The story is all too common: I go onto Kijiji (a Canadian Craigslist clone) and find what I had been looking for: an iPad. I see the post’s price and presume it’s an “anchor” price, so I start off asking if the device is available and if they’d take a lower number. What follows is finding out the iPad posting was misrepresented as a “personal” sale, when in fact it was a business selling the product at a firm price, quoted without tax. Another asshole muddying what’s known as the “grey” market for the rest of us. Too many of these types of experiences, and you start to wonder if this can ever be improved past this level of failed experiment.
You might remember my mention of a way to help book authors combat piracy. It was an idea borne of a small simple conversation with a friend; and neither of us had read the book. In fact, at the time of writing that book, I had not read a physical paper book in years. This seemed like a great way to exchange ideas and help the author in our own small way (though, frankly as a bestseller, this book doesn’t need the help). Now that I’ve read it, I wanted to let you know what I think.
By now you’ve probably noticed the photos I share have two distinct attributes. First, none of them are watermarked with a name, company or otherwise. Second, the photos come with titles and (relatively) long captions. Furthermore, I work to give you access to the highest possible resolution of each photograph. Why? I’ll fill you in on my process, and offer some tips about what you should do both of these very contentious ideas in photography.
This 2016 Macbook Pro refresh has been a long time coming. Since May of 2015, in fact. My last computer was a Retina Macbook Pro (2015) with reasonably similar specifications, which stood as the previous model, but due to this massive re-design, a far different computer. Over Christmas 2016, I took the plunge and decided to go with this high quality (but recently beleaguered) line of laptop in my on way (as an I.T. Professional).
While in the Dominican Republic I made it my personal mission to gain data access on my smartphone. Over the years, this process has become easier as the companies have accommodated smartphone users. With an unlocked smartphone, you can get reliable and useful pre-paid cell phone and data access in the Dominican. I’ve learned a few things along the way that you’ll want to know if you plan to do this.
Flying is painful. The long waits. The difficult and intrusive security. The cramped feeling on flights. The nickle-and-diming checked bags. Now, this insanity is going to ratchet up to a new class of ticket below economy named “basic economy”. This new class of ticket appears to be finding widespread adoption among airlines, with United setting new lows. If your last class ticket is with United expect no chance at seat selection, no access to the overhead bin, and be forced to board the plane last.
I regularly use a Macbook Pro for administration duties, a Magic Mouse v2, an Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Watch 1, and an iPhone 6s Plus. For the most part, I think these products are rock-solid and reliable (for what I do). Given this, every Apple announcement is generally met with great interest for me, mainly because I’ll probably be in there at 3am Eastern Time buying the next iPhone on Friday like many of you.
Regularly, I read articles and blog posts, but I also see a good deal from people who represent my industry, namely the Computer Technical Service or MSP folks. What I’ve encountered, however, has me incredibly troubled. A number of folks online are purporting to represent us, when in fact they aren’t doing it well at all. This hit the tipping point when two of these people came together to make an insanely bad webcast, that I had to share it with you.
One familiar refrain amongst all Canadian Internet users when talking about service levels is “There’s nothing we can do”. We’re resigned to bad connections, routing devices that appear untested, over-priced services, phone systems that are truly hellish, and big companies that operate as if they were monopolies. In fact, you don’t have to go far to find horror stories. If you even look at the history of my blog, you’ll see that I write much more about negative topics than positive. The challenge, I find, is surfacing the good stories, so they can also compete for attention just as much. This is a story about Teksavvy.
As someone who works in I.T., but is also into photography, I rely on bags for everything. Most cheap bags (hasn’t everyone had an APC bag in I.T.?) are great for storing laptops but aren’t so great at photography gear. Camera bags too are often not meant for computer gear. Well, thanks to some good fortune, I came across PeakDesign and their EveryDay Messenger bag. Frankly, it was a challenge to tell if this was going to be great at what I needed until I bought the thing, so hopefully, if this is on your mind, I can help. Here are my thoughts on this bag.