My New Year’s Resolutions

The truth is I usually do not make New Year’s Resolutions. It is probably because I know I would break them, so why make a list that will only frustrate me. But, I do believe in setting goals, so you could look at this like a set of goals. Goals are good.

1. Buy a faster Mac. Okay, this is probably on everyone’s list. My wife says that every once in a while I get a case of the “I wants.” But, this is more like the “I needs.” I have the same problem as Bill Palmer has. I am outgrowing my current Powerbook G4 12in. I want more memory, a bigger hard drive, a bigger screen, a Superdrive. I want a G5 processor and OS Tiger. As long as we are being honest, I kinda want that really cool backlit keyboard too.

2. Back Up My Files. In the best of all worlds, I would have a machine that did a lot of this for me. I would own enough .mac real estate to back everything up with iSync. I would own a huge external firewire drive that had copies of both my computer’s hard drives on it. But I don’t. Sure, I back up a lot of my most important stuff, but I really just wish I had a mirror image out there of everything I own. Then I might feel safe from the terrorists...

3. Organize My Photos. I was one of those people who maxed out the capacity of iPhoto and applauded when the next version came out. It could still be faster, and I suspect I am not using it in the most effective way. I need to organize my photos in a way that lets me access them easier, and use them more. I post little 48 picture slideshows on my .mac account every once in a while for my friends and family. I print a lot of pictures. In class I am always looking for some sample photos to use for demonstration purposes. But all these pictures should have meaningful names and be categorized. But they don’t and they aren’t.

4. Delete Old Versions. Old copies of memos that I don’t need, Excel budgets from 5 years ago. Songs I downloaded from iTunes and didn’t like. Software that I downloaded, tried, and just don’t use. I loved Konfabulator for six months, even paid for it. But I got tired of the widgets being in the way on my little 12 inch screen. Of course, if I had more screen real estate...

5. Clean Out My Hard Drive. Would you back it up, then clean it up or the other way around? Probably both... I know I have multiple copies of stuff. I know it and I even know there is a program that is designed to help me solve that. I really should do it. Really...

6. Renew My Anti-Virus Software. On a Mac? Why? Because I share a network with PC users and I don’t want them to ever blame me when, not if, the network becomes infected. So, I run the same anti-virus software they do. Renew my software? Did it! Did you?

7. Get My Wife A Great Christmas Present Next Year! Yes, I got her a great present this year. But she surprised me and got me a 20 gig iPod. Shocked me in that I had absolutely no clue and was blown away. I haven’t been that happy with Christmas morning since I was a little kid. You wouldn’t believe how easy it was to get it up and running. Another friend gave me an FM transmitter dongle that allows me to listen to it in the car. iPod? Big Fan!