With everything that I do, professionally and personally I want to lead a life that is christ centered. Using my personal experiences and knowledge to help others in anyway that I can. Using the right tools to get thing done effectively and efficiently.
It has been a while since I have had a chance to post an article; over a year to be exact. The last year has had several ups and down in my professional and freelancing careers. I have been working six or more days a week for the last 4 years between my day job and freelancing and I have found this to be a struggle at time with having little or no personal time some weeks.
About a year ago my main freelancing client Phoenix Graphix specializing in textbook publishing had to start cutting back due to the lack of work because the textbook industry had to restructure itself. With the economy and technology advancing textbooks would not be made the same way ever again. So I went from being a full-time contractor for Phoenix Graphix to only helping out one day a week.
Luckily while I was working for Phoenix Graphix I still kept my day job working as a manager for a local fast food restaurant a few days a week. With less hour freelancing I had to pick up hours at my day job and I am now working full-time as a Manager and only working a few days freelancing.
Now here is where the title of this post will start to make since.
While I like working as a manager of a fast food restaurant and I try my best at getting the job done correctly, I am not passionate about this job. After realizing this I started asking myself the hard questions:
Then today I realized that the best way for me to answer these questions and to be more passionate about my work is to write a personal mission statement. I have never thought about writing a mission statement for myself and my goals in life. Right now I do not know how hard this is going to be, but I know that if I want to succeed in everything that I do and be more passionate I need to have a mission statement for myself and goals.
Next week I will have my mission statement complete and will post it here.
My original plan to get my personal mission statement posted with-in a week has turned into a month now but my personal mission statement will be coming soon.
Andrew
Here is a snippet of code that I am using for the copyright date on my website. I had found a snippet of code that similar and simpler online and cannot find it again. I am new to PHP coding and needs some help with this, I want to make my snippet of code more concise and simpler. Leave a comment if you can help.
Thanks,
<?php $start_year = 2008;
if ( $start_year == date(Y) ) {
echo date(Y);
} else {
echo “$start_year — “.date(“Y”);
} ?>
The branding for Chimp Graphics has been finished.
While this means that everything for the Chimp Graphics brand has been set in stone, this does not mean that all of these ideas have been implemented. The main place where the Chimp Graphics brand has not been implemented is this website. Right now I do not have the time to redesign the Chimp Graphics website, that is the main reason why I switched to publishing this site with iWeb on the .Mac web service. I have a lot of great ideas on how to upgrade the website, but those ideas are going to wait till it is the right time to upgrade this website.
Till then take a look at the Photography Portfolio that has been added and look for the Print Portfolio to be added in the next few months.
Andrew
MacWorld has come and going and the dust has settled. The big announcement of MacWorld was the introduction of the MacBook Air. This device has had some mixed reviews and the major players have had the time to look it over and review it. Check some of these reviews out here: Walt Mossberg, David Pogue, and cnet.
My predictions for MacWorld were not to good but they were close.
iTunes was upgraded to version 7.6. This has movie rentals with all of the major movie studios on board. Right now there are not many major titles available, but that will grow with time just like their music library has grown.
The tv was revised and had a price drop. The revision was only a software revision and no new hardware. This makes me rethink my whole standpoint on the MacMini and the tv becoming one. The tv Take2 works without a computer and is a stand alone box. With this box you can rent movies and buy TV shows from your couch with out having to purchase an apple computer, this is a smart move by Apple inc. We will just have to wait and see what the fate of the MacMini is.
There were no notebook upgrades; this will probably happen silently in the next few months.
No new desktop computer were introduce as I have suggested. I believe that apple is working on this and it will take some time. Same with the Apple Cinema Displays.
The item that I was excited about, is the software upgrade to the iPod Touch. I have wanted mail on the iPod Touch since it was released, and finely it has arrived! I went out that night and purchased an iPod Touch to replace my 2nd generation iPod Nano. I had to play the $20 premium to get the software upgrade that night, but to me that was worth the extra price.
The last major announcement was the MacBook Air. This is Apples thin notebook that only weighs 3 pounds and is only .5 inches thick. This notebook has a lot of great features, a touch pad with gesture recognition, an SSD hard drive (for a price upgrade), and its small size. I am unsure of the market for this item, we will just have to wait and see what will happen.
The iPhone SDK was not talked about, it looks like Apple inc. will be having another event in February to make this announce. The thing that they did announce about the iPhone was the firmware upgrade to v1.1.3. This is just like the video that was leaked just a few weeks ago.
