Got burning questions about your new shiny Mac? Head on over here and fire away.

Needing no actual application introduction here lemme share some thoughts from the jump to Skype 5.0 non beta from the previous beta build.

I actually made the jump into Skype 5 Beta a few months back and have slowly appreciated the new bolder unified look. Undoubtedly the initial Beta look was a screen hog and had too much space wasted in terms of visual design. This was even more painful in the chat screen window where it was just glaringly white all over the place. That was finally remedied by a few intrepid programers who figured out how to install custom themes for the chat window screen, called "styles". Since then I haven taken a liking toward a chat style called "Simple", I'd share the link where I got it but I can't remember. Nevertheless I was happy to see that after upgrading Skype, my chat style still stayed the same, that and there were drastic improvements to all that extra space the whole Mac community was clamoring about on beta. Over all the unified interface may take some time to adapt to but presents a better user experience in the long run, that's from personal experience.

Too bad they had removed the groups video calling on the free version (it was free for a short while when Skype was on Beta). However until Google Voice releases an official desktop application (I assume they have something in the works) Skype will be the king of voip communications. If you haven't already downloaded it for your Mac, get it here.

Note: This list is by no stretch of the imagination supposed to be perceived as a comprehensive review. It is meant to introduce you to some nifty apps that I feel would make working on your computers a better place. Included in this write ups are insights on how I regularly use the apps and how they have helped me work better and more efficiently.

Very interesting article about how Apple has become the one true spiritual successor of the dominant Sony of old. Nicely written, the historical references really have an impact making you understand Steve Jobs' philosophy in releasing "..the next big thing". There are many who wish the demise of Apple in the near future...just like Sony was the dominant force in the past, Apple may very well fall under the same pressure to go with the flow and forget the core philosophy that has made it so great.

Here's a small snippet from the article...

...in the Sixties, when color TV was going from 3% to 25% of the market, Sony was one of the few electronics companies that didn't sell a color model. "People were telling Ibuka, 'You have to come in to this market, everyone will take your market share,'" says Deutschman. "And Ibuka refused, saying, 'No, we will only do great products. We will only do high quality goods. We will only do breakthrough technology.'"

As a result, the company found itself in a precarious financial situation, losing out to its primary rivals -- until it came upon the aperture-grille technology that Sony unveiled in 1966 as the core of the Trinitron TV. A full 25% brighter than its rivals, Trinitron became the best-selling color TV for the next quarter century

This is of course one of a million "pro" Apple articles floating around the net. Take this as something to make you Apple owners feel good about that not so cost efficient purchase you just made on your new shiny Apple device. I enjoyed it a lot, and it did make me appreciate my Macbook Pro a little bit more than I already do. In the end, Apple products can't please everyone and honestly, I don't really care...it does a lot for me and nearly everything I need it to do it does better than expected. I'm happy with my purchase I hope you are too.

So a friend recently commented that he was the only one in our table of managers who hadn't purchased an iPad yet. Being a good samaritan I thought I'd just go ahead and give him one. There you go Erik.
Sent from my mobile

Update: Patience is a virtue. The fonts are back to normal, LOL.

Fck the site looks like shit using standard cursive text styles. I don't know why it just fcks up every time I'm playing around with theme settings, but hopefully it sorts itself out soon. I'm a very firm believer in not fixing what's not broken and I honestly wasn't fooling around with anything directly related to this site. I was actually just finishing up the touches on my other blog site that I will use as a personal repository for my help desk adventures. Oh well I just thought this would be something worth writing about to let some steam off.