View from the Mountain

Zonbu, a new way of computing

I just bought a new Zonbu computer. It is the little box behind my Dell desktop.

I have a long history on the bleeding edge of technology.  I started using an Apple II+ in 1982.  The Apple II+ did not even have upper and lower case.

I worked at Apple Computer from 1984 to 2004 during which time the vast majority of the world thought the company was going out of business.

Since leaving Apple, I have done consulting and used a variety of operating systems, including Windows XP and Linux in various flavors.

Mac OS X remains my operating system of choice, but that does not mean that I am one of those died-in-the wool Apple cult members.  In fact over at my Applepeels blog someone just accused me of being the following.

All your postings are about how you now hate Macs. You're a "reverse switcher" and can no longer claim that you're a Mac user.

Fortunately, this is one of those typical Apple folks who immediately assume you hate Apple if you find anything wrong with their products.

I suppose my biggest sin was buying a Vista laptop on the eve of Apple shipping their new Leopard operating system.  Of course I needed it to get my job done.  I have also complained about the pricing and feature set of Apple's Mac mini.

My experimenting with Linux has taught me that it is a very capable operating system as long as you have some support not far away.  I keep a close eye on the Linux world, and I have remained hopeful that Linux one day might rescue me from Apple & Microsoft.

When I heard about Zonbu's $99 Linux desktop mini computer, I decided that even with its $14.95 per month support fee, it was something that I had to try.

I ordered one just before Christmas and received it in a couple of days.  Setting it up was as easy as plugging in a few cables and typing the password that Zonbu sent me.

The computer is all solid state with no moving parts.  It boots from a compact flash drive and most of your data is stored online.

It comes with all the software you need, overnight shipping of a replacement for three years, and software updates as needed.

It is also very energy efficient and completely silent.  I think it is the way of the future.

I would like to see a better interface put on the storage.  It would be great it they also provided you with an email address, but maybe it is best to have your email and your data stored on different servers.

So far I have zero complaints.  Using Zonbu won't keep me from using Macs and Windows to do some of my more complex graphics work, but it will save me from having to buy some basic computers to do web browsing and email.

Firefox is Firefox, and my Gmail and Webmail email accounts work just fine with Zonbu.

As a side note, I just started a new blog on news about Carteret County which I also cover with my Southern Outer Banks site.

I started the new site because my old one had become a little unwieldy and the .Mac one that I had been trying hasn't shown itself to be very portable unless I haul around 50+ megs of files.

I expect to write many of my View from the Mountain posts on my Zonbu.  I just need a quieter keyboard.

The quiet of a December evening

Today was my first day back at work.  I was lucky since I only had to work the afternoon.

It was a quiet day in the real estate business. Even in good years, most people do not buy homes between Christmas and New Year's.

I have a good set of clients lined up for the new year so we'll see what happens.

I am just happy to see 2007 slide quietly towards its end.  I always enjoy the colors and tints of cool winter days.  They bring a sense of peace to me.

When there is no wind, the water, lacking even a ripple, seems so still that maybe the world is asleep.

As you get close to the end of the year, it is always good to take stock of the past year and perhaps understand if you are headed in the right direction.

While I cannot guarantee what the overall real estate market will do, I am confident that I am on the right track.  My first million in sales is just one building lot away from happening. Given the current market and that I have only been selling for nine months, I am pleased. 

I figure I'll just keep doing what I am doing and when the market turns around I will be fine.

I am with a good company and people with whom I enjoy working.  That means a lot in this day of companies that chew up their employees and spit them out.

Since I left Apple Computer and a regular paycheck, life has been full of challenges, but I cannot say that I miss working for a company that is almost a cult.

Last year I wrote an article about Apple for the London, England based Guardian Unlimited.  It along with many others correctly predicted the iPhone.  I just got a note from the Guardian asking for some thoughts on this year's Apple announcements.

I am not sure I care what Apple is announcing this year.  I am more concerned about getting the technology that I already have working seamlessly.

I have skipped Apple's latest upgrade.  I'm still shooting pictures with cameras that are over a year old.  My cell phone is getting ready to head into its second year, and I have no plans to trade cars.

I did buy a new computer, it cost me $99.  I think it is the future of computing.  You can read more about it this pre-purchase post and this post purchase post.

As I look back on my Christmas gifts, there is a lot of hope for the next year in them.  I have paper pads for my real estate notebooks, a set of fishing pliers for my boat, some nice leaders for my salt water fly rod, a small tackle box to use in my kayak, a Carl Hiassen book and some reading glasses to help in reading it.

My son helped me configure my new Linux computer so it works with my printers.

I also got a new wireless mouse for my laptop and some SD memory cards for my camera along with an Elton John DVD for our stereo system.

This past year I have gotten some good foundation skills in real estate and boating.

What will the new year bring? Of course I do not know. 

I am hoping for happiness for my kids and wife.  I seem to manage to be happy by staying busy. So for me, I want to catch a big red fish next year along with a doormat flounder and a nice trout, all from the White Oak River.

I would love for some more friends to visit us at the beach.  We have had a great time whenever someone has visited.  I would not mind touching base with a couple more old friends.

I have to keep closing those circles.  I think 2008 will be a good year.

Someone even gave me a button that has 01.20.09 on it.  That just might be the start of something good.

The quiet of the holidays

Our 2007 holidays have been split between Roanoke, VA and Carteret County, NC.

While we have spent some holidays on the coast before, we have never enjoyed as much time on the coast during the serious holidays as we have this year.

I have been surprised at how quiet the coast becomes during the holidays.  Being along the beach is almost an antidote to the hustle and bustle of the holidays in Roanoke.  A lot more people seem to leave the coast to be with families than the reverse.

