Macintosh Tech Support Since 1995
Macintosh Tech Support, Sales and Service
Dec 24th
Macs, iPhones, iPods, PDAs & Accessories. Wi-Fi, Networks & Security
Strengths All My Clients Count On
Honesty. I have no interest in selling you anything you don’t need.
Flexibility. If I’m not with a client when you need me you’ll have my undivided attention.
Patients. I’m willing to discuss your needs until I fully understand your workflow.
Problem Solving. If I don’t have an immediate answer I’m dedicated to educating myself.
Product Research
Don’t know where to start or what’s available? My goal is to provide you with all the answers to your needs.
iPhone and Mobile Devices
Whether you have an iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, PDA or other mobile device, I can set it up to sync with your computer.
Upgrading to a new Mac or Upgrading to a new Mac OS?
I can safely transfer all of your files from your old Mac to you new Mac. I can upgrade your computer to the newest operating system from any previous version and provide training on any new features.
Solving problems for Creative Professionals
From TrueType and PostScript typefaces, I have the expertise to help you get the most out of your hardware and software upgrades. Including your inkjet and laser printers and all of the creative applications that run them.
Office and Home Networking
Wireless Networking. Do you need a network with a shared internet connection but don’t want the expense of having cabling installed, I can install and setup a wireless router that will provide coverage for your entire office or home.
Wired Networking. I can provide answers if your existing wired network needs to be more efficient or have better routing.
ngmoco and the freemium model
Mar 11th
I just read this article about ngmoco’s freemium model and I sincerely disagree with their stance. They clearly point out the advantages of playing for free but what they are overlooking is what we want and why we think they’re tricking us. I will attempt to explain why we think we’re being tricked. When we buy a game, we know we can play it from beginning to end. However, if we’re given a game for free we know that somewhere down the road the company will want money for their time and effort, which they rightly deserve. This freemium model doesn’t tell us what we’re paying for the game, I don’t want to buy items within the game like food of guns. I want to pay a flat fee. What’s the ceiling on a freemium game? Could I pay $100 for a freemium game if I continue to buy add-ons? That’s why we think it’s a trick. We want to know what it costs to play the game from beginning to end, not daily.
I would like to offer a possible solution to the freemium model that many of us don’t like. Rebrand the freemium model into something that includes the first level with 10 stages. Not a timed demo or limited first level, but give me the first full level with all the perks for free. And if I love the game I will pay $0.99 for Level 2 (10 stages), and I will pay $0.99 for level 3 (10 stages). No one wants to buy health or guns or mushrooms. We want a full experience; not to be given the opportunity to spend $50 on these games. The freemium model kept me from spending $10 on TouchPets (which is what I expected it to cost) when it came out because the freemium model cripples the game. Sure you can get to the end, but expect it to take longer. That’s not fun.
One thing my freemium model allows you to do is build the first two levels of more games; give away the first level; one month later release level 2 for $0.99. If you have 30 games on the market you know which ones to continue to develop for because those are the ones that are selling levels. So instead of developing 5 or 10 games with all their levels and charging for items, develop more games with a higher diversity and make more game play available as that game pays for itself.
My daughter was very excited about TouchPets, until it came out and she was required to buy dog food. Before I could even tell her that she’s not to make in-app purchases she said she didn’t want to play the game because it made her wait. Now ngmoco could argue that I could have bought her some food, but where does it end? In the article they even mention the Black Market. Really, you’re going to convince me that your model works because another game has a Black Market? We don’t like an open-ended payment scale for these games. We want a flat fee for unlimited play, even if we’re only buying it one level at a time. But each level will be unlimited to me.
I hear plenty of whiners complain about the price of $2 games and those people must be ignored. I’ve paid $10 for many iPhone games and more than $30 for a couple utilities. If people wait a week for a game price to drop it’s because they’ve been trained that’s what will happen. And as much as this country is a democracy we don’t want to be told we’re paying to support the people who weren’t willing to pay for the game.
