before and after

before and after,
originally uploaded by inabeanpod.

I maxed out the ram on my PowerBook. That should serve me pretty well until 10.5 comes out. Then I can upgrade to a new system. Probably an iMac instead of a MacBook Pro. Maybe a Mac Pro, but probably not. Time will tell.

4th of July Photos!!

DSC_3593crop1.jpg,
originally uploaded by inabeanpod.

4th of July photos are up on my Flickr account now. Go here to see the photo set:

Crews Say Ariz. Fire a 'Caged-Up Coyote'

Officials said the blaze threatening this scenic community was 15 percent contained Friday morning, and full containment was predicted by June 28.

Firefighters were prepared to protect the roughly 460 homes and businesses in nearby Oak Creek Canyon that were evacuated after the fire began Sunday with a transient's campfire, but the danger of wind from thunderstorms was in the forecast.

"That's a red flag. That's a watch-out situation," said Mike Dondero, deputy incident commander for the fire. "It could hit and blow stuff all over the place."

Nora Walker-Yeager, who was allowed to return to her Oak Creek Canyon home Thursday to pick up belongings, grabbed her wedding book, her husband's wedding ring and her engagement ring.

"If it burns, we've got the things that are most important to us," Walker-Yeager said.

The flowers you had on your wedding day, the food at the reception, the DJ, the location, the dresses, none of that will matter when you house may burn down.

We've got the things that are most important to us... her wedding book. That is why you hire the best photographer that money can buy!

the Thing?

Dell has a brand spanking new XPS M2010, from here on out call the Thing, and PC Magazine has a review. Too save you some time, PC Mag likes the "Beautiful 20.1-inch widescreen. Excellent sound quality. Impressive design and engineering. Versatile RF remote." But, PC Mag hates "18 pounds of hardware. Extremely pricey. External tuner costs extra." Cisco Cheng's quick review reads "Every once in a while I get a notebook that blows me away with its visionary concept and bold design. Grand in every sense of the word, the Dell XPS M2010 ($4,675 direct) is just such a system. On first inspection, the big machine resembles a full-fledged desktop, yet it closes gracefully and can be carried like a huge clamshell notebook (with a handle). The one caveat: It's too pricey for most mere mortals."

So, it's a full-fledged desktop/huge clamshell notebook… hence why I call it Thing. ;) A $4,675 Thing. Whoa! Expensive eh? So lets see some stats from the PC Mag review.

Type: Gaming, Media
Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo T2600
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
RAM: 2048 MB
Hard Drive Capacity: 200 GB
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+R DL
Wireless: 802.11a/g
Screen Size: 20.1 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
System Weight: 18.1 lbs

Then I remembered Apple has an all in one computer… the iMac. It's such a better value too! I'll price it online at the Apple Store just to be sure. And to be fair I'll make it as expensive as I can. I picked the 20" iMac, because it is going up against the Thing after all. Here are some comparative stats.

Type: Everything
Operating System: Mac OS X
Processor Name: 2GHz Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
RAM: 2048 MB
Hard Drive Capacity: 500 GB
Primary Optical Drive: SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
Wireless: Airport Extreme (802.11a/g) + Bluetooth 2.0
Screen Size: 20-inch widescreen LCD
Screen Size Type: widescreen
System Weight: 18.1 lbs

All that comes to $2731.00. Wow I can get almost two iMacs for the price of the Thing!

Let's do some +'s and –'s! We'll start with the Thing because I like to save the best for last ;)

Thing +'s:
++Processor Speed is .16 faster than the iMac
++The screen is .1 inches bigger than the iMac
++Weight is less than the iMac by 1.9 pounds
++The Thing has a handle

Thing -'s
--Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center
--Viruses
--Adware
--Spyware
--Malware
--No webcam
--Per PC Mag "It's too pricey for most mere mortals"

iMac +'s
++Operating System: Mac OS X
++No viruses
++No adware
++No spyware
++No Malware
++iLife
++iTunes
++iPhoto
++iMovie
++iDVD
++iWeb
++Garage Band
++iSight built in
++It just works
++Boot Camp… the iMac can run windows too… what else can the Thing run?

