A Manger is His Throne

As keeping with tradition, here's the CIBC Children's Choir Christmas performance.

Happy New Year everyone.

Welcome to iOS

Thanks to Bank of the West and Christmas gift giving, many of you received either an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. For many of you, this will be your first Apple product ever! Congratulations! You are about to enter the Apple ecosystem known as iOS. So get ready, as your life is about to change dramatically for the better. And for those of you who opted for an Android or a Best Buy $299 peecee craptop, good for you too, because you truly got what you deserved.

Free Apps
The biggest appeal being on iOS is the iTunes App Store. There are over 300,000 apps available, both paid and free. Many of the free apps are trial versions that have limited functionality or perhaps just the first few levels of a game. The apps you really want are the full version apps, but for free. Most full version paid apps are only offered free for a very limited time. The best website to find out what paid apps are free daily is freeappalert.com. Bookmark it and check everyday, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Best Stuff
Engadget recently had an useful article "Just got an iPhone?" It's a brief summary of what's available for the iOS products. Another place I like to go for research is iLounge.com where you can research how-to's or sign up as a member to post questions where tons of knowledgeable people can answer. The apps I personally use the most are iBART (BART schedules), WhatsApp (instant messaging via wifi), and Tango (Facetime/phone over wifi and 3G). And of course, Navigon MyRegion for the iPhone or iPad 3G.

Accessories
If you go to the Apple Store or visit the kiosks inside the mall, you'll find that cases and screen protectors will cost upward of $15 and $7 respectively. If you go on ebay you'll find cases and 3-pack screen protectors starting at 99¢. These products are shipped from China so you can take comfort that you're keeping some 11-yo girl employed at the sweat shop. It will also take two weeks to arrive. If you need it sooner, select a US seller, pay an extra dollar or two, and you should receive in three days. So shop the kiosk and touch and feel the one you like. Then come home and find the exact item on ebay for 1/10th the price. Same applies to chargers and cables. Get a few to leave at the office, car, and each computer.

Jailbreak
Jailbreaking will allow you to customize the icons, background and broadcasting (tethering) your 3G signal. It will also allow you to unlock your iPhone for use on T-Mobile. And it will allow you to install unauthorized and pirated apps. So unless you're on T-Mobile or tethering your unlimited data plan for your iPad to piggyback on, I would not recommend jailbreaking. With the latest 4.2 iOS, some of the jailbreak-only features (background, folders, etc) are already included. If you really want to jailbreak, contact me offline, as there are many different procedures for the many different configurations. iPhone Hacks is one of the sites I subscribe to for jailbreaking instructions. For Mac users, iClarified has some great tutorials. If you want to try, here it is: Instructions for jailbreaking iPod Touch 4g

Halo Effect
Back during the days of the iPhone infancy, many industry pundits spoke of the Apple Halo Effect. It states that non-Mac users with first time Apple experience are causing them to purchase a Mac for the first time also. They realize Apple products just work, and work well – a far departure from the peecee environment. For the last five years, Macs have outpaced the entire computer market in terms of sales growth. So obviously many many people are making the smarter choice to switch. My question to you is: Will you see the light and switch too?

Merry Christmas from Bank of the West

Yesterday, along with many of my faithful and happy readers, I received my free iPod Touch from Bank of the West – just in time for Christmas!

I blogged about this in July and many of you jumped on it immediately. To you, you are welcome! You know a great find when you see it and your sense of urgency is to be commended. To the others who ignored my warning that they might pull the promo early only to find out that that's exactly what happened… well sorry, but I TOLD YOU SO!  You know, I can only lead a horse to water… Bottom line, this is a great freebie that required very little effort.

I also predicted at the time that we would receive the then-not-yet-announced 4th generation iPod Touch with dual cameras ($229 value) rather than the 3rd generation ($199). And again I was right! (Well, maybe I was half-right). Last week, people around the web forums were complaining about receiving the older model, including one friend in Alameda. But the latest batch of iPods delivered yesterday were all reported to be the latest 4th generation! Woohoo! Yep, good things do come to those who wait!

Rumor is that the people who both set up direct deposit and used the card for 20 debit transactions were rewarded with the newer model for being potential excellent customers. But who really knows? Maybe it just comes down to us being special and them being not. Who said life was fair?

So far, online banking at Bank of the West is pretty straightforward. I have yet to walk into a branch office because I don't need to. I can cancel my direct deposit, stop doing direct deposit and bill pay, and it still will not incur any fees. The checking account is really free! My only gripe is that there is a $3 fee to wire money out to another bank. Other than that, I may keep this account for awhile, or until the next great promotion :)

Merry Christmas to all of you.




Photo credit: Bryan's FB

Lumber for Slumber, Part 3

Over the weekend many of you inquired about the status of my loft bed. Well it's been completed since Thanksgiving, but the room was a total wreck and I was too lazy to clean it up for the photos. Plus it took me longer than expected to install the handrail. So here it is (and please excuse the mess).

Building the stairs took quite a bit of research and planning in determining the length and amount of steps. They needed to be strong enough and wide enough to support adults in case my mom needs to get up there to administer first aid – that's why a ladder would not have worked. The angles could get quite complicated if you wanted a proper descent, but seeing that I don't have the space for a long stairwell, I just stuck to a simple 45 degree cuts. Cutting the stair stringers were surprisingly easy once you get the hang of it. A portable sliding compound miter saw was all that I needed to go through the 2x12 beams (Thanks Larry!). Without that saw, it can get quite tricky. In fact, I could have built 90% of the entire loft with just that one saw! Other tools I used was a table saw and a router. The tools that could have made my life easier were an impact driver, a jig saw, and a dado blade insert for my table saw – all on my future wish list.

Whoops, excuse me, I didn't mean to disturb you two... Fact: The loft bed they built for their daughter was the inspiration for me to attempt this project. I figure if they could do it, I can do it too. Plus I wanted all of their leftover lumber :) The carpet remnant is leftover from my office when I installed the laminate flooring.

Hey, no girls allowed! Now you know what moms really do when us men are at work.

Grace is thinking: "Wow, had Myron built us one of these love-nest hideaways, I can totally see ourselves with nine kids!"

Being seven feet up, adult supervision is paramount when young children are up here. As you can see, Snow White and the dolls were all jumping overboard under the watchful eyes of this responsible family.

After the busting Patty and Glenn up there alone as well as the Snow White incident, I had to install a gate and impose some basic house rules.

The view from above. I originally was planning to build a floor-to-ceiling bookcase, but instead I found a used Ikea Pax wardrobe at a garage sale around the corner. I also raised Colby's bed 4 inches so that I could squeeze his dresser under the bed to save space. Now I can't wait until the boys move out so I can convert this loft into my man-cave. A wall-mounted tv and a mini fridge is all I need!

On Black Friday Home Depot had 50-ct LED Christmas lights for $1.98 – I should have bought more!

Now whenever anyone comes over, they always want to check out the loft! During the cold weather, it's especially quite cozy and warm up there. We hope to enjoy the loft for years to come. Who knows, now that I know what to do, I may even attempt another one in the other room...