I’d say that it began in July 2002. My wife Eliza and I like to catch the live Apple Keynote’s whenever we can. The July 2002 broadcast introduced the iMac 17″ flat panel, preloaded with OS X. I mentioned to Eliza that I thought that this would be a great machine to get acquainted with Apple’s products. Seeing some of the functionality of OS X, I knew that I wanted to get in somehow and the iMac seemed like a cool piece of hardware to being that journey.

On August 27th 2002, at Carrabba’s Bar and Grille in Orlando, Florida – Eliza and I exchanged anniversary gifts. I am not going to mention my gift, because over the last 4+ years of marriage (now 7+ years as of this writing), Eliza has always outdone me in the gift department. But I digress. So she hands me a small box as my anniversary gift. I open the wrapping, tip the box to dump the contents, and I am greeted with a small packet of some type of chemical used to keep the contents of a package “dry”. Hmmm.

You can ask Eliza, I put the box down thinking that there was no gift in the box. She told me to pick it up and look inside. I did. Inside was a small, cut out, paper iMac. Again I just stared at it, having no clue what it symbolized. And then I looked up at her and realized that she had actually gotten me an iMac for our anniversary. It literally took me 30 seconds to figure it out. I was floored.

At first, Eliza thought that I wasn’t excited about the gift. On the contrary, I was unable to process the reality that I now owned an iMac. Or even the fact that she bought me such an elaborate and expensive gift. Never did I expect this gift. Truly one of the biggest surprises I have ever received in my life. It’s not everyday that your truly surprised. Even on days when you expect to be surprised, you usually have an inkling as to what is coming.

Excitement turned into absolute torture as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to play with my new toy till after our vacation. Imagine this and put yourself in my shoes. Twelve-hundred miles from home, having driven instead of flown, and about 4 days from heading for home. Little did I know, the iMac was waiting for me at home already. Ugh! Matt (who was with us in Florida too) and Eliza both can attest to the fact that I was in extreme pain for the entire ride home. Picture this, I drove the better part of the trip home, and then didn’t go to bed for a few days as I played with the iMac. Literally.

To Eliza: Thank you for one of the greatest gifts ever. You are truly the best gift giver, and maybe someday I can surprise you as you’ve surprised me for so many years. I love you.

It has now been a almost 5 years since I’ve delved into the Mac OS and I have yet to turn back. I owe my computing bliss to Eliza.

“I Can’t Drive 55″ – Sammy Hagar. For the duration of my driving life, this was my religion. I quite often would exceed the speed limit to the point of wondering why there even was one. I’ve had an epiphany. Driving the speed limit is actually useful, and has many benefits. Once again, I’ll elaborate.

Recently, I had to take a short trip to Wilkes-Barre – which takes me exactly 45 minutes. I’ll explain my use of the word exactly momentarily, for now take my word for it. I decided just prior to going, for reasons that I will keep to myself that are above and beyond the reasons stated in this post, that I would shelf my racing gloves for this trip. So, how long will it take me to get to Wilkes-Barre going the speed limit nearly the entire way? I’m glad you asked.

Benefit #1: Consistent speeds expedite travel time calculations.

I am taking for granted that going the speed limit will allow for greater consistency of average speed over large distances. But I have a few reasons to back up this assumption. 1) The simple fact that going 85MPH is not legal will sometimes cause inconsistencies in speed. For example, when driving through an area that is known to have police officers in parked police cars waiting for people going 85 you will inevitably slow down. 2) Most cars (unless modified) are not meant to take corners at 85. 3) Weather and road conditions may sometimes inhibit going 85.

So, full-well-knowing that I’d be averaging 65 on my way to Wilkes-Barre, and knowing the distance between my house and my destination allowed for concise calculation of travel time. So, I was able to burn a new CD (more on this later) which was timed out so that I could listen to all the songs without missing a song, nor listening to one twice, for the amount of time it would take to get to my destination. Which was pretty cool.

