I came across this link from Don McAlister who posted it on Twitter. His note was "I know there are worse things going on in the world, but this made me sad." It made me sad too. I can't easily explain it, so you will have to read it. If you have a pet, especially a pet of many years though, I promise you will have a lump in your throat by the time you are done. I should be so lucky to have an Obiturary written about me that sounds so wonderful.

Mr. Murray Is Dead

Tags: Pets

Below are links to Christmas Lists on Amazon. If any of my family wants to send me links to their Christmas lists on Amazon, or some other shopping service, please do and I will update.

• Tracy's Wish List
• Kelly's Wish List
• Courtney Wish List

Tags: Christmas, Christmas List

On The Apple Blog I read an interesting article comparing the Apple Stores to Starbucks. I think the article does a good job of explaining the reason why I enjoy going to the Apple Store and why I tell people going Mac is more than just about the computer and the operating system; it's about community.

The Apple Store - The Next Starbucks

Tags: Shopping, Community

I know what you are thinking.... Time has drunk the Apple iPhone kook-aid. Read the article before you make your decision. I think Time makes some very good points and while I don't know if it should be the invention of the year, only because I don't follow enough of the invention tech news to say, I do believe it has to be at the very least one of the inventions of the year. If you just want to talk about inventions with presense, then yep the iPhone wins hands down.

Read the article, and decide!

Time: iPhone Invention of the Year

Tags: iPhone, Apple

Check out the link below. The blogger talks about how a great photo sometimes from great timing. That timing could be something that was strived for, or could have been related to good luck. Think, right place at the right time. Some of the photos catch man in the middle of bad decisions and others nature at her most interesting.

25 Photos Taken At The Exact Right Time

Tags: Photography

Leopard's Safari has a great new clipping feature that allows you to grab any website element and turn it into a widget that appears in Dashboard (Mac Users know what I am talking about). To demonstrate I chose YouTube and their "Videos Being Watched Right Now." The clipping appeared on the Dashboard and I then clicked on one of the videos to demonstrate. I got more than I bargained for, a huge laugh. No, Tracy wasn't laughing at me; but a pretty talented blogger Kevin Jumba. He describes high school and the various cliques, showing you what they look like and how they act.

I've never heard of him before or seen his YouTube videos, but this one made us both laugh. It's amazing what you can find just cruising the information super highway; sometimes it's a good laugh.

If you want to see more Kevin Juma check out his YouTube Website.


If you don't see a video above, your company or ISP may block YouTube.

Tags: Video, Comedy, YouTube, iTunes

The future of entertainment is on-line; at least many of us who use the internet believe this to be true. Now, whether that is downloading the video and then watching on your computer or iPod, or if it is streaming the video to your computer via a website or a program like Joost; seems to be a matter of debate. Apple has been leading the charge for the past few years, enjoying a great deal of success with music and to a lesser extent with video.

Over the past 12 months you may have heard that the music publishers and the major studios have started to experiment with options other than iTunes. It seems the over riding reasons have been less to do with meeting customer needs and demands, and more with keeping control of their products through the entire life cycle. To date no one has really been very successful in going up against the iTunes store; except maybe Amazon, but they already know on-line retailing.

Earlier this week NBC Universal released a beta of their new service Hulu. It is designed to be an iTunes killer. I can't tell you much about it as I am still waiting to get an invite so that I can log on and take a tour. MacRumors was able to get an invite and showed off an interesting aspect of Hulu, the ability to embed video in a blog or web-page. You-tube and other services allow this, but this should be the very first time a major company offered such a service for copy righted materials.

Below is a full length episode of The Office. Check it out, pretty interesting. For TV episodes I'm not sure how useful this is; but apparently you can edit down to clips as well. One thing I know, you can't do this with iTunes.

