AtomicMrX

I’ve been doing a ton of research into the pricing and options for the new computer I want to get. I’m down to trying to decide between two sellers: MacMall and Apple Store. I would like to go with MacMall because they are the cheapest and the only reason I may have to go with Apple Store is if MacMall can’t customize my purchase. So I’ve sent an email to a sales representative from MacMall asking a bunch of questions and I’ll see what response I get.

It all boils down to the Graphics Card upgrade. Apple Store shows the option on their web site but MacMall does not show it as an option on their web site. I’m hoping it is an option that you can have done, they just don’t advertise on their MacMall web site. So if MacMall does offer the Graphics Card upgrade, I’ll be going with them for the purchase of my new iMac.

I’m still waiting on my income tax return. I turned it in to the Tax Guy last Monday and they said it would take between 10 to 14 days for them to work on it. Then I go in and sign some paper work and pay them the money to do my taxes. Then there is the week or two before the automatic deposit shows up in my account. If it isn’t enough to buy the computer with and my eye glasses then I will have to hold onto the money and combine it with my “raise” in a month or two.

Speaking of glasses (how’s that for a transition). I finally got Shannon to go with me and try on eye glasses at the Optometrist. I went in a couple of weeks back and a nice girl helped me but I can not see a darn thing without my glasses on so trying on new frames is almost useless. So I dragged Shannon along to take a look and give me an opinion of what looks good on me. I got about six pair picked out and then we narrowed it down to two pairs that look good and that I like. I think I have pretty much made up my mind and will go with the Black pair that has a square ear bar and has gray and white squares on the the ear bars. The other pair is kind of a copper or dark gold look and it just doesn’t fit as nicely on my face and I think I like the black frames on my face more. Both are the kind that have the frame along the top of the glass but nothing along the bottom of it.

Now I just have to wait till income tax or raise money to come in to get my eye exam and then purchase the frames. Oh, and both frames are very close to the estimated frame expense she made for me the first trip in. So everything should still cost about $450.00. That is for: frames, lenses, computer anti-glare coating, no-line bifocals, eye exam, and scratch resistant coating.

Now it is just a waiting game.

Here are some images of the 20″ iMac that I want to buy with income tax return money. If you click on the smaller image a larger image will appear.

This is the front of the computer. Yes, I said the computer. This is it… no tower, this ain’t “just” the monitor… it is the whole computer and only about 1.5″ deep.

This is the side view which shows the CD/DVD port. Yep that little slit is where the disks go. Way cool!

Here is the back view and shows the connections. I could opt for a wireless keyboard and mouse ($60.00 more) and then there would be even less cables… but then again there is the money. I’ll stick to the tethered keyboard and mouse that comes with… free.

The slit along the top on the back view is the heat vent. Also I might add it comes with speakers - you just can’t see them in any of the pictures. The speakers are on the bottom edge of the “monitor” and are designed to bounce the sound off the desk surface. I know… cool!

I wish I could get the 24″ but that would be about $600.00 more. However it would be a better graphics card - a whole step up in fact.

The more research I do on Vista, the more I just want to get XP Pro installed instead. Cost is one thing, but even my IT PC friend Greg is having a headache over Vista Home Pro. That is what scares me. He had to send his partners Del laptop back because of weird stuff happening to it.

I have a couple of months to decide so I’ll keep looking at the research. I’m hoping to time it just right and get the new Mac OS 10.5 installed on the iMac. It’s suppose to be launching (in the rumor mills) February 20th, so that is another key factor in the waiting game. I would love to have Mac OS 10.5 and Vista Home Pro along with Parallels all pre-installed when I purchase. We’ll see.

I got up at 8:00 AM, showered and started laundry. Breakfast consisted of a bannana (not much in the house right now for breakfast). Logged into the computer and started in on the usual surfing and daily blog reading while I waited for Shannon to get up and get ready for work.

