I wanted to do a little post on my web development process. I get asked what programs and services I use to develop and how I use them to keep my wide range of projects organized and moving. The first thing you need to know about me, is that I am a full process web developer; I can take a website from an idea up through coding, graphics design, launch, and marketing. My true background is in marketing. I have have a Bachelors of Business Marketing from Georgia State University here in Atlanta, GA. My actual coding and graphics design skills were all self taught using a wide arrange of internet resources, books, and a lot of free time. Well, lets get cracking!

Domains

I purchase all my domains through GoDaddy, and have been doing this for over 5 year now. I tried multiple domain registrars when I first started out, but nothing compared to the UI of GoDaddy.com, and the wonderful customer service they are able to offer. I use GoDaddy purely as a domain registrar. They offers a wide range of other services and products, but I can’t give reviews or advise on these other items because I have never used them.

Hey all, sorry for the delay in my postings lately, I have been super busy. I wanted to post about my new favorite app that is helping me to organize my life, my work, and my refrigerator. haha yes that is correct, this app kicks butt!

Let me introduce you to a little Mac/iPhone app known as Things. Things is a super simple yet advanced to-do style list manager. Now, I am a very technologically advanced individual, but one thing I have never used technology for, is my to-do list. For the past probably 3 years, I have carried around a small journal type book that I use for everything from website to-dos, to my shopping list.

OK, well the Macworld 2009 came and went quick, and with no major announcements. Below is a summary of that was announced at Macworld.

• Download music over 3G & Wifi on your iPhone.
• New 17″ Macbook Pro (expected) ships late January.
• Starting today, 8 million iTunes songs are DRM free, by end of quarter 10 million DRM free songs.
• New iTunes price points ($.69, $.99, and $1.29.)
• iWork & iLife 09 – See Below.
• Garage Band 09 a new “learn to play” section where you can download artist lessons ($4.99.)
• iMovie 09 – titles, transitions, effects, auto stabilization, and lots more new goodies.
• iPhoto 09 – auto face detection, geotagging, and places (maps with photos). Built-in upload support for Facebook and Flickr.
• iWork.com, which will bring iWork 09 into the cloud.
• Mac Box Set software suite includes: Leopard 10.5, iLife 09, and iWork 09 for $169
• Keynote remote app for your iPhone, SWEET!

Well, that is it, lots of good stuff, but nothing major. It is exactly what I was expecting to hear. What are ya’lls thoughts?

With the Macworld 2009 keynote just a few hours away, I wanted to give my 2 cents on what we should expect at this event. There are many rumors circulating around the net, some include new devices, software updates, and current product line updates.

• New Mac Mini – It has been rumored for over a year that a new Mac Mini was coming. Some creditable rumors have surfaced that the Mac Mini is going to be revamped to be a Time Capsule/Apple TV/ Mac Mini Hybrid device. I could see it becoming a Mac/Apple TV device, but I am not sure about the Time Capsule Rumors.
• All DRM Free iTunes – There are some very strong sources that are confirming that Apple has finally convinced the major music labels to offer DRM free music on iTunes. While I am unsure if it will be all of iTunes, I do believe we will see a lot of iTunes music switching over to DRM free in the coming months. Also associated with this rumor, is that iTunes Mobile on the iPhone will offer music downloads over the air on the iPhone 3G.
• iPhone Tethering – While it wont be free, I am almost positive that AT&T will offer iPhone to Laptop Tethering for a monthly fee very soon.
• iWork & iLife 09 – This has been a rumor for only a few days, but Apple this morning made a mistake on its website. If you look at the top downloads section of the Apple.com download page, you will see iWork 09 listed as a top download. When you click, it takes you to the iWork 08 page.

• iWork & iLife 09 in the Cloud – It is also rumored that iLife & iWork 09 will be more involved in the cloud style of computing. Ever since Mobile Me came out, people have been wondering what all Apple has planned for this service. I think today we will find out more about this.
• Apple iPhone Nano & Larger Version – This is very far fetched and I don’t believe it is going to happen.
• iMac Revamp – Macworld in the past has been heavily associated with the iMac device, so it is possible to see a update to this device. I am going to say 50/50 chance.
• 17″ Unibody Macbook Pro – I think this will happen. The 17″ Unibody MBP has been rumored since October, and I think Apple would benefit heavily from releasing this device.

Well, that is about it. The Macworld keynote starts in about 2 hours so lets see what we get. You can view live blogs of the event at: http://www.macrumors.com/

2008 was kind of a big year for me. I started this site, bought a house, bought a new car, got a girlfriend, and got involved in a upcoming project that is unannounced. I wanted to write a formal post about all that has gone on this year, and what I am planning for next year.

2008: Wrap Up

As I said earlier, 2008 was a big year for me. I started the year off pretty strong when I for the first time kept a New Year’s resolution. What was it, well it was to quit smoking. I smoked my last cigarette on New Years Eve, 2008. Quitting cold turkey was hard, but I am very glad I did it.

From then I decided it was time for a new car. My 2000 Nissan Maxima was approaching 100k miles and I wanted to sell it before it hit that mile stone. I ended up trading it in for a brand new straight of the truck 2008 Nissan Altima. So far, I love the card, it is a step down from the Maxima, but it get great gas mileage and handles like a race car. Having a car payment sucks, but you got to do what you got to do!

Yesterday I wrote a long post venting about the issues that 10.5.6 has brought to me and to my Macbook Pro. I was having a problem with mail crashing every time I loaded a message with an attachment. Well, I am delighted to report that the issue has been fixed thanks to a user by the name of Til-Berlin on the Apple discussion forums:

In the end I found out that I have two Mail.app on my HDD. Apperently I was using a old updated (which reports also as 3.5). Deleting it and using only the one at /Programs solved my issue. I believe this is the application file from the Combo Update.

