Stupid Sucks!

During the day I work as a graphic designer at a local newspaper and I work on…. wait…. I’m not sure if I can say it…… Windows … 2000.

Now, you can’t really blame the newspaper because not every company can afford to buy the latest and greatest and believe me, this company does try.

As a designer though, it’s the equivalent of working without a soul…

It’s always amazing to me at just how much more inspired I am to be creative as soon as I get home and jump on my iMac, crank up the tunes (iTunes isn’t allowed at work so I use my iPod) and get into the mood Apple products inspire.

They really are much more conducive to creativity than… well, I don’t even need to say it (windows).

I don’t have Apple’s newest operating system (leopard) but tiger alone puts any version of windows to shame. I mean, I just don’t have the problems I used to have with windows, and I’m a pretty advanced user. I always manged to fix whatever arose but seriously, why deal with that? I just don’t have problems on my iMac (ok, I lie, games aren’t exactly Mac friendly).

Here are 10 reasons why people should switch and give Mac’s a shot:

• They’re conducive to creativity and fun
• They’re easy and intuitive
• Your mac isn’t going to get sick from all the viruses running around the internet
• Macs don’t come with all that extra crapware (crap software) installed that is a total pain to get rid of.
• They come with software that is useful, works and isn’t annoying.
• Macs can run anything a PC can
• Mac users are apparently smarter
  
• Installing and Removing applications is so simple a 5 year old can do it
• Everyone I know that has made the switch vows they will never go back and wished they had switched sooner.
• You don’t have to defrag macs

Those are just a few, here is a list of 50 reasons. Want 10 reasons to upgrade to a PC though?

Top Ten Reasons for Upgrading to a PC instead of a Mac:

• You enjoy reading computer manuals
• Buying parts ‘not included’ is your idea of being patriotic
• Blaming it on the PC is a great excuse… for anything
• Tech support is your idea of telephone dating
• Your favorite computer game is figuring out where your files are
• You look forward to today’s new virus (or worm, or both)
• You like listening to telephone support hold-button music
• Letting the kids play on the Mac next door frees your time (eliminates after-school kid sitters)
• You think Bill Gates deserves the money
• You have nothing better to do with all the extra time

I thought this video was pretty hilarious!

Why is it that old people are so resistant to learning new things? Specifically the common technologies available today. Ok, even people that aren’t old are like that but what gives? Our elders should know by now that learning is part of life.

What I really don’t understand is how people can go around not realizing that by being so resistant to learning new technology, they put themselves at risk for being useless. Ok, thats a little harsh but there is some truth in it. read more…

This is great! I found this list on The Java Me Blog and having a techy background I thought it was pretty funny and very true. Even if you don’t work in as IT but you are generally more knowledgeable about technology….this applies to you. I sure know it applies to me.

1. If you ask me technical questions please don’t argue with me because you don’t like my answer. If you think you know more about the topic, why ask? And if I’m arguing with you…it’s because I am positive that I am correct, otherwise I’d just say “I don’t know” or give you some tips on where to look it up, I don’t have the time to just argue for the sake of it. read more…

While researching some other web technology today I kept running across mentions of Drop.io Now, I actually came across Drop.io about a month ago. I took a peek at it and set it aside for later. ….and then I forgot about it.

Well, now that I’ve come across it again I thought i’d take some extra time to really see what can be done with it and what they have to offer. I have to say that thus far I’m really impressed. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it works…really well.

The first thing you’re going to notice (since it’s the entire point of drop.io) is the file storage/sharing capabilities. It’s simple, name your drop, upload your files, pick your settings (super simple) …and drop it!

They don’t ask for an email, you don’t have to go through any sign-up, and it’s fast. Once you choose your drop name and drop it, you go right into the drop (account). As the front page will tell you, you’ll see in your drop that you can do so much more than upload and download files.

Drop.io sets you up with an email address that you can send notes and files to, a voice mail number, the capability to setup a conference call and faxing. So here’s a breakdown:

• Email Address: You can send text for a note or attachments to upload files
• Voicemail: Simple, call your voice mail number, punch in the extension, and leave yourself a message. It will save the message as an mp3 in your drop that you can listen to, share, etc.
• Conference Call: I haven’t tried this one but you have a number setup as your conference call line.
• Receive a fax: You can have people send you faxes, which show up in your drop. They have to print out a cover letter with a special section at the bottom but thats a minor inconvenience.
• Send a fax: I really like this feature. You can easily just send a fax from a .pdf or .doc to anyone in the US.

So thats the gist of the list of features. There are a couple other minor ones like adding links, notes, etc. The last two things I want to mention are premium and widget.

You only get 100MB for free. I know that is not nearly enough for getting some of the files I handle moved around but thankfully you can upgrade the service to 1GB for $10. That also upgrades the drop life to last 1 year. The point of Drop.io isn’t long term storage or large storage, it’s a quick “drop” space but I have a feeling it will turn into much more than that. One thing they don’t mention anywhere except on the “Custom” page is you can purchase more space.

