Wow! I just realized that I haven’t posted anything here in a year. A year and a few days in fact! I can’t say a lot has happened over the year, but there are a few things.
I picked up some hardware over the year.
In the spring, I got a 5 drive Drobo for storing all my important stuff. I got tired of drives dying on me in my server. So now, everything I stick on the Drobo should be nice and safe. I got the USB3 version so I can mount it directly on the server and share the files as I need to.
Next, I got myself a MacBook Air during the summer. I never thought I’d be getting an Apple laptop, but this one actually rocks! Price-wise, it actually is less than the only Windows based machine with almost similar hardware. I got the i5 model with the 256GB solid state drive so there’s lots of room to put stuff.
I used Mac-OS X Lion for about 4 months, before switching it over to Windows 7 though. I was using Fusion before the final switch, but in the end, running Windows native is just better when you’re playing with video playback.
I left Lion on there though with an 80GB partition and I can use Fusion to run the native windows that I installed on the drive. I think the only thing that still bugs me is that the FN key is on the left of CTRL. Getting used to that, along with not having real keys for page navigation makes typing and coding a little fun to get used to.
Later on, I finally got an iPhone 4S when it was released. I must say, that is the best phone I’ve ever had. It is way nicer to use than the Android HTC Touch I had before. I can actually put useful software on it and things actually work. And almost all my apps that I got for the iPad work on it too. I ended up staying on my Rogers contract since it was still the best deal out of all the vendors. I was able to keep my 6GB data plan for $30. Every other vendor was only offering 5GB for $50.
The one downgrade I ended up doing was the 120GB SSD that I put in my desktop. After having the system blue screen every few weeks with no firmware updates helping, I just pulled the drive out and turned it into an external drive. The SATA 3 drive I put into the computer is working great. Not a single blue screen in months since the switch. If I ever upgrade the motherboard on my main desktop, I’ll give it a try again. Other people have had luck with the firmware updates so I think it could just be something between it and my motherboard. The shitty Marvel SATA3 controller on my motherboard isn’t much help either. Marvel is rated at about 1/3 the speed of other SATA3 controllers, and this one doesn’t support TRIM either.
I did do one other upgrade. I got myself a 27″ monitor for my desktop. It runs at 2560×1440 resolution and is very nice to work with :^). It is so neat to open a 1920×1080 video and have it not extend past the ends of the screen. And having the extra space for Visual Studio is very nice too. I would have preferred a 30″ screen with 2560×1600 display, but that’s just way too much money still. What’s criminal though is the other 27″ monitors that only offered a 1920×1080 resolution!!! I wish that monitor makers would get off their ass and give us some real resolutions. Are you listening Samsung!!
That’s all for now!