Time Has Come Today

Chambers Brothers – 1967. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHfB63ln1Ig] Just seems relevant to this post! 1967 was a great year: I graduated from Brother Rice High School and enlisted in the Air Force.

Sony Sound (Watch out, Bose!)

  My wife and I were walking through the mall recently and stopped in a Sharper Image store. Looking around at all the “toys”, I spied the smallest speakers I have ever seen: they were nearly one inch square on the face and cone-like in the back.

Just for grins…

Doubtlessly the bird with the best sense of rhythm on the planet!

http://birdloversonly.blogspot.com/2007/09/may-i-have-this-dance.html

Enjoy!

Back in the saddle…

OK, so Cadre Xiii has met in Beantown and now we’re onto semester finals (papers). While I have some time on my hands, I’ll continue with the saga of the upgrade which Sean, so aptly noted, “…upgrade, upgrade hardware, upgrade, upgrades nearly impossible so shop for a new computer, repeat.” And, to his point, I have added to my Christmas list an Apple iMac: 24″ 2.8 Mhz w/ Leopard and iLife already installed. Easiest way to “upgrade” is to buy the new machine. The one I am (was) upgrading is a five year old G4. hmmm, perhaps a “barely used” computer sale in the near future. Any interest?

And the saga continues…

Apparently, all the work in Unix has had some unexpected and unwanted consequences. My “keychain” is broken. Now, I am unable to do and see activities and files I could previously. It is as if I am a guest on my own computer (a stranger in my own land). So, now I’ll spend a bit of time trying to reset whatever to get my identity back.

BTW: I purchased iLife 08 for this technology review and, very similar to Apple’s gaff of NOT announcing version installation “challenges,” they neglected also to tell me that my G4 doesn’t have the horsepower to run iMovie 08. Wouldn’t that seem an obvious piece of information to share with customers (or potential customers)? On one hand, it was “only” $80.00, yet there is the principle of the matter.

Leopard installation more like a dog…

As you may recall from my previous post last evening, the Product Specialist and I were still working toward a solution. I was “on hold” so I wrote the beginning of this saga. To continue, we completed our conversation at 6:30 (that’s after 3 ½ hours on the phone to Apple). My G4 is not running (it’s not even walking!). I am expecting a call this morning at 11 A.M. from Apple Support to continue troubleshooting. While I am less than satisfied with the upgrade process, I am extremely impressed with the overall professionalism of the Apple Support people with whom I dealt. They were courteous, patient, and spoke to me as a knowledgeable adult: never condescending or “short” with me.

Status: Product Specialist must consult with a Product Engineer (all of whom already left for the day, yesterday) because we’re experiencing “unfamiliar” conflicts rendering the installation unworkable. Damn.

Important note:

Mac OS X.5 (Leopard)…can’t get there from here…

Re: Mac OS X.5 (Leopard) my enthusiasm wanes… I started the installation at 12:21 this afternoon. Kept a step-by-step log (that I’ll make available later for the masochists among you). It is now 5:22P.M. and I am on “hold” with Apple (2 hours and 15 minutes so far.) (Had a customer service rep on the phone for awhile, however, an hour into THAT conversation he decided he needed to transfer me to a “Product Specialist” because there are some “known bugs” upgrading from Mac OS X.2.8 and earlier…which is exactly what I have – OS X 2.8. I never upgraded to Tiger; hence – I’m stuck in the middle and they can’t seem to get me out.)

I’m learning to juggle!

Well, I already know how to juggle. I’ve eight balls in the air (workplace analysis, research skills assessment, leadership interviews, lit review, blog, web presence, wife, & work  ) and I’m about to add a ninth (buying Mac OS X.5 [aka Leopard] this afternoon). It offers many features that are designed to work with my iPhone (HCI topic option) AND, I suspect that it offers a glimpse of where Apple is headed. Can you imagine an iPhone/iTouch interface on an iMac? (iCan!). 

Will report back soon on the OS update!

Adobe Connect Academic User’s Group

Exciting, interesting and oddly spooky… while researching (google-ing) installation problems between PowerPoint 2007 and Adobe’s Presenter (an add-in that enables ppt files to be used in broadcast/rebroadcast on Adobe Connect (formerly Marcromedia Breeze and competitor with WebEx), I discover Adobe Connect Academic User Group (ACAUG). This is SO new

Thought about Blog Research

It’s a little bit funny (now I’ll have THAT tune in my head all evening!), as I research educational blogs, e-learning blogs, corporate training blogs,  to add to my blogroll (blog worthy-of-link), I am surprised at the number with most recent post dates months ago – some even last year or later. There’s another research topic there: contemporary topic web sites that seemingly have their authors evaporate. If contemporary, wouldn’t the author be “on spot” and relevant? (hmmm, how frequent will MY updates be?).