Running is not something that really interests me. I play a lot of sport, but I just find running plain boring. When I saw that the Nike + iPod sports kit was being released in New Zealand, I started reading up about it, and running for points, setting goals, and competing in challenges sounded really cool to me (I’m a big stats guy).

I promptly went out and purchased a new iPod nano, Nike+iPod sports kit, and the stylish Nike+ shoes so I could get into optimal condition for the grueling cricket season ahead. The kit includes a wireless transmitter which plug’s into your iPod nano, and a wireless sensor which you insert into your pair of Nike+ shoes. Continue Reading »

I decided to put together a quick list of ten great Mac setups consisting of Dell displays following up last weeks list of the Top 10 Multi Display Mac Setups. I strongly believe Apple Cinema Displays out-class Dell marginally in terms of style, the new “07″ series of Dell screens look stunning. Yes..I know the first one is not a Mac (a MacBook is out of the shot), but it looks so good I couldn’t not include it.

2 x 30″ 3007

Setup Of: Chris Pirillo Continue Reading »

Last week I listed my week three Core Duo MacBook for sale on TradeMe, an auction site similar to eBay but specific for New Zealanders. I listed the laptop with intention to update it to a newer Core 2 Duo model, meaning I’d get a faster processor, the newer Airport card, and a fresh clean laptop for a very small chunk of change.

Yesterday when the money was sitting in my account and I was about to head to Apple and purchase a new laptop, I stopped dead in my tracks and made a decision to go without a laptop for the next few months..I’m already reaping the rewards on not having the computer attached to me 24/7.

A few close friends will know of my current living situation, others won’t. We currently have rennovations going on at our house and they’ll be going for another couple of months, the blog I linked to is a daily jornal kept by my mother on happenings. Everything is super hectic around here, and we’re temporarily living between our house in its current state, and the neighbours house.

My iMac (my new main machine for now) is at the neighbours where my Airport reception won’t reach, so I’m having a relaxing time leaving work at work (IE: the nehibours house). When I come home I’m not thinking about the computer, but getting to do other things such as reading, writing on paper (big change), and spending time taking photos.

I’m starting to become accustomed to this way of life though I’m immensely looking forward to moving into our completed house, and having a permanent desktop computer in my room, with a laptop for when I’m out and on the move.

I’ll also take this chance to apologise to anyone who will be emailing me over the next 6-8 weeks if my emails aren’t replied to within 6-12 hours - I’ll be replying to emails each evening instead of constantly throughout the day. Oh, and anyone want to send me their RSS feed OPML file? I forgot to copy mine off the MacBook before the fresh install and have to re-build mine from scratch *bangs head*.

A couple more months and my life will be back in order.

I have a thing for checking out Flickr and various Mac forums online for pictures of Mac’s. Anything from Apple Cinema Display’s to iMac’s, to Mac Pro’s. Here’s a list I have compiled of the top Top 10 Multi Display Mac Setups featuring Apple Cinema Display’s. (See a follow up, Top 10 Mac Setups With Dell Displays here)

2 x 20″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Barry Doyon

4 x 23″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Tim Samoff

2 x 23″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Derek Punsalan

1 x 30″ & 1 x 20″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: pasdecontraintes

2 x 30″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Andrae Palmer

2 x 20″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Gary Reich

2 x 23″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Andrae Palmer

1 x 30″ 2 x 23″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: m2j2

2 x 23″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: z0ne81

3 x 23″ Apple Cinema Display

Credit: Ethan Kaplan

Scott McNulty lives, plays, and works in Philadelphia, USA. He is a popular and well known blogger for The Unofficial Apple Weblog. His first Mac was an iMac in the summer of 1999 and he hasn’t looked back since. Considered an expert by few, and an annoyance by many Scott takes it all in stride.

He also maintains a personal website; Blankbaby, and is “Philadelphia’s Most Influential Blogger”, a title which is self-proclaimed and entirely unfounded.

What does your current Mac setup consist of?

I use a trusty MacBook by the name of Janus. It’s a 2.00GHz Intel Core Duo with 2GB of RAM. Hooked up to the portable is a Dell 24″ 2407 LCD display.

Why have you chosen this machine?

