About four years ago I made a decision not to subscribe to any television service. How do I live? How could I possibly be spending my time without the tube (or panel as it were)? Well, that is easy, I read and spend time with my family. Yes, that may sound boring to many, but I love it. Anyway, we do watch movies and have a pretty extensive DVD collection. One thing I have missed, though, are the informative programs I found on the Discovery Channel and others like it.

Enter the Podcast…

Until recently I was under the impression that if one wanted to listen/view the content located at Apple’s iTunes music store he would have to buy it. I was wrong, however. A co-worker introduced to me the video Podcast. Of course the video will only work for you if you have a newer Video iPod (5th Generation). I was able to find a ton of FREE video Podcasts at the iTunes store. I watch some of this stuff during my lunch btreak at work. After checking out the cool video stuff I started looking through the large collection of FREE audio podcasts (you can listen to these on both the new iPods and the older generation models). I was delighted to find that there were podcasts from the Discovery Channel as well as other really cool sources. I listen to some really nice feature content to and from work. I also get the current world news! I know I could listen to the radio for the news, but it is nice having on-hand so I can listen at my convenience.

I don’t know if I will ever get into making my own Podcasts. Given the frequency of the posts on this blog you can probably tell that I don’t really have all that much to say in writing, much less with my own voice. But you never know. I might surprise you!

If you have an iPod and you have not yet tried Podcasts I suggest that you take a look at the iTunes store and subscribe to a couple of free ones that interest you. I think you will like it as much as I do. Better late than never, right?

When i got the laptop I was very excited. Not only was I going to be able to use a fancier machine, but also I was going to be able to give my wife an Apple to use. Finally I could take her away from Windows. She used it for a week or two until one fateful day. My youngest child decided to move the laptop out of his way while holding a cup of water. Well, as you can imagine, this did not end well. He spilled the entire cup of water onto the keyboard of the laptop. Nobody saw this happen, and he failed to mention this to anyone. When my oldest son came back in the room he only saw a couple of drops of water on the keyboard. He promptly wiped them up and proceeded to play a game. A few minutes later the iBook powered off. My wife came in to help with restarting the iBook and lifted it up. All of the spilled water was trapped underneath.

… sigh …

I opened the laptop and dried what I could with paper towels. I then let the laptop sit open for about a week and a half. After the dry-out period I saw some light at the end of the tunnel. I tried to boot the iBook and it powered on. Oh yeah!

After further testing I have determined that the zero key does not work (an external keyboard works fine) and the iBook does not recognize it’s DVD drive. On top of that it seems that the wireless signal has become weaker. I can fix many things on a computer, but repairing iBooks is a little out of my league.

I guess I will call Apple and see how much it will cost to fix it (if they can).

In the meantime I will play with my PowerBook and think of happier things.

I think what I like the best is that my iBook has never had a virus and I have never had to deal with spyware, adware, or malware. I love that I can run every application that I want (for what I need). Every application is rendered beautifully. There is nothing bland about the operating system (OS X 10.4.2 – Tiger) at all. Everything about it is very well thought out and extremely simple to use.

If you have never tried an Apple then do yourself a favor and try one today.

…I should go work for those guys…

I can say with certainty that I have never been happier with a computer since I started using them. This machine has been able to suit my computing needs so that I can work on my web development projects, use my favorite Linux tools, and work on my music with ease. On top of all that, OSX is so intuitive that I experienced almost no delays in productivity while learning how to use it.

My desktop workstation running Microsoft’s OS has gone largely unused since I got my Mac. The other members of my household still use Windows but as soon as I can I will be helping them make the switch to Apple.

I recommend to anyone who is interested in having an easy to use, virtually virus-free, and attractive looking computer system to buy it from Apple . I do not regret for a moment the day that I did.

I will never buy another Windows PC again.