This is Not the Last Post

Today is the last workday of the year for a lot of people, and this morning I am pondering the question of exactly how much work will actually be done today in comparison to any given day in the fall. Productivity usually slows to a crawl at times like these as folks are waiting for the long weekend or a road trip. Not me; I've got plans to start the new year off right: I'm doing nothing different from any other day in 2006. No road trip or family visiting, no fireworks or banging pots & pans at midnight. No plans.

That's not to say I'll be working more than anyone else today, however. My work depends much on the needs of the people in my office. If they have no questions for me, I have to find my own projects to keep busy. Half the office is still on leave for the holidays, and I finished a large project last week, so I'll be reading today.

So if this is the last time you'll be in your office (or whatever you call it), enjoy it, because it's the last time you'll set foot in there until next year.

I really need to get better material.

Borrrrrrring

Okay, so maybe I'm back for a couple more times before January 1st. I've just finished re-creating a document that I lost on a flash drive (physical loss, not corruption or stupidity) that is 32 pages long, has 21 screen captures, and 4459 words. It was slightly aggravating, but it is done and has been improved upon greatly. I'm just sorry I can't publish it in the public domain due to some copyright restrictions for the images I captured.

It is an instructional document for my team to aid them in setting up each of their Linksys Wireless Broadband Routers. Everyone seemed to like the first and second editions, even the boss. He started passing it out to the Education and Training unit, and you know what they had to say?

"The page numbers are wrong."

I got "This is very professional" from several folks, and "This helped a lot!" from others, but from a unit that had no other clue about how to set up the device, I get "The page numbers are wrong."

So it's no accident that the page numbering is perfect this time, the font has changed, and all illustrations now have a reference number. It was created in Microsoft Word 2003 and will now stay that way in case I lose this new flash drive (I had previously published it in PDF and had no way else to freely convert that file back to Word to recover it.)

I realize you don't care about any of that, but I'm glad it's all out in the open. In other news:

I've been reading the archives from a year ago and I've got to say that I'm amazed at my promises I never kept, like reading all those books. I "vowed" to read them all, and I probably could have if I'd taken the time away from the computer and desk. I'm even busier now but take more time to read since my desktop PC stays dormant much of the time. I've taken to do more of my learning at work, since that is what I'm paid to do - to know. So time at home is more well-spent, I'm more relaxed, patience is more abundant, and I can get out of bed easier (could be these new meds) to write and read for hours before work.

I think a good ultimate goal would be to have a new MacBook Pro by the end of the year, but there is absolutely no way I'll promise something like that. I'd gladly give up my chance at a MacBook Pro to move to Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, or Arizona this year. I'd even take California for the right company.

But like I said (and I encourage everyone to do the same), I'm going to rock steady this year and continue my solid progression toward success, without the huge promises and false hope. I'm not going to lose any weight, buy a new car, or do any of that crazy talk. I'm just going to keep my flash drive close to me at all times, be prompt for work and school, and see where I am this time next year.

Resolve 2007?

I've been thinking lately about what I said last year I'd do this year, and I've come to the conclusion that new years' resolutions are overrated. With that, I've decided that all I want to do in 2007 is the same thing I did in 2006, and that is to simply rock steady.

I know I'll not get out of Georgia very soon as Beth and I must finish large milestones in our educational and financial goals, so we'll simply keep doing what we're doing, and aim for cool stuff rather than resolve to do something. Beth came up with a novel idea: we are probably going to budget enough time and money for me to take one certification exam every quarter. With that, I'll probably schedule the test and have to "shit or get off the pot." For something that I've wanted to do and half-assed for several years now, I certainly don't want to have wasted my time and energy.

But that's about it. We'll keep schooling and doing projects on the house, and when the time is right we'll move on to better things. But there is no absolute resolution, and there never was. Think about it: with all that going on (house-buying, daughter-raising, parents moving, sibling relocation, software projects failing and driving 15,000 miles on the job) how could anyone try to read the unread books in my library and blog every day? That's just ridiculous.

