Gotta hand one to Mac

I picked up a used Macbook Pro to play with. Basically didn't have any REAL plans for it. Might use it to do some web Dev stuff, iTunes jukebox, etc. I found a decent sale on a new version of Parallels so I picked it up as well to play around with some virtual machines...just a toy really.
Loaded up Parallels yesterday and started poking around. They have a tool called "Parallels Transporter" that will create a virtual machine from a existing machine. NICE. I had a bunch of tools for Dev loaded on a Acer laptop that I rotated out of use a while back. Fired that bad boy up, updated Windows, and ran the transporter client. Went to the Mac and started the conversion/copy process over. It took FOREVER, but...it was a 70 gig image so, I expected it to take a while. Once it was finished and converted to Parallels, it ROCKS. I now have a virtual clone of my webdev workhorse.
I've never been a Mac fan, too much coin for their hardware, too pripriatory, too niche market, but I have to admit, while I'm not becoming a fanboy by ANY stretch..I'm liking it more and more.

Update to my MS Financing post

Believe it or not, Ive gotten a few responses from MS Financing after the email I sent them. Looks like there was a problem...somewhere that dis approved over 50% of their partners.
Perhaps this mess will get straightened out after all.
Doesn't help the sell I lost though...when someone is on a time table and you cant deliver...they go elsewhere.

Ahhh the joys of being a Microsoft Partner

Donelson Computers is basically a one man show. Me...that's it. I'm the guy that answers the phone, runs the service calls, does the marketing, takes out the trash, everything...with the exception of some of the filing. My wife helps me keep the paperwork straight. That's the way I like it. Simple chain of command, my clients know who's coming out. Right or wrong, that's the way it is. It's been working very well for me...until I decided to get tangled up with Microsoft Financing.
I am a Registered Microsoft Partner,..and I WAS planning on moving up another level, and adding the Small Business Specialist to my resume. As it stands right now I don't see the need.
I have a existing client looking to open a new business. Like any new business, money is an issue. I suggested Microsoft Financing...like a good little partner and proceed to convince them to give it a try. I make the 30 minute trip out to their site, at MS Financing suggestion to submit the application online to speed up the process. I find out that being a registered MS partner doesn't get you into MS Financing so OK, I sign up for that as well. Submit my clients application and go away happy that we've gotten everything taken care of.

NOT SO FAST THERE SPARKY

I check on the status of the application a few hours later,...I don't have access to that part of the website. OK, no problem. I call in to see what's up. They can't find my client app, but everything looks good on that partner end...they don't know what I don't have full access, but put in the client app again and all will be OK. So...I do as they suggest for the second time Monday rolls around and still no access to check the status of my client apps. I call them again. Yep...the app is there, but it denied due to no business history. Ok...I can even understand that.
Call the client, they so ..fine run it under the parent company..so I do. Again with the no access to the site to check status, but I can enter apps all day long...sigh...back to the phones I go.

NO...NOT YOURS
Call MS Financing up and you'll talk to very nice people. Very cheerful...you can hear the smile in their voice...as they tell you they can't find any apps under your clients name...again. I ask them, what's up with my access to the rest of the site? Well..they don't know but they'll check into that very thing for me and let me know. In the mean time, just enter that client application again and let's get that taken care of. So again...drinking for the MS Kool-Aid off I go entering in my client information. I had to make a run down the street for a bit so I waited a good hour to call them back.. you know...just in case.
Well to keep from giving myself hand cramps (and because I'm still pissed off) I'll cut to the chase. Because I'm a Sole Proprietor I don't have a listing with the Secretary of State so according to Microsoft I'm not able to be a partner with MS Financing. What that has to do with anything they couldn't really tell me. Guess my small deals are too much of a bother for them to deal with. So...because I'm a small business my clients aren't able to "take advantage" of the chance to pay MS Financing 13.70$% interest. Oh...but they'll be MORE than happy to take my $300.00 every damn year for my Action Pack, they want me to travel all over the place and spend butt loads of money going to Microsoft conferences. I'd bet they'd welcome me to pay them tons of money to upgrade my partner status...or to certify in one thing or another.
Too bad I wasted my time AND my clients time chasing this dead fish.
Thanks Microsoft...way to help out your smaller partners.

