Posted by caleb on Aug 30, 2009 in
Personal Among other things, I’m a Computer Science major at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS. If you follow me on Twitter, you also know that I’m a major Mac-head. Now, you’d think the two would fit nicely together, but old prejudices against the Mac platform die hard (and if you’re thinking of a Mac between 1993 and 1998, I might agree with those prejudices). Dark years aside (we all have them: Think Windows ME!), the Mac is a great platform, and it’s now the leading notebook computer on college campuses nationwide. As the world moves closer to a platform agnostic and generally less Windows-centric way of doing things, people all over are embracing Macs and Linux computers, and as all my free market subscribers know, competition is the key to a better product.
Now, most of you who are used to my political blathering are probably wondering where in the heck I’m going with this. Hold on, I’m getting there.
While I love my University and truly believe in it, there are a few areas where it needs to play catch up. Platform choice is one of them. For something that is so important to the future, it’s amazing how far behind they’ve fallen. Just as its important for anyone to be exposed to different ways of doing things, its doubly important for the people who will design the applications of the future to have access to as many major platforms as possible. While we having Dell PCs running some form of Windows XP out the wazoo, OS X is nowhere to be found.
That’s why I’m asking for your help.
Do you have an older, Intel-based Mac sitting in a corner gathering dust or barely used? Would you be willing to make (what I think/hope is a) tax-deductible donation to a growing Best in the Midwest University? We’ve also been ranked in Princeton Review‘s Best 290 Business Schools. Your donation would be used to add OS X-based instruction to currently offered computer science classes, giving students a broader worldview than Windows and a sampling of Linux (CentOS).
How are you doing this? How can I be sure my donation will be properly handled?
Right now I’m simply looking for interest. One of my professors made a comment last week in class that the University would offer OS X-based instruction if the hardware was available, specifically, if someone was willing to make a donation. I decided to do my best to take him up on it. If there is sufficient interest, I’ll present my proposal to the University, and we’ll get the ball rolling. This day in age, there’s no excuse for not supporting a platform with an 8+% market share and a 20+% installed base.
I still have questions…
I’d love to chat with you. You can email me here.
Tags: Apple, donation, Macs, Pitt State
Posted by caleb on Jan 27, 2009 in
technology I didn’t blog about it, but some of you may remember my earlier experiences with Mozy (circa when I went bald from pulling my hair out), but past issues aside, I’ve decided it’s time to try it out again.
I’ve reached the point of data saturation that losing anything would be disastrous. I have hundreds of dollars locked up in iTunes purchases, thousands of photographs in iPhoto, home movies, homework, Quicken data, and years worth of carefully selected preferences and settings. Even though I have Time Machine backup for me regularly, I don’t feel comfortable trusting my entire digital life to a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition.
I downloaded the Mozy application for Mac OS X Leopard yesterday, and so far, it’s been uploading and backing up my data just fine, at least until my MacBook Pro goes to sleep. After that point, it wants to start completely over again. Not cool. I’ve already spoken with Mozy about it. We’ll see what happens. I’ll keep you posted on Twitter, and be looking here for a “full” review in a week or two.
Update: Tuesday, January 27 at 3:05
Mozy responds: “@calebhays I believe that if your computer goes to sleep, you’ll have to restart the backup.”
Okay, that’s not great, but we can work around it, as long as my University internet connection cooperates.
Update2: Tuesday, January 27 at 3:54
In an email, Nate Kartchner from Mozy Support replied:
OK, so I talked to someone in support and basically, I was mistaken. I guess the way it works is that the Mozy client takes a look at the overall amount of files to be backed up and then divides it into mini-backups. Then, the client will back up each of the mini-backups, check with the server, and then back up the next mini-backup. That way, if the backup is interrupted, the server can tell the client to start at the most recent mini-backup without having to go back to the beginning. Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks,
Nate
So, that’s a little bit more reassuring. I’ve yet to see these “mini-backups” in action, but at least their support is responsive.
Update3: Sunday, March 22, 2009 at 10:08 p.m.
The mini-backups do exist! My Mozy client application had been going strong for three months, slowly but surely backing up over 165GB worth of my data. That is, until tonight. I clicked “Start Backup” and after its usual recalculating warm-up time, Mozy informs me it’s backing up around 250 GBs, meaning something is missing. Sure enough, when I checked my profile on Mozy.com, it showed I’d only ever backed up 14 GB. Now, I didn’t change my backup set, so why did Mozy feel it was okay to erase my backups? Argh. It’s very frustrating, and not very professional. I’ve put in an email to Mozy Support. I’ll post the response.
Tags: Apple, backups, iphoto, itunes, Leopard, Mac OS X, movies, mozy, time machine
Posted by caleb on Nov 27, 2008 in
Personal Thanksgiving: family, turkey, and shopping. At least that’s how it generally goes for me. We talk, eat, and shop, but generally we don’t give a lot of thought to our many blessings, at least en masse.
This year, I thought I’d share some of what I’m thankful for.
- God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. I’d be sunk without it.
