With the struggles I have had trying to procure a MacPadd mouse pad (I still have not received it and continue to try and work with the manufacturer to finally take delivery of the mouse pad I purchased), I finally decided that I just could not wait any longer and needed to find something.

While I would love to continue waiting for delivery of the mouse pad I bought, I have to move on especially now that I have a glass top desk. As everyone knows, the laser mice that are popular on the market now just don’t work on a glass surface or if they do the performance is lackluster to say the least.

I started by assessing what my requirements were for a mouse pad. I know, it is kind of sad that I would take the time to list requirements for something as simple as a mouse pad. But given the amount of time I work on the computer, the last thing I wanted was to introduce a point of frustration into my workflow.

As a graphic and web designer it is imperative that the mouse track well. Accurate mouse movement is imperative especially when I am retouching photographs or designing graphics.

Another important criterion is mouse pad real estate. There is nothing worse than running to the edge of a too small mouse pad in the middle of a critical edit.

Finally I am looking for durability. I have gone through more than my share of neoprene mouse pads where the cover peels away from the pad itself making the mouse surface uneven.

Once I had the requirements list I began searching for mouse pad options. After looking at several sites and visiting several local stores I finally came home with what I think will work well for my needs.

I settled on the Rocketfish Gaming Mouse Pad. Gaming is about the lowest thing on my priority list and to be honest I haven’t played a game on my computer since Zork was popular.

Despite its name, the Rocketfish Gaming Mouse Pad is not just for people intent on piling up the body count in a video game. It is designed for high performance as well as precise mouse movement making it perfect for artists and designers.

The mouse pad itself is fairly large giving you ample space to move your mouse even when you have a 24 inch monitor. The pad itself measures approximately 10 inches by 13 inches.

The Rocketfish mouse pad is actually two pads. On one side the surface is designed for quick response and fast mouse movements. This is perfect if you want to quickly move around the screen.

Flipping the pad over gives it another surface that is designed for accuracy, perfect for when you are working with precise image file edits. While you may sacrifice a bit of speed, you more than make up for it with a surface that precisely tracks mouse movements.

In the few days I have used this mouse pad I have quickly become a big fan. Its expansive surface is perfect for the large desktop areas afforded by today’s monitors. Having a dual surface comes into play a lot more than I anticipated.

I find myself flipping the pad over depending on the type of work I am predominately doing. That’s not to say I have to flip it over, to be honest either side works well for most tasks. The control surface just gives me a little more peace of mind making me wonder if there really is that much of a difference or if it is more of a mental edge.

If you find yourself looking for a new mouse pad I would definitely recommend the Rocketfish Gaming Mouse Pad. Now if I could just get them to offer different edge colors it would be perfect.

It has been ten days since Microsoft introduced Windows 7 to the world. Within the first 24 hours I had purchased the Family Pack that allowed me to upgrade three computers to Windows 7 Home Premium. I eagerly waited for delivery of the Family Pack to bring my home computers up to this new operating system.

Trying to determine the appropriate upgrade path to get to Windows 7 is not the easiest thing in the world. Microsoft has multiple versions of the operating system and a multi-column matrix that is supposed to help you figure out which version you need. Much of this is determined by what operating system you are currently running.

When Microsoft introduced Vista, there was a lot of discussion about how difficult the company made it by having so many different versions of their operating system to choose from. When Windows 7 was introduced, they took that to heart and reduced the number of versions; or so they say.

Windows 7 comes in four different flavors: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Of course each of these versions also comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Then of course you have decide if you need a full version or an upgrade so there is a staggering 12 different permutations to choose from. Not exactly a recipe for a good customer experience.

I had initially decided I would install Windows 7 Professional as it seemed to have the features I was interested in including having VPN access and bit-locker for when I need to work remotely. Unfortunately Microsoft does not offer a multi-pack of that version pushing me instead to Home Premium.

The Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack provides you with three licenses to install the software on three computers that already have some version of Microsoft Windows loaded upon them. If you have new computers or if your computers are running a different operating system then the Family Pack licenses are not supposed to work.

I say not supposed to since these are upgrade licenses meaning it is assumed a previous version of Windows is present. There are tutorials on the Internet that will show you how to get around this stipulation but to be in compliance with the license you should have a previous version of Windows.

That being said, it should be noted that unless you are doing an upgrade from Vista, you really aren’t upgrading as much as you are erasing the hard drive and starting over with Windows 7. The Upgrade option in the software only recognizes existing hard drive partitions containing Vista.

If you are running Windows XP or below, you are forced to do a “Custom Install” which basically overwrites your Windows installation installing Windows 7 in its place. This means you will lose all your data from your hard drive so it is imperative that you back-up before beginning this “upgrade”.

Before I actually installed the software I ran the Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see what software or hardware would not run or needed to be upgraded. On every one of the computers I tried the upgrade advisor stated that my video card was incompatible with the Aero interface.

It did not matter what video card I tried, ATI or nVidia, or the level of GPU, all of the configurations stated that I could not run the Aero interface. After a search on the Internet I found that in all cases the GPU was indeed compatible and worked fine with Aero. This of course put into question whether any of the information provided by the Upgrade Advisor was accurate.

The days of people having a single computer in their house have long since past for most people. It is not uncommon for a household to have several computers. In our case each member of the family has their own computer meaning we have six computers in our house. Three of the computers are running Mac OS X while three are under Windows.

When Apple introduced Snow Leopard I was able to buy a family pack that provided five licenses to run the new operating system. I was hoping that Microsoft would do something similar. I was relieved to find that Microsoft would offer a family pack but only for Windows 7 Home Premium. Further the licenses were limited to three rather than Apple’s five.

The cost of the Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack was set at $149.95 which is only $30 more than a single license of Windows 7 Home Premium. Of course it is $100 more than the Apple OS X Snow Leopard Family Pack and contains two fewer licenses so the deal is relative.

The Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack contains both 32-bit and 64-bit versions so that was a welcomed relief. The Windows 7 Ultimate version that I received contained only the 32-bit version. When I contacted Microsoft for the 64-bit I was told I needed to send in the 32-bit DVD and wait 30-60 days for a new disc and even then they could not promise I would receive one.

I started with my daughter’s computer which was running Windows XP Professional. Her computer had an AMD dual-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, an ATI video card, and a 320GB hard disk. The upgrade began and I sat back waiting for it to complete. In the middle the screen turned blue and the computer hung up. Finally after three hours I rebooted. The upgrade continued and completed normally after the restart.

I thought things were ok but when I tried to install Microsoft Office 2007 it failed with several errors about not having access to write to the registry. After another two hours trying various things to get Office 2007 to load I finally gave up.

I deleted the disk partition where Windows 7 was installed and created a new partition. After doing this I started the Windows 7 upgrade again and this time it went without issue. I was able to install Office 2007 and other applications. I have no idea what happened during the first upgrade but I was finally successful.

The next computer I upgraded was my son’s small form factor Shuttle with an Intel dual-core processor, 4 GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, and integrated graphics which was running Windows XP Professional.

In this case I ran the utility to transfer users and settings to an external hard drive. The transfer program worked well but you need to be careful. The application does not appear to differentiate between two hard drives so all of his music that was located on a second hard drive was transferred to the external hard drive.

I upgraded this computer to 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. Since I was running Windows XP it erased the existing Windows system and installed Windows 7. This upgrade went without incident and once completed worked flawlessly.

I ran the transfer utility again and it gave me errors that there was not enough room to restore the users and settings. After some troubleshooting I realized that the utility was attempting to restore his music that was located on a separate hard drive onto the Windows 7 boot drive. Once I told the transfer utility to only restore users and settings it completed successfully.