I suppose they already know this and are just trying the pay-for-food-and-health model to see if it makes them more money than the other models. However, it has made many of us leery of their games because we don’t know what they cost. And don’t tell me that they’re free.
Tomorrow’s Keynote Predictions
Jan 26th
1. Apple’s new tablet computer will be on stage the entire time under a black cloth until revealed.
Nailed It (this good feeling doesn’t last long)
2. Demo of iPhone 4.0
Wrong (enter gong sound here)
3. New iPhone hardware, possibly iPhone 3GS2 or iPhone 3GSx.
Wrong
4. New iLife 2010, no demo.
Wrong
5. Apple’s new tablet computer name will be iBook.
Wrong
6. AT&T will be on stage announcing tethering and claiming new performance improvements.
Wrong
7. Apple will announce deals to have college text books on their tablet computer.
Wrong
8. New iPhone specs, 5MP camera, higher res OLED display, forward facing camera, faster processor and a new home screen.
Wrong
9. Apple will announce deals to have full color comic books, and when you turn the tablet horizontally you will be able to view your comics full spread because some comics are drawn that way.
Wrong
10. Music guest will be someone made famous by American Idol.
Wrong
After the keynote I’ll update this article to see which ones I got right.
Update, I did very poorly as did anyone else who thought Apple would mention the iPhone.
Apple’s tablet could be the new iBook.
Jan 26th
The same way Apple used the word “phone” in it’s 2007 handheld computer “iPhone” they want you think of their new tablet computer as a book “iBook” regardless of what else it’s capable of. This puts Apple squarely in competition with all other ebooks and netbooks. Apple has proven that they don’t mind using the same name on completely different products such as iMovie.
Apple can easy use the iBook name again since they stopped selling iBooks in May 2006 when the MacBook replaced it and all AppleCare (3 year) warrantees for iBooks ended in 2009.
Tomorrow we will see if Apple actually has a tablet like product to even release and even though everything looks like they will I’ve seen this exact same scenario end in disappointment for many speculators.
Update: After watching the Keynote I now understand why Apple chose iPad for the tablets name. I assumed the ebooks would be part of the iTunes Store (which they may on your computer), however, on the iPad it will be it’s own app. The iPhone and iPod has The iTunes Store, App Store and the iPad has the iBook Store.
Apple Magic Mouse
Oct 20th
Today Apple introduced the new Magic Mouse. Apple continues its attack on the button, todays product is no different. The Magic Mouse replaces physical buttons with a touch based surface. I wrote an article 30 months ago talking about this exact product.
I already know I’m going to like the new Magic Mouse because I too won’t miss cleaning the scroll ball out of the Mighty Mouse.
I’m not the only one to predict a touch based mouse I’m just surprised it took Apple 2.5 years from my own article to release one.
I Was Sick
Jul 1st
Starting on Monday, June 23rd, I was feeling bad. The best description is flu-like symptoms. As each day passed, I felt a little worse. By Friday, my sore throat was bad enough that I could only drink things (mostly sweet tea) that didn’t burn. By Saturday, I sent Karen to the store to get me some throat sprays and anything that would make the pain go away. I thought Sunday would be my recover day, but it turned out to be the worst. I was up late (no surprise there) so Monday I didn’t wake up until noon. Shortly after getting up, I had a headache (pain level 1) and noticed a pressure in my chest. Then I vomited for the first time and a little blood came out of my nose. I called Karen and told her I think I need to see a doctor.
Once Karen got home, we headed over to the Urgent Care Center, where of course Urgent doesn’t actually mean Urgent. They called me back after around 30 minutes. The nurse weighed me and took my blood pressure (187 over 131). Then she took my blood pressure on the other arm (190 over 131). The nurse said my blood pressure was super high and I need to go to the Emergency Room at the hospital right away. A doctor came in and said my blood pressure was super high (which made me laugh) and that I need to go to the Emergency Room at the hospital right away. An aide came in with a baby aspirin for me and I said, “What’s this for?” Karen responded with, “They don’t want you to pass out here!” and we all laughed because it was funny.
