Brian-Foley.net

Looks like I’m one of a growing number of Apple Mac surfers as mentioned in this article. About a month ago I had an excellentopportunity to purchase a 24″ Apple iMac. Let me just say it has been so much fun learning how to use Mac OSX. It’s so much nicer than Windows, both XP and especially Vista. It’s a little weird to use at first, as the keyboard is slightly different, and the mouse lacks a physical left and right button, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’m in the process of installing all the applications I need to have the functionality of my Windows system. In case I do need Windows for something, I have it running on the Mac using Parallels.

Eventually I think I’ll replace my Windows Vista machine at home, with the Mac. I’ll probably give that system to Mandie. My laptop has Vista (barely) running on it, but I think I’m going to replace Vista with Ubuntu Linux. The next laptop I buy will be a Mac Book Pro, no doubt!

Now I just need to come up with a way of storing the data I use most to someplace on the web for easy retrieval from all the different system I use. Using web applications is the most logical thing to do since the one thing in common with every system I use on a day to day basis is the web browser. I think as time goes on, it really won’t matter what operating system people are using, as the important tools we use will be web based. Jut look at what Microsoft is doing with Windows Live and Google with Docs and Spreadsheets.

Welcome back!

Today Yahoo Inc. announced plans to shut down its first-generation photo storage site, and asking users to move instead to Yahoo’s Web 2.0 photo sharing site, Flickr.

In June, tens of millions of registered users of Yahoo Photos will be notified of various options including upgrading to Yahoo’s Flickr service or various outside-photo storage sites, according to Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield.

Yahoo also will offer consumers the option of loading their photos on competing sites when users are notified next month.

It looks like I made a wise decision last year when I signed up for Smugmug. I’ve been quite pleased with their service, especially the development APIs that they provide, which allow me to store my photos on their servers and display them here. Speaking of that, if you check out Smugmug and decide to signup, use my referral code “pBt8s5vShDiTg” to save yourself $5.

Wow! It’s been a loooong time since I last posted…So long that I almost forgot how to do it! Today I was using my time efficiently and managed to quickly take care of a few things that have been forgotten about. I fixed the feedback system now, so I can receive Emails from this site again. It broke when I switched all my email over to using Google’s hosted domains.

I’m not sure where to begin with what has happened in our lives since the last post, so I’ll just mention what we did this weekend. Friday I went with Mandie to the pulmonary doctor. She was supposed to be getting a C.T. scan when we were there, but for what ever reason they had scheduled that, so we have no new news as to how well she is recovering from her surgery. They did do an X-ray and said that it appears that she is healing well. Still, the infectious disease doctor wants to see the C.T. scan results in order to determine if he can take her off the anti-fungals. Hopefully we can get the scan done soon.

After the doctors visit, we went to the mall and I was able to get my birthday gift. My 40 Gb ipod died a couple months ago, and I’ve been complaining about it ever since. So Mandie got me a gift card for the Apple store so I could buy one of the new 80 Gb ipods. It’s nice to take my music and podcasts with me again…I also used a couple of gift cards I had received for Christmas at the Sharper Image store to buy a new Skagen watch. I like the thin watches.

My noise canceling earphones died today. I’m actually not surprised that happened. I have been using them almost everyday for the last few years. I’ve done some research and Ultimate Ears makes the best in ear monitors for professional musicians, and now they also make earphones for the consumer level. I can’t find a bad review on these earphones! I’ll probably purchase these soon, as I’m using my old headphones now while I work , and after about an hour, my ear is hurting me.

Our NEW dining room set!

Yesterday we stopped by Hudson’s Broyhill to check on a dining room set that we had seen there previosly. We had our eye on a collection (American Modern) from Stanley, that was being sold on clearance at another location. The tag on one of the pieces had said “Discontinued”, so Amanda was concerned that we would not be able to get it. Long story short, the sales lady at the Hudson’s we went to showed us a set from Broyhill that looked similar to the Stanley collection. The price for all the pieces that we wanted was very good (compared to what we were being quoted in the past). They had a special deal as well, If you buy the china cabinet you get one free arm chair, and if you buy the table with four side chairs, you get another free arm chair. We thought about it all day Sunday, and finally decided to just order the pieces that we would need for Christmas at our house. We bought the oval table that opens to 103″ long, four side chairs and two arm chairs, and the china cabinet. We will get the matching sideboard later. Hopefully it will all be delivered before Thanksgiving.