The Revolution Moves On
Well, for the first time in ages, there is a top tier x86 OEM that provides a real choice for a better OS. Apple today unveiled two new Intel Core Duo systems, which you can read about at OfB.biz. The new MacBook Pro laptop looks like it should be a really serious competitor to the current premium ultra-light laptop contenders. It will come with up to a 1.8 GHz Core Duo dual-core processor and a whopping 256 megs of video ram. The system is 1” thick, includes Apple's amazing backlit keyboard, a new ExpressCard slot, and an extra bright (Cinema Display bright) screen. I want one, although my trusty 12” PowerBook isn't ready to retire just yet — I may wait for the rumored 13” widescreen Apple laptop, which is more the size I like to haul around. The new iMac was a bit of a surprise release, but looks even better than the recently updated iMac G5.
The new iLife '06 suite looks great, with serious improvements for vidcasting, photocasting and podcasting, a new application (iWeb), and some major upgrades to the program I use the most: iPhoto (which now can manage up to 250,000 photos). The improved real time special effects in iMovie look great to me too. iWork '06 isn't such a dramatic improvement, but looks good. I have not yet bought a copy of the latter, which maybe I shall do in the coming weeks (along with an upgrade to the new iLife).
As a side note, as of today, I am now the proud owner of a small chunk of Apple. A crumb, really. Or a fraction of a crumb. I managed to buy 10 shares of Apple stock right before the keynote began. I've been thinking I should buy some shares for several years — and had I bought 10 shares a few years ago, I would have made a nice chunk of change. Where the stock will go from here, I don't know, but I made $30 today as the stock went up during the keynote. Maybe I'll buy 10 more shares a few weeks before WWDC '06.
On the Fourteenth Day of Christmas
Well, I promised the last two blogs today, and here they are. There are a few others I'm considering removing from my list because of inactivity or simply lack of time for me to read them. Thus, at some point, these two blogs will round out the entire blogroll of asisaid, most likely.
The Ninth Blog of Christmas is Mark's 5 Speed Cassette. Mark found me rather than the other way around; I can't recall exactly how long ago. After awhile, I went over to his blog, and found a delightful mix of technology, faith, news and other bits of life commented on in a thoughtful way. He may not get it, but we can forgive him for that. Mark's a great guy and I always enjoy discussions with him.
And last, but not least, the Tenth Blog of Christmas is the Grey Shadow, the blog of my long time friend Eduardo. Eduardo, like Ed Hurst, has worked with me on a variety of projects, including some of the same ones as Ed: namely, ChristianSource and Open for Business. Eduardo isn't the most frequent poster, but I enjoy whatever he posts on when he does. He also likes the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Jose Luis Borges, so how can you not like his blog? The Grey Shadow is the only international blog on my list just now, with Ciaran H. posting under password protection and Flip on extended leave.
Check both of these blogs out, as well as the other ones I've mentioned over the last two weeks. I think they are surely some of the finest in the blogosphere.
On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas
Ok, I'm running behind. Tomorrow, I will finish up the Blogs of Christmas with my last two featured blogs. I'm sorry about the delay.
On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...
Well, I've gotten behind, but that's OK, there are several blogs I don't read all that reliably (or they don't post that reliably) left that I was going to cover. I'll skip those, leaving me with only three blogs I really want to mention. First up, as the Eighth Blog of Christmas is Ed Hurst's Mission, Method and Means (formerly “Plain Package”).
Though I've never met Ed in person, I feel like I might as well have. We work together on a bunch of things, including OfB.biz, Sakamuyo and ChristianSource. He's always full of thoughtful observations, helpful how-to's, and a whole medley of other things. It should not be overlooked that Ed is also a continued willing (sole) beta tester for SAFARI 2.
After a forced hiatus from reading his blog due to a WordPress bug, I'm happy to be back to seeing what he's writing on his blog. He's been working on two series in the last week, one of shameful ISP's and one on Christian romance. Take a look.
On the Eighth Day of Christmas...
Well, I just had a big New Year's dinner and I barely feel like doing anything at all, but I figured I should write the next Blog of Christmas before it gets too late again. This is an interesting exercise, at the very least; I hope some of you are enjoying the brief looks at some blogs perhaps you do not already follow. I really encourage everyone to checkout the blogs I mention, if you haven't already.
