Ti's the season for another posting

Been a long time since I've posted. I've been behind on a lot of things. The more responsibility you receive in life, the less you spend time on things that are not requisite to life. I still have many projects I want to work on here. There is much good to be done in this world! I really hope to get back to them soon.

As for a new years resolution. That will come soon. I really shouldn't be posting now. I originally got on to host a few files for a friend as we collaborate for a New Years party we're working on. Then I felt sad that my last post was clear in May...

It has been a good year thus far! I have achieved a lot. I have grown a lot. I have learned a lot. And I have done a lot! If not posting here, I should definitely be writing in my journal more. I've become lax and lazy in many a things this past year. My new job has kept me busy, and my mind ever active. On that note, I really have learned a lot more about programming! I've learned how to make my Ham Radio practice tests work much better, and far more efficient. I thank my job for that! My ham radio license expires this coming year, so I really must study up to recertify! Perhaps I'll finally get this project finished, not just to help me, but to help many others that are seeking a good way to learn the hobby.

So much do to. Never enough time.

New services updated

My GoDaddy hosting expired. The renewal was a lot more than I was willing to pay, so I purchased a new one through them and I've migrated everything over. The files transferred much faster than I expected. Had a few issues getting the MySQL database put back in place.. But everything is all there now. I got my sister a domain name too. I'll be helping her transfer her blog to it over the next few months. Fun times to be had!

This past weekend I went camping with an old acquaintance. I think it's safe to say we're actually friends now. haha. It was his birthday slash graduation party. We went to Zion National Park in Springdale Utah. It was a beautiful place! There was plenty to do, plenty to see, and the weather was just perfect. It was probably the nicest camp out I've ever had. Made some new friends, had a great time, spent the weekend very well.

It makes me want to get into rock climbing even more. There were some good places around there to climb, and much more to explore! Maybe I can take Rachel back there some day! I even talked to a guy about his adventure motorcycle for quite a while. Getting a brand new big BMW would be rather sweet, but I'm pondering now starting a little smaller.. It's a hard debate with myself. I could get a smaller bike, or get the big GS1200 and take on anything. It's got all the tech to make my nerd side happy too. including a built in GPS controller to the handle bars (GPS unit sold separately of course). It would be very exciting!.... and very expensive. I suppose I still have a few months to think about it while I save up for which ever option I choose.

I'm glad I love programming so much.. And that my new job is letting me do a lot of programming! I'm a happy camper.

~Taylor

P.s. If you'd like full res pictures in this and future posts. Let me know in the comments below!

Venture to the Valley

Took a trip to Utah for yesterday and today. It's been a fun trip so far. I'm up here for a job interview for a wireless internet company. They make me feel rather special. They flew me up here, and even got me a rental car to cruise around in while I'm here. it seems rather promising. They're a company pretty new to WISP operations, so there's a lot of room for growth and input for improving how things run. I'm quite excited to be a part of this team. There's a lot to do up here in Utah. I hope I'll get the time to do some camping like I'd love to.

Bigger better updates

I took my 13" back and got the 15" with dedicated graphics. And I'm happy I did. The 13" would have gotten me by just fine, but I do love the bigger screen, and the graphics! It's a little different getting used to after having the 13" for two weeks... but I'm managing. I still need a case for it. It's hard to find a good case I'll like. All I really need is the bottom part. I've been looking at stickers to put on the lid. But then again... Why do I need a case? No other laptop I've had has had a case... I suppose when you spend so much money on something so sleek, you have that feeling of not wanting it to get scratched.

Aside from all that. I've finally gotten most of the links fixed on the site. Got the database routes corrected and the style links fixed, everything looks pretty again! Now to start up on some projects again :D

Let the good times roll.

Fruit of the spoils

     I've purchased myself a little 13" Macbook Pro Retina. As expected, I've received some banter from friends on facebook, most particularly those with IT backgrounds. The thing is though, most of them have never had quality time with a Mac. I used to be rather anti-Mac myself.  But after playing with them enough and just being around them, I decided I wanted to try one for myself. If I didn't like it, I could take it back within a few days, or just never purchase one again.

     While no experience in life seems to go exactly the same as it plays over in dreams, my transition into the Apple world has been a rather positive one. It could also be that I came from a 20 pound 17" beast of a computer, which had all the power I wanted, just in way too heavy and bulky a form. The eight hour battery life on this laptop is awesome too! Last night something happened after I used it in the cafe I was at, and it didn't go to sleep... (everything's gonna have some bugs) When I got to work the next morning, it still had 10% battery life, and wasn't on fire (thank goodness). All in all, the Macbook Pro is a sturdy little laptop. Expensive, yes. But durable and very high quality. I'm still kind of debating returning it to get the 15", but in reality the 13" is doing great for what I need. The main thing I expect from screen size is more pixel space. That's why I had the 17" before. It was a 1080p screen. This one is much greater than 1080p. In a way it's 1600p, and in a smaller "per inch" size. The only downfall is no built in disc drive or LAN port... I've already bought myself the thunderbolt ethernet adapter, which really isn't too bad. And I honestly disc drives aren't used too much anymore. Not enough to make them worth the extra size and weight to put into a laptop. For the occasion I need to use a disc, I have a ghetto rigged usb DVD drive I've been using. Eventually I'll get a fancy blu-ray drive. It would be nice to be able to burn blu-rays for file keeping sake. Or watching/copying movies. I was pondering getting an internal blu-ray drive for my server. But if I had a USB drive I'll use it just as much as I would the internal, with the benefit of using it on either my server or my laptop.

    "You can get so much more power for cheaper if you got a windows laptop." In terms of raw power, I could most definitely get more power for cheaper. However, the quality of the laptop is still a key factor... Getting a windows laptop with the same Ram, processor and hard drive space as my mac would run me less than $800 (vs $2000 for this one). But, It would be made out of plastic vs. aluminum. The screen resolution would be about 190% smaller, and the hard drive would most likely be 5400rpm (rather slow). My Macbook has what's called "PCIe" memory. A hard drive at 5400rpm has a transfer rate around 50-70 Megabits per second. A Solid State Hard drive is capable of 300-500Megabits per second. The Macbook's PCIe hard drive is capable of 700-1200

     I just feel legit sometimes! I've got myself a server which I'm saving up to add a few hard drives to for a raid array, and I've got my little portable laptop, and all my devices are synced together in one way or another. All I need now is to jail-break my phone so I can use it as a hotspot on the go...

    To sum it all up. The Apple laptop has been a good investment so far. For the most part it's been easier for me to configure and use than it was to fight my windows 8 laptop to do what I wanted it do. Windows 8 (especially 8.1) has put a very sour taste in my mouth towards windows. I still love windows 7. I have it installed on my apple as well for the few programs I need that I can't use on mac. (some networking tools, educational programs, HTML editing program, Quicken without paying for another license...). It's all working out quite well for me. I am a happy camper thus far. Maybe my standards have lowered? Maybe my previous laptop was a worse experience than I thought. Or maybe I'm being fooled. If I am apple is sure doing a good job. The next time my moms office needs a new desktop I'll most likely be getting a Mac Mini to replace the massive PC.