If you are merely interested in the programs themselves, I would just scroll past this next stuff.

I finally approached the one year mark of owning my first Apple computer. I have a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo Macbook with 2 GB of RAM. I am not quite sure I really knew how much I would eventually appreciate this little laptop. I had a pretty decent list of reasons why I wanted to get an Apple computer, and just figured I would probably still have a Windows machine as well (or use Boot Camp/Parallels to boot windows on it if I had to). From my family’s basic use of the computer’s we had (they actually did get into computers pretty early in the 90’s), my schools, jobs, and the friends who all had PC’s, there was a pretty high level of calls to tech support companies, and lots of replacements. Actually, I think there still may be a dedicated area in my parents’ house for the pile of their old PC’s. I really just kind of hated computers growing up, and the stress’s caused to everyone around me trying to get them to work right didn’t help.

Sure, there may be some people, that could make assumptions and generalizations on my exposure to PC’s to date; “Your family probably is just computer illiterate, or were bad consumers”, “your school sucked obviously and had old hardware” etc. etc. Nope. I was the typical and average person (still am you say?), I fitted in the majority demographic for PC/Windows exposure. Thats the point. Any time a Window’s lover tries to slam Apple, or prove they are “superior” (though we are naively comparing ‘apple’s to rotten oranges’ really) they just fail to admit that in an average situation, where a Window’s based machine was being used by an average person, the process was too much of a struggle. Only higher than average computer |\|3®Ð$ (nerds) were seemingly without worry or stress.

Everyone in my family were all average computer users, my friends and jobs were average in technological advancement, and I attended an average high school. I was in the 4 year engineering program my high school had which was given the most advanced computers on campus. When a computer craps out, something goes wrong, Windows error messages pop up in the thousands; I know as well as the next guy, that many of the problems were hardware more than they were software (which even now gets chalked up to %100 user error by the previously mentioned Windows lovers). My uncle was in charge of moving forward Salt Lake Cities technology in the mid 90’s, and research was conclusively showing that it takes 1/5 as many full time employee’s to support Apple’s over PC’s. managing a full school district’s comprehensive computer system, and the computers cost less and lasted longer.

If it’s user error, then the point is still-> Windows software and machines weren’t made for the average user, they were made to take advantage of them. If it’s hardware problems, PC’s were made cheap and likely designed to wear out and be out dated in a few months contributing the disposable society. The average computer consumer doesn’t seem to buy into the ‘you get what you pay for’ concept. If you want a long lasting computer with $2000 of hardware, what do you think it’s gonna cost? Comparing the mere hardware on my computer and it’s cost when I bought it, it was the same price to get an equal PC. Actually, when I bought this computer, it was named the most advanced computer that could run Windows XP under $1800. Yeah- if you can’t figure where this is all going yet, you are better off on your disposable PC.

I love my Mac- it’s opened a ton of doors that PC’s couldn’t approach out of the box, and not because I can’t do the same things on a PC, cause most of the time a person can, but I can do them with quite a large selection of free software that came on my computer. My Apple computer doesn’t get viruses, no built in out-of-the-box spamming software (shame on you dell, compaq and all the others), isn’t susceptible to bad/spam software being installed with out my knowledge, and everything is just plain full of good looking software, and equally attractive form factors. Click the ensuing link in the sentence to find a better Mac VS PC argument.

So.. here it is. The list of my favorite software for Mac OS X Tiger.

Mac OS X Applications: Get your Apple the hook-up.

For an Apple owner, I am still just an average user I suppose. There is so much freeware out there for Mac’s, that can do just about anything and everything, there are probably some really good lists much better than mine for you to look through. There are newer machines out, but mine isn’t outdated or disposable really. It’s faster than it was before and I know how to use it more.

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Here is a list of my favorite pranks that have been pulled in the TV show The Office. I have used some of these as inspiration for things me and my co-workers have done in the office where I work. The hardest one to pull off for me thus far and… well really the only one was The Office Jello Prank that I did using a co-workers stapler. These pranks and videos to follow these pranks are in no particular order.

