OK, ok, that new year’s resolution didn’t last long, did it? Well, the truth is, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to move this blog to my new hosting provider, Squarespace. I decided to delay blogging until I got everything moved over so I didn’t have to deal with changes in the interim data following my original import of this blogs history into their system. Unfortunately this has been taking me WAY longer than I expected because I’ve been heavily distracted by dusting off my C programming skills (circa 1996) to learn iPhone development.

Long story short, the dailies will be back and better than ever. I promise. I have about ten posts in mind that I can’t wait to write. But I want to give them the amount of attention they deserve. Please stay tuned.

*Note: I’ve decided to stop using the “DAILY:” prefix on my daily posts because using the category “DAILY” seems a lot smarter.

While spending hours going through her MP3 collection and consolidating all of her music from various external hard drives onto her laptop, my lovely fiancée Liana realized that she was quickly running out of space on the 160GB hard drive on her MacBook. When I started digging around for an upgrade I found that NewEgg (a great place to get low-price computer equipment) was offering a Seagate Momentus 320GB, 7,200rpm, 2.5″ hard drive for US$99. This is an outstanding price for an outstanding hard drive. I spoke with my close friend and Mac guru Brian (twitter.com/btn) and he said it was the same drive that he put in his brand new MacBook Pro. 

Installing the upgrade was MUCH easier than the brain surgery I had to perform on my old 12″ PowerBook G4 several years ago (I had to remove almost every single screw in that %$#&’ing computer!). I followed the directions on Macinstruct which started with a full backup using “SuperDuper!” (which was free). The only catch was that I had gone to the hardware store and purchased a T6 Torx Screwdriver when I really needed a T8 Torx Screwdriver. So that was a bit annoying.

After the install I fired her up, installed Leopard, and transferred her data back over. The speed difference between the two hard drives is noticeable and I highly recommend the upgrade. Having all that extra space is pretty nice as well.

I spent a few hours with Liana, Brian, and Kyle today wondering around the show floor of the Moscone Center at Macworld Expo 2009 (which will probably be the last Macworld). There weren’t a whole lot of interesting new things but I was able to compile a list of a few products that I thought were pretty cool.

• Sling Media, makers of the SlingBox, was showing off an upcoming SlingPlayer Mobile client for the iPhone. The SlingBox allows users to stream video from their DVR/Cable/Satellite boxes at home. 
• Apple announced the new 17″ MacBook Pro with an integrated (non-removable) super-battery that gets up to 8 hrs of run time!
• Apple also announced iPhoto ‘09 as part of the new iLife ‘09 suite with support for face recognition, geo-tagging, Flickr and Facebook integration, enhanced editing and a few other cool new features.
• Ambrosia Soft was demonstrating iToner, an application that allows you to easily make your own custom ringtones for you iPhone using regular audio files. 
• Booq bags, one of my favorite bag/laptop case makers, was showing one of their recent releases, the Python Pack, which comes with an integrated carrying case for a full-size dSLR and lens as well as a bunch of extra space and room for a 13-15″ laptop. This would be a fantastic bag for the road warrior who has to carry a lot of equipment and enjoys lugging his bulky dSLR around the world.
• Picked up an awesome, ultra, ultra-slim “feather” case for my iPhone 3G from INCIPIO. They also had the nicest iPhone/iPod accessories booth at the show with the most friendly, helpful staff (in my opinion). 
• Topaz Labs was showing a very cool Photoshop plugin called Topaz Adjust that does a brilliant job of expanding the dynamic range of a photo without the need for multiple shots at different exposures. Basically, it’s like doing HDR imaging with a single exposure. The demo was freakin’ cool!
• I can’t find their website, which is weird, but a company called Grandmax was showing off some really cool, tiny, portable speakers for your laptop, MP3 player, phone, or other audio device called Grandmax Tweakers Miniboom Speakers. I came very close to buying these but they had no show special price so I decided to wait. 
• Shure audio had one of the most impressive booths at the show with very helpful booth staff who were letting people try out their product line of premium earbud headphones. I’ve been using their products for years and am convinced that they are the best. At the show they were promoting an upcoming release due in March called the SE 115 (which is their entry-level buds). They sounded great compared to other buds in the $99 range. I’m still very happy with my Shure E550 PTH phones.
• Checked out a desktop utility called TuneUp which cleans up your iTunes library by fixing song titles that are misspelled or have weird characters in them, adds missing track details, etc. The one thing it doesn’t yet do, which is the one thing that I’m looking for, is remove duplicates from your library. According to the company spokesperson, this is very difficult because many people have multiple versions of the same tracks (live performances, remixes, special versions, etc) and their software will have to be smart enough to figure out the differences. He did say they plan to release the functionality some time this year though.
• Finally, Joby, the makers of the Gorillapod camera tripod have ventured into a completely new neighborhood and released a Bluetooth headset called the Zivio Boom. I was skeptical of a company venturing into a completely new area like this but the spokesperson assured me that their founder is a brilliant mad scientist and he just builds stuff that he wants. So, we checked it out and it actually seemed like a really nicely made headset. 

I highly recommend all of these books.

Essential ActionScript 3.0 – Colin Moock

Learning ActionScript 3.0: A beginner’s guide – Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser

Head First PHP & MySQL - Lynn Beighley and Michael Morrison

Programming Flex 3 – Chafic Kazoun and Joey Lott

Adobe Flex 3 Training from the Source - Jeff Tapper, Michael Labriola, Matthew Boles, James Talbot

PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide - Larry Ullman

Scott Kelby’s 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3

The Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers – Scott Kelby

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery – Garr Reynolds

UPDATE:

I have to add another book to the list. This one was written by two very good friends of mine: Greg Rewis and Stephanie Sullivan. Though I haven’t read it yet because they haven’t sent me a copy (*ahem*) I know it has to be an excellent resource for anyone working with CSS. Greg taught me almost everything I know about Evangelism as he and I have traveled all over the world together since 2000 talking about Dreamweaver, Flash, AIR, and other Macromedia/Adobe tools. He knows more about Dreamweaver than anybody I know. Stef is an expert in all things CSS, HTML, web standards, etc.

I was reading Kevin Rose’s blog and learned about Squarespace, the web hosting company that hosts his blog and sponsors the popular weekly video podcast Diggnation. Upon checking out their offering I was quite blown away by the content management system, blogging platform, and in-browser WYSIWYG design tools. This is a hosting provider unlike anything I’ve seen. I signed up for a free 14-day trial and spent hours playing around with the admin tools. Simply awesome.

I’m probably going to be signing up for service this week and moving this domain over there. I’ve already pre-paid for my current hosting service with Dreamhost (which isn’t bad, but just doesn’t offer the premium services that Squaresoft does). 

If you’re using one of the popular blogging platforms you might want to take a look at Squarespace. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial and play around. I was able to import my WordPress blog really quickly and easily.

• Focus heavily on my photography, go shooting every day
• Exercise at least 3 times per week
• Go camping with Liana
• Watch less TV
• Blog more
• Improve my developer skills
• Learn Russian
• Spend more time with my friends
• Record more videos and tutorials (at least one per month)
• Read at least two books per month
• Build an iPhone app
• Create and deliver a really inspiring speech
• Drink more water and eat less sugar
• Get married
• Take a cooking class with Liana
• Teach a class somewhere on something
• Email my grandfather more often
• Take vitamins every day
• Learn more about Opera with Liana
• Visit Russia, Ukraine and Israel with Liana
• Go on a beach vacation with Liana somewhere