Apple OS X for Everyone?

Ever since Apple released the OS X Operating System, I have been speculating that they were probably working in secret on a version that will work on any Intel based platform. Little did I know that this speculation would come true in 2005 when Steve Jobs confirmed it. The only part of my speculation that was incorrect, was that OS X would only run on Apple Intel based machines.

Then I started to ponder why Apple wouldn't want to make OS X available to everyone. Sure there would be a lot of people who would jump at the chance to run an operating system other than Windows on their machines. I would be one of the very first people to do it!

One reason (and a good reason) is that Apple is a hardware manufacturer. They just also happen to make a really awesome operating system that complements the hardware very nicely! Apple makes the BMW and Mercedes of computers whereas the PC market is full of Kia's, Hundai's, and Daewoo's basically. Based on articles I have read, approximately 50% of Apple's revenue is generated by their hardware. I wouldn't want to take a 50% cut in my salary, would you? Not even a person making $50 million per year would want to take a pay cut!

Another good reason is that the OS X operating system would be a larger target to people who create viruses, worms, etc. I'm sure OS X has it's share of vunerabilities; however with Microsoft Windows being the top dog in the operating system world, everyone wants to "stick it to the man", and that man is Bill Gates.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Windows operating system. Well, I guess you could say it's a love/hate relationship. All of the computers I own are Windows based (with the exception of one week period where I actually owned an iMac before returning it to the Apple Store the following week).

I like the Mac, and I love the OS X operating system. If I could afford a new computer right about now, I would probably purchase a high end MAC. But I cannot afford a new computer at this time, so the only thing I can do is hope and pray that the all mighty Steve Jobs decides to take a bigger step and release OS X for all to enjoy.

Comments Back Online

There was a problem with the way I had the comments feature configured so nobody was able to post any comments. I fixed it this morning; however I have not yet been able to test it yet (I am writing this entry via my Treo).

The comments are currently moderated for now so I can monitor the SPAM that I have seen on other people's blogs.

Grilled Turkey?

Have you ever cooked a turkey on a BBQ grill? My wife has mastered the art of grilling a turkey on the BBQ grill. It only takes two hours to cook, it is very juicy through and through, and it looks like this:

Weber - The offical grill of The Carnivores!

The Great Game

"Programming is the Great Game. It consumes you, body and soul. When you're caught up in it, nothing else matters. When you emerge into daylight, you may discover that you're a hundred pounds overweight, your underwear is older than the average first grader, and judging from the number of pizza boxes lying around, it might be spring already. But you don't care, because your program runs, and the code is fast, clever, and tight. You won."

- Orson Scott Card

Super Michael

My youngest son Michael (16 months old) never ceases to amaze me.

Since the day he was born, he has had one health problem after another. I will not go into the specifics of the problems. Some were life threatening or serious, and others were not. The people who need to know about them already know about it. Every time we take care of one problem, another one pops up. I am amazed that my wife and I are able to stay sane with everything that has happened to date! Every time something happens to him, it breaks my heart to have to see a child so young and innocent go through something like this. Now I know what my parents went through whenever my sister and I had gotten sick.

The thing that amazes me about him is that despite all of the health problems, he is always happy and laughing. Even though these things that have happened to him stress us out beyond all belief, I am glad they are happening to him now rather than when he gets older. I have read somewhere that children do not remember anything before the age of three. I can actually remember events that have happened to me back when I was between three and four years old, but nothing prior to that as well.

New Poll

I created a poll that can be found on the sidebar of my blog.

Please take a moment to cast your vote!

My Addiction

I have been playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) for several years now.

Star Wars Galaxies was my first experience in the MMORPG genre, and me being a big fan of the Star Wars saga, I was completely addicted! As time went on, Sony Online Entertainment was not putting in the content that everyone wanted to see, and they were making the ability to become a Jedi harder and harder to the point where people were just grinding out every profession possible just to find out that it did not open their force sensitive slot that allowed them to create a Jedi.