The Sixth Blog of Christmas is Craig's Avoiding Evil. Over the years, Pressed, as he goes by on the Internet, has provided some really excellent theological posts, along with an especially notable history of controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention — often that have been known to start good debates on his blog. Avoiding Evil has gained an additional writer recently in the form of Craig's fiancee, Kendall, who has added her own interesting flavor to the blog. While it isn't as regularly updated as many of the blogs I read, it is still worth checking out.
Happy New Year!
Well, I don't think I'm going to continue the Blogs of Christmas tonight, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and blessed 2006! I hope y'all had a nice, safe New Years Eve. Anyone have big plans for the New Year?
On the Sixth Day of Christmas...
Well, Blogrolling is down (perhaps six geese a laying got in the way of the servers), so I can't use that as my guide for who will be the Fifth Blog of Christmas. In lieu of that, I decided to go on a slightly different theme from the past few and make Josiah's Buzzing Bye the next blog du jour.
I first met Josiah on CS-FSLUG, but I ran into his blog — interestingly enough — via BlogShares, back when that site was new and some didn't have so much blog money that there wasn't much fun to playing any longer. Josiah posts on a variety of topics, but especially Linuxy things, along with VoIP, faith and so on. He's sort of my dose of tech bloggy goodness (unless you count Slashdot as a blog). As I've spent less time following the tech sector over the last year or so, it has been especially nice to have Josiah point me towards things I might otherwise miss. Thanks, Josiah.
On the Fifth Day of Christmas...
Well, I'd like to receive five golden rings, if anyone wants to offer them to me. I'm not a ring wearer myself, but I'm sure my mom and my cousin would both like one, and I could pawn off the other three for a tidy profit. That has a nice ring to it. But, barring that, we return to the Fourth Blog of Christmas, which it seems is Jason Franklin's the Book of Confusion.
Jason is a newcomer to my blogroll (I just added him about two weeks ago), although I've been following his blog somewhat for a good while now. I know him better for his participation over at SCF and on Kevin's blog. I appreciate his wide ranging blog entries, be they short little ones posted from his T-Mobile Sidekick (such as the one today on the foundation of our faith) or slightly longer ones posted in a more traditional manner. He is observant and I certainly thank him for his contribution to my daily reading of the blogosphere and (like Kevin before and Ed sometime in the next six days) also to the fellowship at SCF.
On the Fourth Day of Christmas...
Well, let's forget the calling birds. Today, we have the third blog of Christmas: Kevin's emergentpdx. It has gone through more names than I can probably recall now, but I've been following his blog in some iteration since the summer of 2002. Kevin's blog was the second blog I started reading and the first to really get me connected to the blogosphere (I followed his links to the Cranium Leakage gang, starting with WIT, especially). I've known Kevin a bit longer; I first “met” him on the customer forums of our mutual old web host back in the summer of 2001 — he actually had to put up with me as a customer for awhile, when he took a position at that company and was often the tech that answered my questions and complaints. 
At any rate, Kevin has a tendency to make me think. He's usually one step ahead of me on whatever path I might be heading down (such as the conversion to seeing the light amidst the darkness and chaos). Usually, I've found I disagree with him, try to formulate an argument and sooner or later defeat myself and end up agreeing with him. But, contrary to what some people tell me, I'm don't think I'm going to be making my own RomeComing just now. Thanks, Kevin for the always thought provoking posts.
Hmm… so who will be the Fifth Blog of Christmas?
PS: To my first two Blogs of Christmas, I'm sorry your posts were a bit shorter, on the third time I actually remembered to start early enough that I could still write coherently half-intelligible ramblings.
On the Third Day of Christmas
I haven't even had a chance to read the comments on the last entry yet (nor fix some new bugs in SAFARI), but I didn't want to miss the next Blog of Christmas.
We started out with Michael, and now we move to the co-creator of the Cranium Leakage family of sites to which Michael's site is a member: Christopher and What in Tarnation. Christopher is one of two bloggers that really helped me get started in the blogosphere. He always has amusing stories from his adventures as a third grade teacher, among other interesting things. Plus, as of a few days ago, he added a theme to his site that features the beloved logo of yesteryear that I've so often bugged him about. Christopher is the second of three blogging friends from Missouri among my stroll through the blogroll (the first, chronologically). Check out his site — it'll make you say “inside cheke and cimble” in five seconds flat. Thanks for sharing your stories, Christopher.
