Davis Farris

Along with the New Year of 2009 comes great excitement.  There is much going on all over the world.  In the US we have many events, not all being technologicaly related.  In January alone we have the MacWorld Expo that happened today and a new president will be sworn into office within the next few weeks. 

As I have heard from some of my friends one of the "geeky" New Year resolutions is to get organized on your computer.  That is what I am going to do.  Along with getting organized I am going to start blogging more.  I already have a few ideas of what to blog about.  

Stay tuned for there is more to come this week and the weeks following.  

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.

After checking out Revision3's new site Revision3 Beta, I have found some new video podcasts that some of you all may like. Revision3 is striving for ideas that will help the next generation of Internet Television. By creating this site they are asking producers of their own internet television show to upload their videos. They want the new internet shows to expand and become larger. What a great idea!
One Internet Television show is called 'Bottles Blends and Brews'. The hosts Dana Schuermann and Zack Luye try many different beverages and products and rate them. A few of their videos include reviews on Ski (by Double-Cola), Dr. Pepper, various teas, and even How To or DIY drinks. This is their latest episode.

Regardless, the internet is changing how we do things. From voice and video communication to email to television. The internet is growing fast and Revision3 is on top of things. They are ready to go and have begun the Internet Television revolution.

I was surfing Vimeo the other day and found this really inspiring clip of an older man.  Watch it.  I know you will be inspired to live your life better and to stay healthy.

The World's Oldest Lifesaver from Brett Clements on Vimeo.