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dmkemick
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Posts by dmkemick
Switching from an iPad to an 11″ Macbook Air
May 17th
In April I decided to make an investment with my tax return by buying a refurbished 11” Macbook Air with the following specs (top of the line, as of April 2011):
- 1.6 GHZ Core 2 Duo Processor
- 4GB of RAM
- 128 GB Solid State Hard Drive
I could go on listing other details but those are the important bits. Since getting it in the mail I’ve also installed Windows 7 on a second partition, as well as Visual Studio, Photoshop and the Office suite of applications. That’s just to give you an idea of what I’ve done so far, but let’s start with the primary question: why did I make the switch?
The iPad is Not a Developer’s Device
At the end of the day, I’m a web and software developer (.NET primarily) and there’s not a whole lot of development work I can get done with an iPad. Don’t get me wrong, I used my iPad all of the time but the Macbook Air can double as a work device for me and that added functionality is very valuable. Essentially, the 11” Macbook Air is an iPad with a keyboard running a desktop operating system and that works just fine for me!
It is by far the thinnest and lightest computer I’ve ever owned (much more mobile than my 15” Macbook Pro) but still packs in the features required to be an awesome day-to-day work laptop. If you’re looking for the perfect meeting device, this is it. I used to take my iPad into meetings all of the time and though it works quite well at the end of the day nothing beats a physical keyboard when you need to take some notes quickly.
From a performance standpoint the Air is the “snappiest” computer I’ve ever owned despite being so miniscule. Using it has been my first exposure to computing with a solid state drive and I honestly can’t imagine going back to spinning platters with my future computing purchases. Though it doesn’t pack a beefy processor, this little sucker loads all of the apps listed above significantly faster than my other work and home computers. Note, when you do some processor-intensive tasks like batch photo processing in Photoshop things do slow down a bit, but generally speaking the speed of this device is hugely impressive.
Battery life is impressive but not comparable to my iPad’s. I can get about 5 or 6 hours on a charge which doesn’t quite touch the 10 I’d get with Apple’s massively-popular tablet. That said I haven’t once had the Macbook Air’s battery die on me throughout a day of work and in fact I’ve gotten into the habit of leaving my charger at home which is a testament to my faith in the battery’s ability to last. Also, if you’re thinking about picking up an Air of your own you can choose to go with the 13” model which sports a longer-lasting battery (up to 7 hours, according to Apple who have been surprisingly honest when it comes to battery life as of late).
Things I Miss About My iPad
With all of those positive notes listed I do miss my iPad from time-to-time. When it comes to a relaxed computing experience I still think a tablet is a great way to go. I miss simple things like the awesome suite of games I had on my iPad, or being able to have my iPad in my lap when I’m lounging watching TV. I also miss iBooks as I used it as my primary book-reading platform. Ultimately the monolith tablet form-factor is more convenient than a laptop’s, but in the end I think most of these sacrifices were worth it as the MacBook Air is the “funnest,” most portable and speedy computer I’ve ever owned. I’m considering selling my Macbook Pro and just using the Air as my full-time work computer. The only issue would be hard drive space, but an external hard drive would probably remedy that issue.
Podcast Recommendation: Back to Work
Feb 20th
I've stumbled upon another great podcast. Maybe not as great as MBMBaM, but really today's podcast serves a different purpose. Note that I've only listened to 3 episodes so far (there are 3 more sitting un-listened to in my feed), so if they changed the format or topics in the show in the second half of their current amount of episodes please forgive me. Anyways...
Merlin Mann is great.
I originally heard about the because Merlin Mann was attached to it. The show is technically hosted by Dan Benjamin of , and from what I've listened to the show is almost like a question-and-answer session. Dan Benjamin brings up topics or questions and Merlin just goes off for a while, dropping quips (half of which go over my head) and smart thoughts that will make you rethink your process of work and living. Dan also contributes his thoughts which are often requested by Merlin, but for the bulk of the time Merlin just goes as the kids say.
As I've stated he talks about life and the way people (including himself) think, he talks about getting things done, but he also touches on technology...various tools and picks that will help promote the ideas he discusses in his diatribes in one way or the other. They're mostly mac related because he's a mac guy (I originally heard about and fell in love with Merlin when he became a regular on the podcast) but so am I at the moment so it works for me.
5by5.tv is too, though.
