On Sunday night, I passed my 2nd Apple Certified Associate certification test. This one was for iWork 09. A few weeks ago, I passed the test for iLife 09.
While these certs aren’t a big deal, they did allow me to learn more about the Apple software, and I gained much bigger appreciation for iWork, which I had not used until I began studying for the test. iLife is a good suite as well, but I don’t see myself really using anything more than iPhoto and iMovie. Continue reading
If you’ve spent any time reading through my blog or profiles at Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve become quite fond of my Mac and OS X. On September 27, 2008 one day before OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” was released, and less than one year from when I first started using a Mac I obtained a Apple Certification. That’s right, I am now an Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) 10.5. I’m also looking at becoming an Apple Certified Associate for both iLife ’09 and iWork ’09, as well as following up my ACSP 10.5 with the 10.6 which should be available in a few months.
Where to after that? I’m planning on obtaining the CompTIA Linux+ and Network+, and at least one of the Microsoft SQL Server certifications. Obtaining all three of those will help save me about $6,000 if I go back to school, which is something I am looking into for next year. I am already a Microsoft Certified Professional for Windows 2000 Pro as well as a A+ Certified Technician. I would also like to continue my Apple certifications with the Apple Certified Coordinator, Apple Certified Technical Specialist, and Apple Certified Systems Administrator.
What does this mean for me? No, I don’t get any kind of discounts at the Apple Store (I wish!!). It just shows that I know a bit about OS X. It’ll help me should I apply for a job with Apple or at a company that uses Apple products. I learned quite a bit while studying, and will hopefully be able to help support someone. 
Who knows, maybe one day you’ll see OverclockersClub.com open a Apple related website.
Came home this afternoon, and my Windows Vista system was sitting on a screen everyone loves to see. No, not the BSOD, but rather the boot disk failure screen. Yippie.
After a few reboots, the system came back online for a while. Though I did notice an odd sound coming from the system. Upon further inspection, I was able to narrow it down to one of two hard disks. And about that time, the system crashed again. Grrr.
Disconnected the FUBAR disk, disabled the RAID in the BIOS, and now Windows has been reinstalled and is downloading the available updates. I reckon a 2x 500GB setup was a bit overkill for a system that did nothing more than sit and run Folding@Home. I do have to hand it to Microsoft, Windows Vista does feel like it installs much faster than XP. Granted, it’s been ages since I’ve done a full install of XP.
Yesterday afternoon Microsoft released the much discussed Xbox 360 fall update which contained a major overhaul to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Dubbed Xbox Experience (or NXE), the new dashboard operates much faster, but takes some adjusting as it is drastically different.
With the new update users now have the ability to create cartoony “avatars” (very similar to Miis on the Nintendo Mii). Hopefully they’ll be some more customization options added later on (and hopefully they wont cost MS points).
Probably the biggest thing is the addition of Netflix. That’s right, you can now stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox 360, provided of course that you have a Netflix membership. This might just cause me to renew my membership. 
One last thing that I’m happy to see is that you can now “install” Xbox 360 games to the hard drive. I’ve not tried it out yet, but it’ll be nice to not have to swap out disk to play games.
On the downside, since updating to the NXE I’ve had some major problems with my system just freezing up. Granted, I did just get my system back from Microsoft after a RRoD so this may be pure concidence. However, some folks over at Neowin are also reporting freezing during games or while on the dashboard. Anyone else having problems?
Feel free to friend me on Xbox Live. As you’d probably expect, I use the gamertag “d3bruts1d“.
Early this morning, I received an email from the Microsoft XBox repair shop. Thankfully, the subject of the email made since, or I might have suspected the email from Xbox_ AOC Web EN (XBOX_.HARD.NA.00.EN.000.000.TS.T01.SPT.00.WB@css.one.microsoft.com) to be spam. Seriously, what’s up with the email address?? Was repair-services@microsoft.com already taken??
The email states that my XBox 360 has been received by the service center. Good news indeed, as the UPS tracking number I had showed that the package was delivered on 11/07/08 @ 3:45 pm. Following the link included in the email, I’m taking back to the XBox “repair status” website, which shows that not only has it been received, but repaired and reshipped. I even have a new UPS tracking number that indicates it is on its way back to me.
While I applaud Microsoft with the quick turn around time for fixing my XBox, clearly their notification system needs some tweaking.