A New Netbook

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When my parents signed up for Fios they were eligible for a new Netbook. I didn’t realize this but my dad called and told me what he was getting. I told him thanks for my new toy. He wanted to know why he couldn’t use it. I told him get it, open it up and see if he likes it. I said this knowing what my parents can and can’t do electronically. I also think by now I know what they like and don’t like getting. He got his netbook and called me like 20 minutes after asking when I would come and take it. He didn’t know what he could do with it. I told him and his only comment was could he watch movies on it. I said sure and explained his options and he was like to heck with that. He wanted a nice easy DVD movie player like he has.

The netbook is a great idea, but it is defiantly not for everyone. I will probably sell this one or my existing HP Mini 1000 but I am not sure what one is better. i am going to see if my sister has any need for this thing either, but I am thinking she will have the same thoughts about it like my dad did.

New Macbook Pro

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I got a new 13″ Macbook Pro today. Back in March I decided I didn’t need a personal laptop so I ditched my Aluminum Macbook for a 24″ iMac. Recently however I have wanted the potential portability of a laptop. I know I have my work laptop but it is really not the fastest thing out there and I don’t like putting personal stuff on it, and work also frowns on that! Problems with my iMac have also soured my opinion of all in ones. I am still a bit pissed at Apple, but the reality is I looked around and I couldn’t find anything as nice from Dell or HP. I don’t care what the Microsoft commercials say, the Macbook’s are still really well built nice to look at, and perform fantastically. I was open to running Windows 7, heck I may still dual boot the Macbook Pro. Now I know I didn’t need the laptop, but I never treated myself to anything after my tax return this year so I splurged. With my employee discount I was able to get a really good deal. I also had a much bigger hard drive I still had that I pulled from my old laptop so I didn’t have to configure the higher end model.

I still really want to get a 30″ display. Right now the Dell 30″ is looking better than the Apple one, but both require the dual link DVI adapter for the Macbook Pro. I have read horrible reviews about it so I don’t want to shell out money on a huge monitor and have it not work because the cable is crappy.

With this new purchase I will probably use my 24″ iMac as a media center machine. I will most likely sell the older 20″ iMac I was using as the media center since it has great resale value. I could probably make back most of the cost of the laptop on that sale! Gotta love Craigslist and Ebay. I may also just give it to my sister for the kids, the reality is I think it is way more powerful than they need. I might just buy them an upgrade to the old dell they currently have. I need to check out how their computer is working when I am out there this month.

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LCD Burn in and Why I am Not Happy With Apple Right Now

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I own a 24″ iMac since March. For me going to a desktop as my main computer was a big deal since for years I had a laptop as my main computer. In recent history that has been either an Apple Powerbook or Macbook. When I calculated the cost of a new 24″ or larger LCD and a new computer I made sense to just get an a desktop. With my current job I was using the company issued laptop anyway so I needed portability less. The new 24″ iMac was a logical choice. It wasn’t as expensive as going with a dedicated computer and a large monitor. It also packed enough power that I would be happy for the time being.

Before the summer started I started to notice issues with the display on my iMac. At first i thought it was me. Then over time it looked like there were horizontal lines on the display. I thought something was wrong with the display but didn’t want to deal with calling in for support and then being without my computer for a while so I did what any good procrastinator does I put the issue off a bit. By the middle of the summer the issue started to bother me more and more. Partly because I was noticing it, and partially because for the amount I paid for this computer it should be working normally. But my annoyance aside I noticed something else with the display. It wasn’t that I was just seeing lines on the screen. At some times I was seeing burn in of items that are no longer on the screen. If you don’t know what burn in is, it is when you leave something on the screen long enough that even when you move it there is still a remnants or ghost of the object on the screen. It was an issue way back when with old CRT monitors, and is a problem with Plasma TV’s today. Up until this computer I have never seen it with an LCD. I am someone who has managed hundreds of desktop installs (with flat panels of all types and sizes) for companies, and I have owned at least a half a dozen or more flat panels personally over the past 9 years so I hope I know what I am talking about.

Surprised by what I found I put a note down to call Apple and see what I can do to get this fixed. The computer is after all just 6 months old as of this writing. After some more procrastination I finally called Apple last weekend. After two or three troubleshooting attempts by the support guy on the phone it was determined that he can’t do anything for me and I should take the computer to an Apple Store so they can look at it. I wasn’t too happy about that since this thing is not something I can throw in my bag, but I scheduled an appointment with the Apple Store in Soho and took it in on Saturday.

