Author: George

I have been in the IT profession over 27 years. Most of my experience was providing Workstation / Desktop support for several clients.

My New iPad

Apple iPad 3

After 2 years of shopping around for tablets, I finally purchased an iPad 3 aka The New iPad.

I was going to mention what took me so long to purchase the iPad, but it is a boring story about saving money, looking at tablets at least once a month, reading blogs about with everyone’s opinion, and just waiting for the tablet that had all the right features. For a few months, I thought the Asus Transformer 201 was the right device. Nvidia quad core processor, Ice-cream sandwich for the OS, and the optional keyboard to “transform” into a netbook.

But when I compared the iPad 3 to the Transformer 201, I felt the iPad was a better tablet. Yes, the iPad was more expensive, but over the last year I was becoming more use to the IOS interface, providing support for iPhones and iPads at work, and I really like my iPod. I have also noticed when I need to check my personal email away from home, or look at the calendar, I usually went to the iPod over my Android phone. Plus my Android phone needs to be replaced. Too many lock ups with apps, and I have to reboot it once a day.

I love my new iPad! I have used it every day for the last week for work and home. I take it to work and use Evernote to take notes of computers that I’m working on, use AIM app to keep in touch with colleagues and friends, listen to music, and attend web meetings with AT&T Connect. Plus several customers at work have made suggestions on apps and other accessories. I purchased a case at Amazon.com called the Bear Motion, in black. The case props up the iPad at a good angle for typing (writing this post on the iPad now), and for video calls using FaceTime.

I don’t have any major issues or complaints about the iPad. I do want to find a good office suite for the iPad, and it would be nice if Microsoft would realse a version of Office for the iPad. I know Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are available. I had several colleagues recommend Documents To Go as an option. However, after all these years of trying different office suites, nothing compares to Microsoft Office. It is a standard, and I’m familiar with the programs.

I would recommend the iPad to anyone, but i also tell people to look at all the options. They might like an Android or Windows tablet over the iPad. Maybe picking up the iPad 2 would be a better option for someone instead.

Now, let’s see if I can figure out how to upload a few screenshots I made last week using the WordPress app.

Lock screen for my iPad. Feels like a Star Trek Univerise

Tags Dropbox, Home PC, iPad, LogMeIn, Personal, Skype, Video

Humor Video

Buh-Bye 2011

2011, Buh-Bye by JibJab.

Tags Humor, Video

Happy New Year

Happy New Year – 2012

This last year was pretty good for us. We figured out why my son was having a hard time reading, catching and other thing. He had week eye muscles. It took a specialist and about two hours to figure it out. We saw a hugh improvement with his sight in only a few months. He is enjoying Cub Scouts, and impressed me with building a bird house after showing him how to safely work a jigsaw.

Our daughter continues to impress us and her teachers at school. She finds kindergarten work to be boring and wants to move to first grade. We had to explain to her she needs to complete kindergarten then she can start first grade work. I think next year she will be ready to ride her bicycle without training wheels. I am looking forward to taking them to a park to ride and have a picnic.

My wife and I are enjoying our jobs. I love working on computers and helping customers resolve the IT problems. It is also nice to be working across the street from my wife. Meeting up for lunch is easier now. My home office is built and looks fantastic. I need to finish painting the trim and install a few shelfs. I like the blue-grey color with wood floors. It feels nice and clean. Plus no rugs which helps with my allergies.

Here’s to wishing you a Happy New Year! I hope 2012 is good to you.

Tags Happy New Year

Uncategorized

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Home PC iMac LinuxMint Sager Ubuntu Virtual Machine VirtualBox VMware Player Windows 7 Windows XP

Getting an iMac

Apple iMac

Over the past year I’ve been thinking about getting a new PC for the family. The current Dell Dimension 8200 (almost 10 years old) was having a hard time running Windows XP and all the patches and security to keep it mostly virus and malware free. I installed Ubuntu 11.10 server on that Dell PC and turned it into a media server and backup storage device.

So what to get for the family? I could go with another Windows 7 PC and have the option to have more virus and malware installed every time the kids go to one of their kid friendly sites. My wife might need Windows 7 for remote access to work, plus it’s a familiar interface for everyone.

I could go with Linux OS such as Ubuntu 11.10, Linux Mint 12 (when it is available), or some other disto. But the problem with Linux for the family, a whole bunch of kid websites just don’t work with Linux. For example, Cartoon Network has some pretty cool games, but most of the games will not work in Linux. Those games require different engines such as Unity (not to be confused with Unity for Ubuntu). Also, many games that I like to play are not available in a Linux environment. I tried running Windows XP in a VM, but the performance is terrible and the games require high-end video cards which you never see in a VM.

My buddy at work suggested getting an iMac. The first thing that went in my mind, “How am I going to afford that?” Turns out the entry level iMac is within my budget. So I stopped at the local Apple Store and took a look. Usually I’m in there for a few minutes with the kids to kill time while my wife is shopping. Now I had time to shop. As usual I was assaulted but several employees right away. But I needed time to look over what they had and get some ideas before I would talk with someone.

Steve, the sales person, saw I was ready to have my questions answered. After a few minutes of talking about my concerns and what I wanted to accomplish, Steve unlocked the iMac and let me install some of the games from Cartoon Network. Out of all my years in IT, from selling to support, I’ve never heard someone say let’s unlock the computer and install the web apps you mentioned. So I played some of the Cartoon Network games. I was hooked. Just need to upgrade the memory from 4GB to 8GB. The Apple memory is expensive. Looks like I’ll be checking on-line for a better price.

Now, what am I going to do about some of the Windows only applications I need? I will keep my notebook PC as a dual boot between Windows 7 and Linux (not sure about keeping Ubuntu). Maybe I’ll install VMWare Fusion, VirtualBox, Parallels or Bootcamp for my Windows needs. I doubt I’ll ever break away completely from Windows. Too many applications I need for Windows for my job.

So this Christmas Santa will deliver a new computer for the family. It will meet the needs of my family, address my concerns, and also give me a little education in the Mac world.

Now, what book should I get…