though, so I would need to split it across two cards. I also thought of the option of buying $600 or so of Apple Store gift cards tomorrow, then buying the computer Saturday, so that my debit card is not charged more than $1000, but I wouldn’t be able to buy until after whatever time of day I bought the gift cards. Since we are going to Grand Rapids after my class, it will already be later in the day, so wouldn’t be able to buy computer until 7 or so Saturday night, and need to stay in GR all day Friday and Saturday. Will figure something out.

In preparation for the new lappy, I bought the MacHeist II bundle. It comes out as $490 something in software for $49. It ended yesterday, but none of you use macs anyway. There were 3 apps I really wanted, and 2 of them were worth more than $49 anyway, so the other 11 were all gravy.

I need to do dishes, and make dinner, but a Hungry Man is sounding better. I need to do before we leave tomorrow either way though. It sucks when you neglect your dishes for a day because it doesn’t look like there are many there, then suddenly there is a giant pile.

OK, that’s all for today.

nick

MacWorld ’08

First, my final class went well. As I said earlier, they all seem like will be interesting.

On to MacWorld though, as excited as I was, Apple crapped out again. They released the new MacBook Air, which is pretty cool, but is overpriced and underpowered for what I need. Looking back, last year was totally Mac-less, the year before was the introduction of the MacBook Pro and some iLife updates, 2005 was the MacMini and Pages, and 2004 was the iPod mini which turned out decent, and again iLife. What they all have in common, that I forget every year, is that they all kind of sucked. Maybe it’s just that I read the rumor sites and get higher expectations than I should.

As I said though, MacBook Air is decent, for the right person, just not for me. Sadly, the Dell XPS 1330 is closer, but is more expensive than a MacBook. Honestly, if Apple would release the MacBook in an aluminum case with an LED backlit screen, I would be happy, with no other changes form the current version. Of course, an upgrade to the new Penryn processors would be a nice additions, as well as maybe colored cases similar to the iPod nano. Probably wont see anything on the MacBook until April or so though.

Also released was a new wireless router with built in 500 GB or 1 TB hard disk for automatic backups (which I would like, but is out of my budget), and upgrades to the iPhone and Apple TV (free software updates), as well as iTunes movie rentals.

OK, enough boring you. Later.

nick

Back To School

So far school has been pretty good. I can see some of the classes getting a bit hairy toward mid semester but everything should be smooth till at least then. Somehow, 3 of my five classes are in the same room, which is nice. I know most of the people from last semester and that is always a plus as well.

MacWorld keynote begins in 53 minutes. Thank got I have class, that will keep me from peeking until at least 1. I want to manage to watch the video with no knowledge of the updates. I am rather sure I have never managed that, or at least only once.

That’s really all for now. More in depth later tonight I suppose.

nick