New iMacs Available Now

I actually love how Apple is starting to do their new product launches. There is always small talk whenever they are going to launch something but it generally is not enough time to get a whole lot of steam built up. It is really good from their standpoint because it does not give the critics a whole lot of time, but it also doesn’t give a consumer that isn’t really in the Apple loop less time for research as well.

The main things are just a ramp-up of CPU speeds and graphics but anytime more hardware for the same price happens, it’s a good thing. The bad thing: Yet one more thing to start budgeting for.

Coming This Week…….

Just a quick post about some of the stuff I’m working on for this week:

• Photoshop Tutorials - I am a programmer first, so it took me a while to really get a handle on Adobe Photoshop, so I’m starting to work on some Photoshop tutorials to help everyone.
• Wordpress Theme Design - I will also have some tutorials on designing your own Wordpress theme

Let me know about anything else you would like to see.

The World’s Greatest Time Waster - Virtual Apple 2

Now that I am almost positive that my next computer will be an Apple Macbook Pro, I have been thinking about how most of my generation grew up with Apple IIe computers at school. I know this site has been around a while, but for those who don’t know about it, make sure you visit it on a day off because you will sit there for hours.

It’s called Virtual Apple and has a massive selection of old IIe games you can play right in your browser. Yes, Oregon Trail is one of them. I really shouldn’t have posted this on a Friday, because I am sure I just killed our collective productivity.

Seriously, I apologize.

I’m going to get back to playing Karateka now.

What’s everyone’s favorite old Apple II games?

Hydrocephalus - We need your help!

One of the main turning points in my was the birth of my first son, Ethan, in 2003. He came a week early, but was generally in good health. He has turned into an amazing young man who I am infinitely proud of, and I love him more than anything.

During his four month checkup, his pediatrician noticed his head size had quickly jumped over the curve of where it should be. To make a long story short, he was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, which is basically “water on the brain”. In March 2004, he had a shunt implanted into his brain. The shunt takes the excess cerebrospinal fluid out of the brain and takes it down a tube, where it is safely flushed out with waste. He did fantastic, and is in great health now.

Hydrocephalus is usually a smaller byproduct of the much more dangerous condition of spina bifida. Most people that have spina bifida have hydrocephalus. Very few kids just have hydrocephalus. Ethan is a very lucky young man. He will be starting kindergarten in the fall due to his hard work, fantastic people helping him, and the support of friends and family.

However, as a father of a child with hydrocephalus, we need help. We need you to help push hydrocephalus into the public consciousness. Please visit some of these links and do something. Spread the word. Donate time, money, anything.

If you have any questions, contact me.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hydrocephalus/detail_hydrocephalus.htm

Hydrocephalus Association

Hydrocephalus

Cobian Backup 9 Review

As I went to check up at the homepage for a backup program I have used for ages, the author had recently updated it to a new version. I must be psychic.

Anyway, Cobian Backup 9 is a program you really should here a lot more about. It is possibly one of the most important programs I have installed. I know plenty of people who have no backup plan at all. Especially in this day and age, you need to have a backup plan in place. If you do not already have a good system in place, download and try this software.

Cobian Backup 9 does not have the most intuitive interface for the beginner, yet it is not confusing. More experienced uses will love that despite having loads of options, you can find what you need very quickly. You can drag and drop the folders you would like to backup right into the main window.

You can save to other available resources on your computer or you can set it to upload to an FTP server. Cobian Backup 9 can also email you when I successful backup is ran.

One other point which will only apply to all of you programmers out there: Cobian Backup 9 is not an open-source program; however the previous version of the program is available as open-source.

The best part about this great program is that it is free. It is better than a lot of other commercially available solutions. If you find the program helpful, consider donating to the author.

Cobian Backup 9

Digsby - The Trillian killer?

I have always tried to shy away from instant messenger systems as they always turned into a huge time-sink for me. As soon as I would get into something, someone would always be messaging me with some lame and totally knock me off track. I have since become a rather organized person and have finally realized I need to use one no matter what. The main problem with this situation is that everyone uses a different service.

Multi network messengers are nothing new. Trillian has been the main one to use on Windows XP, OS X has Adium, and Linux has Pidgin. However, Digsby has some master strokes. It has one combined buddy list for AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber networks. It will also allow you to get notified of Hotmail, Gmail, Yahool, AOL/AIM , IMAP, and POP mail messages. You can also keep tabs on your MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.

The negatives of such a handy program? The only real major beef I have with Digsby is a voracious appetite for RAM. I have 1.5 gigabytes of RAM on my main machine running Windows XP. Typical RAM usage is around 75-80 megabytes of RAM when the program is open but idle. I always have the RAM to spare, but I think it really could be optimized. The other side of that is I am sure having all the instant messengers it replaces would use even more RAM, as well as not having Digsby’s relatively uncluttered interface.

The tide is turning on Microsoft

I was reading an interesting article over at Techcrunch about Microsoft’s launch of LiveMesh. In a nutshell, LiveMesh will bring even better setup for an online virtual desktop and easier file sharing between computers and devices. As we move to a lot of “cloud” computing applications, it’s good to see Microsoft not behind the curve on this one. However, I still have to take issue with one thing brought up.

I understand why this will only allow you to sync devices that run Windows clients. However, especially with Microsoft Vista’s lukewarm (to put it nicely) reception, a lot more people are looking at Apple’s OS X and even Linux. They can’t just support Windows anymore. I plan to buy an Apple Macbook Pro next, and I already use Ubuntu Linux 8.04 at home and professionally a good deal. I will still have to deal with Windows as my wife will not leave Windows, so chances are I will have all 3 operating systems running just at my home.

I will give credit where credit is due, and Windows XP is a fantastic operating system. Too bad I will never only use Windows again after XP is finally dead.

Twitter Updates for 2008-04-21

• working on edited a theme for blackleafmedia.com #
• now designing a new theme for nessa #
• doing some more work to get the web design firm up and running! #
• running some errands and then figuring out why Dreamhost.com sucks so bad #

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Using RSS to build a Personal Start Page

RSS is often a confusing topic for a lot of people. You might have seen icons such as the icon you see pictured here. The link associated with that icon is called a feed. Any major web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer can then use these to pull information to your browser.

Let’s say that you are using Firefox (hopefully you are, but that is a different topic for a different day). Click on an RSS icon you come across. Something like the following will pop-up:

Using the dropdown list, you can choose a few different ways to use this feed. Choosing “Live Bookmarks” will pull it into Firefox. You will probably also see Google and Yahoo (if you are using Firefox) on the list. If you use an iGoogle start page, you can choose Google and it will let you add it to your iGoogle page. Now, when you visit your page, any updates to that feed will automatically appear as soon as that feed is updated!

I use RSS to use as a scanning tool; when I do my morning routine I just look over my updated feeds so I don’t have to actually visit a particular website to see if it is updated. I use a website called Netvibes as my start page.

You can create multiple tabs for different topics and even listen to podcasts without leaving Netvibes! You can add RSS feeds to it by clicking on “Add Content” in the left hand side and adding an RSS feed address. Look for a closer look into Netvibes soon. There are also other home page sites like this, such as an iGoogle page as mentioned before or Pageflakes.

Upcoming Things to Look For

One of the many things I have on my plate right now is that I am always learning. One of the main things that really helps people learn is teaching. Being a tech guy, people are always coming to me for advice or to ask me a question about computers and other “tech” topics.

So one thing that I know my readers will enjoy is helping them make sense of all that is going on in tech. I will be covering a bunch of different topics I know a lot of people might have trouble with. I will also take suggestions as well as having some regulars here post their own topics. So visit the Contact page and send in suggestions!