MikeJandreau

Thank a health care professional

September 11th, 2009 No Comments

My normal nightly routine coming home from work includes waiting at North Station in Boston for about 45 minutes for my wife to arrive, to we can commute home together.

Last night something extraordinary happened. Standing in my usual spot, I watched a man, obviously intoxicated beyond belief, wander in through the East doors.

He slowly seemed to collapse, sort of a passing out very very slowly. He lay on the ground for a moment or two, before someone notified the MBTA folks, who promptly called paramedics, just in case.

It took the paramedics 11 minutes to arrive.

In that 11 minutes, I counted 20 people in scrubs of some form come in through the doors the man lay on the ground just inside of.

Of those 20 people in scrubs, 18 of them stopped. That’s 90%.

The other two? They didn’t stop because someone else in scrubs was already checking on the passed out drunkard.

It made me think: do I care that much about what I do?

On their own time, for no pay whatsoever, these people stopped to help someone in need. I don’t know if they were doctors, or nurses, or research assistants, or what. All I know is these people stopped to help.

No one else did.

Be sure to thank your doctor, or nurse, or whomever else does their job to help you.

Switching to Mac – The Journey Continues

August 6th, 2009 No Comments

We’re now a mere 54 days away from my birthday/Mac Pro Day, and I’m getting more and more excited.

Over the last month, I’ve gotten so reliant on using my iMac at the office, that when I get home, I’m discouraged having to use Windows. I often press my mouse button down, expecting Expose, and am saddened when that doesn’t happen.

I’ve also begun finding more and more applications for the Mac to perform things I do on the PC. While I’m more comfortable than I was at the time of my last post, I’m still not convinced I can switch to OSX without at least having Parallels installed on my Mac. There are still a few things that I need to do that are PC only.

However, I’ve also found a few new applications that I’m in love with, that are Mac only! I know, right?!

For starters, I think MailPlane is a godsend. Especially since I’ve started converting all my domain mail to Gmail. MailPlane is just like any other mail client, except that it’s like having a bunch of Gmail accounts open at once, for all your different email addresses. No more logging out and logging back in to another account. MailPlane keeps you logged into them all, and gives you a notification when you’ve got a new message. The UI for the app is identical to Gmail itself, and has all the same features (keyboard shortcuts, searching, labeling, etc.) Very handy. Weeding addresses out of my Thunderbird inbox at home has never been more satisfying.

Another app I’m loving is Adium. It’s like any other IM client, but better because it’s Macified. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I much prefer Adium to Digsby (which I use at home.)

I feel like once I get the Mac at home I’m going to want to switch all of my hardware to Mac. Router, keyboard, mouse, external hard drives, etc. It’s not unlikely. Everything would look stellar all white and shiny.

As we get closer and closer to Mac day, I get more and more excited. I can’t wait to make the switch. Once I do, I plan on documenting the things I find that are hard for someone who’s used PCs as long as I have, in hopes that I can help other switchers along the way.

Switching to Mac – The Journey Begins

July 8th, 2009 No Comments

It’s been about 7 or 8 months since we picked up a MacBook for Christine, as an early Christmas gift. Seeing how easy the transition was for her inspired me to make the transition myself. I’ve always wanted a Mac, and seeing as how I’m a “designer” or “coder” or whatever you want to call it, it seems fitting that I have one.

After getting her MacBook, Christine never turned on her Windows laptop again, except for me to reformat it to give to her little brother, Ryan. Was it that simple? It couldn’t be. There’s no way switching could be that easy.

Important files are kept in some form of Google docs, or an external hard drive. E-mail’s kept on web-servers. Could it be that easy? Turn off old computer, turn on new computer? For Christine, it was.

For me? It’s going to be a little more complicated.

For starters, I’m just about 30 years old. I started using PCs when I was about 5 or 6. That puts me at 25ish years of PC experience, primarily with Windows. (Albeit I started with DOS, but I don’t think that counts.)

Can someone who knows Windows as well as I do switch to Mac and OSX so easily, as my wife did? I’m going to find out.

I plan on buying myself a Mac Pro and 30″ Cinema Display. Pretty big for a first personal Mac, right? I think I’ll survive, and here’s why:

As you may, or may not, know, I’ve been contracting for a local University the last 6 weeks or so. When I first arrived, they gave me a pretty old under-powered PC to use. I quickly outgrew it, and had to seek something else. There were no “better” Windows machines around, so I grabbed a 20″ iMac. It’s a few years old, and has its problems, there’s no question about that. At first, I was lost. I didn’t know what did what, or how to do the things I’d grown so comfortable with over the years on Windows. I got angry quite often (still do, in some cases), and had to look things up. Simple things, that most Mac users would laugh at you for. But I’m learning.

Here’s how I know I’ll survive when I get my own Mac at home: when I go home, and turn on my monitors to look at something on my PC. I dread it. I won’t be one of those “I’ve switched, now I’ll bash Windows” types. But I legitimately dislike having to use Windows at home. I like the Mac. I’d probably like it even more if it was newer, and didn’t have hardware problems that cause it to freeze and crash a bunch of times (4 reboots required thus far, today.) I don’t hold that against the Mac though, it’s fairly old, and probably on its last leg.

