What is worse than finding a worm int your Apple?  Finding half a worm.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never trade my Mac for a Windoze machine ever.  I can’t stand Windoze and I really just tolerate the idiosyncrasies of Office because I have yet to really find a suitable replacement that is actually compatible with the rest of the world.  That being said, I really want to know:

WT-Fuck is going on at Apple these days?  I can’t remember a product that was released or updated in the last six months that didn’t have some kind of major issues.  The followers of Apple are kind of like Trekkies, always loyal, so why does Apple feel like they just need to push out products that are not quite ready?  We will wait.  I am not one of those people who HAS to have the newest technology on the day it is released.  I am not going to stand in line at the Apple Store or at AT$T for the next new iPhone on “iPhone Day.”  That is ridiculous.  However, even the people who do that would be happy to wait a little bit so that they actually get a product that works correctly!

Consider that the roll out of iPhone4 was fraught with bugs.  First we had “Antennagate” where the placement of the antenna caused it to essentially short out and lose signal when held in a person’s hands.  This lead to Apple giving away free cases for the phone.  Then there were the screen discoloration problems in a few batches of the phone, not terrible as it sounded like that mostly cleared up for people.  Most recently we have seen issues with the glass on the phone due to scratching, scoring, and breaking.  In fact, there have been more claims for broken glass on iPhone4 than any of the previous models.  Go figure, seeing as form was put well over function on this device with front and rear glass.  Seems a little stupid and superfluous.  Most people use a case anyway, why bother with rear glass?!

Around the same time there was also the release of iOS4, which, for the most part crippled the iPhone 3G, which I am a user of.  There were two software updates before iOS4.1 that didn’t solve the problem.  This was a point that turned many 3G owners to the jailbreak community so that they could revert back to the 3.1.3 firmware.  At least over the summer I wasn’t using my phone as much as I do the rest of the year.  iOS4.1 seems to be better, and they say that iOS4.2, which is due sometime this week, should have even more performance improvements for 3G owners.

While still talking iPhone, lets step forward to this week, specifically this morning for most Americans, though last week for people in Europe and Australia.  So, daylight savings time ended Sunday morning, huzzah for an extra hour of sleep.  The problem was that this morning, anyone who uses repeating alarms on their iPhone probably didn’t have their alarm go off.  Why?  A bug in Apple’s clock software allowed the clock to reset to standard time, but the alarms did not.  Thus alarms went off an hour late.  I am not a programmer, but this seems like way to simple a thing to have been overlooked.  To tell the truth, I have no idea how it is even possible, I mean, doesn’t the alarm just look at the clock and say: “Oh, it’s 8:00AM time to go off!”  Not only that, but Apple knew it was a problem in Europe and did nothing to fix it in the US, and they had a whole week to try.  So, until iOS4.2 is released, it seems that we might be stuck with messed up alarms.  Bad move.

Lets look at other products.  We just saw the launch of the new Macbook Airs, a cool product that I don’t think would really fit in my lifestyle at the moment.  However, many purchasers of the first run of the new Airs were haunted by graphics issues.  Flashing screens, screens with blinkies, it just was not good.  Apple supposedly released a software update that fixed this, or they were exchanging machines, but this is something that should never have happened in the first place.  If it was one or two machines, that is to be expected, but the mass problems indicates to me that they really just needed a little more time to work out the bugs.

Then there was the release of iLife ’11.  Here is software that almost ever Mac user uses almost every day.  What happens?  Install iLife ’11, open iphoto, update library, and bam, lost data, missing photos.  Um, hello!  Apple released two updates to iPhoto within a week of release to address this issue and issues with other missing or non-functional components.  I am glad that I waited and read about the bugs before just diving in with the upgrade, I have a lot of photos and I would hate to lose any.

So, what the heck is going on over in Cupertino?  Apple, Steve, you guys need to wake up and smell the coffee.  Just because things have been going well, doesn’t mean you can slack off.  We endusers do notice when you guys fuck it up, and there has been a lot of that recently.  Figure it out and make it better, things used to be really good, you didn’t used to hear about so many issues!

I am vey much a sci-fi and tech geek.  I am a gadget guy and many of the TV shows that I follow are found on the SyFy channel.  I love to have the new toys (though I usually wait for the second generation of new devices) and I do try to find a use for them in my life.

Recently I dug up an old Sci-Fi show that competed with the likes of StarTrek:TNG for three-and-a-half seasons.  It was a show that many criticized, though I watched it religiously when it originally aired.  What show you ask.  SeaQuest DSV.  Set in the “near future” which happens to be only a few years from now.  I thought that it had more potential originally, and I think that the concept could still be viable today, but there is probably a reason that I don’t make such decisions.

