jeffwongdesign

The New Macbook Pro 13″

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Opening the new MacBook Pro 13″ for the first time.

I’ve been waiting for this new Macbook Pro for a looooooooong time. I’ve owned or used every single Apple laptop since the Lombard… and I can say that this model is pretty amazing. I still need to run it through its paces, but it feels great. The most impressive thing about the new MacBook is the screen—finally… it’s bright, with beautiful colors, full of contrast.

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Refined on the inside and out.

This is the first time that I’m using a 13″ for design, photo, video etc. Typically, I opt for the 15″ because it usually offers more power (and a better graphics card), but this is the first time I’ve felt like I don’t need that extra juice. This package offers the right balance between portability and performance.

I wanted to thank my team and Expa for hooking me up with a new machine. I’m looking forward to building beautiful products with this new MacBook Pro.

Shit, my MacBook fell off my bike.

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Photo of my Macbook after it fell off my bike.

Shit. On my bike ride home tonight, my bag fell off my rack after I hit a really hard bump on the road. Somehow the bag (which is connected to my rear bike rack), unlocked itself, causing it to fall off while I was riding at around 20mph. When I turned around, I noticed that my bag was missing off my bike, and I road back.

Some guy, in his car was staring at my bag (as if he was going to take it). I swear, some people are assholes here. Had I left it there for another 30 seconds, I think he would have swindled it.

Anyway, the laptop was in a protective sleeve, but it didn’t provide enough protection against the asphalt. I have a huge dent on the corner of the MacBook, and part of the screen is cracked now. This totally sucks because I love this machine and it has been my work horse for the last year and a half.

*sigh*

Now I’m going to have to figure out what to do. I think I’ll have to buy a harddrive to back everything up–I’m glad that I didn’t lose everything on there. Second, I’m going to have to see if I can get it replaced, or at a minimum, sell it off and try to recoup some money to buy a new machine.

Right now I’m blogging from my old broken MacBook Air from 2010. Maybe I should sell this one off too and just put it all towards something new. Or maybe I shouldn’t buy any more computers for a while and just stick to using my iPhone. Lol.

Anyway, I’m really bummed b/c I really took care of that thing… and my stupid bag had to fall off. Thankfully, I didn’t have my camera in there as well. I think in the future, I’m going to keep anything valuable in a book bag instead. I have so little in my life (in terms of material objects)… so it really hurts when I break a tool that I use every day. *grumble*

Okay, that’s enough moping for now. I’ve gotta consult with my team and get their advice.

Shopping for a Jacket at Uniqlo and Eating Corn Dogs

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Uniqlo in San Francisco.

I never heard of this store until Annie and Julia told me about it. Their clothing is a rare combination of sportiness, utility, style, quality and value.

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Poofy vests and jackets that can be compressed into tiny bags the size of your fist for storage.

Uniqlo has failed in previous expansion binges. In 2001, the retailer set its sights on capturing customers in the United States and the United Kingdom, but a year-and-a-half of dismal sales later, it shut the doors on most of the new stores. –Huffington Post

Apparently, the CEO tried launching his company several times with different magnitudes of failure. Now Uniqlo is on its way to the top. Seriously, the quality is up there with North Face, but for 1/3 the cost. You can read more about the company here.

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I’m definitely going to shop here once I need to update my cloths. I’m really digging the style and practicality… and most of all, the price!

After a little shopping, we went to grab some fresh corn dogs. Yes, there is a restaurant called Hot Dog on a Stick, and it’s amazing. You’ve got to try it out—you have no idea what you’re missing.

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Apple Store in the mall.

No mall visit would be complete without visiting the Apple store.

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New Apple Watch Nike Bands.

I’m really liking the watch bands made by Nike. I’m not sure if you can order them separately, but they look aiiiiiiight!

Getting My 2010 Macbook Air 11″ Diagnosed at Apple

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2010 Macbook Air 11″, 4g RAM, 1.6ghz

My Macbook Air was having some issues shutting down when I closed the lid, so I took it into the Apple Store to get it diagnosed. Looks like there’s a hardware issue. Doh.

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Customers shopping and waiting for Apple technicians to help diagnose their issues.

Apple has offered to replace the logic board for $280—a reasonable price, but I think that I’m going to use it as it is. Eventually, I’ll sell it on Craigslist.

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Fully loaded 2016 MacBook for $1600

I will say that if I was in the market for a new laptop, I’d be interested in the new MacBooks. So nice… Okay, I’ve got to stop looking! My life is served perfectly with my iPhone and 15″ Macbook Pro.

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iPhone 6 Plus (left), iPhone 7 Plus (right).

While I was at the store, I checked out the new iPhones. They’re pretty much the same form factor. The new 7 plus camera is actually a huge improvement on both sides.

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iPhone 7 Plus back side camera.

Right off the bat, the colors, detail, contrast and zoom are way better. The optical zoom is definitely cool.

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iPhone 7 Plus front.

Overall, the improvements aren’t really visibly noticeable.

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DJI Phantom 4 Drone.

