CV of Justin Lang

The guys over at engadget had a neat article about biodegradable memory sticks from Hoshino. You can check out engadgets post here.

What I find interesting about this memory stick is that is is made out of polylactide which is technically biodegradable plastic.  But to make is re usable or “eliminate” it you have to blast it with heat for ten days and a specialized facility.

Um…… does that sound like it take a shit load more to “dispose” of it then it does to repurpose it or do something else with it instead of tossing it into a dumpster???  Think about all the energy it will take over thsoe ten days to produce the heat required to dispose of it!!

I worked a show yesterday at the Omni Shoreham in DC called the Alliance for Community Media.  It was for cable access channels around the country.  We shared a booth with Videssence, one of our manufacturers.  While the show was alright, I was interested in some of the different vendors exhibiting.  I am also interested in learning more aboout how my customers do their job and what tools they might use.  One that caught my attention was the product from Rush Works Media, called the Remo Remote Production System.  What first caught my attention was the use of a Hardigg rolling storm case that houses the whole system.  They are outfitted the entire system including a monitor, 6 mic inputs and mixer, camra joy stick, program switcher, mouse, keybaord and video inputs into the Hardigg Stormcase iM2720.  click through the link above or the picture to learn more about it.  You can get the stand alone kit with just the production system or the production system with small robotic cameras.  Pretty neat stuff!

Which one which one…. It truly is a TOUGH decision!. What is a boy to do?

I plan on upgrading my good old faithful G4 PowerBook to a new apple intel computer.  But I am in a little bit of a bind trying to figure out which one to invest in.  So here I will go over some of my points…

Mac Pro – It is the fastest mac out there with 2 duo intel processors, can handle 4 hard drives, upgradable ram and extra PCI card ports.  So the system can grow if I need it to.  plus it is a desk top so I can upgrade to a larger display later. PLUS, it will force me to do my design work at the desk rather then on th couch while watching tv.  But then the negative is that I can be mobile with it.  What if I need to do something on the road???  I think it is at that point that I hope to be profitable and can afford an additional apple, macbook, macbook Pro or apple air.  Then I can sync the computers.

Macbook, Macbook Pro, Apple Air – MOBILE!!! that is the one top reasons.  but a huge negative is that none of them are really upgradable!  The oppsoing argument can be made that I get a laptop now and add on a desktop later after being profitable.

Help anyone???

About a week or so ago, I was asked to pick out a grill for the office as my personal one was stolen. Since we as an office are doing this every year now, we might as well get one. So I found the biggest cheapest one I could find. It’s called the Super Pro Charcoal Grill! We got it at Lowes for $130.00. Not a bad deal if you ask me. It can hold up to 40 hamburgers at once! Plus it has cast iron grates which will NEVER rust out or get crappy, another nice hit. It was a little bit of a pain in the ass to put together, but it was worth it.  Lowes offered free grill assembley with purchase.  But after working at Hechingers for 6 years and having to put things like this together, I know how lazily they put them together!

So tomorrow is our annual employee Barbeque.  Everyone brings something to share which is awesome.  We are going to have 6 different meats grilled up and smoked as well as plenty of sides.  Should be a lot of goooood eatin’ for 2 days.  Yes, TWO days!  That is why we do it on thuresdays.  There will be plenty of meats left over to grill some up on friday as well.

Seriously apple, what the the hell.  I am a mac addict, I know it and I embrace it.  But there are PLENTY of people out there that are not.  They don’t read the blogs daily like I and many other mac addicts do.  So when you write 3G, I know what you are talking about.  The 3G network as in the data transfer network.  I have been approched by many a people asking about the new iPhone.  They know that I love apple and know whats going on.  A couple have prople have aasked me, “When will the 3gig iPhone come out?”  Honestly, I know how people can get confused about this.  The standard abbreviation of gigabit is gig, not just G.  But as we all know, everyone reads things quickly.  So people will misintrupte 3G as meaning 3gig.  I know it is not a hugh problem, but I can see the unknowing masses going into an apple store or online looking for the new 3gig iPhone.

