Technology: Apple Store Robberies

Due to Blogspot's outage on Friday, here is the post that was supposed to go up then. Sorry for the delay. - WO

After the recent spat of more than a dozen Apple Store robberies from Connecticut to Virginia, and most recently Westlake, Ohio, the FBI has joined local authorities in investigating a rash of burglaries and robberies at Apple Stores in the eastern United States, according to a recent report from USA Today.


Recent Apple Store incidents include successful burglaries such as four separate break-ins in December that saw thieves make off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of MacBooks, iPods, iPhones and iPads at stores located in Greenwich, Connecticut, Woodcliff, N.J., Pittsburgh and Naperville, Illinois. The same Woodcliff, N.J Apple Store that was hit last December was targeted in 2008, when burglars broke in through a vacant furniture store next door, but that incident found police catching three of the four suspected burglars.

Still shot from last week's NJ Apple Store robbery.

Other attempts have not gone so smoothly. In early April, one suspect was killed in a shootout with a security guard and two more were arrested during a break-in attempt at an Apple Store in Chula Vista, California, according to the Mac Observer. Facing off to the guard one of the robbers pulled a handgun and the guard responded. The resulting shootout resulted in one of the thieves killed, and the other man shot in the ass. Astoundingly, the woman wasn’t hit, presumably because she used the two men as human shields like the good chicken shit she is.

The Chula Vista shootout has been the only Apple Store robbery to involve a fatality, although a 2009 robbery attempt in Arlington, Virginia did result in an Apple Store employee getting shot.

Authorities attributed the rash of Apple Store robberies to factors ranging from the easy resale factor of Apple products on sites like eBay and Craigslist, to the outlets' trademark glass store fronts, which thieves can smash through. So if you see a MacBook, iPod, iPhone or iPad for ridiculously cheap on eBay, don’t buy it. Don’t encourage these guys.

Entertainment: ...And Another Thing!

For many, Douglas Adams was simply a humour writer. For some, a humanitarian. For others, a man with his eyes to the future. All would be right. He was certainly all of these things and more. Today marks the tenth anniversary of his passing, and a day that should be remembered by all geeks and non-geeks alike.


Douglas Noel Adams was born in Cambridge in March 1952, educated at Brentwood School, Essex and St John's College, Cambridge where, in 1974 he gained a BA (and later an MA) in English literature. He was very proud to be the first known example of DNA evidence (if you don't get it, take another look at his name). Adams described himself as a "radical atheist", adding radical for emphasis so he would not be asked if he meant agnostic.

He was creator of all the various manifestations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series. Since its first airing in March 1978 it has been transformed into a series of best-selling novels, a TV series, a record album, a computer game and several stage adaptations.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's phenomenal success sent the book straight to Number One in the UK Bestseller List and in 1984 Douglas Adams became the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pan. He won a further two (a rare feat), and was nominated - though not selected - for the first Best of Young British Novelists awards.

He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); and Mostly Harmless (1992). The first two books in the Hitchhiker series were adapted into a 6 part television series, which was an immediate success when first aired in 1982. Other books by Adams include Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988). In 1984 Douglas teamed up with John Lloyd and wrote The Meaning of Liff and after a huge success The Deeper Meaning of Liff followed this in 1990). One of Douglas’s all-time personal favourites was written in 1990 when he teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine and wrote Last Chance to See – an account of a world-wide search for rare and endangered species of animals.

Prior to his death, Adams had felt the need to continue the story: "I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book..." and "People have said, quite rightly, that Mostly Harmless is a very bleak book. And it was a bleak book. I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note, so five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number." As a result, And Another Thing… is the title of the sixth installment of Adams' Hitchhiker's "trilogy." The book, written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, was published on the thirtieth anniversary of the first book, 12 October 2009, in hardback. Colfer was given permission to write the book by Adams' widow Jane Belson.

Adams was a serious fan of technology. Though he did not buy his first word processor until 1982, he had considered one as early as 1979. He was quoted as saying that until 1982, he had difficulties with "the impenetrable barrier of jargon. Words were flying backwards and forwards without concepts riding on their backs." In 1982, his first purchase was a 'Nexus'. In 1983, when he and his wife, Jane Belson went out to Los Angeles, he bought a DEC Rainbow. Upon their return to England, Adams bought an Apricot, then a BBC Micro and a Tandy 1000. In Last Chance to See, Adams mentions his Cambridge Z88, which he had taken to Zaire on a quest to find the Northern White Rhinoceros.