The final system I upgraded had Vista Ultimate 64-bit loaded on it. I had some issues when I tried to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium since the system explained that many of the features of Vista Ultimate would be lost. I ended up just telling the system to do a custom install that would blow away the Vista data.

Once I chose that it upgraded the system without incident. All three computers are now running Windows 7 Home Premium and seem to be working well. They are all running Aero without incident so I am not sure what the Upgrade Advisor is looking for when it comes to compatibility.

So far Windows 7 seems faster than Vista was. The XP machines don’t seem any faster but they don’t seem any slower either so I guess that’s a plus. The kids like the Aero interface and in general have been happy since the upgrade.

I guess I would say at this point that Windows 7 is better than Vista was when released but it is still too early to tell whether the upgrade was really worth all the hassle that I seemed to have.

When I bought my MacBook Pro, I knew I would need an external drive for storing photographs while working on a remote shoot. The good news is that there a multitude of choices for the consumer when it comes to external storage options.

Since the MacBook Pro has both a USB port as well as a FireWire 800 port I had the advantage of finding a storage solution that utilized either of these standard interfaces. After deliberating over several different choices I ultimately selected the Seagate FreeAgent Desk for Mac drive.

The device is a slick aluminum looking device on a vertical stand. On the rear of the device is a power connector, two FireWire 800 ports and a mini USB port. This allows the FreeAgent Desk for Mac drive to connect to the computer through whatever port happens to be available on the Mac.

The drive came formatted for use with a Macintosh and was a quick plug-and-play solution. I selected a 1.5TB version of the drive and just left the drive plugged in to the FireWire 800 port of the MacBook Pro.

The second FireWire 800 port on the back of the FreeAgent Desk drive allowed it to daisy-chain with an additional FireWire device. For the first two months of use the drive worked flawlessly. I was able to use it for external storage and the throughput via FireWire make it a great solution.

After the initial two months I began to notice the Macintosh would hang at various times for no reason. It was usually at times the system was idle and the first application to report the hang was iTunes. I have no music stored on the FreeAgent Desk drive so I immediately discounted that as a potential issue.

The hanging would result in forcing applications to quit and then rebooting the MacBook Pro. After rebooting things would return to normal and I would work without issues for perhaps weeks at a time.

Slowly the problem began to occur more frequently. For one reason or another I happened to unplug the FreeAgent Desk drive during the time the MacBook was hung up. The computer immediately came back to life without having to quit applications or reboot the computer.

I began trying to troubleshoot the issue to see if my computer problems were indeed connected to this external drive. I am still conducting tests but it appears that the hanging only occurs when the device is connected via the FireWire 800 port. If the drive is connected via USB it does not hang.

At this point I am unclear whether the issue is with the FireWire 800 port on the FreeAgent Desk drive or if it is the FireWire 800 port on the MacBook Pro. I don’t seem to have problems with other devices on the FireWire 800 port so at this point I am leaning towards this being an issue with the external disk drive.

Given my experiences I cannot recommend the Seagate FreeAgent Desk for Mac external drive. If you do purchase this device I suggest cabling it to use the mini USB port. You may be giving up transfer speed but you will make up for it by having your system be a lot more reliable.

After my computer store excursion I had to go into stealth mode. Trina had returned from out of town and I was already in trouble for the handiwork she did know about. You would think that a wife would be grateful that her husband would do things around the house but not my wife. Of course her ideas for home improvement and mine seem to be diametrically opposed. She sees things such as landscaping, house painting, and minor repairs as at the top of the list. I am more inclined to think of rewiring the house with optical cable, running Ethernet over power line, or adding home automation devices as home improvement. I mean seriously who doesn’t want to control their lights from the comfort of the computer or be able to set the thermostat from the Internet? Still I guess she does have a valid point. Our house is filled with technology goodness but my backyard still has not been fully landscaped since we moved in 14 years ago. I blame the electronics industry. If they would come up with cool landscape technology I would be all over it.

