Input to Output

We're moving!

2008-03-29T20:17:00.002-04:00

You heard it first here! My blog has moved to http://i2oblog.com. I have migrated most content from this blog to the new location so as far as data goes, the transition should be fairly seamless. The site should be pretty well cleaned up at this point. I have a couple minor changes to make over the next couple days before I expand available content. Please take a look around and let me know if you have questions or comments!

Changes coming!

2008-03-29T16:37:00.001-04:00

Big news for the blog, hopefully later this evening.

Stay tuned!

Making Mahalo!

2008-03-26T17:43:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! Check out Mahalo.com We are working with Jason Calacanis right now on building an awesome new page for home theater PCs! Get in on the action by going to Jason's channel on ustream.tv. Anyone can help with this! Install Mahalo Follow and you can help hands on in building spam free search results!

Easter 2.0

2008-03-23T22:07:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Justine for the fun new video below! This is the most creative use of Easter eggs I have ever seen! Each egg is graced with a Web 2.0 logo. Enjoy!

Thanks TSA!

2008-03-23T19:23:00.004-04:00

I'm sure you've all been reading the TSA blog frequently. ;-) I just wanted to talk a little bit about just how helpful it is! *sigh*

As you may have heard, the new MacBook Air has caused some problems for less tech savvy TSOs at airports. "Blogger Bob" was nice enough to post a video on the TSA web site explaining their findings on the laptop. Now, sorry to all those Mac users out there, but the video about the MacBook Air is only available in Windows Media format! This has obviously been thought out extensively. Now after you all go out and buy a Windows system so you can watch this, or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3qZcmXFkQ0, you'll be able to see their findings. I think the following insightful comment really sums this whole thing up: "After looking at it, it is much thinner than your typical laptop."

Thanks Blogger Bob!

I claim this blog:

2008-03-22T10:45:00.001-04:00

On Technorati! Technorati Profile

To Wordpress, or not to Wordpress...

2008-03-21T16:35:00.002-04:00

Does anyone reading this have any experience with Wordpress? If so what are your thoughts about it? I am considering migrating my blog to a Wordpress site but I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger. I know a lot of major tech bloggers use it. Advice??

I have to PAY for warranty repair!?

2008-02-14T18:40:00.002-05:00

Come on Apple... You have to be kidding.

I have a iPod Nano. I resisted for a long time but finally got one last year. I must admit I got hooked. I took it everywhere and really did enjoy the experience, until it died. It had been freezing occasionally. No big deal. I would reset it and it would work fine. One day it froze and I tried to reset it. The screen slowly faded out, and the iPod got hot. Really hot. It is completely useless.

I went to Apple's web site and entered my serial number and was happy to discover the iPod was still under warranty. Being an I.T. professional I understand that electronic devices do die. I didn't hold it against Apple. I went through the steps of getting approval to send the device back to be replaced. Then I got to a page that requested my credit card information to charge me about $30.00 shipping and handling! Figuring it must be a glitch, I went to my "local" Apple store, which is almost an hour away. They offered to make me an appointment with the "Genius Bar" for two days later. They also informed me that the $30.00 handling fee applies if the device is more than six months old. I really don't see the point of a warranty if you have to pay almost 1/4 of the cost of the device to get it fixed.

I must admit, it's smart in terms of revenue. The company knows that most people will pay the money to save the need to pay full price for a new device. To make things worse; if you ever use iTunes to purchase music, you'd lose it all if you decide to buy a different music player! You really have no good option to avoid the fee! Yes, I'm paying the fee... But I certainly won't forget this when I think about buying any more of their products! This is a horrible showing of public relations.

Oh social life how I missed you!

2008-01-05T15:01:00.000-05:00

I've finally managed to find my way back into the circle of friends I had toward the end of high school and unintentionally lost contact with for a while afterward. I know I was somewhat anti-social for a while which didn't help things, but I find myself out with friends so much more often now and it really feels good! I've even gained some new ones along the way.

Microsoft: PLEASE re-think SP3!

2007-12-22T16:53:00.000-05:00

I found that Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 1 is probably the single worst piece of pre-release software I have ever dealt with.