I’m going to try to document the things I learn as I make the transition from part-time Mac user to full time, as well as photograph my new set-up once I get it. I’m pretty excited, and much more at ease now that I’m sitting at a Mac most of my days, while doing work. I’ve been learning by immersion. It’s a good way to learn, and I’m lucky I get to do it without having to spend money on a Mac, to learn I didn’t like it. (Which, thus far, is not the case.)

Back from D.C.

April 20th, 2009 No Comments

We got back from Washington D.C. a little while ago, much longer of a drive than I thought it would be.

I resized and uploaded all 447 photos I took. I didn’t label them all yet, so you’ll have to figure out what’s what, until I get around to that. But, enjoy!

Update, I’ve begun moving all my photos to Flickr, so I can display them at full size. (My host doesn’t have the processing power to resize a 10.1MP photo for thumbnails.)

Here’s the new link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikejandreau/

Lens Testing

April 14th, 2009 No Comments

The wife and I are headed to D.C. this weekend, for a long weekend away to celebrate her birthday (which is tomorrow.)

To prepare, I ordered a new “wide angle” lens for my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Being the thrifty shopper that I am, I decided to give the Sigma lens a chance. It was my first non-Canon lens, so I was a bit scared, but I went ahead and did it anyway.

According to various photography websites, this lense is just about as good as Canon’s version, but at $400 less, I figured I should give it a shot.

I haven’t taken it out to shoot with it, yet, just did a test here in my living room. Though I can say I’m impressed that it comes with a lens hood. No Canon lens I ever bought did that. Anyway. Here’s the four different shots I took, with my four lenses, to compare them.

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The first image was taken with the stock 18-55mm lens from Canon.
The second was taken with a 60mm Macro lens, also from Canon.
The third was taken with a 75-300mm Zoom lens, from Canon.
The fourth was taken with the new Sigma 10-20 lens.

As you can see, the 60mm Macro lens and the 75-300mm Zoom are pretty much the same. The 18-55 and the 10-20 are pretty significantly different though.

Just to be clear, these shots were all taken from the exact same spot. The camera was mounted on a tripod, and I only touched it to change out the lenses on the body.

I’ll report back, post D.C., with out the Sigma lense fared when used in the “real world,”, but according to my living room test, I’m pretty happy. It takes shots exactly how I wanted, zoomed really far out. It makes my living room look freakin’ huge, too. Kudos for that. Check back in a week, and I’ll put up the photos from D.C., of which I’m sure there’ll be 90 million.

My Anniversary Gift

March 5th, 2009 No Comments

Though Christine was bummed it got here late, I didn’t care. Technically our anniversary doesn’t exist, because we got married on leapday, last year (February 29th). So, we just celebrated all weekend.

Christine’s anniversary gift to me showed up yesterday, and it’s a very sweet gift. She took one of our wedding photos of us, and had it printed on M&Ms. Knowing how enthralled I was with the M&Ms with the RockBand logos on them from the RB2 release party, she had ours made. Check ‘em out:.

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It’s nice that the M&M detail is so great you can tell I needed a shave by the time that picture was taken. Damn 5 o’clock shadows.

Omega Pedals Review

February 24th, 2009 1 Comment

So, I got my two Omega pedals (and twin rocker) two weeks ago. And holy shit, wow. Amazing.

Having played drums for half my life now (15 years), they were easy to set up. I had no issues figuring it out, like some reviews of Omega pedal have pointed out. Since I’ve played Pearl pedals since I was old enough to afford them, it came naturally to me to set them up.

They do take some getting used to, which others have noted. I probably could have done with just one, but why not get double bass, right? You really need to hold the pedal down, which is what I’d call a downside, until you get used to it. The way the pedal’s set up, if you let it bounce back even a little bit, it’ll register another hit, which you don’t want.

Another downfall is that the pedal(s) don’t clamp onto the drumkit as well as the stock plastic pedal does. Which, if like me, if you have to move the drumkit from where it’s stored, to in front of the TV, becomes somewhat of a task. You get used to, but it’s not as simple as “pick up and go” like it is with the stock pedal.

The pedal itself performs exactly as you’d expect a real drum pedal to. It’s a Pearl pedal after all, they’re amazing. Once you get used to the pedals, you certainly play better. With the stock pedal, songs like Aqualung were difficult for me, the repeatitive motion of constant bass pedaling, gets tiring. Especially when you’re fighting the reverse motion of the spring in the stock pedal.

My best percentage on …And Justice for All:
Stock pedal: 97% – 23 notes missed
Omega pedals: 99% – 1 note missed (boy was I bullshit, too.)

At first, you may have some difficulty with getting used to the pedal (should you buy it), but keep at it. I notice that with the Omega pedal I can play for many more hours than I could with the stock pedal.

As I said, I’ve been drumming for 15 years now, and would say I have great drumming stamina. However, the stock pedal that comes with the wireless XBox drums causes strain after an hour or so for me. My inner thigh would start aching. I’ve yet to experience that with the Omega pedals. Even after playing for 4+ hours at a time. My ankle hurts a bit, because I’m out of practice, but not my leg.

Overall, would I say the Omega pedal is worth it? Totally. It may seem pricey, but factoring in the cost of that Pearl pedal, Omega Pedals really are a good deal. If you were to strip the electronics from it, you’d get a good old Pearl P120 pedal, which sells for the exact same price as the Omega pedal.

I’m glad I got mine. If you’re serious about Rock Band drumming, and want to bring your A game, you should spend the cash to get one (or two) of these Omega pedals. They’re amazing, and well worth the money.

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