Why did I pick a MacBook? Well, for a number of reason. Since I write about Macs for a living (partially) I really needed an Intel Mac for professional reasons (at least that’s what I told myself). Furthermore, since I just generate text most of the time I didn’t have a need for the more powerful MacBook Pro. I haven’t had a desktop machine in awhile, so the choice was obvious: MacBook (first gen).

What other Apple gear do you own?

Other Apple Gear: I have an 80GB iPod video, G4 Powerbook that I don’t use anymore, and a G4 Cube (I bought it the very day that Steve announced it in 2000).

What is your next planned upgrade to your workstation?

I don’t plan on upgrading any time soon. This MacBook is really well suited to what I need to do at this current point in time.

What do you think of Scott’s setup?

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

Trip To Christchurch #2

Continue Reading »

Aperture’s interface isn’t the easiest thing to get used to for a new user, though through time it becomes easier to navigate without thinking twice about an action. With my Aperture workflow, I’ve tried to adapt the same thing to how I manage my projects and albums.

I like to know where photos are, and not have to think too much when importing. The best way for me to do this is to use a Month/Year organization structure. I have Aperture setup with folders labeling years, which hold individual projects for each months shooting (this is perfect as long as you dont exceed 10,000 shutter clicks in any given month): Continue Reading »

Dustin MacDonald is a 18 year old software designer and developer located in Vancouver, BC. He is well known for his work on the application Wallet made by his company Waterfall Software. Dustin blogs at his personal site, where he occasionally reveals details on future projects and speaks his mind about technology in general.

Continue Reading »

I’ve been asked many times in the past about what ads I’m running on my blog. Many have emailed me complementing the “beautiful style” of the ads which “don’t look like ads at all”. I thought I’d post a little blurb to save others from having to ask the same question.

Question: What ad service do I use on my website?
Answer: None.

That’s right, there is no back-end to my advertisements, they are not automatically generated by code like Google Adsense or similar services, I pursue companies and developers personally to gain sponsorship.

Sure it takes a lot longer and requires much more effort than using a simple service like Adsense - but in hindsight, the ads look much cleaner, and as users have said in the past, they look beautiful.

It’s really nice to be in contact directly with people who are interested in sharing their product via my website. I gain satisfaction when I hear someone purchased an application/service after seeing an image in my sidebar or reading one of my posts.

Interested in sponsoring me? Contact me for more details.

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

This image was taken two days ago on my stay in Christchurch New Zealand. I was out on a walk when I snapped this image, I have another few good images ready queued up for the next few weeks.

Trip To Christchurch

Continue Reading »

Over the past 6 months I’ve worked out a very streamlined workflow for use inside Apple’s Mail application. No longer do I file each email under a specific folder, I have just one main folder setup, called the “Archive”.

Along with the Archive, I have three sub-folders.

- @ Reply
- @ Hold
- @ To-Do

When an email arrives in my inbox I file it straight away into one of these three folders. If it needs to be replied to, I file it in the “Reply” folder, if I need it on reference it will be filed in the “Hold” folder, and if it requires action other than replying, it gets filed in the “To-Do” folder. Continue Reading »

Everyone has places they go, things they do, or things they look at to gain inspiration to keep them motivated on the task in hand. I am no different, no matter what I’m doing, these 5 people/things never fail to inspire me to do great things.

Derek Punsalan

Derek Punsalan’s blog 5ThirtyOne remains at the top of my RSS reader as my favorite personal blog, just as it has since I started reading just over 12 months ago.

Derek is a freelance designer by day, blogger by night. I have been truly inspired with some of the design work he has done inthe past, in particular, Sylvia Loh and his personal portfolio. Derek is another designer who has a thing for constantly pushing out re-designs for his blog, in the past 6 months I can count 3 different designs which have hailed the home-page of 5ThirtyOne.

Derek’s content is always a joy to read, his lengthy and well thought-out articles are a source of knowledge within themselves, he posts many enjoyable tutorials and reviews of his latest tech toys on a regular basis. Derek’s technology setup and skill set doesn’t just feed me with inspiration, it fills me with envy.

Inspiration For: Content Creation, Design.

Darren Rowse

3 years ago Darren Rowse was a regular man working a regular day job. Now, he’s one of the top bloggers in the industry, working on ProBlogger, while running B5 Media, Darren keeps himself busy each and every day working on dozens of different weblogs.

