I thought I'm chime in with my thoughts and feelings so far now that it's been a few days without a PC. First, I'm definitely really happy with my purchase. For the most part everything has just worked, and I haven't had to mess with very many things so far. Sometimes I lament not having more control over cetain elements (for example, trying to figure out which WiFi connection to use in a public space isn't exactly obvious -- in Windows at least you can see signal strength and public/private all at once. I haven't figured out how to see all that on the Mac). The windowing manager on Mac OS X ...

As i mentioned in one of my previous posts, tonight I went down to Future Shop and picked up a new MacBook Pro. Before I detail what the buying experience was like, I'm going to talk a bit about me. I do stupid things. Quite often actually. And maybe Forest Gump would say it's because I actually am stupid, but I think it's mainly because I'm absent minded from time to time. One good example is the day I went to work with my short not only on backwards, but also on inside out. It didn't really have any distinguishing features on it, and after three weeks of late nights working on my master's thesis, ...

When I started redoing my blog about a month ago, I thought it would be cool to add an area where somebody could SMS me if they wanted. That way, if you were on my blog and you wanted to get a hold of me quickly, you could. For some reason, it really did seem like a good idea at the time. However last night, somebody from Spain decided it would be a good idea to SMS me and let me know that my plugin wasn't working for him. Unfortunately for me, it was about 4am in the morning, and my cell phone was about 4 inches from my head. So, I woke up wondering what in the hell was going on, only to see ...

Most of you that know me have undoubtedly seem me cursing at my computer furiously this past week or punching my laptop from time to time. The reason for this sudden change in behaviour stems from my recent installation of Windows Vista. Somehow, that whole process turned a pretty decent laptop into something completely unusable. So today, while trying to edit some photos at Northern Voice, I realized that I just couldn't go on using my laptop the way it was. Everything was really slow and most applications crashed from time to time (especially Photoshop). Since I'm about to leave on vacation, ...

Most of you that know me have undoubtedly seem me cursing at my computer furiously this past week or punching my laptop from time to time. The reason for this sudden change in behaviour stems from my recent installation of Windows Vista. Somehow, that whole process turned a pretty decent laptop into something completely unusable. So today, while trying to edit some photos at Northern Voice, I realized that I just couldn't go on using my laptop the way it was. Everything was really slow and most applications crashed from time to time (especially Photoshop). Since I'm about to leave on vacation, ...

Canon has noticeably lagged in releasing new DSLRS, especially on the higher end versions. To their credit, they did a big upgrade to the Digital Rebel line earlier this year with the Rebel XTi. This is a great camera that improves on a few areas that the 20D/30D had, even though it's considered part of their consumer lineup. Some of the nicest changes in my mind for the XTi are: The ability to view the ISO in the viewfinder. On the 20D, you have to hunt for it Larger LCD screen over the 20D Canon sensor cleaning system I consider the last one very important. I'm very careful when I change ...

I'm officially going to blog about my frustration with Windows Vista so far. If you were following last week, I decided (stupidly) that I would upgrade my laptop from windows XP to windows Vista. First, the whole upgrade procedure took on the order of four hours, and it wasn't exact smooth all the time. The progress meters were hopelessly broken, and the pre-check that it does to make sure you can actually install vista properly got it wrong. One thing that bothers me right away is that you can no longer install Vista on the same partition as another OS. I'm not really sure why this is, because ...

So, I was multitasking at work today, installing Windows Vista on my laptop, and doing some work on my desktop machine. I thought the upgrade process would be simple, but instead it was a huge headache. First, Windows Vista Installer analyzed my whole machine and told me I was good to go. Then, I start installing it and it goes "wait a sec, just joking --- you gotta remove all this software first before you can install Vista." So, I uninstall Nero, my anti-virus program and a DVD RAM drive thing that I've never used. Install, take 2. The next part of the process is rather uneventful, ...

So, I was multitasking at work today, installing Windows Vista on my laptop, and doing some work on my desktop machine. I thought the upgrade process would be simple, but instead it was a huge headache. First, Windows Vista Installer analyzed my whole machine and told me I was good to go. Then, I start installing it and it goes "wait a sec, just joking --- you gotta remove all this software first before you can install Vista." So, I uninstall Nero, my anti-virus program and a DVD RAM drive thing that I've never used. Install, take 2. The next part of the process is rather uneventful, ...

I finally cleaned up the main plugin for this website enough that I'm ready to release it to whoever wants to test it out. You can read about it and download it from the Crossroads Page. Basically all the flickr pieces on this website are handled by that plugin, so if you like what you see on this website, then feel free to test it on yours. I still have a ton of work to do on it, mainly in the speed optimization area, but I figured it's good enough now for some people to test out. Enjoy. ...

Ok guys. I'm tossing the gauntlet down. If you haven't been following recent events, a few days ago a major report on global warming came out that had some of the strongest language in it to date. The group of climate experts released a 21-page report for policy makers worldwide that indicates with more than a 90 percent accuracy that rising atmospheric temperatures and increased greenhouse gases are linked, and the "most likely" cause of global warming, suggesting that humans have caused the problem. [...] The report found that it was "more likely than not" that manmade greenhouse ...

I was doing a little last minute reading before going to bed, and stumbled upon this article. Apparently a parking garage in New York city will be operated by a computer. You simply drive your car onto a pallet, walk away, and it will be parked. Or maybe dropped. Here's a good quote: Built in 2002 across the river in Hoboken, N.J., with 314 spaces for monthly rentals only, the garage dropped an unoccupied Cadillac Deville six floors in 2004 and a Jeep four stories the following year. Wow, where do I sign up? Luckily they were unoccupied, but still. Imagine coming back to pick your car up after ...

That's right. Telus, one of Canada's largest phone companies, has decided that in order to generate more money, they are going to start selling porn to mobile customers. Here's a great quote: A huge amount of that is adult programming, and we don't seem to have concerns about our ability to block children from accessing that," he said. "Frankly, their mobile screen is probably more private than aTV or computer screen. They can keep it in their pocket. A mobile screen is more private that a TV or computer screen? Is he joking? Think of all the places you have your cell phone with you ...

I just got back from quickly picking up my fixed Canon SD630 camera. Apparently the warp-core phase-inverter was out of alignment, so I had to get that readjusted to the tune of $160. Seriously, those guys can turn any small problem into a huge one that can cost lots of money. I was originally told the shutter door was broken, which seemed somewhat reasonable (I pictured a really small, weak hinge breaking). However, now it's more along the lines of the "shutter solenoid ring was hosed." How does a shutter solenoid ring break? Better question, what the hell is a shutter solenoid ring ...

It's sort of funny, because Jason and I were talking about this big bitch tonight. Apparently it's going to be making a brief appearance in Vancouver sometime in November. It truly is an engineering marvel, but I really don't want to go on it. Why not? Well, firstly, it's 590 tons of reinforced plastic travelling at mach 0.85. Doesn't scare you? How about the fact that during the initial stress test of the new plane, the wings snapped in half. Maybe it will be safe, but considering that nobody really understands the failure modes of composite materials, and that at least one airplane has broken ...

"BT has stepped up the battle in the increasingly competitive broadband market by unveiling its new Total package offering interactive TV, videophoning and other integrated home media services." "The new services are being described as the biggest shake-up in communications since Alexander Graham Bell made the first landline call in 1876. " Yet another major carrier is adopting VoIP as part of their mandatory service offering. Read about it here ...