Titan West – Web Design and Development

Olympia WA Based Web Design, Streaming Video, E-commerce, Blogs, and Other Web Services

Me and Mac. Help Me Get A MacBook.

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OK.  I’m ready.

I want a Mac as my main computer.

My current computer is a Dell Inspiron 640m and I have no real complaints. When I get my Mac, I will wipe the thing clean and give it to my wife. We are hoping she gets a job writing grants for non-profits and this way she won’t be bound to her current Dell desktop all the time.

In 2000, I had 400 MHz iMac, blue. I used it quite a bit, but it wasn’t my ‘main’ computer and it had issues, first most, sometimes it won’t start up. I reloaded the OS, and tried ever reset method known to man. Sometimes it won’t start up. Very annoying.

One thing that has prevented my adoption of more Mac computers is that I’m cheap. I have had issues forking out the cash that Apple asks and I would have to change some of my software and that would cost me some $$$.

But, like I said earlier, I’m ready. I’m annoyed with Windows, the slow ass start up time, the ‘features’.
When the last line of Mac Books came out, I saw my chance. The last line would go down in price. I could swoop in and change sides. I want a black 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive.

Apple has Refurbished MacBooks for $1,099.00. They had these before, then went out of stock, now they are back.
Or I could get one from Amazon for $1,194.00 after a $100 rebate.

At his point I think the Amazon one. New is pretty cool.

Why the previous generation and not the newest MacBook or a MacBook Pro. Remember, I’m cheap and I think the 2.4 GHz packs plenty of punch for me. Some light graphics, html updates, PHP code, email, web, simple video editing, maybe a little multi track recording and such.

But wait, there is a problem. I have no money. I can’t put any more on my credit cart, which we are still paying off our wedding on.

My solution. Apple supporters should send me money.
Donate to my PayPal Account. After I reach $1,194.00, I will remove this link and accept no more money.


So what will make this even more fun? For every $25, you get one year of ad space on http://ryanleisinger.com/ in the ads by ryan section.
Or for $100 you get a banner at the bottom of a page (how about full width by 90 pixels tall).
No porn, nothing nasty. I reserve the right to refuse any ads.
If you think http://ryanleisinger.com/ is a bit boring now, I am expanding it. Everyone who donates will get a text link on a page yet to be created.

So Apple fans, this is your chance. Help someone switch sides. Donate now. Seriously.

PowerShot SD870 IS

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8.0 megapixels of resolution, an Optical Image Stabilizer and 3.8x optical zooming

More feauters than i know what to do with.  A little anoying if you are trying to do something fast like turn off the flash or set the ‘shutter speed’ but all the options are in there, its just another menu and GUI to learn.

Very impressive how quickly it recovers to take another picture.  Don’t go with any less than a 2 Gig SD card (I heart SD cards).  We take our picture in high quality then reduce them for the web and for storage.
Large screen on the back, picture come out better than they look on the preview screen.
And its tough, I’ve carried it around in my pocket way more than I should have, dropped it, dragged it, and its fairly unblemished. It does get greasy finger prints on it easy, but those wipe off.
I give it 4 out of 5 flashes.

Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini – 120 Gigs

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This thing rocks

Its sleek and shiney. Get a short USB cord, the longer ones (3 feet?) don’t have the juice to always power the bad boy up. A real short 1 foot one does the job.

It comes with some back up software, which I haven’t used yet. I saved all the folders with data in them that come with it and just made a new folder called DATA that I stick stuff in. I carry around all my MP3s that I listen to on it, instead of on the hard drive on my computer and a back up folder or two of my website for ‘safe’ keeping.

I don’t have any problems just plugging it and loading the songs on it to Winamp to listen to.

I got it at Office Depot for $79 on sale. YES!!!

Dell Inspiron 640m

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My Dell laptop is my main computer and I am quite happy it

Intel Chip T2050 @ 1.6GHz – 14 inch screen

Portable and cheap and does the job.

Runs XP with 2 gig of Ram in there.  Not sure why Dell puts 1/2 the Ram under the freaking keyboard.  Yeah, that was fun to upgrade.

I have had it for 1 1/2 and wiped the OS and rebuilt it once, I’ll probably just do it every winter.  Getting all the drivers was a hassle, with all the possible drivers on the Dell site and crap for documention about what comes with a 640m.  Add on top of that I got the n-draft wireless card and built in bluetooth (which I don’t really use as much as I thought I would).