* The Faxes from the future. Before Jim leaves the Scranton office, he takes a bunch of Dwight’s stationary. From his new office, Jim sends Dwight faxes on this stationary and makes him believe that the future version of himself figured out a way to send faxes back in time. The future Dwight (actually Jim) sends Dwight a fax that says “Dwight, At 8 AM today someone poisons the coffee. Do NOT drink the Coffee. More instructions to follow. Cordially, Future Dwight”. Obviously an idiot saturated with the idea that he could actually eventually send faxes back in time, tackles Stanley before he gets the chance to drink any coffee.

* Jim puts a macro on Dwight’s computer to type “diapers” instead of when Dwight tries to type his name.

* Jim puts Andy’s phone in the ceiling and calls it, completely confusing Andy as to what could have happened to it. It was an awesome prank. A co-worker did this to another co-worker the day after the episode aired.

* While Michael Scott is away for vacation to Jamaica, Jim runs an office meeting. Dwight busts out a tape recorder because apparently Michael wants transcripts of the meetings. Obviously annoyed by the mere existence of Dwight, Jim starts saying things to be recorded that aren’t actually happening in the meeting. “He’s got a knife! Let the record show that Dwight K Shrute is now completely nude holding a plastic knife to Stanley’s neck.”

* The CIA Letters. Jim and Pam send Dwight letters with CIA letterhead saying they are interested in recruiting him for a top secret mission. In order to qualify, he must tell the CIA every secret he promised to never tell anyone. “Secret: Last year my boss Michael Scott took a day off. He said it was because he was sick but really it was to go to Magic Camp.” Afterwards, Jim as the CIA tells Dwight that he is needed at Langley and to meet for a helicopter pick up on top of a building. The Office writers were pretty creative about this one. Especially when Jim sends Dwight a text saying “You have been comprised. Abort mission, destroy phone.” which follows Dwight actually tossing his phone off the building.

* The Vending Machine Prank. Jim takes may of Dwight’s belongings like his name plate, stapler, pen cup and his wallet and has the vending machine guy put them inside the machine, so Dwight Schrute actually has to buy them back with a sack of nickels Jim gives him. One by one.. nickel by nickel.

Last but not least at all:

The Office Jello Prank

Jim puts Dwights stapler in Jello. This may be the original prank that started the all the pranks they have done on The Office. The writers knew it was a huge it- and frigging hilarious. So they have increased them more and more often. This is also the prank I did to a co-worker a little while back. The Office Jello Prank was a hit, and I documented the whole thing with amazingly crappy photos on the link I provided.

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I never knew it existed, but T.R.A.F.F.I.C East 2006/Moniker.com held an auction last fall to sell URL’s. Over $4.7 Million was spent on buying these URL’s through out the entire auction. Cameras.com was sold for $1,500,000. Apparently I am a few years too late to start buying up high demand URL’s and holding on to them for a while until they gain value. 10$ a year for 5 years is worth the time and money to cash out a millionaire.

Possibly www.areallygoodname.com will be worth some cash. Okay…. probably never. As far as good URL’s go, hell.com was expected to go for the most cash, but it didn’t sell at all because it has a two and half million dollar reserve.

I have a list of the of the URL’s that were up for auction, and how much they sold for, in the list found below. (Read the article)

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I don’t have the technological know-how to make the something as awesome as a Carputer Beast. Not to mention budget problems as well as the fact that a carputer would literally cost more than my car, ( a friggin daewoo ). So I decided to screen a couple T-shirts. ( current status: Failure ) Then I got the urge to damage company property, ( will be replaced ). My over-powering desire to waste a few hours ( which turned into about 6 ) pushed me to do a Jim-style prank. ( Jim from The Office - if you know anything about this show, you should know this prank )

Enter: Stapler in Jello Prank As seen on The Office

The first attempt was a complete disaster. Red Jello was the color of my embarrassment. After screwing up (Read the article)

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