Here at work, we get to order a new computer every three years. Three years ago, I ordered a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a 17" widescreen display. It has a Pentium M 2.13GHz processor (single core) with 2GB of memory, and an 80GB 7200RPM hard drive. This of course was and still is running Windows XP Pro. Three years ago that was a great machine.

Enter November 2008. After dealing with many Windows issues, rebuilding my machine twice in three years, and spending hours doing that along with troubleshooting Windows issues, I decided that enough was enough and I was going to order a Mac. Why? Because Macs just work.

So, what did I order? It worked out that I was given the go-ahead after Apple released the new Mac Books. Here are the specs of my new Mac.

Mac Book Pro
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15-inch widescreen
4GB Memory
250GB Serial ATA @ 7200RPM
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB

I ordered a copy of VMWare Fusion for those few applications (TOAD for SQL Server and Altova XML Spy) that do not run on Mac OSX. Also, for browser testing in Internet Explorer, I need to run Windows.

Now I play the waiting game. Purchasing is ordering it today, but it could be a few weeks (or even a month argh!) before I see the new Mac. I am very excited to be getting the Mac. I feel I have much to learn about Mac OSX, but I am up to the challenge and welcome the change!

The newest person on my team here at work, is Kim. She is a very welcome addition to our team. When she was hired, she had no real ColdFusion experience, but LOTS of Java experience. She went to CF training and right away was productive and contributing to the team. It also helps that she is extremely smart and motivated!

The best part is that she has a great sense of humor and can put up with all the guys on our team. We all like to goof around and have fun at work, because if you aren't having fun at work, why are you there?

The latest escapade was Kim's laptop, which is old, having hard drive issues, so she had to switch to a different, and still older machine. TJ, a member of our team, and probably the biggest prankster, added training wheels to Kim's laptop, so now she should be able to "handle" it.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a laptop for my wife. She is now writing curriculum for a college and will be teaching as well, so she needed a laptop.

Well, I built the thing like 10 times on Dell's site, until I got the features I wanted at the price I wanted. But, being the idiot I sometimes am, I forgot to add Bluetooth to the system!

So, I started looking for a Bluetooth adapter. I found one that fit in the PCMCIA slot, but it was like $45. I kept searching. I asked one of my team members, Chris, to look for me too, because he can literally find anything. He got back to me in about five minutes with a few links. I wanted the adapter to be low-profile, because the laptop already has an extra-large battery, and it has a hard time fitting in backpacks.

Chris found exactly what I was looking for! It is a USB Bluetooth adapter that is extremely low profile! It only sticks out from the USB port a quarter of an inch! It is from Cirago and is only $25! You can see more information on it here. I actually ordered it from NewEgg.com but I can't find it on their site any more.

I installed it the other night with no problems. Just put in the CD (it installs some Toshiba drivers), then plug in the adapter, and it just works! It seems to have the same range as an internal Bluetooth adapter too. I am very impressed with this product and would recommend it to anyone who wants to add Bluetooth to a system. You will be impressed with the size of it! I haven't seen anything else like it!