Amazing music video created for The Bird and The Bee song Again & Again.



I liked it much better than the original music video (check the preview on iTunes here).

UPDATE: There's an interview with the director/film-maker/AdProducer responsible for this viral video, Dennis Liu. Also for those that were wondering, the Actress in the music video is Larkin Clark. Read More...

Tags: music, leopard, osx, mac, video

Another year and another Challenge. We've been hard at work on the latest CNBC.com Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. This year the prizes are more diverse. Even the weekly prizes vary now. Last year the contest consisted of a Fantasy Stock Trading Game. This year we've incorporated Fantasy Currencies Trading to the Fantasy Stock Trading and also gave the game application a lot more polish. Hopefully people with have fun with this year's edition.

Check it out at CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. You can register now, but the game doesn't actually start until May 12th.

Oh, and to my wife... no we're not eligible to play... sorry... Read More...

Tags: cnbc, cnbc.com, Million dollar, challenge, contest, portfolio, stocks, currencies, fxcm, thinkorswim

So I jumped on the Twitter Bandwagon. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/jedimstr or check out the Jedi's Lair Twitter page on the left Nav Menu.

A great Explanation video about Twitter from Common Craft:


Twitter doesn't just let you track your friends, people you know or want to know; through it's Public timeline (the msg threads are called timelines) Twitter will allow you to know what's happening on the web, and essentially around the world. Big event happening in Europe or in Asia, you may just see Tweets about it real-time. From Breaking News to what your friend just had for Breakfast, Twitter taps into the digital conversation.

I'll be using Twitter through my site (Flash Twitter Page), Twitterific on my Macbook Air, and PocketTweets on my iPhone. UPDATE: Switching to Hahlo for the iPhone. It's seems better than PocketTweets and much more "feature rich."


The first group of people I started following on Twitter reads like a "Who's Who" of the Web 2.0 Revolution (or like a TechTV Reunion). From This Week in Tech, Tiki Bar, DiggNation and GeekBrief.TV regulars, to Henry Rollins, MC Hammer, and Snoop Dogg. I'll add real people I know as soon as I find any on Twitter Read More...

Tags: twitter, web2.0, social, network, tweet, pockettweets, twitterific, hahlo

So my Macbook Air is back and it's as good as new! In fact, it's with a new LogicBoard (and corresponding new Serial Number) and a reinstalled OSX, they might as well have given a full swap. Not that I'm complaining mind you; Apple service at the Garden State Plaza store was superb as always. My only complaint was that I wasn't contacted when the Air was ready for pickup. I found out through the Apple website Repair Tracking and by the Voicemail system they have. One day turnaround is pretty damn good though. Well, actually 3 days if you include: 1st for the initial appointment, 2nd to drop the Air off once they had the part, and the 3rd for pickup. Some other computer makers take weeks to do warranty repairs, especially ones as dramatic as a full LogicBoard replacement.

Once I got the Air back, I tested it out a bit in the parking deck of the mall to make sure it wasn't kernel panicking anymore. It was definitely solid! After I got home, I immediately started the relatively long process of restoring from the Airdisk's Time Machine Backup. This time I used the latest backup (the one taken during the panics) in hopes that it was actually a good backup. Worst case scenario I could have restored again from the next oldest backup afterwards. But that's something I didn't have to do. The last backup is working perfectly and I've had no panics or crashes since! One thing I did have to restore from a separate stored copy was my VMWare Virtual Machine XP File. I just used the one from my Mac Pro as the source. Read More...

Tags: apple, mac, macbook air, kernel panic, genius bar

Everything was going swimmingly with the new Macbook Air until this past weekend when things took a turn for the worst. I started getting Kernel Panics randomly. Empty the trash... Panic. Run Disk Utility's Repair Permissions.... Panic. Startup a WinXP VMWare session... Panic. Reboot... immediate Panic. Definitely something wrong.


At first I thought maybe my SSD drive got corrupted, so I tried a full wipe and Restore from Time Machine... Panic. Booting from Remote Disc OS Install was an exercise in frustration when previously it worked very well and quite often. I finally got one boot and Restore from Time Machine working (picked an earlier Time Machine slice to be sure there wasn't any corrupted files) and it still Kernel Panic'd like crazy. Now the Air didn't want to stay solid for more than a few minutes. Just trying to right click (actually dual-finger click) and it started to Panic.