Being almost out of gas didn’t help either. With gas prices on the rise, I wanted to see if I could save a few cents on gas. Buying gas in Wilkes-Barre has almost always proved to be slightly cheaper than buying it locally. Not that I don’t want to support local businesses, but when it comes to gas, the best price wins my patronage.

Benefit #2: Fuel efficiency.

Most cars, not all, are rated for their best gas mileage at 65mph. This means that your car will use less fuel and maintain a cooler temperature running at said speed. This is not usually due to horsepower, but rather gearing. American made cars are generally geared to be most efficient at the average highway speed of 65. Whereas German produced vehicles, which can take advantage of the Autobahn, are geared for higher speeds. The difference between most consumers vehicles is in fact; gearing ratio.

Of course, on occasion there is some mandatory maintenance to automobiles. The oil should be changed from time-to-time, tires rotated/replaced, and many other little fixins’. Just recently I had a transmission take a mechanical poop on me, due to misuse and time.

Benefit #3: Less aggravated wear and tear.

If you don’t push a machine to it’s limits, and operate it within certain parameters set out by the manufacturer; chances are the machine will last longer. For instance, push the Channel up (+ or ^) on your Television remote control 5 times. Pushing it again, you should get the same results the 6th time. The remote control was designed for each of it’s buttons to be pushed many times, even rapidly at times. Now, hit the same button 1 more time, this time applying about 1,500lbs. of pressure. No doubt, the remote will break into a few hundred pieces. My point? Cars are designed with specific purposes in mind. Exceeding those purposes can put a huge amount of strain on the car. Do you know how much your car weighs? Look it up sometime – you’ll drop to your knees and kiss your break pads once you see what they actually slow down and stop.

In my region of the Blue Planet, we don’t have an extraordinary amount of endangered species. However, you could actually save a species from extinction by how fast your traveling. Over the edge? Exaggeration? Not hardly. I can almost guarantee that more White Tailed Deer are killed each year by car then all the hunters in our area. Our drivers are far more efficient with a bumper than they are with an arrow or bullet.

Benefit #4: Saving the whales.

I don’t drive on water, but you get my point. When a car is tested before sale, there are certain specs that a car is graded for. Things like acceleration, braking etc. Some manufacturers even release information such as “feet to stop”. So I would know that if I was traveling at 65, and literally slammed on the brakes, I would stop within 25 feet (not an actual or educated guess, just an example). If I was going 85, it would take 40 feet, let’s say. If an animal jumps out at you and your going 85, chances are your going home with some meat. Or a truck will have to bring your car home.

There are many more benefits, that I don’t need to elaborate on. Stating the cons will then reflect the pros, as I will do below.

• Speeding Tickets
• Tire wear
• Accidents

These are just a few.

When it comes to tailgating Chris used to be an expert. I wanted to keep tailgating separate from speed, as you do not need to speed to tailgate.

What is tailgating? For those of you unfamiliar with this term, tailgating is when you drive entirely too close to the car in front of you, leaving very little room for error. Although I am not an advocate of this behavior, I am certainly not innocent. I’ve caught myself on more than one occasion being able to read the odometer of the driver ahead of me. Exaggerating? Yes. But I am sure that Chris has been able to determine whether the driver ahead of him had eaten garlic that day or not. He drives so close that sometimes he asks the driver if he minded him changing radio stations.

More to the point, tailgating allows for very little room for error. This error may not be your own mind you, other drivers are of more danger to you than yourself. Of this you can be sure. If a driver all of the sudden decides that he/she wanted to turn down the road that they are currently passing, and slams on the breaks, your SOL. This happened to me on the way to work one morning, fortunately I was just far enough away that only our bumpers touched. I knew in the back of my mind I had been fortunate, because I was going faster than I should have been. The woman in front of me realized that it was her fault for slamming on the breaks, and so she was very nice about the situation. In our state, as far as I am aware, if you hit someone from behind it’s almost always your fault.

I didn’t set out to make a point, or to change anyone’s habits. Yet – I am going to make a concerted effort to slow down, back up and take it easy. Leaving early, planning the trip and keeping a clear head are all good actions of protection.

