Yep, you'll find me using the same name there and I could sure use a little help, if you've got time, to liven them up a bit. :D
BTW, since I've been out of work due to foot surgery back in 11/2K7 I would've loved to land something but not much luck, until earlier this month. Being a fan of the Tech Night Owl Live I visited the forums and suggested a few guests asked one if he'd like to be on the show and he said "that'd be a blast"! I told the host, Gene Steinberg he wanted to be on so Gene asked me if I'd like to sell spots/ads for the show. It's no out of pocket for him and pay is commission based. I'm not quite able to return to work but soon I hope however, this is something to do with my time. After I got started on this new sales venture I've been sick! AAARRGGHHH!!! I'm doing better but it's slow like my foot on the healing prospects.
Any-who if you're looking to bebop on a forum stop by www.techbroadcasting.com and signup, it's painless! LOL ;)
I was mentioned by name, my 2 seconds of fame, on this past Thursday's show near the beginning right before the 1st guest.
Got any tech sales leads? Guest ideas? Send 'em to me or stop by and leave a post on the forums there.
Have a great weekend!
Uncle Mac

Long overdue but at least I made it finally! LOL ;) Well, I did get the MacBook fixed with only a 2 day turnaround plus they cleaned off what I thought was discolored plastics, similar to the early white MacBooks. Other than that I had a god time thanx to my niece, Wendy's husband or my nephew-in-law Chris. :D We got to check out all the Apple goodies and such as expected.
In short, I had a blast and was pleasantly surprised that our store in Baton Rouge seems very popular on Sunday afternoon at near full capacity and approaching standing room only. Plus, it's been open for a fair amount of time to get some of the curious folk in and out of there but maybe they're just stopping in again? Ha-Ha! I overheard a very pleasant and knowledgeable Apple sales rep comforting a nervous father with his daughter and wife over their sick and frustrating Dell at home. He told them they could start with a Mini and work their way up . The man was relieved to know about running Parallels, VM Ware Fusion and Boot Camp to run Windows and offered to help them transfer the data off the Dell to the new Mac. All 3 were smiling then! :D
I left and plan on going back but not for repairs I hope! :)

Soon it'll be time to un-mothball the G3 iBook 1st Gen...
Why? Well, it's needs to be run no doubt to keep it kicking anyways, but I need to bring my MacBook in to the new & local Apple Store in Baton Rouge for repairs since you may know the internal Hard Drive went south. :-( That'll probably take 2-4 days on a guesstimate. ;-) I'd be satisfied with a new hard drive swap but heck if I'm bringing in I'll see if I can get them to replace the palm rest assembly since I'm seeing that discoloration on it now. I don't have Apple Care on it and the 1 year warranty goes out in September. So if it's covered and no out of pocket expense to me I'll go for it! Yeah, even if I gotta wait a little while to get it back. I've got a back up Laptop and old but hotroded to the max several years ago and then a couple of years ago I upgraded to a new recycled high capacity battery and a used AirPort card. It was pretty much untouched until a few weeks ago and even though the battery was dead as expected it charged up like a champ and man it's really a power miser! :-D When I had 1st purchased it off of eBay in early 2K3 it had the original battery that was good for maybe 30 minutes tops. But at the time I used it primarily as a desktop so as the British say: I kept it "plugged into the mains". I tested it and had to do quite a bit of software updates but all went just fine & w/o a hitch. I do wish I had Tiger 10.4 and I know it'll handle it so I'm scouring eBay for a copy to bring it up to the final OSX upgrade that it's supposed to handle. Yeah, I think you can semi hack it to run Leopard but I really don't think it'll be worth the trouble. Although, later on it might be a fun project to see if it'll boot of an external firewire drive in target disc mode with a Leopard partition. ;-)
I'll prolly be stepping back down to OSX Panther, G3 @ a blazing 466mhz(!), Airport version 1 non-extreme w/B grade speeds! 576MB of Ram, 8MB Video Ram w/a max resolution of 800X600! Oh my! LOL It does have a high speed 60GB hard drive which helps somewhat. All-in-all my goofing off and testing results seemed better than I thought! Just for lite web surfing and such so I think I'll survive! LOL I'll miss the iSight web cam and mic but maybe by the time I bring the MacBook in I might have Tiger and an elcheapo web cam working if I need it. Which I don't actually, but it's nice to have. I think I'd miss Expose the most which it may not even work on that old iBook anyways. Time will tell but I just need to get over there and get 'er done! Ha-Ha!
Later,
Uncle Mac signing off!

