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Hi. I’m a Mac.

And yet, when it comes to a few select game titles (two in particular) that are graphics intensive, the Mac (using Windows within a virtual machine) doesn’t quite cut it. Years of fighting that made me realize one simple thing: I could just spend some money on a true PC and have that problem go away completely. So I did.

Its been a long time since I bought a PC for my home. I went to Dell’s website, found the best deal I could. I was impressed at how easy it is to configure the PC (and how easy it is to slowly add a lot of $ to the total! — “for $40 you can have… GREAT, thanks… now for $60 you can have…”).

While I expected that they’d try to sell me some USB memory sticks, a monitor and printer, I didn’t expect to see either of these:

…or these…

I imagine there are people out there financing their new computer and a $9 DVD over the course of a few years. Not my idea of smart money, but hey, whatever.

The process was quite easy although I was surprised how long it would take to arrive. I didn’t get anything fancy and was told it would take nearly a month “or later.” It’ll be interesting to see exactly how long it takes to arrive.

Tags: pc, shopping, website

Yep. Its out there. This release features (among other things) features updates to Traveler which provide support for the iPhone. According to Sr. Ed, the beta has been distributed to a select group while a “managed” beta will be available… eh, later. However, you can test drive it on Greenhouse later this week.

Two important notes:

1. If you see emails coming from me using the greenhouse domain, now you know why. 
2. If anyone has a copy they want to share … er… NOT share (wink wink)…

Meanwhile, OpenNTF.org got quite the upgrade when I wasn’t looking. I’ve always been a fan of this site. Even if they don’t have a perfectly matching application for what you need – its a great place to get some free head-starts. Lately, I’ve been playing around A LOT with the Xpages Wiki application which is fantastic. I could use some small improvements and this would be a powerful app for our organization.

Wow… busy week in the world of Lotus!

Tags: beta, greenhouse, iphone, lotus notes, openntf

Since… well, marriage… I’ve become someone who wants to be well organized. Not at all times, but certainly most of the time. Especially when things seem to get out of hand.

For example, our server room is often a drop zone for old computers, monitors and random other crap that once could carry an electrical current. All of this stuff has the intent of being reviewed and disposed of properly but we’re all busy and that means that sometimes it piles up. Several months ago I set up a day where we call cleaned through the room, which made a world of difference and has given us an area that we’ve been able to keep clean ever since.

One of the cornerstones of this process was my insistance on labeling things. Just about everything, really. Servers should have something that IDs them (perhaps not the name or IP address – since you might have a security issue with that, even in a locked room). Shelves for common supplies, etc. I even insisted on getting a decent label maker to ensure things looked nice.

Yes, that led to the label maker getting… a label. Hilarious. — But its not as bad as the picture (below) I got from my brother. At his office, they did the same type of thing and someone went to great lengths to label this item:

Well… now we know that cable isn’t connected, don’t we?

Tags: organization

If I were in charge of Ford, I think I’d be a bit mad. The company is doing fairly well (all things considered) and yet the government is actively bailing out GM and Chrysler in various ways. I think I’d be all “umm… would you guys mind NOT helping out my competition?!”

It was that thought (and the fact that its car shopping season for me again) that led me to the Ford website. Not because I’m really interested in anything in their line, just because I hadn’t taken a moment to notice what has changed in various vehicles (and American Idol was on in the background – and at this point, I’m thinking that maybe the Ford Focus is trying to be one of the final contestants based on how much that thing is shown throughout each episode). It was at that time that I noticed an interesting header on their web page:

Tags: beta, websites

About three years ago, I did a post about TiVo-Life integration. The premise was simple: as you integrate TiVo into your life, you go through specific stages that seem to be common among people. I find that I still get people who discover this after being new to DVRs and agree with the stages I proposed.

Three years later, I’ve got another one: iPhone & Life Integration.

Stage 1: Contract bustin’

Persons in this stage are often heard using the following phrases:

• “I’m going to get an iPhone, I’m just waiting for my contract with (insert non-AT&T carrier) is up.”
• “Yeah, I’m gettin’ an iPhone, just gotta wait ’till my company supports them.”
• “I’m going to get the new iPhone, I hear it comes out next month.” (that one can be used at any time of the year)

Stage 2: Love is blind

Once the iPhone has been obtained, activated and synchronized with contacts, email, etc.; the user falls so in love with the iPhone that they fail to see its shortcomings, including things like spotty AT&T reception, lack of 3G networks in some areas, call dropping and poor audio quality. They simply accept all of these things as “normal” for any phone. In fairness, the iPhone isn’t that much better or worse than other phones you might have used … its just not “far better” despite the comments people in this stage might make; stating “Dude, its the best phone ever! Call quality is awesome!”

Stage 3: Apps? Yes, please!

This stage always starts with the following questions:

• “What are apps?”
• “How do I get apps?”
• “What apps should I get?”

Other iPhone users will help out, offering their choice as some of the “must have” apps. Devious iPhone users may even recommend expensive apps, just to get their friends to shell out money. However the app-acquisition process begins, it always ends the same: app addiction. The iPhone screen becomes a potpourri of applications. Some helpful. Some silly. Some completely useless. And Facebook.

Stage 4: Accessories & Upgrades

Complete with at least 4 home screens full of applications, the user now branches beyond what’s INSIDE the iPhone to what is OUTSIDE. Persons in this stage can be found wandering between different choices for cases, bluetooth adapters or even power cords as they search for something to modernize their iPhone. This is often done because they are so committed to the iPhone, they lack interest in looking at other cell phones as frequently as they once had.

Ultimately, this stage leads to an iPhone upgrade, where the user convinces themselves that they need a new one. Perhaps for space, color or some new feature. Even if they have the latest, largest and most best-est version out there, they anxiously await their Apple news blog dujour for news about iPhone upgrades that might be coming … and begin listing the reasons for why they need to upgrade their phone. This will often be accompianed with a listing of phantom problems with their current one.

I feel compelled to mention that when I went from the EDGE iPhone to the 3G one, it was because my screen was completely cracked due to an accident. That was all legit. Honest.

Tags: funny, iphone