We headed over to the hospital but dropped Allyson off at a friend’s house first. We arrived at the hospital Emergency Room and signed in, where of course Emergency doesn’t actually mean Emergency. They called me back after around 30 minutes. A nurse took my blood pressure (167 over 124) and asked if I had a history of high blood pressure, to which I answered, “I don’t know because I haven’t seen a doctor for a decade.” I do know that when in the Army, one of their nurses told my I had high blood pressure but said it was probably a soda I had recently. Then I was wheeled back to an actual emergency room.
It wasn’t long before they started to bring me stuff like this beautiful hospital gown.
They took my blood pressure again (181 over 121). It seems to be all over the place. Then they provided me with an awesome IV. Have I mentioned how much I dislike needles? Just writing about them makes me quiver. There on the floor, that appears to be my blood.
You can see from the following video Karen was enjoying herself a little too much, maybe not.
Even while I was laying there I couldn’t help but use my new iPhone 3GS to check my email, take some photos, shoot some video, provide support to a client (seriously), and Tweet. I’m addicted to technology and the iPhone allows me to do so many things on a single device. Since I was sick, I had a reduced appetite and hadn’t eaten in 15 hours. Les, an ER person, brought me some apple sauce and a fruit cup. No Jell-O because I’m a vegetarian. Neither was organic and the main ingredient in the fruit cup was high fructose corn syrup. Les put a nitroglycerin patch on my chest. I made a joke about being a stick of dynamite.
Still residing in the Emergency Room, they take me for my first chest X-RAY. Karen and I sat for a while. They made Karen leave because they were changing the person who was in the next area. I checked my email, did some web surfing. The doctor came in and talked with me. I figured he wanted to talk about my flu symptoms (which is why I went to the Urgent Health Center) or my high blood pressure (which everyone else seemed to be worried about). Nope. He wanted to talk about the pressure in my chest. He wasn’t convinced it was related to the my sickness and said I should stay the night for observation and have a heart stress test done in the morning. After asking a few questions, I agreed I would stay.
It’s important that you realize the only reason I went to the hospital was for Karen and Allyson. Had I been alone when told about the high blood pressure I would have asked for some antibiotics and went home. However, it wouldn’t have been right to make them worry, so I did it for them. Which is why I also chose to stay the night and have the test.
Karen was still in a waiting room waiting for me to tell her when she could come back in. She sent me this picture of what food was available to her. In my naivety I would have thought a hospital would be a shining beacon of proper nutrition. It turns out that I may have been mistaken about that. As an up and coming food snob this was very disappointing. A short time later I told Karen she could return to the emergency room. She came back and visited for a little while and then said she was going to get Allyson so she could see me before the day was over. I was moved to a room while she was gone.
An aide came into my new room and took my blood pressure (120 over 80) and attached a wireless heart monitor. Karen and Allyson returned and brought me a few things I asked for – iPhone adapter, iPhone cable, USB extension cable, organic snack bars and Allyson thought it would be funny to bring my gnome. The doctor came in and asked how I was doing. I mentioned my headache and a shooting pain down the right side of my neck. He got a little more information and said he would see me tomorrow. Karen, Allyson and I visited for a little while longer before they left. Around midnight I started watching Tokyo Drift but couldn’t remain focused, so I tried to sleep. The nurse came in almost immediately and said she needed to get some throat and nose swabs. It ended up being 2am before I could fall asleep. Unfortunately, I had a headache (pain level 3). At 4am I was awoken up by some young guy who said he needed to take some blood, so I extended my arm with the IV. He said, “I can’t take it from there. I’m going to have to get it from the other arm.” I said, “WHAT?” Just the idea of another needle going in me was enough to make queasy. I extended my right arm and lied there just trying not to think about it. By the time he was done and left, my headache (pain level 4) was keeping me awake. I called the nurse and the aide showed and asked what I needed. I said I had a headache and couldn’t go to sleep. She said she would tell the nurse. The nurse came in about 20 minutes later and removed my nitro patch and left before I realized she never mentioned my headache. Apparently, a side effect of the nitro patch was headaches. I waited about 5 minutes and called the nurse again. The aide returned and I explained that the nurse never mentioned my headache and I couldn’t go to sleep. The nurse returned 5 minutes later and said the doctor didn’t leave a prescription order so they didn’t know what they were allowed to give me. They were waiting for a return call from the doctor before giving me anything. About 10 minutes later I couldn’t lie in bed anymore so I sat in the chair for a few minutes. Then I walked out in the hall and leaned against the wall. The nurse came around the corner with two Tylonol and a little water. I took them and they were gross (uncoated). Then I asked the nurse if I could pace the hall while I waited for the headache to go down. She didn’t have a problem with it.
