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Dongles everywhere!
In the last few revisions of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, Apple has replaced the legacy ports with USB-C ports which some think is forward thinking and others complain that their devices don't connect. Last fall, when the last MacBook Pros were announced, I was eyeing one, but ultimately decided against buying one. However, when Apple had a sale on the dongles to placate people, I thought about what I would need for my next computer. I bought a USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
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Review: ZTE Mobley
Several years ago, I worked for a company that sold Sprint service. As part of my job, a "perk" was a company issued phone and then when the MiFi mobile hotspot was released, I got one of them for experimentation and use. (I use perk lightly because having a company issued phone or device is more of a tether keeping you connected all the time.) When I left the company in 2010, my boss said that I could use the company discount to purchase a device and plan; I purchased a MiFi and had a $45/month plan for 5 GB of data. After about a year, I realized that I wasn't using the device much and cancelled the plan.
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Cleaning up a mess
Over the course of the last few years, my closet of networking equipment has grown and while everything works, it wasn't the prettiest sight. I had originally tried to color code all the cables and arrange things as neatly as possible, but it didn't quite work out. I finally got tired of looking at it (after viewing pictures of other people's clean networking racks), purchased a 48 port patch panel that had RJ45 connectors on the front and the back and a bunch of white cables of various sizes (color coding was a waste for me as it really didn't matter what went where). My original plan when I setup the rack was to use patch panels, but at the time, I was looking at patch panels that I had to terminate in the back; this would have meant a bunch of wires coming from the wall that I'd terminate in the panel. I opted to put all the RJ45 jacks in the wall and have patch cords going from the wall to the equipment.
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Fragmented World Of Payments
Last Saturday we ran a number of errands and at the end of the day something dawned on me: I had used several different payment systems and the payment process remains awkward for most of them.