Tags: Video, Entertainment, iTunes

This just doesn't make any sense to me, none at all. Maybe because I am Mac Head, or maybe because technology comes to me as easy as swimming comes to a fish; but why on Earth would anyone pay $59 (regularly $129) to have someone else install OS X? Not only that, the $59 price is only with the purchase of a new Mac. I realize that Leopard won't be pre-installed on Best Buy Macs yet, but upgrading from Tiger to Leopard on a brand new Mac should be one of the easiest things a new Mac owners does on their shiny new Mac.

I know that Windows installs are cryptic and upgrades even more so, but Apple has made upgrading pretty damn easy. I tell folks to do a fresh install (which is a pretty damn easy), but an upgrade on a Mac is nothing like an upgrade on a PC. For fresh installs or moving from an old Mac to a new Mac users have Migration Assistant which is simple and I'm told has been made even easier.

To me this looks like Best Buy and Geek Squad milking the uninformed for $59 or worse, $129.

NOTE TO NEW MAC PURCHASERS --- If you live in a town or near a town with an Apple Store, they will not only install the New OS, but they will also help you migrate all of your documents from your old computer. They will even migrate you from a PC!

I love Best Buy and think their deal with Apple is beyond fantastic; hey it puts an Apple Store near my house in Wylie, but this to me is just ridiculous.

Tags: Apple, Mac OS

The reviews are in, and they are pretty good. Not as much news coverage as I expected, but from what I am reading the major news outlets, but general and industry specific seem to think that Apple has released a solid product that offers most users enough reason to at least consider purchasing the upgrade. This is in stark contrast to Windows Vista reviews, both upon original release and even today.

Time Machine is what most reviews are discussing, along with the visual tweaks. Spaces also gets some coverage; but what everyone mentions is the price $129, and most compare that to the Vista price; which for all the bells and whistles is significantly more and comes in a multitude of flavors with upgrade & full installs for each. If anything, Apple is about keeping it simple.

• ABC News
• MSNBC
• Macworld
• PCWorld
• The Guardian
• The New York Times
• The Wall Street Journal
• USA Today
• PC Magazine (Initial Review, Full Review Coming)
• ars technica (Really Long and Very Detailed Review)
• CNET (Includes Video First Look)

Update: Added ars technica review and CNET links

Tags: Apple, Mac OS

It's finally here, Mac OS 10.5; also known as Mac OS X Leopard. For those of you that are not Mac heads, THIS IS A REALLY BIG EVENT. More so than a new notebook model, desktop model, iPhone or yes even iPod. Why? Simple, this is something nearly every Macintosh owner can experience. Not everyone can buy a new computer, but for only $129 (cheaper if they shop around) they can purchase new features and enable their beautiful computer to wonderful new things. Some they will experience as soon as the upgrade is done, others as developers take advantage of the new features.

If you are not big into Macs and Apple you will have a hard time truly understanding the significance of this OS release. When Vista came out there was much to do about nothing. Yes Vista has been in development for more than 5 years and yes it has lots of pretty new options, but current computer owners weren't clamoring to upgrade from Windows XP. An OS that with all of its flaws, was mature and worked very well for 99.99% of the user community. Vista, like Windows 2000 and even XP, came out of the gate with a host of problems and nearly a year after Vista's release; it still has problems.

The Mac OS X release is a totally different story. While yes Tiger, the previous release (Leopard is the current), is an extremely stable and capable OS users are clamoring to get their hands on the new version. Part of that clamoring is related to the Cult de Mac that eventually infects most Mac owners, part of that clamoring is that Mac owners know that with a new OS release new functionality is both here today and is coming tomorrow. 300 new features, many of those are building blocks for Apple and 3rd party developers to do amazing things with the applications that will be released in the coming months. The applications that make you go "WOW" I didn't know my computer could do that! With Windows, there isn't often an application that is released that blows your mind away, at least not one that costs under $100.