Week in review

Been a rather busy week. I was booked out pretty much every day. No complaints there. I closed a nice home network install in Clarksville thanks to Terry at Dream Theater. Hes building a HUGE home theater/home automation system and needed my help to get the computers, home theater and the other stuff talking to each other. The wife and I also celebrated our 10 wedding anniversary this week. The new standard for a 10 year anniversary is roofing shingles :-)

Don Kennedy Roofing showed up this week and installed our new roof and gutters on the house. Looks MUCH better, and the wood wasn't as bad as we though. We did run into a problem with the Dish service. The roofers had to remove the dish to install shingles. The re installed the dish RIGHT back in the same place, but no signal. I called Dish and was told...pay for service or crawl up there with a compass and go for it. I tried the compass thing...no dice. No matter what we did...nothing. Now...I'm not a complete moron...222 degrees is just that. Called them back and they were pretty dismissive. The 2nd call center person (I won't call them a tech...that's insulting to techs) huffed like we were bothering her so I ended the call in mid sentence. Called Comcast and got a pretty good deal on a 2 tuner DVR and installation. Called Dish back to cancel our service and all of a sudden we were offered a free dual tuner dvr, free installation of that and re-installation of our dish in a different location. I told the retention guy "funny...if your other call reps were that helpful we wouldn't be having this conversation"
The thing that sucks is now we have NO television at all...except for the rabbit ears I hooked into my Macbok through the Eye TV interface. We don't have anything else in the house with a tuner built in. Comcast won't be here until Tuesday....all weekend...no real tv. Forza2 here I come
Oh well...the new roof looks better without the dish on it anyway. Another thing...they sold us two dishes to get the "all the channels" well...the one dish that didn't get touched was still working. We got all kinds of good stuff like the Pentagon Channel...the Heath and Human Services channel...crap like that. It was like what I think of in China or Cuba. Nothing but government supplied entertainment.

Don't let this happen to you

Another reason to use somone you trust to fix your computers

Week Two

Nothing really new to report. I didn't have much downtime this week to use for Mac training. Good news is I ws BUSY with clients all week...that's what pays the bills!

I'm currently trying to get all my Outlook info exported over into a Mac readable format using O2M (Outlook to Mac I guess) from Little Machines. I'll report back on how that worked out later. I also picked up Office for the Mac and downloaded the IDisc utility for the XP machine to try out the .Mac features before my demo runs out.

All in all this week the Mac has been a jukebox more than a computer. With the way the Mac runs/works with iTunes it's only natural to use the heck out of it.

powered by performancing firefox

1st week with the Mac

Well...the first week is down....so far so good. I don't see what all the fuss is about though. I still find myself using my PCs for general day to day stuff. I haven't figured out the Mac/XP printer sharing yet...but I haven't really dug into it very much more. I do wish Msn Messenger would have enabled video sharing on the Mac release...but Billy Bob doesn't want to make it too easy for the "other" platform to share in all the cool toys in his toybox.



The Mac now has all my iTunes on it. the latest version of iTunes never did run very well on my desktop anyway. OSX is slick...I'll give 'em that. The MacBook is much easier to tote around the house than my Acer 9410 laptop...but the Acer sports a 17 inch widescreen so it's a decent trade-off. The sound quality on the MacBook is head and shoulders above the Acers I've got.



I have kept myself out of my XP install in Parallels..I'm trying to get the full Mac experience.



We picked up my wife a iPod Shuffle Sat at Wally World. She never really saw what the big deal was....now 40.00 later she's been downloading everything she could think of and jamming out around the house.

powered by performancing firefox