SpawnPoint

Over the years, I have coped with many frustrations with the Windows PC world. Stability, performance, and consistency has always plagued my working environment throughout my IT career. It just drives me crazy when things don't work, and I find myself wasting time, tinkering.

Back when I worked at the School District, I was an avid mac user, managing Xserv environments, and toting around a decently performing Powerbook G4 with me everywhere. When I began to work with the Supreme Court, I found myself in an exclusively Windows environment, not a Mac to be found. Over the years, I adapted, and ended up on PC - Windows XP, Windows 2003 as my primary work stations.

Since joining PHXX, my primary workstation has been a Dell Inspiron 9400, Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz, 2 gigs of ram, 100 gig 7200 RPM hard drive, 256 meg NVIDIA 7900GS - Windows Vista Business.

After dealing with Vistas crap for about 3 months (I "upgraded" from Windows XP) - I decided it was time for a change of scenery... maybe even a return to my roots...

I purchased my new machine last week. Simply put, it's a beautiful thing. Everything just works. More on my love affair with Leopard later.

Mac Specs:

24" Apple iMac Aluminum
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme
4GB memory
500GB 7200 RPM HD
256meg ATI Radeon HD 2600
8x SuperDrive
Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2
Glossy Screen @ 1920x1600

Went out and cheered on the Vancouver Canucks last night at GM Place. It is essentially impossible to get tickets to any of the games, but somehow I stumbled on a pair while browsing ticketmaster.ca.

Game was alright, wasn't the best, but the Canucks came out on top against St. Louis, 3-2 after a shutout.

So.

Shane wants to know why I am not working 24 hours a day in the last week or two... I am remodeling!

Included in the remodel:

• Brand new dark laminate flooring
• Brand new trim throughout the entire apartment
• New paint for the bathroom
• Painted all doors including closet doors
• Painted all door jams and trim

Tasks over last weekend:

• Remove all carpet strips
• Tear out old carpet and laminate floor
• Paint 50% of trim and door jams... 2 coats
• Paint all doors, two coats
• Prime the Bathroom
• Paint the bathroom, two coats
• Rip up all the tile at the front door
• Lots of cleaning and moving furniture

This is my office:

Liz and I spent some quality time this weekend. I was able to get out of the house and head up to Gold Creek in British Columbia. This is just inside the Golden Ears Park area, and bit more secluded area than Alouette Lake.

Few photos for you:

This week I am out in Maple Ridge, BC - house sitting, and taking advantage of the amenities of my parents family home. Working on the internet definitely does have some perks, one being that I can basically work from anywhere.

In order for me to do business at "maximum performance", I usually only require a couple things - since I am out here for 7 days, I brought the following:

• My Laptop - Dell Inspiron 9400
• Portfolio with all active project, notes, contacts and backups
• Vonage - My connection has both numbers for Vancouver, BC and Orlando, FL (PHXX main office is just outside of Orlando in Longwood, FL)
• iPod - My music library is hosted on my server at home, since of the disc limitations on my laptop. The iPod allows me to take my entire library with me on the go.
• This week I am reading CheckPoint NGX - VPN-1 by Syngress. I am currently studying for a CheckPoint engineering certification.
• Also on hand, Foosh, Cell Phone, and various other accessories.

The best part about staying out here, is that I get to take advantage of my parents hot tub, gym, and decked out backyard. w00t.