Bobbis.net

So, Colin and I did this before for WWDC, and he has posted his predictions for Macworld. I figure I should post my own.

8 Core Mac Pro

When I first heard the rumor, I kind of fell in a drool fit. However, Colin makes a very good point about not being able to max out the system. For 99% of the work Mac Pros will be doing, it is overkill. The best way I can see an 8 Core computer is in the server environment, in which case, it would be introduced into the xServes. The only thing I can think of doing with an 8 core Mac Pro is to run several operating systems at once in Parallels while doing some HD video editing and encoding while playing the newest graphics intensive video game.

25% Chance 8-core
60% Chance of a minor revision to the Mac Pro line (at which I will immediately buy one with my Developer Discount)

Cinema Displays

I can see them embedding an iSight into new displays. I don't really know what else they could do to improve the displays except lower the prices.

60% Chance of revision
75% Chance of price decrease

iPhone

Hmmm, this is a hard one to predict. There is so much speculation. My guess would be that they will not be shipping the iPhone soon. They may announce it, kind of like what they did with the "iTV". but they will not ship it. If they do annoounce it, I would think it would be out for the holiday shopping season 2007. My thinking is that Apple has not gotten too much into negotiating with carriers. If the phone was to be released to the market soon, I doubt the cell phone companies would have been able to keep the secret under wraps very well.

5% Chance shipping soon
20% Chance it is announced and shipping 3rd or 4th quarter 2007
70% Chance it is not announced at all
90% Chance Steve will make a joke about it.

iLife / iWork 07

Very likely. iLife updates are pretty much common place at Macworld. Sheets in iWork suite plus version bumping for the rest of the apps.

90% Chance seeing updates to iLife/iWork

iPods

I don't believe there will be any iPod updates. They seem to be done on their own schedule and may overshadow media coverage of other announcements at Macworld.

30% Chance of any sort of new iPods

"iTV"

Steve will announce the brand name for the iTV. Updates on features and perhaps a ship date. I expect DVR capabilities and a Blue-Ray Drive (If this is true, I might considering buying one at the price point announced).

85% Chance of mentioning and some sort of feature updates
60% Chance of announced ship date

Leopard

Announcement of "Top Secret" features mentioned at WWDC. I have no clue what the features will be and nobody is really speculating about them. Ship date will be announced, hopefully before my Developer membership expires.

20% Chance of Shipping
80% Chance of disclosure of "Top Secret" features

So, there are my predictions. We'll see what happens on Tuesday. I don't have class, so I can be watching the sites during the keynote - yay!

So, the holidays are finally over. I still haven't found a job, but the openings I'm finding now are actually up my alley (Web development). There are a couple positions on campus, and one at Sauer-Danfoss that look interesting. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the idea of not going back to class next week and actually having more free-time all year long to work on personal projects and keeping the apartment clean most of the time.

Work is getting interesting. I will probably be moving the college web server sometime before I leave, upgrading people to PHP 5. I still have some polishing and documentation to do on the scholarship system, which I am in the process of handing off to someone who has very little PHP experience and relies on Dreamweaver for editing (shutter). I have five years worth of personal belongings at the office (various mugs, office toys, textbooks, career fair swag) that need to start migrating back home. I have set my time there to be two weeks notice or the end of January.

As for the holiday loot, I got some nice sweaters, office toys, a nice thing to fold my nice shirts for travel, an awesome watch from my brother, and a 32" Westinghouse LCD TV. It was on sale the day after Thanksgiving at Best Buy for less than $500, so I strongly hinted that detail to my parents. As expected, I hooked up my Mac mini via an DVI to HDMI cable (Cheapest I could find in town was $25 for a gold plated one a Wal-Mart). I also went out to get an antenna to pickup over the air HD content. I have to say, I watch a lot more PBS now. I'm probably going to return the antenna for a amplified antenna because I don't get some of the channels very well, mostly Fox. In order to get my regular cable signal, I had to hook up my VCR again to an analog AV in to the TV. I still have S-Video, 2 component, and a VGA input available in the back. The only thing I need now is a decently priced digital cable package from Mediacom that offers HD content that Gaila and I would watch and maybe an eyeTV.

Anyway, Gaila and I hosted the New Years party at my apartment. It turned out pretty well. Had about 10 people in my living room and kitchen. Gaila cooked a turkey, people brought munchies, and we watched a lot of Family Guy. We are all starting to show signs of getting older. We were getting exhausted by midnight and pretty much everyone was gone by around 1 or 1:30. Back in high school, it wasn't uncommon to have most people still around at 2 or 3 in the morning.

Today, Apple has released an official beta of Dashcode (the Dashboard Widget WYSIWYG app). This version has been scaled back to work in Tiger, but will be officially released with Leopard and expires on July 15th. Assuming they want to include changes to Dashcode before the release of 10.5, I doubt it will be release earlier than expected at MacWorld as some have been speculating.

Last Thursday, after Gaila got off work, we went north of town to try to catch a display of the northern lights after reports of a solar storm heading for earth that was supposed to hit that night. We got out of town by 11:00 PM and got to see a little bit of green aurora for a while. From what I have found online, we missed the best of the show earlier that night between 6 PM and 8 PM. Someone from Des Moines photographed them over Sailorville lake. The best we saw was most similar to this image.

Did anyone else in Iowa get out to see this?

So, I set up an appointment with a financial counselor and went to see him today. For those who don't know, you can get free financial advice (if you are an ISU student) via the Financial Counseling Clinic. I found that by consolidating my loans with a particular company, and under certain conditions I can save over $3,000 in interest payments. I highly recommend this service. Taking their FREE advice, I'm looking to save over $6,000 in the course of 15 years. They will also help you with other financial issues for free, such as managing credit card debt, savings, large purchases, etc. They will even take clients who are not students for a fee based on income and number of dependancies.

