I Now Own a Mac

December 06, 2006 by Eric Richardson

I ordered a Macbook the other day and it came in this morning. Back in January I made the move to a Mac at work, and over time I became pretty accustomed to getting things done on it. Particularly, I became so attached to TextMate that I really didn't feel like working on code in anything else. I'd fire up vim on my Linux desktop and it would be just like old times, but suddenly that wasn't enough any more.

I'd also never found a Linux mail client that I could stand, to the extent that I would walk over to Kathy's iMac to check my email at home.

So once the Core 2 Duo upgrade hit I ordered a 13" Macbook with the 2ghz CPU and 2gb of RAM. The laptop arrived this morning, and here I am later that same night working on a Ruby on Rails app in Textmate, running it via Locomotive, doing virtual desktops via VirtueDesktops, checking my mail via Apple Mail, and listening to music I bought off iTunes (Quincy Coleman's album Come Closer). I guess that's a conversion.

Wait... Music?

November 29, 2006 by Eric Richardson

A sad thing happened to me over the course of the last six or nine months: somehow I forgot about music. Not any specific music, just music in general. I forgot to go find it. I forgot what I already had. I just forgot to listen to it.

It was a confluence of events that led to that point. I started to write it all out, but it's long and probably boring. Broken headphones, nearby coworkers, etc.

But now it's like I've emerged and everyone I've ever listened to has a new album out.

I need to go camp out at the Hotel Cafe for a month or so and catch up.

Shining up an Old Apple

November 29, 2006 by Eric Richardson

It sounds funny to say, but I think one of the things that's kept me from writing much here lately is that the look had started to make me feel cramped. I needed to update, but just hadn't found the time. This morning I got up early so I put a few minutes into touching that up. The result's now live.

The last look went live on December 8th, 2005. Staying with one look for nearly a year might be some kind of a record for me, though certainly it would be one to put an asterisk next to in the books:

Note: Record achieved through general neglect.

The old look's still up on the heavily cobwebbed rest of the site, so it's not in the look archive yet. But then again neither are the two looks that preceded it...

Soon, Really...

November 28, 2006 by Eric Richardson

February 13th of this year I wrote a list of four things I intended to blog about soon. They were:

  • My third (and this time successful) attempt with Ruby on Rails
  • Purchasing and Colocating a server for work
  • Using javascript to create stylable select boxes
  • Version control likes and dislikes

I (sort of) got into the first one here and here. Or at least I touched on Rails in posts. Close enough.

Two through four, not so much. I'd say I suck at blogging, but this year I've done 300+ posts over at blogdowntown, so I can't blame that.

I'll still have to get to two through four. And I'm getting back into one for a different project, so I'll be sure to say more on that as well.

Living Room Before and After

November 27, 2006 by Eric Richardson

Kathy and I finally got a table this weekend, after spending three months or so eating at the coffee table. We'd been looking during our other furniture forays but just hadn't found anything that really caught our eye or fit the space.

Friday we set out specifically to get a table, and this time came away with a bargain. We got a table and four chairs for $299 from a discount furniture store in North Hollywood.

Before table:

Living Room: Before

After table:

Living Room: After

The bikes are now in our second bedroom (intended to be an office), and eventually we'll get a rack so we can hang one over the other.