I recently ordered a new 17″ Mac Book Pro from Apple computers and I received a nice big box from them yesterday, so here is the unboxing.
Box from Apple Computers Hosted on
Zooomr
Open Box From Apple Computers Hosted on
ZooomrAnd now for everything that was inside:
What I Received from Apple Computers Hosted on
ZooomrTurns out the only thing inside that giant box with all that packing material from Apple was the neoprene computer case that I ordered with the computer. Such a tease.
I think it is really great that Apple wants to get the products to me as fast as they are available, but I think it might be a little more efficient if they at least waited to give me the case with the computer. I have no use for the case on it’s own. To me this was a big waste of shipping space and materials when the case could have easily been shipped inside the same box as the actual computer. If they come from different warehouses, I can understand that. Maybe ship the neoprene case in a somewhat smaller box with less packing materials, I don’t think the case is going to break that easily.
I will post pictures of the actual unboxing when the actual computer arrives next week. Sorry for the tease, I just thought this was rather funny.
I have been using YouMail for about a month now and I have to say it is really great. It is a free online voicemail box for your cell phone. Basically you set it up online and then you do some setup on your cell and that is it. Some would compare it to GrandCentral, but with this one you don’t have to change your phone number or anything which I really like. Maybe once GrandCentral comes out with some local numbers in my area I might use it for a business phone number, but for now YouMail is best. I think it is pretty handy because I can check my voicemail on the internet without using my minutes. You can also set it up so if a certain number calls, you can have specific voicemail greetings for each person. I had a little trouble setting up my Blackberry Pearl from T-Mobile because it is a little more complex but I called T-Mobile for support and they helped me out right away. I only have a couple people that have a specially recorded greeting, but I really like the idea.
I have been watching a website called MacAppADay as I should be getting my Mac within about a week. The basics behind the site is that they will be giving away 1 free Mac application everyday from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31 2006. I am looking forward to populating my new mac with all kinda of goodies that I collect from this, Mac Heist and MacZOT!. MacAppADay also has a nice chipin donation for Oxfam going that I will gladly post on my site as well to hopefully give a little more exposure though it won’t be much. I kind of like the little chipin flash app. It is very well designed.
Today must not be a very exciting day in the world of tech. About 8 blogs that I frequently read have posted about the Google blog post about Google Answers shutting down. Some of these include Tech Crunch, Paul Stamatiou’s Blog and Mashable. According to TailRank there are currently 30 blogs blogging about it. Make that 31 if I show up on there. I guess this is big news because it is Google. Personally I hadn’t really ever heard much about Google Answers and I don’t think this is going to hurt them as a company very much. So hopefully something more interesting happens tomorrow.
I have been an avid Windows/PC user for about as long as I can remember. My first computer was a Coleco Adam Computer but after that we had a IBM PS/2 with Windows 3.1. I think it was only about 3 years ago that I was definitively against Macs. I hated the site of them, I didn’t like the OS. If I touched them, it burned my flesh…etc. But something changed. I don’t really know what. For about the past year or so I have found myself wanting to convert to a Mac owner/user. I will almost always be a Windows user still just for the games, but when it comes to average computer use and work, it seems like working on Mac would be so much nicer. In fact the only thing that has kept me from converting has been game support, and now with Boot Camp there really is no excuse for me. I was doing my daily blog scroll when I came across a post by Thomas Hawk about his secret switch to Apple Hardware. His little review is basically the final straw. My new credit card gets here in a couple days and I will be purchasing a 17″ Mac Book Pro as soon as I activate it. I have a feeling it will be very useful for my web design business, and I can probably use it as a business expense as long as I consult my accountant about it. I have actually been preparing to switch for the past couple weeks by frequenting blogs such as Think Secret, Mac Rumors, and Apple Insider. I’ve also been gathering up software from Mac Heist even though there is no computer to put it on yet. That should be changed very soon though. I also keep an eye on MacZOT! for any interesting software that I could find useful in the very near future. I will make sure to take pictures of the unboxing when it occurs.
Well it looks like the $100 Xbox 360 I talked about in my previous post has brought down the mighty Amazon.com. I was trying to get one and refreshed the page about a minute before it went on sale and apparently a few million people had the same idea because I am unable to get to Amazon.com at all now and haven’t been able to for 10 minutes. I am actually kind of surprised it completely took them down. It might only be from where I am accessing it from, but it is definitely down for me.
