Sitch to Mac...

Most of you are familiar with my switch to Mac from PC. It has been about 5 months and I couldn't be happier with the switch. The commercials are even funnier when I've experienced both sides because they are so true and still so simple. I'm still learning but what I have learned is that the user interface is so much nicer and attractive to work in. Things just work as the ads say and the people who develop applications for the mac do a fantastic job with them. Its built on the unix core so its very stable and solid. Beautiful interface and rock solid kernel.

All that said there is still a long way to go for the applications. Some applications that I used on the PC are not available on the mac. I had to install fusion which lets me run windows from my mac OS. I literally click on an icon and i'm running windows inside my mac. It works very well and I get the best of both worlds. If I need to run a game I just boot right into windows on my mac and it runs it faster than most windows machines.

Next time you are in the market for a new computer you should definitely look at the macs and research and learn about them. They are increasing sales 30+ percent per year and are charging fast. Half of all new mac sales are to PC users and every one that I talked to so far have been very pleased. With all those people switching more applications are bound to be created for the mac. Plus in this day and age many of the new office type apps are being built for the web like google docs and microsofts new office app that they are building for the web which any computer can run.

So watch the commercials and enjoy. I think they are funny.

Google Reader - Try it!!

I'm not sure how many people know about RSS feeds and how to use them so I thought I would write a blog about them. Most people I know have a daily routine of web sites they go to and consume their information. For me it ranges from sports to technology and then onto politics. Rather than navigating to every page to get the information you can have it fed to your google reader. Every morning I pop into my google reader and all the web sites and blogs that I follow are right there waiting for me to look at them. I can preview them, open them up and see the whole thing right in reader, or click on the header and it will take me to the page. I have all the family blogs and picassa pages in my reader so if someone updates either I know about it right away.

To add a feed to your reader just navigate to the feed you want to send to it and click on the RSS button. From there it's pretty self explanatory.

New apartment

So I'm in the new apartment now. Its actually a nice apartment for an apartment. I've been moving in there for a couple weeks now and its been going well. Janet has been a big help moving the whole kitchen all by herself. The apartment has much less room so this is quite a challenge to find space for everything. Saturday Kenny came over to help me move the heavy stuff and while we did that Janet worked her ass off. She packed and cleaned like a woman on a mission. So overall I'm mostly moved in except the yard equipment which Janet is letting me store at her house and the stuff I'm going to donate to charity. By the end of the week the old house should be clean and empty.
The nightly elephant races above me are annoying. The girl that moved in above me is a little less than invisible. She moved in Saturday so I'll give her a break since she is probably just getting settled. I think she is a night owl and i'm a morning person. So I've been saying that everything is OK except for the nightly elephant races upstairs. Actually i'm exaggerating to be funny, its not that bad. It is different hearing people walking around upstairs though.

There are kids in the apartment that range from trash to good kids. It doesn't take long to figure out which ones are trash. They are usually pretty transparent. It will be a challenge making sure my kids dont get mixed up with the wrong kids, but there are a few good kids in the community that are nice. Hopefully they are drawn to the good kids and not the trashy kids. i'll make sure to have input on that.

Spread the wealth?

We'll socialism is coming to Washington. Those of you planning on voting for Obama please be aware that you are voting for someone that holds many socialist views. The first definition of socialism is the following.

1. a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

Obama wants to take more money from one class and distribute it to another. "Spread the Wealth" as he puts it. This should scare you.

Everything I have heard this man say has to do with more government control or more government spending. He believes that government can do it better and that the American people need the government to take control of parts of their lives. He plans on forcing employers to pay for health care for their employees. This sounds good, who wouldn't want free health care, but it does cost money to provide it to the employees. If they are not providing it now then its not because they are greedy capitalists. There may be exceptions but for the most part if employers aren't providing insurance it's because they cant afford it. Adding another cost onto these employers will force them to find the money elsewhere to pay for it (raise prices) or reduce costs by eliminating people. These employers aren't going to just pick up the extra costs to provide coverage. They are in business to make a profit. If the government takes the profit away they will do what they can to remain profitable or get out of business.

Do people not hear him proposing billions and billions in dollars of new spending? Tax cuts for 95% of the people? Since roughly 30% of the people don't pay any taxes at all does that mean that they are going to get a check in the mail? Its a math equation. If he reduces taxes on 95% of the people, increases spending by 700+ billion the net result is more of a defecate? The math doesn't add up.

Look at the overall history of Obama and how he has voted. He has been tagged by two independent organizations as the most liberal democrat in the senate. Just to the left of a liberal democrat is socialist. He has socialist views on many issues however because he is such a good public speaker he isn't showing you his hand. That video says it all. Spread the wealth.

Unfortunately the horrible fiscal irresponsibility of President Bush is going to hurt John McCain. Bush had to deal with the bursting of the tech bubble which killed the economy as well as 9/11 which finished it off. The economy was building back up quite nicely until the most recent banking issues. Unfortunately greed is in our society and it does require oversight. We let some companies who were cornerstones in our economy get out of control and greed led them to the cliff. Without government intervention they would have fell off the cliff and taken the economy with it. The bailout was very costly and will be very costly to all of us for many years. We need proper oversight and a free market economy not socialism.

This leads me to my final thoughts today. America has a spending problem. We spend more than we make every year as a whole. Credit cards are part of our society and carrying debt on credit cards is the norm. I heard that the average debt on credit cards is around 10K. People grow up and when they leave their parents home they desperately try to obtain the standard of living they have been accustom to with their parents. They want the nice car, house, toys and such. Who wouldn't right? Ever heard of the frog in boiling water story? We are all use to using our credit cards to buy things and plan on paying them off over time, however things pop up like school clothes, Christmas, birthdays, tires, maintenance, house repairs, etc.. People accumulate debt over time and eventually the behavior creates a pile of credit card debt. So when the houses were increasing in value at 10% or more per year for years people thought I can get some relief by rolling my credit card debt into my home loan and get a lower interest. There is plenty of equity in the house so this wont create a problem. Then with good intentions they weren't going to use the credit cards unless there was an emergency. We'll years of being desensitized the emotional high of having new toys over rides the pain and fear of carrying debt so the behavior continues. I'm just as guilty as anyone else. We have a problem of spending in our society and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. We need to hold people accountable for their actions. If they dig a hole and are buried in debt and cant make their house payment, I feel sorry for them, but they need to work an extra job an make the payment. Or they need to sell their house and live within their means. I don't like either candidates plans to renegotiate the mortgages at their current value. This shaves off thousands of dollars worth of debt but life is an equation. That money that was shaved off the debt hurts someone, either tax payers or the companies.

Be responsible people and be accountable. Pay your debts, say no to socialism, say yes to capitalism with oversight and let America prosper.