YAY for more RAM

Just got the shipment from Crucial today and I am now the owner of an extra GB of RAM. I am currently in my dad's shop where I have just installed the RAM. Since I used to work for Apple and install customer's RAM all the time, i suppose I am a bit biased, but I really cannot imagine a much easier process...pop out the battery, take out three screws, push the RAM into its slot, replace the screws, replace the battery, turn on and make sure it recognized.

Of course, you do need a tiny little screw driver, but fortunately my dad is a bit crazy when it comes to tools and owns just about every tool imaginable. I used to actually know what size the screws were, but now I just use whatever fits. I'm not really sure yet if the computer's really any faster, but I suppose I'll find out when I use Photoshop or Lightroom next time.

On a similar note, if you've ever got a choice between FedEx and UPS...use FedEx!!! FedEx seems to be faster in almost every situation, for one particular reason...they get it to you as fast as they can. I recently sold my iMac on eBay and shipped it via 3 day express (the cheapest option available). However, it arrived there very early on the second day. I have had this happen to me on multiple occasions, where the package arrives a day or two before it's supposed to.

UPS, on the other hand, will do whatever they can to make sure you don't get your package before it's supposed to be delivered. It is absoultely maddening sometimes, being impatient as I am. I have actually seen a package sit in a UPS warehouse for 2 or 3 days, doing nothing, just to make sure it doesn't arrive before it's supposed to. For this reason, i will never again use UPS, and I recommend that you don't either.

My last bit of advice...DO NOT BUY APPLE RAM!!! Not because it is not good RAM (it's actually very high quality and I've never seen it returned), but it's horribly overpriced! Apple charges $300 for 1GB of RAM! Yes...you read that correctly, $300!! They charge $100 for 512mb. How they come up with that pricing scheme or how I managed to convince so many customers to pay those outrageous prices is beyond me.

Instead, I went over to Crucial and ordered 1GB for $54!! This is almost half the price of buying just 512mb from Apple and far cheaper than 1GB. Further, the process of choosing the correct RAM could not be simpler and it is guaranteed to be compatible with your computer. For what they charge, the upgrade is definitely worth it.

Congratulations, Canada!

How exciting that the value of the dollar keeps falling...right along with Bush's approval ratings! Coincidence?

In any case, the US dollar is now worth less than the Canadian dollar.

Way to go, Canada....or way to suck, US!

I think I'm moving to Canada.......

For more info on the shrinking value of the US dollar:
Dollar Hits New Low vs. Euro, Pound

My computer sold!!

I put my iMac G5 up on e-bay the other day. I was selling it because I've got a MacBook Pro laptop which is more powerful than the iMac and of course, much smaller. So, I figured i'd sell the computer and use the money to buy a 23" Apple Cinema Display for the laptop. The 15" laptop screen is really just not appropriate for any kind of photo editing stuff.

Really, I just wanted to make enough money to pay for the screen ($800) and though it would be nice if I could also make enough to upgrade to 2 GB of RAM on the laptop. Well the auction ended the other day and some guy actually paid just over $1200 for it!! I have no idea why he'd pay that since they're only $1600 new, and my G5 is a few models old. 2 years old is pretty old in the computer world...I would not have thought it would be worth more than $500 or so.

But, I'm not complaining! I am currently viewing this post on a brand new 23" Cinema Display which I bought the day the computer sold. It is absolutely a gorgeous display and absurdly bright! I am going to have trouble ever going back to a single monitor. It's nice to be able to put all of the main windows or photo editing stuff on the large display and the smaller screens on the laptop. 23" may not sound that big compared to the flat screen tv's out there, but when it's sitting on the desk a foot or so from your face...it's HUGE! I love this thing!

Thank you, anonymous guy in Florida, for paying too much for my old computer!! :)

I'm back!

OK, so I haven't been posting much. If you're reading my blog, I apologize for that. I really am going to try to update on a more regular basis! However, this blog was meant to be primarily to be about medical school and seeing as I have yet to start, the blog also has yet to really start. However, if you got here from ValueMD, are thinking about attending AUC, and have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll post the answers on here. At least one or two people have told me that they're read my blog, so that makes me feel good!

So..what's been happening in my life? Well I don't have a job...so not a whole heck of a lot. I still have yet to go skydiving this summer, which is a bit upsetting. I think that this week, next week at the latest, I am going to take care of that problem. I've got 26 skydives so far and would like to at least get to 30 or so before I leave for the Caribbean. Actually, I've still got just over a month left before leaving for school, so maybe I'll aim for 40 jumps...just as long as the money holds out!