[tags]life, driving, good form, repost[/tags]

Scott and Nyke performing
Borders in Dickson City, PA in 2004

After watching him I wrote:

Scott played some Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews and Howie Day all while mixing in some of his own stuff. His own stuff wasn’t too bad, and after listening to his entire album I’d say he’s pretty good. Certainly not as well rounded as the aforementioned artists, but what he put together along with his Violinist, was definitely a nice sound. Only took like 7 photos total, here’s 1 of them.

I now know that his violinist is Nyke Van Wyk. Check out Scott’s web site if you want to catch him perform sometime.

[tags]scott mckenna, borders, nyke van wyk, music, photos, repost[/tags]

My wife has a problem. An addiction if you will. Not to pain killers, alcohol or any drugs for that matter, but rather to deals. Allow me to explain.

My wife’s skill set is a three-pronged sword. First, she is very good at locating ‘deals’ for food, and many other various items. Secondly, she is very good at using coupons to the fullest extent the law allows in order to bring the price of an item very near to $0.00 or below (amazing). However, the third piece to this astounding puzzle is her ability to occasionally combine these long sought after deals with a coupon to make a deal to top all deals. Further explanation is needed.

In the 4 years and almost 8 months that we’ve been married, she’s probably only spent $12.00 at the supermarket. Ok, that’s exaggerating, but the amount of money that we spend at the store would stagger even the thriftiest and most frugal person. For example, a few years back she saw the opportunity to get 2-liters of Dr. Pepper for around .8 a piece. Utilizing the coupon found underneath the Dr. Pepper label itself, and combining it with a deal that allowed for coupons to be doubled to the amount of $1.00 – this would mean that you’d only have to pay tax (pretty much) on each bottle of soda. Taking advantage of the situation, she was quick to clear out our local market of all their Dr. Pepper in a matter of minutes, and doing the same for the next few weeks.

“It’s a hobby!” – Eliza Devroe

Sure it is, but a hobby well done. Currently Eliza and I will not have to buy the following items for several years, perhaps our lifetimes – Soap, Laundry Detergent, Toothpaste, Hair Gel, Deodorant, Dawn Dissolver, Dawn Complete, Lightbulbs, Cat Food / Liter, Windex, Shaving Gel, Razors, Toothbrushes, Fabric Softner, Hand Cream, Paper plates / cups / napkins, Shampoo, Brisk Iced-tea, Tropicana Lemonade (pink or yellow), Zip-lock bags (various sizes), Mr. Clean, Pine-sol, Toilet paper, Paper towels, Sun tan lotion, Fantastic, Clorox (few varieties), Flea Killer, Conditioner, Spot-shot, Off (bug spray), Sponges, Clorox Wipes, Windex Wipes, Orange Clean Wipes, Bandaids, Powder, Vacuum Bags, Toothbrush Cleaner (?), Cereal (all types), Tea, Coffee, Hot cocoa mix, Vicks 44m, NyQuil, Tylenol (both gel caps and capsuls), Bayer, Motrin IB, Whisker Lickins’ (cat treats), and most recently CapriSun.

I am sure that there are many more items that I left out, and perhaps she could fill you in on the rest via her comments. A note about the CapriSun, I did a quick tally of our current stock pile and it appears that we have roughly 3,037.5 ounces of CapriSun that she’s aquired over the last few days. That is not counting those that are cooling in the fridge at the moment, nor the probably countless amounts that she’s given to her Mother and various other people along the way.

This message is an Ode to a talent. A talent which I do not possess, nor could stand it if I had. The relentless drive that keeps my wife going is nothing short of divine. It’s this divine drive that sometimes has my wife going through Wal-mart, Wegmans, Weiss (wow, never noticed it was WWW) and various other stores in the wee-hours of the morning.