DNA: A man powered by the
Infinite Improbability Drive

Adams' posthumously published work, The Salmon of Doubt, features multiple articles written by Douglas on the subject of technology, including reprints of articles that originally ran in MacUser magazine, and in The Independent on Sunday newspaper. In these, Adams claims that one of the first computers he ever saw was a Commodore PET, and that his love affair with the Apple Macintosh first began after seeing one at Infocom's headquarters in Massachusetts in 1983, although this was very likely an Apple Lisa.

Adams was a Macintosh user from the time they first came out in 1984 until his death in 2001. He was the first person to buy a Mac in the UK. Adams was also an "Apple Master", one of several celebrities whom Apple made into spokespeople for its products (other Apple Masters included John Cleese and Gregory Hines). Adams's contributions included a rock video that he created using the first version of iMovie with footage featuring his daughter Polly. The video can still be seen on Adams's .Mac homepage. Adams even installed and started using the first release of Mac OS X in the weeks leading up to his death. His very last post to his own forum was in praise of Mac OS X and the possibilities of its Cocoa programming framework. Adams can also be seen in the Omnibus tribute included with the Region One/NTSC DVD release of the TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide using Mac OS X on his PowerBook G3.

Adams used email extensively from the technology's infancy, adopting a very early version of email to correspond with Steve Meretzky during the pair's collaboration on Infocom's version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While living in New Mexico in 1993 he set up another email address and began posting to his own USENET newsgroup, alt.fan.douglas-adams, and occasionally, when his computer was acting up, to the comp.sys.mac hierarchy. Many of his posts are now archived through Google. Challenges to the authenticity of his messages later led Adams to set up a message forum on his own website to avoid the issue. Adams was also a keynote speaker for the April 2001 Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, one of the major technical conferences on embedded system engineering. In his keynote speech, he shared his vision of technology and how it should contribute in everyday – and every man's – life.

I think it would be safe to say that were he still alive today, Douglas Adams would be an avid fan of today's ebook readers, smartphones and tablets, and with his love of Apple products, likely the iPhone and iPad in particular. With these and the apps that can be run on them, we're ever closer to the "Guide" he envisioned so many years ago.

May 25 is known as International Towel Day, a day that Hitchhiker fans celebrate Adams, his works and the culture that surrounds it. Bring your towel.

Gadgets: Apple iOS 4.3.3

While not everyone bothers to install iOS updates the minute they arrive, today’s 4.3.3 push shouldn’t be ignored if you count yourself among the legion of iPhone users who let out a collective horrified gasp when Apple’s kinda-sorta-secret location database was outed by researchers recently. While security pros like F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen believed the data was being used to feed Apple’s global location database — enabling iOS devices to avoid unnecessarily probe for coordinates using GPS when a less power-hungry read could be accurately ascertained using WiFi. Plenty of other brainy types agreed, and it turns out they were right. Apple confirmed as much only days later.

Today’s iOS 4.3.3 update makes it very clear that it’s designed to nip location concerns in the bud, reducing the maximum size of the cache and deleting the database entirely when a users chooses to disable Location Services. The update also prevents the location database from being backed up to iTunes.

It remains to be seen how that whole lawsuit thing will be resolved, but remember that Apple did get users to opt in — albeit somewhat cryptically. Hypponen points to the fairly innocuous-looking “you can help Apple improve its products” dialog which appears during the iTunes installation process. While “diagnostic information” doesn’t sound at all like location data, clicking through to Apple’s privacy page makes it clear that your whereabouts are indeed part of the delicious information you agreed to transmit back to the collective.

Updating Over-the-Air

Updating any device with new firmware can be a real pain in the ass, and  its a time consuming process, depending on the device in question. The frustration of having to apply an update can be minimized by allowing the user flexibility of when and how to apply it.