Why? Well, for most PC users the computer is a tool, maybe a necessity. It is utilitarian in nature. For a most Mac users the computer is an extension of their personal selves. It's sleek and sexy and stands for all that is right in the world. Okay, i may be overstating things a little; but not much. Mac users believe it is as much about form as it is function; and reliable, has to be reliable. OS X is an extension of that belief, and the applications than run on OS X play right into the hands of that belief and foster that belief. Amazingly, mostly done by small developers with applications costing well under $100. (Entry Continues) Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Apple, Mac OS

I was reading CNN.com this morning, and came across this front page story about Dallas. Below is a link to the story, as well as the story itself.

DALLAS TAKE BIG-CITY FUN DOWNTOWN

(CNN) -- Dallas has long been a sociological curiosity. With its mix of sweeping ranches and high-end shopping, it's sort of a "country meets culture" destination. And you don't have to drive all over the metroplex (as the locals call the Dallas-Fort Worth area) to have a good time. All the food, fun and fanciness can be found in the 1.5-mile radius of downtown.

Dinner and a museum
Take restaurants, for example. Drive down any downtown street and it's clear that food is definitely a big part of Big D.
"Dallas has more restaurants per capita than New York City," says John Crawford, president and CEO of DowntownDallas, a private organization that serves as downtown Dallas' leading advocate. He says that in the downtown area alone, there are 250 places to dine, ranging from the elegant French Room (1321 Commerce St.) in the grand Adolphus hotel to family-friendly pizza joint Campisi's (1520 Elm St., Suite. 111).
The fare is versatile, too: Sure, Dallas does Tex-Mex well, but the town also boasts plenty of places that offer twists on the basic burrito. Fuse (1512 Commerce St., Suite 100), a hip eatery that opened in 2006, serves up dishes like brisket pot stickers in a style they refer to as "TexAsian."
The only thing that rivals the restaurant scene in downtown Dallas is the arts scene. It's true. "We've got the largest urban arts district in the country," says Crawford. "It stretches across 17 continuous square blocks." Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Dallas, CNN

This week was just way too long. Each day I left the house around 6:00 am and returned home around 9 p.m.. My team and I are working on a huge project that requires intensive manual data entry and review. Needless to say, it made for an extremely long week. An extremely exhausting week. Not a bad week necessarily, just a week I don't want to repeat week after week either.

Next week will probably be long as well, but i am not expecting it to be anywhere near as hectic. When there is a project that needs to be done, it needs to be done. I expect over the next 6 months or so to see more projects, but maybe not as stressful ones. At times it is exhausting, at times it is exciting; but luckily it is always interesting.

For now I am just enjoying a quiet weekend.

I recently wrote a letter to David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times, in which I asked in my own unique way to please look a little deeper at the new iPods from Apple. My cheif concern being that in order to watch video on your TV you apparently have to purchase a special cable from Apple. If you are a new iPod user that's not a horrible thing, but if you are a current user your current set-up has to be trashed and replaced with a new one.

Personally I think the MPAA is at the heart of this situation. I bet if we dig deep we will find this cable will inhibit copying or some such other nonsense.

Mr. Pogue,

I just read your article, Making Over the iPod, Again; and while I enjoyed the article and agreed with your points, but  you glossed over the $50 cable debacle; not stopping to inform your readers that apparently deep in the labs of Castle Apple Corp scientists designed a way to teather the new iPods to Apple cables, only.

Letter Continues... Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Letter, David Pogue, iPods, Apple

You might have noticed on the Kellysworld.net home page there is now a small grey box that has some personal message from me. That message is provided by Twitter, an interesting mixture of instant messaging, blogging and SMS. As other's can explain this cool service better than I, please see below for the Twitter description as provided by one of my favorite web sites, Wikipedia:

"Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in March 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and also instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application. For SMS, currently three gateway numbers are available: short codes for the USA and Canada and a UK number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email.

Due to Twitter's success, a large number of sites imitating its concept have sprung up around the world, offering country-specific services (e.g. frazr) or combining the micro-blogging facilities with other ideas, such as filesharing(e.g. Pownce). In May, 2007, one source counted as many as 111 such "Twitter-lookalikes" internationally." SEE THE REST OF THE TWITTER STORY...

