Watched the highest-grossing movie of all time today, and threw down $20 on the largest lottery jackpot in history. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do (I buy lotto tickets twice a decade).

Watched the highest-grossing movie of all time today, and threw down $20 on the largest lottery jackpot in history. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do (I buy lotto tickets twice a decade).
Posted by Instagrate to WordPress

The most unique Christmas gift I received was a #Munchpak snack subscription. It’s fun to taste snacks from other cultures! Reminds me of my #HTCelevate days when I’d get global taste packs from #HTC fans…

The most unique Christmas gift I received was a #Munchpak snack subscription. It's fun to taste snacks from other cultures! Reminds me of my #HTCelevate days when I'd get global taste packs from #HTC fans...

This is what #Elvis meant by a “Blue Christmas” right? Side note: funny how more are coming in a black case.

This is what #Elvis meant by a "Blue Christmas" right? Side note: funny how more are coming in a black case.

When I first saw this package, my brain read it as LORDS OF PECAN, so that’s what I’ve been calling it all week as I’ve been eating it. That, my friends, is an epic name for #icecream. Also, a #heavymetal band that bakes pies.

When I first saw this package, my brain read it as LORDS OF PECAN, so that's what I've been calling it all week as I've been eating it. That, my friends, is an epic name for #icecream. Also, a #heavymetal band that bakes pies.

Evolution of trackpad size. On the left, a 2015 Dell XPS 13. Right, a 2007 Dell XPS M1330.

Evolution of trackpad size. On the left, a 2015 Dell XPS 13. Right, a 2007 Dell XPS M1330.

Getting Cut on the Bleeding Edge: the Samsung 950 PRO NMVe M.2 SSD & the Dell XPS 13

One of the unfortunate side-effects of not being a “full time tech geek” any longer is that I’m not quite up to speed on certain aspects of technology.  Back when I was a full-time tech writer, I spent every waking minute reading about tech, reviewing tech, testing tech…you get the idea. Since joining the corporate world I still use tech of course, but my immersion is in very specific slices of it; since joining AT&T I know far more about WordPress than I did two years ago for instance.

When I ordered my Dell XPS 13 (early 2015 edition) in May of this year, I purposefully bought it with a 256 GB drive knowing I’d be upgrading to 512 GB within a few months. Dell charged a huge premium for the 512 GB drive (like all OEMs do). I’d been reading about forthcoming NVMe drives since 2014, promising great performance gains because they finally broke away from the legacy AHCI standard. We’re talking over 2x less latency, much deeper queue depth, etc. So with great anticipation I pre-ordered the Samsung 950 PRO, one of the first commercially-available NMVe M.2 drives.

Continue reading Getting Cut on the Bleeding Edge: the Samsung 950 PRO NMVe M.2 SSD & the Dell XPS 13

This is what real #TexasBBQ looks like at #PecanLodge: deep-fried beef ribs. Thank you @johnstarky #Meatatarian

This is what real #TexasBBQ looks like at #PecanLodge: deep-fried beef ribs. Thank you @johnstarky #Meatatarian

A Windows User and His New iMac – Day Fourteen

After this post I’ll be switching to a weekly format as my explorations wind down (or become less public at any rate).

  • Airdrop is really interesting. On my iPad I turned it on, then on the iMac I searched for Airdrop in Spotlight. The first result was the Extensions panel as part of System Preferences, which didn’t help. Then I remembered that Airdrop was on the left Favourites panel in Finder. Sure enough, there was my iPad, and it was ridiculously easy to transfer a few JPEGs and MP4 files. So fast, and so, so much better than what I have to do on my Windows machine with a cable and iTunes. This is a very tangible example of how Apple’s ecosystem works better the more Apple stuff you have. They could of course enable iTunes to act as a Airdrop bridge on Windows, but they won’t.

IMG_0772

  • I transferred a .MTS file (a type of video file) over to the iPad, and got this interesting prompt (above) saying I needed an app from the app store to open it, or I could put the file in iCloud. I selected the app option, and I’ve been staring at the app store loading for over a minute. I don’t think it worked. Interestingly, my iMac said that my iPad “declined my request.” I tried again twice more, and the “Get App” button never worked. Looks like I’ll just use Handbrake to transcode to MP4 to go this route. It would be slick if Apple did a transcode to supported formats when you did the Airdrop…

Continue reading A Windows User and His New iMac – Day Fourteen

A Windows User and His New iMac – Days Twelve & Thirteen

Another two days, another series of discoveries and questions. Yay for cheap(ish) RAM!

  • My new RAM arrived, so I was able to do the upgrade to 32 GB. This time, it worked! I didn’t want to unplug all the cables from the iMac, so after removing the power cable I performed the RAM upgrade with the iMac vertical. It was slightly tricky, but Apple put in strong guide-rails so once I got them in there a gentle push was all that was needed. When I hit the power button the first time, nothing happened. Oh, I forgot to plug the power back in. #PEBKAC Power in, power on, I mutter “Please boot…please boot….YES!”. OS X boots up, 32 GB of RAM installed. I wonder though, will it make the iMac feel any different?

5K-iMac-RAM-Upgrade-32GB

Continue reading A Windows User and His New iMac – Days Twelve & Thirteen

A Windows User and His New iMac – Days Ten & Eleven

I spent time time pondering the insanely great 5K display, and figuring out how hot – really hot – Apple lets this Skylake CPU get.

  • I’m intrigued by the way Web sites are delivering content for ultra-high resolution screens as part of a push for not only mobile responsive, but mobile adaptive (meaning not only does the layout change based on screen resolution, but different page assets are delivered). I was shocked at the clarity of this image of Samuel L. Jackson on the iMac display. Digging in, I find it’s a huge (for the web) 2200 x 1467 pixel image. That’s 3.2 megapixels! It’s 193 KB, so a bit hefty, but on a desktop or laptop, it’s fine. At 10.5 inches across on my iMac display, that’s a 252 PPI image. No wonder it looks so insanely good!
  • I thought at first that I couldn’t edit appointments in Calendar that were created via Exchange, because I kept looking for an edit button. Turns out I just tap what I want to change and change it. My brain evidently expects things to be more complicated than they are. 🙂
  • Looks like not all apps can do split-screen on a virtual desktop? I tried to put bbEdit and Word 2016 beside easy other and got the little “No you can’t” icon. I wonder if there’s a way to know before hand, or if you’re supposed to just try it and see what works?

Continue reading A Windows User and His New iMac – Days Ten & Eleven