In the category of how an update can be applied, Apple falls short compared to the competition requiring your iPhone be hooked up via USB to a computer running iTunes. Other smartphones offer the convenience of over-the-air updates, but until now Apple has not.

9to5Mac has multiple sources stating that Apple is about to change its limited update method and introduce over-the-air updates for iOS. Whether your iPhone has access to these updates will depend on your carrier, though, as they have to sign up to support these large downloads (iOS 4.3.3. is over 600MB). As well as handling the large downloads, carriers will have to have some form of backup system in place in case a phone battery dies, or the connection is lost making it more than just a data transfer problem.

The best way to avoid large data access fees, and potential data loss of over-the-air updates is to be in a location where WiFi access can be had.

Technology: How to Skin a Lion

If you read yesterday's post then you may quite well figure that this might excite me. It might excite you, too.

Do you find yourself thinking that even though you like how Windows 7 functions, but like the soft Apple trademarked sexiness that is Mac OS 10.7 Lion? Well, you're in luck! A user by the name of "hameddanger" over at DeviantArt has made a skin pack to turn Windows 7 into a much sexier Lion.

Before you get all carried away with yourself, you should create a System Restore point, so if for some reason things go awry, you can roll back to where you were before. he theme pack will patch certain system files, so there’s always a chance something could go wrong, but it should work just fine on both 32 and 64-bit Windows 7 systems, although it works best on 32-bit systems.

The Mac OS X Lion Transformation Pack adds the Lion touch to almost every part of Windows 7 from log on screen to Control Panel. It also installs some unique Mac features to the latest version of Windows. This particular theme is neatly packaged as a no-fuss installer. Just download, double-click, and keep clicking next until you reach the end of the process. After you reboot, several new apps will appear in your system tray, each one imparting a bit of the Lion look and feel - including Leftsider to move the maximize/minimize/restore buttons, UberIcon to add the bounce effect to your desktop icons, RocketDock, and Y’s Shadow.

Geek Culture: The Making of an Apple Fanboy

The OG Mac, circa 1984

I wasn't much of an Apple fan growing up. Sure, I got to use the Apple II and the first Mac (pictured at left) and that, in conjunction with the C64 was my introduction to the computer world. At that point, though, personal computing was still a fairly new thing, and we had no idea what we had in store a few years later, so there wasn't anything to hate, either.

Then, years later, I became more and more involved with the media industry, and Macs were the way to go back then. They were work horses, and could handle any task with ease. Oh, and they rarely, if ever crashed.

Fast forward a few years more, and the Windows-based machines had finally caught up, and even surpassed Macs in power and affordability. It became a standpoint that with a Windows machine, you could get twice the power of a Mac, for half the cost. And so, it was back with Windows 98 that I had fully moved into my position as a Windows guy. I had even taken a vehement stance against Apple for some time. But Windows-based computers still had a stigma attached to them that they were unreliable, and if you wanted to do any real work, you would use a Mac. As a studio designer/builder, I encouraged many of my clients to go for a PC instead of Mac, to save them money that they could use for other parts of their studios. This was around the time of Windows XP, and that OS had become very solid and dependable. The more I went around, the more I helped to end that stigma and bring the Windows-based computer up to what is considered a "professional" computer.

I never really cared for the snobbery that came around with your average Mac user. They looked down their nose at anyone who used a Windows computer. They rallied that the only computer you could use for graphics, audio or video applications was a Mac. The media industry as a whole has already proved this not to be true. Avid, a high-end video editing platform company had even made the shift away from Macs. Yes, this was in retaliation to Apple's Final Cut Pro software, and when Apple purchased eMagic's Logic Audio software, Avid's subsidiary Digidesign (the makers of Pro Tools) focused development towards Windows.