I hadn't really heard of 5by5.tv until just recently, but it seems like they're becoming a big player in the podcasting and online broadcasting segment of the web. They even rival in my opinion. The first thing that I remembering seeing from them was an that Dan Benjamin Jeffrey Zeldman of recorded, and it was amazing. Shortly thereafter I believe I saw a tweet intimating that Merlin Mann was going to start up a show there too, which is great because he has been out of action on Macbreak Weekly a lot lately as a result of focusing on completing his book. Merlin is one of those podcast hosts that tends to be here today, gone tomorrow...that is to say sometimes he's not the most consistent at producing on a weekly basis (who can blame him, busy guy that he is!), so for him to dedicate a couple hours a week to "Back to Work" shows that this is a podcast worth listening to.
If you're interested in any of the topics I discussed above, or if you want to listen to Merlin discuss a lot of the topics that you normally have to pay him to discuss (he speaks regularly for companies like Google) I'd suggest checking it out. It's funny and you might learn something that will make your life better!
Making the Switch from Coffee to Tea
Feb 19th
Welp, here goes. I love coffee...like a lot. I drink too much of it everyday. I recently came to the conclusion that it's having a negative impact on my day, mostly from a sleep standpoint. I haven't been getting a ton of sleep lately so my immediate remedy to that is to load up on coffee, but I feel like in the end that's doing more harm than good. Therefore, I've decided to give tea a go using . What's cool is they have a promotion running (for new customers only, more on that below) that lets you get 25% off of the tea set just by following them on Twitter!
Does it taste good?
Don't get me wrong, I've had green tea before. The store-bought kind. I've steeped. I've sipped...and nearly gagged. Not great. That's why I've always been apprehensive about making the move to tea from coffee because I genuinely enjoy the taste of coffee, and if I don't like one particular kind of coffee oh well just load up on sugar or creamer (also not great for me, I'm assuming). That said, I hear so many people rave about how great tea is, including green tea. Maybe it's an acquired taste, and I'm hoping I'll adjust over time. I think in the beginning I might start by just supplementing 1 cup of daily coffee with tea instead, and then slowly make the full-time jump.
Deal restrictions suck
I mentioned above that Adagio has a promotion going where if you follow them on Twitter, you'll get $5 off a new order if you're a new customer. I'm not a new customer, but I followed them anyway and went ahead and tried the code and sure enough when I tried to check out they said "surely as a past Adagio customer you feel that our teas are reason enough to purchase from us again!"
I suppose...however when I did order from them it was like 3 years ago and the one order I made was a Christmas gift for a friend. How do I know if their teas are great? This is sort of why I hate deal restrictions, there are too many variables involved. If you're going to run a promotion just let everyone have a shot at it. They'll be happy in the end and probably pass the deal along. I went ahead and passed it along despite not being able to partake, but I'm sure some people could be bummed about it if they were in a similar situation. In the end it's just $5 but eating that $5 for current and existing customers might help to cultivate a -style customer experience, one that has brought me back time and again. Those are just my 2 cents!
“Egypt: The New Revolution” provided by Pitt-Bradford
Feb 5th
When I heard this week that my alma mater was holding an event, open to the public, in which Dr. Tony Gaskew from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and Fr. Michael Calabria from neighboring St. Boneventure University were going to speak about the revolution currently underway in Egypt I was so disappointed that I wasn't going to get to attend. I've been following the conflict from the periphery and it's very interesting to me, so this was a truly perfect way to learn from these two gentlemen who have extensive knowledge and first-hand experience of the area.
So then, when I saw the university post the event as a youtube video on their Facebook page, I was incredibly excited! I spent most of last night parked in front of my computer watching and listening to what not just the two speakers had to say, but also some of the intriguing questions that came from the folks who attended the event. The video's below, and I urge you to watch if you're interested!
The video's certainly long, just a hair under 2 hours, but if you want to have a better understanding of the conflict in Egypt and especially the role that the United States may or may not play in the change of power, it's a great way to find out. I'm very proud of Pitt-Bradford and everyone involved for holding this event and look forward to the others in the series!
Are You On Quora? (A protocol 80 joint)
Feb 2nd
This post is actually a redux of a post I wrote for the blog. The fact of the matter is that I struggled with which place to post it, so I figured I'd give anyone who stops by here a little sample of what I write over there. If you're interested in following my posts you can see all of the ones I've written , but I'd recommend checking out the because the other guys post great stuff all of the time! Right then, on with the show!
Are you on Quora?
There’s a new website that has become pretty popular in the tech community called , and I had ignored it up until recently. I mainly saw it through Twitter – for example I’d see someone tweet about answering a question on Quora – but I never knew what the heck it was. For my benefit just as much as yours I decided to give it a look.
