Blog post moved to http://makaicom.com/blog/?p=46
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Friday, September 28, 2007
Tansfering domains at Godaddy.com
I had to transfer some domains from one account to another on the Godaddy site.
After looking around the site I couldn't figure out how to do it. I called their support number and the call was answered in two minutes, not bad for a big company. The support person was obviously American and very knowledgeable, I was expecting to get someone in India. He walked me through the process and I was on my way.
Overall I think the process of moving a domain from one Godaddy account to another is harder than it should be, but the support I received was excellent. I will certainly continue to do business with Godaddy.
-Matt
After looking around the site I couldn't figure out how to do it. I called their support number and the call was answered in two minutes, not bad for a big company. The support person was obviously American and very knowledgeable, I was expecting to get someone in India. He walked me through the process and I was on my way.
Overall I think the process of moving a domain from one Godaddy account to another is harder than it should be, but the support I received was excellent. I will certainly continue to do business with Godaddy.
-Matt
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
SNL Transcripts
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/
This site has transcripts of every SNL episode.
Do a search for 'cork soaker' then do a search for the same thing on youtube.
-Matt
This site has transcripts of every SNL episode.
Do a search for 'cork soaker' then do a search for the same thing on youtube.
-Matt
How Apple can make switching to OSX easier
At my office I have a PC that runs Windows & just bought a new laptop that runs Windows (more on that in another blog post). At my home I have a dual-core Mac Mini, I would have bought an iMac but I already had a great LCD display. I find myself as technical but after one year I am still having a hard time with some things on OSX. If you know how to fix any of these please let me know.
-Matt
- The end & home keys do not go to what I consider end & home. End should take you the end of the line, home should take you to the beginning. CTRL + home should take you to the top of the document and CTRL + end should take you to the end of the document. When I am trying to get to the end of the line I just keep pressing buttons until I get to where I want to go.
- ALT + Tab is what is burned into my brain for activating the task switcher. I should mention that I have the same keyboard at work & home - The wireless Microsoft Natural Multimedia keyboard, the one with the keys split down the middle. I have to press Start + Tab to activate the task switcher on OSX, I hate that I have to think about it.
- In OSX, not all the open programs appear in the start bar, if I have three Word documents open I can not click on something to bring up the instance I want to see. If you minimize the document it shows up to the right of the start bar, but once you click it, it disappears. Even when you do the task switcher, if you have three documents open, it will only show one instance of Word. I want an icon I can click to bring any Window to the front.
- The maximize window button does not maximize. I know Apple wants me to drink their cool-aid but I like havening applications take the full screen. The bottom of the application could mate with the top of the start bar. Ten times a day I accidentally click an application that is beneath when I go for the scroll bar. Then I have to somehow get back to the app I am working on. If the app was maximized, I wouldn't have the issue.
- Apple should work with keyboard manufacturers to get better drivers for OSX. There is no reason the Multi-Media keys on my keyboard shouldn't control iTunes. I am sure it is the same with other multi-media keyboards.
- Perhaps a Windows keyboard emulation mode would work. I know that would fly like a lead kite, but it would help.
- One of the keyboard combinations that I use many times a day is Start button, then 'R', this opens the run dialog box. I can then type the name of the executable I want to run. I tried Quicksilver, but it wasn't as efficient & I had to learn their keyboard shortcuts. I already have shortcuts.....don't make me learn different ones.
-Matt
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
My iPod Touch Story - bought & returned
My 4G color iPod had been giving me a lot of issues lately so when the iPod Touch came out it seemed like a natural upgrade for me --- until I returned it today, here is what happened.
Pre-Purchase
1. My 4G iPod had about 50GB worth of stuff on it. Most was crap, but a lot was podcasts and music I had to keep.
2. Turning on the auto-delete function for podcasts cleared up a lot of space. I chose to only keep the last one, that deleted about 10GB worth of stuff. I must not have deleted a podcast in 3 years.
3. I had a lot of spoken word podcasts that I got rid of - stuff I downloaded a while ago, it was all in a playlist I never listened to.
4. Made some hard decisions on songs.....About 5 years ago I ripped every CD I owned, 500+ of them. Most of them I would be embarrassed to say I payed for. This got me down to about 12GB of music & it took about 6 hours to look through and delete songs.
5. I wanted the video playback but did not know how to get my DVD's onto the iPod.
6. I found handbrake, it is an awesome product, just put in the DVD & tell it to rip for an iPhone. 90 minutes later you have an iPhone ready file. I can't recommend handbrake enough, it works on Windows, Macs and Linux.
7. Each movie was about 700MB once it was ripped.
8. 16G iPod - 12G of music = 4G free for movies & podcasts...........need to delete more music
9. 3 hours later I was to 6.5G of music
10. 16G iPod - 6.5G of music = 9.5G free = 11 movies. I wanted to put about 50 on the iPod.
11. I found you could rip them and keep them in your iTunes and it will shuffle the movies.
12. I was finally to buy ready but....need to find one, they came out two days ago and the two Apple Stores in Hawaii are sold out of the 16G models.
13. After calling once a day, I got one.....3 days after I started looking...not bad
14. Took the sucker home!
Post Purchase
1. Wow, this thing is very very very thin
2. Nice presentation, like all the Apple stuff
3. There is this clear plastic piece in the box....spent 10 minutes but can not figure out what it is. (I have since learned that it is a stand to hold the iPod to watch movies hands free)
4. Uses the same sync connector as the 4G iPod
5. Plugged it in, I had previously upgraded iTunes, accepted the license agreement & it was syncing!
Using the iPod - I won't give a review, there are lots of those around
1. Has the same slider 'tool' to get started that you see on the iPhone, it is neat.
2. It has WiFi and would download youtube videos quickly. Watched the first Chad Vader episode - still very funny. Hate the keyboard, that is why I don't have an iPhone.
