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I get a lot of questions about the kinda of hardware I’m running these days. I thought I’d do a few posts about the hardware, software and everything in-between that I am currently using. With the exception of the Router and NAS, most of this I carry with me all the times in my Timbuk2 Blogger.

Hardware:
Macbook 2.0Ghz/2GB RAM/250GB HDD
Western Digital Passport 120GB USB External HDD
Buffalo Linkstation 250GB NAS
Linksys WRT56G running HyperWRT 2.1b1 +tofu13c

In My Bag:
iPod Nano 4GB w/ Nike+iPod Kit
Nintendo DS Lite + games
Sandisk MicroCruzer 1GB Flash Drive
Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000
T-Mobile Blackberry Pearl
Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS
FujiFilm V10 Digital Camera

Home Entertainment:
Norcent LT-3222 32″ LCD TV (Slowly dying)
Microsoft Xbox360 Premium
Apple TV 40GB

Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. I wake up, have some breakfast and wait patiently until 2pm when my Local Comic Shop opens so I can go and pick up this weeks comic books. I recently got back into comics after about 15 years thanks to podcasts like iFanboy and Geekscape but the real unsung hero is my Apple Macbook. Without programs like ComicBookLover, Wednesday’s List and iComicsOnSale, I wouldn’t have really gotten back into reading comics.

ComicBookLover

ComicBookLover aims to be the iTunes for digital comics and it comes pretty close. Its laid out in a similar fashion to iTunes with a 3 pane browser on the top, your library on the bottom and your lists on the left. You can also view by cover art. CBL allows you to organize your entire collection by tagging the file with all the relevant information such as issue name, volume, publisher and year. Just like iTunes, it support Smart Lists. This allows you to make a List based on search criteria which I have found invaluable.

Viewing comics has an impressive feature set such as Single, Western or Manga view. You can rotate images on the screen 90 degrees and it supports dual monitors. What I like to do is rotate the screen and turn my Macbook on its side like a book to read. The 13′ widescreen is almost the perfect size of a comic page. Pages are automatic sized based on which view your using and it provides an On-screen display to navigator when using Full Screen mode.

ComicBookLover will set you back $24.95 but if you read digital comics in any form, its well worth it.

Wednesday’s List

Railhead Design’s Wednesday’s List is a one trick pony. It pulls this weeks Diamond shipping list and allows you to print out your Pull List. The interface divides up each publisher in its own section and lists the name, Previews order number and price. Just check the box next to the comics you want and your ready to save, print or email your list. You can even sync with iCal. My favorite part is you can add in your local tax rate and it gives you a running tally for the comics you selected. I also print and bring my list with me so I know what I’m getting and what its going to cost me.

Wednesday’s List costs $7 and is a Universal Binary.

iComicsOnSale

iComicsOnSale or iCOS is a Dashboard widget. iCOS is similar to Wednesday’s List in that it allows you to print out weekly pull lists. I prefer iCOS because you can view a summary of each comic, cover, price, pages and writer/artist information. They even have a featured comic page highlighting one comic each week. That being said, I don’t use iCOS for two reasons. One its a widget and would work so much better an actually program and two its very unstable for me. It uses an insane amount of memory some times and it eats my pull list. The latest version is still beta so its to be expected but I’ve moved to Wednesday’ List for my Pull Lists because of this.

iComicsOnSale is free and they have just launched a new website which lists this weeks new comics with full descriptions.

iFanboy Podcast

While iFanboy is not an application it is a weekly podcast and video podcast that I can’t live without. And technically I subscribe to both podcasts using iTunes but thats nether here nor there. iFanboy do a audio podcast called the Pick of the Week where they pick one comic for that week and discuss it along with other books that were released. It comes out every Sunday and I listen to it on my way to pick up my comics every Wednesday. Then when I get home, there video podcast is waiting for me. The video podcast differs from the audio as they focus on topics and not weekly books.

So definitely check there podcast out. I look forward to it each week and its always the first I listen to and watch.