After dropping Shannon off at work I proceeded to Lee’s Summit to pick up his Sugar Free Black Berry Pie he ordered the night before at Neighbor’s Cafe. Their pies are only $9.00 and completely home made! Thank goodness I wasn’t planning on eating at Neighbor’s Cafe because they were packed and had a huge waiting list.

After picking up the pie I went on further into Lee’s Summit to their big Walmart. Picked up Valentine Cards and looked at Corelle dishes. We are running out of dishes - they are breaking or chipping away. Time for new stuff! I took pictures of two designs that I liked and tried to find a lunch box to replace my broken zippered and torn lining lunch box. No luck on the lunch box… all way too small.

On the way out of Lee’s Summit I stopped at Shanghiboy and picked up some meals for Shannon and me. Lunch and several dinners for me and dinner for Shannon. They give you so much food you can easily stretch it into several meals (except if your Shannon - then it’s one meal). I got Kung Poa Chicken and also Chicken Fried Rice, Shannon got Kung Poa Shrimp with extra peanuts.

Then it was on to the automatic car wash to get all the salt off the car! It had been three days since the windshield had been put in so it was safe to do. They did a great job and I felt so relieved to have a green car again rather than a crusty white car!

Once I got home it was time to eat and then I jumped on the computer to get caught up on several projects. I had six properties to post for Ronson Real Estate Services web site and I had to prepare all the art for Februarys publication on St. Joseph’s AD-Venture web site. After all that it was time to organize the computer desk area. Talk about piles of paper that didn’t want to get filed - apparently. I also went through all the files and got rid of a bunch of old stuff and organized it all up so I hopefully use it instead of “pile it.”

After dinner (Chinese left overs) I did a Flash tutorial and then went into the living room to relax and watch some TV before picking up Shannon from work.

A very productive day!

Well, I have gotten off the road to blogging lately and I need to get back on! I have had stuff to say - just too lazy to say it.

Today was very productive! I made a new Automator plug-in for a folder so that when I drop photos or folders of photos on to it - it will automatically open up each file and size and resolution changes and save it for the web, then move all contents of the drop folder to an images folder in another location. Then all I have to do is add that content to a web page in Dreamweaver and upload. It is making weekly updates to Ronson Real Estate much easier!!! Say hello to Otto (pictured on the right), he’s the Automator that comes with Mac OS X!

I’ve been wanting to use the Automator application for awhile but just never sat down to figure it out. I did a search on the web about it and came across a site that has a bunch of Automator Actions for Photoshop and shows you how to get started. That helped greatly!

It feels like I’ve worked all weekend! I spent all Saturday afternoon and evening on “Let’s go there - BLOG” for David Simpson. He registered his new domains and now it was time for me to remember how to set up a new server space and get all the DNS numbers talking nicely to each other.

Once that was done (not an easy task, either!) it was time to download his blog that I had kept stored in a folder on my web space (to test it out and stuff). I had to try and keep all the changes, adjustments, improvements I made to his blog on my server and upload that content to the new space.

It all went rather smoothly. That is until I tried to log into the new web space blog that I copied from my test space and uploaded to the new space. It didn’t work. I had to go through a partial install to get it to recognize it was on the new space. That means all the content isn’t recognized either. It kept getting worse. This was all taking place late Saturday night after working all day practically on his stuff.

Now came the fun part. I had to open two browser windows. One for the new space and one for the old test space. Then it was: make look identical. I had to make sure the new space had all the same files and no extra files. Then make sure the file names were correct for the new space and not linked to the old space. Then copy and past from the old space into the files on the new space so the content of the files was correct. Sounds like a fun Saturday night, huh?!

Which brings us (me) to Sunday morning. Okay, none of the “articles” or “entries” came over in the move. So what I did to the files in making them identical is going to happen to 112 files for the articles. Yea, it is going to be a fun morning! At least with these I just have to click “new entry” on the new space and then in another browser window have the old space entries open and copy and past into the new entry window. Assign it the same category as the old entry and save, 112 times.

Want to see my progress (or lack of it?) then go here: LetsGoThereBLOG