Then came the iPod. And iTunes. Apple finally did what they set out to do with the iMac and iBook a couple of years earlier, and reached the consumer market, lessening their focus on the professional market. Thanks to the MP3 taking over for the compact disc, Apple saw an opportunity that was still virtually untapped and released the first iPod in late 2001. At first, I liked the idea, but the price point was still too high for me to truly develop a proper interest in the product. At this point, mind you, I was still fairly anti-Apple. One of my then favourite bands was setting to release a new album, and the only way to check out any previews was through iTunes. And since I couldn't wait to hear it, I quickly downloaded and installed iTunes and listened to the thirty second clips. Up until then, I listened to my MP3s using Nullsoft's WinAmp, and until then, I thought I had the Bee's Knees of MP3 players. I was wrong. After a little iTunes education from one of my Apple-inclined office mates, I loaded my files into iTunes, and was astonished with how well it was laid out, and how well I could organize my music collection. Around two years later, I finally bought my first iPod (I've since bought two more) and could carry around said music collection in my pocket, instead of having to cart around a pile of CDs along with a bulky portable CD player.

I was pretty happy with my toe dipping into the Apple pool up until that point, then a few years ago, Apple started sticking it to the smartphone market with the awesome iPhone. Even though I was salivating over the iPhone, I had to settle with an iPhone knock-off, once again because the price point was still too high, and I thought the novelty factor would wear off. I was wrong. Again. A few months ago, my work handed me an iPhone 4, and I can assure you, the novelty has not in fact worn off. I have a BlackBerry as my personal cell, but I find myself "forgetting" it at home a lot these days. I also managed to get my hands on an older 1.25 GHz G4. Sure, it's not the latest and greatest, but hey, it was free and free is never a bad thing. And yes, I do happen to use it for my Pro Tools system, but not because Macs are superior to PCs, but because my PC is a laptop, and it's very difficult to stick a PCI card into a laptop.

So coming from an anti-Apple stance, to owning quite a few Apple products, I think I've come a long way. I've fallen in love with the OS X interface, and their newest systems from the Mac Pro, to the MacBook Pro. The Mac Mini is even a pretty neat little system. So, while I am an Apple Fanboy of sorts, I still do have a strong affinity towards PCs, and think it's really all a matter of personal preference, rather than one system being better than the other. But Apple sure does make some really awesome gadgets.

Technology: Apple Thunderbolt

A Port To End All Ports?

Recently, Apple launched a refresh of their MacBook Pro line of notebooks which feature a new interface port designed to connect the "next generation of high-performance peripherals to the next generation of computers".

Originally codenamed Light Peak, Thunderbolt was initially designed by Intel, and brought to market with technical collaboration from Apple. Using the same connector as Apple's Mini DisplayPort, the Thunderbolt interface combines PCI Express and DisplayPort technologies into a new serial data interface that can run over longer distances with less issue than previous interfaces, such as USB and FireWire. Since PCI Express is widely supported by most device makers, and built into the majority of modern Intel chipsets, Thunderbolt can be added to existing products with relative ease. The Thunderbolt chips fold the data from these two sources (PCIe and DisplayPort) and splits them apart for consumption within compatible devices (nom nom!)

 

The interface was originally designed to use fiber optic cable (hence the name, Light Peak), but a conventional copper wire version was developed to furnished the desired 10 Gb/s bandwidth at a lower cost. Intel's implementation of the port adapter folds both Thunderbolt and DisplayPort data together, which allows both to be carried over the same cable at the same time. A single port supports both hubs and daisy chain configurations of up to seven Thunderbolt devices, with up to two of these devices being high-resolution displays using the DisplayPort portion of the interface. Adding to the flexibility, Apple and other manufacturers sell DisplayPort adapters for DVI, dual-link DVI,. VGA and HDMI.

Originally conceived as an optical technology, then a combination of both fiber and copper, the final design of Thunderbolt was switched to copper-only connections to reduce costs by providing both data and power via the same cable, thus helping reduce the cost to the end user.

Intel and other industry partners are still trying to develop optical Thunderbolt hardware and cables. These cables will not be able to supply power, but are planned to be able to transport the signal up to 100 meters with conversion between optical and electrical signals to be embedded into the cable itself allowing the current DisplayPort socket to be future compatible.

Apple is touting Thunderbolt as the "fastest, most versatile I/O ever in a notebook", allowing for plug-and-play performance with a new generation of peripherals. According to Apple, Thunderbolt is more than 12 times faster than FireWire 800, and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0, changing the way you can manage your digital media assets, including the ability to access multiple streams of uncompressed HD video.

