Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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Fear, loathing and Dragon Express

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Click on that screenshot. Go ahead. It won’t bite. In case you’re not brave enough, it’s a Yahoo search of gibberish in Safari. Which opened by itself on my beloved iMac with no input from me.

 Now click on this next one. That’s a new email message filled with gibberish in the body. Mail opened all by itself and created this beauty all by itself without my input.

And these weren’t one-time events. I saw several new email messages create themselves and random Google and Yahoo searches execute – all without any input from me whatsoever – for several days in a row in late January. What the hell was causing this? I was not taking any prescription meds or recreational drugs that would cause such hallucinations. And Macs don’t get viruses, right? Or had I somehow found a brand new one all by my little self? [Read more…]

Love and an 11-inch MacBook Air

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While at CES, I was incredibly lucky and won a new 11-inch MacBook Air at a NetShelter event on my last night there. Upon entering the party, we were asked to throw a business card into a bowl and I happily obliged. And then I immediately forgot about the drawing as soon as I got inside the nightclub and located the open bar where there was a bartender who was willing to give me as many on-the-rocks margaritas as I wanted.

After I had managed to make several of those fantastic margaritas disappear, the party was paused for the drawing I had forgotten all about. The first prize given away was an unlocked Samsung smartphone and the second prize was a Sony Vaio. When my name was called for the MacBook Air, I raised my arms in Rocky-victory style and screamed. And I did a little happy dance, which approximated Kermit the Frog’s frantic arm-waving stage exiting maneuver on the Muppet Show, on my way to pick up my prize. I’m pretty sure I made an ass of myself. I blame the margaritas.

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Review: Just Mobile’s Lazy Couch keeps your laptop cool

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I have a Rev. B (late 2008) MacBook Air. While I love it, it runs a bit warm, as the early MacBook Airs were known to do. From what I understand, it doesn’t get as toasty as the first-generation MacBook Airs, but its temperature does get up there. I’ve used Just Mobile’s Cooling Bar (see my review of it here) as both a passive cooling method and ergonomic accessory for some time now, which has worked quite well for me. But I’ve just found something better thanks to the kind folks at Just Mobile.

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Review queue: Mobee’s Magic Numpad

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Part of my day job requires the use of a massive spreadsheet to track a lot of detailed information. It is an essential tool for me to keep track of clients, purchases and a detailed schedule that extends into late 2012 at this point, but entering data into it can get a little tedious without a dedicated number pad on my Apple Bluetooth keyboard.

Why not get a keyboard with a number pad, you ask? I had one – it doesn’t work well for me ergonomically given the design of my desk and my need to have a mouse available for each hand to switch between throughout the day to avoid repetitive motion injuries. If I didn’t do this, my right forearm would be a hot mess of pain every evening, or my left elbow would be screaming biotch by mid-morning.

So, I have a Magic Trackpad for my left hand and a Magic Mouse for my right hand. I switch throughout the day as needed and avoid straining one arm over the other to an extent that would require the use of controlled substances to manage the pain. A keyboard with a dedicated number pad puts one of these too far out of reach for one hand to make this solution work.

At any rate, Mobee Technology has a solution that makes it look like I’ll be able to have my cake and eat it too: the Magic Numpad. It’s a set of stickers to create a virtual number pad on Apple’s Magic Trackpad and software to enable it. Here’s a demo video Mobee created to show how it works:

I preordered it a few weeks ago and I just got a shipping notification letting me know that it’s on its way to me. I’ll post a review of it after I get it and have had a chance to use it a bit. If you have any questions about it, feel free to post a comment here or send me a message using the contact form.

Review: Quirky PowerCurl – a power cord organizer for your Mac laptop

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While I admire the split design of the power cord for Apple’s portable computers, they’re not the easiest to wind up neatly when you’re using both of the included cords. I find myself carrying and using both of them when I’m about and about so that I can reach power outlets that are more than 5 feet away from me and to avoid blocking an outlet that could be used by someone else with the power brick.

To solve this problem, designer Jeff Scholen created the PowerCurl, a product idea that was submitted to, refined, and created through Quirky. I helped influence the PowerCurl (a tiny, tiny bit) during the design phase and purchased one when they became available for retail sale and it has been a staple in my gear bag ever since. Read on for my review and a video overview of it in action.

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