There’s been these thoughts in my head as of late, despite cobwebs forming over the site here. One of them centers around a new task that’s landed on the desk of a superior at work.

She’s been asked to generate a weekly newsletter of “what’s going on” in our district. It’s a private newsletter, produced only for our board members.

I just thought this morning of several things we’re doing this week of interest, like @beacantor going to the Henrico-sponsored #RVAUnconference at Glen Allen High School. Or tonight’s workshop I’m leading on “Producing Infographics.” I’m meeting with some interesting people Tuesday and Friday. And Wednesday, we’re working with an ESOL teacher with choosing iPad apps for a new iPad she’ll be using with her students.

I was going to actually send these in an e-mail. Then she’d copy and paste them into… a Word document. And then the Word document gets e-mailed, etc. You may now see where I’m going with this.

I share my calendar to those who want/need to see it. I blog at work. I may not highlight everything I’m up to, but the good stuff certainly makes it online. I treat my work blog as a type of online portfolio. If you care to see what I think is important about my job, you can visit.

I’m just sad we’re not using our blogs for the real purpose for which I intended to bring them to where I work. If someone can’t view a few blogs and pull out what’s going on that week in our district, then something’s wrong.

I loved this commercial for Apple and the iPhone 4S with Santa Claus.

Each one of their new 4S commercials has the same music, and really, the same type of scenario. People are presented doing their daily business, asking their phone questions (that it can now answer). It’s a combination of the simplicity of the act (and how well it really works), the music (for me it arrests your attention when it comes on TV and has a tinge of wonderment and also magic to it), and the knowledge that Steve Jobs is dead that makes them hit you (or well, me, actually) emotionally.

And today–is the anniversary of when, in 1996, Apple purchased NeXT Software. If there’s anything I’ve affirmed for myself over the past couple months in reading Isaacson’s book and thinking about Apple, it’s been that the details really do matter. In everything you do.

I decided to upgrade my music server at home — a 2009 Mac Mini (3,1).

By “upgrade” I mean, increase the RAM from 1GB to 5, and install a SSD drive instead of the default 5400 RPM drive. The original drive was 120GB, I believe, and the new drive is only 40GB, but since I run the music off of a FireWire drive, I don’t need a lot of space in the computer. (Consequently, I could have put a giant drive in there, but then it would have cost a fortune to go SSD).

OWC states that these two operations are “Advanced.” I should have listened. I’m comfortable tinkering around in computers, but it’s not part of my job. And I’d never gotten into small quarters like what we find in the Mac Mini. I am documenting this experience not to show my ignorance, but to hopefully inform others undertaking similar upgrades.

This is the computer that requires a putty knife to loosen the case to take it off. OWC has some great videos, and I suggest you watch them multiple times. I watched them multiple times, but should have watched them one more time.

The first step is undoing the antennas. This was simple. So was getting the four corner screws out. Since I do not have a magnetic screwdriver, I am not sure how I would get them back in. As it turns out, I lost one somewhere in the mini and it was not replaced. (Whoops #1).

At this point, you want to detach the top half of the mini from the bottom. There’s a cable in the back to undo, and on the side, undo the tape that’s holding the antenna wire. I did not do this, and consequently, I lost the connection of the antenna wire. (Whoops #2). This was awful to try and remedy.

You will notice in the picture above that only two wires are connected to the broadcom radio board near the back left. There are supposed to be three. The memory bank is in the front left; this was super simple to add one more DIMM to the original 1 GB for a total of 5 GB. So–big mistake on the antenna. I’d discover this later.

Now, to the top half to install the SSD.

The original HDD has a heat sensor taped to the back/top. Remove that (it’s stuck on there with stickum) and undo the taped wire. Four screws. Easy. These go in easy and are difficult to lose, so this part was fun. Getting the new drive in the slot was a little tough; don’t pinch the wire in there, and you have to use gravity and some rotation of the whole top half of the computer to get it aligned. Once it’s seated, put back the four screws, and replace the temperature sensor. Also recommended by OWC is to attach the two “spacers” which I also did on the top side of the new drive (again, attached with stickum).

Here’s the new drive in place. What would follow would be hell. This was all easy. Getting the thing back together, disaster.

