Hardware
Being a technology geek, I thought that I would put down the different hardware that I use most every day. I have had a love of computers since I was 9 years old (in the early 80s). I have used many different computers, operating systems, peripherals and software. This is a great time to be a computer user. Companies are pushing each other to the limits with their hardware and now, even more, with their software. It is hard to imagine that every day, most of us carry more computing power in our pockets than NASA had when the first rockets went into outer space.
My Computers
My personal machine is an Apple Macbook Pro 15″. I have had it for 6 years, so it is getting close to time for a replacement. I have the pre-unibody model. I love this machine. I got it refurbished as a gift to myself because I wanted to return to the Mac Community that I had been absent from for many years. I grew up with Apple products starting with the Apple IIe, then we got a Color Classic II. The computer that I bought my self was a PowerComputing PowerCurve 120 in 1995. After the PowerCurve gave up the ghost, I left the Apple community for over 10 years. I will not make that mistake again! I have a Canon MP600 as my printer of choice in my home office. This is the first printer that I ever bought that was not from Hewlett-Packard (which, ironically, is where my sister has worked for the last 20 years!). I have gotten sick of all of the overhead that HP driver have on both Mac and Windows, and I will not own another HP printer again. I have really enjoyed this all-in-one printer from Canon. It prints out magnificent photos with the right paper. I also have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2TB external hard drive attached to my Macbook Pro. I have all of my pictures, documents backup and iTunes music located on this drive.
My work computer is a Dell Latitude E6500. I got it in January 2010 and it is running Windows 7. I also love this machine and I really love Windows 7. It is such a huge improvement over Windows XP and especially Vista, which I never ran on my computers. I have 4GB of RAM in it, and a 250GB hard drive. The 9-cell battery gives my almost 4 hours of life even with the wireless running. It is a really solid machine. My printer of choice at the office is a Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 2605. This is the second 2600 series that I have had in my 5 years on the job. The first I bought when I first got hired and I have had this one for about a year and a half now. These are pretty good color laserjet printers. I bought one for another employee that was a total dud, which also lent to my vow of no more HP printers for me.
My Phone
I have my cellphone provided to me through my job. Currently I am carrying a Blackberry Torch on the AT&T network. It is a solid phone. I get my work email on it through the mail gateway using Blackberry Internet Service. I am planning on installing a Blackberry Enterprise Server at the office so that I can use Outlook to sync my calendar and contact onto my Blackberry. I also have some music on it so that I am never without some of my favorite tunes, as well as SocialScope, which is my twitter client of choice on the Blackberry.
Other Tech I Have
For reading I am slowly moving everything to my Amazon Kindle Keyboard WiFi. I love everything about it. The form factor is awesome, the weight is great, I can read and navigate it with one hand, and the battery lasts FOREVER. I went with the WiFi version because most of the places that I spend significant time all have WiFi. So, why spent the extra $50 bucks to be able to download books anywhere. I have had it since early February 2011 and, as of December 1, I have only fully charged it FOUR times!! I use it to read books (duh!) and now Instapaper articles through the new ‘Send to Kindle’ bookmarklet. (Thanks, Marco!!)
My newest gadget is an Apple iPod Touch 64GB. This is my first and only iOS device. I had never really wanted an iPhone…well, except for the 20 minutes after I watched the product announcement video. For a long time, I did not even want an iPod Touch. I have a lot of music, and I always have to have music with me. It is a very important part of my life. I had my sights set on a 160GB iPod Classic for a long time. Then I would have ALL of my music with me all the time. Then late last year, I started to get the itch…the itch for an iDevice! I decided that I would get the 64GB model and just setup a playlist in iTunes to keep my favorite music on it.
I have my wife’s hand-me-down camera, a Canon PowerShot S5 IS. I got it when she upgraded to a full DSLR with a Canon 40D. The 5S is great for me. It takes good pictures and you don’t have to know everything about taking pictures. I don’t take a lot of pictures (that is my wife’s job), but when I need to take a picture it is there.