Now about the widget! I don’t like having to go to the drop site every time I want to upload a file. I don’t like having to tell person after person the drop address either. Thats where the widget comes in. Just get the code snipet for your widget and put it in your site.

You can even customize the widget a little bit (assuming you know a little html and css) which is easy. The image above is an example (the View Drop button was added). You can also have the look customized by Drop.io

So there ya have it! Quite a useful site, even for those old faxing goobers out there. This is definitely something aiding the fight against stupid!

There is a particular phrase I hear pretty frequently that just drives me nuts. “Because we’ve always done it that way.” That makes me want to rip my hair out. What makes people think that just because something has always been done a certain way that is must continue being done that way? read more…

Yesterday my girlfriend and I thought we’d try a new local restaurant called Thai House. They recently held their grand opening here in Moscow, Idaho. Now I don’t go out to eat frequently since I’m not big on spending $50 for food I could either make myself or eat better for 1/4 that price. So every time I go out to eat at somewhere I’m usually very critical of everything as I’m usually thinking it’s a total waste of money. That being said, here is my review of Thai House.

1. The location is great (In the Moscow Hotel). It’s right down town in Moscow and not far from the local bars. Thats a plus for the college students and locals looking for an affordable sit down restaurant. +1

2. Upon entering Thai House the first thing you’ll notice is the Sushi bar with what appears to be a pretty nice selection of beer (although I don’t drink). There was a little girl sitting at the bar (on the sushi side of course) which was very cute but a little worrisome that she wasn’t accompanied by an adult (the first indication of a family owned joint). +0 (little girl alone at bar cancels out the cool sushi bar)

3. Right to the left of the little girl was where someone would usually take your reservation or seat you… but there was nobody in sight (except of course customers at tables). It looked a fairly busy before we walked in so it was no surprise. A few minutes later someone appeared and got us seated. +0

4. You could tell they were understaffed because we walked by 3 uncleaned tables and were seated at a table that looked like it was washed in a hurry. Every employee we saw was in a hurry and we even spotted the chef serving tables to help out. It kind of seemed like some of them were related so I’m guessing it’s a family owned business. Making matters worse, there were 3 tables in sight that hadn’t had their orders taken yet and took nearly 15-20 minutes for that to happen and it was very sporadic (not all at one time). -1

5. One of the things I’m most critical about in a restaurant is the period of time it takes between being seated and someone taking our order. The first thing I like to see is having drinks served right away and something like bread sticks served to occupy us while we wait. We waited 35-45 minutes before someone came over. -2

6. The employees were very polite although too rushed. They didn’t rush us however and I liked that. They wanted to make sure they did whatever they could for us. +1

7. From the time our orders were taken to the time the appetizers arrived my girlfriend and I had a nice little discussion about being patient in restaurants. She is very patient and I am very…not. I was a little surprised to see that our appetizers arrived a short 10-15 minutes after we ordered them. +1

8. Here is where Thai House really racked up the good review points. The appetizer was…simply amazing. <- If there was a smiley face that was drooling I would have used that! I can’t even remember what we ordered (I do remember it was #5 on the menu though) but it was some kind of seasoned chicken with a peanut butter dip.

My expectations were low and the first bite resulted in the response, “Oh my God, that is delicious!” That was before I even tried the peanut butter dip, which only made it better. +2

9. Next up was our actual meals which arrived once the staff noticed we had finished our appetizers. It was maybe a 3-5 minute wait, which seemed like a good response time considering how things looked for other people. +1 (good response for us, terrible for others who had been there long before us.)

10. Now, for the main meal, I had the Rama Satay (beef with peanut butter spread on top, white rice, and chow mein) and I can’t really remember what my girlfriend had I wasn’t sure what to expect after the appetizers but I was impressed. There was way too much of the peanut butter spread but it was still delicious. Overall it was a very tasty meal and a pretty good serving size. Audrey liked her meal just as much as I liked mine. We even dropped a compliment to the chef. +3

11. Cleaning up the table once we were finished was quite weak but I kind of expected it. They looked like they were trying hard and doing the best they could. Not bad I guess since they just opened and had what appeared to be an excellent turnout (probably much more than they expected). +0

12. They brought us our check in a timely manner but we were left wondering if we were supposed to bring it to the front or if they were going to come back and get my card to charge it. After about 5-10 minutes someone came and grabbed the card and brought us boxes for the leftovers we didn’t finish (I hate it when I do that but it was a decent sized meal ). They brought the receipt back for me to sign but didn’t bring a pen. The server walked away so quickly I couldn’t even catch him unless I had yelled. I asked the next server that walked by for a pen, which also scooted off pretty quick after handing me one. I signed the receipt and was on my way. -1

Cons

• Poor service
• Pretty long wait time
• Not very clean or organized
• Understaffed

Pros

• Great tasting food (good enough that I will definitely return)
• Nice, friendly environment
• Polite staff that was trying very hard (I think that shows potential given time)

Point Score = +5 (out of 15 possible)