-
Review: OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD
As computers are the tools that I use to earn my living, I invest in getting the best machine for my needs and replace my main machine about every 2 years. My current MacBook Pro 15", I bought in October 2008, so when Apple announced an event this past October, I was hoping for a significant update to the MacBook Pros, but instead they announced a new MacBook Air. (Apple did announce a 2.8 GHz option for the Core i7 MacBook Pros, but that wasn't enough for me.) So I decided to wait until the next upgrade which I hope will be in the first half of next year.
-
Review: Apple Magic Trackpad
I've been using trackpads on my laptops for many years and used them on the desktop for awhile as well, so when my father started raving about the Apple Magic Trackpad
, I thought I'd give it a try. I had read a few reviews of it and heard people talk about it on podcasts, so I thought I'd immediately like it. When I received it, I easily paired it to my MacBook Pro and tried to use it. As I had always been a mechanical click kind of person, I found the trackpad hard to use even though it had mechanical buttons in the front feet. I kept trying to use it for a few days and then simply put it away and forgot about it.
-
You get what you pay for
When I sold ReceiptWallet (now Paperless), I no longer had a real need for a VPS (virtual private server) as all it hosted was this blog. So I decided to shop for something cheaper (I was paying about $40/month). I found one site and paid maybe $15/month, but after an extended outage and poor support, I switched to another provider, costing less than $11/month. I stuck with them for awhile after a number of outages and IP address changes. Last week, they changed my IP address again and not until I received an alert from the monitoring service I use, did I know they had done this. That was fine as I quickly changed my DNS, but then they had a few hour outage yesterday and the explanation was that they had a networking problem. Enough with the problems!
-
Self employment, six months later
Six months ago, I left my job to become self employed, again. The last time I became self employed was seven and a half years ago, when I mutually agreed to leave that job due to lack of work and due to my boredom. This time was a bit different as I made the decision completely by myself to leave. Last time, I was quite nervous the first couple of months as I wasn't guaranteed steady income and didn't know if I'd have enough work. This time, I was nervous the 2 weeks before I left my job because I didn't have any work lined up, but luckily all the pieces came together and I landed an ongoing monthly contract.