Back in Manila in a new role

Phew – it’s been a while huh? A tremendous amount has happened since my last update, with the most important change being the start of a new role at work. I’ve now taken on the position as IT Coordinator for the HS and program leader for the computer dept. It’s a highly demanding role, but a challenge I welcome and was ready for. I’ll continue with technology integration but in correlation with the coordination. I haven’t had a moment toRead more
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11 inch MacBook Air vs 17 inch MacBook Pro vs iPad

This is a direct comparison of the screen size and resolution of an 11″ MacBook Air to a 17″ MacBook Pro. The following images demonstrate the same webpage in Safari, the same photo and palettes in Adobe Lightroom, and the gloss and glare of the Air and Pro side by side. Don’t put too much into this comparison, as it’s just a quick and dirty photo shoot with poor lighting. The resolution differences: 11″ MacBook Air: 1366 by 768 17″ MacBook Pro: 1920 byRead more
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How to start up a Mac in 64-bit kernel for increased performance

From the factory, it’s likely your Mac is running potentially slower than it could be by booting in 32-bit kernel. Possibly Apple does this for maximum compatibility. However, with the potential to run some applications up to 30% faster, it’s worth looking into. As of this posting, the only Mac shipping with the 64-bit kernel as default is the mid-2010 Mac Pro. You can startup in 64-bit kernel on an as-needed basis (without setting it to always startup in thatRead more
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How to choose a MacBook Pro – which Mac should you buy?

The entire purpose of this post is to help share some of my thoughts and research with those of you wondering how to choose which Mac best suits your needs. Warning – it is long winded and demonstrates my own opinions, so it is biased in that fact. My demographics in a nutshell: 31, male, American, photographer, designer, educator, ADE, expat in Asia. As you may know, I’m quite the Apple fan. Part of my job involves helping others learnRead more

The iMac celebrates 10 years, and a reflection on my own Mac experience

The iMac turns 10 years old today. Is it the product that saved Apple from failing, faltering, or becoming a radically different company than it is today (remember, this is pre iphone/ipod/mac-craze)? The late 90’s were dark days for Apple. My family’s ‘first’ computer was an Apple IIe, (with a whopping 64KB of RAM) followed by my dad’s early 90’s, “Macintosh Classic II“, and ‘Color Classic‘. In my elementary and middle school years, all of our school computers were Apple.Read more