I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen Pirates of Silicon Valley. The guy has always been an inspiration. The irony being that regardless of my respect for him, I’ve only purchased one Apple product in my lifetime. No, it wasn’t an iPod, it was a MacBook that I had from 2007 until early this year.

I don’t really have much to say on the subject of Steve Jobs that hasn’t been already said, but I did want to make sure I dedicated a post to him.

Since 50% of the blog posts on here relate to recent electronics purchases, here is the best thing I’ve purchased in the last six months:

Don’t ask why 99% of my blog posts here relate to technology. I promise that 99% of my life does not revolve around it.

In other news, I am now a huge fan of MPix, although I do have to say Amazon has spoiled me with free shipping. I feel almost cheated paying $5 for shipping $5 of prints. Why can’t everything have free 2-day shipping?

So this weekend I considered getting a Mac Pro. I’ve been looking at them for a while now, and I know the whole “building it yourself vs getting a Mac” ROI debacle, but I’ve been building my own systems for so long now I figured I was due to try a high end pre-built system.

The only thing that stopped me was a post on the Mac gossip rags about how they’re due for an update, with a possible design overhaul as well. I decided I’d look into upgrades instead.

Which leads me to this:

I’m not joking when I say Photoshop CS5 loads in 3 seconds flat. 3 seconds. Maybe 2.5. It is insane. But now I’m looking into upgrading my RAM from 4GB to 8GB, and other completely unnecessary things. (dual 27″ monitors anyone?) I might have been better off buying the Mac Pro.

I realized today that I had hidden all of my posts for some reason. Maybe it was because of my post about the Microsoft Kin, which was shortly pronounced dead. Maybe it was because I was employed shortly after my last post. It might have been an attempt at segregating various parts of my life, which I’ve been pretty good at. Regardless of the reason, I think I’ll come back and say hi, and attempt to be back for a while.

New things in my life?

I did the whole Samsung Focus thing. (refrain from the whole “LOL IPHONE IS THE BEST!!!” yadda yadda, whatever)

Verdict? I like it, although I wish Microsoft would push updates faster.

Also, I changed cities, a bit north of where I was before.

Besides that, all is just about the same.

Stay tuned. (or don’t, we’ll see)

So today I was on Facebook and I saw a phone in the sidebar that looked pretty interesting. I clicked the picture of the phone, expecting to be led to specs about the phone, maybe a release date, or even a product purchase page.

Nope. Instead of taking me to the reason I clicked the link, it took me to Motorola’s Facebook Page, where I could find “up-to-the-moment info on products, accessories and to say HelloMoto.” Yes, because there are so many times in my life I want to say “HelloMoto.”

Really though, you do have to realize that I have zero interest in your company. You lured me in with a thumbnail and decently compelling copy about an interesting phone, and instead took me to your corporate Facebook page. It’s like you had a sign on the street that said “check out my cool sports car at the end of the alley” and when I got there all I saw was a TV playing reruns of “The Hills.”

I can not believe how much hatred the Kin has been getting lately. Almost all of the criticism seems to go something like this: “I mean, the Kin isn’t really targeted to me, but I really don’t think ANYONE is going to want this.”

The Kin doesn’t represent a return to dumbphones, it’s not for stupid teens who don’t know any better, it’s not ignorant, out of touch, or even a mistake by Microsoft. It’s an experiment. It’s a technical feat. It’s catering to a market of oversharers, obsessive life documenters, and people tapped into the social stream.

“It doesn’t have a calendar! It doesn’t have Instant Messaging! ALL TEENS WANT TO INSTANT MESSAGE WITH THEIR PHONE!” Fact: I don’t use a calendar. I don’t instant message on my phone. Granted, I’m in my early 20′s, but neither does my little brother, and he’s in his teens. We’re both tech-savvy, he has an iPhone and I have a Blackberry. Neither of us instant message. I rarely use BBM myself, as my contact list is only 20-something people. We send thousands of texts a month though, because it’s convenient, and easier to use than IM. (I already have your phone number, why would I sign up for a screen name to accomplish the same thing a different way?)

So what if it doesn’t have an app marketplace? I have the Blackberry Marketplace, and it sucks. It’s absolutely terrible. The only applications I have running on my phone are Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Facebook, and Youmail. I don’t have any Jedi lightsabers, iGun, tap-tap-revenge, or any number of silly applications that the iPhone or Android offer. And I don’t really care. (Although when I see someone using an app with augmented reality I do feel a tinge of envy) Not everyone wants their phones to blend smoothies, rake their yards, and knit them sweaters.

Is everyone ignoring the whole Zune Pass lifestream thing? Microsoft says everything on your phone is going to be hosted in the cloud. Can we talk about that for a second, and how impressive that could potentially be? The idea is that you can take your Kin, with either its 5mp or 8mp camera, and document your life. (not that it’s worth documenting) All in one convenient place. Texts, photos, videos, everything. Who needs on-board storage? Who’s even offering anything similar to this? The interface looked slick too, and if it’s anything like the demos I’ll be impressed.

All of that aside, I don’t know if the Kin is actually going to be a good product. The design is quirky, but is it practical? The cloud storage seems cool, but how will the performance be? How much will it cost? What about data plans? There are a lot of unanswered questions, but I respect Microsoft for trying something new. That’s what they’re doing, they’re creating a “feature phone,” not a “dumbphone” like a lot of people are saying. Microsoft is treading a lot of untested waters, and I for one am I excited to see where this is all going.

With the announcement of WinPho 7, and now this, I’m really interested to see what else Redmond has up their sleeve. I’m starting to like Microsoft’s new groove. (Natal? Zune HD? What’s next?)

I’m working on an e-commerce solution for a client right now, and we decided the easiest way would be to go through Yahoo!’s e-commerce packages. Now, I’m not so sure.

And by music I mean French language instruction tapes.

A few months ago I tried listening to Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers on a run, and that was a horrible experience. So my new idea for running music is foreign language instruction tapes. This isn’t really a resolution or anything, I just think it would be cool to be conversationally fluent in French.

So the other day I decided to upgrade to a 64-bit operating system. I won’t give any names, but it’s between 6 and 8, and doesn’t involve felines of any kind.

Taking a look at my current backup situation, I realized I’m due for a change. Right now I’m using Microsoft SyncToy for my music and photos, which is a pain because I have to plug in and  run the software every time I want to sync up. For work and pending documents I use DropBox, which is awesome, but limited in storage and scope.

So right now I’m considering the Eye-Fi/Google deal where they’re offering a free Eye-Fi card for signing up with a $50 Google Storage plan. Not only could I knock out my current backup situation, but I’d get an Eye-Fi card, which I’ve been eyeing for some time. (ha)

I still need something for my music though…

So apparently Schmap is an online guidebook similar to Frommer’s or Lonely Planet. They messaged me today letting me know they decided to include my photo of Ellen Campesinos! of Los Campesinos! in their guidebook of San Diego.

So that was cool, I guess. Here’s my set of photos from Street Scene 2009 if you’d like to see more.