I sort of lied above...I do have a job. I'm a forensic investigator and that's how I make money over the summer. However, it's not very dependable. We work on call and don't get paid unless we get a call. However, we do get $80/call, and they only take about an hour to complete, so it's decent pay. I have gotten a couple of calls this month, but I'm on call right now and nothing yet today. I don't wish for anyone to die (in general), but it would be nice if someone who is inevitably going to die eventually, would do it today...in Anne Arundel county...in the next 3 hours!

Not much new form AUC...although I have been getting quite a bit of mail from them. I think I got all of my financial aid stuff figured out and they finally updated the fact that I am no longer conditionally accepted. Finally, I'm just plain old accepted. This may be stupid since I already knew I was accepted, but I was very happy when I got the letter the other day congratulating me for having the conditional status removed. I guess it just made everything more final. Today, I got a free copy of AUC Connections...the alumni magazine. I've gotta say, it was surprisingly nice...but isn't it getting a little ahead of the game? I haven't even started and I've already gotten my first alumni magazine. I am actually an alumni of UMBC (my undergrad) and I haven't gotten a thing from them yet!

Pick up the pace, guys!

I called MEAS today to find out the status of my financial aid, only to be told that it was on hold since I was still a conditional acceptance. I am not, however, conditional anymore. They were only waiting for my degree to post and my final transcripts were sent to them 2 weeks ago! I hope they pick it up before my financial aid gets delayed!

In other news...I was actually productive today! I called Carib-link services to work out the details of getting my car shipped to SXM. Turns out it will cost me about $1850 and I just show up with the car to ship it. I have to take it to them August 13th, it will be shipped that thursday, arrive the next Tuesday, and will therefore be in SXM waiting for me when I get there. Unfortunately, I arrive on a Saturday and the shipping places are closed until Monday. So, two days of rental car.

Going to Batemans tonight for all you can eat wings with Heather and my old boss (now friend) from college. I am going to miss all you can eat wing nights...I'm hoping they have them in St. Maarten!!

Hmm...nothing else of interest right now, so i guess that's it for the moment.

Zoo Pictures are up!!

National Zoo-83.jpg
Originally uploaded by slevit1.

I went to the zoo with Heather last Sunday. It was very hot out, but otherwise a perfect day. Unfortunately, I had been taking pictures the day before and didn't charge my battery in between. So, I ran out of juice before we got to the gorillas, tigers, and lions. It was a shame because there were a ton of good shots that I could have gotten of tigers.

Also, unfortunately, the Pandas were inside due to the heat. So, the pictures are mostly through glass in a very dimly lit inside area. I'll have to go back there again when it cools off a bit (if that happens while I'm still in Maryland)

TiVo, why do you suck....sometimes?

Please don't get me wrong here...I've got TiVo and it would be safe to say that I'm obsessed with it. TiVo is perhaps the most amazing invention in the world as it allows me to never miss a show, watch what I want when I want, and never have to watch commercials. If TiVo was a girl, I would probably be dating her.

However, TiVo has, perhaps, the most abysmal network setup options ever. Basically, there are no options. You only get to choose if it should pull an IP from a DHCP server or assign its own. Past that...nothing. And to make matters worse, during guided setup (which is absolutely required before any TiVo function can work), you can't see any of the network information. So, if network setup doesn't work, you're left with really no understanding of why.

This became a problem when I attempted to set up my girlfriend's TiVo the other day. She lives on campus at UMBC, but I have had TiVo there back when I lived there, so I knew it shouldn't be a problem. However, I hooked the thing up exactly right (it's really not very hard to do) and for some reason, it just would not connect to the TiVo service. It apparently connected to the router ok (or so tech support tells me), but just wouldn't work. Tech support at TiVo is not very good, by the way. If you have a question or a problem continues past what their little prompts tell them, they are utterly lost. They really don't know how the TiVo works any better than I do. Most of the time I spent telling them that they were wrong, it was not a UMBC problem, but a TiVo problem.

In any case, tech support never did figure it out. So, I took it to my house, ran guided setup without incident, and brought it back to Heather's place. Miraculously, it now works perfectly. I'm glad it works and I'm sure she'll love it as much as me, but why did setup have to suck so much? Come on TiVo.....

And speaking of TiVo problems...would a faster hard drive really be that terrible of a thing to include? I understand that TiVo currently has no real competitor, but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement!

Great Falls pics

Finally back to blogging (I hope). I know it's been a while, but I just haven't been home lately. I finally got around to editing the pictures from great falls though. I just started using Lightroom for all of my photo management. I like it a lot, but there's a bit of a learning curve coming from iPhoto.

You can click on any of these pictures for the full size (I think). A whole lot more are also on my flickr site at http://flickr.com/photos/slevit1

I suppose that this is probably the main part of great falls. At least, it was the most impressive.



Taco, hanging out. It was a bit hot out and so I guess he decided to rest. We also found out that he's not a big fan of heights!