So among my peers and their resolutions to lose weight, get better jobs, get more, spend more, and save the world, I'm going to opt out and pick up a book.

Have a fantastic new year.

Stuffed with Cotton, they Must Be

I sat down to check mail this morning and felt like staying a while. It's comfortable in this office; no one to divert my attention this week. Just me and this little Mac right now, with a cup of coffee. And my ears are ringing.

It took me a minute to figure it out, but I finally realized why this office is so much more comfortable and quiet since yesterday. It's because last night before I went to bed I shut down my PC. It is still off. I hear the clock on the wall and beyond the sound of my typing, it is the loudest thing in the room.

Inside my PC there are four fans. One inside the power supply, two on the back of the case, and one mounted to the processor heat sink. Once one of them collects enough dust, it gets a little off-balance and so begins the first vibrations. Downhill from there.

I can't imagine how much power the entire system uses, either. Connected to the system are myriad devices, including a flatbed scanner, 320GB external hard drive, my iPod, amplified 3-piece speaker set, two printers, and two 19-inch LCD monitors. Everything is on top of my desk and blares right in my face. All of it is off at the moment. Just the sound of a clock powered by 1 AA battery.

How long will it be before I have to turn it back on?



Update: Probably not long, because that 320GB HDD is inaccessible to the Mac due to the drive's format (NTFS), which, I am guessing, is not supported by Mac OS X 10.2.8. Here I go again...

Speed Bump Number One

Okay. First gripe about my new Mac: iTunes.

The very program that warmed me up to the company told me that I cannot continue using the iTunes store unless I upgrade the iTunes program to a later version. Very well; one always wants the latest version. After downloading version 7.0.2 and beginning the installation, I am notified that I cannot install this version of iTunes on my current version of Mac OS X.

And I wonder why. It works on Windows, doesn't it? And XP is definitely older than OS X 10.2.8. After some investigation, I come to one conclusion:

It's going to cost me $129 to listen to the music I already paid for. iTunes will open and operate (I currently have the pre-installed version 4.9) but I can't authorize this computer so that I can play the music I purchased at the iTunes store (previously, with another computer.) So as I see it, the only solution is to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4, which, as I said before, is $129.

On second look, it's $138.99. I don't have a DVD drive, so I'll have to get the CD-ROM version for an extra $9.99.

I really don't mean to put this thing down. Maybe I'll get past that part and see what every Mac user likes so much about it. My use is still very limited and I have been using Windows for 15 years. It all takes time.

Getting My Mac On

Beth's out of town this week and I've got the house to myself. I've been cleaning, mostly, but I got this new (well, relatively new) iBook G3 and am having a time with it.

The fact that I've not used a Mac since about 1987 has a bit to do with my apprehension, and the absence of the context menu. I've told hundreds of people, "When in doubt, right click." I have repeatedly found myself in doubt with no way out, but I have resolved each issue fairly quickly.

Take for instance that aged Apple logo. Once I found it, I couldn't figure out how to save the picture to my computer. In any graphical web browser I've used, I simply have right-clicked the image (Windows and Linux) and selected "Save Image As..." or something very similar to perform this task. Not on this Mac. There is no right-click. I tried holding the button down, looking for a "copy image" function in the menus, and then it occurred to me: just drag the damn picture to the desktop, Ben. And it worked. Silly me.

But there are others yet. I still can't find my Home and End keys. I am a keyboard shortcut warrior; it's part of being lazy. I think it's why I like the UNIX/Linux terminal so much - very little physical effort. Having to move that mouse and click those buttons just to advance the cursor to the end of the line is ridiculous.

But truth be told, I like this thing. It's old (2003 iBook G3, OS X 10.2.8), but it's quiet, cool to the touch, and doesn't have any vents on the bottom. I'm blogging from bed this morning, without the worry of blocking an air vent and burning my thighs. I think I'm going to try to upgrade the OS to 10.4 soon because 10.2 doesn't support the current version of iTunes or WPA WiFi security. I'm learning new stuff every day, and I think I might keep it.