As of May 15, 2008, I have switched to the Apple camp. Yes, that is what I mean. Yes, I am now a Mac user. Here are the specs with a few added on specials:

15.4″ MacBook Pro with Multitouch
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (Penryn)
2 GB PC5300 DDR2 RAM
200 GB Hard Drive
nVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT with 256 MB VRAM

22″ NEC Widescreen display
Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse
Apple Keyboard

Even with the awkwardness of getting used to OS X’s interface, I have found that Apple has indeed made their product remarkably user friendly. Not only is Leopard’s Aqua UI stunningly beautiful, so many processes occur without you knowing when you’re setting stuff up that you almost feel that it knows exactly what you want. Yes, I have had an application crash a few times, but compared to Windows, OS X Leopard is very resilient. Moreover, it does so much for you but it is still so fast. I have installed Quicksilver, the ever-handy keyboard-oriented launcher application, but it does not at all seem to drag the system.

On a small sidenote, I have setup Boot Camp and thus have a OS X Leopard and Windows XP dual-boot setup. Though the ingroup bias extant with being a Mac user is developing quickly, I still need Windows for some purposes. However, I have found that many of the hardware features (like multi-touch and my bluetooth mouse) do not work well with XP. There are certainly at times more steps needed to set up things in Windows when compared to Leopard. But in any case, at least everything works great for the time being.

It is almost amazing how quickly nearly half of a year has gone by. I clearly recall celebrating the new year and imagining, looking ahead, at how 2008 will be like.

We are already nearly halfway through 2008.

To me, May is more than just a prelude to the halfway point of the year. Year after year, May has been a culmination. A culmination of efforts, of struggle through hard times, a time of celebration and reflection. However, this year, May is especially significant. This year, May is the culmination of the last twelve years combined. This year, May is the beginning of a new life for me.

At the end of this month, I will end my high school career, Valedictorian as my class, and embark on an exciting new chapter of my life. The last few months have been extraordinarily exciting, especially as the replies from the admissions offices have returned. I am proud to say that this fall, I will be joining the Yale University Class of 2012 in New Haven. I am very excited by the prospect of the new opportunities that will open to me in the next four years. In the meantime, I will make every minute from now until then memorable and worthwhile. To my reader-base, I thank you greatly for your support, and God Bless.

My April desktop. The wallpaper reminds me of my unexpected visit to Darwin, a ghost town in the desert near Death Valley. The feeling of walking into a town that was once full of life but now is only inhabited by the elements and history is quite powerful.

VS: Royale Vista black
Rainlendar: Lucid Smoked

I have just upgraded the blog to Wordpress 2.5. This new version has a vastly improved WP-Admin. I really like the new interface. It is very pleasing to the eye and more user friendly than that of previous versions. Upgrade went without a hitch and I was able to get pretty much all the plugins re-activated smoothly (except ZenPhotoPress which is not appearing on the editor).

In any event, I really like the new features in the writing post page, especially the box that is created for tags. I have been trying to clean up the tags on this blog and this new tool makes it much easier.

Anyway, now I need to update ZenPhoto and I’ll get around to that eventually. =D

My March desktop. I decided to call it “Requiem” because of the wallpaper and color scheme and thought that this name would be cool. =D

Anyway:
OS: Windows XP Media Center Edition - my fresh install
VS: VistaXP
Rainlendar: Lucid

Today I made a clean install of the HP Photosmart PC that I have been using as it was getting bloated with years of accumulated buildup of software/patches, some that I use, some that are there for reasons I know not of. This followed an epic backup session where I had to constantly monitor the process and check the files that have been copied since for some reason the “accessed” denied error popped up extremely frequently. Afterwards, I decided to remove the 250 GB internal HDD lest some files were not copied somehow and replace it with a new Western Digital 400 GB SATA.

Anyway, the installation went without a hitch and after logging into Windows XP MCE2005 for the “first” time, I did the usual round of removing some bundled crapware (yes, that is a term techies use now) that was taking up disk space that could be used for other stuff. And then came Windows Update.

As usual when one does a clean Windows install, assuming it is a genuine installation, one goes on Windows Update to install the latest patches and security updates. Well, I did and the list of updates was quite an eye-opener. When WU finished checking, it plopped out a list of 94 Critical Updates!! While I do commend Microsoft for being hot on the tails of security exploits, the sheer number of Critical Updates, needless to say the other optional ones, was quite enough to culminate in a Service Pack. In any case, here I am, writing this post, about 30 minutes into the installation of the 94 updates, which I hope will end soon.

Dessicated world built on
past wrongs and ordeals
await the healing.

Well, I’m back after another long hiatus from blogging due to a myriad of priorities. Now for a few updates.

Powervortex.4 is still in development. A screenshot will be posted very soon. I am still working on the basic HTML components. Again, the new design is virtually devoid of tables and is a purely CSS-based design. The CSS-based design not only increases flexibility but also makes addition of AJAX components, such as K2 for the blog, much easier.

This blog and the gallery are in need of update. The yellow bar at the top of the WP-Admin panel is yelling “please update now” and the WP feed tells me that there are two subsequent releases of WP 2.3 since I last updated. Other than that, ZenPhoto 1.1.4 has been released.

In any event, the last of the Haiku.seasonals for the main site has been released. This is Haiku.renewal, the spring theme.

That’s all for now.

~DC

I am excited to announce that Powervortex:gallery, which is proudly powered by the gallery application ZenPhoto, has been featured in the ZenPhoto Showcase. The Showcase “is a selection of sites that make exceptional creative use of ZenPhoto either as a pure installation or in combination with others systems like Wordpress.” I am greatly honored that my website has been given such recognition and I would like to thank the ZenPhoto team for inducting my site into their Showcase and for developing such an excellent product.

ZenPhoto is a lightweight, efficient, Web 2.0-grade gallery software that is not only easy to use but also highly flexible to customize. It is a great gallery program for those of you trying to finding something to integrate with your blog that is not bloated like Gallery2. In any event, it is an excellent gallery script that truly “does have everything you need for your online gallery.”

~DC

Today, Microsoft released the 2.3 firmware for Zune. This release is a minor release that does not add new features but fixes a battery problem. Many users, including me, have experienced a draining battery even when the player is “turned off” by holding the Play button.

After upgrading, other than the fix for the battery issue, there is also a very apparent increase in performance. The player tends to freeze up much less often and the animations are a lot smoother.

~DC