Current disk speeds, however, could prevent Thunderbolt from reaching it's full potential of 10 Gb/s. Intel demonstrated throughputs at 62.5% of that peak using prototype products. A fast hard drive system such Promise Pegasus RAID or LaCie's Little Big Disk would bring this even closer to the theoretical peak.

As with any new technology, time will tell how well it will work in the practical world.

Technology: Broadcasting - Going Mobile

Over recent years, we've seen a great deal of change in the way we receive our media content, primarily thanks to the internet, and more recently, our handheld mobile devices, such as the iPhone and BlackBerry.

The first to feel the winds of change was clearly print media such as newspapers, followed closely by the music industry with shifts from physical delivery systems such as the CD to "digital downloads" via the illegal types of Napster, Kazaa, and their legal brethren, iTunes. Walkmen laid way for the Discman, which has now become little more than a paperweight with the advent of the MP3 player, such as Apple's iPod devices, first introduced in fall 2001.

Years later, traditional television and radio broadcasting has had to address the way their viewers and listeners alike want to take in their content. Netflix has had a big hand in the way that viewers watch their content - in my own home, I can watch nearly any movie or TV show from my game console, any one of our many computers, or via our mobile phones. Most cable or satellite providers also make On Demand content available to their subscribers; they also make DVRs with large capacity storage for their subscribers to record any program they want, to watch at a later time. Long gone are the days where you had to hunt for a blank tape to record a specific show.

Smartphone penetration is significant and increasing. Pandora and other pureplay streaming listening is increasing. Still, the impact has been generally minimal on FM and AM radio. But make no mistake, habits are changing. The seeds of this are happening today with streaming audio, and radio can’t afford to ignore what is happening in that space. Its future depends on it.

For radio, we are seeing this accumulation of changing behavior occur before our eyes. From fewer commercials to the ability to share our listening experiences with friends to On Demand access via podcasts to pausing and skipping songs, there is a gap in functionality that will increasingly lead to a streaming tipping point.

When consumers start to say that radio annoys them because it can’t do this or it doesn’t have that, then you will start to see consumer adoption change. Many forward thinking broadcasters are already making the changes necessary to move with the times. Streaming audio has long been available via station websites, and many broadcasters are also offering their fare via applications for smartphones. One of the best parts of that is that you can now access stations from across the country that you couldn't before. It IS a small world, after all.

Gadgets: BlackBerry Taking Another "Crack" at Apple

Apple recently launched it's iPad 2, the predecessor to it's widely popular iPad, initially launched in Spring 2010. Now, RIM is taking a swing at the tablet market with it's BlackBerry Playbook, news of which leaked last month via a leaked image from Office Depot, which showed the 16GB WiFi model with an MSRP $499.

Today, RIM officially launched the PlayBook, available in three models including 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage, listed at $499, $599, or $699 respectively. Clearly, the Office Depot leak had some legitimacy to it.

RIM hopes to take on the iPad 2 and others with its first tablet aimed at both consumers and business users alike. It looks well-built, and the smaller display makes one-handed use easier. Early reviews show that performance is solid, based on a pre-release operating system, though just how well the TabletOS will behave remains to be seen. However, a 7″ display may be too small for some, and there’s a question mark over just how many and the overall quality of the apps on offer, and we won't know that for a few months to come.

Now, how can I get my hands on both an iPad 2 and a BlackBerry PlayBook for a Round 2?

Gadgets: Battle of the Smartphones!

I'm one of the few to own both an iPhone and a BlackBerry smartphone. I have the iPhone 4 16GB, and the Blackberry Curve 3G, but to make things fair for the purposes of this test, I've abducted my wife's BlackBerry Torch 9800. Both are on different networks, but that's not part of this comparison.

Let's get started, shall we?