4 USB ports is ok.  I couldn’t survive with less.  The N-draft cart rocks.  I have a N-draft router at home and we have one at work.

Kinda annoying they didn’t label the audio out and line in on the side better.  I really apreciate the pink and green that some computers have now.

For way too info, check out this review

12GB Monstor Drive

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When I got this bad boy, 12 gigs seemed like an amazing amount of storage to carry around in some thing the size of a zippo lighter.

It has always under performed, crapping out on file transfers. Not sure this is unique to one I got or that all of them have this issue. They may have even fixed this since I got one.

Stats are listed here

Honestly, I wouldn’t buy another one.

Too bad, they look cool and 12 gigs seems like a lot of data to have in your pocket… well it did two years ago.

Death of a Treo 650

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Originally posted Wednesday, November 07, 2007 4:46 PM

My Treo 650 went dark.
Nothing, nadda, blank.
Hard resets, battery restarts, cursing at it… nope.

I had an upgrade available from AT&T, so I ordered a Treo 680.
About $80, refurbished.
It’s smaller than the 650, without the antenna, much sleeker.
Some of my software doesn’t work.
Verichat doesn’t seem to work.  I got Arcade Reality working.
Get the Java Environment, then the gMail App will run.
SD card slot is on the side instead of the top, doesn’t need as many battery restarts as the 650.
Over all, a nice upgrade.  Don’t switch until you have to, but when you do, its all good.

Panasonic RP-HTX7 Headphones

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Originally posted Wednesday, February 14, 2007 5:04 PM

After seeing the Panasonic RP-HTX7 Headphones on crunchgear.com, my biggest problem was then picking the color.
I was tempted by the baby blue and the green, but settled on the classic black.
While not as Flashy (and metro sexual) as the other colors, I admit, I was playing it safe.


They are great headphones, good bass sound, and cancel out the noise around you nicely.
They came with a cool leather (ish) bag, which brings me to my only complaint,  they aren’t the kind of headphone you can fold up and stick in your laptop bag.  You could carry them seprate, but I have the feeling you don’t want to smash them.
Stylish, great sound, nice long cord… me likes.

Belkin Wi-Fi Phone For Skype

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Originally posted Monday, February 12, 2007 2:07 PM

Belkin Wi-Fi Phone For Skype
I’ve had one for a couple months and i love it.
Went out and got my self the $14.95 Skype Unlimited calling to go with it.
On maybe 1 out of 5 Skype to landline/cell calls I get a slight delay.
it syncs up with my Skype account on my computer, so i don’t spend the time entering numbers into the phone. I enter them into my Skype account and then they show up on the phone.
It does take a little bit to turn on, find the wi-fi and get going, which can be a bit annoying when you just want to make a call and not stare at your phone for a few seconds.
I use it at home with my wifi network and have used it at coffee shops and at the mall when i found a open wifi network.
Seems to hold a charge well, I’ve never ran it dry.
Nothing fancy in the phone, just makes call. No blue tooth, no text msg.
It does have a cool little knob in the middle for navagation.
I give it two thumbs up.

Thick Box

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Originally posted Sunday, February 11, 2007 10:03 PM

Thick Box is a nice little Javascript tool that can display content on the web is a less linear click-for-new-page format.
The html is pulled from the server using AXAH (because they couldn’t continue to call it AJAX).
Used here – http://cortneykelleyphotography.com/gallery.html, quite simply to create a photo gallery, Thick Box can be used with Prototype & Scriptaculous, but you’ll want to modify your Javascript a bit.
Download it and get examples of code here – http://codylindley.com/Javascript/257/thickbox-one-box-to-rule-them-all
Beware of what the stylesheet will do to your layouts.

Treo 650: Software

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Originally posted Saturday, January 13, 2007 12:45 PM

My Treo would be lacking with out the additional software I have added.
I was pretty excited when GMail announced its Mobile App.  Works great.  You have to have Java installed o make it work, but for quickly getting to my gmail account, it rocks.
Opera Mini is a better web browser than the Blazer that it came with.  Its faster, more options for the display, but crashes (which requires the Treo 650 battery removal reboot).
I tried the trial version of Ringo, to add some MP3s to my ringtones, but it expired and I don’t think I’ll pay for it.  TCPMP kicks ass to view video and listen to music.  I’ve watched movies on the bus and keep some MP3s on a SD card to listen to.  The only bummer there is a hardware issue where normal headphones don’t work in the Treo without an adapter.  Verichat is great, I use it with my MSN chat and it works great.