Check Out My Twitter Page

Tags: Twitter, KellysWorld

If you see me taking pictures, you might notice a big white thingy (highly technical term) on top of my camera. You might think it is some jimmy rigged contraption to keep my flash from falling off. In fact it is designed to help improve flash photography by diffusing and shaping the light of a high powered flash, like my Canon 430EX.

I received it a few weeks as a birthday gift from Tracy and I love it! Now, that being said i am still figuring out how this "thingy" works and how to get the very best results. I'm getting better and have learned a few things so far, like setting the camera on 100% manual and slowing the shutter speed down to 1/30", which is incredibly slow and works incredibly well.

You can see a sample photo I took a few blog posts below, a photo of my dad. It's not perfect, but better than i could get without the Whale Tail. Gary Fong, inventor of the Whale Tail, has created a very cool accessory for any high powered flash. Being universal, it will work across the Canon, Nikon and other camera company's flashes. Considering the cost of a flash, the price of the Whale Tail is pretty reasonable. That's not to say cheap, but it is also something that a photography can use for years.

Tags: Photography, Tracy

Amazing... in 74 days Apple has taken the mobile phone world by storm... and they are only selling them in the United States and only to AT&T (formally Cingular) customers. As the quick press release states below, it took Apple nearly two years to sell one million iPods. Again, I say, simply amazing and a testament to not only the coolness and functionality of the iPhone; but the wizards of Apple marketing. Just makes you want to go out and help them reach 1.5 million phones, doesn't it?

Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone --- Yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29, Apple sold the one millionth iPhone. “One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.” [Sep 10, 2007]

Tags: iPhone, Apple

Came across a cool website while reading Digg, Josh's iTunes Album Art. What is it? Well, it is a webisite that had figured out a way to dig into the heart of the iTunes Music Store and pull out the album art it holds. Why is this cool? Well, if you don't buy your albums on iTunes you may not have the album art and don't want to scan it yourself. If that is the case, then you can use this website to try and grab a high-res version of your new album's cover.

Now, if you are using iTunes then you may already know that Apple gives anyone the ability to download their digital album art; even if you didn't buy the album from iTunes Music Store. It's really easy and works on both Macs and PCs. Josh's iTunes Album Art website is great if you don't have this or don't use iTunes. In any event, it's pretty cool to use. Of course, Apple could shut him down anything they want, and may do so. One never knows with Apple.

Tags: Apple, iTunes, Entertainment, Music

This weekend Tracy and I both had a mountain of work to do. We both enjoy our jobs a great deal, but when you have to not only bring your work home during the week, but also on the weekend it does become a bit much. All things being equal though it could be a much tougher life for us both; and as I mentioned we do enjoy our jobs and know that if we don't do the things we have to do, others in our company will pay the price. For me, it's insuring that the company isn't spending more or doing less to keep everyone of our clients happy and content with our services. For Tracy, annual reviews of all her employees; some 170 of them.

While Tracy has had management roles in the past, this is the first time I have had a management role. While I only have a small team that reports directly to me, my team and myself are indirectly responsible for keeping an eye on our operations and our clients insuring that everyone is doing what they are tasked to do. At times it is a large and seemingly impossible task; but it is not. More importantly it has to be done. I still have a great deal to learn and have a lot of growing to do in my managerial role; but I do feel I am getting the hang of it, although maybe a little slower than I would like. I have a great team and work for a great company; and I have fun doing it. That's what really counts when all is said and done.

By now you have probably heard that Apple is releasing a 6th generation iPod called the "iPod Classic" and an iPod based on the iPhone design. That means that stores have to sell off the current stock of 5.5 generation iPods, as well as 2nd generation Nanos; as the Nano got a major redesign as well.

To that end I saw on The Apple Blog that Costco is in the process of liquidating their iPod stock at all of their stores. There are probably none left, but one never knows.

• 2GB Nano: $49.97
• 4GB Nano: $99.97
• 8GB Nano: 149.97
• 80GB iPod 5.5 Gen: 229.97 (normally $349)

Check out this LINK.

It's worth noting that other chains may be doing the same thing, although I was in Wal-Mart last night and their iPod were priced the same as they have been since released.

Tags: Apple, iPods

I was reading an article on MacRumors I saw a posting that showed this image of an iTunes support page dropdown that included the following (click on image):

• DidNotReceiveMovie-RentalMovie
• AccidentalPurchase-RentalMovie
• ContentQuality-RentalMovie
• DuplicatePurchase-RentalMovie
• WrongVErsion-RentalMovie
• BadMetadata-RentalMovie
• Other-RentalMovie

There have been rumors that movie rentals were coming to iTunes. While Steve Jobs seems dead set against a subscription model for music (I agree with this stance), a rental plan for movies makes sense. The rumor is that you could rent the movie for 30 days for $2.99 and be able to move it to one other device (i.e., iPod, AppleTV, iPhone, etc...).

Read the MacRumors article HERE

Tags: Rumors, iTunes, Entertainment, Apple

Last weekend for the holiday Dad and Nancy drove down from Tulsa for a few days to visit. We hadn't seen them since our wedding last November. Tracy and I have been trying to get up to Tulsa, but obviously not trying hard enough since we haven't made it.

They came down on Friday and left on Sunday morning. Tracy and I both stayed home on Friday and did our best to keep the hounds of business from trampling down our door. Tracy succeeded far better than I, but eventually I was able to put all my troubles to bed until after the holiday. While I worked on closing out a few work issues, Tracy gave Dad and Nancy the 5 cent tour of our new house. Then once they were settled in, we all headed to Ballard Street Cafe for an eagerly awaited lunch.

Saturday morning Dad and I headed off to Dallas to find him his favorite Irish Whisky, Red Breast, that he discovered during our wedding at Trinity Hall in Dallas. We then headed back towards my neck of the woods, with a leisurely stop at a new cigar shop in Garland. There I treated Dad to a good cigar in the store's cigar lounge. Very enjoyable.

The rest of the weekend was really just spent relaxing, eating and chatting. It was a very enjoyable time, although too short.

Tags: Dad, Holidays, Cigars

Tonight I am watching a movie I've seen several times before, but am always amazed by, Live From Bagdad. It tells the story of the news men and women that were in Iraq in the days leading up to and during the first hours of the Gulf War in 1991. The story is told from the point of view of the CNN on-location producer Robert Wiener. At the time CNN was the first and only 24 hours news network, but hadn't yet made a serious name for itself. The Gulf War changed all that in one shocking, brilliant moment as the skys lit up over Bagdad and CNN had the only secured live feed back to the west.

At around 2:30 am on January 15th the bombs started dropping on Iraq and CNN went live. Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett & John Holliman began non-stop broadcasting describing the events unfolding as best they could for an audience that could only hear the bombs and the anti-aircraft guns in the distance. The broadcast was picked-up by all the major networks of the United States and around the world. These three men from CNN had a birds eye view of bombs dropping from the sky, and had the eloquence to describe the event. Not since the radio days of World War II were American audiences so captivated by radio style news broadcasting. From 2 am to 5 am, CNN ruled the kingdom of news. It would catapult them into the stratosphere, and give them the power to stay on top of the news business for many years and create a viable business model for 24 hour news. Today, we all expect our news anytime day or night; back then it was dinner time.

It is an interesting contrast to the start of the second Gulf War. With satellite phones and video phones, the press better prepared; no single network was able to take the day the way CNN was able to do in 1991. No network probably ever will have such great luck of timing and perseverance again, at least no in my lifetime.

Below is first few minutes of Bernard Shaws history making broadcast:

Tags: War, Iraq

If you are new to the Mac or just researching buying a Mac, one big question on your mind is SOFTWARE. The story you hear is that there isn't any software for the Mac; and what software there is, just really isn't that good. Well, I'm hear to tell you that if you have hear that awful story, rest assured it is a total lie.

Are their more software titles for Windows? Are there some great software titles for Windows? While both of these questions are answered with "yes," it doesn't hold that there aren't many apps for the Mac. Truth be told, there are many GREAT applications for Mac OS X. Many are only available on the Mac. Many will make you wonder why you didn't switch sooner.

All that being said, the hardest thing about moving to a new platform is knowing what applications you just have to try. Below is a list of software that I consider essential, or at least worth trying. This list, long though it is, doesn't come close to showing the shear volume of software available.

Here is a List of Great Mac OS X Applications: Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Apple, Mac OS, Software

For many years now Tracy's second child Anotonio Herrera, known as Tony, has been missing, taken by his father when he was still only a small child. Tracy has seen him a few times since, but only for short periods of time. Where Tony is today we don't know. Tracy is working on several web pages dedicated to Tony. When complete I will post that link on my website; until then I am posting photos to Flickr that I scanned for her website. Maybe, just maybe, if Tony scans the net he will run across these photos or Tracy's website.

Link to Photos

UPDATE 9/3/07: Tracy has completed her website dedicated to Tony. Take a look at it.

Tags: Tracy, Children

Tracy has created a couple of web galleries using .Mac and iLife '08. I have to admit, they are pretty amazing tools. The look of the galleries is simply fantastic.

They may not as be as functional as Flickr, nor have the same amount of inexpensive storage; but Apple graphical and design prowess are undeniable. When viewing photos you have several different views: Grid, Mosaic, Carousel and the ubiquitous slideshow. In "Grid" and "Mosaic" you can reize all the photos on the fly, with Grid being the default mode and Mosaic probably being the mode folks will enjoy the most for finding the photos they want to see. Then there are the two modes best for just watching photos, "Carousel" and "Slideshow."

Slideshow works exactly as you might expect, with play and pause. The look is fantastic. Then in Carousel you view the photos from left to right with the photos zooming into view; as if you were scanning through them on your desk. It's a view you have seen in photo programs, but not much on the web.

The entire album gives you a great deal of ability to customize your view, more so than Flickr or any other photo website. So check out Tracy's photos and enjoy the exceptional "Apple Experience."

Links to her web galleries are below:
Photography - Architecture
Photography - Nature
Photography - People

Tags: Photos, Tracy

Tracy has created a website just for Carlos Jr. It's dedicated to his first year, and his very first birthday. I might also mention that this is really Tracy's first website. Visit "About Being Born." The site has a video that I created recently in honor of his first birthday, plus many, many photos.

Let Tracy know what you think of her creation by dropping line. Click here to e-mail Tracy. I'm sure we will be seeing many more web pages in the near future!

Tags: Carlos Jr., Tracy

NBC Universal, owners of NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Networks, SciFi Channel and so much more has made a milestone decision; to push Apple towards increasing the cost of TV episodes sold on Apple's iTunes Store. Currently a TV episode costs $1.99; according to news reports the cost would have gone up to $4.99, a $3.00 increase. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that NBC's suggested pricing is beyond stupid. While I am more than willing to plop down $2 to watch a missed TV episode that my DVR didn't record or that I might just be interested in seeing; $5 is just too high. I expected to see TV prices eventually drop a little as the service became more popular, especially when one realizes they aren't HD nor do they have 5.1 sound.

Apparently though NBC didn't see it that way. I guess since they made up about 30% of the content on iTunes they could dictate terms. Apple apparently wasn't willing to listen. Not only have they ended negotiations, but even though their contract with NBC goes until December 31st, 2007 Apple has decided that they will not make any of the 2007 NBC series available on iTunes. Their decision seems like a smart one from their point of view. If they offer the 2007 shows, mid season they would have to pull them all. That would create confusion and some very bad blood for Apple. Click Here to Read More...

Tags: Entertainment, Apple

This is a cool feature that Picasa offers. I can embed a slideshow of photos right into this blog or any other web page I want. You can see the results below.

Another cool feature of Picasa is a visual link to the photo album. As seen below.