First thing's first, a by-the-numbers side by side comparison.

	iPhone 4	BlackBerry Torch 9800
Professional Target Market	Tech Sector	Business Sector
Display Size	3.5” Retina Display (960x640 pixels)	3.2” High Resolution (480x360 pixels)
Interface	Multi-Touch Screen Only	Multi-Touch Screen and slide-out Qwerty keyboard, trackpad
OS	iOS 4.x	Blackberry OS 6
Processor	Apple A4 1GHz	624 MHz
Memory/Storage	512 MB RAM/16 or 32 GB flash drive	512MB RAM/4GB flash + 4GB microSD (expandable to 32GB)
Size/Weight	4.5”x2.31”x0.37” 4.8 ounces	4.37”(5.83” open)x2.44”x0.57” 5.68 ounces
Battery	Built-in 1420 mAh lithium-ion. 7 hours talk/300 hours standby (3G network)	1300 mAHr lithium-ion. 5.5 hours talk/18 days standby (3G network)
Camera	5-megapixel, w/autofocus, LED flash, 5x zoom. HD quality video (720p)	5-megapixel, w/autofocus, flash, 2.5x zoom. VGA quality video (640x480)
Audio Formats	AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV	MP3, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, MIDI, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis
App Selection	+350,000 available from iTunes App Store	+10,000 available from BlackBerry App World

Both phones have their ups and downs, and I do enjoy both, to a degree. The Torch's  big downside, for me, is that it is a little bulky, and the slide-out qwerty keyboard feels a little cramped, compared to other BlackBerrys. The iPhone's touchscreen keypad is a dream, once you get used to working with a touchscreen. But that's not a of the iPhone directly - that's just how touchscreens are. Win: iPhone 4

On the other hand, the Torch is better suited for selecting and copying text and other items and using the data in other applications than the iPhone, with the use of the trackball that's found on all BlackBerry phones. Win: BlackBerry Torch 9800

Personally, I enjoy navigating through the iPhone better. You can configure your apps to reside in folders, thus keeping like-apps together, instead of all over the place, like you have with the Torch. Win: iPhone 4

Both phones have a snappy, multitasking OS, and make it fairly easy to get around and be productive. The multitasking however, is a little better on the Torch, and although the processor is technically slower, it chugs along smoothly. Win: BlackBerry Torch 9800

The sheer amount and variety of apps available to iPhone users is just mind boggling. Apps, both paid and free, are available for virtually any task, for both professional and entertainment use. Apple's tagline of "There's an App for That" is beyond accurate. RIM's BlackBerry App World is lacking in this department, but since BlackBerrys are typically used by the business types, there are plenty to get the job done. Like with all cross-platform applications, some work better on the iPhone, and some work better on the BlackBerry. Win: iPhone 4

Syncing apps and music on the iPhone is done through Apple's iTunes software, and done very easily and intuitively. The BlackBerry Desktop Manager is fairly less so. Not that you can't syncronize everything you need to fairly seamlessly from your handheld to your computer, you can and you can do it well. Just not as well as with the iPhone 4. Both can easily syncronize with your Outlook account to manage your time, contacts and appointments. Handy, huh? Win: Draw

Ultimately, it all boils down to personal preference, but for me, the iPhone 4 is a much better phone/personal assistant, as I find myself reaching for my iPhone more often than my BlackBerry to execute most tasks.

Geek Culture: Meet the Geek

I'm a geek.  I was born a geek.  I've lived my entire life as a geek.  I will die as a geek.  When I was growing up, the term "geek" was an inflammatory statement, meant to hurt.  Nowadays, it's a way of life, that is widely accepted, and even embraced.  Works for me!

I'm the son of a computer programmer, and for a laugh, I hacked into my father's company's mainframe when I was 13, with an old tank of a laptop (it was smoking fast for the time!).  I've been working with computers since the days of the Commodore64, and the Atari1030xt.  I've been playing video games since the days of ColecoVision and the Atari2600 (the old "wood-grain" model).  I'm also a musician, and so I've been working with Digital Audio Workstations (or DAWs) since I was 15.

I have a degree in Audio Engineering, with a minor on Broadcast Technology.  I was the Canadian support manager for a major international music software company.  I was a technical wireman for over four years, building a variety of television studios in the Greater Toronto Area.  I now work as a radio engineer for a major entertainment company in Canada's largest market.  I have 3 laptops of various degrees of awesomeness, a Mac, two iPods, an iPhone and a Blackberry.  And at my desk at work, I have a Cisco IP phone, and a computer with not one, or two screens, but three.  I also have a display of action figures on a shelf above these three monitors.

And I read comic books, and love superhero movies.