iMac –'s
--No handle
--Unwanted workout when moving from point A to point B
--The excuse "I've got to update my virus definitions and scan for spyware" to get away from the family isn't valid anymore
--You keep thinking someone stole yours when you see an iMac on TV

...had $2304 left over ($4675 – 2371 =$2304) after getting the iMac, so picked up an extra 13-inch Black MacBook ($1499) and a 60GB iPod ($399) leaving you with $46 burring a hole in your pocket, which got you in trouble with your wife (the burnt hole, not the MacBook and iPod)

So why not get a Mac?

"just a few clicks away"

ROTFLMBO! Wow is the next version of Windows doing to be horid or what?! Lets see if I can get deleting a alais in OS X up to 7 steps!
1)Click alais
2)Press Command key
3)While holding command key down press backspace. That puts the alais into the trash bin. Now we have to empty that.
4)Press Command key
5)While holding command key down, press and hold shift key.
6)While holding command key & shift key down, press backspace. That emptys the trash bin.

I guess I couldn't get up to 7 steps. But I can go faster!

1)Click the alais
2)Press the Command key and backspace at the same time. This puts the alais in the trash bin.
3)Press the Command key, shift key and backspace at the same time. This emptys the trash bin.

Faster? Yes. Can I go faster still? Lets see!
1)Drag the alais to the trash bin.
2)Press the Command key, shift key and backspace at the same time. This emptys the trash bin.

Wow, that a bit faster than Vista Beta 2 or whatever version Microsoft has out there for us to play with.

You may need to click the image on the left to see what all the fun is about ;)

BREITBART.COM - Fla. Man in Women's Bathing Suit Arrested

BREITBART.COM - Fla. Man in Women's Bathing Suit Arrested: "Fla. Man in Women's Bathing Suit Arrested

KEY WEST, Fla.

A man wearing a purple women's bathing suit and carrying a flare gun was arrested after he told a bartender he was going to 'get rid of all the dirt bags in Key West,' authorities said.

Jeffrey C. Anderson, 55, was charged with carrying a concealed firearm Monday after he brandished the flare gun, which was under a skirt he was wearing, Key West police spokeswoman Christie Phillips said.

The bartender, who was not identified, was working in the downstairs bar of The Bull and Whistle, a popular Key West watering hole located on Duval Street.

'She reported she had seen a man, later identified as Anderson, dancing in the street showing tourists his private parts, and asking people for money when they took his picture,' the news release said.

The bartender said Anderson then approached her, telling her he was going to get rid of the city's 'dirt bags' before displaying the gun, police said.

Police quickly located Anderson and found an orange 12-gauge flare gun in his possession, Phillips said. He was transported to the Monroe County detention center. It was not clear if he had a lawyer."

Nope, not a single crazy person in Florida. Mr. Anderson is completely normal...

out of step with the audience's tastes

English radio station bans James Blunt songs...
See, I'm not the only one who didn't care for his so called music.

The music industry exerts a lot of pressure on radio stations to play certain artists' music over and over again, Cotton said.

"Often this can be out of step with the audience's tastes, which results in songs being overplayed," he said. "We're happy to stand up to this pressure and follow the strong message listeners have given us. We encourage other radio stations to take the same step."

More Florida

Man throws children from South Beach balcony to their deaths, then kills self

This crazy thing happened down in Florida you say? That's no suprise to me. People are crazy down there.

Florida...

STDs Running Rampant In Retirement Community

That is just WRONG in so many ways!

Chinese British Scammers!

Got this tasty bit of Spam in my Gmail inbox recently.

