Farewell White Macbook

After close to 3 years of ownership (Bought brand new in January 2007), I am retiring from my hands the first Macbook I have ever owned. My White Macbook has served me well, introduced me to the Mac side of computing and also helped me to finish writing my masters’ thesis. Besides home in NY, it’s been with me while I’ve spent extended periods of time in Connecticut and Florida for work. And of course it’s been a great travel companion for my trips to Cali, Atlanta, Washington DC and more. I’ve had zero problems with it and it can still run just about everything I need it to. But it’s time to move on to the next Mac (no way am I going back to PC!) while this one goes to my sister. So at least it still lives on in my family. Here are its specs and retirement pictures:

White MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
13.3-inch glossy widescreen display
2GB memory
120GB hard drive
6x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel Integrated GMA 950 graphics

Goodbye!

Ordered a Refurbished 15″ Macbook Pro!

I ordered my new Macbook on Friday the 13th! It should be arriving on the 17th. Here are the specs:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
250GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
SD card slot
Built-in 7-hour battery
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Illuminated keyboard

I decided to buy refurbished to save $150 over my company’s discounted price and $250 if I didn’t get the business discount. It still has the same 1 year warranty as a new product and I could’ve gotten an extended Applecare warranty if I wanted to. Here is what refurbished means according to Apple’s website. Pictures to come soon and an assessment on whether buying refurbished is WTD!

Georgia Tech Football: 2009 ACC Coastal Division Champs!

Congrats to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football team on clinching of the ACC Coastal Division! A 10-1 Season with 2 games left (UGA rivalry game and ACC Title Game for a chance to go to the FedEx Orange Bowl as the ACC Champs).

Funny how this football season has worked out in my eyes. I had high hopes for the NY Football Giants this year and right now they are tanking. On the other hand, I watched the Yellow Jackets win their first game by a small margin and lose to the Miami Hurricanes as a top 25 team and thought that they were overrated. Their Wishbone Option offense seemed like it relied too much on the run and that QB Josh Nesbitt couldn’t throw the ball. So it seemed like if opposing teams stopped our run game we had no chance. I’m glad I was wrong! Now featured in this week’s Sports Illustrated (11/19), I now have faith in Coach Paul Johnson’s offense. We were ranked #7 before yesterday’s impressive win and I think it is well deserved. We should maintain the same ranking as we are the best 1 loss team in the nation. I hope the success continues the next seasons! It looks like our basketball team has the potential to be pretty good this year too. It’s pretty rare that both of our programs are good in the same year. It’s always one or the other.

Go Yellow Jackets!

WTD: Wired Magazine’s View

My Worth The Dough postings have been opinions by me, the consumer, on whether a product is worth my hard-earned cash to purchase. Robert Capps of Wired Magazine discussed the corporate side in his recent article, “The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine.” He discusses the success of some simpler products to show why it’s not always WTD for companies like Sony and Canon to develop complex and expensive products. He even goes on to talk about other industries like the military and medical field and how the most advanced and full featured products and services aren’t always the best or most useful. I thought it was an interesting read so check it out!

Random Snaps: Unexpected Favorite

Sometimes the best photos happen when you least expect it. That’s why it’s always good to have a camera around so you don’t miss any opportunities. Here is one of those pictures. I took it one night just because I thought it was a cool storefront. But it turned out to be one of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken. I don’t even know the name of the store. I guess I should find out!

Rubber duckies on a bathtub in Saint Augustine, Florida.

WTD: Late 2009 27″ iMac or 15″ Macbook Pro

It’s time for a new Mac. The white 13.3″ Macbook I bought early in 2006 is a little slow when it comes to photo adjustments in Aperture 2 and I use it mostly at home so I could use a bigger screen. However, I have been debating whether it’s better to get the new 27″  iMac desktop that just came out and keep my Macbook or sell it to get the new 15″ unibody Macbook Pro.

                                 

Well after some research, the answer was pretty simple. If I bought the new iMac, I would want to be able to use it as an external monitor for my Macbook. However, my old Macbook uses a mini-DVI port and the new iMacs use the new DisplayPort which are not compatible. And there are no adapters to make them work together as shown by Cult Of Mac. Damn you Apple! Well at least they helped make my decision alot easer.

So in my case, it would be more WTD to get a new 15″ Macbook Pro instead of the new 27″ iMac. I would like to be able to have a portable laptop with the option of hooking it up to an external widescreen computer monitor (or even a 40″ LCD TV) and the iMac can’t be used as one with my old Macbook. And although at the same price (not factoring in the selling of my Macbook) the iMac is the faster computer, the new Macbook Pro with its GeForce 9400m video card can easily run Aperture 2.