I spent the next 20 minutes pacing the halls as my headache went down. At the opposite end of the hall was one of those little maps that says, “You are here.” 18 years ago I worked for an architecture firm and one of my jobs was to measure this hospital and put it into the computer. I recognized the map and was quite certain that I had drawn it 18 years ago. While pacing I also ran into Starbucks Debbie. That’s what I call her because she manages the Starbucks in Target and saw me many times a week before I gave up specialty coffees. Do you know how weird it is to run into someone you know while pacing the hall of a hospital at 5am?
At 6:30am I was awoken by a lady who was going to take me to get a CAT scan. I got the CAT scan and was returned to my room. I proceeded to fall asleep many times in between aides bringing things in the room like a fresh gown, bathroom stuff, changing trash bags and checking other miscellaneous stuff.
At around 8am they brought me some breakfast. I took the lid off of it and thought to myself, “You have got to be joking?” At no point did anyone document that I was a vegetarian but even the non-meat products weren’t food I would eat. I very reluctantly ate half of the eggs, most of the biscuit and had a drink of milk. There was no real butter, just butter spread and the jelly was high fructose corn syrup. The milk wasn’t organic which meant it was BGH milk. Are you telling me that hospitals have no idea that this crap is bad for people?
From this point forward, I mostly remained in a sleepy state, where I would sleep for 30 minutes, wake up and sleep for another 30 minutes. My chest pressure had not returned.
At around 1:30pm someone came to take me to get my heart stress test. Once we got in that area, I saw a woman get something from a room that was labeled, Radioactive, and exit that room with some for me. She said she was going to insert it thorough my IV and let it circulate for the heart X-RAYs. Before that started I was taken to a woman who gave me an echocardiogram.
Then I was returned to the room where they were to start the heart stress test which started with me explaining to the person there why he should get the new iPhone 3GS. He put me into a machine that took X-RAYs of my heart. Then I was moved into the next room where I was hooked up to a 12 lead monitor for the treadmill part of the test. That guy got out a needle and injected something into my IV which required me to lie down for 5 minutes because it made me queasy. A doctor came in and got me started on the treadmill. The needle guy said he was going to to have to inject me again and to not look. The treadmill test lasted for about 8 minutes. It winded me but wasn’t hard. Then I was returned to the previous room where they took more X-RAYs to compare to the previous X-RAYs.
I was returned to my room around 3pm and surprised to see Karen and Allyson there with a delicious organic sweet iced tea from Coffee Crossing. The doctor came in a little later to see how I was doing and I said I was ready to get out of there. He said he was waiting on some test results and would release me when everything turned out negative. So Karen, Allyson and I waited for 3 hours before they told me all my tests were negative and I was being released, which is good because I was getting agitated.
An aide came in 10 minutes later and removed my heart monitor. The nurse came in 10 minutes after that and removed my IV and had me sign some papers and gave me prescriptions for blood pressure, antibiotics and stomach pain. They told me to wait until the transporter got to my room so they could wheel me out. After 5 minutes I told Karen and Allyson to go on down. 5 minutes later the nurse said the transporter should be there soon even though she looked surprised to still see me in the room. After waiting another 5 minutes I just got up and walked out. I met Karen in the lobby and we left.