Darren never fails to amaze me with what he’s done with ProBlogger, building up a one stop blogging tips site over the last few years - every single post Darren’s has written drives me to do great things just as he has.

Darren story of how he started his blogging venture online, and what he did to become successful is a story I’ll never become tired of hearing.

Inspiration For: Success, Drive, Determination. Continue Reading »

Paul Stamatiou is a 20 year old Computational Media student at Georgia Tech, former Yahoo! intern as well as diehard Mac and Flickr user with a penchant for all things high-tech.

Continue Reading »

Each and every Friday I post a desktop wallpaper which I have taken personally on travels and outings with my Canon 350D. The wallpaper is sized at a resoultion of 2560×1600 pixels, big enough to be used on a 30 inch Apple Cinema Display, so no-one will miss out.

This weeks wallpaper is dedicated to “Podstitch” who requested this image from my Flickr be turned into a desktop background. here you are Podstitch, enjoy!

Sweeping Grass

Continue Reading »

I think a wave of awe, despair, yet excitement has just shot down my spine - I’m actually considering purchasing Dell displays (yes, plural) instead of Apple’s Cinema Display offering.

I’m still a couple of months away from pulling the trigger on the setup of my dreams, as I’m still needed to save a little more cash and wait for our home renovations to finish so I can move into my new room, but I’ve been adding up figures and I’m quite surprised.

The 23″ Apple Cinema Display works out at $1450 NZD with my educational discount, the Dell 2407 display is just $1099 - a saving of almost $400 for a single panel.

My original plan was the Mac Pro with a single 23″ Apple Cinema Display, now I’m considering a Mac Pro with dual 24″ Dell displays. Dual displays is something I couldn’t afford to do with Apples offering, but something I can (and would) do with Dell’s. Continue Reading »

I’ve been a little overwhelmed recently with all the projects I’ve taken on. With these projects my email load has increased. Along with this increased email load, I’ve also become overwhelmed with RSS feeds, tweets via Twitter, and Skype calls coming my way.

In a few months time I’m likely to drop a lot of these projects and focus solely on this blog, though at the moment I’ve felt the need to get into a slightly better shape before I make any changes down the line.

Last weekend I sorted through my entire machine, applications, and web services in order to try and cut down on “digital noise & clutter.” Continue Reading »

Derek Punsalan is a 24 year old freelance web designer living in Seattle, U.S.A. Derek is known for his work on his personal home on the web 5ThirtyOne, while writing for UNEASYsilence. His design work is very popular as he’s designed dozens upon dozens of sites on the web including his girlfriend Sylvia’s blog, iBoughtAMac, and UNEASYsilence.

View a zoomed in photo with increased resolution of Derek’s setup.

What does your current Mac setup consist of?

The main machine is a Quad-Core 2.66GHz Mac Pro with 8GB of RAM, one 250GB Seagate HDD, and 3 500GB Seagate HDD’s. The main display is a 30″ Dell (3007WFP-HC). Peripherals include a Apple Pro keyboard and a Logitech MX Revolution.

Why have you chosen this machine?

I wanted power, flexibilty, and virtually limitless configuration options. I also wanted a machine that I knew would be capable of growing with my needs for quite some time. Although the new 8-core machines are out, I’m confident that the quad-core Mac Pro will suffice for both work and play.

The 8GB of RAM is welcomed for Windows XP and Vista running side-by-side. I guess 4GB would suffice. But when the decision between a new display and more memory came up, I decided memory was far more valuable. Not to mention that the real bottle-neck on Mac Pro’s isn’t processing power, it’s memory.

What other Apple gear do you own?

Other Apple machines I have include a Core Duo MacBook, Core Duo Mac Mini, 12″ G4 PowerBook, an Apple TV, Apple Pro Keyboard, and a Mighty Mouse (wired & wireless).

What is your next planned upgrade to your workstation?

Anticipated upgrades will happen whenever Apple decides to come out with a 12.1″ MacBook Pro notebook. The 12″ PowerBook was a hit, it’s time for them to replace that aged machine to give the IBM X-Series users a run.

What do you think of Derek’s setup?