So, I was so distraught I didn’t take pictures of the carnage. I next discovered that the cable to the antenna was not connected to anything. I had no idea where it went. It was still stuck to the side of the top, and the connector incidentally is on the bottom half of the mini (look for the Broadcom logo on the radio chip). They are tiny little connectors. Mine wouldn’t stick back on. It’s short and it’s not very flexible. I had to use an X-acto knife tip to re-shape the part that snaps down, finally it stuck. (Whoops #3–another one of the connectors would later become un-stuck.) So, next it was time to put the two halves back together.

They didn’t fit in like they do in the video. All those cables, where are they supposed to lay? I kept pushing down, wiggling, trying to get it right.

Then I pulled it off. Whoops #4, horror of horrors. I was pinching one of the antenna cables against the graphics card’s heat sink. It chewed through the sheathing and stressed the cord. It felt like it was about to fall apart into two pieces. I used masking tape to tape the wound, I should have used electrical tape. At least the SSD should keep the computer cooler.

So, that’s when the second antenna wire came off. Ok, fixed that. I was ready to throw the mess into the garbage at this point.

I finally seated the top on, with more wiggles and giggles. Then it was time to put the four screws back in the corners. Whoops #5: I lost the longest screw that goes in the right front. It’s somewhere in that computer.

It didn’t seem that important.

I put the antennas back on their posts with springs. Check.

Top goes back on. Pinched my hand good, and it was good enough to make me bleed. I had really botched this upgrade.

But, finally, I am happy to report it was successful, masking tape and all. The computer booted and the memory registered.

If I scared you with this upgrade, have a more experienced friend try it, or send it to OWC. I don’t work for them, but am always a happy customer.

Incidentally, like they suggest, I cloned the old HD to the new SSD using one of their Voyager devices (seen in the photo above, bottom right, cropped), using Firewire 800. CarbonCopy Cloner is another awesome product for cloning drives fast and accurately.

The Voyager Q accepts desktop-class drives as well as the mini-drives like the SSD I purchased and laptop drives.

Ten years ago, today, Apple introduced the iPod for sale.

Macworld magazine liked it. I remember not knowing if I wanted one or not… but my superintendent bought some on the first day at the computer store (Capitol Mac here in Richmond.)

He gave me one.

I carried the Capitol Mac bag home. It was a fond memory — I remember feeling well-cared for to be given one of these new gadgets. “What am I to do with it?”

“See what potential it has for education!”

And so I did.

In the photo above, taken today with my iPhone 4S (FaceTime camera isn’t as jazzy as the one on the back), I am holding the original iPod I received 10 years ago. It later got given back to the school division, and our media specialists used it as a backup drive.

One in particular told me it didn’t work anymore. “Should I throw it away?”

I took it from her.

It turns out her cable was bad. The iPod was fine.

I’ll have to find a 400->800 Firewire adapter to charge and sync it. 10 years. Wow. Time has flown. And so many things that fit in your hand just as easily have been developed.

If anything, being given this iPod was inspirational for me. I cared enough to keep it, ten years later. Sometimes objets d’technologie can be good investments if they inspire the end users. Building and designing things we want to touch, use, and own is a powerful enterprise. We shouldn’t ignore the affective nature of the tools we use. It can affect the work we do, for sure.

As humans we have a knack sometimes for holding back what’s important.

Tonight, I showed up for class early. I have class on Wednesday evenings. I checked my work e-mail, and I had a message from a colleague. Finding out I have been ill, she wrote me to tell me she had found out. I wasn’t prepared for a note like that. It’s then I realized I probably don’t think too much of myself. I was overwhelmed when she told me she thought I was an amazing person.

I shut my laptop. I took a deep breath.

I’m going to be fine. But that note was profound to me. So are the actions of real friends.

Before class ended, I received two texts on my phone. One broke the news slowly. The other—just came out and said it. “Sad news – Uncle Steve is dead.”

No, he’s not my uncle. It’s a nickname we use. I put my phone back in my pocket. As I went outside to my car, the phone rang. It was my friend whom I’ve known since high school.

We talked about it.

And when I got home, all I could do was read the comments on blogs, and especially on the NY Times article. 528 comments. And I just kept thinking: “What a shame. It’s too bad he couldn’t read these… such an admired man.”

We shouldn’t wait to share how we feel about people. Of course the boyfriends, girlfriends, and spouses. Also your extended family. But also your friends and colleagues too.

Mr. Jobs may have lived a very full, yet short life. I know he wasn’t perfect. None of us are.

I hope he knew the reasons why folks admired him.

I feel fortunate today — to know in a small way that someone thinks I make a difference.

It’s worth it to share. Even when it may be uncomfortable.