Whoa, they’re even selling the new drones there. That would be a fuuuuuuuun toy. 4k… Curses, I need to stop looking at this stuff.

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Apple Store SF packed at all hours

The Computer History Museum

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Continuing our quest to find more inspiration, our team went to the Computer History Museum this afternoon. Let me first start off by saying that this was an incredible experience, and I highly recommend that you go with a group of engineers. It was pretty fun watching Joe and Rudy geeking out over all the hardware and the history. I have to admit, it was eye opening and the museum gave me much more context on how and why our technology exists.

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The museum wasn’t an architectural marvel (compared to MOMA SF), but it had so much substance.

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The information is pretty dense, so expect to carve out at least 2-3 hours to go through everything.

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To be honest, you could probably spend even more time here if you really wanted to dive deeper. There’s a lot to absorb.

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What you’re seeing are the early calculators. Everything was manually driven, and they were used to help aid people do math. In this particular case, this device was used to perform insurance calculations.

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Man, I remember my mom using the abacus when I was a kid.

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Some of these machines seem so alien. This one was called “Tim”, otherwise as the Time is Money Calculator from 1910.

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These were smaller, portable calculators. you had to crank them, and they would help you perform calculations on the fly. People would try to take them apart to see how they work, and could never put them back together. There were over 600 parts in each one, all intricately connected together.

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The calculators continued to evolve, so did automation.

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Most of the early computers was used to track time and calculate compensation for workers.

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The founder of IBM’s motto was “Think”. Kind of interesting and somewhat motivating. Everyone should have this as a poster somewhere.

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Joe described this as the birth of our first monitors. This machine would literally draw mathematical formulas on graph paper.

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And as crude as this looks, this was the beginning of circuitry. Everything was manually connected, and cooled with some sort of industrial fan. Could you imagine trying to debug something?

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As much as we love today’s technology, we owe most of the innovation to the military. Early on, technology was used to model ballistics. And yeh, technology has a dark history when you start looking at how it’s been used.

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This was the ENIGMA, a machine that encrypted messages for the Nazis. Apparently, it was taken from a German submarine and was later decoded by Alan Turning. By cracking the intercepted codes, the world was able to defeat the Nazis.

The sad thing was that Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts and was chemically castrated. Two years later, he committed suicide. A mathematical genius that saved the world was brutally punished for being gay.

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Computers used to be the size of rooms. You’d think that this was a giant data center, but it’s just an early computer.

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Some of this stuff is just so amazing to look at. As time progressed, circuitry design became more sophisticated. Who else thinks this is art?

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Look at all those buttons. Who wouldn’t want to play with that?

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The earliest machine that visually tagged things.

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It’s crazy that everything was controlled using tubes. The designs are hypnotic.

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This was a particularly fun part of the exhibit—data storage. It’s funny that CDs are now obsolete.

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Seriously, do you guys remember hi-density, double sided floppy drives? It’s f’n insane how far we’ve come. I’ll just give you a minute to soak this in. This disk was a scaled-down version of IBM’s 8″ disk, and held 1.2 MB.

1.2 MB!!!

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In contrast, the earliest forms of storage were punch cards and paper tape.

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Yes, that green thing was a state-of-the-art calculator.

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This is a visualization of how programming languages evolved. It shows about 150 of the thousands of languages that have been invented.

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As time progresses, technology miniaturizes… and parallel processing begins.

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This was one of the early consumer facing computer products, designed to store recipes for house wives. None were sold.

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And of course Moore’s “Law”. It seems it’s more of a marketing scheme than actual fact. Joe explained that for the first time in history, we are no longer exponentially advancing. I need to investigate this a little more. I’m not sure exactly what all of it means, but it’s fascinating.

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This shows how a silicon ingot becomes a computer chip. Check out how they’re made here.

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Here’s a micro-chip under tremendous magnification.

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Then we checked out some robotics.

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I have a new found appreciation for all the effort that went into building this machine.

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This was a really fun part of the exhibit—gaming. Joe explained how the gaming industry has really pushed graphic technology forward. In many ways, gaming has pioneered virtual reality.

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This, my friend, was my childhood. I loved the gold version of zelda—what a brilliant concept.

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And yes, that’s Dr. Mario over there! This brings back so many memories. I can’t believe that I grew up during this time.

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The Atari—it was before my time, but I recall some kids with it.

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And this one is for you old timers.

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No museum would be complete without including Apple.

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Here’s a Commodore, running off a tape. Say whaaaaaaaaat???

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Variations of all the early computers, designed for consumers.

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And here are the tablets before the iPads.

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And the sub-notebooks before the Macbook Airs.

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And the greatest moment in modern history, the iPhone. Anyone still have their original? Don’t sell it—keep it forever. I was stupid and sold mine. Doh!

This museum really opened up my eyes—I can’t believe how much effort went into the computer I’m using to blog this instance. We live in such an incredible time, and I’m so happy to be experiencing it.

Okay, let’s end it here. That was a lot to go through. If you’re ever in town, you should definitely go check this exhibit out.