ilovecode

Everyone and their Moms (literally) just rave about a Mac and a lot of the people who rave about it have as much experience with it as I do. I can admit that yes, I would like to have one, but more just to see why the hell people won’t shut up about it. I am told at least once a week that I should own a Mac and I always ask why and most people don’t really have a good reason other than:

• They’re Sexy - You’re right, they are. But I’m not about to put down at least $1500 on something because it’s sexy. Plus I think my laptop is sexy. I don’t typically upgrade to the newest models simply because of appearance. There needs to be some functional requirement that is also met to get me to consider upgrading. Think of all of the other sexy gadgets I could get for that price tag!
• All of the cool guys have one - Yes, that is a real reason I have been told. News flash…I’m not cool.
• Macs are better than PCs - This is completely subjective and as of now, I can’t see how they are better, but again, read my disclaimer.

So, to all of you fanboys who always tell me to get a Mac (even my dad asked me why I don’t own a Mac) here are my reason for NOT owning a Mac:

• I don’t need one - Really, I don’t. The only time I really felt like I had a functional need for one is because I develop websites and I like to ensure the sites look right in all of the major browsers, to include Safari. But I got around this by using tools like BrowserCam which lets me remotely login to a computer to see how a site looks in whatever OS and browser I want. Also, Safari is now available for Windows so it can give me a pretty good idea if I don’t want to fire up browsercam.
• I don’t have the time for one - Being that I’m a Mac n00b, there would be a definite learning curve and I don’t have time to sit around and play with it just to get things how I want them.
• I like Windows - You heard it right folks. I. Like. Windows. I know a lot of my friends and peers are M$ haters but I’m not. The software MS creates works for me and I’m happy with. If I am happy with something, I don’t feel the urge to change things up.
• I like my software - I have a set of software that I use for development and day to day office management. I paid for the licenses and I don’t really have the desire to pay for anything for the Mac when I’m happy with what I have.
• It’s expensive - I can get a pretty kick-ass desktop and monitor for under $1k and I already own all of the software I need so it would be free to port over. Mac’s are pricey and on top of the equipment costs, I would have to pay for the software costs. No thanks. iDontThinkSo.

If you want to get me a Mac, I will take one. I will play with it and it will sit on my desk (there’s even room) and I will think it’s pretty, but, there is no way in hell I am paying for one. One friend said on twitter the other day he saved $100 off a Mac (don’t know if it was a macbook or iMac). Saving $100 is not a deal. I am the queen of deals and saving $100 off of the original price is nothing to write home about. Try saving $500 off a regularly priced $1200 computer. That’s a deal! Ok, I’m starting to rant so let me post some questions to you:

1. If you own a Mac, can you give me a GOOD reason why I should try one and why it’s worth the money?
2. If you don’t own a Mac, what are some of YOUR reasons for not trying it out?

Flame on!

About six weeks ago I purchased a TomTom GO 910 GPS. Most people over here in Belgium seem to have GPSs , but I have fought off buying one for a couple of reasons:

1. Lack of money to put towards a GPS.
2. I wanted to learn my way around. When I talked to people here I would reference a place and they had no clue where it was, even though they had been there 10 times because they simply did what the GPS told them and never bothered to really get situated with the area themselves. I wanted to make sure I knew how to get around here.

So what prompted me to buy one? Well, there are a few things really. In the part of the country I live in, it is only required that a street sign be posted once on the street and it is usually on the side of someone’s house. So the street could be 5 miles along, with 10 intersections and as long as a street sign is somewhere on the street; then that is fine…according to them! It makes it very hard to figure out what street you are on and when you are following directions and looking for a streetname.. it is a major PITA.

After months and months of research and comparison shopping (yes I’m THAT person), I decided the time had come to buy one. I wanted to start taking road trips around Europe and make the most of my time here as it is limited! The nice thing about the 910 is it is preloaded with maps of the US and Europe. So when we do go back to the states, we can actually use it. My only experience with GPS systems is one of the Garmin eTrex handhelds for backwoods hiking and camping. So seeing this thing was pretty cool. It mounts on my windshield with a suction cup that so far seems to work fine. What’s really cool about it is it has a 20 GB hard drive and 12gb is dedicated to MOI! I usually take my iPod nano in my car with an FM Transmitter. So now I have 12 GB to work with. Excellent. I can even movies or pictures on it if I want; although that would be a little bit distracting. I have no loaded it up with my favorite tunes yet as I don’t have an FM transmitter for it. it comes with a wire that I can apparently plug into my car’s audio system somewhere, but after 5 minutes of looking I gave up. I decided to just buy the mount with an FM transmitter built in.

I got to try it out last week when I flew to Austria. When we landed in Salzburg we rented a car and headed into the bavarian alps. Alot of the roads are very small backroad mountain roads and it was good at identifying those and letting us avoid them if we wanted to…we didn’t! Those are usually the roads with the best views. I’m very happy with the GPS so far. It talks to me and tells me where to go. I can even choose if I want to hear a man’s voice or a woman’s voice. I’ve always enjoyed the sound of british accents so i am listening to Simon from the UK tell me what to do. It could get interesting

When I get bored with Simon, I can change to Kate just to change things up! I may just go french and choose Bernard or Juliette. That will show me if my French lessons are paying off or not. If I feel like I’m letting the word “dude” slip from my casual vocabulary too much, I can download Bodie..dude.

All in all, i like it. I can’t wait to get my music on it and see how that goes.

What happened to my old one? I jumped on it. Yes, I’m serious. No, it wasn’t intentional. Things like this only happen to me. A tree fell down in my yard today and broke a sewer line after my heat went out and its freezing. Things like this only happen to me.

Anyway, back to my beauty. I ordered it the day after I used mine for a trampoline. I had it shipped to my friend first who so generously configured everything for me (loaded some software–legal copies even– and removed all the crap that comes on it) and then shipped it my way. I got it two days ago and this thing rocks. Here are the specs:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory
80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

The biggest factor for me was the screen and video card. My old laptop had a resolution of 1900×1280 which I just LOVED. The real estate was amazing. I wanted something similar so I had to really look for that.

I’m very happy with it and im sure it will last me a few years!

Oh my… no one wants that! I did just stumble on this really cool gadget that I’m afraid I will have to subject my family and friends to. May I present the iKaraoke.

It claims to :

iKaraoke’s all-in-one microphone/processor isolates the lead vocal track, then fades it, giving your voice room to make that favorite tune yours.

I don’t think I’ll even have to be intoxicated to use this.

I have a list of things that I REALLY REALLY want but won’t spend the money on……yet! Hopefully one day soon!

1. Wii
   I can’t quit drooling over this as I am a huge Nintendo nerd. I just really want this and can’t make a coherent enough statement to express how much. I need to play Zelda on the Wii. You see, I’ve had this recurring dream where Link and i get married and… well, I won’t go there.
2. Sonus Sound System
   Wirelessly streaming music throughout my house sounds like a dream come true. I’m so sick of wires and this nice setup has received great reviews. Sounds good to me!

3. I really need a new desktop AND a laptop. My desktop is about 4 years old now; oh.. and I blew the power source. I will get a new source and hopefully that will work until I get a new one. As far as a laptop, I have had mine for 2 years now, but I use it ALL of the time and I think it’s just taking its toll. My big requirement is that the resolution on the laptop be high. Right now i have 1900×1280 and I LOVE IT. It would be so hard to give that up.
4. Pacific Digital MemoryFrame. This is just cool.