Eventually, the rest of my friends and co-workers who played the game along with myself jumped ship and moved over to play Everquest. For me the graphics were not as great as Star Wars Galaxies, but the game was five years old! I played Everquest for a while and then eventually dropped it because I just could not get into the game like I did with Star Wars Galaxies.

When Everquest II was released, I was completely hooked with this game! The graphics were incredible! I played this for several months and after a while, some of us moved away from this game and over to my latest addiction.

That addiction is World of Warcraft. This game is so much fun to play, and it has been keeping me up late several nights a week. Here is a list of my characters on the Dalaran server:

Alliance:

• BigLou - Human Paladin
• Karzak - Night Elf Druid
• FatherDave - Dwarf Priest

Horde:

• Karzik - Undead Mage

If you have a character on the Dalaran server, look me up and drop me a message!

Top 10 replies by developers when their programs don't work.

I'm not exactly sure where they came from, but being a developer myself, these are pretty funny and true. I know that I have used at least one of them on occasion.

Top 10 replies by developers when their programs don't work.

10. "That's weird..."
9. "It's never done that before."
8. "It worked yesterday."
7. "You must have the wrong version."
6. "It works, but it hasn't been tested."
5. "Somebody must have changed my code."
4. "Did you check for a virus?"
3. "Where were you when the program blew up?"
2. "Why do you want to do it that way?"
1. "I thought I fixed that."

My Career of Choice

My career of choice is Information Technology.

I am a Sr. Systems Programmer with a Fortune 100 company where I have been employed for over 16 years.

I began working for the company back in 1989 in an entry level position. I was a member of the Mainframe Operations department as a Peripheral Operator. My responsibilities were loading tapes into the tape drives and taking care of the several print jobs that would be produced each day. The pay was not the best in the world, and I was forced to work second shift (3PM-11PM) but I was just happy to have a job, and I really did not mind the work.

After approximately six months, I moved over as the Tape Librarian where I was responsible for maintaining all of the mainframe tapes within the library, shipping tapes to the programmers who requested them, as well as shipping tapes to offsite backup facilities. I was still on second shift, but the job change was nice.

Six months later, I moved out of the cold and noisy computer room, and over to the Help Desk, where I still remained on second shift. I was responsible for handling calls from users all throughout the world having difficulties accessing the several computer systems we had.

In 1993, I was promoted to management as a Systems Analyst where I performed second level support for the Help Desk supporing various DOS and OS/2 applications. This meant two very important things to me. The first one was getting paid a lot more money for doing something I enjoy, and it also meant NO MORE SECOND SHIFT! I was thrilled to finally be moved over to the day shift (8AM-5PM). It did take me quite a while to adjust after working those hours for over three years. We did provide 24x5 coverage on site (weekends were beeper support); however we rotated those shifts to where you only had to work 3rd shift every two years, and 2nd shift was one week out of every few months.

In 1995 I was transferred to the Systems Programming group. Here I have been responsible for creating automated installations for IBM OS/2, and Microsoft Windows, as well as developing software products for internal use.

I have written scripts and applications in the following programming languages:

• REXX
• VBScript
• JavaScript
• Pascal
• C
• C++
• ASP
• Visual Basic
• Visual Basic .NET
• ASP.NET
• C#

I am still working in this position to date (10+ years) and I still enjoy it!

All About Me

Welcome to my little slice of the internet pie!

My name is Dennis, and I live in the wonderful <cough> state of New Jersey. I have lived here all my life with the exception of a 1 year hiatus in Harriman, New York.

I was married in 1996 to my wife Ramona, and we have two sons, Anthony (4 years old), and Michael (16 months old).

I am a computer programmer by trade, which I will explain more in my next blog entry.

I am a fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, as well as other things that fall under the SciFi genre.

Rock is my primary choice of music; however I like all types of music with the exception of the old-time "cry in your beer" country music.

My favorite band is RUSH.