我有新的電郵地址！
你現可電郵給我：wharfsidefurniture1970@yahoo.com.hk

That Chinese bit says something like: "I have the new electricity postal address!" and "You presently may the electricity postal give me:"

Dear Sir/Madam,


Would u like to work online from home/temporarily and get paid weekly?we are glad to offer you for a job position at our company,WHARFSIDE FURNITURE.We need someone to work for the company as a representative/book keeper in the states. This is in view of our not having an office presently in the US. You dont need to have an Office and thiscertainly wont disturb any form of work you have going at the moment.From the Site, you will find out the Company produces the following varities of Furniture:- Crafts and Art works for interior and exterior uses which we have clients we supply weekly in the states.Our integrated Furniture manufacturing operations use state-of-the-art Furnture equipment from the world's leading suppliers. Order processing,production monitoring and process flow are seamlessly integrated through a company-wide computer network.Your average monthly income Starts from about 5000.00 usd.No form of investments from you.This job takes only 1-3 hours per day.


ABOUT THE JOB:

0ur company manufactures and sells furniture and craft works that meanly have to do wood suppliers.We have sales representatives all over the world to distribute our products.You know, that it's not easy to start a business in a new market (being the US). There are hundreds of competitors, close direct contacts between suppliers and customers and other difficulties, which impede our sales promotion.We have decided to deliver the products in upfront, it's very risky but it should push up sales on 25 percent. Thus we need to get payments for our products as soon as it possible because customers can just "forget" to pay. Unfortunately we are unable to open bank accounts in the United States without first registering the company name.Presently with the amount of Orders we have, we cannot put them hold.For fear of loosing the customers outrightly. Secondly we cannot cash these payments from the US soon enough as international Cheques take about 14 working days for cash to be made available.We lose about 75,000 USD of net income each month because we have money transfer delays.


YOUR TASK

Your task is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the payment process.You are not invloved in any sales. Our sales manager sells products. Once he makes a sale we deliver the product to a customer (usually through FEDEX).The customer receives and checks the products. After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products. About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Certified Cheques and Money orders or through Bank wire transfer online based on the amount involved.We have decided to open this new job position for solving this problem.


Your tasks are;


1. Recieve payment from Customers.


2. Cash Payments at your Bank.


3. Deduct 10% which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed.


4. Forward balance afer deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to.(Payment is to forwarded into our Bank account that you will provided with Transfer).Local Money transfers takes barely hours, so it will give us a possibility to get customer's payment almost immediately.


For example you've got 30000.00USD

You take your income : 3000.00 USD

Send to us: 27000.00 USD


First month you will have 10-20 transactions on 30000.00-40000.00 USD So you may calculate your income.For example 10 transactions on 30000.00 USD gives you 30000.00 USD Plus your basis monthly salary is 1000.00 USD Total: 40000.00 USD per month.After establishing close co-operation you'll be able to operate with larger orders and you'll be able to earn more.


Our payments will be issued out in your name and you get them cashed in your bank deduct your weekly salary and foward the balance to the company via Bank Wire Transfer.We understand it is an unusual and incredible job position. This job takes only 3-7 hours per week. You'll have a lot of free time doing another job, you'll get good income and regular job.But this job is very challenging and you should understand it. We are looking only for the worker who satisfies our requirements and will be an earnest assistant.


We are glad to offer this job position to you. If you feel that you are a serious and earnest worker and if you want to work for us,attached to this email you will find a copy of the COMPANIES APPLICATION FORM kindly fill it out and send back via email and you will receive necessary information in 1-48 hours.


REPLY TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS:wharfsidefurniture@yahoo.co.uk

..............................

WHARF SIDE FURNITURE

Shoredich London N1

Buttesland street London N1 6BY.

Tel:+44 702 406 1542



WHARF SIDE FURNITURE APPLICATION FORM



NAME :________________________________________________(MR/MRS/MISS)



CONTACT ADDRESS :_______________________________________



CITY :______________ZIP CODE :_______________


STATE :____________________________



TELEPHONE NUMBER : HOME :_______________CELL :__________________



DATE OF BIRTH :_________________MARITAL STATUS :________________


NATIONALITY :_______________________OCCUPATION :___________________



A VALID FORM OF IDENTIFICATION SHOULD BE ATTACHED TO THIS MAIL BEFORE SUBMISSION.

- WHARFSIDE FURNITURE

Yup that's right, they want me to help launder their money. LOL