~ Til-Berlin (Link)

I looked at the version of Mail I was using from my Dock icon (Mail Menu > About Mail) and noticed that my version was 3.5 897.2/903.3. This is the problem. The current version of Mail is 3.5 903.3 only! I did a quick spotlight search on my mac to find 2 versions of Mail, one was the currupt one that I was using, and one was the good version (3.5 903.3.) I removed the bad one (3.5 897.2/903.3) and then added the good one to my dock, and opened it up. IT WORKED!

Til-Berlin suggested to reinstall the combo update after all of this, but I didn’t have to do this.

I hope this helps everyone who is having problems. You can check out my other post with fixes and details on the problem here: http://atlchris.com/582/os-x-1056-i-hate-you/

What is Boxee? Well, Boxee is a must have application for anyone who loves television, movies, music, and pictures. In a nut shell, Boxee is a beautifully designed application that was created bring your digital media content from your computer to your TV. Whether you download movies illegally, stream them from Netflix, or even pull them in from free online sources all over the net; Boxee will make life easier for you.

Design

One of the many things that makes Boxee stand out from it competitors is its design. Boxee was designed with ease of use, beauty, and the Apple remote all in mind. The ease of use factor is just that. It is easy to use. Menus are laid out nice and orderly. Everything is easy to find, from a TV show on your hard drive to a episode of The Office from Hulu.com. I pointed out beauty, because Boxee stays faithful the the Apple beautiful design principles. Buttons are very large and colorful, text has nice hover and glow effects, colors flow beautiful, and finally, slide transitions are used when switching from page to page. While these might not seem important to a review, I find design a major factor in how much I like an application.

OS X Leopard is by far the best OS I have ever used. It has been flawless to me with no problems, until now. Apple recently released Mac OS X (10.5.6) update to all Leopard users. Being the Apple fan boy that I am, I ran the upgrade as soon as it showed up on my desktop. Boy was this a mistake! Mac OS X 10.5.6 is riddled with bugs and issues. MacFixIt.com has released a couple of post highlighting the many problems associated with this update. Mac users beware, DO NOT UPGRADE TO 10.5.6 JUST YET!

One particular problem has me very frustrated. When I launch the OS X Mail application, which I use religiously to keep my 15 email account in control, it crashes as the result of an attachment. Yes, doesn’t that sound strange? I can load Mail just fine, but the second I click on an email with an attachment, it freezes up and crashes. It can be a image, a PDF, a doc, … it doesn’t matter, just the loading of the attachment results in a application crash.

Most of you know, that my 2 passions in life are technology and films. Well, I have covered plenty of the technology stuff on the blog, so I thought I would start to get more involved with film news and reviews on top of the technology stuff that I will continue to do also.

The Synopsis & Cast

With that being said, I recently went to see Kevin Smith’s new film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. This movie stars Seth Rogen (Knocked Up and Superbad) as Zack, and Elizabeth Banks (40 Year Old Virgin and Defiantly, Maybe) as Miri. Zack and Miri are two longtime friends that are struggling to make ends meet and pay the bills at the apartment they share. In dire need of money, they decided to make a porno. They take off to local strip clubs and sex shops in search of actors and crew. The main story line of the film is about the sex scene that Zack and Miri have for the porno, and the feelings it brings out.

The Review

Zack and Miri is a good film, I will just come out and say it. It offers up a large number of gut busting laughs while holding a pretty good plot line. I am a big fan of Kevin Smith and his past films, so I had high expectations going into this film. Even with the high exceptions, I enjoyed this film. It is not as great as some of his other films, but it is in no way bad.

It does what you would expect, by delivering great one liners, gross out comedy scenes, and very very awkward sex moments. I would go into depth on some of my favorite scenes, but I don’t want to give away to much. There is one scene that is so over the top gross out funny, if you have seen it, you know what I am talking about. It works like Judd Apatows baby being born scene from Knocked up and the re occurrence of male nudity in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where you can’t look away but it is horrible to watch and funny at the same time. The film also features Craig Robinson who most know as Daryl the warehouse guy from NBC’s The Office. His scene with his stereo type wife towards the end of the movie is one of the classic moments I will remember from this film.

Some of you know how much of a fan I am of my Flip Mino. I purchased my first Flip Mino video camera back in July. Check out my unboxing and review post of the original Flip Mino. Unfortunately I have not gotten a chance to explore the new Flip Mino HD in person, but I have been reading many rave reviews.

The new Flip Mino HD has a couple of new feature but overall is not that different from the original Flip Mino. It is the same size as the Flip Mino, the same design, the same size LCD display and button layout. All of the new features in the camera are directly related to the addition of HD capabilities. The sounds quality on the HD is pretty much the same as the original Mino, which is great. That is one of the things I really like about the Mino series, is the wonderful audio quality.

The Video

A new resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels which is 720 pixel HD quality. Now, keep in mind that HD from this little camera is not going to be like watching a Blu Ray. Yes, it is HD but it is very highly compressed to allow for maximum recording length on the built in 4GB of memory. It is compressed with H.264 video compression and AAC audio compression which results in a MP4 file format.

I want to make sure it is clear, that this video is HD, but not high quality HD. Yes, I am sure it looks good, but many people don’t understand the concept of being true uncompressed HD and highly compressed HD.

I have watched multiple videos shot on the HD Mino, and it is very good quality for the size of the camera. If I was not so strapped for cash (See Why Here) I would defiantly be purchasing one.

Amazon is known for offering great deals on the Flip cameras, so make sure you keep and eye on the Amazon page for this product. I bought my original Mino on Amazon for $50 less then anywhere else. Here is the product page: Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder, 60 Minutes (Black)