After a few minutes of seeing what I was talking about the tech went away for a few minutes and came back to tell me that the issue is in fact burn in, but the warrantee does not cover that since it is preventable. I was a bit surprised by that so we discussed the issue for a bit and he offered to bring his supervisor out to discuss. For one I will give them points for that. Usually getting a manager or supervisor is a painful task. The lead came out (I have their names but I am leaving them redacted for now since this is an ongoing issue) and we talked about the issue. They both claimed that burn in does happen on LCD’s but is rarer than with Plasma. I told them that is great but I have used flat panels like the way I use my iMac for years and never had this problem. Now with my iMac I can have a window up on screen and only after a few hours does it burn in. I have left my LCD tv on pause for hours before without any issues. It is an LCD! I explained my previous work and personal experience with LCD’s and how I am very surprised by this. They insisted the issue was preventable with power management and screen savers. Now I use a screen saver (maybe i could turn the settings from 30 minutes to 5, but come on) and whenever I don’t use the computer I have the top left corner as an action to put the display to sleep so I don’t know how I can do more.

After hearing what they had to say I questioned them that basically my normal day to day use of this computer will cause burn in, since when I am working from home I will use it from 8-10 hours a day and during that time I have IM windows and a twitter feed up on screen all the time, yet according to their assessment that is enough time to burn in the display (and my usage has shown that to be true) and they claimed that to be the case, and their recommendation was for me to minimize windows I am not actively using. Now I thought that was a total cop out answer. Come on. I have personally done the same exact things on many other LCD displays with NO issues. Heck when I go into the office at work I the exact same thing with no issues. Why is it that this is such a major issue but only affecting my 24″ iMac. I have another iMac I use for a media center and I don’t have the same issue with that one. I am still baffled by their stance on this.

The two gentleman I spoke to offered to escalated the issue to their engineering team. I asked them if that was possible and they took my information and are in the processes of doing just that. I will give both people I dealt with credit. They were helpful, and friendly the entire time I spoke with them. After I articulated my issues with what they were saying they offered to escalate and so far are doing so. I just can’t believe that Apples stance is basically I am using the computer wrong.

I am writing this on Monday evening. As of yet I have not heard back from Apple on the escalation. I will follow up tomorrow. Since my visit to the Apple store Saturday I went online and did some research about LCD burn in. Apparently it is not totally uncommon but still seems like a rare thing. I tried something that Apple themselves suggested to counter act the issue and it worked a little but the problem is still there. I also worked from home today and noticed that for a while I could see a bit of burn in from a window I had open for maybe 3 hours that day. No one can tell me that 3 hours of something being on the screen is acceptable for burn in to happen. It just blows my mind that is what I am being told! I await an update from Apple, and will update this post or create a new one when I do!

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Mac OS 10.6

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Today I received my copy of Mac OS 10.6 (I refuse to call any Mac OS by their animal names). Last night I backed up my Media Center iMac using Carbon Copy Cloner so i could have a full copy of my old configuration in the even the install causes problems. I like to wipe my computer before installing any OS. Previously I was never happy with the left over bits of the old OS when upgrading any Windows OS. I know I have read that the Mac OS upgrade is seamless but I am still not 100% convinced. I have used the migration wizard to move my apps and configurations from one mac to another when upgrading but that was between like OS’s (10.4 to 10.4). I do selectively copy the configuration files and “Application Support” files in the Library, but generally I start from scratch. That unfortunately requires a bit of effort.

Since I read that several programs that I rely on are not fully compatible with 10.6 I decided to try out the new OS on my media center machine before trying my main computer. The last time a new Apple OS came out I backed up my macbook using CCC and just booted back to the old OS when I needed applications that wouldn’t work with 10.5. This was a pain, but the price I paid for upgrading the day the software came out. This time around I think more of the programs I use are supported but there are a few key ones that are keeping me from taking the plunge on my main computer.

The install on my media center went well. I have what I believe to be all of the apps I use on it setup. The only glaring exception is the screen saver I like Fliqlo does not seem to work. Other than that everything else seems OK. I wanted to try the iMac I use for a media center first since it doesn’t have anywhere near as many applications on it than my main machine. So far that was a good decision. I am in the process of copying back a few remaining media files but I think the new OS install was a success.

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Let the updateathon begin. Mac OS 10.5 to 10.6. I refuse to refer to them by Apple’s silly names!

