"Motor Mouth" Book Review

I just finished reading "Motor Mouth" by Janet Evanovich a new mystery/adventure series she's authored around Alexandra Barnaby an engineer by training and a spotter for NASCAR driver Hooker. In typical Evanovich style the book follows a tightly woven story line with an engaging cast of characters that build around a puzzling mystery that builds into a full blown mystery. Motor Mouth is the second book in the Barnaby series that offers a great read without having to have read the first book in the series. In Motor Mouth Barnaby witnesses a multi-car crash at the final NASCAR race of the season which leads to a confession from a fellow spotter who asks for her help. Over the next several hundred pages Barnaby and Hooker set-out on an adventure to rescue a team-mates spotter, a Saint Bernard, recover missing microchips and dispose of two dead bodies. Start to finish this is a fun, easy read for those that are looking for a light-hearted mystery that is highly recommended.

Leopard A Few Thoughts After Living With A New OS

After living with Leopard for a while I thought that it would be worth coming back and posting some additional impressions of the latest Mac operating system.


GUEST ACCOUNT - Last night, I made use of one of the features that I'd quickly looked at and dismissed but found extremely useful the ability to enable a Guest account on your Mac. The great thing about this is that you can allow a visitor who is over to use your computer safely and securely for a short period of time. Basically, its a single use account in that anything done during the session will be cleaned up when the Guest account is logged out or the machine is shutdown. I didn't expect to use this feature but found it extremely handy - have a look.
Here is where you go to activate the Guest Account.
Go to the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accounts
Select the Guest Account in the sidebar to the left.
Check the checkbox next to Allow guests to log into this computer and configure Parental Controls if you're so inclined.

iChat 4.0 - Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to spend more time using the latest version of iChat and must say that I'm impressed with the improvements that Apple has worked into this version.

• In my opinion the iChat Theatre function is one of the biggest improvements in this release. Basically you're able to drag photos from iPhoto, your desktop or another program and drop them onto the chat window enabling you to show them as a slideshow to the person you're chatting with. In addition, you can also play movies from iMovie or .AVI and .MOV files saved to your desktop (I assume support is broader but I've only tested .MOV and .AVI files). This feature is great if you don't want to be bothered uploading a lot of photos to Flickr or videos to YouTube!
  
• I've had chats with another user running Leopard so we were both able to experiment with the Computer Sharing functionality that enables another user to take control of your Mac remotely. I must admit this seems like a great option for those not interested in setting up Chicken of the VNC and much easier to administer.
• The new backgrounds in iChat are fun but sensitive to the positioning of the lighting in your environment otherwise the effects don't come off as cleanly as they otherwise should.

"How Starbucks Saved My Life" Book Review

I just finished reading "How Starbucks Saved My Life" by Michael Gates Gill an interesting book about the events that conspire to turn a man's life around. In short the story follows the life changing experiences that take the author from being a Creative Director at J Walter Thompson to unemployment and despair. The book follows the twists and turns that lead Mr. Gill to become a barista in a New York Starbucks rediscovering self-respect and happiness in his new life.

While I found that the book dragged when it described his childhood and College years as a person of wealth I tended to skip over this areas as they held little to no interest to me. The real story in this book that kept me reading was the changes he underwent and the interactions with his much younger co-workers at Starbucks. Having read a number of different business books about Starbucks this is an interested look inside the organization and the unique culture that the company has created.