The world of Apple is a complicated, and we will not know exactly what they have up there sleeves until they make the announcement. We will just have to wait and see what new things Apple is working on.
Andrew
The Mac Pro upgrades and price bump that happened yesterday leaves a big gap in Apples desktop product line. Earlier this year I talked about the Mac Mini and tv being integrated into one product, and recent rumors of a MacTouch have been going crazy all over the internet. So what will happen at MacWorld? We won’t know for sure till next Tuesday, but we all have our predictions and wishes for what will happen.
Here is my Prediction list: (not in any specific order)
iTunes upgraded to 7.6 or even 8.0.
— With the rumors of movie rentals and DVDs containing digital files (tuaw), an iTunes upgrade should be expected. I would like for v8.0 to be released, there have been too many small updates to v7.0 and it would be nice to have v8.0
Introduction of a new smaller format desktop computer
— With the upgrade to the Mac Pro yesterday, the standard configuration price leaves a big gap between the iMac and the Mac Pro. A smaller form format desktop will fill this gab with a redesigned smaller Mac Pro like case.
Mac Mini & tv become one
— With many rumors of the Mac Mini demise floating around and the tv getting more competition from LG and Netflix (tuaw), a combination of these products will make a great platform. You will have a fully functioning Mac OS that will be accessible from your living-room and will be able to use iTunes to download your movie rentals that will be available Tuesday.
Notebooks to be upgraded.
— Recent rumors are that either line of Apple’s notebooks will be updated. There should be an upgrade to either the MacBook or the MacBook Pro lines of notebooks.
iPhone news & SDK
— The iPhone SDK will be mentioned and a release date will be given. Also the iPhone firmware might also be upgraded to 1.1.3.
Cinema Display’s to be upgraded.
— It has be a while since Apple upgraded the Cinema Display’s and the last few upgrades have only been minor spec changes or price drops. It would be nice to have an iSight built into an Apple Cinema Display since they discontinued the external iSight over a year ago.
MacTouch to be introduced.
— While the idea of having a large format iPod Touch running the full version of OS X 10.5 would be nice, this is more of a wish list item.
Tune in next Tuesday to your favorite Apple news site to find out what Apple has in store, and check back here to see a score card for how my predictions turn out.
Andrew
What is to come at MacWorld 2008? We won’t know for sure till next tuesday, but that does not stop Apple Inc. from making some pre-MacWorld announcements. Today Apple Inc. announced updates to the current Mac Pro line and the Xserver line of products.
The Xserver had a long awaited upgrade with its last upgrade in august of 2006. The new servers have a standard configuration of a single 2.8 GHZ Quad-Core Xeon processor with a 1600 MHz front side bus and 2GB of 800 MHz DDR ECC FB-DIMM ram, and all of this for just a suggested retail price of $2,999.
The Mac Pro now comes standard with two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Penryn processors making it have a total of 8-cores, 2GB of 800 MHz DDR ECC FB-DIMM ram, and a suggested retail price of $2,799. The suggested retail price has been raised from $2,299 to $2,799 this is a significant jump of $500. The next Apple desktop product below the Mac Pro is the iMac at a price of $1,199, this leaves a gap of $1,600 in Apple’s desktop line of computers.
This is a big gap in their product line, and it makes me ask myself what is to come at MacWorld for this category? While there has not been any recent rumors of this to come at MacWorld, there have been rumors from about a year ago that points to a new design coming for the Mac Pro. The design of the current Mac Pro is just great and it would be a shame if that were to change. This makes me think that the rumor of a new design for the Mac Pro is actually for a new desktop computer that has the upgradability and look of a Mac Pro but in a smaller form factor. I have no sources for this, but I would say that the new Mac that I am suggesting would have 2 hard drive slots instead of the 4 drives that that the Mac Pro has and ram that can be upgraded just as easy as the Mac Pro, but all of this with half of the processing power as the current Mac Pro.
That is all I have for now, tomorrow I will expand on this with my MacWorld 2008 Predictions.
Andrew
I have been busy the last few months with other projects and my progress for switching the site over to this new format has been stagnate. Currently I am only working on one Web Design project for a local dentist. This should not take up much of my time and I should be finished with the transition of my portfolio by the end of January; at least that is my goal. Lastly regarding my site update, I have updated my Bio page this past weekend and that will leave only the portfolio page to be updated. Please check back soon to see the site.
Andrew