Got any Mac owning friends or coworkers? Then tell 'em about this schweet deal on 2 Mac only app bundles! I got mine and it was worth it!
WTF is MacHeist & Mac Update Parallels Bundles?! In the shell of a nut 2 different vendors managed to get great 3 party software packed together at a fantastic savings of OVER 80%!! Lots of creative stuff and a few neat tools and time savers and a few fun ones! LOL Check 'em out as time is running out quick!

I got this years Mac Heist and it was well worth the $49 bux. 9 apps + 3 games.
Retail is like $250!I found 4 of those to be pretty darned good and I saved about $50 clams! If you want to help an Uncle out click on my referral link here:
https://www.macheist.com/buy/referral/5251

MUPB is more costly at $64.99 for 10 apps retailed at $475! But it's very controversial with it's ridiculous unlock gimmick! Just my opinion! LOL *UPDATE!* I picked it up today since the unlock threshold has been lowered big time so it's looking better now! I really want BannerZest and I did contribute to the Sound Studio unlock this afternoon but I'm still waiting on the last 2! LOL
If you want to help a Uncle out click on my referral link below for more information: Today's MacUpdate Promo, 40% off

First off, as you all know, my hard drive went kaput in my MacBook last week. :-( But thanx to Time Machine, mostly, and an old external hard drive I had lying around I got her kickin' again! BTW I can hardly tell the difference other than the longer boot up times. Anyways I've listened to the entire podcast novel "Crescent" by Phil Rossi and I've got him as a friend here on my page and I really dug the heck out of that novel! http://www.crescentstation.net/ It wasn't just the story which was very good but it was the way he presented it. A little music and an occasional background/ambient noise or sound effects but nothing overboard. I began to ponder doing my own and couldn't sleep one night hardly just thinking of all those stories I have bottled up in my head and in scattered notes in many places. Including: my old and buried somewhere PowerBook 145, old 10GB hard drive from my old iBook that's in a little mini Firewire case, my iMac, iPhone notes and probably loads of physical notebooks and such. As much as I want to do that really bad I'll go with the UMP first and then work my way up. LOL I'm a little like Phil in the near perfection attitude and I seriously need to work on that. :-) So not to make any excuses I'll have to take a break on most of those projects as I need to take this MacBook in for repairs. I don't know how long it will take but I'm pretty sure it'll be fairly quick. ;-)
Later,
Uncle Mac

Yep, it’s been a while but I’m getting things together even if it’s ever so slowly. Ha-Ha! Most of you know that my personal page is Mark and if you stopped by there you’ll see I’ve been dealing with some personal health issues as of late and really starting way back in Jan-June of 2K7 and leading into more bummed out deals after I had surgery in Nov.! LOL So I won’t go there anymore and get back to business. ;) I’m getting close to begin recording and lining up my 1st UMP soon. I’ve managed to snag a few extra softs on the way even though I may not need them right now. But it will help me make a better podcast or manage to get it out easier than relying on just GarageBand. What are they? Wire Tap Studio that’s used by many podcasters out there and I snagged it with an old upgrade discount I had for the previous version. Plus I picked up a copy of Screenium on the cheap and it’s packing lots of bang for the buck here and it’s getting better with each update. Lastly I got Final Vinyl and you can download it too for free but I don’t know if you can use it without an iMic. I know that once I get the 1st Uncle Mac Podcast out the door and maybe a few more it’ll be smooth sailing from there. LOL I’ve also been seriously considering a podcast novel due to their recent popularity and how much I enjoyed "Cresent" and yeah he’s on myspace just check out my friends list. Not only as a cool way to get totally original stories out there but as a possible way to do "fan fiction" of some of my favorite old school TV shows or perhaps movies too. ;-) A big collection of them can be found at: http://www.podiobooks.com/ Gotta go now and I hope all of you have a fantastic or at least a relaxing weekend!
Uncle Mac
If you’re curious about the software check ’em out here:
Wire Tap Studio (Audio only with edit & effects capability. Plus, internet radio recording with scheduling like a VCR/DVR)
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/
Screenium (Video casting & audio recording a bargain at only $20 bux!)
http://www.synium.de/products/screenium/index.html
Final Vinyl
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16442