January - started using Mac OS X

February - built dedicated computer to run Mac OS X on

March - Starting using iTunes to manager my media

April - stopped using Bloglines, switched from Exchange to Google Mail and Google Calendar, bought a Jimi wallet

May - switched Layout, Skype is free for the rest of the year, started a new job, Macbook’s released, went to grand opening of Apple 5th Ave store, bought my Macbook

June - joined valleyshwag, MC360 released for XBMC, bought a Nintendo DS Lite, canceled my Final Fantasy XI account after 3 years

July - switched to Flock, Macbook got hit with discoloration, started running using the Nike+iPod kit, Macbook Random Reboots started

August - switched from del.icio.us to Shadows, started using OpenDNS, got hard to find Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright for the DS, new mc chris and Evanescence albums, bought the Timbuk2 blogger bag

September - started new full-time job, fall TV season starts, bought a Xbox360 after Guitar Hero 2 is announced with new controller, canceled my Myspace account

October - got tickets for macworld 2007, Xbox360 troubles, 300 trailer, Macbook RSS fixed, bought my first Blackberry, my Xbox360 has its own blog

November - interviewed for MacNewsWorld, Gears of War, Guitar Hero II and Elite Beat Agents all released on same day, turned 28, XBL Video Marketplace released, subscribed to Netflix and Gamefly, bought an HD DVD

December - Geekdrome dead, started reading comics again, finally found out what all the hype about Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars and Greys Anatomy was all about

About a week or so I was approached by a reporter about my Macbook randomly shutting down. He had read a few of my posts over at http://www.macbookrandomshutdown.com and was interested in my story. We talked for about 15 mins or so detailing the last 4 months or so of my RSS problem. Looks like the article was published and you can read it over at MacNewsWorld.com. I’m mentioned in the Company Focus Stretched Thin section if your curious.

Last Friday I bought in my Macbook into a Genius Bar fully expected to be without it for somewhere between 1 and 4 weeks. Before I bought it down I did a full backup to a firewire drive then swapped out my 3rd party Hard Drive and memory with the stock components. The stock HDD has a fresh install of OS X on it because basically I don’t trust people with my data. When I got there they plugged in a 1G iPod Shuffle that they were clearly using as a thumbdrive and said they couldn’t see any evidence of they system randomly shutting down. This is because of the fresh install of OS X. My guess is they have some program that reads the console.log for the correct error code. AT this point I was starting to get frustrated because it seemed like without that log, they wouldn’t repair it. I then told the Genius to give the the laptop and started running “yes > /dev/null” twice while I just messed around online.

Within 3mins it had shutdown. This is kinda a relief for me because now i knew it wasn’t due to memory or my OS X install. He ran his program and started filing the paperwork. He told me it would probably be done today. TODAY?! Couldn’t believe it. He said it would be 2-3 hours and suggested to go see a movie. Unfortunately for me, I live about an hour from the Apple Store and didn’t really know the area too well. So to kill the 3 hours, i decided to run to work and pick up my paycheck, cash it then head back. Exactly 52mins later I for a call on my cell saying everything had been fixed and the system has been running for a good 20mins under stress. At that point I was no where near so I did what i had to do and headed back up later that night to pick it up.

Its been almost a week and I haven’t had any problems with shutdowns yet. I had the most problems when it first woke up from Sleep and it hasn’t had a problem waking up. So it seems I’m fixed for now. I am alittle skeptical as my first shutdown didn’t happen until months after my purchase. At this point only time will tell.

FYI, they only replaced my heatsink and not the logic board. The item number and description is:

885909147205 - Heatsink Kit, with Sponge, 1.0 MM Conn - $14.06

I’ll be bringing in my Macbook to repair my RSD problem today. I hope its only a week but Paul Stamatiou just got his back after 4 weeks. Christ. Since this is my only computer at the moment, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do if it takes 4 weeks. I have everything backed up on a firewire drive so If i need to pick up a $599 Mac Mini, so be it.

In the meantime, my only entertainment will be my new Xbox 360, as long as that doesn’t die on me again. My Xbox Live gamertag is “the8thsign”. Feel free to add me since I’m probably going to be spending most of my time there for the next week or so.

Focker Out.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. Between starting a new job and my Macbook’s case of RSD getting worse, I haven’t had much time to blog. But trust me, I do have a list. I have tomorrow off so I might go on a blogging marathon. With my new job, I’ve started a blog about my new job. I’m not going to link to it nor let anyone know about it due to wanting it to be anonymous so I can blog freely.

Other than that, not much else going on. I do hope this post will be the beginning of some more personal posts for this blog. Somehows its lost that personal touch and I’m going to try to add that back in.