- Family and Friends. They keep me going everyday.
- Homemade pumpkin pie and greenbean casserole. It’s not Thanksgiving without truly delicious (but fattening) foods.
- Freakin’ awesome Black Friday bargains. Better hurry up and check out BFAds if you haven’t already… you’ve got five hours in Central Time.
- Apple, Macs, and iPods. Ease-of-use and future careers are nice. Besides, I couldn’t live without my MacBook Pro or my iPod touch.
- Gov. Sarah Palin and Conservative Values. Like I said, the future is great, but unless we all get on board, it’s going to be a long road ahead, no matter how amazing Gov. Palin is.
- Sleep. I’m a teenager and a college student; I think this goes without explaining.
- School and Scholarships. Yea, I know, but I’m happy to have the opportunity to create a better life for myself.
- the “and Scholarships” part. I’m also thankful not to have to pay for it.
- Music. My life would be boring without a little beat pumping through my earbuds.
I posted this late because I like to think Thanksgiving goes on through at least Friday, if not Saturday morning (also because I was too busy eating and browsing the Black Friday ads to break away to write this…), so join in the great turkey call and tell me what you’re thankful for.
Tags: 2008, Apple, Black Friday, college, Family, Friends, God, iPod, Mac, Music, Palin, Pumpkin Pie, school, Sleep, Stellar Kart, Thanksgiving
Posted by caleb on Oct 27, 2007 in
Uncategorized Okay, so I just installed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and all I can say is that it is simply amazing. There is just no other word for it. Everything works really well, and it looks really cool and they’re not kidding about the 300 new features. I’ve already used a ton of them, and it’s just so cool! Spaces is awesome. I have four right now and I’ve got Safari in one, Mail, iChat, and iCal in another, and iTunes in the third. iSync was in the fourth, but I’m done synching my Palm and RAZR (which is supported for synching now!). I have Front Row and Photo Booth. The new Mail is increíble (I’m sure you gringos can figure that one out!).Stacks are great.I love the new iChat!Finder is wonderful… the networking and Quick Look especially. I like Cover Flow, too. Basically it’s good in general. Help is great… it actually points out where to click when you ask it a question… it’s all based on Spotlight, which I’m sure is going to be even better in Leopard. It’s still indexing right now (but still works!).Basically, if you have a Mac, you need this. Otherwise, get a Mac and refer to step 1.
Tags: 10.5, Apple, Leopard, Mac, Mac OS X
Posted by caleb on Oct 20, 2007 in
Uncategorized Okay, so today’s the day! VOTE for us (me, Courtney, Hannah, Bryce, Corrie, and Stuart) at the Apple site. You’ll need an Apple ID, which you can get here.Each vote gets us (and Oswego) closer to winning the grand prize!Thanks for your support!(check us out on Facebook and YouTube in the mean time if it’s not up on Apple yet [but make sure to vote on Apple; it's the only place it counts!])
Tags: 2007, Apple, Bryce, Caleb, Corrie, Courtney, Facebook, Hannah, Insomnia, remote universe, Stuart, video
Posted by caleb on Oct 14, 2007 in
Uncategorized Bryce, Corrie, Courtney, Hannah, Stuart and I entered the Insomnia Film Festival with our short film entitled, “Remote Universe.” It’s about a homeless man that discovers a strange remote control on a park bench that takes him into the land of television. While there, he feels somewhat lost, because he’s not really there; he can see everyone else, but no one can see him. You’ll have to watch it to see the end… check us out on YouTube and then vote for us (with your Apple ID [like from iTunes]) starting October 19th!
Tags: 2007, Apple, Bryce, Caleb, Corrie, Courtney, Hannah, Insomnia Film Festival, Stuart, YouTube
Posted by caleb on Mar 5, 2006 in
Personal,
technology Okay, so the new Mac mini is cool in specs except for the integrated graphics, but the price! What happened to “The cheapest Mac ever?” That’s ridiculous to raise the price to $599! $499 was really the perfect point- a little too expensive for one to think it was cheap, but not too expensive to justify the price.
As for the iPod HiFi, never used it, but it’s really ugly, as are the new iPod cases… price points aren’t justifable.
Tags: Apple, cases, iPod Hi-Fi, Mac, Mac mini
Posted by caleb on Mar 5, 2006 in
Personal We had a Bible Bowl Tournament in Dallas, TX today! Big cities are awesome. We’re spending an extra day and we’re going to the Apple Store at one of the malls and to DFW and to church. We spent an extra day and it’s been great. We’ve gone ice skating and swimming and to Braum’s. Wonderful day!
Until then,
Caleb.
Tags: Apple, Apple Store, bible bowl, Braum's, Dallas, DFW, ice skating, Texas
Posted by caleb on Feb 26, 2006 in
Personal I’m thinking either a “real” video iPod or a Tablet Mac and an Intel Mac mini. I hoping for both the iPod and tablet and the Mac mini and an Intel iBook, but we’ll see.
Tags: Apple, intel, iPod, Mac, Mac mini, tablet
