I’ve been bouncing back and forth between which machine I want when I upgrade – the biggest, best iMac ever, or another Mac Pro.

I’ve had my current G5 duo for several years. I got it just before Apple switched to the Intel chip. It’s still able to run everything I need to run, but not at the speeds that I’d like. Plus my monitors are aging and need to be replaced. My initial instinct was to go with the tower, since it’s upgradable, but then it occurred to me… the only upgrades I’ve put in my current tower have been a second hard drive and additional memory. The lowest price tower retails for $2500, and the highest (standard) iMac retails for $2000. Plus, I’d still have to spend several hundred dollars on a new monitor (or monitors), thus, for me the decision has been made. (plus you can get a slightly better deal at Amazon.com)

If you’d like to honor someone who has served in the armed forces, visit this site! You can post a little about them, when and where they served. Sections of the memorial wall are divided by war, and there’s a section for peacetime service as well. For security reasons, don’t post anything about active duty personnel.

That’s 11¢ in the past 10 years.

That’s a 33% increase!!!

And that’s just on the basic first class stamp.

We’re paying much more, and I can’t tell you how many people have commented to me on how much the service has deteriorated.

I guess we should be "happy" with the 4.76% increase this year. Keep in mind the Postmaster General was asking Congress if they could reduce delivery days just a few months ago. The rates are supposed to be tied into the Consumer Price Index, but a quick glance at the percent changes (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) for the past 12 months (ending March 2009, shows the CPI is DOWN 0.4% (includes food & energy). Considering the post office just announced the rate increase in February, I’d really like to know where their numbers came from that justified an increase.

I also wonder if the brains behind the numbers at the USPS have figured out that the more they raise rates, the less people will mail. They could easily price themselves out of business.

There was a lot of bitching by the post office about their loss necessitating the increase, but their loss was a result of congress requiring them to put $5.6 billion into the Retiree Health Benefits Fund created by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA). Without that required payment, the post office’s actual profit would have been $2.8 billion.

Postage price history data from: http://www.akdart.com/postrate.html

My new hobby is finding cool little apps for it. Plus I need to hack it to make it work on the t-zones network. I was trying to use iFuntastic, but it didn’t like it. Will give one of the windows apps a shot later.

Since I got a “hacked” phone, I’ve got to tread carefully, otherwise I’ll have to re-hack it to work with t-mobile. For instance, since it’s running older software, right now, I can’t seem to put any cool ringtones on it.

Another “peeve” (I knew about this before I got it) is the inability to use voice commands for dialing. I think a hack will come along rather quick to fix this, especially with the new law going into effect in California requiring hands-free equipment for using cell phones while driving. (It will probably be a decade before they try to do that in Virginia!) In any case, a demand like that always creates new products, so I’m hopeful. It’s not like I actually talk a LOT on the phone while I’m driving, but every now and then it is handy to just push the button on my headset and say, “home.”

Of course, this is just an 8GB model, which means I’m really going to have to pare down what I store on it (my 30GB iPod video is 3/4 full!).

I ought to be able to get $150 for my MDA on ebay, though I should make sure Mike doesn’t want it before I go selling it. He has started complaining about his phone lately… he chose the bare-bones base model when we signed up a few years ago. Ditto for my iPod, if I sell it.

More to come once it arrives and I get to play.