As most people know, I watch ALOT of TV.  And it just happens that I have Comcast for cable.  Since I am cheap, I only get basic cable, no HD, paid channels, digital or any crap like that.  So lately I have seen this new commercial from comcast.  It is marketing one of their newest services, Proposal Man at proposalman.com.

First, the quality of the commercial SUCKS, I could do better then this fucking commercial and I have no experience!  Then the concept SUCKS.. A guy proposing with a plate of peas that spells will you marry me… WTF!!!  If some one told me that is how they proposed, that would be grounds for an immediate ass kicking, just so you know.

I have taken another HUGE step.  I have upgraded the 15PB to Leopard!  I little birdy yesterday dropped in my lap.  Normally when a brid drops something on me, I curse and make a stink about it, but not this time!  “A Friend” (figure out that movie reference!) let me barrow a CD yesterday that just happen to have some goodness on it.  At the end of the day I was running OSX Leopard, WHO KNEW THAT WOULD BE ON IT!  Anyways, first impressions… I LIKE IT. Hate the default background, but that is eaily changed as you can see in the phot left.

Interesting side note on the background shipped with Leopard.  Renee was watching me as I was change the background and made an interesting comment.  “Who, what a set of Vistas”, referenceing some of the “nature” shots in the default folder for Mac backgrounds.  Me thinks this be Apple’s trickery hinting at their compitions OS from Redmond!  Just something to think about.

Now, something else I am having a little trouble with is the grid and icon line up on the desktop.  I HATE SNAPPING TO GRID!!!  How do I turn this off?!?!?!  I like my desktop icons to be where I want them NOT all to the right.  Someone PLESASE help.

Next, the dock.  I remember reading about people not likeing the new dock and stuff like that when Leopard first came out, but I didn’t pay much attention to them.  Now I see what some people are talking about. It is a little difficult to see what programs are open, but have now windows open.  The is just a small glowing blue bubble under the icon in the dock, very hard to see at a glance.  I much prefered Tigers little black arrow, very easy to see at a glance!

So far, overall I am liking it.  Most of the things I am bitching about are easy to fix, I just haven’t figured out how to on some of them.  I’ll let you know what other things come up laters.

If you like a good browser experience, I would highly recommend downloading the latest version of FireFox.  I first downloaded it my PC (WORK PC!) and have really liked it.  Just today I finially got around to downloading it for my mac.  First thoughts… It visually looks similar to Safri meaning the brushed aluminum look.  Don’t get me wrong, i like it, but now it’s going to take me a moment to realize which browser I am actually in.  But if that is the biggest problem, then AWESOME.  I’ll let you know what I think after playing with it more.

Every single mac product with a built in display has an iSight built right in the enclouser.  I can understand the Mac Pro and the Mac Mini not having an iSight built in as they do not have a monitor or display.  But Apple has line of Cinema Displays that are really nice, but lack the iSight.  Why is this?  There are a couple of arguments that I have been running through in my head…

1: Mac Minis are design to use a monitor, keyboard and mouse that you already own.  Thats all well and good, but what if my grandma wants to buy a complete system from Apple and use that system to have video chats with her grand kids across the country?

2: Mac Pros are designed for higher end users, graphic designers, video editors and other creatives.  Most creatives that purchase a Mac Pro will most liekly purchase a complete system including an Apple Display. That being said the system is intended for work and not “entertainment” things such as video chatting. But with travel and gas prices getting so expensive, it seems like video conferenceing would be a cheaper alternative.  So again, why not include an iSight into the display instead of making a customer going to a third party hardware?

Apple, get it together!

I just recently (April) went to Las Vegas for the first time, and all for work! I got out there two days early to help set things up and to help get Vegas out of my system early. Man, what a good idea that was! On the second night, a couple of co-workers and I went to Rub BBQ resturant in the Rio Hotel where we stayed. Let me tell you, AWESOME. We got an appitizer of bacon chunks. It is excatly like it sounds, huge chunks of bacon deep fried. DAMN GOOD.

Well, getting back on track here… In the lobby of Rub BBQ is an awesome motorcycle/smoker. It defiantly got our heads turned. I wish I had gotten a better photo, but you get the idea here.