Delayed Updates on Job… Mac… etc

First off I apologize to those who actually read my blog, I have been busy with work and have had very little to write about.

On July 21st my contract position at Google ended and my position as a fulltime Googler started.  With that came a new Macbook Pro, my first experience using a Mac.  For a long time I have had this view of Macs that the applications lacked a lot of options and most Mac users just wanted simple point and click and were willing to give up some funtionality.  I think Kevin Rose put it best when he said that Apple has picked X number of priorities with each OS X release and they do each of them very well.  Unlike Microsoft who choosed X*4 number of features and none of them are done as well as they could be.

Since getting my Mac I have absolutely loved the experience.  There have been some headaches.  One being the lack of home and end keys and that the combination of keys change in applications, but if you can adapt quickly it doesn’t really pose much of a problem.  The other thing was quiting applications, I always knew that command+Q would quit, but I am so used to WIndows/Linux that I was still in the mode of just clicking the X.  I sometimes miss being able to maximize a window with a mouse click, but I have gotten used to always leaving some space on the sides of my applications.  It really only took me a day or two of using it on a regular basis to get past these annoyances (if you can call them that).

This last weekend was tax-free weekend in GA so I grabbed a 22″ HP LCD.  I now wish I had grabbed the 24″, but I may go back in a week or two (when I have to pay tax grr) and grab it.  The glossy screen is really nice, if I had more lights on or had a window behind my desk it might be a big problem, but with my setup it is awesome.

I recently bought Ooma, which put simply is instant VOIP. You pay $250 for the hub and a scout and you just plug it into the network, activate and start calling. No monthly fees. You do have the option to pay $99/yr (8.25/mo) to have instant 2nd line, and some other features. One thing that can be a draw back is that it uses peer to peer connectivity to handle call bandwidth or something like that, so by paying for premiere you bypass that and go straight through their servers. All calls are supposed to be encrypted I believe, but I don’t really talk about anything that important on the phone.

I am going to try to keep this updated more often, sometimes it is hard to think of anything worthy of posting.