What I did notice while re-watching the show is how they predicted technology.  It has been a recurring theme recently that many tech blogs have talked about, how sci-fi shows may actually drive the R&D on some of the pieces of technology that we use today.  Looking at SeaQuest, one of the things that stood out was from an episode where they visited one of the main communications network hub.  They talked about the great potential that fiber-optic networking had.  Fast forward to today and we now have companies that are bringing fiber right into our homes.  We are now piping huge amounts of data including HDTV, high speed internet, and voice communications into homes over tiny pieces of fiber optic cable and we are far from the bandwidth limits.

Watching SeaQuest today, though I don’t know much about submarines, much of the technology is believable.  All over the ship you see large, wide-screen displays which, at the time were probably created using a rear-projection technique.  Yet today it is commonplace to see large flat panel video displays.  Much of what they use on the show doesn’t seem like it is far out of reach from where we are today.

Then look at the birth of the tactile tablet computer like Apple’s iPad.  I know that I have seen this mentioned on some tech blogs, but it is basically a working version of the PADDs (Personal Access Display Device) used on StarTrek:TNG.  All thing considered, iOS might almost be a little more sophisticated than anything we actually saw LCARS (Library Computer Access/Retrieval System) do aside from fly starships (though I am sure there is an app for that!).  The groundwork is being laid though and we may meet or surpass some of the technology like that imagined for shows like StarTrek:TNG and SeaQuest DSV.

The here and now is certainly an interesting time to be living in given the current rate that technology is progressing.  While we may not quite be at a place where we can just slide data from device to device like in Minority Report or Avatar, but we are getting there.  With apps like “Bump” you can literally bump two iPhones together to send information between them.  It isn’t quite perfect, but it works.  Do we need the level of connectivity we are headed towards? Who knows, but the ride is pretty cool.

Many people look forward to the time that they take off from work.  Some may not really care one way or the other.  For me however, it is fun to be back in the swing of things at work.  Now I suppose most people who visit here know that I work in theatre, but now anyone who just showed up knows as well.  It is certainly an interesting and crazy world to work in.  now as we push on into fall and winter (fall doesn’t last too long in Utah) we get less daylight, so pretty soon, I won’t really see much of it.  Well, I say that, but in reality, it probably isn’t true once we get into ski season.  It is always fun to get up when it is still fairly dark out and not go home again until it is dark.  We did get new curtains for the bedroom windows that let a lot more light in so that it is less like a cave in the mornings and it will be easier to wake up.

So, tonight is the first tech rehearsal for the first show of the season, and it really is fun to be back in the groove.  We have been off to a flying start with Hamlet since I got back to town, but everything has been going very smoothly and we have been very efficient.  This is a great thing considering that I have a bunch of new people working for me and this is the first show.  We also have one of my favorite lighting designers lighting this show, PM.  He calls himself “the other Jew in Salt Lake City” (it is our little joke, me being Jewish and all), and while he isn’t always the easiest to keep up with, he is always fun to have in town.

Last season, I had a hard time keeping up with PM on his show, which should have been one of the easiest shows of the season.  I think it had a lot lot to do with the fact that I had been sick for most of the tech process.  It happens.  This time it seems like we really have kicked things off on the right foot, and that is good because PM will be back for White Christmas in a couple months.

The crazy think now is that we will probably be running at what feels like full tilt until we get to the end of the season.  Like camp, the days will feel long, but the weeks will go by really fast.  The season will be over in the blink of an eye.  I can’t actually believe that I have been out here for five years!  It has gone by really fast (kinda scary), but it has been really great as well.  I am doing what I love in a place that I am quite happy to be, so life is good!

This month 20SB is hosting a Blog Carnival in conjunction with Charles Schwab.  In my mind it is kind of an unlikely pairing, but hey, we twenty-somethings should learn what to do with our lack of money!  Actually, I took advantage of the recent economic struggles in the country as I saw it as an opportunity to start making some investments.  The market was low and I had some liquid assets and I have the time to wait for the markets to rebound.  So actually, I opened my investment account through Schwab on the recommendation of my family and so far, I have been pretty happy.

One of the stipulations of the blog carnival event was to test drive Schwab’s new financial fitness check-up tool.  Basically, it is a short questionnaire that tries to determine where you stand in terms of financial habits.  I tried it out and did my best to answer the questions truthfully and I got a score of 84, which puts me in the “Good” category.  I certainly try to be good about my money but i know that there are things that I could be better about.  I am probably a little more frivolous sometimes than I should be, but I have never really felt like I was hurting for money and I have never really been living from paycheck-to-paycheck.

