Hayward

LOLOLOLOL!!!!! I imagine businesses shaking their heads. Why don't "those people" just get back inside!!! Forbid we ever all come out at once when Barney's does a warehouse sale. I'd tell Prada not to forget that their building was once a greasy hamburger joint. Actually Prada was in the middle of updating their window display. As for the starbucks, it's a complete new build and opening this weekend. The original one a block down will be closed and converted to retail.

Tonight I felt like taking a late night walk around the neighborhood and got some pics. I didn't have a tripod so I did the best I could to hold still. Some major avenue...

Windows should auto-connect. Even older versions of Windows will connect to Mac formatted drives...they'll just tell you some disk volume information but won't let you read write. The likely reason you couldn't connect to your grandparent's cheaper computer is because most of the low voltage USB ports were insufficient for either powering or transmitting data from the external. When I worked in a print shop this was typically the problem when students would come in complaining that the HD wouldn't connect to their computer. I tested it on higher voltage ports and it worked. I then told them we sold copies and pizzas, and not an IT help desk lol.

Definitely agree with your thoughts on how usage of computers has changed. I could totally be wrong on this, but I envision an emerging market of super compact desktop computers. Essentially a massive high quality screen combined with a slimmer casework for all the hardware. Though Apple has been well into these pursuits, no one has come out with a comparable product that is popular. Apple tries to make it difficult to upgrade iMac hardware despite that the average person could manage it if careful. They want people to buy new products every couple of years when an iMac could still be serviceable after 6 or 7 years. If a competitor came along and built a similar model that was easily customizable with an accessible enclosure I think a ton of people would buy into it: firms involved in design and engineering or people in serious gaming. Everyone else would be fine with tablets that will allow an ever increasing number of tasks that were exclusive to laptops and desktops. I think that 10 years into the future, people will look at laptops as these sort of novelty items where people can do hardware intensive work in a coffee shop. But as tablets improve, the roster of supported software is growing and essentially the tablet will accomplish the lion's share of non-internet tasks that were once dominated by laptops.

All external drives are capable of working between Mac and Windows. They could be formatted in one of the following: FAT32 Legacy format. No longer available but still supported. No operating system released since 2008 will permit you to format to this. exFAT. Modernized interchange format between MacOS and Windows that allows read write capabilities between both NTFS native windows format. Updated MacOS can read but not write. You can configure MacOS to read and write just like Windows but that's your own decision. Journaled native MacOS format. Windows can be configured to read Journaled just like in MacOS but that's your own decision. If you are using your external drive on your Mac almost all the time and don't ever plan on connecting it to a PC (like at work), format it to Journaled. In the event of an emergency where you must plug it into a PC, you could always configure Windows to read / write in Journaled format even though it does not natively do so. If you are using your external drive on a Mac most of the time but plan to occasionally plug it into a PC, use exFAT. There's no file size limit like there was with FAT32 format. Slightly slower performance than Journaled, but I found it barely noticeable unless copy and pasting files is all you do all day lol. Please note that it can take up to 32 hours to format a NTFS drive to exFAT in Windows. It may only take 5-10 minutes to format that same drive to Journaled. There's some comfort to me using Western Digital Drives. Haven't had one fail (YET) but I've owned many. Plus i upgraded the internal HD in my iMac to Western Digital.

I probably won't be buying a new iMac for awhile. When my warranty expired after 3 years I was finally able to open it up and upgrade alot of the hardware, despite that there were no performance issues with the existing hardware. It should be set for another two years. When I'm at home, I personally like editing photos on a really big screen and it's nice not having to manage a laptop connected to a TV or another monitor (even wirelessly) At this point, moving my iMac around the apartment is no different than moving one of those really bulky souped up laptops from 2004 It's a big screen with a plug. When i'm around town, a tablet would meet my needs, but using my phone to do simple tasks is enough for now.

It's just incredible how unfamiliar I am with the state I live in. Thank you for showing me these distant foreign lands. Some really nice architecture

Agreed. The only issue I see is maybe providing easier direct connection to the Blue line like the offices on the other side. Yeah that's one of my concerns too. I suppose you could run a shuttle to the blue line since this complex is made of 3 hotels and the convention center. If the Cumberland station was longer in the eastern direction they could have possibly done a skybridge connection. The only physical connection to the property I see is a 10' wide sidewalk and landscaping.

It's in Chicago's Norwood Park. Definitely in direct competition with the Akoo And Stephens Centers, hotels, and that mall thing further down the street in Rosemont. Regardless it's a benefit for the city and the drab towers that were there are being demolished for this project

Great photos. I've only passed through Normal on the train to STL. I see those tall 1970s highrises try to peek through!

Construction of a new Chicago Convention Center on the NW side SSP - 17 Floor Starwood Element, 321 Rooms - 19 Floor IHG Hotel Indigo, 209 Rooms + Staybridge Suites, 154 Rooms - 14 Floor Hyatt Place, 148 Rooms + Hyatt Summerfield Suites, 148 Rooms - 995 Total Rooms - LEED Platinum - 4 Floors of Conference space totalling 290,000 SF - 1,720 Space robotic/automated parking garage - $734 Million project cost - Largest hotel green roof in the country with nearly 1 acre of green space - Miniature Golf Course on the Roof - To be completed January 1, 2014 Currently Under construction Discuss....

