Davis Farris

Most tech people have heard about the new AT&T wifi at Statbucks. I was very excited about this. I stopped going to Starbucks because if I wanted to use the Internet I would have to pay $10. Yea, not worth it.
The otherday I was in McDonald's drive-thru and I decided to get on my iPhone as they were taking a while. And what do you know, I left my battery eating wifi on. I was excited to see that McDonald's had the free AT&T wifi. Hopefully this means that more than just McDonald's and Starbucks have this service.

For you iphone users:
To log on you are directed to a special page that you enter your 10 digit phone number. You are then sent a text messages (no charges apply for that text) with a link to the Internet.

For all you non-iPhone users:
Good luck. I have not tried this with anything other than my iPhone. If you have please comment back on the process.

Everyone that uses the internet regularly for entertainment or even for news has come across the YouTube hit Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday. I thought it was funny the first time I watched it but know it is kind of boring. I give him credit creating these songs and posting them on YouTube but by no means is he an internet celebrity, which he thinks he is.

One of my friends showed me this video on YouTube. John Mayer inspires me to become a better musician and I couldn't help share one of my favorite musicians feelings on a song when we share that same view. Be sure you have watched at least a few minutes of the original Chocolate Rain.

Enjoy.

After moving into my dorm room at Murray State University I knew right away that I was going to be cramped for space. There was no possible way to fit all of my computer hardware on the tiny 28"x22" desk. I have a 17" monitor, my MacBook, my speakers, my 2 external hard drives, my mighty mouse and mouse pad and my keyboard (I decided to leave out the printer). If you can imagine the little 4 sq. ft I have filled up fast.

I was searching for a way to free up some space on my desk but couldn't find a price friendly option that I actually liked. Every time I went to Griffin's site their product, the Elevator, was backordered. I thought either the Elevator wasn't very good and they were going to discontinue it or the Elevator was great and they didn't have enough supply for demand. About 4 weeks ago I was on their site looking at some new products I heard about and guess what was in stock. You guessed it! The Elevator. I got it right away. I decided to review it on it's quality, it's value, and it's features.

Quality

The frame is made of brushed aluminum and plastic. Both the aluminum and the plastic look great together. The aluminum fits snugly into the plastic crossbar at the front meaning that the Elevator is very sturdy. Not only is the Elevator sturdy, it is also very resilient. I give this 5 out of 5 stars for quality.

Value

For $40 this is a fairly pricy piece of equipment. Because of its great construction and great features I can't hound to much on the cost. If this product was priced at $30 I would be sure to give it 5 stars but because of the price I am going to have to give it 4 out of 5 stars for value.

Features

At first I was a little worried placing my Mac on top of the Elevator. I wasn't sure if it would slide off or if it would even fit on top. The Elevator is equipped with rubber on the arms that hold your computer. This rubber holds on to the bottom of your computer almost as if it was duct tape. There are also rubber grips on the bottom of the Elevator so it won't slip around the surface of the desk. This is very important as well.

Another thing I was worried about was if I was going to have any room underneath my computer to put some of the clutter that sat on top of my desk. There was enough room for me to put my external hard drives, but barely. the Elevator raises my computer 5.5". If it had raised it 6" than I would be more than happy but the 1/2" that is missing would really come in handy. But because of the raise there is 360 degrees of air circulation around your computer. This keeps your computer cooler and allows it to run more proficiently.

According to Healthycomputing.com the Elevator is the perfect ergonomic solution. It keeps the computer monitor the recommended arms length away from your eyes and also raises up the monitor even with your eyes. How much better can it get?

The Elevator is a very handy tool to have around with many features. Because of the height issue I am going to give the Elevator 4.5 out of 5 stars for features.

Overview

The Elevator has superior construction to anything in its class. But you pay for that superior construction with the price. But who cares about the price when you have as many features as this thing does, right? I would say that this would be a much better solution that purchasing a new desk because you need more room. The average rating for this product is 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The are many commands you can use on your Mac.  A few examples are ⌘O or open, ⌘W or close window and ⌘Q or quit.  There are many more but these are just a few of the most common commands.  

An artist by the name of Christopher David Ryan has taken these commands to a new level.  Chris is a graphic artist based out of Brooklyn, New York.  He has a single-man design studio called Atmostheory.  He also has a personal site that can be found here.  

Chris takes the commands of an Mac and uses them in his work.  ⌘W and ⌘O respectively mean close and open and can be viewed in the first picture.  The second picture uses ⌘C and ⌘N which mean copy and new.

He has taken basic commands and created inspirational art from them.  It is amazing what some artists can do.  There is one more print beside these two pictured here.  You can find them all at My Little Underground.

It is amazing what you can do with an ⌘O mind.

This is my official entry for the Carmex, Share the Tingle contest.  It is a little rough.  I ran out of time so please don't be to harsh.  I originally planned on filming it at home and then once I moved down to Murray I had to change up a lot of the details.  That made it really hard and because of the time crunch I had to settle with some shots I didn't really like.  Don't expect too much.  I am open to all suggestions.

(shot with a Pentax point and shoot camera)