Feb

28

This past Tuesday Apple released new Penryn-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros. This upgrade has been anticipated by Mac-enthusiasts for months, and the release has notebook users from all generations wanting to upgrade their notebooks.

I, on the other hand, cannot understand the madness. MacBook Pro owners using only a six-month old MacBook Pro are dumping their “old” notebooks in favor of the new model. For what, minor upgrades? To fully understand my side of the story, I need to first describe my current notebook:

Now with that said, I will begin enumerating the stupidity.

Minor Speed Bumps

Everyone always brags about the speed of new machines, but I have started asking myself is it really needed? Processors have become powerful enough for just about any task, so that the normal Mac user will never notice the difference from a 2.0GHz Santa Rosa Core 2 Duo to a 2.6GHz Penryn Core 2 Duo. The only people who will notice the increased speed are video professionals. In that case, is the extra 2 seconds gained rendering a half hour long file really worth the price? I don’t think so.

Multi-touch Technology

Alright, I admit that the new multi-touch capable trackpad is cool, but is it useful? I could see myself occasionally using the trackpad in iPhoto, but beyond that it would have no use. Not to mention, myself and most of the notebook owners I know dock their notebook to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, thus making the trackpad useless in those scenarios.

Increased Storage

Yes, the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros have increased storage capacity, but again, is that a big deal? Nothing has changed in the past few years with magnetic hard drive technology, so even the oldest Intel notebooks can be upgraded to a 320GB hard drive, a size that Apple doesn’t even offer as a BTO option. Oh, and for those who say the MacBook Pro’s hard drive is not upgradable, performing a drive swap is not that difficult.

The New Keyboard

Fair enough. The keyboard function keys have been rearranged for more optimal use. So, people are dropping $2000 on some ink placed in a different spot? I never thought the MacBook Pro’s function keys were that bad. Even if they are, the MacBook Pro has an extra programmable key that can come in handy. By the way, I don’t like the keyboard’s new blue glow, so I think my MacBook Pro’s white glow is superior.

A Decent Package

You got me. The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are amazing machines and certainly worth the upgrade if you have an older notebook. I just think the upgrades are not substantial enough from the Santa Rosa models for anyone to rush out and purchase a Penryn-based notebook. The Santa Rosa platform has more life left than people think, and we have not even reached the memory caps (64GB) or hard drive caps (infinity) yet. Although, if people want to waste their money that’s fine by me. Just don’t forget to order the now optional Apple Remote for $19, while I enjoy my Santa Rosa MacBook Pro for a few more years.

Advertisement: Advertise Your Site in This Space

Feb

28

UGC (user generated content, you know.. free content.) sure is great, and having your users create content must be profitable, right? Have you considered the hassles that come along with it?

I’m sure many who have worked with websites and concepts based on UGC can agree that there’s more work to it, than it might seem at first. The reality is that it often takes a big effort to foster the creation of the content you desire, as well as to make sure it doesn’t get out of control.

If your platform for UGC gets some decent traction there will be tons of content submitted that is crap, misleading, profane, copyrighted, spam and so forth. Such content can easily destroy the platform/concept you created. Users might be turned off by it and you might get legal issues to waste your time and money on.

Many of these problems can presumably be solved through volunteering users who’re given the role as moderators. That is if you can find users who’re willing to take up the work. But then you get the work of maintaining good relationships with those key users. Do you have time for that?

It might take more work than you think, and it might get complicated. What are you going to do if your moderators, key contributors ét al are suddenly getting into strong disagreements/fights? Will you pick a side and possibly turn away some of the very people who made your concept a success.

So yeah, UGC might sound great as it is free content, but is it really “free” when you need to put in so much work to overlook, moderate and maintain what is being provided by users?

There are many websites that won’t work without UGC as it is the core concept. But I believe there’s even more cases where UGC is a really bad fit, and that people will see in retrospect that just hiring people to create and provide content would have given better results, and not to mention this being cheaper than the cost of handling UGC and a community.

I’m not opposed to UGC, not at all! I believe it’s really great - in some cases. But more than often I hear stuff like “hey, we’re gonna do this and that, and we’ll have users create the content, it’s a sure success!”, and sometimes it seems that most people think that for web startups, newspapers etc., UGC is the only way to go if you want to make tomorrows big hit on the web, as it costs nothing. That, I disagree with!

Feb

18

Mastery In Transformational Training (MITT) is an educational company offering a series of courses designed to assist individuals in reaching their highest potential in life. Graduates of MITT courses experience tremendous breakthroughs in all areas of life: career, marriage, family, community, spirituality, finances, health & well-being, etc. The courses focus on the being of human being, and students report a profound sense of joy, freedom, passion, self-confidence, energy and power!

The MITT trainings have been designed and perfected over 30 years, resulting in what many regard as the most powerful transformational technologies available.

Margo Majdi, Founder and President of Mastery In Transformational Training, was born and educated in Holland, earned a business degree at age 21, moved to Spain in 1967 and married there, then came to America in 1970, where she studied psychology for two years and Reevaluation Counseling. She was a counselor for seven years and a business owner, operating a successful hair salon in Beverly Hills, CA., and creating her own line of cosmetic and skin care products.

In 1980, she had the opportunity and privilege to be introduced to a transformational training, which changed her life. In 1998, she took her commitment to transformation to the next level and purchased the rights to the trainings, naming her new company Mastery In Transformational Training (MITT).

Through her leadership of MITT, Margo has taken a stand that everybody in the world gets to know that they matter, and that everybody can realize their dreams and reach their goals in life. Thousands of people have dramatically changed their lives by participating in these trainings, and through Mastery In Transformational Training’s Leadership program, have raised millions of dollars for Los Angeles charitable organizations.

Expanding her vision, Margo took a stand for teenagers at risk and created a non profit organization to bring these same life changing trainings to Los Angeles Youth, The Torch Foundation.

Through these avenues of transformation, Margo has guided twenty to forty people daily in taking on their lives, dreams and possibilities for the world, becoming a world class trainer and coach over the past eight years; a recognized leader in the field of transformational training, repeatedly acknowledged by Mayors, Senators and other dignitaries of the State of California for her outstanding commitment to the well being of our youth.

To learn more or to sign up visit http://www.mittraining.com

Feb

16

As you probably have noticed, I’ve been very busy lately. I am working to expand my freelance business, all while maintaining good grades in college. So, I had to cut some corners. I fell apart on updating my blog and some of my plugins have lagged behind. Thankfully, today I finally break the silence with this update (I still plan on actually writing something just for the blog later this week).

A few minutes ago I released Google Analyticator 2.0. If you’re new to my plugins, Google Analyticator is a WordPress-based Google Analytics tracking plugin. Version 2.0 adds support for Google’s latest tracking code (ga.js), and brings along all the great new tracking features with it. Check out the new version over in the code section of my site.

Feb

5

I’m sitting here in the sun writing this. No, there’s no sun in Denmark now, or at least I strongly doubt it. The deal is, I moved to Cyprus, specifically the capital Nicosia, just 7 days ago. I’ll be living here for the next 5 months or so, and yeah I prefer the warmer climate.

This also means that my work routines will be slightly different, so I finally have some time to write again. It was about time, indeed. The big question is whether or not I feel like I have something worth writing about…

Blogroll

WP Themes