From the archives. Horse lot not far from downtown Chicago http://goo.gl/maps/TYhdI

Despite that I own many Mac products, I have no problem criticizing where I find issues. I finally ditched that tiny mac keyboard for my IMac. My company was replacing all the Dell keyboards at our office so I got to keep the old one which is only 2 years old. hooked it up and I can finally do Delete and Backspace like in windows. MacOS perfectly understands regular windows keyboard commands so it's annoying that they can't have their native keyboards do the same thing. Why engineer MacOS to understand these for the products of your competitors, but not provide the keyboard capabilities in your manufactured hardware???? Next task is to upgrade from Leopard 10.5.6 to Mountain Lion. The old version crapped out since security software I was running inadvertently blocked updates since 2009. It gave up and locked me out, but I still have access to all my files in the DiskManager. That said, I was curious if anyone has used Microsoft exFAT format for hard drives on versions older than Mountain Lion. Allegedly it works on Leopard 10.5.6. Currently I'm formatting this new drive From NTSF to exFAT on my Windows partition, but as expected it takes 30 hours to do 3 TB. Keep in mind, this is not Legacy FAT formatted drives. I chose exFAT because it's most efficient, interchangeable and no file size limits. I plan to dump the old hard drive onto the external. I'll then merge directories back in windows, install mountain line, share common desktops between ML and Windows and then delete the old hard drive image.

Quite possibly! Renovation of the Fulton Market Cold Storage Building begins. Joe Zekas over at YoChicago took some great photographs http://www.flickr.com/photos/yochicago1/8180483234/#

I don't understand how the Walgreens and CVS stores within blocks of where I live don't sell alcohol....and there's a couple dozen bars in the area! Oh but I can pick up a fireplace or sushi.

Sorry for the crappy photo, I intend to retake it. This and several others at Pearson and State are ready to face the wrecking ball. http://goo.gl/maps/IrT50 Here's the replacement: http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2012/06/04/loyola-gift-allows-for-ninestory-building.php

Bathroom doors should always exit out if at all possible. Sometimes architects will have them swing in if there's a path of travel on the other side and it's impossible to pocket the doorway. But in large buildings, an inward swinging door is kind of inexcusable and a good example of a totally inexperienced architect.

One of the many mass produced spec homes in Chicago.

Horrible that someone died. Just observations..... Looks like the bridge failed in torsion and the bearings just pulled up and out of the opposite abutment. I'm not sure the cracked pier is primarily to blame for the incident, but it's telling of the condition of the bridge. Your photos of the bridge piror to collapse show some distortion of members that create uneven load distribution over the bridge. Just one connection failing is enough to twist the bridge and cause collapse. It's like it bent under the load of the tractor, listed and sheared the bearings off the pier then plunged downward. It's possible the cracked pier could have assisted by giving under tension forces of the twisting truss...but technically a truss should be able to perform on its own.

Ugly

I think I'm going to commute more often on my longboard to work. There's been a ton of bicycle deaths in Chicago lately. I just feel a bit paranoid And that's even as we add more protected bike lanes. In the past couple months - 1 Killed by a motorist opening their door into a bike lane, Cyclist swerved to avoid and crushed by semi truck - 1 Killed by drunk unlicensed and uninsured driver. - 1 Killed by a truck making a right turn.

These photos out of NYC are crazy. Seeing cars almost under water on a busy street is just wild. I have alot of friends there and have been following their updates. Right now I'm watching the waves of Lake Michigan out my window. Pretty tall. They are totally covering the lakefront bike trail. Any brave cyclists that dares to try will easily die. It's possible Lake Shore drive is next to close. Fortunately the only thing we have to worry about is a few cracked bulkheads and maybe some tipped over trash cans.

Thanks for the update. As far as I'm aware, construction on Pizza Hut Tower began this week. So in Chicago area transportation news looks like the O'Hare tollway bypass is moving along http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-tollway-to-spend-771-million-on-i90-and-elginohare-bypass-in-2013-20121025,0,6470826.story You can see the undeveloped right-of-way along Thorndale where this will go. http://goo.gl/maps/rBW7p In CTA news, I present more detailed renderings of the Wilson Station at Uptown Update: http://www.uptownupdate.com/2012/10/new-wilson-station-renderings-available.html

I had something similar happen. I was running Little Snitch to prevent the unsavory site from gathering information. The software did it's job beautifully until at some point I accidentally allowed it to block mac and chrome updates. My computer was stuck in 2010. Eventually I got messages saying things were no longer supported because I failed to update the OS and web browsers...and finally MacOS just stopped booting up. I duplicated the hard drive onto an external under the bootup disk management and then updated to Mountain Line. I was so incredibly behind. My computer which is well over 3 years old seems faster than the day I bought it. I guess the lesson learned here is update often. You don't have a virus...it's just you missed a hell of a ton of updates. While your at it, run a hardware diagnostic to make sure everything is working okay, but that has nothing to do with the problem your experiencing.

^ Same here. I won't answer then quickly type it into google. 90% of the time, I'm glad I've used this method. The other 10% is usually a friend who got a new phone or an automatic reminder from a doctors office.