So I finally broke down and travelled to the Apple Store yesterday after work. Unfortunately it was half an hour before closing and they couldn't take a look, so I made an appointment for this morning. I arrived early before the Mall was even fully open, knocked on the glass Apple Store doors, and talked to the Genius at the G-Bar. After a little diagnosis, he concurred it was a hardware issue and from the Panic logs, it seemed to point to bad memory. Unfortunately the memory for Macbook Airs is soldered to the Mother/Logic Board so after checking with his supervisor, authorized a Warranty Repair. The new Logic Board is on order but don't know yet if it is going to be back-ordered or if there will be any available tomorrow. I get to keep my non-functioning Air until the part comes in; small consolation. At least it is a free Warranty Repair, but it would have been better if it was a straight swap.

Another Consolation, I have a new bag for my currently non-functioning Macbook Air: The Waterfield HardCase. It's a magnificent bag, exhibiting both sleeve-like and messenger bag-like features in its sleek lines. I'll have a full review at some point after the whole Kernel Panic situation is fixed. Read More...

Tags: apple, mac, macbook air, kernel panic, waterfield, SFBags, hardcase, Sleeve, bag, messenger bag

Well I finally got a Macbook Air. It arrived yesterday and I've pretty much set it all up. I also have my Mac Pro back online. It was down for a few days due to a dead ATI X1900 XT card. I was able to replace it with the ATI 2600 XT that comes standard with the newer Mac Pros. Slower in games than my older card, but at least there aren't rainbow lines showing up all over the screen as it slowly dies. More details for both soon... for now sleep ZZZZZZZZZ

UPDATED - More info after the break...
Read More...

Tags: apple, mac, macbook air, macpro, macintel

I've uploaded two new videos of Ricky and Lucy to YouTube. This time I've put a little more time into editing and adding a soundtrack to one of them. Hope you like them:





Check out my last blog post for more videos of our wacky pups. Read More...

Tags: ricky, lucy, pet, pembroke, welsh, corgi, chihuahua, video

Work's been really busy lately so haven't been able to do much outside of CNBC. I have a large stack of Photos that I still have to edit in Aperture 2 and upload to my Photo site. I've also been busy crunching numbers for the Photo Biz in preparation for this year's taxes.

I haven't gotten the Macbook Air (yet) even though it would make an ideal (ok, almost ideal except for HD space) traveling notebook for me. These days I rely on my iPhone for my email and web access on the run so it's not so bad running around without a laptop. There are times though that I could develop in XCode, design some web stuff, or even work on some Photoshop/Aperture stuff on the road. The iPhone just doesn't cut it in those cases. When I do get the Macbook Air, it will be the 1.8Ghz/64GB SSD model. I've even bookmarked a few sites that tell you how to save even more space on the Air by re-installing the OS minus some unnecessary stuff (like iDVD, iMovie, Garageband, some Language Support, etc.). I figure I could mostly get by with Aperture/iPhoto, iWork, XCode with iPhone SDK, Webkit Nightlies, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Flex, RapidWeaver and few utilities.

The reason I haven't picked one up yet is that we're saving up for a House and I need to really clear up my credit/debt ratio. My wife's credit rating is much higher than mine, but I'm starting to catch up. Just a few more months of following my own Personal Finance Tips and we should be well on our way to our next House-Search chapter: looking for a Mortgage. We really want to get Pre-Approval (not just Pre-Qualified) for a good amount so that we can look REAL attractive to Sellers/Realtors. Of course now that the Realty Market is tanking and with the local cap for Jumbo Loans being higher due to the newly passed Stimulus Law, we should be able to find a nice house within our budget.

Still, when our finances are set for our Home Purchasing needs.... I'll be getting that Macbook Air!

I've posted some YouTube Videos of Ricky and Lucy. Check them out after the break. Read More...

Tags: money, apple, mortgage, realestate, saving, finance, credit, debt, reduction, ricky, lucy, youtube

Why do you do this to me Steve.... my wallet hurts already from two iPhones and more Macs in my home than on my floor at Work.
More after the break... Read More...

Tags: apple, laptop, notebook, mac, macbook, macbookpro, macbook air, macintel, steve, jobs

Haven't had much time for my blog lately.. it's been all Halo, Oblivion, or work lately. I have huge backlog of photos I have to edit as well.

Read More...

Tags: halo, xbox 360, gadgets, games