My first flower photo

I just picked up my first SLR camera (Nikon D40x), and I've been playing around with it. I've just spent the last week reading, looking and researching the world of photography. So, lame or not, I thought I'd throw my first flower photo out there.

I picked the flower up for my wife at Dragon*Con, and took the photo against a wall painted a sage-ish color.

I blame you, Mac fanboys!

I purchased my Macbook Pro in October. I had four weeks of bliss, then I installed Leopard. Stupid mistake. All I can think is that there are two possible explanations for the problems I've been having:

1. Apple made the biggest blunder in computing history by releasing Leopard. It's feature dry and has crashed on me countless times.

2. Mac fanboys have been lying to us all for years now. There is a conspiracy to cover up any and all mistakes that Apple makes.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not comparing Apple's blunder(s) to anything on the scale of Microsoft's blunders. Microsoft have certainly released OS's with fewer enhancements (Windows ME) and OSs with many more bugs (OK, well every OS release from MS has been buggier than what I'm currently experiencing). However, my expectations for Apple have been raised. I had been convinced that Apple can do no wrong.

For those curious, here are some of the problems I've experienced with the upgrade:
* Printing orientation
* Lock-ups
* Keyboard stops working
* Mouse stops working
* Networked drive drop-outs
* Standby irregularities

So, I'd like the Apple community to face facts: Don't hide the imperfections. Face the facts. Apple isn't perfect, it's just the best option there is.

New is cool

I like change. Always have. So in the past year, my primary OS has changed from XP to Ubuntu at the beginning of the year, and again to OS X at the end. Both were great steps forward.

Having said that, why is it that I always overlook the simplest solutions when I encounter a problem? Today I spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to change my friend's VPN on OS X from L2TP to PPTP. And I knew it was a simple solution, I just didn't see it staring me in the face.

I ended up finding the clue on some semi-related documentation about fixing a broken VPN - when in the Internet Connect, click File / New VPN Connection.

Why didn't I see this? I'm a programmer - have been so for almost 20 years, and I miss the simplest user interface solutions. With the Mac, I'm just not used to the menu being at the top of the screen. I like it, and it makes sense, but I totally forgot to look up.

This is not new. I frequently find myself overlooking the simple when searching for an answer, especially when GUIs are involved.

Meh. I'll get over it.