A few days ago I decided to install this service pack on my PC at home. It got about 3/4 of the way through the process, and said that there was insufficient space to complete the install and offered to roll back what it had done. Nice that the install didn't check how much space was there before it started! This would have been fine, except once it rolled back it gave me the message "Windows has been partially updated, and may not work properly." Greeaaaaat... Well, unfortunately they were right for once. Nothing worked right after that.

I figured maybe I would have better with a clean XP install. I installed XP from scratch on a new larger hard drive. As soon as the XP install finished and was at SP2, I ran the XP SP3 install. After it was complete I discovered that it apparently didn't install IE7, or Windows Media Player 11. Not only that, but IE6 would freeze every time I tried to use it! Ok, so maybe I'll just uninstall SP3 and wait for release. That should work, right? HA!

I was notified at the beginning on the uninstall process that my install of Microsoft Office may not work afterward, and that I should run Windows updates afterward... Keep that part in mind. The uninstall completed. Sure enough, as they said, I went to open Outlook and it gave me an error. Now for the best part...Remember how they said I should run Windows updates? Well, I did. EVERY UPDATE FAILED...... How nice. Sooooooo, I reinstalled Windows again. Thanks for wasting four hours of my life Microsoft! Please, don't release this patch. I can only imagine the problems I'll have if clients start installing this!

Drumroll please...

2007-12-16T13:27:00.000-05:00

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Year is w00t! Finally, "1337" speak gets the attention it deserves!

1. w00t (interjection)
expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word "yay"
w00t! I won the contest!
http://www.m-w.com/info/07words.htm

Phone-based GPS

2007-12-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

For those of you out there that have ever been curious about phone- based GPS systems I would like to share my experience. A few days ago I purchased a BlackBerry Curve 8310, red of course, to replace my aging BlackBerry 7290. I found that my new phone has GPS capability built right in!

I was extremely skeptical of how well it would perform. After all, GPS isn't the primary reason for having the phone. It isn't a purpose built GPS like you find in many cars today, so what would lead me to believe it would act like one?

I was shocked at what this system could do. Granted it is somewhat more tedious to enter destination addresses on a phone than in a car, but once you do the rest is easy. I love the fact that once you put in an address you can just put the phone away and it will talk you through the entire trip. I think this has potential for increased safety while driving because, I admit, sometimes those moving maps on car GPS systems can be distracting! If you do need it though, just pull the phone out and you can see the moving map. The system also gets frequent updates and as such can tell me when I am coming up on construction or heavy traffic and give me the option of avoiding it.

I am thrilled to finally have this capability. With all the driving I do for work to places I have never been before it really gives me comfort knowing that there are always satellites up there that know exactly where I am, even when I don't!

Apple doesn't want us to have any fun!

2007-12-04T18:29:00.000-05:00

Some of you may well have heard about this, but I was somewhat shocked at a point in the Apple iTunes end user license agreement:

"You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons."

What!? So...can you not listen to music in iTunes while making a nuclear bomb? Or is there a way to directly use iTunes to make weapons???

A New Beginning

2007-12-03T22:52:00.000-05:00

Welcome, and thanks for checking out my new blog! Having reached what I feel is a turning point in my life, and nearing the end of another year, I decided that now is the time to cave in and start blogging again.

Those of you who know me probably know I have had a very difficult few months recently. After I grew tired of my former employer walking all over me, I found myself unemployed for the first time since I entered the IT industry...Even knowing that this was going to be for the better in the long run I couldn't help but feel down on things due to the sudden lack of income and excess of idle time. I felt truly blessed to have the support of my family during this time. I don't know what I would have done without it!

Last week I started a new job that I feel will be ideal for me. I am still in the IT industry, but it feels like something completely different than I had become used to. I now have the freedom to do my job as I see fit without being micromanaged. I'm getting paid on time. I don't leave work feeling guilty anymore because I now work for an ethical company! Most everything I could only have wished for at work before has now become a reality. For the first time in several years I am finally feeling optimistic about the future of my career!