New Monitor Setup
The new monitor setup with the hacked-together portrait stand for the 19"
I recently got a new 24″ Samsung monitor/tv because the 19″ monitor that I was using was starting to seem small, especially since they have almost all 22″ monitors at work now.
Originally I was just looking at how much 22″-24″ monitors were on newegg. When I saw this monitor/tv I thought it would be great for a dorm room.
The new setup with OS X on the big screen
As you can see in the photos, I decided to go with portrait mode on the old 19″ Samsung that I was using, but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been. A lot of the monitors that are sold come with stands that let you flip them sideways, but mine didn’t. I put together a custom VESA stand out of some wood we had in the shed last night. So far it’s working out pretty good.
Update: By popular demand, here are some pics of the stand I built.
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- The new monitor setup with the hacked-together portrait stand for the 19″
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- The new setup with OS X on the big screen
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Published: June 23rd, 2009 in Tech | Tags: os x, samsung, windows 7
Macbook Review
After having the Macbook for a few days, I feel that I have used it enough do do a decent review.
Let’s start with the physical machine. When I first opened the box, the first thing that i noticed was how small and light it was. It’s not the smallest (13 inch) or lightest (5 lbs), but overall it’s not bad at all. I also like how there is nothing on the back, no reaching behind the machine to plug in power or USB or anything. It as the Kensington Security Slot, the headphone jack, the audio jack, two USB 2.0 ports, a firewire 400 port, mini DVI, ethernet, and the power all on the left side of the macbook. The slot-loading DVD burner is the only thing on the right side. And right in the front is the receiver for a remote, that you unfortunately have to purchase separately. I really like the keyboard and it actually types really well. The built in camera is nice, and I like the fact that there is a microphone, but the audio quality is not very good. Overall the MacBook is very nice, and I really like the white, although black would be cool too.
And as for the software… I really like OS X. Everything was setup right away and I was literally online typing a blog post in 10 minutes. Mail and iChat found everything that they needed on their own, all I had to do was type in my password. Spaces is great and I also really like exposé. Spotlight is also a great addition to an operating system. Just start typing and it will refine the search as you go. Results are instant. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to find any really great apps yet, but I did happen to find Jing, which I can see myself using very soon. I tried Quicksilver, but I didn’t really like it. I probably needed more time to figure out what it was all about, but I didn’t feel like digging for any information about it, so i dumped it. The first two things I downloaded though were Last.fm and twhirl, in that order. I haven’t tried out Photoshop yet, but I would really like to see how that does. I’d really like any requests for good OS X apps though.
Next I’ll be doing an iPod Touch review. That’s really what I should be doing right now. I’ve been playing with that more than the MacBook. But that’s for another day.
Published: August 1st, 2008 in Tech | Tags: Apple, macbook, os x