Anyway, enough plugging financial counseling....

I just bought a Mac mini.

I used my student discount to get a low-end Mac mini that I will eventually use as kind of a home theater computer. It arrived today. Woot!

Wishlist

• tools

  • nice cordless drill, like this Craftsman model from sears

  • circular saw, like this Craftsman model from Sears

  • good set of Craftsman screwdrivers, like this 10-piece set - a bigger set, like this 24-piece would be even nicer

• clothing items

  • long sleeved shirts to layer under other shirts, size small - here are appropriate selections from Target, WalMart, or Kmart.

  • Jeans - Levi's, men's style Regular Fit size 29x30, available for sure at Target, note that the item in the link is a darker color than what I prefer, I would prefer a light-to-medium color if available.

  • Carhartt coat, would prefer the Santa Fe style with rib-knit cuffs and waist band and no hood, like this one on the Cabela's website.

• Books

  • Book 11 of Wheel of Time - Knife of Dreams - by Robert Jordan - PAPERBACK, not hardcover, available here or at bookstores

  • Book 5 of Earth's Children - The Shelters of Stone - by Jean M Auel - PAPERBACK, not hardcover, available here or at bookstores

• CD’s

  • Alabama – When it All Goes South

  • Trace Adkins – Comin’ on Strong

  • Dierks Bentley – Dierks Bentley

  • Tracy Byrd – The Truth About Men

  • Chris Cagle – Chris Cagle (or) Play it Loud

  • Mark Chesnutt – Savin’ the Honky Tonk

  • Billy Currington – Billy Currington

  • Alan Jackson – The Very Best of Alan Jackson

  • Cledus T Judd – Bipolar and Proud

  • Toby Keith – Shockin’ Y’all (or) 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Toby Keith (or) Greatest Hits Vol 2

  • Sheryl Crow – Very Best of Sheryl Crow

  • Little Texas – Greatest Hits

  • Montgomery Gentry – You Do Your Thing (or) Tattoos and Scars

  • Pinmonkey – Pinmonkey

  • George Strait – 50 Number One’s

  • Josh Turner – Long Black Train

  • Phil Vassar – Shaken not Stirred

  • Clay Walker – A Few Questions

  • Dave Dudley - American Trucker

• Decent digital camera, with the following minimum stats:

  • 2.0 Mega-Pixels
  • at least 3x optical zoom
  • USB port to hook up to computer
  • I really like the style of the Canon PowerShot A-series, of which the cheapest is the A530, available at Best Buy or other electronics vendors/stores

• woven cotton thermal blanket, queen size, in a red, blue, or green jewel tone or off-white/cream color

Yay!

I finished my last piece of coursework today before noon with a final. The last two weeks have been incredibly stressful with projects, papers, and tests to do. I will not be going to any graduation ceremony and I have no plans for any party this weekend.

I still don't have a new job. Now that I'm not so busy with school work, I can focus on my job search. I have mainly been looking at Principal, but so far I have been denied for every job after. Places that don't allow you to upload your resume (either in plain text or .doc or .pdf format) are a pain to work with. For example, Principal doesn't give you space to list extracurricular activities, hobbies related to the field, specific skill-sets, etc. Only your degree, GPA, and a brief job history are accepted in their system.

I do have a lead on a campus job doing ASP MSQL work. Depending on what the details are, it seems like it could be a good job. I also have a few other ideas I will be pursuing next week. For the time being, Tom is allowing me to work until I get a full-time job or through the end of January. I have to document what I have been doing and leave instructions for how to do the things I do at work. I have to say goodbye to my scholarship system I have developed and maintained over the past few years, and I have a few web sites to move off yogurt that is still hosted here. Working for Tom was awesome.

So, anyway, that is what has been going on in relation to graduation. I hope everyone had a good semester.

Gaila's grandmother passed away Thursday morning after suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurism. She waited for the entire family to be there with her before she passed. This is the first chance I've had to let anyone other than my parents know what was going on. I'll be going to the funeral in Ottumwa on Monday and will be back in town for class and work Tuesday.

Obituary

Laters.

This week has been so stressful. Having two group project deadlines, a take home exam, a paper, and a case study were all due this week. Before Tuesday at noon, there was another project due this week, but luckily, the class is small and the project has been pushed to after break.

Sometime during this past week (between the 13th and 14th) marks 2 years with Gaila. Looking back at the blog entry I made about it, I can't believe it has been this long. Time flies.

I managed to find a program that will work with the bluetooth in my cell phone to perform actions when I use it or when I leave or come back from my computer. It is really nice when the phone rings while I have my music going. When the phone rings, I get a nice notification of who is calling me (integrated with Address Book). When I answer it, iTunes pauses. It's especially awesome when the phone rings when I'm in the living room with AirTunes piping music out there; I don't have to miss a beat :D. I might just spend the $10 to purchase it after the 10 day fully functional trial. The program is called BluePhoneElite.

Apparently, some people have been having problems with FireFox crashing when trying to load the video in my last post. I tried to duplicate the problem, even on a machine that exhibited the problem, but it didn't crash on me. I have changed it to not auto play and enabled the controller. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

I will now leave you with a posting of an image that reflects my opinion about the whole PS3 hype, and will probably apply to the Wii hype on Sunday.

For those of you with Macs and iSights turned on, this QuickTime movie is just for you:

How I did it