Technology

The Waiting Is Over, Now More Waiting!

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The waiting is over. The rumors are in fact true. Apple has released a small (cheap) desktop that does not require you to buy an all in one model. The Mac mini is actually real. Rumors were flying for over a month, but they are in fact true. I for one am very happy. I went the iMac route only to sell it because I don’t want to be locked into an all in one unit. I won’t upgrade my monitor so often, but I will upgrade my desktop. I also don’t use my Mac for super power user functions, so a $1500 tower is out. The Mac Mini is perfect for me. Inexpensive small desktop computer. I may get rid of my Powerbook and just get 2 Mini’s. One for work and one for home. What I will probably do is just leave the powerbook at work.

I was one of the crazy ones. I went online and ordered mine already. it took an hour since the apple site was really slow, but I got my order confirmation already. I am told it will arrive on the 22 of this month, but you never know with hardware vendors. My hardware vendor who I usually buy stuff from gets me great deals if I buy for personal use, but he could not guarantee the delivery date. I ended up getting the faster processor model with the extra hard drive space. I will upgrade the ram with 3rd party memory. With shipping and the extra ram I am talking about $800 for the total package. Not bad since the entry level iMac is like $1299 but it comes with a 17″ monitor and I already have a 20″. I want flexibility. This will give it to me. I am very excited. Apple finally listened to what people (me) wanted. I hope they sell like hot cakes. As for their flash music player, I will pass. I am very happy with my 40 gig iPod.

T-Mobile Woes Continue

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Called T-Mobile twice today about my phone(s) still not working. The first time I called the CSR put me in touch with the data group because to level 1 support people any problem with a phone like the Treo 600 means that the data group has to get involved. I tried to explain that I had 2 phones and the other one (non-data phone) was also not working right. the did something on the back-end to my account and had me restart the phone.

Then a few hours later I had to call back because the issue was still happening. This time I was told that there was in fact 3 cell sites in my area that were messed up. I asked what they said by my area and they said Manhattan. I was like dude Manhattan is kind of big and there are like millions of cell users on the dam island. Just because 3 sites are down on that island does not mean that I am affected. of course I truly believe that the problem I am having is related to their network, but this guys logic was retarded.

I don’t like talking to so called experts about technology that I am only have a passing (as a hobby) knowledge of, and yet I know more about it than the people I talk to. This genius first tried to tell me that if I didn’t turn my phone off every day that it could cause my problems. I was like that was nice info, but I had rebooted the dam phone like 4 times today and it still does not work right.

T-Mobile’s contract policies are great, but if this technical issues continue I will be looking elsewhere. This is not the first time they have had issues like this.

&*%^@# Cell Phones

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I read something yesterday that said the majority of cell phone owners were unsatisfied with their service. That has been traditionally true for me. But I thought hey recently I have not had issues. I should not have spoken. Last night and today I have had huge issues making and receiving calls on my Treo. I think it is T-Mobile. I have had problems like this before, and it was not the phone. I am in an area with great signal and I still don’t get calls. voice mail goes off like an hour after the call was made. That is not good when people are trying to call you to tell you websites are f–ked up. Then I try to place calls and I hit send and the phone does nothing. I do that like 5-10 times before it works.

Thankfully I had the VOIP phone for outbound calls. Maybe I am thinking of switching to Cingular if they get the Treo 650 before T-Mobile. I just am not sure if their customer service is as good as T-Mobile. I like the fact that T-Mobile does not force me into a contract if I make changes to my account since I have been a customer for 3+ years now. Still debating…

Desk Reorg Again

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I am in constant change of my desk setup in my apartment. Up until today I was all set to sell my Apple Cinema Display 20″. It doesn’t work with my PC’s and a KVM like I would have liked. I don’t really want to have 2 monitors (one for my PC’s and one for my Mac) so I figured on selling the Apple display and get a standard 20″ VGA monitor. Well I was looking at the monitor before I packed it up today and I had second thoughts. The wide screen grew on me. Maybe it was using it (and its 20″ imac cousin) for a year and change. I didn’t want to give it up so quick. I just finished reorganizing and recabling my desk to put both monitors (my 17″ Acer and the Apple Cinema display) on my desk. The entire desk is now taken up by both setups. it is kind of like how I have my office desk setup. I figure if it works at work, it will work at home. I like working on my Mac anyway. I try to only work on my PC at home if I need to.

Since all my desk space is taken up by my monitors and keyboards, I have had to spread out onto other desk surfaces. I will get messy as I work but so far so good.

Man this 20″ display rocks!!! Off to bed…

Rebuilt My Laptop

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I rebuilt my work issued IBM Thinkpad T40 on Christmas eve. Gus finally returned his old laptop. Since he wiped his hard drive I took the opportunity to upgrade mine. I needed more drive space, and I really needed to wipe my laptop. I had tons of issues with it freezing up on me. It was driving me crazy.

Now that it is rebuilt (well almost) I am still having some issues. I am frustrated with windows, even though I use it almost every day. I haven’t even put on the more obscure software that I have on the Thinkpad so I could see if the system worked fine without them. The answer I got was it works better than before, but not by much.