Ok, so what's the deal on UMP? Some of you folks know that by looking at my personal my space page, markinlatheotherla, that I've been trying to take care of personal matters like my health, FMLA, insurance issues and such. That's beginning to level off somewhat now and a few concerns are still there and some are resolved. I suppose I really wanted to have my 1st episode out either right before or after MacWorld 2K8 which didn't happen. :-( Although I'm not a perfectionist, I do have minimum standards for my Podcast and I'm still sorting them out right now. I'm trying to take a different approach by making it a little funny and entertaining while still being informative. I do have a feeling that it'll come across way too corny and ridiculous and I really shouldn't worry about that but I do. LOL I've decided to just take my time and work at it at a slow pace to keep myself satisfied with the show. I purchased the URL but haven't made the web site yet but that's a part of the plan too. www.unclemacpodcast.com With my MacBook, GarageBand, iWeb, Screenium and 0% experience with any of it I have to dive in and get some quick and decent results. I keep telling myself that it should be fairly easy but I guess I'm a bit nervous about the outcome. Don't worry I'll get over it and soon I'll get the web page up, running and a Podcast or two posted soon enough. ;-)
Have a good one!
Uncle Mac
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'm all ears! :-)

A close friend of mine is a Windows user and he sent me this link to Paul Thurrott's Blog on his SuperSite for Windows on his thoughts on the MacBook Air. He'll do this to me on occasion to get me riled up. I had to reply to him about it and I decided to post my reply here just in case anyone wants to have a little read. ;-) Here's the link to Paul's rant:
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/01/16/the-morning-after-the-macbook-air-is-a-joke.aspx
Well, here's my take on Paul's thoughts on the MBA. He's probably a fairly knowledgeable guy but as most of the MBA bashers, which reminds me of the old iPhone ones, they probably haven't used it themselves and or don't really know everything about the product and presenting it that way. That's why I don't care for those that don't give it a "fair shake", so to speak. Use it first and don't just read about it. Take it for a several day test drive not just play with it at MacWorld or an Apple store for a little while and then give everyone your hands-on review. That would be a fair shake to me.
Paul's original post is marked with >><<

>>The morning after: The MacBook Air is a joke
While it's easy to get caught up in Steve Jobs' patented "reality distortion" field as I did yesterday, at least with regards to the MacBook Air, sometimes it's wise to sit back and really mull over what it is that he's offering. And when it comes to the MacBook Air, what you're getting, if you'll pardon the basketball pun, is an air ball. In the cold, hard light of this morning after Jobs' keynote address yesterday at MacWorld 2008, it's increasingly obvious that the MacBook Air should be avoided at all costs. Here's why.
It's too expensive:
No surprise there: Apple technology is generally quite expensive at launch. The SSD version of the MacBook Air, however, is particularly expensive: It starts at over $3000. Yikes. <<
For the average Joe & Jane yeah I'd agree, but he fils to mention that if you drop the SSD option it only costs $1799! Me? I'd opt out of the SSD to add the Super Drive & USB dongles for Ethernet & an Airline MagSafe adaptor & save $1,100. However, for many: consumers, prosumers, college students or niche folks out there it's a no brainer for them if it fits "their needs". But if money was no object then what the heck, the sky's the limit! ;-) BTW The external Super Drive is less than 3/4 of a pound, it's dimensions? Get this: 139 X 139 X 17mm. A standard CD jewel case? 142 X 125 X 10mm! A "slim" jewel case is roughly the same but only 5mm thick. Oh yeah and it's a slot loader too. Not heavy or bulky at all. ;-) External storage via USB is on the super cheap nowadays with flash etc., and a HDD upgrade might be pretty easy too later on.