I fell asleep around 11pm and slept 13 hours uninterrupted. I got up, took a shower, drank some tea and Karen returned with the antibiotics which is the only one I was going to take to help get rid of my flu-like symptoms. I took my first antibiotic around 1:30pm. As of the writing of this article I still have flu-like symptoms. Most noticeably is my cough. I’m glad my sore throat is gone.
The Hero Story
May 26th
In April of 2006 one of my clients was married and they were transferring their wedding photos and videos to their laptop as often as they could. Shortly after the wedding she called me and said her PC laptop wouldn’t boot. I picked up the laptop and did my best to get it to boot but it wouldn’t. I had determined that the hard drive had failed on some level and wouldn’t mount. I reluctantly informed my client of the bad news.
She decided to buy MacBook which I helped her setup and I recovered her iTunes Library from her iPod to her MacBook.
A few months later I decided to try again. I put the drive into a laptop and attempted to run Check Disk. This time the drive simply clicked over and over again never getting anywhere in the boot process.
On December 20th 2007 I purchased SpinRite, a new utility that I thought might repair her hard drive, unfortunately when booting the PC the utility couldn’t see that the drive was connected. And again I shelved the drive.
This month (May 2009) I borrowed a friends PC tower to run SpinRite on my TiVo hard drive because my TiVo was crashing every hour. SpinRite ran for less that 12 hours and repaired some sector problems on the drive. After reassembling my TiVo and putting it back into use I haven’t had a single problem with it. This made me think it was time again to try SpinRite on my clients hard drive.
On Saturday morning May the 16th 2009 I was in my work area and decided to put the hard drive in a laptop and run SpinRite. You can imagine my surprise when SpinRite saw the drive even though it was clicking repeatedly. I told SpinRite to Recover the data. I was quite excited to see that SpinRite was trying to repair the drive. I kept going to my work area to check it’s progress.
After 12 hours it had finally gotten through about 4 areas of damage or less than 1% of the drive. On Sunday I was excited to tell my wife that it was at 54% and it was actually repairing some of the drive while marking other areas unrecoverable. I was thinking that by Monday I would be able to try and recover the data from the drive after the repair.
However, Monday came and went still at 54%. Tuesday got us to 58%. Wednesday was an all 64% day as was Thursday. Friday came and moved us to 65%. One week later, on Saturday we saw 68%. Sunday was the day we saw 69%. Monday came and went without a single change. Tuesday, well Tuesday was the JackPot.
I checked on the progress of the drive repair Tuesday morning May 26th 2009. To my surprise SpinRite was finished. Some areas were marked in Red (red is bad) and some areas were marked in Green (green is good) while most areas were undamaged. I removed the drive from the PC laptop and mounted it on my MacBook. And there it was. It would occasionally click when covering a bad area but it would get over it and report an error. Then I was able to move on.
I meticulously went through every photo and video attempting to copy them over to my drive. There were the important wedding photos and videos as well as hundreds of other photo and videos. Many times the hard drive would start clicking, I had to wait until it was done about a minute later then move on. After several hours of grabbing hundreds of images and dozens of videos one by one I recovered all but a couple videos a few pictures because they were corrupt.
Now I’m going to publish this article and send my client a link so she can read that I recovered her wedding photos and videos from the laptop drive she gave me 3 years ago.
Response from Amie, “Yeah Rob it’s Amie, just checked my email and I think That’s pretty incredible.”
The Twitter Blog Post Reduction Factor
Apr 21st
As my Twitter posts increase my blog posts decrease. After you spend time posting little things all week long on Twitter it zaps your need to make a post on your blog. I’ve seen this among other geeks as well. Blogs require time to compose and edit your articles. Twitter is so quick and easy to use it really does eat up your desire to post something new.
I’m still surprised to hear that kids I know don’t know what Twitter is. I stay on the bleeding edge of technology but these are kids that don’t know what the hottest service is.
This site is a combination of personal and business information. So my articles can be about anything and so can my Tweets http://twitter.com/themacjedi
So have you other Twitter users noticed that your blog posts have been reduced due to your Twitter use?
