Here’s a quick summary of what’s gone on in my life:
I might go in to detail on some of those later. Anyways, what I came to post follows:
I’ve been getting in to a few blogs recently, and this one I just discovered today. All I’ve read so far is interesting and well written, here’s a few favorites in no particular order…
http://www.violentacres.com/archives/319/just-say-no-to-bastard-children
http://www.violentacres.com/archives/59/two-phrases-that-destroyed-american-culture
http://www.violentacres.com/archives/48/four-rookie-mistakes-people-make-that-keep-them-poor
http://www.violentacres.com/archives/279/a-pedophile-lurking-behind-every-dark-corner
edited for linkification…stupid wordpress, what else does it think i might want when I post a URL?
]]>For the last few years I’ve had laptops so I can watch movies and play games on the go, but this time around I also have an internet-enabled cell phone, which has led to amazing time killing. Flash games, discussion forums, and news sites are all readily available. If I’m near a major city the service is even fast enough that I can watch Youtube videos and the like. As I type this message, we’re on I-70 heading East and closing in on Indianapolis (I think). The sign we just passed said 169 miles to Columbus.
If you travel often as a passenger and have a laptop, a mobile internet connection is possibly one of the best things you can have in my opinion. Depending on the provider they can be had for as little as $10/mo for unlimited access, I pay a little over $50/mo for high-speed unlimited access from AT&T. That’s probably a bit too steep for the casual user, but for me it’s worth it since I also use that connection to work from on a regular basis.
]]>As I was reading this, I began to think about what the real value of a digital music purchase is and whether the current pricing model makes sense, so I looked up the numbers. What follows are my results.
]]>My question then became whether it would make sense from a financial perspective to pay extra for larger hard drives which you could then use less of, thus burning less power.
]]>As if to add insult to injury, I couldn’t find my phone about an hour ago. Fast forward to just a few minutes ago when I went to check on my laundry. As you’ve probably guessed, I heard a nice thumping inside the dryer which was my T610 flopping around. At this point it appears to be dead, bit I’m going to let it dry overnight before condemning it.
The worst thing is I can’t even fathom how it ended up in there. I was making calls all morning, I’ve been wearing the same shorts all day with the exception of a food run where I left the phone behind, and I could have sworn I called someone while the washing machine was running.
Oh well, the T610 was nearing the end of its useful life anyways, the SIM card retention issues I had before are back and not as easily fixable as last time. It just hurts to have to buy a new phone when I’ve already got the upcoming bills of re-registering and repairing the Crown Vic to make it legal again.
]]>http://cars.seanharlow.info/v/1995tbird/crash/
Also, I put the Crown Vic up for sale on eBay. Unfortunately with the T-Bird possibly totaled, I might have to pull the auction and fix it up to be my daily driver once more.
We’ll see.
]]>I’m also trying out a new template which I really like. I think I’ll keep it.
]]>All that and a 2GB iPod for $1049 using the student purchase program. I financed it through Apple Credit, which was a bit of a hassle (more on that some other time), but it allowed me to get this nice notebook for $25 a month rather than forking over $1000 in one shot.
As a two time previous Mac owner, I’m not going to go in to detail about the “switching” process, since I alreay had it planned out and most of my applications were available for Mac anyways.
The hardware that makes up the MacBook is leaps and bounds above the previous iBook models. Coworkers of mine have both second-generation G3 and G4 iBooks, and neither hold a candle to this. It feels like a quality piece of hardware, on par with an IBM Thinkpad or upper-level Dell. The Core Duo is also an amazing chip. When comparing pure CPU performance, this notebook can hold its own against my 2GHz AMD Athlon X2 desktop, though the faster hard drives and quadrupled RAM give the desktop the advantage in all real-world situations.
The unusual keyboard and glossy screen were concerns of mine before purchase, but at this point I can say that neither have turned out to be real problems in day to day use. I’m sure I’ll find some situation where the glossy screen gets annoying, but honestly none of my past notebooks have been very usable outdoors either.
Right now, the only upgrade I an certain to do to this machine is maxing out the RAM to 2GB. Like all modern OSes, OS X loves memory, and 512MB just isn’t enough. It is my opinion that even the lowest of low end computers should have at least 1GB nowadays, and 2GB is a starting point for enthusiast machines (gamers, multimedia, etc.). I am considering a hard drive upgrade, but it seems more likely that I will just upgrade the drive in my desktop and place the old one in a Firewire enclosure to use as an overgrown floppy disk and backup medium for all my computers.
]]>Here’s the info:
The car has year-old tires, has been maintained at the recommended intervals, and runs fairly well. It has leather seats from a Grand Marquis and a CD playing head unit (not installed). This car will do triple digit speeds comfortably if one is so inclined.
With the good, there’s always the bad. It’s dripping coolant from some unknown place, it burns oil, and there’s a hole in the exhaust. The paint isn’t great and there’s rust in the fenders. There are also some stains on the carpet and a major crack in the dash cover.
Regardless of this, if the coolant and oil levels are checked and topped off every week or two, it runs fine. I used it as my daily driver right up until I got my Thunderbird and it never left me stranded or gave me any real trouble.
Pics can be found at http://cars.seanharlow.info
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