What kind of semi-Mac themed website would this be if I didn't acknowledge that today is the day in which the Macintosh has been around for 25 years? That's right, 25 years of smiling Macs, cool designs, and a great operating system. If only Microsoft could experience that for 25 seconds (zing!). In my years as a Mac user, I have had many different models, from the MacPlus to a G5, from a Powerbook 140 to a MacBook Pro, and many different Apple branded gadgets in between. I can only hope the next 25 years are just as good for Apple, cause I really like their products :). By the way, if you are looking to brush up on your Mac history, I would start with Low End Mac.

Alicia and I have officially begun our hunt for our first house. We had been doing some online searching, but only recently did we find a realtor, get a mortgage pre-approved, and actually visit some houses. This is the main reason for the lack of notable updates in the past week. There have been various section redesigns (new Shareware Pick layout, better color schemes, more consistent look to the Cartoons page, etc.) but no new features yet. I'm definitely working on some stuff, my time is just limited. On a side note, if you are looking for a realtor in the Madison, WI area, we highly recommend Mark Williams. That guy is great :)

To go along with Sunday's post about Hulu, I bring you the best way to watch Hulu (among other things): Boxee. This application is currently in the alpha stages, so you will have to put up with the occasional bugs, but it's more than worth it. With Boxee you can watch videos from a variety of sources, listen to internet radio stations, view photos from Flickr or Picasa. This is all on top of using your own media or downloading it with the built-in BitTorrent client. You may never need to watch TV again (ok, that's not true)!

When the internet first started moving to broadband, many people were wondering how long it would take for it to replace TV. That hasn't happened yet, but Hulu brings that dream one step closer to reality. Using the Hulu service,you can watch full episodes of TV shows, full movies, and fun video clips. Whether you are into reality shows, horror movies, or sci-fi classics, Hulu has something available for you to watch on demand. I have only recently started using this service, but I already think it's a great way to fill to "there's nothing good on" void.

Anyone who has ever visited this site before should notice that the overall theme of the site has been changed for the first time in a long time. The old blue and yellow theme had been in place for many years, and needed a change. With the aide of CSS and good image editing tools, I was able to switch it up to an earthy green theme with just a few hours of work. I hope everyone enjoys the new look.

A few weeks ago I decided that I needed a better backup solution for my MacBook Pro. My current backup solution included copying my Home folder to a firewire drive whenever I plugged it in (sometimes the gap between backups was nearly a year). It really didn't take long for me to decide upon a 500 GB Time Capsule. The seamless integration with Time Machine, the 802.11 n capabilities, the 1 Gbit ethernet speeds, and the built in print server all combined to make the perfect backup product for me. After about 2 weeks of use, I couldn't be happier. I know my data is safe, and I can print without turning on my "print server" computer. This has certainly improved my computer using experience even further.

When I downloaded the latest version of iTunes, I was presented with the new grid view of albums/artists. Since I only had something like three albums with artwork, it was pretty dull. I tried pulling the artwork from the iTunes Music Store, and that pulled in about half the albums. But it was up to me to manually find artwork for the remaining albums, and add them myself. That is, until I found Album Artwork Assistant. This easy to use tool cut out about 75% of the work! After about an hour of using it, I added artwork to approximately 40 albums. If you are looking to add artwork to your music, this is definitely the way to go.