While stores in major metropolitan areas often extend their hours during the holidays, stores in small towns along the coast sometimes close for a number of reasons, but primarily because there are not as many people around.

This year I enjoyed the real Christmas trees that are allowed in Carteret County commercial establishments.  I managed to go a whole holiday season without a single trip to the mall.  That is pretty easy when you buy your wife a robe from LL Bean's and a cornbread pan from the local Ace Hardware.

There were a lot of Amazon boxes at our Christmas celebration, but that I believe to be more of a generation thing than anything.  Maybe malls will disappear before the newspapers go.  My wife and I managed to go to Target, Books a Million, and SAMs for a variety of things, but fortunately our trips were relatively painless.  They were more like guerrilla attacks than expeditions.

We managed to catch an early Christmas pageant in Cape Carteret, Christmas music at Covenant Presbyterian, and a candlelight Christmas eve service at the Cape Carteret Presbyterian Church.

All our children managed to be around our holiday table of cherry glazed pork loin so we are thankful for that and even the grand-dogs and grand-cat that made the trip.

I managed a Christmas eve boat ride down the river which was just as nice as a walk in the woods on the mountain.

I enjoyed my white Christmas vicariously through pictures from Sally, a college friend whose Massachusetts backyard remind me of some Canadian winters we endured. That was far better than shoveling snow.

Maybe as you get older, you can get past the holiday madness.  Of course it helps that the girls now help cook the meals, and I do not mind washing most of the dishes.  We have downsized our Christmas presents.

We also have more fun with stocking presents than almost anything.  I gave one of the kids a box of Mac and Cheese.  I think that is appropriate for a recent (one week ago) college graduate still looking for a job.

If we have downsized our holiday present expectations, we have super-sized the fellowship and friendship that we expect from the season.

From neighbors in Cape Carteret to those in Roanoke and our family, we have not been disappointed.  I managed to connect with everyone from my high school Latin teacher to all my Yadkin County cousins on Christmas day.

I especially enjoyed being part of an office Christmas party. 

After all these years working remotely, it was really nice to enjoy sitting at a table of colleagues that I respect and enjoy working with during the year.

It has been a wonderful holiday season even if it has gone to the dogs.

After relaxing all morning, I think I'll go play with my new $99 Zonbu computer.

Tomorrow I have to go back to work, and losing myself in technology is a way to put off thoughts of work.

With no fan and no hard drive, my Zonbu mini is about as quiet as Christmas at the beach.

A view that soothes the soul

I like to think we all have our special places, the spots that mean something to us.

I might be a little more visually oriented than some folks, but I suspect there are few among us who do not respond to a beautiful scene.

For me when the pressures build up, I seek water.  There is something about looking at water that really soothes my soul.  If the sun is setting or rising, it is even better.

As a real estate agent I probably spend more time than most people seeking out certain views.  I also get to see some really neat ones.  There's nothing like being in a huge sand castle home on the ocean front and enjoying the view of the water from the third floor.

But when I have a choice, I want the vista that means the most to me.  Over the years, there has always been a scene that was my refuge.  There were several in Nova Scotia.  I have a whole website of images from Roanoke and multiple sites including Flickr and Picasa that handle the images from the coast.

The photo at the beginning of the post is my current favorite.  It is from our dock and shows the water which leads to the White Oak River, a spot that seems to be one that a number of people enjoy.

Lately I have sharing some of my images with WITN TV in Greenville which likes to publish local photos on their weather forecasts.

I am getting used to folks saying that they have seen my photos on TV or heard my name.  Maybe it is my five minutes of fame.

Last night someone told me that they had seen my latest one which is the picture to the right.

It was one out of a batch of photos which were so good that I really had a hard time picking which one to send.

Sharing my photos actually is something that I really enjoy.  I recently got a request from someone in Japan who wanted to use a photo of the sun rising through clouds which rendered the city of Roanoke invisible.  I was happy to say yes, so there are six hundreds cards of a hidden Roanoke being sent as Japanese Christmas cards.

Over the next few days as people travel to their homes and enjoy some old scenes that bring back memories or find some new vistas that help great some new memories, I hope people find some peace in this world of ours that is increasingly wired to keep us on a treadmill twenty four hours a day.

Finding a beautiful scene and taking the time to enjoy it and perhaps share it is one of the great pleasures of my life.

The maters are dead

It had to happen sooner or later even on the North Carolina coast in one of the warmest years on record.

When we came back to coast we found our long lasting tomato plants dead.

I figure frost finally got them on the night of December 17.  They had been growing behind our coastal home since May 5.  I wrote about them in Cinco de Tomato.

We got our first tomato in early July, and we have enjoyed an abundance of tomatoes all season with friends and family getting several bags of them.

In fact these three plants have been the most prolific that we have had in many years.

To the right is a picture on December 11 of tomatoes that I had picked in early December.

I never thought I would get to the point of being tired of tomatoes, but this year I did.

I think the last tomato that I picked was December 9th.  I had a bucket of green ones that I was going to ripen in the garage but I decided that I needed a break.

It was a great year, I will trade Roanoke's predatory deer for the fiddler crabs that I battled here on the coast.  During the peak season I lost a tomato a day to the crabs and once in a while a lizard would go after one.

The pests on the coast did not come close to the destruction from deer that I wrote about in The bitter tomato harvest.

The horned worms were a little worse on the coast, but I was diligent and defeated them by just plucking them from the plants.

I am looking forward to next year's contest with my friend Mike.  He may have gotten the first tomato this year, but I suspect I got the last, and next year is a whole new tomato game.