Category

Tech

My interest in technology stems from computer gaming. I am and always will be, a PC Gamer. Trying to play multiplayer games brought me networking experience, new games required better and faster computer components, and so I learned out of necessity what it took to battle the demons of hell. While I was around, I got into AOL, website design, and programming as well. My first crappy job at the KSU airport brought me money to build my own computer from scratch, which is still the computer I use today. Even though every single part has been replaced at some time, its soul lives on.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

My Powerbook for sale :(

I’ve been bad at sitting down and writing on this site.  But this is a tragic time… My 12” Powerbook, my first mac, is up for sale on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230149861707

I told myself as I got my macbook pro that I could offset the price of it if I sold my powerbook.  After all, the macbook pro could do anything the powerbook could do and better right?  And then as I bought my 23” Cinema display I told myself again that it was a damn expensive screen, but it wasnt so bad if I just sold my powerbook.  And now I’m finally doing it.

I feel bad about selling it for some reason.  I always knew that someday I was going to have to do it.  I bought it way back on Oct 15, 03 when I lived in Allyn Hall with Rick.  I remember the day Rick came into work at Resnet talking about the new 3rd gen iPods.  I thought he was crazy talking about an apple product.  But he thought it was cool and I spent the rest of the day looking at the iPod on the apple site.  Finally I bought one on eBay.  I got it and hated using musicmatch jukebox to load mp3s on it.  Absolutely hated it.  But very soon after iTunes for windows came out and life was good.  It worked well.  Really well.  And I started thinking maybe apple wasn’t so bad anymore.  So I started playing with the iMac at Resnet.  I have always been a fan of ultra portable laptops, having a Winbook Fx, Dell Latitude LS400, and a Dell Latitude L400.  The only problems with them of course were no dvd-roms.  This is where apple had the big advantage.  Will had one and I loved playing with it at the animation show and other times.  So I ended up buying the little 12” powerbook.  It wasn’t top of the line even when I bought it, but it was pretty good.  I had basic knowledge of how to get around OS X and I could even install apps, but it was a pretty big dive into the unknown.  I love to play with things and the powerbook gave me a hell of a lot of unknown features to explore.  I love the BSD core and installing fink and even got KDE to run at the same time as OS X.  (X on X).  It was small and I took it everywhere.  Absolutely everywhere.

I guess the reason I hesitate to sell it is because it reminds me so much of my sophomore year and the rest of college.  It is very much an icon of my college life which I now have to let go.  It’s the same feeling I got when I watched the flight team compete without me.  And it’s the same feeling I get every day now that I hardly see anyone anymore.  I suppose it’s time to move on.

I’ll be moving to Dallas before December and don’t get me wrong, nothing makes me happier than moving back in with Alison and starting my airline career, but it’s always sad to leave a very comfortable and enjoyable part of your life.  My 12” Powerbook is very symbolic of that time.

As I get ready to move to Dallas I will be selling and giving away a lot of stuff.  Stay tuned.

oh, and

300th Post!

Friday, April 13, 2007

New Entry!

I haven’t had a whole lot of time and/or interest in this website for a long time.  Lots of things have happened and there’s a lot on the horizon.  Lately I haven’t been feeling too well.  I have been pretty lonely and it’s going to get worse when Alison moves to Texas in a few weeks.  The only people I really talk to face-to-face on a daily basis are my students at the airport.  They are nice and fun and all but they really aren’t my friends per se.

I have lots of stuff coming up in the near future.  Helping Alison move to Texas, Flight Team Nationals (I get to see some of my internship friends again!), and leaving for a monthlong trip to Russia/Finland.  All in the first half of May.

I got my instrument instructor rating on Tuesday and the review board prep for KSU is intense.  I’m studying all the time and damn tired of it.  My liking of flight instruction varies week to week.  I am feeling a little overworked right now and not really liking it.  One of my students is almost done so hopefully that will cut down on my workload a little.

I kept the 23” Apple Cinema Display.  It is big and looks very pretty with my laptop and silver desktop.  It works well but has some quirks.  The power button works when it feels like it, since it’s trying to work with OS X to put the computer to sleep.  I won’t bring it to any LAN as it’s too expensive to risk theft or damage.  I also think it’s too big for my brother’s desk but hopefully I won’t be using it too much longer.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

long time no post

I was really really bad and I bought a 23” Apple Cinema Display.  It is gigantic.  And really expensive.  I don’t know what I think yet.  It is very pretty.  But $......yeah….

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Motorola PEBL Review

I mentioned in the last post that I bought an unlocked Motorola PEBL on ebay and I recieved it on Tuesday. I've had a few days to play around with it, and here are my thoughts:

PEBL, new phone on left, Panasonic x70, old phone on right for comparason:

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Sunday, January 14, 2007

Response to the iPhone

I was really looking forward to this macworld for two reasons: Macbook Pro (or macbook with a damn vid card) 12” and the widescreen iPod.  I’ve been holding off on buying my own iPod for a while because I thought they could get an upgrade or drop in price at macworld.  I’ve mentioned a few times how much I love the ultraportable laptops, with my previous three laptops being 12 inchers.  So this macworld was a bit disappointing for me.  I got the equivalent of a crippled mac mini for your tv and a widescreen ipod nano with a phone and internet viewer built in that won’t even be ready until june.

So what have I done about it?  Well, I wanted a high capacity ipod, so I went out and bought a 5.5G 80GB Black iPod the day of the keynote.  My reasoning was that the iPhone couldn’t hold as much as I wanted, so I might as well just buy it.  I like it a lot.  I like the lcd screen way better than my old 3rd gen, but I still like the third gen’s button placement.  I like the movie player and have some fun stuff on it like my quakecon movie, don hertzfeldt’s dvd, and anime music videos (best part of vid iPod imho).  It’ll store all my game iso files soon too when I reorganize my hard drives.  Zune can’t do that!

My phone is also in dire need of replacement, so I went ahead and bought a new PEBL off ebay.  We’ll see if it does what I want it to (namely just be a phone).  I like the quirky way it opens.  What do I think about the iPhone?  I was definately geeking out during the keynote, but now the Steve-factor has worn off and I’ve read a lot about it.  I was excited about it running OS X, but now they say it won’t run any 3rd party apps or widgets, so meh.  I also hate the cingular only, 2 year plan it comes with, although my t-mobile plan will be free again by june.  I just wish it was an unlocked phone, and if you didn’t have cingular, the extra features like visual voicemail wouldn’t work.  I could live without that.  We’ll see what I want in june.

As far as the laptop, I’m used to the 15” inch and am quite happy with it.  A 12” would be fun, but it’s not necessary and I STILL have the 12” powerbook because I like it so much and am afraid to sell it.  Right now the 12” is plugged into my TV and is performing the job of the apple tv, only it can actually play xvid and other stuff.  Hooray for vnc + tv out!