Haven’t tried it yet but seems like the way to go for getting it up to Tahoe, Kirkwood, etc.
Bay Area Ski Bus
Useful life of a computer for someone in the tech industry is two to three years for developers, two to four years for everyone else.
Useful life of a computer for a business is until it dies, ceases to perform it’s function.
For tax purposes for businesses, computers can be written off in the first year via Section 179 or depreciated over five years. Section 179 is cool (accountant in my former life).
For home buyers, I’m guessing in reality the useful life of a computer is five to seven years. It should be more like seven plus years but then we can also break this down into parts, e.g. 1 TB hard drive should last 10 years, network hub 10 years, monitor 7 years, actual computer 5 years. It really sucks that this is the case. Computers should last longer, at least 10 - 12 years.
Our current computer set-up
- Our home setup (Mac Mini still on Panther) was put into place on April 2006.
- Work setup (MacBook now w/ Leopard) was put in place on August 2006.
- Work setup (IBM X31 laptop, with Windows XP) was put in place on August 2004.
Next year will be when we do our hardware upgrade.
I’m not a chocolate connoisseur either.
As we’re nearing Valentine’s Day here are my favorites:
But, I usually just eat slivers of the big baking chocolate bars
* Part of the Eatwell Ecosystem
I’m not a coffee connoisseur but lucky to be in the Bay Area where there’s lots of really good coffee. These are the coffee blends I like:
- Blue Bottle (Oakland based) - Bella Donovan and Espresso Temescal
- Cole Coffee (Oakland based) - Max’s Blend, for cyclists
- Mr. Espresso (Oakland based) - Gold Medal Blend
- Peet’s (Berkeley based) - Major Dickinson’s Blend, for cyclists
- Peerless coffee (Oakland based)- not sure what blend I like but lots of restaurants and donut shops serve their coffee
I thought I had a post on coffee shops but I guess I deleted it. I’ll put a list together — Bay Area coffee shops with good coffee, wireless, snacks, etc. I can’t say I have a favorite.
I’d love an induction range w/ a convection oven and some sort of solution for a wok (doesn’t exist), but instead of that, I hear the BlueStar range is the one to go with and we’ll probably be getting one in the next couple of weeks.
Probably the 30″ BlueStar Residential Nova Burner. It’s supposed to produce some crazy heat, is well reviewed, and beat out Viking and some other “professional for the home” grade ranges.
We’re doing a light kitchen remodel hopefully start end of January and end in February, early March:
- range, cork floors, new sink/faucet, new counter tops, range hood, backsplash
We’re going to go with Paperstone for the counter tops, a 100% recycled paper product. Cheap, looks good, and seems like a responsible company/product. Vetrazzo and Icestone do recycle glass counter tops that look great too. May yet go with one of those companies but might be too expensive.
We still haven’t bought a new TV yet. We’re looking at this one from Samsung for $1,500. It’s the Samsung LNT4071F 40″ 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV. If you own and have issues with this tv, let me know or let me know if you have a recommendation for something better.
I think the time to buy consumer electronics is after CES and MacWorld. I’ve learned never to buy anything from Apple for Christmas since you’ll likely have buyer’s remorse in January. A tangent, but it’s still related.