>>It doesn't utilize next-generation Intel chip technology:
Though Jobs brought his new lap dog, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, out on stage yet again this year, talking up how the two companies worked together to pull off yet another technological miracle, the chip in the MacBook Air is just a smaller version of last year's less efficient 65nm chips, and not this year's 45nm design. George Ou has more about this decision.<<
Eh, you don't have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to figure that out! Best put by the guy he referenced, George Ou, from ZDNET. Even though it was only speculation I seen it as more like an educated, common sense explanation. Keep in mind that Steve said in his Keynote that MBA has been in development for 2 years. Remember to; this is hardware version 1.0 with lots of very short term future potential.
George Ou: "I spoke to a few people about this and asked for some theories and we came to a somewhat reasonable guess so I?ll offer these up as some possible reasons. For a product as specialized at exotic as the MacBook Air, the design would have needed to start some time ago. When that design started, it may not have been a certainty if 45nm Mobile Penryn would be ready to ship with MacWorld and there may not have been working samples to start the design process.
Despite the fact that other PC makers have 45nm based notebooks ready to launch, none of them are this sleek. So ultimately it doesn?t really change the appeal of the MacBook Air and it will be the thinnest notebook on the market. In 20/20 hindsight perhaps it would have been better if the MacBook Air had shipped with a 45nm CPU and maybe we?ll see a quick refresh from Apple to the new processor since the size is obviously not a problem. It?s just that ?special? in this case isn?t a flattering thing when referencing the older CPU used in the MacBook Air, but the MacBook Air is still every bit special in a flattering way."
This may have worked in their favor somewhat since they could easily pop in a newer, smaller, more energy efficient, faster and more powerful CPU easily. Besides Intel's Core 2 isn't all that bad even at a slower clock rate, well at least running OS X. ;-)

>>The battery isn't removable:
Read that again. Check the MacBook Air tech specs page to verify it. Yep. That's right: You can't even cart two batteries with you when you travel, or upgrade a failing battery yourself. In this way, the MacBook Air is really a Frankenstein-like middle ground between a true notebook and an iPhone smart phone. As Steven Parker notes over at Neowin, what's going to happen to MacBook Air users when they run out of power less than half-way across the Atlantic? I hope they brought a paperback with them. Or a real computer.<<
I agree that you can't change it on the fly. However, you can change it yourself and quite easily, from what I've read & seen on the video before they pulled it offline. Paris Hilton might pass on trying that but who cares she can find any straight guy or gay gal to do it for her! LOL This was a really dumb quote though he posted but didn't actually say: " what's going to happen to MacBook Air users when they run out of power less than half-way across the Atlantic? I hope they brought a paperback with them. Or a real computer." Doe!! Fork down $50 smackers and get the Airline Adaptor! If you're on a boat plug it in with the "included" ac adaptor.
From the MBA accessory page:
Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter
With a MagSafe Airline Adapter, you?ll never again worry about losing power while on long flights. Just plug it into your airline seat power port and keep your MacBook Air powered up for the entire journey. $49.00
As we all know, except this guy it seems, is that there are more 3rd party iPod, iPhone, Apple & Mac accessories out there for all of their products than probably any other manufacturer, bar none! They can come up with some really cool stuff and they usually come to Apple's aid it seems, in the nick of time if needed. ;-) I've seen those portable rechargers for cell phones and iPods alike so I can bet soon enough there will be an external battery pack that's color matched, style matched and made to fit on the bottom of it almost to where it's not even noticeable except it might add several ounces or a pound. Plus, they'll probably add extra powered USB ports among other easy add ons. If not, they'll have a stylish but light and portable recharger battery pack to give it a boost, full recharge or add more up time. Here's one of many for the iPhone & it's one of the better ones with an "extra" 24 hours of iPhone talk time! Plus a belt clip, led flashlight & more, for only $99 greenbacks: http://fastmac.com/iv.php Here's another for $50 but it's just a battery nothing extra but not too bad. Out of the box you could criticize the MBA but I'd also bet that within a year or two you'll be able to get a higher capacity battery to replace the original one.

>>There's no Ethernet: [Only 1 USB Port]
The MacBook Air comes with no built-in Ethernet port, which is just astonishing given how unsafe even secure wireless networks are today. While you can purchase a USB-based Ethernet adapter for $29, that adapter will then occupying the one and only USB port on the device.<<
Ok then, many whiners, like eh, this guy for example, cry not enough USB ports! Man, USB hubs are like a dime a dozen, almost, nowadays! LOL WTBFD?! Has he been living under a rock somewhere's? ;-)

>>Yet another power adapter:
Yep, Apple has introduced yet another version of its MacBook/MacBook Pro power adapter in order to accommodate the thinner-than-necessary (see below) MacBook Air. Hope you weren't intending to reuse any of your existing equipment.<<
Hmm, makes no sense to me since almost every electronic device I've owned even if they were of the same manufacturer use different ac adaptors! Especially if they've been redesigned or a new and different model. The MBA falls into the last two there no problemo.

