So I recently got a new MacBook Pro to replace my ailing one which gave me the rare opportunity to compare my late 2008 (the first unibody MBP) with the new 2010 model.

The main difference between the two models are the CPUs, mine has the Intel 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo and the new one has the new Intel 2.66GHz Core i7. I also opted for the new High-res anti-glare screen over the regular glossy one I have now. (Back then, it wasn’t even an option to chose from).

Cracking the box open, you still get the same sleek packaging, with the little “Designed by Apple in California” label, the documentation and cables in the tray, etc… Why mess with a great package design, right? Read the rest of this entry »

Currently I store all my precious data on an old computer turned server which has worked great for a bunch of years now but it’s time for an upgrade. The 150GB hard drive is filled up and having all my important stuff on 1 hard drive is making me pretty nervous. So I picked up a Thecus N5200B, also known as the N5200 Pro which sports dual gigabit LAN connections, 5 SATA II hot swappable drive bays, and as far as I know, the only consumer NAS that supports RAID 6. Full specifications can be found on the Thecus website.

If you’re like me and like shiny things and blinky lights, this unit is definitely for you! Read on for my initial thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »

Since I last posted on here. Been busy with all kinds of madness. One of which includes a new server and business. As of late yesterday, our new server went into the co-location and my blog is now running on a proper connection! No more hokey old-computer-turned-server on Shaw cable!

We’re still getting settled in and everything, but it’s all pretty exciting stuff!

Stay tuned for more great things!

Anyone who’s not been hiding under a rock since January will have heard about the iPhone and its release just a few days ago on the 29th of June. And within these few days, the iPhone has been dissected, had activation problems, and even had its root password cracked (which is useless as far as we know right now). While we Canadians are still without access to the iPhone for another year, in the late fall, we may be lucky enough to get the next gen iPhone after everyone else has had a chance to work out the bugs for us .

Some common complaints about the iPhone are it’s lack of a video recording function, no memory card expansion, non-user serviceable battery, 64-bit Windows and Vista not supported, and the CPU being a little underpowered when browsing or downloading long emails possibly in conjunction with a lack of available system memory too. One comment I got from a friend of mine when he was in the US playing with an iPhone at the Apple store was, as he said it, “[it] didn’t seem to work right unless I held it upright at an unnatural angle. The flipping back and forth between portrait and landscape isn’t quite as smooth as I’d have expected.”
AnandTech has a pretty extensive review of the iPhone for anyone who’s been trying to decide whether or not to buy one so I’d recommend you’d check that out first. Obviously the biggest selling point to the Apple iPhone is its great looks and “groundbreaking” user interface both of which just makes anyone who sees it go “ooooohhhh.. aaaahhhh…”

I’d be very interested to hear from anyone who’s purchased an iPhone to let us know what their real life experiences are with it.

So I’ve taken on another project and this time I’ve already gotten started

I’m working on converting an old Sony VAIO PCG-FX220 into a picture frame I can hang on the wall to display my photos. The main idea being that it’ll run off WiFi and should be light enough to hang safely on the wall. I’ve started documenting my progress and you can find the link here, or on the top nav of the blog.

If you have any questions or ideas along the way, feel free to post a comment and I will do my best to answer them for you.

Right now, the plan is to install Windows XP on it, and use Slickr to show the images. I’ll probably set up a share on the network and have Slickr read off that so I can easily add and remove photos as I go. Another idea which I got from another site was to have a startup script to map a drive to the network and run another script that I can customize which would allow me easier control of the frame.

The question on my mind right now is how I want to mat the frame. Do I keep the full 15″ at 4:3 or should I bring it down a little to 5:4 (Do I have my aspect ratios right?) which is where all my photos will be sized at?

When I was faced with the potential loss of a bunch of photos from a concert I attended, I looked into how to recover photos from a formatted or corrupted memory card. Since it was commonly asked question on my favorite photography forum, I decided to do a little write up for future users encountering such a problem. Originally it was to be posted to the forum, but I figured it might be more useful to others if I made it available on my blog instead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Who says games don’t have anything good to teach us? John August, a screenwriter with a number of movies to his name such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and Charlie’s Angels, has Seven things that World of Warcraft has taught him which can be applied to the real world.

With just one week left to get your Holiday shopping completed, I just want to wish all of you and your families a safe and very happy holiday!