Is it worth it? That’s something that she will have to comment on. For me, my contribution is little more than none. She thinks that I am embarrassed at her dime-a-day habit, however this message is being posted to prove that I am not. The fact that she does ‘the work she was put here to do’ is probably the reason that I’ve eaten well for the past 4+ years. Some would say too well, but that’s my fault and my fault alone.

To Eliza: Thanks!

[tags]coupons, deals, discounts, eliza devroe, repost[/tags]

Mr. Jobs I must appologize for my ignorance and arrogance. I love my iMac, I really do, but I have always had problems with this or that. Not with the computer itself, mostly just connecting to my other computer. Well, today I decided to read the documents on your well design website. Side note: Your website is always fast, and reliable even though a large percentage of the Internet population downloads movie trailers, and now music from it. Kudos.

After reading few docs about connecting my iMac to the PC, I found it incredibly easy to do so. My sincerest appologies for ever doubting.

Your friend, and future 100% switcher,
Colin

I still find it pretty funny how long it took me to switch fully to Macintosh and how now I’m still mad at myself for being on the OS for so long. For any of you on the fence, pick a day and switch – you’ll not regret it.

[tags]apple, macintosh, imac g4, steve jobs, letter, repost, pc, mac os x[/tags]

This article was first posted to Business Logs, almost exactly as you see it below, and was also featured in a magazine.

Speaking from experience, using buzzwords can actually do you more harm than good, especially when you have no idea what you’re talking about.

This topic has been documented before and I’m probably reiterating the feelings of many with this article but I was recently pushed over the edge on this whole “I used Ajax to build this product so it must be good” attitude that we’re seeing so much.

To use an analogy, let’s look at the automobile. An automobile, for most is a “device” which carries yourself and your family from point A to point B. Unless you’re an enthusiast, or a grease-monkey ( I use this term with the utmost respect because I used to be one ), your vehicle is just something you use for this service. Typically when buying a new vehicle, you’ll check consumer reports and various other resources to be sure that the car you’re buying is stable, safe, and will do well for the area you live in or the purposes you need it for. I’d say that most consumers rarely “look under the hood” and buy automobiles specifically because it uses a specific motor spec, or transmission technology. In other words, most people do not care what is in the car, just that the car performs well.

The same should be for Web applications or services. The fact that the product or service was built using Ajax, Ruby on Rails, or any other popular buzz-worthy technology should be of little consequence if your product or service is useful, usable, feature-rich, and stable.

When using a service like eBay, which millions of people use each and every day, do you think that people care what technologies eBay is using to bring its service to their customers? Not at all. On the contrary, the only thing that customers of eBay care about is uptime and stability. As long as the service works for the duration of their usage, and is always available, they could care less what is going on behind-the-scenes. I believe the same applies to my automobile analogy. Unless your car fails to start in the morning, chances are you’ll never care about what is going on under the hood.

The buzzword trap

Misusing buzzwords can also trap you. Stepping away from product-marketing using buzzwords for a moment, let’s suppose that you’ve added all of the most recent buzz words to your resume and turned it in to several companies. You could be trapped the very moment that you’re called to task on any one of those technologies.

When I said “speaking from experience” I was not talking about myself. There was a time I had a job where my boss was put in his position based solely on his use of buzzwords. Every person under him knew it, as did he. Several times he was called out on not knowing what he claimed to, and each time that happened his credibility and value was eaten away. It was not long before those that were under him, were moved into position higher than he – including me.

Market your product to those that need it

Using buzzwords to market your product is not a bad idea. It just narrows your audience so much that you’re probably missing out on the big picture. By defining your product in simple, easy-to-understand terms, you’ll capture the entire audience. You won’t leave anyone out in the cold, wondering what your service does. By marketing in this manner you will end up marketing your product to those that need it not just to those that think its “cool” that you’ve used a specific technology to pull it off.

This isn’t to say that some products are specifically built for programmers and the best bit of marketing you might have for your product is to drop buzzwords. For those situations I suppose its fitting. However, if the only thing your product has going for it is the fact that you’ve used Ajax, don’t expect it to get much attention after the initial buzz-burst.