Posts Tagged ‘computers

12
Jul

Mac Questions

By Tyler 11 Comments
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Thanks for all your advice on the announcement post. Here are some questions I have run into in this process:

  1. For school and work I definitely have to get the Office Suite. How would you recommend doing this? iWork? MS Office for Mac? NeoOffice? OpenOffice.org?
  2. How necessary is a dual boot option through Parallels, Boot Camp, or VMware? I don’t want to spend money on getting XP or Vista if it isn’t all that necessary.
  3. Is AppleCare Protection worth the $250?
  4. Where can you get the best value for a carrying case? Or is a hard case a good way to go?
  5. A lot of you are saying 4 GBs of RAM is the way to go…how many of you disagree? I really want to cut every corner I can to save money.
  6. Is there a choice on type of screen? I’ve heard about a glossy screen and a matt screen.

Thanks for your help everyone!

11
Jul

Announcement

By Tyler 19 Comments
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Well here is an announcement I don’t think I have anticpated making.

I am buying a Mac.

After a life of using PC’s, I am switching. I have used a Mac probably less than 15 times in my life. Somehow our paths just never crossed very often. Nonetheless I cannot resist the urge to have iLife.

My plan is to use the student discount to buy the higher end white Macbook. It is basically the same as the trendy black one, with less hard drive space.

I need your help. I know a lot of you who read this are Mac users. As a student who needs to write and read papers, as a musician, as someone who is firmly entrenched in PC world…I need your help. No advice is unwarranted. I am as green as it gets with what to know about switching from PC to Mac.

So let’s hear it!

I’m sure you are probably thinking…”how can he afford to get one…I thought he was a poor seminary student.” I am a poor seminary student, but I’m selling our current computer to my sister before she goes to college. Hence why I am almost able to afford one.

30
Jan

Internet Efficiency

By Tyler 4 Comments
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Last week I wrote about how great iGoogle is. The biggest reason I thought it was so good is that it makes me more efficient on the internet. I wanted to let you know of a few other things that do the same for me.

  1. If you use Internet Explorer or Safari you need to switch to Firefox. 75% of the readers of this blog use either IE or Safari, but neither of those even comes close to what Firefox can do for you. The ability for 3rd party themes and extensions on Firefox makes it so much better. From spell check, to awesome browser looks, Firefox is incredible. It is like comparing Facebook from when it first came out to where it is now. Not even close.
  2. A few weeks ago Mr. Whittaker talked about something he uses called Morning Coffee. It is a Firefox extension that basically allows you to load all the websites you check in one window in different tabs. I’ve been using it for just over a week and it is a-mazing and you have to try it.
  3. A website called Readburner lets you look at the most popular blog items that have been shared within Google Reader. So for those of you who use Google Reader, go to this site and add your shared url so that there is more diversity of the kind of things that are most popular.
  4. If you have problems or questions with these, either email me or leave a comment with your email and I’ll try and help you out.

What makes you more efficient on the internet?

23
Jan

Do You iGoogle?

By Tyler 4 Comments
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I’ve been using Google stuff for a while. I remember getting Gmail and everyone asking what Gmail was. Lately I’ve moved into using Google Reader, Google Calender, Blogger, Google Books, Google Maps, and I could go on. If they ever move into creating hardware and software it could be scary because their stuff is that good. Try anything else in any of these categories and I guarantee Google’s will be as good or better.

I’m not writing this to provide a guilt trip for those of you who haven’t experienced this Google magic… instead I wanted to reference one of their newer ideas. This has put Google way over the top for me. It is iGoogle. It is basically a google homepage with whatever I want. I go to one web page and I get my email, rss feed (reader), calender, ESPN headlines, weather, news headlines, and anything else I want to add. Because I use so many Google programs I am able to have them all in one place with iGoogle. It is amazing. It has made me so much more efficient on the internet. If you aren’t using this, you need to try it out.

27
Nov

God Tube

By Tyler 6 Comments
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There is a very popular new website. You can find it at godtube.com. It is just a Christian YouTube. There is nothing much else that they do that youtube does not other than that they monitor their content so that it has some sort of Christian purpose. There are a lot of positives with this. It provides a website churches can feel comfortable with for putting some of their content onto, etc. The ceo of GodTube is a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. This surprised me to find someone from Dallas who could think with today’s world enough to come up with this idea. Yes that is kind of a knock on Dallas, but hey…I didn’t come up with the idea. I think the idea is great, the concept is great, even though it is a knock off. Not very often does a Christian alternative match up with the original. How many churches have had a series called iLife in the last 2 years? I mean…really? Anyway, watch this video and see how he responds to the question about where the money goes. I think he dodges it, and I don’t like that.

Watch the video, check our the site, tell me what you think.


25
Oct

The Tough Decisions in Life

By Tyler 4 Comments
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I’ve been a PC guy my whole life. Well at least since the decision became mine to make and not my parents’. I’ve also never considered for more than two seconds the possibility of buying a Mac. That is….until today. I could probably give credit to this new stance to Ross, Matt, and Kyle. But it is more than just them. As I’ve decided to go into ministry and have started in seminary and knowing that a lot of my work in the future will come within the worship ministry area, I know that media type stuff is far better with a Mac than a PC.

My understanding of Mac’s is that they make video, audio, and design much easier for a dummy like me. My PC can’t do that and it’s starting to piss me off. I have no program on this new HP that will help me design a website, edit music, and produce a high quality video (don’t tell me MovieMaker can do that). The new operating system for mac’s is coming out on Friday and you only have to pay one price to upgrade, how crazy is that. None of this premium, basic, and ultimate junk that Vista has. I looked through Apple’s website on their reasons why they are better than a PC and its pretty solid.

So the big dilemma…Mac or PC? I still don’t have an answer. Sure I would buy a Mac right now but they are expensive and I just bought a PC 3 months ago. So what are you…Mac or PC? And if you were me how can I take advantage of my PC before I more than likely make the switch. Or maybe I’m just not seeing the positives of pc’s…I don’t know. I’m freakin confused but I want iLife…can’t they just come out with that for pc’s. For the greater good, PLEASE!