>>It's thin to no good end: [ His & my 2 cents]
While there are already a number of ultra-portable machines in the MacBook Air's weight class (3 pounds), most of them exceed Apple's device in ways that are meaningful. They have Ethernet ports, for example. More than one USB port. A docking station for a hardware "slice" that adds more battery and an optical drive. And so on. With the MacBook Air, less really is less, and in this case at least, Apple's (Jobs') penchant for tiny, elegant hardware is getting in the way of functionality in a way that makes the product inherently less useful to users. This device swings way too far into "form over function" territory.
Overall, what this says to me is that the MacBook Air is a must-miss, the portable version of the G4 Cube that flopped almost a decade ago. I have little doubt that Apple will improve this design over the years with a pop-out Ethernet port and other improvements, and will move Air features like the multi-touch track pad (and likely the overall swoopy design) to its more mainstream MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks. But Gen 1 is a miss. Avoid it. Published Jan 16 2008, 08:18 AM by pthurrott Filed under: Mac<<
The MacBook Air is not the best choice if you need everything that it's missing onboard in one package. In reality, I don't think it was designed to replace anything and that's the biggest misconception I see from everyone online that can post or say anything overly negative about it. I do believe it's about time that we again push computing technology to near limits and Apple has been near the cutting edge to do it. Case in point iPhone and the new MBA. However, with their new partner in crime, Intel, and the new, it seems, leaps in miniaturizing powerful CPU technology too, things are a brewing and actually coming to life! At least at Apple! ;-) I read that something like this or even the iPhone a short year or two ago would've only been a design concept and never seen the light of day from anyone else. Why? It needs to be designed to be an actual production unit able to take real life customer abuse from the get go. 'Well, even though they didn't invent it you'd have to give him a little credit on eliminating some old legacy I/O ports, floppy disc drives and introduced USB as the new kid on the block with the 1st gen iMac. ;-) Time will tell and I think it will do well but not rock the world except on style, awe, and it's cool factor. Like the iPhone this is hardware version 1.0 when 2.0 or 3.0 comes out then we'll see what's really going to happen in the future. ;-)

Will it happen? Hmm, I dunno for sure but I'm gonna give it a try! LOL ;-) So what's on the agenda so far? I'm probably gonna make a stab at a Mac Podcast and called Uncle Mac/Uncle Mac HQ or sumptin' like dat! ;-) I may snatch a dot com to but unclemac.com is already taken so I'll most likely go for unclemachq.com in spite of some minor protests. Ha-Ha! ;-) I've got time now to devote some of it to a little project like Uncle Mac HQ or whatever so it's a good idea to get those gears of imagination turning! Hmm, an old TV show comes to mind, The Man From Uncle and U.N.C.L.E. stood for something? Maybe I or we can come up with a Mac-ish version of that? :-)
Anything else in store for 2K8 for U.M.? Since it's now only hours away I can only say that maybe this will be the beginning of a great new year for everyone and yes, even Uncle Mac. ;-)
Here's a link to the Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_U.N.C.L.E.

I'm contemplating the thought of starting an Uncle Mac Podcast. I've got everything I need and that's just a MacBook w/GarageBand! LOL I've got some free time now to do so especially after having surgery on my foot last month I just need to outline a format which isn't all that hard to do and get busy with the content. I'd like to know your opinions on the subject and any suggestions would be welcomed. You can post them here on the blog page, as a comment, send me a message here or directly to unclemachq@mac.com If all goes well and it's doesn't sound too corny I might even submit it to iTunes. ;-) I toyed around with it a month or two ago and I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the quality of the built in mic so I might just give it a try. I'm not going to try a video Podcast or vidcast although in the future I might consider it since I've heard of many success stories like Geekbrieftv where they started small and within 5 months they were able to quit their day jobs!
Check 'em out at: http://www.geekbrief.tv/
Later!