How to Replace the Harddrive in Your MacBook Pro

About a week ago my harddrive crashed. Bummer. Luckily I didn't lose much data (thanks to Time Machine) but I still had to go through the hassle of replacing the harddrive. Leaving it at the Apple store over a week to fix wasn't an option since I also use it for work. It looked like that was the only option; so I took it to the Apple store.

Once there the Apple tech (I think his name was Kevin) gave me two options: 1. Leave it there to replace the harddrive which would take a week and cost $260 or 2. Go to an electronics store; buy a 2.5 inch internal SATA, a couple computer tools and do it myself... Tough choice. I picked option 2. After finding all the necessary items (the new harddrive from BestBuy and tools I borrowed from Derek Gallo; thanks Derek!) I started the impossible: dissect my beautiful MacBook Pro and replace its heart! So here's the tutorial...with pictures! Continue reading…

Cool Color App – In the Mod

I'm a reader of the online blog Neu Black, so when they featured In The Mod, an application that helps to create brand new color palettes with the drag and drop of an image, I took notice. The application is based in Adobe Air and also needs Adobe Switchboard to work but once its up and running, its a great, minimalistic app that is extremely useful for designers.

Ever have an image that has great colors that you'd like to create a color palette from for your next project? The old way to make a palette would be to take it into Photoshop and manually sample colors. In The Mod makes this simple. Just drag the pic you would like to sample into the window, set the number of colors you'd like to pull from it and thats it. And by pressing a button you can export the full palette into Photoshop or Illustrator. I'm really excited to play with this more for upcoming projects. The app has a few different editions but the one I'm currently using is the Your Images Edition.

Note: Thanks to Meagan Fisher for the sweet ampersand desktop.

BarCampOrlando Recap

Wow. What a weekend. Tech, geeks, alcohol and conversation mixed this weekend in an awesome event called BarCamp. If you don't already know what its about, find out here.

The weekend started a lot earlier than normal for me. I usually roll out of bed about 1pm on Saturday so I had to get up a bit earlier than usually to get there but the registration time of 10am. And I had a talk so I wanted to get there even earlier. I headed to our (NFi's) office to prep my note cards (which I didn't even use) for my 11.30am talk time. I caught a couple talks then I was up. I thought it went well. Altogether, a good time. Here's my presentation.

A lot of good talks. To mention just a few that stood out: Dan Kinchen on Creating a Central Florida Tech Association, Erik Hersman on Using Social Media in a Time of Crisis, Gregg Pollack's Rant on the Community and Greg Rollett's Music, Media, & Money.

The Izea after party on Dev Day was also a blast. Open bar, music and enough video games to keep someone busy for days. I met a lot of great people and had a great time.

Media Day was also just as fun as the first day, although it had a smaller turnout. Many of the presentations centered around social media, blogging and new media. I also did an impromptu talk on my blog, Helpmepaymyloans.com.

Big thanks to everyone of who helped put on BarCamp and all the sponsors (including NFi). It was a great time and I will definitely be attending the next.

BarCamp and FOWA Miami Recap

This past weekend I attended BarCamp and the Future of Web Apps conference, both in Miami. I had a blast to say the least. Here is a recap of the weekend. Continue reading…

Apple Announces MacBook Air

Today in a keynote presentation, Steve Jobs annoucned the MacBook Air. Nice.

MacBook Air is ultrathin, ultraportable, and ultra unlike anything else. But you don’t lose inches and pounds overnight. It’s the result of rethinking conventions. Of multiple wireless innovations. And of breakthrough design. With MacBook Air, mobile computing suddenly has a new standard.

Now here's what I think... Continue reading…