Writing Stuff

I've been a PC user all of my life. I've dabbled with a Mac before and tried using Linux as my primary operating system, but I've always wound up going back to Windows. I was first introduced to Windows back when I was in 6th grade (1996) and have been using it ever since. My first introduction to Windows was version 3.1, then on to 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, and a little bit of Windows 7. The time has finally come to start moving away from Windows completely. As luck would have it, my work computer started having some (likely) hardware issues that cause it to completely lock up at least once a day. At a job where I work primarily in a browser with many tabs open, working on many things at once this proves to be extremely unproductive. I decided to go with a Mac as a replacement. I'm also going to be receiving a fairly large check in the mail within the next 30 days (thankfully not from Nigeria) and will be using a portion of that to replace my Sony VAIO at home with a new ...

With the release of Kindle for iPhone yesterday Amazon just gave me an awesome economic stimulus by saving me $360 in all of about two seconds. Now instead of techno-lusting over the new Kindle 2 , I've got my own awesome eBook reader - the iPhone. Sure, it doesn't have a huge screen or awesome e-ink, but it'll do. The font size is changeable and swiping the screen to flip pages is neat. There's other eBook readers for the iPhone, but they're nothing compared to the Kindle application for the iPhone, and Amazon's Kindle books are way cheaper than any other eBooks I've found. I don't read enough books in a few years to justify the cost of a Kindle 2, but now Amazon has found a way to still make money off of light readers like me. Maybe I'll finally get around to finishing the 9/11 Commission Report (it's only $0.99!) and reading The Audacity of Hope .

I really love Gmail's relatively new Tasks feature. It's an incredibly easy way for me to set up reminders for things that I need to do, stuff that I need to buy, questions I need to ask, and everything else. The native iPhone interface is to die for. It is extremely fast and easy to create new tasks, modify existing ones, or mark one as completed. As efficient and accomplished as this makes me feel, it's kind of sad to realize that the sometimes-important tasks that I create would likely not have ever been completed if I didn't have a nice little tasks pop-in window in Gmail. At least I'm actually getting things done, right? Seeing an unchecked tasks that's been there for more than a day really pushes me to get it done so that I can check it off and take it off my mind. Thanks, Google, for making me more productive. I'm sure my wife and boss appreciate it, too.