With my Dad’s birthday and Father’s Day both just around the corner in this part of the year, I wanted to take this time to thank him in advance with this blogpost.

I came across this little blast from the past recently: an article on the Timex/Sinclair 1000! This is what my Dad gave me waaaaay back in the day to get me interested in technology. I must have been 9 or 10 years old at the time, since it was manufactured back in 1981. As I sat there, after hooking up the little computer to the TV, holding the manual in my hands, he told me to read that manual and do everything it says, cover-to-cover. I certainly did just that, my young mind soaking it all in and spitting out code for the machine to use. This thing only had 2k of RAM, which back then was certainly do-able for the average kid-user.

I had a lot of fun learning how to program on that little Timex. Little did I know that my Dad had given me the tools to exceed my future high-school classmates when it came to programming and computer knowledge. Even though I didn’t stick with it for long after high school, I still dive into coding when it suits me, because I have the background. I’m also much more computer-literate than the average user because of what Dad helped to instill in me. Even more so, he taught me the value of, not just education in general, but self-learning and discovery.

Thanks, Dad, with love!

I didn’t mention this over the last several months, but my trusty Fuji A350 camera hasn’t been what it should be. Specifically, the video function acquired some nasty recording malfunction. You may recall that I recorded some videos of the house before and shortly after moving into our home. That was probably the last time it was working properly. When recording, it skips frames every couple of seconds. Sure, it still takes great photos and I have been using it mainly for that purpose, but I also like to do videos of the birds and other neat things.

As per the title, this isn’t the first time I’ve had camera trouble. Back in 2005, I had an older model Fuji A303 that crapped out on me right before a vacation. When I took it to Best Buy for an exchange, they said their policy was to try and get it repaired first. Result: I had to endure a two-month wait before the “unrepairable” verdict was made and I could get my exchange, resulting in the A350.

Today, I finally took it to Best Buy to go through the whole process again. I figured that I should have a fully functional camera, especially for our upcoming Germany trip. This time though, the clerk who handled my trouble ticket said the turnaround time from the repair center is now much faster. I’ll be getting a call in about a week or so. Now I’m hoping that I’ll get it back within a good time frame. Better yet, I wouldn’t mind getting something like one of these jems. Although the Casio cameras seem like a win, I might stay with Fuji since I’m so used to the way those cameras handle. If you’ve been clicking on the links in the post, you’ll see what I mean; they get lots of good user reviews, and they’re well-deserved IMHO because I’ve been very happy with the picture and video quality. Anyways, we’ll see what comes of this.

At least I have my cellphone’s camera, which still takes halfway decent pictures, for what it’s worth. Comes in handy when the need arises!

Cheers!

50 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Windows to Apple’s Mac OS X ~ Chris Pirillo

I highly recommend this article for any Windows user who wonders why more people are switching to the Mac OS. Or is wondering why they themselves should make the switch.

This, by far, is one of the best “switcher” articles I have read lately. The piece is even more grounded than other PC-to-Mac articles for a couple of reasons. One, Chris Pirillo is a noted tech writer and reviewer who has done more than his fair share of working with and troubleshooting the Windows OS. Two, because of this, he has written the article with a completely unbiased standpoint. He’s had the opportunity to slowly slide into the world of the Mac OS over the past year or so and, just recently, he took the plunge and got himself a Mac Pro (the roaring beast of all Macs!).

Enjoy!

This year was better for the family get-togethers than last year was. Last Christmas, more than half of the family got really sick from one of the earlier family gatherings. They encouraged us to stay home and keep well. Well, this year we definitely made up for that, at least on Christine’s side. The downside to all this is that I couldn’t see anyone on my side of the family. I’m thankful for phone conversations, but I do miss everyone that I couldn’t see this year. Also, I’m thankful that this year’s holiday didn’t have any bad surprises (ie. deaths) to mar future memories. This seems to happen to more families than I care to think about. All in all, I’m just thankful, and that is one of the main points of the holiday, as it is a gift in itself.

Now that I’ve said that, it’s time to bring up the gift bag so I can talk about the cool stuff I received! Just to let you all know, the order that I’m going in does not dictate most favorite or anything like that.

First, I got a neat little toy called a Rubik’s Revolution. I say “toy”, instead of “puzzle”, because that’s really what it is. At first glance, it looks like a super-sized Rubik’s Cube, but the centers are hollowed out and have lights in them. Plus, the layers really don’t move. What is cool about it is that it is an electronic game device with six games built-in. Most of these games are themed on turning off multicolored lights within a time limit. However one game, “Pattern Panic” is fashioned like the classic Simon game where you repeat a growing pattern from memory. Another game, “Code Cracker”, has the player figure out a hidden pattern in the fewest turns possible. While this is a fun little thing, I only have two small caveats about it. One, you can reduce the volume, but there’s no way to mute it. For that reason, it stays downstairs per the wife. Two, I don’t like the fact that Rubik’s name is being used for a mere toy when that name has been synonymous with brain-busting puzzles. Still, I’ll be enjoying it for a long while.

Next, I was given an awesome box set of the second season of Doctor Who :D. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to have this, and it’s also a gift for both me and Christine because she loves the show, too. We have seen some of the episodes on it, but not all of them, so we’re going to have a fun time watching the unknown ones. The extras on some of the discs, I can tell, are going to be awesome. I’ve already watched the out-takes, because I really love blooper reels. There’s just something about watching your favorite actors flubbing up lines or breaking out in lunacy. Maybe after we watch all the episodes, I’ll make some episode reviews.

Also of note, I was given a CD of Lunatica’s “Fables & Dreams”. I just recently heard a few songs of theirs and I got hooked on their smoother form of Symphonic Metal. So far, the whole CD is just great and I’ll do a review of it on this site soon. Speaking of new music, we just received a late-arrival gift today for Christine: Din Fiv’s “Escape To Reality”.

We also got the usual assortment of clothing and gift cards, which are equally appreciated. However, I figured that the above mentioned items were most interesting and worth talking about in detail. I will say that the only bad thing about the DVD box set is that I’ll be tempted to get the other two season box sets later this coming year!

Cheers!

Just when I thought that 320 GB hard drive was big enough for Time Machine backups and my iTunes library, I find out that both used up nearly 120 GB’s of the space! Wow!

You just never know how much music, movies and pictures you actually have until you’re looking at the raw numbers. 16 GB of audio, 14 GB of movies and vid clips, 10 GB (roughly) of ST:Voyager and Doctor Who episodes (and that’s not including the episodes that TM backed up that aren’t converted for iTunes/iPod use!) and 2 GB of pictures. All the other GB’s include vidcasts that I made, including the raw data (iMovie files can be huge suckers!) and other PhotoShop and media projects.

Maybe I should have gotten that 500 gig drive after all!