HeadphoneAddict

List of recently announced Thunderbolt accessories: http://www.macstories.net/news/the-thunderbolt-accessories-of-ces-2012/

8GB was the wise choice. I'm finding 4GB is barely enough for OS X Lion when running a bunch of background tasks. A Future Mac OS could make the 8GB the minimum not too far in the future. At least if the 256GB SSD isn't big enough she can add a 64GB SD card or Ext HD to increase it. I'm currently using my daughter's old 13" white Macbook since I handed my 15" 8GB MBP down to my son when I bought (and returned) a new 2012 15" MBP. It's much better with the 6GB max now.

Sorry to hear that. I keep a bootable external drive for circumstances like that (a hybrid SSD clone actually, which runs decent speed), and I also have a 16GB USB thumbdrive set up with OSX that I can boot from as well (very slow). You may want to consider that for the future, although if you can't boot from either internal drive maybe your internal SATA is dead and the motherboard is toast. Try resetting the PRAM and SMC on the machine and see if that helps. First try booting with CMD-OPT-P-R till it starts to boot>chimes>starts to boot again and keep holding the keys until it runs through that again (more fail safe than going through a single cycle). The SMC is reset by removing the battery and power, and then pressing and holding the power button for 5 seconds. Not sure what to do with models with internal batteries. I like upgradability. I just upgraded the early 2009 White Macbook to 6GB a few minutes ago, as iCleanMemory was showing we were using 100% of the 4GB (I'm it won't take 8GB, but my older late 2008 MBP does). It was so simple and fast, and Apple is screwing things up with this soldered in RAM crap.

Oh noes!

Thanks Tyll. When I first read his first post I checked to see if it was posted on 4/1

Congrats chalky dude!

I'm pretty sure you can't upgrade the Air later, after the fact - that's what I'm talking about. If you buy the 4 GB now, then that's what you have forever. Correct me if I'm wrong. Now, back in the days of the Atari ST computer you could piggyback new RAM chips on top of the soldered in chips, and you'd double the accessible memory. I don't think that technique works in this case.

I have that shirt

You almost made a haiku out of the first part. (it doesn't have to be 5-7-5)

I will be there, but I haven't decided if I'm going to bring all of my gear this time. I seem to be the only Colorado H-F or H-C member that sets up a high-end rig anymore, and then I have to bother people to watch my gear when I want to go see the rest of the show. It used to be that 6-10 of us would set up our personal rigs for others to enjoy, but not any more. Over the past three RMAF Canjams the number of local member rigs has dwindled. Last year I brought the KGSS with SR-007 and HE-60, and Barleyguy only brought a CTH with HE-5, but it was almost redundant with all the other vendor gear that was there. Plus, I'm not sure I want total strangers banging up my SR-009 and HE-60 or SR-007 this year, since my HD800 got dented last year when I loaned them to the CEntrance vendor in place of his DT880 (not his fault). It was nice when CanJam was almost entirely H-F and H-C members and we didn't have people off the street manhandling our gear. I thought CanJam 2009 in LA was fantastic.

My favorite line from Blazing Saddles. "Excuse me while I whip this out". And everybody ducks!

One day I discovered that in my iTunes library and didn't recall buying it. It's listed as alternative but seems more like ambient chill kinda music, with angel voices.

I really like the Griffin Intellicase because it's a hard shell case with itegrated smart cover. However, one 2 foot drop on a corner and it will crack - although better to crack a $35 case than a $829 iPad. Amazon.com has the best prices on this. When my current Griffin dies I'm gonna try the Apple Smart Case - got one for father's day that I'll whip out when the time comes.

1080p video uses up a lot of space, and apps for the retina display caused many apps to become bloated. I would get the largest one you can afford, no less than 32gb, but that's me. Plus, I think only about 14GB is actually available for storage. And if you get too close to zero space remaining, then you can't update larger apps over WiFi and have to plug into iTunes to update the apps.

But maybe it can run Twonky Media Server, eLyric, or something like ServetoMe? Personally it wouldn't be worth it to me. I had a 17" G5 iMac and replaced it in Jan 2007 with a Core2Duo iMac, and the performance improvement was very noticeable. I can't imagine going back to a powerPC Mac when you can get a used Core2Duo for $500 (or less).

So here is the final word on the 40 hours of paid time off, which my wife donated to her co-workers at the hospital she works at. Step one - The PTO is added to tomorrows paycheck, with deductions for Medicare and PERA (No SS deduct because she has public employees retirement acct pension instead, so when she retires she gets a percentage of her last 3 years avg annual income). In this case they withhold almost nothing for fed or state taxes since it is being donated and won't be taxed. So we won't have to wait till next April for a refund on additional withholdings for the income. Step two - The hospital has a charitable foundation for the needy and poor, which we have donated to twice this year already. They took our debit card number and tomorrow, after the automatic deposit is made tonight, the foundation charges the "charitable donation" for the take-home amount. Step three - The Foundation distributes the money to the employees in need (who will have taxes withheld, but not SS and medicare because it's not earnings). The foundation's overhead is pretty low and not much is used to administer the funds. Step four - We claim both the income and the write-off, which will be a wash. Another benefit is that this will increase my wife's avg annual income when calculating her pension when she retires. She could collect almost $50/month additional income from her pension for the rest of her life, if she retires in the next 3-4 years. She is eligible to retire now, but has been holding off in order to receive the health insurance and to help pay college tuition. But there is no disincentive to donating more hours later if we want to.

Happy Birthday

The only issues I've had with my 3 year old EC ZDT were in 2010 when one of the tube sockets cracked, but still worked, and one of the four bolts holding the right side circuit board in place came loose. Craig fixed both issues for free in 2011 when i sent it in for a partial silver transformer upgrade, and he gave me a screaming deal on the upgrade by giving me credit for the original transformers. I'm a happy customer, just based on the sound, but customer service has been very good too and quality isn't what I would call shoddy.

It must have been an error, because it's back up now at $108 http://www.amazon.com/Live-After-Deaf-Complete-Boxset/dp/B008GEIHFC/#mp3TrackPlayer

Happy Birthday!

did I miss it? happy birthday!

Yeah, my wife works at a hospital too, and many people pitched in to donate some of their paid time off. This one is a city owned hospital and doesn't have a lot of leeway to fund the program without a vote. Now, if my wife left her job and they paid out all her vacation time in her final check, it would be income. And if the recipient collects the money it is their income. But right now I think it's only "potential income" and may not be deductible. I use H&R Block, so maybe we'll call them. [edit - now that I think about it, this may be more like an "accounts receivable". When I would see a patient and they owed me money, it went into accounts receivable. If they couldn't pay me and I wrote it off the books I could not use it as a tax deduction because it wasn't really money that I owned and in my pocket. It was my time that I gave up, not my money.]

The fires are 80% contained, and we're hoping Colorado Springs and Woodland park are finally safe. It's very windy right now, but dumping rain, so while rain is welcome there is now the worry about flash flooding because of the fire areas not absorbing water like normal. While so very sad about the 346 homes and 2 lives lost, we're so happy that some places were were sure would burn were saved, including Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Eagle Lake Camp, and Caves of the Winds. Eagle Lake Camp is a 100 acre island of green in the middle of 18,000 burned acres, and firemen camped out there to keep it safe. Many of us here think it's as important a landmark as GOG and Glen Eyrie. Some firemen in action in the NW neighborhoods that were decimated. http://youtu.be/AZei9lJ2G1k