I just read over at CrunchGear that Amazon could be selling the Core 360 System for $100 as some kind of holiday promotion. If that is the case it looks like I might be getting myself a Wii and a 360 very soon. I have the Wii preordered and I was planning on waiting to get a 360 for about another year, but if its only going to be $100 I don’t think I could pass it up, even if it is only the Core version. This way I can go ahead and get the 70GB Hard drive when it comes out and not feel like I got ripped off in buying two hard drives. I think I might have to watch closely for the price drop, I don’t see how it could last very long because so many people would buy it at that price. Oh and Gears of War is reason enough to get a 360, especially for that price.
I have decided I am fed up with paying for Trend Micro Internet Security Suite. Every year it seems like it gets more expensive. Don’t get me wrong, I like the software, I just don’t like paying for it each year with less and less of an upgrade discount. I would like to see a software company start having a loyalty program, where the longer you have their software and upgrade it each year, the bigger the upgrade discount you get each time. This isn’t the point of this post though, I’m here to tell you how you can move from Commercial Software to Freeware in the internet security world.
First I will start with the software that I am using. I deceided to use ClamWin for my antivirus because of all the great things I have heard about ClamAV. It doesn’t take many resources to run it and it seems pretty fast. I need to do a little more configuring because right now a full computer scan takes forever because it actually scans the inside of every single compressed file on the drive. There is one downside to ClamWin and that is the fact that there is no real-time scanner, all files must be manually scanned. For me that is no big deal because I scan everything I download anyway and I don’t use Outlook or anything like that. Even if I did though, there is a plug-in for Outlook that integrates ClamWin to remove infected attachments automatically.
For my firewall I selected Sunbelt Kerio. I have read some very good reviews on it. Again, it doesn’t use many resources, that is good for me because I like to game. Kerio also didn’t seem to be as intrusive to me as ZoneAlarm is. The free version of ZoneAlarm also has been scoring poorly on leak tests. I have heard Jetico is one of the bests when it comes to technical ability, but I have also heard that it is rather difficult to set up and use. I will stick with Kerio until I have any problems and I will be sure to talk about those problems, if any, on here.
The anti-spyware I use is Windows Defender. The full version was released about the same time as IE7. I used it back when it was Windows Anti-Spyware and liked it well enough. The new upgraded Windows Defender is a little more polished. I suppose it does a pretty good job of keeping spyware off my computer. I haven’t had to worry about it too much because I am always wary of what I download and I use Firefox which does a pretty good job of preventing anything unauthorized from being installed. If you have problems getting it because of the annoying Windows Genuine Advantage check you can always check out Lifehacker’s post about bypassing WGA validation.
There are quite a few good websites out there for finding freeware. Download.com has always been one I liked when looking for something in particular. One site I used in my search was Tech Support Alert’s 46 Best Ever Freeware Utilities. They have many good reviews and comparisons sorted by type of software that you are looking for. If you have any questions about my experience so far, feel free to contact me using the form on my site.
Update: A great way to give your computer active scanning which ClamWin is missing is to use a program called WinPooch. It monitors many vital files and your memory to see what is being modified and can detect malicious actions. One thing about WinPooch though is you will want to disable it whenever you are running windows update or installing something or you will have a lot of alert pop-ups. I disabled it during boot-up because I really only reboot when I install or update something and it was becoming quite annoying. It runs fine in the background though after the system is up.
I have been beta testing a new ad network from Performancing.com and so far I like it. I’ve never been big into ads, but this one doesn’t look too bad and I like the roll over effect that it has. I would like to see what an actual company ad would look like on it, but that will have to wait a little bit I think. At least until my blog gains a little popularity. In the mean time I can check some of the other blogs that link to performancing and see if any of them have drawn ad support yet and then I will be able to see what it looks like.
Ok, I have started a small quest to improve my writing skills. I think once they are a bit better, I will post more often and more interesting things. I have always had a problem when it comes to writing essays or anything like that. I would like to change that. As I find resources to improve my skills I will be sure to post about them here in order for me to practice my skills or lack of and also to provide a reference for people out there like me.
