Back it up!!! There is no excuse anymore

In the last few months I know of 5 people who have lost entire drives, all their personal pictures, work data etc... All because a hard drive crashed, broke, got a virus etc.

There is no excuse anymore. A HUGE 750GB drive - enough to hold multiple backups of your drive, like little snapshots are cheap... $129 last check.. Now you can have 2 copies of your data.. Great for 99% of the time, not if your house burns down.. solution - buy two - keep one at a friends, in your safety deposit box etc... cycle them 30 days at a time.. now you have offsite redundant backup..

Use your google, mobileme account etc - that free 5-20GB of space they give you for emails etc - a perfect place to keep some offsite backups of pictures work files etc.

And for those of you on mac - make sure your using 10.5 with Time Machine - THAT TIME MACHINE IS ENABLED and that you have the drive for it... you don't need anything special etc..

Call me if you need a hand, but for goodness sake.. don't be a dolt, back it up!

Apple 10.5.2 update out - Time to Upgrage to Leopard?

People ask me (ok Mac people ask me) if they should upgrade their machines to Leopard (OSX 10.5). My answer has been for most, no, once 10.5.1 was out, it was OK for some, but still not for people who need their machine 100% everyday. Why? Is there a problem with 10.5? None really, but more with the applications they use, and that if your machine in working fine, and you need it 100% of the time, no need to rush!
So today marks the point where I say OK for most to upgrade to Leopard, but that doesn't mean you have to do it today, I'm sure there will be a couple new things that crop up with this update. It is a MASSIVE update as far as OS updates go, 180 to 300+ megs.
So unless you feel 100% ok doing it yourself, and suffer from can't wait syndromes like me (usually), wait, or get a tech to backup your machine 100% and let them take you from Tiger to Leopard.
If your on Leopard already, make sure your Time Machine backup is ready and get going... in a couple days :)
If you (or a friend) needs tech support, I'm available for $60 an hour.. A Steal and you get to enjoy my stunning personality too!

Mac Buyers Guide - When is a good time to buy a new Mac/iPod

We have all done it before, gone out and bought something only to have a new better model come out 2 weeks later. It sucks and usually we can't do anything about it after the fact, however there is no law against being an informed consumer ahead of time.
With buying Apple products, a great site to help you out is the Buyers Guide on MacRumors.com. Based on product life cycles and average time for sale, you can see if it's a "good" or "bad" time to lay down your hard earned cash.
If you don't need it today, you can sometimes wait and get a new better model when it's brand new. What do you get - Faster machines, newer generation chips, more RAM and Hard Drive space, newer cosmetics etc.
One big thing you get if you are waiting on a "2nd" gen platform is fixes to glitches, product design issues etc that the first gen may have had. An example is the iPod Nano. The first gen had a beautiful acrylic front, however this scratched up easily and made the product look worn before it's time. 2nd Gen Nano fixed this with some different styling and materials. This does 2 things for you - makes you feel better & increases your resale value. Imagine buying that first gen 2 weeks before Gen 2 came out :( I would wait the 2 weeks.
Now this is all estimations - sometimes stuff comes early, sometimes it is seriously late. If it's your year end and you need to buy for this year for tax reasons go ahead.. but if you can wait and it's not a great time to buy.. Why not wait.

So check out MacRumors.com Buying Guide if your thinking of buying a new Mac or iPod.

I'm sure buying guides for other products exist too - just spend some time on Google. An informed consumer is a better consumer!

Computers - Finally of Age?

So I was doing some upgrading to my system yesterday and realized that everything ported easily, nothing needed re-installing or updating. Also on a day to day basis, I never really have to do anything to my system, just use it, and that is beautiful, the apps, processes etc all work the way they should. So with Macs and Leopard 10.5 have we finally reached a point where the software and hardware have come of age. I think so. So 25+ years after the PC first came out, and 24 years since the Mac first came out the industry may have finally come of age and be what many have thought and believed it should be.

If your still on a PC - for any reason - get your head out of the sand and come breathe some fresh air!

Just a random thought..