Questions & Answers
At its heart Quora is a socially-aware question and answer service. The idea is that a user can ask a question, which is added to a repository of questions, and other folks can leave an answer. Good answers to questions float to the top via a -like voting system. If you like a question you vote it up, if you dislike a question you vote it down. You can also “follow” a question or topic to stay current as new answers are submitted. For that reason, even if you don’t plan on asking or answering any questions Quora becomes a great way to learn new information. Simply follow a topic, and all of the relevant questions will show up in your news feed!
Is Quora just for geeks?
It’s true, as with many new websites and social services Quora has taken off with the tech crowd, and truthfully I’m amazed at how many big names from the industry are on there lending advice and answering questions. That said it hasn’t really made a huge splash in the mainstream (I haven’t seen a Quora answer in my Facebook feed yet), so you might be wondering whether Quora is for you. Well, let’s ask!
One cool thing about Quora is that it’s pretty good at recommending questions if your exact question hasn’t already been asked, and so when I used the example above I landed on a question that asked: “What strategies will Quora use to cross the chasm from an early adopter community to one that appeals to a broader audience?” The answer with the highest amount of up votes goes a little something like this:
If you look at Quora as a graph, its strong bonds center around some of the key topics and people who are “early adopters.” And Quora’s notification systems tighten, retain, and perpetuate these bonds.
Fundamentally, for the graph to grow, new “strong bonds” have to form at the edges. So, for Quora to build its edges, it has to be promoted through folks that have the ability to bridge new people with disparate interests and let them discover each other quickly before they dissipate.
So essentially, right now, yes. Quora is mostly for geeks because those are the people that are using it. It should be noted that the person who posted the above highly-acclaimed answer did outline many solutions and strategies Quora can employ to remedy the situation. I think that it’s a good thing that questions like this are available and answered honestly, however. The entire site smacks of Wikipedia-like attention to accuracy, and that’s one of its best features.
Opportunity for Small Businesses
I do think that one opportunity Quora presents for small businesses, particularly ones that focus on industries that aren’t technology-oriented, is that you have the opportunity to become a leader there and get noticed. If you’re the first guru to ask and answer a lot of questions about oil fracking for example, you can gain a lot of attention now while Quora is still relatively young. If the site continues to grow over time that could mean a lot of visibility for your website or other online initiatives down the road.
Blog-A-Day January
Feb 1st
So you may have noticed that I had a new post written everyday in January. That means 31 posts since the year began. I wanted to take a moment and reflect on how things went and the effect on traffic.
How I Wrote
I started the first week of January by preloading a lot of my posts. I took the last Saturday of 2010 and knocked out 6 posts, and the idea was to do the same every week. Write my butt off on the weekend and schedule the posts throughout the week. There were a few problems with this strategy though.
- Say peace out to your Saturday - I'm not the fastest writer ever and I tend to have long posts so to complete a week's worth of posts in a day pretty much consumes that day. I like weekends, so that was a bummer.
- Short on ideas - When I tried to come up with 7 posts in a day I quickly ran out of ideas, which led to writing lower-quality posts in order to fill my quota.
- Lack of Timeliness - If something cool happened during the week I had to push back writing about it until the weekend
In the end I ended up just writing a single post a night. It became part of my routine. After dinner, sit down and write a post. I also write for the protocol 80 blog from time-to-time so th nights I needed to get a post written for this blog and that blog I was pretty tired of writing. It worked though!
The Results
Throughout the month I kept a careful eye on my Google analytics account. The traffic diffrence was significant, with an overall boost of 180% in visitors over this time last month. My highest amount of visits in a day topped out at 80 thanks to a retweet by the MBMBAM podcast guys. I'm really eager to see what the change will be next month after having a solid month of posts. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up the progress. I'll give it at least one more month to test and see. I'm not sure if I'll continue to post daily just to have fresh content everyday, I would almost rather have quality over quantity. Maybe in month 3 I'll test focusing more on quality posts instead of having a new post everyday and then report back again.
Rupert Murdoch’s “The Daily”
Jan 31st
One form of content everyone expected the iPad would be absolutely overloaded with was magazines. The fact of the matter is that fewer people have given a digital magazine a proper go, and of those that do exist I don't think any have been a big success. In fact, even though the iPad dominates the tablet market, the Barnes & Noble Nook s actually the most popular digital periodical device. What gives? Can magazines not exist on tablet devices, or has no one successfully implemented one yet? With "The Daily," Rupert Murdoch will attempt to be the first breakout tablet-exclusive magazine - and I think he'll be successful. Here' why.