3. Music sounded superb with the included ear buds. I use different ear phones, but wanted to test the ones that come with the touch
4. Photos look fabulous and the two finger pinch is very intuitive. They make it very easy to enlarge a picture and make it be your desktop
5. Unfortunately the unit I had was affected by the overly dark screen. When watching a movie, it was very difficult to see any scene that was at night. Tilting it at different angels seemed to help, but it was unacceptable.
Returning the iPod
1. Boxed it up & headed to the Apple store at Kahala Mall
2. Was there when they opened and got a refund in less than 3 minutes
3. The people there are really great, I have to hand it to Apple for hiring quality people
4. Of course they asked me if I wanted an exchange and not a refund, but I told them that I wanted to look around more
5. That is why I buy all my big Apple stuff at the Apple store
6. The video playback was so poor, I did not think I got $400 of value out of the device.
Lessons Learned:
1. I missed the click wheel. I did not like having to look at the device to make changes. While I keep my current iPod at my side I can do everything, next song, change the volume etc. Since the touch has a flat screen you have to look at it to make a change.
2. I kept holding it upside down, the earphones plug into the bottom of the iPod, not like my current iPod
3. I need some program to download the album covers. I originally ripped my CD's into WMA, then to MP3 and then imported into iTunes. Somewhere they lost the tags so almost every album cover was blank...coverflow sucks with no album covers. You should be able to disable coverflow
4. The video (excluding dark scenes) was really great. The screen is very high resolution.
5. Would I buy one again......Yes.....but I will wait until after Christmas or when ever Rev2 comes out with 32G of storage.
-Matt
Pre-Purchase
1. My 4G iPod had about 50GB worth of stuff on it. Most was crap, but a lot was podcasts and music I had to keep.
2. Turning on the auto-delete function for podcasts cleared up a lot of space. I chose to only keep the last one, that deleted about 10GB worth of stuff. I must not have deleted a podcast in 3 years.
3. I had a lot of spoken word podcasts that I got rid of - stuff I downloaded a while ago, it was all in a playlist I never listened to.
4. Made some hard decisions on songs.....About 5 years ago I ripped every CD I owned, 500+ of them. Most of them I would be embarrassed to say I payed for. This got me down to about 12GB of music & it took about 6 hours to look through and delete songs.
5. I wanted the video playback but did not know how to get my DVD's onto the iPod.
6. I found handbrake, it is an awesome product, just put in the DVD & tell it to rip for an iPhone. 90 minutes later you have an iPhone ready file. I can't recommend handbrake enough, it works on Windows, Macs and Linux.
7. Each movie was about 700MB once it was ripped.
8. 16G iPod - 12G of music = 4G free for movies & podcasts...........need to delete more music
9. 3 hours later I was to 6.5G of music
10. 16G iPod - 6.5G of music = 9.5G free = 11 movies. I wanted to put about 50 on the iPod.
11. I found you could rip them and keep them in your iTunes and it will shuffle the movies.
12. I was finally to buy ready but....need to find one, they came out two days ago and the two Apple Stores in Hawaii are sold out of the 16G models.
13. After calling once a day, I got one.....3 days after I started looking...not bad
14. Took the sucker home!
Post Purchase
1. Wow, this thing is very very very thin
2. Nice presentation, like all the Apple stuff
3. There is this clear plastic piece in the box....spent 10 minutes but can not figure out what it is. (I have since learned that it is a stand to hold the iPod to watch movies hands free)
4. Uses the same sync connector as the 4G iPod
5. Plugged it in, I had previously upgraded iTunes, accepted the license agreement & it was syncing!
Using the iPod - I won't give a review, there are lots of those around
1. Has the same slider 'tool' to get started that you see on the iPhone, it is neat.
2. It has WiFi and would download youtube videos quickly. Watched the first Chad Vader episode - still very funny. Hate the keyboard, that is why I don't have an iPhone.
3. Music sounded superb with the included ear buds. I use different ear phones, but wanted to test the ones that come with the touch
4. Photos look fabulous and the two finger pinch is very intuitive. They make it very easy to enlarge a picture and make it be your desktop
5. Unfortunately the unit I had was affected by the overly dark screen. When watching a movie, it was very difficult to see any scene that was at night. Tilting it at different angels seemed to help, but it was unacceptable.
Returning the iPod
1. Boxed it up & headed to the Apple store at Kahala Mall
2. Was there when they opened and got a refund in less than 3 minutes
3. The people there are really great, I have to hand it to Apple for hiring quality people
4. Of course they asked me if I wanted an exchange and not a refund, but I told them that I wanted to look around more
5. That is why I buy all my big Apple stuff at the Apple store
6. The video playback was so poor, I did not think I got $400 of value out of the device.
Lessons Learned:
1. I missed the click wheel. I did not like having to look at the device to make changes. While I keep my current iPod at my side I can do everything, next song, change the volume etc. Since the touch has a flat screen you have to look at it to make a change.
2. I kept holding it upside down, the earphones plug into the bottom of the iPod, not like my current iPod
3. I need some program to download the album covers. I originally ripped my CD's into WMA, then to MP3 and then imported into iTunes. Somewhere they lost the tags so almost every album cover was blank...coverflow sucks with no album covers. You should be able to disable coverflow
4. The video (excluding dark scenes) was really great. The screen is very high resolution.
5. Would I buy one again......Yes.....but I will wait until after Christmas or when ever Rev2 comes out with 32G of storage.
-Matt
Game cover for the NES - Anticipation
This has to be the best cover of a video game ever!
You gotta love the 80's, I know I do.
Each person can be a character study, the guy in the upper right has serious issues & what is with the chick in the bottom right? I wonder where they are today.
-Matt
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