The idea of bringing out the new Small Form-Factor Super Computer at this moment seemed like a bad idea. She had already been snooping around trying to figure out where all these small boxes were coming from so the last thing I needed was for her to realize that we had yet another computer in the house. Computers already outnumber family members by an order of magnitude so it just seemed like a good plan to leave it slid under the desk until a more appropriate time.
We are getting ready to leave on vacation tomorrow (after the Diamondbacks game of course) and I had decided that vacation would be the perfect time for me to do a little server building and configuring. So while Trina and the kids were busy packing such mundane things as clothing, jackets, and food I focused on the important things like computers, drives, switches, monitors, speakers, cables, keyboards, mice, and other indispensable things that have to go on vacation. When Trina began to see all of the computer equipment being gathered into the living room she began to question what was going on. I explained that I just needed to take a few things with me on the trip to make sure that I could get the work done that I had to do. This of course led to a rather lengthy lecture on how this was supposed to be a vacation. Well duh, I knew that. But just because we are on vacation doesn’t mean we had to stop living. I did have to admit, looking at the pile of technology in front of me it looked more like relocating an IT department than it did a family vacation. I was told that I had to pare down the amount of computer equipment that I could take with me. There was just no way I needed 4 computers with all the various peripherals in order to go on vacation. So after Trina left the room I put two of the desktop computers back and slid the small form factor computer out from under the desk and added it to the pile. This worked out perfectly. She couldn’t possibly get mad at me now. After all she just told me that I needed to take a smaller computer footprint on vacation so really this is her idea right? I am sure this whole Shuttle computer idea is going to fly with her. Trina is going to be so proud of me.

Our middle daughter Tiffany begins college this coming January. She has just finished High School graduation and is now trying to earn money to afford to go to school this coming winter. Recently she was accepted into Brigham Young University – Idaho which is the campus in Rexburg Idaho as opposed to Provo Utah. There are pros and cons to going to BYU-Idaho. On the con side BYU-Idaho does not have the collegiate sports programs that the BYU-Utah campus has. This means that she will not be able to compete in NCAA track like she hoped. On the pro side the campus is slightly smaller than BYU-Utah and therefore has a closer student body. She will also be able to share an apartment with her sister Mallorie who will be a Senior during Tiffany’s Freshman year. This of course could be a pro and a con in itself depending on how much sister stuff they can deal with. When the kids graduate from high school my gift to each of them has been a laptop computer. It is nearly impossible for a kid to survive in college without their own computer and many colleges are now requiring a laptop for several classes.