WTD: How I Met Your Mother Season 1 on DVD

How I Met Your Mother on CBS Mondays at 8pm ET is my favorite sitcom. I bought the first two seasons on DVD and you can too at a good price from Amazon.com if you click on the picture to the right. Even if you’re not a huge fan of the show, the Season 1 DVD is definitely WTD! It is worth purchasing because the show itself chronicles the story of how Ted met his wife and it’s worth knowing how the whole story started. It is also fun finding out how Barney became friends with the group, how Ted met Aunt Robin and where some of the recurring jokes came from. And of course the entire season I thought was legen…wait for it…dary! My favorite episode was the 5th show entitled “Okay Awesome” with an original airdate of 10/17/05. It was a really funny representation of the clubbing scene.

The second season isn’t as important or funny as the first so I would say that it is only WTD if HIMYM is one of your favorite shows. I bought it cuz it’s my favorite show. I don’t have the rest of the seasons yet (3 and 4 as of this writing) but I plan to buy them once their prices go down a bit. I think that my WTD evaluation would be the same for those season DVD’s as Season 2.

Anyway, that was my short Amazon.com style product review. For more HIMYM fun, visit the show’s Official Site and Barney’s Blog.

Impressed by the Nissan 370Z

2009 Nissan 370Z

Originally uploaded by Nike SB’d

Wow someone at my company just bought a gray 2010 370Z and I saw it for the first time today in the parking lot. It’s the first time I’ve really looked at one and my thoughts are that I like it! I didn’t really like the older 350Z but this new one I do. Love the huge rear fender flares and you can see them pretty well in this photo by Nike SB’d. Not everyone likes the bulge (lol) but I do.

I still wouldn’t get one cuz it’s too much of a specialized sports car. It has the same lack of utility as the 1993 FD3S RX7 I had. One time I bought a car cover and I couldn’t fit the box in the trunk so I had to have my friend in my passenger seat hold onto it. Pretty sad! But still, props to those who buy a 370Z and can accept the lack of space!

2009 Formula 1 Season Finish

If you’re an engineer and love cars, then there is no reason not to love Formula 1 racing, the highest form of motorsport. Formula 1 has the fastest and most technically advanced cars. Plus the glamour of the sport gives the geeky engineers a chance to hang with some gorgeous people!

Pictured above is a beautiful shot from www.f1fanatic.co.uk at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the brand new Yas Marina circuit. It was the last race of what was a fun 2009 Formula 1 season. It will be a season known as the season of underdogs. The usual top teams of Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes played catchup all season while the young Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing were fighting at the top for the champtionship. In the end, the World Champion driver and the World Manufacturer’s champion were both first time winners. British driver Jenson Button finally won the World Championship after 10 years in the sport. And Brawn GP won the Manufacturer’s championship even though the team almost didn’t have a spot at the beginning of the season. Congrats to them on a wonderful season!

I was pulling for Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing to win it all, but they came up short. However, Vettel was able to be the first winner of the inauguaral Abu Dhabi Grand Prix so I’m happy for that. I’m looking forward to them competing for the championship next year in 2010! But I am also gonna be pulling for the brand new United States Formula 1 team! 2010 is going to be such an exciting year with new rules and the new US team. Peter Windsor is one of the new team principals and with the job he did with SpeedTV covering Formula 1 it’s hard not to root for him! Check out their website at www.usgpe.com.

So for 2010 I’ll be rooting for USF1 and RBR. Can’t wait!

The Snow Is Coming: White Cars

Shown below is a pic of the 2 white cars I used to own and is a popular picture on my flickr page. The picture was taken at Bear Mountain, NY. It was the last time I drove my Porsche because I was driving it upstate to sell it to a guy from Canada! My friend was nice enough to go with me and we completed the deal at a DMV in Albany, NY. The Subie replaced the Porsche as my daily driver until I sold it a couple years later to a girl from Vermont. Another long distance transaction! The Subie was then replaced with a Black 1998 Mercedes C43 AMG that I have now.

1988 Porsche 944 Turbo and 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS

And a couple weekends ago I took this pic of my friend Joe’s White 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution IX as he was doing his oil change. Check out his custom ramp!

Here are some more pics of my Porsche at Bear Mountain. This time there was snow on the ground. I love seeing white cars on a snowy day!

And finally, my Subie: