"Our Ripper, who art on Mininova, aXXo be thy name"

Today I read an interesting article on Bazaar magazine by Josh Levin. It was about aXXo, the most famous online torrent uploader who is best known for high quality DVD movie rips.

The article was very well written and full of information but that's not my subject.

He's not doing something legal, we all agree on that, but in terms of doing it right, well, no one can do a better job. He fired up competition where other uploaders try their best to match his quality uploads. New Torrent websites crave to have him on board, and if not, they would look-up his uploads, download them and upload them back again on their sites. He has set new standards to the term "Pirated" or "Illegal copy" where even the MOB looks unorganized.

Being part of the "Leechers" community taught me to "Take & Leave" but after seeing aXXo's contributions I was very impressed by the number of "Seeders" and how his movies remain on top with thousands of seeders that will never make these files go to waste. Hence I started to "Share" my downloads and keep them seeding until they reach twice the ratio, then, and only then, I can remove them from my torrent client.

aXXo is not only a devoted uploader but also an idol.

iTeach #002

School activities & P.E. competitions...

We ended our competitions semester ranking 5th overall (out of +10 schools) which is not so bad since the top three schools had quite a bunch of young athletes.

My boys won three medals in Track & Field (Shot Put: silver, 300m Sprint: bronze, 800m: bronze) and three more medals in Fitness Exercises & Testing (Standing Broad Jump: silver, 50m Sprint: bronze, Crunches: bronze).

Our Gymnastics team had a great chance of winning the competition but seems "wasta" can change the judges scores. My colleague argued with them to no avail and we went out empty handed. I'm sorry for the kids because they did so well yet they didn't win any place.

Knock-out games standings...

Football: Lost in semi final.
Basketball: Lost in semi final.
Handball: Lost second game.
Volleyball: Lost first game.
Table tennis: Lost first game.

Airport Graveyard?

Here's a pitiful scene from Kuwait airport parking lot. Looks like airport authorities finally decided to get rid of "prolonged" Long Term Parking junk and, instead of towing them out of the parking, they disposed them on the top floor of the parking building. So much for logistics.

Strictly coincidence, fellow blogger Hitman1 posted something related today as well. [link]

Review | Booq Taipan Slimcase M

I ordered Booq Taipan Slimcase M compact laptop bag for my MacBook Pro and it arrived yesterday. It looks and feels great.

It has seven pockets, cushioned/plush laptop compartment with tuck-away handles and removable strap. The exterior is made of waterproof synthetic material which is good for those who tend to spill drinks. *cough*

The coolest part (and probably an unnecessary feature) is that every Booq bag comes with a Terralinq serial number and barcode. When registered, this number allows them to contact the owner of the bag once it's lost and found.

All in all it's great and made with quality.

Zain eGo driver for Mac

Turns out Zain is not so "Zain" after all.

A lot of Mac users have complained that the built-in Mac support on their new Zain eGo HSPA/UMTS stick (Huawei E180) doesn't work and when they contact Zain support they tell them to take their Mac to some store to install the driver, not for free of course.

I managed to find the driver for Mac on an Italian site and they claim it works for all carriers though citation needed and feedback on whether if it's working or not is very welcome.

- Huawei E180 HSPA/UMTS firmware for Mac [download]

The file ".sitx" is hosted on Rapidshare, it might get removed without notice. If it's no longer available contact me and I will send it by email.

Last Friday Moon

I took a lot of pictures of the moon that day.
All shots were the same except this one.

Laptop Bags

Since I got my new MacBook Pro a few weeks ago I've been looking for a laptop bag that suits it best so I did my search and found some quality bags and sleeves and made up my choice but just for reference to you all I will list links of the best brands I've come across.

• Acme Made (Quality bags)


• AirMail (MacBook Air only)


• Built (Sleeve-like bags)


• Belkin


• Brenthaven


• Booq (Quality bags)


• Case Logic


• Crumpler


• Delsey


• Eastpak


• foof (Sleeves only)


• Higher Ground


• Hlaska (High End bags)


• Incase (Quality bags)


• Jack Spade


• JanSport


• Jost (Quality bags)


• Knomo (High End bags)


• LowePro


• Malcolm Fontier (High End bags)


• Oakley


• Pakuma (Quality bags)


• RadTech (Various brands)


• Spire (Quality bags)


• Sumo (Quality bags)


• Skooba


• STM(Quality bags)


• Silent Revolution (Quality bags)


• SF Bags (aka WaterField designs) (Quality bags)


• Tucano (Quality bags)


• Targus


• Timbuk2


• Zero Halliburton (High End bags)

Personally I like Brenthaven and Booq the most.
Malcolm Fontier OWNS ALL.

If you have something to add let me know.

Update: Thanks to all for the recommendations and tips.

Please Fix The iPhone!

Yep, you heard me... Please Fix The iPhone!

When I landed on this site I couldn't help but to laugh. I mean look how desperate we, iPhone owners, are!

The iPhone is an amazing device and there's no doubt about it but the fact that it's not perfect makes us always looking forward to the next firmware update which is very irritating.

I can only plead...

If you are checking the link above,
Please vote on #7!!!
For some reason Arabic language support was at #7 with +20,000 votes and now at #11 with +12,000 votes. So if you go there just search for "Arabic" in the search bar and cast your vote.

Regarding Mustang Police Patrol

Everybody knows by now that we might get* Mustang police patrols here in Kuwait alongside the Charger patrols in Q1 2009.

Recently there has been a lot of encounters with the car and media revolving around the blogsphere from youtube videos to forum photo-entries made it somehow exciting.

To me though, it's sheer madness and a stupid move by MOI. Why?

• We rarely have police pursuits, the BMW and Charger would do just fine in those rare occasions.


• The car comes modified with a twin-screw Whipple supercharger. I don't think any of our patrol cops have the ability to handle such a beast in a pursuit.


• Most our patrol cops are reckless and arrogant and would probably abuse this car. Their actions and stupid accidents speak for themselves.


• This will make some thoughtless sport car drivers and bikers more reckless hoping to encounter the patrol car and actually outrun it.


• (UPDATE)*: Our police patrols are not allowed to pursuit motorbikes and buggies, the maniac masters of law-breaking. This law was enforced a few years back to prevent road rage and chaotic situations.

That's my perspective. I don't think there's a single good to this deal.

Videos of the car: Cruising - Parked (interior shots)

* Still under testing, not official to join the fleet just like the Audi A6.
* Thanks to Bashar for reminding me of that point.

Injured

As if being sick with the cold wasn't enough... I played football (soccer) and had to quit the game 10 minutes from the start with a black eye and bruised nose bridge thanks to a genuine adidas boot right in the face.

Looks like I'm going to Eid gathering with sunglasses.

Joost

Tired of YouTube? Try Joost!

"What's Joost? It's a way to watch videos – music, TV, movies and more – over the Internet. We could just call it a website ... with videos ... but that's not the whole story.

We're giving you new ways to find what you'd like to watch. You can search in "traditional" ways – by title or category – or you can find suggestions from other people on Joost. They may be your friends, or they may just be people who have something in common with you – but either way, they can direct you to great things to watch."

Science reassures

"Art is meant to disturb. Science reassures."
- Georges Braque

MacBook Pro

Finally, after more than five months without Mac I have finally managed to get my hands on the latest MacBook Pro.

Unpacking brand new gadgets is always fun and in this particular case Apple have made it even better with their artistic and unique designs inside and out. The box is wrapped up with a plastic bag that looks like a sports bag with two strings on the side, the box itself looks great and the parts are well organized inside with the unibody MacBook Pro lying on top.

So it looks good from the outside, what's good on the inside? And what makes it better than it's smaller, yet very identical looking, brother the Macbook?

For starters this true wide-screen 15" monitor is mind-blowingly clear. Performance-wise the MacBook Pro is the best there is for portable Macs. This one has a 2.53GHz processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 6MB cache, accessible 320GB hard drive (easy to replace/change), two NVIDIA GeForce chipsets (9400M and 9600M GT) reaching 512MB VRAM for video output; gamers and designers dream machine on the go. Internal speakers are now much louder. New big button-less trackpad is made of glass for silk smooth tracking with up to four fingers gestures.

The downside however is limited to high-gloss screen which may appeal to some people while others would do anything to get rid of it. Although there still is a FireWire 800 port, the loss of FireWire 400 port is without doubt a setback. Button-less trackpad is awkward and needs a lot of work to get used to.

Bottom line:
The new MacBook Pro is the Porsche of portable computers. It's fast with great performance specs, agile with its relatively light weight compared to other laptops of its league, unique with its aluminum unibody design, and in my case very price worthy (no shipping fees + VAT refund = way cheaper than what it costs here in Kuwait).

Accept nothing less than this piece of art.

Simple Man

Shinedown - Simple Man
Originally by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Soothing words, calm acoustics, and amazing vocals.
I cannot get this song off my head.

Official 2009 Nissan 370z Pictures

And officially it sucks exterior-wise.

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UPDATE: And I thought the Z looks ugly.
Wait till you see the new Porsche Panamera. [link]
It makes the new Z look like a beauty pageant contestant.

Review | MacBook Air

I have been using it for the past month and before I give it back to my bro I will highlight what's hot and what's not. Note that this review is based on first generation MacBook Air with 1.8GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD.

MacBook Air is without any doubt one of the most desirable laptops in the market. It looks sleek with it's brushed aluminum casing, ultra-bright wide screen monitor, backlit keyboard, long-life battery, and of course its light weight. But what makes the MacBook Air cool other than its looks and weight? The answer is almost nothing.

MacBook Air is a quick task handler which an Asus EeePC or even recent smartphones and PDAs can provide for less expenses. If you want to connect on the run it's there for you, if you want to listen to music and handle your photo and music libraries it's there for you, if you want to type or read for 6 consecutive hours running only on battery it's the perfect choice for you. And with SSD rest assured that it won't take more than 30 seconds to launch and 5-10 seconds to shutdown.

However, if you want to use it for editing high-resolution photography, photo-manipulation, video editing, motion graphics (After Effects & Flash), extreme gaming, load it with a bit of anything and everything then this is the spot where it starts to cough it's performance. It can barely withstand any of these actions. In other words it is not made for intense use.

Poor sound quality (one speaker hidden somewhere underneath the right side of the keyboard). Limited to one USB 2.0 port and no internal SuperDrive. Cooling fan barely cools it (all you can hear is its sound).

Conclusion:
Simply like a Ferrari; MacBook Air is the most desirable but not for everyday use. It has set new standards to portable computing but it doesn't come in a full package where you can rely on it. I am not going to say it fails to satisfy its users, it does so in a unique way, but it has limitations that it might make some users feel cornered when they really need to finish the job.

iPhone Firmware 2.2

Long story short...

- No bidirectional languages (Arabic) support yet.
- New region settings including Kuwait.*
- Smoother page transition?

* Choosing Kuwait region will fix incoming SMS contact details but will change Calender, Weather, Stocks, and some other apps interface into reversed arabic (days/months) and arabic digits for time and date.

Living Room Lounge | Review

One word... Perfect.

I haven't had shisha for the past two weeks and hopefully will keep it this way (wasn't gonna say anything about it since my last "Operation Rehab" failed miserably) and by not going to the shisha place I have most my day free, either sitting at home watching a bunch of movies or hanging out with friends away from smoking.

This time a couple of friends wanted to go climbing in Marina Waves so I joined them just to watch and waste time. That's when I saw Living Room Lounge right underneath Maki next to the climbing wall.

I took a seat watching my friends swing like monkeys waiting for them to finish. The place looks cosy inside, very calm outside with beachside tables, and with this amazing weather this place is the perfect place to hang out. Their menu is limited but it has a nice variety of drinks, salads, and light stuff to keep you going.

Prices are reasonably high noting the fact that it's in Marina Waves ($$$ rental), the food quality is good, and the service is good too plus free WiFi accessibility.

This place respectfully earns the first positive review of all food related reviews in my blog. However, it's still no match for badr el bdoor.

iPhone 3G soon in Egypt

According to Q8mug Apple iPhone 3G is available for pre-order in Egypt. [link]

Still no info if it will be officially unlocked or exclusive to both Vodafone and Mobinil (Egyptian cellphone carriers). After further investigation looks like it will be exclusive.

This means there's a great chance that the iPhone will finally have factory support for Arabic.

Update: (Nov. 12 2008)
Looks like it's true. iPhone 2.2 firmware is due in a few weeks and it will have new languages support. Most expectations say it will finally support Bidirectional languages including Arabic and Hebrew. [more info]

2009 Nissan 370z

The new Nissan 370z. Ugly from the outside and astonishing from the inside.

350z will keep holding its ground against this one looks-wise, but engine-wise... Let's see what the VQ37VHR engine has to offer. The 370z chassis is shorter than the 350z meaning we could see some engine swaps here and there.

Source with more pictures: [link]

Happy my car will have some dignity left for it. :)

Buying Art

Samurai Spirit - Slasher by `Artgerm

I have bought this amazing piece from deviantart.com and it arrived today. Their shipping is not fast but the print was very well contained in a big box to insure the safety of the package.

The only downside is shipping cost me almost double the price of the piece itself! Damn Aramex.

20x30 inches on Lustre paper with black aluminum frame, this piece is just perfect for my room. It took its place between my two bulletin boards.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

iTeach #001

This post starts a new series of blog entries in my blog and it will be about my job as a teacher. Any post tagged with "iTeach" will be related to my job. But first, before I start ranting about it I would like to apologize to intlxpatr for the delay. I really appreciate your concern. I will be posting related stories and updates at least once every month.

Everyday I wake up wondering how I ended up here with this life and this job. I never planned on becoming a teacher neither have imagined myself in this position before I graduated from high school. I know my job is very rewarding but teaching those brats was never for me. Although most times I hate it I'm still 100% dedicated to it, after all it's my job and my source for a living and that's what keeps me going. Still that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed it and its benefits. Let's just say I had more bad days than good days.

I'm still teaching in the same middle-school I used to teach in last year. After a hectic year between Kheitan and Jeleeb Al-Sheyokh in Farwaniya governorate I got transferred to yet another dirty sink in Qurain, Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate.

This school has good facilities, good administration, good P.E. section, and great P.E. colleagues. But the only downside of this school is its relatively high percentage of bad ill mannered students, or to be more precise, the 3agad students. They say "Education starts at home" and since most of those are never home after school till late midnight it's easy to distinguish the educated polite students from the rude ones. Nothing is perfect I guess.

Currently teaching 6th and 8th grade, and also supervising 9th grade. It's a hard task though luckily I have a reduced schedule which suits me well. I also got assigned for another side job after school that has nothing to do with students and it's very rewarding money-wise. That should keep me busy for the end of the year and hopefully I can start cutting out on my very unhealthy shisha addiction since I get home very exhausted.

That's about all for my first iTeach blog entry.

Decomposing Soda Can

"It takes a second for you to recycle a can
It takes 50 years for a can to recycle itself"

Open ID gets a Boost from Microsoft and Google

This is very promising...

"Open ID was dreamed up as a way to ease the mental and administrative burden of having a different login identity and password for almost every website.

The idea should mean that anyone with an Open ID identifier can use it to log in to, and use, any and every other site that has signed up to the scheme.

Microsoft and Google were early adopters of the scheme, and took seats on the board of the Open ID Foundation in 2007. However, both are only now releasing the tools and technology to work with the scheme." - [link]

One username and password for multiple sites means no longer having to recall different login information on every website you use. Also there's high hope that it can limit online identity theft and fraud.

Still it concerns a lot of people with its security measurements. Imagine someone snags your login info, all your online details will be exposed, not to mention anonymity issues. Once it's assured to be safe and convenient it will surely see the green light.

iPhone 3G | Story + Review

While everybody was busy with Gulf Bank rumored Bankruptcy, I was skimming around some blogs when I ended up at BLaSha's blog. I left a comment on one of her posts regarding the iPhone and she replied by email mentioning that she has not only one but two (later I knew she had three!) officially unlocked iPhone 3G (no JB required) and she was willing to give one away. I took the chance and, after further inquires about the product (color, capacity, accessories, "Price!"), we had a deal.

I had some short insights with an iPod Touch and I have played around with my friend's first generation iPhone (non-3G) a couple of times but I have never had the chance to really experience this elegant innovation, and my current impression is "WOW!".

iPhone 3G stands out even with its original issues of inconvenience (mentioned in Cons.). Almost everything could be solved by jailbreaking it but not yet. I want to enjoy the heap-load of Applications installed for me. "I have around four pages"... Four is the new Nine! Yes, thanks to the sweet BLaSha, she installed nine pages of nifty applications. Each page has 12 apps. Go figure.

Now here comes my nerdy takes on the iPhone 3G...

Pros: Sleek and unique, beautiful big screen with nice resolution though not the best, great various applications available (some are free), very user-friendly, good wireless connectivity, and last but not least it combines both great worlds of a smartphone and iPod.

Cons: Speakers not loud enough (something to do with all Apple products), no video camera (JB), dull factory tones, exclusive to iTunes, no Flash plug-in, no SMS forwarding (JB), can't copy contacts to SIM card (JB), no factory support for arabic language (JB), no full-keyboard, and battery life is not the best compared to today's smartphones and PDAs.

Conclusion: I must say it's an amazing device, no arguments, and it will surely make my whole year but first I need to get past my old cellphone (Nokia Communicator 9300i) that I have had for the past three years and get used to this one to bring the best out of it.

Some more info: Black, 16GB, officially unlocked (no-JB), currently running Wataniya Telecommunication (KT Wataniya) smart SIM card.

(JB) = Jailbreak / Jailbroken / Jailbraking

iPhone 3G

Finally!
Review comes later
Thanks to BLaSha

Blogger Comment Box

I logged in today to see my comments setting has been automatically changed and reconfigured by Blogger, replacing the ordinary comments page with this little box under each post.

If this is meant to be an improvement then I don't want it! It doesn't work every time and it's hard to reply to multiple comments like that.

Fortunately it can be adjusted under
Settings > Comments > Comment Form Placement

I Want My Hair Back!

Today I went to the barber for my weekly beard shaving. There was a young boy (about 6 years old) with his father waiting for their turn. When the boy got seated his father asked him how do you like your hair to be cut? The boy replied in enthusiasm "I want to shave it ALL!, (Abi Aggari3!)". "Are you sure?!, (AKEED?)" his father exclaimed. "YES!", the boy confirms with a grin. So be it, the father asks the barber to shave all his boy's head...

At first, when some of the boy's hair started to fall off marking some "highways" and "U-turns" all over his head, he was laughing his head off. Then, with just a little hair left, the laughing turned down into nervous giggles and that's where he started having second thoughts... One minute later he started crying out loud "I WANT MY HAIR BACK!!", kicking and punching both his father and the barber.

It took two barbers and his father to settle him down and convince him that his hair will grow back soon.

Poor kid thought his hair won't grow back. :P

Welcome Back, Comrade!

Red Alert 3, the most anticipated strategy game and most successful of all Command & Conquer sequels is going to be released in a few weeks. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

A new army called "Empire of the Rising Sun" will be available along side the Soviets and Allies. Looks and sounds like atrocious Japanese kamikazes.

As all other Red Alert releases there are live scenes of the game characters where they act the story line. The funny part is US president Ackerman (J.K. Simmons), his campaign motto is "Screw 'em All". This motto weeks before the real US elections says A LOT. :P

Don't Shoot The Puppy!

If the flash file is not showing check [here]

Aramex & 7 digits

I received three packages in the past few weeks and all of them arrived home without contacting me (SMS). After checking my account I noticed my contact number is still 7 digits. They should be smart enough to update by now.

The New Apple Squad

Apple Inc. went wild and launched their new series of portable Macs with revamped aluminum-enclosed MacBook and MacBook Pro, upgraded MacBook Air, and new HD monitors.

Specs-wise the new MacBook and MacBook Pro surely brings challenge to the table against other makers, although I always think Mac should never be compared to PC in specs (to each OS and user their own needs). With the new NVIDIA power plant (chipset and GPU), you can count on your new Mac to never lag on graphic-related issues/applications (hopefully). And it is said that the new NVIDIA setup is up to 5 times faster the Intel Macs!

MacBook Air gets a fine boost with 120GB HDD (SSD too) and, of course NVIDIA based, up to 4 times faster than 1st generation Intel-based MacBook Air.

Probably the best thing yet on the new squad is the multi-touch four-gesture glass trackpad. Apple has always been unique with its one-button trackpad but now they took it to the extreme with no buttons at all except a blank big glass trackpad.

The only down-side to me (which isn't so bad) is that the new squad doesn't have FireWire 400 port, but there's FireWire 800 on the Pro. I have Maxtor 320 external HD with USB2.0 and FireWire 400. I kinda got used to FireWire speeds, it's a shame to move downwards to USB when I have a faster port.

For more info check these links...
- http://live.gizmodo.com/
- http://blogs.computerworld.com

Looking forward to October 14th

Apple officially announces October 14th laptop event. [link]

UPDATE 20:00PM Q8T:
Say hello to the new MacBook Pro!

More info in a new post soon....

100,000 page views

100,000 page views and counting...
& ~35,000 locations all over the world...

Thanks to all my silent observers, stray ones,
... and most of all my loyal regulars.

My Cyborg Name

Found on Big Pearls blog
Get Your Cyborg!

I'm in love with Gina

BMW GINA Light Visionary Model

Post-A-Palooza!

Back from the dead. It's been almost a month hasn't it? Well blame it on this stupid Windows PC and Ramadan football tournaments so let me get this over with and put everything in one post...

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Corvette for Sale

Model: 2007 Corvette C6
ODDO: 17,000 KM
Features: Black interior,
perfect condition,
automatic transmission,
removable top.
Contact: Hani @ 66565560

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More MacBook Pro news and expectations

According to ComputerWorld.com writer Seth Weintraub new MacBook Pros and maybe MacBooks will hit the market somewhere between mid October, predictably the 14th (give or take a few weeks).

He has listed some expectations on the MBP and what it might get equipped with. [link]

Some are amazing features like that OLED keyboard but I highly doubt we'd see it on next generation MBPs. Even if it's true it would probably be optional and costs a lot.

Another interesting topic about Wireless USB hub. [link]

Now that would be really nifty.

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Bad luck?

His name is Jerman, he's Dutch, he plays pro indoor football/soccer... and I happened to play against him in bo-5amseen tournament.

Our team reached a good point in that tournament then we had to face BMW team where Mr. Dutchman plays. At first I didn't know who the *censored* is Jerman. Everybody kept telling me to watch out from him and be cautious and stuff... I did not give a damn. That's where I learned the hard way. In simple words "I got OWN3D". :/

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Quest Club

Here is a simple theory on QuestNet vs. Fight Club...

Now I'm sure a lot of you have heard about Quest.net communities worldwide. Based on network marketing, Questnet is basically "spreading the word and getting money for doing so". Just like Biznass and Emperor Dinar but that's not the point...

Lately there have been groups here in Kuwait making advantage of this so-called business by getting together and forming a bond between their "tree members". They have formed some kind of underground community just like Fight Club and they have rules for that too.

Like Fight Club the first rule "Never talk about Fight Club", here the first rule is "Never talk about the business in front of anybody". The second rule in the movie is "Never Talk About Fight Club" *emphasis*, second rule in Quest Club is "Always Talk About Quest"... Erm, how is that possible conflicting with the first rule?

The third rule in the movie is "If this is your first day then you have to Fight", in Quest Club the third rule is "If this is your first day you have attend training". Training for brain-mass-destruction and how to spam people around you.

The last rule I recall in Fight Club people take off their clothes, except their pants of course, to conceal their background (rich, poor.. etc.)... in Quest Club you're ought to wear formal clothes also to conceal your background and give the best impression for the business "Dress to impress!".

And last but not least one of the funniest things ever, in the movie Edward Norton and Brad Pitt succeeded in making a strong group of loyal followers who would do anything without asking why. Here in Quest Club they have a motto that says "Shut-up, Listen, Do". In other words do what you're told to do without asking why! Damn it.

I'd rather die waiting to win Al-Jawhara million before being part of those stray followers.

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My cellphone number jumped from 200KD to a fine 1000KD, or even more, with the latest 8 digit upgrade. I love it. :)

And that's about all. Hopefully new MacBook Pros will be out soon so I can start blogging on regular basis like I used to.

Peace and out.