Schwab wanted some feedback on the check-up tool, which seems reasonable.  It was pretty straight-forward and easy to use.  In general I felt like the questions were very general questions.  I don’t really know what the point is because I am not sure what your score is supposed to tell you.  What is the next step and what is the goal?  For that matter, aren’t everyone’s goals slightly different?  Is the answer that Schwab gives the right answer for everyone?  I don’t know.  I suppose, if nothing else, it is not a bad place to start though.

The real topic for the Carnival though is to write about something that you were happy you splurged on or a time that you should have not tapped into the coffers.  For me, there are two things that come to mind.  First, I have an annual splurge that I am still trying to figure out how I afford.  Each year since I moved out to Utah I have bought a season pass for skiing.  Unfortunately, Utah is probably one of the most expensive states to ski in.  You can’t really pass it up though when you live there!  Normally I do take some time to contemplate big purchases, but I have never thought twice about skiing.  It is not a cheap sport to be involved in, that is for sure.

I live about 30 minutes from seven of the 13 ski areas in Utah, so picking where to get a pass was an interesting decision.  The first two years I was out there I qualified for a deeply discounted pass at the Park City Mountain Resort.  After that there was one heck of a price hike.  The average pass in Utah for an adult is over $1K for the season with most around $1.2K-$1.5K.  I like to get the most bang for my buck so I discovered that you can get an Alta/Snowbird Pass for $1.5K which is the same price as Deer Valley alone, so this seemed like a great idea.  I certainly have never regretted that decision.  I get great enjoyment out of the skiing and I don’t usually end up hurting too much in the wallet.  Besides, Alta is probably my favorite ski area.

My really big splurge though, was significantly bigger than a ski pass.  All things considered, I am probably really still recovering from the purchase.  As many of my readers should know, I am a photographer.  While I don’t rely on my photography to make a living at the moment, I am a professional.  When I was hired on as the staff photographer for PTC I decided that I really needed to step up to a professional level camera, needless to say, they cost some big bucks.

Now, I didn’t need to go top-of-the-line flagship model camera, that would have been a little too much, but I did want something that could keep up with the times.  I did as much scrimping and saving as I could, but this purchase really made quite the dent in my financial situation.  When all was said and done I probably ended up paying more for the camera than for my computer.  Totally worth it though, I love my camera and I have been making a decent little income off the theatre photography business.  It isn’t huge, but every little bit counts for something.  Besides, you do need to have the right tools for the job!

Of course I am now looking towards the next big purchase that I have on the horizon, a new computer.  I am a creative professional and I could really use a desktop computer at home with a nice big screen.  Those 27″ iMacs are looking super sweet.  I am not entirely sure how and when I will come up with the money for that AND continue to keep up my skiing habits, but somehow it all seems to work out in the end.  I know that I can’t sacrifice my living budgets (food, rent, gas, etc.), but I will figure it out.

Legal Stuff:

It should be noted that while I am a Schwab client, I am not employed by them nor am I in any way affiliated with the company.  I only keep an investment portfolio thought them.  The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the opinions of any other people or organizations.

Disclaimer: This post is part of the 20SB Blog Carnival: Friends & Money, sponsored by Charles Schwab. Prizes may be awarded to selected posts. The information and opinions expressed in this post do not reflect the views or opinions of Charles Schwab. Details on the event, eligibility, and a complete list of participating bloggers can be found here.

Why is it that sometimes you think that you have a great idea, a thought for a post that couldn’t be better, but when you sit down to try to put the words on the page, it just doesn’t feel the same?  I know that everyone feels that sometimes.  I wouldn’t so much call it writer’s block as much as it is just the possible lack of flesh on the original concept.  I don’t even actually remember what it was that I had thought was such a good idea to write about, but as soon as I opened the page to start writing it just didn’t seem as worthwhile anymore.

Sometimes there are ideas that really just flow from the brain through the fingers and onto the page.  Other times they seem to need a little coaxing.  Every now and then they don’t really want to come at all.  It is strange though, that many of the times that words just flow is when you least intend for that to happen.  It is like getting in the zone, you have to see where things take you.

Inspiration can certainly come in many forms and at any time.  I am sure that when I take the time to actually put pen to paper this summer and write some real letters to people, words will come.  I do think though, that there is something magical about real mail that you don’t get from email, IM’s or blogs.  I also think that there is something about the physicality of actually writing (which I think is becoming a dying art) that makes it very conducive for creative juices to get going.

I suppose the other thing that I could take into account is the fact that I am up way past my bedtime and the past days have been very long.  The days will only get longer though as the summer progresses.  It seems that all the good ideas come lat at night though.  Not the best combination of events when you spend a summer at camp.  Could be a lot worse though.  When you think about it, how many people do you know who will write something about not writing something and actually make it a post you can ponder?

In the end, what does it boil down to?  Could be a post on nothing….