The Players So Far
Many of the current magazines in the app store have failed because they provide duplicate content taken from a print publication and the reading experience hasn't been properly modified to be finger friendly. There are some cool publications out there though, here are two of my favorites.
Esquire Magazine
The Esquire Magazine app was the first I saw that really wowed me. It was designed from the ground up for the iPad, and the user interface was one of the most exciting custom interactive experiences I had seen on the iPad at the time. Their use of video and audio to expand the traditionally text-based look of a magazine was also a big deal. It also lets you copy and save text which many apps don't. The cons are that it costs $4.99 an issue and each issue needs to be downloaded separately (many magazines have one free "mothership" app that can download individual issues as in-app purchases).
Project Magazine
Project is definitely the coolest iPad magazine I've seen so far, and I'm not just saying that because the first issue was devoted to TRON. Like the Esquire iPad apps the user interface is 100% customized for the tablet medium. Everything is interactive, and not just the magazine content but advertisements as well. Unlike the Esquire there is a "mothership" app with in-app purchases for individual issues. One thing that's a bummer is that there have only been 2 issues since the magazine was released. Also although the issues are significantly less expensive than Esquire, they do cost more than weeks of "The Daily" will.
How "The Daily" Can Succeed
I think there are many factors that will make "The Daily" take off like no other magazine app has. First off, it's being supported by the big dogs. Not only is Rupert Murdoch dedicated to the project but there's a lot of indication that he's been working closely with Apple to ensure the project is a success. This is a big deal because, if only "The Daily" receives special attention in Apple's app marketing, it can become the go-to magazine experience on the iPad because everyone knows about it. I can't think of a single other magazine app that was featured in an app commercial - maybe they've been holding out for Murdoch's creation?
Another potential reason for success is the total commitment to the tablet. None of the content will be copied from or influenced by a separate publication. Nuff said.
The final two points are price and anticipation. The rumored price for "The Daily" is 99 cents a week or $4.25 a month. You can get an entire month of this for less than one issue of Esquire. Of course the real question is how dense an issue of "The Daily" will be compared to the other magazines I mentioned. Also "The Daily" is actually anticipated by people. Before Esquire or Project existed people knew that Murdoch was making a play in the tablet periodical space. It actually has buzz going for it, and I think at the lower price point more people will be willing to give it a try when the time comes (and some of those people will become regular customers if the content is on-point. I know I going to try it out and I don't like magazines n general.
Weekly Round-Up #4
Jan 30th
Here's this week's weekly round-up! You're gonna love it. Well, except for my hoarse voice in the audio commentary...but everything else you'll definitely love!
Audio Commentary
protocol 80 over coffee
Jan 29th
I do my best to avoid cross-promotion here (well aside from the links in the navigation above), but I'm pretty excited about the new podcast myself and the other guys at are doing. If you recall, one of my resolutions for 2011 was to launch a podcast so I'm off to a good start! I figure if I cross a resolution off of the list every month I should be done by June or so and I can take the rest of the year off. 
Anyways, we are doing a podcast about technology as it pertains to small business marketing, and it's called "protocol 80 over coffee." We're only two episodes in and we're all pretty new to podcasting so we're sort of learning on the job, but I think episode 2 was a breakout recording. Click below to view it in iTunes and give it a listen! If you like what you hear please leave a rating and review from the podcast page so we can spread the word.
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Google Adds Desktop Updates to Gmail
Jan 28th
Alright, yes. I love Sparrow and try to use it as much as possible BUT what am I to do when I'm working from Windows? Truthfully I usually just head back to the web browser version of gmail. The good news is that Google improved their already excellent webmail service this wee by adding desktop alerts similar to what you may have seen in Outlook, or with any mac application that supports .
Wait, there's more?
So first let me say that these HTML5 alerts are only available if you're running Gmail from Google's Chrome browser. That's kind of disappointing if you're a fan of other browsers but Chrome happens to be my favorite across-browser so I'm set. It's also worth noting that these updates aren't just limited to new email messages, you can also receive Google Talk alerts as well. This is especially useful because I'm terrible when it comes to hearing the gtalk audio notification, so the extra visual cue is a big help. Finally, if you're a fan of the priority inbox that is new to gmail you can set the notifications to only fire when a new high-priority message comes through. Pretty cool!
Well, since today's post is admittedly light on words (because really how much can you say about email notifications) here is a video that's funny and has a catchy song in it. Enjoy.
