NSLog();

Uhm, okay.

Well, that didn't take long. True to form, once I began investigating water softeners, I spent a LOT of time researching, obsessing, and becoming as knowledgeable as I could.

In the end, after speaking with Bill Cook at CAI Technologies, I have decided to buy a water softener myself and have it installed by a local plumber.

I went with the Fleck 5000SXT valve with a 32,000 grain resin tank. I'm told that in my use it should re-generate every 7-8 days.

Fleck valves seem to be well known and highly regarded, and the salt tanks are just tanks - some people literally use plastic garbage cans. Aside from working with the plumber to perhaps deliver non-softened water to an external spigot or two, I'm pretty much set and feel I've made a good decision.

Installation should be around $300.

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For years our dishes have been slowly getting cloudy, our shower heads have been getting deposits on them, and we haven't gotten a good lather from shampoos or soaps.

Suffice to say we're looking into a water softener.

Going rates seem to be about $2200 installed, and $15 every two months or so for salts. Does that sound about right?

We've had a Culligan guy out, and a RainSoft guy is coming soon ((I'm not letting him put on a three-hour show - he's got 30 minutes, tops.)). The Culligan guy recommended a "Gold Series" model. It seems okay.

I think what I should do next is call a plumber or two and see what they recommend.

We'll be here for awhile, so we're not considering renting.

Anyone with any experience?

I wonder if you could find an online Terry Tate to sack people remotely. That sounds like a good business model: "Send-a-Sack". You can remotely "send a sack" to a deserving individual for $29.95, or send up to five per month with a monthly subscription cost of $99.95. Maybe even a "Super Sacker" plan: one sack a day for $599.95. You'd make millions!

#leaveyourlegacy from Hooded Trees on Vimeo.

New plan: Buy a Mac Pro that's Mountain Lion compatible, run it for a year or so, and see what the "new" Mac Pros are like.

After all, I like my current setup just fine, and since I am not sure which way to go, I'll just defer.

It's a bit of money to spend on a stopgap, but it beats spending even more on 408-day-old iMac or getting an underpowered laptop that can't hold very much data.

If you have an old(er) Mac Pro capable of running Mountain Lion ((I can buy RAM, and I don't need any hard disks.)) that you're looking to sell, let me know. Thanks.

I currently have four 3 TB drives.

1. Peter contains my OS, home folder, etc. It is 1.1 TB currently.
2. Harvey contains my Aperture vault, iMovie Events/Projects, and my Video folder (ripped DVDs and old home movies). It takes up 1.7 TB.
3. Mimzy is my Time Machine drive, so it's basically full.
4. Roger is a clone of Peter, so 1.07 TB.

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I want to first thank everyone who has offered their help and guidance. I really, really appreciate your time and patience, and the sharing of opinions. It probably isn't fun for you, so I'm really glad that you take time out to help me.

I'm still trying to decide whether to get a MacBook Pro or an iMac to replace my 2006 Mac Pro. Last night I was almost dead set on getting a MacBook Pro, but today the iMac is making a comeback.

The iMac has a few things going for it. First, it's less expensive. It includes the display. I can get it with a 2 TB internal drive (I could replace it with one of my 3 TB drives, too). It comes with up to a 3.4 GHz i7 while the MBPR comes with only a 2.7 GHz i7. It can take up to 32 GB of RAM instead of 16.

But the iMac is also 406 days old and I hate buying "old" tech.

With the MBPR, I'll spend a bit more money, but everyone in the house gets an updated computer and I'll have just one to use all the time - no more switching stuff around. My music library would fit comfortably, but it's 280 GB largely due to the movies (almost all free ones) that I've downloaded, which take up space. I could delete them. Nothing says I have to keep them inside of the iTunes library. My home drive is 1.07 TB currently, but my Pictures folder (Aperture Libraries, iPhoto Library) is 360 GB of that.

More in the rest of the entry…

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The Mac Pro option I mentioned in my previous post is either very close to having left or is on its way towards the door. I do not think the Mac Pro is going to be updated anymore, and I think the new models David Pogue was referring to are the iMacs. I think the Mac Pro is done.

I'm currently thinking this will work fairly well:

• MacBook Retina (768 GB SSD)
• 27" Display
• 2 x Pegasus 4, 6, or 8 TB Thunderbolt
• Drobo with 4 x 3 TB drives (10 TB actual space, somehow) for offsite backup.

Pegasus 1 would contain the "extra" data (music, photos, videos) that I wouldn't bother to keep on the MBP's SSD drive. The second unit would be my Time Machine backup of the SSD and the first unit. Offsite backup would be the Drobo ((I'm not sure how the thing gets 10.91 TB when it's barely got that much actual storage. I thought you lost space due to the redundancy?)) once every couple of weeks.

The kid and the wife should like this plan, as they'll each get an upgrade as well.

What do y'all think?

P.S. The Cinema Display has built-in speakers? Hmmm. I might have to finally say goodbye to my Soundsticks?

Today Apple announced three new MacBook models. They showed new details of Mac OS X 10.8 ("Mountain Lion"), due in July. They showed some awesome new stuff in iOS 6, due in the fall.

They slyly updated the AirPort Express.

They also slyly updated the Mac Pro.

Unfortunately, "updated" in this case means "they threw in some two-year old processors ((Intel Xeon E5645)) and called it a day." In addition to the old CPUs, the most glaring problem with the "new" Mac Pro is that it doesn't have Thunderbolt.

This is in spite of the fact that Intel demonstrated Thunderbolt years ago using a modified Mac Pro motherboard!

I have a Mac Pro (2006 or 1,1 if you prefer). It has 13 GB RAM, four internal 3 TB hard drives, an external Drobo with 3 TB on it, and it's hooked up to a 23" Cinema Display (remember those)? I've replaced the video card, but otherwise, it's served me well.

I'm now in a bit of a quandary as far as my next major computer purchase. If you read on, I'll explain more, and perhaps you can help me decide.

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"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence."
- Xenocrates (396-314 B.C.)

I disagree entirely with this. If a friend is doing something stupid, your silence can condemn them to a life of shit. If you fail to speak up, innocent people can be hurt, imprisoned, etc.

"It is much more comfortable to be mad and know it, than to be sane and have one's doubts."
- G. B. Burgin

Being mad for a good reason is perfectly fine, too. 😉

Here's the post and here are two pictures:

Here's a quick list of reasons why you should buy direct rather than from the Mac App Store.

And a few reasons why the opposite is true.

http://xkcd.com/1065/

HA HA HAH AHA HAH.