When Ashley and Mallorie graduated the choice of a laptop was relatively simple. I went out and bought the fastest and lightest Windows laptop I could find. My reasoning for this was that this computer would be packed around in a backpack for 4 years (if I am lucky, with Mallorie it actually will be 5 years). Technology changes at such a rapid pace that what was a fast and light computer when they entered college becomes a behemoth dog-slow computer by the time graduation day arrives. That is just the price you pay in the realm of technology advancement.
With Tiffany I have a completely different issue. After having lived through the Windows XP to Windows Vista fiasco that has been occurring in the marketplace my conviction to the Windows platform is shaky at best especially from a laptop perspective. I am seriously questioning whether Windows Vista is appropriate for Tiffany’s needs and whether it will remain viable through the life of her college career. The more I consider this the more I am leaning towards a Macintosh laptop as the preferred computer for her.
Moving to a Macintosh is not without its own dilemmas. For example, I would need to not only support the Windows applications that are installed on the family computers but I would also be on the hook to support the Macintosh apps as well. This could become a problem since I myself do not have a Macintosh (yet). I would be flying a little blind. It is not that I have not had experience with a Mac before so it would not be completely inappropriate but it could be a challenge. Another concern I have is that the MacBook and the MacBook Pro are relatively old technology. They have both had a recent refresh but that was basically just an upgrade to more current processors. The architecture of the machines themselves are still aging. There are rumors that there may be new models released in the fall but it is questionable whether this refresh will line up with the timing of getting Tiffany’s computer. Apple is also compounding the problem with the introduction of the Back to School Special.
Basically Apple is offering a free iPod Touch or iPod Nano when you purchase a new Mac for college. They are further enticing you to buy by having the school offer $200 off from the retail price. BYU-Idaho has recently come out with a new computer policy where they will be requiring all incoming freshman to have a laptop and preferably a Macintosh. They have further stipulated that all laptops should have a minimum of 3 years warranty period to assist students in keeping their computers in working order. Since Apple like other vendors have standardized on a warranty period shorter than that; it will necessitate the purchase of an extended warranty. An extended warranty can be expensive and care will need to be taken in order to make sure that everything is covered.
Tiffany and Mallorie both think this is perfect. Not only does Tiffany get a shiny new laptop but they also have an iPod. It doesn’t seem to matter that they already have an iPod Nano each, they both want the iPod Touch. I can already see where this is going. Mallorie has been telling me for months that her computer is old and slow and she would really love to get a new one. And if she can get a MacBook with a free iPod that would be perfect and she could help Tiffany. That sounds great on paper but I can already tell you that it would be me who would be expected to troubleshoot problems on both computers so basically Mallorie just wants the new technology and the free iPod Touch. The sad part is that she’ll probably get it. Sometimes I just can’t say no but don’t tell her that. The one question remaining in my mind is would I be better to jump on this deal or would it be better to wait until after September 15 to see if there is a new MacBook announced that would be more future proof. It’s a tough decision and I have no idea which way I’ll go.

After the fiasco I experienced with my sites being taken down I am now starting to realize that I need to get my sites moved to a different provider. I have begun research to try and find a new hosting company. A hosting company with servers that are a little more robust and technical support that is a little more technical and a lot more available. The problem I am finding is that a lot of the places I am finding do not offer the level of hosting that IX Web Hosting does. I have their Unlimited Pro plan which allows me to have an unlimited number of domains on my account. I am also given unlimited data transfer and unlimited disk space and 16 dedicated IP addresses. I’m not naïve to believe I am actually given unlimited anything but for what I have there have been no complaints when I consumed 11.5 GB with a couple of photo shows I did online. Most of the plans I am finding from other service providers they allow only 4-6 IP addresses and other restrictions that could be difficult for me to live within. I am beginning to think that shared hosting may not be the answer.

By lifting the restriction of a shared my choices have increased but the prices have also gone up substantially. Instead of $12.95 per month I am now looking at low end packages starting at $110 a month. That is a lot especially since very few of my sites even offer ad space let alone subscriptions. I am afraid that if I am going to justify a dedicated server I am going to need to get a lot more serious about site marketing and I’ll be honest I am not good at that. I’m a technical guy that mostly does these things as a creative outlet to get away from things. When I start having to make them a business I am not sure I am going to be able to deal with that.
One unexpected benefit to this line of thinking is also a potential negative. With a dedicated server I would be responsible for much of the things that I now utilize my hosting company for. If I want a back-up or a change to some module I just create a trouble ticket and wait. With a dedicated server I am on the hook for that which means that a lot more of my time will have to be devoted to maintaining the system than is currently being required. It’s not that I can’t do it; it is just that I had not anticipated the additional time this might require. It would also require me to have a test server where I would be able to try things out before going into production. Timing of course is everything. Just a couple of days ago I donated an old computer because I had no use for it now I am looking for a new box. The good thing about it is this gives me an opportunity to try out some of the new hardware that has been released. I am seriously considering creating a Small Form Factor computer such as a Shuttle that I could use to create the caliber of server that I would probably be using. This would give me a test bed from which to try various items and also make the server semi-portable so that if I had to I could move it from room to room creating a small sub-network in the house if needed. Most of the computers I build are fairly large desktop units so this will be a big change.