At least I have double the drive space now. That will keep me in business with VMWare images. With all my Virtual Machines I have stored on my laptop now I still don’t have room for any MP3’s, but this is a work machine anyway:)

Pocket PC Vs. Treo 650

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Gus is trying to convince me that I should be looking at the new Pocket PC on sale from Cingular. It is branded the Siemens SX66, but it is basically the same PPC phone that HTC is making for several vendors. Gizmodo had a comparison of Audiovox’s variant of the phone for use on Sprint’s network. I am not impressed. The Treo 650 is smaller and from this review still better than the PPC. I am going to wait. Gus on the other hand may actually go buy that beast and use it. To me it looks too close in size to the HP Pocket PC that AJ got from T-Mobile a few months ago.

Patiently waiting for the Treo 650 for T-Mobile…

UPDATE: Gus got the SX66. He wants me to goto the Cingular store and check it out. I am going to go, but I think I will still wait for the 650.

Wireless, Wireless, World

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I was busy Tuesday. At work I had issues with our Wifi setup. Gus has complained about it for years, but I never find anything wrong with it. On monday I did notice that it was just not working at all. I took my old 802.11b wifi point from home into work to troubleshoot. The point I had at home is the same type we use at the office. Back in the day it was top of the line. Now, not so much. Turns out both points at work are bad. The Wifi cards are fried. We are running off of my old point for now. I want it back so I can ebay it, but I will keep it at work until we can purchase new ones.

At home I had wifi issues of my own. I wanted a new 802.11g point at my house for a while. Ever since I got my VPN firewall I have been without high speed wireless. So since work got my old B point (that I should have sold long ago) I finally went to Best Buy and got a new Linksys 802.11G point. I set that up in no time. My problems started when I tried to configure the Wireless Bridge (802.11b if you were wondering) I had lying around. After hours of messing with it, I finally got it to work correctly. Right now it is plugged into my VOIP phone so I could put the phone in my bedroom without pulling any cables. it is neat. My eventual goal is to plug the bridge into my Tivo so I don’t have a cable running from my router to my TV wall unit.

I like the bridge so much I may get another one and keep the phone where it is. I have all the components to go totally wireless. I have a 802.11g card for my desktop. The only down side of wireless is if I want to transfer large files, which I do sometimes. For now everything works!!!

Scott Math

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Ask Jayson, I have a weird way of justifying buying stuff. It is a combination of impulse buying, ebay selling, and sometimes disposable income to throw around. Of course having a girlfriend that sucked down the disposable income didn’t really slow me down much. That is something to think about later.

I buy stuff, use it for a while and the sell it. By selling stuff, I can justify buying newer versions of said stuff, or different stuff. Take my computer I just got. I didn’t go out and blow a ton of money on a computer (well I did, but read on). I had half the purchase price set aside in what I like to call my Tech/Vacation slush fund. it is for impulse buys and such. I put gift money, cash earned from selling gear, etc into that account. When I want a big ticket item I go there to spend it. So I paid for half of the computer with that money. Then I decided to sell a bunch of other stuff on ebay to pay for the rest of the computer. When all is said and done, I would not have spent any money out of pocket for the computer. Jayson laugh’s at my theory. My friend rich scratches his head with confusion, but it works. All I know is that I get new gear with little or no expense out of pocket. Soon I will sell my powerbook and pick up a new one. Only having spent a few hundred dollars on the difference between the used computer sale price and the new machine.

That my friends is how you can keep up on the new technology. Of course I only do this for some items. Much of my crap is not recycled allot. I have the same 4 year old tv I have had. my stereo is not getting any newer, etc. But how good a stereo do you need in an apartment?

If you are reading this post going, "hey that makes sence, how can I do that also"? You are crazy. If you are reading this post going "man Scott is crazy". You would be correct. I am not normal. I never said I was. All I can say is eBay is addictive…

Saw The Razr Today

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Wednesday Jayson and I went to the Cingular store to check out the new Motorola Razr. It was really cool. Super slim, and all metal. The screen was almost as big as my Treo’s. The downside, it was $500 with a contract. I have been pondering moving to Cingular, but that price was way too much for me right now. Without a contract it was $600. If the price came down to $300 maybe I would check it out. I wasn’t going to buy a plane old phone that is more than what I paid for my PDA/Phone. that is just crazy.

Gus was upset that I didn’t wait to goto the store with him. He seemed jealous that I went with Jayson. I told him if he was a good boy I would goto the store with him too!!!

Ebay is Adictive

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I finally got around to putting up on ebay a bunch of items that I need to get rid of. I put up a cell phone from Verizon that I have not used in over a year, a linksys router that I cannot use, even though I still want to keep it, and my old HP iPaq 1945. I don’t use that anymore, even though I want to. I am just too lazy to use it, so I carry my Treo. I will miss the 1945’s nice color screen.

Hopefully I will get decent amounts for all that stuff. The proceeds of these auctions will go to pay for my new desktop computer I just bought. I like to ebay stuff so I can buy or pay for other electronic stuff I buy. it is the circle of life so to speak.

Update: I shipped out the iPaq and my old router today. I am still waiting for the cell phone to sell…