Racist Puppets

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Well I told everyone I was going to see racist puppets in Manhattan and for some reason everyone knew I was going to see Avenue Q on broadway. I even told my mom I was going to see a show (she is the broadway show expert on my family and knows I almost never go) and when I told her what I was going to see she said that it was right up my alley, and I would enjoy it. Well with her I left out the racist puppet bit, but she has seen it and knows it was a funny show.

The friend I went with had seen it, but it was good enough to warrant a second time years later. Overall I thought it was a great show. I am not a show person, or a musical fan but this was worth the trip. I think I am off to Amazon to see if I can pick up the sound track because who doesn’t want to listen to hits like the internet is for porn or everyone is a little bit racist! Seriously, I am not kidding. I am going to find this sound track.

Before the show I had lunch at Juniors. It was the first place I have ever been that prepared a Grilled cheese sandwich open. Rather odd, but easily resolved.

Grabbed a drink and hung out afterward. Then it was off to home for dinner and laundry. Now I am writting a bit and off to bed. Thankfully I took tomorrow off so tonight feels more like Saturday night than Sunday night.

The Physical & Digital House Cleaning

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Over the past month or so I have been cleaning up my apartment and tossing out old stuff I don’t want or need anymore. It is part of what I call my digital summer cleaning. I have taken old school and medical records I got from my dad that he kept when I was a kid and scanned them into PDF files. I am amazed at how many report cards I found. I scanned a ton of old letters I kept (for some reason that I cannot recall other than I am a pack rat) from friends over the past 15 years. Many of the letters I received I had written on the computer so I actually have a complete back and forth correspondence. it is kind of cool reading some of them. Once everything was scanned into the computer I shredded the old paper documents to save space. My wall unit has so much more room now!

On top of that I cleaned up a lot of the files I had on my computer. When trying to open some old letters I sent back in the mid 90’s I realized that the latest version of Word (2008 on the Mac or 2007 on Windows) wont open old Office formats. I had read about that in the past but never ran into the issue much. It was a real pain. That got me onto another kick I have had, move all my old documents to modern (ISO standards when possible) file formats. I already have several PFS Professional Write files from early middle and HS from my Commodore 64 that I still have but cannot open. I didn’t want to be screwed with other files. To solve that problem I built a Windows XP Virtual Machine (well used a copy of one I setup with SYSPREP) and installed an old Copy of Office 2000 on it. I then opened up as many old file format items I could find and printed them as PDF’s. For the past few years that has been my format of choice for archiving stuff. For things I want to be able to read/write in the future I have been saving stuff in the new Office XML format. I am not a fan of it, but I still don’t really use Open Office that much.

Additional things I have been doing is taking old CD’s & DVD’s I have used to make periodic backups of my data and ripping them back into my computer as ISO files. I am putting them all on one hard drive. Drives are cheap. I have been buying Western Digital My Passport portable 320gb drives for like $80. Over time the DVD’s start to rot. About 5 years ago I had already consolidated my old CD archives onto two DVD’s. Now I am putting all the DVD ISO’s onto one drive. I will still make DVD backups but I want a copy on a hard drive for safe keeping. Since I am so paranoid about data retention I also am continuing my habit of copying most of my data (well the important stuff) onto a hard drive at the end of each year. I am not sure if i am going to recycle the drive i use each year. So far I have, but since drives are getting cheap I might just start accumulating old archives on drives.

All of this clean up and organization would not have been possible without my Fujitsu Scansnap 300M scanner for my Mac, Adobe Acrobat 9 for Mac, Cute PDF writter for Windows, VMware Fusion, my brother P-Touch label maker, and my paper shredder (with cross-weave). Save and secure digital storage brought to me by my Drobo Firewire 800!

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Friday Off

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I took today and Monday off. I needed to relax and burn some days off after a hectic month. I tried to avoid work but I had to make 2 calls in the afternoon. I also will admit i checked email a few times durring the day. It was hard not to since I know a lot was going on. It took every bit of self control I had to not reply to most of the messages. I am on vacation so I needed to act like it a little.

I slept in, but got woken up by a caller ID unknown person at around 11. That was not fun, but it wasn’t too early so I can’t really complain.

I meet up with Danny by Union Square for dinner and drinks. I called it a night early. I am thankful for that since I started drinking early. I wasn’t too bad, but lets just say I didn’t follow my self imposed 2 drink maximum that I almost never follow! Overall it was a nice relaxing day.